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I am speechless.... and not in a good way. I have been a long time Madden player going way back to the Sega Genesis Days up to Xbox, PS2, etc. Also way back when they started to have some competition from 2K sports and along came ESPN NFL 2K5 sports on Xbox. Yeah it had some stupid stuff like the Crib and celebrity games but the gameplay and animations at the time where the best to date and because it was so good, and priced at $19.99, it scared Madden and marked the end to any competition with the exclusive NFL license agreement. From that point on, I gave up on Madden until I got this new one as a gift.
It's sad to see that nothing has really changed from the time I quit playing many years ago. Yeah it looks good (except for the minecraft looking crowds in the stands) but the way the players move is still like it always has been - like those old rattle football games where you turn it on and the players just bounce around until one happens to touch the player with the ball. I'm exaggerating here of course but I still can't believe the players themselves still move oddly around the field. The game is stuck between sim and video game movements. The only thing in the game that acts realistic is the actual football.
The game is really buggy too. I'm playing a franchise as the Texans and can't tell you how many times I've seen these:
- Opposing teams cheering when you score a touchdown or get a first down on them.
- Arms disappearing into the ground
- Nearly every run stop ends in a pile of people that suddenly go limp and appear to convulse and die
- Having to play a game multiple times because it somehow doesn't count it in the franchise (one case I had to play it 4 times)
- Right now I am stuck on game 16 of the season because every time I play the final game, either Fitzpatrick or Andre Johnson gets a torn shoulder labrum. I've played 3 times already and twice it was Fitz and once Johnson. I quit before the game finishes so I can have both players available for the playoffs. This is more than random and just plain odd that I can't get though this game without losing a premiere player. And it's the same exact injury every time!
Other issues:
- Having to individually check every player on the roster to upgrade them. It's time consuming especially if you want to check weekly to make sure you have the most upgraded roster each week. I can't find any way to make this automatic...
- The way the players actually move is just unrealistic. If you are running sideline to sideline and want to cut upfield, forget about it if you don't pull off the "move" correctly. The players come to an inexplicable halt before cutting if you miss it and it's game over. Prepare to see the pile of convulsion.
- In order to effectively run the ball, you have to be able to pull off the tricks with the left and right triggers, buttons, sticks, etc. This is just silly as you should be able to move and cut naturally and exaggerate moves with the madden tricks. I just learned to run up the middle and see how far I can get before convulsing. The game forces you to play "Madden" and not real football.
- Phil Sims commentary seems natural but Jim Nantz sounds robotic and commentary Frankensteind together quite often.
- Once you accidentally click into defensive view, forget about going back for that play. Really messes you up if you frequently play a lineman (JJ Watt....)
- Forget about throwing a deep pass. It will get picked off. I have completed very few bombs over the course of the season even when they are running wide open and beat the defender. It works in practice but in games, the defender always catches up and the ball never leads the receiver. Same goes for when you are are defense. I never worry about someone throwing deep passes on me. I just let them throw it, change to the closest defender and press my Y button for the pick. Works nearly every time.
What I like:
- Love the drills and training. Most people that play year after year don't need them but I spend alot of time in here before I actually played a game.
- Passing game and being able to lead receivers works really well.
- The in between play animations are good
- Customization in play calling. Suggested plays seem to work well and it's easy to customize your own audibles and bounce back and forth between suggested plays and the playbook.
- No huddle.
I know alot of long time Madden players will nod their heads in agreement that every release seems to be more of the same. Yeah the graphics improve each year and a new tweak here and there but it just feels like new releases always just include more gimmicks and not REAL improvement on what is most important - gameplay. It's really hard to stand behind this game with the way that is plays from a pure football perspective. It's not a sim but it's also not a video gamey type football presentation either. It's sort of stuck in the middle. It needs to go one way or the other. If you've never played ESPN NFL 2K5, find a copy and slap it into an older console you have laying around. The graphics are laughable now but the true gameplay is something that I hope comes back one day in a new 2K sports game or gulp... Madden. | video-games_xbox |
Lockdown. Overall, this game is pretty good. It is different in some means by the fact that you get like 3-4 shots and you are out. You can't find that too often anymore. The realism is back in this game. Although if you are one of those Rainbow freaks... Then you might be a little sad. I was sort of impressed with the game play, but of course the graphics were not the best. The guns have more realistic recoil when fired.
