text stringlengths 503 33.4k | labels stringclasses 23 values |
|---|---|
How is the 360 version. The 360 version is _gameplay_ identical to the PC and newer console version for xboxone and PS4. The devs made that clear in the press releases, so that's good news. Combat is a step back from the more tactical fun of DA1 but the streamlined combat in DA3 isn't a deal-breaker. It is odd that you can alter traits -- but not stats -- of your characters, which goes against almost every Western RPG since forever.
Graphically on the 360 the game looks fine, but basic. There are also VERY few graphical niceties. Little to no post-processing that I can see. Faces look great but bitmap textures on pretty much everything else in the game-world is flat and a bit fuzzy. Loading times for these very large levels is about 12 seconds and then the level streams fine (which is good) BUT there is major pop-in of objects from 20 feet away. You will really notice the pop-in. Framerate is acceptable for an action RPG. The 360 version requires 8gigs of space to install one disk onto the 360's hardrive.
The recent December 8 patch fixed the annoying "loot find issue," which is great news.
For me, I don't want Origin installed on my PC (ever) and I don't have the newer consoles, so the 360 version of DA3 was the right one for me. Note that EA tries to force an Origin account on the 360 version but you can easily disable that option. It is a single player game and online is pointless to the game. There's some tacked on multiplayer but it doesnt impact the single player game at all.
Looking at youtube videos of the PC version, I certainly see nicer effects and textures and smoother framerate, but I am not seeing more polygons and geometry either. My sense is that BioWare developed the game with older consoles in mind, while at the same time reserving nice effects for newer hardware.
"What is hard difficulty like?"
After spending over 80 hours at Hard difficulty, the combat is more like DA2's then DA1's, except you can pause with an overhead view. It "works" but this is the kind of RPG where "you are only as good as your armor and weapons." You gain combat abilities very fast but many of them don't stand out as different from other abilities. Grenades are the most powerful thing in the game because they have sustained AoE effects. It is odd, but it works because any character can use a grenade. Hard difficulty at least offers a challenge because you will need to tactically position your team appropriately based on terrain and type of enemy. for example, mages can cast from crazy far distances and they NEVER miss, so you want to take advantage of that in combat. Mages were very overpowered in DA1 and it seems like that happened again here in DA3. Finally, the "professional" game reviewers went on and on about how there are no healing and resurrect spells in DA3, but there are, and at hard difficulty you WILL need them when taking out mobs of re-spawning enemies. Normal diff is surprisingly way too easy and best avoided unless you are only interested in the story.
The combat is ultimately the most disappointing facet of what is overall a fun and very lengthy RPG. Even at hard difficulty, combat is mostly spamming attacks against melee-centric enemies (your ally AI is not great either, but you can switch thru them at any time and order attacks). The combat _should_ offer enemies that attack with some of the abilities that your own team has. Instead, it is mostly melee attacks from the enemy AI with a few archers at the back. If there is an enemy mage (which is rare) it doesnt seem to do much other than throw magic bolts. Later enemies will have barrier and guard (basically shields) that will let them soak up more damage before they finally drop. bottomline: the combat looks flashy but it isn't ultimately that deep either. It keeps a great RPG from being a perfect one. | video-games_xbox |
It's Doom, For Better and For Worse. I make it a habit of renting games before buying them. If the game's truly worth it, I'll gladly pay the "extra" fee due to renting it first. I rented Doom3 for the Xbox, and here's my spin on it.
Pros:
- graphics are superb and very atmospheric. It's downright creepy at times.
- Excellent, atmospheric sound, and perhaps some of the best sound in any current console game.
- Good overall translation from the PC to the Xbox. Considering what the original PC specs for the game are/were, this says a *LOT*.
- FPS gameplay translates well to the console controller. Very responsive and intuitive.
- Cooperative play adds a fantastic dimension to the game. It's nice to go Demon hunting with someone else tagging along blasting bad guys as needed.
- Collector's Edition comes with Doom I and Doom II. It's worth the extra $10 for those alone, as getting those games to run on Win XP is almost impossible at times.
- A nod to id for trying to put some sort of story to it this time. A weak story, mind you, but a decent effort nonetheless. I especially like that it's the guy's first few days at the place, meaning he's none too sure of what goes where yet. The PDA feature is nice, as it eliminates the days of yore where you wandered around pulling levers for no reason.
- It's the same ol' Doom, atmosphere, zombies, demons, extremely tough boss battles, and all.
Cons:
- It's the same ol' Doom where monsters pop out of boxes in the wall...behind you...in the dark. Why can't the monsters enter the area in some manner other than a "secret" panel, say morph through the wall somehow and maintain some level of invincibility during said morphing? And the monster-behind-you-in-the-dark paradigm is a bit stale for today's games. I know it's part of the atmosphere, but it seems to be an afterthought in design to me. Maybe I'm just jaded after playing Halo/Halo2, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, SW: Republic Commando, and others.
- Repetitive gameplay: Despite the attempt at a story, it's still go through level, monster pops out behind you, blast monster, find code or whatnot, exit level. The technology exists to do oh so much more, demonstrated by those games mentioned above.
- Equipment Usage: In the future we can travel with regularity to Mars, where we have colonies established. We have harnessed the power of plasma into weaponry, and have put supercomputers into projectile launchers. But, either due to bad supply chain management or ineptitude, we can't find any duct tape to tie a flashlight to a weapon. Nor do we have Night Vision Devices (NVDs). It's a research station where excavation takes place, and yet *no one* has mining helmets? We failed to carry forward any personal system for producing light other than the flashlight that can't be tied to anything. Missed opportunity to address this, or even add a touch of humor here. Other elements are explained in the PDAs, why not this? It seems like another afterthought to me, and more work could have been in other areas to maintain the creepiness. I understand completely the emphasis on "atmosphere" for the game, but that atmosphere could be just as easily imparted by other elements. Having to recharge a pair of NVD's for example, would lend just as much atmosphere to the game. I suppose so much horsepower went into the graphics that there was little room left to do anything else.
- Underutilized story elements: The PDA is great and all, but it's underutilized. It would be interesting if you got a certain amount of info and are then given a choice; manipulate building functions through the PDA to get out faster, albeit without as many weapons or whatnot, or go through the building popping monsters, risking much more harm, but getting better weapons at the end. Why doesn't it have a comprehensive *map* of the place on it?? It can download video and security clearances no problem, but it doesn't have a map???
- Linear gameplay: To be totally fair, this is a problem with a lot of games now, so maybe I shouldn't be too harsh. One of the endearing things about Halo2 was the ability to play as members of both sides of the conflict. I think the Doom series could benefit from some fresh thinking in that regard; letting you play as various characters who eventually meet up at the end, (or not, depending on character played), then you're given a choice as to which character to play to go after the bad guy, for example. Randomization of the levels and the like, a la Diablo and Diablo II, would breathe some modern life into the series as well...and add to that creep factor every time you played.
- (Xbox version) Paltry cheat codes: Yeah I like using them and will freely admit it. I especially like unlimited ammo cheat codes, because, well, they're fun to use *after beating the game*. If I *wanted* a real life shooting experience with limited ammo, I'd *join SOCOMM*. The PC version has an unlimited ammo code, but the Xbox version doesn't. It does however, have invincibility, the single most boring cheat code ever invented. WHY?!?!?!
So color me so-so about Doom 3. Will I buy it? Good question. Doom fanatics already have the PC and Xbox versions, love both equally much, have the board game already, several action figures around the desk, and really don't care what I have to write about it. The Collector's Edition is intriguing; knowing that I could simply insert the disk into the Xbox and play Doom and Doom II all over again without having to write some batch file on my PC to manage virtual memory or whatnot is a value added benefit. I may wait until it goes down in price, say closer to the end of the year or whatnot. | video-games_xbox |
killer game, with som flaws. I would like to state to positive things about this title before I tell you the negitive.
First of all the fighting is fluent and completely awesome. I love how you can interlink most of you combos. Death has two short scythe, and a secondary weapon: warhammers, glaives, axes. gauntlets, armblades, etc.
Every weapon and armour has stats, and if you happen to find a possessed weapon, then you can sacrifice other weapons to make it level up. Every level you can choose a new attribute for your weapon. But weapons can only level up so far and its only about 4 or 5 levels. It's still fun though. Tons of moves that you buy with gold from certain people and the interlinking in those moves into combos is absolutely pristine in reaction time. Death can interlink combos with his secondary weapon and his scythes, and there is even charged button hits with warhammers, etc.
evade rolls with special combo hits coming out of the evade, kicking enemies into the are and then coming down on their head with a huge axe is very thrilling. Plus death gets special abilities once you progerss in the game, like turning into his true form as the grim reaper for about so many seconds. Those abilities aren't included in the skill tree, wher you learn special attacks that refill your health a little everytime you hit someone with it, or summoning ghouls, or ravens to torment your countless enemies. The monsters are awesome with quite a few boss fights which you can gain special weapons from, personalized to that specific boss.
Climbing up walls, only when they have wooden planks that you will see throughout the game. Running across walls and climbing wooden poles.
The grapics are a little choppy to my taste, but the scenery is really cool, and the graphics are still really good. The monsters are brilliantly created and an actual challange to fight: including an 100 foot stone golem. But there still not hard enough to make you wanna break the game. The big plus is when I started the game in the Forge lands, and after hours of play and doing almost every quest on that map, I thought I was nearly done with the game. But come to realize when I get to what I thought was the final objective, I go through a portal and find myself in The City of the dead..A whole other map. And these maps are not small and they are very detailed. Overall, the game is a blast and it's one of those games that'll keep you up all night feeling like a zombie because you just keep dicovering new places that are very diversified from the last. Alot of suprises!
Now, the cons of this game is that most the puzzle system throughout the game is finding these reproducing yellow bombs that stick to the wall and blow up automatically, or you have to shoot them to blow them up. You have to throw them at yellow stalagmites blocking the paths to treasure chest or the main way you need to go. Most the time you spend way to much trouble finding the right angle to throw the bombs, or you have trouble finding the bombs, which is all good because zi like a little stratagy, but when you aim the bomb at the floor and it flys to the ceiling, it can get a little frustrating. you aim the bomb, and they don't land where you throw them, sometimes way off course. This frustrated me so much that I had gotten so far into the game, and when you can't solve a puzzle because a glitch won't let you, it really made me frustrated enough to delete my game and stop playing it. I'm a perfectionist, so If I can't get something in a game like one specific chest in a whole big area, and that was the only chest there pretty much and the main reason to go into that tomb, and it ripped me off over a glitch. If you want to go through that then all power too you. it is really fun if your willing to leave some special items behind. And i swear that tthis is from the same makers of The Legacy of Kain series. Death is almost like soul reaver, especially when he gets the claw ability and his arm starts glowing, and it plays so much like soulreaver it's not even funny. If you like soulreaver then get this, but prepare to be frustrated. | video-games_xbox |
A Good Game, But. Record of Agarest War Zero is a Tactical RPG and takes place some time BEFORE <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Record-of-Agarest-War/dp/B003KT0ACG/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Record of Agarest War</a>.
Story: The game starts with you, Sieghart, commanding a small group of soldiers with your lieutenants Eugene and Friedelinde as you fight the forces of darkness, however this battle has been going on for quite some time and has come to a stalemate. However, while resting in a small village, it is attacked my some goblins. After the squad defeats them and Sieghart gives chase, he meets a creature known as a Larva and a young mysterious girl, Mimelia. After being killed by the Larva, something happens to Sieghart that brings him back from death, with tremendous power and is able to ward of the Larva. Now Sieghart must uncover who this girl is and what this new power means.
Graphics: The game intentionally has a bit of a dated feel (an old school look) while in battle and a anime style outside of battle (such as talking with people), which uses more animation than most games. Characters who are on screen will have small, natural movement to them, such as the diaphragm moving, blinking and hair swaying. In battle, characters will exhibit various types of skills and special effects that accompany them look very well done as do the battle fields.
Controls: The controls are, at first, a bit wonky (if you ever played Q'Bert, you may be able to adjust more quickly), as the battle field is not a straight up, down, left right setup. After a few battles though, you'll adjust and other than that there's no real use for anything else. Each character has a certain number of slots that skills can be allocated to, the number of slots depends on the character and weapon (some weapons have additional slots). Each slot has a type, ie. fire, water, wind, earth, physical, dark and more, only the right skill can be placed in the respective slots.
Music/Sound/Voice: For whatever reason, the voices are always in Japanese, there are no English dubs, only subtitles, which I believe are incorrect every now and then (I know what 'Konnichiwa' means, and it's not that). Music is pretty good, about what you'd expect from a JRPG game, dramatic during boss fights and more relaxed outside of that. Sounds are pretty generic for the most part, you'll hear the same 'sword hitting the bad guy' sound many times, but it's not terrible, and when you get injured, your character will make a grunt reminiscent of Link form The Legend of Zelda series.
Other: If you have a save from Record of Agarest War, you can use that to get some nifty items later in the game (not sure what they are as I don't have one). There's also a unique combat mechanism called 'Linking', which is utilized by having characters stand within another characters 'Extended Area' (these are simply smal squares that are unique to each character) and using the command list to pull of several attacks at once, occasionally resulting in unique skill combinations.
Once you've beaten the game, you'll start the next game, or more correctly, you didn't actually beat the game at all. There are 2 generations, what that means is you'll play as Sieghart, the hero, and then play as his child. Your child will change depending on who you decide to.... mate with and what 'combo cards' you have (combo cards are the unique cards you use near the beginning to create your Sieghart and earned through events in game).
After you've REALLY beaten the game, you'll be able to start a NG+ and/or play in the new unlocked dungeon that has much tougher monsters and carry those items over to your NG+.
Overall: Record of Agarest War Zero is a rather unique feeling game, even if it is a bit tough.
Pros:
- If you want an RPG for Xbox, there aren't many to choose from
- Looks nice
- Will take a bit of your time
Cons:
- Can be a tough game for those who don't like to grind
- Not a fan of the controls in battle
- Battles get repetetive | video-games_xbox |
Both campaigns are sweet but yes, multiplayer does stink. I'm in the minority in that I buy FPS games like Call of Duty exclusively for the single player campaigns. I simply prefer gaming alone. I'm not introverted or antisocial, just an old school gamer who grew up playing that way and still prefer it. In that regard, I found COD IW to be better than Battlefield 1. First, if you're a single player, BF1's campaign, while beautiful, was painfully short. I completed the entire campaign in an evening. Infinite Warfare's campaign was perfect. Not too short and not too long. It took about two days of off and on playing to complete. Both games have excellent graphics engines with lush visuals and great effects. The enemy AI in IW is also pretty good. Yes, there are moments when the enemies are on a loop and you're expected to stick to the script, but most of the time, the AI is pretty good. The campaign has the perfect balance of environments as you'all find yourself battling on the ground, in space craft, on earth, in outer space, on other planets, aboard huge space destroyers, in asteroid clusters and several other interesting landscapes. He campaign is laid out in a manner that allows the freedom of mixing it up if you tire of a particular battle style. For instance, if you're tired of space battles, you can choose ground assaults instead. You ultimately have to complete everything but it allows a break if certain battle types become too repetitive. Is IW like Black Ops 3? At times, yes. It's obvious they re-skinned a lot of the content from BO3 and ported it over. While I can understand some people being upset at that, it doesn't bother me at all. They also pull it off just well enough to avoid being wholly derivative. I really enjoyed the IW campaign.
The Modern Warfare campaign is fun as well. The remastered content looks great. Modern Warfare is a classic that stands up to the test of time very well. It also feels good to get back to good, old-fashioned, non-laser shooting, boots to the ground combat. It was a perfect idea to bundle the two together. The only mild downside is that the AI shows its age in MW. Squad members frequently get in the way during firefights, especially when you're trying to seek cover. They can also be pretty darn useless at times, literally standing by at the ready and watching as an enemy turns your character into Swiss cheese. Another thing I didn't miss all these years is cheap AI. the AI in Infinite's campaign really shows how far they've progressed since MW. It is extremely annoying for the game to ratchet up difficulty by getting increasingly cheaper as it progresses. Enemies spawn like cockroaches and lob nonstop grenades. There is always something or someone in your way, particularly when you need to move fast to cover. Enemies on later levels shake direct head shots off as if you threw a pebble at them. Bullets magically appear from nowhere, defying all laws of physics. Some grenades explode barely a second after the indicator goes off. It's fun in a nostalgic way but definitely makes you appreciate how the current COD enemies actually use tactics to make the game more difficult instead of cheap cheats. The compass style guidance system is more convoluted and confusing as well. Despite these minor flaws, MW is still a blast to play in the campaign.
Infinite Warfare Lagacy is fun but not without issues. My biggest issue is the frame rate. It can be atrocious at times. I have all the latest updates but I still frequently get skipping frames even during cut scenes. Another issue is the installation time. It took over three hours for both games to install. That is not a typo or hyperbolic statement. It really took in excess of three hours for both games to install, from 9pm to well past midnight.
That leaves me to comment on multiplayer. While I am no fan of it, I did try it in IW and yes, it does stink. When (and I do mean when) I'm even able to get connected, it's bland and boring. It just seems too cartoonish and unrealistic. It's not gritty like the old black ops multiplayer where it felt truly immersive and suspenseful. It's just a bunch of insanely ranked up COD users hopping around a Dr. Suess looking world and killingnyou every two seconds. It doesn't hold a candle to BF1 multiplayer, which is truly fun, even for hose of us without super fast finger twitch muscles and endless hours every day to dedicate to mastering the game. I wasn't able to play multiplayer in Modern Warfare because it just kept saying it was unable to establish a secure connection. I tried during the morning, afternoon, late night, weekdays, weekends... nothing worked. I gave up because I don't play multiplayer anyhow and it wasn't worth the aggravation to keep trying. If you're on the fence between this and BF1 for multiplayer, definitely buy BF1. If you're on the fence between the two games regarding campaigns, IW is he clear winner. My rating is for the campaign only. If forced to rate multiplayer, I'd probably go 2 stars. | video-games_xbox |
Great entry in WWE's long gaming history. Let me start by saying that I have not experienced any bugs, or glitches while playing this game. Just for starters let me tell you I have been playing WWF/E games since the very first one was released way back in the 80's. I currently own every WWF/E, WCW, ECW, New Japan Pro Wrestling, etc game that has ever been made, with one exception, WWE '12. I loathed that game. Hated almost everything about it. It was the one game that I was glad I rented before buying. That game was full of glitches, and some would stop you from ever going past a certain point in the game. With all of that said, here's my review of WWE '13.
Now a lot of people have already touched on the major points of the game. So I won't go too deep into details.
Attitude Era was my sole reason for picking this up. I was a little gun shy on the purchase due to hating WWE '12 but I actually got to get hands on at a comic convention, and all my worries went away.
If you were a fan between '95-'01 you know how amazing this period was, it was amazingly fun to replay some of the key moments like DX, Stone Cold vs McMahon, Mankind, Kane, the Undertaker, etc. It was great hearing the audio we all know and love from those matches, and boy what a relief it is to here good ol' JR and The King back together again. Hearing JR call the Mankind vs Undertaker Hell in a cell still gives me chills to this day, and it did so in this game. I had more fun than I can ever tell you playing this. My full intention was to go home, open this, download Fan Axxess to get DDP, Goldust, and Gangrel, and the accelerator to unlock all characters, then play a few matches, and put it away until I finished Assassin's Creed 3. That didn't happen, and as of this writing, I still have not touched Assassin's Creed 3. I really can't put this down.
Attitude Era 10/10
Now onto the WWE Xbox Live portion.
I don't play these online much if at all, and even though they can be played online, I don't feel like this is an online game. I would rather play with a friend sitting in the same room, than online, but hey that's just me, and my opinion. To each his own. I did however play 3-4 matches, and have to say it was rather slow, and buggy.
I love the Community creations more than anything. I can't tell you how dead on accurate a lot of these Arena's and Wrestler's are, and they are free to download. I already have 50 characters, and 15 arena's downloaded, and the download took seconds. If you do download please rate as it helps to weed out the bad ones.
Community Creations 10/10
Online Play 7/10
WWE creations. Where to begin here, this is where this game stands out above and beyond all other console games. The creations are amazing. Want a logo, t-shirt, arena, wrestler, make it here. The options are beyond deep. I love being able to upload music to this as well. I gave DDP his music from WCW. i have the Outsiders, i have all the WCW arena's, Impact arena, ECW arena's, etc. There is nearly no limit to what you can create. Now I admit I am not great at creating, but I made some pretty solid creations, and uploaded them to the community.
WWE Creations 10/10
WWE Universe. Have you ever sat there and thought you can do a far better job than the creative team, well get to work, and have a blast. Create stables, create tv, make WWE on 7 days a week. This makes you Vince McMahon.
10/10
Let me get into Fan Axxess for a minute. I like the concept, but I absolutely hate having to throw down another $20 for characters, and move set's that should already be in the game. I bought it because it was the only way to get DDP, and Goldust. I don't really care for Brian Christopher, Scotty too Hotty, and some of the other's that are going to be released. Forcing me to buy this to get 2 characters is BS. What is also BS is that Ryback, Aj Lee, and some of the current superstars won't be out until next month, and the move set for Brock's Kimura, and Jericho's Lionsault won't be available until January. I believe they did this to help boost sells. If you didn't grow up on Attitude Era, or just don't care about the older Superstars, then you really are being shafted in having to wait. When the next pack releases in December it will boost sells because main current stars will be available to download.
Fan Axxess 6/10
Current Superstars. I still watch Raw, Smackdown, and Impact. There aren't a huge number of current stars that I really like. The ones that I do are all here, and are fun to play as. CM Punk, Ziggler, Daniel Bryan, kane, Undertaker, etc. So if you are a fan of the current roster, they are all here.
My final rating is 5 stars for the sole reason that I have had ridiculous fun playing this. The controls are smooth, the damage is great, the online community adds to this game so much, and it's just flat out fun.
While at the Comicon I did get one of the developers to slip that the next is geared towards WCW. That is not set in stone, but that is the way they want to take it. Imagine Attitude Era from WCW's perspective.
If you liked the SvR, or if you somehow managed to like WWE '12 you will love this. | video-games_xbox |
Enough Reason to buy an Xbox One. First Impression:
I was quite split when the new consoles were first released because of having a PS3 and 360 but know that my gamble has now paid off. Sure PS4 has better hardware but the Xbox one is not bad at all and has all the best exclusives like Titanfall, Halo, Gears of War and some other games like Plants vs Zombies, Sunset Overdrive, Quantum Break, Killer Instinct, Forza, Dead Rising, Ryse. Sadly Playstation has some good single player games but nothing new or any great multiplayer exclusives.
Pros:
1.) Graphics - Even though it is at only a native 792p that is upscaled to 1080p it still looks really good for not having any horrible latency issues like BF4. A later patch is supposed to upscale the game to 900p or native 1080p the developers said. About 95% of the time at 60 fps with some minor hiccups at very heavy action in titans but is said to be fixed soon.
2.) Gun mechanics and balancing - Seems like everything in the game is in there for a reason and there are plenty of choices to match your play style. The gameplay between Pilot vs Titan is very well balanced.
3.) Verticality and Mobility - This really makes this game so fun with the jet packs, wall running, wall hanging, double jumping and such.
4.) Unique - It has things like interactive AI and environmental changes like the flying monsters on Boneyard picking up some AI grunts and killing them. The jump kick and snapping peoples necks is really cool and funny.
5.) FUN FUN FUN - Most fun I have had in a FPS game in the last 4-5 years.
Cons:
1.) No single player campaign - but I understand that Respawn is a small team and wanted to make the best experience possible on multiplayer. That said there is a campaign multiplayer which you play 9 rounds on both the IMC and Militia which kinda gives a story and does have really cool intros when starting the match.
2.) 6v6 - it seems very well balanced and action packed on the maps that it is on but would be nice if perhaps they came out with slightly bigger maps and a game mode that allowed like 10v10 or 12v12 in a DLC or something.
Conclusion:
This game is defiantly worth the $60 and is the stepping stone to a great generation with the Xbox One with having the best games around! Everyone with an Xbox should pick this up and if you are on the fence on what next-gen console the Xbox 1 cannot disappoint! Titanfall 2 may or may not come out on PS4. I'm guessing that Microsoft will keep making a partnership with Titanfall like they did with Gears of War but not own them like Halo. | video-games_xbox |
Halo series; it was good but could have been so much better. I would just like to say, I am a big halo fan. I do and still consider it one of the best console gaming series, neck and neck with Half Life (or maybe a little better). But Halo 3, the end of the series is "good" but could have been so much better. My short review really could be summed by saying that Halo 3 is Halo 2.1 for XBOX360. I think Bungie and Microsoft played it safe by just recreating Halo 2 with better graphics and sound. From a business perspective, it was probably a smart move. Literally, there were the same weapons, same ships, same friendly characters just super-sized for the Xbox. The enemy characters acted in the same way, going through the same movements. The sad part is that they didn't recreate those famous battles there were tough as h*ll. There were a couple of tough battles with the flood and that was about it, everything else was a cake walk. After about 2 checkpoints, I knew I had to go from Normal to Heroic.
I don't know, maybe I played Halo 1 and 2 too much, but Halo 3 just felt like a lackluster experience. The AI, to me, seemed a little weaker; there were times where I was actually waiting before the enemy would shoot at me and he never did. And my favorite enemy character, the Elites weren't present (I guess they are on our side now). That Halo 2 character was awesome and would act like a predator and hunt you down. Most of the characters in three were just dummy targets waiting to get shot. I remember playing Halo 1 - 2 over and over and over again trying find a better strategy. It is Sep 27 (2 days after the release) and I have already beaten Halo on the Heroic; it would probably take me 5 hours to beat it on legendary.
On the multiplayer, so far it seems pretty good. Good maps, same Halo 2 like system.
In Summary:
+1. Great music, really set the tone
+2. Great continuation of story
+3. Great 360 graphics; you could see the bullets, blood, metallic shininess
+3b. So far, great multiplayer
-4. Horrible maps that were too linear and too easy
-5. AI lacked, I literally could stand there for a minute before some enemies would shoot me. Where were the Elites?
-6. New weapons and ships were cool but I was just fine using the older weapons like the assault rifle.
(-76b, pistol reaaaaaallly sucked this time)
In terms of the Xbox 360 games out now. I am not really a fan of Bioshock and think Halo 3 is way better. I might have to give Gears of War a better rating than Halo 3. Gears of War left you proud to have beat the game, especially on the hardest game setting.
I think Halo 3 will get a bunch of rave reviews and hold people's attention for a couple of months or a year, especially to new fans but I don't think it will satisfy the serious Halo junkie. | video-games_xbox |
I Loved This..but after a month and a half it's falling apart. . I was astounded last year when I found out that there was a cord to use while playing PS4. My controllers for the PS2 and PS3 were constantly dying, the disadvantage of having wireless controllers. So, you can imagine my excitement when I found this gem. I used to buy extra controllers just so I could switch when one would get low on battery life. I would even purchase a charging station, but you cannot play when its connected to the dock. I am so glad that I bought this cord! You can charge both of your controllers at the same time with plenty of slack between you and the console, plus you and the person you're playing with. The cord is lightweight and thin, so there is no heavy weight pulling on your controller as you're playing. The micro USBs slide in easily to each controller and clicks, so you can be assured that it is connected. The USB can easily be put into the port on the PS4 system and does not get removed unless it is intentionally disconnected from the console. This is durable, helpful and totally worth the price. If you don't have one, get it now. I'm not joking. Since I only own a PS4, I'm not sure how this is with the Xbox One. All that I do know is that they share the same ports and it should work out great. Whichever system you own, you need to buy this cable! You will not be disappointed.
UPDATE: You might be disappointed. I've had this cord for about a month and a half. It's already breaking. One of the two charging cables does not charge anything anymore. By anything..I'm referring to my phone, PS4 controllers, Bluetooth, speaker, etcetera. The metal piece at the end of the cord retracted its clips and it will not remain inside of the controller for more than a second if you don't stay completely still. Even if it were to stay intact..the cable doesn't charge. The other side still works..but that is the work of a standard charge and play cord. It defeats the purpose of a dual micro usb. | video-games_xbox |
Not quite as good as 1, but a great follow up to the game of the year. I've played every Halo game to date including Halo 1-3, Wars, ODST, and Reach. I would rank Halo 2 as 4th best after Halo, Halo Reach, and Halo 3. Still a great game that I would recommend to any fan of the first game or the series. The Master Chief's story is incredible.
Gameplay: very similar to Halo, you fight the covenant and the flood in various locations, including a 2nd ring world and Earth. The difference in this game is that you alternate between the Master Chief and the Arbiter, an elite who was punished for the failure of the covenant to stop the humans from destroying the ring world in the first Halo game. New enemies include the brutes who are part of the covenant and later become the defenders of the covenant prophets. You can dual-wield certain weapons in the game, including smaller guns such as the plasma gun, needler, some rapid fires, etc. The AI Hottie, Cortana is still helping throughout the game, though her appearance is somewhat different from Halo 1.
Story: continued from Halo 1, the covenant have located a 2nd ring world and are still trying to activate the weapon. Those idiots still don't realize it will kill all sentient life forms! As master chief, you try and stop the covenant from destroying earth and activating the Halo ring. As the Arbiter, you try and continue the fight against the humans, but soon learn about the ring's true meaning and then try and stop it from firing. The elites break away from the covenant and the new battle between the brutes and elites begin. The arbiter becomes an ally of Master Chief and they both try and stop the ring from firing.
Multiplayer: You can play through the campaign with 2 players, but this game differs from Halo 1 by allowing you to battle out on multiplayer maps online. Something Halo 1 did not have. While certainly entertaining, I prefer the campaign mode.
Overall: the game ending was a bit lame, and was actually not intended by Bungie. The game was rushed and you could feel it a little as certain points. This was because Bungie scrapped the first game engine they started with on Halo 2 and developed a new one, but it cost them the precious time they needed to polish the game to near perfection. They didn't want to delay the game, so it became what it is. Still a masterpiece but lacked in certain areas that could have used the extra time they didn't have.
If you have never played Halo, pick up Halo 1 or the re-make in November 2011, and then pick up 2, 3, and Reach to see the full Halo story. Definitely worth owning. | video-games_xbox |
Excellent for any Gamer. Oddworld has made some great games in the past and this one is no exception. It happens to be my favorite out of all of the series. If you have an X-Box this game is a must buy and I'm really hoping for a sequal.
For me to give a game five stars it needs to have a great story-line and this one has one. You're basically a bounty hunter that nobody knows about, The Stranger. You have always taken out outlaws just for the fun of it and never really cared about the pay. Now its different, you need the money for an operation that your life depends on. Now I know you may be saying to yourself that the story-line sounds a little cheesy and dull, but it really starts kicking in when you are playing the game and I don't want to give anything away.
The gameplay is where the game really flies. The game is basically a shooter because of the bounty type, but you can switch in and out of first person mode and third person mode during the gameplay which is great. The gun you get is the double barrel crossbow and your ammo, well, its live oddworld critters. The live ammo you can use consists of Stunkz(little skunks that distract the enemy), Bolamites(They wrap up the enemy with web), Chippunks(they are basically made for distracting an enemy), Zappflies(Made for catching other ammo), Fuzzles(shoot em on the ground and the first enemy to walk by will have the fuzzle eating the life out of them), Thudslugs(Powerfull shot), Boombats(explosive bombs), Stingbees(like a machine gun), Wasps(Made for sniping). The great thing about the double barreled crossbow is that you can have two different kinds of ammo in it and shoot both at the same time if you want. You can also upgrade your ammo and upgrade almost everythinfrom the size of your ammo bag to your speed to your stamina and even brass knuckles for fighting. When you are in third person mode you can punch, and you can revive your health by using up your stamina meter. You will get the normal things in a city of a bounty game like bounty store and amm store and other places. I always love checking out the bounties because they always have wierd creatures. Collecting bounties is also a bit different in oddworld. You can either kill the bounty or take him while he's alive. You bag bounties by sucking them up in your little special device on your arm. You can colect unlimited amounts of bounty this way and just throw your arm on the bounty desk and get lot of money.
The graphics in the game are amazing, I don't know if its because of the environments that really bring them out or if its just the graphics in general. The environments look amazing and even some places are breath taking, like the snow level or when you are in the factory at the end of the game and your friends are throwing in gigantic fireballs. The Stranger also looks amazing and he is one of my favorite game characters.
The sound is great and I love listening to the creatures walking around in the city. It has plenty of wierd cool sounds and I love how your ammo talks back to you. The controls are also excellent and are easy to get into.
Well this game is defenitley a five out of five for me and I recommend this game to everyone especially to those oddworld fans. This game is one of my favorite games and I will never sell it because everytime I look at the cover it gives me that feeling that I want to play it again. | video-games_xbox |
One of the best purchases I have made. I do not have a ton of experience when it comes to analyzing and comparing different fightsticks and odds are there are reviews out there who could go on about the several fightsticks they own and their individual differences. But I am going to share my practical view of this fightstick hoping it maybe useful to some of you on the fence.
Before getting the KI TE2 I had played traditional arcade cabinets and even borrowed a 360 stick once, but never made the leap to owning one myself until last winter. Like most, I wanted to see what my options where before buying. With the Xbox One fresh off the shelves, at the time the only stick available was solely made my Mad Catz.
Mad Catz hasn't always been a quality peripheral producer but they have turned things around. Professional and high ranking fighting game players now use and/or get sponsored by Mad Catz and the brand is making a name for itself as a standard for fightsticks. As far as I know Mad Catz fightsticks are always approved to use at tournaments big and small. So if you ever do to find yourself wanting to compete in any tournament you don't have to buy a separate stick.
Basic Physical Features
-The button spacing feels slightly different from the usual stick/cabinet but it's easy to get use to.
-LEDs look great and can be turned on, off, and adjusted for brightness by holding the button.
-Bell top stick feels smooth on inputs.
-Buttons work perfectly just needing light presses without strain.
-Start and Select are both lockable
-Non-slip padding on the bottom works amazing in keeping it put. Great for lap and table.
-Latch button on the front makes it easy to open up the stick with no hassle.
-Everything from can be modded. Buttons, joystick, art, swapping to octagonal, etc.
-The inside has a slot to keep the cord when not in use along with a screw driver and 3 spaces for replacement buttons.
-Button wires can be easily swapped by puling and plugging them into your desired buttons.
-Top side has notches for a carrying strap.
-Cord isn't too short
All plastic, yet incredibly durable. I fell off a chair at my buddy's house and the corner of the stick actually chipped his wood floor without leaving a scratch on the fightstick.
