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As a huge Bionicle fan, I give it 3.5. If you're a fan of the Bionicle toys, this is a great game. If you're a Bionicle story know-it-all, this game will bug the crap out of you, like Rahi, Bohrok, and Rahkshi all being around at the same time, and Turaga Nuju speaking in words instead of clicks and whistles. The game itself is surprisingly hard, being a kids' game, however a lot of friends I've talked to who played this game said it was easier when they were younger, but got harder and harder as they got older.
The game is basically a tie-in to the Mask of Light movie, summarizing the story of the first three years (Rahi, Bohrok, Bohrok-Kal, and Rahkshi), but it really doesn't follow the canon story at all. But the graphics, though dated, capture the feeling I got from the first story arc perfectly. The Toa Nuva look the best here than anywhere else.
The game is divided into 8 levels.
Level 1: Tahu Mata - Toa of Fire
Fight through Ta-Wahi, the fire region around Mount Ihu, battling Rahi beasts like Nui-Jaga, Nui-Rama, and then Bohrok at the end. You find a Krana, a Bohrok's brain, and meet up with Kopaka, the Toa of Ice.
Level 2: Kopaka Mata - Toa of ice
This level is basically just a race. You play as kopaka and try to meet up with a poorly portrayed Turaga Nuju. He tells you to follow a Bohrok before it destroys Ko-Koro, the Ice village.
There were originally going to be levels of Gali, pohatu, Onua, and Lewa Mata, but they were cut from the game due to time constraints. A Kopaka Nuva level was also planned.
In the backstory, the other Toa also gathered a few Krana, only six, and are transformed into Toa Nuva by... energy from the Krana?! This part doesn't follow the story at all.
Level 3: Gali Nuva - Toa of Water
Play as Gali, the only Female Toa (In my opinion portrayed better here than in the movie), and battle through infected Rahi beasts and go on a series of short missions for Turaga Nokama, who looks like a shriveled up fish that's been out in the sun for a month. At the end, you encounter the Bohrok-Kal and defeat them all, even though all six Toa could barely beat them in the canon story.
Level 4: Pohatu Nuva - Toa of Stone
Gali goes to po-Wahi, the desert region, and tells Pohatu the island is in danger. Pohatu goes and rescues a Matoran villager, but the building they're standing on, which has been there for 1000 years... collapses for no reason? They get in a mine cart and drive through the mines of Onu-Koro, the underground village of Earth to meet up with Onua.
Level 5: Onua Nuva - Toa of Earth
Onua battles rahi to get through onu-Wahi and battles Lehrakh, a Rahkshi of poison, one of Makuta's "sons." He goes and informs Lewa of the danger the Rahkshi pose.
Level 6: Lewa Nuva - Toa of Air
Lewa's voice is probably more unfitting than making Makuta sound like Barbie. His voice DOES NOT FIT at all, though it might, just might be better than the Lucky Charms Leprechaun voice he has in the movie. I'm not sure which is worse. He swings across vines through le-Wahi, the jungle region.
Level 7: Tahu Nuva - Toa of Fi... oh right. We played as him already.
This is another surfing/racing level. A Rahkshi has stolen the Mask of Light, the Toa's only hope of defeating Makuta. Tahu goes after him. At the end of the level, a certain character who I'm not naming (Though you should know. It's been 9 years) becomes the Toa of Light.
Level 8: Takanuva - Toa of light
Takanuva somehow teleports to Makuta's lair. Makuta, probably better portrayed in the cutscene than in the movies, or at least Mask of Light, battles Takanuva. The end of the game is loosely based on the end of Mask of Light. It's probably as close to the story as the game gets. Even though it's still miles away from what it's supposed to be. I should also note that Makuta just gives up. It's disgraceful if you know Makuta's character. This isn't Hero Factory. Bionicle villains don't just give up like that.
The game sounds repetitive, but it's not. As long as you know this isn't the real story, you'll be fine as long as you don't let it bother you too much. Pretty good game, but hard as hell. | video-games_xbox |
Overall a terrible game. I am only reviewing the multiplayer since I never finished the campaign, which didn't really seem that interesting. A little about my history with the COD franchise. My first experience with COD was on PC back in the day when I was a PC gamer. A friend of mine talked me into checking out MW3 when I picked up a 360, and I must say I was instantly hooked. I sucked at it due to the fact I wasn't used to playing a FPS on a controller, but once I got used to it, I loved it. Keep in mind that this was my first COD game on a console, and the first I'd played since the original on PC!
After getting burnt on MW3 I decided to check out BOP 2. I didn't play BOP 1 so I wasn't sure what to expect. The first thing I noticed was how it felt faster, which is hard to imagine, and more mechanical. The animations didn't feel as organic and life-like as MW3. It honestly felt kind of generic to me. I also think the overall look of the game was more generic than MW3. Perhaps it was because it was a futuristic setting with future weapons. I don't know, but I wasn't feeling it. All of the guns felt a bit lifeless, though they were more balanced than the guns in MW3. They just didn't seem to have any personality and I think part of the problem was the sound. Adding a silencer to any range of weapons resulted in a near identical sound coming from the gun. And that sound was TERRIBLE! It almost sounded like someone recorded a basketball being bounced and then added a filter to it! I'm an audio guy so this really bugged me. Even without the silencer attachment I wasn't impressed with the sound of the guns. The only sound I liked better in BOP2 was the grenade explosion. The lag compensation was also terrible!
The absolute worst part of this game was the maps. They were way too small, which resulted in everyone running around with SMG's and shotguns, and they were extremely boring! I feel like I could have designed more interesting maps myself. There were almost no interesting lines of sight to find. Nothing new to discover after playing more than once. I was so bored that I nearly gave up on the game after a few weeks of playing. Even after playing all the DLC's, I still wasn't having fun like I did in MW3.
I hope Ghosts brings back some fun. Though I already have a few concerns from what I've seen so far. | video-games_xbox |
Makes me want to see the movie again. I loved how it ties into the movie...letting you know what happened leading up to the movie. I found many things good about this game. Having teammates really helps you get out of jams when the action gets thick. They pick up weapons and use them on your adversary and also you can join up with them on one person and do a special combo move. That is even more violent than the normal moves that are at your disposal. Although the game is quite violent. I felt that the Warriors with the circumstances they were in. It was more than justified. I mean you have all these gangs chasing you, trying to run you down (literally) and kill you. You use whatever force is necessary. I enjoyed the little things like unlocking new options in different modes being able to play multiplayer things like King of the Hill which is one of my favorite things in that mode. Being able to form your gang to pick and choose from the various gangs in the game.
Also there is tagging which i doubt needs to be explained. You basically buy cans of paint and go around different areas tagging the other gangs areas. Basically claiming that as your own. Its not hard to do just requires a semi steady hand. On a level or two there will be other things coming at you while your doing this. You get money by either robbing people on the street which has its own little technique as well. Steal car radio's or break into any one of various stores littered around the city. But keep in mind while doing this that some people take offense to this and try to call the police. You'll be able to recognize them by the icon over their head (that) and they'll running to get to the pay phone. So cut them before that because once the police are called. The situation can get kind of thick. If you get arrested however your gang members will come to your rescue and free you provided they haven't been arrested. If everyone in your gang has been arrested. It's pretty much game over. Later on in the game you'll be able to buy things like keys to handcuffs and things like that. Also by helping people around town you will unlock new things as well. Different weapons, better abilities and things of that nature.
While in the Warriors hangout you can work on your combo moves and pull ups which help increase your abilites a bit. Its something different to do when your not doing story mode or trying to get everything you can in previously played levels. This is how a movie made into a video game should so others out there take note. People don't want crappy video games that tie into a movie, QUALITY is the key word this what the Warriors is. If it ever happened i could see myself easily getting the sequel to this. I doubt it will happen but that's how much i enjoyed the game. It's not something that you can run through in one sitting (well i guess you could). But you would miss out on so many things going in the game little extras and side stories to play as well. It makes the game all that much better. I had my doubts about this game but after going through this and beating it (unlocking a mode to play as well). I found that my concerns were not even necessary. The Warriors is a welcome addition to my Xbox lineup and its current price that just makes it that much better. This is how things should be done. I could write a lot about the game. But hopefully after reading all this. You'll be heading out the door or online to pick up this game that should not be missed.
Happy gaming and "come out to play!!!" | video-games_xbox |
The only important statistic is the final score. 2K17 DELIVERS A SLAM DUNK. I live or die for basketball video games. I think I've probably had every single basketball video game known to man since even the Atari days. A lot has changed for sure. When 2K blew us away with the first 2K game on the Dreamcast, I knew this franchise had a nice future ahead of it as long as they did what they did best, make the gameplay on the court solid. That's what makes these games. Bugs and glitches are part of this franchise, yeah, it's typical. More on those later. I thought with 14 and 15 they let us down a bit and was one of the weaker 2K games. Legends got downgraded and what the heck happened to their faces??? 16 they got a little redemption and the gameplay got much better. 16 overall was a great complete package and kept me busy till I knew 17 was coming. If you downloaded the 2k17 Prelude, you know you're in for some greatness and 2k17 hasn't disappointed me aside from a few hiccups. 17, while not perfect, is probably the best playing 2K I've ever experienced. Read on.
The Prelude was available for you to play before 2k17 was launched. It basically teased you to buy the game and it did work! LOL. The game let's you start your "My Career" mode and prepare yourself to make it to the NBA. It really got me interested in the game more. While the gameplay was limited for what I played, I was really wanting to get the full game and finish my career after I finished the prelude.
NBA 2K17 has the usual offerings as you expect. The Prelude got me super interested in the career mode, and that's saying a lot, I usually just stick with GM mode and work with my team, not a single guy. But this mode is going to be a blast trying to get my player into the NBA.
On the court NBA 2k17 is superb. I'd say the controls and gameplay feel a lot better than 2k16. Shooting jumpers and the mechanics was a complaint for 2k16 by many and it looks like they ironed that out in 2k17. I love the new shooting meter (if you want it on) IF you have an open shot, and if you're a shooter, you'll swish these shots in no time! Rebounding, the touch passes look amazing and the fancy passes, while sweet in 16, look even more incredible than ever. 17 just feels more organic and you feel like you're more in control. There's some sweet new post moves also ,but they can't be explained by vocabulary, you'll just have to see them for yourself and you will. Dunking, the emotion, it's all here and yes, this feels like a real NBA game. Defensively is my only main complaint in this game. The aggressive D doesn't seem to be as helpful as I was hoping. I have guys running around me left and right. Thankfully, the Help D seems more in sync than last year. And that point of emphasis really seems to finally be working. I'd recommend if you have trouble guarding a guy at the point, I'd say control a guy in the paint and rely on your inside D. I still have guys leaving their man when I made no attempt or pressed for a double team, this was a bit of a problem on 16, and it seems to still happen on 17, but it's hit and miss.
The graphics are great overall. I'd say the courts look better than last year, not breathtaking, but very good. They promised real authentic lighting, although I heard some venues are inaccurate like LA and NY are not authentic for what we see now. Speaking of the Knicks, the baby blue colors is still way off from the real court. Does MGS have a lock on what a game can show maybe? I wonder if it's just off for that reason? The knicks is NOT baby blue! I'll research that later.
In contrast of past games, I still think 2k14 had the best looking courts and players, but 2k17 is no slouch. If this game took any cutback in the visuals, the player models skin looks like clay at times and some of the players might be too skinny. It's very subtle, and most won't really notice unless you're really giving them a good inspection, but if you compare to like NBA 2k14, you will notice the skin and proportions just looks slightly off. But what they did focus on, was the smooth animations and the player physique and proportions and the face scans are A grade with a few exceptions. When I checked out some of the faces, I was floored. I look at say a 98 Rodman of the Bulls. Wow, just google around for that one. You talk virtual reality, some of these faces will blow you away. The current guys probably look just as good. Durant's body finally looks like Durant's body, perhaps a bit too skinny and guys like Green on Warriors is distinguishable If your favorite player has a long wing span and long lanky arms, you're going to notice him next to a 250 pound Power forward.
The Legends are still there but I am disappointed for Kobe as isn't this the coverboy? While he may be on the game and looks fantastic on the 98 lakers and the 01 Lakers, and on the cover and what not, I would have love to see some more Laker love. More teams would have been nice. But I don't see anything. Maybe they're planning some future DLC? And in general, I didn't notice any new teams for the Legends lineup unfortunately. Still got the classic Bulls, Lakers, Spurs, Celtics, etc. I'll take those for now. But please, how bout bringing back the 2002 kings and 96 Pacers for next year please? :) What I did see is that you can download (I think 12 college teams of the past with their all time players ) Teams like Georgetown, Kansas, Michigan State, etc. It's pretty cool you can download these additional teams, but it's a bit odd having them play NBA teams. These are college kids. lol. I wish we had a mini season we can do with these teams. Maybe we implement them into a customized franchise. I know you can use the past NBA teams in an NBA season, so maybe you can do that. Again, it's a bit weird. FYI, it's 14.99 to download all the NCAA teams available.
The last few years, fans have really been complaining on the look of the Legends and just being off, usually the complaints are because of their faces and hair looking "not like their actual counterparts". I thought they looked just okay in NBA 16. You'll have that great looking Legend, then find a Legend that looks downright bad. Jordan has been off for years. When they made the transition to next gen, something happened. Jordan looks a little better this year and some guys like Rodman, Ewing, Pippen, Bird, look absolutely fantastic this year and looks like virtual reality for some. And thankfully Steve Kerr no longer looks like a Ken Doll. The fans look a little bit more animated, but, eh. Still look like zombies when you see them up close. They show a little more animation and a bit more lively. But up close when you see them, they really don't look that much different from 2k16 or even 15 for that matter.
Out of the box, you get the Dream Team. Wahoo! Barkley finally signed. It's too bad we don't have a team like the 76ers or the Suns when Barkley was with them, but having the Dreamteam back again is amazing. Arguably the best basketball team ever made!!!
2K advertised authentic arena sounds and chants. In a nutshell, I'd say, yes, it's better than 2k17. But do NOT expect anything mind-blowingly awesome. They still use that generic PA announcer. You'll recognize him. He's been in the game since 2k9! I don't mind him, but man, wouldn't it be nice to have an authentic PA announcer for each venue? The crowd noise is better, not great, just better. Seems to be a little more interaction and emotion with things going on with the action. More cheers and more boos. It does add to the immersion. I need to play at some more venues around the league to determine if the chants and stadium sounds are truly authentic.
The game boasts 10 different commentators. I've only heard one different one in my play time so far, I think I ran into the usual, Kevin Harlan and I think the other guy was Brent Barry. Depending on where you play, you'll get a different guy along side with Harlan. It's pretty cool. Not sure how deep the commentary is, but we shall see. The halftime show is still Shaq, Kenny and Ernie. Ehhh. You'd think with Barkley being on the Dreamteam they could get him to be in the halftime. Nope. Darn it.
Update: After a few days I can talk a little more about My Career. It's awesome. You take your college phenom into the NBA and try to turn him into an NBA great. You get drafted to a random team and it takes you through an interesting story and the set pieces they put you in a great fantasy world of trying to make it as a pro in the NBA. The story I'd expect to be cheese all the way, but I was genuinely interested on what each day would bring. Coaches will send you texts and let you know how you're doing and give you some guidance and even a little love! The first day I got drafted, I met with one of my rookie teammates and we played a game of 2k in the apartment. You can play pickup games with your team mates at the practice stadium or at your what I would call a "crib". You get a text messages from friends, coaches and even your mom. The texting thing is more fun to use than I thought and it keeps the game fresh. Leveling up to get your attributes seems to take a bit longer than it should however. And the pickup games with my friends/teammates doesnt' seem to give me any points/coins to gain. Maybe I'll get rewards later? Either way, it's a long process getting your guy solid. AS a standout draft pick, You' think your player would be higher than 55-57 overall. To me, we should be at least a 70. But ya know, the fun is leveling up. You get your most points playing real games. The game is different experience controlling one guy on the court. Sometimes I feel my team mates need to get me more involved. But overall, the AI is pretty good about getting me the ball. The mode will keep you busy all year.
I had a few glitches of blue screens obliterating the screen where I couldn't see the action until the moment of tip off. Glitchy! Happened a few times. No major glitches though where I had to reset. I've become accustomed to glitches for these games. I think they're rushed a bit. But usually the most obvious are taken care of. I hope.
NBA 2K17 continues to be the best sports franchise on the planet and 17 on the court is real basketball at its finest. Better than FIFA, better then Madden, better than NHL and of course better than NBA Live. There's a lot of love put into these games and while I'm sure we'll have those initial launch bugs of "hey what's this bug about?" It's just something we have to deal with. But hopefully with time, this game will keep you quite busy until 2k18. Thank you 2k for keeping basketball fun! | video-games_xbox |
Not as good as original. Gets a bit boring in later levels. I really enjoyed the first Splinter Cell so when I found out that the sequel was coming out, I made sure I got it the first day it came out. This game was pretty good but compared to the first it is not a good or as fun.
The game starts off very well as far as the storyline goes. Fisher is called again to solve another threat. The storyline while very interesting at first, seems to have been rushed near the end of the game. The news broadcasts between levels cut off way too early to get a good feel of the story. I agree with what a lot of other people are saying about how you as a player do not feel as "involved" and as a part of the story as in the original Splinter Cell.
The graphics again are very good. The lighting effects of this game are done flawlessly and I also noticed that Ubisoft did a lot of work on the outside levels. When you walk through tall grass, the grass moves with you and it almost seems real. Same goes true for walking through water. In the first splinter cell, the water seemed to be stagnant even when you walked through it; not in pandora tomorrow. The water effects in this game have had a major overhaul and now when you walk through water, it ripples depending on how fast you are going and makes water like sounds as well.
The sound is OK. Nothing spectacular here and in some case the background music annoying drowns out character speech so you can barely hear what people are saying unless you turn down the BGM volume.
The game play is probably the most disappointing part of this game. When you first start the game, you will notice that some of the original button assignments have changed, some are necessary because of the new moves that Fisher can now do. However some button changes are totally unnecessary and make the game a bit frustrating in the beginning until you get used to it. For example, in the original SC to get Sam to bring his legs up when he is hanging on a pipe/pole you press B and to get him to jump down you press Y. However in SC:PT, you have to press Y again to get him to bring his legs up, pressing B (which is what so many of us have become used to) will cause Sam to let go of what he is hanging on, which in some situations will send you plummeting to your death causing you to restart from your last save point which bring me to another point on game play. The save points in SC:PT seem much further spread out then in the original game. This wouldn't be so bad, but the game is a bit more difficult due to the greater concentration on stealth (more on this in a second). Because of this you will be restarting sections over and over and over and over and over again if you do one thing wrong. This makes this game more of a "How long to the next save point?" instead of really having the opportunity to really enjoy and appreciate the game and surroundings. This causes the game to be more frustrating than fun in many areas. Many of you will notice that the game has a lot less "action" because this game seems to focus more on stealth. I personally prefer stealth games because they are more fun and require thinking. However I couldn't help but be annoyed at the countless number of "one alarm-mission over" missions. And on top of this if a guard so much as sees you, (or thinks he sees you) an alarm would magically go off and mission over. He doesn't even have to run to an alarm panel. I got over it, but during later levels the game got very frustrating because I always had to restart from a save point that I got to over 15 minutes ago. When I got towards the end of the game I as so frustrated and annoyed I just rushed through the levels when I could just to get to a save point. The last level was pretty disappointing as well as the ending.
The multiplayer is a bit disappointing in my opinion as well, I played a few times and enjoyed myself, but the time required just to find a game is just not worth it. If you try to join a game and its full (which usually is), the game starts you over from the main multi player menu, meaning you have to go back and enter your search criteria again!! Bad developing!
In closing I must say that while I really enjoyed the game during the first part of the game, the later levels seem rushed and are painfully boring. Additionally, the game play is more frustrating than fun, I was a bit disappointed. I played and completed the original SC at least 10 times and enjoy it the same every time I play it. I recently beat the original after beating Pandora Tomorrow. Will I be playing SC:PT multiple times? Probably not.
This game gets 4 stars, but BARELY. (3.8 is more like it). More time should have been spent on this game to make it a blockbuster like the original. | video-games_xbox |
Rainbow Six 3 Xbox : But where's the Strategy. The original PC version of Rainbow Six 3 was "muy excelente". It featured much freedom throughout the game: it allowed you to plan out your course of action throughout the missions, your operatives, their weapons, and even down to their uniforms. You had the freedom to utilize up to four squads together comprising 8 or less operatives. Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield was clearly the king of all Rainbow Six games. Sadly, these freedoms have not been implemented in Rainbow Six 3 for the Xbox.
It is alarming how the Xbox version could be so different from the PC version. UbiSoft calls it "redefined console oriented gameplay, with a new interface, new circumstantial actions, and clearer icons, to lead Rainbow to success", but it is really more like a stripped down version of the PC version. When the original Rainbow Six came out in 1998, the whole idea, the selling-point of the game was the planning-out of the mission and the one-shot, one-kill process. No longer are these true in the Xbox version. Now, you can only control Ding Chavez, and lead your squad of 4 operatives including Eddie Price, Dieter Weber, Louis Loiselle, and yourself. What about the planning and the one-shot, one-kill policy? Those were thrown out too. Now it is more of a run-and-gun game more along the lines of Half-Life and Unreal. I found that you could take up to 15 bullets before you die. And when Ding Chavez dies, the mission is failed, but if any of the operatives get "incapacitated", they pop right back up for the next mission (assuming you accomplish the previous one without them). In the PC version, if your operatives die, they are gone for the rest of the game, and for injuries, your operatives take about 2 missions or so to recover. Talk about missing realism for the Xbox.
Now, seeing how you are stuck with the same 4 operatives, the least UbiSoft could do was give each of the guys distinct personalities, but that was not the case. You get 4 boring guys that are basically the same except Louis has an annoying French accent.
But, throughout all these caveats about Rainbow Six 3 for Xbox, there are many good things. For example, the lucious graphics based on Splinter Cell. The excellent lighting schemes (shadows, heat-vision, etc.), and fantastic details such as fluttering curtains and volumetric fog have been implemented in this game. Also, the inclusion of voice-recogniion technology for squad commanding is an excelent bonus, which really pulls you into the game. The sound is also excellent like the PC version: the super 5.1 positional sound, and even realistic static as you "talk" to your operatives. The inclusion of Xbox Live is also cool. The multiplayer is excellent and loads of fun. The problem is, is that there is no split-screen gameplay, so forget about inviting your friends over for a tango-killing fest.
The gameplay itself deserves a 2 out of 5. The entire selling-point of the R6 series is gone, and what's left is a run-and-gun mess unlike the other games in the Tom Clancy series.
But, with the inclusion of awesome graphics, sound, voice-recognition technology, and excellent Xbox Live gameplay (but no split-screen for Live-deprived people), it deserves a 4 out of 5. But beware, if none of the above-mentioned things in the previous sentence appeal to you, then I suggest you stick with Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield for the PC. It is more expansive, and includes the heart of the Tom Clancy series itself : tactical strategic gameplay. | video-games_xbox |
Great Entertainment. This is an entertaining game on several levels: beautiful rendering and cool camera control, diversity in activities (volleyball, calibration game, gambling, shopping and gift-giving, private romps on secluded beaches).
The complaints about two-button gameplay are misleading for a couple of reasons. First, the buttons are pressure-sensitive so using only two buttons actually allows you to do a lot more than just two things. Second, the directional pad allows you to aim and jump-serve while the thumbstick moves your player around. Volleyball is generally a fast-paced game, so too much more complexity would be nearly impossible for gamers to handle. (In DOA3, for example, you can back off your opponent for a couple seconds, gather yourself, and then unleash a series of cool combinations; there's just no time for that in volleyball and even if there were how many different moves do you have to have as a volleyball player?) Also, proper timing is the key to super hard serves and spikes so it's not as if everything happens automatically.
One thing I don't like is how I can't get a player up off the sand quickly enough after a dive. It's kind of annoying not to be able to force extra effort.
If you appreciate complex software then you'll like this game. The idea of building relationships and the fact that the environment (i.e. the sun, winning, losing, a player's motivation level) affects your players is fun and tends to be one of the key factors which keeps up interest. The other thing that makes things interesting is the high cost of the slinky bikinis; there's ample motivation to play the high-risk slots and win lots of volleyball games.
If you're looking for a volleyball simulator perhaps this isn't a good game for you, and perhaps you should just go play volleyball. But if you're looking for entertainment and great concepts in a game then go out and buy it. | video-games_xbox |
People Treat This Game Like Its Namesake But, Overall, It's Still a Worthwhile Endeavor. There are some games, just like movies, that are doomed to get a bad rap because of people's tendencies to compare them with their all-time favorites. If the game doesn't blow them away entertainment-wise and instantly become their fickle NEW favorite best of all time bad-@$$ rock their world epic, it's doomed to receive a stoning for DARING to waste a few precious hours of their lives. 'Pariah' is one of those games that seems to have suffered such a fate. A pity, really, because after it's all been said and done, it's really not that bad of a game. It might not be the best production out there, but based on its own merits and what it brings to the table, it's definitely not the worst shooter I've ever played.
GAMEPLAY-4 Stars
The way this game handles will seem instantly familiar to anyone that has played shooters in the past. In my opinion, that's a good thing. While not overly innovative, I didn't feel that I needed a training manual to grasp the mechanics of the gameplay. The developers at Groove took the tack that, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
The weapons you can pick up make sense for a gritty low-down sci-fi setting and run the gamut from your standard assault carbine to shotguns to rocket launchers on up to a cool little plasma rifle. One neat feature this game incorporates that you don't usually see in anything short of a roleplaying game is that each of the weapons is upgradeable a total of three times after you initially pick them up. These upgrades make significant improvements in the weapon's capabilities and are available as some of the loot you can pick up from downed enemies. The reason these upgrades exist are incorporated early on in the backstory and relayed to you via a short voice-over narrative. If you run out of ammunition, a tug of the left trigger whips out a handy little bonesaw (you ARE a doctor; instant autopsy anyone?) that you can use for some close-up melee action until you have a chance to build your reserves back up.
The other reviewers that stated that the enemies were on the tough side were right, especially when you're fighting at range, but I attribute that to the fact that, well, you're a doctor. You've been trained to save lives, not end them. Upgrading any of the weapons enough times makes that point pretty much moot anyway.
There are no health pick ups in this game. Pariah incorporates a healing tool as part of your inventory (again you're a doctor, so this piece of equipment makes perfect sense) that you shoot yourself up with that restores you to full health as long as its supplies last. The healing supplies are one of the things, like your weapon's ammunition, that are located around the area. Like your weapons, this tool is also upgradeable to allow for capabilities such as faster healing times, a boost to your overall health and other things.
The areas that you explore are varied enough not to be all cookie-cutter by design. Some people might compare them to other levels in other games, but hey, when it's all said and done, a shooter is a shooter is a shooter. You play a game like this to shoot things in a legal fashion. A couple of levels give you the option to jump in a vehicle, either behind the wheel or in the gunner's seat. If you drive the vehicle, the control scheme and the way the camera handles is pretty much identical to that of the Halo games. These parts are a little short, but they break up the monotony of just running around all over the place. This particular facet is realistic in that, if you hit someone with a dune buggy or scooter, or they hit you, you're dead instantly (with a nasty little popping, grinding, flesh parting sound effect to seal the deal). You want to be careful when you're on foot and you hear the sounds of an engine, because the bad guys WILL aim straight for you and they are quick. There are also a couple of spots where you find yourself riding cross country on the back of a train as well as on the cargo deck of a shuttle, respectively.
If you don't want to play the campaign at first, or you just want to take a break from it for a while, Groove included a map editor as part of the game's repertoire where you can design your own battlefield for a little multiplayer action with a buddy. The maps you can create aren't HUGE, but you can populate them with whatever obstacles or vehicles that catches your fancy.
STORY-5 Stars
Approximately 500 years in the future, the Earth has been relegated to a backwater prison planet where the dregs of mankind are left to be forgotten by the rest of humanity's stellar society. At some point in the past, there was a cult on Earth, enigmatically called the Shroud, looking to usher in the next stage of human evolution through technological means. They staged a coup that led to a massive uprising in their attempt to come into power. It was ultimately put down, but the devastation of that war laid waste to most of the planet's surface. The Shroud then mysteriously dropped out of sight. Rather than try to recover their losses, mankind made the decision to move out among the stars. The only things left on the planet, other than the odd maximum security lockdown or roving band of scavengers, are scattered research stations conducting experiments out of view of the public eye.
You play a doctor who happens to be a last-minute replacement for another sentry escorting a female patient in cryostasis, en route to one of those research stations. Her blood is coursing with a highly potent virus. Nobody really knows what it is or does, but it's obviously extremely valuable to someone, so all the stops are being pulled. Everything seems well in hand and the pilot is relaxed as he urges you to look out the viewport to take stock of the devastation of the war. You make the comment that it doesn't seem to be that bad... when you notice the rocket off in the distance, heading straight for your dropship...
Then it gets fun.
The story is quite intricate for a game of this format and includes a twist at the climax that you don't expect.
SOUND-4 Stars
The voiceovers for Pariah are decent quality. The actors earned their money for the tasks they were given. The remarks of your opponents get a little repetitive, but I have yet to run across a shooter where they weren't after about three levels.
The score is standard fare for a science fiction game and convincingly conveys either the desolation of the wasteland or the fury of the firefights. The music adapts to the situation nicely.
GRAPHICS-4 Stars
The visuals don't bring anything earth-shattering to the fore, but they do the job adequately. There are no striking pop-up issues and the framerate chugs along without the choppiness that I've encountered in other games where a lot was happening on the screen.
The character models are generic for most of the bad guys you run across, but, after all, you're looking to take them out. You're not looking to get to know them any better.
REPLAY-4 Stars
The campaign part of Pariah is the same every time you play it through, but I've gone through it three times now and I've enjoyed myself. The map editor offers some distractions if you're looking to play with a friend. If either repeating the single-player portion of Pariah or creating your own maps doesn't appeal to you as a player, then maybe this just isn't your type of game.
OVERALL-4 Stars
It's not the best of times OR the worst of times, but Pariah gives you something to do when you don't have anything else set aside for your schedule. I'd recommend it for at least a once-over if you're into science fiction, a twice-over if you like shooters and if thrice-over if you're into both. It's worth a stretch.
Peace. | video-games_xbox |
Buyer beware. I've owned this headset for roughly 7-8 months and tonight my frustration finally met its match and in a blind fury, I mortally wounded the thing.
PROS:
1. I have no complaints nor praises for the sound quality, but this is the first headset I've purchased of this caliber so I have no frame of reference.
2. Noise cancellation is pretty darn effective for flights and loud places.
3. Battery life is enough to get you through any shamefully long gaming session, potentially not long days of travel though...
4. Bluetooth is stable, much more than the Xbox connection oddly enough.
5. Adjusting chat and game volume and muting the mic are the only settings I would consider easy or intuitive to use. The rest of its wondrous functionality will remain a mystery to me forever.
6. 3.3mm input jack allows you to use them for PC gaming without mic capability.
CONS:
1. From the very first time I turned the headset on to the last, my friends have told me my microphone quality is comically quiet and under-water sounding. I tried each of the 3-4 mic profiles, none improve the quality drastically, forcing my party mates to turn their chat volumes up just to hear me. I received similar comments when using the headset for phone calls. When I first saw this headset was boomless, I thought, "Oh nice! They finally developed a good enough mic and software to run it to effectively pick up, clean, and amplify voice input without a boom!" Ha, no. The best mic quality I was ever able to produce for someone on the other end was the result of me putting my hand in front of my face in attempt to funnel some of the sound back towards the mic which resides in the left earphone.
2. Frequent intermittent disconnects from the Xbox One docking station. You will probably have to pair this headset randomly at least once a month. I, being a stupid consumer (see history of purchase of this device) who is easily frustrated when my expensive gaming equipment doesn't work every other time I use it, do not have the patience to remember an easy pairing sequence that I have to Google once a month. The damn thing sits on its docking station 22+ hours a day, how do they forget how to talk to one another so frequently and easily?
3. There are an absurd number of settings and profiles on this headset, more than any sane person would seriously care to try. It takes at least a week of fiddling to find the settings that you think may sound best. For sound, you have gaming, music, cinema, or stereo mode to choose from. Each of these modes has anywhere between 3-7 submodes. You have to hold the buttons for different lengths of time to navigate between these modes and submodes so get your stop watch out and ready and maybe a friend to help too.
4. The buttons and profile interface on the sides of the headset's earphones are simply horrendous. Forget having these on and laying down on a pillow or sometimes even resting your head on the couch; the headphones are designed such that the cushioning around your head and headset will depress both rear buttons endlessly flipping through menu options. I could only laugh at myself the first time this happened to me. And if you accidentally press a button and make a menu change? Better pause what you're doing to cycle through 20 seconds of menu options hoping you even remember what your original selection was. In the pros I mentioned the headset's battery life was good, but potentially not good enough to get you through a long day of travel. On more than one occasion, the headset has turned itself on in my bag due to how ridiculously easy the buttons on the earphones are engaged. I have literally heard the headset's menu voice say "Mic tuned for outdoor use." while walking through the metal detector at airport security. The thing never survives a day of travel because it can't be off for more than 10 minutes before something bumps into it.
5. Maximum volume levels over bluetooth are pretty weak. Xbox game and chat volume seem to have much higher range.
I bought these refurb'd for $100 off MSRP and oh my goodness I'm glad I didn't buy them brand new. Would not recommend to anyone for what it costs. 2 stars because they effectively were my gaming headset on 2 platforms and good for travel. | video-games_xbox |
Baby-boomer Beatles devotees and hardcore plastic rockers should both be thrilled. Music games have come so far since the original Guitar Hero hit the PS2. Four years ago, we tolerated questionable covers of some of our favorite songs, and even as more music labels started lending their talent to the plastic instrument titans, a handful of classic bands remained unattainable. We had the Stones and Dylan, but there was no way we'd ever see Zeppelin, Pink Floyd or the Beatles, right? Well, still no luck on those first two, but after some cajoling and (likely) a proverbial dump truck full of money, Harmonix somehow booked the Fab Four for their first video game tour in The Beatles Rock Band.