The Graphics were great compared to the other rainbow six games. None of the Rainbow games have the best graphics until this one. I am not sure why this is. They have never really been my favorite. But that should not stop you from enjoying the game. I do think that the story is really cool. It starts with a theft of an illegally produced deadly artificial virus. And it is very cool. The Guns are ok. The only bad thing really is the AI. They are extremely stupid. As they should be. But how stupid. They should be able to not shoot at you.
I have experience times when my guys shoot randomly when no enemy is in sight. It is pretty funny. But it is still sad at the same time. The PEC is a good idea. The PEC mode adds extra competitiveness to the online experience. Get ready to fly through the missions with a bunch of the teammates and the original. Chavez, Weber, and Price. The ragdoll effect is a great creation. I like shooting someone at close range and seeing them cartwheel over, or watching people slump over rails and balconies.
Overall, I would have to say that for $19.99 you can't really go wrong. I would consider buying it. Even if you don't want to buy it. Then you should rent it. It is not a waste of time. It is one of the best rainbow games out there. And you have to love voice commands. But remember, Enunciate you words well. Or a open, frag, and clear can turn into a Open , flash, and clear: Screwing your eyesight for a few seconds. | video-games_xbox |
Nice improvements, but the original was a bit better. I was really excited about this game, I bought the first Battlefield Bad Company game when it first came out and played it many times, redoing the missions,etc and just blowing stuff up. It was a fun way to waste time. Then Battlefield Bad Company 2 came out and it brought with it much better graphics, but part of what I liked about the original battlefield was it was humorous with lots of options to do various tasks.
Now in Battlefield Bad Company 2 the game itself is not that long, I think I played it for approx 14 hours and beat it. The replay value is high as you can try different levels of difficulty and try different weapons and tactics, so no worry there. But I found the sand-box style of playing limited. I remember in Bad Company 1 you could pretty much go anywhere on the map you wanted and use a sniper rifle to knock out your targets. It was a huge sand box. And there are parts on Battlefield Bad Company 2 that are like that, but it seems like most of the levels have restricted areas where you are confined to. Your sand box options seem a bit less in the earlier levels. Near the end of the game you are in a desert like setting which gives you free reign over the course, but there is little going on. I think part of the problem is the designers spent so much time on the graphics and story that they didn't have time to open up the field to roaming in the story mode. You have strict missions and they sort of funnel you to where you need to be. Don't get me wrong, it's a great game but that in my opinion was a step back.
Now for the online multi-player mode. I downloaded the demo when it became available and played it a ton, loved it. The multi-player in the game itself is a huge step up with multiple maps available and unlimited possibilities, it would be nice if multiplayer included 2 players in the story mode but it's just multi-player in online all out warfare. It's just a great way to waste some time in a game with great graphics and what seems like real life physics.
Overall I recommend this game, it was great and I'll be replaying it many times. I do wish during the game the sand-box was opened up more in some levels but understand why they didn't or couldn't do this so I won't hold that against them, they do open the game up to full sand-box mode in the multi-player online mode. | video-games_xbox |
Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects is an action slash head to head fighter that truly delivers on all that is promised. Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects is a two player action slash head to head fighter that truly delivers on all that is promised. You can choose from multiple Marvel Characters and either fight along side other Marvel heroes to thwart the scourge that is the Imperfects or just beat the crud out of your friends in multi player. This in all honesty is where the game truly shows its grit.
Graphics- 9
The graphics in Nemesis are an absolute joy to look at. The characters are very well planned out and executed. The levels while a bit tedious and repetitive, also have a high level of detail and interactivity. While the latter mostly includes picking up things and tossing them at people, still it's interactive. Pretty much everything in this game looks great and the Marvel characters are dead on accurate, though don't go looking for classic costumes, new game, new look.
