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Awesome,...... Controllers . If your a Star Wars fan listen up your dream have been answered with this Jedi vs. Sith controller bundle!!! Their are both great quality controllers, with that nice glowing effect that had my eyes jumping for joy!!! Along with the great programming options, and that great vintage Star Wars feel!!! Now it's up to you choose the way of the jedi or the sith!!! I myself love both of the controllers, but tend to favor the sith controller!!! I will now explai in detail about each controller!!!
If you choose to be the guardian of the light, their is a nice jedi controller waiting for you,..... that has that nice glowing blue light along with some pretty sweet engravings, resembling the light side!!! Well, if you decide to enlist with Darth Vader and the sith, their is nice red controller waiting for you, with that nice red glowing effect!!! I personaly like, the sith controller better, because of the engraving of Darth Vader along with the flames of darkness, that give you that great feeling!!!
Both the controllers look great and work perfectly!!! It is cool how you can personaly progam the controls when your playing the game "Revenge of the Sith"!!! This will help you make the controls just right for you!!! So if your a star wars fan and are getting "Revenge of the Sith" this is great adition!!! Hey if you just want kick @$$ controllers you should check these out!!!
Great controllers and a great price, .......a win, win senario!!! If your a Star Wars fan this is an absolute must have. I highly suggest both of these controllers. Overall I will give this a 5/5,.... a masterpiece of hardware!!!
Pros:
-Engravings with great detail
-The glowing light effect
-Are programable
-Great price and plainly eye candy
-Star Wars fans, just buy it already
Cons:
-Not wireless
-Only prgamable for "Reenge of the Sith"
Rating: 5/5 9.5/10
-Shadow(Lord of the Reviews)
Copyright 2005
Buying Advice:
Buy this with the "Revenge of the Sith" video game you won't be sorry believe me!!! | video-games_xbox |
It's like the best flight simulator game I have ever played. How much fun is this game? 4 stars - There are several parts that are very hard to pass even in "Beginner" mode. How do you rate this game overall? 5 stars - even though there are several spots where it is had to pass it makes you pick up your game and become a better and quicker flight simulator fighter pilot. Starting with the campaign - it is awesome during game play - the best ever. I would have liked it better if they gave a video before every mission instead of text and voice but aside from that it is very good. The multiplay over XBox live is hard to get started because the letters and words are so small on the screen, it is very hard to read your name or the name of your competitors. Note : These small letters are not just in the XBox multiplayer modes. Other players call signs, plane choice and weapon loads are also hard to read as small as they are as well. The helicopter controls in campaign and multiplayer are the best of any game ever. The multiplayer and two campaign modes with Helicopter are the way "Apache Air Assault" wishes it's entire game was made. I paid $60.00 for Apache Air Assault and it was awful - It's like the makers of this game played that game, made it infinitely better (Flight controls) and added it to a few parts of the campaign and the multiplayer modes. The ability to customize the color of the planes is pretty neat but the interface of doing so (changing colors) needs improvement to say the least. I would like the ability to customize a jet or helicopter's color scheme on my computer so I could add words and personalized art, etc. I would like to see more online game types to choose from. the game easy to learn even if you have never played an flight simulator before although I would like to see some customization options for flight and weapon controls in the future. I would like to see the animatics made in real video instead of animation. The game itself is fun and challenging and I highly recommend it. | video-games_xbox |
Great game, well done, surprising and visually stunning. If you're a fan of any of the Alien movies, then this game is probably for you. This game oozes immersion from the start and it is largely successful at it. Just be sure you're ok with being "hunted" for 20+ hours before you purchase it. When I bought this game I read reviews that indicated that many people found the difficulty frustrating, so when I began my adventure I selected the easiest setting to ensure that I was able to enjoy it. I can express to you that even on the easiest difficulty setting, you will still find that the Alien will repeatedly kill you because it is a "one-hit kill" monster. A single slip-up will result in it running at you with ferocity. My character's first death was a surprise, I was boarding a transit vehicle and as far as I knew the Alien was not present but it must dropped down out of the ceiling when the door to the transit vehicle opened because I proceeded to enter the vehicle and turned around briefly only to see it running at me which resulted in my perishing. It was quite the surprise!
I'd recommend the Xbox One version of this game if you have a Kinect or access to someone who'd be willing to borrow the Kinect to you. The Kinect, although being abandoned by Microsoft, adds a few small features that increase the fun you may have. The Kinect will track your head movements so when you're doing various activities such as peeking around the corner or attempting to look around from the inside of a locker the camera will move. In addition, you can enable noise detection. An example of this feature may be saying "Oh no!" out loud after spotting the Alien, the Kinect shares the audio with the creature and it will know where you are. Finally, I'd recommend utilizing headphones if possible.
The developers should be commended for taking a risk in making a game this "different" that is also so well done. I don't have much to complain about, except that it lasted a little bit too long. I suggest taking breaks from this game when you get to a good save point. Also, for whatever reason my character did not have a shadow, I didn't even notice that until one of the later levels when a fire was casting a shadow of all the items around me, but not me. | video-games_xbox |
An Okay Game. FEAR in my opinion is an Okay game. I might even go so far as to call it Good, but it's nothing to get really excited about.
Before I bought the game, I read the reviews on the Internet. I was under the impression that I would be "hooked" on the game, playing it for hours on end, with the hair on the back of my neck standing up at all times.
When I actually started playing I think I fell asleep after the 2nd Interval of the game. It took me about 2 months of on/off/on/off playing to finish the game. I was never hooked at any stage of the game, well maybe a little bit when I felt like I was finally near the end of the game. I was just anxious to get it over with I think!
In contrast, Gears of War kept me on the edge of my seat and took me 2 days to complete. (But was good for countless hours of fun in Co-Op, Multiplayer, and Challenge Modes)
At no point during FEAR did I ever actually FEAR anything. Neither did I really feel scared or even slightly nervous. Honestly, through most of the game I felt a degree of bordem and a general feeling of indifference except when I thought of wasting $50 by not completing the game.
If you've played Gears of War, Half Life 2, Quake, Doom, Call of Duty, Dead to Rights, or any other number of top tier titles, then you've already played this game in a much better form, and it's better to leave it on the shelf until it's in the bargain bin.
Okay, I guess I can say something positive on it's behalf... The visuals are good although it falls short of what the 360 can produce. The Audio is very well done, the music and voices are very good. The guy you are chasing does a good job of making his voice-overs sound very haunting. The weapons are fun to use, although through most of the game you just have the standard shotgun, machine pistol and automatics. But sometimes you get a partical weapon or rocket launcher that's fun to use.
BTW, this game makes use of the F-BOMB very often... everyone says it, not just in cut-scenes either. So I would not send this as a gift to little nephew Tommy for Christmas either. | video-games_xbox |
Will take some time. I received my Onza TE today and so far it's pretty good. But different. It's going to take some time to get used to using this controller. There are a few differences between the Onza and the standard MS Wireless Controller.
The Onza is lighter. Not including the cord, the Onza feels slightly lighter than a regular Wireless Controller with it's battery pack removed.
The rubberized surface feels great in the hands, better than the straight plastic feel of the regular controller.
The Braided Cable is thin, light, and just a bit stiff. And it's long as hell. The quick-release is a plus.
The placement of the Select and Start buttons will take some getting used to, but otherwise are in a good spot.
The ABXY buttons are more responsive. Not only do they have a shorter throw before the "click" but they are flatter against the controller. They are extremely, extremely easy to push. They are also lighted, which is unnecessary but a plus.
The D-Pad is odd. Although there are definite directions (Up, Down, etc), the buttons have a long throw. They're pretty deep. And there's a slight depression towards the center of the cluster of buttons. I would assume that the left thumb is meant to rest in the center and push outward and downward on the buttons. The buttons aren't as "springy" but may loosen up with use, I'll have to update later.
The Triggers are different too. They're wider at the base (closest to the bumpers) and narrower at the tip. They're longer, which would be good for precision use, and have a longer overall throw when pressed on the tip. The spring on the regular controller seems slightly stiffer than the one in the Onza, but the Onza's Triggers don't feel mushy. At the base of the button they feel similar to the regular controller, but wider.
The Bumpers are good, with a definite click. With the tip of the index finger on the base of the Trigger, the edge of the Bumper can still be pressed. They're that close.
The Re-Mappable Multi-Function buttons are a nice touch, I just have to get used to using them. They have a definite click. Right now I have them mapped to the Bumpers, so the Right Bumper and the Right Multi-Function button are the same. I usually play with my index fingers on the Triggers, so a slight shift is necessary to use the MFB's.
The Thumbsticks are better and worse. The adjustable tension is a great idea and works well. The only problem with this is that at higher tensions, the thumbstick button push feels less distinct. There's less of a click. And the push in feels muddier, with less of a click, when pushed with the stick off-center. With the stick centered, the button push is like the one on the regular controller. The Thumbsticks are slightly taller than on a regular controller.
The FPS Freeks CAN be used with the Onza, but you have to dial in a bunch of tension first so that the adjustment wheel clears the feet of the Freeks. Then some of that tension can be removed once the Freeks are attached. The sticks are really tall with Freeks attached though, and the fact that the ABXY buttons are so flat against the controller puts a lot of distance between the top of the Freeks and the ABXY buttons. I don't think the FPS Freeks should be needed later on, but I'm kind of used to using them right now.
All in all, this is a very good controller. I think that after I get used to the differences between it and the regular MS Wireless Controller, and get used to using the added features, it will be a great controller. But that'll probably take some time.
I'll update this later, after I get used to using the Onza. Any questions, just ask.
Edit, 04/19/11: It didn't take very long at all to get used to the button placement, thumbstick tension, and ergonomics. I still have the MFB's mapped to the regular shoulder buttons, but the controller definitely has advantages over the regular MS controller.
Edit, 06/08/11: My Onza developed a problem where the aim (like in a first-person-shooter) on the right thumbstick would start to drift downwards on it's own. I returned it to Amazon for a replacement. Now the replacement is doing the same thing.
Now I'm deciding whether I should get another replacement or just get my money back.
Edit, 06/13/11: I bought an Onza somewhere else and asked for a refund from Amazon. There is no drift in the Right Thumbstick so far. Also, neither the left or the right stick has the "mushy" feel when pushed in. They both "click" like the regular Microsoft controllers do, even with added tension dialed in. Right out of the box, the thumbsticks feel better than the ones on either of the Onzas I received from Amazon. Rating back up to 5 stars. | video-games_xbox |
Suffers from serious character imbalances. To be sure, Street Fighter 4, in terms of its technical offerings and aesthetics is the best of the entire Street Fighter lineage. Granted, I haven't played every variation of the street fighter series, but I've seen them all and SF4 offers the most modern and fully featured version of the game to date. As has been mentioned by other reviewers, the game features lush backgrounds, fairly well-rendered characters, a fairly good musical score, and a wide assortment of playing styles and characters. However, SF4's glaing weakness -- and this is no small thing -- is the ridiculous disparity between the effectiveness of its characters. Secondarily, the game just isn't very deep, but I'll get to that a little later.
Realistically, it seems impossible that a virtue like a well balanced characters set would be ignored or mishandled to the extent that it is, but alas, this is the case. This major flaw has a debilitating twin effect. 1) As an online player, you'll find yourself running into the same overused characters constantly: Ryu, Sagat, Ken, Zangief. This is somewhat understandable since these are easily the best characters in the game (even among these top tier characters, Ryu and Sagat stand out as clearly better than the rest). This means if you don't enjoy playing one of these characters, you can expect a losing record against them all. Sorry, but if you're in a Beamer, you're not going to beat a guy in a Ferrari. So, in playing with a lesser character, you'll struggle to improve, tighten up your game, and eventually come to the frustrating realization that because of your character's built-in weaknesses and/or highly context specific move-set, you'll often come up against another player of similar or equal skill who uses a better character. 2) For players not choosing these characters, you're then faced with two bad choices: picking a character you like and losing consistently to the game's overpowered characters, or choosing one of them, and using the same routine and repititive tactics everyone else is using to win. Clearly, neither option is ideal or agreeable since better game design would've prevented this dilemma. As a corollary to this, when you do happen to play rarely-chosen, lower tier character, there's a bit of unfamiliarity working its way into the match, and so you'll face the difficulty of a fairly novel match-up. This is of course frustrating as well, albeit for different reasons.
Also, as mentioned earlier, the game has a peculiar lack of depth and variety. Some may argue that each characters has several moves, some of which require real skill and practice and timing to pull off consistently, and in the right situations. While this is true, it's also apparent that gameplay at the higher levels is virtually always compressed into the same kind of predictable struggles over and over again. If you're a projectile player, the game bsaically dictates that you MUST hurl projectile after projectile to get the other player jumping and inching towards you, at which point you must strike them out of the air if possible. For each character, there is of course a variation in strategy because of the differing move-sets, but essentially there's very little creativity or options in SF4 as the total number of possibilities is quickly condensed down to the very few strategies that actually work. Again, this set of circumstances is the result of fairly linear thinking with respect to game design.
For all its faults though, SF4 does somehow manage to be quite addictive, even though, ironically, the gaming experience itself doesn't warrant the amount of time devoted. I suppose this strange paradox, however, does earn its developer, Capcom, some credit. | video-games_xbox |
New "3.5mm" Controller needs a manual driver install on PC. Otherwise great improvement. I figured out this controller. Turns out you have to manually install the driver for this controller using "install a driver on my computer" function when viewing the device properties. For whatever reason the Windows Xbox One controller driver doesn't recognize the controller automatically.
1. When you plug it in and install the xbox one controller driver you will get a device called "Controller" in your "Devices and Printers" under control panel. You will also get driver not found errors.
2. Right click controller and view its properties and chose update driver.
3. Choose "Browse my computer for driver software," and then choose "Let me pick from a list...." options.
4. Choose "Microsoft Xbox One Controller"
5. Then again choose "Microsoft Xbox One Controller"
The gamepad should work now. MS really needs to update something as not having the official drivers auto detect it on PC is stupid.
That said this is a nice improvement over the original controller. Its heavier and the rumble seems stronger. Most importantly the shoulder buttons are vastly improved over the first version. Just clicking them they feel similar, but the improvement is the fact they simply work. Now I can preform shoulder button operations with ease where it was hit or miss before. No longer do I have to jam my finger hard down on the button to ensure that pop-up radial menu will stay up or that grenade will chuck.
I don't have any 3.5 mm jack headsets, but it hear its a little hit or miss on PC at the moment. Hopefully it will improve very soon with updates.
If you don't have a xbox one controller and want one, buy this, get the 3.5 mm version, the old one isn't worth your time. If you are considering upgrading and don't wanna pay top dollar for the elite controller I would say the much improved shoulder buttons make it worth while.
If you can afford to wait until christmas this year, the windows 10 only PC wireless adaptor is coming and will no doubt come bundled with a controller. | video-games_xbox |
Current XBox 360 and PS4 owner. I recently received an XBox One as a gift, and so I decided to write a review for it. I am not a fanboy of any sort, I currently own an XBox 360 Slim, and I decided to purchase a PS4 due to launching first and being less expensive.
The Console: The XBox One itself is a big, bulky gadget. It takes up a lot of space in comparison to my PS4 and even my 360. However, I do not see myself moving it around too often, so once you find a place to place it, it should be good to go. I still find it ridiculous that MSFT still can't figure out how to get rid of the power block. I won't get into the specifications since that can be easily Googled (the PS4 is superior specs wise)
The Controller: I was skeptical about the XBox One controller, since the 360s controller was my favorite one. I'm glad MSFT didn't ruin it. They kept all the basic design, but improved upon it. However, the new analog sticks are a bit rougher, and they can get uncomfortable after a couple of hours of gaming. That being said, I have two major gripes with this controller. One being, that MSFT uses a proprietary audio connection. That means, that MSFT gets revenue from licensing the to third-parties (in comparison the PS4 controller uses a universal connection). Also, MSFT decided not to have a built-in rechargeable batter in the controller. You have to keep replacing the included AA batteries. Yes, it is a next-generation console that still uses AA batteries. MSFT can create a high-tech promising technology like the Kinect and use Wi-Fi Direct in the controller, but they still chose to stick to AA batteries. Why? Revenue. Microsoft kindly sells the Charge-and-Play kit for $25 which includes a rechargeable battery and a micro-USB cable (they also license it to third parties). This is typical nickel-diming by MSFT. By comparison, Sony does not to this with the PS4 controller, since it includes a built-in rechargeable battery.
The Kinect: I've had mixed feelings about the Kinect. It promises a game-changing implementation for the XBone, but at this point, that's all it is. A promise. The voice commands are about 80% accurate for me. I find myself repeating "XBox, On" on average about 3 times, before it actually turns on. If it's quiet, it's about 90% accurate, but if there's a noisy background, then it's about 50-60% accurate. I don't live in a library, so this is a problem. The gestures are a complete joke, so I won't even get into this. The gestures are more responsive on my 360. So, I can see why people were passively forced to purchase the Kinect bundled with the XBox One. If I had the option, I would have gotten the Xbox One without the Kinect. Again, I can see MSFT improving upon this, but as of now, it is not worth the extra $100 in my opinion and for my lifestyle. Keep in mind as well, that MSFT's officiali stance is that they do gather user data from the Kinect, and that it may not be solely available for MSFT (meaning available to third parties). Get a privacy cover to go along with the Kinect.
The User Interface: I've never been a fan of Windows 8. In fact, I own an Asus Vivotab with Windows RT and it's horrible. I ended up purchasing an iPad Air instead. I purchased a new laptop which included Windows 8, and I uninstalled and installed Windows 7 instead. That being said, the 360's UI didn't bother me at all, it was full of options but concise. The XBox One's UI is different than my 360. The good things is that it is customizable, and I love that. It makes me feel right at home coming from the 360. However, it is cluttered. It was designed to work with the Kinect. This is another way of MSFT forcing people to get the Kinect, since they make it harder to navigate the UI with just the controller. The apps on the XBox One are more polished than the apps on the PS4, and there are more of them. However, the PS4's UI has a simple magic of it's own.
The Games: I won't really go into this, because it's all about preference. Dead Rising 3 and Forza are probably the best all-around games, however. Assassin's Creed 4, Battlefield 4 and Call of Duty: Ghosts all play better on the PS4. So, if you're just looking for those games, then skip the XBox One. I am excited for Titanfall coming out early next year.
Again, my review comes from a the point of view of being a PS4 and XBox 360 owner. Like I said, I received the console as a gift. For my own money, I would have purchased the PS4 over the XBox One all over again. I am not a fan of MSFT's anti-consumer policies. Also, not MSFT markets this console as a all-in-one media hub; well, I cut the cable cord a long time ago, and never looked back. With offerings such a Roku and Chromecast, I don't need an all-in-one solution, I want a game console. | video-games_xbox |
I am having a blast with Farming Simulator 15. I have been wanting to try Farming Simulator since I saw it come out on the 360 a few years back. I got a gift card recently so I figured why the heck not and picked this up digitally. I am so glad I did as I am having a blast with it. I also needed something to play in front of the kiddos which this is great for. They enjoy watching me play, they learn a little bit about farming, and I let them drive around a bit to help out. They get so excited seeing the tractors and equipment and the kid in me does too:) Your kids cereal might be magically delicious but it doesn't magically appear in a box at the grocery store, it's good for them to see and learn about the work that is put into it.
Farming Simulator 15 like any simulator can be very repetitive, it's a career/work simulator. Like most jobs in real life that involves a lot of mundane, repetitive tasks. But like the old saying goes find something you love and you'll never work a day in your life. And I love it so it doesn't feel like work to me. It's very relaxing and fulfilling to see my farming empire grow. If you are the type of gamer who enjoys collecting flags, orbs, COGs, intel, or toliet paper (I love you Sunset Overdrive!), you will probably find the sense of accomplishment enjoyable instead of repetitive.
There are many different things to do to mix it up such besides harvesting such as mowing, cattle, logging, and delivery. It provides a good change of pace while you wait for your crops to grow. Buy more fields, equipment, livestock, whatever, it's up to you on where to focus your resources. Speaking of resources, you start out with a decent amount and they give you the ability to get a decent sized loan as well.
Graphics are good, not great. But considering the size of the developer and it's a niche game I can understand the limitations. Multiplayer is pretty good as well too. However I find it better if you know someone rather than playing with strangers. Shooters I don't mind player with randoms but this game seems more suited to build something with people you know. Now on to my pros and cons quick observations:
Pros:
FUN!
Good balance of realistic game-play physics and fun
Great for kids and adults (younger kids might need a little help on what to do)
Equipment has great detail
Lots of equipment options
Ability to reset equipment to get it back to your farm quickly
Multiplayer is great if you have friends or family who also own the game.
Educational, You'll learn what the heck a tedder and windrower do city boys and girls.
Cons:
Fonts and Huds, you can tell this game was built for PC and then modified for console, it's functional however
Navigation maps, map labels, waypoints, again these were built for PC and modified for console, it works but could be better
Textures, good resolution on XB1 but graphic textures (other than the equipment) are really 360 level.
Could use a couple more maps/location options, maybe this will come via DLC.
In game Help/FAQS, you'll probably have to Google/Bing a few things. Things could be explained better but you'll learn stuff through searching.
Thanks for reading and I hope this helps you make a decision. I get excited to play it and think about playing it while I am doing other things, that's when you know you have a good one. Simulators are not for everyone but for me it's been a great experience. | video-games_xbox |
Zombies"...give me a break. <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Call-of-Duty-World-at-War/dp/B001AWIP68/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Call of Duty: World at War</a>
First of all I must point out that I really love World War 2 genre games such as the older MOH and COD games.
I recently purchased the Xbox and the first game I purchased was MOH Airborne, which I thoroughly enjoyed, albeit I wished it was a tad longer. I should also point out that I refuse to play any game online and be stuck with a multitude of pre-pubescent children. With that said, I purchased World at War on the spur of the moment as I usually research any game for reviews before I shell out any money. Buying WAW without having first researched it was a BIG mistake and I have only myself to blame for that and a lesson well learned and one I will not repeat again.
If a game is upfront as to being a fantasy, science fiction or horror game I'm then fully aware of that fact and free to make a judgment as to whether or not I wish to purchase it and have done so in the past and will continue to do so. However, when a game presents itself as a World War 2 game and then throws in something so absurd and ridiculous as "Nazi zombies" I'm then totally turned off. What happened to the (within reason) realism of the past World War 2 genre games of the past? They found no need whatsoever to include something as blatantly asinine as "zombies" to the game play to keep it interesting and challenging. After I purchased this game I placed it on the desk in my office as I did not have the time to get into it and it still lays there within its original wrapper! That's right; I've never played it and refuse to do so considering the total absurdity of including these so called "Nazi zombies" in the game. For some odd reason I ran upon some reviews of this game and notice the inclusion of "Nazi zombies" and now I simply refuse to play it and I'm admittedly quite pissed off! It seems to me the game should have a subtitle such as; "Nazi's meet Resident Evil zombies from Racoon City"! What in God's name does a World War 2 genre game have to do with something so ridiculous as zombies! Even if I had played the game and then unknowingly ran into this asinine absurdity I would have immediately taken the game out of the console and tossed it out the window! This is akin to buying a football game only to find out that you are confronted with playing against a team that consists of mutant characters out of a horror film! Come on....let's keep it real or don't even bother! | video-games_xbox |
Go with the underdog. Trust me. I may be the only person in the world to sell my PS4 and get an Xbone. This package lured me in. It's certainly an incredible value.
I had a PS4 since launch, but have been turned off by the lack of 1st party games. They have come out with a few, but I always end up picking them up and being let down. I switched for the games, and ended up liking so much more.
1. First Party games (Sunset Overdrive, Forza, Gears of War, Halo, Crackdown, to name a few...) I know a lot of people love it, but Bloodborne lost me... sorry Sony.
2. Xbox live is MUCH better, and has a really great friends system. Although I had more friends on PSN, the interface was not well thought out... getting games together was a bit of a mess.
3. EA Access. This comes with a year of the service, which allows you to acess a ton of AAA games and upcoming demos.
4. The NFL app. As dumb as it may seem, I love that it gives me notifications when my team scores, allowing me to quickly exit my game, watch the reply, and immediately jump back into the game I was playing when finished. AWESOME. And free.
5. The controller. The offset thumb sticks are incredible for first person shooters. Has improved my accuracy significantly coming from the DS4. I also hated how short the charges were on the DS4. I like that it's rechargeable... but has the battery life of an iPhone... dumb.
Things I dislike:
1. I've had it crash once, playing Sunset Overdrive... but this only occurred once. I have had it stop responding in the menus a couple of times, but only for a second or two, and then it acts like nothing happened.
2. The playstation UI is better... sorry MS. Far more intuitive - besides the friends system. Luckily the is a huge Windows 10 overhaul coming very soon.
3. Graphics are slightly better on PS4 for 3rd party games... but I'm here for the exclusives, and the differences that do exist are incredibly minor. The issue has been blown WAY out of proportion.
Overall I'm very happy with my purchase. You get a full copy of Madden, most EA sports games are a free download away, for a whole year, and MS being the underdog in this gen is forcing them to do everything possible for their fans. Things seem to get better and better for Xbox owners. They've learned to give the people what they want.... and that speaks volumes. | video-games_xbox |
Like Watching A Winning Team Fumble At The End Zone --- and Loosing. Thousands of reviews have probably gone through with their own disdain as to why ME3 was such a disapointment but I would rather first talk about the good things vs the utterly horrible.
1. Great shooting - Its not like ME2 where you could charge and shoot, you'll have to use cover and sometimes mild tactics in order to finish your missions. I don't think i didn't loathe one fire fight in any segment of the game. 4 Stars for action.
2. A realistic Shepard: This time around, he's not really so clean and the choices aren't so open and shut. You even have to consider that Shepard him/herself is also suffering from PTSD as well as the many lives he's seen lost along with all of the death and destruction from ME1 to ME2. Mark Meer does the best peformance of Shepard to date, he seemed to be very engaged into the dialouge he expresses and it fits well with the mood and dark surrounding of ME3.
3. Graphics are always a plus, I don't think I'm so detailed that I woudl claim a huge difference, but the worried thoughts after people played the demo suggested it was going to be clumsy or somewhat unfinished looking... however I think they did a great job creating new enviorments both destroyed and maintained.
5. Lots of weapon vareity --- and although some were questionably useless, there was enough different upgrades to make you at least feel there was some upgrading/growing stronger as the player went along.
6. Flowing action --- great dialouge. I heard some complain about the dialouge. Not too many wheeles per say. I didn't mind what I had, there wasn't THAT much dialouge however... most likely because at the end of the day, unfortuantely, the more fast pased --- button smashing and less talk players grabbed EA's attention and therefore, we got served Gears of Mass Effect. It is what it is.
7. Well lets see.....7....7.....
You know what? Lets keep it at 6 because after all that, it doesn't practically matter at some point. The poor so called RPG has de-evolved into a cash pit for Multiplayer fans to shoot at eachother all day until they get bored and go back to MW, leaving the husk called Mass Effect as a laughable punch line at the bargain bin. Why lie to you consumer? You'll end up a dollar short and a few hours less of your life, having put too much energy into a plot that never was going to finish correctly and an influence from Big-V.
Just stay away from the game unless you can get it for 20.00 --- do your self a big favor.
I am not spoiling anything. If your just a casual gamer you may like it, if you are a hard core fan, you won't. And thats the bottom line.
1 star. I don't need to add on to what was said, its all true in the end. All true. Darn shame to fumble such a beautiful set of games but... what can I say, its a shooter's world these days. Most people want explosions, map packs, and numerals raising to what ever score you want to rant and rave about along with digital medals --OK --- hey what ever floats your boat but geez -- you have to bleed into everything these days? I rest my case.
Could care less who doesn't like this post, Mass Effect 3 is Mass Deffect 3. To each their own though, these are only my small opinions and you can do what ever you wish....
...but Bio Ware... you really did bad son...you really did bad.
The only thing left for one to do is to get killed by Mauraduer Sheilds, now there is a Hero of Mass Effect --- he tries very well to help you out, if you take the hit, I suggest you leave it at that.
End.
Added Content:
I don't think The CE Edition should even get a Star becaaauuuuseee ---- DRUM ROLL ---- YOUR COPY OF THIS GAME WILL EVENTUALLY BE NULL IN VOID DUE TO THE " BLACK HOLE " BUG THAT WILL PREVENT YOU FROM EVEN PLAYING THE GAME, UNLESS YOU GET A NEW GAME TAG FOR THE XBOX --- AND GUESS WHAT?!? YOU CANT EVEN USE THE EXTRA CONTENT NOR THE DLC, BECAUSE IT WON'T ALLOW YOU TOO THANKS TO EA SERVERS!!! ISNT THAT GREAT?
BioWare really messed gammers up. I certainly hope they treat Dragon Age 3 better than they gutted and knifed ME3. For their profit sake! | video-games_xbox |
One of the best TV game show video games ever. I recently bought Wheel of Fortune for the Xbox 360, after trying the demo out 2 months prior. Here are my thoughts in this honest review.
Graphics-
Certainly while this game isn't going to win any awards for graphics, the graphics are still really good for a game like this.
The show hosts look exactly like the real Pat and Vanna, the gameshow board and wheel are spot on and the many different arenas you're able to select look quite good. The characters themselves are more "big head style" with huge heads on a smaller body.
The menu interface looks nice and is reminiscent of a tablet game interface rather than a true console game interface.
My only complaint would be that at certain times the character you choose will drop framerate slightly which is silly considering this game pushes nothing to hamper it on a 360. That's about it.
Sound-
The sound's really good and identical to the show. You not only get the hosts full speech and grunts and groans from characters, but you get the backup announcer whom tells you about the prize you could win. The music is limited, but it does feature some nice jazz that's short lived; unfortunately. One gripe I have about the sound would be no background music. I'd of preferred a light tune in the background to make it seem more lively; but the crowd does chip in quite a bit to make it sound better. Not bad.
Gameplay-
There's nothing much to speak of in terms of gameplay being that WOF is a "fill in the hidden letter" game that gives you the ability to spell out the word. You're also given a good amount of time to solve each puzzle being that this game doesn't have Kinect support; but probably features keyboard support.
One of the first things I noticed about this game from the beginning was just how easy it is to earn achievements. Literally, in the first five minutes of gaming, you're likely to earn 10 achievements alone and that's not counting the completion of one game. Basically, if you play this game long enough, you'll earn all the achievements.
The difficulty can be quite a pickle at times and some of the answers had me saying "what the heck was that?" altogether.
In addition to winning games, you can also choose prizes which range from new arenas, concept art, props, clothes and such. You can also customize the character you want to use or just use your Xbox live avatar.
This game supports up to 3 players.
Overall, for the current price it's going for, it's not a bad buy, but I'd prefer buying this at around 9.99 to be honest. This is actually a pretty good game offering some good gameplay that is easy to get into, and is a godsend considering the other "bare bones" gameshow games like Family Feud Decades for the Wii. (which was a disaster) | video-games_xbox |
Best gaming headset I've ever owned. These came highly recommended from a friend of mine who has owned this headset for a few years now. I'm very very picky about headsets and I've tried a few Turtle Beach headsets in the past and had mixed feelings.
I bought this headset for my Xbox One and I've aboslutley loved everything about it so far.
Let's start with the headset itself.
Rich sound is produced from the well-designed speakers, providing an immersive environment. The quality of the sound is impressive and hits highs and lows equally well for a headset. I have averaged sized ears and the headset fits over them nicely, and unlike most headsets of this price range, it features a cottony-soft ear cuff cover, unlike many headsets that have the plushy "pleather". This adds a unique comfort that I've not experienced with other headsets before. I've worn it for 4 to 5 hours straight before without any ear pain or discomfort. Of course, this will vary based on ear and head size relative to the headsets placement on the individual, but I'd say that for the price of this headset, it is very comfortable. The headset itself is relatively heavy which is a testament to its quality. The top of the headset is well padded and prevents contact pressure fatigue pain on the top of the head which is a plus. A removable boom microphone on a highly flexible metal base is a major plus. The foam covering the tip of the microphone does a superb job dampening noise from breathing or direct air hitting the microphone which could annoy your teammates. The boom plugs in to the headset with ease and can be rotated in just about any position you can think of.
On to the cable!
The cable supply to the headset is an average sized cord roughly between two and three feet in length and coated in a soft plastic. It feels durable enough to hold up to a moderate amount of stress. I have had a few minor passing issues with static or poor audio quality which can be rectified by moving the 3.5mm jack connection a little. Considering that this has been a pervasive problem on previous headsets I've had, it comes as no surprise that every headset would have some issue like this, but this headset has been the least troublesome and this particular issue is of rare occurrence and quickly resolved.