Why I bought it
Currently, the only Xbox One game the KI TE2 fight stick will work with is Killer Instinct. But I bought it with the intention of using it for future fighting games for Xbox One down the road.
What most reviewers either don't know or neglect to mention you CAN also use it on PC. Just download the Xbox One driver from Microsoft (Which is free) on your PC and you are good to go.
(With the current driver for some reason it doesn't recognize the LT and RT inputs with all Xbox One controllers but you can switch the cords for LB and RT then remap in game to allow you to play with the standard six buttons fine. Plus they are going to fix this in the next driver update.)
Cons in General
-The default artwork sucks but like I said that can be changed out.
-It does have some weight to it.
-Button distances from each other is a little further apart but it isn't significant enough to have an effect.
-Though it has notches for a carrying strap it does not come with a strap and for $200 it should. You'll have to either improvise with a guitar strap or something if you plan on bringing on the go often. I bet there is a special fightstick strap online if you are hard pressed but I personally didn't bother.
-It's $200
-NOT backwards compatible for Xbox 360 on it's own and I know for those looking to buy a new stick, not being able to play the more popular Xbox 360 games is an issue, especially for new fightstick owners.
Though it sounds crazy. Don't let that initially jerk you away if.
HERE'S WHY
As said earlier you can use the KI TE2 for PC.
What's surprising is that a Steam PC fighting game community actually exists and continues to grow. If you have a decent computer you can run fighting games that are now on PC like Ultra Street Fighter IV,King of Fighters, Blaz Blue, Skull Girls, Mortal Kombat, and xTekken. (Your 360 fightstick will also work on PC after downloading the Xbox 360 driver)
OR
You buy a Cronus max online for $60 which will allow you to use the KI TE2 on any console you want.
Because of both I only need one stick for all my needs.
tl;dr
Summing up
It's good quality though a bit pricey but still not too bad for what you are getting. I recommend it for those who want a second stick for the next gen and also for looking to own there first stick. | video-games_xbox |
Ok game but. The game is a fun game and usualy a final fantasy fans must have but the thing i think everyone must know about the game and most all online games that i have plaied anyway have no underling storie line. Now I haven't plaied all the oline games out there so that may not be true for all games but for this one it is. For a storie line on ffxi you can make your own for your character. When you first start out you will have your choice of Hume, Elvaan, Tarutaru, Mithra,and Galka ok and now i know that your probly saing "ha?"trust me when i first saw the dofrent races there were to chose from.a Hume is easy its just a human an elvaan is an elf like legolas from lord of the rings(there realy tall in this game) A tarutaru is actualy a doll race there very small and make good mages, Mithras are a cat race they are realy cool however they only come in females and a galka is hard to explain there a big stron race for what they look like just go to the final fantasy xi web site and you can see what all the races look like. There are main jobs as they call it to chose from warrior, thief, monk, white mage, black mage, and red mage when you first start the game you chose a character customize it and name it you will chose from one of these jobs then you start leveling your characters job. eventual you will be able to get a sub job so you will have two jobs at the same time after a certen level though you will need to party to get the next level up faster. after about level 30 you will be able to get new jobs such as Dragoon, Ninja, Dark Knight, BeastMaster, Paladin, Ranger, Samurai, and Summoner all but three are pretty easy to figure out what they are but a dragoon is a job where a dragon follows you around and helps you fight it realy realy helps you fight, a Beastmaster gets to control the monstersyou usualy fight,and a paladin is well a very very good mage of all the difrent mages so if you chose to go for that job you would have the best job for whght mage black mage blue mage, and red mage. To get these new jobs you would have to go through a quest to get them.
Then of corse you have difrent ways to make money you could do fishing cooking black smithing loging and much more to keep the lag down there are difrent servers you will be put into. All and all the game is good if you like games where you make your own storie line but if you don't like games with no underling storie line then i sugest you not get this game it will be a big waste of oney to you. If you decide you like what you see and need help when you start im on alot so you can feel free to ask me my screen name is enchant to talk to me just type /tell enchant then type in your message if im on ill get what you wrote if im not there are many people running around that would help you. | video-games_xbox |
Fun and/or frustration awaits you. When you see critic reviews all but outright lashing at the game to fan reviews saying it's a ton of fun and not worth the amount of negativity thrown at it, you can see that this is clearly a game that has a "try out and see" approach. Not to say Capcom has had completely flawless run-ins with the press lately. Devil May Cry 4 had a great first half only to be marred by the entire first half literally played backwards by a different character. Or the really stellar Resident Evil 5 that everyone complained was exactly like Resident Evil 4 when other games are just like prior entries too. So when one hears of oddball game mechanics and approaches to their games in the reviews, you might be a bit hesitant to give Lost Planet 2 a try but this is a game where the reviewers are right in saying this isn't completely flawless but the low scores and negativity thrown at it seems a bit overdone and the best way to gauge whether this game is for you is just play it and see what you think. Stunning graphics, some great score and some of the biggest bosses you'll ever come across also comes with some screwy controls, a near pointless plot and not to mention a game that seems programmed specifically for co-op and you got the makings of a great game that's only good and worth playing but man, if only somebody looked at the bigger picture and said "hey, wait a minute....what if we were to change...?"
Story: The story takes place on the planet E.D.N. III, a once-frozen planet completely covered in snow now largely changed in the 10 years since the adventures of Wayne and Co. in the first game. Instead of having one character go through the game chapter-hopping, they all involve different groups with different objectives that will come to a head near the end. What this means is that the story feels slightly inconsequential since you control nameless dudes who are trying to do something you're not quite sure yet against people you're not introduced to. However this also means some diversity in locations so you can hop from frozen tundras to thick jungles to deserts and back which makes up for the repetitive-but-pretty all snow environments of the first game.
Graphics: Complain all you want about the games of Capcom but you can't argue against their graphic-making abilities which are pretty stellar. From Resident Evil 5 to Street Fighter IV to this, this company knows how to make some really impressive looking games and this game is no different. From the locales you'll see to the absolutely enormous bosses, the MT Framework engine that powers the game is quite a powerful one indeed. However there is some slowdown when things go boom a bit too big and on the train level which I'll get into later, I literally ran into a glitch where the shells required to load into the gun's cannon were floating in mid-air. But from a look standpoint, Lost Planet 2 certainly has the chops but it's not quite 100% smooth but it looks damn fine trying to get there.
Sound/Music: When things aren't exploding so loudly that it completely drowns it out, the music in the game is appropriately epic, intense and nicely bombastic. Things get exciting really quickly and the music used reflects it and that main menu music which you'll be hearing a lot of, I'm sure, is catchy but not so it becomes grating after the 105th damn time. Sound effects are also nicely made from the screeches and roars of the Akrid to the gunfire of the different weaponry, this is a game for your surround sound system or some great headphones. The same can't be said for the voice acting which feels appropriately Capcom. Not as much emotion and dialogue choices read exactly as you'd expect them to: almost flat. Occasionally they'll do some good work in other games but it just feels really iffy here.
Gameplay: Unlike games like say Halo 3, Borderlands, or Gears of War which can be played single player but the main bulk of fun comes in co-op, Lost Planet 2 in a way feels like it was designed specifically to be played with more than one person. And when you see the near brain-dead AI of your squadmates, it's easy to see why you need extra players. They barely shoot and half the time they stand there while you're running around trying to do the bulk of the work which makes the campaign feel really average but then you have some buddies and everything makes sense. Tactics come into play, players can be relegated to a specific weapon usage or task and strategies can be made more efficiently. Take for example Chapter 3-3 (the chapter nearly every reviewer has complained about, dubbing it the "train level"). In this chapter, you start off on a train traveling parallel to an enemy train so you can have one guy with a sniper rifle shooting guys from afar, one with a rocket launcher blowing up the turrets and enemy air support while a 3rd can carry a shield to soak up some damage and keep your other guys safe. Then there's the boss fight in which a huge sense of roles and tasks have to be laid out to each member: you're on a cannon which needs to be fired at weak points of probably the biggest boss you've ever seen. Those shells need to be loaded into the chamber, energized for quicker reloading and potentially given some help with a console that allows for quicker gun rotation. This is not done automatically and whoever is shooting has to rely on the other 3 to supply the shells, load them, energize them and help the rotation speed of the barrel or you're dead. And what if you take damage? Then you need someone to go below decks and activate the coolant systems which act as damage repairmen and gun cooldown. Not to mention there's gun turrets somebody can climb into to shoot down giant meteors or help shooting at the weak points. Think the AI will do all that on its own? Think again.
But this co-op has some side effects. The game operates on a lobby system where you can find a game for a specific episode within a specific chapter and hope one of them says "standing by" because that means they're in the menus and haven't started yet. If their status is "playing" however, you have to wait till they're done before you can come in as there's no join in progress or drop in/drop out co-op in the game. Also co-op can have slight frustrations involving the Battle Gauge. When you activate data posts or accomplish objectives, you add some points to a battle gauge but points get deducted if someone dies. So nearly every death can be treated as a surefire way to get people to yell at you since you're the one who keeps dying and getting your whole team closer to a mission failure. As far as the competitive multiplayer is concerned, it's fun but some issues from campaign carry over. Getting shot puts you in a stun animation, leaving you unable to fire back, heal or do much of anything except rolling or hopefully throwing a grenade which kills the other player first. Unlike games like Call of Duty or Halo where one-on-ones were won by skill and accuracy and which gun you brought, this game feels more like ambush tactics: surprise attack someone and shoot them first before they can do anything. Also nearly every mode has what you'll be doing a lot of in the campaign which is dealing with data posts. In both campaign and multiplayer, these data posts act like spawn points but unlike other games where standing in the area started the capturing, you have to mash B against the data post which leaves you completely vulnerable to weaponry and grenades. This can of course allow players to wait till you try to activate it then kill you while you're completely defenseless. But the modes and gameplay are rarely seen in multiplayer now which makes it quite unique to other games where it's mainly FPS and somewhat familiar.
Another gripe is how you unlock things. In a lot of multiplayer games, unlocks came through level progression: more you played, better toys you got to tinker with. In Lost Planet 2 on the other hand, some of that is unlocks while others have to be literally won from a slot machine. The more you collect those "?" boxes in campaign, the more points you add to your total which act as your "quarters" for the slot machine where you can win new weaponry, abilities that can alter how your character can behave in combat but mainly you'll be seeing emotes and "noms de guerre", in other words, nicknames. Emotes are done by pressing the Start button and either any D-pad direction or the shoulder buttons and they're strictly poses whereas noms de guerres are kind of like your callsigns but when you're being bested by players that have better weaponry or better abilities than you in multiplayer, it can be frustrating when all you keep unlocking are names.
That being said, the gunfights and Akrid encounters can be incredibly intense, the multiplayer from the first game had a very strong community and that'll no doubt be translated here and the game's achievements and trophies feel designed to do one thing: make you play the game over and over. Level up the different factions to level 99, kill an insane amount of enemies, collect everything from the slot machine and play the chapters a whole bunch. This is one of the longest 1000/Platinums you'll find. The game is certainly not without its faults but avoiding the game altogether isn't really the way to go about it. Unless you're a diehard fan of the first or loved the demos in which case you most likely already played it or about to, give the game a try since everyone will react differently. Some of you will love it so much you won't mind playing the game for the next year or more while some others will think it's just way too flawed and backwards and not worth your trouble. I like it and I'd recommend but keep in mind this is a love-it-or-hate-it kind of game so I'm in the former camp so just have to see which camp you fall into. | video-games_xbox |
In the life of a ninja. Tenchu Z - Circa 2007
GOOD:
- Game has 50 missions and three different difficulty settings.
- Create/customize your very own ninja with lots of costume options and props like a crow on your shoulder or an extra sword on your back, as well as change your hair style, gloves, boots, pants and top.
- The customizing doesn't just stop at looks; this game has lots of unique and different moves as well as combos. Some new abilities help you do things like run along walls and cling to ceilings.
- Game has large open-ended stages with a sandbox attitude (finish missions the way you see fit).
- Online Co-op mode (from two to four players), while this mode is a little glitchly it is a nice feature.
BAD:
- Most missions are pretty mundane and by the numbers (not just the first few).
- A few missions are for lack of a better term repeats of earlier stages.
- This story is very bare bones and seems too heavily focused on feudal Japan politics.
- The graphics are old for a game that came out 2007; this game looks at best like a game from the early Playstation 2 days.
- The enemy A.I. is not very good and loses interest in following targets after they lose direct sight of their target. Example, if you get spotted by a guard jump over a small wall and the guard will not only not be able to follow you or know where you "disappeared" to, but after a few minutes that same guard will lose interest and go back to his rounds.
- Higher difficulty settings dose not mean smarter guards or more guards, but just that all enemies have better vision and can spot you much easier.
IF IT FITS YOUR TASTE:
- This game only has three boss battles two of which are on the last mission.
- Westerners (who in this game are Spaniards or pirates) are portrayed odd to say the least (they come off very un-masculine when compared to all other characters even the woman).
- After beating a mission you get ranked on your skill as a ninja (really the game only counts how many times you got spotted and for how long versus how many stealth and normal kills you performed) you get gold according to this and you get a ranking number from one to five (five being the best).
- The game has you earning money or gold on missions to buy/unlock new costumes options, abilities, and items. New costumes options become available every few missions.
- The Ninja Village (just a very small hub world) where you can select missions and change/buy costumes options, abilities, and items has the time of day set to the clock on your Xbox 360, play at night and the Ninja Village is at night, play during the day time and the Ninja Village is set during the day time. Unfortunately this is not carried on to the stages them selves with 95% of the stages taking place at night.
GAME ITS MOST ASSOCATED TOO:
- Tenchu: Return from Darkness (Xbox, PS2)
- Tenchu (PS1)
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
- A demo of this game is available on Xbox Live Marketplace.
- Using the right or left bumpers (the 360 equivalent to playstations R1 and L1) makes the difficulty easier or harder per stage.
- A few missions in this game have you kill members of the Echigoya family; this is note worthy because every Tenchu game has its first mission killing a member of this family (usually a corrupted merchant).
- Every mission (50 in all) has at least one guard known as a Tomikichi (they are wearing the over sized round/circle type of hats) killing one on every stage gives you secret achievements.
- Beating the game unlocks a few new costumes options like Modern Day military uniforms with a stock gun (M-16 type) that you can hold on your back (its only a prop you can't use it) and Over sized animals heads (like the ones you see at theme parks). | video-games_xbox |
Truly impressive third party controller. My experience with third party controllers usually winds up with me being thoroughly disgusted with them, specifically the sub-par quality they tend to possess. They never seem to match the quality of their first party made counterparts and wind up breaking fairly easily. This Afterglow controller for the Xbox One is leaps and bounds beyond any other third party console controller I've ever used and transcends its somewhat gimmicky nature with a build that is at least the same quality of the controllers that come packaged with the console itself.
For starters, the controller itself feels great and comfy in my hands. The sticks feel just as good as the regular first party controllers do and the various bumpers and buttons all feel well placed and responsive. This controller also has an additional two wheel buttons but I'll get into those in a moment.
I prefer my controllers to be wireless but I understand why this particular controller has to be wired as the LED lighting would drain a regular set of batteries in minutes I'd presume. The cable is detachable and is pretty long, checking in at ten feet in length. The LED light setup is admittedly cool and is very easy to adjust to your preferences, with the left stick adjusting brightness and the right stick adjusting the color. You can also set up whether you want the controller to light up when it vibrates. The controller comes equipped with a 3.5mm headphone jack which is appreciated but what really makes this inclusion even better is the ability to set the volume levels, not to mention the chat mixer levels, via the controller's D-pad, which is now making me wonder why the standard Xbox One controllers can't do this as well. Negating the need to go to the Xbox One guide to adjust the volume is a pretty impressive little feat.
The most interesting aspect of this controller is the inclusion of two wheel buttons on the rear that can be mapped to any button you wish, including joystick clicks. Each wheel can be rolled in two different directions, giving you four settings you can customize to your liking. They're positioned so that the tips of your index fingers rest right on them. So, for example, for Halo 5, I have it set up so that when I roll the right wheel up, I can sprint. Rolling the same wheel down reloads. It's already changed my play style in an unexpected way and it just feels much more intuitive to me. These wheel buttons are pretty cool and caught me completely off guard in regards to how much I'd enjoy using them.
All in all, I couldn't find anything wrong with this controller and it went far beyond what I was expecting. The LED light adds kitsch value while the controller design as a whole is both thoughtful and well made in general, with smart additions and great functionality. At the time of this writing, the official Xbox Store app isn't available yet and is supposed to allow you to store custom settings for yourself and other profiles via the Xbox One. As soon as I get some time with that, I'll return to add an addendum to this review but as it stands, you can take this review as a full five star review with my highest recommendations. | video-games_xbox |
Highly entertaining, well designed adventure. I reserved this game for the Xb360 launch after reading good reviews from several major gaming web sites.
The game immediately starts in a sort of crash-course adventure, where you are taught how to control three of the 10 characters available in the game. You have no choice but to spend 15-30 minutes wondering where is the game introduction? What am I doing? At the end, you sort of start from scratch, with a mission to recover those 3 elemental warriors as well as seven others who will help you in completing your quest. Later on you'll realize that this was the best option to get you prepared for the rest of the adventure.
The adventure is linear, especially inside the temples; you just keep going forward defeating the evil trolls. The fights are constant and challenging and with so many warriors in your control, there's almost no repetitive combat.
My favorite part of the game was in the Badlands, where I had the chance to climb on a horse and ride past literally hundreds of computer generated trolls fighting with your soldiers. Looking closer I could see their health status dropping on both the trolls and the guards, then I got too close and the trolls headed in my direction, and my soldiers behind them, amazing AI! With all this happening, I also had to dodge blazing cannonballs that spurt dirt and debris when they hit the ground. Then you add the epic background music (from the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Kings Choir) and it felt like I was being part of a scene of the Lord of the Rings movie, you really have to see it to believe it.
All emotion aside (my heart is still pumping from that last paragraph) I highly recommend this game, it's pretty impressive for a launch title. It's also not that difficult, which is great for younger kids and mature players alike. The built-in auto-save feature worked effectively by saving your progress immediately after completing an important fight or event. I never found myself backtracking because of a missed save.
By the way, play this game on a high definition TV if you have the chance and witness the difference in quality, you'll be surprised.
This game offers lots of fun for young and adult audiences. The Teen rating is too conservative in my opinion; I never saw anything resembling blood in this game. I guess an E rating would give the impression that this was a kiddie title, a turn-off for some gamers these days, believe it or not.
Anyway, I hope that you find this review helpful. | video-games_xbox |
Are you ready to rock. When I first heard that Harmonix was creating Rock Band, I thought to myself, "Guitar Hero Remix". Until I heard about the mic and then the sweet drum set. So I was amped for this to come out. Then GH3 came out and all I could think of was "Dang...Rock Band better be awesome cause I just can not put GH3 down". Then I hit up my local Best Buy with a mock set-up of RB..and once I hit those sticks on those drum pads..I was in heaven. I was already going to buy RB, but now I HAD to have it.
I bought it the day it came out as soooon as my local Target opened up. Went straight home (with Kane & Lynch also...which at this time hasn't been played..heh) and began opening it up. After a few minutes of setting up (drums take a few parts to put together..nothing hard though..no tools), I was ready to go.
I started off with the drums (like probably most people). I'm gonna have to say..they are a lot tougher than I thought they were gonna be. I've never played drums in my life so it's gonna take a little time to get used to them. When I tried them at Best Buy...they had a demo that didn't include the base pedal. Well now I have to worry about stepping on that, while also worrying about where I'm slamming my two sticks at also. Sounds easy right? I really don't think so..least not yet..lol. By no means am I dogging this part though. I can see that this will be a lot of fun, especially when you start playing on Hard. On Easy the beats are so slow that I really do not feel like a rocker... I feel more like I'm some slow drummer in some jazz band. But I know it's like that to get people like myself accustomed to this new piece of equipment.
Secondly, I grabbed the new guitar. I put it on Medium and began playing a bunch of songs. I looovveee this guitar. The top fret buttons feel so good. One the edge of the green button and the orange button, there is a lift about half an inch high. So when you start playing on Hard or Expert and you start moving up and down the fret buttons trying to hit every button, you won't get lost cause you'll bump into those lifts. Definitely helps out. Also at the bottom you have 5 more fret buttons with the same color. Once a 'solo' appears on screen (the background will be a shade of blue) you can use these buttons and not even have to strum. Just hit the buttons once the button appears on the line. So much fun and you feel like even more of a rocker. The selector on the guitar has a bunch of sound effects that you can do on the fly. Pretty cool I guess, but I swear I cant hear a difference. Not saying it's not there, but I just haven't heard the difference yet. The ONLY gripe I have about the guitar is the Whammy Bar. Its so dang long and almost gets in the way of my strummer. It looks very good, but I'm just not diggin it. It's not crazy bad where you would hate the guitar, but I would have liked it just a bit shorter. One last thing about the guitar. My roommate is insanely good at Guitar Hero and he is in absolute love with this new guitar and the new way it plays out on Rock Band. He doesnt even want to look at the GH guitars anymore..lol. He has issues with the whammy also though.
The Mic is next. I've never played a karaoke game before on any system. I never really cared for it (even though I do like Karaoke sometimes...when I'm drinking). I also didn't really know how it worked. Well before I stopped playing RB for a while, I decided to try it out. HOOKED. Seriously hooked on this part of the game right now. I was laughing at first while singing cause it was just funny to me, but then I really started getting into it. Then my roommate wanted to join in with the guitar. So we picked Creep and aced the crap out of it. Next thing you know we had Mississippi Queen playing and then I'm standing up and just rockin the mic. Right then I could just TELL this was going to be a very fun party game. I'm getting off track here. Ok, back on. When you sing you have to keep the pitch or tone of your voice on track with the line that shows on the screen. There is an arrow that will let you know if you are to high or to low. When it's time for your 'energy' meter (star power), you can just make any noise or statement you want to to activate it. I just usually hold out the note of the last word longer than usual to activate it...or scream ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?! (cause it always gets a laugh..lol). The only thing I don't care for is that you have to tap the mic on certain parts to make a tambourine sound or a cow bell sound. It's not bad if you are JUST singing, but I can see how that would be crap if you were playing a guitar or drum also. It doesnt HURT you if you miss those beats, but you don't get extra points. So far I love the mic, but probably cause I've never played those Karaoke games before like I said.
Although the 360 version isn't wireless cause of Microsofts greedy self (they use a proprietary wireless that they charge companies to use and Harmonix didn't want to pay for it so they could keep the PS3 and the 360 versions the same price), it's not TOOOO bad. The wires are a lot longer than the GH guitar wires. Plus the 4 port USB that comes with the game is a godsend for this game (make sure you have one more outlet for the USB plug). Hopefully they'll make some wireless stuff later.
When you start your career, you'll get to start customizing your guy or gal you want to use. Lot of different things you can do also...I was very surprised. If you ever played any of the Def Jam fighting games, then you might think back to those games like I did. Faces, Rock Styles (fighting styles on Def Jam), Hair, Height, Color, Rings, Bracelets, Pants, Shoes, Shirts, Tattoos. It's crazy. Lots of items to choose from the start and more and more as you get farther into the game. I unlocked 5 things in 5 songs I believe. I cant talk much about career mode since I stopped after my first 5 songs since I had to get ready for work. What I played though was really fun and what I've read and seen on videos (mainly from the rockbands website) its seems like it's going to be a blast.
I still love Guitar Hero. 1, 2 and 3. Not 80's, but whatever. I'm still gonna play them because of certain songs. But I think Rock Band has become my new favorite. Especially since once in a while, we have a good group of people show up to just drink and play GH. I think Rock Band is gonna replace that thanks to the 4 player support, GREAT song list, and more than just a guitar or two to play with. Actually I know it is..lol.
While you are reading this... I'm pretty sure I'm playing Rock Band. =D
***UPDATE for 22 Nov 07.***
2 more gripes about this game.
1. Harmonix seemed to use a LOT of constant repetitious notes..for example..you have to hit the blue button say...6 times in a row..then the red..6 times in a row..then back to blue..6 times in a row...then yellow..six times in a row...and on and on. I don't mind this on some songs...but I'm just saying they used it a lot this time around. Even my roommate was getting aggravated with it.
2. I believe my guitar is starting to act up like others that I have read. My strum bar after only a day is getting less responsive on the down strokes. I'm missing notes for no reason. I started using the up stroke instead and now I'm hitting ever note. I'm gonna send a request for a new guitar soon. Usually I'm not a victim of the faulty hardware that many people come across (I've never even seen a red ring of death in person on the 360...knock on wood), but this time I think I am. *sigh*
Cool stuff I like though since I first posted.
1. I figured out how to use the Guitar sound effects switch. Gotta be using star power (energy..whatever). Very fun!
2. Love how the star power adds up even while you are using it. Huge improvement over GH's.
Thats it for now.
LOVE this game...really I do. Just wish the guitar didn't start messing up. =(
***UPDATE for 23 Nov 07.***
2 really cool new things I like.
1. I REALLY love how when you are doing good during a song...the crowd starts to sing along with the song. WOW! That made me feel more like I was there than GH ever did. Very cool feature.
2. During Thanksgiving...I took my game over to a friends house. We had enough people to put a 4 player group together. Talk about A LOT of fun. 2 people never even touched GH before. Yet they had a blast playing all three instruments. The one girl I was playing with who I would have thought would've been on the mic more since she likes karaoke STOLE the drum set almost the whole time..she loved it. It was a lot of fun watching her beat the crap out of the set..lol. I was on mic most of the time since most were scared of it. Sometimes other people took the mic over, and even though they were sometimes bad..it was never embarrassing. Most of the time the other people were to engaged into their own playing or either it was so bad that it wasn't embarrassing, but just down right funny.
I had way to much fun with that game this Thanksgiving. Like I said way earlier..I knew this would be a great party game. We didn't even think about putting GH in. | video-games_xbox |
Wings of Wax. Amazing things about this game:
Game Concept (being able to hijack certain enemies)(little secret ways to earn more points)
Music (Got some wonderful beats to go along with the game)
Character designs (especially that lady Sasha) is very well done, and has a high level of polish. (To bad the rest of the game doesn't)
Aesthetics
Character viewer is a cool concept
Things that are horrid:
Level design looks half done, it's poorly done...
Game Controls (IE how the game character responds to input.. the fighting, which is the main aspect of the game, is poorly executed. It should be smooth like Bolthouse farm Vanilla chai tea... yet its more akin to .. drinking black coffee, a horrid frustrating experience)
Gameplay (How they set the rules of the game up) are horrid... some things in the game, take more luck to pull off, than skill, just because of how they set up events. Like I'm doing a mission called "Impeding Investigation" during the white(good) selection of the game. This giant mining excavator goes berserk.. WEll.. not only does it kill the enemies before I can get to them, it moves fast enough to where basically all I can do is focus on avoiding it and staying alive, yet last long enough.. (it does two laps over the battlefield) to eat up a major chunk of my time limit, and then enemies spawn way to dang slow. I just beat this mission with literally 8 seconds left, and that was slaughtering enemies as fast as I possibly could. (I'm sure with a lot of practice one could beat it quicker some how, but it would also probably take luck)
I don't feel like going on, but over all its a poorly executed idea of a game. Cool in theory, but the team behind it...they suck at doing their job. That would sum it up. I was looking forward to this game, and well.. frankly I'm let down.
I've been a gamer for 20 years now. And it seems that a lot of game designers/developers, whatever you want to call them, have still yet to grasp how freaking important it is, to get the input right.. how important it is the way that the character responds to the user, how the environment responds to the user character. If their is this disconnect, this struggle to get the game to function the way it is intended, its going to be a horrible experience. I could deal with a graphically, or aesthetically lacking game, if it were a great gameplay experience.. and that's not the case with this game. Also, the camera/lock on is horrid as well. I felt like I was playing a game from th eyear 2000 or something.. gezus.
Also, the boss fight against a certain huge creature, that lives in the water, is so poorly done, that I got nauseated the second time I was forced to go through the fight. I dreaded it that much. Its a fight that get's drug out for no good reason.
Story for the game is Ok. Its simple, but good.
I played the game on Normal Difficulty. On the 360 version with a Razer Sabertooth Controller.
With a lot of missions you get 3 tries. With the last boss. You get three tries, and do to the poor game design, it took me three tries exactly. Because.. hey were gonna make a boss that flies, and give you no real way to get to him.. (heehee) I think that some of the people who made Dark Souls, must have gotten in on the bosses fights in this game,. | video-games_xbox |
343 has really delivered on this one! "NO SPOILERS. Please feel free to verify that I have completed enough of the game to responsibly write a review. Xbox Live Gamer Tag "Apollonius of P", I have completed the campaign and all of the spartan ops on Legendary, and played PvP enough to speak to its value.
Forward:
I am mainly an RPG gamer, and I rarely enjoy FPS, map based valued games like Halo, Battlefield and CoD for more than the campaign. BUT this is a huge exception, contrary to other FPS games, starting with Halo ODST and culminating in Halo 4, the Halo universe has become very rich and allows for you to delve in wholeheartedly!
Campaign:
I am completely in love with the new story, 343 Industries really put in the time on the story and after some earlier 2012 games that showed just how little a Developer can care about their loyal fans concerns (Mass Effect 3) this was a very nice effort. On Legendary I have spent twenty or so hours just getting all of the campaign completed, all of the terminals found and all of the campaign based goodness that is buried in the new story.
I want a first time ever in the halo universe. Campaign related DLC! Not just map packs, more story related content...
Spartan Ops:
This is the best new feature in my opinion, 10 episodes with 5 chapters each, one new episode releasing every week. If you are not a PvP gamer these are all maps that are just what you are looking for. Plus there is a whole separate story occurring that is larger than some other games. I would label this Campaign 2, with your own spartan instead of Master Chief.
This is another place I would like to see more DLC. After the first ten episodes, make ten more please!
War Games:
Not really my thing, but I find it playable and keep going back for more punishment nightly! I am very pleased with the matchmaking and the new armor mods make the maps way more fun. Its a little weird when half of the opposing team has active camouflage equipped, better look closely at every distortion, or DEATH comes often.
I feel as though 343 truly cares what the fans want, and that they delivered on the fans desires, with no greed on release day. I would say that they clearly delivered more than they had to for the $60 price tag, that is fan appreciation 101.
Thank you 343 Industries, I appreciate your hard work and continued effort in making the Halo Universe better with every release! | video-games_xbox |
Just about Perfect. So many people have so many good things to say about this game, and every single one of them is correct and true, so let me start off with the cons:
- A weak complaint, but my LEAST favourite Cibo Matto song (Birthday) is on the US version. Yoko Ono screaming does NOT make my day. Ugh.
- Like in so many other games, the camera-man is off his block. The camera does the STUPIDEST things sometimes. But we all learn to adjust.
- Sometimes, on my Xbox, it tries to render just a little too much and starts jittering and slows down. This is especially prevalent on the tall boards where you can look down through a grate (i.e. Rokkaku-dai Heights), especially when you're in combat with several of the 'corrupt' members of law-enforcement. Let me reiterate that this only happens when a LOT of stuff is going on - it's not that common, but it DOES happen occasionally.
- After the companies display their logos, there is a GRAFFITI IS BAD AND ILLEGAL warning. It stays on the screen for far too long. If you play as often as I do, this is more annoying than you think. ;)
Now that I've gotten that out of the way, let me tell you that I've logged well over 60 hours on this game (even more than you can get out of most epic RPGs) and I STILL enjoy the heck out of it. The music is so energetic and fun, there's enough variety, and you can adjust the volume or add a LITTLE bit of customization to keep it from getting too repetitive. Or you can turn the music off completely and spin your own background tracks without losing the game's necessary sound effects.
Let's talk about who can enjoy this. If you like youthful music. If you like youthful themes. If you like games that require a little skill, but aren't impossible for the average player. You don't have to be into inline skating or "tagging" to enjoy this. You don't have to be a teenager rebelling against the system. You just have to have a little bit of soul, kid.
In summary, this is still my favourite game on the Xbox. I enjoy it SO much that I bought a Dreamcast and Jet Grind Radio (its predecessor) yesterday (Feb 1, 2003) just so that I can play THAT game, too. Sega has always made good games. I'm THRILLED that they're including this title with the Xbox now, because I probably would have never played it otherwise. If you've got an older Xbox and missed out, go pick it up. It's cheap now, and it's ridiculously fun. | video-games_xbox |
One of the worst games ever made. This game is quite possibly the worst game to ever come out. For one thing its incredibly hard. There are two difficulty settings, normal and hard, however I didn't notice any difference what so ever between the two. To tell you how hard this game is, I have friends who play the Call of Duty and Halo games on the hardest difficulty with no problem and even they say this game is just to hard and frustrating! The difficulty and frustration comes from having to redo each level countless times to achieve the "perfect score" required on each level.
At the end of each level you are scored on the following: Damage taken (health), ammo expended (number of bullets fired), accuracy percentage (with weapons), pickup percentage (extra weapons and ammo) and number of continues (times killed), for which you get an overall letter grade, C, B, A and S for the top grade. By far the hardest part of getting the "S" or excellent score is finding all the weapons and ammo hidden throughout the game map. The pointless part of the whole thing is the fact that with very few exceptions you aren't allowed to use any ammo or you will be graded low at the end of the level, in some levels you aren't allowed to fire any weapons, in others one or two rounds only. Which is compounded by the fact that most of your weapons have little to no effect on the "nightwalkers" anyway. So on one hand, to get an "S" ranking you have to find all the hidden weapons and ammo, yet on the other you cant fire any of the weapons. Its quite possibly the stupidest thing I have ever seen in a video game.
I remember in one level there is a gate with a padlock that you have to shoot the lock to open it, the only thing you get by doing so is picking up more ammo. Yet that one round of ammo is the only one you are allowed to fire on the whole level. It seems stupid beyond belief and you cant help but wonder what the programmers where smoking the day they thought that up!
One of the better weapons is the sniper rifle, which will take them out with one head shot. Yet on some levels they will give it to you, but if you use it you will be penalized at the end for doing so. One level in particular I played using the shotgun and fired a total of 8 rounds, at the end I received an "excellent" rating for ammo expended. I replayed the level and this time I used 6 rounds from the shotgun and 1 from the sniper rifle, for a total of 7 rounds and I received a rating of "average". apparently the programmers didn't want you using the sniper rifle in that level, which draws the question of why give it to me then? Basically the programmers had one specific way in mind for you to complete each level and if you deviate from that plan they penalize you for it. Personally I don't have much patients for such childishness!
By far the worst part of this game are the seemingly never ending barrage of cut scenes that break up the game play and serve nothing more than to screw up your momentum. There are numerous times when a cut scene will occur then you do nothing more than take a few steps and another cut scene will begin. Literally within seconds of each other. It really is annoying to say the least.