Of course, The Beatles Rock Band is not the first band-centric music game in recent years. Metallica, Aerosmith and Van Halen have all received star treatment from competitor Guitar Hero, while Harmonix did release a pricy AC/DC disc last year as a Wal-Mart exclusive. But for The Beatles --arguably the most popular band in modern history - the developer suggested that a major overhaul was in order. And while the results may no necessarily live up to that initial announcement, baby-boomer Beatles devotees and hardcore plastic rockers should both be thrilled with the game.
If you've seen screenshots or that surreal Abbey Road commercial, you know by now that the core game doesn't deviate much from the scrolling tracks layout established previously in the genre. And though The Beatles Rock Band does encourage the (much ballyhooed) harmonies, my family, friends and I were often too tone-deaf to really put this feature to use. But while the controls remain tried-and-true, it's the presentation that truly makes this collaboration a success.
While the first two Rock Band games were always stylistically more dynamic than Guitar Hero thanks to numerous visual filters, this Beatles edition's attention to detail and psychedelic backgrounds raise the bar even higher. Shea Stadium and the Ed Sullivan set have been recreated beautifully, while the Abbey Road sojourns offer trippy music videos for the studio songs never performed live. Many of the latter transport the band outside of the studio completely. (You'll ride aboard the titular vehicle for "Yellow Submarine," for instance.)
This visual fidelity means that the customization options had to be sacrificed. This is a worthy tradeoff, as it allows Harmonix to show how the band's costumes and style evolved along with their music. Seeing them get from their early 60s mop-top/suit getup to the bearded rooftop veterans just prior to their split is truly remarkable. And assuming that you're playing the 45 songs in the order recommended for the story mode, you'll see plenty of supplementary photos and archival video snippets to back up the artistic direction.
As for the actual track list, many reviewers have already expressed frustration at the small song list. I, too, wish that "Strawberry Fields," "Norwegian Wood" and several others hadn't been omitted, but at least 44 of the songs are truly wonderful, with the early cover of "Boys" as the only oddity. Tracks like "Within You Without You" and the downloadable "All You Need is Love" show that sitars and string orchestras can be adapted to the plastic instruments as well, so songs like "Eleanor Rigby" are possible in the future.
For many of you, the opposite may be true - you're so sick of band games that even The Beatles aren't enough to lure you back. If you fall into this camp, I'd urge you to still give this Rock Band a shot. The music is so joyous, the presentation so impeccable, that you may find yourself hooked all over again.
--Reviewed by Justin Hemenway | video-games_xbox |
Mass Effect has Mass Appeal. For years, I had only heard about the game, how this series was "so good", and so on. But it wasn't until recently that I got to check it out for myself. I was blown away. It looks amazing, and although I've never really enjoyed action/shooting games, this one stands out as a gem. Anyone can pick this up and play it. The story is deep and dramatic, and there's lots to do. Lots of exploration, and one can change the outcome of certain sections of the game. The music is good but not tuneful. It's more of an ambient sound than something you can hum or whistle.
There are a few things I did not like, however. I spent a lot of my first playthrough wondering "Where the hell do I go???" It isn't always clear what you are supposed to do. Later, I learned to use the Journal feature to get the details. I'm also relieved that the Codex has information that is not essential reading in order to play the game. That could have been very badly handled, and it wasn't on this occasion.
The story feels a little short. When you reach the near-end of the game, look at your missions list in the Journal. You might feel like you didn't really do much that was story-based, but there were a number of distractions and side trips.
Also, the Mako is unbelievably bad. It handles like an effing shopping cart, and the worst part is that it's completely not-skippable. You HAVE to learn to drive this tank for many of the assignments and activities or you will not finish the game. Fortunately, it CAN be mastered, though it will take a while to figure out the mechanics of it when the game doesn't give you much opportunity to figure them out before it becomes necessary.
I highly recommend this game to anyone looking for sci-fi and space exploration games. This is probably the best one I've ever played, and I will definitely be continuing the trilogy.
PS - can I just say how beautiful male Shepard and Kaiden are? | video-games_xbox |
Awesome machine! Very impressed. I did a lot of research before diving into this generation of consoles and deciding which one to get. I held off on last gen in favor of only PC gaming as I felt they weren't as good as PC's of the day were in terms of visuals. Firstly, with the Xbox One games look pretty much the same as they do on my PC on a 1080p monitor with only minute differences noticeable if you look closely. I am really very impressed with the visuals they are able to get out of this thing for a sub $400 machine. The GPU horsepower and RAM capacity of the console is roughly equivalent to a mid range gaming PC, plenty for good looking games for years to come. Both the PS4 and Xbox have similar hardware configurations and they both produce similar looking graphics. I have compared my Xbox to my brother's PS4 and there isn't much difference between them. The PS4 does have stronger Graphics hardware and faster RAM though, so it is possible in the future the Xbox will hit a performance wall before the PS4 does.
I went with the Xbox over the PS4 because it integrates well with my PC in that the controllers work with my PC, I can stream games to my PC, and I can share media with my PC over a wireless connection. I'm not sure if you need a full blown gaming rig to play games off the Xbox, but it works with my 2013 built rig quite well. The only prerequisite I know of is you need to be running Windows 10 and you need the wireless USB dongle for the controllers to be used on your PC. It's a pretty useful feature if you want to play a game and someone else wants to watch TV. It was pretty easy to set up as well. It does lag a bit sometimes but I think this is due to my internet scenario; I run my gaming rig on a wireless connection and the Xbox is wired. My ISP speed is also not the fastest. It does all the streaming over your home network, using your router to connect the two devices once they are set up.
Aside from the PC integration, the Xbox is also a much better media machine than the PS4 is. Firstly, it's quieter. The cooling fan is barely noticeable no matter what the console is doing. My brother's PS4 on the other hand can get very loud when it heats up. I do feel the current media remote for the PS4 is better than the Xbox remote, but they both work fine for navigating apps. Both consoles have large hard drives in them, but the Xbox can use external USB 3.0 drives larger than 256 MB. Games and all types of media can be stored and read from an external, making it easy to put movies on the drive to play on the Xbox. You can only have one or the other on a drive at a time though, as once the Xbox formats the drive for games it can't be used as a media drive. Movies can also be streamed from your own home network to the Xbox. Set up your home network with all your computers able to share media, and the Xbox can detect them in the media player app. You can have your own streaming media server! Blu Rays and DVDs also play well on the Xbox. I am unsure if it reads HD DVDs for those who have some from the 360 days. the Xbox can output at 4k for media, and I believe it does for certain apps like Netflix that support 4k streaming. I haven't tested this yet as I have a 1080p TV, but a friend who owns one told me it works.
Simply stated, the Xbox is a jack of all trades for entertainment in the living room. It works well for any given form of entertainment be it gaming or movies/TV. The PS4 on the other hand is tailored mostly to gaming. Remember the Xbox can stream games to your PC, something the PS4 cannot and will not ever do. As such if you only want to game on console only and watch occasional movies and aren't interested in the PC integration of the Xbox, the PS4 is a better system. If you are a heavy media user and a PC and console gamer at the same time like I am, the Xbox is your system. | video-games_xbox |
The best racing gaming of all time. First let me say that I love this game. I play Need for Speed games all the time and I am the best at racing games among my buddies but since this game came out I haven't even looked at my Need for Speed games. Even though I love this game I can not say that it is a 5 star game. There are a few problems with the game. The worst part of this game is vehicle handling. The best and fastest cars feel like the worst stock cars on Need for Speed. It is especially problematic that all the cars seem like they are drifters. If you try to speed up to fast even if you are going straight there is a good chance that you will start drifting or maybe even spin out. I can not tell you how many times I have almost lost the race when I was 10 feet from the finish line simply because my car started drifting. Here is a list of other Pros and Cons:
Pros:
Control the environment to destroy your enemies cars
Great graphics
Cons:
Vehicle handling sucks
Sometimes you can have the fastest cars available but the other cars (and trucks) will still pass you
No speedometer
No NOS
You crash too easily. If a car hits you too hard or you hit the wall (it doesn't even have to be that hard) you will crash. I hope this gets fixed in the future.
Another good thing about the game is that it doesn't cheat like other racing games including Need for Speed. How many times have you been starting a race and two cars try to box you in or pin you to the wall or otherwise slow you down while the other cars race on in other racing games? Well, you don't have to worry about that in Split Second. Though, sometimes in the game it doesn't matter how fast you are going and what car you have because you can get passed. Even if you're going full speed in one of the fastest cars and they have the slowest truck!
I know the Pros list is a lot smaller than the Cons list but the blowing up the environment is so much fun that its worth buying the game new. It is a blast with friends. I just hope on the next one they at least make the vehicle handling better! | video-games_xbox |
FINALLY. Thankyou! We finally get a game that has the battles from the movies new and old and are able to play any part or role in them including driving the vehicles involved in the specific battles. The only thing that brings it down is the somewhat redundant battles that aren't in the movies that don't have any vehicles, which is the greatest point about the game, other than the fact that you can pic virtually any main soldier character other than ewoks :'(. I just have to say that the greatest thing about the game is of course Hoth.
A Brief History of Contemporary Hoth:
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire -
Flying a snowspeeder and shooting AT-ST's, probe droids, and AT-AT's was exiting the first time, but going back to this version is sort of dull.
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron -
The music was better than SOTE, and so were the graphics and overall quality of the level. Again, you are the lone wolf having to take down all AT-AT's and AT-ST's alone. This one was hard at first.
Rogue Leader -
Finally a team effort has been brought into the battle of Hoth. You can command your squadmates and the overall feel of the battle is more hectic and like the movie as people on the ground join in the fighting as well.
Rebel Strike -
If you've played Hoth in this you know what I'm going to say. This was the goofiest thing I've ever seen. Being Luke running around on the ground is how it happened in the movie, and it was a good effort to mix it up a bit, but it's very tacky.
BATTLEFRONT -
Finally, Hoth from every possible viewpoint of the battle. You can be rebels, or the Empire which is by far the coolest. The first time I piloted an AT-AT I couldn't believe it. I was stunned. The AT-ST's are also quit good, and I must say very intimidating from the rebel's point of view. The Taun-Tauns are pointless other than for speed, and the Snowspeeders are cool too, since you can sit in the back and let the pilot fly and shoot lasers. VERY COOL
My only complaint is the levels without vehicles and the fact that there aren't many levels.
Also, the Geonosis battle isn't as hectic as it was in the movie, and on XBOX i expected people to be running around everywhere, but it seemed sort of quiet.
The Kashyyyk duo is the most pointless thing ever also. | video-games_xbox |
Brilliant idea, but some serious problems too. I'm a guitar teacher, a grade 8 guitar player, and a performing musician.
Rocksmith is a really great idea. I got the game with much excitement. However, here are the main issues with it.
1) There is no tablature for any of the songs, and the rocksmith guitar notation is substandard to normal notation, and a pain in the butt to learn to read - especially if you have already spent years and years becoming proficient at reading real music. For example, when I learned 'Plug In Baby' by Muse, it was from a tab book with timings written clearly in the stave above. On Rocksmith there's a very very unclear timing guide and the notes on harder songs are laid out like a bewildering onslaught of multicoloured squares that, if you're a serious musician, the only way to really figure out is to actually painstakingly work through them with GuitarPro or a similar program, converting them all into standard tab.
2) There is no way to turn up the guitar track you are supposed to be learning, or to listen to it in isolation. An intensely irritating example of this would be 'Live Forever' by Oasis, where in the original track, the lead guitar parts are virtually inaudible in the mix. When learning the song on the hardest setting, not only do you have to endure the at times indecipherable rocksmith guitar notation (which is great if you're a beginner and a nightmare if you're not) but you can't even listen to it to figure out the timings! In the end I had to go on youtube and watch people playing the piece perfectly so that i could actually hear the lead part!!!!! very much not ideal. This issue occurs in lots of songs and could easily be remedied by allowing the player to turn up the individual guitar part, or listen to it in isolation.
3) The game requires you to hook the audio outputs of your system to an external speaker using analogue connectors to reduce the audio/video lag. This works just fine. However, there is STILL a lag when playing the game on 'score attack' mode - and the lag exists between the playing of the guitar and the game processing the notes. What this means in real terms, is the game will only tell you you have hit a 'perfect' note if you actually hit the note a millisecond too early. And on the more difficult songs, this amounts to having to retrain yourself to actually play out of time if you want the game to register a perfect performance. Of all the issues, this one is the most glaring, frustrating, and seemingly ignored by the makers, Ubisoft. It means the leaderboards are also a bit of a farce - the people who score the high marks who have the time and inclination to relearn how to play guitar a split second too fast - and what on earth is the real-world application or point of a skill like that? Give me a break.
If these issues were fixed - tabs, adjustable volume levels for guitar parts completely buried in the mix, and fixing that hideous hideous processing lag, this game would be utterly indispensable as a guitar teaching tool worldwide. As it is, it is a very good idea that has, unfortunately, been imperfectly executed. If they fix these things, I will take it all back. | video-games_xbox |
Don't listen to the bad reviews. ~First of all the people complaining about it being too hard clearly didn't take five minutes to adjust it. You can adjust just about everything in the game so if it's too hard make it easier duhh. Secondly for realism this game is second to none. I have played all the nhl, faceoff, nhl2k series, since 93 and this is the best. Hitting is easier then they make it seem. All you have to do is move the right analog stick in the direction of the opponent not charge up and hit extra buttons. ~~ Although it takes a little time getting used to the controls they allow for much greater detail. You can play the puck from in between your feet and pull off some amazing moves with pinpoint precision. The franchise mode is amazing, allowing everything from setting practices to investing more money in staff and equipment upgrades, to even adjusting ticket prices. This is the first game where free agency actually means something. I.E you can get real players and being that you also have~~ revenue constraints to worry about you actually can lose a good player. Finally a game that makes a franchise mode worth investing some of your time into. The potential rating allows you to gauge which low tier players are worth investing money into for future seasons and trading draft picks means something. There are admitedly a few flaws. I agree with the not displaying types of injuries and time left remaining on them is plain stupid. Also players do tend to accrue rediculous stats. I~~ am barely half way through and there are guys at 100 points or more. But considering the fact that winning means fans fill the seats so no matter how many 100 point guys the other teams have i'm still number one in revenue and playoff position makes these flaws overlookable. If you have been looking for an NHL game with the feel of the real NHL and adaptability that just can't be found anywhere else then this is the game for you.~ | video-games_xbox |
Decent game wish I could get my copy ( T_T . Okay this is going to be a two part review one of this video game and one of my experiences with ordering this game through Amazon.
3/5 stars to the game
First this game is extremely beautiful over all. The graphics to the CGI is just amazing and stunning. If anything this game can show some of the real possibilities visually that the x-box will be providing with gaming as the years come. The down side of this game is rather larger though as it's really pretty much a button mashing game. There are lots of combos that for the most part can be used or you can just mash buttons and just randomly pull them off rather successfully I might add.. I was able to hit a 5000 kill rate with combo after combo without ever learning a single one (didn't even know at first there were combos lol). That was about 10 mins into the game. I guess this makes it easily playable for most people. It's very much like dynasty warriors game series in some aspects. The story is pretty good if you can get past the worst voice acting I think I've ever heard and I play RPGs a lot and it's pretty amazing how bad it is (muted tv and put on subtitles). Over all the game is pretty fun though my thumb gets tired after an hour or 2 from the just repeated mashing as thousands of soldiers are running at you. I wasn't impressed with the lack of equipment slots. You get 3 slots for accessories and a weapon slot. Nothing else. Highly suggest downloading the free demo from x-box live and trying the game out before you buy.
0/5 stars to Amazon
Now for my ordering experience with Amazon and this game:
Okay originally I ordered my copy on July 6th. At this time it said on this site it was available and ships in 1-2 weeks. I was looking forward to playing a new x-box game so went ahead and ordered it. Turns out the actual release date was set for Aug. 16th, but Amazon made a mistake and was selling it as available now (they changed it a week later to pre-order it now). I called them up complaining that they should get their facts straight before taking orders. Well with not so much as any warning btw they didn't even email the people that did order this during the available now time to tell them "hey sorry, but we made a mistake". I had to call them to find out what was going on. So I sucked it up said, "fine whatever I'll wait until Aug 16th" not like I have much of a choice. So today is Aug 16th and my next door neighbor is playing his copy right now. Do I have my copy NOPE. I have this great email though about how they're sorry, but we've delayed your order again. We'll be shipping your copy between Sep 18th ~ Sep 21st and they sent this email to me today on the 16th. I guess I should be happy I even got an email at all telling me. Don't bother if you have a problem with Amazon calling their customer service either. They just use some over Seas Company in India to deal with it and they have been absolutely of no help in explaining why it was delayed or anything else in this matter. I should have just pre-ordered it from the game shop down the street. At least I'd have my own copy today instead of playing it at my friend's house. Let's just say I'm not happy at all with them right now.
~*Update to this*~
Well I recieved my copy surprisingly before Sep. 18th. Got to play through my own copy instead of spending hours at friends house playing it. Nothing in my review has changed other then I hate the lack of save points in the game as others have mentioned. If you do died later in the game when levels take 20+ mins to complete having to repeat the level is no fun. Still consider this a button mashing, hack and slash, no brain required, look at the pretty lights, semi rpg game. Don't suggest buying it. Renting it might be a better option or borrowing it from a friend. I'm sure there are much better games to blow 50 bucks on. | video-games_xbox |
Weak. The good: Good story lines, interesting characters, cool cars, great graffics, etc.
The bad: There is very little instruction during many of the missions so you'll find yourself failing a lot and having no idea what you're doing wrong or what you should be doing instead. I find it funny that they realized how bad some of the missions are and chose to put in a skip mission option rather than just make the missions better, more playable, or just put in some further instructions on those missions.
The driving is sub par with cars overly willing to spin out and lose control rather than maintain course after even the slightest of collisions which makes moving around the game very frustrating and time consuming. So you'll find yourself calling for cabs a lot, but frequently they don't show up at all or take several minutes to show up and by then you've lost patience and took off on foot. There is far too much traffic as well slowing you down that much more and the roads are usually just a little too narrow to try and squeeze between all the cars on the road. It all just makes for a slow frustrating experience.
Unlike GTA 4 where your cheat codes can be typed in one time and then they automatically save in the character's phone for future quick access under fire, in the xbox 360 version at least, they are around 12 buttons long and have to be entered on the fly while playing. Then to make it worse, the cheat codes consist of buttons that you wouldn't want to press during shootouts or while driving. For example, you're driving down the freeway at god knows what speed and have to enter a code but the code has the Y button in it so when youenter the code the player jumps from the moving vehicle and dies!!!! How does that help exactly? Again, just slows you down and makes for a very slow and frustrating experience.
Lastly, one of the absolute most fun parts of past GTA games was the ability to utilize the cheat codes to access guns and body armour and get into huge shootouts with the cops and here and there put the code in again to keep your heath up so extend the fun of watching the police force get bigger and bigger until they call in the actual army and you basically fighting a one man war, and winning!!! Now how ever, in combination with the cheat codes being so slow, the cop's are far more leathal and will kill you way too fast for you to have any fun. Boring!!!
Overall, I wish I hadn't bought this game. This is the weakest version of GTA since it's rebirth in GTA 3.
Update: This game is terrible. I got about halfway through and it just died. It keeps freezing up and crashing my Xbox. I looked it up online and it is a very common problem! Skip this game at all costs, it's a complete waste of money at any price!!! | video-games_xbox |
Choose your path. I've seen people love this game and hate this game, either there not a star wars fan or they hate the battle system.
I myself love star wars and the battle sysetm in this game.
The battle system is simple yet fun at the same time. You and however many party members you have attack then your enemy attacks.
At first you will hate it or think it's slow but as the game progresses you get many mmore attacks and defenses and will get more involved.
The music is Star Wars. New and old music that everyone will love.
The story as someone said in their review is worthy of being the script of a film. The story is what won this game awards.
It also completely changes weather you follow the dark or light.
The characters your with you come to love and you can talk to them whenever and they have a large wealth and background info to uncover.
The voice acting is also well put together and ingages you more down the path of realism.
I would overall rate this game a 9.7 out of 10
When adding the flaws and good side.
This would be on my top 3 games of all time.
Pros
- Engaging and very great story.
- Great voice work
- Splended music
- Star Wars fans will fall in love
- Large explorable worlds
- Great combat, many weapons and custamizable weapons.
- Long story, game ranges from 20 - 35 hours long. { It took me 26 my first time and my longest 33 - depending on all the side missions you do}
Cons
- Graphics most of the time are fuzzy {unless your playing it on 360}.
- Very, very, very slow load times
- I have beat the game 12 times, 5 dark, 7 light and after you have played through the story on both sides at least twice {4 total} it will get old after you know the story.
- People say that it freezes often, mine hasn't ever but the framerate has slowed down during a large battle.
Overall, I hope my review was helpfull and I believe the game is $20 now and thats great for a game this good. | video-games_xbox |
Single Player Mode GREAT!! Multiplayer not so good. Wait for BLACK OPS. The multi-player is where I had the major issue with the game!! First of all I could not even get in a game for the first couple of hours because an error message displayed that "EA servers were down and to try again later".... REALLY!! I bought this game specifically to play ONLINE!! After two hours of trying to get into a game I was placed into a random game. First of all there was a "Choppy" feel to the movement of the game. It was not a fluid as CODMW2 (not even close). You get to choose from three different classes (Sniper, Special OPS, Rifleman). The Sound effects are sub-par (non-realistic). It is very hard to see when you make a kill. When you are killed there is no kill cam (which is helpful when learning a game). There is no re-spawn wait time (which is weird). It is very hard to see targets from a medium distance and impossible at long distances!
All in all this game was a major disappointment!!! I plan on finishing the single player mode this week and then selling back. If you had to make a choice between getting this game or waiting for BLACK OPS..... I would certainly wait for BLACK OPS November 9th!!!!!!!!!!!!! <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Call-of-Duty-Black-Ops/dp/B003JVKHEQ/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Call of Duty: Black Ops</a>
UPDATE**10/20/2010
Just finished the game. It was AWESOME!! This is the first/first person shooter (single player) I have enjoyed in a while!!(that was not c.o.d.) The graphics and game play were top notch. The story line was great and realistic. You get to drive a ATV through the MTS of Afghanistan and shoot a Gatling gun from a chopper!!! among other things! The difficulty is on the easier side,but if you are like me and play after work for a couple hours, it works out great!! I would buy this game just for the one player.....The multi-player still doesn't do it for me, So Im still selling back, but GREAT GAME! | video-games_xbox |
A Must-Buy. The first thing that will immediately strike you about this game is that it is exceedingly weird. Let me try to give you the story to the Rayman universe as best I can. Rayman Origins and the other games in the series take place in a land called The Glade of Dreams, created by the dreams of the mysterious Bubble Dreamer. The Bubble Dreamer manifests himself as a large, humanoid creature with a long, orange beard and likes to hang out with the main characters of the game. A great evil is awoken by the incredibly loud snoring of our heroes: the limbless, hoodie-wearing Rayman, the blue, oddly proportioned Globox, and two small, large-nosed creatures known as the teensies. The great evil (the main enemies of the game) are manifestations of the Bubble Dreamer's nightmares. This strange story makes for some very interesting settings and colorful, unique enemies and allies.
The second thing that will immediately strike you about this game is that it has a distinct retro feel to it. It is a platforming game set in a 2D environment, much like Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog. It has bright, vivid colors and is a sight to behold in crisp HD. The controls are simple and the concept simpler. Run, jump, punch, and glide through each level to collect as many Lums (small, yellow creatures) as you can in a level, and save all the Electoons (small, pink creatures) from their cages at the end of each level (with a few extra tucked away in secret areas). The responsive controls coupled with the colorful environments and some truly unique music make every level a joy to go through again and again to find all the secrets you may have missed on a first run, as well as complete timed sections only unlocked after a first run-through of the level.
The game's length will keep the average gamer busy for a couple weeks, with more hardcore gamers finishing it in a weekend, but loads replayability is added with collectables hidden in every level and the ability to play with three additional players. The difficulty ramps up quite a bit towards the end and really starts to feel like an old game for the Super Nintendo with it's tricky jumps and tough obstacles, but with sufficient skill even a casual gamer could finish it with some effort.
All in all, it's a blast and I definetly recommend picking up a copy whenever you get the chance. Right now it only runs for about $20-$30 depending on which system you get it for, so it's well worth the cash. On the whole, it's hard to find any faults with this game. A must-buy. | video-games_xbox |
IMPORTANT UPDATE Fallout 3 GOTY / Xbox360 4GB Slim Version. This GOTY of the game comes on 2 separate DVDs - Disk #1 the main game and Disk#2 The DLCs - However; if you only have the Xobox360/ 4GB version you won't be able to install the DLCs and will get a message error telling you that you need a MS HDD.
The reason is Bethesda never updated this game since 2010 and a lock of 520mb of storage from Microsoft was still present back in time when this edition had been retailed.
Furthermore: The Xbox 360 4GB/Version(s) do not have a hard drive, (the 4GB space are onto a Flash drive) -
Additionally: Even if you have an additional flash drive plugged on one of the two USB slot in the front of the console you won't be able to install the DLCs because of this outdated MS restriction and the lack of recent update for this game.
Consequently, you have 2 possibilities to resolve that issue.
1/ Buy an official MS/HDD or a third party (Be aware the some of the 3rd parties HDD could be not compatible (?), and carefully read the review before buying one)
2/ Second solution and the less expansive, take a USB flash drive not bigger than 16GB*, format that flash drive to Xbox 360 external drive via your console*. Try to find a friend who had a xb360 WITH MS hard drive on it (Old Xbox 360 version, or Xbox 360 slim with the 250 HDD...) install your disk #2 onto the hard drive of your friend, plug your formatted USB flash drive and then move copy/past or move your DLCs on your formatted flash drive. Then put your flash drive onto your 4GB console and it should work.
*I mention above USB flash drive no more than 16GB because MS/XB360 won't allow you to use more than 16GB of external storage per flash drive. (Example if you have a 32 GB USB Flash drive that you wish in 360 format for some external Storage, the MS limit is only 16GB - you won't get a 32GB USB flash drive of storage, and loose the rest of the GB during the format process.
I hope it helps some of you | video-games_xbox |
Final fantasy on rails. First the good parts: the graphics in game and cut scene are fantastic. The transition between the two is seamless. The characters, enemies, and environments are well animated. When you put all this together it's almost shiny and impressive enough to make you ignore all the issues.
First off, as many have said the game is not open world. You are stuck on a track and the limit of exploration is walking down a side hallway to open a treasure chest. The characters are a little boring and forgettable. It was hard for me to care about what happened to them. The spoils system is seldom rewarding even when you kill some tough enemies very quickly. The next two items are definitely related to personal preference but count against the game imo. In addition to shoehorning you into a certain path, the game also forces you to play a certain way and use some characters abilities that you'd rather not. I found the sentinel mind numbingly boring, especially when you only have two characters. But the game would force me into twenty minute battles with normal enemies that had ridiculous attacks designed to force you to use the sentinel (cough gatling gun cough). I also hate ticking clocks as a plot device. When the characters were branded I almost turned it off right then.
In general the feeling I got from the game was that there was a very stern game designer behind my shoulder constantly going "that's not how we wanted you to approach this enemy. Here. Just hand me the controller. I'll show you the right way." I got to the brynhilder fight and realized that I had started googling every tough enemy or boss as soon as the battle started because otherwise I was dead in ten seconds. This is a final fantasy game. I should have some freedom in how I play and shouldn't need a strategy guide before I even try it on my own. When I realized I was letting the game play me I decided I had enough. The lack of interesting characters or plot meant I had no real investment in sticking around for more punishment. | video-games_xbox |
Darks Souls, The Game of the Year. Probably one of the more amazing games of the generation. The graphics are absolutely beautiful, there is literally no difference between the 360 version and the PS3 version. I have played through the game on both consoles and I love it - to death!!! This game is quite difficult and harkens back to a day when games offered value and challenge. I have to say there are points in the game, like when you hit Andor Londo, that just take your breathe away as you look over a vast ancient city. The best part is you actually get to run around in it!
There is online play, but it's more of a cooperative system meant to offer assistance, but not intended to be a straight up co-op game. People have been known to get together with friends, but it's not made easy. If you've played Demon Souls, then you know what you're in for and it's an easy sell. If you haven't ever played it's spiritual successors, King's Field I-IV and Demon Souls, then be aware that this game is about challenging the player. I can't say that enough. The game offers a variety of classes for a variety of play styles. Enjoy big weapons that hit hard, this game has that. Enjoy quick weapons that you can poke them with the pointy end? It has that too. Enjoy spells that utterly blow everything up all over the place? It's covered! You have stealth classes, mixed classes, and whatever else you want to come up with. The games the total package, and unlike a lot of companies that like to break their games up into pieces to sell back to you, or nickel and dime you with unlock codes for costumes and stuff like that, this game doesn't do any of that. You get what you pay for, and that's how it should be.
Pro's:
- NO ONLINE PASS!!
- NO ABUSIVE DLC BROKEN UP TO MILK YOU FOR MONEY!!!!!
- YOU GET A COMPLETE GAME IN THE BOX!!!
- Challenging gameplay
- Outstanding graphics and music score
- 100's of hours of entertainment
Con's:
- Only negative I can think of is if you don't have the heart to die and experiment with solving
problems, then this isn't the game of you. If it's too hard, then you're too weak. | video-games_xbox |
A good game, but needed more time to iron out the Bugs (No pun intended. Looney Tunes Acme Arsenal is a run and gun game where players control a fair list of Looney Tunes to battle through time to stop the evil Dr. Frankenbeans from destroying their ancestors and erasing the Tunes from history. Players control Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Marvin The Martian, Foghorn Leghorn, Taz, Gossamer and even a hulked out version of Bugs across several zany and colorful levels. What stands in our heroes' way is an assortment of evil robots of all shapes and sizes, but our heroes are prepared. Not only does each Toon have his own upgradeable melee attack for close quarters combat, there's a TON of guns at the player's disposal. Shotguns, machine guns, rocket launchers, and even pie shooting guns, to mention just a few.
Controls are tight and responsive, but there are a few instances where the game feels like it's fighting you. Melee combat has a small smattering of combos, depending on what the player does when a Robot is dizzy. At the base level of attacking, robots (the small ones, anyway) take three hits to get dizzy, and these must be three back to back hits. If there is a delay in there, it will not be counted. The second upgrades takes two hits to make them dizzy, and the final upgrade only takes one. The toons also have a spin attack, which doubles as a jump extension, making it easier to get across those longer gaps if your double jump wasn't quite enough.
The combat feels a bit loose at first, but once you take the time to play with it and learn it, it feels fine. Sadly, this is where the complaining starts. Certain enemy attacks make our heroes drop coins (currency for the vending machines) or the green rods. The absolute worst offenders are the archer robots who run away from you and take potshots at you, and the small enemies like the buzz saw robots or the red bouncing things in the dinosaur world. Sure, it's fairly easy to get them back, but it's a bit frustrating to be cornered by enemies who's attacks take away green rods, and not being able to attack, so you get downgraded to your base attack. This is rare, for me at least, but it doesn't stop it from being frustrating when it happens. Also, the game sometimes is a bit picky about its platforming. In the dinosaur level, near the end of the first stage, you have to ride on pterodactyls, but it is easy to slip off them and fall down into an area that damages you. This also takes out green rods with each it.
And to appeal to the completionist crowd, there's some hidden goodies to find, such as trophies and costumes. The game even allows you to replay levels, and with any unlocked character of your choice Also peppered in are a few vehicle levels, only about three of them though. They control a little oddly, and I feel they were tacked on last minute. . They're not horrible, but they seem a little out of place and even drag on a little longer than they should, but they're over fast so they're not a deal breaker.
What may be a deal breaker for some is the glitches. The game seems a bit rushed, and while the glitches never stopped me from finishing the game, they could lead me to a few cheap deaths that did not feel like they were my fault. And to add onto that, the camera can be a pain in the butt to control? It really doesn't like to stay behind you in narrow areas, and this is annoying when you are waiting for a moving platform, or trying to find something you're supposed to shoot. Speaking of shooting, the game also features a lock on feature, but it's very hit or miss. Sometimes the toons target breakable objects, enemies you aren't trying to attack, even walls. The game should have included a manual aim, and I feel this would have ironed this out, especially near the end, where you had to shoot levers to move platforms, and locking onto them was a pain in the rear. The camera also likes to stay behind our heroes in wide open areas, but these are where the bosses are, and keeping the boss in your sights can be finicky at times.
The game really needed a few more months of development time to iron out these kinks. But while they can frustrate you at times, I still enjoyed the ride the game provided for me, though saying it wasn't a bumpy one would be a lie. As for how the game looks and sounds, that part of the game really does shine. The areas are bright and colorful...most of them are. Some areas are really dark, and there isn't a brightness setting, and I found myself walking into pits because I couldn't see them. And there are times when sound effects don't play when they're supposed to, and characters' lines get cut off here and there. But that aside, the game really does look good. The characters sound like they should, I think some of the major Looney Tunes Actors, such as the late Joe Alaskey, reprised some of their characters, but I couldn't confirm that.
The game also features a battle mode, where you and up to three friends can duke it out across stages, unlocked as you play through the game. I was not able to test this feature so I can't say if it works or not. But it sounds like a good mode.
In the end, is Acme Arsenal a game worth grabbing? Well, if you are willing to forgive the game's glitches, or have that one Looney Tunes mega fan in your life, then I say go ahead if you can find it for cheap. Please don't play over twenty bucks for it, it's not THAT good. Overall, a good game held back by its glitches. | video-games_xbox |
Outstanding. The first time I had played Crysis 1 was about year ago, and I heard it required a pretty powerful computer to play and experience high end quality and free sandbox style gameplay. My computer wasn't powerful but I had chance to play on friend's computer and was totally WOW!!!