To the Xbox controller connection!
This headset can be either connected using the 3.5mm jack or through the mini-USB connection. The headphone adapter that comes with this headset is a greatly improved version of Microsoft's adapter. It has a nice mixer function that allows you to balance the game and chat volumes, while still giving you control over the overall master volume. Two other buttons allow you to control mic monitoring and muting and bass boosting. The bass boost has a few settings to allow for the right amount of bass delivery based on the type of game you are playing. The mic monitoring is a MAJOR plus with this headset. It not only helps drown out surrounding noise (similar to a noise cancelling headset) but it also allows you to judge how loud you are being and enables proper positioning of the microphone. This is also a huge plus for those people that have a tendency to speak louder when they can't hear themselves talk.
Overall this headset is worth its weight in gold. For the price, this headset can't be beat. I am thoroughly impressed with this purchase and after a few months continue to be pleased by its function. I highly recommend this product for those who are looking for a quality headset and an affordable price. | video-games_xbox |
Worst Purchase Ever - Avoid it. I purchased this game and it worked fine until the 1/28/2014 update. Since then I have been unable to play the game despite several calls to Xbox support. On my most recent call I was told they could do nothing and I would have to call Activision... Yeah right. After finding their support number (an incredible task) I was unable to reach anyone and after clicking through several automated things you generally get a blurb of advice from the automated tech line and hung up on.
My issues was this: First the update would not download. I got to 97% and nothing - 6 hours later - still nothing. 1st call to Xbox support... we restart everything (Xbox, router, etc...). Nothing. We uninstall the game - reinstall and try the update. Same results. Since this took several hours and the course of the day I obviously had to get off the phone with them. Therefore with nothing to do I tried this twice more. On the third attempt it worked. Hallelujah! I played the game for about 10 mins then had to go to bed - work the next day.
I get home today thinking, wow long day my homework is all done (I work and go to school online) I'll play some COD. I turn on the Xbox and bam - it wants to update again. Ok, small new patch maybe? Nope it wants to download the 1100MB patch from the previous day all over again. And now I'm back to begining. It stops at 97% again....
So I am now over $650 into a product I can't even use. Furthermore I can't get in touch with Activision support. At no point in my life have I ever been so angry at a manufacturer.
Also if I hadn't mentioned I am currently in Basrah, Iraq - not really a lot to do here so I thought the one small thing I could bring with me to mentally remove myself from this place for a few minutes everyday would be a simple video game, little did I know it would cause more stress than the insurgency within the country.
So to sum it all up I would recommend you buy from a different company now and in the future. Activision does not support their products and certainly believes they can take your money and provide you with nothing more than a green plastic box and game disc that would be better used as a Frisbee. | video-games_xbox |
This Is For All Ghostbusters Fans Everywhere. Finally, after years of being a fan and waiting for another possible movie, all I wanted was another Ghostbusters experience to bring me right back to my childhood.
And did they ever deliver!!!
This game is everything any fan has ever wanted out of the Ghostbusters franchise!!
In the beginning of the game, as you go through the tutorial, the moment you pull the trigger to use the proton pack for the first time, it sends shivers down your spine and you find yourself just running around shooting at inanimate objects because the thrill of actually using the proton pack is amazing!!
The game has a wonderful story line of you being the new rookie joining the Ghostbusters, and you get to be the guinea-pig to test out their newest upgrades and modifications to the proton pack.
There are many different locations in the game including: the Ghostbusters HQ (which you can explore!), the Sedgwick Hotel and Central Park to name a few.
The voice acting is dead on! You really get the sense that all the original actors really started feeling the Ghostbusters-vibe again, because their performances are magnificent! You really feel like you ARE the newest member of the Ghostbusters! Also, there is constant banter between all the member of the Ghostbusters throughout the missions, and it gives a great sense of realism throughout! Some of their banter is pretty funny too.
Gameplay is excellent. The control scheme is laid out well on the 360 controller, and movement is fluid and smooth. There where a couple of times that I got stuck on something really dumb, like a table, but I just busted out my proton blaster and blew it up to get it out of my way!
In closing, without giving away too much detail about the story, it does take places a couple years after the Ghostbusters 2 movie and continues the path of figuring out more about Gozer and Shandor.
Overall, a MUST have purchase for all Ghostbusters fans and hardcore gamers that have been dying for a Ghostbusters game since the NES and Genesis days.
Go out and buy it right now!!! | video-games_xbox |
Halo Unevolved. I really don't think that this game deserves all the high ratings that it is getting. I have played all of the games in the series and this one is no different from the rest. But if you are looking to sustain that same experience that you had in Halo 1, then this is the game for you. I feel that Halo 3 was better than this. Halo Reach was better than this, too.
My biggest grip with this game is that you are still stuck with running around like a stiff cardboard throughout the game in an arcade-like manner. In this day and age of Call of Duty and Battlefield you would think that the makers of Halo would realize that the video gaming world has evolved. No longer are you stuck with just running and shooting a la classic Doom. We can now crouch or go prone for the more effective shot. Yes, I know that Master Chief is wearing an armor but if he can make a slight crouch then he can at least go prone. I found myself trying to crouch or go prone to make strategic shots only to find myself doing a slight crouch that does not help me much. I felt like I was still playing Halo 1.
My second biggest grip is that the save points seem to be designed to lengthen the game artificially. You could wipe out a whole swarm of enemies and then be taken out by the final one and have to start all over again. You cannot save at any time. You have to get to a save point and those are set so that you have to clear the whole swarm before you can progress to the next stage. And, no, I am not a terrible player. I am able to play with the best of them on online shooter games. I have completed some of the most difficult games out there. This game is by no means a difficult game. In fact, it is actually one of the easiest games. I just don't like the lack of a good save point system. I do have a life after all. I am not one of those thirty year-old slackers still living with his parents and playing video games all day while munching on delivery pizzas because he's too lazy to buy groceries and cook a meal.
Continuing on the unevolved nature of this game, the old wonky controls of the Warthog is back. Driving this buggy is like a buggy ride straight out of an old Nintendo game. With games like Project Gotham Racing and Gran Turismo you would think that they would have learned a little about fun driving. But no, they are still using the same mechanics.
Speaking of mechanics, there is a lack of cover-and-shoot mechanics in this game. Again, as I have stated, we have games like Call of Duty and Battlefield that have done this for years already. When will Halo catch up?
Finally, on to the online portion. Wait, I don't have Xbox Live Gold. Why? Because I refuse to pay a toll fee just to be invited to play online in the Xbox Live universe. I find that to be a rip off considering that on Playstation 3 it is FREE. So what do I do? I only purchase games for the Playstation 3 if I just have to play the online portion of the game that I already paid for. I used to purchase Xbox Live Gold until I got the Playstation 3 and noticed that the graphics and service is all the same. The only difference is that Xbox Live charges for you just to play on their network. At 60 dollars a year, you can expect to have spent three hundred dollars (almost the cost of the console) if you kept it for five years.
In summation, if you are looking for a new Halo experience, you're not going to get it here. But if you are looking for more of Halo 1, look no further. | video-games_xbox |
Get Fuzion Frenzy 1 instead. Fuzion Frenzy 2 is a party game comprised of a bunch of mini-games. I adored the first Fuzion Frenzy game for the Xbox. How does this one compare?
The mini-games are different, and I just don't find them to be as much fun as the original set of games. I suppose it's like anything in life - that when you have a wide open field at the beginning, you can do the best you can do. Once those are done, and you have to choose from the "not quite good enough" for the next release, they just won't hold up.
The characters have been stripped of personality. In the original game I actually got fairly fond of Zack and Naomi and so on. I liked choosing my favorite character and playing against all comers. But here you're now just "Player 1" or "Player 2".
I bought this game when it very first came out, and was so disappointed that I put it on the shelf. It's now five years later and I gave it a fresh try, to see if maybe my opinion on it had changed. Maybe I was unfairly comparing it to the original that I adored.
Unfortunately, no. I still found the gameplay tedious. A main part of the issue is the long, boring intro and mid-sequence videos that they show. You have to slog through them before you get to the actual gameplay. You can skip some of them, but not all of them.
Even if I were to say "good for mini-game lovers" - why wouldn't they just get the original Fuzion Frenzy, which I loved? I could play Fuzion Frenzy for hours and hours if I was in the mood for mini-games. There wouldn't be a reason to put this one in the system instead. And with so many other mini-game style games out there that do it well, even if one didn't like the Fuzion Frenzy universe for some reason, there are a wealth of other options which are more fun to play.
I just can't recommend this game. You could rent it from a rental site if you want to see what it's like, and who knows, maybe one of those mini-games will connect with you and become your personal favorite. We all have different tastes. But for me, I just don't have any reason to keep hoping the game eventually grows on me.
Rating: 2/5
I purchased this game with my own funds in order to do this review. | video-games_xbox |
still fun. Very fun game, like most of the Burnout series.
Pros:
- they removed the ANNOYINGLY loud gear shift noise from the last game
- graphically gorgeous. All the little sparks are so wonderful.
- it's fun to destroy. This isn't real life. You get to do things you wish you could to idiots in traffic. healthy outlet for road rage.
- slow-mo (aftertouch) to guide your crash into other cars if you can has returned from Takedown.
- priced right
- The bit where you just drive into traffic to cause as much insurance cost damage as possible is probably one of the funniest things you'll ever see in a video game. Who hates the insurance industry? I DO! I can do these over and over and over again and it's still fun to do. I love that so many of the autos on these levels happen to be fuel tanker trucks. Pretty funny. They should add some nuclear waste, hazmat vehicles...how about liquid nitrogen or nitroglycerin tankers blowing up sky high a hundred feet into the air. Now that would something.
- Arguably the best game EA has to offer. Most EA games excel in mediocrity. This is both beautiful and fun.
CONS:
- re-mix electronica track of the Doors - Break on Through to the Other Side. What the hell were they thinking?
- if someone bumps you, then a few seconds later you drive into a wall because you turned wrong, they get credited with a takedown, even though it was really you taking yourself down.
- many circuits are more city-oriented and more contained so when you do a takedown, the other guy just crashes rather uninterestingly into a wall. Prior versions of this game had them shooting way up into the air maybe off a cliff or something. Much more fun.
- low angle view of car only. Many other games give you multiple view options.
- they new "revenge" gimmick element adds little to actual gameplay (offline). You takedown the same car that took you down last. So what. You'd be trying to take them or anyone else you can down anyway.
All-in-all as fun as it ever was. Look for Burnout 5 with a more open-road style of gameplay on 360 late 2007. | video-games_xbox |
With powers beyond human and elf understanding...With more popularity appeal than John Lennon himself...behold...Sir Douchebag. Released after years of developments and rewrites, a suspended release, Activision's legal issues, Ubisoft's release, and a Black Friday trilogy promoting the human-elf war in an awesome three-parter, here is the video game South Park fans have been waiting.
South Park The Stick of Truth. Entirely developed, conceived, written, and performed by the show's creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, their show's production team, and Obsidian Entertainment.
Set over a course of three days, you play a new kid who has moved into South Park under strange circumstances his parents wanted to escape and preserve their son from. Powers that end up in the hands of the South Park fourth graders who are busy playing their Elf and Wizard game, started after the Black Friday debacle and its heretic resolution.
At the game's beginning, four classes are offered to you: Warrior, Mage, Rogue, and Jew. Each presenting specific abilities and attributes one can obtain through experience or by making friends with the South Park community, either through sub-quests, discussions, or main quests you complete for them, situations as crazy as the town itself; but also clever social commentary on the video game medium (ex:Bioshock audiophones, DLC, reused ideas, etc.) and on our world's injustices (ex: germanophobia, phony media statements even in the face of truth, cultural barriers within Canada, etc).
Of the gameplay, everything occurs in a two-dimensional environment similar to the TV show, which mixes both cut scenes the South Park studio animated, and a game environment where the character fights against his enemies in a traditional RPG battleground. While loading screens serve as transitions from certain environments (houses, sewers, country, etc.) and also to pass from the free-walking environment to the battleground you and your guest character get to play against enemies. Though the walking environment can offer you props that allow you to bypass enemy fights in clever ways and gain experience points. An awesome idea from the show's creators as it makes the game more alive and real.
Through the entire game, Parker and Stone succeeded in recreating the town's major buildings and made multiple references and jokes to popular characters in the show; Past show elements like the Chinpokomons, Crab People, Lemmiwinks, Mr. Hankey and his dysfunctional family, Critter Christmas, and Jesus. Some you get to summon as Espers, and others you meet only once like the Aliens, but whose interaction with brings forth a serious impact to the storyline. Storyline in which the creators will not release any DLC extra levels, though they have offered in the game enough achievements to encourage players to replay twice or thrice or anytime you'd want to for the game really offers much to play and laugh with.
As for the Grand Wizard set, the game comes with a hand drawn map of South Park by Cartman, a large plastic figurine of him, and DLC costumes for your character. Indeed, Ubisoft has developed a nice collection set for any video game and/or South Park fan, though I'd wish they could have offered more choices of large figurines. Either Butters or Princess Kenny, whose popularity grew enormously due to the Black Friday Trilogy.
In conclusion, although this game's loading screens can sometimes load more longer than necessary, this game is the first South Park video game I have adored in its entirety and I encourage anyone to buy it. Not only that it is also an awesome love letter and tribute to the Earthbound video game, which Trey Parker and Matt Stone have admitted being enormous fans of, especially of its surreal and unique gameplay with children that fight against something adults have no control on. | video-games_xbox |
Left 4 Dead? Not if the survivors can help it. For those of you who have played and enjoyed Capcom's "Dead Rising" and wished a friend or two could join in the killing can now rejoice. You choose one of four survivors to play as at the beginning of the game (campaign mode) and then you attempt to make it though a series of levels with the aid of the other survivors (up to three of your friends or three AI's). The game is a challenge because it does not include just zombies (which, by the way, run at you instead of the classic zombie that would drag a limp leg slowly toward you), but it also includes "special infected" including witches, boomers, smokers, tanks, and hunters, each with special abilities that can kill you when you least expect it (sometimes very far away too). The interaction with the environment is really well thought out, including doors that can be busted open, cars that can be flipped over, and gas tanks that can burst into flames. The game includes a variety of difficulty levels, so even the best players have a challenge. There are also a wide variety of achievements that you can get by simply playing through the game with your friends. I've played this game every weekend since I've purchased it and each campaign takes about 2 and a half hours playing with three friends on normal difficulty (and we've played the levels before). The good news is that you can even change the difficulty during the game, so if things are too tough players will not have to leave the game to make necessary adjustments. Simply press start and look at your voting options (you can even kick an annoying player too). All in all, this game is great. The playability is fantastic and since the levels have randomly generated zombies and special infected, you'll never play the "same" level again. I highly recommend this game. Oh, and if you are wondering about blood and gore... there is a ton of it. | video-games_xbox |
I used the Turtle Beach 500x for three weeks and while I was happy with the sound quality I was disappointed in the . As an avid gamer I was really excited when I found out about these. Wireless 7.1 with true wireless chat was something that I have been missing since I upgraded to the Xbox One.
I used the Turtle Beach 500x for three weeks and while I was happy with the sound quality I was disappointed in the construction and comfort of them.
Pros:
- Wireless chat - These over TRUE wireless chat for the Xbox One which is great. No need to use a chat cable to a controller puck
- Customizable presets - Turtle Beach has a lot of presets that are pre built for most popular games
- Rechargeable battery
Cons:
- Comfort - This by far was their biggest downfall for me. I've used a lot of gaming heads from Turtle Beach and other vendors and these were the least comfortable. My ears aren't huge but I'm 6'2" so they're proportionate to my size and I find my ears get "pinched" by these. I was constantly having to take them off and adjust them even mid game. Compared to other headsets I've owned (Astro A50, Tritton Warhead, multiple older turtle beach) these were the least comfortable
- Mic design - There is a mute button on the headset for the microphone but my issue was that I never knew if my headset is muted. You hear a beep when you mute but there really should be a small LED at the end of the mic that turns red if it's muted. Or allow for folding the mic up to mute like other high end headsets
- Active feedback - This feature (not sure what they call it) let's you hear yourself talk so you don't scream into your mic. For me it's a must and a main reason I got rid of my Astro A50's. My issue with the 500X is that you're either stuck with off, low, or really high. For some reason there is no middle volume
- Confusing preset buttons - This may be somewhat unavoidable but the presets and EQ are all determined but how many times you press a button. So I found myself constantly having to cycle through to see if I was in the right spot...and trying to remember the EQ 3 and Preset 4 was for my game....confusing. I personally would rather just a slide labeled 1,2,3,4 but that would also change the whole design.
- Construction - Compared to other high end headsets I felt this was mid range construction for a headsets priced at the high end. It really feels like they just slapped wireless chat on an older model headset. I think this is most evident by the fact they are launching a new $300 800x with a real premium look to them. I think they just used these to help drive up the high end price range
Conclusion: If my head was smaller I could see myself overlooking some of the issues and giving these a 4 out of 5 even with the smaller issues. | video-games_xbox |
WAY TOO MUCH FUN . I have never seen a game that is so free and open. It takes days of play just to learn the city streets and interesting places to go for...Well, Whatever you want to do. I really like this XBOX version more than the other formats for many reasons. The graphics ARE better. There are more cars to take, The custom radio stations and the insane car stunts you can try, just to list a few. When you get into a car the radio is on. You can click onto one you like or in this game, load YOUR favorite songs from CD. It is easy to do, No MP3 files or computer downloads. Just you CD's saved into your XBOX memory. In certian areas you will see ramps in some very starnge places but back up and hit them! See how far and how dramatic you can send a car into air, Just get out and run far before it blows. If your insane stunt is good enough you will see it in slow motion and also earn money for it. Speaking of money, you new players out there. Watch the...Let's give the nice hooker a ride impulse. Every second she is in your car ='s money lost. Another tip to new players. Don't point your gun at anyone who is important unless you intend to fight. Pulling a gun on a cop, Or gang member with friends near by is a bad move unless that's what you want. If gang members come after you and a cop is around, He and they will be on you. Cops don't seem to side with you in this one. Also, If you kill a cop you better run (NO drive) fast and far. They don't seem to care if you speed or run lights or kill bums or hookers but they take cop killing seriously. This is why you have to learn the streets.
It is really true This double pack should keep you going a long time. You HAVE to play it alot just so you don't miss anything. Anyone that tells you you can learn and see everything in these games inside of a few days is full of it! GTA 3 alone should keep you interested for weeks and weeks. Vice City is even bigger and more involved so start with GTA 3 and go from there. | video-games_xbox |
A huge improvement over Call of Duty 3. Last year's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare delivered an awesome and varied single-player experience that was matched with an even better multiplayer suite, and it made for some really big shoes for Call of Duty: World at War to fill. There's a solid single-player campaign, co-op play, a huge multiplayer suite, and even a fun mode featuring zombies. Instead of serving up Normandy and D-Day for what would have been the umpteenth time for World War II shooters, the game covers the island hopping campaign in the Pacific as well as the Red Army's reversal of the tide at Stalingrad all the way to the Fall of Berlin. This provides some interesting new battlefields set on sun-bleached coral atolls in the Pacific.
There are plenty of deafening, large-scale set-piece battles, but there's also variation to change things up but remains a Call of Duty game through and through. What that means is that the action is fast and fluid, as well as rigidly scripted. The success of the franchise proves that there's a vast audience for that, and this won't change anyone's mind.
All told, the single-player campaign is about as short as that in Modern Warfare, but it doesn't drag on. Plus, there's considerably more replayability here because the bulk of the campaign is playable in cooperative mode with up to three other players. World at War builds on the groundbreaking Modern Warfare. There remains the create-a-class and rank system that lets you unlock perks, weapons, and upgrades that you can then mix-and-match to create different load outs.
It's easy to be jaded about World War II shooters, but Treyarch makes a convincing argument to stay excited with World at War. The game is packed with a deep amount of gameplay to appeal to every type of player, from those who want to experience a gritty single-player campaign to those who like to play multiplayer. This is a solid, confident shooter with plenty to offer the casual and hardcore alike. | video-games_xbox |
More for kids than previous Halos. First off, I enjoy this game and have played it many hours. You will probably enjoy it too if you like Halo games. But....
343 was in a precarious spot in taking over for Bungie. They needed to bring something original to the table or they would simply be immitating Bungie. But the Halo series has grossed $3B so they didn't want to mess with it too much. Walking that line caused them to make some unfortunate choices.
1) Prometheuns. There are mixed reviews of Prometheuns out there. It's nice to have a new enemy I suppose but the Prometheuns are surely an annoying enemy and not very original. Of course, the Prometheun knights are in some ways the baddest of all the Master Chief's enemies. You can unload beam rifles into them followed by a complete clip from a covenant carbine and they still keep firing back at you. Their weak point is the odd light grenade (which seriously weakens them with a good toss) so killing them tests your grenading ability. They magically teleport which is a pain ni the butt on the first run through and then you learn their "i'm gonna teleport" signal, step back two steps and blast them with your shot gun when they appear where you just were (so teleporting is just stupid). The "crawlers" (the stupid dogs) are just annoying - if you enjoy shooting these dogs over and over again, you probably enjoy other games more than Halo. In the end, Prometheuns are just about pulling the trigger over and over and over again. That was never part of Halo and is not a welcome addition for me.
2) Cortana. There are lots of reviews below talking about the touching love story between the Master Chief and Cortana. Bunk. Cortana looks quite different than in the previous Halos and is essentially a naked voluptuous 15 year old. She has dialogue that makes me cringe ("It's not alright. Nothing about it is alright" "OK? How is this OK?" - if I was the Master Chief, I would explain to her that my saying "It's okay" meant that I was holding her blameless, not that I thought there was anything good about her rampancy but apparently neither the Master Chief, nor Cortana, nor the people at 343 are smart enough for that). She is constantly spouting stuff like "Hurry up Chief!" when there is no time pressure at all. She is pretty mouthy for an AI ("Someone is overcompensating"). If I had Cortana plugged into my suit, I would leave her in one of those terminals and request an adult AI from UNSC Central. If you like looking at this naked girl constantly sounding like an adolescent you are either an adolescent or need some psychological care. I can't tell if 343 was pandering to the adolescents (quite a change from Halo 2's Gravemind speaking in iambic septameter) or if they are just idiots themselves.
3) Repetitive and boring scenary. Tons of Halo 4 takes place on odd floating structures. This was a seriously lazy way of limiting the game as there wa sno need to deal with walls or allowing people to explore interesting places. Put me back in New Mombasa any day rather than being on some nondescript, more or less unexplained, useless floating platform. In fact, these platforms are just a way of creating an iron cage match for the Master Chief. Halo was rarely about such hackneyed devices before. To make things worse, the game reuses the boring sets multiple times. Compare these boring sets to, say, "The Ark" on Halo 3 or "Sniper Alley" on Halo 2. Ick.
4) Music. The music in Halo 4 is awful. In fact, some of it is unbearable like the music in the section of the game where you walk can fly the Banshee above those floating platforms and destroy everything that moves. A 14 year old must have written that section - simple carnage with some kind of electronic tense music. I don't play Halo for such nonsense.
5) Odd choices. The Master Chief was away for 4 years. During that time plasma pistols decided to take longer to charge, Hunters got much more fragile and susceptible to grenade attacks, Elites decided to abandon plasma rifles, Banshees fly like they did in Halo 1 instead of Halo 2, etc... Why would they change these things?
6) The story. I haven't tried all that hard to understand the story but it is nothing very compelling. I liked the old Halo story of Forerunners messing with immortality create the Flood which they then might need to destroy by starving it with the Halo. There is nothing like that going on here. In fact, the story seems to be a thin pretext to get the Master Chief to run around and destroy 3 similar lightbulbs here, flip two switches on two pylons there, enter one portal here simply to get to another portal there, blah, blah... Arthur C Clarke didn't write this story; the people who wrote the story must not have ever written anything any good because this story was just silly. | video-games_xbox |
Maybe The Greatest Wrestling Game Ever. I bought this game about a year and a half ago at K-Mart for like 40 cents in the bargain bin. I wasn't really expecting too much as the first Legends Of Wrestling game was pretty bad. The second one followed and was panned too so i didn't even bother. When I saw this for sale though the price was right and I was really digging on the nostalgia factor with all those great legends i grew up watching from the 1980's and early 90's. I was hoping for at least a decent dose of video game wrestling action and to say i was pleasantly surprised is an understatement! This game is simply one of if not THE BEST wrestling games ever made. The graphics are a little cartoony to be sure but it evokes the wrestling era of the 1980's and early 90's perfectly. The controls are really easy to learn and master with hundreds of moves of every kind from technical, grappling, submission, high flyer, turnbuckle, martial arts and simple brawling. You can cheat too with lots of weapons available at ringside and tables to smash opponents thru! The various matches available make for endless playability with 1 on 1, tag team, 3 on 3, 4 on 4, tournament, hardcore, submission, iron man, first blood, steel cage, table, ladder and the epic royal rumble! The real meat and potatoes of this game however lies in the deep roster of wrestling legends from the WWF, WCW, NWA, AWA and the various territories. This roster includes all the signature finishers, fighting styles, entrances and outfits (4 different for each wrestler) of each legend including managers! If the legend you want to wrestle with isn't here you can create him or her using the custom creator which lets you build up a sizeable stable of wrestlers. My brother and i have about 60 or so additional legends we created to go with the ones already in the game and these all have signature moves, outfits and so on. The action is called by Tony Schiavani, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan and "The Living Legend" Larry Zybysko and while repetitive, adds to the fun with some memorable lines "Blood, beginning To flow!". The game is buggy and will occasional stop altogether mid match but the amount of fun derived from this game is immeasurable and we always end up coming back to play again and again despite the fact that i own an XBOX 360. I've tried the other WWE games and i wasn't at all impresssed. The rosters were too new and no legends made for an unfulfilling experience as i'm no longer a fan of professional wrestling and haven't been interested in it for like 12 years or so. This game is very similar to the WWF Royal Rumble And WWF RAW games for Super Nintendo and the WCW games for N64 and a must own for fans of that era of wrestling. "Just Get To The Wrestling Schiavani!" | video-games_xbox |
There's Always an Objective. ...and for The Bourne Conspiracy, according to the developers, that objective was that the players would "be Jason Bourne." They've succeeded, and along the way have created one of the most engaging action games in a long time.
Pros:
Excellent Combat Mechanism
Realistic Shooting Mechanic
Captures Jason Bourne Flawlessly
Powerful graphics
Cons:
Grainy cinematics
Too many big guns for Bourne
I'll be taking a closer look at all of these in a moment, but for now, lets begin by examining the three basic areas of gameplay: Close Combat, Shooting, and Driving.
Close Combat in The Bourne Conspiracy lives up to the fight scenes in the films. By using the X and Y buttons, Bourne can execute light and heavy attacks on opponents. Holding down the buttons prepares a light or heavy kick, which is impossible to block, but takes about 2 seconds to prep. One of the unique aspects here is adrenaline. As you successfully land punches and kicks, you build up adrenaline, which can then be used to execute devastating takedown attacks, which allow you to use the environment (such as pens, books, windows, other enemies) to bash your foe to the ground. The combat flows well, and the only real issue here is that while you fight one enemy, his buddies all just circle the fight (occasionally they will try to hit you, but you can simply press a button to knock them out of the way and cancel the blow.) Overall, it works surprisingly well.
Shooting in Bourne takes place in a third-person perspective without falling into the trap of impossible aiming mechanics. Fighting here is cover-based, but unlike a lot of other cover-based shooting games, Bourne allows you to draw enemies out of cover by firing at their cover (distracting them or making them feel they are no longer safe). Here as well you have the ability to use adrenaline to fuel shooting takedowns, which, while not as impressive as the close quarters ones (Bourne usually just aims with a cool look on his face and shoots) they still provide a good deal of satisfaction. My biggest beef with the shooting is also pretty minor. Bourne's got too many guns! You spend a good deal of time using shotguns, SMGs, and even an AK-47. Those things bring to mind Rambo, not Bourne, who specializes in stealth and professionalism.
Driving is only featured in one level, but since it's a pretty iconic scene (the Paris Car Chase) it deserves a mention here. The driving system is similar to the one used in a lot of driving games, such as Grand Theft Auto or Crackdown. The only real difference here is that you can, as Bourne, use adrenaline to enhance your abilities by slowing down time to allow more precise driving. As a bonus, one of the Achievements available to unlock while driving is a reward for smashing up Paris as much as possible, always a nice touch.
Before I wrap up, there are a few more things to touch on. The so-called "quick action events" (an event requiring you to swiftly press a certain button during a cutscene to influence events) are a welcome break from the constant fighting and add variety to the game. Finally, as I mentioned earlier, the cinematics can at times be a bit grainy. I think the issue here is that the brightness during cinematics is turned up too high (and unfortunately changing the game brightness doesn't help)
Overall, the Bourne Conspiracy captures the heart of the Bourne films without trying too hard to be a "movie game". Aside from a few minor issues, this game is a solid title and hopefully the first in a franchise of games based on Jason Bourne. | video-games_xbox |
Abhorrent performance issues on the Windows 10 version, gold edition is worthless. With an i7 4790k and dual GTX 980s, I don't expect performance to bomb this badly. It's even worse on my i7 6700hq GTX 1060 laptop.
I neglected writing a review for many months after purchase in the hopes that a patch would come and solve the issues but to this day; the game still runs abhorrently. Disabling SLI, overclocking, disabling overclocking, patching the game; nothing fixes the performance in this game.
I cannot maintain 60FPS on low 1080p and the game will slow the game down to match your framerate causing the game to be near unplayable. Locking the framerate to 30 largely solves this problem but the game dips into the 20s frequently in cities. Lowering the resolution to 900p will keep the game from dipping below 30 often. Even if I lower the resolution to 720p I cannot maintain 60FPS in cities.
This means that the entire time I played the game - over 30 hours - I had to play at 720p 30fps if I didn't want to experience constant slowdown. On an i7 4790k... and TWO GTX 980s...
Downloading onto the Xbox One to play turns out pretty well... But I want to experience the game in the best way possible, which apparently isn't on PC.
The game itself can be pretty fun as the world is very large and there's a good amount of things to do. Playing with friends in the open world makes the game feel somewhat more alive in comparison to the older games, but network issues are also constant (at least on PC) and you will be kicked from your group often. This does not occur on the console version.
If you enjoyed the first two games in the Horizon series, you will enjoy the content available in Horizon 3. If you've never played a Horizon-life game before, I strongly recommend you try it... as long as you play it on the console version.
I'd give the game 2 stars if the Golden Edition actually included more than just cars you can buy with in-game cash. I was under the impression that spending 100$ on the game wouldn't require me to spend another 25$ to play in the winter wonderland DLC. The extra 40$ I spent was completely, totally wasted. | video-games_xbox |
PS2 controller is prefect for 3D fighting games. This adaptor is highly recommended if you love 3D fighting games, but it has 2 minor drawbacks.
#1 - Your PS2 controller will not vibrate when playing Xbox 360 games.
#2 - You need to have a regular WIRED 360 controller in order to SYNC the PS2 controller. As another reviewer pointed out, a wireless controller with a charge cable attached will not work. I have a wireless 360 and a charge cable, but I had to spend an extra $40 on a regular wired controller.
Positives:
The regular PS2 controller is perfect for 3D fighting games such as Tekken, Soul Calibur, and Virtual Fighter. The problem with the xbox 360 controller is that the two trigger buttons are a bit large, they are designed large in size in order to resemble triggers on an actual gun. So pressing them all the way down causes a slight delay. The PS2 trigger buttons are much smaller, so when you press them down the response is much quicker.
Having a quicker response is very helpfull. I normally assign the trigger buttons to Punch + Guard, or Kick + Guard. These conbinations allow me to quickly perform a grab move by pressing one single button, one single trigger button.
So with the PS2 controller you can perform these moves with a quicker response time. Also, another problem I have with the xbox 360 controller is that my finger would sometimes accidentally hit the Home Key in the center of the controller. The PS2 controller does not have a Home Key, so you will never accidentally pause the game.
I have not tested a regular PC keyboard and mouse as of yet. Only because I have realized that I really love having force feedback (vibration) in games like Gears of War. I sucked at the game during my first play through, but I really became a lot better during my second play through. I recommend that if you are like me and you love having vibration in your shooters, try practicing more to improve your aiming skill. Practice, practice, practice!
I am willing to give up force feedback in my fighting games, but I must have it in my shooters. | video-games_xbox |
It was nice knowing you Tony Hawk. To be truly honest, I do not know where to start this review whether it's the smooth gameplay, the interactive environments, the realistic controls, the media,or the way the game just develops a true and realistic skate community is beyond me, but EA does it no less with style and accurate precision.