Another pointless part of the whole cut scene annoyance is when some of the cut scenes end you find you now have a weapon in your hand, often times one you didn't even have prior to that. This leads you to believe that you are supposed to shoot the "nightwalker" that lies ahead, but if you do you will be penalized in your rating at the end. I know, as stupid as that sounds, its true!
While I was writing this I choose a level at random and played it, (level 13) not counting the cut scene at the beginning and end, which you expect in a normal game, I counted 11 cut scenes, in a space of 5 minutes of game time to complete the level. I think anyone will agree that is excessive to say the least. However this is about average.
If you're into achievements and upping your gamer score this is again a very bad game for that. There are 1000 points to be had but only a few hundred of them can be unlocked in single player mode. (7 in all for 350 points) None of those will come till the very end of the game, and then most of them you have to achieve a perfect score of "S" on every level. The average first time play through you will only get 1 achievement for 50 points and that's for beating the game. Some of the achievements even conflict with each other. One achievement is getting killed 200 times by nightwalkers, however if you get this you won't get the "S" rating or its achievement.
The remaining achievements are all for online play, yet because the game was so bad the online community for this game is non existent. This game came out in mid 2007 and I bought it in the beginning of 2008 and even then there was no online activity with this game. About the only way you're going to get the online achievements is to find someone to play online with you and have them stand there while you kill them enough times and do the other various things required to get them. In that respect its fairly easy, I did this with a friend an we both had all the online achievements within about an hour. But if you don't know someone who has the game you're basically out of luck!
There are 24 levels on this game, each level also has one or two side missions or "Time trials". Again you have to score an "S" rating in all of these, as well as the main levels, to get the achievements. It will take you a minimum of 10-20 play throughs on each level to get it to where you know it well enough to get the "S" rating on it. You're looking at a minimum of 100+ hours of play time. I'll be honest, I've never finished this game, its just way to frustrating. There are more fun games to play out there to waste such an inordinate amount of time on one game especially one this bad! | video-games_xbox |
You should wait until Microsoft has had time to patch all the bugs and problems with this product. Microsoft released this far before they were really ready to support this thing. There are dozens of problems with the device. The lack of any real game titles is a big problem, but even if you want to use this as the media center as Microsoft intended, it is still a nightmare. The system will not support DVR, and has it's own DVR like functions that cause things to pause when you change channels for no good reason. The kinect does work better, until it burns itself out at 5 weeks and then you have no media controls (since it functions as your remote to your TV and cable box!) The power button turns off on the slightest accidental brush (it should have been recessed). You can see you have voice messages from Xbox360 folks, but you cannot listen to them on your Xbox One... And, you will soon have to add an external USB hard drive to actually store games since Microsoft ate up most of the builtin drive to support tons of stuff you probably do not care one bit to have. I got this on day 2 and am a Microsoft certified person with over 30 years experience with these types of products, plus I have worked with Windows 8 since the Beta of that product AND this game system has Windows 8 baked in.
So, what are the problems that bother me??
After 6 weeks, my first Kinect died and it took a week to get a replacement.
While you can see you are getting messages from Xbox 360 users, you cannot listen to voice messages on the Xbox One as it doesn't support it.
As a media center, when running my cable TV through the box, the Xbox One has it's own DVR like functionality that often pauses the channel when you change channels, and it can take a minute or two to unpause even if you tell say "Xbox Play". And, you will LOSE that time of viewing.
It also does not play well with your exiting DVR, if you have one.
The game lineup is still way too sparse. And BF4 is a game that has serious issues playing multiplayer on the Xbox One.
While the Kinect is certainly more useful than the 360 version, it still hasn't quite learned how to listen or behave right yet for those of us in the house, though we have been able to use it for most of the functions for which it is intended.
The built-in hard drive has lost most of its space allocated to things for Microsoft, and not for your games, so I already have had to prepare to buy external USB drives to store future games... (Given the space usage, it appears that about 11-13 games can be stored with the default drive.)
The power button is way too easy to touch accidentally, it should have been recessed.
I've now spent over 12 hours dealing with Microsoft Tech Support resolving issues and while they are willing, just be sure you get used to pulling the power cords, and rebooting not only the Xbox One but everything that is touching it. | video-games_xbox |
NOT a "fully functional" game "if" you buy it. Heres the thing. Somewhere out there developers have begun lowering the bar on "standards" either out of lack of respect for the gaming community, OR they really don't care about their product in general. Either way, the main reason I bought this game was for the "theatre mode" which re-plays your saved matches. In other words, you duke it out in the game, and say you pull off a move that takes some serious skills or finess. So, the game offers for you to actually "SAVE" THE "REPLAY". Great. This way I can go back and see the awesome move I pulled, or even better I can go back and see the moves I missed and learn from where I made my mistakes.
Uh uh. Nope. The "Replay Theatre" that plays back your matches doesnt play back the matches you play, nor does it play back anything "YOU" did. All it does is place the same characters you fight with in the same arena you pick, and it has them auto-fight. It doesn't even record the wins/losses in the match. It re-plays absolutely NOTHING. You can save your combat matches that you play with your friends all you want, when you go to watch your perfectly timed tag-team moves in the replay you save... you are watching a bunch of crap that never ever happened. Whats even funnier is this game offers a computer vs. computer match where you can have people fight just for the heck of watching it, and it does the SAME THING as the "re-play" of the saved matches function.
In other words the "SAVE YOUR REPLAY" and "WATCH YOUR REPLAY" is a completely failed function of this game. I capture video game footage with Roxio. So I played a match, captured the footage, saved the re-play in the game. And as I played the ACTUAL CAPTURED FOOTAGE on my laptop while playing the re-play I saved in the game they were completely different in every way. On my laptop footage I won all the fights with one character in a tag team match. In the saved file of the re-play in the game i lost 2 out of three matches and both my tag team characters were fighting when i never used my partner AT ALL.
So the bottom line is this.
The Re-play function is NOT a working function of this video game.
Yet its advertised by definition of doing something it does not.
So they are selling you something that doesnt do what you are supposed to be paying for.
Thats poor standards in game development.
It doesnt work, and they are selling it anyway.
If I knew it didn't work before I purchased it, i wouldnt have bought it.
So again, false advertising takes my money. | video-games_xbox |
Builds slowly to something great. There have already been some excellent reviews of both the good and bad parts of this game, so rather than repeat what everyone else is saying, I wanted to point out a few aspects of the game that haven't received as much attention.
Pros:
- Much better storytelling. I know that some people are disappointed by the lack of an overarching quest, or a main antagonist, but I love the fact that Bioware is trying something new here. This time around, the story is told in bits and pieces, with apparently minor sidequests actually laying the foundation for the bigger conflicts to come. At first it's confusing, but in the end you really get a sense of the scope of the story. Bonus points for the story-within-a-story framework, which is rarely intrusive but does create a couple of genuinely funny moments.
- A darker plot. In Origins (which I loved), the plot could basically be summed up as "Wow, that's an evil demon, we'd better kill it." This time around, the goals aren't so simple. Trying to be a nice guy sometimes has unexpected consequences, and the bad guys frequently have good points to make. Your companions, too, are much more morally ambiguous - good people do terrible things, and most of the time you're powerless to stop them.
- There are now cooldown times for potions. I know some people hate the new, faster combat (I did at first, but eventually came to enjoy it), but the potion cooldowns help to keep the battles more strategic. You can't just send your tank in to kill a dragon and have her chug potion after potion; she can drink a potion, and a mage can heal her, and then you'd better find something else to distract that dragon for a while. Generally speaking, I found the combat to be easier in this game, but when the enemies really start swarming, there's something incredibly satisfying about making your party work together to take everyone out.
- Tactics are much improved this time around. Not only do you have more tactic slots, but you have more options. For example, you can set up your tank to activate a defensive sustained skill when there are a lot of enemies nearby, and then deactivate that and change to a more aggressive skill when the number of enemies decreases. Party members can also change tactics based on how many in your party are unconscious (dead), which is a huge help.
- The dog is now a summon rather than a party member. Consequently, I now use the dog, which I never did in Origins.
Cons:
- The game starts very slowly. All of your companions are initially kind of grumpy, and while that makes your developing relationships more rewarding, it also means that you spend the first few hours of the game with snippy people who don't seem to like you much. Plus, combat is pretty dull until you learn a few spells/talents.
- Bioware annoyingly removed two sections of the journal: the transcripts of recent conversations, and the statistics page. Boo! The transcripts were pretty handy if you missed a bit of dialogue, and the stats were just plain fun.
- The romances feel a bit rushed at the end, which is a shame because they start out very well. At the end I could "complete" my romance by promising to stay with my love interest, or I could dump him. Suffice it to say that by the end, I really needed an option like, "Um, we need to have a serious talk about a few things."
- Reusing maps. Yeah, everyone mentions this but it needs to be noted. That said, it's not nearly as heinous as it was in Mass Effect, where the most sophisticated people in the galaxy somehow only managed to design two buildings.
- No title cards at the end to tell you what happened to people. It made the end of the game seem very abrupt. Then again, I suspect that Bioware has learned to be wary of the end-game wrap up, because Awakenings and now DA2 contradict that information with some frequency. Yes, I am slightly miffed about the "crazy templar" from Origins who seemed entirely normal in DA2.
- I got "The Exiled Prince" as part of my free upgrade, but trust me: you do not want to pay extra for this DLC. Yes, you get a new party member (Sebastian), but he's annoying, judgmental, and does nothing in a fight that Varric can't do better. I've heard that Sebastian can actually be a love interest, but who in their right mind would want him?
It's hard for me to score this game, because I agree with a lot of the criticism being leveled against it. On the other hand, a friend called me as I nearing the end of the game and I told him that I couldn't talk because a character just tried to give away his pillow and you KNOW that is bad news. (On a side note, my friend now thinks I'm crazy.) I don't give five-star reviews because a game/movie/book is perfect, because it never is; I give it a five-star review if it manages to temporarily transport me to another world where I care about the people and their problems. So for all its issues, this is a five-star game for me.
Update:
First I must apologize, because I wrote this review after one playthrough, during which I apparently managed to dodge a number of major bugs. If I had known about them (most notably the friendship bugs for two of your companions), I would have dropped my score. As much as I love this game - and I do, to a ridiculous degree - there's just no excuse for that lack of QA. Still, if you haven't picked up the game yet and you're worried about the bugs, you should know that Bioware has released a patch for each platform that fixes the worst of the issues (and you can now be friends with everyone), and a second patch for smaller bugs is also in the works.
Also, because I received the free upgrade, I didn't realize that the dog is actually part of the Black Emporium DLC. It's kind of lame that you don't automatically get him. I don't know what they're charging for that DLC, but if it's cheap then it might actually be worth getting. The dog is handy, especially in a few locations where you can find yourself with less than a full party. The Emporium itself is just a shop - they can stick it in your quest log all they want, it's not actually a quest - but it does offer a few interesting items. More importantly, it allows you to change your character's appearance whenever you want. This was a huge plus for me, because in the past I've re-started games (and wasted a lot of time) just because my character looked different in-game than it did on the creation screen. This is a great feature and I really hope that other games start using it...but again, I don't really agree with charging extra for it. | video-games_xbox |
Good game for non-baseball fans. I'm not really a big sports fan, but interestingly enough, I do like to play sports video games; go figure. My latest entry into the virtual sports world is MLB 2K8. ( I got it for free as a promotion and finally dusted it off to try it out.) When I first started playing this game, I was frustrated and mad because the user interface (Total Control) for pitching, throwing, and batting were difficult to understand and use.
But having ADHD tendencies meant my hyper-focusing traits kicked in and I wouldn't give up on how to operate and play this game. After spending a great deal of time in practicing pitching, I finally nailed down the "Total Control" aspects of using the joystick on my game controller. Surprisingly, this system gives you a real feeling of actually pitching the ball. There is skill involved and if you make a mental mistake of serving up a "meatball" pitch or a big juicy floater for the batter to hit, chances are that it will be slammed out of the park.
This game could have been a lot better if there was a real practice mode where you could pitch, bat, and field to figure out how the game works. The instructions in the game and manual could use some major improvement too.
You can adjust many aspects of this game by tuning it to your skill level, etc. They've got all sorts of game modes, ways to get new players, franchise mode, and lots of minutia that some baseball fans will enjoy. But because I'm just a regular Joe who likes sports games, the basic play was good enough for me. I can always dig deeper into the game if I want to later.
But the game has a few bugs in it that bring the game down a bit. The AI defense sometimes has the players standing around after a line drive to third base because the coding, evidently, can't figure out how to move the defense. It's kind of comical as I round the bases with the third baseman and shortstop just standing there.
The total control fielding isn't something that I've figured out yet. It doesn't make much sense to me and there are no instructions or details about what the power meter does or how you are supposed to work this setting.
I like the commentators and there's a good deal of variety in their remarks to make the game interesting. The sound engineers did a fantastic job of capturing the feel of a baseball park and the crowd groans, cheers, and boos when the team is doing well, bad or otherwise.
Overall, because I'm not a real baseball fan and don't understand all the intricacies of play, I can probably enjoy this game more than a real fan who can point out all the errors. But for me, it's a nice game that is fun. | video-games_xbox |
So-So. The delivery of the product was faster then what was estimated and what was estimated was satisfactory. Everything that was supposed to be in the package was there. Although some people complained about the online directions, they worked for me. When it comes to the "Drill-Free" part, it didn't measure up. The holes in the case that the screws for the Uniclamp had to go through were smaller then the screws that were supplied. The only way to make it work would be to use a drill to make it larger. When I opened the case I found a fair amount of dust especially on the side of the heat sink for the processor. The symptoms for our XBOX were that it would run for awhile and then Red-Ring after it had warmed up. Once it had cooled down, you could play it again. You would only get about 15 minutes of play time before it would Red-Ring. I felt that the dust blocking the air-flow for the heat sink was the main culprit, so I cleaned out all of the dust. Carefully cleaned the fan. Used an old toothbrush to loosen the dust and used a compressor to thoroughly blow everything clean. I did use the compressor to clean the fan after using the toothbrush to loosen the dirt, but I held my thumb against the fan blade to keep it from spinning. It's my understanding that you can damage the bearing in them because the air pressure will rev the fan faster then the bearing is rated for. I also applied the foam pads to the inside of the DVD drive to help prevent scratching a disk. I would have added the ram pads but there were already some in place and they seemed identical to the ones supplied in the kit. I did add the Southbridge cooling plate since it was included. Not sure how much effect that might have. I figured I would try this and see if the cleaning was enough to do it and if not, I would simply disassemble it again and grab my drill to drill out the case holes to fit. The cleaning worked. Extended play sessions now do not produce a Red-Ring. My son said that it was now quieter as well because of the cleaning. If the problem comes back, I will try cleaning first, but if necessary, I will use the Uniclamp. I also saw some complaints about the quality of the special case opening tool as being flimsy and the Torx screwdrivers not being very good quality. I don't know if they had a different case opening tool before but the one that I got was fine for the job that it needed to do. You don't have to use that much force when using the tool. I found it sturdy enough for the job. The screw drivers are rather small size, but then so are the screws that you will be using them on. If they made them with larger handles, then it would be easier for the user to over-torque the screws. You need to be careful when working with screws this small so that you don't strip thing out. I found the screwdrivers to be fine for the job that they were intended to do. A bit of a mixed review, but I just described what my experience was, both good and bad. End result, XBOX is back working. | video-games_xbox |
Nice demos and features for a great price. Need help deciding if that new game is worth buying or just interested in seeing how the latest offerings for the XBOX are? You may want to pick up the XBOX EXHIBITION disc then. What's cool is that this demo disc comes packaged in the standard green DVD case complete with insert and holographic sealing strip that you'll find all XBOX games packaged in...a plus because you'll be able to display it with the rest of your XBOX game collection and also because some demo discs are often packaged in unsightly cardboard sleeves!
Some may be quick to point out that the vast majority of these demos have already been avaialable in the various Official XBOX Magazine monthly demo discs, but some (like Quantum Redshift and Whacked!) have not. There's a very good selection of game demos here...9 total (Splinter Cell, Panzer ORTA, NFL Fever 2003, Toejam & Earl III, Timesplitters2, Whacked!, Quantum Redshift, Halo, and Madden NFL 2003). I found Splinter Cell, Panzer ORTA and Quantum Redshift to be among the best.
What else is included? Some dowloadable content and saves for DOA3, Project Gotham Racing and Rallisport Challenge. THe Rallisport Challenge download is cool because it finally allowed me to bypass the course set that has frustrated me for quite some time. Also are some music videos/songs which you can watch and rip to your hard drive to use in your custom soundtracks for the games that support them. The bands featured here are largely obscure labels and there are only a few, so whether or not this can be considered a good inclusion depends on just how big a music fan you are.
Finally, some decent trailers for newer XBOX games are also included (even one for Shenmue II!!) as well as various other DVD footage ranging from previews, programming from the G4 gaming channel, commercials, and even the HALO2 trailer which many of us can finally watch in full screen mode (instead of running it through WMP9).
Another bonus is the fact that there's a coupon included in the box for a FREE copy of AMPED (you pay shipping) when you buy NFL FEVER 2003! Not bad at all!
Overall, this is a worthwhile purchase, even if you do subscribe to the Official XBOX Magazine. The price is VERY reasonable (less than ten dollars!) and the whole thing is well packaged with enough new material here to justify a purchase. | video-games_xbox |
This game made a gamer out of me again. For the past 10 years or so, I was not much of a gamer. There was no game out there that really brought me in and made me want to play it for longer than 1 hour at a a time. My boyfriend has an XBox 360 and tried to get me interested into a variety of different games, but none of them held my interest. We came to the conclusion that I was simply not into gaming.
However, one game finally did grab my attention. That was this game, "Assassin's Creed 2." At first I simply watched, but later I found myself asking "Hey, can I take the controller for a bit?"
The story is downright amazing. You play as Ezio Auditore da Firenze, an assassin who witnessed the hanging of his father and brothers. He then seeks vengeance against the Templar Order, and their Grand Master, Rodrigo Borgia, who had ordered the execution. Ezio is a highly likable, strong character. When you see his family being executed, you feel anger rise within you. You are rooting for him to take revenge. You want him to succeed and you can't wait for him to complete his quest! If a video game can make you feel the same emotions as your character, then it's definitely a great story. The characters are so deep. It really brings you in. You feel like you are Ezio.
Throughout the game you are given various missions to complete. My favorite mission types involved the ones where you had to quietly follow a particular individual and attempt to kill them. It's one of those missions where you have to be careful and know where your boundaries are if you wish to be successful. There are a lot of missions throughout this game, most of which involve killing, but you are an assassin after all so this makes sense. The killings can be interesting. As the game goes on you will learn how to kill two opponents at one time, how to disarm an opponent, how to kill with a single stab, etc.
As for the controls, they take getting used to in the beginning, but you will quickly learn how everything works. Pretty soon you will find yourself climbing buildings, jumping, and leaping from great heights into a haystack without a problem (aka leap of faith).
Overall, this game is the reason I purchased an XBox 360 for myself. I went from someone who plays practically no video games to someone who plays 5-6 hours per day. I'm not sure if I should be proud of that, but at least we know this is a fun game! If you are a fan of adventure games, then purchase this one! You will not be disappointed. | video-games_xbox |
Silicone Skins: Black, green camouflage and sky-blue, cloud white marbled. I was skeptical about ordering this product due to no reviews. I was not sure it would be a cheap knock off of some sort with fake, thin plastic that I would probably end cutting it to size for the controller(s).
But I was wrong.
These silicone protectors fit the controller perfectly! No cutting to size around anything. Either the joysticks, D-pad, buttons, or triggers. I have the black and green one on a silver Microsoft wireless controller with the rechargeable battery pack. The opening for the charging port is outlined wonderfully so as not to interfere with the connection at all. Plus there is a slit for your headphones that is the same way. No hassle connecting anything. I also have the blue, white marbled one on a wired Microsoft controller. It fits the same way, perfectly with no slippage on the controller nor covering anything that it is not suppose to or getting in the way of the wire. I did notice one small tear between the start button and colored (action) buttons, but that might be from the way I put the protector on. I figured a little super glue or something will take care of that. Just watch that spot when you put them on for the silicone is thin there. It only happened on the blue, white marbled one.
The colors are vibrant, but a little darker in real life than the pictures. Which doesn't bother me. They are not faded or badly colored due to plastic issues not accepting color or just poor product in general. They simply came in a white zip-locked bag waiting patiently to be put on. I didn't notice any funny smells when opening the package either, but my nose is not the best smeller either.
Note: I do want to add the reason for me putting 'Microsoft' controllers is because I used these on actual Microsoft products, not the third party knock offs, for fitting purposely. Thank you. | video-games_xbox |
Great product - minor quality issues. I'm very familiar with the RRoD problem...we use almost 40 Xboxes on our team at work for a variety of features. Despite the number of boxes that we use, we have to send our units in for repair in Texas just like anybody else. We had several boxes on our team go belly up recently, and they were all out of warranty. I convinced my boss to let me try this kit before we had to pay to ship off our boxes and pay for the repair.
The kit comes with everything promised, and the web-based instructions are pretty well put together. It took me about 45 minutes to going through the repair process on the first box, and it worked like a charm. The second time went much faster, and that repair worked well also.
The shipping was lightning fast...arriving three days prior to the shipping estimate date provided by Amazon. Everything that was advertised was in the package.
I only have a couple of minor complaints. First, the smaller of the two Torx "wrenches" is so small it's nearly useless. I would much rather have paid a couple of dollars more for a kit that contained a higher-quality torx wrench. My knuckles would have been thankful.
Secondly, the tool used for opening the case was a little flimsy. The tool actually got pretty bent in opening the case. Fortunately, I had a few other opening tools from the additional kits, and I was able to finish my work. The instruction indicate that the opening tool can be used for a couple of tasks that it really isn't strong enough to do.
Other than those minor complaints, this kit's great, and it saved me a few trips around the place finding all the pieces I needed to make this repair. And the resulting repair is much more professional (and less risky) than some of the other instructional videos you'll find on the internet involving wrapping the console in towels or utilizing pennies and electrical tape.
One other quick note: doing this repair WILL void the warranty on your console if it is still in warranty. Microsoft has extended the warranty on consoles to three years, so if you are able to wait for the few weeks necessary, you're probably better off sending it in. If your console is still in warranty, and this fix doesn't work, you WILL have to pay to get it repaired even if the console is still within the warranty window. If your console's out of warranty, it can't really hurt to try this first. | video-games_xbox |
Dragonborn. For those who haven't played elder scrolls games, or fallout 3, games made by bethesda are the best western rpg games out there, and the worlds are hand crafted, beautiful, and HUGE. Skyrim is the next in the series after Oblivion, and after all of the hype, it delivered. This game refined oblivion's combat, whether using destruction spells, or duel weilding swords, or archery... everything is more realistic, easier to use, and so much more fun. The game is the same exact formula, but upgraded and refined in every way. They somehow managed to make the world even more beautiful and real looking. The voice acting and sounds in the game are WAY better than oblivion, and you truly feel like you're immersed in another world. To keep it simple, Skyrim is, in my opinion, the best rpg game out there, and it has so much gameplay put into it you can't even put a manageable number on how long you'll be playing, but it's a long time lol. Years. And apparently with bethesda's new engine, quest system, and depending on your actions and choices, your game will never be the same as another person, or a replay through. It'l always be at least somewhat of a new experience. This is truly the ultimate fantasy epic! It deserves a 10/10... 5 stars, hands down.
As for the Dragon and Art book, they're amazing for fans of the series. Is the bundle worth 150$? Well, I can completely understand anyone thinking that's too steep for any game package, but I personally had no problem paying that much for this game. I don't buy collectors editions anymore because, yeah, I don't think they're worth it honestly. This was one of the only games I was willing to, considering how much work Bethesda puts into their games, and how much I love the series. The Dragon has a good level of detail, but the wall it can be perched on is fairly cheap. It doesn't easily fit onto it either. The dragon language is on the stone wall beneath the dragon, thought that was cool. Now the art book, what impressed me the most is simply the cover and binding. It's leather and it looks exactly like the book of Dragonborn, which is in the game, and the cover of the game of course, and has some slight (intentional) scuffed up art on it. It looks and feels like a real ancient book. Alright I won't exaggerate on that, but it's really cool. The art is a lot of the concept art on environments, and enemies, and weapons, and armor. Very cool.
With that being said, I will admit some slight flaws, or at least what I kind of didn't like, but nothing serious at all. First is that, for how much the game focuses on the new addition of dragons, being the pinnacle of fun combat, they don't feel that challenging, or at least, you can work around their strengths. They also become a bit repetative in the way they fight. I mean, it's epic, but one dragon fight will be extremely similar to the next or last. Don't get me wrong though, they're awesome.
I guess the only other flaw worth mentioning that I can think of, is the map. The map looks incredible, it really does! You're basically looking at an overview of the world in real time. You see the moutains and clouds and rivers from above as they would look from a hot air balloone. Very cool. The problem is, the map doesn't do a good job at showing you the road you're on or routes through the towns and mountains. It's only good use for me is fast travelling. Being a map, I figured it should help you find your way somewhere with the quickest or easiest possible route. After all, that's what a map is for isn't it?
Other than that, Skyrim is one incredible game and I haven't even done the game justice on what I've said that's great about it. If you love rpgs, there's no debating it, just buy it. It's worth every penny and you'll be living in skyrim for years! Literally lol. And as for this collector's edition, I love it of course and I don't regret buying it one bit. If you're a fan of the series, well you shouldn't even be reading this, go buy the collectors edition now! If you're a casual gamer that likes rpgs, then the price is probably too steep and the 'goodies' are not as important to you. Either way, play Skyrim! | video-games_xbox |
not the best TMNT game, but i moderately enjoy it for what it is. while i can't say this is the worst TMNT game i've ever played i definitely cannot say it's the best either, and i've played a LOT of them.
having endured both good and bad with past TMNT games, from the frustratingly hard ending of the 8bit Nintendo TMNT to the frantic quarter eating of the Arcade Original.
and honestly i actually enjoy this game MUCH more than i did the TMNT games based off the 2K3 TMNT series.
this new game (while is some fun) presents quite a lot of flaws!
from very unpolished graphics, bad scripting, and some very noticeable audio issues this game screams low budget cash grab of a popular license!
the intro was taken right from the cartoon itself. cut scenes have a close up of each character as they read out dialog to poorly lip-synched audio.
sometime the voice recordings of the actors get badly distorted.
most of the TV show cast reprise their rolls of the Turtle's but noticeably absent is Jason Biggs/Leonardo.
while it's nice to hear Sean Astin, Greg Cipes and Rob Paulson do their voice acting the dialog just isn't very exciting and feels very sterile.
one of the nice things about the game is (though not very deep) it does play reminiscent of the classic arcade games to some extent.
it plays like a 3D side scroller for the most part.
a grab feature included allows you to throw enemies.
you can throw them into dumpsters and other on screen objects (and if aimed properly) allows you to throw enemies into the screen like they did in 'Turtles in Time' and see them slide down your TV screen as if it were a window (complete with a VERY comical window smear sound!)
the basic button controls aren't the most exciting, and do stick and are non-responsive at times.
but upgrades can be purchased with points earned that lend to some moderate replay.
also thankfully you can replay completed levels via the map to stock up on points to purchase upgrades.
unlocking new moves does improve the gameplay making it more playable.
when playing single player you can switch in-between turtles on the fly, though there does seem to be issues switching between characters if they happen to walk off screen.
this brings me to my next point, your A.I. co-player's are beyond dumb!
there are times they just stand there getting hit by enemies, and the foes you face are sometimes not much better.
hardcore Turtle fans may appreciate this game just for a TMNT fix but it honestly doesn't really even feel worth the $40 price-tag.
being a hardcore Turtle fanatic that i am i HAD to try it but immediately i can tell that it's definitely geared toward very very young children.
as much as i love the new Nickelodeon cartoon series, i thought the game would at least capture the experience of watching one of the episodes but it doesn't.
this game was touted that it'd bridge the story gap between season's 1 and 2. but the cut scenes are pretty lifeless and add nothing to the story.
reading the IDW Comics <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtles-New-Animated-Adventures-1-Regular-Cover-Chosen-Randomly/dp/B00DROYY58/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles New Animated Adventures #1 (Regular Cover, Chosen Randomly)</a> <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtles-New-Animated-Adventures-Volume-1/dp/1613778562/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: New Animated Adventures Volume 1</a> captures the heart of the new TV series and does a much better job of expanding the world of the Nickelodeon Turtles series.
though i really wish this game had a bit more involved gameplay as TMNT 'Out of the Shadows' did, this still is mildly entertaining, colorful and does capture some of the Turtle's fun moments.
this game for me is at least a 3.5 and as i said before i'll just enjoy it for what it is.
i'll play it, i'll beat it, and unlock a bunch of easy Xbox 360 achievements
...maybe play it again if i feel like it?
who am i kidding? i'm a hopeless Turtle fanatic! of corse i play it again! :P
******** ADDITIONAL NOTES ********
having beaten the game, unlocked all the upgrades for each character, cleared all the time attack levels, found every secret, and unlocked 100% achievements
i even found a mini-game you can unlock when all the secrets in each level are found. you get to play the arcade machine the Turtles keep in their lair.
(it's pretty much a knock-off of 'Defender' by Midway, but much more simplified)
i'm really glad i bought this game and still play it every now and again. | video-games_xbox |
Short and sweet. I was really excited to learn that Katamari was coming to the 360. I thought we would be able to roll the biggest Katamari ever at lightning fast speeds, have 3 times as many areas to explore, a killer new soundtrack and tons of online playability. Unfortunately, Katamari fails to deliver on several of these expectations.
First, this game, like the other Katamari games: <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Katamari-Damacy/dp/B0002Y2XXQ/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Katamari Damacy</a>,<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/We-Love-Katamari/dp/B000A5K5MI/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">We Love Katamari</a> and <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Me-and-My-Katamari/dp/B000BLFE9K/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Me and My Katamari</a>, is a BLAST to play. For those who don't know, you play as the Prince of the Cosmos who has been sent by the King of the Cosmos to use a sticky ball known as a Katamari, to roll up items in the world to create stars, satellites and planets to re-populate the solar system after the King has done something to mess up the galaxy (always something funny). The Katamari starts out small and at first you can only roll up small objects, but as the game progress you'll be able to roll up people, cars, buildings and even landmasses (and much later... entire planets!). This kind of unique gameplay is addictive and fun to say the least. Here's where the game falls short...
I defeated the game in a day and a half (that includes obtaining the online achievements). The game is very short compared to other Katamari releases. Also, you end up re-visiting several maps that are being passed off as new levels simply because they have a few different items in them. With the 360's power, I really expected there to be tons of levels and none that repeated themselves, which isn't the case here.
The sound was a let down also. Most of the sounds are recycled from old Katamari games and the soundtrack is the weakest in the series. The Katamari games are none for their killer soundtracks: <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Minna-Daisuki-Katamari-Damacy/dp/B0009OLPG0/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Minna Daisuki Katamari Damacy</a>, but there are only 2 or 3 good songs that stand out. They even seemed to run out of new songs worthy of the game, because you'll also hear cuts from "We Love Katamari".
The online portion of the game is the biggest letdown. You can play thru all 5 levels in under 20 minutes and the object of each stage is to collect as many of a specific item as possible before the game ends. Online opponents can run into each other, knocking their foes items off their Katamari, but all this gets boring and repetative... after you play all the stages. I was really hoping for an online competition, where cousins could compete to roll the biggest Katamari for the King in either an online version of the one player game, or a specific game for xbox live, but it didn't happen.
With that said, there is a lot to praise. The game looks amazing in HD. I disagree with some gaming critics who think the graphics should have been redone to take advantage of the 360's power, but to me, if you change the look...it's not Katamari. In this version, the items and characters pop with a vibrant colorfully clarity you don't get in previous games. I also got one of my wishes for the game, you will be able to roll the biggest Katamaris ever! I won't give anything away, but the last stage is absolutely amazing. The replay value is very high with the game too. To trully beat a stage, you need to find all the cousins and presents and be awarded 100 points by the King. Obtaining 100 points on a stage, will unlock an infinite mode, that lets you play that stage without being timed! Just press "X" to quit. This is a great way to locate presents and cousins you may have missed, as well as plot a strategy to grow your Katamari at a faster rate, when it does matter.
Overall, I'm pleased with the purchase. Die-hard fans of the series will love this version of Katamari, but I think you'll feel like the game could've been so much more. | video-games_xbox |
Awesome Characters Make Up for Weak Plot. This is one of the best Tales games out there. I fell in love with <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Symphonia/dp/B00D87TCN8/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Symphonia</a> and <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Abyss/dp/B002I08WVY/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Abyss</a> returned my affections, but some of the recent games in the series have left me feeling cold (*cough* <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Xillia/dp/B00B67ZTUW/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Xillia</a>). Vesperia has taken almost everything I loved about Symphonia and improved on it.
Let me just get this out of the way now. The biggest flaw with Vesperia is its story. A lot of Tales games have confusing stories but Vesperia takes the cake for being the most confusing on an hourly basis. In other Tales games you know what you're trying to achieve more or less from the beginning. In Symphonia you're trying to save the world from decay. In Abyss you're trying to stop the miasma. In both games the situation takes numerous complicated plot turns that completely alter the manner in which you're expected to succeed in your task or even what that task means, but on the whole the initial quest leads directly to the end quest. In Vesperia you have no idea what's going on until you near the end. At 30 hours in I still didn't know what was happening and I had no indication that the world was in danger at all. After every major event Yuri asks Estelle whether she wants to continue on her current quest (which changes repeatedly) or investigate some new incident. The party is constantly struggling to find a reason to stay together. There's not really the sense of unity that the other games had. This is all tied into the game's theme of growing up and deciding your own path, but it's a really bad idea from a storytelling standpoint.
Now if that sounds bad, well, it kinda is. But it's not as frustrating as it might seem. This is largely because of the characters. Vesperia has assembled one of the best cast of characters I've seen in a video game. Yuri Lowell is the lead and he's a ball of laughs. Unlike other Tales protagonists he's not quite as kiddish (he's 21, an old man by Anime standards). I was very impressed with what they can do when they have a more mature character like this. When the game goes for the stereotypical Tales character reveals (gosh, is that obvious princess really a princess? No...) Yuri reveals he's known the entire time and just hasn't bothered to tell anyone. You can feel his self-satisfied smirk at watching the others in shock. His friend and foil is Flynn (an NPC unfortunately). He's the second part of the duo and is essential to the question that drives the game: is it better to work from within a crooked system to try and change it from the inside, or to oppose it directly knowing that it means not much will get done. Yuri takes the latter approach, Flynn the former. As you might imagine this leads to some conflict but also some really interesting exploration of the issue.