Game play- 8
There are two sides to the game play in this title. Single player while fun, is not this games high point. The single player bit consists of an exclusive story line introducing the imperfects and explaining their wants and needs, blah, blah. You know the drill bad guys trying to take over the world, good guys trying to stop it. It has a great little two sided tail, meaning you get to play both good and bad guys, but still it's nothing new action game wise. But the single play suffers from repetitive level design and a pain in the butt A.I.. That makes it tough, but some times makes it pointlessly tough. Still its fun and you're playing as a super hero, so win some lose some. Multiplayer, now that's where this game shines. You and a friend can just go at it in a classic super hero fight and for once you actually feel like a super hero. Depending on who you are you can fly, shoot fire, throw cars, sling webs, fire laser beams, call forth lighting, pretty much what ever your super hero character can do in the comics, you can do against your opponent. The game allows for timed matches or life matches, so you can go at it for as long as you want. Also, if you're friendless at a particular time and still want to get some clobbering time in that game allows for bot matches, so you can always play.
Sound- 6
The sound in Marvel Nemesis is not very enthusiastic in the way that there's nothing too special. The Characters all have voices, but no real scripts, just smack talk. The special powers all sound good, but nothing great. And the music, well that's very bland, again not bad, just nothing super cool or anything. Just your basic video game sound. I do give it a little extra due to the object throwing and bashing does sound really well, it's just not enough to merit the rest of the boring sound.
Control- 9
Controls are simple, yet effective. You have your attack, block, jump, and grab buttons. A trigger for running and a trigger the makes all the pervious buttons mentioned super. So you can be throwing punches one second, hold down the super button and be setting people a blaze in the next second. It all works out really well surprisingly and is not that hard to figure out. Plus once you get it down you start to feel really cool when you start running up walls and grabbing people out of the air. Takes a few minutes to get down, but eventually your flying like a true hero.
Overall- 8
All in all Marvel Nemesis needs to be in anyone's collection that likes fighters, comics, or the two combined. Even people with no prior fighting knowledge or who missed out on the comics should pick this title up. It truly gives you the feel of being a super hero and gives one a good view of what a fight between giants would be like. From throwing a taxi at a friend, to raining down lighting you really feel as though you are who you picked. Be it The Thing, Wolverine, Storm, Iron Man, even Magnito, you'll feel like they just plugged in a comic and let you go wild. Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects is a great title for any one looking for a good two player game and a must own for any true comic fan. | video-games_xbox |
100% Uninspired Garbage. Remember in FF13 where there were many diverse, interesting characters to choose from to build your party? Well in this game, you're stuck with 2 god awful characters the entire game!
Remember in FF7 where there was the awesome Gold Saucer? Well in this game, there is a casino too! But... it only has 2 games: slot machines where you press 1 button repeatedly, and chocobo racing! But wait, not the cool chocobo racing in FF7 where you ride the chocobo, no-no-no! That would be too cool! In this you only get to watch chocobos racing.
Oh yea, but don't worry! The characters tell you that more casino games are under construction! Except, you have to PAY for DLC to complete the construction.
Remember in FF13 when there was no DLC and you were free to enjoy the entire game? Well in 13-2 there are loads of pointless, overpriced DLC like buying $5 boss battles!
Remember in FF13 how there was a sweet, interesting story, full of great drama, and uplifting characters? Well in this one there is a convoluted, contrived plot about time-travel and is virtually drama-free!
Remember in FF13 how they were patting themselves on the back because they introduced a "new innovative battle system" instead of the randomized battles of yesterday? Well, randomized battles are back!
Remember in all Final Fantasy games where the world was fresh and new, full of cool, scary enemies? Well in 13-2, all the enemies are the same from 13 with barely any new ones! Even better, half the areas are the same too!!
Remember in FF13 how there was a great sense of adventure and intrigue when you got to explore the world and fight awesome monsters? Well, in 13-2 the exploration is bogged down by terribly lame puzzles and ridiculous needle-in-a-haystack objectives!