I got a quick glimpse of this game a couple of months in advance due to Ign.com in depth review along with some other sources. Ign was not exaggerating when they said, "It's hard to imagine ever going back to a regular action sports game." They are absolutely right in the sense that Skate changes the entire standard for actions sports games; moreover, they are still innovating and growing. But enough of the blabber and i'll get down to the nitty gritty and convince you Xbox 360 owners why this is a must own for new comers of the genre or for the stubborn skateboarders who refuse to let go of their Tony Hawk Franchise.
Right when you start your career mode your going to notice right off the bat how EA designed a beautiful world made not only for people who actually skateboard but for people who even might be remotely interested in buying an Xbox 360 because this game shows off the console's true potential. If it's not the scintillating sun igniting the crisp and smooth cement or the vibrant trees capturing mother nature at it's finest, skate regardless got my attention immediately. The minute you press that A button you feel like your truly are skating through a limitless environment because the truth of the matter is you will always discover something new. The second the wheels start turning you'll feel the motion of a real skateboard, Ea somehow renders this game into a skateboard simulator, (Well, maybe a slight exaggeration, but not far from it) The sound also contributes to the authenticity of a skateboarding game, between the ollie or the metal axel grinding against a steep stairway rail or possibly a 30 ft ledge next to a set of 20 stairs, you name it EA delivers with style. Now the controls of course are not easy to get used to especially if you have been playing the Tony Hawk Franchise for quite some time including myself. But let me tell you the gameplay is so innovative and different that it truly becomes addictive and fun because just when you think you've mastered some basic flip tricks there are plenty of more to complete. The true icing on the cake is when your finally able to kick flip or heel flip on command because the motion of the skateboard actually coincides with the analog stick. Its amazing. The way you position your board or the way you set up for a grind is the way you really do this in real life. If my explanation is still not good enough for you let me provide an example, lets say you want to execute a backside tail slide, something basic, (well in the video game world ) ok? In the Tony Hawk franchise you would approach a rail, a curb you name by either holding the left directional pad and pressing the "Y" button; however, in skate you align your board by holding down on the analog stick, (the harder you hold down, the bigger the ollie) then simply ollie slightly out or on angle to get the tail of the board to land on directly on the tail. You execute by just releasing the analog. For a video game they truly imitate the motion of a skateboard. Now they are so many skate spots inundated with slick ledges, skate buddies, rails you literally will be in awe and quite possibly might faint with anxiety. trust me you won't know where the hell to begin, but thats a good thing considering this game will keep you occupied regardless of the challenges or the rankings. Im just simply talking about free skate.
The challenges are incredibly innovative and incredibly challenging with some of the pro's giving tips as well as some tutorials such as Jason Dill teaching you how to manuel or to kick flip out. These challenges are also for you to deicide to engage in maybe you want to free skate the environment and you want to step up your reputation in the skate community go right ahead, no pressure. Or Maybe you want to hangout with some of the fellow skate buddies by impressing them with your new skills. oh yeah did i mention you can capture yourself with the fun editing option that Skate provides. Sure, you want your footage to have a retro 80's style or maybe you even want to show it off to the rest of the world by uploading it in the xbox live community, Bingo! EA's got you covered. Now the skate world is so vast that you could get some exercise by going on classic foot, but this is SKATE you can just take the subway. Literally, skate to the subway station, 8 second loading screen pops up and your in the heart of the downtown financial district where you skate the city for hours and hours without any redundancy. Sure some skate spots might be restricted in terms of security, (for example, the hospital) a security guard will run after you, meanwhile you'll be popping nollie hard flips in his face, but thats called realism and that where Skate succeeds in every aspect in this game, it truly is amazing; And if you think you can just automatically skate on any ground without falling, YOUR WRONG. Try skating into a curb, you won't make it without falling flat on your face. The power slides and the way you stop is a whole new category that deserves attention, because nothing feels automatic as opposed to Tony Hawk, you feel like you have complete control over your skateboard thats when you develop the skills of course. For example, I am a big fan of kick flipping on cement banks, when executed with skate, depending upon the momentum of the flip or your speed the board just flows gently and just feels like your on a steep bank. It difficult to explain, but the EA's Skate is able to capture a sort of realistic momentum that no other actions sports game has. What also so great is that you build yourself from scratch, authentic clothes authentic skate shoes, your good to go except you need practice. Enter competitions or just skate at your own ease with no pressure its solely your decision. Now I know I have been bashing Tony Hawk, but I have alot of respect for that franchise as well, now going on it's 8th title. The problem with long running franchises is that it gets harder and harder to innovate, as a result you get diminishing returns. Without Tony Hawk there probably wouldn't be a SKATE, I still remember being in 8th grade picking up my fresh new copy of PS1 tony hawk, also simply amazing. Here Skate is redefining the whole new action sports game genre. It's probably a good thing a game like this didn't come in my youthful skating days because I might have dropped out of school, Well, all in all, deff worth the 60 dollars, and with that in mind i think skate is here to stay hopefully spawning off some new and improved sequels. | video-games_xbox |
They pulled it off.... OK almost. ********REVIEW OF THE ART BOOK*************
WORTH OWNING FOR SPIDERMAN FANS: Honestly I have loved how they have designed different spidermen and different dimensions. Having an artbook that has arts depicting all the spidies and villians truly adds value to this overall bundle. Now if you are not a fan of the spiderman to begin with, this may not mean much to you, but if you are into spiderman you will like it a lot. The dimensions of the art book are the same as that of game case.
********REVIEW OF THE ACTUAL GAME************
I am a big fan of Spiderman and seeing how this game looked, I had to give it a shot. I mean comic book like artstyle, 4 different versions of Spiderman and worlds and variety of villains, got to check it out. After spending 16+ hrs on this game (finished on normal mode and unlocked almost everything), here is what I thought.
******************PROS******************
AMAZING ARTWORK OF 4 DIFFERENT SPIDERMEN AND 4 DIFFERENT UNIVERSES: This is the first and foremost thing you will notice if you are a Spiderman fan such as myself. They have done really good job animating 4 different versions of Spiderman (Spectacular Spiderman, Noir Spiderman, 2099 Spiderman and Ultimate Spiderman), 4 different worlds and most importantly villains in 4 different worlds. As you progress further and further into the game, you will get to experience more and more of this variety and chances are you will like what you see.
13+ VILLAINS OF SPIDERMAN UNIVERSE: To me, after artwork, this was the strongest aspect of the game. There are 14 different levels. First is just tutorial. Then the next 12 levels you have 12 different bosses with different powers. So each Spiderman gets 3 different bosses each and then all 4 of them get to defeat one final boss in level 13. The best part is each one of these bosses is very artistically animated and for most part there is some level of creativity and variety involved in boss battles. Loved it just loved it. If you are a Spiderman fan you should buy this game just for this.
VARIETY OF SPIDER POWERS AND MOVES: While all 4 spidies have shared set of abilities and fighting moves (web swinging, sticking to wall, punches and kicking in combination with web etc.), each one has distinct powers, style and looks. Amazing spidy will do a lot of web based attacks, Noir has more stealth based attacks, 2099 can slow down time while ultimate spidycan use unique rage ability of venom based suit. Noir stealth mode was especially quite impressive. Reminded me of Batman Arkam Asylum.
VARIETY IN GAMEPLAY ELEMENTS: While a lot of gameplay in 4 worlds share common redundancy in terms of beating thugs and then beating bigger thugs and saving some civilians before you face off with bosses, they all have some very different gameplay aspects. For example, in Noir world you will heavily have to rely on stealth and in 2099 you will be doing cool things like chasing bosses while gliding through futuristic cities. Happy they didn't make things too redundant.
INTERESTING FIRST PERSON HAND TO HAND COMBAT MODE: Each boss you face, there will face them in first person view mode where you get to give them a piece of your mind by punching, jabbing and uppercutting them. If a boss has given you hard time or annoyed you this is the time to let it all out. Furthermore, they also have some cutscenes where you dodge through enemy attacks in first person mode. I personally enjoyed it.
PLATHORA OF UPGRADES, COSTUMES AND UNLOCKABLE: Spiderman fans will love it. Every time you beat enemies you get experience points through which you can buy more moves, upgrade your abilities or buy costumes. This adds a lot to replay value to the game. Even after finishing it once (12+ hrs). This can get you to play it again and again. Some of the costumes you can unlock are pretty unique while others are just plain funny.
VIDEO, FIGURINE AND ART GALLERY: If you are like me, someone who doesn't like to play through the game 10 times just to enjoy some in game cutscene, this is the game for you. Completing the game will unlock different movie, art and figurine galleries. Big plus.
DECENT VARIETY IN ENEMIES: Now this game doesn't have as much variety in enemies as God of War or Castlevania games, but I am happy to tell you enemies in different levels are still somewhat different. My biggest fear in Spiderman game is having the same enemies over and over again. While in this game in all levels you will be fighting goons and bigger goons, they have have different looks from level to level. Not only that you will also need to change your fighting strategy to overcome enemies in different levels. Salute to the creators.
*******************CONS********************
REDUNDANCY: I didn't mind it as much, but if you are someone who doesn't like redundancy in games, then you will mind this. As stated before, one type of redundancy you face is beating goons and then beating bigger goons in all levels. But the one that can really get on your nerves at time is saving civilians. Fortunately, for most part, it is not as bad as these civilians won't die easily if at all. And also we have to remember that this is a superhero game so I guess they had to push it in. Just wish didn't have to save civilians so often.
*******************CONCLUSION****************
So the game is not perfect, but if you are a Spiderman fan like me, you will surely enjoy it. I truly enjoyed playing as 4 different Spidermen with different powers in 4 different world. Unlockables truly kept me coming back for more. I would give it 9/10 and highly recommend it. | video-games_xbox |
Balanced, Fun, and Refreshing, but a little barren. I'm having a lot of fun playing this game but I'm not a raving fanboy, I'm also not a snarling hater. I'm just an average gamer who likes to have FUN when playing.
By far the best part of this game is the balance. I'm very opinionated when it comes to balance and fairness in FPS games. Often when playing Call of Duty, Halo, Battlefield and even Crysis I'll get discouraged fairly regularly because it seems like you get killed in the most bogus ways. If you play a lot of online FPS games you will see attention to detail in every nook and cranny. You can tell Respawn went to great lengths to level the playing field in every imaginable situation.
So far after playing Titanfall through the whole beta and since launch I haven't had a single moment where I felt like I was killed unfairly. I've died plenty of times (2.4 K/D so far against pilots, 8 K/D overall) but all deaths felt fair and deserved. If the other guy truly gets the drop on you then you die, pure and simple. It's never frustrating because you probably had your shot but you blew it, and it's actually a FUN learning experience when you die.
Part of the balance comes from the fact that there are very few weapons, this makes the game feel barren, but then again there aren't 22 different automatic weapons all throwing the balance out of whack. Most people are using the same 2 or 3 weapons so weapon damage is pretty level across the board.
Being in a Titan doesn't equal god mode, it's basically a bigger and more powerful extension of a your normal player, but guess what everyone get's at least one (often 2 or 3) per match so once again everything is balanced. Don't underestimate the power of being on foot either. So far my favorite experience in the game was being backed into a corner in the middle of a 3 (enemy) vs. 2 (ally) Titan battle. With me on foot working with the two Titans we were able defeat all 3. Also losing your Titan doesn't mean instant death either, you will almost always have a chance to eject to safety, I've lost 4 Titans in one match and never died once.
It does feel chaotic at first but once you get a feel for how to playing works you can really cut loose and do some pretty cool action hero like stuff. This is one of the few games that I've ever played that rewards CREATIVITY. Fighting both foot soldiers and giant robots using a combination of invisibility, grenades, primary weapons, heavy anti-Titan artillery and virtually INFINITE mobility never gets old even after hours straight.
As for my only con, the customization suffers for the sake of balance. I usually play Call Of Duty as a Heavy Overwatch Gunner with a heavy, accurate, long range LMG, no grenades and low mobility. So far I haven't found a like loadout in Titanfall, but honestly that style of play doesn't work well with Titanfall anyway. Most of the loadouts you can create will push you towards a run-and-gun-only play style so you'll have to adapt accordingly.
There are plenty of in depth reviews that cover the game dynamics and other technical aspects of the game, but for me the subjective parts are what make this the most fun competitive game I've ever played. | video-games_xbox |
This Years Best..Blend of 3rd PS and RPG. I recentlly finished this game and prior to this did the first Mass Effect. There were vast improvements to the overall game in all aspects. I break it down as follows....
RPG & Shooter
In Mass Effect 1 it was pretty close to 50/50 split of both elments. With Mass Effect 2 it felt more 40/60 with more toward combat which to me was a good thing. That way you were able to use all the different characters powers and experience the several combinations using them on various missions.
Visual
I thought Mass Effect 1 looked really good but Mass effect 2 was a vast improvement on already something good. The details everywhere were upped a notch with various surroundings to worlds, structures, lighting, weapon effects, character details and so-on just really came to life.
Audio
Just great overall and the 5.1 mix is really something in battles and explosions. You can fine tune various parts to music, voice, effects. I did tone down the soundtrack to enhace the dialogue which is important.
Storyline
It picks up from Mass effect 1 so if you played it it's basically a continued story which is a big plus. Hence one reason why so many...including me say play the first game and you'll appreciate it much more. Plenty of side quests as in the first one but this has a few twists in it that keeps you wondering. This is the strength of the RPG side of it and no doubt will continue with ME3.
Extras
There are a few notables here like character customization in both facial and armor where you just have countless features and colors to choose from. Whatever you choose it pretty much is seen throughtout the game in play and cutscenes. The DEVs did a great job here with having your custom character shown throughout the game. Kudos here
Characters - A good solid cast of "Team" members to get and play with. Each with a "special" ability with even more available with "Loyalty" missions. You first have to get them and then in turn to earn their trust you must help them. There are combat and RPG elements at play here so choices have to be made in both areas.
Planet Scanning - Something new here to where you have to venture around the whole glaxay in search of certain raw material for certain upgrades to all sorts of weapons, armor, biotics and even the ship. Some have more than others and some have certain materials and some don't....you have to find them. But to do so you need fuel and probes which you have to buy with credits. And those come via side missions, goodies found thanks to another part....
Hacking -where you are given chances of hacking wall safes, to doors, to computers and so-on. Some for credits, some for goodies and some for access. There are two types of hacking and you can obtain upgrades to help out.
Squad Commands - You now have the ability to direct each squad member seperately where you want them. This way you can space out the team and out-flank the enemies better.
The only downside I found was the characters you gain toward the end really don't get a chance to use much since most of the missions have already been done. So you're limited to a few chances to play them with your squad
The other slight pain is assigning your "points" you gain to certain abilities. In the first Mass Effect you could do one point at a time. This one goes as 1.2,3 then 4. In other words to use (4) points you have to wait till you get (4) points before applying them. The first one you just had a bit better control. Several characters had left over points because i didn't have enough to assign them to a spot.
Other than that a fantastic journey of a game to play and already looking forward to the second playthru. And yes you can import your same character from ME1 to ME2 and ME2 first playtru to the second playthru. The folks at Bioware did a heck of a job here and it's worth 5 Stars hands down | video-games_xbox |
After contacting Collective Minds, this CAN and DOES work on PC as well. UPDATE 5/3: I've been exchanging communication with Collective Minds for a few dats and they've discovered how to get it working for PC. Currently it's Windows 10 Exclusive from their testing but I can myself confirm I have use of paddles again on PC.
To use on your PC you need to do the following:
1) Search for/have Cortana search for a 'joy.cpl' file (Control Panel Item)
2) Open it and a Window should appear (Labeled as 'Game Controllers')
3) This is when you plug in the Xbox One Controller w/Strike Pack (DO NOT HOLD IN THE PADDLES. This will cause nothing to appear.)
4) There should be a new option labeled 'Controller (Xbox One For Windows)'
5) Click on it and hit 'Properties' option
6) You should have a UI showing a 'Test' tab displaying feedback from buttons (E.G.: A = 1, B = 2, etc)
7) This is where you can remap the paddles as designed (Press and hold the back 'P' buttons and your desired mapping)
8) Your Paddles should now provide the same feedback when hitting that matching face button.
Now that this issue has been resolved I will go back on my previous ratings and reviews and give them another look over.
In terms of use, like I said before this is a Scuf/Elite Controller competitor, for about a fraction of the cost.
The remap-ability is very simple to pick-up and learn and works on PC or Xbox with no issue.
However it can't all be good, which unfortunately there are a few downfalls compared to competitors.
For starters they're limited to being wired. Although it makes sense since the pack stores it's own hardware to give the paddles their features, so attempting to design that with battery use would've been a nightmare. But this can be seen as good or bad depending on what you're looking for.
Another issue is the pack itself and what it offers. True it does offer you access to mod packs that'll do things like alter fire rates or some optimal movement feature, but it only offers 2 programmable buttons, which is less than than half of what competitors offer.
Also another issue like I mentioned is it's pricing. For $50 you could go get a game or a brand new controller for that price. However if this is something you're in the market for, specifically mods for Xbox One controllers, this could be something to look at.
UPDATE 5/1: Did a bit further research and tested and found some interesting and disappointing things.
So it seems the latest firmware killed off any PC support/interaction for the striker paddles (Very annoying since I had gotten use to them in Dark Souls 3). Making this an Xbox One exclusive device, which IMHO is a huge missed opportunity and just leaves this to a very niche device for a very niche audience.
Why force us to use a PC app to program it if you aren't even gonna put the effort to add in PC support which is perfectly feasible. Granted I can use the regular controller still, but at that point I'd rather detach it and use the controller without the strike pack and gain the benefits of wireless since I have the adapter.
In terms of use the device is a poor-man's Scuf/Elite paddles, but remember there are only 2 programmable buttons. So if that's what you're looking for this is right up your alley, especially if you play on Xbox One exclusively. However those hoping you can stream your Xbox One to your PC, this does not sadly work and won't register the paddles, which like I said with dropped PC support is a huge missed opportunity.
For $50 it's very hard to really justify. With some notable things: Wired (Could be good or bad), No PC support (Which means no support for use while PC Streaming), Mod Packs are limited and feel outdated now (Seriously Star Wars Battlefront pack is still in development for what reason?).
For this much you could get a Xbox One Windows Controller W/Cable for Windows (MRSP $50).
If you play exclusively on the Xbox One you'll likely enjoy this more, but myself preferring to play on PC I was disheartened to see PC support for it dropped.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
Picked it up at GameStop since I had a gift card and wanted a new dedicated travel Laptop game-pad. Enjoyed my paddles on my Elite Controller so thought this would be nice and I could leave my Elite at home for my desktop for a fraction of the price.
Was indeed a "honeymoon" product.
Worked awesome when I first used it letting me remap the paddles on the fly. Awesome for Dark Souls 3 since I could map my lighter attacks leaving me to have access to my weapon skills at all times. Wasn't even experiencing the disconnections that people were mentioning.
Don't know what happened to their process for pushing firmware or if it's the latest ones itself but in less than a week it's made them useless.
I downloaded the previous firmware update before with no issue (1.0.0-rc. 22.dfu), but this latest one like I said has rendered the product useless and pointless (1.0.0-rc. 29.dfu).
Guess it was my mistake for wanting to try out the mod packs even-though I had no need for it (TBF they aren't great and very limited and the remapper was working fine as is). 11 games with some of them having several packs honestly sucks and is a joke. No user generated profiles or mod pack contributions is just more insult to injury. How much longer is Star Wars Battlefront going to be "Coming Soon"? By the time it's "released" I'm sure everyone will have moved on (If they haven't done so already).
Tried Firmware Update > Recovery several times on the app but doesn't do anything it seems. Reverting back to last firmware did nothing either.
Sent a support ticket on their site and awaiting back response.
Collective Minds isn't terrible. Hell their hub and trigger grips are fantastic, but why does this have such terrible QA?
Honestly although the Elite controller is 3x it's price I'd rather just stick with that since it just works and has yet to give me an issue or stop working. It can be wireless (if you have the dongle), offers you more button remapping.
You can say I'm salty, but for $50 and for it to stop working in less than a week is no excuse and a farce. Likely will return this back to GameStop and try to put that $50 towards something better. Save your $50 toward a smarter investment (Official Elite Controller). | video-games_xbox |
Trouble in Paradise. DEAD ISLAND is not the game I thought it would be. Not even close. I think after the infamous teaser trailer, I pretty much got it in my head that the game would end up being a really "meaningful" zombie experience. All the themes of a really good zombie flick spread out over the canvas of an open world video game. Desperation, survival, and banding together to keep the horde at bay. A game with a great story, a lot of opportunities to explore, memorable characters. I don't know, I was really hoping for the moon.
But the opening moments of the game have you waking up from a bad night of partying and running around a zombified island resort at the behest of "The Voice," all the while collecting teddy bears, champagne, etc. All of this done for a group of quest-givers who seem to believe self-sufficiency is taboo. All the while, people are referring to you as if you were more than one person, as though the developers were outright opposed to making a game that allows for a seamless singleplayer experience. No, DEAD ISLAND is all over the place in terms of what it does well, what it is, and what it's trying to be.
Despite all of that, it does indeed do some things very well, but I'm gonna go over the bad stuff first.
Disappointingly, there's not much of a story here. In the beginning, what appears to be a struggle to escape the infected island of Banoi quickly tailspins into a convoluted mess of sidequests involving everything, from the aforementioned teddy bears to delivering supplies to arranging luggage into a giant "HELP" sign on the beachhead. There's a lot going on in this game and not a lot of it's connected to the whole escape-the-island plan. I'll be darned if your character won't be the most unfocused survivor on the island.
That's not to say that the sidequests aren't fun or interesting from time to time, but in an RPG (especially a zombie RPG) you can't help but find yourself wondering, "What would I do in this situation?" Would I make a run out to an abandoned gas station to bring back food for my fellow survivors? Probably. Would I fight off a zombie horde to reclaim a teddy bear? Probably/definitely not. It's a funny quest, and there's certainly room in this game for good humor, but there are many, many quests that seem so out of the realm of possibility that I had to stop myself a few times and question, "Why am I doing this?" Why do these quest-givers seem so indifferent about sending me out into Zombieland so many times for odd little reasons?
But then again, DEAD ISLAND is not trying to be FALLOUT or OBLIVION; unfortunately, it's trying to be BORDERLANDS. That is to say, the entire game is built around its co-op mode, to the point that all four selectable characters will pop up in all of the cutscenes regardless of who you choose to play. NPCs will constantly refer to you as though you're in a group and you may be constantly hit with notices that pop up when you're playing in the same area as someone else online. Now, I love BORDERLANDS, but it's tough to play games that generally feel less-than-whole if you don't have a buddy to play with right then and there. I would have greatly preferred the game to have a strong singleplayer element with co-op as an option.
You might also notice that if you do choose to play a solo game, DEAD ISLAND will not show you any mercy just because you don't have backup. I can't believe I'm saying this, but there were too many zombies in this game. Running around the different parts of Banoi quickly becomes a chore when different quests have you crisscrossing through veritable walls of the undead. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if the zombies didn't respawn as soon as you leave the area, but as it stands, you might just fight the same group of undead several times as you sprint from quest to guest-giver and back again.
Having zombies absolutely everywhere makes exploration seem unappealing, which is very, very disappointing, since developer Techland made sure there was no shortage of places to seek out and loot. But in my case, the thought of tackling additional walls of zombies on top of what I was already dealing with in the main storyline was very off-putting. (My stats say I killed over 1000 of one type of zombie during my first, semi-rushed playthrough.) I thought that maybe once I got up there in levels, going back and poking around all the places I missed wouldn't be such a bad idea, but that was quickly shot down. I'm not sure why this is becoming a trend among most RPGs these days, but I don't find it very fun when the enemies' level scales to your own. So going back to places where you'd just fought 4th level zombies, you will now find 20th or 30th level zombies, depending on your own level.
I can absolutely understand enemies getting more difficult to kill as the story goes on, but I can't for the life of me figure out why everything else has to progress with you. So we end up with an RPG where progression and improvement amounts to just barely keeping your head above the water.
So where does that leave us? Well, taking into account the many graphical glitches and the odd quest bug you're likely to run into, I would put the game at around 3.5 stars as an objective rating. Definitely do some research and see if this co-op-centric game is what you were expecting. But personally, despite all of that, I did have a really good time, because DEAD ISLAND is a very big step in the right direction in terms of the zombie game of my dreams.
Banoi, for all its social imperfections, is an absolutely gorgeous place. Walking outside for the first time edged very close to that OBLIVION or FALLOUT moment, when the whole world (island) is in front of you, and there are so many possibilities. Everything is just so competently designed. The beach resort feels like a place you'd want to visit, the town feels lived-in, and the inland jungle is easy to get lost in (literally and figuratively). It's all very top-notch, so much so that I was hoping for a lull in the attacks so I could do some decent exploring, but that kinda gets derailed by the "Infected" class of zombie, which spawns in packs only a few yards away from you, no matter where you are.
And even though the quests can run the gamut, there were many that were well thought-out and written, and some that completely capitalized on the post-apocalyptic setting. (Who wouldn't want to ride around in a reinforced armored car or run around abandoned shops?)
DEAD ISLAND was a rollercoaster ride of post-apocalyptic wish-fulfillment, amazing visuals, and wasted potential. What could've been the OBLIVION of zombie RPGs ended up being the BORDERLANDS of zombie RPGs, where the story and gameplay all show signs of being compromised in order to make co-op the absolute focus. But even with that working against it, this game is still one of the best zombie titles out there. It's not quite the zombie game I've always wanted, but it's certainly gotten closer than anything else on the market. | video-games_xbox |
SPOOOOOOONNNNNN. When Halo 3 was announced, I actively resisted buying Crackdown for the sole purpose of getting onto the Halo 3 beta. Mind you, I love Halo 3. I play team slayer every Wednesday night (add Talien to your friends list if you want to join). But I wasn't going to pay more money just to get into the game early. So for a long time, I just avoided Crackdown out of principle. Which is a shame, because Crackdown is awesome.
Basically, you're a genetically-engineered superhero who can leap tall buildings in a single bound, lift trucks over your head, and shoot criminals real good. Did I mention the criminals? They're the reason you exist: in a society overrun by scum, you "AM de LAW!" There are three gangs you must defeat, each helpfully segregating themselves by taking over a different island. There's the Hispanic Los Muertos (death), who swear at you in Spanish and drive muscle cars. There's the Russian Volk (wolves) who drive Soviet-Era transport trucks carrying Stinger missiles. And then there's the Shai-Gen, sort of the uber-corporate villain reminiscent of Gibson-style Japanese megacorporations. You take down each of these bad guys by taking out the lieutenants, which in turn weakens the gang leader by reducing the effectiveness of his bodyguards.
There are a wide range of weapons and vehicles you can use to wage your one-man war on crime. You can impound weapons and vehicles so you can use them later. Your uber-cop advances through the skills he uses; use lots of explosives and your explosives skill goes up, run over bad guys with your car and your driving skill goes up. There are also power-ups floating around the city, blue question marks that give you bonuses to all skills and green exclamation points that increase your speed and jumping ability.
Crackdown's methodology heavily relies on the carrot approach, rewarding you for going to difficult places in the game by providing incentives. Even death isn't permanent; thanks to cloning, you reappear at one of the supply points throughout the game with a loss in some skills.
Crackdown's cell-shaded universe is both comic book-y and beautiful. It's amazing to watch the sun set and rise, or be dangling from a twenty story building when the lights flick on. I was especially fond of killing major villains and hurling their bodies off of skyscrapers, watching them fall doll-like hundreds of feet to the ground. Wait, should I not have shared that? I've said too much.
Ahem. Anyway, what makes Crackdown so different is that it truly delivers on the sandbox-style of play. You can fight gang members or kill citizens, drive vehicles anywhere, pick up anything, destroy everything. You can jump, you can swim, you can climb. Every character is as interactive as your character, and the AI reacts in a reasonable fashion: citizens run screaming, driving their cars erratically to get away from firefights. Gang members shoot you, run you down, and throw grenades at your head. When a firefight breaks out, police come screeching onto the scene, and usually get in the way. When you jump down from a distance, you shatter the pavement. When citizens see you leaping through the air or carrying heavy artillery, they flee for their lives.
There are moments in Crackdown where I was reminded of the target audience. The non-English speaking gangs and citizens shout phrases, adding to the atmosphere of the game. The English speaking drones in Shai-Gen are a lot less amusing and become downright annoying. The swearing is a little silly (with so many citizens randomly saying things, when combat goes down they end up cursing quite a bit) and over the top. But this is a game about killing gang members by throwing trucks at them, so I give Crackdown a pass.
Speaking of the audio, the narrator is the only character of substance, and he guides you through the game. His encouragement and chastisement is pitch-perfect, an older, grizzled white guy's voice telling you how it is and how to do better next time. I wasn't thrilled with the ending - like so many games, it feels rushed and a bit of a cop out - but playing the game was still a rewarding experience.
If you're a fan of Robocop, Judge Dredd, or the Tick, get Crackdown. You'll be shouting "SPOOOONNN!", hurling chimneys, and leaping across rooftops in no time. Unless you're not a fan of the Tick, in which case you'll appreciate laying down the law the old fashioned way: with a rocket launcher. | video-games_xbox |
not sure. After beating the ps3 version and once owning it. I decided to get the complete edition with the two episodes that I have yet to play.
Playing gta4 the original game i can see why i sold it. Im going review the original first and update and review the two episodes.
First off the story, Niko is and interesting character but his motive for being in liberty city is vague and for the most part bland. You'll hear him say hes looking for someone often without saying who or why. As a GTA character I find him not very good, meaning he's too sympathetic and generally too good to be a criminal. The player will just make him do bad things. Maybe im looking to much into this but the game was heralded for its story and character which I find contradicts what the player is actually doing.
Gameplay is very familiar which is a good thing. Shooting,driving,swimming and fighting. Driving although good in detail feels like challenge just to get the hang of. Every car is different which makes it worth knowing which cars to use for which mission. Up close combat is very bad Niko is far too slow to control to get the upper hand if a enemy gets to close and is hitting him. Cover system is also wonky and could of used gears of wars treatment.
But the missions are the blandest I've seen in any GTA its repetitive and kills the flow of the game. You'll you'll sooner or later be going from one mission to another just to see what the next cutscene to progress the story, coming from gta san andreas this is very disappointing. Its safe to say Niko is more of an errand boy then Claud and Carl combined.
Music and voice acting is very good especially voice. Many of the characters are voiced by professional actors, not famous but pro actors which is good. Music selection is ok but it could've used better rock music. Thankfully you can play your own music from your dashboard.
After playing gta4 i don't know what to think of it. It has a amazing detail world but it sacrificed good entertaining gameplay for it. I couldn't do half the things I did in previous gta game. To me that's not progression.
I'm told the two episodes are a lot better. Hopefully they are. I will update my review. | video-games_xbox |
This game looked ugly at halftime. EA Sports got off to a rocky start last November when they launched a handful of sports titles alongside the Xbox 360. Since then, they've had a whopper in Fight Night Round 3 and, just for kicks, an impressive FIFA World Cup 2006 soccer game. Does their latest next-gen sports title, NCAA Football 2007, stand up alongside those other games and above the slightly disappointing 360 launch titles? In a few ways, yes, and in most others, no. NCAA Football 2007 for the Xbox 360 is a pretty game that fans of the annual series will probably enjoy, but it gets nailed behind the line when stacked up to the current-gen versions for its lack of college atmosphere and fun gameplay features.
I'd like to start by introducing to you some of the touted features for this year's college football game. First, according to the back of the box, is the "Momentum Meter," which dynamically swings towards one of the teams depending on the on-screen action. Intercept the football, and your opponent's momentum is sure to drop. Fall victim to a deep sack, and watch your momentum take a dive that'll have you panicking about your next move. The shift in momentum doesn't make your players Supermen, and it definitely doesn't make them gimp, but it will have an effect on some of the bigger plays throughout the game.
The next feature is the "Living Stadium," which is basically an improved visual and aural treat for Xbox 360 gamers. Fans will react to certain on-field situations dynamically, and generally, these reactions are accompanied by a swing in the Momentum Meter. So these two features go hand-in-hand. The Living Stadium feature isn't overwhelming, though, because the college feel still isn't captured here. You won't see the cannon celebrations and rarely do you ever see mascots dancing around. And where are the cheerleaders? They made a big deal about the male cheerleaders in NCAA Football 2006, but neither male nor female cheerleaders are present for this game. I feel like the most college atmosphere found in NCAA Football 2007 is heard in the ridiculous, annoying, and occasionally eyebrow-raising color commentary from Lee Corso.