The other characters are good too. Estelle is totally not a princess. Honest. Raven's the untrustworthy scoundrel type who's always whining about his old age (he's somewhere in his 30s the poor man). Karol is a kid who wants to overcome his fear of, well, everything, in order to become a guild leader and respected person. Rita's very angry and likes hitting people. Judith is... odd. Let's leave it at that. Repede is a dog. With a pipe. Yeah, I don't get it either. These characters are fun to watch and we still get the great Tales cutscenes that reveal background details and conversations to expand on the plot and characterization.
The mechanics of the game are basically the same as earlier ones. We still get an open world and enemies you can see approaching and sometimes avoid. Fighting is done in a fighter game format and real time. Your companions are computer controlled, although you can determine the tactics they should follow or override their commands. The graphics are much better than in Symphonia, while continuing the same cell shaded style. Instead of the big headed wide-eyed spheres of that game we get more realistic Anime figures.
I don't think this game quite beats Symphonia, although it definitely has areas where the improvement is massive. The plot is to blame for this defect, but it's never bad enough to make the game anything but fun. You want to find out what happens to these characters, even if you don't necessarily want to see it told in this way. The cities are charming, the gameplay first rate, and the plot (when it finally shows up) decent. | video-games_xbox |
Bravo, Visceral. When I first came across Dead Space, it was back when I got my PS3 back in 2010 and was looking for something inexpensive to play. I saw Dead Space was a greatest hits and at $19.99, why not?? I played the game at 1 a.m. and after 30 minutes, I stopped and walked around my house turning lights on everywhere. I was 37 years old and the game had actually scared me senseless. The sound design was superb and my Pioneer Elite receiver was more than eager to deliver the scares. Dead Space 2 was a superb follow-up which follows the unwitting Isaac battling Necromorphs again and a newly constructed Marker.
So Dead Space 3 was announced and I was initially hesitant. Dead Space 3 co-op? I groaned and thought about Resident Evil 5/6; having a "partner" in those games detracted from the sense of dread, knowing that someone had my "back." However, I started hearing more and gradually warmed up to the concept. Now that it's finally here, I have to say that I love the game overall.
First and foremost, know that Dead Space 3 can still be experienced as a single player. Secondly, Dead Space is to Alien as Dead Space 3 is to Aliens - I saw that another reviewer had echoed the same sentiment and I heartily agree. Dead Space 3 definitely moves a lot faster than its predecessors, but there are still moments of the original Dead Space such as Isaac's exploration of a 200-year old derelict spacecraft.
Gameplay has significantly changed compared to Dead Space and Dead Space 2. The most notable change has to be the replacement of stores/money with pure crafting. No more of this collecting money nonsense - now you actually have to scavenge for scrap parts, materials, and components to build weapons, improve weapons, improve your RIG, build ammo, and build med packs. It makes exploration/scavenging extremely important now and lends itself to the whole survival aspect that we all love about Dead Space. Also, don't like the weapon that you crafted? Need more materials to craft something else? Scrap your existing weapon, ammo, and/or health packs to make other things! The combinations are endless and although the learning curve is a little high at first, it's rewarding. Also, don't expect one weapon to do your job throughout; you'll come across several beasties where a different weapon (or weapons!) might work better whereas the other weapons that you crafted for smaller targets merely whittles down something larger. That's the other nice thing about crafting too is that you can actually have top/bottom components...so perhaps you have an assault rifle on top with an underslung flame thrower? Or something that delivers a kinetic blow to damage/knock back foes? It's very well-created and the replay value just based on crafting below is immense. True, ammo is universal, but given the numerous weapon combinations, it would have made level design considerably difficult tracking various ammo types as well...it's a minor "minus" for me. If you want to play it so that it's harder, start off on a harder difficulty from scratch; Visceral will reward you accordingly.
Graphically, Dead Space 3 is eye candy. When my TV blipped that it was still in 1080p mode, I held my breath. Dead Space 3 preferring 1080p mode? I was dreading framerate issues, tearing, texture pop-up, etc. I'm happy to say that NONE of that has happened. The surroundings look exquisite and there are subtle touches that lend itself quite nicely such as the light emitted from Isaac's helmet - it actually illuminates his surroundings in the slit-like shapes that it forms! It's a very subtle detail, but it really, REALLY helps to emphasize that Isaac is in a dark environment and helps to enhance the feeling that Isaac is exploring a derelict spacecraft.
As for co-op mode, having a buddy there working with you helps to ease the tension, but Visceral will throw more at you. What helps to make it more terrifying, however, is that Carver is not exactly as stable as you'd like him to be. He will suffer from Marker hallucinations that he will see but Isaac can't. Having an unstable partner at your side is a little unnerving as a result. That, and a 14-15 hour single player campaign turns into 4 hours of additional content and slightly different story elements with co-op enabled. The game experience is different as a result and it's refreshing to see it as a reward to experience it rather than a terror-detracting option. CAPCOM could have taken a page out of Visceral's book when they botched Resident Evil 5/6.
Even after having played Dead Space 1/2, there were still a few moments in Dead Space 3 even after all that I've experienced that managed to scare me pretty good. There are new Necromorph breeds and some Necromorphs that I've dismembered at the legs (USED to be my favorite tactic) will sprout additional tentacles to fire at me despite their lack of mobility. I'm also finding Lurkers a little harder to take down before...and some of the standard Necromorphs move a LOT faster. Some of the newer breeds are terrifying as well, but I'll leave those surprises to you.
As for story, I won't spoil that much either except to tell you that the action picks up very quickly as EarthGov soldiers Norton and Carver find Isaac and inform him that Ellie has gone missing in her quest to find a means of ending Markers once and for all. Isaac's relationship with Ellie has failed because he's a man broken psychologically by his ordeals. However, knowing Isaac, you can sense that he doesn't want to have Ellie suffer the same fate as his previous girlfriend, Nicole and so the action starts amidst the chaos of a Unitologist uprising on a lunar colony. Isaac faces human as well as Necromorph foes which makes gameplay interesting to say the least as you alternate between ducking for cover and returning fire, rolling (yes, rolling!) out of the way as a huge lumbering Necromoph tries to pulverize you, and backing away as quickly as you can as a Necromorph horde threatens to overwhelm you.
Sure, it's action-packed, but there are still original Dead Space elements interspersed throughout. Let me put it this way. If you loved the movies Alien and Aliens, then you will welcome what Dead Space 3 has to offer vis a vis Dead Space. I personally love the changes immensely and look forward to replaying it several times. Well done! | video-games_xbox |
Better than GTA4. Months ago when The Lost and Damned was made available for download, I purposely waited for the disc package to be made available. I'm glad I did. These two games really don't feel like expansions on the original at all, but more like their own separate experiences. The disc reiterates that by taking out some of the original material, For example, you can't play as Niko at all, Ricky Gervais and Katt Williams are gone, and none of the songs from the first game are included here. Instead there are completely new playlists and radio stations, new storylines, and a new comedian, the very off-color and hilarious Frankie Boyle. And the disc has it's own exclusive radio station, Vice City Radio. If you've seen the trailer with "She's Got The Look," know that that's only found on the disc package.
These two storylines couldn't be more different from each other. Lost and Damned is a serious and stern story of the inner drama of a motorcycle club. I got a little lost at times and the characters look a lot alike. It's still a good story that really makes you feel like you're part of a brotherhood. The best parts of the game are often the simple talking sections when you ride in formation with gang. The only problem is that the only radio stations that sound appropriate for these parts are Liberty Rock and LCHC, so you'll probably be hearing the same songs a lot. The missions themselves now include checkpoints to cut down on having to replay the commutes. You get new bikes and new weapons (my favorite being the automatic pistol), but the missions themselves are often fairly repetitive, even more than in GTA4. Almost all of them involve shootouts and getaways and there's very little variation from the formula. There are also gang wars and hitman jobs throughout, though their mostly the same, just without the cutscenes. Many reviewers have noted that the graphics are a lot different on this game, which I assume was intentional. There is a grain filter and the colors are very washed out. To me, it enhances the game in its own way, drawing you in while making this microcosm of the GTA universe feel more plausible.
The Ballad of Gay Tony flips all of that upside down. Here, the graphics are even more colorful and the draw distance is further (the framerate does take a minor hit at times). This story is about the oddball relationship between a former street thug and a nightclub owner with a drug problem. I found myself more involved with this one and the story made me laugh out loud at times. The game seemed shorter, but probably only because I played it more just to see what would happen next. The minigames are more fun in this game, too. Instead of arm wrestling and air hockey, there's cage fighting and club management. The missions are also much more varied with an emphasis on bombs, helicopters, and sky diving. The automatic shotgun with explosive shells is something to behold, which can take down helicopters and destroy cars even better than the rocket launcher. If you like to stick to the story or if you like to just mess around with the city, this episode easily trumps both the original Niko's Story and Lost and Damned. It's smart, funny, self referential, and the acting is top notch all around. This is exactly what made the GTA series great in the first place, and you barely have to go do errands with in-game friends if you don't feel like it. (Also, no girlfriends this time. In Lost and Damned, there are none at all from what I could see, and Ballad just has straight booty calls which skip dating altogether. So there's no trying to fruitlessly entertain women for hours on end.)
The neat thing about having these two games on one set and playing them back to back, you can see the clever ways the developers tried to integrate the two stories and how they overlap at points. There's just a ton of content to be had here, a lot of things to do, and a lot of ridiculous toys to play with (they give you a tank). At a certain point in GTA4, I got a little bored. The storyline was too big and Niko's revenge plot wore a little thin as the hours go by. By putting the game into a smaller package, the stories are a lot more engaging and condensed. I really think the game would have benefitted by going this direction from the beginning, since this offered so much more variety and made the city so much more interesting. | video-games_xbox |
MW2.2 with some polish. The title says it all and almost all of the reviews on here say the same thing. This game is just an add-on to MW2. It plays almost exactly the same and looks exactly the same. The campaign is again short (about 4-5 hours. Why worry? most people focus on the multi-player right?). The campaign often felt rush and I never really felt absorbed in the story as much as I did with MW2. They did really beef up the spec ops which is cool.
The online play. They brag that it comes with 16 maps. Cool, but a lot are rather tiny and some laid out very poorly to easily allow a team to immediately camp in their spawn and not be removed. A lot of the same grievances people had with the last game still exist. You can unload nearly an entire clip into a person and they can still run up to you and knife you. Seems obvious to me that a bullet will do A LOT more damage than a guy running by with a knife. However, I'm not a scientist or a doctor, so what do I know right? The spawns are still often terrible (ie. you can kill a guy and the game will spawn him almost right behind you). The sniping aiming is ATROCIOUS. Watch the kill cam when you get sniped. I guarantee that over 80% of the time the shot won't be anywhere close to hitting you. With that, quick scoping still exists and dorks still exploit it.
All of that said, I went into this expecting it to be a polished MW2 and nothing new and exciting like they tried to hype it up to be. I got a some polish, but I can't say I didn't expect at least a little more. Regardless, I'm still enjoying the game and having fun. I knew what to expect and in hindsight probably should have waited for it to drop in price a bit. I do hope the map packs will be a bit larger and worth their price. If you loved MW2 and just want to play that game in new areas with a few things touched up, then by all means, buy the game. If you're expecting something new from the series, rent it before buying it.
I do expect that this may be the beginning of COD's downfall in popularity. People are definitely starting to get tired of it. Most people I know that used to be huge fans of the series had lackluster responses and a bunch didn't even bother to buy it. These are people that pre-ordered ASAP and then waited in lines for hours on launch day. The first week of playing it all I heard while playing was people complaining about how awful the game was and how "it's the biggest piece of ______ ever." However, they still bought it and they weren't stopping their game play, so maybe I'm wrong and this isn't the beginning of the end for the series. We'll see what happens. I do hope that they can put together a game that truly is new and fresh. You know, like they promised with this game. Until then, they're only going to be treading water and that only keeps you afloat for so long (even with the extreme conditioning perk). I am more excited for Respawn's first game as I expect them to try their hardest to trump the series that fired them. I hope the COD series can take that as a challenge and try to outdo Respawn. If both succeed, we're all winners. | video-games_xbox |
Different but still a very entertaining splinter cell game. I recently completed the singleplayer campaign to Conviction.
This is the most unique splinter cell of them all. It's unique mainly in that this one takes all the protocol that restricted Fisher in past games and throws it out the window.
You see, after the death of his friend Lambert and his daughter he pretty much hits rock bottom. As the game starts out you find out that 3rd Echelon, the company that Fisher worked for in past games, is now hunting Fisher and trying to kill him.
Now that Fisher no longer plays by 3rd Echelon rules he can now use his abilities the way he(or you) wants to. That also means that he doesn't have the full inventory of past games, but you still get to use a handful that aid you throughout the game. This is what makes this splinter cell one of the most thrilling of them for me to play. Being able to sneak around the shadows and take down any enemy any way I want makes me feel more like a hunter than an agent. The gameplay mechanics work extremely well and very rarely had any problems with them. The game brings everything together and it is very fun to play.
The story is my favorite of the games as well. The story delves more into the deaths of both his friend Lambert and his daughter. Everything is tied up and it is satisfying.
The visuals are great as well. Im not going to say that this is the best looking game around but it definitely is the best looking splinter cell game. Nothing to complain bout there.
I guess the only complaints I have about the game will only depend on the player.
The game is pretty dang short. I completed the game in 2 days. I think my time was from 8 to 9 hours. It was entertaining throughout the game, but I wanted there to be more.
The other thing I didn't like was how often the f word was used throughout the game. It's not like i hear the f word and Im immediately offended, but when it's extremely overused in unnecessary situations it starts to get old really fast. Throughout the game the enemies would scream it what seemed like every other word. Again, these will just be viewed differently by different people.
I guess that's all I have for the game. I would recommend this game to stealth/action fans and fans of the splinter cell games. It might be different, but definitely worth playing. | video-games_xbox |
What's That? I Can't Hear You - Because I'm Never Taking These Off. I've been using Turtle Beach headsets for years now and these CoD: Ghosts Phantoms are replacing my comparable Ear Force Deltas that came out with MW3 a few years back. I really liked the Deltas for a number of reasons (primarily sound quality and durability/build quality), but they did suffer from random bouts of interference/dropouts. The Phantom maintains the same sound quality while completely erasing all dropout issues. They also added just a bit more comfort for wearing them long periods of time, which is good because a headset this great will be worn quite a bit.
Setup was simple, particularly since I was swapping out essentially an earlier version of the same transmitter/headset. I ran only two wires to the transmitter: power (via USB on the console) and the optical audio out of my Xbox 360. The hardest part of setting them up is deciphering the directions, which show you a million possible ways that you might have to connect your headset to your gaming setup, but in all likelihood won't - if you own a top-tier headset, you're probably not connecting your console directly to your TV via standard-def RCA cables, right? Keep it simple in your head and you'll have the Phantoms set up in no time. The package comes with all required cables.
Soundwise, the Phantoms deliver clear surround definition with deep bass and crisp treble. Music, sound effects, dialog - it all sounds great on this headset. The addition of dual-band WiFi seems to have made a world of improvement for me. The Phantoms have been performing flawlessly for over a month now, something no other wireless headset has ever been able to do in my house.
Battery life is as advertised - I get about 12 - 15 hours of uninterrupted use. The rechargeable batteries included in the Phantom take about six hours to fully recharge but the good news is that they continue to function during charging. This is good news because (as is the case with any rechargeable), there's very little warning between the "battery low" prompt in your ear and the headset completely shutting down. No more popping open the battery compartment and spinning the alkalines to get a few more minutes! The kit includes an extra long USB cable that should reach just about anyone's console. I've also charged it with the cable via a laptop as well. I'm concerned about the potential life of the battery - I can't find anything in the documentation or online about whether or not it's possible to replace it down the road. Hopefully this isn't a "planned obsolescence" move by Turtle Beach because I'd been doing fine with my own rechargeable Eneloops already.
Build quality feels solid just as my other Turtle Beaches have. Another nice upgrade for the Phantoms is that they headset is a little bit bigger than my Deltas which were always a little bit tight on my head even at full extension. The Phantoms take care of this issue and I feel like I could wear them for days. The CoD: Ghosts branding is apparent with the skull emblem on each earcap, "Call of Duty" embossed across the headband, and in the color scheme. I honestly don't like the color scheme as much as I did the black/graphite/green of the Deltas. The accent color is not a cool off-white as it appears in the product shot as much as it's a light grey. This really shows off the plastic of the components (which again, are truly solidly molded and built) which unfortunately gives off more of a "toy" appearance than a solid black headset would. Bear in mind that if you don't absolutely need the CoD branding, the Phantoms are basically comparable to the XP510, which look more muted and cost less than the Phantoms.
The package itself is just a big cardboard box with a molded plastic insert to hold the headset. This is a bit of a downer for anyone who's owned a premium Turtle Beach headset in the past. My Ear Force Deltas, for example, came in a hinged plastic tackle box with locks and a nicely-padded foam inset that held everything for transport/storage. I guess that this isn't unique in the march of progress - getting a little bit less for the same price - but it's kind of a shame to see any scrimping on such a high-end product.
As a number of reviews have noted, the Phantoms are compatible immediately with Xbox360, PS3 and the next-gen PS4. The Xbox One does not immediately support chat via this headset; however, Turtle Beach is offering a redemption program via their website where Phantom owners can send in the UPC code from their headset box to receive the necessary chat adapter in the mail when it becomes available in February.
All in all, the Phantom is a great headset and a gift sure to make any CoD fanatic ecstatic (even if it's a gift for you!). It sounds great, feels very comfortable to wear, and is made with Turtle Beach's typical fantastic quality. | video-games_xbox |
no fault of the sellers) and I didn't really enjoy it as much as anticipated. Before I begin, I want to clarify that nothing beats a genuine Microsoft shell, as most third party comparisons go for anything, of course. So my review will be in comparison to other third party mods.
I bought two mods, this exact one, and a blue HDE mod. The blue one shipped and arrived sooner (weather complications, no fault of the sellers) and I didn't really enjoy it as much as anticipated. The buttons it came with were of decent quality but they were more loose than the original ones, causing a plasticy rattle when the vibrations occurred. The trigger assembly was not awesome and felt brittle and overall made a good controller feel cheaper. Thankfully this was not the case with this pink one.
The plastic material feels much more solid and the texture overal feels much better. In fact, it's almost identical to the original brand new Microsoft shell. The buttons appear to be genuine (I should note that it only came with triggers and back/start buttons), and the trigger assembly was made to be easily installed with the frame already on board with some spares (nasty springs like to fly away). Since it was built to support the original buttons and shape, it all fits together very nicely save for a screw on the back but that may have been a tread I stripped by my own faults. I have no issues aside it not firing 100% flush, but then again, possibly due to the screw and personal error.
Some bonuses that this includes over HDE parts are having warning and legal stickers for the inside of battery pack and battery pack itself. It looks much more legitimate, especially without that unsightly logo on the back HDE loves to stamp on the battery pack. New sticks are also thrown in which are always welcome being the high quality they were. Almost like a new pad. I didn't use them as I order parts frequently for repairing pads and have a bunch of leftover new sticks.
Overall it's simple, made to use original internal components, and sits well in the hands. I also enjoy the light milky pink as opposed the blinding hot pink and magenta shades these usually come in. Would very much recommend this to anyone looking for a pink mod, and if any other colors exist by this brand, point them this way as well.
4/5 stars as I cannot give a proper full review due to errors on my part. | video-games_xbox |
Great Controller. While I remain a Playstation-loyal gamer, Microsoft certainly knows how to make really nice controllers. These controllers feel great and work great! One bummer (inescapable, I might add) is that these controllers auto-turn-off really REALLY fast. This isn't a problem if you're gaming, but when you stream netflix and want to pause it really fast is a major irritation. like I said though, this problem is not with the controller, but with the software and can't be avoided if you have an xbox 360.
This controller also works great for PC gaming, but unless you buy the PC-specific version, you will need to get an adapter/dongle for it (links for both included below). I already had two of these controllers, so it made sense for me to buy the dongle for my standard xbox 360 controllers (this one) and not PC-specific controllers. Also, this is a plus if you have friends come over to play a local game on your PC and they only have standard xbox controllers as well. I connected 4 standard xbox 360 controllers to the adapter and it worked perfectly.
If you get this, I would also buy the charge kit (link below) as you'll want a rechargeable battery (not included with this) and a cord to charge it with (you can play while its plugged in charging).
Overall, this controller feels great, performs great, and is durable. 5/5
Charge Kit:
http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Black-Play-Charge-Kit/dp/B000OYMYZQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418153338&sr=8-1&keywords=xbox+360+charge+kit
PC Adapter:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HZFCT2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Xbox 360 Wireless PC Controller:
http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Xbox-Wireless-Controller-Windows/dp/B004QRKWKQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1418153466&sr=1-1&keywords=xbox+360+wireless+controller+pc
Xbox 360 Wired PC Controller:
http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Xbox-360-Controller-Windows/dp/B004QRKWLA/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1418153527&sr=1-1&keywords=xbox+360+wired+controller+pc | video-games_xbox |
Not for serious racers. To be fair, I realize I have higher demands on a wheel than some. I've been playing racing sims since the first Gran Turismo (PS1), and I'm at the point where I need a real sim-capable wheel. Being on a budget, I thought I'd give the speed wheel a spin to see if it could tide me over until I could invest more. Given my impressions, I do not reccomend this wheel.
Pros:
-Cheap. You certainly won't find anything on the market at this price point, especially not something made to the same durability standards as the Xbox360 controllers as this is.
-Does work. There are some applications where I think this controller would work relatively well, which I'll list below.
Cons:
-Perceptible lag. Imagine if someone installed a system on your real-life car, where the car wouldn't actually turn until a fraction of a second *after* you turned your wheel. You'd demand it off immediately, as it could cause a serious accident. Same here.
-Missing shoulder buttons. Why? These are standard buttons, and this contoller is Microsoft official. They should be included.
-Not universal. Not only is the speed wheel not recognized by all games, but due to the missing shoulder buttons cannot function in some games even if manually configured. F1 2012, notably, requires the shoulder buttons to be able to advance through menus during a race. Should the developers have put in a workaround? Sure. But the developers had every reason to think Microsoft wouldn't start hacking buttons off its controllers for no reason.
Games this will work for:
-NASCAR, and other oval or even drag racers. The speed wheel will beat a controller any day for being able to hold a specific angle.
-Arcade games. Where control may be so floaty you wouldn't mind a lack of precision anyway, and fun factor is what matters.
-Beginning race sims. Kids and absolute newcomers to racing sims might not yet know car handling well enough to detect the wheel's faults.
Detail on the Real Big Cons:
-The lag in the controller is pretty bad, and frankly controller-less driving with Kinect is as good or better. The motion sensing is a real failure on this point.
-Missing buttons! Why? Especially in driving games, every single button on the controller may end up being used for something (from e-brakes to horn to lights to changing the view) so this is just not the place for this kind of decision.
-The point of getting a wheel is to immerse yourself in the game, and/or to accomplish feats of driving that are difficult on a controller. Immersion is ruined by the slow response and weird glowing circles, and for every area the controls excel in (holding a constant angle) it fails at another (slow left-right response) meaning the end result is really no better than the controller. | video-games_xbox |
2nd chapter in the series with minor flaws but great game. Ok this is the game we have all been waiting for and its finally here. First id like to say that the campaign was alittle... disappointing. The multiplayer is great of coarse with the exception of getting lost in some courses trying to find your opponent. The story leaves off from the first game and it focuses alittle more about the covanent with the prophets and brutes. It didn't really have the same feel as the first halo (story wise) and its level layouts are totally new. You can now carry two weapons at once with some guns. This is called dual wielding and i thought it was pretty cool. AI is a whole lot better. Enemies will hit you in the back if off gaurd, you can take marines guns without killing them, EVERYONE can pilot vehicles (yes even the flood), and the game is simply more difficult than the first. At some points i found the game increasingly difficult (even on the normal difficulty) but the again that is what halo is all about. Im not going to spoil it but the ending in this game just sucked hard crap. You think you are gonna play another level until... BANG here come the credits... and you didn't even get to blow something up this time... Well speaking of blowing up, the vehicles actually show damage and later explode if taken enough damage. any i repeat ANY vehicle can be destroyed by you in the game except scarabs and giant covenant and human ships. Going back to the campaign, this time around the master chief is not alone. Sometimes you take the role of the master chief while other times the elite covanent known as the Arbitor. I wish the game wouldve set up two different campaigns (1 for each character) besides switching back and forth just when you begin to like the character you are (arbitor or MC) Now its pretty cool being an elite except he looks different than a typical elite armor wise (it actually looks kinda stupid but whatever). Whats so f*cking bullsh*t is you can go camoflauge like the elites you fight as the masterchief but it says your armor can only be camo for a short time (refer this to 3 seconds) so i mean there really isn't a point in going camo. However, in the multiplayer, when you make your character profile its WAY more indepth than in the first halo. You can either choose to be a spartan or a normal elite (not the arbitor thank god) and you can change different parts of your armor a different color and have a symbol. The multiplayer levels are mostly giant and you can get lost like i mentioned at the beggining but its fun to cut people open with a beam sword heh heh. Well i cant wait to get my xbox live hooked up. In the meantime, get this game if you haven't already or play it if you do. Enjoy it until halo 3 comes out. Peace | video-games_xbox |
Amazing. This product is mind-blowing! The wife got it for me as a Christmas gift and I was totally shocked. I couldn't wait to put it through its paces. First off, the case is top notch and you can tell they put a good amount of focus on build construction. This is my first GAEMS product and I just stumbled on this looking for Halo themed gear. The sound is awesome! The two things that most impressed me in terms of tech was the clarity/sharpness of he screen and the quality of the sound. It's almost like having a portable home entertainment center! To date I have played hours of Gears of War 3, Halo 4, and other games and it looks and performs better than my 54" plasma. I then decided to try movies. Watched "The Dark Knight Rises" and was thoroughly impressed! So I then tried Netflix and Amazon instant video (using my Xbox 360)..same awesome results! My next test was using a gaming headset. I used the Tritton Trigger headset Halo edition. The headset plugs into the 360 but because of the HDMI the audio simultaneously outputs to the screen as well. No worries, using the convenient remote also a (big plus) I just muted the screen to go all headset. This is actually a bonus because in crowded settings or if a spontaneous LAN party breaks out you can use the headset to isolate your sound while still outputting to the throngs of spectators this PGE is sure to draw! I'm taking it to work tomorrow to incite envy and jealousy in my fellow tech-heads! The only concern I have is heat dissipation from a gaming console. For example, if I'm playing on the 360 and I suddenly have to pack up and get on the move the case may trap the heat from the 360 in the case. Shouldn't be a concern because the parts are rated at higher temps and as long as heat is still not being created it will cool thermally on its own, but maybe a manually operated baffle / vent may help to vent trapped heat...but otherwise a great product! Way to go GAEMS! | video-games_xbox |
While I enjoyed the quality and the headsets. Before buying this headset I owned a couple of Turtle Beach headsets before I purchased the Stealth 500X on 02/13/2014. While I enjoyed the quality and the headsets, I always hated that they were not wireless. Oh I know they were not wire to the Xbox but the fact that they were wired to the controller always bothered me. So I have been in the market for this headset for years. When I saw this headset I thought its about time. Then I read the reviews on Amazon. This headset got beat up pretty badly. So much so that I almost did not buy them. I mean $200 plus is a lot of money for a headset. In the end I chose to take a chance on these despite the many negative reviews on here. I just wanted to write this review as an average joe review of the Stealth 500X.
Pros-
Sound- Very good Turtle Beach quality sound. I noticed no drop in quality from previous headsets Ive owned.
Loudness- This was a big concern. A lot of reviews say this headset is not loud enough. I generally have this issue with a lot of headsets and speakers. So far I have found this headset to be plenty of loud enough. I don't have to turn the headset up to full volume and it is plenty loud enough so far.
Wireless- -Yes. Totally wireless. In my opinion the main selling point of this headset. Not to be tethered to the controller. AWESOME.
Set UP- Downloaded the software performed the update. All went smoothly. Hooked it up to my Xbox one and paired it with no issues.
Comfort- Again I find this headset to be of the same comfort level I have found in previous TB headsets.
Battery Life- Works well within the advertised range.
Cons-
Price- $200 and change is a lot of money. I would say this, if you don't mind having your melon shackled to your controller then don't spend the money. If like me that is just a pain you no longer want to deal with then buy them.
Thats it. I just wanted to post this to those who may be on the fence about this headset. If the price isn't going to put you in the poor house (or the doghouse if you aren't single), then go ahead and give these a go. I think a lot of people will be very happy with this headset. Some people will not but I would say they would be in the minority. | video-games_xbox |
Death is a lesson, not a punishment. The hardest game I've ever played. Not hard like Contra on the NES, where you died because the game cheated. Dark Souls is hard because YOU lack discipline. You will be frustrated... with yourself not with the game.
One of my all time favorite games but lets start with the flaws.
There are several instances of frame rate slow down. The frame rate has never caused my character to die and it never happened at a critical moment. But when you're running back to a bonfire after clearing an area of enemies the slow down will rear its head.
A very steep learning curve. Discovering how to upgrade weapons, sell excess equipment, not to use extremely critical items for the wrong purpose (Fire Keeper Souls!!!), kindling bonfires... ETC ETC. All these things could have used more illumination. A strategy guide or access to the the Dark Souls Wiki online is almost a prerequisite, if only the guide wasn't rendered almost obsolete by a recent patch that changed the core difficulty and many other mechanics for the better.
The a fore mentioned patch makes the game easier because the game was too hard. From Software should have done something before the game launch.
Despite all these Flaws I mentioned Dark Souls is easily the longest, funnest, most challenging game I've ever played. Here's why:
Awesome graphics with varied textures that probably contributed to the frame slow down. The lighting is top notch. the textures are hi res even when you get in close.
Item customization is a blast. There are many options for where you wanna take each weapon and piece of armor.
Grinding is FUN!!! You'll get to a point where the only place to go is up on the roof to fight two enormous gargoyles. You'll go up there, discover your armor and weapons, your fire resistance, and your damage resistance are all woefully inadequate. Time to grind. And its a good thing. Grinding in this game helps you hone combat skills, discover the game world more thoroughly, earn enough souls to do, well, everything, and learn where NOT to go.
Depending on your skill at fighting all the crazy monsters, this game will take a long time to play. Dark Souls is an incredible value. I'm not the best at combat so I've had to grind a lot. But I estimate that I'm 20% through and I've already logged 140 hours in 2 months. I beat Fallout 3 and all its expansions and discovered most of the secrets in 150 hours.
The cooperative multiplayer and PVP multiplayer are innovative and integrated seamlessly into the game play. You cannot avoid PVP multiplayer but it is a good thing. When you play this game you'll want to kindle a bonfire. But to do that you'll have to become human by "reversing" your hollowing. When you do this, anybody can invade your world and try to kill you in order to earn some additional humanity. You have some recourse against people who lack honor or people who have taken advantage of your weakness, but not till you kill the gargoyles...
Dark Souls is easily Game Of The Year. Its more polished than Skyrim, Funner than BF3, and Harder than any game you've ever played. I would compare it an ultra-violent hybrid of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Whatever it reminds you of, make sure you devote at least a couple hundred hours to this adventure just to figure out exactly what I mean when I say Game of the Year. | video-games_xbox |
Defective. Broken. Fraud. Grid AutoSport for the Xbox 360 is full of major defects that make the game virtually unplayable. Nearly 2 months after its release, none of its problems have been patched. If you look at the official CodeMasters forums, you can see tons of players across all platforms reporting numerous issues. CodeMasters is well aware of the problems, and yet, instead of rushing to get fixes out, they continue to release multiple paid DLC add-ons while the game itself remains broken.
First & foremost, the game corrupts its own save files, causing players to lose all of the progress & awards they've accumulated. It can happen to anyone at any time (even multiple times after starting over), no matter how many precautions you take or back-ups you make. If it hasn't happened to you yet, it likely will eventually if you keep playing long enough (until it hopefully gets patched).
Second, the game corrupts cars in your online garage. At some random point, a car in your garage can just become unusable & unsellable. Again, if it hasn't happened to you yet, it likely will eventually if you keep playing long enough (until it hopefully gets patched).
Third, the game's online leaderboards don't work. You can look at leaderboards, but they don't show your true position (you're always shown at #21, unless you're in the top 20 or bottom 20 globally), nor do they indicate the total number of players listed on the leaderboard.
Fourth, cars raced online quickly reach a point of diminishing returns where their repair costs far exceed the awards for driving them, no matter how little damage (if any) actually occurs. For example: win $10,000 from a clean race & you get a $20,000 repair bill.
Fifth, the game imposes an artificially low limit for the total number of cars a player can own in their online garage (not even enough spaces to have 1 car in each of the game's separate disciplines), but CodeMasters sells additional garage slots as paid add-ons. You have to pay additional real money just to get the game to open up more garage spaces for you.
The list goes on. The longer the game is out, the more issues players continue discovering. There's no way that CodeMasters could not have known about many of these issues before they released the game, so I'm inclined to believe that CodeMasters knowingly sold a terribly defective product. The fact that CodeMasters has placed a higher priority on selling post-launch DLC than they have on fixing the game also leads me to believe that they are intentionally scamming customers.
Grid AutoSport has some elements that could make it a good game if the game wasn't utterly broken. Even if CodeMasters eventually patches some problems later, it should be against the law to sell games that don't work at launch. Amazon & other retailers should discontinue their sales of this game to prevent future prospective buyers from getting ripped off. | video-games_xbox |
It's a narrow "win" for Forza 5. Wow. Where do I start? I've been a Forza fan since Forza 3, so roughly 4-5 years now, so this is a hard review for me to write. Being that I've been playing Forza for a while now, I was really anticipating the launch of this game. It was like an itch I couldn't scratch. So much so, I was suckered into buying this limited edition set. Anyways, on to the review....
First of all, PROS:
-Great graphics. I couldn't have been happier with the graphics considering this is a launch game that seemed rushed. The attention to detail is top notch. Replays are more enjoyable to watch because it looks more real than the old-school Forza 4. In-game action is epic and... how do I say this... yummy?