When I heard about the sequel to Crysis was going to be released, I had two thing in my mind, gameplay & graphics. And of course the story, which allows to develop the universe of whole new game
Answer to two things:
IT DELIVERS AS PROMISED!!!!!
The gameplay of Crysis 2:
It has been streamlined significantly to have more responsive and faster pace shooter experience. The powers of Nanosuit 2.0 makes you feel sometimes like super solider going in guns blazing or stealthly assassinating enemies. With exciting new story which starts out a little slow until half way through the game, it picks significant pace and development on the bond between you and your fictional Nanosuit. It truly makes your think and feel wonders of this technological weapon of future. You can be bullet sponge, then blow up everyone with grenades or get perfect headshots. Cloak right away and dissappear from your enemies. These are some of the features of the game. There have been some glitches in campaign, for example most common to be AI tend to become dumb otherwise most of the time, they are intelligent to take cover, try to flank or regroup and mount assault with a larger force, anything to stop at all costs. This gives the player the opportunity and challenge to play the game your WAY!!!
Graphics - Crytek worked very hard to make their new game engine "CryEngine3" to be multiplatform. I have got game for xbox and this game engine demostrated high end graphics from really old xbox 360, which has severe amount limations, but still Crytek deliver an superb graphics, appreciation of detail is very high. The shading is so organic with lighting effects to be perfectly go together, giving the feel of New york at your screen. As the game progesses, you will see specatular situations, all render realtime while playing. They just too beautiful.
Multiplayer = Probably the weakest link
The realase of demo of Crysis featured mutliplayer with two maps. I have played long enough that I really liked but there were a lot of bugs. I hope they would remove most of it. Still the full version of game tends to suffer in networking issues mostly. This has caused alot of angry fans cannot enjoy a simple game without any problems. Otherwise it offers a lot of things to do in multiplayer. Various maps, tons of suit upgrades to weapon customization. In the upcoming days, I am quite content with my progess in multiplayer.
Crytek said that they are working real hard to patch up the problems. Hopefully providing a smooth experiece soon.
Verdict: As a gamer, we should embrace newer technology, so we can enjoy true next gen games with mindblowing experience. It is safe to say that Crysis 2 has bombed the stanards of FPS in the market now. Go ahead the campaign is very long about 12 hours on Soldier difficulty. Some really memorable moments which are simple worth playing over and over again.
Personal Message me, if you wish to specifics of the game
Crysis 2 FTW!!!! enjoy going Maximum gaming
CLOAK ENGAGED!!! | video-games_xbox |
Even better than FF:XIII. First off, let me just say that this is a great game that continues where its predecessor left. It does have a few flaws, however.
I really enjoyed Final Fantasy XIII, and XIII-2 picks everything up and makes it at least a little better. The battles are just as fast, maybe even a little faster, which is great. There's also more strategy in the paradigm selection with the introduction of the monster paradigm pack. The environments are just as expansive and beautiful as its predecessor. Add to that the ability to use the Historia Crux to replay every single minute of the story - albeit with your current levels and equipment - and it makes for a very rewarding experience. You can't really miss any achievements, and you can go back and beat the snot out of any enemy that ever gave you trouble, which is a boon to completionist players like myself. It also takes considerably less time to get all the achievements, and with less super-repetitive "grinding" (a word that should never be used in conjunction with a game that's supposed to be fun).
The boss enemies on the Achylte Steppe are also far less frustrating: in XIII, the Long Guis could crush a 100% healthy party with ultimate weapons, the best accessories, and maximum Crystarium upgrades at any time with a single attack (sometimes the very first opening attack of the battle) if you weren't super lucky. In XIII-2, the boss enemies are still challenging (you must still find the right paradigm deck), but they will never just stomp you and be done with a single attack unless you're grossly under-leveled. You may meet an enemy that your paradigms can only chip away for upwards of 30 minutes, but you can usually still win as long as you have a healer. XIII also made it very difficult to use a single paradigm deck for the whole game. XIII-2 continues that for most of the story, but there comes a point late in the game where your characters are actually powerful enough that a single deck will work just fine. And, finally, item and gil collection is considerably less of a time-consuming PITA than it was in XIII.
The one major detractor is pretty much every Moogle-related aspect of the game. Mog is just annoying, and he's there from the beginning. The "Time Rift Puzzles" that he drags you into are also time-wasting, not-fun pieces of extra mini-game junk. In previous Final Fantasy incarnations, the mini-games were fun distractions from the story. In XIII-2, Time Rifts must be completed to advance through some parts of the story, and you have to complete all of them in the game in order to get all the achievements. They're puzzles, which in and of themselves aren't difficult. But each time you enter a rift, you have to solve 2-6 of the same type of puzzle, and each instance is more difficult. There are 3 different kinds, and the worst ones are the "Hands of Time" where you have to move clock hands and hit each number/position on the 'face' of the clock exactly once. You have a fairly limited amount of time to do so and failing causes the puzzle to reset to a random layout, meaning you can't just keep trying (like with the other two types of puzzles that aren't randomized). When the clocks have 3-6 positions, they're very easy, but they get super complicated in a hurry when they reach 8 positions. I actually had to break out pen and paper, copy down the puzzle, pause the game, and take upwards of 30 minutes to solve some of them (more time with each extra position, which got up to something like 12). Keep in mind that this is 30 minutes per puzzle instance, and there are 2-6 instances per rift, and a couple dozen rifts in the game. In short: I spent several HOURS scribbling on PIECES OF PAPER to solve puzzles in a VIDEO GAME. That was absurdly not fun, a massive waste of time, and is really the only reason I can't give this game a solid 5 stars.
Also, Square-Enix still can't seem to figure out how DLC is supposed to work. FF:XIII-2 has a LOT of DLC, but each and every one is worthless, adds nothing of any value to the game, and comes in at very steep prices. They feel like massive insults. So a word of advice: if you get the game, don't waste your money on any downloads. | video-games_xbox |
A game unworthy of the good Bethesda name. Before I begin I would like to say I'm a big fan of Bethesda's games. The Fallout and Elder Scrolls titles are among my most favorite games of all time. I really wanted to like this game and it pains me to have to be a "hater", but this is one of the worst games I've ever played. My main gripes are the graphics are very poor in comparison to other current titles and despite all of the cool customization and the unique SMART movement system I found the gameplay itself to be extremely repetitive and boring.
For reference, I played the game on a 40 inch 1080p LCD television with the newer "Slim" Xbox 360 connected via HDMI. I found the in game rendering to be a bit blurry and pixelated at medium to long range and up close the graphics were just so-so. I watched a number of pre-release trailers, interviews, and gameplay videos and had the expectation the game would have resembled these in quality, but I was disappointed. My wife commented the game looked like it was from 5 years ago. While I don't think its that bad, it's still not very good.
As for the game play, the single player is very much like the multiplayer. You have the same handful of maps and limited objectives. While other team based FPS games such as Battlefield and Call of Duty have similar limitations (in terms of maps and objectives) and are still quite fun, this game paradigm just doesn't translate into fun in Brink. The maps feel small, the missions/objectives are very bland (go here and destroy/defend this, go here and wait for someone else to do something, escort person X to here or keep them from getting to here, etc) and you just feel like you are grinding through games leveling your character with the false hope that with just one more level you will break into the land of gaming awesomeness.
I had high expectations for this game. The developers had a lot of good ideas, the pre-release trailers were indicative of an excellent game and Bethesda was involved in the game's development which led me to pre-order the game. I don't know where they went wrong, but the finished product was poorly implemented and feels as though it was rushed to the market. Bethesda should have realized how poor this game was and either pulled the plug or pushed the schedule out to allow the developers to rework the game. Instead it feels like their corporate overlords decided to cash out and slap their name on the side of the box knowing their endorsement would sell many copies by itself. Bethesda should be ashamed for publishing such a poor quality product. I hope this is not indicative of what is to come for Bethesda's future titles such as Skyrim. | video-games_xbox |
The remake to beat all remakes. For someone who has played his fair share of turn-based games, there are certainly more bright moments than there are dull ones. There are the Civilization games which stand on a plateau all by themselves, and the Alpha Centauri games that were spawned with such great success into the market. Looking for more examples of great franchises is easy, Heroes of Might and Magic was a powerhouse in the Fantasy genre and even if you added the Art of War military franchise into the picture, you'll get nothing to complain about.
So, what about XCOM and why should one care about this game? XCOM: Enemy Unknown is the reboot of the hugely acclaimed UFO: Enemy Unknown, which was surprisingly a cult hit in its time. For a game that applies such a simple premise as Earth's forces repelling away strange and dangerous extraterrestrials, it delivered a deep turn-based strategy game that holds up to the test of time. This modern remake brings with it a huge, new coat of polish and an engaging combat system that amplifies the depth even to the point of excellence unseen in the genre.
You can certainly play this game like a mad man and ignore all aspects of cover and concealment, but you will slowly get your *** handed to you. Your soldiers will drop like flies. You will cry a great deal. You will lament the game's unforgiving difficulty, when it throws yet another impossible-to-kill mini UFO that can possibly wipe out anyone of your soldiers with a single blast at any time. You will be get so angry and get pulled into this tactical strategy game, in the vein of Company of Heroes but with a turn based slant.
Deceptively complex under a simple system is how I would describe this wonderfully made game in which you attempt to repel an imminent Alien invasion. It sounds epic because it is, but you aren't the hero like in Halo, but a commander of common men and women, all required to be equipped with tech more similar to Doom's or Quake's, maybe with just a little more sophisticated science fiction feel.
You'd often question every tactical decision, which are, in fact, dilemmas brilliantly presented perhaps as a unintended consequence when every known urban combat practice is thrown in. You will discover a good deal of combat philosophies going in, and that makes for pretty much all the fun you'd want to take away from the game.
If a game studio sees fit to put on some rather impressive stylized and 3D graphics on a game that really has unlimited ways of expanding itself, XCOM isn't to be taken lightly. Stable, very intriguing and the poster child for the idea of games as a benchmark for a gamer's respectability, XCOM can pull you in and not let you go. | video-games_xbox |
Now, see, here's the thing. There are a lot of nice things about Rock Band 3 such as the vocal harmonies, new instruments and new modes, along with updated looks. Some of it remains to be seen though, so for now on release day, I'm going to have to give it a neutral 3 stars. The problem? There are a couple of them, which I'll try to cover both the good and bad for each, along with some possible other considerations. Considerations that could make a given issue actually a benefit instead of a liability.
First, a number of the songs are the same ones in other games already. Some will enjoy playing the songs on this platform, especially given the different charts, vocal harmonies, keyboards and pro-modes eventually. The fact remains a number of the songs are available on various Guitar Hero games. Such as "No One Knows", "Before I Forget", "Hey Man, Nice Shot", "Crazy Train", "Misery Business", "One Armed Scissor"..... and another 10. That's 16 of 83 by my count, almost 20% of the songs. Although that's probably made up for in a number of cases by the keyboards, vocal harmonies, and pro modes. Plus, some songs are on games that don't even support drums, bass and vocals, after all.
Second, the same sort of arguments about "paying money to clog up your hard drive" by importing songs from games -- games that you already own. Although there is an upside to that, being the additional pro modes and instruments eventually, plus not having to switch discs and redo bands. As in, who'd want to play the limited quirky RB any longer, anyway? With those mostly horrid bonus songs, no "breakneck" speed, no bass career, and a terrible band management system. Although there is already the capacity to play the RB songs in RB2. Yet again, there are the additional modes and instruments in RB3, making it all very subjective -- but likely overall a benefit.
Third, the game keyboard. The reduced number of keys on it may or may not be an issue in pro mode, but that's a matter of game mechanics and screen real estate. It might be better game-wise to have a small keyboard, but it's not exactly the same as a full sized keyboard in terms of learning.
Forth, the additional pro modes and instruments themselves. A glaring error but the most tolerable is the lack of general availability of the MIDI interface for another month. That means those who have MIDI keyboards and drums will be unable to play either on the advanced modes right now, they have to wait a month to use it. That's assuming the MIDI interface is released on time and functions properly. Although if the player doesn't already have the RB2 drums with cymbals or a keyboard, they can simply spend ~$220 and get both of these game instruments. However, for those with an electronic drum set and/or keyboard already, it's rather silly to spend the money for something that will supposedly be out in a month. So this depends upon the person and what they're willing to do or wait for.
Fifth. Guitars. The multi-button short-string controller is rather expensive at $150, given it's hardly anything more than an overly-complicated game controller to learn. That seems rather a waste, but we won't know for another month; it's not available yet either. That's perhaps rather inconsequential though, as the gem that makes it all worthwhile, a real guitar with touch sensors and the like that has MIDI output, is available.... Ever? There's no expected price, no solid date, no real information and an admitted customized one-off nature. It doesn't seem it has to be that way.
This could revolutionize music instruction -- seemingly not a focus by the game makers for some odd reason; perhaps the lack of availability? There are also no admitted plans to produce a bass, an odd choice given the almost the same similarity between creating an electric guitar with six closely spaced strings in a higher octave and an electric bass with four more widely space strings in a lower octave. All of this together speaks of a squandered opportunity to turn this game into a music instruction platform, or at the least a current failure in advertising and marketing. The market for digitally instrumented guitars, basses, and most any stringed instrument one can think of could be huge, and all are similar enough where the only change from one to another would be the physical implementation in many cases. Even that's not the entire story. Aside from the market for such instruments themselves, combining them with an electronic teaching method is not so one-off customized any longer. Perhaps this is a plan for some other time in the future, though. After all, it's obvious the potential is there. | video-games_xbox |
Did it measure up after such a long wait? Read on. I have been a long time fan of the Rainbow Six series for as long as I can remember. I can not count the number of hours that I put into both Vegas and Vegas 2, not to mention the earlier games. After a VERY long hiatus, I really expected the Rainbow team to come back and let us have it with both barrels. Did it measure up? Read on... For starters, let's hit what they did right.
Controls are what you'd expect with no real surprises, either good or bad. Graphics are solid and sounds are quite solid. The new mobility options, namely the ability to repel a lot more often, really make for some fun maneuvers on the battlefield.
There is a nice selection of weaponry, although perhaps not quite as much as I'd hoped for. Recoil seems a little extreme on each of the weapons I have tried, which can be frustrating. Hit detection is good so far, but far from perfect. Excellent blood splatter effects, if a bit unrealistic.
Terrorist hunt is back, and with a number of new options. Now, on to some of the areas where they could improve....
First off, as many have noted already, there is a complete lack of any sort of cooperative campaign. In its place is a "scenarios" mode, which is really just a glorified tutorial for 10 or so missions. While they do an admirable job of showing you the ropes and controls, it really isn't enough. After the very enjoyable campaigns in all previous games, this omission was really a disappointment.
I do enjoy the ability to unlock a variety of operators, although I do NOT like not being able to customize more. We are forced to pick from a bunch of premade characters and can't customize nearly as much as we could with Vegas 2. I certainly like the special abilities and equipment of each of them, but I don't like having a preset weapon package rammed down my throat.
In Terrorist Hunt, I had my settings on "invite only" and yet it still does matchmaking to fill out your team even when you are playing against AI bots. I really don't like being forced to play with strangers, and I'm not sure why that setting doesn't take effect. Very frustrating to say the least.
Now for the REALLY big gripe that I have. And quite surprisingly, I have not seen a single person mention it yet. WHERE IS THE COVER SYSTEM? That's right folks, it is gone. The game that started the "tactical" genre, took out the ONE thing that set them apart from the run and gunner games like COD, Halo, etc. While I certainly enjoy each of those games, the one thing I really loved about the Rainbow series was its true tactical, slower and more deliberate pacing. The funny thing is, the company worked really hard to impress upon its adoring public how this was NOT a COD run and gun clone. Sadly, they are wrong. They removed the single most significant element that set them apart from COD and its ilk, and it is an omission that I am not happy about. Am I sad I spent the money? No, I wouldn't say that at all.
What I WOULD say is that I expected more--so much more--from the game that really set the standard for what a tactical shooter should be. Indeed, this game would benefit more from a cover mechanic than any previous installment.
For me, this is a disappointing trend in gaming, with developers stripping out features that made them great. Halo 5, as another example, removed Spartan Ops, and essentially caters to the multiplayer only crowd. While that is certainly a valuable demographic, I think that our friends at UBI Soft have made a tactical error here, and I am going to approach future titles with a great deal more caution.
So, to summarize, if you enjoy multiplayer and don't have any real requirements for anything else, you will probably enjoy this game a great deal. If, on the other hand, you are expecting a game that has all of the fantastic features of its predecessors--coop campaign, coop terrorist hunt AND multiplayer, you will be let down by this installment. It is a solid shooter, but frankly after this long of a wait, UBI Soft should have knocked our socks off, and it simply didn't happen. | video-games_xbox |
the design of this headset is overall good. the sound quality is also good. the design of this headset is overall good. the sound quality is also good. PC support, and customer support are lousy.
The range on this headset is roughly equivalent to other wireless headsets I've used, however if the headset does disconnect(and sometimes it does even while within arm's reach of the receiver), some games and programs can get really screwy. The headset relies entirely on the built-in windows sound output options. some programs don't like it when your sound device changes (while playing divinity there was about a 50% chance the game would crash if the headset disconnected and reconnected). if the headset disconnects and reconnects it also defaults to being unmuted, which can lead to some embarrassing moments if it were to disconnect and reconnect at an inopportune time. this is all, of course, a side effect of relying on the built-in windows sound output device capabilities, rather than having some sort of device driver similar to EVERY other wireless gaming headset on the market.
the setup for having separate volume rings for controlling voice chat and game chat is very confusing, and doesn't entirely make sense. the optical audio cable is used to feed the device voice chat, and the USB device is set as the primary audio output. this is confusing in part because typically optical audio is where higher quality audio would be output, instead it is used for the lower quality voice chat audio. this also involves a setup where you must manually tell programs to output to certain audio outputs, which can often get jumbled if settings get messed up. It seems as though specific hardware may also cause issues with setting it up this way, when I initially set it up it worked correctly (although my system said it was not outputting anything over the optical cable, but it worked correctly regardless) after I ran a firmware update on the dongle and headset, it no longer worked. when I upgraded my motherboard, it now works correctly.
in that time, I spent months, literally months emailing back and forth with customer support, which was very slow about responding. they had me try several things which I had already told them I tried, then eventually said I needed to ship them the headset(at my own expense) so they could test it and see if they needed to replace it or ship it back to me (which likely would have also been at my expense), and they expected the process to take a couple weeks... so I needed to pay to not have a headset for a couple of weeks.
the earcups are small, the material provides no ventilation and they get incredibly hot to wear for gaming. people are always saying I'm cutting out or getting garbled (much more than with my previous headset (logitech g930)), so I can only assume the mic quality is somewhat questionable.
Likes: classic design, doesn't look "gamey", large and simple controls
Dislikes: Customer Support, detachable mic, small ear space, very hot/no ventilation, bad bad bad PC support, mic quality is suspect | video-games_xbox |
Another step forward for this great franchise. What do you get when you take a series that is virtually flawless and endlessly addicting and combine it with a developer who is known for ruining a virtually flawless and endlessly addicting series? You get a recipe for disaster. Fortunately, Neversoft, the studio responsible for the rise and fall of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, has decided to take that recipe and throw it out the window. Since acquiring the rights to the Guitar Hero name, Activision has seen to it that Neversoft be in charge of creating all future games in the franchise. And for a built-from-scratch first effort, they succeeded beyond my wildest expectations! Guitar Hero III not only continues the tradition of great music rhythm games, but it adds in some much needed features and game modes that really make it a must-own for any Xbox 360 owner!
First off, let's discuss the changes that Neversoft made to the game. The art direction in general takes a much more "hardcore" approach, as characters like Judy Nails go from being sweet little rocker chick to big-breasted, pierced alt rocker. Most of the other characters have undergone similar changes, most of which are for the worse. The original games had a very cartoony type of image to it, and Neversoft tries to recreate that with more edge, but they end up looking like they're trying too hard to make the game hardcore. Fortunately, this is a music game so graphics will ultimately take a back seat to the gameplay and music.
Gameplay-wise, Guitar Hero III picks up where II left off. New game modes have been introduced into the series, including Co-Op Career (a long-needed mode that features songs you can only unlock through it) and Battle Mode, which allows you to gain attacks (rather than star power) which you can then launch at your opponent to make them fail a song. The last person standing wins! The first time through this mode can be daunting, but after a while it quickly becomes a welcomed addition to the franchise! Also included this time around is full Xbox Live support for Face Off, Pro Face Off, Co-Op, and Battle Mode (unfortunately Co-Op career is not available for online play at this time). The system works great too, and in my dozens of matches online, I've only experienced brief lag once. There's something thrilling about going to battle with someone you've never met and throroughly embarassing them! This feature was well worth the wait, and will undoubtedly add hours upon hours of play to an already addicting game.
Of course, the real strength of a music rhythm game will always rest in its soundtrack. Fortunately for us, Guitar Hero III rocks one of the most comprehensive and diverse soundtracks ever put in a video game. Neversoft has finally figured out what Harmonix never could; you can have difficult songs on the game that aren't metal (i.e. Muse's "Knights of Cydonia" or QotSA's "3s and 7s")! Add in the fact that a large portion of these songs are master recordings, and the game's music just sky-rockets to a whole new level! And while Gutar Hero III's soundtrack is clearly the best in the series, it is not without it's missteps either. For example, "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys is a great song, but it really doesn't belong here as there's very little guitaring going on in the song. Overall though, the diverse collection of songs in the game almost assures it's acceptance by those who may have been hesitant in the past, as there's definitely something for everyone!
My complaints with the game are few. My largest gripe is the new Red Octane wireless controller which is very pretty, but has given myself and other gamers some problems. For me specifically, some of the fret buttons will occasionally stop working during a song and you'll need to stop playing, disconnect the controller, and reconnect it for it to work again. This is a huge drawback, but hopefully they can get the bugs worked out in later models. Another small complaint is the lack of a matchmaking system for online play. I play on expert, but I'm more of a low-mid range expert who doesn't stand a chance versus someone who's been playing the game for a few years now. In the end, however, these complaints really overshadow what is a phenomenal game and a great first effort for Neversoft. I highly recommend it to anyone who may be on the fence about it. $99 for a video game is steep, but the hours and hours of enjoyment you'll undoubtedly get out of Guitar Hero III are well worth the price. Buy it now!
8 out of 10 Stars | video-games_xbox |
More of a remix than a sequel. I don't mean to rehash most of the reviews that were already left, but this game was essentially quite similar to BioShock, just a different protagonist, with a somewhat different story line. With that said and out of the way, I must say that although my former statement may deter some gamers from purchasing this game, it should be noted that the game is indeed a great game, and builds upon the story of one of the most ground breaking video games of the past decade. In this sequel, you play as a Big Daddy who is on a journey to uncover more about his past, and about exactly what his purpose is in Rapture. Even against todays standards, the graphics are indeed great, and the gameplay is one that sucks you in as you really start to feel the emotions and pain of the person you are controlling as he uncovers pieces of his past. The game is somewhat short, and there is a multiplayer mode, but to be quite honest, I think they really dropped the ball on the multiplayer. The maps are horrible and the gameplay seems feels like a Half Life style deathmatch game that was slapped together quickly, all of which made me put the controller down after about 20 minutes of confusion on what replay value is provided by the poor multiplayer.
All in all I would say this game is worth a shot, but better purchased used or at a sale price. Die hard BioShock fans may enjoy the game a bit more than the average gamer due to its uncovering of a bit more of Raptures history, but don't bank on it becoming as much of a ground breaker as the first.
As far as difficulty goes, the game is quite difficult on Hard, but it is pretty rewarding. At first, expect to die, a lot. But as you start to gain more experience and more powers, the game starts to balance out in your favor, even on the hard difficulty. If you want the most out of the game I suggest playing it on Hard, as most will find Medium a bit too easy. | video-games_xbox |
Fits but not functional for me. Purchased for a PS4 controller. My left stick rubber had completely peeled off. My finger nails are fairly long and I would scratch at the rubber of the L3 with my nails too much. Eventually the L3 rubber just peeled off. I can say that these replacement grips fit the PS4 controller sticks both with and without the stick rubber in tact. The L3 stick was loose without the grip to keep it in place but a little sticky goo* under the grip held the replacement grip in place just fine.
I had two problems with these replacements. Both are deal breakers enough to keep me from recommending them.
1. The bumps on the grips are raised too far up. My thumbs became calloused after only a few hours playing Dragon Age Inquisition. I do have fairly dainty lady hands so perhaps men with more rugged fingertips won't have this problem but I did. As an avid gammer though I've never gotten thumb blisters from R3 or L3 sticks. Button mashing yes but never the sticks. The blisters I got made using the replacement grips actually painful for me.
2. The R3 grip popped off repeatedly. The R3 on the controller we bought these for the grip went over the top of the PS4 R3 sticks rubber. That stick was not peeled off. The grip went onto the stick easily enough with a little wiggling and felt tight. However my husband had the problem of that R3 replacement grip flipping off across the room repeatedly while trying to play Destiny. He is fairly hard on his controllers the way he slams the sticks back and forth but I expected the grips to hold to the rubber of the R3 sticks better than that. Neither of us enjoyed hunting for the rubber piece after it had popped across the room. The goo I used to hold the L3 in place on the clean plastic of the stick itself didn't work with the R3 because the replacement wouldn't go over the goo and hold into place.
*goo = gummy glue that is used in pre packeged items to hold paper onto plastic or metal. I peeled the label from a frying pan I'd bought and used the glue attaching the label paper to the pan. I know it's hard to explain and isn't scientific in anyway but it is what I had on hand at the moment until I could find something better. | video-games_xbox |
The Lone Wanderer's long journey through the wasteland. You are the Lone Wanderer. Your journey starts off while you are still a citizen of Vault 101. Oblivious to the outside world and to the dangers that await you in the not too distant future you go about the normal teenage rites of passage as you prepare to take on the adult responsibilities of being a vault dweller. Unfortunately for you, fate has other plans.
On your 18th birthday you wake up to the sounds of screams and alarms. You soon find out that your father has left the vault and the effort to stop him has caused other problems as well. As you make your way through the vault you find that your father was part of a mysterious project that he and your mother were working on before you were born. Since it's clear that you are in danger because of your father's escape you know you cannot stay in the vault. With the help of your friend you exit the vault with security hot on your heels. As your eyes adjust to the unfamiliar sunlight you catch the first glimpse of your new home, the barren and blasted capital wasteland.
As you take your first steps out of the vault, you have only one goal: find your father and find out why it was so important that he leave the vault and you without any explanation.
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I can say that I enjoyed playing this game as when I finished I had 98 some hours on my save game. The game as a whole is interesting and I wanted to go on to see where the story would go next most of the time. The problem with this type of game though is that it basically throws you out in this big world and says "You figure out how you want it to go." While there are some barriers that you can't get past until certain parts of the story are done, most of the game is open.
So you can follow the main story straight through, you can mix and match, or you can do everything and then do the main story. I chose mostly the third option with a little bit of the second, which depending on when you choose to do that can make the game a little more difficult as I ended up having to fight well-armed tanks every couple of blocks after that point. This put a bit of a damper on my exploring ways for the rest of the game.
The third option though highlights the problem with the way the story is presented. If you do it the way I like to play you will probably feel like you have been traveling the wasteland for years righting wrongs, making it so everyone knows that being a raider is a very bad career choice, and you know maybe everyone would kind of be aware that you are a force best crossed at their own risk. The thing is, it doesn't really affect the main storyline time line that much if at all. It seems like everything happens over a period of a couple of months, not the time span it should be.
One example I can think of is something you're supposed to do at the beginning of the game. I forgot that I needed to go see the bartender to figure out where the characters father went after he left the vault, so if it had been that long for me shouldn't he have had a harder time remembering? I just remember that because I had to laugh because the bartender says something along lines of he passed through this was a few days ago and I was 30 or 40 hours into the game or something like that. I just think it would be neat if he said something along the lines of "You mean *he's* your father? He went here, let me mark it for you...no, no, I wouldn't think of charging you for that. Actually here I got some spare caps, here you go. You're leaving soon right? It's just a rumor about you making that corrupt mayor walk through the subway with a "I hate ghouls" poster...right ?"
Summary:
Controls: I couldn't complain. Basic moving around works well enough and the targeting system does a good job of letting you take out enemies. I did find though that if I tried to play it like a normal FPS my results were mixed. Not using the auto target seems to increase the chance of critical hits, but the controls are a little too clunky to use that method in firefights where there are multiple enemies or the combat is close quarters. I would say stick with the auto target as it slows things down enough where the combat is manageable and besides most shots are in slow mo which never really got old to me.
Graphics: I thought they were fine. There are some nice touches here and there, like the glass sheen that are on the rocks scattered around, but they are not going to set anyone's world on fire I imagine.
Game Play: There is lots to do and lots to find. I had fun with my time exploring the wasteland. I just wish all the little stories in the game where a little more tied together with the main story.
Recommendation: If you like open world games, dungeon crawlers, The elder scrolls, Sci-Fi, grim post-apocalyptic worlds then you will probably like this. If you want that with a more FPS approach, then I would say try Rage. m.a.c | video-games_xbox |
who the heck gave this "game of the year?!" i think they gave it to themselves. this game is rough. i'm 3 hrs in... 3 wasted hrs. there is very little strategy in battle and that is so frustrating. also the game is overwhelming when you start. you don't even know what does what as you get your ass kicked and see this stuff popping up... like sauron's hierarchy of enemy orcs, upgrades, weapon stuff, combos. ughh. very poorly done.
think twice before you buy this game and i wouldn't pay more than $10 for it. buy it used if you're not going to listen!
ok, so there is one attack button and one block button. it is eternally frustrating. Health takes forever to regenerate. in other words, running and hiding for a few seconds if you get in trouble doesn't cut it.
Battles are a main part of the game, and as reviewers have noted, it's sooo frustrating to get your ass kicked by a mob. i mean, it's not realistic to think one man could take on a hord of orcs, but c'mon this is an action game! i died like 20 times in my first few hrs. each time you die, the orc that killed you get's leveled up... it's a slap in the face! you want to go back and find him, in fact you need to in order to unlock upgrades.
so you're running along and decide to take on a few orcs that you spot. the only thing you can do is mash the attack button... perhaps try to block a few. While your slashing soon a few more foes show up and soon a captain shows up... soon another captain is there. next there are spear chuckers tossing spears at you and before you even realize it, your health is gone (mostly from the spears). it isn't uncommon for 3 captains to be present. now you're done! better just run away. The only thing is that you have no speed advantage. so you can run up a wall and recover if you don't mind waiting 5 mins... there are arrows at your disposal, but it sucks. you have to enter spirit mode and you run out of spirit orb or whatever it's called... so maybe you have enough to shoot 3 arrows. it's just pathetic.
the other thing about battle is that about 3 blows stuns your enemy. they just fall down and you can't attack them anymore while stars circle their head.... you CAN execute them at this point (two button combination), but that takes time and another enemy will kick your ass while your character takes his time grabbing the stunned enemy and getting his dagger out and finally performing the execution (if you make it that far). so pretty much just keep slashing and blocking. the stunned enemy is allowed to get up and come back to battle after a short second break and over and over again it goes.
what about attack combinations? they exist, but like i said, three slashes and the enemy is stunned.
the spear chuckers are sooo cheap. you can barely even see them on the screen to realize they are there and they just sit on the outside and kick your ass. control is soo tough, its very difficult to focus on any particular enemy.
what about executions? there are only a few ways to execute to eliminate and enemy
1. sneak up and use dagger. you can always take out the first guy this way, but that's it.
2. you can stun an enemy in battle and do a button combination. He crouches, grabs the enemy, whips out his dagger and slashes the throat. takes too long to be useful in battle.
3. if you run up combos, you can do a button combo to execute a foe with your main weapon. it's difficult to use while in battle.
4. you can use your bow for a head shot. using the bow necessitates you to enter spirit mode and you have limited spirit mode time and few arrows. it's useless in battle.
overall game play is soo frustrating. Not that it's challenging (DO NOTE THERE IS NO DIFFICULTY ADJUSTMENT), it's just soo difficult to win in battle. if you could play with a friend, maybe then two could take on the hord, but I JUST WANT MY MONEY BACK! | video-games_xbox |
The Ultimate Halo Experience - Not Perfect. :UPDATE 5/17/15: After several large updates, matchmaking has improved significantly, both in speed and consistency. Quitters are now being penalized. Not perfect but on the right track. Halo 3 ODST and remastered Halo 2 map Relic still on their way as free DLC.
The Halo franchise is huge. It launched the Xbox as a console and helped it maintain its place in the video game industry, It's been around since 2001 and has countless amounts of content from the games themselves to books, toys, videos and montages, clothing, etc... All this considered, the hype for this collection as another continuation of the Xbox/Halo exclusive fan base was equally huge. I purchased an Xbox One knowing this would come out and it would be a Day One buy. I did NOT regret that decision.
As many have pointed out, the game is flawed in numerous ways. The multiplayer being the biggest affected aspect, games tend to be inconsistent. Players unexpectedly drop. The servers can be laggy at times. Party and voice chat can be negatively impacted. And worst yet, matchmaking itself has been so problematic, I've sat in a lobby with "Joining Session" displayed for over half an hour with not a single game. Needless to say, terribly frustrating. HOWEVER...
The campaigns are, as they were the first time, incredible. The remastering of 1 and 2 are excellent, especially 2. Just for the campaigns alone, in full glorious 1080p/60 fps 99% of the time, were worth the price. I am a big fan of the multiplayer aspect, so it's been a real pleasure and nostalgic trip playing on these classic maps and gametypes that truly define Halo (pre-Halo Reach/4). 343 Industries has promised continued support and future improvements and they have been making the experience faster, more consistent but they have their work cut out for them.