ESPN Instant Classics is a fancy nickname for the screenshot feature that NCAA Football 2007 allows you to use. Rather than saving replays (that's so current-gen), NCAA Football 2007 lets you zoom in and pan around the stadiums to capture some of the best catches and hardest hits you've ever seen. I got particularly addicted to this feature, especially when I got big hits against chumps from high-prestige teams.
The back of the box brags about the "Deepest Dynasty Mode Ever," but this is where I was the most disappointed with NCAA Football 2007. I was ready to accept the fact that the Race for the Heisman and Campus Legend modes were excluded from the Xbox 360 version of NCAA Football 2007, but I was very disappointed to see that all of the perks from Dynasty modes past were also MIA. No longer can you read the cover of ESPN Magazine and see what teams are hot and who the Heisman hopefuls are. The Dynasty options, for the most part, are exactly the same as they have been for...well, years. And that is single-handedly the most disappointing thing about this game.
The last feature on the back of the box are the "All-New Ways to Play" NCAA Football 2007. Featured this year are three mini-games: Option Dash, Tug-O-War, and Bowling. But what fun are all these "new ways to play" when the on-field gameplay needs so much work? I read it in other reviews prior to NCAA's launch, but I never thought I'd notice how ridiculously stupid the receivers and defensive backs are. Perfectly-thrown footballs will sail completely past your wide outs, and defensive backs oftentimes run away from the speedy receivers they're supposed to be defending. Collision detection is so off that running backs will often float straight through the offensive and defensive line, leaving them a wide-open field to waltz through. What's the deal, guys? I like extra perks like mini-games, but only when the on-field play isn't so glitchy.
NCAA Football 2007 is definitely a beautiful game, that's for sure. The character models, though a little too muscular, are extremely detailed, down to the sweat that drips off of their arms and the patches of grass that clump on their helmets. The fields are, for the most part, beautifully recreated. I did notice that my team's (Indiana University) stadium was nothing close to what it was supposed to look like, but bigger venues like Notre Dame and the Swamp look perfect. The animations that were made for 360 NCAA Football 2007 are also very impressive-for example, you'll see some spine-snapping tackles and all that extra effort that a player puts into breaking a tackle, thanks to the new animations.
As I mentioned earlier, the commentary this year is especially creepy. Lee Corso must have lost his mind-as if that was some sort of secret anyway-and Kirk Herbstreit doesn't blurt a lot of intelligent lines, either. Brad Nessler is his typical dull self, but does a standard job. Needless to say, I was very happy to turn on my Xbox 360 custom soundtrack, even though it overpowered the very impressive band music.
Overall, NCAA Football 2007 is hardly worth the $60 price of admission on the Xbox 360. It's still a fun game to play, and it's just as hard to put down as any football game, but I'm very disappointed. I thought EA Sports learned their lesson when they got a less-than-friendly reception for their underwhelming launch titles, and I was especially hopeful when I factored in how great Fight Night Round 3 was, but NCAA Football 2007 doesn't stand among that game in the Xbox 360's sports genre. It's basically a college version of Madden NFL 2006 with mini-games, and that's not a good thing. Now, drop and give me $60. | video-games_xbox |
Best Next-Gen Game To Date. I own both a PS4 and an XBOX ONE. Of every title released for either concole, the Witcher 3 is by far the best one I've played. I'm a big fan of RPG style games, and I'd put hours and hours into Dragon Age: Inquisition prior to picking up Witcher 3. While I very much enjoyed DA:I, I decided to pop in the Witcher to see how it was. I haven't stopped playing it since. I tend to get bored with games - I have sort of a video game ADD. I typically play a game for a few hours, get bored of it, play something else and eventually come back to it. Nothing has drawn me away from the Witcher 3. I'm only about 15 hours in, and I couldn't be more entertained.
I played through the Witcher 2: Assissin of Kings and really enjoyed that game despite it's flaws. Witcher 2's combat was a little complicated at times, particularly when casting spells. Witcher 3 improves on this completely. Spells are now a simple press of a button. Combat is smooth and is more than just hack and slash. You must parry (reposte), dodge, use spells and in some cases oils to be successful. It's not overly difficult, it just requires a touch of skill that is easily learned after a couple of fights. The looting is great - you can loot almost anything, from a corpse to a bag of grain in some hut. The open world is HUGE. It really seems like it's Skyrim times two. There are plenty of main and side quests to keep you busy - and they generally have substance. Not just a bunch of fetch missions. The story line is very interesting the voice acting is first rate. The graphics are what you'd expect from a next gen game (I have this game for XBOX ONE).
PROS:
- Excellent story
- Great voice acting
- Tons of content; lots of missions
- Good, fun combat
- Lots of enemy variety
- Good graphics
CONS
- Over the first few days of playing the game, I did encounter a few glitches, such as a failure to load a saved game that forced me to completely reboot the system to make it work. However, a patch has since been released that seems to have fixed the glitches I had experienced. So far, so good.
Overall, I can't recommend this game enough. In my opinion, this is $60.00 well spent. | video-games_xbox |
Finally a FPS that Stands Out in a Flooded Genre. First, I will give you a little background so you know what type of gamer I am to better justify my review/opinion.
I have played first person shooters since the original DOOM days. Eventually, Halo came along and blew my mind and made me realize that my favorite type of game was a competitive style multi-player FPS. Then Call of Duty came along and felt new, Halo ended up taking a back seat. Since 2007 I have purchased every COD released each year. Up until 2010 I enjoyed each one thoroughly for hours upon hours of gaming with friends. Not once did I ever care to play the campaign. Since then each COD game released was fun for about a week and eventually I would just trade it in. Finally a game like TitanFall comes around and changes the genre in a different and fresh direction. I really hope this is the game that revolutionizes first person shooters much like Halo and COD in their time and forces developers in the genre to step their game up.
There is no single player campaign.... so what? It would have been nice but once I experienced the great multi-player I wouldn't had played it anyway. The mutil-player is chaotic, intense, and extremely fun!!
There are bots that have the worst AI but that did not bother me either because they still pose a threat and can kill you. I think it is great that they are in the game. I have had games where I did not kill many pilots/titans (real players) but was able to get a bunch of minions. Those kills made me feel like I was still able to contribute to my team but more importantly I was not frustrated at the end of the round and was excited to redeem myself the next round. If it had been a Call of Duty, I would have yelled profanities and shut my system down. In my opinion the bots add good balance.
The games sound is great! I love the sound of the titan falling from the sky, the metal on metal titan melee match, and all the guns.
Graphically the game struggles a bit. It is not terrible by any means but just doesn't scream next gen to me.
The controls are great!! Its amazing how well you can maneuver around chaos so easily. Wall run or jet pack onto a titan, drop a satchel, jump off, get to a rooftop, drop onto another titan, etc...............The ability to go from one epic moment to another is amazing all thanks to your ability or inability to control your pilot/titan on screen. There are a lot of tools at your disposal and the control scheme makes the utilization feel intuitive. If you are a gamer as I described above it will not take long before it feels natural.
If you have ever played and enjoyed Halo or Call of Duty ONLINE versus other players then give this game a try. I really doubt you will be disappointed.
There is not much I dislike about the game but there are a number of things that could be better. I am extremely excited for the future of this game and I hope that it knocks COD off its throne....or at least force the devs to actually make real changes to their games versus giving it just a new title every year. | video-games_xbox |
one of the best games ive ever played. I got my game at 1201 this morning so i could play it before work. i just wanted to play for about an hour and ended up getting about 3 and a half hours in this morning. this game takes the stealthyness of the other splinter cells but gives you the chance to just go crazy to. you don't have to be stealthy you can run around with your shot gun just blasting people away if thats how you want to be. im playing it on the realistic difficulty so you really cant just run around and blast people but im sure you could on a lower difficulty. this game is the best splinter cell game so far and i cant wait to see more. Yes i have played everyone that came out. don't listen to these one star reviews about a game freezing and stuff, every game has a game that freezes, its just a part of life. if you are a splinter cell fan go buy this game or if you are new to the series buy it to you can not go wrong. the controls are pretty simple but run very smoothly. the graphics are awsome. you have more guns then the old splinter cells but not as many gadgets. im just talking about the single player campain here by they way. this games takes everything a stealthy gamer wants or a run and gunner. you will be addicted from the opening cut scene.
so i finally finished the game and i loved every minute of it. the story was good and the action was awsome. it took everything i love in a video game and put it into one game. it is very short though, so if your not into online then rent this game. i am into online and i know i will be playing this game for a long time. i tried out one of the online modes it was the hunter mode. you go around with a teammate and just have to kill all the bad guys. it was fun working as a team with your partner and just kicking but lol. i cant wait to get home and play some more online tonight. cant wait to play the coop campain. hopefully there are some good people online that want to play it. | video-games_xbox |
Almost There. -- If this stuff is way too long to read, scroll down to the Pros/Cons section. I mostly detail the problems in the lengthier part and provide some small solutions to otherwise offset what I listed as cons for this headset :) Some "make sure to note you have" things as well --
--
Background Information:
I received my Chimaera 5.1 headset on Saturday, Oct. 1st of 2011. It's been used roughly 15-20 hours now with my Xbox 360 for gaming and Netflix with sound tests done using the Gears of War 3, Catherine, Dark Souls, and Dead Island games.
First Impression:
Very easy to set up. I used the optical cable connection so I could benefit from the full 5.1 experience. Make sure you have the HDMI audio adapter dongle if you plan to use it with your Xbox 360, though... it's like 3 bucks if you order it online, and you can't use the headset with the Xbox otherwise. I had no idea and ended up having to purchase it for way more from a local game store :(
Great sound! It's really movie theater-esque, and you can always turn off the Dolby surround sound or change the bass levels if it's overwhelming or otherwise not to your preference :) Because of the 5.8 ghz, you also don't need to worry about any interference from other wireless sources. In other words, no static!
Comfortable. I have a pretty small head (being an equally small person), so I'm always somewhat uncertain of big headphones... most sets end up being way too heavy and give me a headache within a few hours. The Razer is surprisingly painless to use, though. It does eventually hurt, but it took me seven hours before I felt it of straight gaming :P
Other smaller details ... the thing looks cool sitting on my desk next to my tv screen, and I like being able to replace the rechargeable batteries. It takes less than thirty seconds to pop in a new set, and since you can do all of that yourself, you don't ever need to worry about sending in the headphones someday to tech/customer support for them to replace them.
Second Impression:
The main problem the Chimaera 5.1 has with its mic/master volume is that the two are not separated. While holding mode down until you hear one beep allows you to edit microphone outgoing volume without any problems, the holding mode for two for incoming volume ends up being ultimately affected by your master. For example, if you turn down master volume to lower your game volume, you inevitably turn down your friends. If you turn up your friends manually to compensate for the master volume turning everyone down, you find that you're unable to turn them up any higher. You have to go back and undo the initial lowering of the master volume if you want to up the max for incoming microphone volume... so you end up going back to the original loud game that you had started with and still can't hear your friends.
While hearing people was not a huge problem with my Dead Island and Catherine games (guess they might just be quieter), I had a noticeably difficult time hearing people who weren't using Razer Chimaera 5'1's during my playing of Gears of War 3. To give you an idea of how difficult it was, my volume stats were +1 for music (0 being the lowest), +2 for sound effects, and +2 for character dialogue. I also had my Xbox Voice Preferences set to Voice max and Game Volume During Chat to like 2...
Yeah, still had problems.
Of course, the above means nothing if you are a mostly single player gamer or if you otherwise are not much of a party chat user. I will also note that this problem isn't as noticeable with people in party who are willing to speak at a slightly above conversational volume (around the volume you'd use when speaking to your grandfather over the phone transmits great even with Gears of War 3 loudness)...
- There are some small issues with LAN chat otherwise that is completely separate from the above. In short, you can't hear any in game sounds and are limited to only a chat with the LAN private users unless you use an RCA cable, which basically disables 5.1 use. In my opinion, that somewhat defeats the whole point of buying 5.1 to begin with.
- Last small issue is how sensitive the microphone is. It picks up WAY too much sound even with the use of a wind screen (the fuzzy thing you put on microphone bits). I really don't want to breathe all day into my friends' ears, and unless I mute, that's exactly what I end up doing.
Final Impression:
In spite of the somewhat disappointing second impression, I would say the Chimaera 5.1's were worth the near 200 bucks I ended up spending for them. They're certainly better than any of the other alternatives available online (Turtle Beach, Astro, Tritons). If you are really into party chat, though, and need to have it on all the time or otherwise use it for the majority of your gaming, I'd urge you to reconsider simply because of, again, it being hard to hear anyone who is not using a Razer Chimaera 5.1 headset. Since I personally do a lot of single player, however, it doesn't bother me at all to have these... and if my party wants to talk too quiet for me to hear them through the in game noise, then they'll just have to deal with it!
--
OVERALL - WHERE YOU SKIP TO IF YOU TOO LONG DIDN'T READ'D:
Pros:
- Easy set up
- Great sound
- Comfortable
- No interference from other sources
- Rechargeable battery that can be easily replaced... so if your headset dies during gaming, you can just pop new batteries right in :) No need to send to customer service
- Very nice appearance
Cons:
- Master volume/mic volume not separated
- Controls for mic volume and adjusting incoming/outgoing microphone chat volumes not explained in instructions
- Lots of background noise easily picked up
- LAN chat requires RCA cables if you want to hear ingame music/effects/etc, so no surround sound (RCA can't do it) | video-games_xbox |
Works very well but batteries are hard to remove. I ordered this product since my official one from Microsoft would have difficulty reading the batteries. The batteries would be in good condition yet could never detect them. It got to the point where I was using tape to hold it against the controller while I played, however this would barely help. So I ordered this in hopes it would be a decent replacement, if only temporarily. I ordered a New one from Costbuy for only 1 cent. No, I'm serious. They had it for 1 cent. I paid nearly $3 for just the shipping. Thankfully this wasn't out of my pocket but from a gift card, so it didn't matter to me if it worked or not. Good news though, it works, and it's much better than the official one.
First thing to note was when I received it it was in one of those tiny ziploc style bags inside a stuffed folder to keep it protected. And thus began to attempt to pull it out without trying to destroy the thing. I managed to do so and inspected the new cover. Already I could tell the material wasn't a cheap style plastic like the official 360 one from Microsoft. It felt more dense, almost like it would survive a fall from a few feet. Obviously I wasn't going to tempt fate with that, so don't try it!
I put my batteries in and found they go in with a bit of resistance. The battery openings, specifically one of them, are a bit tight, which is kind of a problem when removing them, however it keeps them from moving while playing, which is perfect for those long gaming sessions. This is the main reason why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5. I would of given it a 5 if the batteries were slightly easier to remove. Like I mentioned, it's mainly 1 of the slots that I have trouble with. I'm actually a bit worried about removing the batteries sometimes since I don't want this to just break, so I try to take it out as carefully as I can.
Now comes the most important test/part: The gaming test. I tried this with 3 different genres: an RPG (Star Ocean IV), a Fighting game (Injustice), and an Action game (Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance). For Star Ocean IV I didn't play too much of, but when I did I had no issues. Pretty common though since it's not a button input heavy game. Injustice was the first game I tried this with, and while I managed to go through Story mode in a single sitting in just a few hours, I also had no problems with the controller at all. And lastly, Metal Gear Rising Revengeance. I tend to move around a bit when playing this game as it's a bit of a tic for me in Action style games, just to keep myself a bit focused. Again, no issues.
This product was exceptional and I would recommend trying to get it if you need it, with a bit of warning on the battery removal. I can see where people might have issues with these types of products, so it's possible I just got lucky. Still though, give it a shot, and return it/request a new one if possible if you have any issues. | video-games_xbox |
You're Batman. The GOOD news: This game actually makes you feel like you really are Batman.
The BAD news: You're Batman on the worst possible day... ever!
Concept: 10/10
Batman becomes trapped in Arkham Asylum with his worst enemies and an army of criminally insane psychopaths.
To borrow a line from Rorschach, "He's not trapped in there with them. They're trapped in there with him!"
Story: 10/10
The story was written by Paul Dini, who worked on Batman the Animated Series. It's a perfect blend of creepy moments, dark humor, and a complex plot. Most of the voice actors from the animated series are in this game and they're all great. This could be the best portrayal of Batman and his enemies... EVER! This is a Batman fan's dream.
Gameplay: 9/10
All three types of gameplay really make you feel like you're the Dark Knight himself!
Free Flowing Fist Fighting Combat against hordes of enemies: The hand to hand combat is really smooth and fast. You get an attack button, a dodge, and a parry. You're usually surrounded by bad guys and you can attack them in any direction. Just point and press attack and Batman will pick the best attack that fits the moment. If an enemy is far away, Batman will leap at him, if an enemy is behind you, Batman delivers a spinning back kick right across the jaw. It's fast and really smooth. When an enemy is about to attack, you can intercept the attack with a generously timed parry and automatically counter. Some attacks need to be dodged and Batman can dive out of the way. Later on, you can unlock special moves like a throw and a takedown. The good news is that you don't get a ridiculous list of XXYYXYYBAXXY combos to memorize like many other action games. However, the combat is on the simple side, so if you're really into games that challenge you (Ninja Gaiden), this might seem too easy, even on the harder difficulties. Once you start taking down 10 thugs at at time you really feel like Batman!
Stealth Combat: Batman uses gadgets and stealth to take out armed enemies. At any time, Batman can use X-Ray vision to see through walls and track the enemies. You can take them out in a number of ways. Sneak up behind them and choke them out, dive down from above and snatch them, use exploding gel or batarangs to stun them. The stealth combat is really fun. In these situations, you're usually trapped in a room with a set number of armed guards. If one sees you, he alerts the others and they all start firing. You can escape by using a grappling hook or the environment to quickly get away from them. This isn't an over punishing game like Metal Gear where one guy sees you and an infinite number of guys rush you. You just have to take out the maniacs in the room with you. Batman's gadgets, the environments, and the enemies all fit together nicely like a puzzle. When you're taking out enemies, you feel stealthy and clever... like Batman!
Exploration: Throught Arkham, the Riddler has hidden clues and you can explore the areas to find them. You get hints and maps to help you out. I've never been a fan of collecting items in games, but works really well in Arkham Asylum. Collect items to unlock Stealth or Combat Challenge Maps in the Challenge Mode, Trophies, and Detailed Information Cards of all of the characters in the Batman Universe! This could be the most rewarding collection system of all time. And if you know your Batman Trivia, the Riddles are easy to solve. Finding collectibles and using the environment to take out your enemies, really makes you feel clever... like Batman!
Graphics: 9/10
This isn't the best looking game of all time, but everything that needs to look great, looks great. Arkham Asylum is perfectly creepy. Batman looks better than ever and the villains are actually scary.
Sound: 9/10
The dialogue, sound effects, and music bring the adventure to life. At times it feels exciting, suspenseful, and epic. All great stuff.
Replay Value: 6/10
There isn't much replay value in Batman, aside from the game is so fun, you'll probably play it twice. There are some optional challenge modes where you can practice your combat and stealth for medals. But other than that, there isn't much. The game is about 12-15 hours long, depending on how much you search for the Riddler's clues.
Maturity:
The game is rated T for Teen. There're fist fights and bad guys shoot at Batman, but it's not overly violent by any means. There's no foul language. The only warning is that the game is much scarier than the Animated Series and kids 10 and under might have nightmares of the Killer Croc under their bed or the Joker in their closet. If you're a teenager, you'll probably dream about Harley Quinn in your bed and Poison Ivy in your shower because they're... sexy!
Overall: 9.5/10
If you want to feel like Batman, this is it! You're a crime fighting, intelligent, detective, with amazing gadgets. The creepy atmosphere grabs you the second you power up the game and keeps you enthralled until you finish it. The story, atmosphere, and gameplay all work together to make you feel like you're Batman!
Buy it if you love Batman, especially Batman the Animated Series. This is a contender for Action Game of the Year, and proudly deserves to sit on the shelf of any serious gamer.
Rent it if you think you have 12 hours to finish it, you're not into collectibles, or you like games with really difficult and complex combat systems.
Avoid it if you prefer the Joel Schumacher Batman Movie, or you prefer open world games like Prototype or GTA. This game would be too gothic for you.
If you love this game, you should also play Bioshock! | video-games_xbox |
Ninja Gaiden 3 is an AWESOME game. I have all 3 recent Ninja Gaiden games . I read the reviews and I really don't understand what people are complaining about. This is a AWESOME game!!!! I love it and its one of my favorite games. I compare the fun and action to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the arcade game series except there is 100 times more action with more blood and guts and dynamite graphics. For me, this game is a stress reliever. The first Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox was OK and it was good too, but it was too much like Zelda/RPG (not that Zelda is a bad game. Zelda is a good game and not that RPGs are a bad genre); but, the first Xbox Ninja Gaiden was unlike the NES version where there was instant action all the time. Maybe Im just one for instant gratification when I think of Ninja Gaiden and thats what I got with Ninja Gaidens 2 and 3. This game is a pure beat-em up, slash-em up type game. The only thing is I thought that the STORY was a little disturbing and so-so. That is, I thought that Ryus arm looked very ugly, disgusting, and disturbing and that aspect was something I didn't like but after that, the story was again so-so and probably could have been a little better and I guess I agree with others on this front. But, the GAME PLAY was GREAT!! Some say that the violence in this game has been toned down??? Well, not really!!! Theres still PLENTY and I do mean PLENTY of blood and guts to go around and this game is NOT for the faint hearted or those disturbed by that. I sure hope that they don't stop making Ninja Gaiden games just because this game got bad reviews. LORD knows we need more games with the instant action that one can just jump into; a factor that made the NES and Sega Genesis genres so addicting. Try it for yourself and see if you like it! You cant always pay attention to ratings and what others say! You have to formulate your own opinion and think for yourself! Throughout life, I have seen plenty of examples of such! On that note, try this game and see if you like it! | video-games_xbox |
Feels nice - fails intermittently. So, I have had the unit out of the box for a total of 48 hours. Of that I have probably about 16 hours of play time on it. Most of which have been frustrating.
Pros:
- clear case - exposing nice looking control boards.
- correct (expected standard) size.
- 3.5mm headphone jack (fits normal headphones), just like the new Xbox One wireless controller has)
** I haven't tried this out yet, so I am unsure if it is going to be any good.
- cutesy lighting - a pair (?) of LEDs drive a plastic 'light pipe' inside the controller to give you the color strip you see in the photo. There are 'some' colors you can shift it around to, but not a lot.
- other cutesy lighting - the vibration function has lighting that flashes as the motors rumble away.-- ummm.. okaaaaay....
Cons:
- Intermittantly (3 to 20 minutes) fails connectivity - Xbox One will state no controller is connected. If you waits a few seconds, press a button, then it sees your controller again. Issue returns at random intervals over and over. **Thinking it might be the cable, I swapped it for a much lighter weight one from an old phone. Same problem, so its not the cable. Personally I think the controller is rebooting / restarting. (** if you don't know, the XBox One controllers are computers in their own right with their own software (Wait until you see an XBox One declare it is updating the controllers firmware)) It might be due to a loose component, or maybe just a bad one.
That's about it for Cons: Should be 5 stars right? Maybe, one day. But a controller that fails every few minutes has no value to a user. After 16 hours of use (yes, a glutton for punishment), two different cables, two different ports, I give up and will go back to the out-of-box wireless controller. I bought this one so the kids had something to use without destroying the more expensive one. (One kid tends to pick any rubber bits off the thumbs sticks on any controller.)
I have an open support case. We shall see what their answer is. If I don't get a response in 5 days, or the response is 'give us money' then back it goes to Amazon. I'll update this review appropriately.
Late update - support got back in a few days of opening a case (weekend I think). The response was basically a 'auto response' that said (roughly) 'it looks like you are having issues with your product. Take it back to the retailer. If you can not, send us a request for a shipping label to return it to us for replacement (2 to 3 week turn around). I opted to return to Amazon for refund. | video-games_xbox |
A fantastic new addition to the series. Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires underwent some radical changes from its predecessors, Dynasty Warriors 4 & 5: Empires, for the better. With the new game engine used in DW6, there's a lot more options the player has readily available in the game. The obvious pros are improved strategy in battle, TONS of Custom Officer slots for your creation, Ruler Mode and Officer modes, and a more streamlined campaign map. An important note is the addition of more unique characters; Zhang He, Ling Tong, Yue Ying, Cao Pi, Ma Chao, and Taishi Ci now have their own movesets, and a new character Meng Huo has been added.
In previous additions you had to place officers throughout your territories. In DW6: Empires, you have a large list of officers that can be called to defend any of your territories or attack any location that connects to your territories, so there's no more worrying about being attacked with only 1 officer to defend.
In Ruler Mode, the cards you can put into play depend largely on the officers in your employ. Most officers come with a card that can be used to give you an advantage in battle, or give you more gold in the campaign map. This gives the player an incentive to build up a diverse officer base to get the most out of the game.
While the game has plenty of great changes, it is still a primarily "hack'n'slash" game. Don't expect the strategy elements of the game to greatly help you win, but they certainly add a nice touch to the gameplay. With the game's new engine you can count on getting around 1000 KOs for most battles, which is more than the average amount of previous Empires installations.
A small gripe I have is that although the game has a good amount of scenarios to play (Yellow Turbans, Guan Du, Chi Bi, Three Kingdoms, and a Fictional Random scenario), there was no Hu Lao Gate scenario, which was a pivotal event in the series. Other than that, the amount of rulers and ways to play the various scenarios will keep the player coming back.
If you're a Dynasty Warriors fan, you'll find every reason to enjoy this game. It won't give newcomers a reason to love the game, but it's bound to be an enjoyable experience for any KOEI fan. | video-games_xbox |
For those about to play, we salute you. If you're a gamer and love rock (specifically metal it seems), than you're going to love Brutal Legend. Well that's a stretch really but that's what the game feels like: combines 2 loves into one big package and lets you enjoy a huge free-roaming game with lots of sidequests and extra stuff to do while listening to heavy metal songs. The game also comes courtesy of Tim Shaffer, the man behind "Grim Fandango" and "Psychonauts", and who is considered one of the top game designers we have today. Yet why does Brutal Legend not feel like a perfect game? I guess in a way because Double Fine tried to fit as much "game" into the game as possible yet not iron out the kinks or rather the weird troubles as it were. There's a lot of stuff to do in Brutal Legend but the pieces don't feel as fleshed out as a whole.
Story: You play as Eddie Riggs, the best roadie ever who can "build anything and fix anything" who is unfortunately touring with a really awful poser band so when an accident gets Eddie's blood on his possessed belt buckle, an ancient and powerful demon transports Eddie to a land inspired by heavy metal album covers and where humanity has been enslaved by the evil Lord Doviculus and his right-hand man, General Lionwhite. So it's up to Eddie, a girl he meets named Ophelia and some familiar sounding characters to save the world.
Graphics: Brutal Legend is the kind of game where it doesn't look technically astounding but it does look "cool". From the dragons and fire-breathing things to mountains of skulls and I could've swore I saw the Van Halen logo somewhere, nearly everything in the game has some ties to metal and even motorcycles. Know how in games, a lowly runt enemy might be a pig? Well now the "hog" as it were as literally a motorcycle pig but we also have spiders that spin bass strings instead of webbing. And the character's faces are quite expressive and more than once the game will provide laughs just on one of these things. However, aside from the occasional pause in the framerate, the game doesn't exactly look next-gen and it's got more or less an acceptable look to it.
Sound/Music: Soundtrack of the year and most of it isn't actually made by the game creators, heh. Instead your car will function as a stereo where you're going to get a cavalcade of music from Def Leppard, Ratt, Black Sabbath, Slayer and Megadeth (though I can understand the money involved, feels empty knowing Metallica or Iron Maiden's not in this) and the good side is that you can actually take songs off so if you can't stand one particular song than just take it off the radio and it'll never again pop up. But then again, your trips from here to there might be so short you probably won't even listen to the whole thing and more than once I never actually made it to the second verse before I had to get out of my car. Voice acting is also great with Jack Black actually doing a rather tamer performance...for the most part and we also get great turns from Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Halford of Judas Priest, Tim Curry and Lemmy Kilmister. But some voice clips do repeat for the side missions so Eddie's cry of "bring on the s'mores!" will bore into your brain eventually.
Gameplay: Brutal Legend boiled down is basically 3 game concepts in one but neither one is as refined as they should be. Let's get the first out, the hack-n-slash. Eddie has combos that he can use from setting enemies ablaze with his guitar, slashing with his literal axe or my favorite, doing a baseball swing which sends the enemy flying. But the combos aren't that in-depth and I found combat to be slightly clunky and trying to target a specific enemy on the map was pretty trying. The 2nd game is open-world, a world where you can go anywhere and find anything but the problem here is two-fold: one is that the bulk of these are collectibles from guitar solos you can add to your special moves which range from squad commands to the awesome Facemelter which literally melts the faces off enemies. One solo I had to find myself was to set up a rally point for the 3rd game I'll talk about later and you'd think, gee, wouldn't that be handy to know in battle? Or that you can do special attacks from your stage? Or maybe, I don't know, a radar or map of some sort? In Assassin's Creed II, they'll not only tell you what city you're missing feathers in but the specific DISTRICT, sure you have to actually find the thing but at least you know the general area. Hell in Infamous, you press the L3 button that specifically tells you where it is but in Brutal Legend? You're on your own. The other part of the two-fold deal is that the side missions can repetitive fast from ambushing enemies to fending off attackers to races or Warcraft-style "kill x number of y for person z" quests. Even the collectibles get old as they not only tell you how to access it but it's the same action for each one over and over.
Then we have the 3rd game concept, the one that tends to bug people the most: RTS. While I don't mind Starcraft and somewhat liked Halo Wars, having an action game combined with an RTS doesn't function as well as it sounds. While it is cool to transition between the "God view" in the air to actually on the ground battling with the troops, the lack of a mini-map, ways to distinguish who's who on the battlefield or even who's dead can grate on your nerves. There's nothing "wrong" with the RTS gameplay but for those who don't play RTS you might find there's instructions you've never been told to make it accessible and for the hardcore you'll miss the mini-map or picking specific unit types or knowing where all your units are. And of course the multiplayer is based entirely around this, however because they have different factions than what you command in single-player they're really isn't a tutorial per se unless you play against the AI and test the waters. Not to mention the game's quite short so by the way you've finally gotten the hang out of the RTS, game's over. Oh and there's also one minor thing that applies to the whole game: there's no jump button. And having to go all the around one ankle high ledge is kind of stupid. Know how the evil demon could've won and beat our heroes? Build his lair atop a big staircase.
Brutal Legend in a way seems like the perfect game for the casual who likes their stuff hardcore. The gore is outlandish but cartoony, the sidequests are short, upgrades don't cost all that much and your fire tributes (money) can be acquired easily and the game's easy enough to control. But after the excellent opening, which basically comprises the demo, the laughs somewhat die a little, the RTS elements rear their ugly head and sidequests while thankfully short, are like Assassin's Creed missions where you'll be doing the same one too many times. Maybe I'm just nitpicky but it's easy to love the spirit of Brutal Legend but maybe not so much some of its actual game components. | video-games_xbox |
Great adapter. I bought this to connect my Xbox 360 to my home network. Since then, I've also upgraded my satellite receiver to a slingbox unit and it also works with that. Speeds are fine for HD streaming. I've been able to both upload my Slingbox HD stream to the web, and also can use my Xbox 360 to stream HD content from my computer. No stuttering at all. Couple points to consider...
1) Setup can be a chore. I set the router up to two different routers, a linksys/cisco router (as a test), and my normal home router, the Trendnet 671
Using the Trendnet Router, it was a piece of cake to setup. Both the 647 Adapter and the 671 Router have WPS (Wifi protected setup). So getting the settings right on the 647 involved pushing a button on the router, and then pushing a button on the adapter. That's it. Couldn't be any easier.
The linksys on the other hand, was a pain. Since the linksys didn't have WPS, the settings had to be done manually. This involves plugging the adapter into your computer and running the setup program. Some things a learned during the setup. 1) The SSID of the Router needs to be broadcasting, otherwise, the adapter can't find the network. b) If using WPA-P security encryption, the router encryption needs to use TKIP and not AES. If you take care of these two points on your router, then setup is fairly straightforward.
There is a way to get AES to work manually, but it is somewhat complicated. For the computer savvy, you have to figure out the IP address of the adapter (the setup program on the CD will tell that to you), then point your browser to the IP address. The Trendnet setup screen should then pop up.
2) The adapter only has one ethernet port, so only one electronic device can connect to the network at a time through the adapter.