-Controls. Controls are excellent. I use a custom setting that falls between medium and hard. In Forza 3 and 4 I never really used the cockpit view because it felt awkward and unrealistic. For Forza 5 I decided to give it another try and was hooked on cockpit view ever since. It's a lot more realistic because of the attention to detail on the feedback you get from the tires and brakes. I also like how the hands grabbing the steering wheel do various things you would actually do on a track like letting go of it for a split second to take a break, etc. Do I dare say this is actually the biggest improvement? Better improvement than the graphics? Maybe. It's a close call.
-New cars. It wouldn't be a new racing without new cars. And so far, one of my favorites is the Ariel Atom and addition of Formula 1 cars (I was gifted a Lotus Renault GP, which I've driven once... it was scary and exciting at the same time).
-Cloud-based AI (drivatar). With this new addition, the difficulty settings has a lot more options. No race is ever the same when in career mode because of this great addition. This also allows your own drivatar to earn credits even if you're not racing.
And now, the CONS:
-Overpriced everything. This limited edition Forza 5 is not worth the money. I can see the regular version being worthy of the $60 price tag, but this one is just bonkers. I'm not getting double XP like it promised and all the other non-sense the other reviewers are talking about. It hurts my feelings so much, I don't want to spend too much time on it. The way you make money (credits) in the game will not be fast enough for the average Joe to accumulate enough to buy the exotics, which in a way, forces you to spend more, real-world money just to fast-forward and buy a new car already. I'm a level 15 driver already and each bonus for leveling up was only a little over 30k. No more discounts on car parts either, and manufacturers give out low payouts when compared to Forza 4. Overall, it looks like the main objective of Turn 10/Microsoft was for us consumers to spend more real-world money.
-Same upgrades, more specifically, same rims from Forza 4. As an enthusiast, I was very excited to see if Turn 10 added more things in the upgrade department like real companies who make actual turbos or exhausts for the cars. Or the very least, add more rims to the lineup. I think they might have even taken some out (Racing Hart? gone?).
-Not enough cars, not enough tracks. Enough said.
I've only had the game for a week and have played it for only a few hours, but I have to say, just based on the cons alone I don't think the 3 star rating is going to go up even after playing the game for a few weeks. Don't get me wrong, there's enough pros for a petrol head like to keep playing the game. That's how addicted I am to racing and cars. However, I don't know if the average gamer can appreciate a game like this and not get ticked off by the cons listed above. Overall, I would highly suggest getting this game if you're a true fan of the sport. Don't get this limited edition one, though, it's just not worth it. Opt instead for the regular version. | video-games_xbox |
Brink- an opinion of someone who isn't bad at video games. Personally, brink was one of my most anticipated games of the year apart from portal 2. And now that it's here. I'm perfectly content with the four and a half hours I played.
First I will address some of the main complaints.
Graphics- the in menu models are flipping gorgeous but in game, the lack of anti-aliasing hurts the appearance. Otherwise the art style is fantastic.
Explosion animations are weak, but I can't find the effort to care or find it reasonable for that to make or break a game. GTAIV had fantastic explosions but was also a great game in itself, though not because of said explosions.
Sound- if you complain about the sound design you have no heart. The guns sound amazing. The explosions are deep and shell shock is awesome. Very battlefield-ey
Presentation- phenomenal. I would like to note that there is a beefy color manual included. A rarity in modern games. I'm looking at you ONE FLIPPING PIECE OF PAPER MANUAL in assassins creed brotherhood!
Gameplay- oh boy is this one a hot topic. People are finding it frustrating or cheap or too hard or too much like cod. Honestly, I've been gaming for 7 years (I'm not very old) and brink is unique and a blend all at once.
Playing as a light soldier makes the game feel like mirrors edge but you have a gun at all times.
General shooting feels like borderlands with the display of enemy health and abundant UI.
The damage tables are similar to battlefield where it doesn't take a heartbeat to kill someone but not a halo ordeal either.
My biggest gripe and most infuriating issue with brink hands down is the lack of the ability to unlock things in challenge mode while playing online. To unlock the next gun attachment you must play solo. They are not particularly difficult, but would be much more enjoyable and repayable with friends.
Now the parts that do count with other players includes pretty much everything else. The single player is the multiplayer. The versus is the single player. Think of it like left for dead. All the levels are in very distinct environments and are meant to be replayed either competitively or cooperatively. I have not played any versus, but the coop I did with two of my friends was a blast. Upon first entry into the game with my friend, it was like being on a boat for the first time, you have to get your sea legs. It was a weird and foreign environment but after tweaking the hilarious control schemes it became very enjoyable and fluid, there is a lot going on and do not be dissuaded by that. The complexity is a good thing to me, there is always something to do. I'm never bored or just sitting there watching a doorway. The guns feel fantastic, although the shotguns are a little weak sauce. The attachments are ridiculous and effective. You will quickly learn to love one specific gun. And between my friends and I, that gun was different.
Although I have not completed the campaign, I have replayed some missions already and they were just as interesting as the first time. I cannot wait to try versus to really make the game challenging. Playing on normal is perfectly manageable for any competent shot.
Generally, gameplay wise, I liked it. A lot. I want more. I want to go back to my xbox and use that ridiculous little revolver with the p51 mustang paint scheme that kicks so hard the whole screen looks up. This game is not the disappointment I received with homefront. I see myself playing this game to full completion and I look forward to it. The customization is superior and the voice acting is phenomenal. Many will find what I say to be incredibly negotiable. But who gives a rats when I enjoy this game. I'm not a fanboy, I'm not a big Bethesda guy. Brink does not change everything as we know it, but rather complements it nicely. It's something that doesn't play like anything else on the market. Making it perfect in it's own way, but certainly not perfect for everyone.
Please please please comment If you have a question about brink. I may not be very far in but I will happily do some homework to answer any question you might have. | video-games_xbox |
2010 Wishlist. Yes, I know I am supposed to be reviwing the 2009 version, and I sort of am by pointing out what it is sorely missing?
Franchise mode:
Frankly, if you've played your franchise through 3 or 4 seasons, and you don't have the best roster in the NFL, you're not trying hard enough. It's just toooo easy to achieve currently. The CPU teams draft very poorly. They accept rediculous trades. You can sign a FA without a signing bonus and then trade him for a first round pick. Hell, you can have 7 first round picks doing this in some seasons if you do it right. And when I refrain from such cheese, it still only takes me a few years to create a blow-out roster. Plainly, the CPU front offices need to get better AI.
Contracts for retired players. Sure, reduce their overall stats because they no longer feel they are "up to it" but I should be able to make a bombshell offer and get my franchise QB back for at least another run. Make it costly, and reduce his abilities some to account for his desire to retire.
The CAP becomes essentially meaningless after about 6-7 seasons. If you're frugal, you can sign ALL of the best FA's and your draft picks and still have enough cap left over to sign a whole new team!
General Gameplay:
Running out of bounds? Please fix this. If you throw an out route and don't absolutely rocket it in there, there is literally no time to keep your receiver in bounds--if he even catches it in-bounds in the first place. You can overcome this by playcalling based on the hash mark, but it's pretty cheazy not be able to "sit" an uncovered receiver without him running away like an arse.
Play-action needs some tuning. If you roll-out into a blitz, I'll admit, bad things should happen MOST of the time, but can you offset this maybe 10-20% of the time based on the QB's awareness and allow him to break out of this bad situation? Currently, every QB in the league gets droppped like a bad habbit, 100% of the time in this situation. I think 80-85% would be a little more realistic. Some kind of duck under move? An emergency scramble up the middle or just break out of the rollout and give the user the chance to make a play?
Improve clock management AI for the computer. Shouldn't be tooo hard to achieve. Currently, the CPU will punt on first down in some situations in the two-minute drill. Gaw! And can a CPU NOT run a play inside of ten seconds? Currently, it will just kick a FG if it hasn't scored inside of 10 seconds remaining in the half/game. That's pitiful AI. | video-games_xbox |
Fable 2: A Pleasant Surprise. I bought Fable 2 as a Christmas gift for my 14-year-old god-daughter, who enjoys fantasy games. I, too, enjoy fantasy RPGs, but didn't think I'd get into Fable 2 as I prefer more "serious" games. Sitting with her and watching her play, I was captured by the beauty of the landscape, the interesting storyline, the well-choreographed combat graphics, and the distinctly British humor that permeates the game. I started to play just to mess around a bit, and ended up getting caught up in it and playing the game all the way through (a couple of times).
Fable 2 is not as "open" as Elder Scrolls: Oblivion--you can't just wander anywhere you want on a map, anytime you want. There are cut scenes and and scripted in-game scenes that interrupt gameplay to forward the story. This is fine, but sometimes I found myself wanting to be able to skip through the dialog (particularly after the first play through). However, this less-than-fully-open approach allows Fable 2 to deliver a much more cohesive story, and the lack of complete openness isn't really a big limitation. There is still plenty of free space to explore, and flexibility in where you go, and when. The biggest criticism I have is that, if you replay the game, there is a very long tutorial-esque opening which is mostly story and little interaction, and the interaction that does take place is mundane and time-consuming (especially after the first play through; it takes about 30 minutes to get through it). I definitely would like to see a way to skip through such an opening in the next episode of Fable.
This is not a "difficult" or particularly challenging game to play. Learning to be effective in combat is easy, as is accumulating wealth in order to afford the things you need and want. It's the beautiful world and interesting story than make this game a thumbs-up. These, and a lot of quirky humor and novel details (like being able to belch, fart and do other things that inspire a reaction from NPCs nearby, have sex and start families, and if you so desire, turn the "safety" off and rampage through what would normally be a "friendly" area--earning an evil reputation and appearance should you do so).
Fable 2 was a pleasant surprise and I'd recommend it to those who enjoy the softer side of fantasy RPG games. I'm looking forward to the next installation. Delivery was on time even during the holiday season, and the DVD arrived in perfect condition. | video-games_xbox |
Good game just don't pre-order from amazon. This is a good game. The controls are fun and you kill alot of bad guys quickly. If you like God of War, Ninja Gaiden, and Devil May Cry and you are willing to try a new control scheme then this game is for you.
The goods: Lots of killing, you will kill 20-30 enemies in roughly 10secs of battle (expecially grunts) then there are the more challenging baddies which you have to take out with special tactics and moves. The gameplay is new, whereas traditionally you would use the right analog stick to control the camera, or dodge, etc, now it is your multi-directional attack with the triggers as you pri/sec fire. Second there is lots of loot, LOTS of LOOT. And finally, it is a sci-fi spin (think Battlestar Galactica and Riddick) on Norse mythology with all the power and barbarian style debauchery that comes with it.
The bads: There is almost too much loot. You get a new piece of gear around every corner. Second, when you die there is a 30sec cut scene you cannot skip. Third it is way too linear, the only times you allowed to deviate from the railroad tracks is when you find a secret area, then you are right back on the tracks. I don't think the camera is bad, it is just something you need to get used to.
All in all, its not game of the year material, but if you like action adventure with a touch of RPG then shell out the bucks for it.
Now for my bash on pre-ordering in general. DO NOT PRE-ORDER from amazon or anywhere else. I pre-ordered this game 2 weeks before its release and the only reason I got to play it was I borrowed my brothers copy while he was at work. My expected delivery date is next monday and the game came out this tuesday (I used 2-day shipping and I live 30 minutes from an amazon depot). I did however complain so much that amazon credited me with the price of 2-day shipping. I think Pakistan no longer has any love for me anymore (Pakistan or India is where Amazon outsources its cutomer service to) Pre-ordering is a scam and it is much better to wait a couple days and pick it up from the store. Plus read a review or two before buying especially on multi-plat games. | video-games_xbox |
All the Wrong Moves. Burnout gets a lot of credit for its concept. And, to be fair, that's credit that's deserved. The idea of a racing game that promotes a powerful sense of speed and encourages the player to hit things (and builds itself around a somewhat realistic prosecution of the aftermath of those collisions) is a good one. And it leaves its marks all over this game.
Why, then, am I only giving this (to read the other reviews) apparently superb game three stars? Well, folks--that's simple. Absolutely every wrong deicision that could have been made with respect to this game has been made, and the end result is a piece of software that has great moments, but can only be considered middling at best.
To start with, the game is about twice as long as it should be, and that's where the problems really set in. Racing games can be occasionally frustrating. This game is regularly, unforgivingly frustrating. In order to effectively "finish" the game, you have to perfect every event (there's a LOT of events). In the beginning, that's pretty easy to do. Once you reach the middle, you'll probably have five or six events that you have to repeatedly try just to get close to making your perfect rating. By the end, pretty much all of the racing events fall into that mold. Worst offenders are the "Burning Laps" (time trials), where the game designers seem not only to have assigned some wild and irregular difficulty levels (some tracks you'll get on the first shot; one notable track has taken me three hours to not perfect thus far, and I believe I'm just going to give up on the game as a whole, rather than waste another minute of my life driving the same path again).
All of this, of course, could have been solved if most of the latter half of the game had been left on the drawing boards entirely. By the time you hit the sixth or seventh rank of events, you've pretty much seen everything the game can do for you as far as race events go. You've done the Traffic Attack scenarios (where the challenge is basically to go fast and hit cars into oncoming traffic), you've done the Road Rage scenarios (where the challenge is essentially to learn the best places on each track to perform takeouts without injuring yourself), and you've learned all the tricks you're going to learn about general racing and driving. The additional tracks you have to grind through serve to do nothing but extend and taint the experience of what would otherwise be an enjoyable racer.
The crash events, thankfully, don't have this problem to quite the same extent. While several of them can be ridiculously and inexplicably frustrating (you may never know why you fail sometimes to get the gold medal in an event and succeed others), that negative element of the experience is at least kept to a comparative minimum.
But the problems - the failures of execution - don't stop with the length of the game. There are some fundamental programming errors that also plague this title; most notably, the fact that the developers saw fit to attempt to access the disk drive BEFORE saving race result data back to the user's profile. The result, of course, is that if you have any difficulty at all reading the disc (a smudge, or, in the case of MY 360, some sort of internal defect that causes it to fail reading any game after about an hour and a half), your results will not be saved back to your profile and you will lose any progress you've made in an event. Add that to the work-intensive, frustrating late game and you have a recipe for disaster.
Games are supposed to be fun. For the first ten or fifteen hours with this game, I had fun. You can have fun with it online. But if you expect to finish this game, you're not going to have fun. You're going to be bored, you're going to spend a lot of time memorizing and grinding, and ultimately, you're going to end up questioning why you're finishing the game in the first place.
For the price that Amazon has this title for, it's not a bad pickup if you don't have the title on any other console (if you do, you're not gaining much, as this is just a rerelease for 360 with a little bit of extra content). Just don't expect it to be all sunshine and roses. | video-games_xbox |
The Most Improved Game Ever. I have never before seen a game so perfectly improve on every issue its predecessor had. I'm not going to compare NHL08 with 2K8 because, frankly, most of the time that ends up becoming more a review of the companies than the product. Instead I'm going to compare 08 to 07, both EA games, and show the improvements in this game.
Graphics:
There is little difference between the graphics in 07 and 08, but that's not a bad thing. One of the main strengths of 07 was, in fact, its graphics engine, which looked beautiful, especially when running it in full hi-def. The models in 08 have a little more detail, but not much. One thing you will notice is how smooth 08 feels, though, as it runs at 60 fps instead of 30.
AI:
Here's the first major change. The AI in 07, both on your team and that of your opponent, was dumb. I didn't mind so much that your opponent AI was dumb, since I play most of my games versus a human player, but your teammates were incredibly stupid. You could have a 2-on-0 break and you might as well deke the goalie yourself, because the chances your player would be smart enough to skate with you were slim. In 08, however, the AI, both on your team and that of your opponent, is really good. First, that of your opponent. Defensemen will challenge you often. You may find that at the beginning of the game you can skate into their zone along the boards and setup, but after a bit they'll adapt to your style and make it difficult, which creates a fun (albeit sometimes frustrating) challenge. Your teammate AI is vastly improved, as well. Your teammates will setup at the point, which is my favorite pass to make. You really get the feeling that you can setup in the offensive zone, which, when you pass the puck effectively there, feels REALLY good. Powerplays now actually give you an advantage, since your teammates setup so well. Your teammates no longer run offsides like morons.
Skating:
If they had only improved the AI from 07, I would have been happy. That was my main complaint about the game. When I read the previews about this game and EA said they revamped the skating engine, I said "meh." Didn't seem like such a big deal, but I was completely wrong. You'll notice it as soon as you start to play, the skating is extremely fluid. You have total control of where your player goes, and it's extremely realistic. It makes it easier to avoid someone trying to check you. Since you can skate sideways, it makes it so you can skate around the blue line without accidentally pulling it back behind the line. Checking was revamped, too, and it's now much more difficult to line up a player, however it's realistic about it. If an opposing player is coming in along the boards you can line him up pretty easily; it's the open-ice check that's become difficult. That's a good thing.
Goalies:
One thing I loved about 07 was that the goalies moved realistically. You got the feeling that they actually were on ice and would slide. There were a lot of complaints about the bad goals in 07, and the were extremely frustrating. Most of the bad goals, however, were not from stupid goalies, but an unrealistic physics engine. I play goalie. It's pretty rare that you make a save and the puck just goes two feet straight up into the air, coming down on your back. Those things happen, but rarely. Typically, if you only get a piece of the shot, the puck will deflect AWAY from you. Of in FRONT of you. More often than not it'll go way out of play. In 07, though, the physics weren't quite right, and so those tough deflections when the goalie would just get a piece of it often led to bad goals. In 08, they didn't really play much with the physics engine, they just made the goalies better. And sometimes it's obvious that the goalie cheated so as to not let in a bad goal (the puck will be sitting on the back of his neck and he'll flop down onto his back to tie it up...without it falling into the net...?). The goalies now cover the post, which is an extremely nice touch. Goalie controls are much easier, now, as you're limited in how far you can move. You can only stay within the crease, which makes it much easier to stay in position. Goals that you score can quite literally come from anywhere; you don't have just one or two options in how you score. So a lot of the frustrating aspects of the goalies last year have been fixed; it just would have been nice to see the physics engine tweaked, as well.
Sound:
Gary Thorne and Bill Clement announce again in this year, and they've added a LOT of things for them to say. They still get a bit repetitive, just not nearly so much as last year. They do have great chemistry, and are not a burden to listen to like some other announcers (Madden, anyone?). One thing I noticed which baffled me is that Gary Thorne (he's the commentator, not the play-by-play...unless I got it backwards) sounds muffled in a lot of the things he says. The things from last year that are recycled sound just fine, but a lot of his new lines literally sound as if he phoned them in. It's not a huge complaint, but I just thought I'd mention it.
Online:
There's no lag. There's no lag!!! Finally you have total control over your players when online. There are new modes, one with team play and one with co-op teams, and online leagues have been added, which is a pretty cool feature since it means I can now play with my brother who lives thousands of miles away. One VERY annoying thing, however, is that the game will freeze here and there when connecting to the other player, and you end up having to reset the game. It's not extremely common, however I'd say one out of ten games will do this. After awhile it becomes frustrating.
I've never really gone too deeply into the other modes of sports games. I like to play the dynasty modes but I never really pay much attention to contract negotiations and the like. What's important to me is that the actual game is fun to play; everything else is secondary. All in all, after playing about thirty games of 08, I can honestly say I have very few complaints. The freezing glitch I'm sure will be fixed in a patch. Other than that it's a great game, and incredibly fun to play. | video-games_xbox |
Decent stealth/action game, terrible Hitman game. I am/was a long time Hitman fan. I own and have played all of the Hitman games. I am extremely disappointed with Absolution. I don't see it as a true Hitman game, rather just another mainstream Stealth/Action game. I'd give it a 7/10 in that regard, but a 3/10 as far as being a Hitman game. What made the series great was the open maps, and the feeling those maps gave you. It was also the amount of different locations you were in, and the targets being high profile and/or influential individuals. It felt good with a relatively serious story, a hired hitman by a mysterious professional agency taking out high profile targets in open environments
Now, fast forward to Absolution, you're playing in extremely linear point A to point B levels with checkpoints and chopped up, short, segmented levels (once you pass a checkpoint you cant go back), so the large map aspect is more or less completely gone (with exception to 2-3 levels). Also, the storyline has taken a huge turn for the worst, the once mysterious Agency is now some incompetent organization led by some complete slob/idiot with a mechanical hand and the generic comic book attributes. Speaking of comic book villains, that fits pretty much all of the main villains - Some huge oversized wrestler the size of a tree, some obnoxious and over the top cowboy, and other insignificant characters like "limp dick lenny" (Don't even ask). Oh, and for the majority of the story you're just playing in run down, trashy, generic environments searching for some super human ninja 14 year old girl. And i'm not even mentioning the fact that you're very rarely an actual "Hitman" in this game, just going around killing no namers for no cash incentive. That's now how 47 operates.. He was always about the money. Diana was nothing but a voice on the other end of the phone who wired money to his account, now all of a sudden he has some huge emotional connection to her and goes through hell to rescue some girl who has no real importance to him? The real 47 would've shot Diana dead, taken the girl to the agency, and awaited his next contract. The whole story and levels feel extremely rushed and not thought through, either that or the new team is just bad at writing.
What happened IO? This wasn't a Hitman game. You marketed and advertised it as one and gave everyone the impression that we'd be buying one. Instead we get a watered down stealth/action game with a completely obnoxious and cheesy story. You don't feel like the worlds best, cold blooded assassin in this game - The cheesy story mixed with the chopped up levels killing insignificant low life targets ruins the feel of the game. Aside from the HD Collection coming out in January, I will NOT be buying another Hitman game if the series continues on this path. It is a complete betrayal to the loyal fans who have kept you alive for all of this time, and to the Hitman name in general. If you want to make obnoxious story driven games just keep making the K&L games and don't mess with the Hitman formula. I seriously wanted to love this game because I loved the previous ones and have been waiting years for this, unfortunately it did not deliver. Try sticking to your roots next time IO/Square Enix. | video-games_xbox |
This is what happens when shareholders build a game. I had been looking forward to a reviving of Guitar Hero for years. I was never a hardcore player, but could get by on expert and spent hours simply having fun with the game.
Guitar Hero Live lacks the genuinity of gameplay found in previous versions. It tries too hard to commoditize from the player, turning what should be entertaining gameplay into an exhausting exercise in navigating the interface.
When launching the game for the first time, GHL seems to want you to do anything but play a song. The songlist is locked behind about 10 minutes of viewing music videos and a narrative on GHTV. The voiceover tells you all about how GHTV let's you continuously play the game online, buy stuff, watch stuff, gain points -- at least I believe that's the gist, the rules of navigating the GHTV ecosystem seem incredibly overcomplicated and unnecessary.
Finally when you get to the song list, GHL has introduced the concept of "paying to play" with Play Tokens. Out of the box you have to pay to play the songlist. The kind folks at Activision start you off with some cash to get started, but additional plays need to be earned through playing or buying credit with actual money. Note this is not downloadable content, you pay to play a song once then have to pay to play it again. I just spent $150 on the GH bundle. The blatant desire to drain money from players tarnishes the spirit of gameplay as everything comes at a cost. The content strategy needs to be dramatically simplified, right now it's too damn confusing.
I could perhaps forgive the horrendous money grabbing if the song list held any merit. You'll find very little reminiscence of classic rock hits here. Instead the song list sounds like streams from a Top 40 list, favouring trendy music over resonance with guitar influence. It's almost like their target audience has shifted to try and capture the 16-21 crowd; maybe this is their strategy, and perhaps it will become profitable. Clearly between the interface, user experience and track list the traditional GH fans are no longer an important demographic for Activision.
Guitar Hero Live is for a new audience; those who loved classic versions of the game will find little enjoyment now. Priority is placed on spending cash to listen to popular music instead of focusing on core gameplay. This game lacks spirit and seems to be the product of shareholders milking profit from customers, ignoring the values which make players return. There was so much potential here, shame to see all the hype wasted. | video-games_xbox |
NOT the same as the Street Series. First off, I would like to point out that although this game was deveoloped by the same people that made the street series, it is in no way the same. I know I loved playing the Street series becuase of many things, some of them were the depth of the games, the background music throughout the gameplay, the wall moves, and I just thought they were overall fun games to play. NFL Tour is not anything like this.
I will admit it is somewhat enjoyable the first two hours or so of gameplay. The annoncing is kind of cool with his shouts of "Pwned" and "The Bears were who we thought they were", and "Don't you get tired of video game announcers that say the same thing over and over?". Some of his announcing is funny, although it gets annoying after hearing the same things over and over, especially when he is doing what he talks about (Saying the same thing over and over).
Another thing I didn't like about this game is it has no depth at all. I know Street 2 and 3 had tons of things to do and it made the game a much better value and so much more enjoyable. This game is nowhere near that. It has one game mode where all you do is play the NFL different ways such as first to 24 and timed games. The amount of depth was really disappointing compared to the older Street series.
Don't even get me started on the defense. Defense plays no role in this game at all. I'm convinced that when you are on defense, it's impossible to tackle the computer with the first guy. It always takes at least two. It get's really annoying when no defense is involved at all, at it's just a scoring fest.
Another thing that screwed this game over was the "simplified controls" I don't want a game where on offense you really only need one or two buttons. It makes it that much harder for the computer to know what your doing when A controls 2 or 3 different things depending on the situation. It really gets annoying.
On the Pros side this game is a fun game to pick up and play for a while. If you are getting this based on NFL Street, you will be highly disappointed. Casual gamers will probably get bored with this game within two or three weeks. I don't totaly hate this game, But it has a lot of faults and was not up to the NFL Street standards. Also, the achievements are pretty easy as I picked up 450 within my first day of gameplay. I guess I would suggest this game to anyone who is looking for easy gamerscore, as most of the achievements on the game are not very challenging, although they may look it.
Pros:
Easy to learn buttons
Announcer is entertaining for first two hours
Fun football game if you don't already own any
Easy achievements
Cons:
Horrible controls for advanced gamers
Announcing gets annoying after first two hours
Nowhere near as good as the Street Series
No Defense involved
No Depth for single player whatsoever
All-in-all, I'd have to give this game about a 6 out of 10. I wouldn't really recommend it unless you are a die-hard Street fan. And even then, you might be a little disappointed. I would suggest renting it for a week, and then you will probably be done with it for ever. | video-games_xbox |
Deja vu. I had reviewed this once before. My review along with many others just vanished. Very curious. So, here it is again:
I like about 60% of this game. The racing is as fun as I remember from Takedown. The city looks amazing. The free-roaming aspect works pretty well. I've been busy tracking down super-jump spots. The races and road rage events (my favorite) are perfect, once you find them.
The Marked Man event feels like a race you can't lose, I've yet to be wrecked more than once by the cars supposedly out to get me. Maybe it gets trickier with a higher level license.
I do miss crash mode. It was too fun and too much a signature of the Burnout franchise to go away. Showtime is NOT a suitable replacement. Showtime is this awkward crash mode/aftertouch replacement that lets you tumble down the road smashing everything in your path until your boost meter is empty. Since you can build up boost as you crush cars, some of these Showtime rolls can go on for ridiculous lengths of time. It seems pointless; I'm not a fan.
Something I am a fan of is having to take down a car to add to your collection. After winning some events, the annoucer will tell you a certain make and model of car is loose on the streets, if you take it down (crash it) it's yours. I've had some fun chases going after these cars.
Now for my major gripes. I like roaming around and exploring. I'm fine with the open world. Just not all the time. Once in awhile, I want to hop on, run a few road rage events and be done. I don't want to drive across town to the previous (or next) event. That's a bit too much like reality. Why on earth did they remove the ability to jump to the start of an event from the map screen? Add the option to quick start events from the map when you don't feel like driving from point A to point B.
Also, you can't restart a race. Without the helpful arrows pointing your way, you will get lost, hopelessly lost. Staring at the tiny navigation map while trying to avoid a high speed crash is just frustrating. Granted, you will learn the routes given time, but as the races get tougher you'll need to repeat them in order to win. In Revenge and Takedown when you crashed early in a hard race you were better off restarting. Here, you're just out of luck.
It seems like the single player experience got the short end here. There's a hard to define fun factor missing. Which is a shame, because I loved the past couple games in the series. Each had the perfect splash of "arcade". Which is exactly what I'm looking for from Burnout, I want that constant motion; I want to be assaulted by speed; I want to careen around corners, blast opponents off the side of a bridge, and smash traffic ahead like pinballs. It just isn't here. So, I'm going to keep my money. | video-games_xbox |
Extreme in so many ways - Get this game now. One of the most fun games I've ever played. I'm not really a hard core gamer, but over my many years I've played lots of them and this is the most fun and at times irritating games I've ever played. Its rude, intense, funny, annoying and so many other things. For really good gamers it might be a bit easy at times, but for me on medium its a pretty good challenge and not too difficult. If there is a downfall, it is the uneven level of difficulty. Some levels and enemies are too easy and some bosses and parts have taken so long to beat. I guess some of that is the good challenge that makes a good game.
Some if it is just annoying though. Like the "instant death" you get when that crazy woman demon catches up to you. Finally made it, but it was just annoying. And the most annoying part was the "big boner" level. Not 1 or 2, but 3! the second part was so hard for me that I almost quit and sold the game. I had it up on ebay and then cancelled it and I'm glad I did. To add to some of the frustration, every time you die you have to go through some of the dialogue and time consuming cut-scenes. But this to me is still a 5 star game. The combat and creative gameplay just make it great and so much fun. The mix of ways to kill the demons and enemies is very rewarding and doesn't seem to get old. The darkness adds a unique level of puzzles and ways to get out of a situation. The guns and upgrades are great and make for a lot of the creativity.
This is just a great game and if you can deal with the juvenile anatomical humor and the quest to be as gross and sick as possible, grab this game. The graphics and visuals are a bit dated, but I don't care at all. I'd rather have the more time spent with the creativity of the game than spending insane hours on graphics. I also don't care about the technical details of a few errors and don't give a !$*@ about screen tearing or really even know what it is. The environment is really well done and looks great for what it is.
Oh yeah, the sound and music is excellent. Not much replay value as they should have done a game+ or something like that. Probably a 4 or 4.5 star game, but what it does give is great gaming and a lot of fun. | video-games_xbox |
Pretty Bad Star Wars Game. I love Star Wars games. I really do. So when I saw this game was coming out, I had to have it. I play games a lot, so I like to start out playing a game in the Hardest mode. I bought this game on a Friday night, played it a few hours each night and by Sunday was finished. Needless to say, I wish I had rented it instead of buying. I'd say I completed it in 5 hours total on the HARD mode. Really disappointing as I like my games to last awhile.
The gameplay is pretty bad. You can't control the camera, so basically you run around as Anakin or Obi Wan and droids come out and attack you. Since you can't control the camera, there might be a droid behind you shooting at you and you can't see it. It's frustrating. This happens a lot. Also, the pathway is set for you...you can't run around and explore as you could in games such as Jedi Academy or Outcast. Nope, you must run straight ahead and don't worry about falling off those huge ledges in the game because even if you try, you can't.
This game treats you as if you're a complete moron. Not only is everything laid out as far as the pathways, your characters and the game gives you WAY too much help. See that glowing thing on the ground or on the wall? That means you have to "use the force" there. And just in case you're too stupid to understand what the glowing thing is, your character will say, "The force is telling me something here." Or Obi Wan will yell out, "Anakin, use your lightsaber to cut through the door!" Oh really? Sorry, I didn't realize this game was made for preschoolers.
The lightsaber moves in the game are probably the only saving grace, although I have to say that the characters often look as if they are performing some sort of dance routine instead of fighting. And most of the time, you hit the right buttons to perform a special move and whoops! your character is locked onto the wrong character or goes somewhere completely different from where you told him to. Not only that, but the game has several glitches as well and your character will suddenly find himself stuck in a wall or hanging in the air forever. Playing on the HARD mode, I would have thought that the difficulty level would have increased...characters I was fighting would be tougher or something, but no, all you get is a few more really bad shot droids or really bad at sabers Jedi that come at you and you kill them all with ease.
The only thing I really liked about this game is the Versus Mode in the multiplayer section. In it, you play as the Jedi of your choosing against another Jedi of your choice. I don't recall a Star Wars game that let you play as Vader before and I quite enjoyed choking my opponents with his death grip. It's also fun to play as Vader against Vader or Vader against Anakin. Some of what the characters say to each other in this mode is hysterical. There is one bonus level that lets you play as Yoda, but he moves so fast that you can't really distinquish his moves or have much fun with him as you just mash buttons until your fingers are sore.
Overall, I was HIGHLY disappointed in this game. If you're looking for great lightsaber action, I'd recommend Jedi Knight Jedi Outcast or Jedi Academy. Steer away from this one unless you're a toddler and/or need your game to essentially play for you. | video-games_xbox |
DONT BUY - They couldn't have made it worse if they tried. Please wait for the next installment or play COD-BO2. Okay, I literally never write reviews, this is my first. There is a reason for this review. It stands as a warning to anyone who would purchase this game. This is EASILY the WORST CALL OF DUTY GAME EVER RELEASED and the biggest flop in sales as a result.
In case you have not heard:
The Cons (not all of them, too many to list really):
(1) spawns are awful, i.e., you get spawn killed several times in a row per game;
(2) your Health is pathetically low, but your enemies have much larger Health, its called "lag compensation," its what infinitiward (the producer of the game) does to "even the playing field. What it means is that if you have a good connection, your connection gets sapped and distributed to everyone else in the lobby, making you play worse unless you are playing with other players that have good connections;
(3) you move SUPER slow, slower than in any other Call of Duty and the maps are huge. When you combine (2) above, with the slow movement and the big maps, you die..., a lot. I have reached 6th prestige but now find the game unplayable;
(4) hackers, lots of hackers. When they are not hacking the game they are using hacked controllers to gain an advantage, every lobby you join (there aren't many because only 20,000 people play this horrible game,) has at least one hacker, often times several. This is because Infinitiward used the same game engine as MW3, so all the same hacks developed for MW3 over the last 2-3 years were immediately effective when ghosts was released.
(5) matchmaking is pointless, since no one plays, the game throws you into the same lobby over and over, so sometimes, like today (thereby prompting this review,) you literally cannot play because you're being forced to play with hackers or with lag compensation slowing you down;
(6) Fun - its very limited here, there is almost no fun factor to the game, except if you like owning kids..., but its just not the same as with prior titles, even when you play very well, you are left wanting more. You live with a constant sense of dissatisfaction about the game and having spent money on it;
(7) are you competitive? Not the game for you. This game is for campers and hackers. When kids are not laying down, they are hiding in corners, but you know what? its not their fault, its infinitiward's for releasing a garbage game to the public and charging us $60+60 more for DLC;
(8) More on the maps. All the maps are huge and this game is only 6 v. 6 unlike previous games. Basically, infintiward drops the ball AGAIN, making huge maps for campers and almost no one to kill in them!