I gave the MCC 5 stars because this is THE Halo experience all wrapped into one disc. It may have its flaws but I have personally experienced a huge improvement since launch and it will only get better from here. Fans of Halo, snag this when it goes on sale. New to Halo? Here's the place to start if you own an Xbox One. The Halo Community is bigger than one flawed release. Here's your chance to find out why and become a member! | video-games_xbox |
Lots of fun but a few serious flaws. I liked this game alot. I love multiplayer campaign and enjoy that more than deathmatches. The graphics are much better than I expected, the storyline fairly simple to understand, there is a wide array of weapons and virtual suits (robots you can climb into and pilot). I was also impressed with the underwater and space scenes. Overall I was really taken with this. Of course, who you play with is going to affect your enjoyment a lot. As usual, if you have even a basic strategy you will do much better than everyone just running around willy-nilly, which is what most people do (run around on their own). If you have a good crew it is great fun and the huge boss mode monsters (akrids) are really something. I would recommend this game.
However, there are two things I really don't like. The first is, if you want to join a game in progress, there is no way to do this. You can click the option to join, but you will have to wait in the lobby until they players who are currently playing fail the mission or pass the mission. This can take quite some time. This is true even if there are open spots. If the players win the mission, they may then be too far ahead of you in the game and you will not be able to join. Therefore you have just wasted sometimes up to a half hour waiting for nothing. This is true if you are in a game and your xbox freezes or you lose your connection. When you try to get back in, you can't. If the other player who is still in the game wants to play with you, they have to back out. This can be a problem when you have to start over three chapters behind where you were currently playing because there is no save point.
The second is this: you earn points you can then use to upgrade your character and / or weapons. HOWEVER, YOU CANNOT CHOOSE WHICH. You have to "spin" a lever on a lotto machine, and you HAVE TO USE THE CREDITS FIRST WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT UPGRADE YOU WILL GET. Many times you will get an upgrade from the lotto machine that you don't even want, and you can't get the credits back. For example, I played for two hours to accrue more credits, and what I got from the lotto machine was the option to use the gamertag "ecologist" over my character. Needless to say I was quite angry. Also, if you are in a mission and you fail it, all the credits you picked up are lost for that mission. You have to win the mission to keep the credits, so you have to restart it and run around like a lunatic picking up the boxes of credits you already picked up on your last playthrough.
I really was very upset at these issues, but I have to say I still liked playing the game alot and was obsessed with it until I finished the first playthrough. Have fun! | video-games_xbox |
Recore takes the cake for being the most underrated game this generation. Recore reminds me a bit of the first Crackdown since it's a very open game that allows for a lot of vertical traversal, experimental gameplay, and despite the fact that it has a lot of faults, it's also an ambitious and really enjoyable game.
In terms of progression, though, this falls more in line with Metroid Prime, as you will have to backtrack and collect a certain amount of cores to complete the game. This may be the game's biggest negative for some as you can't further story missions without the required amount of cores. For me, though, I just saw it in the same light as a Mario game. Actually, some parts of the game, particularly gating things off until you have enough of a certain thing to move forward, inside of a large 3D world, gave me Super Mario 64 vibes. There's also A LOT of platforming, and the platforming feels really tight, so if you're a fan of platforming games, or shooting games, or both, you'll probably enjoy your time with Recore.
Throughout the game you will find a lot of loot, but you can also collect cores from fodder enemies. If you want the former, just shoot at the enemy until it's dead and you'll get loot. If you want the latter, you shoot at the enemy until its life bar is down to the last sliver and then you grapple the enemy, perform the mini-game, and then you'll get their core. Both allow you to upgrade in different ways, therefore you'll want to do a lot of both. This game does have crafting, which is where the loot comes into play.
As for the story, this game does have cutscenes, however a lot of the story is delivered through audio logs you'll pick up throughout the game's world, and there are many of them to collect. Personally, I've been a fan of audio logs in games ever since the original Bioshock, so I was happy to see them in Recore.
I also wanted to compliment whoever was responsible for the soundtrack, as it's one aspect of the game that I didn't expect much from and I really liked it.
But while I love a lot about this game, all is not perfect, or even close to it. This game has a certain lack of polish in areas; you experience odd little flaws during your playthrough, but none of them halted my progress or stopped me from enjoying the game. I imagine that Microsoft, for whatever reason, cut budget, decided not too spend a lot more money on the game's development, and then released it for $40 instead of $60 because they knew it was unpolished.
But if I'm being honest, this is one of my favorite games this generation, bugs and all. I love exploring in games, which this has a lot of. I love colorful environments, which this isn't lacking in -- though a lot of it is sand. And I'm just a huge fan of platforming games and collect-a-thons, which is why I loved Rare's games on the N64. It's a massive game with a lot to collect.
If what I explained to you sounds interesting, give Recore a try. It's not perfect, but it is a damn good time. If you were a fan of underappreciated Xbox titles of the past like the first Crackdown, Voodoo Vince, Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, etc., I'd put Recore right alongside them. | video-games_xbox |
NFS series had some hits and stinkers over the years - This one is a keeper. Ive been playing NFS games for the better part of 20 years now and the series has been a mixed bag of good and bad over that time. The titles that shined have always captured the fun of high speed chases with bad guys and cops with multiple branching paths and plenty of destructible environments. Past versions like Most Wanted and the recent Hot Pursuit were great fun while others like Underground and The Run failed to hit the mark.
I had no idea which side of the coin the newest NFS: Rivals would fall coming as a launch title for the new systems. Obviously I was hoping for cutting edge graphics but NFS has to get the gameplay right to capture my attention. I am happy to say that this game plays fantastic, is one of the most solid playing launch titles, and is one of the few that even spectator family and friends can enjoy watching or passing about the controller.
As you likely have read, you can play either as a street racer on the wrong side of the law or as an officer of it. Opinions will vary, but I found playing a cop not only more fun but also much easier. The tools you are given are fun to use and your objectives are always clear. I have had plenty of frustrations playing the bad guy as you can easily lose the earnings you are banking by getting busted along the way.
The true crowning achievement of this game is how everything seamlessly comes together between your progression and online play with others. There is always something to do (at your option) or you can just drive about learning all the branching paths available in this huge open world of a variety of environmental beauty from snowcapped mountains to lush forests to cities.
While this game falls into the arcade racer category do not conclude its a simple game to play. I found the challenge to be higher than average with plenty of re-dos on even the beginning chapters. Thankfully its not to the point of frustration nor do you feel like the game robbed you by utilizing cheap AI tactics. Maybe the best thing I can say about the game is you will finding yourself saying just let me take one more try.
Final verdict Every new XB1/PS4 owner should add NFS:R to their playlist as it offers plenty of madcap yet challenging fun that stays true to the legacy of the series. | video-games_xbox |
I am a fan but Iam disappointed. Iam a Madden Fan. I've bought every Madden game made since 2001. That game was unbelievable. I was so addicted to it I would call in sick just to play it. I knew every play,defensive formation,took drafted rookies and turned them into pro-bowlers in the Franchise Mode. Since then though,it hasn't changed a whole lot. Sure they've added a few thing here and there,taken them off, tweaked them,updated the rosters annually but overall, it's the same old game. I bought this game for 360 aware of the buzz going around that, with a more powerfull "next gen." game system to work with, this was going to be unbelievable. Unfortunately,I was wrong. In the Superstar Mode, the camera angle does not allow you to see much. Looked like they rushed to throw it into the game and probably won't get used much. There is the soon-to-be-known fatigue glitch that was left in the game deliberately because they might have a patch ready for download around release date. The same patch will probably fix the little known glitch that allows Legendary Players to appear in unwanted teams after you unlock them. The animations have not changed much. Defenders still move like the flintstones-frozen upperbodies with only their legs moving. Picture still freezes momentarily between screen shots. Players still look out of proportion. There still is that annoying screen-jump right at the moment the player catches the ball....but that just my oppinion. I'll still play it though because Iam a true Madden fan. I think Iam more disappointed though because I have tried ESPN 2k5 and wanted so much for my Madden to adopt the realism in that game. The gang tackling,the game play,the animations,the proportionate players etc. I wish I hadn't tried 2k5. If you are a true Madden fan like myself, you will buy the 07 version regardless. If you are new to gaming,you will buy it and if you happen to enjoy it,DO NOT get ESPN 2K5 you too might look at Madden a little differently after that...But that's just my opinion though. This years Madden might be disappointing, but I can learn to like it. The monopoly on the market is hard to defend though, given the results so far. | video-games_xbox |
Only for HUGE Trekies. Unless you're a huge trekie like me save your money. But if you're a huge fan of the series i think you might find this game " quite interesting "
The game starts in the enteprise era with captain archer, youll notice right off that bat hey thats captain archers real voice, this game has the real voices of all five captains which youll hear as you progress through time.
Without ruining too much youll play through enterprise era, kirk era, and the NG era; i haven't beaten the game yet so ive only gotten to the ng era but all eras are combine to a single plot which will unfold little by little in each era.
The controls are pretty bad, you control a fleet of 4 ships, and the AI on the ships is horrible to say the least, youll tell one to attack then go back to the one you're controlling only to find that the AI has taken the other ship totally somewhere different or worse youll find it just sitting there. When you're ships take damage, you have to repair by selecting the ship then selecting each subsytem 5 in all and pressing the A button over each one to put the wrench icon on it to repair, supposedly the AI repairs the ships too but i have not witnessed this so prepare to spend alot of your time going to each individual ship and repairing them 5 subsytems each, during and after battle.
The graphics are ok; its cool to see your favorite ship, but theres no zoom feature the lets you just check it out you can only move the camera around the ship at one magnification, couldve done better with the enviroments cause they are pretty bland,the voices and story really make this game though cause you get to hear a new story told by the universes heroes.
Muliplayer is ok but you can only play onematch at a time and then you have to start over again and find or host and play again, its pretty cool cause you get to select from just about everyship in the universe from all eras, romulan, borg, federation, klingon, sorry didn't see any ferengi but there is a secret unlockable ship which im working on now.
One thing i found very annoying is while you're playing the game there are NO SAVE POINTS And after you beat a mission you cant go back and replay it later, only right away after you beat a mission will it let you replay, if you continue on theres no going back. As the game goes on the missions get longet so youll be playing a mission for like 30 minutes only to mess up an objective or die and the; yep you guessed it you get to start over from the very beginning having to select you're ships again and evrything. Save points Bethesda! What happened to you; how can you make a great game like Oblivion then turn out some lukewarm game like this with no save points.
I only bought this because im a fan and saw the name Bethesda at the bottom, im overall happy with it but if i wasn't a fan, i probably wouldnt be. | video-games_xbox |
XBox 360 with 20G HD One Of The Best Systems Out There. I have had my 360 with the 20G HD for only 6 days now and I haven't experienced any of the horror stories of not booting up or overheating, red-ring of death, or anything else like that. It has run without problems so far. But remember I have only had one for 6 days.
Since I have experience with electronics let me make a few suggestions.
(1) Take your 360 and lay it flat(your hard drive will be on the left) opposed to the pictures and many how many are storing their 360s and that is vertically with the hard drive ontop. By laying your maching flat will enable the disk drive to run smoother and prevent your disks from grinding and getting unwanted scratches. Also by laying your machine flat you will get better ventilation because air slots on the right of the machine opposite of the hard drive are important air slots as they are across from your hard drive.
(2) Store/play your 360 in a very open and well ventilated area, not a confined area like an enclosed entertainment center. This keeps the air circulating. It you are still worried about overheating buy a small $10.00 fan and have it blow across your machine.
Now on to the good stuff...
I am currently playing Call of Duty 3 and Gears Of War, and both of these games are amazing. The graphics on the 360 are second to none. I just wish I had the money to buy a high def TV to capture the potential this system can put out.
Only the 360 with the 20G HD is backwards compatable with a few games but from what I have read Microsoft is hard at work making the Xbox 360 compatible with all Xbox games. But for me what was important was that my two favorite games of all time Halo and Halo 2 works well with my new 360 20G HD unit.
The "dashboard" menu is very smooth and well thought-out and easy to use for your gaming experience, music, movies, and online experience.
The online capabilities of this system are unsurpassed. Xbox Live! and Marketplace is awesome. With the "Gold" membership($50.00 a year for a subscription) you can download game demos for newly released games so you can try them before buying them, watch trailers, play old style arcade games, and play with gamers and your friends from all around the world. Playing both Gears of War and Call of Duty 3 online is wonderfully fun and insane.
There are only a couple of drawbacks.
The processors are a little noisy but once you are playing the game you won't hear the system's noise over the game's.
Even at a 20G HD, that is small compared to today's standards, your HD might fill up quickly from, music CDs, movies, downloads to the marketplace and game updates, so you might have to be deleting old stuff often.
For right now I highly recommend the 360 with 20G HD over the new PS3. You will only spend $400.00 compared to overpriced PS3. I have mine right next to my Wii I just got two days ago. Both of these systems are the best ones out there. | video-games_xbox |
A Tense and Terrifying Survival Experience. As a huge fan of stealth games and the original film, I had been looking forward to this game since it was announced. Then, I read the poor reviews from two popular game websites that I usually trust. Those reviews almost caused me to give this game a pass, and I am so glad that I didn't. This is one of the most tense, immersive, and terrifying games I have played. What makes this game so great is that it does not rely on jump scares, but instead on the constant feeling that death lurks around every corner and even a moment of inattention means the end. At moments, I literally held my breath and stood frozen while I waited for the alien to pass, praying that it would not look in my direction or come too close to where I was hiding.
There is no denying that the game has its frustrating moments. The manual save system meant that several times I lost several minutes of progress, once or twice being killed within seconds of reaching the save station. A save-anywhere system probably certainly would have made the game less frustrating, but I can understand the design choice since it certainly made the game much more tense and stressful. The reality is that the save points are not as far apart as they seem, but there is a horrible agony in having inched along for 20 minutes, moving from one hiding spot to another, only to be instantly killed by a single bad decision. At the same time, the game rewards perseverance and forces you to keep a cool head even at its tensest moments. As some also have noted, the game is probably an hour or two too long. However, the overall experience is one that I will remember for a long time.
This is not a game for people looking for a fast-paced action experience. This is a slow-paced stealth game that requires patience, careful planning, and perseverance. If that sounds appealing to you, then do not miss this amazing game. | video-games_xbox |
Great JRPG. First of all, I have both the Xbox 360 English Version and the Playstation 3 Japanese Version. If you have a play3 and know Japanese, do yourself a favor and buy the play3 version. It has a slower framerate (and sometimes it gets annoying), but there are tons of new content. I'll try to cover both on my review.
Story:
The story is not specially innovative, but it is still great. If begins very simple but gains momentum as the game progresses.
However, what you'll probably like most is the characters. They really shine, I particularly liked Iuri, Estelle and Karol. Raven makes you laugh all the time, he's that funny.
Also, there is a lot of recorded voice in this game. In Xbox 360, unfortunately, not all of the story related dialog is voiced, but there is still a lot of it. Every sukato (little talks that pop up when you press the select button) are voiced, though, and there are hundreds of these. This is by far the JRPG that I played that has the most dialog, and it is good.
Gameplay:
The battle system is really good, and can also be really hard. Fortunately, that is a save point before after boss in the game, so you won't have to backtrack a lot if you loose one of those. Unfortunately, the 360 version don't have a skip scene feature, and you will need it, especially if you trying to get every boss secret mission (and believe me, you really want to do that).
There is also tons of sidequests, specially later in the game. And the good thing about these sidequests is that they are all character related, and they will reveal quirks and personalities of the characters that you would otherwise miss. The bad thing about these sidequests is that they are really easy to miss, so pay attention.
The sidequests are also rewarding. Sometimes you'll get a funny scene, sometimes you'll get a new costume for your character (specially in play3, some of the costumes are really really funny - like Karol's reindeer one), sometimes you get a new weapon or a new skill.
The new game + is also the better new game + that I have ever seen. Instead of giving your items and your level and putting you on a new game, you'll get to a grade shop. In these you'll have a total of points that depends on how much battles you played and how well you where in them, and you'll purchase what you want on your new game. You can purchase things like double experience or things like harder difficulties. What you take with you is your choice. Also, even after you end the game, there's still tons of things to do (specially in the ps3, because there's two extra dungeons, and one of them has 50 floors).
Presentation:
The graphic looks like anime. Although it is good and colorful, it does not compare to games such as Final Fantasy XIII or Eternal Sonata. However, the most important thing in my opinion is that is fluid. I got really pissed when I tried to rotate the camera on the world map of tales of abyss and it took a long time (in the mean time, I was probably attacked by a monster). In tales of vesperia you can walk in the world map to your hearts contents, and can even avoid random battles easily if you choose to do so.
The music is where I found this game somewhat lacking. It's nowhere near as good as Final Fantasy, and Tales of the Abyss was also better. This doesn't mean that there where not good tunes, but a better soundtrack would do wonders to this game.
The voicework is good, but I liked the japanese better.
Conclusion:
If you like anime characters and want a good RPG, give this game a chance. It's enjoyable, fun and rewarding. Also, it has a lot of lasting appeal (I am slow in RPGs games, but I have passed 140 hours in the playstation version in my first playthrough, I normally take 80 hours to end a japanese RPG). And there is plenty of incentive for you to start the new game +. | video-games_xbox |
Ty Strike Back...in an awesome game. Ty The Tasmanian Tiger 2 Bush Rescue is a direct sequel to the first game. The game has undergone a few changes from its prequel, such as polished graphics, open hub worlds, mission based gameplay, new enemies, new boomerangs, and even mech suits to pilot (Or Bunyins as they're called in the game) Returning from the first game are the tight controls, dual boomerang action, and silly yet awesome characters I've come to love.
The Story is that Ty and his friends from the first game have founded a rescue base, called Bush Rescue. But Boss Cass has been busted out of prison and has founded his own city, and is visiting our hero's home turf on official Cassopolis business, and as such has diplomatic immunity. Ty must gather evidence of Boss Cass' wrong doings, foil his sinister plot, and save his friends and family. But he's not alone on this quest. Joining him on the front lines in the battle of Good and Evil are his long time friend Shazza and his Brother Sly (I think they're brothers since they look similar and Sly calls Ty bro).
As mentioned previously, the game is largely mission based. The player receives missions and can complete them in any order desired. While some of these missions are harder than others, and some have a strict time limit they must be completed in, none of the missions are so hard you'll want to throw your controller down. True, some can get kind of annoying, but none of them are so hard they'll take you much more than two or three tries at the most. And this time, the player is given infinite lives, and as in the previous game, checkpoints and health pickups are easy to come by, so the game isn't unfair to the player. You will have to drive Shazza's truck to most of these missions. The driving controls well, and turning the truck sees Shazza turn her whole body. I had more fun than I should have flicking the stick back and forth to see Shazza spaz out at the wheel. While she drives, Ty hitches a ride on the back to throw blastarangs (exploding boomerangs) at pesky motorcycle riding frills, as well as crates. The small details, such as Ty's shorts rippling in the wind, are a nice touch.
And there are different terrains the truck must drive over, for different conditions. For example, driving on asphalt gives total control and smooth turning, but driving in mud slows the car down significantly and worsens handling. There are also shops to visit to buy new gear, even new boomerangs and upgrades for said rangs. The opals make a return for the last game and now serve as a form of currency rather than a collectible for a thunder egg. And you're going to want to gather as many opals as you can, since you're gonna need those boomerangs, as some are required for missions. And the enemies can be pretty powerful and numerous, so you will the more powerful boomerangs to even the playing field against the bad guys.
Also added to the game are cart races, very similar to Mario Kart. These are not required to finish the story but are required for one hundred percent completion. And I didn't find myself bothering to do these, since the AI can be down right ravenous and rude. Maybe it's my dislike of racing games that makes me say this, but I just didn't find the races engaging or fun. But a second player can join the action, so if you and a buddy want to do this mode, knock yourselves out.
The only real issue I came across was the camera could sometimes be uncooperative, but this is far from a deal breaker.
In summary, if you like the first game, like mission based games, or want to play a game with a lesser known mascot, go ahead and pick it up. It's not that expensive and fairly easy to find, so go nuts. | video-games_xbox |
Flawed but ambitious game. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier screams rushed product from the arduous title screens, (yes there are multiple) game crippling lag during online play, & random equipment items that just do not work for whatever reason. This game plays like an alpha or beta build & needs several more months in the development cycle for polish. I have never been a huge GR multiplayer fan but decided to give this a day in court & it resembles last years Resistance 3. Innovative ideas with good maps but broken gameplay & horrible lag, and that's when the servers are up & running. But here are the pros & cons IMHO:
Pros:
1. Long campaign (13 levels with built in challenges = a lot of fun)
2. Innovative ideas for modern shooters
3. Smart team A.I. (sometimes, especially early on)
4. In game graphics are good, cut scenes not so much
5. Sounds are good when they work (patch?)
6. Wide weapon & equipment variety. It's seriously on par with any CoD game on that front period.
7. Maps vary in size & play.
Cons:
1. Frustrating menu system
2. Horrible lag during multiplayer
3. Story: missed character development opportunities. And I'm sick of "military" game makers getting so many details wrong, regular sailors don't have goatees and soldiers never say "oh" for zero, they say "zero" as in zero five thirty. This may not seem like a big deal but the devil is in the details, and it shows that a foreign company developed a game about US soldiers.
4. Lack of split screen features even though the game case says there is 2-player split screen campaign...there is not (rushed?)
5. Very slow progression system that does not reward players fast enough. Have we learned nothing from Halo or Call of Duty in the last decade?
6. No matchmaking for campaign or Guerrilla, seriously what is going on here because you have achievements for these modes but unless you troll the forums at Ubisoft or talk your friends into buying this your outta luck with those achievements.
Overall this is good game to kill time with over the slow summer months but be warned you will get frustrated often. I can't help but think how good this could have been with a few more months of development or launching with the next generation of systems that might be able to keep up with lofty Ubisoft ambitions.
Verdict: Buy | video-games_xbox |
In Depth Review. hese days, big-budget shooting games like Call of Duty and Battlefield are designed to be objects of obsession. They feature incredibly tight feedback loops: nearly every time you kill a enemy or achieve an objective, you get points towards new weapons that kill more efficiently and spectacularly the next time around. In 2009, Plants vs. Zombies hit upon a similarly addictive formula for 2D puzzle games: each time you successfully fend off the waves of zombies trying to reach your house by placing, say, piranha plants and exploding chili peppers in their path you unlock new plants and face new zombies which invite you to change up your defenses. Its arguably that stickiness, playing just one more round than you intended to play, that made these games so popular.
Unfortunately, that stickiness isn't fully present in EAs attempt to bridge the two genres: Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare. Though EA has successfully managed to turn PVZ into a bonafide online shooter while retaining much of the series charm, its not an obsession so much as a casual diversion. But if you can keep your expectations in check, Garden Warfare is still loads of fun.
There are three distinct game modes in Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, and I actually found the first rather boring. "Garden Ops" pits you and up to three other players against wave after wave of zombies attacking your garden a clear attempt to mimic the original two-dimensional PVZ games. It falls almost completely flat, because the 3D version doesnt let you carefully cultivate a strategic blend of plants to deal with the oncoming horde: you are the plants, and youll be mindlessly gunning down zombies with little strategy to speak of. You can drop little minion plants into prearranged planters, but they're quickly overwhelmed. Garden Ops is also surprisingly long and rather hard, particularly for new players, so its odd that Electronic Arts lists it as the first game mode.
But I soon forgot all about "Garden Ops" when I dove into the real meat of the game: 24-player online skirmishes and capture-the-base turf wars where actual players also control the zombies. The 12-on-12 matches are wonderfully hectic and delightfully diverse, partially because the huge environments (including cartoony towns, suburban neighborhoods, and a castle) are well laid out, and partly because each of the four different plant and zombie heroes have distinct, satisfying playstyles. How far do you want to be from the fray? If you like getting close and personal, the Zombie Scientists goo shotgun will do the trick. Meanwhile, the plant teams Cactus can snipe from a distance. Theres also the Sunflower, a support class that heals with focused beams of light, and the Foot Zoldier Zombie, which can rocket jump up to the tops of buildings and deal death from above.
If it sounds like Im describing Valve's famous cartoony action shooter Team Fortress 2, thats no accident: Garden Warfare producer Brian Lindley readily admits that a mix of PVZ and TF2 was one of the games original goals. Where TF2 is a mirror match of identical character classes, though, the plants and zombie teams each feel unique. As you might expect, the plants are at their most powerful dug into the ground, and not just figuratively. The zombies don't have a sniper like the Cactus, and the other three plants can burrow into the earth to turn into powerful stationary turrets or in the case of the Chomper, a giant purple piranha plant that swallows enemies whole, to avoid detection by tunneling through the ground. The zombies, meanwhile, have abilities that give them enhanced mobility and devasting single use attacks, like a jackhammer that the Engineer can ride into battle like a motorized pogo stick, or the All-Star Zombies dash tackle which sends enemies flying through the air. The plants and zombies make excellent foils for one another, both individually and as a team.
If you ask the development team, the zombies were the biggest hurdle to turning PVZ into a online shooter. From the beginning, it was clear that PVZs plants made sense. "People were very shocked that we went from a tower defense game to a 3D shooter but the plants were always shooting," remarks franchise manager Gary Clay. But to make the formerly one-dimensional zombies suitable for a player to control, Lindley says the team spent months designing and redesigning characters to be the right blend of comical and useful. It shows: not only do the undead feel distinct from their leafy counterparts, they're just as likable, from the pitiful way they rapidly shamble about the stages to the inventive weaponry they wield. The Engineers concrete gun, complete with a miniature concrete mixer slowly spinning on the character's back, is one of my personal favorites.
The best part is that the abilities really complement each characters playstyle. While the Cactus is sniping, it can protect its flanks by dropping exploding Potato Mines and Wall-nut barricades, or even pilot a flying hunk of garlic that can drop exploding ears of corn on enemy positions. (Don't ask how.) The Scientist can close the distance to enemies with a short-range teleporter, drop a sticky grenade, then warp out once again. Some of the abilities can also be devastating when used cooperatively, such as a pair of Sunflowers healing one another while laying down cover fire, or an Engineer dropping an airstrike into the midst of a Zoldiers smoke grenade, where foes are unlikely to notice the marker beacons soon enough to react. Particularly in the Gardens and Graveyards mode, where the zombies have to capture a series of plant gardens and can summon additional computer-controlled zombies to their aid, theres plenty of room for clever co-op tactics.
As I alluded to earlier, though, Garden Warfare isn't quite as sticky a game as its peers. There isn't a ton of content, and the progression system that works so well in Call of Duty and the original Plants vs. Zombies isn't in full force here.
While the abilities are fun and work quite well, each of the games eight characters only has three to work with, and you can unlock them all within a few hours of play. Afterwards, there isn't much else to obtain that isn't cosmetic. You can save up coins to buy packs of stickers which unlock a few permanent weapon upgrades (three per character), and some character variants with different weapons (like the Fire Flower which shoots flames instead of sunbeams), but its slow going even if you play fairly well. A ten-minute match might net you 2,000-3,000 coins, but buying a new character costs 40,000 coins, so thats easily a few solid hours of your time for a single character even if you're laser-focused on that goal. On the flip side, though, you're also guaranteed at least 750 coins per match whether you win or lose, so you're making at least a little progress every time you play a round.
With my goal of unlocking more content in Garden Warfare a distant inevitability, I didn't really feel the urge to stay up late playing. Im sure that often, over the days and weeks to come, Ill get the itch to swallow zombies with a giant piranha plant, and return for a few more rounds. But I look forward to a sequel or maybe some DLC that makes the game a little less limited in scope. Team Fortress 2 built an entire business out of selling items for a game like this one, and theres no way that microtransaction-happy EA isn't thinking about that pot of gold.
In the meanwhile, Garden Warfare gets my vote for the best kid-friendly shooter on consoles. | video-games_xbox |
Buying guide for Xbox One bundles. I wanted to create a guide to help those interested in purchasing an Xbox One, since there are so many bundles, and offers change constantly. I'll attempt to keep this up to date as the bundles change. This is NOT a comparison to Playstation 4 or Wii U.
A short list of features that may interest you, shared by all Xbox Ones (more details can be found in product descriptions and Microsoft sites) -
HDMI pass through. You can hook up an HDMI device to the back of an Xbox One to view the content from that device without changing inputs or leaving the X1 interface. This allows for split screen viewing and if a cable box or the official TV tuner, you can view the channel guide, watch TV, and set recordings.
It is backwards compatible with some Xbox 360 games. This is great for those with backlogs (like me...) or those who want to revisit finished games without having another console plugged into the wall/TV. In the fall, owners of publisher approved disc or digital 360 games will be able to play them emulated on the X1. Some X1 games also include their 360 precursors with purchase for play on the X1 in case you missed them. Rainbow Six Siege includes both R6 Vegas Xbox 360 games, for example. List of games and other info here -[...]
It will stream content to Windows 10 devices.
Xbox Live Gold now applies to households instead of individuals; meaning that multiple accounts on the same console can have access to the same features but have differing account restrictions (I.E. parental controls). So you can let your kids play Garden Warfare online, but not Gears of War.
External USB 3.0 storage. This is great because, 1) you don't need to open the console and replace a hard disc to add storage, just plug in and the X1 will format the drive, 2) even disc-based games have compulsory installs and can be upwards of 50GB each, eating storage space quickly, 3) external drives can be spacious and cheap, and last but not least, 4) USB 3.0 is actually faster than the internal hard disc interface. This means that a game on an external drive will load faster than one on the internal drive, usually by a significant amount.
The bundles-
The current bundles include a newer controller that has a standard 3.5mm audio jack built in and output both game and chat audio through it. Legacy consoles shouldnt be expected to be widely available at the suggested price (and some I haven't included, due to their rarity at this point). You may have better luck at other outlets finding the legacy consoles (Microsoft Store, Dell, various brick-and-mortar stores). There are no functional differences. All bundles include a controller, HDMI cable, chat headset (with exceptions), and a 14 day Xbox Live Gold trial membership (paid $60/year service to play online and download the Games with Gold, a monthly rotation of full games you're free to download and keep (forever for 360 games and as long as you have Live Gold in active subscription for X1 games).
Current bundles (with rating based on what you get for the money. Star and letter ratings are intended for the suggested price listed next to the bundle, not whatever current prices are.) -
Amazon is presently offering a $30 gift card with all bundles, so be sure to select that product version (Microsoft Store is offering additional games and $75 gift card, FYI).
Rainbow Six Siege 1TB bundle. $399. Includes console, new controller, disc version of the title game and downloads of the Rainbow Six Vegas Xbox 360 games, with a chat headset. A new class-based multiplayer shooter with the excellent tactical precursor campaigns. A good bundle. A- rating.
Name your Game 500GB bundle. $349. Includes the console, new controller, a download of one of Forza 6, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Gears of War Ultimate, or Rare Replay, and no chat headset. The choice of games is nice and the selections are high-quality, but 500GB will fill very quickly at this point, and without a headset or bonus games, this is one of the lesser value bundles. B- rating.
Xbox One Elite 1TB bundle. $499. Includes a console with a 1TB hybrid SSD and hard disc for quicker load times for the items you access the most and the Elite controller, which has replaceable/customizable sticks, buttons, and triggers for the professionals or tinkerers, and DOES include a chat headset with a matching black and silver color scheme. While the internal storage on this will be better than the standard HDDs in other X1s, the performance increase PROBABLY won't match external USB3.0 drives, due to the continued use of the SATA interface. There's little information about the size of the SSD partition and many hybrid drives don't allow you to choose what content is on which partition. The elite controller has been released to wide acclaim (modifiable professional controllers can easily go for twice as much), but is scarce on its own at present. If you want the best/most storage and best controller out of the box, this is the bundle for you, but you won't get any games with it. B+ rating. Please note that the bundle with two controllers does not include a second Elite controller, but a regular wireless one.
Kinect 500GB Bundle - $399. Includes 500GB console, the Kinect camera, a chat headset, controller, and three Kinect-focused game downloads: Dance Central Spotlight, Kinect Sports Rivals and Zoo Tycoon. Finally another Kinect bundle! The X1 UI is made better and more easily navigable with the Kinect, and there are fun, energetic games to be played with it. A rating. Great for those who want to move and enjoy motion and voice controls, but it has little storage. Bundle with FIFA on separate page is even better for the same price.
Holiday 1TB Bundle - $399. Includes 1TB console, Gears of War Ultimate Edition disc (as well as all 360 Gears games as downloads if you play online before the end of the year), Rare Replay disc, and Ori and the Blind Forest game download, the new controller, and doesn't appear to include a headset. A rating. Something(s) for everyone in this bundle, with 36 games included.
Halo 5 Limited Edition 1TB bundle. $499. Includes custom console with Halo sounds, and custom controller, with the Halo 5 Limited Edition (steelcase, guardian figure, game download and add-on content). Why a limited edition would come without a physical game is beyond me... It may not bother some, but it will upset many. This is a higher premium than the Forza 6 bundle (charging an extra $100 for an extra $40 package). For Halo aficionados/console collectors only. C rating. Bundle with Forza Horizon 2 on separate page is a B rating.
Gears of War 500GB bundle (also in white). $349. Includes Gears of War Ultimate Edition download. This 500GB model includes the new controller, but does not include a headset. B- rating. This is the most discounted bundle in sales and has many other offers with it, if you can catch them.
Legacy bundles-
Fallout 4 1TB bundle - $399. Includes 1TB console, Fallout 4 game confirmed to be a disc (!), a download of the Xbox 360 version of Fallout 3, and a chat headset. B+ rating. Two open-world RPGs for grownups.
Rise of the Tomb Raider 1TB bundle - $399. Includes 1TB console, downloads of Rise of the Tomb Raider, DLC, and its predecessor, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, and doesn't appear to include a headset. Releases November 3rd. B+ rating. The Tomb Raider reboot from 2013 was pretty good and I expect the sequel is even better, but I haven't tried it yet. Great for adults who love action adventure.
Lego Movie 500GB bundle - $349. Includes 500GB console and the Lego Movie Videogame and no headset, apparently. C+ rating. Game is a cheap one and good for kids, but little value in this bundle compared to others.
FIFA and Madden 16 1TB bundles. $399. (I think these are being phased/sold out) I'm grouping these together because other than the type of football you prefer, they are the same. Both include either the latest Madden NFL or FIFA soccer game download and a year of EA access, a paid ($30/yr) service which allows Xbox One users early access to EA releases, extended demos with progress that can be saved if a full game is purchased, discounts on EA games, and free access to the Vault, currently 14 full games. Great if you like EA's games. A- for each.