So in summary. Great product. Great speeds. Very reliable so far. If you have a WPS enabled router, this adapter is a no brainer. Quick and easy to setup. | video-games_xbox |
Remote works get. This remote works great. It controls the xbox, and all the apps on the xbox including Netflix, Hulu, and Media Center. Now my wife can watch here shows on Netflix and Hulu and not run the batteries down on my game controllers. I like the fact that you only have to hit the On/Off button to turn on and off the Xbox. No more holding the Big X button down for ever. I also like that it can control the TV also. It took me a while to get the code for the TV to work, but after about 10 minutes of making it automatically scan for the code, I finally got it to lock one in that would work for the power, channel, volume, and the input. I didn't take away any stars for it, but it won't control the volume on my surround sound, which I knew before buying it but it would still be nice. We watch a lot of digital movies, that get from copying our Blu-Rays, on the Xbox and before with the game controller I couldn't fast forward or rewind when watching the movies via Media Center. With this remote I can, but instead of using the fast forward and rewind buttons, you have to short press the skip forward and back buttons. It isn't a true fast forward, as it will only skip forward a minute and some change and you can't stop on a particular spot, but at least you can go forward if you accidentally hit Restart Movie and you were half way through it. It also has back lit keys so you can see what buttons you are pushing if you are watching a movie in the dark. I chose this one over the new remote that Microsoft has out, even though the new one matches my Elite, because of the the back lit keys, the Media Center Button,and it has been reported that the new one tends to lose connection especially if you don't point it right at the Xbox. This one doesn't need to be point right at the Xbox, just in the general direction. All in all, this controller is great, and not picking up a dead gaming controller all the time is an added bonus for me. I definitely recommend this remote. | video-games_xbox |
Perfect "Super" version, and only one needed. I'm a huge Street Fighter fan, heck anyone can tell that if they see my room (huge SF poster print by Alvin Lee), and have the original Street Fighter IV for PC, 360, and PS3. When the Super version was announced, needless to say I was rather upset. There I was, dumbfounded at all the money and hype spent on a game, only to have a new version of it come out a year later. But...I thought I'd give it the benefit of the doubt, with the amount of versions SFII had that I picked up, I may as well have seen what was so "super" about Super Street Fighter IV.
I was happy to see that...it's more than simple DLC, it's more than just some expansion of a game, this was a huge, huge improvement over the original. Featuring ten new characters, new costumes, new stages, balancing of characters, new Ultras, the return of bonus stages...you can tell Capcom spent their time and effort on this title. Best of all, I got the game for $35, thanks to Amazon's promo code. They got rid of the annoying and time-consuming challenge mode, with just the trials to get passed, and also upgraded the online system, implementing grades for each character you play on Ranked and such.
Seth in the end of Arcade isn't as annoying as he was in the original title (it didn't take me 60+ tries to beat him with Dhalsim this time!...and yeah, everyone else I managed 10 tries or less in the original...Dhalsim just killed me xD), Sagat was still a beast but not as impossible as before, it really shaped up well. Newcomers Juri and Hakkan were welcoming additions to the roster, both with unique playstyles. You have to wonder, though, where they will take the SF series next. Are they really going to keep things between II and III? I mean, Juri and Seth can use more fleshing out, and Ryu's got the Metsu powers now...I don't see the series hitting passed III in terms of story anytime soon. I was disappointed by the lack of new achievements/trophies, because...it's pretty much the same as the original, and the extra content for having the original was just two extra colors to the characters, 11 & 12. But eh, pleased with it overall.
The arcade version of this game is seeing Yun and Yang, an evil Ryu, and a different Akuma. Hopefully we get them as DLC. For now, though, enjoy this game, as it's the closest thing to SFII we've seen in years. | video-games_xbox |
Best In The Series. This game is a worthy addition to the GTA franchise. While some may argue that there are things missing from the game, and it could be better, I believe that this game is definitely one of the top games in the series.
From the very opening of the game where you meet Niko coming over to LC(Liberty City) on the boat, you can tell this game is going to have a story equal to any great movie. The opening credits make you feel like you are watching just that!, a movie!! As the story progresses, it appears that the missions get a little more difficult, and the story starts picking up speed and intensity. I do believe the first bunch of missions you do are quite easy, and a bit of a cakewalk, but they start getting much more interesting.
The graphics are by far the best of the series. However, that should be expected of the game since it is the first on the next gen systems. The New York style and feel, just adds to your craving to play this game. The gameplay is somewhat better. It feels more realistic, but I don't really like the slow response, like when you try and stop, or creep up slowly. Kinda like you can't "inch" up you move by feet at a time.
One of the things that I believe they did very well was the interaction with the people of LC, the normal everday shmo's. I am a big fan of the games that give you that real feeling, so when I punch some guy in the face and we start duking it out, and some clown across the street calls the cops from his cellphone, cause you are pummeling this innocent man. I am just blown away that they have incorporated this into the game. It does get a bit bothersome as you go on, but it is still something on a level in which we have not seen yet.
The shooting, interface seems to be easier, and better, as well. Honestly, I don't remember all too well San Andreas, and that was just 3 years ago, but from what I can remember it is a much better feeling. The fighting is rather clunky. It's very hard to counter attack, and for a guy who is suppose to have been this special forces guy, that did some crazy stuff to people, the old dirty drunk hobo makes the fight pretty even. So, I would definitely like to see that improved.
Overall this game can definitely hold its own, and I believe at the top for GTA. GTA 3 comes close, but with all the new innovations, this game is just great! a definite buy. | video-games_xbox |
Solid, But Not Inspired. After playing this game for over a month, playing through the main story once, and completing various modes such as "Arcade" and "Survival" numerous times, I give this game a 3/5.
Graphics are good. The look of the characters is so much better in this one compared to previous games. Not only are the images crisper, but the actual design is better. Characters look less like Japanese cartoons and a bit more like real people, though they do still have slightly cartoonish faces, especially in the eyes. Also the character models are a bit lacking in diversity and true-to-life representation. By that I mean Kasumi is a character from Japan yet has a similar face to Marie Rose, who is from Sweden. This is no issue to me, but I think some people might prefer that characters look more like them or more like how they would perceive someone from that part of the world.
The Costumes are nice. Every character has at least 3 costumes, while some have close to 10. Typically the women characters have more costumes, so that might be a downer for some. All the men have a main costume then a variant, while women usually have a few stylish outfits and then a selection of 1-3 bikinis.
The actual fighting for this game is decent, though it can be annoying when your attacks keep getting blocked, and when an opponent goes on a long combo attack it feels like there is nothing you can do.
I would have liked for there to have been more to do. Pretty much all this game features is fighting, though there is a photograph mode where you can take pictures but I don't use that and frankly I think it would be weird if I was in the living room photographing digital women in bikinis.
To address the people that say this game is sexist, I would have to disagree. I've heard some people say that the women should have smaller breasts and more clothes, but I disagree. I think they should simply add more variety of clothing for males. If DOA6 adds a bunch of male swimsuits and male characters with more significant bulge, as a male I don't find that sexist, that just is what it is. There are a few male characters that have black shorts, like what an MMA fighter would wear, though you'll notice that there is almost no bulge at all, which I think is a bit silly. Also, while the females are all model-like, the same could be said of the men. They are buff, with toned abs, and everyone has a flawless, model-ready face. Even Bayman, a Russian soldier, has a scar on his face, yet he is still shown as very handsome and what not. Personally, I find nothing wrong with the fact that the designers wanted to make most of the characters attractive. I just suggest that the next game have more costumes for the men. (For the record I am a straight male if you were wondering.)
Next, there are a few "Virtua Fighter" characters in this game. I HATE those characters. Their moves don't match the style of DOA, and their voice acting is TERRIBLE. I am not even exaggerating! The voice acting for the Virtua Fighter characters is really really bad, like the quality sounds like it was recorded with a really cheap microphone, every time they speak it sounds like an arcade game from the 90s, it is embarrassing that it made it into the game. So the game would really be better if those lame characters were not brought into this.
A few characters I don't like: Alpha 152, because she is literally just a copy of Kasumi but blue and has no clothes. And they added yet another Kasumi clone called Number-4 or something like that, and she is just Kasumi with a hood on. Lastly, there is Zack, he is the one black character in the game and he is depicted as not having a lot of control over himself (like, they make him kind of pervy) and he has green hair and he is literally just some weird version of Dennis Rodman (a basketball player) and I really just would have preferred they used someone else as inspiration such as Blade (Wesley Snipes) or even Will Smith or something.
Overall, this game is solid, but doesn't do anything really special. After seeing Dragonball Xenoverse 2 and all it does, I hope DOA6 chooses to expand their world and stories and characters. I do like that this game is 4 players, as that is always a bonus, though I don't really like fighting against certain people I game with because if you are better than them at the game then sometimes it is awkward and some people get upset. Anyway, that is my opinion on the game and if you liked any of the other DOAs this is a game for you. | video-games_xbox |
A somewhat flawed, but extremely enjoyable game. I happened upon this game one day when I was looking for a new horror game. I hadn't played any of the previous games in the series, but I'd heard good things from video game sites so I thought I'd give this game a shot. That and I'm a big horror fan, and I can't turn down the chance to play something that was obviously made for fans. I wasn't disappointed by what I got. This game is awesome, I love just about everything about it. The combat, graphics, music, characters, and story are all great.
The combat is awesome, with a great fighting system that gets deeper as you go. It could have a more fleshed out fighting system, buts good as it is. To those that say that it is unbalanced, it just requires some practice and patience to get through new enemies, learning the strategies needed to beat them. It's a somewhat flawed game, but not an unfair one. Once you have a good grasp on that, you really begin to feel like a badass when you're ripping through the hordes of enemies thrown at you using combos, weapons, necro moves, and the splatter kills where you can tear off heads, arms, and whole torsos, because Splatterhouse is awesome.
The graphics are great, though for the time they came out they could have been more top notch with better/more fluid animation, but what they put into the game more than suffices. This game is all about the B-movie horror style it has, and it delivers with tons of blood and gore, both that of the monsters and the player's. Of course the graphics alone never sell any game for me. The music is awesome, I just love pummeling creatures into the ground and tearing off their limbs off while listening to some metal, it really helps to set the mood.
The story is really well done, detailing the relationship between Rick and Jenny, the history behind Doctor West, the Corrupted, and how the Terror Mask fits in. You are slowly shown why Rick got into this situation, while learning all these other details through conversions with the Terror Mask, cut scenes and flashbacks. The way everything is brought together is very nice, using horror and drama to emphasize Rick as he fights to get his girl back, the Terror Masks fight against West, and manages to get a couple of laughs in. None of the stuff with the Corrupted really matters to Rick though, he only wants to save Jen from Doctor West. You don't need to follow everything with the corrupted very closely, but if you do it really does pay off.
I love the characters, the voice actors do a very good job, I can sympathize with Rick while he struggles with rescuing Jen and dealing with his new powers, Jen is great throughout. Then there was the Terror Mask, oh Jim Cummings, such an awesome man that does the voices of Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Pete, Razoul, Mr. Bumpy, Darkwing Duck, Robotnik and so many more I could keep going for another paragraph or two. Anyways, he's amazing as the Terror Mask, providing excellent comedic relief.
Overall, I'd highly recommend this game to any fans of horror games/movies that are looking for something they can play for a couple of months that has great story, atmosphere, comedy, drama, horror, lots of blood and gore, and plenty of violent gameplay throughout. | video-games_xbox |
NOT worth the full retail price. I got this as a gift for xmas. The lego games are my absolute favorite to play with my boyfriend- he doesn't like video games much, but he likes the puzzles & the controls are super easy. When I saw this one I thought the price was pretty ridiculous, but was very pleased when my father bought it for me. Luckily, it was on sale during Amazon's xmas countdown, so he didn't spend the full $100.
The pros:
-All of the lego games I've had to go on the internet for some hints and this one I have not had to go on the internet ONCE (except for a glitch*)
- If it glitches- like if you get stuck, or if the batmobile falls over you can just remove it from the pad and put it back and it's fixed. It's really cool!
-Using the pad is a lot of fun.
-It's a cool cross-branding (Not sell out!) experience.
-One of the best playing Lego games (IMO)
-They don't give you a % complete, which is good, because there's basically no possible way to 100% this thing without spending a lot of money. And that would personally drive me crazy.
The cons:
-This $100 retail price game really only unlocks the story content.
-There is no possible way to complete the game without buying more figures.
-In addition, the figures I'd like to actually buy (Wonder Woman, specifically!) is not worth it to buy because when you have batman you can unlock that DC content. This goes the same for any LotR or Lego Movie figurines.
-The red bricks that make the free play A LOT easier & more fun are all in the worlds that you have to buy.
-You CAN "rent a hero" for 20-40k coins to unlock things, but it's so rushed and if it's AT ALL confusing, you're doomed. I rented one to cut some vines and I just finished cutting the vines but didn't get to flip a switch before the time ran out and when I returned as Batman, the vines had grown back. SO, I think it's possible to do more with the rent a hero, but you have to be really proficient. And like I said before, the red bricks (the ones that would give you, 2x, 4x, etc coins) are in the download worlds.
-In addition to the rent a hero, if there's something that needs two characters (ex, Legalos & Batman) It seems really really hard to do with just one character. And you have to be very careful with what you're doing.
-We have been continuously frustrated with how much stuff you need to buy outside of the game to the point where the extra worlds are not fun. We are not going to buy a $15 Simpson's character to unlock simpson's world if it means that we can only play a fraction of the content inside of it.
All in all, I'm glad we played it. The reason for the extra 2 stars. The story took us ~6hrs to complete and was a lot of fun in that time. But I'm also glad I didn't buy it. And it really kills me to abandon a lego game half-way through. But I think that's what's going to happen....
Hey Lego Employees: If you're listening to the reviews- please don't make this a normal thing for future games! We'll have to abandon your brand if so and I'd be SO sad.
*I was able to fix the glitch during the Simpson's World by just moving the figures all around the pad. That seemed to make it work! I also read that someone left it like that for 5 minutes and it fixed itself. | video-games_xbox |
Dead Space 2, an actual sequel to Dead Space 1, but like, for real. Believe the hype! Dead Space 2 is everything you could want and expect from a sequel. And then there's more! To date, this is the single scariest/goriest game I have ever played on a console. (Silent Hill, you used to be the victor but come on, it's 2011 and sometimes, you just gotta move on.) (I still say the original Dead Space is the scariest game I have ever played though, but since this is part of the same universe, it still counts!) What makes it scary though?
How about: the music, the creepy atmosphere, the darkness, the fact that you have to rely on the light from your flashlight throughout the entire game (forget Doom 3's flashlight, this is the real deal,) the screaming (from Isaac and others,) the hallucinations, the death animations, the monster sounds, the babies crying, Isaac's (now) warped/skewed perspective of reality, the gore, the blood, the setting and the story. In the same vein, as films like "Even Horizon" and "Sunshine," there is a good dose of story-telling and character setup though none of it is too ground-breaking. What I am trying to say is that while the voice-acting is above-average, it isn't spectacular. Isaac's character is believable this time around, which is a huge improvement and a definite plus from the first game since Isaac was pretty much mute (sorta like a certain physicist from a certain game about killing crabs that like to jump on heads...) Also, part of the whole Dead Space charm lies in the different weapons you use. Though you are ultimately using "mining" tools, the developers have gone the extra mile to show us that just about anything can really be made into a weapon. From the Plasma Cutter and Seeker Rifle to the Contact Beam and Javelin Gun (a personal favorite,) don't these all sound just oh-so-wonderful? And remember, this is a survival-horror/action/adventure-type game so, oh my! Bonus tip: hold down RT + B and Isaac immediately force-levitates any object in the game. This means that you can use jagged pieces of glass, sharpened sticks, surgery utensils, backpacks, anything you want to dispense sweet justice on the abominable Necromorphs that plague the Sprawl!
If there is anything to not like about the game, it is the Collector's Edition. Stay far away from it! The regular game is just fine, if not better (as far as the $/fun ratio is concerned!) Also, if you buy the game used, EA goes the let's-treat-this-console-game-like-a-PC-game by forcing you to purchase an online code just so you can play online with our friends! What is this all about? bad job EA! That is so 90s EA and not cool! Also, the game is very "very" punishing so if you are new to the whole survival-horror genre or just about any type of video game-style playing, then I would recommend the Casual mode. It's awesome because Dead Space 2 allows you to replay the game with all your previous boosts, perks, stats and weapons so replay-value is totally boosted to the x10 level. Go ahead and play on easy the first time around just to get the story. I know I did! Also, beating the two hardest difficulty modes also garners unique achievements and I know I love getting those rare achievements so this is a total bonus!
But uh, for those of you who like/need a number-based rating: 4.5/5. | video-games_xbox |
Disappointing reboot. This game absolutely doesn't live up to the quality of the earlier Thief games. Had it been released soon after the last installment in the series, this might have been a solid game, but in 2014, selling for $60 on a next-gen console, it's pathetic. It's like they walked into a bar, found the dumbest, drunkest people in the room and told them to re-create Assassin's Creed, without the open world, in a steampunk-ish victorian-like city full of brain-dead AI. The story is atrocious, the voice acting is somehow even worse, and the gameplay doesn't come close to making up for it. Save your money and wait until the price drops to $20, then buy it for the sheer entertainment value of such hilariously stupid writing.
Update: I decided to add to my review, in light of all of the 5 star reviews advising readers to ignore the 1 star reviews, with the general insinuation being that we hate this game because we're a bunch of knuckle-dragging Call of Duty players, insufficiently intelligent or sophisticated enough to appreciate a stealth game. In reality, when I pre-ordered this game, I understood that this wasn't going to be an action-packed shooter, and despite my tongue-in-cheek reference to Assassin's Creed in my original review, I didn't expect it to be that either, but what I did expect was a truly great stealth game, and the developers fed that expectation by naming it after a beloved classic franchise. While I'm not a huge fan of the stealth game genre above all others, I've played plenty of these games that were as slow-paced as this one, but still thoroughly engrossing and entertaining for hours on end. This game however, is not. The deficiencies that I mentioned in my earlier review, and countless others that I've encountered in the hours of gameplay since writing it(including terrible sound mixing and NPCs that are little more than manequins and potted plants, etc) wouldn't detract much from a game if one or two of these issues were to pop up. But once all of these problems pile up in the aggregate, the result is a game that I didn't find remotely immersive, compelling, or intellectually challenging. Basically, what I'm saying is that the slow pace of this type of game is only a problem in this particular case because the game offers nothing else to maintain interest hour after hour. So, if you're part of the subset of gamers that absolutely LOVES this genre and you're desparate to get your hands on a new stealth game to play, regardless of any glaring deficiencies, then you may thoroughly enjoy this one and not have any regrets about dropping $60 on it. For everyone else, buyer beware. | video-games_xbox |
Disappointing. When I first heard that Driver 3 was coming out I was really excited. I liked the first two Drivers and thought that a Driver on XBOX would be incredible. Driver 3 did not come close to meeting my expectations. The graphics have improved, but seem a little bland for XBOX. The maps are big but it lacks the fine detail that other similar games have. The game even lags at times. This is an XBOX not a PS1. The cars are still tough to control which makes it seem a lot more realistic.
The missions are still a bit slow. Sure the driving parts are fun and you get weapons finally. Unfortunately the enemy AI is about a dumb as a post so there not much challenge in the shooting parts of the game. Another thing I noticed was that the cops seem a bit less involved during missions than the last two games. Im about halfway through the second city and I have only run into cops in about three missions. Another thing about the missions are the constant restarts. If you make one wrong move during a car chase you will lose the guy and have to restart the mission. Sometimes the character will freeze when you are on foot. This is convenient especially when you are at the end of a misson. I think games have evolved enought for characters not to get stuck in walls.
A new feature of driver 3 for Xbox is custom sountrack. When I saw this I didn't think it could get any better. I started playing the game with my own music. The only problem is that everytime you restart the mission your soundtrack starts at the beginning so you tend to hear the same few songs over and over and there is no way to put it on random or to skip songs. So you end up turning the music off most of the time. The only thing is that if you turn the music off you have no volume during cutscenes which is the best part of the game.
Anyways If your looking for a grand theft auto style game just wait until the new grand theft auto comes out in october because this is nothing like it and it a waste of $50. I would recommend renting it because you will get sick of it fast. You could also just wait until it is $20. | video-games_xbox |
THE HAPPY READER GAME REVIEW. To make things simple for those into RPG games, buy this game. If you like turn based RPG games you'll enjoy this one.
Being more detailed this game has some beautiful graphics in it. The scenery is quite detailed throughout most of the game. Although I've heard from some people that the game was full of "loading" screens I personally did not find this to be as extensive as some would have you believe. It did have some, but nothing worth mentioning. Overall the game's function was fine and the graphics take advantage of the 360's capabilities.
In terms of story I'd say it was interesting. To sum it up you're in a dream of Fredric Chopin (a famous composer from the 1800's - comparable to Mozart or Bach). Periodically between settings the game will launch into a history lesson on Chopin's life which is educating but gets to be a bit redundant later on. You can however skip these if they start to get on your nerves.
I don't really want to get too much into the storyline inside the "dream." Suffice it to say that like in any RPG game you meet up with others who have a similar goal. In this game, you're trying to get taxes reduced on mineral powder and thus help the common man. And of course a twist is thrown in as the game progresses. However, let me add that the game was pretty linear in that there are no side missions. That can be a let down in that it reduces the play time, but it also keeps things simple so you're not worried that you've missed something important.
The game does get a bit heavy on teaching morals and politics; but I don't find this to be a problem. The concepts they try to get across are mostly the basic "don't take advantage of people," etc... plus concepts about over using medicine when it's not necessary - considering the abuse of antibiotics I'd certainly say this point is valid to teach children. Overall I wouldn't think that any parents would find the lessons to be indoctrination in beliefs that they wouldn't teach their children on their own. But if you're concerned with this play the game with your kids. After all it's just another way to spend time with your kids as more parents need to anyhow.
Also don't go thinking this game is just for kids. I'm in my twenties and still found the game to be entertaining. Just be forwarned that the game's target audience seems to be more of the preteen's age. Then again it is more of a Japanese RPG so the point was to make some of the characters "cute" but don't worry. Again, you don't have to be into Jap. pop culture to enjoy this game.
In terms of the battle system I do need to say it is inventive. With most turn based RPG's you stand still and choose your attack. Not so with this one. Here you can move around a limited battlefield to light and dark areas. The purpose of the light and dark is that your "special attacks" change in these areas. As the game progresses you go from an unlimited amount of time to plan your attack sequence to no time except to simply attack - thus making battles a bit more difficult. However, by the time I'd leveled up to level 60 none of the bosses were a real challange, in that, the fight system was flawed.
At the end of the game you can save it and start over with all your music sheets (play these with bystanders in the game to win items). However your money, weapons, and skill level's are not transferred back to the beginning - at least it didn't for me.
Overall I'd give this game a 4.4 out of 5 stars. I paid about $30 and am happy with the purchase. Hope this review helps, have fun.
My play time added up to about 47hrs. | video-games_xbox |
Halo 5 was a huge disappointment Christmas morning. I wanted to get away from Xbox and get a PlayStation for this generation of consoles. My kids, however, wanted the Xbox to play Halo. I, of course, got them Halo 5, an Xbox One, 1 year of gold, and 3 extra controllers. After my kids anxiously waited, for what seemed like forever, for the Xbox to install this stupid game. The kids all sat down with a controller in hand and launched Halo 5. Their disbelief and disappointment was real. Halo was turned off and another game install began.... Sigh, $600 dollars wasted. Not having local split screen is like some old bitty adding raisins to your favorite desert or a cream filled treat that no longer has a cream filling. You are all excited for the seemingly inevitable good feeling you get when bite your favorite treat, but then there is a terrible surprise.
343 Industries you have failed this game and many loyal Halo fans with your irresponsible handling of Halo. Not all Halo players have real life friends that enjoy casually playing Halo and they will come to your defense; however, many do. You have ostracized those players and you have closed opportunities to attract new players. Many of my real life friends purchased Halo after playing it at my house. They would then come over and hook up their Xbox and invite more Halo newbs to come join the fun and the cycle continued.
After my kids had some time to get their split screen and local multi-player gaming needs met in much more popular and non-platform exclusive games double sigh. They went back to Halo to try out the lonely single player campaign that interestingly enough involves working with a squad of computer scripted teammates Even my youngest son could see the irony in that. Take away split screen co-op and put you in with a squad of scripted teammates. Then they are told that they are to hunt down their beloved Master Chief What? At one point my son wondered if he just let himself die, if he could continue the rest of the story as Master Chief. No such luck, you are forced to play as a guy that you want to see loose. Those are the 3 primary reasons why my kids were so disappointed with this broken game. | video-games_xbox |
Cooperative play at its finest. First Impressions:
Destiny is a Beautiful Game. Just go up to the guardian tower and look at the view from one of the railings and you'll understand exactly what I'm saying. There is plenty of opportunities to get to know people in this game, and I've found a lot of people to actually be pretty friendly.
Pros:
- Small Rewards - While Destiny is full of plenty of great rewards and payoffs throughout the game for completing quests and leveling up, it also has plenty of small rewards that help give you plenty to do even when you're not looking to get in a big firefight right that second. Collect special materials, revive dead ghosts, or have a random dance party with strangers on top of a truck in the middle of a battlefield between enemy spawns. You might even find that illusive soccer ball in the tower, and kill some time kicking it around a bit.
- Monsters change with the landscape. - As it should, every planet has its own set of crazy enemy creatures. I mean, sure, some enemies are static and are found everywhere pretty much, but in the mission parts of the game, closer to the bosses, the enemies change, in some ways, drastically. Enemies on the moon are a little different than enemies on Earth, and enemies on Venus are plenty different at points.
- Co-op Patrols - Outside of specific missions inside buildings/restricted areas that only allow your fire team to enter as a group, the rest of the world is pretty much open to your own devices. You may find yourself playing a group game event with a few people you've never met before up to that point. People in the game are all given a similar goal, and open co-op play in the world is promoted even outside of your fire teams. Competitive play is usually kept to the crucible maps, which makes things more fun for everyone, I think.
- Play Tested Well - While some people sort of raise a questioning eyebrow at the three-player co-op team, the game itself seems to be built exactly for 3 players. While most of it can be played with two player co-op, or even solo if you've got the time, the guts, and the patience; the perfect number for a team in this game seems to be 3 players. It's just enough to get through a mission with a variety of skill sets. It also lowers your chances of all getting annihilated at the same time.
Cons:
- Repetitive Maps - While I love the landscape of Destiny, I've found at least a couple maps that look almost identical to each other in terrain and structure. More variety might be in order.
- Xbox Live Issues - At the moment, I'm guessing because the game just came out, Destiny has a big problem of people getting kicked out of the game. Depending on how solid your internet is, this may happen rarely or frequently. And you may not even know how good or bad your connection is until you get in the game. To give you an idea, me and my boyfriend tested our connection the night before in another game. Everything was good, and we had no issues at all, but the next night when we played Destiny for the first time with another friend of ours, in the middle of playing the game, either during a mission or at the tower, I was brought back to the loading screen once, my boyfriend was ejected from the whole game four times, and our friend was either ejected or brought back to the loading screen no less than 15 times in a 5 hour period. And while we all love the game so far, I'd say that this aspect puts a damper on our enjoyment. And we are all playing on Xbox 360. I can't even imagine how bad these issues might be for next gen consoles. | video-games_xbox |
Fantastic latest generation console, great fun for the whole family. Of all the presents I bought my two boys (7 and 5) this has by far given me the most bang per buck. This is a world class console that says quality and performance no matter where you look. The graphics are stunning on an HD TV set. The games available go from the graphic tour de force (e.g. Forza, Yarn, Lego Jurassic Park) to the silly instant gratification (e.g. Plants vs Zombies, Kung Fu Panda, Tetris.) If the last year is any indication this will monopolize a good part of my home's TV time for the next 2-3 years. If you have kids and believe that consoles are a valid toy category for them you certainly won't go wrong with this one (and you may be surprised at the fun you have yourself.)
The only part that I think needs more work is the Kinect which I bought along with my console. The potential of the device is HUGE. I love it when it recognizes me and calls me by name. However it should offer me to sign on as one of the players in at that point (and I should be able to simply reply "yes" or "no" verbally). The Kinect game support is spotty too. I've had some success using Kinect in the Dance game that comes with it, but in general not a lot of games support it. (I was hoping it would be a workable replacement for a wii type controller in tennis games and the like, but that hasn't been my experience.) The voice recognition in Kinect also has incredible potential but there are few occasions to use it (Zoo Tycoon is probably the best implementation of this I've seen, though it isn't ever-present enough even in that game.) For example I'd like to be able to play Plants vs Zombies using a regular controller plus Kinect and yell orders as I go (change my weapon, etc.) The key for voice recognition to be accessible/discoverable is the game needs to prompt me in green for things to say (as in Zoo Tycoon). Another problem with voice recognition is if you happen to live outside the US, support for it is spotty. Consoles in Mexico have it but those in Argentina don't (Argentines can easily communicate in Mexican style Spanish, they hear it on dubbed TV programs all day long.) The good news is you can have xbox register your console in the Mexico locale even if you are in Argentina.
BOTTOM LINE: This is an amazing console with a lot of room for further growth, you won't go wrong buying it. | video-games_xbox |
Absolutely mind blowing as a multiplayer game, not as fun single player. This game is a little tough for me to rate because on one hand you have the single player mode which is average at best and on the other hand you have the amazing multi-player mode which just might be the most fun I've had on my Live account (when everything is just right). In the end, this game deserves the 5 stars because it doesn't really try to be a compelling single player game, it's quite obvious this game is meant to be played with a few friends.
I'm going to do this review a little differently. Instead of talking about every aspect of this game and what makes it so great, what I'll do is give you one of the endless possible scenarios and if this sounds fun then this is the game for you. First let me say the graphics are good (the aging Source engine never fails to impress me), sound is good - blah blah blah, lets get to the fun:
It's you and three of your best friends trying to survive through one of the campaigns (it's always teams of four, either human, AI or a mix of both). You come to a situation where you need to activate a lift to progress through the campaign. It's time to strategize because the game tells you that you're about to face a large battle against the infected. After talking it through you decide it might work best if two of you go up on the awning and provide cover for the other two that will stay on the ground. This game plays differently every time so even though you know it's going to be a large battle, you don't know exactly whats going to be thrown at you . Even though you guys have been here many times before it's not going to be exactly the same as the other times.
Well, you throw a couple gas containers in the middle for good measure (who doesn't like their zombies well-done?). Everyone signals they're ready - it's time to hit that switch. As soon as you do that about 40 zombies come rushing over the fence running after you at super-human speed. Your friend Scott (on the awning with you) shoots the gas container lighting them all on fire. Now they're burning but they're still running after your two friends on the ground (We'll call them Trish and Mike). Mike throws a pipe bomb (which attracts them) so all the burning zombies chase the pipe bomb, they blow up. Now there are zombies coming from every direction, some are coming through the windows, some are jumping over the fence - they're everywhere. A zombie jumps on Trish and pins her down (Hunter). The hunter starts tearing her to shreds so you get one lucky shot off and blow that zombie off of her. Meanwhile you hear Mike screaming for help - he is entangled in another zombies long disgusting tongue and cannot move (Smoker). You jump off the awning to get a better shot at the smoker so you can free your friend but a large disgusting zombie vomits all over you making it almost impossible to see for a short period of time (Boomer). This vomit attracts zombies so now you're being rushed and you can't see. You yell to your friends "Help me! Help!!!!" Mike is still entangled yelling for help but you can't do anything right now but blindly shoot and try to push away all the zombies that are pummeling you. Finally your vision clears and you are able to save Mike. Scott notices your low on health and he's nice enough to give you his health pack (you can only carry one at a time). What a relief! You heal yourself up and pump the remaining zombies full of shotgun rounds. Just when you think it's over a Smoker entangles you with his tongue and drags you about 50 feet across the concrete. You are helpless so you cry for help. Trish is nice enough to blow that zombies head clean off. During this whole ordeal you laugh, cry for help and maybe say an expletive or two (and you hear your friends doing the same).
That was just one of the many possible scenarios and I only touched on what's possible with this game. Left 4 Dead offers a unique experience each play-through. Health items and weapons are located in different areas (health is sparse in this game), zombies come from different areas each time. Maybe one time you walk through a hallway and only have to fend off a few zombies but maybe the next time you play that campaign in the same exact hallway your screen starts shaking, the music starts going and you see a HUGE 10 foot insanely muscular beast of a zombie (Tank) come rushing after all four of you with a vengeance (The Tank tends to be the most feared, he's huge, powerful and hard to take down). You just never know what's going to happen.