(9) the way they designed the players/levels, you can barely see anyone on the map from afar, and yet the maps are all huge. So everyone uses thermal attachments so they can see you at distance, or they cheat/hack and use auto-aim, either way, when you run into one of the many hackers, you're better off leaving the match.
(10) if you do play the game, and you know you are excellent at shooters, try running around, you will not exceed a 2.0-2.5 KD ratio most times, but it can be fun when the game isn't running terribly (but it almost always is.) HOWEVER, if you are new to shooters or had below a 2.0 ratio in previous titles, if you do decide to run, and I mean run anywhere for more than 2-3 seconds at a time, prepare to die like crazy because as stated above, you run slower than in any other COD ever so you are cannon fodder for campers and again as stated above, you die in 2-3 shots so basically..., you're dead. If you are playing any of the original maps and you are running and gunning, playing a "solo-game or lone-gunner" game..., prepare to die, A LOT.
(11) say goodbye to run-and-gun gameplay. In this game, you MUST camp, OR hack, or be content with dying a lot and having a low KD ratio. There are some exceptions, as there are always limited numbers of players who are exceptional for whatever reason, but normally, you pretty much need to stay on the move with purpose ONLY, knowing exactly where you are going (to camp next :'( - I'm not kidding) and how to get there and be prepared for the likely possibility that you just re-spawned inches away from enemy fire (you probably did.)
The Pros:
(1) do you like to camp? then this game is for you!
(2) tired of being the only noob who can't play COD? well now most people have negative KD right there with you!
(3) the graphics are nice..., so while you are camping, you can enjoy the grass moving side to side.
(4) the guns sound pretty cool, when you dare not to use a silencer (prepare to die twice as much; if you are lucky/skilled.)
(5) the DLC maps are somewhat smaller than the maps the game comes with, so if you don't mind dropping $120 for a really poorly made game, then you can get some gameplay out of this.
(6) killing people is easy! easier than ever!! you just toss an I.E.D. on the floor, or call your dog in, and you get an easy couple of kills per life. Thats why everyone has negative KD, because its easy to kill, yet its also easy to die because the game is terribly designed.
(7) They brought back the MK14, which is awesome, but in this installment, its useless in close quarters.
(8) I LOVE the new reporting feature to report hackers. That is definitely worth noting. Honestly, this feature is worthless to the average consumer, but to those of us who play fair, it's a small glimmer of hope that someday these hackers will get banned from the game. It's also useless unless you know what a hacker looks like in this game. Oftentimes they have instant aim, no recoil (at all) when they fire (regardless of the gun - this is key because some guns actually don't have recoil,) sometimes they have more health than you and you cannot kill them, sometimes they have one-shot-kill hacks, many do (not that it matters because you die in a few bullets anyways in this game - sometimes 2-3 bullets it depends on the lag compensation and several other factors.)
Honestly, the game is terrible. I wish my go-to multiplayer game, the Call of Duty series, was worth playing right now, but its not. I highly recommend that you DO NOT PURCHASE THIS GAME. DO NOT believe the high ratings, this game should be at most 3 stars. I own it for xbox one and less than 20,000 people play at any given time. This is compared to the 100,000+ that would play at literally any hour of the night in past Call of Duty installments. The fans have spoken! Sales for this game are lower than for any other call of duty. It is not a coincidence, please take this as a warning, don't waste your money. Although if you have to get it, buy it pre-owned for 20 bucks or on amazon for 30 bucks and see for yourself what I wrote about in my review. Infinitiward dropped the ball big time on this game. They probably lost a lot of money, but if the world were just, they'd be required to refund everyone's money, especially those who purchased the DLC, but alas, life is often not fair, don't expect this game to be fair in any respect. Infintiward has announced that they will now only make COD titles every 3 years, likely because they realized they came very close to killing the franchise with this title. So I will end this review on that note. If you like COD, there is hope. Infiniti ward won't have another chance to release a terrible COD for another 2-3 years. I for one, can sleep better at night. Hope this review is helpful. | video-games_xbox |
This isn't your father's TRON game. With my last TRON videogame played on the Atari 2600 and Intellivision game systems and having not played TRON 2.0 on the PC and Xbox, this game based on the recent movie sequel, but taking place sometime before it, was almost like a dream come true for me. For years I have wanted a game that's something like TRON Evolution for the Xbox 360, and now that I finally have it, I can say without a doubt that this is one of the best games based on TRON ever made.
Be warned, though, that the action of this game is more like the 3D Prince of Persia games than the TRON games the 30 or 40-somethings have played back in the day of the Atari 2600. It will challenge you with making lots of flawless acrobatic moves and jumps across buildings and ledges, and you will have various enemies sent by both Clu and Abraxas (the game's main villains) to deal with. Fighting requires good strategy on what disc weapon to use, and along the way you will get upgrades on your current weapon that will let you stay one step ahead of the action. You will also get to use the lightcycle and the light tank to get past certain areas of the game, and for me, being in the light tank made me feel like I was playing Space Paranoids (the arcade game from the first movie) for real.
Graphically the game is great and so is the soundtrack, which really puts you in the TRON universe. The voices for each of the characters are also well done, though only Bruce Boxleitner (Tron) and Olivia Wilde (Quorra) from TRON Legacy appear in this game. The controls could use a little more work, especially with the lightcycle and light tank sequences, but you will get the hang of using the controls with enough practice.
The game also has multiplayer game matches where you can square off with other players online in disc battles as well as lightcycle and tank races. It's fun if you know exactly what you're doing in these matches.
Overall, except for the controls, the challenging jumps and moves, and the overall game length, I find little to complain about with this game. Well, other than the fact that it's based on the movie sequel instead of the original like TRON 2.0 was, but it's still a pretty solid game that was worth the purchase. Just remember: THIS IS NOT YOUR FATHER'S TRON GAME!!! | video-games_xbox |
Poor value for an otherwise fun, albeit limited, game. I think the 4 star review is a bit misleading. For most people, this game would probably fall into the 3 star category, possibly even 2 star, if paying full price.
Prior to this game coming out, I fell victim of the great marketing employed by Bethesda. The advertisements were creative, and I decided to investigate further. I had a lot of reservations, the more I read. this game seemed as ambitious as APB, and seemed like it would have many of the same problems. The community surrounding the game seemed certain that the game would deliver. Boy were they wrong. Don't mistake me, the game is definitely a good time. Especially when playing with human players, but when playing solo, it just feels frustrating. Sometimes your AI teammates seem completely inept, even when you are playing the game as intended, using the objective wheel and playing as a team. Other times, it feels as if the opposing AI has perfect aim. On top of this, sometimes it feels as if the enemy AI automatically knows when you are disguised as the operative class. Where the game falls short is that the AI doesn't seem to adjust as well as advertised, there is barely a seamless line between online/offline play, customization options, which is definitely a strong part of the game, feels a little underwhelming, explosions are dull, game-play is repetitive, and the game is overall limited.
I do love playing this game though. It is fast paced and has great visual design. At it's core it is quite simple. I think if this was released as an Xbox Live Arcade title, it could have been massively more successful. It just feels like half of a game for the price of a new game. I know Splash Damage invested a lot of resources into this game, but it might have been better to just scrap development and cut their losses. There have been promises to fix AI and lag, and these patches have resulted in overall minor changes, although, I am seeing much less lag in multi-player lobbies than when I first purchased the game.
I will continue playing this game, and strongly suggest it, especially once the price drops to "Greatest Hits" pricing. There is a lot of fun to be had here, but don't expect a deep lengthy campaign that other full featured titles offer. | video-games_xbox |
Change is not always good. These opinions are strictly based on the demo.
Ubi's version of Prince of Persia came as a surprise last year, because this franchise had so many bad sequels that nobody really thought it still has a future. But, Ubi managed to create an excellent game, with a distinct look and excellent controls and level design. They also brought and implemented perfectly the concept of 'controlling time', thus avoiding the main complaints about the POP games (most of them dealt with frustrating jumping puzzles and instant death).
Unfortunately though, even if it was a critic darling, Sands of Time (SoT) did not sell as expected - mostly the effect of having so many bad sequels. So, for the second installment on XBox, Ubi was forced to listen to the 'complaints' and change the game. This though is the main problem with this sequel. While changes tend to be good in general, these ones do not apply.
The main change is the fighting system. Warrior Within (WW) made the transition from a Tomb Raider type of gameplay to a Ninja Gaiden one. For some, this may be a blessing and especially early magazine reviewers seem to enjoy it. To me though, this pretty much ruined the game. From an intelligent and interesting game, this became nothing else than random button pressing, trying to get the 'perfect' combo. I would have preffered to have more exploration, not a Mortal Kombat fighting. In fact, PoP always seemed to be more about avoiding traps and solving puzzles, than about doing combos. And while the fighting system in SoT was indeed flawed, at least it was not a big part of the game. Now - like it or not - you will have to either learn these combos or avoid the game entirely.
The second change is with the graphics. What made SoT so special was its distinct look and gorgeous graphics. WW should have improved on this, but instead this is a step back. The 'blur' effect and vivid colors are gone, replaced by two colors: black and brown. The game looks common and uninteresting and the lack of 'blur' makes the textures look very poor. Why would Ubi change - again - something that was working, still a mystery to me. Especially now, when the 'blur' effect is copied in all games (Fable being the latest).
In the end, it looks like a group of players and reviewers changed the direction this game was following and WW is the end product. While some may enjoy this changes, for the fans of exploration and solving puzzles, this is a major step back. To me, this game was dumbed down to appeal to the masses and in the process, it lost its identity.
I will not buy this game, but I hope the sequel - if there will be any - will return to its roots, as captured in SoT. | video-games_xbox |
Absolutely Amazing. After seeing many positive reviews about this game, I decided to pick it up yesterday, this will probably be my last game purchase until GTA IV comes out next year; I have been picking up the recent big titles to have some things to keep me busy till then. Besides now I have all the big games, and don't have to deal with Black Friday and the stupid xmas shopping season.
Anyway this game is absolutely one of the most amazing things I have ever seen, after more than 15 years of gaming-from the PC (Doom, Sim City,Quake), PS2 (GTA, Gran Turismo) XBOX (Forza Motorsport, Fable, KOTR,) and, finally 360 (Saints Row, Rainbow Six series, GRAW, Oblivion, etc), I have never before seen any game like this.
****Possible Spoilers**** (But I don't want to give away too much)
When the game begins you can either start with the "default" Commander Shepard (male or female) or create your own character, either by making a couple of clicks on a template, or going deep into setting the size of the forehead, jaw, skin tone, eye color, hair style, color, etc, a la Oblivion-there are six classes from pure soldiers to techs, "adepts" who have telekentic type abilities, and several combinations that give you for example the skills of a soldier and hacking/decrypting abilities of a tech; you can also be a pure tech, adept, and so forth. You can set your characters attributes-I set up my Commander Shepard as a Female/Soldier/Earthborn/Ruthless.
Once your character is finalized the story starts-your character is seen looking regretful as some voice overs that sound like Keith David (Julius from "Saints Row" and William Shatner talking about some galactic threat, the best person for the job is Shepard, etc-then you're aboard some sort of galaxy class starship heading somewhere on a (up to this point) secret mission. This is the first time you use the 'dialog tree' and it's amazing-if you've played KOTR or Oblivion, you've seen the parts where a character says something, then, your character is given choices on what to say, but the amazing thing is, this game fleshes the replies out, for example, one reply choice at the end of a tree would be "goodbye," but your character doesnt just say "goodbye" like in Oblivion, she'll say "I have to get moving," or "Ill look into it," something that's in context with the conversation. The first few times you see this, it's amazing, and it always makes sense.
The controls take some getting used to-there is a brief manual but to learn the controls and the interface basically you have to use it. You will get the hang of using the main computer, map, swithching weapons, ordering your squad, etc, after awhile. The combat is pretty good-one interesting thing about the game was rather then squirming throught the cutscenes and itching to get to the next combat level it was the opposite, I was trying to get the combat over and get back to the "movie." (LOL). And really that's in large part what this game is, an interactive sci fi movie, and a very well made one.
A few things are frustrating once you're on a planet-as I said the controls take some getting used to, the AI is not the sharpest some times (but still better in most "shooter" games), the targeting system is not the best (but does work once you master it) and my least favorite weapon is the sniper rifle. (It's much too unsteady) So far I've used cover, got up close enough to problem enemies, then either grenade them or killed them with the assault rife which IS a pretty good weapon. There are some glitches here and there both with the AI, (sometimes you're squad will not follow your commands, or enemies will break cover and walk straight for you, making them easy to kill), or you or one of your squad will get "stuck" and can't walk from the spot they're on (be careful not to get to close to cliff edges; I got stuck three times there). But the few glitches are minor, and rare.
One thing I LOVE about this game is you can SAVE WHEN YOU WANT (except when enemies are active). You have autosaves, too but it's GREAT to be able to start exploring a level, then SAVE, then in case you get killed, you don't have to "resume" (i.e. go back to the start of the level), but you can bring up the menu and "load" your last save. I wish more "next gen" games had this.
I don't want to say too much because, really you have to experience this game for yourself. I almost never give anything 5 stars (recently only COD4 has received 5 stars from me), but if I could I would give this game 10 stars. This is one of literally 4 or 5 games that I would tell you, if you have a 360 you must buy this. It is absolutely astounding unlike any game you have ever seen before. | video-games_xbox |
Two words. Zombies. Everywhere. They are darned everywhere, making this almost non-stop fighting them off. No real time to go exploring or sightseeing. Not at first at least. Time-wasting, mindless, yet somewhat addicting fun! To be continued...I'm about to level up!
Okay, the continuation. For XBox one, not many titles out, but needed a first game to try out. This was a gamble, since new releases are always rather expensive and I usually wait for the eventual price to drop at least half. For showing off your next-gen console, don't get your hopes up too high here. Only glints of what may happen once clever developers think of new uses for Kinect. But anyway, the game itself...
What you see on the cover, yes there are crowds of zombies that thick almost everywhere, with replacements coming out of holes in the wall and falling from roofs. With these odds, to me, this was just plain overwhelming and frustrating and annoying as heck. More so at the beginning, where you are hopping across car roofs and grabbing suitcases and other debris to use as weapons. A wrench or pistol is precious, as are the various food items lying around.
It does get tedious and repetetive, but understand, this is part of the game, and it will get easier. You'll learn new skills, find safe zones and get survivors that will fight alongside you. You will also learn to make all kinds of weapons. There's silly weapons too, like the Super Massager, that pierces Zombies with, uh, a double-ended, "massager". I did something stupid and made the Massive Bomb. I placed it in the middle of a huge crowd of zombies. Only I couldn't get away fast enough. Sure, it cleared out everything at least three blocks out, including my vehicle, but I ended up running all the way to a safe house in nothing but my underwear! LMAO! My favorites? The Super Crossbow for crowd control and the ZAR (super assault rifle) for pinpoint.
By the way, there is enough flexibility to make the easiness vary, depending on how you want to finish the game. Don't let me spoil anything, but...
The game does end. No staying or going back to look for missing collectibles, to finish missions or sightseeing! Myself, I have played the main (fairly interesting) story line straight through. Unfortunately, spent too much time looking for collectibles, doing side mission and helping any survivors along the way that I missed escaping. Game over!
At this point you have the choice to start a new game or start at any previous chapter. If you start at a previous chapter, even zero, you keep all the skills and perks you've earned previously. This makes it maybe way too easy, but allows for the completionist gamer. If you do this, you can get the plane ready ahead of schedule. Then you can delay the last main mission and assemble a team of hardcore survivors to guard you while you go on your scavenger hunt! No amorous side missions, this isn't Fallout New Vegas. Happy hunting! | video-games_xbox |
You get what you pay for. Like O. Bui Bui, I also have a computer related degree (a BBA in MIS to be specific). I actually bought this product because of his good review. Unfortunately my experience was a little less than satisfying with the product. First off, I want to state that at my own fault I bought this thinking it operated at 5 ghz instead of just 2.4. I wanted a 5 ghz bridge because my neighbor's phone interferes with my 2.4 freqs (and yes I tried setting my channel to auto and every other static channel) and ultimately knocks my wifi G sigs out forcing me to change the channel on my router. In no way did I take my failure into account with this review though.
The product's design is rather nice cosmetically but it's so small and light that the ethernet cable actually pulls it off of whatever you're placing it on (table or stand). The setup wasn't as bad but I can see where a computer illiterate person might get frustrated (my mom would have never figured out how to set it up). At this point I'm still blindly assuming this is a 5ghz bridge, so I set it up and plug it into my PS3. It works and gets as good a speed as it would if it were hard wired from the router. Then my neighbor got on the phone and my 2.4 ghz internet went out (when this happens my 5 ghz still continues working because it's a dual band) but my laptop's didn't (operates at 5 ghz). I quickly ran to the box of the product and said "doh! It's a f'n 2.4 useless POS! no wonder it was so cheap". Well no biggie right? I switched the channel on my router expecting to have internet. Well all the other devices on 2.4 ghz got there's but not the trendnet bridges... I realized at this point that these devices do not retain setup information (and there are 2 installed at this point with both reacting the same way). So I set them both up again and they worked just as they were when I first installed them. Then to test and make sure it wasn't a fluke, I power cycled both and they would not auto connect; I once again was forced to reconfigure them!!! I have a job where I'm gone for a while and if the power goes out forcing the internet from these to be out until reconfigured, my wife's gonna be pissed because she doesn't know how to reconfigure them.
Verdict: If you never plan on powering down either your router or the bridge, these would work fine. But because it's a pain if you ever do power either one down, I find these retarded especially when there are brands (such as the linksys wet610n) that will retain setup information and autoreconnect when power cycled. BTW, I replaced them with the Linksys WET610N and they work flawlessly at 5ghz or 2.4ghz and I bought them refurbished for only 10 bucks more a piece. | video-games_xbox |
I find this game addictive. I have always gotten a great deal of enjoyment from this game when it was on the PC. I was ecstatic to find it was on the Xbox/Xbox 360 compatibility list and had to pick it up. Sure it's an older game, and some of the graphics are dated. Sure the naval combat isn't close to realistic. No matter, I have always found something addictive about the way this game plays.
There is a lot you can do in this game, whether or not you choose to follow the intended plot. This is one of it's appeals to me. It has a nice map of the Caribbean during the age of high piracy with a large number of towns, cities, and ports that you can visit and explore. You can trade goods between cities and play a more merchant approach if that is your liking. You can upgrade and modify your ship by visiting different ports and cities, and recruit crew to your cause. You can choose which of the four major colonial governments to align with or you can play multiple sides against each other, earning land and titles for deeds. You can even sack towns and cities if you desire conquest. You can amass a fleet of ships, deciding which ones to keep and which to send to the bottom.
Piracy is the only way to gain new ships, which means combat. I guess that is to be expected from a game named Pirates. I rather enjoyed the simplified naval combat, and it felt very much like an arcade shooter in many ways. With careful maneuvering and use of available special shot, you can often take much larger and more powerful vessels with a minimum of damage, adding to your fleet. As you win battles, and sink or capture more ships, you will gain a reputation and soon will sometimes find ships surrendering if you are too close and have fired a first shot.. You are limited in how many ships you can keep in your fleet though, and will have to decide if you are after large cargo capacity, or if you need to transport an army to lay siege to the Caribbean.
Pirates, while having naval battles and sword fighting, does not have much in the way of blood, which makes this a decent game for most any age I feel. It has a good mix of things to do, and highly recommend it for anyone who likes wooden ships and iron men.
I would very much love to see an updated version or more games based on this model with more features. | video-games_xbox |
There is life beyond sports and shooters you know. Okay, I admit that I wanted my gamer's tag the day this thing came out, but I didn't have the money then. Two months later I'm too late...someone else snagged it... oh well. Ultimately I got this because my GameCube had gotten me excited about online gaming, surprising huh? Amazing what a solid Massive Multiplayer Online RPG like Phantasy Star Online will do for you... Amazing how XBox live does not have, and will not have a MMORPG anytime soon. If I had known that, and I should have, but wasn't thinking about anything except getting my Gamer's Tag, I probably would have held off on this purchase.
I'm pumped about XBox live. Between the three consoles XBox definitely has the best online plan, but the problem with it so far is that the games are all sport and shooter titles. I had hoped for a MMORPG, and while there is one that I am aware of in the works, it won't be out until toward the end of the year... meaning I just bought a year subscription to an online plan that I probably will not be using much this year at all.
This also means that my review of this product is subject to change... Microsoft has had a problem with variety all along. XBox almost seems like nothing but sport titles and Sci-Fi based shooters. This lack of variety shows in my ever so slowly building of my XBox collection, where as GameCube is up to 14 titles, PS 2 still dwindles at 8, and XBox at 4, with this peripheral being purchased with the intention of building that collection. Thankfully Capcom will be releasing Capcom VS SNK 2 to XBox with Xbox Live support sometime next month... but aside from that there are simply no other games for XBox live that I'm interested in right now, so needless to say I'm disappointed, but I'm sure that True Fantasy Online will make me change my review for this product, but again that's not until toward the end of the year. | video-games_xbox |
A Flawed Multiplayer Experience with a Over Too-Quick Single Player Campaign. I knew going into this game that the single player campaign was only about 6hrs in total and featured THQ's new code based multiplayer. That being said I have enjoyed the game up until the writing of this review.
The single player campaign, while being short, was enjoyable and the characters and situations entertaining. Experiencing this future version of the United States provided some food for thought as we appear to get closer to a future mirroring this fantasy version. The game's collectibles were a series of newspaper articles about the fall of modern society and sets the backdrop to the story since there is really very little development of the story outside of these texts. You understand the Koreans attacked the US after years of bad luck hammering the states but the reasons as to the why and how are really only fleshed out in these collectibles. The campaign covers 7 chapters and even on the normal difficulty can be done in probably 6hrs with at least another run thru on the guerrilla difficulty for those achievement whores (like myself) which shouldn't tax people used to Call of Duty or the Modern Warfare series.
The bulk of the game longevity seems to be built around the multiplayer. Not having played MW and CoD since its early versions I can't compare the experience but to say it is probably not on par but probably borrows some of the same features. A growing shift in the market has THQ joining the ranks of EA and others trying to discourage the used game market by instituting a 'battle code' to use the multiplayer functionality of the game past the first 5 character levels of which there are 75. My distaste for this 'feature' is irrelevant to this review since i borrowed the game from a friend and purchased the battle code.
To discuss the multiplayer, I have to first discuss the achievements. I am an achievement whore and try to max out the games i can. The single player achievements are easy and make up the bulk of the available achievements, but the multiplayer ones are a pain. Several features have Xbox Live parties playing together. Most people will not have four friends on Live playing Homefront to get the one for that, let alone have a party of 16 for another. If this was Call of Duty I would believe that, but not for this. Most people will have to find a group online to join up with and get it that way. I find these kinds of achievements to be irritating and degrade the end product. One achievement has you maxing out all guns, drones, and modes. This means 200 kills with each weapon, drone and 200 wins in each of the games three multiplayer modes. For a game of a less than exciting multiplayer, this is becoming a unwelcome chore.
The multiplayer as a whole is diverse in that you can customize several different character types from snipers, to tactical, to assault with a main weapon, weapon attachment (scope, silencer, grenade launcher), secondary grenade (emp, white phosphorus, c4, flashbang), then two purchasable skills, and then loadout skills. The purchasable skills are the various drone types, rocket launders, body armor, etc, all purchased using points from capturing flag points, killing enemies or marking targets for others. The loadout skills are things like quicker reload times, cheaper purchasable skills, extra grenades, etc. This system is fairly deep but because you can only modify these loadouts before the game you can't modify to meet the enemy. If you find yourself up against lots of guys using helicopters, you can't change to meet this threat. This can be irritating but most rounds are over to quick to matter in the end.
Most matches end in one of two ways, the team you are fighting against ends up with rocket helicopters and tanks to your team that can't field a return force, or it comes out fairly close. It is more likely that one side will become overwhelmed by the end and find yourself spending most of your time as cannon fodder. I assume this is normal to all multiplayer games but it seems to happen more in this game than others I've played.
The overall multiplayer experience however is plagued with bugs and crashes and according to the office game forums, easy to acquire hacks. on the 360, hacks are not likely to occur but I still experienced several bugs and crashes. Certain actions in the lobby before the game has caused my Xbox to completely lock up and I have to turn it off by flipping the power switch. This happens about every third time I joined a new group lobby to play with. Other bug is the experience display as you level up that for me stays as level 20 approaching level 21 even with my level being 48. The biggest bug I've seen is that some places on the map when you crouch and try and go prone, your character will become stuck in the object you are hiding under. You can't move except to look around and the only way to escape is to die (suicide or otherwise). This kind of thing should have been worked out before the game went gold especially in this day and age of video gaming or at least patched sooner rather than later. There also appears to be some team balancing issues because I've been in series of rounds that appear to end up being one sided round after round.
Overall I found the single player game to be enjoyable but short. The story and lore of the game is deep and thought out with attractive locations and situations but the only complaint is the game seems like it missing a few extra chapters that were probably scraped to sell later as DLC or because the team was reassigned to work on other projects or the multiplayer portion. The multiplayer experience makes up the bulk of the time spent with the game but a series of bugs and flaws in the presentation make for a lack luster experience. My recommendation is that this is a rental or borrow from a friend because the single player you can knock out in a couple of evenings of play and the multiplayer will only set you back $10 for the 'battle code'. A full price purchase just doesn't seem worth it for the quantity of product you are receiving for your buck. Fans of CoD or MW will probably skip this title all together and continue playing those games because I suspect that their experience will leave them lacking.
Rank out 5
Single Player Campaign - 3 (would have been a 4 but a point hit for length)
Multiplayer - 3.5 (for non CoD and MW players probably higher but entertaining none the less)
Achievements - 3 (lots of easy ones related to the single player but a series of near impossible multiplayer ones make the pursuit a chore and lessens the entire experience)
Re-playability - 1 (no point to replay except for achievements since the game is extremely linear)
Final Verdict - Deep single player lore hurt by length with average multiplayer plagued by freezes and bugs that should have been cleaned out in testing. Rent to complete the campaign and test the multiplayer but I can't recommend a full price purchase because I don't see the value. | video-games_xbox |
Whee fun! Wait, this just got real... Really hard. I am really enjoying this game. It's so much fun!
The Story:
The story is alright, not stellar, but not terrible either. I found it engaging enough to watch all of the cut scenes, something that I don't always do.
The Gameplay:
Thank goodness that they fixed the difficult to use controls from the first one. Where the first one was "Oh, great, a ranged weapon that is impossible to aim, let me throw that over there" this one has a ranged system more like a first person shooter does. Hold the left trigger down and you aim the weapon, squeeze the left trigger and you fire the weapon.
Melee weapons are very very enjoyable. They're also fairly easy to use, but hard to aim, so using them while trying to rescue survivors is a little tricky. However, with a bazillion unmodified weapons and 50 combo card weapons for you to create, there is a tool for every task.
The combo cards range from "THIS IS AWESOME!" to "They were obviously running out of ideas here" so some of them are a little hit and miss. However, overall I think they're fantastic. You can strap a chain saw to a kayak paddle and row your way through crowds of zombies. Really? Who wouldn't enjoy that?
You also have access to much cooler vehicles in this one.
For instance, the SUV which is very handy for rescuing survivors and running over zombies. I can generally kill about 1500 with it before it blows up. The key is available in one of the pawn shops, but more about that later.
There are also vehicles that you come across that do not need keys, like golf cats. There is also one vehicle that you can create using a combo card. It's an electric wheel chair with assault rifles attached. Again, who wouldn't have fun with that?
Saving:
Saving is simple, if a little weird. You have save points in the game. These save points are toilets. My guess is that the designers were trying to make a seamless experience and use only things that might actually be found in such a location. Every public place needs a restroom.
Graphics:
The graphics are nothing to write home about. Really. So I won't. However, who cares? Chainsaw kayak paddle.
The zombies:
This game is very easy. And then suddenly it isn't anymore. The initial enemies that you meet just sorta reach out for you as you walk by. They're a little tricky to handle at first when you're slow, but once you level up a bit and get some speed upgrades they aren't bad. And then some stuff happens and you get more difficult to handle enemies. Then it's almost not fun anymore unless you have a vehicle. So save money and get a vehicle. I suggest the SUV and the sports car.
Pawn Shops:
This game has a place where you can buy things! This sounds terrible until you realize that these shops can get you things like keys to vehicles, zombrex, which you need to advance the story, and all sorts of other fun things. Scope them out, see what they have.
Multiplayer:
The multi-player portion of this game is a bunch of mini games called "Terror is Reality". These games are very useful for getting money that you can use in game. I won't go into in depth. When I first played the multi player I thought it was terrible, but I kept playing because I wanted money. Then I kept playing. Then I got alright at them. Then I was bringing in $70,000 to $100,000 for a 15 minute round of TIR. This would take me about an hour in game, considering getting nommed by zombies, etc. Not to mention that you don't have to worry about time running out on your quests.
Overall:
I really enjoy this game a lot more than I thought I would. It's a mindless action game that I play when I want the entire world to die. Everyone has those days. This game is therapeutic. | video-games_xbox |
The law of diminishing returns hits Modern Warfare 3 hard. Soulless is a word that bugs me when brought up during videogame debates. Personal bias, elitist tastes and contrarian attitudes almost always misapply acceptable titles as such. Even lesser games suffering from lackluster design have flashes of brilliance, thanks to the passionate teams coding them. However, with Modern Warfare 3, soulless could not be a more apt description.
On the technical side, Modern Warfare 3 works. The aiming controls are super responsive, movement is fluid and natural, and no crippling glitches that require months of patch work are present. For that, the developers deserve credit. Everything else, not so much.
I'll admit that I'm a Call of Duty 4 late straggler, but the praise for developer Infinity Ward's first non-WWII CoD is well deserved. Its campaign mode threw numerous FPS conventions out of the window, and brought several memorable set pieces few players will forget. The nuke wiping out the marines, the tense post-Chernobyl sniper mission, the AC-130 segment with the aloof pilots passively blowing up infantry from the sky (now made scarier by a real incident mirroring the same cold detachment from its pilots); CoD4 was a marvel. Infinity Ward clearly wanted to tell a compelling story, partly inspired by actual conflicts and partly jettisoned from anti-war movies. Whether the anti-war angle worked or not is up for debate, but the passion was present. The same goes for Modern Warfare 2, despite its disjointed campaign and unbalanced multiplayer.
With Modern Warfare 3, the game never escapes feeling over calculated and derivative. Take the campaign mode. Although CoD4 and MW2 had moments of heavily scripted linearity, MW3 shamelessly embraces it. During one segment, I missed two enemies after mowing down a force of thirty, and the next section halted until I found and killed them. Any sense of freedom constantly gets yanked back, which gives you the impression that you're sleepwalking through the game. MW3's set pieces try hard to re-enact CoD4's magic, but fails constantly. Even the strongest sequences don't live up to MW3's predecessors, though none rubbed me as wrong as the "controversial moment" inserted into campaign mode. Obviously, the segment's supposed to evoke MW2's "No Russian", which showed the frightening consequences of completely ditching morality for the sake of national security. MW3's version? I...guess it represents war's inevitable collateral damage to civilians? Too bad it comes off as crass and cheap. The same goes to the anti-war quotes brought up after you die. In CoD4, they worked as slight jabs against warfare without being blunt. Here? They're banal history blurbs that flash right before you annihilate troops with an AC-130.
MW3's narrative is at least more cohesive as MW2's, but say goodbye to any of CoD4 and MW2's nuances for a WWIII fit for a Michael Bay film. For those solely interested in MW3 to see what happens to "Price" and "Soap", the US troops forced to go rogue after General Shepherd painted them as traitors at the end of MW2, you'd get more out of watching Youtube clips and reading a wiki. Besides, you never really control them. Instead, you're some grunt named "Yuri" tagging along with Price and Soap, only unified in their hatred for cliched villain Makarov. This embodies what's wrong with MW3's campaign: instead of being a legendary badass, you're a straggler, panting and struggling to keep up with the big boys. Yes, Metal Gear Solid 2 did this too, but that was deliberate, as opposed to MW3's hand holding.
At least multiplayer should make up for the disappointing campaign, right? Well, MW3 tweaks the multiplayer to balance out CoD's more unfair aspects, mainly by splitting the killstreaks into three systems. Assault is the killstreak system we've gotten used to since MW2. Recon, like the death streaks, is an anti-frustration measure for players susceptible to dying too frequently. Since Recon killstreaks don't reset after death, even the 8-19 player can launch support airstrikes. Specialist killstreaks are for the hard-to-exterminate experts, who can use a customizable perk system to their advantage. The question isn't whether the new killstreak system works, but why it wasn't added to MW2's addictive but very flawed multiplayer.
It certainly would have been for the better, because MW3's multiplayer levels are atrociously designed. The architecture feels ripped from better CoD maps, and the branching paths confuse more than anything. Forget about strategic planning or even effective sprinting, because you'll get shot in the back a lot. Imagine your least favorite CoD4/MW2 maps, worsen their crappier qualities, and those are the MW3 maps. The new weapons are carbon copies of old favorites and the modes have barely changed. Kill Confirmed's focus on grabbing dead foes' dog tags adds a nice twist to the usual Team Deathmatch formula. Otherwise, it's the same CoD multiplayer, only more watered down.
Spec Ops and the new two-player Conquest mode round out the game with co-op features. Spec Ops is mildly enjoyable for gamers craving co-op missions, but it's not worth the $60 package. Conquest is another survival mode variant, though I honestly enjoyed this more than the rest of MW3. The problem is that Conquest will inevitably be compared to Gears of War 3's updated Horde mode, which destroys Conquest in every way, and is not limited to two people. A shame, as it's the only bright spot in a sea of murky unoriginality.
What's baffling is how MW3 turned out to be so god awfully bland. Game developers with good intentions inadvertently crapping out a terrible game, I can understand, but talented developers forging a forgettable sequel is...depressing. Perhaps it's a result of Infinity Ward using the now outdated Quake 3 engine yet again, and it shows, especially from the dated visuals. MW2 clearly pushed the engine to its limits, so maybe it's time to start from scratch. Treyarch's Black Ops, while not groundbreaking, did a better job keeping the CoD formula from getting stale. Expansive customization, fun and hilarious wager modes, a mildly addictive zombie mode, and an intriguing, if occasionally ludicrous, Cold War based narrative. MW3, in comparison, feels like a huge step backwards.