Forza 6 1TB Bundle. $399. Custom Forza-inspired console with racing sounds and custom (new, with 3.5mm audio jack) controller, and download code for Forza 6 and extra content, and a chat headset. A- rating, though some may not like the custom design and sounds.
Hope you found this useful. | video-games_xbox |
There is some Turtle Power to embrace yet. Jesus Christ! 11 years and the Xbox 360 library still has a little life left. Microsoft sure did a good job of making sure it was practically the 7th console gen's own Playstation 2 (whose library also spanned multiple gens). And wouldn't you know it, the last titles seem to be not just simple shovelware, but titles by actual renowned developers that apparently aren't done with the console yet, including the always-rad Platinum Games. However, despite that, this new Ninja Turtles game does carry the Activision logo, and speaking from experience with their non-Call of Duty games, this could either be a pleasant surprise (aka Platinum's name reigning supreme) or an absolute crapfest (aka Activision meddling Platinum out of a good game as they usually do with devs). Thankfully, this game is actually the former.
So Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan is Activision's fourth game for the franchise, but the first one to be notable for actually trying to make an effort. While the main menus give off a low-budget feel, that matter becomes rectified by the well-presented cutscenes, which demonstrate the game's comic book styled graphics and adequate voice acting and animation. The plot is simple enough; Shredder and Krang team up to try and use outer space to invade the city and wipe it out, and of course it's up to the heroes in a half-shell, with April's guidance, to stop them. That aspect tends to go by the numbers, but it does get presented well enough, and it has its chuckleworthy moments (Well...as well as a couple cringey ones).
As can be expected from a game by Platinum, action-packed beat 'em up gameplay is key to Mutants in Manhattan's formula. The levels kinda sorta give off an open-world vibe, as places like Manhattan itself can be explored freely. However, the game really wants the player to focus on the missions. The entire adventure is mission-based, which range from killing an amount of enemies to preventing a tangible weapon from being used by them. The missions are kept at a solid pace for the most part, but there are some that I just wish were nullified or not in the game altogether; case in point is that of which the player has to disarm bombs. Don't worry, it's not like that water level in the NES TMNT game. But this game instead has you hold down the B button to disarm a bomb (Granted, enemies may try and fight the player to pose a challenge for this, but.....C'mon), which is a pace-breaker in comparison to anything else. Only a couple of the game's nine lengthy levels feature these missions, but again, I feel like they could've easily been something better.
On a slightly different note, the T Glass feature (which helps you see where your mission objective is located) seems nice and all, but I feel like it'd be cool if there was also a standard map radar in case I don't want to have to keep switching between regular graphics and the super-technical view.
When the action goes down, however, it goes DOWN. Sure, the game is oddly in 30 frames per second instead of the usual 60 that Platinum Games embrace(s), but boy does it feel like a mashup of oldschool arcade beat 'em ups and modern-day variety! Considering how many post-Konami TMNT games have been monotonous with the enemy variety, I was surprised to see that this game actually does HAVE a variety of baddies to kill, complete with their own ways of attacking. And the Turtles have a few options themselves - Each Turtle has different special moves he can pull off by holding the L Trigger and pressing a face button (and you can switch between Turtles via L Trigger and D-Pad) as well as attack combos executed by pressing X and/or Y buttons. While there are enemies that go down fairly quickly and reasonably through a combo or two, don't be shocked when the game decides to turn you into turtle soup.
This is actually a challenging game. It's not brutal by any means, but it does a decent job of keeping the player on his/her toes. The boss battles are probably what impressed me the most. They feel like bosses from an arcade game by Konami, brought into 3D. Their patterns are tricky and varied, but when you beat the crap out of them you feel like you're the MAN (or woman, depending)! Too bad you can't celebrate the victory with anyone unless you play online.
Alright, time to address some more negatives...
Easily the biggest problem with this game is the inability to play with friends on the same couch. No local multiplayer, online only, Final Desti-Wait, wrong game. But yeah, even though I don't mind playing single-player, I still find it dumbfounding that they took the time to create online servers for this game, yet for some reason the only way you're playing this locally is by yourself. Which is absolutely BS because this seems like it would've been an awesome time to spend with local friends! All four Turtles are in this adventure fighting TOGETHER after all. It all just seems like a big missed opportunity on Platinum's/Activision's part.
There's also all this talk about MiM's length, which is reported to be able to be beaten in three and a half hours or under. Personally, my first and only playthrough so far lasted 5 hours and 18 minutes, which is fair enough I suppose, right? I dunno, I'm not really the kind of guy that minds when a game is short. After all, I paid well over fifty bucks for a TMNT Turtles in Time cartridge, and that game can be played through in under an hour.
One thing that comes to mind for me is the sound design. Now, I am fond of the voice acting performances for this game, but when the Turtles end up dying, they can become the most annoying things at the moment. There is banter between them in various areas, but their deaths are when it's most blatant that there are voice clips that have a tendency to repeat, and it can be especially grating during boss battles when trying hard to survive and keep battling. At least there's an option to lower/mute the voice volume, but the attack sound effects seem like they need the voices present to complement the atmosphere. On another note, the music, while actually kind of sporting a catchy beat on certain levels, is certainly no TMNT arcade soundtrack.
Basically, what TMNT: Mutants in Manhattan is is a game not without flaws, but when you're in for the core adventure, it can actually be a lot of fun. I had a very good time playing through this game from start to finish, and if you're looking for a solid Turtles game (but aren't seeing multiplayer as a necessity) I say give this one a go. Those interested but not willing to spend $40 on a game like this can wait for the inevitable price drop that pretty much every Activision game goes through over the course of the initial or second year after release. For now, though, I'm glad to see I can finally count the amount of good games Activision released this decade with TWO hands instead of one from now on! | video-games_xbox |
A bold, experimental game that falls short of greatness. You've got to respect the Final Fantasy series' capacity for experimentation and reinvention. Just as Final Fantasy XII was a revolutionary melding of JPRG conventions with the free-roaming atmosphere of a Western MMO, XIII is another 180-degree turn back toward the tightly-scripted linear progression and uber-Japanese melodrama of Final Fantasy X-- boiled down to its absolute essence. It's a mixed bag of things that work and things that fall flat, but ultimately I'd say it's well worth the time for series fans.
First the positive points: The character models look amazing, with fantastically believable facial and body animation. The battle system is a wonder, rewarding tight strategy and quick reflexes (for once, a Final Fantasy game can legitimately be described as difficult) and never getting bogged down with micromanagement. The Crystarium and item upgrade systems offer solid, satisying progression mechanics, despite not really coming into their own until late in the proceedings. And the game engine is rock solid, with nary a glitch, bug, or unpolished surface to be seen over 50 hours of main story gameplay and another 50 of postgame questing.
Now for the bad. While there are some nice looking levels and impressive vistas in this game, there are also a lot of boxy, nondescript areas that fail to distinguish themselves. The camera is flat-out awful, a frustrating mix of XII's freely-controllable view and X's rails that can't stop wrestling with the player for control. Despite likeable characters, the story is a soup of confusing terminology, obscure motivations, and unearned deus ex machinas. The characters' hair looks janky on Xbox 360. That may seem like a minor complaint, but this is Final Fantasy-- hair is a pretty big deal.
But the worst problem with the game is the lack of anything to do other than battle and progress the story. All JRPGs are quite linear, of course, but Final Fantasy XIII takes things to a new extreme by not even offering the illusion of choice. In previous FF games, there may have been only one way to progress the story, but the player was free to do things at their own pace, take a break from battling to explore towns and chat with NPCs, take on sidequests, grind, or whatever. In XIII there is almost no optional content and nothing to do except relentlessly press forward to the next cutscene. It may be fun in a minute-to-minute sense, but it ultimately leaves the world feeling hollow and empty. In Final Fantasy XII, you had a rich sense of the society, people, and history of Ivalice, which came naturally from exploring and interacting with the world. The closest thing to that in XIII is the datalog, a series of short flavor text entries that do more to establish the worlds of Pulse and Cocoon than anything conveyed in the actual gameplay.
When a small measure of freedom is finally granted to the player in Chapter 11, it comes as a huge relief, even though there's not really that much to do on Pulse either, aside from a series of repetitive (yet still pretty entertaining) mark hunts. Just the freedom to proceed at your own pace, and the choice of which sidequests to take on and in what order, breathes fresh life into the game.
It's very curious that Final Fantasy XIII actually becomes more compelling, not less, after you finish the story and you're deposited back on Pulse and given free reign to develop your characters and take on the myriad superbosses that it has to offer. It's downright addicting, in fact, and makes you wish that the bulk of the game was more like that.
Final Fantasy XIII is not a bad game, it's a good game with some very frustrating flaws. A great cast of characters and one of the series' most entertaining and stimulating battle systems is combined with a tossed-off plot and a perplexing turn toward absolute linearity. I personally am of the opinion that Final Fantasy XII was a watershed for JRPG development that made everything else feel obsolete and irrelevant-- had Final Fantasy XIII continued to blaze XII's path, it could have been something truly sublime. Instead we are left with a solid, enjoyable RPG that upholds the series' penchant for bold experimentation and surprising left turns. Despite the uneven results, at the end of the day, it's hard to fault Square for that. | video-games_xbox |
Excellent game. I think this game is one of the best college games out there if you are looking for a game with longevity. I've enjoyed playing it for several years now, but really only liked playing it head to head against friends. I thought the dynasty mode was a little boring, but playing heads up is intense!!!!!! Basically we set up 5 game playoffs (that we keep track of) between the two teams we pick and do a 2-2-1 series to determine the winner each time. The winner of the previous series gets home court advantage in Games 1 and 2, and in Game 5 (if necessary). I know it sounds cheesy, but when you get a chance to partake in it with a friend, and you both have mastered the game, it's great.
The only downside to the game I would say is there are some glitches here and there. Sometimes you can pass a ball over-and-back, but if the guy you pass it to who's behind the center court line passes it back to the frontcourt fast enough, they won't call the violation, which is kinda stupid. Also shots under the basket where the offensive player just bulls into the defensive player, a foul is often called on the defense who did absolutely nothing wrong. Full court presses are also a bit extreme as it's too easy to steal the ball defensively. In our tournaments, we make a rule that you have to be down by 10 or more in the second half to be able to use the full court press. Outside of that, everything is fairly realistic. The scoring runs/droughts OCCASSIONALLY get a bit excessive, but timeouts can halter them if you play like in real life or you can adjust the swings in the settings if you don't want to call timeouts just because someone hit 3 or 4 shots in a row. I actually enjoy that aspect of the game as it brings realism into the mix.
If you can accept a few of these what some people call "glitches", this game is unbelievably fun. If you plan on playing it by yourself alot, you might get bored with it after awhile. But if you have someone to play against and is as passionate about winning as you are, then it wouldn't be anything to be playing this game 5 years from now and to create some intense rivalries over that period. This game brings out the competitor in anyone and I would very highly recommend making the purchase, especially now when you can get it for relatively cheap anywhere. | video-games_xbox |
Great Buy! Don't Waste Money on the More Expensive Charger. <div id="video-block-RXJC5BHNQQ1OB" 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/B11ztv0W%2BpS.mp4" class="video-url"><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91TZV1d679S.png" class="video-slate-img-url"> Congratulations! You just got an Xbox One Elite Controller. Finally! Uh-oh. You don't want to use batteries all the time, and the charger for this guy is 2/3rds the price of the controller itself? Wasn't that a little expensive already? I can relate!
Well, I've got good news for you. I can definitely confirm that this charging stand works for the Xbox One Elite Controller! With some modifications.
I have a dual Nyko charging stand for the standard controllers, and clipping the plastic pieces off the back of that slip-off battery case on the back won't work as the battery enclosure piece is actually a different shape on the Xbox One Elite Controller. There are 3 small plastic clips on the back of the plastic battery enclosure piece. You need to clip off the two side pieces. A lot of people have said to "shave" this part off somehow (like with a knife). I didn't do that. I used nail clippers instead, and it was perfect. First, you bite off the pieces you can see from the front, and they you trim some of the part behind the enclosure. You'll only get one try, so be careful! Once you do it, this enclosure snaps in like a charm! A microUSB cable is provided, however there is no wall adapter. That's okay though, you can plug into your Xbox on the side or back or use an existing USB Wall Plug Adapter. Any should work.
The only reason I'm giving this a 4 star review is because the charge stand is a little awkward. The connector on the back of the controller takes a little bit to be set on the charger right every single time, and it also has to be "clicked in" -- or pressed down to click and charge. The LED light glows a dim red when charging and becomes a dim green when fully charged. Adding a quick video in adjacent to my review so you can see what I'm talking about. Overall an excellent buy. Certified by Xbox. About $60 cheaper than the other guy. Battery lasts a long time! Thanks! | video-games_xbox |
Currently, the best game for Xbox. Halo 2 is definetely my favorite game for the Xbox system currently. With amazing graphics, gameplay, sound, many weapons, vehicles and the best online play to ever hit the Xbox so far, halo 2 is is the most playable game ever created.
Halo 2 has a basic story, its just that Master Chief has returned and is once again trying to stop the covenant from taking over earth and all of the other planets. Master Chief is also trying to deny a weapon of massive power and one that would have a great effect on the world!
Even though this game has a simple story, the gameplay is unthinkable. I will break up my review into different categories listed below...
Graphics: One of the best parts of Halo 2 is definetely the graphics. The background detail is superb, the texture is smooth and clear. The water is also very well done compared to halo 1, but still not as good as some games have done. The cutscenes are worth bragging about, for example, when i was watching a halo 2 cutscene and my cousin came into the room he told me to "change the channel," as he obviousely thought i was watching television which i thought was kind of funny. The animations of your character reloading, moving and shooting are truely amazing as well, (you switch off from being the covenant and master chief throughout campaign) as it seems like a real movie like a previousely mentioned. Master Chief looks much cooler then he did in Halo 1, as he has a redesigned suit and many more guns with much better graphics. Although it seems like i am saying that the graphics are amazing, i do think that they could have done just a tiny bit of a better job on them just so that it could be one of the best games in terms of graphics to every hit the Xbox Console, that would be great! But all in all, the graphics are wonderful, and definetely not an aspect of the game to complain about, unless you are picky, wait, lemme refrase that, too picky!
Gameplay: There is one word, and only one word to describe the gameplay in this game. Fun! Thats it, this is arguably the best game on the xbox console, and there are many reasons to support that.
First of all, you are able to sprint at twice the speed that you could in Halo 1. For those of you who play Halo 2 you probobly do not see a difference really in the sprinting aspect. I didn't either when i first played the game, but after i played a lot of halo 2, and then played halo 1, you could definetely see the difference between the two in terms of the speed that you can sprint, which is much better then the first.
You are also able to highjack vehicles which gives the game a little "grand theft auto" them to it which is very fun to do. When your playing on Xbox Live, you get a medal each time you highjack a vehicle. (You get medals for each bonus thing you do such as highjacking, sniping, assasinating, etc.) Of course you could not do this in the previous halo 1 game so thats another difference between the two.
Another better thing in this game then there was before in the previous one is that the A.I is much smarter. For example, they can sometimes form a "short time alliance" with another enemy and they can swarm at you, or the grunts can hide behind corners and wait for you to come. The elites are also much better at dodging your shots which makes it much harder to hit them. Also, if you want your allies to drive a vehicle they can which you couldn't do in the first halo game. The only problem is that sometimes they don't show that they're smart by slamming into walls and you have to switch seats repetitively before they'll get there "nack" back.
But as a result of my gameplay review, it has changed a lot over the long and painful time that it took for the sequel to come out.
New Weapons: There are many new weapons in halo to and i will list them underneath. They include...(Keep in mind that the ratings are intirely my opinion)
BR55 Battle Rifle: 2x scope, burst shots, all in all its an ok weapon, not the best. Long range: 6/10, Medium range: 6/10, Close range: 6/10
Covenant Carbine: Basically the Covenant form of the Battle Rifle except that its not burst, its just a one shot fire. Pretty good though, as it can fire much faster then the battle rifle. Long range: 7/10, Medium range: 8/10, Close range: 8/10
Particle Beam Rifle: Covenant form of Sniper rifle, except that if you shoot two shots in a row it has to charge back up which takes a couple seconds, but i think its better then the sniper rifle seeing that if you have a good aim, you can finish your enemy off quickly! (Or ally, ha ha!) Long range: 10/10, Medium range: 8/10, Close range: 6/10. The reason why the ratings decrease is because the closer you are to your enemy, the harder it becomes to shoot considering that your aimer is unbearably small, so its hard to aim, even from a far distance, but it doesn't take that much skill to be able to snipe people from afar.
Brute Shot: In my opinion i hate this weapon. Only the brutes use it (in single player) and they can never kill me with it because it sucks. Its almost impossible to aim at anything moving from afar or even medium range. The only good thing is that the shots can bounce of walls, wooooopy! Long range: 1/10, Medium range: 3/10, Close range: 5/10
Covenant Energy Sword: Probobly the best weapon for close range is the sword. Even from medium range you can lock on to your target and unleash a super upercut attack which is a one hit kill unless your openent uses a cheap overshield, which i personally think they should take out of the game, seeing that whoever has the overshield cannot be stopped by one person unless the openent has a sword or a rocket launcher. Long range: 0/10, Medium range: 8/10, Close range: 10/10
Fuel Rod Gun: Ahhhh, i wish this gun was in multiplayer but i guess it would be way to cheap, considering the amount of ammo it has and that it is a one hit kill. But for single player it works mighty fine! Long range: 10/10, Medium range: 10/10, Close range: 10/10
Two other things i have to add is that you can dual weild certain weapons, but the only problem with this is that you cannot chuck grenades when you are dual weilding which kind of makes sense when you think about it. Also, the rocket launchers can lock on to vehicles which makes it much easier to destroy those cheap @$$ vehicle lovers!
Vehicles: I will now mention the new vehicles in Halo 2. They are...
M12G1 Warthog LAAV- Basically the same as the previous Warthog, except it uses a Gauss Cannon which is a one hit kill instead of the machine gun. (The previous Warthog is in Halo 2 as well.)9/10
Specter: Sort of like the Wraith, (Wraiths can be used in multiplayer now) except its faster and can hold three people, one for the plasma cannot turret at the back, one in the side seat, and one obviousely driving the vehicle. 9/10
Shadow: The vehicle that the covenant use, can hold up to 8 combatents depending on the species of convenant, an ok vehicle when your using it. It uses a plasma cannon like the rest of the other covenant vehicles. 7/10
Two more things i have to add about the vehicles are that the Banshee can now be used in multiplayer as well as the Wraith which makes multipayer much more fun.
Sound: A great game needs great audio right? Well halo 2 listened. From the classic halo chant, to the rather heavy halo 2 beat, comes wonderful sound and definetely good enough quality that you can just sit their drinking tea/coffee and listening to it. Well, i guess if your that obsessed with the audio, you can just by the soundrack right?
Online: Now comes the best part. The online multiplayer play. I have to say, i though crimson skies had the best online multiplayer play, but as soon as this hit came out i quickly regreted myself saying that. Basically, there are ranked games and unranked games, (unranked games are known as training games.) As you win ranked games you gain levels, you start out at level 1 and the last level is level 50, but i believe that the highest level right now is 27, so as you can see its extremely hard to work your way up once you get past level 20.
The different ranked games are as follows...
Rumble Pit: Up to 8 players all dualing it out against each other. Thit matchmake playlist can include normal slayer, all rockets, all swords, all shotguns, odball, or king of the hill. This is probobly my favorite kind of playlist to play.
Team Skirmish: Up to 8 players, 4 on 4, on a team obviousely. This playlist usually includes the different types of Capture the Flag, team odball, 3 plots or assault. Pretty fun playlist to play!
Team Slayer: 8 players, 4 on 4 against each other can include normal team slayer, team rockets, team swords, Fiesta Team slayer, team shotguns or team phantoms. Probobly runner up for my favorite playist to play halo 2 on.
Head to Head: Simple straight up slayer games 1 v 1 can inlcude normal slayer, all swords or all rifles. Very fun, and addicting especially when your winning.
Big team battle: Huge game, up to 16 players, 8 v 8 can include team slayer, different types of CTF, Assault, or land grab where you have to take over different areas of land. Very fun playlist as it sounds like, but can get very hard and boring considering that your dying a whole tun, especially when your playing on a smaller map.
Clan Battles: Basically, you can join a clan which in different words is like a club and you get your clan together and battle with them in different match types. Pretty fun, good for bragging rights. When your clan starts winning, it will level up.
In conclusion to my online review and whole halo 2 review, the online aspect is probobly the best part of this entire game. Its so much fun trash talking to your opponents and so addicting to play ranked games. You can also just play custom games where you can invite all your friends to play whatever type/map you want. You can also customize ever thinkable option which makes this game truely worth your time and money.
Halo 2 delivers excellent gameplayer/graphics/sound/online play which definetely makes the game a worthy $50. Halo 2 is definetely not one of those games that you are going to end up returning straight away after you get it, you'll be twice as addicted to it as you were to Halo 1! (Unless you don't have Xbox, and if you don't like halo, no offence, but theres something wrong with you.) | video-games_xbox |
GRAW is a hell of a shot. Every once in a while, a video game comes along and redefines a genre, defines the capabilities of a console, or both. Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter is one of those games that accomplishes both feats. Ubisoft's next-gen centerpiece turned out to be quite a game in almost every way imaginable. From the intense duck-and-cover, squad-based gameplay to the beautiful environments and the amazing online multiplayer, GRAW has it all.
The single-player campaign's story puts you into the helmet of Captain Scott Mitchell, a member of the Ghost Recon team working for the United States government. It's 2013, and Mitchell and his crew are armed with equipment that could accurately and precisely take out a small army in moments. Their goal is to secure the United States and Mexican presidents from Mexican rebels who attack during a trade deal that would make peace with three separate countries. From there, it's up to the wits and military smarts of the gamer and his or her crew to stay alive, suppress the enemy, and protect the VIPs.
Each of the game's 11 long, engaging missions will test your wits as a Ghost. Mitchell and his crew are already armed with the proper equipment and it's the optimization of the surroundings that will keep your squad alive. Fortunately, thanks to an extremely intuitive squad command system and heads-up display (HUD), ordering your squad to move out is as simple as pressing up on the directional pad while pointing at a location. You can even change their approach from Recon to Assault for sneaking or aggressively going into a battle guns-blazing.
That isn't to say that Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter is ever a run-and-gun game. Instead, its pace is as slow as a slug but as intense as any game you've ever played before. Imagine Call of Duty 2 on its Veteran setting; that's how intense this game can be. Even a situation, one as early as the third level, is extremely intense. I was almost too afraid to poke my head around a corner and take a pot shot at an attacking rebel and his back-up, an armored APC complete with a machine gunner. Unfortunately for my on-screen Ghost, my brash tactic of rolling out from cover and trying to take out the gunner resulted in the Game Over screen and a look of disappointment on my face while my Ghost lay dead on the ground.
The gameplay is extremely tight thanks to a set of perfect controls. While at first the scheme felt awkward, after a few minutes of getting used to it, I was ready to load terrorists with lead and direct my team with relative ease. Even when back-up arrives, usually in the form of Cypher spy cameras or Bradley tanks, controlling everything on the screen is easy. When the going gets really tough, the player can use the optimized HUD to mark enemy locations, find different routes, and locate mission objectives. The HUD even offers a mini-screen located at the top-left of your television screen that allows you to view the game through the eyes of a comrade or your support units. Overall, I'd say that GRAW is the first game I've ever played where the HUD was sometimes the most helpful part of the game. Because of this, and the general tight feeling of the gameplay, I feel that GRAW is one of the best action titles around.
My only complaint with the gameplay is the "unsnapping" from a wall; it is sometimes too difficult to do in dangerous situations. Rather than simply pulling away from the wall at any given moment, I found myself having to wait for Mitchell to complete whatever he was doing before he'd "unsnap" from the wall. Generally, I only panicked when a terrorist ran around the corner and faced me with his gun raised while I was reloading. This situation, 100% of the time, brought up that damn Game Over screen again and again.
I've honestly never played a game that felt so tactical and felt so realistic. Thanks in part to the visuals, which I'll mention in a moment, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter has the best level design I've seen from a shooter in years. The open feeling of the different urban areas is a fresh breath of life after linear games like The Outfit have been spinning in my Xbox 360. If I approached a firefight from one angle and found myself dying every time, I could usually pull back and approach the situation from another angle-and simply making use of my tools, like the HUD and tactical map, did I find the perfect route. Using my support units, like the Cyphers and Bradleys, I could spy on the enemy and pinpoint their location and then watch as they're obliterated. Then I could clean up any mess left over with my trusty MR-C rifle.
The visuals in Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter are quite simply the best thing I've ever seen from a video game. I've never played a game that looked this advanced-from the environments to the HUD, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter is truly the first next-generation video game. The city feels real. As I'm creeping along the alleyways of a run-down Mexican suburb, I can almost smell the mud and dirt that I sneak on. I can almost taste the gunpowder in the air after a firefight. I feel like I could reach into the television screen and take a shot with Mitchell's rifle, then high-five him after a bullet plows through a terrorist's skull from 200 yards away. Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter simply has to be seen to be believed, so I'll leave that experience for you to discover!
As good as Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter looks, it also sounds amazing. As you sneak along, picking off terrorists, you'll hear distant firefights and nearby yells from other terrorists. If you're unseen and without a Cypher spy camera, you can always rely on your ears to know when a cluster of terrorists is waiting around the corner.
Multiplayer, both on Xbox Live and local Xbox 360 matches, is absolutely fantastic. With Elimination (deathmatch), Last Man Standing, and Territories (same as Halo 2's mode), Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter has some of the most fundamental yet entertaining modes of play. The maps are also fantastic. "Nowhere", a ghost town with hills, rocks, a junkyard, and a deadly, wide-open main street, is my favorite. Each of the maps offer strategic locations and tactical possibilities for each of the game's character classes, like Riflemen, Marksmen, and Grenadiers. The weapon selection is also much larger than it is in the single-player mode, and the controls are optimized for faster gameplay. On Xbox Live, gamers are given a rank-based off of real-life military ranks-for their performance. Similarly to Halo 2's level system, better players have higher ranks. Earning a new rank in GRAW is much more gratifying, though, as it requires a lot more time and skill than it does in Halo 2. While the gameplay experiences are entirely different, with Halo 2 being more frantic and action-packed and less tactical, I predict Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter's online community will be huge, just like the legendary Xbox title.
Not everything in Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter is perfect. I was particularly annoyed with the on-rails helicopter sequences, the unsnapping from walls and the sometimes-spotty AI of my comrades. Still, the game is dangerously close to that label, and the three complaints I just mentioned are pretty easy to deal with in exchange for the best visuals and the next big Xbox Live title. Ubisoft should be proud; they've created one of the very few Xbox 360 must-have titles. Action fans will absolutely love this game, and next to Call of Duty 2 and Dead or Alive 4, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter is a game that should be in your Xbox 360 inventory. | video-games_xbox |
A luxury item for your console. This is an excellent option for people who own the wireless controllers. It will save you money over time. The wireless controller of the XB360 can go through a set (2) of AA batteries in about two week's time, if you play heavily.
This is a well-designed and attractive product. The color of the unit matches the color of the 360 perfectly. It is an excellent addition to your collection of accessories for your 360.
I bought one of these units and tested it. It worked as advertised. The performance of the battery pack is better than a set of rechargeable NiMH (1600 mAH) from Rayovac. However, the battery pack did not perform as well as a set of Energizer Alkalines. The Alkalines lasted slightly longer than the Microsoft battery pack.
I was not surprised that the pack lasted longer than the rechargeable AA. Microsoft even stated that rechargeable batteries should not be used in the controllers. I suspect this is due to the fact that typical nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) rechargeable batteries are 1.2 volts. Whereas disposable alkaline batteries are 1.5 volts. Even in my Logitech wireless controller, for my PS2, the rechargeables do not last nearly as long as disposable alkalines.
Should you buy this Microsoft Quick Charge kit? Would you be better off buying a set of regular AA rechargeable batteries and a good charger?
I can tell you that a typical Rayovac battery charger will recharge a set of AA batteries faster than this kit can recharge its battery pack. And if you shop around, it will also become obvious that two rechargeable AAs and a recharger will cost you slightly less than the purchase price of this Quick Charge kit. And, as C. Johnson stated in his review further down, you can use your rechargeables for other devices, like a digital camera. So, in terms of versatility and applicability to various applications, you cannot beat a set of rechargeable AAs. However, a set of NiMH AAs will not give you the same performance as this battery pack. And, if you are like me, I want to keep all of my video gaming equipment together, in one place. I prefer not to share my video game console's accessories with other devices.
I make part of my living as a computer technician. Because I own a lot of equipment that require AA batteries, I buy my alkaline batteries in bulk. And I only own one controller for my 360. I am also a solitary gamer. Because of that situation, I gave my Quick Charge kit to my best friend, who is also a technician. He has three controllers. He is also a social gamer. Therefore, he has a greater need for this product. At this point, I am back to using disposable alkalines for my controller.
I consider the Microsoft Quick Charge kit to be a luxury accessory for your XBox 360. It is not necessary, for most people. And there are cheaper ways of avoiding the cost of disposable alkalines. However, this is a very neat and tidy solution. And, if you are one of those gamers who somehow managed to break your controller's original battery holder, then this is a very, very good option for you.
I can also recommend this Quick Charge kit for parents. This will save you from having to make a trip to the convenience store on a Saturday afternoon. Picture this scenario. Your child has company over, and they are playing a game on the XBox. All of a sudden, the controllers stop responding. The next thing you know, the children are begging you to go to the store and get them some batteries. This kit, along with extra battery packs, can help prevent these inconveniences. And, because the battery pack is unique, there is no danger that another member of your household will take it and use it for their digital camera. You are guaranteed to have available a fully charged battery pack for your gaming needs. | video-games_xbox |
One of THE Best Games of This Console Generation. This game is incredible. I got this with not much expectations as I was already playing Skyrim and did not think that it could top that one. Lo and behold, I ended up playing Dragon Age Inquisition more than I played Skyrim.
I will not go over all the other things that there are tons of reviews of this game already. So I will just go over the things that popped out at me when I played this game.
What I really loved about this game is the storytelling. The story is definitely interesting and keeps you playing just to find out what unfolds next. Our main character discovers things about himself as the story goes on and you actually feel like you are this character.
The combat in this game is actually quite good. I like the team-based element that was used and really works with the story. You are given a squad of three members to work with and you can interchange them to fit the needs. You can choose a mage, rogue or warrior to fill each slot. Or you can choose three mages if that is what you want. I chose to be a mage so I would end up with two mages on my team including myself. Each character has abilities that opens certain things in the game. For example, you need a rogue to open locked doors. You need a warrior to bash in an opening in the wall where such an area is shown to be vulnerable to a break. A mage is able to activate certain things. For combat purposes, each class has their strengths. The warrior, for example, has a stronger armor and powerful swords.
The characters in this game were very good. I found the dialogues between the characters very entertaining. They are not just there to fill in the sounds. They actually flesh out the characters. If you like a humorous storyline, include Sera and Dorian. Their banters were hilarious. I found myself just simply keeping them in the lineup just so that I can hear them banter on as we moved on to the next mission. Cassandra and Vivienne had some interesting dialogues between them also. Be sure to include Cassandra in your lineup as she is the workhorse of the team and is a beast in battles after you have upgraded her armor and weapons. Her sword ability will wipe out enemies like crazy.
I did not care to use the command prompts unless it was required to activate a puzzle. The command prompts allows you to instruct team members to attack particular enemies. I just set them all to attack when I attacked. I found that that strategy was enough to do the job.
The graphics on this game was spectacular. The weird thing is that the beginning had some sloppy work that made characters' skin yellow or plastic looking. But as the game went on these type of graphics went away. I also do notice that some segments of the game sported spectacular character animations and backdrops. And then I'd find graphics that were just average. It didn't affect the game for me but kind of pulled me out of the game in that they kept reminding me that I was playing a computer game.
One thing that was a glaring problem was the text size on the object texts and screen texts. They are very small and I found myself having to come up close to my large screen TV just to make them out. It can be quite annoying at times given that there is a lot of screen text and object dialogues. I don't know how this problem passed the QA.
The only other thing is the inventory aspect was not very well done. You can't really put a gauge on what you are carrying and what you should drop or sell. They should have used the Fallout 3 method of inventory which worked quite well. You can't carry much in this game. And the menu is quite confusing when you are trying to weigh on whether to keep an item or sell it. There is a perk that you can add to increase the amount of items you can carry but even that didn't make much of a difference for me. I tried to keep my inventory from being too heavy but when you have your members armed to the teeth, that can be quite a challenge.
The ending of the game was very good and I shall not give it out here. But it is quite satisfying. Given the ending, I can't wait for the sequel to this game.
If you are on the fence on whether to get this game or not, you can't go wrong with this one. I found it to be more entertaining than Skyrim. If you liked Fallout 3, you will like this game for its similar qualities. This game is one of the best games I have ever played and I have played the best of them including Skyrim, Fallout 3, Half-Life 2 and all the epic Zelda games. | video-games_xbox |
Gave it a chance. The verdict???? It sucks. So, with all my reviews, I like to consider the source. Is it a seasoned player or just someone that bought the game as their first ever FPS. Needless to say, this is not my first FPS. I have owned pretty much every COD, Battlefield, FarCry and a few others. Its pretty much all I have played on PC and 360. i prefer playing PC, but I cant keep up with the tech (or at least my wallet) so I frequently turn to console games for fun.
First off, if you have never played a Battlefield game, this may actually be a pretty fun game. Other than all the glitches, freeze up, stalled loading screens, horrible spawns, and so on. But if you have nothing o base the game off of, you would probably be pretty impressed.