If this all sounds good to you, then you might enjoy FF13-2!
As for myself ... this thing is basically the antichrist. | video-games_xbox |
It's a standard PC fan with bulky plastic and inaccurate temp sensor / my solution. I got this locally, luckily I was able to receive a refund but not after being disappointed.
This is literally a computer fan stuck inside a cheap plastic enclosure. Worst part is - the fan it comes with is cheap. If you've ever built a PC, you know the huge difference between a cheap fan and an expensive one. An expensive one is dead silence, can be ran 24/7, and is extremely durable even under heavy dust loads. This fan is on the other spectrum, extremely cheap.
The sensors are totally inaccurate to top things off. I used a $100 laser temperature gun to measure the xbox, the air coming out of, the surrounding surfaces, and this Antec cooler. None of the results matched the temperature that Antec was giving. It was 12 degrees off.
--Solution--
I purchased the "Thermaltake Mobile Fan II External USB Cooling Fan" here on Amazon with a fan called "Noctua SSO2 Bearing Fan". That fan is the most highly rated across multiple sites for fans, is a good size for the grill, and the frame itself allows it to site on top of the Xbox without any additions.
After you get those two, simply use the Noctua fan instead of the one that comes with Thermaltake, plug the Thermaltake in the back of your Xbox and every time it turns on, the fan will run. Every time the Xbox turns off, the fan will turn off.
It also almost completely disappears due to it's skinny profile unlike Antec which makes the Xbox look stupid. The temperature dropped 8 degrees compared to Antec after running AC: Black Flag for 2 hours.
---
Conclusion: A cooler shouldn't make your device look ugly, nor should it be made of cheap quality. For around the same price a person can buy a fan and a USB fan attachment on Amazon, get the best fan on the market, have a very very low profile where the fan is nearly invisible for around the same price, with cooler temperatures than Antec, and much easier to clean dust off of.
People who buy this should really think twice. | video-games_xbox |
Technically brilliant at the expense of being almost unplayable when you start multiplayer. So there are plenty of reviews of BF4 out there that go on and on about how it's the best game ever etc etc. You don't need to hear that again. It is technically a brilliant game - the sound and graphics from the Xbox One version are really pretty amazing. It still suffers detail popup like most modern games (where stuff just blinks into existence in front of you) but it's a lot less with this than with some other franchises. It is very much a public beta though - there's so many little bugs and problems here and there that it doesn't feel anything like a finished product. Connection problems, bugs that crash you out to the home screen (good luck trying to get two people in a party into the same vehicle), party chat issues, sound that never initialises properly (you can drive a good 30 seconds in the beginning of most games before the sound catches up), elastic physics (other player characters with a boot stuck in a tree while their head is stuck to the ground).
The real crux of the issue with this game is the multiplayer mode. The BF series have never been good at single-player mode, relying almost entirely on the multiplayer game as their selling point. With BF4, the learning curve for the multiplayer modes is almost unfathomably steep - to the point where you'll get a couple of days in and be on the verge of making a decision whether to press on or simply sell the game on the used market.
So why is this? Simple : you start out the multiplayer mode with an extremely crippled gun. BF4 is a run and gun game and the gun is central to that. The gun you're issued up front is so inaccurate that you'll be lucky to come out of the first few games with any kills at all. The stock iron sight on this thing is so ridiculously large that it obscures most of your view when you try to use it.
Let me put this into perspective. I'm by no means the best gamer in the world. In hardcore games (friendly fire, more accurate damage, no map), I can typically end the game with about 12 or 14 kills to something like 8 or 9 deaths. This puts me right in the middle ground of players. I'm never the worst player in the team, but I'm never the top. I've been playing BF, Medal of Honor and Call Of Duty games pretty much since the beginning - so it's not like I've never picked one of these things up.
With BF4, I spent the entire first day with zero kills and 15 to 20 deaths per game, putting me dead last in every game. By the end of the first weekend, things hadn't improved much - sitting at something like 3 kills to 15 deaths.