When you either have 3 good friends or get lucky and find a good group on Live then this game really shines, especially if everyone communicates and just has a good time. There is a single player mode but it's not nearly as fun - you need that group of people to really get the most out of Left 4 Dead. You need the real time strategy with your friends, the frantic cries and laughter, the "WATCH OUT BEHIND YOU!!". You just don't get that in the single player mode and Left 4 Dead doesn't try to be a compelling single player game. This is all about having a great time with your friends - the single player mode is just practice if anything.
There are two multi-player modes. You can play one of four lengthy campaigns with a group of three others and yourself (takes between 30 mins and an hour depending) or you can play versus mode where it's zombies versus humans. Being a zombie is just as fun as being a human! Now you can scale walls, jump great distances...etc. You may feel a little concerned because there's only 4 campaigns but rest assured the dynamic nature of this game keeps it from becoming stale. Each campaign takes you through a good variety of different environments.
There are many more details I could get into such as the movie-like nature of this game but I'll save you the extremely lengthy review and just try to capture the essence of Left 4 Dead.
This game never gets boring. I've been playing games for over 20 years and sometimes I wonder if games have just lost their magic. Sure they are still fun but it's just not the same. Like a lot of us 'old-timers' say - "they just don't make them like they used to". Well, not true. When you have a group of fun friends then this game brings back that magic. this game is a slam dunk - wrapped in a hole in one - wrapped in bacon. If anyone tells you otherwise they just haven't played it like it's meant to be played. | video-games_xbox |
Deep Single Player, Awesome Multi-Player, Near Perfect Game. Halo 2
One of the greatest selling games of all time and the best selling X-Box game is Halo 2. If you have not heard of this game yet, you need to come out from under that rock. Almost everyone loved the <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/original-game/dp/B00005NZ1G/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">original game</a>. The sequel had a huge name to live up to, and I feel they did an amazing job on Halo 2. The Multi-Player gameplay will have you playing for an extremely long time. Single player features a unique, deep story to play through. Halo 2 takes everything that was good in the original Halo and improved on it.
Graphics- 9/10
The graphics are probably the best that the X-Box could handle. Reflections, lighting, and glare all have been extremely improved upon in this game. Master Chief has breath-taking reflections on his armor and visor. The guns all also have a nice shine to them.
All animations and characters are well done. A new race, named the Brutes, has been created, and brings a nice sense of freshness to battles. The Brutes can battle with guns like everything else, but can also charge at you. Nice animation is done on their part. Elite, Humans, and Flood characters are equally well designed.
Level design is a little bit of a let down. The previous Halo had a problem with having repetitive levels. Halo 2 continues this trend to a lesser degree. While some levels are constantly unique, some still have repeating areas. This can cause you to be turned around and lost easy. Luckily, this is not as much of a problem as in the first game.
I only have two other problems. The Energy Sword you can wield should have made areas like up more. The glows a bright blue, but never illuminates the ground or surroundings. My second problem is the way the graphics work. As you get closer to something, details you see will increase. This sounds nice, but you will notice many weird graphical sequences where the graphics shift from ugly to beautiful to ugly again. Sometimes the graphics will not change at all and you will be left with a very ugly view.
Story- 9/10
The story for the original Halo was amazing. This game is much deeper, and has a more intricate storyline. Some people will enjoy this; others will shun the complicated ideas in this game. I loved the storyline and its ideals based on Natural Selection, Racial Wars, and Mankind as a whole.
This game is broken into two parts. In one, you play as Master Chief. Chief has just learned that Earth is being attacked the Covenant, the same alien scum you took on in the first game. Your mission is to stop the covenant. Soon you learn of another Halo that could potentially be used by the Covenant, based on some outrageous religious-like claims. I like how Covenant follows whatever their prophets tell them without question. It really should let people look at themselves and maybe make decisions on their own and not just based on what a "higher knowledge" tells them.
In the second portion of the game, you play as The Arbiter. He is of the Elite race of the Covenant. He is being held responsible for the destruction of the original Halo and has been sentenced to death. The Prophets have a better idea for him though. He will work for them in tracking down heretics and stopping "the demon," who happens to be Master Chief. I actually enjoyed this side of the story better. The Arbiter works off his debt, but slowly learns the truth about Halo. There is also a ton of tension between the Elite and Brute races, which both work under the Covenant. This leads to the Elite's being undermined and often pushed to the side for the superior Brute Class. This reveals a lot about our own society in how we push away those who we feel are weaker.
Master Chief and Arbiter will meet eventually in the story. To me, not many people will understand the depth of the story. If you can though, there is a lot to get. I hope reading this review will help you understand it a bit better. People may also have a problem with the ending, or lack thereof.
Sound- 10/10
Halo has always been known for its phenomenal sound production. The music, or absence of music, has been a strong point in the series. Whenever you are traveling a large area with not much going on, music will usually not exist. Traveling a small area with an enormous conflict will feature a thunderous musical score that you will love. No matter what though, the score will not distract you from the gameplay.
Voice Over is also great. Every main character in the game has a unique voice. Chief and Arbiter bring depth to the story with their voices. Grunts and Human Soldiers often bring a humor in their voice.
Weapon and Vehicle sounds are all perfect. Usually the addition of weapons will lead to some having similar sounds; this game does not though. Each vehicle also sounds exceptionally well.
Gameplay- 10/10
Many people say that the Halo series never really brought anything new to the table. I completely agree with them. This series did take everything that was good in other games and placed it in this one, thus creating one of the best first person shooters on the market today. Halo 2 expands on the idea of the first Halo with more weapons, better levels, more vehicles, and more customization.
In single player, you will play as both Master Chief and the Arbiter. You usually play a chapter of the game then switch to the other. Master Chief plays like a normal character. You usually find yourself shooting through walls of smart enemies. Arbiter is different though. You usually begin with an Energy Sword, and you can turn invisible for a certain amount of time. This allows you to become a stealth-like character at times. If you do not like being stealthy though, you can always pick up a gun and begin killing everything. If you find yourself in trouble, you can quickly turn invisible and escape the battle.
Enemies range from Elites, Brutes, Flood, Human Characters, and more. It just depends on how far along you are and whom you are playing as at the moment. The Flood will run at you like maniacs and try to overwhelm you. Elite and Humans characters hide behind objects and try to stay smart. Brutes are very hard to kill and can go bezerk, charging at you to hurt you. There are other ranks of enemies such as Flood mixtures and a giant Covenant monster, whose name eludes me right now. They all have their weaknesses and strengths. Therefore, the game stays fresh the entire play.
Halo 2 also features some new vehicles. Favorites like the Scorpion Tank, Warthog, and Ghost all return. New vehicles include the Wrath, Spectre, and a new version of the Warthog. The Wrath is a Covenant Tank that you saw a lot in the original game but never could ride in. This time you can. They sport an angled weapon that shoots blue plasma. The Spectre is the Covenant version Warthog. It shoots plasma from its turret. The new version of the Warthog shoots mortars instead of machine gun ammo. Did I mention that you could jack all of these vehicles?
Multi-Player has always been this games biggest aspect. If you have three or more friends available to you, this game will last you a long time. You can connect X-Boxes and have some epic battles. Levels like Beaver Creek and Coagulation are remakes of some of the first game's best levels. Lockout and Zanzibar are just two of the awesome new levels to play on in the game. I suggest buying the <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Multiplayer-Map-Pack/dp/B000930DA0/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Multiplayer Map Pack</a> for even more great levels.
This game allows you to edit your Multi-Player characters in detail. You choose between Master Chief and the Arbiter. You can apply multiple different colors to your characters. You can change your looking speed and controls. You can even create your own unique logo.
Difficulty- 10/10 (Note- This is how much I like the difficulty)
There are four different difficulty levels to choose from. Easy allows you to plow through enemy after enemy with little difficulty. Normal is good for those on their first try. Hard will have you dying a lot and feeling satisfied with yourself. Legendary mode will have you slamming your television into the wall out of anger. Maybe you are good enough for that to be necessary though. If that is not enough then you can Log onto <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Xbox-Live/dp/B000B9RI00/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Xbox Live</a> and be killed by the masters of this game.
Overall- 10/10
This is one of my favorite games. I personally prefer the Single Payer in the first Halo, but I enjoy the Multi-player in this game far more. Still, this game has a very solid Single player experience. The graphics are nice, despite having some repetitive levels here and there. If you own an X-Box, you need to own this game. This game also is compatible with <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Xbox-360-Console/dp/B001BZ3PY6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Xbox 360 Console</a>. | video-games_xbox |
Best Tom Clancy Game Ever. Possibly the best gaming week ever for me. I've had this game pre-ordered since Amazon listed it and a few days before it was released, I went ahead and got a new 4K UHDTV and a new Xbox One S. I had decided several months back that I would do that at the end of the summer, but after seeing all of the video clips of this game I couldn't wait any longer. And I'm glad I didn't because this game is spectacular in 3840x2160 resolution.
At any rate, "Wildlands" is a fully open-world shooter game in which shooting skills, planning, execution, stealth, special abilities, teamwork, communication, and more are equally important to each other. In my opinion it is better than any Call of Duty release since "Ghosts" and the absolute best Clancy game of all time. It is a hybrid 3rd/1st person shooter. What I mean by "hybrid" is that when you aren't ADS, it is a 3rd person view. But when you pull that left trigger, the view changes to 1st person. That took me a few days to adjust to but now I don't even notice. In fact, the 3rd person POV is great for determining whether or not you are well hidden or whether your choice of camo is suitable for the area you are in. This title is truly amazing for those who love military, shooter, co-op play, and even RPG.
The character creation and customization process truly is reminiscent of most of your RPG or MMOPG games. You start the game off by selecting your character's gender as well as hair color and style, facial hair design, face-paint and arm tattoos. But one of the better features is that you can choose not only what color/camo design to use, but also the very exact shirt, pants, backpack, and tactical harness you prefer. Then there is the weapon customization which allows you to select things like which scope to use, silencer or no, magazine capacity, and even paint job. Your gender and face are the only things that cannot be changed after you've created the character. But after that, you can choose what you carry and wear at any time during the game.
Another page taken from the RPG textbook is the fact that the map is not only fully open, but it is also massive. Its so large that the only practical way to reach some points is either by car, dirt bike, boat, helicopter, or plane. Yes. You do get to pilot (or sit in the gunner's seat of armed aircraft, but only in co-op mode) helicopters and planes. Better still there is a variety of different models for each vehicle type. But not only is the map huge and open, but you select exactly where you want to go. That also means choosing which mission to do. This is a near complete departure for most FPSs which almost universally follow a linear timeline thus sending you on a chain of missions. The freedom to choose where to go is a huge advantage because there are skill-up points, supplies, and documents that, if taken before starting any mission, will allow you to enhance your character's abilities so that you are better equipped for some of the tougher missions. Another difference between "Wildlands" and the vast majority of other shooters is that there are two play types: Single-player campaign or 2-4 player co-op mode. There is no PvP multiplayer mode like nearly all of the others.
For me, the gameplay is just fine. I have had almost no issues with mechanics or glitches thus far and the weapons' handling and performance have raised zero concerns from me. When ADS, the weapons all function pretty much like any other FPS's standard aim-and-shoot sequence. The only glitch I HAVE witnessed is that, if your AI squad is following you and you are near train tracks, they will simply cross the tracks after you no matter what. That has led to several train-related injuries for my team.
I, too, was annoyed that in single-player mode, my three AI teammates where as hapless as the Stormtroopers in the original Star Wars movies; Clumsy, disorganized and terrible shots. But after I spent several skill points to enhance my AI teammates' efficiency, all of that went away. Now I'm lucky if I can kill two enemies in a group of four or more before my team does.
The sound quality is superb and even better if you have an audio receiver or soundbar that is Dolby Atmos capable. If, however, you prefer to listen through the controller's headset output, I highly recommend the original Microsoft stereo, over-the-ear headset that was first released shortly after the first Xbox Ones. I've been using this one since it was first released and could never go back to the included basic mono headset.
The graphics are one of the game's top selling points. Its as if you could see as far as possible from high vantage points. There is no "fog" covering the horizon just several hundred meters ahead. No, it looks like real-life views and details at a long distance are equally impressive. But if you want even better picture quality and a sharper resolution, you'll need an Xbox One S and a 4K UHDTV with HDR. After awhile, you will become spoiled from games (or even 4K blu-rays) and the 1080p resolution with 240Hz refresh rate begins to look like standard definition. What's more is the fact that the only load times you experience will be each time it is first launched or when you respawn after being killed. After that, I can't recall any load-time delays at all.
This is a top-shelf game that combines aspects of both MMOs and FPSs. Marksmanship, coordination, patience, stealth, and communication are all necessary to be successful in "Wildlands." The customization options alone could take you ten minutes to decide what to wear and carry. The sprawling, open-world map allows you to go where ever you wish to go in order to complete missions, gather intel, or find new weapons, attachments, and skill points. My recommendation is to take your time and complete all possible side missions and gather supplies/skill points to extend the length of gameplay by a large margin. If you're too aggressive and want to enter a camp or military base, all guns blazing, it will be extremely difficult to complete whatever objective you're there for. Take your time to identify the enemies from a distance and using your team by ordering them which target to kill. After you've picked-off those enemies in sniper or watch towers and identified all others inside a compound, then you should slowly and methodically work your way through and eliminate them as quickly and quietly as possible. One last hint: Its far better to attack very large compounds at night. | video-games_xbox |
Amazing controller. I got a dud, but they replaced it. Finally got this controller after waiting since October, which was the original release date...
PROS:
First of all, they did a fantastic job with the case. Instead of the mesh pocket which they had for the sabertooth, it is now some kind of cloth which feels and looks like a fleece sweater... (i.e. A nicer material than in the pictures)
The controller is very sturdy, and feels much lighter than the regular Xbone controller, but heavier than the sabertooth (Razer's last controller).
The buttons barely depress, but have a satisfying click when they do. The bumpers are much softer than those on the original xbone controller (before Summer 2015. I haven't tried the revised controller).
It also has a very handy feature where you can map the triggers to report 100% depression after only pulling the triggers back 10%. This helps if you are playing a game and have the trigger stops enabled. (Some games don't work properly with trigger stops, and this fixes it)
CONS:
Maybe it's just me, but I had major issues putting the grip covers on. They have adhesive on the back for you to put them on for yourself, but I couldn't get them to fit right. it really bugs my OCD.
The Xbox button doesn't light up like on the regular xbone controller. Instead, there is a light below the button.
When I first got the controller, the right trigger didn't work. While my controller was a dud, I can tell you that this was a common issue for some people with their previous controller... When fully depressed, the right trigger only registered as 63% depressed. If I used the trigger stops, it only registered as 2% depressed, which is too small even for the built in hair trigger functionality.
I contacted Razer Support about the issue, and they were very quick to respond. The process of exchanging the controller for a new one was quite easy. They were very quick in emailing me a FedEx overnight shipping label. The only annoyance was that they sent me a new one with two week shipping. Overall, however, I am quite pleased with the way they handled the situation, and my new replacement controller works flawlessly. | video-games_xbox |
Family fun for your console. This review is for the Hasbro Family Fun Pack for Xbox One. If you are interesting in getting this set of games, you know this is not going to be the same as a triple A title game (which also cost 3 times more). While the graphics are fine, they are definitely not the focal point of a video game based on traditional board games. Still, I was curious. I like Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly, Scrabble and Risk so this seemed like something worth checking out, and a nice break from first person shooters and role playing games.
These games are meant to be played with friends, I didn't even try to play them solo with AI players although it is an option if it's just 2 humans and you want to play with more players. There is also the "live" mode which requires you to sign up for a separate service which I found annoying. Still, once you get all set up, the games are easy to get going and play. Each game is fun and lively and has its own twist on the originals.
One of my favorites is Monopoly, with it's 3D rendition of the classic game, and the way the game has you play the "real" rules (this eliminates the constant arguments my family has with what the rules actually are), although you are able to make rule exceptions for certain things. The animations and general gameplay is whimsical and enjoyable and it really got me back into monopoly again after not playing it for years.
I also really enjoyed Trivial Pursuit, but unlike Monopoly it was not because it is similar in style to the board game version. This Trivial Pursuit is set up like a game show where you have to "buzz in" with the correct answer. It is very, very different from the board game and the questions are much easier than the Trivial Pursuit games I have played in the past. Still, it's a very fun, fast paced trivia game that 4 players can play and have a lot of fun with. This is probably my favorite game to just pick up and play really quick. Games can be as short as 5 minutes or as long as 10 minutes with the longer mode. I feel like the game is worth the price just for the Trivial Pursuit portion alone, although Trivial Pursuit aficionados may be turned off by its name being used on a totally different game show style game. To me, it's better this way. Traditional Trivial Pursuit is a great game, but I don't think it would translate well to a video game console as it is so basic in nature. The game show feature makes it fun and lively and I had fun playing with people aged 15 through 45.
The other 2 games I didn't play as much, but I did enjoy them. Scrabble is fairly traditional and was enjoyable to play. The Scrabble games seem to take about the same amount of time as a normal Scrabble game, without all the setup of course. Risk is also fairly like the board game and I played one full game of it with some friends and really enjoyed it. It does take a while, like Monopoly, but overall it's a nice addition and a classic strategy game that I would never think could translate well to console, but Ubisoft did a good job.
I should mention that if you have a smartphone, you can use the Microsoft Smart Glass app to use as a type of controller for some of the games, if not all of them. I only tried this on Monopoly and it works great. Another great use of near ubiquitous technology to augment the gaming experience.
I saw some reviews saying they didn't like the user interface, but I think that's personal preference. I think it's fine. I have no trouble navigating through the various games and the different options. I don't like that you have to sign up for that service to play live games, but that's totally optional and not required. There is paid DLC (downloadable content) you can purchase such as fun Monopoly maps, and you can make your own version of Monopoly ($10). Overall, you have to consider the cost for a game like this and what you are getting and it's hard to argue that it's not a great deal. If you have a Xbox One or PS4 and are looking for a fun game the whole family can play that doesn't involve dancing, this one is great if your family is into board games at all. | video-games_xbox |
Honest Review. Great headphones with a couple drawbacks. <div id="video-block-R3BPS7UNDSBZ4I" class="a-section a-spacing-small a-spacing-top-mini video-block"></div><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/F1u%2BMujAKwS.mp4" class="video-url"><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91jLqvUImUS.png" class="video-slate-img-url"> Unboxing video, just so you know what to expect when ordering this product as well as my written review below.
First off let me say I absolutely love these headphones, and they would have easily received a 5 star rating if it weren't for a couple drawbacks.
PROS:
1. Lightweight- now to briefly explain my pros. lightweight is self explanatory for people used to wearing gaming headsets, I can not tell you how many times I have forgotten I was wearing a pair of headphones.
2. Super comfortable- now as far as comfort level these are the equivalent of wearing a pillow on each ear. they just rest on your head no added pressure, you can wear these for several hours without feeling any sort of discomfort.
3. Great sound- I am no audiophile but I do wear a lot of headphones and know the difference between good and bad sound, and these fall under the category of excellent. ( trust me I have put these through the gaming, Netflix, hbo go stress test)
4. Only one cable is needed for these to work (included with the headphones)- if you are familiar with some of the other high end gaming headsets compatible with xbox one you probably also know that they require several cables to run from your headset into the back of the console, and fortunately that is not the case for these. one cable attached to an adapter plugs into your controller and controls game volume and voice chat.
And now for the 2 cons that kept this from receiving 5 stars
Cons:
1. Headphone jack- not often but sometimes the audio will get staticy, and you have to wiggle or readjust the headphone jack to stop the static noise.
2 discoloration- since the ear cups are made of a fabric cushion as oppose to leather, if you sweat while wearing them the color of the ear cups will change slightly making them look a little bit dirty.
now with all that being said I love these headphones and would recommend to anybody in the market for xbox one headphones. hope this review helps you guys. | video-games_xbox |
And away we go. I have been looking for a good racing game for some time now, and the next few weeks will definitely end that drought. Kicking things off this week is Split/Second, from of all places, Disney Interactive. Split/Second is set up as a racing reality show, were the track is rigged with obstacles, shortcuts, and death traps. In case that didn't make it clear, this is an arcade style racer- no shock or engine tuning here, just grab a car and drive like a maniac. Like the Burnout series, reckless driving earns what in this case are called "Power Plays" which are used to trigger the obstacles and traps. What these are varies greatly, from helicopters dropping explosive barrels, all the way to massive track changing events like sending a flaming 747 crashing through the track or even bringing down a nuclear power plant. Timing is everything, and icons appear over opponents that will be caught in these events. But the player must beware, as they can get caught in these traps as well. AI is a little bit frustrating, as they seem to have savant type driving abilities and will rubber band quite frequently. This places a premium on player skill, as even minor screw ups can send the player from first to last in, well, a Split/Second.
The name is well chosen, as it is in these Split/Seconds that the game shines. Driving is a blast, and the visuals are spectacular. In these moments can be truly epic.
You are blasting through an airport- it's two laps to go and you are side by side for second place. As you continue to battle you drift through the turn that goes from the parking lot onto the tarmac, gaining ground on your adversary. You straighten out and risk a look at the track ahead, and your heart stops as all of a sudden a massive 747 comes blasting down the track- flames shooting everywhere. With only a heartbeat to make a decision, you chose a line- you slide directly between the right wing engines as the car beside you gets wiped out as does everything behind you. Even as you continue your pursuit of the first place car (who just tried his best to run you down with an airplane), you allow yourself to think "Holy*#%&! I just did that." This definitely makes this a title worth checking out for any fan of arcade style racers. | video-games_xbox |
Best RPG in the last 2 years. This is a great RPG and is totally worth the price. I played this over the weekend and the depth and complexity of the skills combined with a good combat system make it a fun game.
For those of you still on the fence about whether or not to buy this game, here's how I would describe it in comparison to other games.
The game is like Oblivion, Dragon age, and Fable combined. The 3rd person view and player mechanics remind me alot of dragon age and fable. The game uses main attribute points which relate to health, strength, marksmanship, and magic. (Fable anyone?) In addition to the main attributes, there are skill points which can be added any of the many styles of play available. For instance, there are different skills in melee, archery, assasination, magic, etc. In this way, I feel like the game is alot like dragon age.
Combat feels like Oblivion meets Fable. The archery mechanics are the best I've ever seen, with an easy to access sniper view with multiarrows and such. Melee has a block, counter attack, attack, and defense breaker (flourish).
The game really shines in the magic and crafting areas of what people have come to expect from RPG's. All weapons can be broken down to their core elements, with those elements being able to combine with existing items to create more powerful items. Although I have yet to find any, magic stones can be fused together for a synergistic type relationship (2+2=5) and placed in weapons to make the weapons more powerful.
Quests for this game are actually fun! I haven't found any quests which just say go kill 10 of these or whatever. The NPC's actually give you what seems like worthwhile objectives to finish.
All in all, if you liked fable, dragon age, or oblivion, buy this game. It takes the best of fable and dragon age and combines it with a huge open world feel of oblivion. If you can get through the 2 hour tutorial (not really a tutorial but you really do need 2 hours to learn all the parts of the game) then you will really enjoy this. | video-games_xbox |
Meh. It's been a bit of a dry spell for RPG's so I went around to the different local shops to try and find this game. They were all sold out. That must mean it is a great game, right? Wrong. Just on technical aspects alone, I was left feeling a little dumbfounded at the mere crappiness of the character animations and models. This isn't 2002 anymore. I went to school for 2 years in animation and I saw better work from the students there. The arm movements were robotic and abrupt. The voice actors were stiff. The lip-synching was terribad. Some convos with NPC's had them standing there in looping idle emotes. Who was the art director for this crap? Needs to get fired... The lighting. omg the lighting... ever hear of setting mood with lighting? Not blasting out everybody's retinas with sterile white light! Duh.
I will say something about the world, it looks pretty good from the cinematic. That's the only credit I'll give the designers/artists. Now, if they had just spent a little more time on the things that bring life into a game instead of making Sillybuns' hair flap in the wind, it might have made this game matter. Plastic Lego hair would have been fine if they could have made the main character look ALIVE through animation and good voice acting.
I didn't get much into the game - I made it through Escape from Crap Citadel and was working through Orc Adventure Island. As far as gameplay is concerned, I felt the controls could have been a little less convoluted. At times I would get into a fight and mashing normal ability buttons for other games brings up maps and other nonsense. At one point I was near a cliff and the my toon just flies off it with little provocation. I'll play it more when I'm not busy on Rift Beta. Or maybe I'll play Deadspace 2. After all, this game is equally scary, if but for different reasons.
Like other players have said, Oblivion and Dragon Age are far superior. And for the others giving this turd 5-stars... shame on you. | video-games_xbox |
Team Andromeda Lives. When a new console is launched, the manufacturer usually releases a handful of games to show off the system and appeal to consumers. Over time, as developers learn the console, bigger and flashier games appear, leaving the launch games in the dust of the clearance bin. Once in a while, though, there's a diamond in the rough ... in the case of the underrated Sega Saturn, it was a stylish shooting game named "Panzer Dragoon," developed by an in-house team known as Team Andromeda.
Its popularity (among the Saturn's limited audience), led to a prequel game--"Panzer Dragoon Zwei"-- and even a lauded RPG-style adventure in the same universe--"Panzer Dragoon Saga." However, both games were released in the waning days of the system, so few people really got to see how the series progressed. Eventually, the Saturn was discontinued and Team Andromeda went their separate ways. Fortunately, it would appear that some of those programmers wound up in Smilebit, one of Sega's new development houses, as they have turned out a worthy successor of the "Panzer Dragoon" title, exclusively for Microsoft's powerful XBox console.
For the fourth title in the series, Smilebit returned to the format of the first two games, that of a linear shoot-em-up. The player, in the guise of a mysterious young girl named Orta, rides a mighty dragon through a series of elaborate levels on a generally pre-set course (or, to use a common gaming term, "on rails"). Armed with a rapid-fire pistol and the dragon's own attacks, Orta must eliminate the evil forces bent on capturing her, as well as the denizens of this strange world that simply will attack anything that moves.
Enemies will attack from all sides, so it's fortunate that Orta can turn a full 360 degrees to face incoming hazards. Orta can shoot down the targets with her own gun, or she can command the dragon to lock onto the target and attack with its "arrows of light." When desperate times call for desperate measures, the dragon can unleash a "berserk" attack, which renders itself invulnerable for a few seconds and its enemies dead meat.
The enemies come in a wide array of shapes and sizes. Some are simply too big (or too well-armored) to shoot directly. Others prefer to attack Orta head-on by ramming the dragon. In these cases, you can use the "Glide Attack," a new feature for the series. This multi-use attack can slow the dragon down (allowing an incoming assault to miss it), give it a burst of speed (with shockwaves that can damage enemies) or allow it to move around a large enemy to evade fire or find a weak spot in its defenses.
Expanding on concepts introduced in "Zwei" and "Saga," Orta can control the dragon's appearance and abilities. The standard form, Base Wing, is a good all-around offensive and defensive choice. The Heavy Wing trades maneuverability (and no Glide Attack) for awesome firepower, and the Glide Wing is small and fast, but not much of an attacker. Orta can cycle through these forms at will, and she'll be doing it frequently. If it seems like there's a lot to do and keep track of, there is ... fortunately, the game has a series of tutorials that teach players the fundamentals.
The game's ultra-detailed world never looked so good. Cut-scenes tell the story in the game-world's unique language (it's not Japanese), with English subtitles. The PD universe is a hodgepodge of natural beauty and man-made horror, and truly comes into its own here. Some story points draw on the original games, but knowledge of those is not required. Graphically fast and expansive, with outstanding effects, like the dragon's sometimes iridescent wings. No slowdown, even with giant enemies on screen, and loading times are generally speedy (or hidden by cut-scenes or dialog).
Replay fanatics will love Pandora's Box, a treasure trove of hidden features and information, all available for the unlocking. I won't reveal what they are, except for one item ... hidden in the game is a complete rendition of the title that started it all, "Panzer Dragoon." As an introduction to the series, or as a chance to relive a classic game, it's a welcome addition.
One very minor gripe ... the game only allows for one save file, so while anyone can start a new game, only one save point can be set. Also, the game's difficulty can be at times frustrating, even for PD veterans ... it's also quite addicting, almost forcing you to "one more time" a level until you vanquish it.
With a detailed story, unbelievable graphics, easy-to-grasp gameplay and tons of replay opportunities, "Panzer Dragoon Orta" heralds the return of a respected gaming series, and hopefully points the way to future adventures in this unique realm. | video-games_xbox |
but the PS4 is nothing like the PS3 in terms of media center hub. It's an Xbox One. I wanted a PS4, but the PS4 is nothing like the PS3 in terms of media center hub. Our Xbox360 was like a jet engine, so that didn't help either.
However, we have over 1,000 DLC songs for Rock Band (Xbox360), and they won't transfer to Sony's console, so that kind of made the decision pretty easy. We mostly use it for Netflix at the moment, if it even turns on at all (summer = rarely watch TV). It IS very quiet, so there's that, which is a huge plus for us.
Games... I don't know. I got GTA5 with it, but I hate FPS-style games on consoles because I grew up with mouse + keyboard. So I bought GTA5 for PC, and have played over 100 hours so far. I bought my wife Dragon Age: Inquisition, but she's a PC gamer as well, and has been addicted to Civ5 all summer (school teacher, this is her only time to play).
I'm sure there will eventually be non-FPS games (we love racing and sports and puzzle games) that will never come out for PC, so we'll eventually get our gaming in. Definitely when Rock Band 4 comes out this fall.
I'm still unhappy that I have to pay for XBL just to use Netflix and other apps. I don't play online on the consoles, only PC. But I paid just so I can cry and complain about it, though my normal brain assures me that eventually I'll use enough features to justify the $32 (got it on a great sale!). Plus, I am well aware of the fact that paying for a premium service means the service is generally superior to others. I own a PS3 as well, and Xbox has always been better in terms of online services, though Sony has definitely caught up these days. So I complain, but in the end, I understand and accept. It's a first-world problem. I guess I'm lucky enough to complain about paying $32 for a luxury when $32 in other parts of the world could buy life-saving medicine. Now I feel like a jerk for even owning an Xbox... what the...?
Pro:
quiet
fast
has all the proper apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, sports, etc
good games that I'll be interested in eventually
ROCK BAND 4! AND ALL OUR PREVIOUS DLC TRANSFERS!
somehow the controllers are even better than the 360's
built-in wireless and HDMI - I would have never bought another MS product if they made me go through the misery they did with the 360 and the separate and crummy wireless adapter and no HDMI port (yes, they added HDMI on the later ones... but I wasn't about to buy another 360 just for that).
Helped us decide to cancel DirecTV and save $113/month once we could get the NHL Center Ice package to work with XBL
MS always updates their consoles and adds excellent features (like backwards compat and DVR functions)
Cons:
sort of useless for the moment but that will slowly change over time
makes me sad that I waste energy complaining about having to buy Xbox Live Gold when other humans on the planet are living in horrible conditions
No HBO Now app yet | video-games_xbox |
These 50mm Drivers Deliver The Sound Straight To Your Brain. <div id="video-block-R2TOUV15RQH83R" class="a-section a-spacing-small a-spacing-top-mini video-block"></div><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/E1DoJHY6crS.mp4" class="video-url"><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/01gsNrxQtUS.png" class="video-slate-img-url"> I have provided a video review and I encourage you to watch it to see the product in better detail. My son and I already own Turtle Beach XO Fours and they sound amazing. I wanted another set for my PC so I decided to try the PDP Afterglow Karga Xbox One Headset. As far as cosmetics go they are different than the Turtle Beaches but they are pretty awesome. The microphone slides in and out instead of detaching it from the headset and taking the chance of misplacing it. Thats a cool function. The padding is a leather like material instead of cloth and they light up. The cables plug into the head and hard wired into the adapter where as the TB's are hard wired into the headset and plug into the adapter. The 50mm drivers sound as good as the TB's do. I was impressed. I ran the drivers through a series of frequencies I have on my pc and they held up nicely with distortion at max volume. I don't recommend doing that all the time but I wanted to give them a fair test.
Pros ( For Me)
Comfort ...I have had these on for about 4 hours max and they didn't bother me a bit. They didn't get all sweaty or start to give me a headache. The flex in the headband seems to be just about right for even my big head. My son on the other hand wears them for hours. He's 10 and has never complained about them.
Sound quality... Like I said they sound amazing. Running them through a series of tests on the PC and they stood up to the TB's. The chat function is also very clear with no static.
Durability ...my son has tossed these around more than I would like to admit but they have held up..No issues so far with these.