I am coming from playing BF3 since it came out. I have spent many hours playing that, since i was not too happy with CoD BLOPS 2. This game pretty much took nothing from BF3. Even the default controls are different. Which was really strange for me, and I still have not ironed out the kinks. I am writing this review if you are considering leaving BF3. I word. Dont!
People like to read Pros vs. Cons, so i will try and sum it up there. Here we go:
Pros:
- Graphics are pretty nice. Its not a huge upgrade from BF3, but the explosions and sequences are very nice, although overdone sometimes.
- There are SO many ways to upgrade your weapon, soldier (if you like to play dress up), all the kits have more than enough options although the menu to do it is rather clunky and hard to navigate.
- Story mode is alright. Tolerable and better (I think) than most CoD ones.
Thats about it. I cant think of much else.
Cons:
- Constant freeze ups, stalled loading screens, kicked from servers, lost connections etc.. At least 1 in 3 of my tries to join a MP game the console freezes and I have to shut down and restart it completely.
- Graphics intense game causes major graphic loading issues. Im sure this will be smoother/ better on the XBONE and PS4, but for these consoles, the games are just WAY too graphics intense to run smooth. Constant frame rate drops with half of my field of view :loading" as I walk forward. Enough to notice. Even sometimes looking down a sniper scope the buildings/ plants etc are not even there. Its just a brown or gray area with a person in it.
- Glitch crazy maps! Walking around in MP maps, there are people halfway in the floor below and halfway aboe the floor. But still able to shoot and kill. Also people sliding around the mas on their bellies faster than running, able to shoot like crazy. Many more examples of this with players doing wacky things, all the while able to shoot and kill you.
- Sniper rifles are crazy powerful, and people are either quickscoping or shooting from the hip with 1 shot kills. Super annoying.
- "Noob tubes" (grenade launchers) are WAY overpowered.
- Takes FOREVER to upgrade weapons/ kits. I have played for probably about 12 hours. 2 hours of story, and the rest multiplayer. Although you can unlock a couple things through the story, you are going to have to spend some serious time to unlock any weapons. You end up using the same weapon for quite some time, with no real variety or way to change it up. Pretty annoying. And this is finishing in the top 3 players with each round, give or take a few.
- Game modes. The modes are pretty lame. Its either a small map deathmatch, or a huge match of "CTF". They have a new mode with a bomb that I havnt played much, but maybe it its alright. Wanted to play what I knew so I could judge the game. Most maps have the same III format. Linear maps, with a left "lane", right "lane", and a "choke point" in the middle. except a few maps that have the islands, but there is so much open area it makes sniping so damn simple and easy.
- Spawning into games with no sound for about the first 30 seconds. Gun not in front of you for up to a minute. Graphics rendering after a super long load time.
Well, my fingers are tired, and I could go on about cons. There are more, trust me.
All in all, this game is mildy fun to play at best, to me it is not at all more fun that BF3. I don't really see a reason to upgrade. I would like to see how it is on the next gen consoles, then re-review the game. I feel like with more updates/ patches (typical fashion for EA), and by the time the PS4 comes out it will hopefully be a better game. In the meantime I might still play the game mixed in with the regulars.
EA needs to stop releasing games games so early just to get them out, and patch as you go. Its way too glitchy, and freezes and has way too many issues to be enjoyable. I would NOT spend $60 on this. Maybe for a PS4, but not PS3/ 360.
****EDIT**** So, this is hilarious. I just finished playing for about 3 hours today. Had a day off with nothing else to do. And everything I wrote has been confirmed. Also, I turned on the TV, and looky there! A BF4 commercial. On the bottom of the screen, it says *Actual footage from Xbox One gameplay*. Hahahahaha. What a f-in joke. So you released a game, then run your ads for a system that won't even be out until a month after the game??? WTH EA?? Seriously?? Its obvious that this game was never intended to be played on 360 or PS3. Just blatantly obvious. Im sure it will look worlds better on the next gen consoles, but if you are going to dumb the version down for the older consoles, just don't even release it for them. I am so disappointed with this game, that I am listing on Craigslist for sale this evening and hope to have it sold soon. Its a waste of time to even attempt to play it on a 360 or PS3. Oh, and if you didn't know, the PS3 version is ONLY 720p RESOLUTION!! They could not make it 1080p, further proving the fact that it was never intended to look good or run well on the older systems. Thanks EA. Solid work......as always | video-games_xbox |
Sluggish controls ruin an ambitious and otherwise impressive title. This was an ambitious game for any developer. Four fully fleshed out universes for Spiderman, each with its own art aesthetic, enemies, moves, abilities, and so on. There are some excellent (and not so excellent) Spiderman games in the license's history that set a decently high bar. This game could almost have cleared that bar, but a few issues are weighing it down, and it took the bar in the face at high speed instead.
The biggest issue is with the controls, which is doubly a letdown because the developers started out on the right track by not fixing what wasn't broken and sticking with the excellent and intuitive control conventions established for Spiderman in previous titles (I became familiar with them in Web of Shadows). Hold RT to swing, hold another button to quickly pop up and gain altitude, hold A to increase swing speed (and thus momentum), and so on. The attacks are similarly familiar to console Spiderman veterans with light and heavy attacks, parries, web strikes, web shots, and etc. Unfortunately, something's gone wrong with this title. The controls are muddy and unresponsive, where in Web of Shadows, the controller felt like an extension of your hands. The camera careens about madly when you're locked onto an enemy, often putting your viewpoint in awkward and uncomfortable areas at best, and inside level geometry at worst, blinding you entirely. There is one particular Battletoads-esque sequence with a sniper rifle, and let's just say that Battletoads did it a lot better. Sorry guys.
The art in this game is fantastic. Each area has something going for it (although I wasn't a huge fan of the 2099 environment, it wasn't BAD, just not my style). The cel shaded Amazing Spiderman universe has got to be my favorite, just barely edging out the Spiderman Noir universe.
I thought the linear gameplay might hinder this title, since I'm a sandbox game fan through and through, but it really doesn't. The environments are varied and interesting. Well built and rendered. It's a very pretty game. Younger kids (though I recognize it's a T rated title) would probably love it. It's got action, it's got superheroes, it's got super villains, bright colors, and eventually, in most cases, a dedicated round of button mashing will win the day. Spiderman will do all sorts of impressive looking things just by chaining various button combinations with or without a lot of deliberate thought. You can get fancy and flourishy if you want to, but it isn't truly necessary outside of a few gated challenges. This is no problem in a beat-em up. It's fine. I welcome this style gameplay. Web of Shadows is among my favorite games, and this title continues the tried-and-true formula.
The developer bit off a lot with this title, and I think it turned out to be more than they could chew. The game feels unpolished and unoptimized. It needed a few more months to cook with a couple of experienced XBOX 360 developers who could have tweaked the performance and gotten better control response out of the engine.
The environments are top notch. The gameplay is well considered. The plot, is, well, it's Marvel Spiderman camp, and that's GREAT. It reminds me of Superfriends on saturday mornings in the Fall at my grandma's house in my Dukes of Hazzard pajamas. Rubbery control response and an erratic camera make it a bargain bin purchase or a rental. | video-games_xbox |
Great Fun for a short time despite some issues. This is a good game. This is NOT anything like the demo version packaged with the DVD SW Collection. That version seems to have been an old version going back several revisions; even the controls and weapons are different. It takes you into the battles featured in the films and you can play any character except Jedi Knight or Sith. You can pilot X-wing, Y-wing or drive AT-AT or scout walker. You can also ride a Tantam but you can't shoot while mounted. The game starts with the battle with about 200 per side. You can come back to the battle after you're killed as long as there is a Command Post and you still have troops. The problems are few but noticeable. The dogfights are clumsy at best and the controls for the aircraft are inverted and takes getting use too. The troops can be ordered to follow you or hold a postion but they may not do so even when they acknowledge your orders. I found myself assaulting an enemy position alone after telling a group of soldiers to follow me. I've been in battles down to just me On Cloud City with only 4 or 5 enemy left and the game ends not letting me as a sniper to pick off the remaining troops and win the game. Very annoying. The Endor scene features speeder bikes if you can find one. Some of the weapons are limited in destructive power and on occasion will overheat or run out of ammo. A head shot should kill an enemy but it must be the very top of the head between the eyes. Very realistic though and enjoyable. I finished the campaign mode and now just play the conquest mode. Still not a game for Star Wars fans to ignore and a lot of fun. Update: After playing for about a 100 hours this game plays unfairly and even "cheats" by slowly converting a captured flag to your colors; enemys appear out of nowhere after clearing a small room; tanks on one side and nothing to counter it on the other; effectiveness of weapons, ie. 6-8 rockets to destroy a tank or 6 shots to kill an enemy; limited weapons to counter shielded droids; troops on your side don't give cover for you during assaults and shows no difference in winning the battle letting captured flags fall in to enemy hands. I found a group of AI just standing there doing nothing in a full fire fight. If I leave the circle of influence even for a second, the flag completely resets back to the enemy colors, leaving me to start over. The circle can be very small in some areas especially in the Rebel Fortress on Yarvin. I had to stand on top of the flag to convert it. And finally, when you "Respawn", you always have your back towards the enemy. I got killed quite a few times just trying to turn around to face the enemy. Still a game to check out when the price goes down.
To add to updates 6/12/05: Jedi can only be killed by pushing him into The Pit of Sarlec with you in a vehicle (Tatooine) or grenading him off a cliff or ledge in Bespin Rhen Var battle scenes. The Jedi will respawn. There are minor bugs in the game eg: Droideka spawning inside a mountain and firing at will in Geonosis with no way to get to him creating an infinite loop. | video-games_xbox |
A Timeless Classic. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is the first installment of the Sands of Time trilogy. As a reboot of a classic PC game series it is brilliant and very well made. The game follows a young and arrogant prince who, after the successful conquest of an unnamed maharaja, is tricked into unleashing the sands of time by his father's traitorous vizier. The sands kill and transform the prince's friends and family into an army of sand demons. With the help of the maharaja's daughter, the prince sets out to seal the sands again and defeat the evil vizier.
The gameplay is fluid, for lack of a better word. The prince is very acrobatic and capable of performing impressive parkour off the scenery. When fighting you can combine the free running tricks to get around enemy defences. These tricks are also key to solving puzzles and getting around the traps of the ruined palace you are trapped in. The gameplay mechanic de jure is the Dagger of Time, a magic dagger that holds some of the sands. With this the prince can manipulate time. He can slow down his enemies, he can freeze his enemies in place, and he can turn back time to undo damage and fix mistakes in combat. Turning back time is the most useful of these since the platforming can lead to instant death, balancing the difficulty perfectly. The only fly in the ointment is that the combat. It tends to get repetitive and you'll feel like the fight are small variations of the same thing.
Visually the game looks amazing. The environments are beautifully constructed. Some areas in the game are so large and breathtaking that you just have to stop and admire them. To complement the visuals is a great soundtrack with fitting ambiance while exploring and intense rock during combat, all with an appealing middle eastern twinge.
This game was released on all platforms PS2, Game Cube, PC, but I highly recommend the Xbox version for one reason. In all other versions you can unlock the original PC/Mac Prince of Persia game. In the Xbox version not only can you unlock the original Prince of Persia game, you can also get the sequel Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame. This is unique to this version.
I can not recommend this game enough. The story, the gameplay, the unlockables all add up to a sublime gaming experience. As many people as possible should play this game. I recommend this for gamers young and old, retro and contemporary. Play Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. | video-games_xbox |
Complete review / description of form, functions and features. Right off: this is not a Microsoft product and varies from a standard 360 controller in form and function.
The confusing thing with products like this is that they are licenced but not made by Microsoft and it's a little infuriating when the giant MS logo is featured so prominently with the much smaller text that reads "licenced product". A licenced product is the equivalent of owning a licenced sports jersey vs one from the team itself; we are bound to see some serious variations in quality.
The controller's first noticeable feature is the great packaging, an attractive and solid box with dual magnetized flaps. Beyond that I immediately noticed the size. It is significantly smaller than the MS controller (which is what I was led to believe and why I bought the package, which included my now 2nd copy of B4) if I had to guess I'd say about 6/7ths or .86 the size of a real MS controller which can cause some issues with people like myself who are older and have larger less accurate hands and fingers. My thumbs clash pretty hard when the right stick is all the way to the left and I need to press the direction "right" with my other hand. It's bad enough to have caused some swearing and takes a while to acclimate to. The downward slope towards the rear of a standard controller is extremely muted and almost plane which adds to one thumb not being able to work under the other as they normally do.
The seams between the upper and lower portion of the controller case are very pronounced and sharp, catching my hands as they rotate over the surface. This is not so discomforting on it's own but it is completely at odds with the admittedly much more comfortable than stock material the case is coated in (or made from). The sticks themselves are extremely tight and very responsive and what I would call the saving grace of this controller. They have almost no play at all and a very crisp return action that takes just the right amount of pressure to overcome and remains consistent throughout. The thumb pads themselves are smaller than the standard thumb pads but feel right at home on the smaller design. The face buttons while responsive lack depth with a very shallow press that could be a plus for some, personally I would rather have the deep press, though they somewhat retain the thump or pop at the bottom which I could not live without. The start and select buttons are raised, more so than standard but I have seen no benefit or drawback to this. The triggers are advertised as a zinc alloy but have a sort of chrome plated plastic feel and have more side play than I'd like. The trigger springs are not as strong and they make squeaking noises when pulled rapidly. They also click when bottomed out like a cheap plastic toy instead of the smooth and strong thud of the original. The bumpers have a much more audible click which I enjoy and as the controller is smaller, the right bumper is extremely close to the "Y" button which is hard for my old combat Veteran arthritic hands to manage.
I was a little upset about this when I discovered this next feature, not because it has any real impact but I feel like it cheapens the design and/or my impression of it. The normal 4 buttons are similar in design to a standard MS controller with the hollowed out letter design for ABXY but the center power Xbox button has a sloppily placed sticker of the Xbox brands "X" over a smaller, smooth and shallow (but still convex) button. The program button for the wheels underneath also has a sticker, as is the B4 product information sticker underneath.
I was initially confused from the description about the center feature of this design, the programmable wheels located underneath the controller. They are simply rebounding toggle switches that are spring loaded to remain in the center and each can be flicked up or down adding a total of 4 functions to the controller (I had thought they held preloaded mappings for all the other buttons to be switched on the fly). They work like the controls sticks for remote control cars: push up to move forward and let go for the switch to spring back to the center position, the same holds true for reverse. It's the same function except as wheels instead of sticks. They do not rotate around or click and rotate like mouse wheels. It takes some getting used to; remembering that the buttons are there, but they are placed well enough for using them to feel smooth and unobtrusive. Setting them up or mapping them is done by pressing the button on the controller itself and the process is user friendly with very clean and simple options.
It also works seamlessly with Windows 64-bit and Steam. I'm not sure if it requires a powered USB port but keep that in mind for troubleshooting. Also the mini USB end that connects to the controller should really snap in, don't be afraid to really push to make sure it's seated (after making sure you have the mini USB lined up correctly). I had a frustrating 10 minutes trying to get my PC to recognize a device that wasn't plugged in. lol.. Also make sure to check the breakaway connection in the middle of the cable. I have these drivers from MS previously loaded on my PC and they may be required, they can be found and downloaded safely from Microsoft here - [...]
I've done my best to outline the controller as well as I can to help you make an accurate assessment of whether or not this controller is for you and/or worth the cost. My opinion shouldn't really matter after giving you the facts and I've done my best to point out the areas where I have a clear bias so as not to mislead you. I wish I had this to read before I bought it, not to say it would have stopped me. I simply would have had a better picture going in. | video-games_xbox |
Really fun, but also frustrating. Let me start by saying that this game could have been one of the greatest games on XBOX if it weren't for a few flaws. These flaws don't ruin the game but they can't all be overlooked. I'll start with the graphics. The graphics in general are okay, but in some of the cut scenes they are laughable. It looks like 2D which is unacceptable for XBOX in 2004. For the most part though you won't notice the lack of graphics during gameplay, because you'll be having too much fun or getting ready to pull your hair out. Speaking of which, there are some levels that will drive you insane. Why ? Because you will be given no clue what you have to do and you will walk around and around until you figure it out. I had to search the net for a walkthrough or else I never, ever would have gotten through at least 2 levels. Another big annoyance is the camera view. There is only 1 to choose from and it sucks. It is a helicopter view directly over your head. You can see a certain radial distance around yourself, but you can't see up ahead, which sucks because sometimes you'll walk right into a group of enemies that you would have seen earlier if the camera view was behind you instead. And sometimes the camera gets stuck and your player will run ahead while the camera is still way back. This drove me mad. No other game I've played has ever done that, so I don't know if it was just my copy or not. Okay enough bad, on to the good stuff. Once you get used to the ridiculous camera view(trust me you will) this game is a lot of fun. I loved all of the mutant powers. My favorites were Iceman, Colossus, and Wolverine. Almost every mutant has some cool powers, and its a lot of fun to try them all out. I loved to go into a room and just start bashing through enemies like crazy. You can also destroy the environment depending where you are. Sometimes you can even punch through walls which is really fun. Like I said this game could have been great. It definitely leaves you wanting more. The storyline is actually pretty good, all this game needs is a little bit better graphics, and a few camera angle choices. One advantage to the mediocre graphics is blazing fast loading times. Your game will load up really fast compare to most RPG's. One last thing, any true fans of X-MEN comics will love the ending. | video-games_xbox |
Wasted Potential, at least for DS version. The DS version of the game is noticeably different from console versions of the game, such as for Xbox 360, in that level/boss designs and fight behavior are modified for the DS touch screen interface. Also, features like the holocrums or secondary objectives seem to be removed.
This game is surprisingly short- 9 levels total, so the entire game is easily beat under 4 hours. The story is indeed the best part of this game, with the engaging premise of being Darth Vader's secret apprentice intended to destroy the Emperor, in the time between the Star Wars prequels and original trilogy. Unfortunately, the short length means that the story is rushed, with interesting character premises remaining undeveloped due to only having enough cutscenes (one before each level) to cover the main plot points, without endearing conversations or any other fluff to really get to know any of the characters. The "your decisions changing the game plot" is misadvertised, since you only get to make a plot decision at the very last boss battle to decide the ending. Otherwise, the game paces solidly on rails, with no side quests or exploration or minigames. You have no choice but to loiter on your ship until you finally talk to your crew, immediately initiate the next cutscene/dialogue, then immediately get dropped into the level, and once you complete the level, back on the ship you go with your crew. The game is so on rails, that the "spending experience level points on the Force powers that match your gameplay" is also useless since you can't specialize- there are two levels of raising any Force power, and you are forced to spend your points unlocking the first level on all your skills, evenly, before you can raise them to the second and final level. The game experience is paced that all Force powers will be maxed out by the end of the game.
Gameplay itself is rather fun once you get used to it. You definitely feel the power of your character as you throw around hordes of enemies, and large scenery objects around like puppets due to the game's Lego-like "can destroy or throw around anything" physics. Combos are also fun as there are many and varied. The annoying parts to the gameplay is that you have to play with only one hand holding the DS and using the direction pad, and the other hand using the stylus constantly to perform moves. At least combos are satisfyingly performed with a right swish around the Force powers icons. Also, the camerawork is automatic, adjusting from top-down perspective to behind your character to along the side of the character and the wall, unexpectedly along the level, which can result in not being able to see enemies, or even running backwards through the level by mistake. The camera becomes more of a hindrance also considering that your character only aims directly towards where he is facing.
Overall, the game is fun with an engaging story, but is easily beat in one sitting. There is no side quests or optional material, or specialization of your character so the gameplay is completely straight along its rails, but at least provides a fun playground in its 9 levels to pull off as many of the Force powers and combos as you like as a Sith apprentice. | video-games_xbox |
Overall a great game. This game has a lot to take in, but is overall worth the money and can have quite a few hours to put into it.
The Basics:
This game incorporates a few things that were never in the other games prior. As the game progesses, Connor (the main character) is able to access New York and Boston, circa the late 1700's, and a very large map called the Frontier. The Frontier gives the ability to hunt animals and sell their pelts, and among many side missions, simply explore everything. There are the classic side missions that allow the player to track and assassinate targets and be a message courier, but they've added a selection of others as well. There are now missions called "Homestead" missions in which people usually being beat up are saved by the player. You then convince them to settle in the Frontier and they offer their goods as service. The more missions you do, the higher quality goods. There are also naval missions. And going into the game I thought they would be dumb. I saw previews and still thought they would be dumb. Then I played them and my mind was blown because they are absolutely amazing and realistic and just beautiful. Some people complained about there being no 'relic' missions where you have to search inside a temple like Assassin's Creed 2. They have been substituted with sailing your ship to random locations in search of peg leg's treasure. I will not spoil any of that but the missions are pretty varied and fun.
The main story progresses and a steady pace and has a lot of surprises that I didn't see coming. The player is transported back from Connor to Desmond and both playable characters have an interesting story. Also, the game doesn't even end when it ends there is still at least a good hour of fun to be had.
What's good:
Assassin's Creed 3 has hours of fun to be had. There is a lot of exploring and a lot of side quests I didn't even mention. Beyond that each main mission now has constraints that makes a player try pretty hard to achieve them. The combat system eventually becomes easier and the player can dominate so many opponents at once it becomes an awesome spectacle. The main story isn't lacking, it's honestly like reading a history book it's so interesting sometimes.
What's bad:
This game may have not been entirely polished as it tends to freeze quite a bit. Of course it's massive, but it's pretty annoying. Besides that it is definitely glitchy. Sometimes things don't load or people or animals disappear completely. This is why i didn't give it 5 stars. Also Connor is not as cool as Ezio or Altair, or even voice acted as good. He is the only character that matters the most (besides Desmond) and he doesn't even sound good. Maybe that's because he's an Indian? But i doubt it.
Conclusion:
Overall Assassin's Creed 3 is amazing. I wouldn't let the glitchiness disturb you as I'm sure future updates will be applied. I also didn't mention the second disc exclusively for multiplayer! It's quite expansive but I never cared much for it. Try for your self and see what you think! | video-games_xbox |
Best Available controller for racing on 360. This is the second Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel I have purchased. I enjoyed the first one so much I needed to get this for my wife. We use them for Forza 3. We race online with 5 other friends and family members.
Positives:
*The "force feedback" provides a feel reasonably similar to the tension on a steering wheel in a real car.
*The pedals provide a more accurate way to adjust speed (other than stop and full) than using the trigger on standard controller.
*The wheel provides far smoother control of the car than a standard controller. (one of our friends uses a standard controller and we can all visably see him making jerky adjustments compared to ours = big advantage).
*The surface of the wheel is comfortable to grip, even during long races.
*Our first Wheel is over a year old now and has stood up to a lot of use without breaking. It is a piece of electronic equipment so I don't suggest physically abusing it, but it has been sturdy for me.
Negatives:
*While it is not as big as a real steering wheel, it is still quite big and you need to have room to store it.
*On occassion during a race, the software will screw up and the wheel will automatically stick in a turn one way or another. You can finish the race, but you have to fight the wheel and over correct, it will reset immediately after the race is over no need to do anything technical to fix it. This is very rare, maybe 1 race out of 100, but annoying when it occurs.
*Need a stand to put it on. A standard TV dinner stand will work perfectly, it has a clamp that won't damage furniture that will hold it securely. It is also designed to be used on your lap: don't bother it is not comfortable and won't be the proper distance from your shoulders to make holding the wheel comfortable.
Need to know:
*To use the force feedback you must plug the controller into a wall jack for power. The power cord is sufficient in length for most situations. You can use batteries instead, but force feedback will not be available, and that is pointless.
If you are going to race on an Xbox 360, I suggest you track one of these down. Unfortunately they are out of production, but they are the best controller for racing.
*This review is biased by one factor: our group is all 30+ years old. We have many years experience in driving real cars. Because of that the wheel is intuitive for us. If you are not of driving age yet and have been using a standard controller for years, then it may not be as intuitive as a standard controller might be for you. | video-games_xbox |
An Excellent Soccer Game. The FIFA series of games has always been the best of the soccer games, but it was never that challenging. That's not the case anymore. FIFA 2003 is a very tough game with a steep learning curve.
The game has a few modes of play. You can play in a Club Championship (Champions' League) season with one of over a dozen European club teams. You can play in a tournament and set it up however you want. You can also play a full season with club teams. It's very comprehensive and features MLS, English Premier League, and other top world leagues. It also has the vast majority of the top players in the world.
The graphics are outstanding. Each player has a unique look that is almost a perfect match to how they really look. The players motions are fluid and look extremely realistic, complete with turns and tackles. There also are literally hundreds of stadiums in the game, from Arsenal's Highbury to the Revolution's Gillette Stadium. Soundwise, the commentary is done by a British pair that do a nice job calling the action, but don't give a whole lot of excitement to the game. The crowd sounds are good, though, complete with chants. There is simply nothing cooler than hearing your crowd continually chant "One-nil, one-nil, one-nil" when you're up 1-0.
The gameplay is where this game gets very tough. First of all, the teams now know how to defend, so no more going from coast to coast and scoring with one player. You have to set up your goals with care and precision. But even the perfect setup might not get the job done. You have to aim the shot with the left thumbstick...the same left thumbstick you use to move. This takes a lot of practice and the game will be very frustrating the first few times you play it as you watch shot after shot sail wide. EA has also added a "freestyle" control to the right thumbstick, which is supposed to add some new moves to your arsenal, but I still haven't figured out how to use it effectively.
Overall, though, any fan of soccer would really like this game. With patience, you can have a lot of fun with all sorts of teams. | video-games_xbox |
Atmospheric shooter with fun AI. The game has a fun and spooky single player campaign that I found much more satisfying than Halo3. You have little girls harvesting dead bodies for Adam. You have a metropolis filled with crazed junkies and splicers.
The game itself is beautifully atmospheric and I like how enemies react to things. Set an enemy on fire and they run jump into water, hurt them and they run towards a health station. Hack a health station so it shocks them and they curse the blasted machine and scream in pain. It was fun to follow people around and listen to them interact.
The AI and atmosphere of the game are what make this game "work". Also "Hacking" items was a fun mini-game in itself. Half of the fun in this game is the sense of unknown, but there is some appeal to playing through multiple times to play with different skills and to interact differently with the little sisters. Also I have been enjoying taking pictures of enemies to do research. Finding and taking the perfect photo of an enemy is a challenge in and of itself.
Now let me talk about the bad things. The gun controls are not as tight as other shooters I have played, that is complicated by the amount of lag or jitter the game gets after playing a while on the Xbox360.
The water is done beautifully, but human are blocky and poorly animated making things feel a bit off. I often have trouble distinguishing enemy types because of the textures and polygon counts not being up to the standards of other modern shooters.
The intro scene has human animation that was cringe worthy, A pre-rendered video snippet would have been much better and not ruined the introduction for me.
Lastly a WARNING for 360 owners : the game has a caching issue that causes lag every few seconds after playing a while. You can fix this by clearing the cache when you start the game. Do this by holding the shoulder buttons as you load the game disk. By the time the game logo comes up the cache will be cleared but you need to do this every few days of gameplay. Hopefully they will patch this at some point.
Yet despite the problems I feel the game is deeply satisfying and well worth the price. Creative use of plasmids or using robots and big daddies on enemies is just the most fun I have had in a long time. This is a "thinking-mans" shooter. You need to think and watch the world around you rather than just shoot everything. This game will have a longer shelf life than halo3 and other straight forward shooters. | video-games_xbox |
Great for fighting pro's, very good for casual fighters. For those who have done any research into this product and those who are up to speed with the new Street Fighter IV game, it is pretty evident that this version of the Street Fighter IV stick is made with specific purposes in mind. First and foremost, it's a very well designed arcade-style stick which features many of the qualities that fighting game pro's have long considered to be "absolute neccessities" in fighting sticks. Things like solid construction, proper ergonomic shape, proper weight and balance, longer cord, start and select buttons positioned away from the fighting buttons, and last but not least... completely MOD ready, with easy and quick disconnections so that players can swap and change out parts for their own personal preferences, or for maintenance. This stick is perfect in those terms.
Secondly, this Standard Edition stick is also offered for the casual players who may not care all that much about having "tournament quality" parts in their hands. Many casual players may not know the difference between authentic tournament parts and standard generic parts, so for them the stick is ready for use and play right out of the box.
In a nutshell, the Tournament Edition stick is made for hardcore fighting gamers and/or true collectors. It has a nicer design, bigger size, and comes equipped with tournament quality parts pre-installed.
The Standard Edition stick is made for both the hardcore fighting gamers and the casual gamers. It's a bit smaller, a bit less fancy, and it comes with standard quality parts installed.
I have heard that some people have been having some random problems with the stick, but there are many factors that could be involved there. Many players are very rough on their sticks and buttons, so it's hard to say where the manufacturing defects start or where the controller abuse begins. So I can only go by my own observations and experience.
Overall I think this stick is fantastic. It's the perfect companion for those who want to play Street Fighter IV in the best way possible. (or any other fighting game for that matter)
There simply is no comparison when playing a fighting game with a dedicated fighting stick versus a hand-held control pad. These Street Fighter IV sticks are simply awesome, and I think they are going to be heating up Street Fighter battles all over the country. | video-games_xbox |
Midnight Club: LA & Xbox 360 'SEMI' Wireless Racing Wheel. I bet I got many people's attention with that title! huh?
well the answer is YES!!! it is FULLY compatilble with midnight club: LA!! it even has a controller adjustmen in the options menu, where you can choose how to use the bottons from your wheel in the game, you can totally adjust it to your prefence, the response of the wheel is amazing!, some people don't like the fact that it only turns 270 degrees but, you'll find that's enought after you get used to it (it takes some SERIOUS getting used to it!!, well at least for me it did =P) just sit back in a comfortable chair, and pretend its a real car!! hehe, I even changed the view to inside the car!! and after you get really into it, its just like the real thing!!! great experience!
only reason why I don't give a fully 5 star is:
- The wheel has an awesome feedback, AND it also kinda' vibrates when you go off road, so you can actually FEEL when you're off road or even when you hit a curve!! or when you hit chairs or a tree or WHATEVER gets on your way! BUT, after you've played for a while, wheel kinda' loses this feature... so force feedback is still there but vibration kinda goes away... what i usually do is disconnect the whole thing, shut off the xbox for a while and when i use it again and it works fine again... I don't know if its a defective wheel, or maybe my xbox is messing up, not sure... just thought i'd let you guys know that...
other than that, wheel is great!, very well built, grip is great! works Really good with need 4 speed: carbon, whatever seller i got it from geve me PGR3! which is also really cool....
Don't expect it to be EXACTLY like the real thing, that's impossible.. remember 'it is just a game!!!' :) I'm saying this cause i've read many reviews and some people are just silly about it!... it is a very cool gaming experience... I do recommend it!
I also recommend Midnight club! I was never too much into racing games until this game came out! | video-games_xbox |
One of the Xbox's best. MechAssault was released in 2002, closing in, as of this year, on being ten years old. As far as I'm concerned it hasn't aged a day.
This game is set within the BattleTech universe, in which wars, while still fought with pretty much all of the weapons we have today- tanks, aircraft, infantry and so on- are waged mostly by massive, hideously expensive walking machines. Called "mechs", these vehicles are piloted by one person, ranging from small mechs barely much bigger than some of the larger tanks to titans that dwarf numerous buildings and can bring down entire cities with their firepower. "MechAssault" has nothing new in terms of its main character- another of those strong, silent types I guess- but somehow it manages to make it interesting. It's difficult to say why, but if nothing else I think it's because they don't spend too much time harping on why the main guy doesn't talk. The deal is simple- you are a mech pilot, holding the rank of Captain, working with a massive army-for-hire known as the Wolf Dragoons. They've been hired to liberate an entire planet from the hold of the Word of Blake, technology-worshipping fanatics hunting after a legendary thing- later revealed to be a mech- called Ragnarok. Apparently they also brought a gigantic drill capable of somehow destroying the planet, in case their leader, Strader, or his numerous goons screw up. Home Depot apparently does a bit more in the BattleTech universe than they do in ours. Anyway, the game focuses on the job- take back the planet, go home with a titanic paycheck that, odds are, will be sizeable enough to buy a planet of your own. It doesn't ignore the silent Captain- who according to briefings does talk off-screen- but it doesn't dwell needlessly on him either.
Graphics in "MechAssault" were good- for the time. Maybe not the best ever seen, but definitely a nice, solid "good". They never disappointed me.
The storyline, the combat, and the multiplayer of MechAssault are all interesting and enjoyable. This game more than earned the money it asked for. One of its greatest features- one I had never encountered before but have seen in many games since- is Grinder. While you can choose a number of maps, the best is River City. Mechs drop in to fight you and anybody who's with you. Kill a full line in one drop spot, a new drop spot opens up and now you fight two at once, then more, and more. My brother and I once brought down 216 enemy mechs before going down ourselves. By then the city was all but gone and attacking mechs were scattered all over the landscape. Now, this battle-against-infinite-waves-of-bad-guys idea may not have originated with MechAssault, but they certainly came up with it before Bungie did.
But when you talk multiplayer what you really mean is online. Not since the "Halo" games have I encountered a game I so thoroughly loved to play on Xbox Live. Just like offline multiplayer, you select a mech upon joining a hosted game, drop in and do battle. Those days are over now- the battlefields of the "MechAssault" world have fallen silent. But all of us who played remember the countless desperate fights, narrowly won by the valor of, at times, just one pilot. Since those days, only the "Halo" series, "Gears of War", and certain "Call of Duty" games have provided a similarly enjoyable experience. And, truth be told, none of them truly match "MechAssault". If you're not driving a multi-billion credit walking nuke reactor at five in the morning one Saturday, it just isn't the same. And lastly- countless games have fighter jets, or at least the sound of fighter jets, streaking overhead. But it's not often that a game also gives you the opportunity- every time to my recollection- to blow those fighter jets out of the sky. Good times. | video-games_xbox |
Great game, but bugs make it near unplayable and very frustrating. First off I love this game. You would think it odd that I gave it two stars. Let me explain. The first major hurdle you run into when playing this game are the frequent game freezes (or lock ups) that occur. At first it was every other day, now I can't get through 3 songs without having the game lock up. This requires a mandatory reboot of the entire game. This can take 5 - 10 minutes to get all the way back online, logged in, and back to a song you want to play. I played for an hour yesterday, had 4 freezes that cost me about 15 minutes of my life. I talked with ubisoft tech support, each time they took 48 hours to get back to me. I have had other companies respond in hours. Their first response was basically unload all rocksmith files and installs from the xbox harddrive and re-install. This is basically turn your computer off and then on again support. An hour later not very surprised that their advice didn't work, but I suppose that may fix some issues. Then they ask to unplug all usb accessories. I do and no surprise it locks up again.