So what the heck is going on here? The problem is the progression of weapons. The opening weapon is an AK12C which is as accurate as throwing a fistful of bananas at the enemy. But you need to get kills with it before you can upgrade it or swap it for another weapon. Inaccurate means hard to use, meaning you'll die the instant anyone else in the game sees you because they somehow have more accurate weapons than you do. Coupled with the ongoing server lag issues and the errant hit detection, it's entirely possible you could go days before actually killing anyone.
There's a secret sub-game that needs to be played before you can figure out this wholesale slaughter of your online self. The sub-game is trolling the internet looking for the guys who play the game 24/7, the guys who disassemble the code - trying to find what the best combination of weapon and attachment is. THAT is what everyone else already has which is why they can hit you with a single round without even looking while you can unload several clips worth of hit markers into them without them even flinching.
Upgrading your weapon is not as simple as it seems. You'd think that equipping a muzzle brake would help - and it does - it reduces the vertical recoil of any weapon by a considerable amount. Problem is that it INCREASES the variability of the horizontal accuracy. So you can have your target reticle right on someone, pull the trigger and nothing happens. Unfair? Yes. Rectifiable? Yes, but only if you have the patience.
Ultimately, you need to persevere until you can get the following three attachments for your weapon of choice - the muzzle brake (reduces vertical recoil), a stubby grip or potato grip (restores the horizontal accuracy taken away by the muzzle brake), and a red dot sight (2x zoom maximum - preferably no zoom). Then and ONLY then will you have any semblance of accuracy. Until that point comes, you're just going to have to live with terrible K/D ratios.
I'm not sure why they set the barrier to entry so high for this game. Making it this frustrating to get into, even for experienced players, seems clumsy and unnecessary. You WILL get to the point in the first day of two where you'll sit in front of the game and think to yourself "this isn't fun". At that point you need to decide whether to keep punishing yourself, or to just trade the game for something else.
I would say "stick with it" but compared to previous versions of the game, and competing franchises from Call Of Duty, BF4 is punishingly hard to get into. "Sticking with it" might be more effort than it's worth. | video-games_xbox |
Another great Transformers game. When Transformers: War for Cybertron was released in 2010 it was met with great praise by both critics and consumers for being an incredible Transformers game. Now 2 years later its sequel, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, the developers at High Moon Studios attempt to maintain that same level of excitement by refining the formula of the original. With an improved campaign, intense battles, and genuine characters from the Transformers universe Fall of Cybertron maintains the same value of its predecessor while delivering a fulfilling experience for action junkies and fans of the series.
Fall of Cybertron continues where War for Cybertron left off. Cybertron, home of the Transformers, have stopped producing the life giving material known as Energon as it begins to cleanse itself of Dark Energon. Now every all life on Cybertron struggles to survive as Energon levels continue to fall. Without any other options the Autobots attempt to leave the dying world through a portal in a vehicle known as the Ark but is attacked by Megatron and his Decepticons. After completing the tutorial mission you flash back six days before this event and take control of various Autobots and Decepticons as they attempt to destroy one another throughout the 13 chapters.
Those who played War for Cybertron will be able to pick up the controls easily. You still play from a third-person perspective and can shift between vehicle and humanoid-robot form. However new changes such as sprinting, dashing, and new equipment adds new mobile options. You will need all these abilities at your disposal as you tackle massive amounts of enemies throughout each mission. The enemies themselves are varied and range from simply drones to real mechanical destroyers that use whatever advantage they can. It's a shame that most of the objectives aren't as varied since most consist of defeating a set amount of enemies, defending, and moving from point A to point B. In rare instances you are treated to novel moments where large battlefields, with multiple layers, allow you to take utilize your abilities.
The presentation of Fall of Cybertron is spectacular. When tackling a mission or watching Metroplex make mincemeat of the Decepticons you are exposed so some suitable musical scores. As for the Transformers themselves, each one is specifically designed and voiced to ensure that players will instantly be able to recognize and remember every character they come across.