Then again, Infinity Ward shouldn't be blamed entirely for this mechanical effort. The internet long documented the tension between publisher Activision and Infinity Ward over the latter company's unpaid royalties for MW2. It's safe to say that Activision's misdeeds forced Infinity Ward's best and brightest to leave and become Respawn Entertainment. A doubly ironic move, since fleeing EA after creative differences is how Infinity Ward got started in the first place; only to run from Activision and go right back to EA (yeah it makes no sense to me either). The split already put Modern Warfare 3 in a negative light, along with the annual Call of Duty releases and the CoD Elite service, which solidifies the series' status as a money train. Sledgehammer Games even had to assist the weakened Infinity Ward to make MW3. Even stating all this, none of this would have mattered if MW3 turned out to be phenomenal. Instead, what resulted is a pale imitation, void of creative drive and direction.
Note to publishers. This is what happens when talented development teams get neutered for quick profit. | video-games_xbox |
Used to work half the time, now even less. When I first purchased an XBox, I was attracted by its hard drive memory and the ability to download the contents of any music compact disc.
Downloaded music is known as a "custom soundtrack", and games that include the "Custom Soundtracks" indicator at the bottom use your music to better enhance the gameplay experience.
XBox Live itself may be the best online medium, with voice on most of its Live games, and a wonderfully competitive yet adaptive environment that, varying depending upon the game, helps you to find players at your skill level.
But, XBox 360's Live has better features, including an online "gamercard" for you to show off.
After owning the system for years, I began to get a series of "this disc isn't compatible with XBox" or "this disc may be damaged or dirty" pop-ups, and in the rare case that the game may actually work it will probably begin to suffer dramatic framerate reduction, freeze-ups (both temporary and more often permanent) sudden pop-ups like the latter mentioned above but during gameplay, FMV playback at unusually high speeds, environment-loading problems (one time when playing The Godfather I ran into a "wall"-which was really just thin air that leads to another area on the game. After a minute, the environment ahead of me began to finally load)
Unusually, in spite of the glitches and failed boot-up attempts experienced with other games, XBox Live Arcade, and online game store that allows you to play a selection of games (including classics like Ms. Pac-Man, Gauntlet, Smash TV, Dig Dug, Galaga, and Pole Position) and upload your score online.
Some XBox Live Arcade games do include multiplayer, others like the readily-available Ms. Pac-Man simply upload your high score online.
My XBox has experienced difficulty playing various games for the past two or three years, and my sister's XBox, when playing the game Obscure, suddenly lost all of its hard drive memory.
Imagine reaching a far point on a videogame, only to attempt saving and seeing an error message, with all earlier saves literally eradicated.
Or, hosting a game online, only for the game to present an error message ending the gameplay for all of the players in your game.
There used to be a rumor that the casing of the XBox was durable enough to withstand a bullet-well, if only the system's innards were as reliable, it'd be a decent system.
When my GameCube gave me disc-read errors, I simply swabbed the lens with the tip of a Q-tip and the system worked fine afterwards.
Accessing the XBox's lens requires unscrewing a series of different parts, some very fragile, and isn't recommended, especially when you're worried that the high scores you have set online, and your gamertag (screen name) thus, could be lost when attempting to repair your XBox.
And, of course, you'd be voided any warranty provided by Microsoft.
Trying to get the XBox to work has been a nightmare, so much so that I literally dreaded turning the system off because I knew that it might not play that same game again, or if it does it might skip, or suffer other glitches.
If you're in the market for systems, I recommend sticking with Nintendo's line; GameCube, GBA, etc.
Blessed Be | video-games_xbox |
Great fun, horribly manufactured. This is one great console that will provide you with hours upon hours of fun... if it lasts that long.
I recieved this product a month ago, and I have to say I absolutely love it. I'm a non-biased (or non-"fanboy") gamer with more than a couple decades of experience (going all the way back to the Atari 2600), and I had all three consoles last gen. I was faced with the tough decision of the Xbox 360 vs the PS3. After weighing the pros and cons of each, I decided that the Xbox just has more games I want to play... and I allowed myself to be fooled by the "Falcon Chip" (google it) fix to what is called the "Red Ring Of Death" problem (console failure to the layperson).
I've gotten more enjoyment out of this thing than I had even expected. Games like BioShock, The Darkness, Dead Rising and more are stellar for a single-player experience, and the Live online experience is just phenominal in games like Call Of Duty 4. I gave this console five stars in the fun department, and it's well deserved. The exclusive games are great (and as of right now are many more than what the PS3 has, but that's changing), and the online experience is above and beyond what any other console can offer right now.
Now for the bad news. This console froze on me for the first time after about 5 days of play. Let me stress that I have the console in a wide open area with no other objects or walls blocking airflow, and nothing generating heat around it. Even the power "brick" is given more than enough space in my setup. A week later, two more freezes within 10 minutes. The other day, it froze again. I have been told and read from numerous sources that when the console freezes, it's an early sign of console failiure. Apparently, my console was failing right out of the box... and it's onlly a matter of time before I have to send it back to microsoft to get it fixed (or even get sent an older model refurbished instead, which may not even come with the HDMI ports!).
Of course, the repairs are covered under warranty, but I have to say that if I spend $350 on a console (not to mention upwards of $200-300 I've spent on games and accessories) I shouldn't have to send it back in the first few months for repairs, and have to wait a month to get it back. Also, Microsoft is claiming to have fixed this problem, but obviously have not... which tells me they're just lying to get people like me who were scared off by the failure rates to take the plunge (yeah, major corporation lying... I should have known better in the first place).
This review is running long, but I would like to add (though I believe this bundle is no longer being sold) that whoever wrote in their review that these are old consoles that Amazon just stuck "GO PRO" stickers on was wrong. "GO PRO" is printed right on the box (not a sticker) and these ARE the new "Falcon Chip" models.
In summation, this console is as fun as it gets, but buyer beware... it seems to be a ticking time bomb just waiting to fail, and from talking to others who have bought one, it will. Multiple times. If you can handle the headache of the repair process and dealing with customer service reps who can barely speak english, you'll have a great time with the 360. If not, the PS3 keeps getting cheaper, and gets more and more games as the year goes on. I know that I'm seriously considering ebaying the Xbox and getting a PS3... just wish the Xbox wasn't so darn fun. | video-games_xbox |
SEGA Needs to do More Like This. I was born in 1979 I've played almost every home game console
Been gaming longer then the Nes/Mega Drive
Been gaming longer then the SNES/ Genesis
Been gaming longer then the PSOne
I grew up during the 16 bit war
so the Golden Axe Series means a lot to me and hold certain memories
I'm no Generation me hipster gamer that thinks 60fps makes a game
I'm not sure how I even missed this but, Golden Axe: Beast Rider is a solid update to a classic game
all the clowns trashing it I'm sure still go to school and don't even know what a kill screen is
If you are a child of the 1980's you should get a kick out of this game it's surprisingly really good for what it is
The Music is Ultra HQ (the sound mix and all the sound f/x is great it's been a long time since I've heard a Sega game with this kind of HQ Music besides the last couple of Virtua Fighter titles
Graphics:
Visually it's a very strong looking title i think this is the first time Golden Axe has gone into fully 3D Models (i could be wrong?!?)
It looks very good and it has lots of blood and gore something the earlier 16bit titles never had!
Gameplay" It's a old school hack and slash set in a 3D World (Is it on par with a God of War?) No but, it's decent for what it is
The biggest problems with the game (no map)
the controls are very much dated (they are stiff and feel off But, if it The Walking Dead game by Telltale Games that gets a major pass i forgot)
They are Tank controls I'm not sure if you can go into the menu and change it though never tried
the controls don't in no way brake the over all performance of the game once you get use to it
it's ok but, just a thorn in the side
I picked this up for less then $5.00 so there is nothing to c/o majorly about it
It's not perfect but, it's very enjoyable even with the flaws it's a Newer Golden Axe title from a Company that once owned half the market share globally in the gaming industry Nostalgia Factor 7.5/10 | video-games_xbox |
Good but far from perfect. Verdict - Wait for price drop or buy used. This is a great game. For those who haven't played previous Far Cry titles I'm sure you would rate it 5 stars, but for those who have, this is a 3 star title and I will tell you why.
Gameplay - Fluid and fun. Could have used more weapon choices. 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics - Beautiful but no better than previous titles such as Far Cry 4. With the next game in the series you should be able to expect more and have those expectations met or at least show an attempt to do so which was not done. Also features some very rigid character animations when in combat. 3 out of 5 stars.
Map Size - Far Cry titles have always done well here but I was let down. While not quite half the size of previous Far Cry titles, it was close. 3 out of 5 stars.
Story - Here was the biggest letdown. There is no attempt to develop the protagonist into anything. Nor is there even the faintest attempt to create an antagonist which has always been a huge focus of previous Far Cry games. There is no story at all with the exception of you developing your skills via meeting people. 2 out of 5 stars.
Sound - This is a criticism of Ubisoft... No English, really? In every game you have made I believe was featured in English even when the specific time period or location didn't warrant it. I never felt it broke from the story but rather added to it with further engagement. Previous Far Crys in other countries to Assassin Creeds... All English. Now nothing but a feeble attempt at a made up language that sounds like Robert Downy Jr. in the movie Tropic Thunder when talking to the Vietnamese drug dealers with Jack Black in tow tied to a Caribou, which was hilarious when first heard and immediately made me think to that movie, but grew tiring when suffering through a whole game of it. 2 out of 5 stars.
Overall we have a 3 star title. Should you buy it though? I say wait for a price drop or buy it used. It is worth playing but there are great titles coming within the next week to a month from The Division (also Ubisoft) to Fallout 4 DLC to keep you entertained till this comes down in price. | video-games_xbox |
Straight up ACTION. Hell yeah man, Max Payne 2. The original was ingenious in a simplistic way and Maxy Payne 2 brings back all of the good things, fixes the bad, and brings more things to the table. This game is awesome, definitely worth the $5 it cost buying it used from Amazon.
It's been 2 years since the events of the first game, Max has cleared his name and is now working as a detective for the NYPD. During a crime scene investigation he comes across Mona Sax, the girl from the first game he thought had died. They run into contracted killers dressed as 'cleaners', they must escape and find out who wants both of them dead.
The game started off a bit slower than the first, there's a lot more story this time around. The developer's tried to beef up the story to make the game a more complete package. I remember playing through this years ago and thinking it blew away the original, but this time around I didn't see it.... until it got to the point where Max and Mona are working together. It's almost as if the game decides you've had enough 'training' with easy kills and switches it up to some dope stuff. Max and Mona are at a construction site, running through an empty building but they're in different locations. There's a bunch of guys hiding behind pallets, boxes, pillars, and when you go in there guns blazing you just see stuff flying everywhere. The bullet time lasts much longer this time around in order to encourage you to get into the action. You also get to play as Mona at times, as well as be accompanied by her or other characters throughout the game.
When you activate the bullet time, the screen turns into a sepia tone and everything slows down except your aim. Imagine taking cover when you come across a room with 5 guys, you throw a grenade from behind cover, activate bullet time and rush in there mowing guys down with your uzis. Max is out in the open and has to reload so he extends his arms out and does a crouched 360 spin like in the Matrix, which helps avoid shots. Those that turned to run away are caught by the grenade blast. Nice.
The environments are much better this time around and you encounter more enemies which leads to more action. In this respect, Max Payne 2 is much better than the original. Still no puzzles, thank God, just pure action.
Gone are the dream sequences where you had to balance on a blood trail in a space of nothingness. I guess people complained enough. Instead, the dream sequences are back but you're simply running through a hospital. At one point you encounter a double of yourself who has been locked up and accused of murder. He pleads his case as he runs away from you.
"I've been FRAMED!"
hahaha! That's classic, the voice acting and story are the same as in Max Payne. I'm glad that I was buzzed for that one. The story got kind of involved with conspiracies from different characters from the first game, I found it hard to connect all the dots. The part of the story that made sense to me were the events there were currently happening. Regardless, the cut scenes with the story board illustrations were even better and gave the game personality. Max still has dope lines:
"I was compelled to give him back his gun.... one bullet at a time"
I can keep going off on the good things, there's plenty of health available, no shortage of guns and ammo, the quick-save feature guarantees you don't have to replay any area just because you died. It always feels like you're making progress and never felt like a chore playing it. When you beat the game, you unlock harder difficulties, the 'New York Minute' mode, and a survival mode where you have to stay alive while fighting endless enemies. It's dope. When you beat the game in the hardest setting, you'll get a different ending.
I can't end this without pointing this out: As the title indicates, this is the "Fall of Max Payne". Quickly you'll see why: he stopped being OTFABS. It's almost hard to believe. A lot of the perdition he gets himself into is because he's whipped. Most of the time I was in disbelief, "What the hell man, don't do that! You gotta be OTFABS! Ah, well no choice but to kill all these guys now." If he were to remain OTFABS the game would have ended in the first act. Max goes through perdition. | video-games_xbox |
A definitive experience on Xbox One. When Sunset Overdrive was first announced, I thought "hmmm, perhaps it's gonna be like Infamous...i'll pass"...but once I played it...and here's my review-
Graphics-
The graphics in this game are amazing. Make sure you play this on a capable TV and I'd definitely suggest larger than the standard 32 inchers out there.
The characters and enemies pop with bright but soft, pastel-esque colors, while some game bosses like the Giant Fizzco bot have an alluring Pixar quality about them.
The frame rate was solid with no dips even when things got hectic. However, upon closer inspection there are some graphical oddities like some fires move at literally 3-5 fps while other fires are incredibly fluid. During a cut scene with my character, I noticed the hair moving on it's own.(which only happened once throughout the game) Other than those minor quirks, there's not much if anything to nitpick about this game.
It's colorful, with great artstyle,and bursting with detail. One last thing that I thought was extra cool...was the fact that every time you die and respawn on the game, you respawn differently each time, be it coming out of a mummy's sarchophagus and performing an Egyptian dance, a UFO can drop you off, you can rise from your grave, get dropped off by the game's bad guys, slide down a rope Mission Impossible style and more.
Score- 9.8/10
Sound and Music-
I loved the sound effects and voice acting. This game tends to have lots of funny, tongue-in-cheek humor delivered with such detail by the cast. Explosions sound beefy, weapons sound like they have impact. The soundtrack, while probably not my cup of tea, certainly isn't bad, but nothing to scream about. It boils down to having an Indie-rock/alternative/pop sound, but also changes depending on the mission. (such as one that featured "bad ass spy music"). Overall, I liked the sound.
Score- 9/10
Gameplay-
Sunset Overdrive's an open world game that challenges you on being stylish with combat by performing tricks such as grinding, bouncing, wall running, dodge rolling and so on. But depending on how stylish you are in this game will result in you getting bonuses such as increased firepower, explosive fire power, higher leaping ability, melee bonuses and so on. What you get rewarded with in game will depend on what amps you have equipped on your character.
Speaking of character, there's character customization, which I really like. You make a character and gradually unlock or buy clothes, melee weapons, hair, tattoos, shoes, weapons and so on. Wanna wear a turban or pimp hat? Why not? How about dressing up like a samurai or a cheerleader? No problem. The game's literally loaded with so many items that it's worth playing just to customize your character to your heart's content.
The in-game combat is fresh and intuitive. It's also free form ala Jet Grind Radio style but better being that there's no restriction in how you play the game other than the FOURTH WALL invisible walls that are labeled which are wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy off the map.
The world is pretty big and in addition to you upgrading your character, you'll discover bases, upgrade bases, meet lots of allies and take on main, optional and side missions that are generously peppered throughout the map.
Without spoiling the story, the plot boils down to a drink called Overcharge that has mutated the city, whilst your character and the few remaining play heroes.
In addition to the already impressive and huge campaign, there's also a CHAOS SQUAD mode, which is simply an online mode/competition/co-op mode.
Overall, I highly recommend buying this game. The first half will consist of fetch quests, escort missions, and base defense, but there are a few epic boss fights, while the second half of the game makes it all worth it. It has loads of play value thanks to all the side missions, loot, unlockables and discoveries...basically, I couldn't say more without spoiling the game, but again, I highly, highly, highly, recommend buying sunset overdrive.
Score- 10/10 | video-games_xbox |
The Spiritual Follow up to Smuggler's Run--in some ways. Disclaimer: this is not a normal review.
This is actually a specialized review, but for those searching for what I am searching, it will answer the question. The question is: where can I get that same fun, free feeling that I got when I played Smuggler's Run for the PS2?
Smuggler's Run was a great driving and off-roading game for the PS2 that I loved and still love to this day. The "game" itself is not really a racing game, but more of a chasing game where the police try to catch you while you traverse large, complex-for-the-era landscapes and it's really fun. But what I loved most about the game was the free play mode where you could just roam about and explore the environment. Moreover, you could do this on a split-screen with a friend. It was just plain fun to cruise around the hills and paths, splash in the puddles and crash into each other: a mindless, zen-like state of pleasure and freedom.
Since then, I've been looking for a follow up to the game on the XBOX 360 or PS3... and I hadn't really found one. There are some small forum posts around the net that ask this very question, so I started there. They recommended Burnout: Paradise which is really fun and does let you cruise around the city freely, but does not let you go anywhere in the horizon like an off-roading game does.
Then there is Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. So much fun! So fast and exciting! But again, the exploration is pretty limited to the roads, so I would say you can cruise around but not really explore.
Then I tried Pure, a very fun game that is best summarized as SSX in an ATV. I loved the graphics and hoped for some exploration possibilities but it won't let you off the track...
DiRT2 is also insanely beautiful and I did like the mechanics of racing, but this really is a RACING game only, and there was no exploration in the off times...
Which brings us to FUEL. I was so excited about this game! It seemed to be EXACTLY what I wanted, with huge maps and changing weather and even a neat-soundings story... but I was pretty sad when I played it. The graphics were really crummy, and the mechanics of playing were simply not fun. The environments were BIG, but not that interesting... I only played a few hours and was simply not interested to continue.
Okay, all that said, enter BAJA. I had low hopes for this one and am so excited to be pleasantly surprised! First off, the graphics are good enough--not DiRT2 good, but really nice. Second, the controls are really great! Floaty and surreal, yes, but very much like Smuggler's run which I would describe as "arcade like"--it really works in the game. Above all, this game is FUN! My brother and I did some split-screen games and ended up playing for 5 hours without stopping. We were laughing and laughing, and sort of in shock at how much fun it was. We did some races (which are verrrrry long, longer than I'd like, but STILL manage to be fun!), did the Hill Climbing which is neat, and then, most of all, did lots of free roaming. The environments are well-done and there are lots of little easter eggs to discover. I found a Tony Montana-like house in the desert with a big globe that said "The World is Mine". We found a "Desert Playground". And we found some jumps that looked impossible, but after many runs were were able to clear them.
With no exaggeration, this game is the most fun I've experienced in YEARS. Just a pure joy to play and experience, no pressure, no "Scripted Sequences", and the ability to share it with a friend on the split screen. Certainly this is not for everyone, but for those searching, you can stop here... | video-games_xbox |
Update of my review: THIS GAME IS UNPLAYABLE. I wanted to update my opinion this game because of glitches that were present and unfortunately now notorious among gamers. I had previously given this game 3 stars just because I've been a huge fan of the "Battlefield" series especially with both Bad Company games and Battlefield 3 from 2011. I was very excited for "Battlefield 4" since I was still playing the multiplayer of it's predecessor "Battlefield 3" long after finishing the campaign mode of that very game. Since I was excited for BF4, I was hoping for another great addition to the franchise.
Sadly, now that months have gone since the original game came out, and there are so many technical problems with the entire game, that couldn't be any farther from the truth. I had previous defended this game for a while as I had enjoyed it despite the technical issues that had surrounded it.
However, thanks to some 'patches' and DLC issues, the games functionality has now deteriorated to the point that it now actually freezes up the entire console to where I had to restart the entire system as many as six times in a single day. I don't know what on Earth is going on at EA, DICE, or whatever companies were involved in the production and release of "Battlefield 4" but this game's glitches and terrible lag issues have now been compounded to the point that they are now virtually irreparable and killed anything that I previously liked with the game.
First off, the graphics take way too long to load up. I found myself having to wait in order for the graphics to load up right as the iron sights on the respective weapons were nothing more than 'opaque plates' that blocked the view of the target enemy players. But that's not the worst of the issues. At least when it finally loads up, I can actually play the game and have a good time. Right?
WRONG! Beyond just that, the game engine's are so messed up. I've lost track of how many times I've aimed the damn gun at the enemy players and the gun just will not fire, even after I pressed the button. Then there's the problem of no hit-markers. I can't tell you how much this has just about ruined the entire game experience.
The campaign version has beautiful graphics but the damn game will not save over and if you turn off the console or switch to multiplayer, the campaign mode has to be completely restarted. This literally puts entire weapon categories out of the question. There is NO excuse for this kind of glitch to go on this long! NONE! I've unlocked all the weapons from the Co-Op version of BF3 and for the most part, are fun to play multiplayer with. Yet they are out of reach due to this horrendous glitch that deletes the campaign saves. I had to restart the campaign mode at least seven times because of the saves being lost. I finally simply gave up on the campaign mode. This was the first time I ever truly gave up on a campaign mode of a video game in over 15 years.
Finally, and likely the two most inexcusable glitches that have turned BF4 into a horrendous pile of electronic cyber-debris is that the first is the graphics suddenly turn into a bizarre palette of psychedelic colors similar to when a camera does not work properly and all of the environments in the games servers turns into a visually-disorienting screen full of colored shapes. Even aiming down the sights, such as sniper rifles gives you an opaque shape of colors that obscure the targets. There is no excuse for this! It is 2014 and these graphics at times looks either like 2003 or earlier-quality (no offense to Battlefield 1943) or like some amateur's prototype beta that was made in someone's bedroom computer. The second, and ultimately fatal glitch is that the entire game freezes up along with the entire console, which can only be dealt with by shutting off the console and restarting. This happened as many as eight times in one day for me and finally after a second consecutive day of this happening at least six times within a single day, I have had enough of dealing with this.
As I said earlier, I have no idea what on Earth is going on at EA but there was zero, I repeat, ZERO excuse for screwing up so badly on handling this game, especially a game that is part of a series as popular and loved as "Battlefield" is.
I gave this game many chances hoping that something would be done to make this game finally worthy of my time and functional again but as mentioned earlier, too many instances of it freezing up, and potentially damaging the console's very system, has made BF4 into a gaming disaster of near-monumental proportions. Much worse than "Aliens:Colonial Marines" and worse than any other EA title, BF4 has left me incredibly angry and let down on all fronts. I had very high expectations for another great additions to the Battlefield saga but this game and all of it's horrible glitches has really damaged my faith in EA, DICE, and the Battlefield series. There were other games in the past that had problems but eventually were fixed and previous disasters were finally made playable. Not BF4. The game was glitchy when it came out but the problems have only gotten worse since and now after so much anguish, I'm ready just move on to other games.
It pains me to say this but BF4 could just about cause greater damage to the Battlefield series than even "Medal of Honor: Warfighter" which I actually enjoyed, did to the "Medal of Honor" series over a year earlier. "Medal of Honor: Warfighter" did not deserve the harsh criticism it got. "Battlefield 4" deserves to be taken out of circulation, the entire EA/DICE house needs to be cleaned out, a fresh new crew needs to be brought in, and either "Bad Company 3" needs to be released or else an entirely new Battlefield spin-off series needs to be started in order to salvage this franchise as BF4 is hands down, the worst handled game I've ever dealt with and probably one of the worst games to have infected my console.
I'm so angry right now, that the Battlefield series has been damaged, if not nearly killed, by such a crushing and ignominious disaster such as this. Avoid "Battlefield 4" and stick with BF3. Even "Need for Speed: Rivals", as problematic as that was, was light years above this.
Now excuse me while I go back to playing both "Bad Company" games and BF3 and try to erase this disaster from my console and make it a painful chapter that has finally closed in my gaming history. EA/DICE has a huge mess to clean up from. | video-games_xbox |
Don't just read the hype, PLAY THIS GAME NOW. Brothers in Arms is as much a tribute to WWII vets as it is to gamers of the genre. I've experienced all WWII games, and while you cannot mistake the atmosphere, nothing compares to the realism portrayed by this game. The game has combined the strategy and squad based action of Full Spectrum Warrior with the story, style and feel of Band of Brothers. It's a beautiful mix.
The realism is unsurpassed. Imagine a first person shooter without a crosshair and add the fact that if you want to really hit what you're aiming at, then you have look down your weapon to engage your target. The sounds, the looks, the dialogue are all incredible. The dialogue may be unrefined (meaning bad language), but it is a squad-based "military" tactical simulator. The game maintains it's realism throughout.
Without giving too much away, the game places you deep in the shoes of a squad leader for the 101st. It just so happens that those shoes are standing "in the door" getting ready to jump into France on D-Day. Everything you experience from that point on is exactly that... an experience, especially as join your Brothers in Arms.
After reading previous reviews and playing the game, I must say only one review seems off here. Even the reviewer mentions his experience in the military, thus questioning the Non-Commissioned Officer's role and responsibilities on the combat field. Without sounding too bold, once you find yourself in a situation that would determine your life and the life of your men, then anything is possible. The unbelievable becomes believable. Personally, 16 years in the military and two combat tours help realize that.
This game plays well on experiences like that, reportedly drawing a lot of the games realism from individual war journals. The game strives hard to achieve a sense of brothership and it succeeds. Final word is that if you like this style of game, BUY IT. If you have any doubts, BUY IT and let your own experience speak for itself. | video-games_xbox |
one of my all time favorites. Perhaps i am way too late in writing this review but nonetheless i'm writing one anyway! I remember seeing previews of Star Wars: KOTOR and thinking how incredible the game looked. I bought it when it came out which was a few years ago now and couldn't stop playing it. And here it is 2007 and i'm playing it again....Basically KOTOR is by far the best RPG ive ever played and why this game hasn't spawned more sequels is beyond me....but i'll get to that later.....My favorite thing about this game is the dialogue and being able to choose your own words, something you don't see to often in xbox games. Also the ability to be light or dark side makes the game even better.....i have played through this game about 4 times now, twice on the light side and twice on the dark. The first time i played this game i chose to take the path of the dark side simply because i had been denied that ability in previous games and put simply, i thought it would be fun to be the bad guy for a change....the game is incredibly realistic though in that some of the dark side dialogue will make you laugh and sometimes the things you say will leave you feeling somewhat guilty...I mainly just enjoyed picking on Carth the whole game though. You'll find that on the path of the dark side it is much easier to get what you want and personally i think it is much more fun...for instance, rather than having to do some long task for someone you can just kill them and move on...At one point you can dance with some girl to try and help win some audition but you can ruin it by taking a dive...the funny part is afterwards she confronts you about it and you can say right to her face "Look! You just weren't good enough to make the cut, Deal with it!!!" Or when Carth compains about being left out of the loop you can can just go "Aw, poor baby need some filling in?" which really irratates him...There are a million other situations similar to that though that i could talk about here. Also there are so many subplots in this game its crazy. In a good way that is....for example, you'll find that if you play as a male character you can sometimes be flirtatious with Bastilla in the things you say and if you keep it up long enough she will eventually show signs of possibly having feelings for your character, although i don't believe she ever comes right out and says it. Its just one of the little things that make this game much more interesting and like i said before, realistic...as many people have mentioned before the HK-47 droid is also very funny and if you're playing on the dark side i think you'll find him to be your best friend. He calls everyone a meatbag, and he never argues with your decisions, something Carth is all too annoying about doing....
You'll find that in this game there are so many places you can go as you can travel between worlds once you get the ebon hawk. mind you, there are only about 4 or 5 but thats still pretty good i think. There is Tatooine, which is basically a giant desert similar to the world Luke Skywalker from the movies lived on. (forgive me star wars fans, but the name of that planet has slipped my mind)....then there is Kashykk a huge forest, Korriban the Sith World, and Manaan which is a giant ocean. I'll be honest, i kind of hate manaan because if you say one mean word to someone you are fined like 200 credits. You'll have to play the game to understand fully....
You can play Pazaak with different people, which is basically like 21 black jack except 20. And you can race swoop bikes for credits, it's more fun than it sounds trust me. :)
I mentioned earlier that i thought this game should have more sequels and that it should...there was the 1, Star Wars: KOTOR 2 but it was somewhat of a disappointment...I mean, it was good i thought and some things were even better about it but the ulta-catchy dialogue from the 1st one was missing and that in itself makes this game worth playing. I just think they could have made that game much much better than they did but still i'm shocked we haven't seen more from Knights of the Old Republic. Maybe one day we'll see an even better edition on the 360. It's doubtful, but it would be awesome to say the least.
Other than that i could write pages apon pages or of reasons to buy this game but i feel i have already written too much....If you haven't played this game yet go buy it immediately! Also, it IS bc compatible so you can play it on your 360 provided you have xbox live. enjoy! | video-games_xbox |
Third Person Shooting Perfected. I played and thoroughly enjoyed Max Payne 2. Remedy did a fantastic job, and I was disappointed that the fall of Max Payne went mostly unnoticed. Thankfully, Rockstar noticed, and if the second game was Max's fall, than the third starts with him at rock bottom. Max Payne 3 revels in its status as Noir, and that aspect defines every aspect of its presentation. Color shifts, dynamic camera work, voice overs, and bullet time are all dripping in hard boiled coating and it is wonderful. The atmosphere is constant and pervasive, doing as much story telling as the spot on voice acting. From the wealthy,decadent clubs and yachts to the filthy and hopeless streets, the level design never fails to impress. Thankfully, the gameplay is even better.
What you point at, Max can shoot. You would be surprised how many games fumble on that basic concept, but Max Payne takes it a step further. Bullet time and shoot dodge combine to make a combat engine that, when done correctly, is not just fast,fun, and efficient; it can be downright beautiful. There is a fully functional cover system, that you will most definitely need, but this is not a cover based shooter. Kick down a door, run into a room, activate bullet time, and head shot the first three closets bad guys. When the other five men with guns react, shoot dodge behind the nearest cover, taking out another two as you go. Not letting grass grow under their feet, the enemy AI will be on you in an instance. As they leave cover to flank you, surprise them buy jumping onto the desk you're hiding behind, and shoot dodge forward, diving through the air taking one guy out. You look for the other guy, but he managed to get behind you. You practically pirouette while still in mid air, doing a full one eighty and pump him full of lead before hitting the ground and sliding across the floor, still on your back, guns raised and ready for the next wave of bad guys that come flooding through the door. Thankfully, you didn't waste precious time getting up. Still prone on your back, you unload on the door, taking several of them out, sending the rest into cover, giving you valuable time to do the same. The scenario I just described was not one of the games many fantastic scripted events; that is every encounter.
There are many scripted events, none of which I will spoil, that give the game a summer blockbuster feel that never gets old. The characters you are close to, you will grow attached to. The enemies are ruthless and you will come to hate them. The story is strong but nothing revolutionary. There are golden gun parts to find, grinds ( or stunts) to perform, and every level is different. There are only a couple of problems.
Firstly, Max Payne has never been an easy game, but Max Payne 3, at times, can be downright brutal. Granted, I did play on hard my first time through, but there are still two difficulty levels above that! Casual gamers, or those not great at shooters, be warned; this game is absolutely unforgiving. The second problem ties directly into the first. You will die in this game, many, many times. A part of dying is waiting for the considerable load times, and having to watch the many, wonderfully done cutscenes over, and over, and over again. There is an option to skip some of them, but by the time the game has loaded enough to do so, they will be practically over. Max Payne is not a short game, but the frequent deaths couple with the soul draining load times and cutscenes will make it feel much longer, and for many, will deter repeat playthroughs.
I have not played the multiplayer myself, but have heard good things. if I ever have occasion to dip my toe in, I will update this review.
Bottom line, Max Payne is the most polished, challenging, rewarding, third person shooter out today, and you owe it to yourself to experience it. A definite buy. | video-games_xbox |
WRETCHED CUSTOMER SERVICE. YOU CANNOT GET MUCH WORSE. WORST TECH EXPERIENCE/CUSTOMER SERVICE EXPERIENCE IN MY EXPERIENCE!!!!! BE FOREWARNED.
like a lot of folks, i suddenly found my optical drive noisy and unable to read disks. so i sent the machine back for a repair. and wow, what a catastrophe that has been.
i sent it back on 3/17. today is 3/27, and the console now seems hopelessly lost.
i was told the repair was completed on 3/23 and the item was marked as shipped, with tracking number for Fedex. But three days later, that tracking number remains invalid on Fedex's end. They say it doesn't exist.
I've had six conversations via the online chat with system support, and two by phone. The responses have ranged from cheery assurances the matter would be corrected within the hour to idiotic nonsense about how they put placeholder tracking numbers on the package for some unfathomable reason.
One rep. argued with me for a good 20 minutes before he agreed to give me the phone number for support that i was asking for, so i could bypass the online chat.
But don't think the phone system is better. You'd have more luck talking to your Kinect.
One woman escalated my case to some advocacy team and said to expect a response within a couple days. A few hours later, I called back to make sure that she'd set up this escalation properly, and the new guy on the line told me it could take 14 business days before anyone even gets back to me. That's today, 3/27. So by the time someone returns my call, what, a month will elapse?
Finally, I went back to the support chat and got a supervisor in on the conversation. And she insisted the console had been repaired on 3/26 and was awaiting shipment.
Her own system says it was fixed and shipped out on 3/23. So which version of events is true, and which isn't? My guess is it's all a line of garbage.
And so, I'm trying to figure out what to do next. I will say that you'll be seeing a version of this posting in as many places as i can distribute it, since I want owners and potential owners to be forewarned.
And I have to say, if this situation isn't resolved to my satisfaction and fast, I'll almot assuredly be dumping this thing on eBay if I ever even see it again. Playstation 4 beckons.
Microsoft should be ashamed of itself for giving the runaround to people who invest hundreds of dollars in these state-of-the-art systems. | video-games_xbox |
Laura's Time Has Come. Buy it now.
With that out of the way, let me tell you why I say this.
This game has excellent graphics, sound, controller feedback , and gameplay that will convince you to put the rest of your life on hold so that you can play through it uninterrupted. It added more features and polish to what made its predecessor a success, and continues the story line as Laura becomes more of a badass with new weapons and skill trees.
Some of my favorite things:
The use of force feedback to simulate the environment/explosions pushing on Laura, or the ground shaking or to get the feel of pushing your way through deep snow.
The ability to perch on trees branches and perform death from above attacks.
Challenges are still fun.
Optional Dungeon that add depth, lore, and treasure to the story. You find weapon parts and other interesting items in them. And they are HUGE.
Laura's hair . They did an amazing job modeling it and I found myself distracted by the realistic way it moves and reacts to wind or being wet from swimming.