I feel that this is as bad as it can get and just try to play through the pain because the game really did help me learn guitar and it is FUN. In non-stop play I hit "skip song" and get a message that my file is corrupted, losing 122 hours of game play/ranking up in the songs. So as great a teacher and fun as it is the frustration level is through the roof! If you can deal with the constant freezes and an occasional complete loss of all acheivements, and have to deal with a clueless and uncaring customer service department this is the game for you.
BTW, they have been talking about a 'patch' for a few weeks now. Game has been out 3 weeks, no patch. No offer from company for free song dlc, partial refund or anything else. No, I did not ask for anything, but come on man.
Update 12/19/13: I talked with a very sympathetic customer support person yesterday. Here is what I was told: They are aware of both issues (the game freezing and partial access in offline to some DLC) but they could not tell when they expect to have these issues fixed. They are not offering ANYTHING to people who have paid for DLC but cannot access it. No refund, free downloads, NOTHING. For those of you who are freezing - look for this as a trigger to lockup. Every time - and I mean everytime - I hit the center button on my xbox360 (to see the time or see which of my friends are online) the game freezes during the current song or by the end of the next song. I get very few freezes if I don't hit that button. There was a patch released but did not fix either issue. I am going to buy bandfuse and see if that is better. | video-games_xbox |
Bargain Bin Review "El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron. If the idea of cavorting before a hipster guardian angel who communicates with God on a cell phone and doing battle with minions of a dreadlocked Michael Jackson-alike who vogues in front of the screen whilst you're engaged in combat isn't an immediate turnoff, then El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron might just be weird enough for you.
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron takes its inspiration from the Apocryphal book of Enoch. The more devout of thee in the audience can correct me if i'm wrong, but from what i could gather Enoch is a character from the Holy Bible book of Genesis who was a man of great faith, that turned out to be the great grandfather of Noah. In the game you are Enoch, a denim jeans clad hero fighting to restore order in Heaven by purifying truant angels to prevent the great flood. According to Genesis, angels had descended to earth and were making babies, known as Nephilim, with mortal women. This act of betrayal by the angels and humans was so detestable to the Big Guy upstairs that it inspired the watery Etch-a-Sketch end of the world. Talk about a jealous lover!
It's a Biblicalish tale with a very Japanese style. Think Bayonetta and Dante's Inferno (the not-classic game, not the classic book) by way of Davey and Goliath on acid. The play style is hack and slash with platformer tendencies. It does both competently. The art style is beyond gorgeous. Any number of screenshots would make decent wall hangings in your suburban home.
The 11 levels of the game sans one take place in a colorful and diversely envisioned netherworld. The one level not like the others involves a bizarre motorbike chase with Transformers-, no, Gobot-like nemesis's (f Michael Bay in the ear for ruining my childhood memories) on your tail in a futuristic Blade Runner-esque cityscape.
Most of the rest of the game involves doing battle with the fan club of puffy pantaloons-wearing fallen angels who don All-Seeing Eye of God masks (more popular in heaven on Halloween than Guy Fawkes masks) in boss battles. It's like if the back of a one dollar bill came to life... and wanted to kill you. Illuminati take note.
And now the verdict, in which rhubarb doom angles for a coveted AGN Game Critic Award. Using a 5 point scale we have...
Gameplay - 3.5: The simple control scheme is easy to learn and adequately responsive. It's not uncommon to misjudge jumps, but i'd attribute that more to being dazzled by the purty visuals more than due to crappy controls. All in all a relatively frustration-free, controller tossing-less experience.
Presentation - 5: Released in 2011 alongside such visual wonders as Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, Battlefield 3 and Rayman Origins, El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron dazzles with stunningly beautiful graphics. The vaguely decipherable story, based on an excised chapter from the numero uno best seller of all time, is served well by the marvelous artsy fartsy style.
Sound - 4: Though the clip above from the Japanese version cannot attest, the voice acting is excellent, featuring a Shakespearean actor in the lead and a guy from the Harry Potter films as your "I've got God on speed dial!" pal and convenient save station. The musical score is fitting if not somewhat unremarkable. Sound effects do their job well.
Replayability - 3: There are a whole host of bonuses to be had upon completion of your first playthrough. There are cinematics, sketches, harder difficulties, and extra costumes to unlock. If you're careful to collect all six of the "Prophecies of Ishtar" entries you'll gain access to an outfit that basically makes you invincible, which is handy for repeat playthroughs to pick up any spare cheevos left hanging.
Multiplayer - 0: Thankfully, Ignition Entertainment chose not to tack a pointless multiplayer mode onto this little gem. Here is a case where a zed in the ratings category is a badge of honor. No need for multiplayer here. El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is a completely satisfying single player experience.
Final Score - 4: El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is a video game not unique by type, but by style, and for that reason alone is worth a long lingering look. It can be had brand new for under $20 here at Amazon and at that price is quite the Eighth Commandment busting steal.
This review originally published with graphics and videos at AdultGamersNetwork.com on March 6th, 2012. | video-games_xbox |
Not as great as Burnout but a good arcade racer nonetheless. Sega's Full Auto for the Xbox 360 is a racer that will never be mistaken for a Gran Turismo simulator-clone. Full Auto has more in common with Criterion's Burnout racing series. What Full Auto does to distinguish itself from Burnout is the fact that each vehicle is armed to the teeth with all sorts of weaponry. I see this Sega arcade racer as the offspring of a marriage between Burnout and the Twisted Metal series.
The game is easy to pick up and play and get into. In fact, this is one of its advantages over other racers in that the racing physics involve in forgiving. The goal of Full Auto is not to show how well the game can simulate racing on the console, but to immerse the player in road rage-inducing mayhem. Everything about Full Auto is gearing towards a more arcade-type game. The driving controls are very simple. The game makes very good use of all the face buttons, bumpers and triggers on the 360 controller.
The gameplay is all about full auto destruction and the developers really spent alot of time making sure that everything on the screen is destructible. Whatever you can see and aim at can be destroyed either by running over and into it or by using your vehicle's choice of weaponry. One thing I've had alot of fun pulling off is jumping off the crest of a downslope on a track and at the same time launching off a few missiles at the top floors of a building at the bottom of said downslope. By the time my car lands from its jump the building I shot my missiles at are crumbling down to its foundation and taking out any rival racers that were ahead of me.
The one new innovation in gameplay that Full Auto has is the ability to rewind time back a few seconds if one gets totalled or makes the wrong turn. This going back in time part of the gameplay is helpful but not always available. Only by causing destruction on everything around you can you fill the gauge meter enough to make the option available. But with Full Auto that is easy enough to accomplish. It's a nifty trick and when used properly can help the player learn just how to make a certain sharp turn on the course without losing too much speed or learn which side track and ramps are best in overtaking a lead car.
The graphics in Full Auto is not as photorealistic as the ones in the 360's Project Gotham Racing 3, but what it lacks in breathtaking beauty it has in the amount of destructive particles and items that fill up the screen. The processing power of the 360 seemed to have been utilized in making the game's environment fully destructible while doing just enough to make the car models just slighty better than the previous generation of racers. The sound effects are great when heard through a surround sound system. Every roar and rumble of the cars' engines are distinct, but its in the weapons fire and explosions that surround sound really shines.
If I have any complaints about Full Auto its that the game on multiplayer doesn't allow for the use of the time-rewind option. This makes multiplayer a more conservative side of the game's fun. There's less reckless abandonment type of racing in multiplayer than there is when playing the single-player mode. The game also doesn't add anything else to the racing genre that Twisted Metal and Burnout hasn't already brought to fore. Full Auto did marry the those two games' best features together and pulls it off well enough. For those on a budget I would recommend this fun arcade-racer only as a rental. Rent it out and give it a spin to see if its to their liking. Those who want another racer for their 360 and can afford it then I recommend this game as a buy. It's a fun, no-nonsense game that is just a few things short of being great. | video-games_xbox |
There are some Problems with the Console. There are some problems with this device:
- First of all it is still somewhat big and heavy, I mean computers are a lot lighter and smaller yet also have screen on them.
- Second it does make fan sound, it has loud fan noise to it which is uncomfortable especially if you don't have big speakers to mask the fan noise.
- Third problem is that the console cannot switch the wireless feature off, suppose i don't like the wireless controllers and i have a wired controller, it does not let me switch off the wireless feature from the console. Computers do have a switch you can turn all wirelless devices off like Blutetooth and Wifi so this is a major drawback of this console not be able do that. We always need to have a switch for this on devices and I strongly EMPHASIZE this that it needs to be added. A friend of mine has children with pacemakers for their HEARTS and they should NOT be subjected to microwaves due to possible interference with the Pacemakers, yet Microsoft completely DISREGARDS this safety feature. So how are those kids supposed to be able to play with this conlose? They simply cant.
- Fourth, the black wireless controller that came with it, has totally broken down on me just 2 weeks from new. The push buttons on the levers died completely and I could not zoom in to use the scope on the sniper rifles, pistol in Halo Reach, etc and that ruined all the fun. I threw the wireless remote away. I use my old white wired one.
- Fifth problem is that the output on the screen is flickering and looks like an old CRT display. It seems the problem stems from the fact that I used the analog cables rather than a digital link to my TV. It is ok once you get into a game, but not as good as computer display. I guess it is worth invest in a digital link for display.
- Another serious drawback is that certain games like Halo Reach on this console do NOT have a setting to turn the Blood off. Therefore, any player, be it young, or even grown- up they have to be subjected to viewing all the bloodshed happenning and the blood splattering around with every shots to the various characters. This complaint is Game- specific, but I don't think parents are happy having children look at all the blood pooring and splattering. This device in my house is on suspension and will not be used, unless for each shoot-em-up game there is a feature for turning the blood bleeding feature off most of the times (sometimes for stricktly educational purposes is ok).
At this point I' m surprised at Microsoft with all the experience they have in the Game Industry, they still make mistakes. That says a lot about their reasoning, or capabilities. | video-games_xbox |
Dissappointly annoying. This is the game that made me want to buy an X1. I ignored ALL media, marketing, and discussion and went in blind. Honestly, I probably wouldve bought this even if I already knew it was bad because I love Halo so much.
Lets start with the MP Pros and Cons.
CONS
-Playing solo is a nightmare. Teamwork allows for easy power weapon hogging and steam rolling uncoordinated teams.
-Slayer maps are badly designed. Too many long sightlines, paths, and not suited for dashes/clambering. Youll hardly ever get to see your attacker until its too late.
-BR/DMR fights are nonexistent. Its whoever gets the jump on the other who wins, no more gun fights.
-Weird weapon balancing. EVERY weapon is deadly barely any use for BR, DMR, or Carbine close up.
-Maps have too many power weapons that spawn too quickly. Probably because they want fast paced matches similar to other fps.
PROS
-Warzone Assault is for the competitive players. Expertly designed and balanced. Very fair and not too crazy. Fun with friends!
-Reqs not too intrusive. I ignored them all and I didn't feel like I missed anything.
-Forge is insane and bound to make some of the best Halo maps yet. Expect multiplayer overhaul if community maps get into playlists.
-While fast paced and not like Halo, it does play very well in BTB and Warzone. But stay away from TS and other game modes as they are too crazy.
Now for the campaign. Personally, THIS is the worst Halo campaign and is responsible for the low rating. Played it first on legendary solo.
PROS
-They nailed the covenant in this game. Elites are toned down, but its so refreshing just to fight them after the fustrating prometheans.
-Buck makes a return
-The game is beautiful
-THE BEST map design in all of Halo. So many paths and secrets!
-Cool easter eggs and flavor text.
CONS
-AWFUL AI. The game is designed around them and assumes they will watch your back. Instead of feeling like you're a part of an elite force you feel like you're picking up your "team's" slack.
-TERRIBLE BOSSES. 343 did not take notes and made one of the worst bosses in video games. Armored bullet sponge with multiple instant kill moves.
-BORING OST. Walk Softly is the only song that tries to stand out.
-BAD STORY. Youre on wild goosechase the entire time and know the game's twist from the start. Lame dialogue. (Besides Buck)
-The prometheans are back and more boring than ever. Theyre still bullet sponges and expect to sniped by suppressors constantly. Too strong and not very intelligent.
-I hope you like Suppresors. Theyre amazing and in constantly supply.
-MERIDIAN SUCKS. A glasses planet sounds cool but it isn't actually. This is only made worse after the next con.
-REINFORCEMENTS/PADDING. The missions are shorter but each room is filled with 2-5 waves of reinforcments when fighting prometheans. You will hate it.
-BAD ENDING. Not storywise but gameplay. The final level is not very "Halo" and is just, surprise, a gauntlet of reinforcements in a cramped room. Did not expect it to end there. | video-games_xbox |
Some changes, but still the same game. This review contains spoilers for DS3 and its DLC.
Good: it's a new atmosphere. The 200-year-old grimy ship differs greatly from the contempory-but-industrial Ishimura and the residential Titan Station. And you are in space quite a lot--more than in the other games, perhaps, as there's a lot of traveling between ships. It gives the game a different feel, but it's no different than the change between DS and DS2.
Sargent John Carver is a great character. Without co-op play, you don't see many of his interactions with Isaac, but the ones that are seen are priceless.
The weapon-crafting system is awesome, and the universal ammo was such a great move. It required more skill to have the right kinds of ammo, but you can only carry two weapons in DS3, and DS and DS2 would often give you other, unneeded ammo. The crafting in general is interesting.
On that note, I like that the suits themselves are cosmetic, and your RIG must be upgraded by itself, but I'm sure some don't like this. After all, you end up lacking the built-in upgrades that some suits offered (ie, in DS2, certain suits made items cheaper or gave you a damage upgrade to certain weapons).
Above all, it's still the same game: Isaac Clarke on a ship full of Necromorphs.
Neutral: There are now human enemies to fight. Not good or bad, but definitely a change. It definitely marks the change to an action game. While the ending itself is way too easy, the last chapter before the end is quite hard. You'll die randomly, presumably from debris falling, even if your RIG is totally upgraded and completely full. It would stop me from playing the game on Hardcore mode, because even if you avoid enemies and just run through it, you will die. Maybe I'm missing something, but I've beaten the game many times on many different modes and always had this problem.
(Possibly) bad: the horror elements are greatly reduced. There are many psychological horror aspects in the first two games, particularly Isaac's hallucinations and various gory sights. Since Nicole is dead, there's little for Isaac to hallucinate about. Much of the gore and horror (including hallucinations) return in the DLC, but are absent from this game. It's still scary, though, and I think it becomes scarier when you realize you have to destroy the whole planet/moon (much as it became scarier, I think, when you realize that Titan Station is going to be totally destroyed).
At the end of the credits, Isaac manages to respond to Ellie's last broadcast, and it seems he has survived. However, they spent a long time building up the nature of his sacrifice, only to have him seemingly survive (and survive for sure, as shown in the DLC...and then he seems to die again). Silliness.
Definitely bad: Ellie is reduced from a strong, confident survivalist to a weak damsel in distress whose rescue occupies much of the game. Her face has become more traditionally feminine, her breasts seem to have grown several cup sizes, she now wears a supremely low-cut shirt, and the climax of the game is a kiss scene with her and Isaac. In other words, she has been hypersexualized, and it is to the detriment of the game. I wish they would have kept her the way she was.
And the end of the game itself seems really way too easy; it's even easier than DS2. You get to stand in the exact same place, and your position allows you to TK limbs off live Necromorphs. I beat it the first time, and it was anticlimactic.
It's still the same old DS3, despite the changes, but some of the changes have not been good for the game.
EDITED TO ADD: I've dropped my rating to three stars after realizing how absolutely lazy this game is. The graphics are great, but every optional mission looks EXACTLY the same. Every room looks the same...I think the turning point came when they re-used a briefly-seen monster from the first game. Are you serious?! It didn't bother me at first but it's part of why this game can get so boring. | video-games_xbox |
Multiplayer only review. I will let you know right now I am only reviewing the Multiplayer aspect of Homefront. The reason is because I usually only play the multiplayer mode for FPS games. First off the gameplay feels strangely familiar. Hmm could it be that they copied and pasted Call of Duty's control scheme? Not that I'm complaining because I've grown accustom to CoD's controls but yes it is a complete copy and paste of CoD including some of the perks. I've also noticed that they borrowed Bad Company's vehicle ideas. Except vehicles in here are a disaster, I will elaborate later on.
There are three game modes in Homefront (two only if you don't count Skirmish).
#1 Ground control - Each team captures or defends 3 positions A, B, and C. If the attacking team is successful in capturing all points they move on to the next location until all objectives are captured. If the defending team successfully holds them off or re-captures the points, the game ends. Up to 32 players.
#2 Team death match - classic team death match up to 24 players. Pretty self explanatory.
#3 Skirmish - Randomly selects either ground control or tdm up to 16 players only.
Here's the biggest issue I've run into since playing the game. The servers are really screwed up bad! Sometimes I get a connection error about not being able to connect. I even tried joining a friend's game who had open slots. Nope that didn't work either. Two hours later and the same thing. I heard that the only way to get into a game is through Skirmish since it's not connected through THQ's dedicated servers. But that also means the host having an advantage over you, or you just lagging in game. I know a lot of people complained about CoD's servers, but believe me, after dealing with this crap you'll settle for their server. The servers for Homefront are VERY VERY BROKEN.
The game is not balanced at all, especially if you don't have the online pass that came with the software. If you refuse to purchase the pass you're capped at level 5. At level 5 you're only allowed to use the default weapons, giving you a HUGE disadvantage on the battlefield. Ridiculous? Yes! A friend borrowed the game from me and did not purchase the pass, he realized that after a couple of hours he was not ranking up anymore. This is a major let down especially if you plan on picking this up used. Do they really want to go down EA's route? Because that alone is more disappointing than this game.
To add on to that, the vehicles can be abused to no end. For example the pilot in a chopper can fly around firing missiles at the infantry that spawn. Essentially you and your team can be spawn trapped since your teammates respawn near you. Also you tend to respawn at the same spawn locations making you and your team easy targets. Yes it can be shot down, but unless I missed something, I have not seen any air locking/guided missiles for planes. And most people ignore it even though they are continuously dying from the same chopper!
I do have some good things to say about the game. You can have up to 16 people in your party, which is cool (good luck with ranked matches though). Most land vehicles can be destroyed without help from teammates. You can purchase your rewards and equipment in game, so if you need those extra RPGs to take down a tank, it's only a button away.
Still the bad outweighs the good. Simply put, the game was designed poorly, they only stole ideas from the well known FPS franchises in hopes of making a quick buck. It's no mystery why the game dropped to $45 on it's own release date. It's full of flaws, if you're a Battlefield or CoD player stick with that. This game is a mash up of both, but with FAIL written all over it. Save your money if you are thinking about buying it to play Multiplayer! You'll thank me. | video-games_xbox |
Not as creepy as the first two Dead Space titles. The original Dead Space will always be remembered as a game that scares the crap out of you and as much as I loved the first two titles, this one falls short in terms of atmosphere. With that being said, everything else feels a lot better in Dead Space 3. The game feels more fast paced than the first two titles and you are never given a moment to rest or even think of what weapon to choose from. I found myself looking behind most of the time because I was so scared of someone coming after me and scaring the crap out of me :D. After having completed the game, I definitely feel like the game was extremely well made and the fans of the original Dead Space will absolutely love this game. The graphics are superb and there are some scenes that really stand out in the game. You will know what I'm talking about when you play the game. The sound is what makes this game stand out from every other game out there. I cannot explain how realistic the sound in this game is. You will have to play the game to find out because there's no word to describe how great the sound is.
~Visuals~
It's a bit scary how real everything looks in this game with high level of detail in both the environment and characters. The character animations are some of the best I have seen in my life. One of the things that make this game such an incredible experience is the lighting, environment and the artists have done an incredible job at making this game feel like a real place. Some of the environments in the game remind me of Doom 3 which is great because I loved Doom 3. There are some portions of the game where you just have to stop, look around and just absorb all the details that is around you.
~Sound~
The sound in this game does an amazing job at creating an incredible atmosphere of fear and tension throughout the game. There were some moments where I became so scared because I kept hearing squishy sounds coming from the air vent but I didn't know where exactly that I almost ran away from the computer :D. I honestly believe that the sound in this game is its best and strongest point.
~Gameplay~
The gameplay in Dead Space is excellent and it gives you a variety of interesting guns. The controls feel great and fluid for most of the time but there were some moments when you get crowded by monsters and it's hard to focus. Creatures are killed easily when you shoot off their limbs but usually take a lot of hits if you're just aiming for the body so it lends a whole strategic kind of thing to the mayhem. The gameplay is similar to Dead Space 2 so that's nice.
Overall, I found Dead Space 3 to be an improvement from Dead Space 2. It has amazing graphics, a great story, and one of the most realistic sound experiences you will ever find in a game. The only negative that I can think of is that I found the original Dead Space game to be creepier than Dead Space 3 but that doesn't mean Dead Space 3 isn't creepy because it is. I definitely recommend it to the fans who loved the first two titles because Dead Space 3 will make you crap your pants. I give this game a 10/10 even though I didn't find it to be as creepy as the original game. | video-games_xbox |
Pinball Fever Returns. Prepare yourself for what has to be the single greatest collection of pinball games ever released on a single disc, for any system. Hardcore gamers and casual gamers alike will all find something to like with this collection. I will list the games in no particular order.
1. Jive Time: This one you are either going to love or hate. The trick with Jive Time is the plunger shot. If you can do it right then your reward is an extra ball which will come in very handy as you will find out. This is the unlockable table after finishing goals on the other tables.
2. Medieval Madness: Now here is a true classic. Prepare to wage Battle against the King of Payne and the King's men. Help the Peasants reclaim there property and of course save the Damsels in Distress. It all comes down to Battle of the Kingdom. Can you defeat the King and his Men.
3. Whirlwind: There is a terrible storm approaching and your goal is to move it out of the area. Be careful when the storm approaches because there are three spinning discs that will send your ball every which way. Oh and don't visit the cellar to often or you may get scolded.
4. Pin*Bot: Prepare yourself for a journey across the Solar System with Pin*Bot. Your goal is to complete the journey to the Sun. Pin*Bot will be with you during this journey. Make sure to open his visor and if you are good enough, he will "see you" and give you multiball. This is one of the more challenging tables.
5. Black Knight: Prepare to wage Battle against the Black Knight. This machine has a multi level playfield. The key to defeating the Black Knight is multiball. Also don't forget to use Magna-Save if your ball is heading for either outlane.
6. Firepower: The first pinball game to feature electronic multiball and lane change feature. Firepower is one of my favorites in this collection because I remember playing many hours while I was a teen. I think you will enjoy it yourself.
7. Gorgar: Another of my favorites in the collection. No multiball here, just pinball at it's best. Gorgar was the first talking pinball game with a seven word vocabulary.
8. Funhouse: Rudy has taken over the Funhouse and it is your goal to put him to sleep at midnight. This is a fantastic game with many twists, turns and other surprises. Make sure to visit Rudy's Hideout for some extra points.
9. Space Shuttle: Prepare yourself for another Space Adventure in Space Shuttle. Once again the key to scoring high points in Space Shuttle is multiball. Also make sure to keep the airlock open or you may end up drifting in space.
10. Taxi: Your challenge in Taxi is to pickup your passengers Gorby, Drac, Lola, Pin*Bot and Santa. Collect the jackpot and drop them back off. It's hard to do but certainly possible.
11. Sorcerer: Now here is a challenging game. Prepare to be frustrated with balls heading for and draining down the outlanes on a regular basis. I think this game frustrates me more than any other games in the collection. It's still a great game but be prepared for frustration.
12. Tales of the Arabian Nights: Your goal in Arabian Nights is to rescue the Princess from the Blue Genie. This is a fantastic table which will take you in with the story, sights and sounds. Can you rescue the Genie?
13 No Good Gofers: Prepare for laughter as you attempt to play a round of golf. The only problem with this is that you will have two friends along while you are playing. These two friends and Bud and Buzz. They will scold you along the way and also praise you. It's all in good fun and you will laugh the entire time. Great game.
There are many extras included in the package. These include online leaderboards, so see if you can beat other players high scores. Throw a pinball party for up to four players in Tournament mode. There are other unlockables included in the game that I won't spoil for you.
So as you can see I think very highly of this collection. It's one that I will be returning to long after I have finished other games. This is one not to miss. | video-games_xbox |
More SecuROM garbage. I have two BIG problems with this game that make it unplayable:
1. SecuROM - all you have to do is read the other reviews to see what the problem is here. I don't pay $50 to "rent" a game. But this issue is minor compared to the next.
2. Missing inStall code. I CANNOT EVEN INSTALL THE GAME! My manual has a 19 character install code. The game requires a 20 character install code. After about 3 hours of trying to figure out the problem and speaking to tech support twice, who REFUSED to believe I wasn't using a pirated copy of the game until I sent them a picture of my manual, it turns out that this is due to misprint from the printers. Unfortunately I was one of the unlucky ones who received the game the day of release, before EA figured out what was going on, and I was treated TWICE like a thief (once with SecuROM, and again with this when they thought I had a bootleg copy). Now, I can understand a problem with a misprint, mistakes happen. I assumed EA would send me a brand new code and that would be it. What I got was this ridiculous message from EA on their web site:
"There is currently a work around that may allow you to bypass this issue. Since you have the first 19 characters of the code already, you can basically try "guessing" the last character. To do this, simply enter your existing code, and then for the last character, try the letters A-Z, and then the numbers 0-9. You should eventually get the right combination, and be able to play the game."
Are you KIDDING me??!! You want me to enter in possibly up to 37 different 19 character codes until I find the right one?! That is beyond lazy on their part. Ultimately I took my copy back to the store (I did not purchase on Amazon) and got a refund after showing them my screwed up manual.
I have purchased two separate EA games recently with SecuROM and have only now learned my lesson. I will not be buying anymore. Buy this game at your own risk. If you are okay with the draconian DRM measures and don't mind the chance that you may have to enter in 37 possible install codes in order to simply play the game, maybe you will have some fun (at least until you format or change your computer hardware a couple times, and EA shuts down your copy of the game). | video-games_xbox |
Whatz All the fuss. Alot of people bashed this game saying "It was not as detailed as the first Deus Ex", "There wasn't different ammo for each weapon", and "I am a big ass baby cause I cant get what I want".
Don't listen to these gays. "It's not like Halo", "it is not as cool as Halo", or "I have a Halo complex because all I do with my life is play Halo" (halo is a great game, don't get me wrong)
This is Deus Ex dammit and It is the secound install I think they do a great job of streamlining the things you need from the things you don't
Take the ammo gripe for instance. Each weapon consumes a different amount of the same ammo, which is no different then having say six sniper bullets or 18 pistol cartridges. The only difference is you don't have to waste your whole day looking for the bullets. I find it more enjoyable
The greatest thing about this game is the replay value I mean you could replay the Seattle level, which is the first level in the game about 100 different ways. Take this into consideration with 15 different biomods you can choose from and about five ballistic weapons, four non-lethal, and an assortment of greneades and gadgets, you can takle the situations anyway you want. If you added various ammo for each weapon it would just be one more thing you have to balance in your inventory, and this is a game not a Quicky Mart.
The Graphics are a little textured, but don't let that detract you from getting this. I gave it four stars only because the graphics (to please the junkies out there) weren't as good as Halo. But, this isn't Halo it is a FPS where the objectives are not neccassarily to blast everything that moves. This game is best suited to those that like to experiment and do not get frustrated easily.
The first Deus Ex was not a cake walk, and neither is this one. You have to know when to shoot, to talk, to run, or to hack into an enemy bot and use his gatling guns against his allies.
A solid buy that will reward those of us who like FPS and RPG games. Besides people what else are we gonna do until Halo 2 comes out? Get this game. You will appreciate its uniqueness You will play it The Order is calling you because they say Its the Crunkinest!!!! | video-games_xbox |
Frustrating Good Game. I enjoyed playing this game, even though I made myself wait until it I could find it as a cheaper pre-owned game because of EA's Ad campaign. Suffice to say that the "Your Mom Hates This Game" ads were the worst game ads I've ever seen, and are a detriment to all gaming culture. The biggest reason I'm only giving it four stars is that when the game tried to be scary or difficult, to me it was just annoying or frustrating. The first Dead Space was much more scary, I was never startled or creeped out when playing Dead Space 2. When they had the various monsters jump out at you, all it really did was cheaply take away a decent amount of your health. You will be dying many times in this game, and while I like the cool deathscenes some of the harder sections have the longest deathscenes, which means you'll be repeating the same animation over and over. It would be nice if they somehow had an option to either not have the deathscenes, or only show it the first time you die. The weird thing is that when I kept dying I never felt like it was from plain difficulty, I always felt it was because of cheap overpowered enemy attacks or running low on ammo or health. I know that limited ammo and health is a survival horror must, but I felt like I had to make decisions between buying ammo and health or new guns and armor. Also, the upgrade system is so extensive, it's impossible to fully upgrade more than 2 things in one playthrough. I just find it curious that the developers expect gamers to replay the game multiple times, because nothing at all would change, you can't make any choices in the game, and I assume all of the fights would essentially be the same. It was also strange that the game's ending chapter had two of the most annoying sections in the whole game. First they had a regenerating monster, where you had to blow it up, freeze it, then kill the other monsters/unlock doors/run away. This really didn't make sense, because you couldn't pick up the pieces of the monster with kinesis and throw them far away, which would be the logical thing to do. It's just annoying being unable to kill a monster you face. Then for the final boss battle, it was just so frustrating. You have your dead girlfriend slowly moving to you (when she touches you you die) and a swarm of the child monsters (that cause you instant death at the first hint of red in your health bar). At first, I thought I just had to repeatedly kill the dead girlfriend, but after killing her around 6or7 times before dying the hundredth time, I reasoned I had to be doing something wrong. It turns out you have to shoot this thing in the background each time after you kill the woman. It still wasn't easy, but it was doable, I wish your objective had been a bit more obvious. I did enjoy the end though, it was a classic horror ending.
As for the actual gameplay, I generally found it to be much too slow. You have three speeds, crawling as slow as a snail (after being vomited on), walking like a granny, and jogging like a fat man chasing a truck full of Twinkies driving through a school zone. I also find the main gameplay aspect of dismembering the limbs of the aliens to be much too simplistic/cookie-cutter. They always separate at the same spot, which is just so unrealistic. If the whole game is going to be about slicing the monsters into pieces, there should be multiple irregular pieces, it shouldn't be so easy to put it back together if they sold the dismembered monster as a puzzle. Furthermore, I still felt like I was running errands throughout the game, and it was much too linear. The story was very vague as well, none of the introduced characters evolved and we never were even given an inkling of their backstories or motives. To me it just felt lazy, there was room for more story development, but they avoided it.
There will obviously be a third Dead Space, and I can only hope that the developers take more risks with it. Dead Space 1 and 2 were very similar, and really the only gameplay aspect that evolved was the zero gravity sections. I had fun playing the game, and any fan of survival horror games or sci-fi/horror movies should check it out, but I still ended up a little disappointed, hence the 4 star rating. | video-games_xbox |
Big. Really Big. Maybe even TOO big. This game has an extremely large, totally open world. The main problem I have with this game is that it is TOO big. Because they elected to have "Safe Houses" in which you could save your game and respawn after you die, the gameplay is a little bit frustrating. For example, you can drive to a mission point for a good ten minutes, get there, die, and then have to start back over driving another ten minutes. The safe houses themselves are too far away from each other, as there are only about forty or so on this island that has at least 100 settlements that need to be liberated. Which brings me to my second point: the settlement liberations, which are a main part of the game, are all TOTALLY IDENTICAL, except for minor details, like how much the road bends or how far the road blocks are from each other. Much more fun (and Frustration) can be had by liberating cities. Unfortunately, there are only maybe 6 cities in total. Totally the opposite of the liberations, the side missions and main missions are totally unique and, even though I have been playing this game for a good 4 months, I still occasionally stumble upon a new type of side mission.
The story itself is pretty well done. You are Rico. You cause crap to happen. Bad crap. You are an expert in "regime-change", a term used a good fifteen times throughout this game. The other main characters you encounter along your journey are each unique, even though only maybe three character models were created for those you have to kill.
This game is in no way realistic. For example, you can steal a car right in front of the police, and they won't care. However, if you bump into another car in the car you just stole, the fuzz will be on you like white on rice. Cliches aside, the physics are totally unrealistic. I went six kilometers into the air, then jumped out of my plane. I landed, without ever deploying my parachute, in the ocean. I was totally okay, not even hurt. Also, Rico has serious ups, as he can jump easily from a stationary car to a helicopter flying overhead.
Minor gameplay tweaks were needed for this game to receive 5 stars in the fun column, but overall it is a very satisfying, free-roaming shooter with stuntman-like moves and lots of action. | video-games_xbox |
ultimate edition 1 fantastic price. My friends got this for me this christmas off amazon.
The only problem I had with this game was ONE BUG, and that was on a quest where I had to etch writing off of statues. I got all of the statues, but it said i was missing one. (it's a bug, I checked online) so of course, I patched it. Still didn't fix it. ONLY problem. I got over it, still a great game, and definitely worth the money my friend paid for it, which was $20. Way better alternative than say, buying origins, and all of the expansions one by one.