Unlike War for Cybertron which had three Transformers fighting alongside one another, for cooperative play purposes, you will be tackling situations alone or with a computer partner. This new system means that you will no longer pick one of three Transformers, ensuring that the player will put specific abilities to good use such as Soundwave's pets instead of simply blasting your way through levels with the character of your choice. Since these levels are designed for a specific character you won't find much in the way of exploration. However since every character is richly design with a specific personality for the Transformers universe, you won't care who you are controlling especially when you take control of Grimlock. Regardless of who you are controlling, or what side you're fighting on, collected Energon scarps can be used to unlock weapons, temporary abilities, and upgrades for permanent use. The developers have also included audio logbooks and weapon blueprints that are hidden in each stage.
While the cooperative for the campaign was cut players can still play Escalation mode. This mode pits up to four players against fifteen waves of enemies as either Autobots or Decepticons. By defeating enemies players earn Energon shards which can be used to purchase upgrades, weapons, and open new areas. Players are encouraged to work together by pooling funds together to purchase certain upgrades and unlock areas. The maps themselves are multi layer deathtraps that require constant communication, especially since you can only choose one of four classes in each map that have significant abilities such as ammo supplies and healing devices. It is troublesome that no custom matchmaking option exist.
However those seeking human opponents can try the competitive options available. Fall of Cybertron host up to four modes that include team deathmatch, conquest, capture the flag, and headhunter. Although these modes don't deviate from other games the ability to change form between robot and vehicle forms offers new strategies within each field of battle. The developers have removed killstreaks, instead players must collect special items in the field that hold special properties such as health regeneration and gravity bombs. As you complete matches, defeat players, and complete challenges you earn experience and new unlockable options such as weapons, abilities, and customizable options for the four classes available. Unlike Fall of Cybertron you aren't limited to certain Transformers but can completely customize your own or select a premade model.
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron's campaign can be complete in 6- 7 hours. While it isn't as long as War for Cybertron the campaign has improved greatly. The multiplayer is extends the game's longevity by providing a sizable amount of multiplayer content for those seeking either competitive or cooperative action. Transformers: Fall of Cybertron is an excellent addition to the franchise and will delight fans and new comers alike. | video-games_xbox |
Chewy and Pink. Bioware, Blizzard, and Bethesda have been the Top 3 Western RPG makers for decades, so it's painful to see a Bioware RPG kicked out the door and served up like undercooked Chicken.
EA needs to learn that they can't put everything on a 12 month Madden dev. cycle. RPG's are the most difficult type of game to make. There are complex stories, combat systems, 20-40 hours of unique gameplay, thousands of pages of dialogue, branching storylines, deep loot tables, crafting, etc...
I enjoyed Dragon Age 1 and thought it laid a good foundation for a mature RPG franchise.
I really enjoyed Mass Effect 1 and 2!
With that said, I really can't recommend Dragon Age 2 to anybody unless you can get it for $20.
Story: 6/10
In Dragon Age 2, you play Hawke, a noble refugee, escaping Ferelden from the blight. You escape across the sea to a new land and try to regain your noble status. Once you succeed, you spend your time trying to prevent civil wars between the rival groups in the city. The dialogue is funny at times, but there aren't enough meaningful decisions in the game. Also, the story lacks an epic feel because you just keep getting caught between squabbles of rival factions. What is exciting about that? I don't feel like hero... more like a guy who gets headaches and ulcers. There really isn't a strong main quest that spans the entire game. Instead, the quests are broken up into three distinct acts. Because of this, the entire game feels like a collection of DLC side quests.
Graphics: 4/10
In some areas, the graphics are better than Dragon Age 1. The character's faces look and animate very well. The fact that they have a system where a player can create unique faces, and the faces convey emotion while speaking is impressive. However, there seems to be a serious lack of art direction. It's all buckles these days. Every character seems to have at least 10 buckles on their outfits. It becomes laughable... In the first game, the Darkspawn looked like undead demonic soldiers, now they look like lizard men in drag / the Reptilian Cult of Liza Minelli. The levels look like bland versions of the cities used in Final Fantasy XII for the PS2!