The ability to wound an opponent to make them vulnerable so that you can finish them off with a finishing move. Personally, I shoot them in their knee and then decapitate or choke them while they cry to their friends for help. No one is going to save you from me, grunt!
The ability to heal yourself quickly. It comes in handy when in the thick of battle.
The cutscenes are short, the FMV moments are few, and the music/ambient sound is always appropriate to what is going on. You can tell that the dev team spent ludicrous amounts of time on details.
Things that may both you:
Laura still falls a lot
Laura still dies violently when you fail ( I actually things this is brutally neat )
There are loading points right where combat starts. This bothers me because I tend to read, get something to eat/drink , check my phone, etc during loading screens since I get bored easily. I hate finding Laura dying/dead when I turn my attention back to the game. She must have died 12 times while I was making lunch in the kitchen, I kept hearing gun shots followed by "uuuuuuuuughhhh" over and over. It was burn my lunch or save Laura. Let's just say my lunch tasted fabulous.
There isn't any multiplayer this time around. Which is actually a good thing in my book.
There are FMV battles. I don't like this at all. I want to do my own fighting..always.
I've always been a huge fan of the Tomb Raider series every since I loaded the first one on my PC back in the day. This title ensure that I will remain an avid fan. I think that adding the survival aspect to the game ( hunting, searching for food, scavenging, bandaging yourself ) was a great decision.
This game is definitely a "buy now" title. It's evolutionary and not revolutionary. The next title should keep most of the new features in this one, and add a new dimension to the game. Like vehicles. Imagine Laura getting into a gunfight on a plane carrying an artifact, killing the enemy who was trying to steal it, and then having to crash-land the plane on a Pacific island. Or drive a jeep, or a jet ski...you get the idea! | video-games_xbox |
A Solid First Person Shooter. Men Of Valor contains intense firefights in the jungle's,underground bunker's,foxhole's,and towards the end into the city. I felt I was able to see the enemy better in this game than the other Vietnam games,but in the very dense jungle parts it was hard too see the enemy,much like the real vietnam war. There's no commands to give either to your squadmates,they pretty much figure it out on there own,but sometimes I wish I could direct them because sometimes they weren't any help,but sometimes they saved my but many times as I was flanked to my side by an enemy. Sometimes your followed by 2 to 4 teammates .And one mission is solo in the underground bunker.(The whole game you just control your own man).It kinda works out because you have your hands full with the many tough enemy soldiers coming at you. I played it on next to hardest setting and it was just hard enough to keep me going. But you can't save on the fly,you have to make it to a checkpoint before game automatically saves. I guess it took me about 25 hours to finish ,it seems longer than the other games. When I finished game a total of 1,330 enemies I killed. This is not a tactical squad type command shooter where you give orders mostly all tactical orders are given to you. You do have squadmember's with you fighting along side you,sometimes they took point ,but mostly it's you who's up front. You can also pick up enemy weapons and health,but you better be quick because they dissapear after a while. You can also switch out weapons trade your's for there's. You have a total of 4 weapon slots. Whenever I got the chance I would pick up an AK47 or any enemies weapon because your own ammo supply will run short,then you just pick up enemies ammo,and health after youv'e blasted them because they only drop ammo that fits there guns not your supplied american weapon. This game also sticks to the facts of the vietnam war,your not gonna win,just like the real war,but you do save a life and win many small battles. I won't spoil who it is. It's no real big plot twist. Also the facts displayed during load times are interesting. The graphics are good,a little blocky,but still nice,some of the explosions were really kool,nice fire effects,also during the cutscenes you can look around in first person while they are playing. Keep in mind I am using an "S" cable which inhances graphics on all games. I like it when you get to the city parts ,you can see the enemy better. Lets face it the jungle's a tough place to fight an enemy with so many hiding places. This game gave me a respect for the vietnam war,the soldiers and the effects it had on our country. It makes you feel like your in it. In conclusion this is a solid shooter game. With a no brainer type game style,mostly linear with tactical commands for your soldier. Just shoot,take cover,shoot,run,rinse,repeat. All of the commands are directed (at you) such as "defend perimiter",or "take that turret",or "take out RPG & Sniper's",or "provide cover fire for squadmate so he can take out bunker",or "take out that tank.etc.etc." | video-games_xbox |
These 4 or 5 star reviews are misleading. Look, I've checked out several of the reviews for this product and I find it odd that so many of the higher reviews are so articulate and well written when this "game" is clearly a miserable excuse of an HD Collection. This leads me to believe that A) these people were PAID by Konami (the publisher) to help bolster what is assuredly almost universally bad reviews for a broken piece of software, or B) these are some truly hardcore Silent Hill fans that desperately want to believe that this pile of broken promises is actually a pleasant update to some of the best horror games ever made.
I love Silent Hill since the first one appeared on the PlayStation years ago, and continued to love the series up until about Silent Hill 4: The Room. This HD collection is, quite simply, a soulless cash grab on the part of Konami. This "HD" collection somehow manages to be INFERIOR to the original standard definition versions of the game that came out several years ago.
The games have always relied on the heavy use of fog for both atmospheric effect and to also mask some of the blemishes that last gen games sometimes had, like poor textures or unfinished environment geometry. Not in this version! For some reason, when they ported these two classics to this HD version they somehow forgot that the fog is a big part of the game and it ended up not being present. As such, you see every wrinkle, ungainly hair, and outright unfinished sections of the game because you were NEVER SUPPOSED TO SEE THAT STUFF. Not only that, but, for some reason, they decided to rerecord the audio and dialogue without giving players the option to have the original dialogue and audio be selectable. This significantly alters the experience, but not in a good way since some of the mouth movements of characters no longer sync up properly nor do the actors sound as good as the originals.
The game was/is so bad that Konami actually gave Xbox 360 users FREE games to make up for it; they knew they were shipping an unfinished product and didn't care. They knew they shipped a game that used incomplete code; one that was so slapdash and poor that a big videogame company actually gave consumers who purchased their shoddy title free stuff to shut them up. That's how bad these versions of these games are.
If we can take off our rosy tinted glasses for five seconds and take a cold, hard look at this thing, what we can see is a game that is a shameless cash in that is clearly inferior to the originals and a game that SHOULD of been a home-run for older fans, and a great jumping on point for new ones. What you get is probably the biggest insult to Silent Hill fans and a game series that is one of the best survival horror games (and possibly some of the best games) ever made. After a string of pretty poor follow ups to this series, Konami has done the unthinkable and ruined one of it's best franchises while simultaneously spitting in the faces of longtime fans with what is clearly an inferior, rushed, and outright busted piece of software.
In short, save your money. And please, don't support incomplete, broken games that are unfettered garbage, especially if it destroys what made the original classics so good in the first place. | video-games_xbox |
Old School Wolfy, with New School Tricks. First of all, WOW. What a surprise! I was expecting a shallow FPS game, along the likes of what Wolfy used to be. And boy, did they throw that impression out of the window about 5 minutes into the game.
The developers have done an impressive job at making Wolfenstein 3-dimensional in more ways than just graphical. The story is well-scripted, well-acted and actually draws you in! it has a war film feeling, including the sinking feeling that you get with all war films, when the suspense builds. Will she/he die? Will I get caught? Is everyone dead? I'm exposed and in the open! i need to find cover!
The gameplay mechanics are a little old school wolfenstein, you have to pickup health, ammo and power ups manually, and you can carry essentially a small armory with you at all times. The shooting is satisfying, but again a little traditional (and i don't mean 90s traditional, i mean 80s gaming traditional) but that's not such a bad thing. The game includes dual-wielding all weapons, which is unwieldy and actually makes it more difficult to gauge shots (even though the reticle is the still singular, it must be a psychological thing for me), so i kept going back to single gun mode. The game difficulty is satisfying and challenging, provided you don't choose a baby mode. The stealth is well thought out and actually do-able unlike some other games. It makes the times when you sneak up behind a German soldier, and plunge your dagger through his neck all the more satisfying.
One small criticism if i had to make one, and it is definitely nitpicking, was that maybe the story (that i praised up above) can get a little over-dramatic and heavy handed. Blaskowicz is a human after all, and he has a heart, something we tend to forget after he violently murders about 4,000 Germans per level. But then the story makes sure to remind us, by showing him with a puss-in-boots lovelorn expression every once in a while, and tears in his eyes.
The game looks gorgeous! absolutely gorgeous 10/10. The design is impressive, because it not only built a 1945 era arena in the beginning of the game, but also updated the Third Reich for a scientific future that isn't slapped on. It feels organic and a logical extension. Thank god they were actually defeated in WWII, eh? | video-games_xbox |
Inferior to the Gran Turismo series. Unfortunately, in the realm of good racing sims on XBOX 360 this is the best you're gonna get. Being a huge fan of the GT series I was pretty disappointed. This is not a *bad* game, not by a long shot. However, the gameplay experience is vastly superior in the GT series.
First, the graphics are great. I think this series and GT are evenly matched in this department. Realism, as far as a sim on a gaming console goes is pretty good. Interestingly, you can tailor the difficulty to your skill level with a number of options. On max difficulty winning a race is quite a challenge. The damage rendering is incredible, and damage accrued can actually affect the performance of your vehicle, not to mention the costs to repair after the race: so be careful!
The amount of vehicle choices and the realistic look of them is very good. This game actually happened to have the exact car that I own in real life, and driving it was a lot of fun. The rendering of the car, especially the interior, was perfect. One minor drawback here: when in the cockpit view, the interior of the car is presented for only the front. You can look forward and to the left and right 45 degrees. Any further than that and the interior is not shown. In some cars the default view makes it difficult to see the mirrors.
Track selection was lacking a bit, I think. Working my way through the career mode got a bit tiring with having to play the same tracks over and over. No complaint on graphics, though. Again, everything in the graphics dept. is excellent in this game.
I'm going to eschew a detailed review for my main complaint, which I think is very important. The career mode game play feels like an arcade. Progression is very linear. To progress in the game you have only 3 race choices at one time, and sometimes less. Cars are given out as prizes willy-nilly, and I did not actually have to purchase a single vehicle to beat the game. Compare this to GT where you can choose whatever event you want, and there is a seemingly endless supply. A lot of the races have specific vehicle or driver criteria that must be met in order to enter. In short, it's a challenge that is a lot of fun to meet. In Forza it's "next race, done. next race, done" which is very unexciting. Unfortunately the game experience overall is not very good, and because it's something very important to me I could not rate this game more than three stars despite its strong points. | video-games_xbox |
Just a few major details keeping it down from being perfect or with a lasting good impression. As an avid racing game enthusiast (and racing enthusiast, car guy, mechanic etc) I love games like Forza. It hits everything I need it to. Or at least it should.
There are two major problems with Forza 3 and one minor one. The first being of course at least for me, is the Invalidation of your times around a race track. I never thought I would say this but I miss the overly harsh and nonsensical penalties of Forza and Forza 2. (Your lap time is already borked, if you get in a situation where you got a penalty anyway, or at least wouldn't be as fast of a lap, so penalties are stupid anyway)
This time around? Oh no. They went and one upped the shenanigans now, if you get a little bit off track (and I mean just part of one tire in many cases), your lap time is completely invalidated and won't show up AT ALL on Leaderboards. Oh and the same applies for your race time too. That alone would cause a major issue to me. But it doesn't stop there. No sir. Of course if you hit someone (or they hit you for no reason) you get an invalidated time. Okay fine. It continues though, if you DRAFT SOMEONE yes, Drafting you know that thing that is pretty much ESSENTIAL to winning races, and often posting a hot lap in real life racing it invalidates your time. Colossal screw up Turn 10. Epic failure. Oh but it gets better! How you might ask? If someone Drafts you, your time is invalidated. If you use the new rewind feature to fix an other wise good lap? Invalidated. That one I can at least stomach. and that's the only one.
This alone detracted a full star for me and 2 points on my gamer scale. Especially since something quintessential to racing (lap times) are now screwed out.
"But that appeals to the hardcore!" Actually it doesn't, especially since there are some tracks where it is practically impossible to keep within the boundaries of a track while racing without incurring an invalidation either from wrecking someone or going off track. Also, it makes your Granny Lap often your best lap of the race because it only registers your "screw up free" lap. They better fix this in a patch, but it should have never been a problem in the first place.
The next major screw up of this game is what they did to the Multiplayer. This is atrocious. Utterly atrocious and there is no excuse for this at all ever. Matchmaking in my opinion is one of the dumbest things to ever hit gaming, the only time it is "passable" is in Shooters but guess what? It's not passable there because of the tendency of it to give you the same maps every time you go to a new match. In a racing game? This is even worse. You only get to race in whatever class happens to be available online at the time. Effectively meaning, those really cool cars you have? Yeah, you might not get to race with them at all. No instead you might get the shaft and get stuck racing your **** of ****** Chevrolet Aveo. Yeah, imagine that happening all night. When in your garage is sitting your Realistically flame jobbed Corvette ZO6. And you don't get to pick the tracks you race on... so you remember my mentioning of a few horrible tracks that you virtually can't pass on, and stay within the Valid lap area? Imagine getting stuck on that all night too. You've got a You are In Gamer Hell scenario just exploding all over you there.
Forza 1, with it's online component turned things on it's head and did it perfectly. You got to pick your car, pick your track and have a blast racing against other people and their cool cars. Forza 2 carried on with this because frankly it was right, and it wasn't perfect but it was damn close. Forza 3? Took this feature (which is easily the Forza series best feature) shot it in the face and peed on the corpse, and left it with a parody of multiplayer.
And now we come to the not as major screw up in the game. Car Accuracy. For alot of cars and I do mean alot of cars. They hit it spot on. For others? (namely three that I have found so far, and I've owned all in real life, and know the technical data of them by heart down to the spark plug gaps) they dropped the ball. The 1990 Iroc Camaro, 2002 Camaro, and Trans Am. The first one they screwed up the Weight. By about 200 pounds. The Camaro 2002 SS weighs in at 3200lbs and some pocket change. What does Forza 3 think? 3500. Same with the Birdy, of that same year. But they one upped it with the Bird. The Bird is the WS6 version, meaning it should be packing 345 horse power, and weighs the same as the Camaro SS. It also has slightly better brakes. Forza 3 short it 25 horse power, and the better brakes along with the weight. Now the Iroc. The first screw up they did was again vehicle weight. Fully loaded with T-tops a Gen III camaro tips the scales at 3498 pounds. They say? 3600 and some change. A stripper car, like the one in the game tips in at 3234 or something like that. They also screwed up the torque curve. A Gen III with TPI injection, hits hardest at 2000 RPM on the torque, horse power following soon after and falls dead at anything past 5500. It's a rather unique looking powercurve which they messed up on.
Also, please Turn 10 do note, the Chevrolet Aveo and it's ilk are not cars people willingly race. Just like we don't want to do crap license tests we don't want to drive cars that would probably sooner fall apart than hit 100 mph.
That being all said. The Single Player is amazing. Pure amazing. The physics engine is easily the best in any racing game I've played, the opponent AI doesn't seem totally slaved to the racing line anymore. The new experience point system works better than the money system and the achievement progress is steady. The races are for the most part entertaining enough to keep you racing for a while. (Which is a very good thing given the multiplayer and lap time Shenanigans) The car painter is at least just as robust as it used to be, and they even added a feature. I don't know how it works yet but I will figure it out sooner or later. It's a new painter tool. Which will require more time to figure it out. Don't change this in a Forza 4.
Cars are NOT LOCKED based off of level anymore. Thank God. Instead of course they locked cars based on which version of the game you bought and if you have xbox live or not (insert roll eyes here). But at least the locked car total is alot lower than it used to be.
The Season system is genius and it actually feels pretty organic. I'd like to see it in a Forza 4.
The in car view while it needs more polish (set too low in some cars. namely some of the cars which have accuracy issues...... making me wonder if they actually did anything with those cars in the first place) is a very nice thing to have. I bounce between it and the hood cam. (the hood cam just looks better. making me wonder if the incar view was something from beta they didn't update in time)
There is one thing they did right in multiplayer and that's the Storefront feature and the Groups feature. Basically if you are a car painter or tuner you can sell set ups, and paint jobs through Live now and earn credits. Genius, and I like the feature.
As long as you are playing Single Player and perhaps split screen this game is amazingly good. Just stay away from the racing aspect of multiplayer. | video-games_xbox |
Not new but improved. I remember playing this for the original xbox and i loved it so much. Before i get into describing the game in itself i would like to express how impressed i was with the smoothness of play. With the original controller it was bulky and harder to play so im very glad it got turned into a 360 game because the controller for the 360 itself improves your precision when it comes to tackling people. I remember when i use to play it i cant say it was super hard but i found myself missing the hits a lot more because of the controller design. Ive played blitz games since i was a kid and when this came out while i was in 7th grade i was blown away by how many things you could do on this game. When you hit someone a certain way its called a "dirty hit". You have meter and the more you get the fuller it gets and once its full you have what you call a "dirty brawl" where literally everyone from your own team and the opposing just randomly tackles each other the more tackles you hit on the opposing team the better because it gives you a special. This special is use on offense to make a catch, or the dodge someomes tackle and on defense to hit the opposing players so hard that the ball is fumbled, or you cause an injury to the player. Now this is my favorite thing about to game... when you cause an injury it zooms in on a skeletal system and shows what you did (broken femer, concussion, broken pelvis, etc...) and it also has some intense cracking, snapping,etc noises associated with the injury caused. Might sound brutal but that literally is my favorite thing to do is cause an injury just for that reason. You win games and earn money on the campaign and the money cam be used for different upgrades (ex: better equiptment for the team, training to improve certain stats for certain players, even drugs/supplements that can improve player performance). If you are injured by the opposing team you can use what they call (juice) to recover and get back in the game quicker (its basically steroids). But your health will go down the more times that player is hit and everytime that player gets hit it makes them more vulnerable to get injured again. Ive never had health of a player reach zero so im not sure what will happen at that point. Also, to earn even more money you can place bets with the current money you have and if you win you win that money. In the mode where you play for fun the teams are already made and cant be customized but you can once you start your own team and save it pick them to play. Everything from the campaign as stated above still happens and works the same except, (you cant place bets and earn money, cant upgrade players, equiptment, stats, and if you pick a team already made you cant customize them). This game is and always will be super fun to play to me and i don't even like football video games all that much. | video-games_xbox |
Like a bite-sized Snickers Bar. Have you ever wondered what a modern video game would be like if they cut out most of the filler and left just the exciting parts? Halo 3 ODST is the best example of that principle to hit HD-gen video game consoles, and the results are positive but disappointing in many ways.
The campaign mode consists of 8-9 very short episodes, each perhaps 20-40 minutes long, in which all of the best features of Halo gameplay are featured prominently. Halo has always been one of the only FPS franchises that really understood how to make vehicle combat fun, and that features prominently here. The short episodes are linked, in the gameplay, by the character travelling an overworld and discovering items that trigger flashbacks to other parts of the story. This is a perfectly fine concept, but the overworld itself is not that interesting. It suffers from the same design weakness most "open worlds" in gaming do, namely that it doesn't have enough occupants and -- because of its free-roaming nature -- it can't know enough about how you'll approach it to create a true challenge for you.
Each episode seems to have condensed the most exciting parts of a normal campaign chapter into one compact thrillride. This makes the episodes fairly exciting, but ultimately underwhelming in their brevity. It lacks both the horrible lows and the dizzying highs of the original Halo 3. Yeah, there's nothing here as awful as the Flood stage on Halo 3. But there's also nothing in ODST that is as exhilirating as the final level of original Halo 3, with the long and challenging climb to the top of the structure and the exciting escape sequence.
But while the somewhat underwhelming campaign mode makes the price tag seem too high, the extra features largely redeem it. The "Firefight" mode, analagous to GoW2's "Horde mode", was quite fun. If you have one or more pals to engage in some co-op player vs. monster survival action, you can easily get 12-30 hours of enjoyment out of that mode straight out of the box. Also, the game includes all the multiplayer maps ever released for Halo 3, plus a few more. If you never purchased those maps, and you enjoy Halo 3 multiplayer, this is a great value. Whenever you want to play Halo 3 multiplayer, you just put in the ODST second disc instead and you get access to everything.
Overall, i haven't any complaints about the gameplay experience. I think I got plenty of hours out of this title to justify the price tag, so no complaints there either. There are plenty of games out there that you'll spend much less time completing that have just as high a purchase price. But still it isn't a 5 star game. The campaign is just too thin to merit that, and the multiplayer (even the co-op "firefight mode") is just so more-of-the-same. | video-games_xbox |
Not just for kids. Ok, I'll admit that I'm over 40. And I'm a chick. But I love this game! It doesn't hurt, of course, that a lot of the songs are "classic rock" that I grew up loving. (I will also say that, having played all 42 of the setlist songs, there are a few I would prefer never to hear again... .)
This is not like playing a real guitar, and it won't train you to play a real guitar. Instead of strings, you press little buttons and "strum" a lever. But the action is similar enough. The graphics are very good and the sound is stereo quality (well, if you run through a receiver, anyway -- as I do). And in "easy" mode, you can be up jamming and having a blast in minutes. The game gets progressively harder on different levels (all the way up to "Expert") -- so you needn't worry about mastering the game right away and getting bored. You also needn't worry about getting overwhelmed -- the "practice" mode lets you take a song (at any level) in pieces and practice it very slowly to learn the sequence until you can play at speed. I found, however, that the progression of difficulty of the songs in "career" mode is just right, so that if you play them in order, you may surprise yourself at how well you can do by the time you get to the end of the set list.
You can also do a multiple player mode and have guitar battles, etc. I'm just scratching the surface here.
What's extra fun for me is that my husband is an excellent bass guitar player, so we actually have fun "jamming" together! And sometimes I'll go into "practice" mode, where I can play the bass guitar track myself, just to get a rough sense of what he's playing.
The game anticipates that you will search for "cheat codes" -- there is a place under "Options" to enter "cheat codes" (keystroke combinations). These are useful for unlocking all of the songs without having to "earn" them in career mode, or for replacing the bugly singer with Bret Michaels. There is also a feature for adding dowloaded songs, which I haven't yet explored.
The Guitar Hero III controller is wireless (and works without a hitch) and feels solid, similar to a "real" guitar. I recommend that controller very much. One problem is that I haven't found a wireless controller for sale without the game, so if you want to add more controllers for "jam" sessions, you have to go with wired ones (or find friends who have wireless ones they can bring over). Playing together is great -- I was inspired by my teen-age stepson to improve rapidly.
So you "grown ups" who enjoy rocking out and always wished you could jam on a guitar but never had the time to learn -- don't just buy this for your kids; get it for you! But be forewarned -- it can be addictive and a major time drain! | video-games_xbox |
Insanely frustrating. Like a lot of franchise based games, Shrek The Third seems rushed out in a massively hurry, leaving the game a mix of some very cool (the funny story and voicework) and dreadfully frustrating aspects (the gameplay). The game has the awful combination of having clunky controls and lots of destinations that need very fine-tuned movements to get there, making it so frustrating during the course of the game that you'll end up wanting to break the disc with both hands. For example, an early mission has Puss in Boots in a pirate ship having to scale moving wooden platforms. The first jump literally changes directions by 180 degrees making the jump incredible difficult (with a success rate of about 10%), something compounded by having to scale almost a half dozen more platforms that are just as likely to drop you back to the beginning.
Another mission with Fiona requires moving two blocks of stone in order to block constantly spawning enemies, but the blocks need to be hit with a move that takes multiple enemies to replenish if you miss and the right block is so hard to hit with the move that I spent literally half an hour trying to replenish the move over and over before I finally hit it, an activity that could have filled a water tank-sized swear jar by the time I made it. The three dimensional aspect of the game is so poorly drawn it's hard to tell where you are on the map, which means constant falling when jumping cliffs or platforms to grab coins and items. When it switches again to Puss in Boots in the witch's castle, all of a sudden you're tasked in a three dimensional situation to ascend platforms moving in circles, with a controller that constantly overshoots the character, meaning that you have to double jump and then immediately reverse direction to have any remote chance of landing on the platform. At this point I figured I probably could find something more fun and less aggravating to do.
I have a couple nephews who are very good at video games, any adult who has played with a kid knows how good they can be at games, well in this case you probably have to be that young to bull through this (although it should be said that I found one of my nephew's save files with this game and it's probably notable he never asked to play it again). I've learned over the years that when you fail on well-made A games, it's usually because it's your own fault, but on the seriously poor ones, it's largely a matter of clunky controls that are difficult to adapt to. If you combine these kinds of controls with a three-dimensionality so poorly drawn that it's difficult to know where the target is on the screen by feel then the level of satisfaction goes way down. And at this point, it's getting easier and easier for me to just stop playing games like this. I don't leave reviews very often, so if I save at least one person the frustration and trouble of bothering with this it would be worth it. | video-games_xbox |
No longer forced to be straight and fun besides. I had been playing Oblivion and Fallout 3 when this arrived. I have been completely absorbed for two weeks exploring every possible angle, nook, and cranny.
The graphics are gorgeous. The sound is good. The animation is superb. The humor is what I enjoyed second best.... best of all is the ability to choose who you want for your mate(s). I always hated being forced into rescuing the poor damsel in most games. The women misproportioned and the guys without any defining anatomy at all. That was a big frustration for me working on games. The other artists were terrified of putting nipples on our male characters way back when....
I have to say, being able to have a partner in the game that reflected my real life experiences was so refreshing I cried. It was moving and monumental for me to finally be able to have a game that felt like I belonged instead of always the outsider. HOOORAH Lionhead for bravery and taking a chance on something a lot of people would rather pretend didn't exsist.
My partner of 14 years died while I played this game. Having this in game relationship with a character that closely resembled my late real life partner was a salve and helped me heal through the grieving process. It isn't important to the game but for me, having games like this does have a real world impact on people and I wanted to reinforce how these things really do touch us in our real lives.
There are a few glitches such as later quests not completing or repeating, a graphic or sound anomaly here or there, and a few issues with disappearing spouses and pets but they are well documented and workarounds provided. They weren't deal breakers.
The only other real complaint I have is after playing Oblivion and its fantastically interactive world, I found some limitations on interaction with the environment a bit annoying. I wanted to just crawl or jump over a wall without having to wait for the prompt to do it. They handled this very well in Oblivion. I found the menu system distracting and slow as well. Again, limiting but not a deal breaker.
This is going to be a game I play for a long time to come. I still have to be completely Evil and raise the rent ya know. I want to marry a woman in the game and see what thats like. The dialog is always sure to surprise me and make me laugh.. particularly at a tme that laughter was badly needed.
There are so many avenues to explore in terms of geography, personality, and emotion that the replay-ability of this game is very high. I would have paid full price for it... its that good. | video-games_xbox |
Comfortable, but not practical for gaming. Okay, as promised, I would bring an update if it wasn't as good as I expected. The headset IS as comfortable as I said it is. However, I noticed that the headset is "always on"...it's always sending some sort of static. It's not that the headset is too sensitive...I could be in a completely quiet room and it stays active as if I were talking. So, metalive was right in this aspect of the headset. If you don't mind muting the headset from the control and only unmuting when you want to talk, then this could work fine...that's what I did for awhile since I don't talk much anyway...but then I tried the headset that came with the XBox Live Starter Kit that fits around the back of your head, and that works much better, albeit, not quite as comfortable. Anyway, it doesn't appear that I can change my rating to 2 stars...but that's about all I'll give it since that static makes the headset, more or less, un-usable for XBox...I'll be using it for my cell phone now.
**** ORIGINAL REVIEW ****
I have this same headset design for my cell phone (buying it for XBox now). Metalive's comments probably result from trying to stick the "hook" over the top of his ear instead of the bottom...that WOULD be uncomfortable. Most cell phone headsets hurt my ears when they have hard frames that hook over the top...such as the GameCom headset...In contrast, the soft hook that goes "under" your earlobe on this headset is far more comfortable, and I'm able to wear my cell phone headset all day without noticing it's there. However, I will say this...if I don't use the foam to cover the ear piece it seems to slip too far out of my ear, so I end up holding it in when people talk too quietly, but I have that problem with ALL headsets that go in the ear, so I can't say this one is worse than any others because of that.
As for being too sensitive to noise, you should be able to move it around so that it's aiming above your nose a bit and thus less sensitive.
So, I'm going to buy this one now because of my good experience with the same headset for my cell phone...if it's not as good as I think it will be, I'll come back here and write another review to let you know. Otherwise, consider this headset a good one, especially for the cost. | video-games_xbox |
great for Kinect gaming! nice wireless solution overall. I bought this because in Kinect gaming, you are jumping around a lot, and I needed to be able to still chat with my friends on the other side. The wired headsets are tethered to the game controller so having a controller in your pocket or hand is not great for Kinect. Also, the big bulky gaming headsets aren't great because of the jumping and sweat factor. I've used the Kinect mics in the past but they are only usable for gaming if your audio speakers are far away from the Kinect mics. If they are close, it becomes frustrating to use them for chatting because you have to lower the volume of the TV so that your friends can hear you but when you lower the volume of the TV, you can't hear your friends.
A wireless mic solves all of that. I thought about getting the new 360 wireless Bluetooth headset, but it uses a typical Bluetooth design with a hoop over the ear that is fine for when you're just sitting there or casually walking, not for jumping around athletically.
So I ended up getting this headset and it works great. Everything I hoped for. Now, it has the typical wireless performance, meaning that your friends will sound great to you, but they can definitely tell you are using a wireless headset versus wired headset. Similar to what a cheap Bluetooth headset sounds like. To your friends, you will sound as if you are using a speakerphone. It'll be clear but you'll sound a bit distant. It's still better than using the Kinect mic (which sounds like a farther speakerphone) but it's not at the level of a wired headset. Note that I have a big head so maybe that added to the issue.
The headset feels like high quality and looks really classy with the Halo Reach graphics. It uses a complete hoop design which completely wraps around your ear so you feel like this won't fall off no matter how intense your Kinect gaming gets. It does flop a little bit when you're jumping around but never to the point of falling off.
There are only 2 sizes of hoops though so it may be a tight fit for those with big ears. My ear hurt after a couple of hours of gaming, but it may get better after the rubber is broken in.
Lastly, it is easy to set up and has audio cues so you know when you are muted, when it is on, etc. The battery lasts a long time and it's easy to tell when the charging is done.
I completely recommend this as a gaming headset, especially if you play Kinect. If you don't play Kinect, the new Bluetooth Microsoft headset is around the same price and can be used for your cell phone as well. I have a Plantronics Voyager Pro which is spectacular (people can't tell when I'm using it or just using a phone) which made the Microsoft Bluetooth headset less useful for me. And it'll definitely fall off when playing Kinect. | video-games_xbox |
An exercise in spamming the A button. My experience so far has only been with the My Career/My Player portion of the game. I am yet to play any of the other modes. Stuffing an entire Spike Lee movie into a video game, not a great idea. Im pretty sure Ive worn out the A button on my controller. I would like to start another character to try out a different position, but uggh the idea of going through all of that again.
The practice gym experience is a fresh take on an area of the game that was quickly becoming stagnant. I am still baffled by the fact that the off court modes continue to ignore the camera settings you have saved to your profile and you cant change them. The camera changes forced down in the last patchthe worst. Why? Just why? I am little confused about the games mechanics. Ive witnessed shots deemed perfect in previous games (all greens) bounce off the rim. Ive seen this with under pressure shots and wide open ones. I would consider myself a casual player, but little needling issues like these are extremely frustrating and I skip considerable portions of the gameplay just to avoid them.
Fair warning for an issue I've found in my own game during the Gatorade hand-eye-coordination drills, if you press a button during the animation of walking from the light test to the hand-eye test your character will get stuck in the training room. You will be unable to complete the second test. I've let the game sit for several minutes hoping it will correct itself, but that never happens. The only way out is to quit the practice gym mode completely. Because of this I always do the Gatorade test last.
Updating 6/4/16: I am updating this review for a security warning. If you are in MyPark and either turn off the game (not through the exit menu) or are kicked from the server your "real name" info displays to everyone. This includes people not in your friends list and people in your friends list that you have not opted to share your info with. | video-games_xbox |
Constant shuts down every 15 minutes or so. I had to return mine for replacement due to constant shuts down every 15 minutes or so. Set up was smooth but as soon as I started to download games and apps, I can feel the heat from console but no fan noise at all. I even set it up vertically next to the fan but to no avail.
I wonder if I'm the only who experienced this shuts down issue... Amazon already preparing my replacement and... I will update my review as soon as my replacement arrives.
---------------------------------
Update: August 18, 2016
I received my replacement yesterday and able to do few things I couldn't do last time.
First, as soon as it was powered on I could hear fans running inside of console that did not run on my previous broken console. Obviously my previous XB1S had broken internal fan that caused constant periodical shut downs. Continue powered on and play for about 6 hours and only time it shuts itself down was when there were no activity for an hour.
Initial setup (setup, download updates for console and controller, account setup) took about 25 minutes. Downloading 67GB of Halo Master Chief Collection took about an hour and half (average download speed 60 Mbps). Running through XB1S menu screen was very fast. There were no lags. But once I login to XBOX Store and go through menu, I could experience intermittent lags.
Initially, I had my XB1S HDMI connected to 4K Pass-thru Yamaha Receiver that is connected to my 4K Sony TV. Even though 4K Pass-thru receiver were connect via HDMI 2.0 cables between XB1 and TV, XB1S did not recognized my 4K TV. But once I connected XB1S directly to my 4K TV then it did recognized 4K and able to see Netflixs 4K UHD movies. If you want to have AV receiver between XB1S and 4K TV, make sure you have AV receiver equipped with HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2 slots.
So, I had my AV receiver connected (that has PS3 and PS4 input HDMI connected) to XB1S and XB1S to 4K TV and then 4K TV optical sound back to AV receiver. I could see and play PS4 thru XB1S as long as XB1S is still powered on, meaning XB1S is STILL active HDMI Pass-thru.
Graphic wise, I wasn't very impressed. Maybe because it only displays 1080P graphics upscale to 4K in which I already experienced from PS4. I ran Blu-ray with mastered in 4K (not true 4K UHD) movie and, again, there is nothing new I already experienced. Hopefully, once I get true 4K UHD Blu-ray movies, will make my eyes happy.
I played XBOX many years ago but I never owned one. Even though I already have PS3 and 4, I always wanted to have XBOX and now that is comes with 4K Blu-ray functionality, I immediately made purchase. Ill buy XB1 exclusive games but I would prefer buying same games for PS4.
I do not regret my purchase but somewhat disappointed on gaming experience. As other reviewers already said, if you already have 4K TV and do not have XBOX ONE.. AND PS4 yes, go ahead jump on it. If you already have either XBOX ONE or PS4. Just wait for XBOX Scorpio or PS4 Neo.. | video-games_xbox |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.