A lot of the new characters don't really cut it in replacing the first. The 'keeper' is a total butch. Sigrun's awe and amazement at exploring the 'surface' I can relate to, as I explore all of the new territories and places in Awakening. Ohgren's companion conversations are hilarious. Anders' new nickname for me is 'fruitcake'. The possible background story between anders and the main character, which if you do it right, carries over into dragon age 2, is very enlightening. It gives you an "I was there and I know what happened, and I experienced this, I was there, man!" not "I know what happened because I went ahead and played dragon age 2 " / "I looked this up online because I'm a lazy tool".
I'm an enthusiastic game player and I love playing games like this and trying to find out all of the possible outcomes (No what if's), that take you very in depth with the characters and their background stories. The story from Dragon age 1 and Dragon age 2, tie together very well, despite the criticism.
Awakening / Warden's keep: great story. I toyed around with this a bit. They could have fixed the bugs on it where it gives you an automatic achievement just from starting awakening with a brand new character.. (Ive already beaten dragon age 1 for the pc, so it was no biggie for me to skip ahead) I broke the game and got free achievements doing this, but it was still fun to play through all the stories for the characters and learn everything again. =)
Leliana's song: It tells you leliana's story. It's not supposed to impress anybody I think, and anyone who thinks it sucks, shouldn't have bought it. lot of complaints for this, but pay them no mind. I finally learned how 'it went down' between Leliana and whatsherface.
Darkspawn Chronicles: "What if" you failed in origins. I enjoyed playing as a darkspawn vanguard. Dev's did good on the models and controls. Need to re-do the difficulty though on this, "Normal" is the new "NIGHTMARE".
Witch hunt: I enjoyed getting to tie things off with morrigan. I left off in Origins, with me raising my fist at the screen, exclaiming "Run, rabbit, run!". good back-story.
Golems of Amgarrak:
Lots of puzzles. Player actually has to use their brains in this expansion, not just hack and slash your way through the entire level and get a bunch of 'easy' achievements. Bioware outdid themselves on this one.
good back-story.
I haven't played the DLC yet for origins, will get on it and update this review. But I'm not bored with it yet after playing awakening, so I might just play both games, consecutively, all over again.
a few notes to people:
Some of the DLC is different in terms of difficulty. I had more trouble on Darkspawn chronicles on NORMAL than I did playing Golems of Amgarrak and AWAKENING (the entire thing) on nightmare. Difficulty needs to be redone for this game in a patch.
Some bugs for quests are not apparent until it's already too late. Patch your game FIRST; XBox live silver will do the trick.
And remember: EA is the DRM devil. | video-games_xbox |
An okay game, a step back from previous games. I'm trying really hard to like this game, but there is a lot about it that just doesn't work. Graphically, it looks great and runs fine with only a few issues in multiplayer, but that's to be expected with any game. I'll start with the campaign. If you've played previous Halo games, nothing new there, follow the story and go through the level taking out anything in your way. What is new however, is the fact that you go through the campaign with a squad. Basically, you can issue the bare minimum commands to them, move to this location, revive a downed ally, or yourself, and attack a target. Simple enough, but not very helpful in the actual heat of battle. If you're looking to play this game alone on a higher difficulty, make sure you have someone to play with. Certain enemies can only be damaged from behind and your squad is not very helpful in this situation as their idea of attacking is get as close as possible to the enemy before firing. Personally, I had a lot of trouble on hard difficulty against these enemies (I've played a lot of fps so i'd like to think i'm at least decent at them). Now for multiplayer.
Multiplayer has the basic game modes that appear in previous Halo games as well, slayer, swat, big team battle (personal favorite), and free-for-all. On top of these is a new game mode called warzone. It's a bit complicated to go into detail about it here so you'll have to look elsewhere if you want details about how to play it. While it is a fun mode to play, personally, i feel it lacks balance at times. This lack of balance can be apparent when the apposing team have tanks, snipers, wraiths, and banshees, and an explosive SAW. While any player technically has access to these items, it is difficult to get them if you don't plan on playing the game for at least an hour each day. While you play, you earn points that are used to purchase card packs that MAY contain a good item like a tank to be used in battle. The game seems to suggest a balance and a possibility to come back from a losing match by taking out the enemy base's core, it is near impossible because you need to be controlling the entire map to get to the base's core. The computer controlled marines that fight alongside you in warzone are anything but helpful. occasionally, they'll alert you to a nearby enemy and get a few shots in, but most of the time i find that they're just in the way and blocking needed cover. For some reason, they also tend to shoot at an enemy for a good while after the enemy has died. Seems like very poor programming went into these marines.
Aside from all the negativity i've been talking about, there are some nice things about the game. There is a large amount of armor to get to customize your character as well as helmets. Though for some reason, they removed the ability to choose each part of your armor and now you can only choose what helmet you wear as well as the overall armor. Guns can be difficult to get for warzone (i've been playing well over 20 in multiplayer hours and have yet to unlock the DMR).
Overall, Halo 5 is an okay game but I would not jump to recommend it to anyone. Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope it helps. | video-games_xbox |
DA:I is a decent game, but did need several patches. *Deluxe version not worth $10 extra.*
BioWare/EA really wants to push the "Dragon Age" IP to be a big seller, especially after the lackluster (some would say disastrous) game: Dragon Age 2. Dragon Age: Origins is one of the best RPG's of the last decade for sure, and it stands to reason that BioWare/EA should try and cash in on that success. It's safe to say that "DA: Inquisition" is fairly good, it has an excessive amount of content, and while not as stellar as the original, it is a fresh and well made game.
The story of Inquisition is pretty standard fare; the player character takes the roll of a "last-survivor-chosen-by-the-divine-blah-blah" and the game branches out from there as you build up power and attempt to solve a mystery of who-killed-whom & why you're the last survivor.
Combat is decent, there are a few options as far as skills go with additional subclasses later on to spice up the tedium. Mostly while in combat you will be swapping between characters, popping potions (no healing spells in this game!?), holding the trigger to deal damage. Over all, the game-play IS fun and you won't be bored, though MANY of the quests are very simple (i.e. fetch, kill elite, clear area).
There's also a mass of side content that should keep you busy for hours and hours; included in the side content, is a simple but fun multiplayer (4player mission co-op, does not affect single player), immense item and weapon crafting, special timed missions to send agents out on, a large number of special monsters and dragons to kill, etc. The multiplayer was very entertaining with friends, and while the "free to play with micro-transactions" model is off putting, there's still enough access without spending a cent to enjoy it fully.
The largest Con for me is the near removal of buildable "A.I." for companions as in the last 2 games; the wonderfully complex commands and variables have been replaced with a less than perfect (but mostly functional) idiot's version that works but leaves so much to be desired, which can make some of the harder modes a bit of a chore. The so called "Tactical Mode" is piss poor and nearly useless except to catch a slight break in the action.
Over all I have been harsh on this game but I have high standards, it's not perfect but BioWare has created a decent entry for the franchise and most people will enjoy it. | video-games_xbox |
Redesign saves the franchise from a three count. Play as your favorite superstar instead of watching them. All things must come to an end. The SmackDown games, which evolved into the SmackDown vs. Raw series, ran from 2000 to 2010, each yearly entry receiving an updated roaster, physics, game play, controls & story mode. Developer Yuke's decided to scrap the repetitive series, naming the new entry WWE 12, keeping the wrestling blueprint to rebuild a great franchise. The body of this game may have had some surgery but the SmackDown heart still beats strong.
Story mode has been condensed into Road to WrestleMania, a three part quest where you play as three different superstars, villain Sheamus, hero Triple H and the outsider original superstar. Road to WrestleMania plays similar to a rail shooter; you win a match; a cut scene triggers to advance the story, press the prompt button and then back to another match or occasional backstage brawl. Road is hard to sell as a main point due to shallow replay value, luckily WWE Universe is back. Universe holds month after month of all WWE broadcasts, where one can decide what type of match to play and the stars involved, letting the Universe create feuds. Universe will take much of your time. A vast, deep creation mode will also take you away, arenas, rings, stars, videos, everything but the match type and crowd participation can be tweaked to one's liking. Online play is present, but only showcases forty man Royal Rumble, a rich Create a Wrestler community and horrible server connections.
Controls aren't pick up and play but can be easily learned after a few single matches. New this year is a limb targeting system, replacing the strong/weak grapple of game's past. Once the opponent is weak the arm, chest, head or legs can be dealt specific damage for a submission, brought to the eye via the "Breaking Point" system. Locking in a submission has the words "Breaking Point" appear as a meter, fill them in and the win's yours. Exhibition holds your basic match types alongside all the specialty contests; TLC, Battle Royal, Extreme Rules and the rare Inferno match. The roaster is huge, including some surprise legends and sweet DLC for online and offline play; everyone has their entrance, regular move set, signature & finishers intact, executing them efficiently without warping to the ring center or interrupting the fight. Moves can be stopped by a third person or outside interference. Graphics are good but could've been slightly more polished & brighter, the presentation of the entire game is flawless; A.I. puts up a fight and the visual & play performance come second only to the real life product.
Another wrestling game for another year just by looking is easy to say; looks are deceiving. Fans of the past SmackDown games will easily tell this game is different, some will bask in the new design and others will hate it. The few drawbacks could be considered Road to WrestleMania and the little it offers, shaky online play and occasional glitches. The faults aside, the developer (maker of the UFC titles) has made this game the most fluid, dynamic, fast paced action simulator of sports entertainment ever. Better then a beer truck full of Steve Weisers.
Last Words: B+, if you've seen it on Raw or SmackDown, it will be here and that's the bottom line. | video-games_xbox |
Racing okay, game in general not so much. Game is a fun racing game, and works well with the game controller. There are a lot of gripes I have with it:
1) It is very repetitive, there are 6 cities to race in, and each city has four races in an event. You have to win 15 events to reach the championship. That means you visit each city two or three times, and run each race two or three times (albeit in different cars). Not only that, but within a city two or three races may share the same sequence of turns making the repetitiveness stand out even more.
2) AI literally cheats. There are checkpoints you have to drive through during the course of the race. These checkpoints restrict how you can move around the course often limiting corner-cutting or forcing sharper turns. The AI doesn't have to go through those checkpoints, and there are times you lose 5 places because all of your competitors cut a corner that, if you did it, would force you to go back and redo (while your competitors continue to race, so you go back to last place.
3) There is no qualifying. You always start out in 8th place, except for certain races when you start in 12th. Whichever competitor has the most points or highest score starts in first. So while you have to compete with traffic the best competitor doesn't and can quickly build a lead which, in certain short races or with specific cars, is un-catchable.
4) Almost every city is dominated by gravel, dirt, or off road races. It ruins racing hypercars, super cars, or street muscle cars when you have to race them over grass and through farms, over jumps, etc... Would be nice if the races adjusted to the car so it would at least be fun to race the higher end cars.
5) Not specifically a problem just with this game, but with all XBox games: You have a CD which you put in the game system. Instead of installing from the CD you download the game from the internet instead. It is huge so even on broadband it took over an hour. Then, after getting excited to play the game, only to have to wait an hour, I come back to finally play the game and... there was an update I had to install before I could play. Another 37 minutes download! Why did I have to download the game in the first place if I didn't get the most current version?
6) The game has crashed on me a hand full of times. Once when painting a car, once in the middle of a race, once when choosing a location, once when I had to switch batteries on my controller. Each time I had to pull the power plug on the XBox - doesn't seem to be an easy way to kill the game, and simply power cycling the XBox didn't work (the XBox doesn't actually shut down when you tell it to power off, it just goes to sleep). | video-games_xbox |
Buyer beware, console does not last very long. Purchased the console and everything worked fine for about 6 months. The Console then gave me an "Open Tray" message every time I put in a game disc, new or used, didn't make a difference. I went online and requested a repair, Microsoft sent instructions with a pre-paid shipping label. I sent my console in for repair. A few weeks later I got a console back, instead of repairing my console, I got a used replacement console, with a different serial number than the original one I had purchased. Another couple months go by and I get the "Open Tray" message again, every time I try to play a game. I call tech support and they inform me that my warranty has expired and that I must now pay $120 to get the thing repaired. I took their word for it and figured nothing could be done. About 2 weeks later I thought maybe there was a chance it was still under warranty and I checked my receipt. It turned out that the console was purchased one year and one day ago. I called to dispute the warranty citing that the console should have still been under warranty when I had called two weeks prior and that the warranty should have been good through up until a day ago. They told me that it didn't matter because although they falsely told me it was out of warranty 2 weeks ago, it was really out of warranty today, and it was impossible for them to do anything now. I told them had they not misinformed me 2 weeks earlier, I could have sent in the console under warranty to be repaired again and that it was their fault for stating otherwise. They again said that it did not matter because now the console truly is out of warranty. I asked to speak to a supervisor, they said there was no reason to, again stating the console is out of warranty. I told them I really needed to speak to a supervisor about this instance and they hung up on me. Worst customer service I have ever dealt with. This on top of the rampant Red Ring error is just inexcusable. I would highly recommend looking at a Sony or Nintendo console instead. | video-games_xbox |
Love the game & the colors are great, the costumes superb. This dance game is amazingly fun. We have this one and <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Zumba-Fitness-World-Party-Xbox-One/dp/B00DNGQTG2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Zumba Fitness World Party - Xbox One</a>.
The dancers in this game are a bit different than in <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Zumba-Fitness-World-Party-Xbox-One/dp/B00DNGQTG2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Zumba Fitness World Party - Xbox One</a> as these ones have hilarious and beautiful costumes. This game has beautiful colors, great dances, 6 players can play at a time. There are some funny hahaha dance moves that happen on this too. And real dancers. The costumes are fantastic, the moves are great.
If you want to do cardio but hate the usual fitness stuff, get this and <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Zumba-Fitness-World-Party-Xbox-One/dp/B00DNGQTG2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Zumba Fitness World Party - Xbox One</a> together, right now amazon has a deal for both of the games if you go to the Zumba link - for some reason it's not on this page.
You show up to this game, they give suggestions about what game to do. You can choose what song you would like to do dance to, as well by scrolling side-to-side. You get "bonus" points if you do the suggested game that will say BONUS on it. When you play the "bonus" dances you'll acquire more points to buy more songs, free, but there are also songs that you can buy if you want to for a microtransaction fee.
One thing you'll notice the more you dance, you'll get past the music you hate by concentrating on the dance, and the songs that sound good to you, you'll get into more. Since I was a dancer in the past this happens with all dance it seems, no matter how beautiful or poetic the music is.
At the end of your dance you'll see yourself on the screen sped up doing the dance. That is absolutely laugh-out-loud hilarious & you can save that if you want to or upload it to facebook!! I've had friends begging me to send them the video - (NO! lol), and personally, I don't save my dances.
You can also dance with people around the world, there's a community out there and dance virtually with friends. IF you want to (again, not for me but if you're into that, it could be a good thing). These are OPTIONS that you can configure into the game, it is not embarrassingly pre-loaded into it so don't worry.
I like both <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Zumba-Fitness-World-Party-Xbox-One/dp/B00DNGQTG2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Zumba Fitness World Party - Xbox One</a> & this game, but this game is much more...artistic with colors, and fun. I play or rather dance with both games with my husband daily. | video-games_xbox |
Red Dead Redemption. Graphics - 10/10: Simply put, the game looks beautiful. The landscapes are very realistic and you really get a sense of being in the old west. In all honesty, it's one of the best looking games I've seen. Draw distance is great. (That means that you hardly ever see things "popping" into view.) I've found myself just stopping to look at a sunset or landscape multiple times... just because it looks so good.
Audio - 10/10: The music choice is amazing for this game. The soundtrack is very well put together and certain story moments are made much more theatrical thanks to song choices. Perfectly fitting to the game.
Immersive Factor - 9.5/10: There's not much to say here. You really get the sense of being in the old west with this game. The story is very good, and the ending is one of the best I've seen in recent years. If you like old west movies, I'd highly recommend this game.
Length / Replay ability 9/10 - I've played the game for 30 hours now, and I'm 96% done with the entire single player. In my opinion the single player is an almost perfect length. There are about 57 main story missions which take around 15 hours. There is a wealth of side missions/collecting/challenges/etc. that can easily double the life of your game experience depending on how you play. Once I complete the 100% though I have no plans to replay through the game.
Multiplayer / Co-op 8/10: The multiplayer is most fun if you play with friends instead of random gamers. With the added Free DLC, this game has a lot to offer multiplayer gamers. A word of a warning to achievement completionists: One achievement is for reaching the highest level in multiplayer, and it's proving to be very time consuming to achieve.
Annoyances: -1 for collecting plants. Maybe I just don't like collecting things in video games, but the hour I spent getting the "survivalist challenges" was brutal. I thoroughly didn't enjoy it. and -1 for leaving trains and lassos out of multiplayer. Hopefully they add them in some upcoming DLC.
Final Verdict (45.5/50) Great Game! Highly recommended to fans of GTA IV, Old Western Movies, and action/open ended video games. | video-games_xbox |
The perfect solution when you get 3 red rings of death. Now if your like me you got a broken 360 that gets the red ring of death, best solution to fix this issue is to get the following parts from the list im making required to fix this issue, now if your a DIY modder then you need no help, if you have fixed computers before and have an idea how these parts work then you won't have any issues since this is just like fixing a heating issue with desktop computers. heres the required list that I got that solved my issues,, but most other customers may have different eyes on what parts to get, but from experience and low cost effect. first if you have to fix your 360 anyways its a no brainer to replace your case with this case, next is getting your memory heatsinks just like in certain Desktop Servers that require fans. Next are the special screws to screw your cleaned heatsinks that are detached from your CPU and GPU (Central Processing Unit and Graphical Processing Unit).
Detailed Fix.
Screws:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00130AIQM/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00
If you have the HDMI version these screws go perfect with this case, I have had no issues with these screws, just make sure you tighten enough to make sure your compound sticks to units, but not too tight which can damage the board and cause harm to your heatsink screw holes.. and youl be fine. the Metal casing that your using to place all components back together doesnt push your circuit board into the bottom so it just sits in place. Although other customers prefer the flat head screws which do the exact same concept but without bulged tips. FYI you should buy the screws seperatly, since most companies will have parts missing in bundles. This case comes with the tools you need to open the basic hardware like the unlocking tool.
Thermal Replacement Pads:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004CJM9OA/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i01
Same as origninal Microcrap pads but newer and holds heat better and also helps your motherboard from pushing in the future to metal casing. these go underneath the board of your memory chips.
T- Tools:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FIXXBA/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00
If your willing to go all the way in the HDD and DVD drive. Etc. than this set of t-tools is a must have and worked perfect for me, just make sure you use the right ones and don't do what others do and be rough with these, since they are small and like any other tools out there you will break them, these work perfect and have a complete set.
Memory Heatsinks:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003WGLSNW/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i03
Obviously everyone should know what these are, same concept as your CPU and GPU heatsinks but for your memory chips soldered on the board. now the chip thats beside your heatsink and underneath the copper area, you will have to bend just alittle bit in the copper area which won't harm the unit its only a conductor, so no worries. then youll be able to place your heatsink on that chip. to make it easier to move, there are t screws on the silver part that loosens it to make easier movement.
Replacement Fan:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000H1V56U/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i04
this isn't required but its to replace your microcrap existing fans and give you the wow factor that blends in perfect with the case lights. easy to install. now if you have any wires on the case lights that break and don't know how to solder, just get a hot gluegun and glue the copper wiring back to the silver area where it broke out and youll be set.
Now, some may disagree, but from working with 360s for awhle, under no circumstances do what some tell you to do and overheat the motherboard when you fix the the red ring of death, the whole point is to prevent the heating not make it worse, you could damage your system further beyond repair, that is silly to do.
Now, if you have issues with the dvd drive clear part, just make sure the magnet is in place of it youll get it from your existing cover obviously. and the HDD, its best to replace the case or take the HDD apart and youll notice its nothing more than a conversion wire to convert a laptop HDD to 360. won't harm your HDD and will read fine in this case, which I do not fully understand why others have issues there, which is easy to understand. I did not clip the case together yet, since it will be easier to take apart later to flash my dvd drive and add more mods to the systm. | video-games_xbox |
Huge Disappointment from a vetern Gauntlet Junkie. Folks,
Let me begin by saying I waited for this game for a looong time. I was hoping it was going to be a great improvement on the others, which I love btw. I believed the hype. Read all the previews and couldn't be more excited once it was released on the 15th. That's where it ends.
First, let me talk about the graphics. They are solid. Much more intriguing and compelling than the other games, which I thought were decent to begin with. I have a HDTV and the 480i this game comes in is nice. I'm beginning to hate the cool graphics part of all these games though. It seems like all these programmers worry about shadows and lighting that they forego the essense of these games...the GAMEPLAY! Seeing my shadow reflection in a pool of water is cool for the first 2 seconds...if I notice it. If that makes my overall gameplay suffer or the game is cut short because of that, FORGET IT. These programmers need to know that.
Also, the game play is way too linear...more so than the previous Gauntlets. It's boring. You can't explore like other Guantlet games. There's no secret doors or hidden anythings! No secret levels to gain coins and unlock other characters. Food mostly appears randomly when you kill monsters. Keep killing and more food appears. Where's the adventure? B.O.R.I.N.G.
Yes, the graphics are good but the game play suffers tremendously. For example, when you destroy one of the generators, which is consistent with past Gauntlets, you move on. Frequently, as I've moved on in this version, monsters have reappeared from places that I've already destroyed. When I go back to re-examine the area, the game is just randomly creating them. It's confusion....I thought I cleaned up one area but the computer decides that it will randomly re-create more monsters with no generator!!! What is that all about??? Poor execution.
I liked the old version with 5-way shots, speed bursts, potions, etc... This has none of that. Instead you collect gold and get to "buy" special feats. Each of the four characters have about 20 to choose from. Here's the worst part of that...each one is triggered by some specific button punching. So if I want to execute the "Rain Shower" (I forgot the actual name of it), I have to hit X, then A,Y,A,Y. who has time? The old game made it simple. Throw a potion, shoot 5 ways and be done with it. Don't even get me started with how bad the tips of your fingers will ache (I don't care how young you are! It happens!). I had to pause several times a level with all the unnecessary pounding.
Folks, this is a decent game that severely let me down. I waited a long time for it, hoping that improvements were made and the game play was better. The only thing they delivered was better graphics. Big deal. If you're like me, i'll sacrifice jaw-dropping graphics for better gameplay experience. That is far from what you'll get. You'll scratch your head at some of the ridiculous bugs still in it, your fingers will require time off from all the unnecessary button pushing and the short game play will just keep you wondering why did I just pay $50 for this game!
Rent it. Finish it. Save your money. | video-games_xbox |
great follow-up to the 360. If you had a great time with the 360, you'll have an even better time with the One. Hardware. It's a little bigger than the original 360 console. It's much quieter than the 360. Bluray movies look and sound great on the One's BluRay drive which is slot-loading. The hard drive is now internal like with the 360 S console. Currently, it comes with a 500 GB internal hard drive but will soon have external hard drive support which allows you to install games and other things. This is a good setup because it means you can keep adding hard drives for more storage. Better than replacing the internal hard drive which means you are losing 500GB by swapping drives (i.e., with the swapping method, if you buy a 2 GB drive and replace the internal 500 GB drive, you are paying for a 2 GB drive but you're only gaining 1.5 GB of space).
Software-wise, the new OS is great with some early adopter rough edges. The OS is much faster than the 360 OS. You can actually run multiple apps at once. So if you want to watch a Twitch stream on the side while playing a game, you can. Or if you want to watch a football game on the side while playing a game, you can too. The system supports standby now at both the system level and the game level. So if you're in the middle of a story campaign for a game, you can go back to the dashboard and turn off the console. Then when you go back to play, it'll quickly load to the exact spot that you stopped. It's like waking up from sleep, it's that fast. Which means the need for checkpoints is less and games launch much faster. Note that if you swap between games a lot, you lose the quickloading. The quickloading is for the last game you played. when you load a different game, you have to load that new game since it's not in cache.
In the beginning, there are a lot of updates. I own the Day One console so there were a lot of big updates (gigabytes). The later consoles will presumably have less updates since they will already be installed (the updates weren't ready back in November). Now the Xbox One fully downloads updates to games and apps while your Xbox is in sleep/standby mode. This is different than the 360 where you had to launch the program to update it. On the 360, you could queue multiple downloads and the 360 would turn off when they're done. With the One, it can update and you'll never know it except for a notification when you turn on your Xbox saying that the app/game is ready. This is one of the reasons why you want to enable sleep mode (though it does use more electricity than when completely off). Then again, my TV in sleep mode uses about the same amount of electricity.
The games have been great so far. Forza Motorsport 5 is awesome. Best racing game out there with incredible graphics and a ton of fun. Also have Dead Rising 3 which is zombie-killing fun. Ryse is like playing a movie. The graphics are amazing and the story is good. They used a movie director/storywriter to write the story and it shows. Also have Peggle 2, Max: The Curse of Brotherhood (must own!!!), and Powerstar Gold which are fun downloadable games. Call of Duty: Ghosts is a lot of fun and much better than the 360 version (I bought the $70 360/One pack to get both copies). Can't wait for Titanfall and other games coming down the pipe.
I have my Xbox One connected to the Mediasonic HomeWorX HW150PVR which allows me to get OTA television since I'm a cable cutter. Works great with the Kinect controls. I just say, "what's on Fox?" and I see a TV guide that shows some description. I say, "watch CW" and it goes to the CW channel. Or if you see a show on the screen, you can say it. Like I said, "watch magnum P.I." and it tuned to that show! It just knows what to do which is pretty amazing. Here's me using my Xbox TV with my voice: [...]
If you like chatting, voice or video, the One is great. The Skype audio/video is amazing. full-screen 1080p. The chat is a huge step up for parties. If the 360 chat is like AM radio, the One chat is like CD quality. When my friend first heard my voice over the One, she was shocked how different it sounded, like I was a new person. It's just so much clearer. Even better than cell phone quality.
There's so much to the new Xbox that I'm constantly learning new things every day. It's definitely a system you can grow with, and the improvements that are coming via system updates sound very exciting. | video-games_xbox |
Controller is unreliable, Amazon is great. Well, I purchased one of these when it first came out... I'm now on my 3rd controller. Honestly, the controller is great, it somehow improves on Microsoft's already stellar design; however, read below because it's not all fine-and-dandy.
Pros:
The longer triggers are great, and the buttons are also great. The thumb-sticks have a greater range of motion than the Microsoft 360 controller, and I definitely did better using the Onza in FPS games when switching back and forth (immediate and noticeable difference aiming). The wire on the controller is plenty long unless you like to sit 40 feet from your TV. The coating is more comfortable, and the controller is more comfortable for my hands in general. The adjustable tension rings are also nice, however, if you like your thumb-sticks stiff, it seems to make it more difficult to push the thumb-sticks all the way in one direction. (Pressure increases as you move away from the resting thumb-stick position--particularity towards the very edge.) Also, on all 3 Onzas I've had (more on that later), I've experienced more difficulty clicking the thumb-sticks when the tension is high.
Cons:
Reliability. My first controller worked great, and then the left trigger began glitching out. When zooming in Black Ops, the scope would spazz in and out, but sometime work perfectly. Amazon was great and sent me a new one. It had trouble out of the box, the right thumb-stick resistance adjustment ring didn't work at all, while the left thumb-stick developed problems with pushing up and clicking. (A common set-up for "running" in many games.) Amazon was gracious again, and allowed me to return it and get a new one... unfortunately, it also is developing the dreaded left-thumb-stick problem.
PC Users:
It is not detected as an official 360 controller, which has caused me some problems in Assassin's Creed. It's hard to explain but even though it says it's a Xbox 360 controller, some games notice that it is not the Microsoft 360 controller and so some of the axis and buttons are not assigned correctly. It's very strange, and I've contacted Razer, but they didn't seem interested in the problem, giving me a canned response. In short, it doesn't use the official Microsoft 360 controller software/driver and therefore causes some issues on PCs.
Final Thoughts:
Knowing what I know now, I would probably have never bought one, but since I did, I can't do without it. Which is unfortunate, because they are so unreliable. I was hoping the new BF3 edition would have been improved and the problems would be fixed, but it appears they are plagued with the exact same problems. If you are lucky enough to own one with no problems, I'd go out on a limb and say it may be the best 360 controller out there. | video-games_xbox |
Works, But They Are Xbox 360 Controller Sensors, Not Xbox One. <div id="video-block-R2YA0EQUZPJQBK" 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/C1UWCNqA0ZS.mp4" class="video-url"><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91eSqN3ulRS.png" class="video-slate-img-url"> Either the product description is inaccurate or I received the wrong product. These are not the same analog sensors as the OEM sensors used by MIcrosoft in the original Xbox One controller. If you compare the tension / pressure of an Xbox 360 controller and an Xbox One controller side by side you can feel that they use different sticks. If you take a digital precision scale set to grams and put the edge of a brand new Xbox One controller's thumbstick on it, the stick will start moving when the scale reads around 60 grams of force. Take a brand new Xbox 360 controller and repeat the test and the scale will read around 90 grams of force when the sticks are moving. It may not seem like much, but that's a 30% difference in stick tension. As designed, the Xbox One controller sticks are just very loose when compared to the Xbox 360 sticks.
I can tell you that the sticks I received are NOT Xbox One sticks. They require much more force than the OEM stick the controller had. The replacement I received feels like it belongs in an Xbox 360 controller. I only replaced the left thumbstick in my Xbox One controller, so my right stick is still OEM. I just used a digital scale and confirmed that my right stick starts moving when 60 grams of pressure is applied, and my left stick (this replacement) starts moving when 85 to 90 grams of pressure is applied.
The brand of thumbsticks is the same as the originals, but I believe I was shipped a different model. The thumbsticks are manufactured by Alps. Some PC guys may recognize this brand as they've made laptop touchpads as well. There are numbers engraved into the metal on the OEM thumbstick that I removed from my Xbox One controller that look like they are 34 3e and the 4 and e are smaller in size than the 3. It's hard to tell exactly because the numbers are small and there is some wear in that area. The numbers engraved into the metal on the sticks I received are 33 18 and all numbers are the same size. Please view the photos I attached to this review to see what I mean.
These sensors will work, but they are NOT Xbox One sensors. I believe I received Xbox 360 sensors despite the packaging saying they're Xbox One sensors. Since I only replaced my left thumbstick, my controller now has two thumbsticks that require significantly different amounts of pressure to move, and that is going to drive me insane. In addition to the tension differences, the bottom of the sensor has a different pattern from the OEM one, as described in other reviews here, and will not allow the sensor to be mounted flush to the board. Clicking the replacement thumbstick feels off when compared to my OEM stick. It works, but it doesn't feel the same.
I will be requesting a refund or replacement. | video-games_xbox |
Disappointing. I want to try and be careful in my review here. I'm thirty and I didn't like this very much. The problem is that TMNT was CLEARLY made for someone who is a lot younger then I am. It feels wrong somehow to be ripping a game that the developer (Ubisoft) never really intended for me to play anyway. It has the same vibe as if I was whining that I couldn't ride around on my nephew's power-wheels quad. I did want to, at least, point out a few issues that I'd had though.
First, the graphics are somewhere around a pretty good PS2 game. This is not something that you're going to use to show off a next-gen system at all. It feels like (and probably was) it was ported over from an older console. I don't think it hits the point of being flat-out ugly, but not the least bit impressive either.
The game-play, I thought, was awful. It's criminal that one of the central themes of any turtles game since the original NES console was teamwork and yet we get no co-op or online multi-player? This feature alone would have been enough for me to make a purchase. The fact that it wasn't included is wildly disappointing and a total let-down.
The enemy A.I. is below average. None of the enemies I fought were particularly difficult and generally tended to stay in one place and not put up too much of a fight while I whaled away at them. Again though, this was intended for someone much younger; giving the benefit of the doubt, someone under ten might find this a bit more challenging then I did. It's also virtually impossible to die. If your health runs out or if you fall off a ledge you respawn right where you left off. The game is over, basically, whenever you decide to stop playing.
The game is terribly short. If you're motivated, you could finish this in four or five hours. I, again, feel the need to point out that this was intended for a much younger player. Maybe it would take them a while longer. For me though, chalk this up as a 'rental only.' It's an easy 1000 achievement points, but it's doomed to leave anyone over ten ultimately unfulfilled and not worth anywhere near fifty bucks for a new copy. Grab an xBox marketplace card and download the 1989 coin-op version of TMNT instead, it may be a little older but you'll have twice as much fun at about a quarter of the cost. | video-games_xbox |
A very fresh Call of Duty, nothing like I've ever played before. So I got the Day Zero edition, not this one, but it plays the same.
I went to the midnight release and when I got home, unfortunately, it did take a while to download. But, it was 44.9 Gb, what do you expect. I can't dock it for that, because it has nothing to do with the gameplay.
1) The campaign: Unreal. The graphics are really nice looking, the story so far is excellent as well. I haven't finished the campaign, but what I have played is awesome. All the different gun choices and peripherals are outstanding.
2) The multiplayer: My favorite part, no doubt. The online multiplayer just doesn't feel like your typical noob-fest Call of Duty game. It feels like a new, fresh, amazing version of what I hope to come out of this franchise. The double jump/glide thing is really awesome. I was afraid I wasn't going to like it at first, but it really helps out when it comes to escaping and getting a better angle on the enemies. The exo suit is amazing! It feels so nice to be able to have something else besides your perks, guns, and a grenade. That add-on really made the game stand out in my eyes.
3) The exo-survival: A really really fun AND different type of "zombies." There's rounds and rounds of "soldiers," instead of actual zombies. You finish the round, and you go to the next one, it gets progressively harder. All the same right? well here's where it changes, For one, you get points after each round that you can spend to upgrade your exo suit, upgrade different aspects of your weaponry, buy new guns, buy new attachments, etc etc. My favorite part is the fact that you can actually upgrade the aspects of a scorestreak (killstreak). That is amazing to me! Also what's different is the fact that it isn't just killing the same thing every time, you have different things on each round. Sometimes you have goals to collect different things, while fighting other things, and if you don't finish in time, you get penalized by possibly losing your primary weapon for a short time or other things. The exo survival is really amazing and I think it pushes the game to that final 5/5 stars.
Overall, it's an amazing game. Get it if you can afford it, and it's without a doubt the best Xbox one game I own. | video-games_xbox |
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