Levels: FAIL
So, in the game, you talk to someone, get a quest, then go to a World Map. On the map, there are links to the actual levels: City Districts and Dungeons. Click on an area to teleport to it after a 30 second load screen composed of B Rate High School Art. When you get to the level, you will find that you can run from one end to the other in under a minute and it is typically linear. There is a mini-map in the left corner of your screen that shows a gold arrow of where you need to go. The gold arrow is also in the world over the person or object you need to activate. So, run to the arrow. The levels are poorly rendered and never feel like actual places. More like dumps for cheap outsourced art. The same 5 dungeons are reused for 80 quests, and the game occasionally tweaks them by blocking a path with an abandoned cart, a slab of grey concrete, or an invisible wall. Yeah... invisible walls in 2011... sigh... The levels make the game feel like a budget product and destroy any suspension of disbelief that you may have had.
Gameplay: 5/10
While you are walking through the levels, you get attacked by enemies. So, in a typical encounter, you may come across 12 assassins. As you are fighting them, the game starts spawning in more assassins and warriors all around you. This feels cheap. It also destroys "tactics." Because enemies just appear out of thin air, you can't really get into a battle formation. (Fighters in front, mages in back) In most cases the newly spawned waves of enemies are more powerful, so you can't budget your mana or potions. In past Bioware games, your party encountered enemies with strong resistances, and the fun was figuring out how to defeat them. Mind Flayers were almost completely immune to magic. Unmberhulks were powerful and they could stun your fighters. Trolls had to be finished off with acid or fire. I almost shed a tear out of nostalgia there... But in Dragon Age 2, there are only 3 tactics that you need to know.
Tactic 1: vs. Mob of enemies.
Just spam Area of Effect Spells like Fireball. They die.
Tactic 2: vs. Bosses
Get the boss to chase your fighter. Run in circles while your party kills it with missile attacks. It dies.
Tactic 3: Use your favorite technique, mash the attack button, when you can use your favorite technique again, repeat.
That's pretty much it. Run to Gold Arrow on maps, Apply Tactic 1, 2, or 3, and that's the whole game.
Interface Screens: 5/10
Bioware did streamline loot, by allowing you to tag usless items as "JUNK" and you can sell off all of your JUNK with the push of a button.
Aside from that, the loot screens are convoluted and terrible. Someone at Bioware needs to go back and Play Final Fantasy 2 on the NES or Phantasy Star 2 on the SEGA Genesis and copy that. Those games are 20 years old!!!
Basically, you can go to a store, browse the types of items, Weapons, Armor (only for your character), Accessories, Special Items for your Companions, Potions, Buy Back stuff you sold by accident.
In most stores, almost all of these categories are completely empty.
You still can't buy + equip an item or buy an item for a character that isn't with you at the store, or see what they have equipped.
Also, if you see a sword and the condition to use it is: Strength 42 / Constitution 42, you cannot see your character's stats without leaving the store and looking through stats screens.
You also can't change your companions' armor. You can only give them accessories, weapons, or rune bonuses, which seems pretty weak.
Even though the stores have been streamlined, you still need to use the left and right triggers, the left and right buttons, the face buttons, and an analog stick to buy things.
Sound: 6/10
The sound effects are good, but the music is bland. I guess they wanted a score to match the environments. In Dragon Age 1, they had a musical score and a theme. In Dragon Age 2, there really isn't any sort of consistent musical score for the game.
Bugs: 9/10
The game is broken. There are stat bugs that weaken you. There are stat bugs that make your companions invincible. There are infinite dialog loops. There are slight graphic glitches everywhere. Occasionally, characters vanish off of the map. Etc... If Dragon Age 2 was a piece of chicken, it would need to be cooked for another 20 minutes.
Maturity: M
Blood, violence, gore, and suggestive situations.
The plot also deals with political intrigue and manipulation, which really isn't suited for kids either.