MIC....The mic slides in and out of the headset instead of detaching. You won't ever misplace your mic.
Cool Factor ..Lights. Are they useless? Yeah pretty much. Do they have Cool Factor? Heck yes. Love the lights but expect a bit more battery drain from your controller.
CONS ( For Me ) I honestly couldn't find any. My only complaint, and it's on all of the headsets with equal features, is the price. They still seem a bit steep to me. Other than that they have been a great headset.
Over all I am giving the PDP Afterglow Karga Xbox One Headset a 5 star rating for its comfort, durability and sound quality. If you are looking for a good headset for your XBOX ONE that can also be used on your pc, then I recommend you give these a try.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. If you found my review helpful, let me know. Lets keep making better buying decisions together. Thank you and as always Be Safe & Happy Shopping!! | video-games_xbox |
Does many things well or great, gameplay is horrible. This first two levels of this game I was thinking this was a game-of-the-year title. I was debating whether I would give it a 8.5 or 9 (out of 10). I thought it was going to be as good as Uncharted 2. By the third level, I began thinking maybe a 6 or 7. I quit playing the game on the 13th chapter (of 14 I believe). At this point, I give the game a 3 out of 10.
The game has the visuals and sound of a Rockstar game. They are fantastic. I wish I could recommend playing the game just to see the world-building which, with the tighter focus of linear game-play really shines as maybe the best Rockstar has done. This is why the game gets 3 points instead of 0.
The game-play, level design, and developer decisions (most important parts) ruin this game to the point that I found it unplayable, even after switching to easy in the 13th chapter.
The combat is horrible. Rockstar games have always had poorly implemented combat, but for a game focused much more tightly on fighting, it is just awful. It would maybe be OK but you have a health bar and way too few medicines to replenish it. (Note: I deleted 4 more paragraphs about how bad combat is for brevities sake. It is a combination of bad controls, bad level design and bad opponent AI (the enemy always know when I am aiming at them, can always see me even if line-of-sight is occluded, etc.).
What made me so angry at the game were the STUPID decisions by Rockstar. They switch what guns you are using during cut-scenes. They make your guns disappear for NO reason leaving you with no ammo to fight. Bosses (basically a juggernaut) will appear with a cut scene. During the cut-scene the game MOVES YOU OUT OF COVER. Or a juggernaut will appear the second after you kill 8 guys, so that you don't have time to get enough ammo to fight him.
There are many (many) bafflingly bad design decisions that just show that Rockstar has no skill or talent for 3rd person shooters. If they make a sequel, they should try playing gears of war first (or hiring someone from Epic games). | video-games_xbox |
The game is a blast. South Park the Fractured But Whole is game tailor made for fans of South Park. It picks up right where their first RPG, The Stick of Truth, left off. You play as the unnamed kid and instead of a fantasy 'Lord of the Rings' inspired epic that the first game was, this one starts with the Kid joining forces with Cartman's fabled 'Coon and Friends'. This time around you're part of a squad of super heroes and it's time to stop crime in South Park.
The game play, a turn-based RPG (done on a game-board type arena) is nothing too special, but what makes the game wholly enjoyable is the attention to detail the game has for fans of the show. Every little bit of animation, whether it be characters walking ("It's just crappy animation!", going up stairs, cars driving, background, you name it, everything feels exactly like the show (hilariously, because you're still just 'kids' acting out 'super-heroes' as opposed to actually being 'heroes' the action can be halted as one of the boys will scream out "Car!" and the group of kids, including your enemies, clear out of the road, getting berated by the driver the entire time).
The game is also very much caught up to the show in terms of timeline and references. From PC Principal, to last season's 'Member-berries, as well as classic characters like Towelie and Big Gay Al, this is South Park exactly as it is in the show. In between battles, you solve puzzles while exploring the town, unlocking brand new areas as your powers increase. Hilariously, there is a 'Pooping' mini game this time around (yes, the majority of your powers are based on your 'Unnamed Kid's' extreme flatulence) where the game requires you to do different joystick and button combos rapidly ensuring you have enough time to 'pinch it off' to gain the bonus.
And this being South Park without the even the barest censorship that Comedy Central calls for, this game is NOT for kids. It's full of swearing, extremely crude humor, nudity, and other shocks that fans know and love. It definitely goes the distance earns the "Mature" rating.
I'm not yet done exploring South Park and I can't wait to get to the end. | video-games_xbox |
Not many changes have been made from the previous games, but it's still excellent nonetheless. STORY:
The game takes place many years after the events of Brotherhood, and Ezio is now in his early 50s. He is still as potent of an Assassin as ever, though, and the intro to the game is excellent. You soon find yourself in Constantinople, now occupied by the Ottomans. There's a power struggle between the contenders for the Sultanate, and you meet with a few cool historical figures on your journey. It wraps up the story of Ezio, and brings in many new characters into the game. At the same time, Desmond is still in the Animus immediately after the events of the previous game, trapped on an island within it. His mind is in pieces, and it's up to you to put them back together. The story, cutscenes, dialogue, and background are excellent as always, and you'll really start to grow on some of the new characters you meet. The ending is great, and it leaves you both satisfied with this one and looking forward to the next game.
GAMEPLAY:
To make a long story short, gameplay is essentially the same as within Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. Sure, a few new additions have been made, such as the new Hookblade (which allows you to free-run much faster), Master Assassin missions, and a Tower Defense mechanic, but nothing is really too groundbreaking. Some may see this as a negative, but since I absolutely loved Brotherhood, it's fine with me. You do a few side missions as Altair, the main Assassin of the first game in the series. The missions, while few and brief, are very cool, and chronicle Altair's life after the events of the first game. One big change in this game is how Notoriety works. It's called Templar Awareness now, and it increases whenever you're seen committing a crime. However, you aren't recognized by guards more easily if your Notoriety is higher. They react in the same way to your actions, regardless of your Notoriety level; they won't notice or bother you until you murder someone or something. Once your Notoriety reaches its peak level, the Templars become aware of the Assassins' presence in the city. They'll then attack one of your Assassin dens (which are the same as the Borgia towers from the last game), and you are required to defend your den from the Templars. As always, you can lower your Notoriety by bribing heralds or killing corrupt public officials. Bomb crafting has been added to the game as well, and it's a very detailed and complex system. Many materials can be collected and used to craft bombs that damage, distract, or blind enemies. It is a cool mechanic, but I never found myself in a situation where I absolutely NEEDED to use a bomb. In fact, that's how many of the things are in the game; it's easy to avoid them if you want to, but you'll be more rewarded if you take the time to invest in them. The visuals are stunning as usual in the game, and Constantinople is a nice change from the Italian cities that we've become so accustomed to. The city is noticeably smaller than the cities in the previous games, but it never feels too cramped. There's plenty of side missions to do, and many of these are surprisingly entertaining!
OVERALL:
This game is awesome! The gameplay is essentially the same as Brotherhood's, and the story is one of the stronger in the series. Although some additions have been made to the game, some of them seem pointless and out of place. For the price, it's a steal, and I recommend it to anyone who's a fan of the Assassin's Creed games. However, if you haven't played any yet, then I strongly recommend starting right from the beginning. It's fine to start on 2 as well, though. Hope this helped! | video-games_xbox |
The Last Hurrah. Halo: Reach - Circa 2010
GOOD:
- Tried and true (Halo) FPS experience that many other games have copied over the years.
- Great Co-op Gameplay allows up to four players to go through the entire game from start to end.
- Great graphics which look way better than that of Halo 3 and ODST; also there are a lots of new animations for the characters as well as tons of new unique enemy voice work to boot.
- Vehicle and turret shooting are the same as ever (for a Halo game); which is good; but the nice addition here is the new helicopter type of vehicle and even a small section of the game where you can control a space fighter.
- Armor Abilities really help out and give you a new edge in combat. Also you have a night vision mode which works and looks like the one from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.
- Intense multiplayer versus action either by yourself on a team; the mode has plenty of different options to choose from. This is a pretty good upgraded version of the famed Halo 3 multiplayer that now has new maps, modes, abilities, and graphics for you to enjoy.
- Fire Fight mode allows up to four players to fight waves of enemies on unique maps (based on those in the campaign) using team work and skill.
BAD:
- Some slight lag and slight blurring at the more intensive moments in the game (with lots of things happening all at once).
- Can't play Forge maps in Fire Fight mode.
IF IT FITS YOUR TASTE:
- A Sci-Fi First Person Shooter with quick pacing and intense fire fights. Note: that unlike Call of Duty: Modern Warfare this is a sci-fi First Person Shooter and as such your guns must first break an enemy's energy shield before you can really hurt them also everyone is wearing battle armor so you'll still need lots of shots to kill an opponent. The thing to do here is make your shots count more so you will need to do overall less of them to an opponent; example use energy type guns to break an enemy's energy shield and always try to do head shots to your enemy for extra damage. Coming at an enemy guns blazing and either not using the right guns and/or not aiming well will only get you killed pretty quickly.
- Gameplay wise this plays pretty much like Halo 3 but with the life bar from Halo 3: ODST. The missions themselves are pretty fun and take the best bits from Halo 3 and ODST into new experiences.
- The campaign levels can be played by either yourself or with up to four other players cooperatively at one time on any stage.
- The Story is an overall a combat story going from mission to mission with nothing really tying into the overall Halo lore until the last chapter.
- Intense multiplayer action online through Xbox Live with matches as small as one on one and as big as 16 players (and even offline without using Xbox Live using either spilt screen, or system link). Halo Reach is set up similar to that of Halo 3 but with some new modes and all new maps. But much like Halo 3 in the sense that you're given a rank when you play multiplayer (this rank can go up or down at any time) this rank is representative of your skill and your matched with others of your skill type, that way new unskilled players and hardcore veterans will not often play against one another, unless they make a special match themselves that ignores rank.
- An all new Fire Fight mode (Fire Fight was originally in Halo 3: ODST), Fire Fight which plays similar to Hoard Mode in Gears of War 2 is a mode where either by yourself or with up to four other players cooperatively can play a stage about the size of a multiplayer stage and you fight against enemies that are found in the games story campaign levels in waves. You get points and an overall score on your performance for these stages.
- There is no Master Chief in the game as well (the famed character from Halo's 1 through 3). Instead you play an assortment of different SPARTANS who were on the planet Reach when it was attacked. As far as the overall Halo story goes, your team is made up of SPARTAN IIIs (with one SPARTAN II). SPARTAN IIIs are cheaper to produce and have a bit less overall combat ability then the famed SPARTAN IIs (Master Chief is a SPARTAN II). Luckily for your team they have been given all sorts of prototype armor and weapons normally left only for the SPARTAN II's to have (note not even the Master Chief had a chance to get this stuff yet).
- NO FLOOD, it should be noted this Halo title has no FLOOD aliens within it (if you've played Halo's 1 through 3 you'll know what I am talking about).
- Forge World works like a much upgraded version of Halo 3's Forge mode is a mode that lets you make and edit your own map and build your very own maps from the ground up but adding/placing walls, ramps, towers, ect you can add or take away any and all of the objects, weapons, vehicles, spawning points and flag zones. This is all done in real time in one huge worlds (and not separate maps like in Halo 3) and you can even invite your friends into this mode while you're making the map(s) or just goofing off.
- Theater Mode works just like in Halo 3 it is a video editor that lets you record and play back any and all matches from Campaign, Multiplayer, and Fire Fight, and even Forge World from the point of view of any player that was there in either first person or third person (you can even swap to a in a orbit-cam where the camera circles around the player) all of this in real time. You can also pause the video/action at anytime and still look around as a camera as well as well as fast forward and rewind the events as they unfold. BUT don't forget you must save your videos before you turn off the game or you will lose the ability to save those matches. Also note that while viewing these "videos" you can take a picture or record a snippet of footage at any time and save it to your Xbox 360 and have your friends check them out later on your profile.
GAME IT'S MOST ASSOCATED TOO:
- Halo 3: ODST (Xbox 360)
- Halo 3 (Xbox 360)
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360/PS3/PC)
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
- There is three small cameos from characters from previous halo games, honestly the cameos are very small and are not earth shattering to the games over all story.
- Don't put down that controller once you beat the game as there is a surprise post credits.
- People who pre-ordered this game either at Amazon.com or Gamestop got a preorder code for some extra armor parts for their characters.
- The Limited edition comes with a download code for more extra armor parts for your character as well as a Halo Reach patch and a mini book with some back story on the game from the point of view of one of the stories characters.
- The Legendary edition comes with everything found in the limited edition plus even more download codes for more extra armor parts for your character (like giving you a avatar a flaming helmet much like the Bungie staff had in Halo 3's multiplayer) as well as a small figure set of the games main characters design by Todd Mcfarlane of Spawn fame. | video-games_xbox |
Are you tough enoughto play Fatal Frame. Ghosts are pretty scary.
I'm not talking about your "Casper the Friendly Ghost" spirits. I'm talking about your "corner-of-the-eye ethereal image" ghosts, the ones we all talk about in hushed voices over a cup of hot cocoa on stormy nights. Despite what scientists, religious fanatics or your mother may say, "ghosts can be very real ... and very scary." While fans of the horror genre may find their Resident Evil's or Silent Hill's staling, it'd be a hard press to find a single individual who wasn't disturbed, nerve racked or swear-to-death frightened of what Tecmo has done with such a simple concept as a ghost house. Fatal Frame mixes RPG gameplay with eeriness to create an experience like no other you have come unto before.
The story behind Fatal Frame is as follows: A young girl named Miku Hinasaki has ventured into the mysterious Himuro Mansion, the last known whereabouts of her missing older brother, Mafuyu. Mafuyu had ventured inside to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a certain renowned author named Junsei Takamine, who is Mafuyu's idol. Takamine's aim was to study the mansion's mysterious and bloody history, and, as you've imagined, neither him nor any of the members of his research team have been heard from since. You take the role of Miku, who, in the search for her brother, manages to learn all about the craziness going on at the Himuro Mansion and find out a bit more about Takamine and company than she probably wants to know.
As the game's main character, Miku, you will journey through the bowels of a haunted mansion in search of your lost brother with only a camera as protection. But not just any camera, mind you. Through an Onimusha-like upgrade system, you will be able to transform your poltergeist-friendly camera into a finely tuned spook-busting machine. Each ghost that you capture via your camera will net you a certain amount of spirit points, which you can spend on adding or improving functionality to your camera. Fatal Frame also delivers a very gripping psychological freak fest. The scenes of murder and ritualistic sacrifices are eerie and disturbing. The mansions long dead residents revealing themselves in grisly fashions at the most opportune moments (I swear they must monitor your heart rate through the controller) will keep your pulse racing at an unhealthy level, unless of course you're one of those jaded gamers made of stone who never flinches.
The graphics in Fatal Frame are just short of astounding. Interactive backgrounds, freaky grain-film filters, impressive Luigi's Mansion-quality dynamic lighting effects. Every object casts a realistic shadow on the background resulting in an almost frightening level of immersiveness. You'll see shadows moving as you walk, which adds in to the realism. However, don't expect to see everything in daylight or something; everything is dark and you'll have to look around with the flashlight. Also, while each character has an almost manga look to them and may not be uber-detailed like in Silent Hill 2, they still look sharp and contain elements of realism. The atmosphere is just breath-taking and although some areas within the mansion do look the same, the feeling of deja-vu is rarely noticeable. The whole package is pulled together really well to create a grisly environment. Excellent texture maps and a well-detailed environment immediately draw you into the game.
But what really stands out is the design and look of the ghosts. In fact, the ghost effects are awesome to behold. They fade in and out, and the visual effects when they are "invisible" is well done. You will find yourself shocked and horrified by what turns up when you least expect it.
The sound in Fatal Frame is anything but clunky. Using 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound, it is composed mainly of an organic-ambience and strange ritualistic chanting music that would scare your little brother to death, if you were to record the samples onto a mini-recorder, put the device under his bed and hit play at full volume ... while he is sleeping. Ghosts will scream in agony as you film them and taunt you in the instances when they have the upper hand. Supernatural objects will resonate with a spooky hum as you close in on them, faint voices can be heard through long corridors, footsteps sound suitably different depending on the composition of what your walking on; all this equates to an audibly impressive, realistic experience that reverberates with resounding effect. But it was some of the voices that got my skin crawling the most. Whispers haunt certain corners while low demonic murmerings haunt others. Some spirits will taunt you while others will cry out in their torment, "It hurts ... It hurts ..."
Fatal Frame is a wonderful game that takes quite a lot of courage to play. You seriously do not know how scary this game is, and if you'll be able to handle it. Only buy it if you can stand in a pitch black haunted house screaming satanic verses in real life. It's a great game, but it makes most gamers run home crying to their mommy. Intense, but a definite classic. Buy it if your tough. | video-games_xbox |
A Different Kind of Fun. My best kill on Ghost Recon ?
Having hostiles taken out by a group I set up to "watch our backs."
Fans of the series will be glad to hear that this iteration is far closer to the original game than the disappointing Xbox sequels. Gamers who love the run & gun, grenade stick action of Halo and Gears will probably find it dry and overly intricate. The satisfaction is far more intellectual than visceral.
As a Ghost, you'll often be taking out targets from such a distance, it would be difficult to tell if you were even landing shots were it not for the HUD's information. The developer has gone in the opposite direction of the aforementioned competition by providing fewer, though far deadlier enemies than before. The grab cover mechanic (very similar to R.S.- Vegas) is essential in nearly every encounter, and the painfully slow moving reticle means that you've got to carefully and purposefully set up positioning. One car, one building corner, one street at a time. Thankfully, squad AI is probably the sharpest seen in any game so far. Your squad mates smartly set themselves up where ordered and return fire in a meaningful fashion; it's even possible to direct your sniper to neutralize particular enemies from afar.
But the Ghosts aren't completely on their own. As Mitchell, the player is often granted control/direction of various support entities. While frustration can ensue toggling between the single command interface (The old "One Button to Rule Them All" problem), support is generally useful, and not even a necessity in most mission legs. Advancing on the battlefield is almost completely at the player's discretion. (And I found it fun and practical to spot enemies in advance using the small U.F.O. - like UAV.) Some good old fashioned helicopter rail shooting rounds out the mixed bag of tech-heavy combat sequences.
The verdict ?
Depends on who you are.
First Person Shooter junkies might find the clips too small, responsibilities too many and the emphasis on defense constraining. There's no reward for being quicker on the draw, and steep penalties for moving too fast. On the other hand, if you're looking for tactical emphasis and a more realistic take on military simulation, this game trumps C.O.D. 4 in that department. It's a different kind of fun - not for everyone, but subtly enjoyable in its own ways. As another reviewer recommended: Buy at a lowered price and enjoy. | video-games_xbox |
False advertising, game doesn't live up to hype AT ALL. Why this game got so many stars is beyond me. I was looking forward to this game for over a year. The idea that I was going to watch my character grow up sounded so unique. Scars? You mean I would actually see scars from my battles? Wow!
First obvious beef. If this is all about me, my choices, my growing up...why can't I have the choice of being a female? Nope, gotta be a guy. Gee, marriage is gonna be a blast *rolls eyes* I get to marry a woman. That may be fine for some but I am a woman who would like to marry a man thanks. This should be your first hint at the extreme limits of this game.
Well here's how it really goes...childhoood lasted all of 10 minutes, maybe 15 at best. I was a certain age entering the game and I was that specific child age of maybe 9 years old, for the whole 15 minutes...cut scene...you wake up, start training for 10 minutes...cut scene...wake up...you are a teenager of maybe 16. You do training,10, maybe 20 minutes later...cut scene...you are now a young adult and I have a SCAR on your face. Back up Jack...where is the growth I was promised? I thought I would watch my character grow up gradually...not poof into 3 specific age stages in less than an hour. Utterly dissappointed in that. How the heck did I get the scar? I was in training the whole time and never got a notice or visual hint of receiving a wound that would leave such a scar. Talk about cookie cutter production there. There was very little content to do for those way to quick child years. No sense of pride in my so called battle scar because I don't even know how I got it.
I have to ask, what was the point of being a child at all when it barely existed. That was such a main selling point in there advertising. Ooooo scars...gee...thanks for slapping on the face marring that obviously comes standard for everyone and wasn't unique to anything I did. These attributes seemed to be added more like an afterthought so they could really overhype them for the games release.
The rest of my complaints are well voiced in other reviews here. Linear gameplay. Overhyped. Graphics were aweful. I felt like a wooden puppet with a huge head in a wooden puppet world. I could barely stand to look at myself. Pointless gameplay.
I am not even going to finish this game. I can't stand it. I am taking it back so I can at least get some turn in credit. Otherwise I would throw it in the trash.
As a side note. I am 34 years old and have been playing RPGs on both console and PC avidly for at least 10 years...not to mention casual gaming prior. | video-games_xbox |
Great Headset with One Caveat. Where to start? Well, I should probably start by stating that I am in no way an audiophile. But that doesn't mean I can't appreciate quality when it comes my way, like a patron at a five star restaurant. I should also state that my reference point for the Astro A40s are the Polk Melee/4Shot, which are a great pair of headphones in their own right (also in a different price bracket). In this review, I'm going to explain why you should buy this headset and explain how you should buy them. You see, while A40 will definitely take your gaming experience up a notch, it is limited by the fact that they function wirelessly.
Hang on, wireless? But it comes with its own Xbox One chat adaptor that plugs right into the controller! Yes, you're absolutely right. There in lies the problem. These bad boys pack a wallop, or at least potentially do. As mentioned, I was gaming using a pair of Polk Melee/4Shot before I switched to the Astros A40. They sound pretty much the same and they shouldn't for a couple of reasons. One reason (the less convincing reason) is price. You can catch the Polk 4shot/Melees for $100- $150, while the A40s go for $200. One would expect the extra $50 buys them some extra audio quality. The second reason (the real reason) is because they sound different once I've plugged them directly into my Xbox One. Plot twist!
To capture all bassy and crispy clear goodness the A40s have to offer, you would have to plug it directly to the source of the audio. The water has to come from a well. Don't get me wrong, this is not ( I repeat, NOT) a product defect. Audio fidelity is lost once the signal is transmitted wirelessly between the Xbox One controller and the Xbox One. It pains me to say it, but the Mixamp M80 is little more than an improved chat adaptor; which still is a massive functional improvement over Microsoft's chat adaptor, might I add. This isn't to say that the headphones are going to sound like turd. They don't, and they won't. But you wouldn't necessarily using them to their potential, which presents a problem.
Why pay the premium price when you can get the same audio quality for less? Seriously, the Polk4shot/Melee were sixty bucks for Black Friday. The reality is: the A40s cost more then $200. If you're truly looking to step up your audio experience and embrace what these sexy cans have to offer, you're going to have to invest in a sound card which will allow you to make direct use of that Dolby Digital inside your Xbox.
My recommendation? Plunk down for either a Turtle Beach DSS2 (my choice) or a Mixamp Pro by Astro. Both will turn your stereo headset into a surround sound experience. Principle difference between the two is chat functionality. If you all you're looking for is great audio, than get the DSS2. But if you're going want both audio and chat, look towards the Mixamp Pro. Granted, they aren't cheap, but they will unlock the sound quality the Astro A40s have to offer. My recommendation is the Mixamp Pro, and you're probably better off looking at Ebay for a used one.
Bottom line: these are a serious set of gaming headphones and they offer a crazy immersive experience, more so than my Polk Melee/4Shot could offer I'd stay away from M80 + A40 bundle and (per my recommendation) look for a A40 + Mixamp Pro bundle, because (as mentioned before) the M80 is little more than an improved chat adaptor. In addition, you'll want a brand new bonafide Microsoft Xbox One chat adaptor to connect to the Mixamp Pro. You may be concerned that there isn't an "Xbox One" version of the bundle. That's because there isn't an "Xbox One" A40. The principle difference, I suspect is the M80, which allows you to plug the A40s into the Xbox One controller without trouble. Granted, I don't work for Astro, so there may be something I'm missing. Personally, I wish I had known all this information prior to my purchase, so do with it what you will. In the mean time, anyone interested in purchasing a pair of Polk Melee/4Shot headphones? | video-games_xbox |
Mass excelence. In short, I loved it.
One of the, if not THE inspiring cinematic game experiences of all time.
First, it's been a while since I played "Mass Effect 2" but this version seems even more cinematic.
I remember from the late 90's people taking about incorporating more of an "interactive story", talk of movie like like experience, etc. There has certainly been a lot of moments in games since then had some essence of these but I really felt for the first prominent time that ME3 has finally captured this.
The story telling part so good I felt lost in it for moments at the time.. I felt like I was part of a very compelling movie.
From the beginning I loved it's captivating flow.
And in this version of the series they have seemed to have removed yet more of what I felt was monotony. For example you no longer have to mine for resources (some times rare) to do upgrades.
It was IMHO kind of a fun feature anyhow but made even better having turned more into an exploratory element.
Although the game not with out it's faults for the genre that it is.
While playing I some times yearned for a more "sandbox" style.
I had these: "Humm I wonder what is up there?", "I want to jump over this but I can't!" - sort of feelings for freedom.
But again this is part of these genre/style that just takes a little getting used to; in particular if you have been playing more open sandbox style games recently.
I won't give any spoilers here (like some other reviewers seem apt to do), but I did briefly read some reviews and, or, heard from friends in particular about the ending(s).
I for one had no problem with it. It all made sense and was fitting to me.
Again apropos in the cinematic context, do all movies need to have an ending that is expected/likeable.
And are we sure this is really the end? We've all seen weirder things and probably accepted them openly.
For example Spock's resurrection in "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock". And yea I know poor Shepard has been resurrected once already.
Who knows, maybe there will be yet be a squeal or a perhaps a prequel.. | video-games_xbox |
Doesn't Reinvent the Wheel, Just Tightens the Spokes. When Bioshock 2 was in development, I heard it would have you playing as a big daddy and you would have to protect the little sisters while they harvested adam. This sounds like an entire game of the proving grounds level of Bioshock, which I absolutely hated, so I feared they would ruin B2. As it turns out, my fears were unfounded as this big daddy doesn't suffer from the obscured vision of the suit in Bioshock, and you only harvest adam 2 or 3 times a level. The game is set in new areas of Rapture and features the familiar splicers, art deco stylings, and period music like the first game. In addition to the old splicers, they have added the alpha big daddy, brute splicer and the big sister to make the battles more of a challenge. This game isn't as dark as the first game, and doesn't have as much of the survival horror vibe, but they turned up the FPS action a few notches. When you do enter a dark area, a headlamp on your suit automatically snaps on so you don't have to fumble around in the dark like the first game.
While the story in Bioshock felt like "shock and awe", this installment is more of an allegorical child custody battle between Sofia Lamb and Delta. It plays more on the emotional elements rather than gut punching you with another plot twist like the first game. It may not be on the level of B1, but it's still alot more story than most games out there and deals with the father/daughter bond and people seeking redemption. The audio diaries return to help flesh out backstory and side plots.
The gameplay is the biggest area of improvement as they fixed a few of the flaws in the first game. The dual wield is a vast improvement over the first. Your Eve auto refills this time around, and in order to manually refill, you push the right bumper in addition to the X button. I must've wasted a couple dozen Eve hypos in the first game by hitting the X button to hack a turret, and end up injecting Eve instead. The research camera is now a video camera, so you just start recording and it automatically switches you to your last weapon and a counter comes up to show how much you are scoring with your attacks. There is a research section in the menu that shows how far you have progressed, and what the ultimate rewards in damage bonuses and tonics will be. This actually made research fun and is a good way to get tonics without spending Adam. One thing that I do miss from the first game is the U-Invent stations where you could make ammo and auto hack tools from misc. items.
I've played this game 7 times now, and replayed B1 twice for comparison. This game plays smoother and feels about the same length. I'm sure I'm getting 10-12 hours out of it, but I hack everything and flush all the toilets. :) I have only had one serious glitch where one of the "Eyes without a face" flashbacks started to play and hung up, and my weapon hand disappeared. I had to reload the autosave. A couple times I had Bots stick in midair and had to fling a corpse into them to get them moving again. Natural camouflage seems kind of spotty too. I also had an audio diary freeze up near the end of one game, which also knocked out the radio, but none of the intercom or other game sounds. One real glitch in 7 playthroughs is pretty good I guess.
This game gets belittled for not having a plot twist, but let's face it, a twist is only a twist once, and any replay value after that initial surprise has to come from the rest of the gameplay. If all it took to guarantee success was a good plot twist, then M. Night Shamalamadingdong wouldn't be guilty of foisting so many crapfests on the public. The developers gave us more of what we loved about Rapture and tightened up the mechanics. There are new areas to explore and creatures to fight, and we get to be a Big Daddy. There is nothing like having a lead head splicer flapping his yapper as he empties his tommy gun into your backside, only to have you silence his pie hole permanently with a brutal drill dash. Good times.
I only play single player campaigns, so I can't comment on the multiplayer. | video-games_xbox |
Very fun; best GR. Note: this review is for single-player only (as I do not have live connected yet).
Gameplay: Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter has some of the best gameplay I have encountered. The controls are very easy to pick up on and very intuitive, even the command structure for your squad and support elements, which cover from armored personnel carries, Bradley fighting vehicles, Abrams tanks, Blackhawk helicopters, Apache attack helicopters and a support drone, which allows you to receive advanced intel on locations. The new cover system is great. You can go against the wall and when you get around a corner you peak around to see what's around the corner without exposing much of yourself. The only real complaint I have is that you're squad AI isn't all that smart all the time, sometimes they can do something stupid like run around a corner without seeing what's around it, and the result of that is that you'll have to medic him. There are some glitches in the game, too, such as looking like you're flying when crawling prone up a hill, but these glitches and problems don't happen all that much so it's not that big of a deal.
Graphics: The graphics are some of the best I've seen ever. The character models look superb, the Ghosts as well as the rebels, and they all have very realistic movements. The vehicles, that you command, not fully control like Battlefield, are also beautiful and pretty close to the real thing. The urban environment also looks great, very realistic, makes you feel like you are in Mexico City. The lighting is also worth mentioning, as it gives a feeling of being in a near-equatorial environment, by having blinding sunlight and high contrasted shadows.
Sound: The sound is also very good. The weapons all sound different and like how they should. The combined sounds of the weapons, yours and the enemies, combined with the support elements, make for a very great and immersive feel, especially for those that have surround sound.
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter is a great addition to an already great series and is a must-have for those who already love Ghost Recon and/or modern war games, especially the tactical kind. For those who don't care for this genre or series, rent it; at least give it a try. | video-games_xbox |
Nothing but repetition. I was very excited to play this game at first. I loved Max Payne and this game looked like Max Payne with so much more and set in a universe everyone could love. However, once you get over the "gimmicky" aspect of bullet time (in this game called "focus") the game leaves much to be desired. While it is like Max Payne in the "run and gun" aspect the developers forgot that there has to be actual gameplay to back up your "new" whizz-bang technology feature. Hand-to-hand fighting is a nice touch, though it is nothing more than hitting punch and kick a lot.
The controls are absolutely horrid. You can not specify your own set of controls. This wouldn't be such a problem if the 3 options they give you for control schemes weren't so poor. In any setup I tried to use it was hard to control shooting and focus at the same time, especially while trying to snipe.
The level design is pretty atrocious too, merely exacerbating the poor control scheme. I don't know how many times I accidentally fell off a ledge because I couldn't look where I was going (you can't look up or down without going into stationary first person mode) or fell off while I was in a hand-to-hand combo. The levels themselves are merely a small room with 4 guys leading to a bigger room with 6 guys. Repeat that process about a BILLION times and you'll eventaully get to the *biggest* room with *the* guy. Yay!
Any sort of driving mission or gunning mission should simply be ignored. While gunning I just kept my cursor at one point in the screen and held down the trigger. Sometimes I would fail through no fault of my own but rather the poor AI driving the car. Driving missions feel like you're in control of a soapbox racer or something. It ends up being a level where you just keep attempting until you finally pass.
There are many more problems that I would love to exand upon but I think those are the main ones. All its problems coupled with extremely short gameplay leads this to be one of the most disappointing games I've played in a long time. It will leave you frustrated and unfulfilled. The FMV sequences (which most of the time are merely variations scenes you've seen in the 2nd movie) are not enough to even make me consider purchasing this game in passing. Go get Max Payne, loads more fun and style all for about $... | video-games_xbox |
Ultimately feels like a cheap 3rd party controller. For a controller with an MSRP higher than a standard Microsoft controller, you would think you would get something at least the same quality, but unfortunately this controller feels quite cheap and while it does a few things right, it gets most of them wrong.
First off, this is a wired controller. I personally don't mind about this since you don't have to worry about batteries dying on you. The cord is braided and long enough to play from several feet away so this wasn't an issue to me. As a side effect, it seemed like the rumble feature was stronger, since it doesnt have to worry about battery life and the rumble draining it.
Going with the weight of the controller, it feels a little too light and flimsy. The plastic shell feels kind of cheap, though the rubberized coating is a nice touch. Its about the same size as a Microsoft controller, though less rounded with more straight edges. It felt roughly the same in my hands though.
The analog sticks on the tournament edition are adjustable which let you twist the sticks to adjust the tension. A good idea in theory, but executed poorly in this case. When tightened the movement just doesnt feel right and is uneven where you have to apply more pressure the further you push the stick. It just makes the analog sticks feel worn out and old doing this. However, when loosened all the way, the sticks did feel fine so I just left it at this setting.
The 2nd feature of the tournament edition which the standard didn't have, was the light up A B X Y buttons. It seemed like a nice feature until you realize that its very distracting when you're playing in a dark room and the buttons are very bright. Its like going to a movie theater and having someone whose got their cellphone on a few rows ahead of you. It just takes your attention away from the screen where it should be. The buttons themselves get some getting used to. They're a lot lower than the standard controllers buttons and instead of having to push down on them until the rubber part clicks in, its instead the same as a mouse button and takes little effort to push down until it clicks in. I guess its more of a preference of which style you prefer.
The triggers seemed ok for the most part, although I did not like the way they were angled. It would have been more ergonomic to angle them further down so when you pull the triggers, it pulls in horizontally toward you, instead of vertically with the controller. The LB and RB buttons are different on this controller, and it takes more pressure to push down on them than the standard controller. They felt a bit cheap. The interesting thing is that the LB and RB buttons are behind the programmable buttons which to me was a bit confusing, so instead I just mapped those two buttons to the LB and RB functions, so I have two buttons that do the same thing.
The start and back buttons are poorly place on the bottom of the controller and you have to reach fairly far to get to them. Theyre flush with the shell so its a little difficult hitting the button sometimes.
The DPAD, unfortunately, is the absolute worst part of this controller. The way this controller was designed apparently, was to only play games that use the thumb sticks to move around and use the DPAD just for action buttons like changing your weapon and things like that. The DPAD consists of four separate buttons that are raised up very high. If you want to play a side-scroller or fighting game with this controller, you will have A LOT of difficulty doing so. The DPAD was just a horrible idea. Even as action buttons, the standard DPAD on the Microsoft controller does a better job.
In all, I suggest trying this controller out first if possible before buying it. The two features of the tournament edition- adjustable sticks and light up buttons, are not worth the extra money. This just feels like a cheap cash in, and Ive read a lot of complaints of the controller failing after a few months and Razers support being awful. At its price point and with all its shortcomings, I just cant recommend this controller. 2/5
Edit- two days later the spring broke in the right analog stick. Returned it through amazon. Dont waste your money on this. | video-games_xbox |
Know what you're buying. And Why. First off, there seem to be a lot of reviews complaining about a lack of single player. This is something that we all were made aware of when the reveal was made. Here is what the game REALLY is:
-First Person Shooter (FPS) like Call of Duty, but on crack
-Multiplayer only (no split-screen, no campaign, no co-op)
-A combination of old and new, for a perfect FPS experience.
There have been lots of random complaints. I'll address those here:
720p Only/Poor Framerate
Yes. It is 720p only on the Xbox One. Is that the best? No. However, the people that I hear complaining about graphics seem to be missing the point of Titanfall. The game was never designed to blow graphics out of the water, or to redefine a genera, it was made to be the single best FPS multiplier of all time. The best games of our history don't need the graphics, because the game itself is good enough. Did they achieve that? Well that's up to each of you. Personally not my favorite game, but definitely in the top 3.
No Single Player
We have known about this since day one. Do your research before buying a game. Or anything for that matter.
No PS4
Wa. Get over it. It doesn't have anything to do with the quality of the game, just how much Microsoft thought it was worth to keep it exclusive.
No Co-op/Slit Screen
THIS IS WHY IT DID NOT GET 5 stars. Granted, it is not a deal breaker. The game is great, but for a large portion of us that liked to play split screen Zombies, Survival or Extinction? Now we are SOL. This is really the only drawback I see.
Campaign is short/terrible
I am inclined to agree. I don't see the point in the campaign. The story is so hard to follow while you are dealing with non-stop action from Titans and Pilots, so at the end of a level, it leaves you saying, "What happened?" It seems it was added to give the whiners something to play, but I just stick to Classic Multiplayer.
FINAL OPINION
This game created a brand-new world for FPS that seamlessly integrated Titans and Pilots. The bots added into the game do little but distract the player, but they make the game feel more like all-out-war. I wish the battles could feature more players and less bots, but the game-play is a win either way. This game will keep you playing it, just like CoD and BF did before it. | video-games_xbox |
Great. Play Skyrim = disappointing graphics. My original xBox died, so I came on Amazon to replace. I read everything carefully, planned to get a memory stick with this box, and expected this to work. I've had nothing but issues. It didn't work with my HDTV. I guess because I have a cheap, off brand TV, so I ordered the HDMI cable and hooked it up to my PC. Then I got picture but no sound, so I went to radio shack and bought an adapter so I could hook it up (using the AV cable do now I have to use two different cables) and I finally have both picture and sound! Great. Play Skyrim = disappointing graphics, slow, glitchy. Runs better on my PC. Try one of my original xbox games and it won't play. I get an error message that it won't play without an xbox hard drive. What!? No where in my research, no where, is this mentioned. The Amazon page itself says it's backwards compatible!! Everywhere I looked said some xbox original games are backwards compatible with xbox 360 (there are lists). What a waste of time and money. Seriously disappointed. The main reason I bought it was to play my original xbox games and a few new 360 that I was interested in. I'm not even sure I can return at this point. Really be aware of what you are buying. However much research you do, do more.
UPDATE: I'm still trying to get this thing to work. I ordered a hard drive on Amazon that said it was compatible with this make/model. I had to plug in 3 times, do a restart and force an update, but I finally got the 360 E to recognize the inserted hard drive. However, it STILL won't play xbox original games as advertised! The full 250gb hard drive is required, which means another $60 on top of what I paid for the 4gb and smaller hard drive. Don't waste your time or money on this thing. Buy a 360 with a 250gb hard drive and be done with it.
UPDATE: Now, to add insult to injury, I can't play Dragon Age Inquisition on the 4gb, even with the memory stick. It won't install. You have to have a 360 partitioned harddrive, same as the original xbox games issue I had. I can't play original xbox games and now I can't play new xbox 360 games. No where on the Dragon Age Inquisition page did it say it wouldn't install to a memory stick. What good is this 4gb? It's a complete waste of time and money as far as I can tell. Just a scam to get you to pay more for the hard drive when you can't play anything. Get the 250gb 360 and don't even bother with this. Seriously, what a scam. | video-games_xbox |
A brilliant, but flawed, game that requires an acquired taste. First and foremost, Dead Rising is truly not a game for the casual player, as the talk of it being "GTA with zombies" is misleading. Sure, you're able to go off, grab a chainsaw and mow down the undead to your heart's desire, but to do so would be missing the overall point. In reality, Dead Rising is a title for only the hardcore, as its demanding mission structure, stressful time constraints and limiting save system will put off only the most determined.
You play as Frank West, a photojournalist on the hunt for his next big scoop, who arrives in Wilamette, Colorado to find the town overrun with zombies. Frank eventually ends up in the huge shopping mall with 72 in-game hours (7.2 real-time hours) to find out what caused the zombie outbreak. Frank's quest for the truth constitutes the main storyline, broken up into multipart missions known as Cases which are triggered by certain times/events in the game world. If you miss just one part of a Case, however, you miss the chance to continue through the storyline as the rest of the Cases are nullified and cannot be activated. In addition to the main Cases, there are numerous side missions you can complete, each with specifically allotted time constraints. These side missions almost always entail escorting survivors back to the security room (the game's one true safe haven). Unfortunately, the survivor A.I. is worse than one of the shuffling zombies, as they'll usually refuse to budge or they'll simply run straight into danger. Attempting to juggle the side missions with the main story Cases, along with managing your limited inventory and dealing with several thousand zombies, is what gives the game its unique, stress-fueled flavor. Also, the save system only allows for one save slot, and you can only save your progress at an in-game restroom.
In terms of story, Dead Rising is standard B-horror grade stuff. I've never seen George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead, but I've heard enough comparisons of it to this game to know Dead Rising isn't 100% original. Frank is not the most likable protagonist, and none of the other characters are particularly interesting, either. The dialogue is often awkward and strangely worded. It doesn't help that the subtitles frequently contain the most elementary errors (Improper use of "they're/there/their?" Seriously?). Yet, the story's entertaining enough to keep you playing with a few major twists involved.
As for the graphics, criticisms about how the game looks "last-gen" are quite unwarranted. The game looks decent enough, but it's definitely not the best looking of this generation. However, this is only because the game is rendering dozens, and at times, hundreds, of zombies at once. To see this many models generated at once is unprecedented, and few other games have since accomplished the same feat.
Despite everything, the game is better than the sum of its parts. Dead Rising is flawed; no question about it. Yet, it is these mistakes and nuances that give the game its personality. Each one of the design flaws (the save system, poor A.I.) makes the game all that more interesting. Once you get used to the flaws and take the game for what it is, you're in for one of the most rewarding gaming experiences of this generation. Otherwise, you might break a few controllers out of frustration in the process. | video-games_xbox |
Wonderful change of pace. There are many games today that all fall in line a base set of expectations. Catherine is different from everything else and that's a very good thing. Not to mention it seriously likes to mess your mind. In a good way of course.
STORY:
The baseline is this. Random men are dying in their beds and no one has a clue how to stop it, thus fear spreads through the populace. Meanwhile Our 30 year old protagonist Vincent Brooks spends his days toiling in the tech industry and his evenings getting blasted with his friends at a local bar. He also has a girlfriend of several years, a nagging-but-caring woman named Katherine. She has been pushing Vincent as of late to take their relationship to the next level, prodding him to solidify their bond. But Vincent's unsure of what he wants to do. One night while he drinks in the bar alone he meets a younger lass by the name of Catherine and from there everything spirals out of control leaving complications with his real life and nightmares that threaten to end him every night.
The story is intriguing and in my opinion it's one of the best in a good while. You keep guessing who's guilty and whats what the entire time. I personally was never right in any of my assumptions.
GAMEPLAY:
Catherine's main gameplay consists of block puzzles. You must try to position them in a way that will get to the top of the tower while each layer of blocks slowly falls to oblivion from the bottom up. It mixes it up with different block types, unbelievable positioning, and boss battles (Awesome boss battles). After you complete a tower of blocks you get put in a break area called the landing. Here you can talk to people and when ready, proceed to the next area but not before your asked a question. What you answer will define your morality meter that helps to determine what ending you will get and what Vincent thinks throughout the game. The meter isn't really GOOD vs EVIL as Vincent is a nice guy all around, it's actually more CHAOS vs LAW. Chaos being Freedom and excitement while Law being dedication and Strictness. Once the question is answered it's the next puzzle for you!
How hard the puzzles are of course depends on the difficulty you choose. There's super easy (Hidden, I'll explain later), Easy, Normal, and Hard. On the easy modes you are able to get base achievements but are unable to unlock other game modes like couch co-op or the Babel tower (Challenge mode). Those are reserved for getting gold ratings (statues) on normal and above. There are many tutorials and tips but make no mistake some people won't be able to get anywhere on normal and easy will be a huge challenge. The developers saw this and implemented a secret easy mode for those of you who are at their wits end. At the main title screen hold the select button until everything flashes white. Then start a game on easy. Don't expect any good scores for doing this. But it makes things easy enough so my friends and family could play it while I go crazy on normal (Can't even fathom touching hard). It's also good if you wanna just do a speed run to see the stories multiple endings.
So at night you have Nightmares of block puzzles but what about day? During the day (after you pass through the cutscenes) your put in a bar called the Stray Sheep. Here you can listen to music, Play the Rapunzel game which is basically block puzzle practice, Drink (which increases your speed in the dream) and talk to the people in the bar (you can also answer texts and questions which effect the CHAOS/LAW meter.) Talking to people is its own sidequest because your fellow patrons will also appear in the nightmares. Encouraging or ignoring them decides whether they live or not.
ENDING COMMENTS:
Give this game a chance. Some gamers might be put off by the difficulty but for others it will be a major plus. The story is excellent and I at least believe it to be worth your time. | video-games_xbox |
Lackluster Build Quality and Terrible PC Compatability. When I set out researching headphones, I intended to purchase a set that was wireless, compatible with both my Xbox 360, and my PC, and has high audio quality. I thought this was that set. I was sadly disappointed.
Setup:
Get everything hooked up and pairing the base station to the headphones is simple ... when it works. The product provides precious little feedback to the user that they are connected. The base station has no built in test tone that it can transmit, or any sort of legit LED indicator that clearly explains things. The only reliable way to verify a connection is having something playing.
Sound Quality:
Initially the audio quality was passable, but never impressive. Deep bass notes from explosions came out distorted at higher volumes. These are gaming headphones. How on earth was that not anticipated?
The "surround sound" was mediocre at best. I have set of wired Sennheisers that do a vastly superior job of rendering just about everything. They are also quite a bit less expensive.
Build Quality:
These look nice, but that's all. My first set died after about 4 months of light use. They simply stopped transmitting sound.
Cross Platform Compatibility:
These are not meaningfully compatible with a PC. I tried to use them with my PC's normal headphone jack, and what I got was never louder than a whisper. I'm told people attain decent quality using the TOSLink cable, but if you do this you can't use the microphone on the set, so why bother?
Bottom Line:
If you really MUST get a high quality set of gaming cans with a mic, look into the Astro A40s. They're slightly more expensive, but you'll get some solid headphones out of them that will be useful in a variety of contexts. From what I can tell, these only perform up to their very modest potential when paired with an Xbox, and if all you need is an Xbox rig, get something from Turtle Beach for far, far less.
This whole debacle has left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I'll think twice about buying anything else that Razer makes. | video-games_xbox |
A Breakthrough in "Accessible" Game Design. There are two common methods of teaching new players how to play a game within the industry. One approach is where no significant resources are put into teaching at all. It is assumed that the player already has prior experience with a game of this type. The other is where the game patronizingly wrestles control away from a player to cover the most basic of information, and yet stunningly somehow still manages to gloss over the most vital, complex components of the game. Both approaches are frustrating and limit the broad appeal a title could possess if more time and energy were put into finding an elegant means of showing new players the ropes.
The games most impressive element is how much care and attention went into ensuring that anyone could pick up and play the game, no matter their level of expertise. The games Rewind function is a stroke of genius, allowing the player to undo pivotal mistakes during a race as many times as they wish. The game provides a variety of optional Assist features that help players perform certain actions such as braking at high speeds. The single most significant feature of the game is the Suggested Line, a feature which paints a colored path along the entirety of the track. This line shows the player the optimal way to progress through a track, as well as teaching the player the best timing to perform actions like slowing down during a tight turn.
These features combine to form an elegant method of encouraging the player to become better at the game in an active way while never taking control away from the player to teach an important lesson. In fact, elegant is the one word which most aptly describes Forza 3. It is one of the most well-designed and accessible games ever made, able to appeal both to gamers who have never tried a racing game in their life and to those who are madly in love with the automotive industry and the genre. Its presentation, realism, and fetishistic attention to detail easily compete with or surpass the legendary Gran Turismo series, and the game provides an intense challenge for those who would seek it.
One of the biggest challenges that developers face in the industry today is the large "barrier of entry" that games have when compared to other mediums. Control schemes, interfaces, and methods of teaching differ with every game, and there are few universally accepted "standards" within the medium. Although this is a problem that will not soon be solved it is likely that if all games were as elegant and thoughtful in their approach to teaching and accessibility as Forza 3 is, the medium would have a far broader appeal than we might possibly imagine. | video-games_xbox |
Great, but gets dull. Darkness can take on many different forms, weather it be in reality the darkness that can consume you or the psychological take that Alan Wake puts on it. Alan Wake is not your badass dude who is used to things attacking him, or him even using a gun. - Alan Wake is a writer from New York,who goes on vacation with his wife to get away and relax, but some weird stuff starts to happen. He wakes up a week after he arrives, in his crashed car, in the middle of he woods. He soon finds the cover page to a manuscript that seems to be written by him but he has no recollection of writing it at all, as well as the manuscript he finds a flashlight and gun.-
That's when the action starts you realize that you have to hold the flashlight on these things that are attacking you, the game calls them taken, until they burst with light then you fill them full of lead, this is good way to make the games shooting feel different and at some times scarier. The shooting feels fine l, the problem with it is that there is a lot of it and it all feels the same, there are different weapons like a shotgun, a hunting rifle, you even find some more unconventional weapons like flashbangs and flares. There isn't very much verity to the enemies other than they get bigger and some of them start to charge. I don't care how cool it sounds, but shooting a lumberjack made of darkness very much so does get boring. they do start to throw in objects that start to attack you, like straight from a Stephen King novel. actually they reference him when this starts to happen.
The game is in a episodic format, but not like you would think you don't buy the game piece meal; telltale style, but you get all the episodes they just pace it like a television show. Which lets them do a lot of cool stuff with how they end each episode with just a bang that really just want to make you keep going. each episode takes about 2 hours there are 6 episodes so do the math. Remedy knows how to really flesh out a world feel like there is stuff just aways happening, they make it feel really lived in. Around the world you'll find these radios and TVs. each radio has a segment from this late night radio host you meet very early in the game. Who takes calls from the people of Bright Falls, and they all seem to be talking about stuff that you did or had some part in, and the TVs have this great TVs call Nightsprings which is a really good rip off of The Twilight Zone, but some of them have these videos of you freaking out in the cabin you were staying.
This all comes together to make a really store that has some neat twist and turns through out it, the combat might get dull about half way through, because they don't really introduce anything new, you have basically seen all the enemies and fought them many times at that point. I still really liked that writing and the whole world they introduce you into. | video-games_xbox |
The most epic RPG. I reviewed this product at the beginning of the year and since then my thoughts about ME have drastically changed. This game is not only an RPG, but a shooter as well albeit not your typical one. At first, all of the game's element felt intimidating and confusing as I barely play RPGs so managing all my skills and powers didn't come naturally to me. Also the shooting in ME is not like most other games (i.e. Halo, Gears of War, Call of Duty) in which you can just more or less go all out and shoot like a maniac. It's a little bit more tactical as it is more fun when you mix and match you powers in combat. Once you get used to the controls, the flow of the game becomes much smoother.
That's where the story of the ME takes center stage. It's written in such a way that it immerses you into what's happening with you and the other characters. Although you can make choices in the game, it never really drastically changes the course of the main story although it does impact the game in some ways. It's not like this bother me much at all as the story is incredibly great. Which brings me to my next point, although ME is set up to be a trilogy, this game ends without leaving you hanging. When I finished I understood what had happened and wasn't left wondering much. It hints at future games, but not in the way other games like Halo 2 blatantly do.
Aside from the main story there numerous side quests that can be done. I'm not going to go into detail about them as they were not very interesting. The way they play out becomes tiring after the fifth missions you do, but if it's a nice option for those who want to add more gameplay hours or just want to maximize their skills. However, don't be expecting to be gathering any significant loot from these missions.
For those looking for a rich and complex narrative, characters, and gameplay Mass Effect is definitely a game you should add to your catalog. | video-games_xbox |
Disney Fun, but no classics this time. <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Just-Dance-Disney-Party/dp/B0088I8M0Q/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Just Dance Disney Party</a> was one of my girls' favorite games on our Xbox 360, and probably the one we missed the most when we upgraded to Xbox One. Fortunately it was (mostly) worth the wait.
The <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Kinect-2-for-Xbox-One/dp/B00NMST9G8/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Kinect 2 for Xbox One</a> is a much more responsive piece of hardware. While the old Kinect struggled to see kids (especially those under 8yo, for whom it was not rated), the new Kinect easily handles my 5yo and her 4yo cousin. It's both more responsive and more forgiving, which makes this a much more fun family game.
Curiously, though, while the old game had an even mix of popular Disney Channel hits and movie classics, Disney Party 2 is exclusively Disney Channel faves (you can get "Let it Go" on <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Just-Dance-2015/dp/B00KTNU40E/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Just Dance 2015</a>). So while the little ones will have a blast dancing, they may not be as familiar with all the songs. Hopefully they'll have a classic pack DLC soon?
Here's the launch lineup:
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Austin-Allie/dp/B00SB8OUY0/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Austin & Allie</a>: "A Billion Hits", "Can You Feel It", "Chasin' the Beat of My Heart", "You & Me"
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Descendants/dp/B00YO1TOYO/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Descendants</a>: "Be Our Guest", "Did I Mention", "Evil Like Me", "Rotten to the Core", "Set It Off"
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Liv-Maddie/dp/B01596D8UI/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Liv & Maddie</a>: "What a Girl Is", "You, Me, and the Beat", "Better in Stereo"
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Teen-Beach-2/dp/B010Q5QADY/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Teen Beach 2</a>: "Fallin for Ya", "Gotta Be Me", "Right Where I Want to Be", "Twist Your Frown Upside Down"
Other: "Take on the World" (<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Girl-Meets-World/dp/B015GXOTV6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Girl Meets World</a>), "You Had Me at Hello" (<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Girl-vs-Monster/dp/B00DTP3MZI/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Girl vs Monster</a>), "Time of Our Lives" (<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/I-Didn-t-Do-It/dp/B011A4FOBY/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">I Didn't Do It</a>), "Keep it Undercover" (<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/K-C-Undercover/dp/B010MQYLHE/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">K.C. Undercover</a>), "Cruisin for a Bruisin" (Teen Beach Movie), "Too Much" (<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Zapped/dp/B00MKKCVGO/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Zapped</a>) | video-games_xbox |
A Refreshing Change. In a world of Halo clones and the unending Call of Duty series, it's nice to see a game that does something different. Legendary offers a new take on old mythology and, interestingly, applies a little bit of science to the creatures described in such old tales. While it may not redefine the first person shooter genre, it gives it a twist. Bascially, an art thief is hired by a mysterious individual and is tricked into opening Pandora's Box, unleashing all manner of beasts on the world. You play as that art thief as he is swept up in a war dating back thousands of years.
Simply put, this game is fun and unique. I never thought I'd play a game where I'd be pumping bullets from a light machine gun into a snarling werewolf, or blasting griffins out of the sky with a missile launcher... Or actually trying to get a giant golem to step on me. It can be a bit frustrating at times, what with the occassional swarm of monsters assaulting you, but what's a game without a little challenge now and then? The health mechanic isn't the "wait and recharge" kind that is oh-so-common these days (even Deus Ex is doing it now). Instead, you gather energy from fallen monsters and various little clouds around the levels and then use it to regenerate. The ending was, sadly, a bit of a let-down for me, though they may have intended a sequel (it certainly felt like it). The overall gameplay, though, more than makes up for it, and I was immediately wanting to beat it a second time.
The graphics are on par for the day, and the scenery looks great. So do the creatures, for that matter, from griffins to ghosts to mighty tentacled monstrosities. This isn't a game where everything looks huge, thick, and strangely shiny, like so many games nowadays. The sound effects are very good as well, and add a lot to the game. The music, while simple, has a grungy and modern edge to it, and creates a heavy atmosphere for the action.
The default control layout does feel a little odd, but there are many other layouts to choose from, so I wouldn't count that as much of an issue. There are some clipping issues, and a few odd little glitches here and there, but nothing major I've discovered. Some people might take issue with the lack of diversity in its locations, being set in mostly New York City and a bit in London, but it fits with the plot and isn't really detrimental to the gameplay. It can also be a little repetitious and somewhat confusing regarding the puzzles. It's also a very linear game, and does feel a little constrictive sometimes. If you don't mind that, however, you can enjoy the events around you as you make the journey. The human NPC AI is a bit on the stupid side, but the creature AI is much better defined (because let's face it, they're the main attraction at this show).
Overall, this is a good game, though often overlooked. It's at least worth a try. If you don't want to rent it, simply download and play the demo. If you don't like it, ignore it. If you can get past the handful of problems, you might just find a fun and engaging game with a unique story. | video-games_xbox |
The Whole Package. Bioware is a company experienced at making great Role Playing video games. From recent games such as the recent Xbox 360 title Mass Effect, to the xbox favorite Knights of the Old Republic, and even including many of the games from the Baldur's Gate saga, Bioware is very good at what it does.
I have played every Xbox/Xbox 360 game Bioware has released, and let me begin by saying that this may be my favorite one to date.
Gameplay 9/10: For an RPG, it is a fun game to play. While some complain that the game can be too hard (some say that it is too easy), I think that playing on nightmare (the hardest difficulty) was a great challenge for someone who is good at RPG's and Bioware games. I bet that anyone who has played another RPG could enter in and successfully play on easy-mode.
Longevity 10/10: My first play-through of the storyline took me 50 hours. If you add in the hours that I lost because of dying or what-not, it would probably be closer to 55-ish. The very day that I finished with 'my character' (he'll always be my favorite), I could not help but wonder how the story could have been different or how different party members would contribute. This is one game that I will definitely finish more than once.
Graphics 9/10: While many sources say the Xbox 360 version is lackluster compared to the PC and PS3 versions, I think that is still a great looking Xbox 360 game. It certainly puts games like Halo 3 to shame.
Storyline 10/10: It is the best storyline I have ever played through in a video game. After playing through one of six "Origin" portions (which is how Bioware sets the stage for the rest of the game) you are thrown into a quest to try and save the world of Fereleden from orc-like creatures called Dark Spawn. The odds are stacked against you, and you must fight to unite the world against this threat.
While the overarching plot does sound cliche, the actual execution is anything but that. As you progress through the story you are given many choices throughout the game that impact the end result of your quest, and instead of making the story a cookie cutter outcome the story becomes YOUR story.
As a Christian, sometimes I was bothered by the gratuitous blood or the highly sexualized portions; however, blood is certainly one of the overarching themes throughout Dragon Age and I believe that it (as well as the 'adult' scenes) were done artistically to engage the player. There is no all out nudity (some of the demons are close, those scenes were rather awkward for me).
If you want to save the world and be a hero, this game is for you! | video-games_xbox |
Kinect makes it OUTSTANDING, but Xbox lacks in Kid/Family games. First off: You really only need the 4gb but purchase a separate 16+gb flash drive to store your profile/game info on-save yourself $50 and increases portability-from my experience ANY flash drive works-it doesn't need to be Xbox specific. Blu Ray? Who cares? The PS3 has blown away competition for graphics, but their systems and games are too expensive (I've even heard that the controllers aren't rechargeable, maybe just a rumor) and if you go into gaming stores, you'll see Wii and Xbox, maybe a corner of PS3 games (although, still having my PS2 I LOVE buying games for less than $5!)
CONS: VERY VERY *FEW* "FAMILY/KID" friendly games overall, and the ones for the Kinect seem to only be dance/exercise (girly) or toddler focused. I would conservatively guess that 90% of the games on Xbox are rated "M" either based on violence or "adult themes/sex" (I happen to CARE about what my child "plays", can't say the same for those buying "M" games for their 7 or 8 year olds!). The fact that there are some really good racing games, the cost of a steering wheel/foot pedal combo is still around $200 shows that racing games are not their focus (I had that with my PS2 for only $90!)
PROS: Great graphics, online gameplay (WITH an additional purchase of an Xbox Live account for each player-seems dumb at first, but, if you have a "tween" son whom, when he has sleepovers, they mainly like to play video games together-this allows them to chat/play together virtually even if they don't live near each other-my son can play online with his cousin who lives in another state), games utilizing the Kinect FORCE you to move and actually put you IN the game.
Downside to the Xbox Live: Well, in addition to playing virtually online with friends (no split screen/chat enabled), I'd hoped it would also allow ME to perhaps download free versions (not time limited "demos") of games like Bejeweled, Peggle, Candy Crush, etc. to play on our 70" plasma with the Kinect-just swiping in air. But no, occasionally there is a free game to download, nothing of much interest so far, but they don't have the equivalent of the Google "Play Store" to load up on FREE games (if they did, I'm sure a lot of smartphone/tablet game players would TOTALLY turn this into a "must have" purchase).
The Kinect offers a HUGE amount of possibility, even over the new WiiU which, from what I gather, is more focused on incorporating a tablet experience than recognizing people and incorporating THEM into the gameplay (couldn't Zelda be awesome?Oh yeah, FABLE: THE JOURNEY!!! VERY similar to Zelda in almost every way-good enough for me and my 11 year old!!) Yes, there ARE a LOT of us parents of YOUNG kids buying consoles for our kids not wanting them to be focused on killing or fearing being killed, and like to play video games WITH our kids/families, hello? Anyone who owns a tablet or smartphone KNOWS how fun it is to swipe versus using a mouse. Imagine being able to do it virtually via the Kinect? (I'm guessing that's what the WiiU was going for?)
To date (and validate) myself, yes, I've had (and still have with the original box) the first "Pong" game as a child, the first Atari console, first Nintento,Sega, PS2 (loved that for years before "Wii") the first Wii and last year purchased the Xbox 360 with Kinect. Not rehashing, I'm more of a "Mario" game player, although I tried the original "Fatal Frame" it scared me too much, and turned toward racing games-I used to hold my infant to toddler son on my lap with my steering wheel while I played racing games and he loved honking the horn-then, at just age 3 we were playing "Midnight Club" and he said, "Mommy, you got your scissors?" I was like, "Huh?" and he said, "Cuz I'm going to cut you off!" and he did! (honest to God, isn't that hilarious?)
RENT games. There are still local video stores that rent games for CHEAP!! (I WAS a proponent of Gamefly, but no longer). I learned my lesson after buying the Wii and wasting $50 a pop on several boring games I'd only get $9 for to immediately trade in anywhere. BIG difference in wasting $3 for 15 minutes of gameplay versus $50.
I'm still sadly disappointed at the lack of family-friendly, "kid" games or even "T" rated games. By far, most of the games are rated "M" and none of those utilize the Kinect. | video-games_xbox |
Overall Great Game......Especially 4 player co-op. Dungeons and Dragons: Heroes ...... can be darn fun, the highlight being the 4 player co-op which makes this game different from most of the other games on the market!!! Well, it's the same old, same old, with the Gaunlet/ Dialbo feel and the Balder's Gate look!!!
The game isn't perfect either.....!!! Don't get me wrong it is a great game but, nothing special, well except for the 4 player co-op which keeps this game fun!!! I will admit the environmets were vast and unique, along with plot twists, nice weapon/magic combinations, side quests, and boss battles, along with the search for the for the 20 soul shards!!! The soul shards basicaly power up your weapon, for each 5 your main weapon powers up to a new level!!!
Yeah, Yeah but if you play straight through the game you could beat anywhere from 10-14 hours!!! The boss battles are fairly easy, and the game is pretty easy, the only challenging part would be finding all the soul shards... which actually wasn't hard either!!! The camera gets on my nerves at times, and the gameplay gets bland and repetive after awhile!!! Their may be vast power up options and so-on, like I said it's the same stuff from most RPG's!!! The only two things that make this game stand out from the rest is the: Dunegons and Dragons name and .... of course the co-op!!! You choose from the: Fighter/Human, Cleric/Dwarf, Wizard/Elf, and the Rogue/Halfling... all 4 heroes who defeated the evil wizard Kaiden, now 150 later they are called upon again to save Baele from the ressurected and very much still evil Kaiden!!! Nice, story.....huh!!!!
Yes,Dungeons and Dragons is fun, in fact a must have for any fan, but it could have been better!!! Just look at new next gen RPG's like: Fable, Star Wars: KOTOR, Star Wars: KOTOR 2, and Jade Empire!!! Although, D&D has the co-op and classic feel, it can't compare to the games listed above!!! Maybe back in 99' or 00' this would have been a great, and new innovative game, but being a good game, in an industry filled with awesome games it will be over looked!!!
Pro:
-Great news for Dunegons and Dragons fans
-4 player co-op
-Nice Magic and Fighting combinations
-Nice Environments
-Lot's of cool enemies
-A lot of player options
- When Gaunlet meets Balder's Gate
- Great Concept
- Classic RPG feel!!!
Cons:
-Nothing original
-Bad camera
-Not as fun in single player mode
-Gets old after awhile
-Falls short of expetations, graphic wise!!!
-Sometimes Freezes Up!!!
-Gosh, just like mostly any other RPG, not innovative!!!
As you can see this game has a lot of faults along with a lot of good features, but the 4 player co-op, game play variety, along with the vast environments make you forget about most of the faults!!! Overall, I suggest you at least rent it, if not buy it great game 4/5 stars!!! | video-games_xbox |
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