Overall: 3/10
Dragon Age 2 is a huge disappointment on just about every level. The ONLY saving grace is the character dialogue.
If you like Witty Banter and want to zip through an RPG that requires no thought, then you should buy this game. But don't pay $60 for it! Get it as cheap as you can!
If you have 20-40 hours to complete it, then you could rent it.
If you are a graphics snob, skip it.
If you are an RPG tactics nut, skip it.
If going through the same dungeons 20 or more times each would bother you, skip it.
If you hated Jade Empire because the gameplay was repetitive, skip it.
If you want his game to be Baldur's Gate 3, skip it.
If Dragon Age 3 hits the stores before Christmas 2012, skip it!
If you were disappointed with this game, it's ok. SKYRIM is coming on 11/11/11!
That will make everything all better! | video-games_xbox |
Very Stylish Action-Adventure Game. First, let me just say that this game really resonated with me because of its style. While the gameplay is very enjoyable and each individual gameplay element is well implemented, it's the game's style (the art, the environments, the colors, the animations) that kept it all together and made it very unique.
That's why the game is a little hard to review for me, and it's weird to write a recommendation even! The problem is that describing the game makes it seem boring and uninventive. Almost all critics I've listened to describe this game as a Zelda-clone with hack & slash combat, and while that is an apt description, it fails to emphasize the fact that you won't feel like you are playing a Zelda-clone during the experience (at least, I haven't).
The game revolves around War, one of the horsemen of the Apocalypse, and he is trying to solve the mystery of who caused the destruction of the human realm, simply put. While the story isn't bad by any means, the game makes a point to not indulge in exposition... And that's GREAT! I wish more games would use their story only to give a simple context, rather than overemphasizing it and creating a split between gameplay and story. Cutscenes in this game are short and you will actually be playing the game for more than 95% of the time.
The gameplay consists of you visiting different areas, getting to a dungeon, getting through the dungeon, and fighting the boss at the end of that dungeon all while fighting enemies along the way. You'll be engaged in combat for a huge chunk of the game, and I am happy to say that the combat is interesting and challenging enough that it never becomes a chore. It's no Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden, but it's not a button masher by any means. You can go as deep into the combat system as you want, meaning you could potentially create long combostrings and feel like a badass, or you could just execute the same standard combo and wait until the enemy is dead. Combat upgrades are unlocked frequently and you are given the choice of choosing what you want to learn, meaning you will always have something new to try out during skirmishes.
Besides the combat, there is puzzle-solving, exploration and light plattforming. The latter works well as the controls are precise, and movement in general is a joy as you unlock new ways to traverse the environments. That also makes exploration a lot of fun since unlocking new abilities means reaching more places! Going back to collect all the Heart Stones, Rage Shards and Abyssal Armor Pieces is rewarding and, again, create a great feeling of constant progress. The puzzle-solving revolves around using your newly acquired items to solve very simple environmental puzzles. The 'puzzle-difficulty' (if you will) is comparable to any Zelda game, meaning that getting stuck is very uncommon, but it's still challenging enough to make it feel rewarding when you get through a dungeon.
DarkSiders is not flawless, however. My biggest complaint is the second third of the game (I would say between the 8th-12th hour mark) because it felt padded out. There is a section in the game, the Tower, that you are stuck in for quite some time! It's not a bad dungeon or anything - in fact the puzzles there were probably the most fun ones to solve -, but it came at a bad time. It's not that the whole game feels too long (I beat it in about 17 hours), but that particular section just lacked that feeling progress that I felt before because the setting stays the same. I am sure some would say the same about the next section of the game as well as it tasks you to backtrack, but that didn't bother me at all as it simply required teleporting to previous areas to solve a quick puzzle.
Besides that, it's hard for me to point out any more problems! Yes, I wish the combat was just a little deeper, but all in all DarkSiders turned out to be one of my favorite games to come out in the last generation of consoles. It feels fresh due to it's distinct style, and all of its parts come together very nicely to create an enjoyable experience. Absolutely recommend this game, and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did. It's a memorable experience, and it'll definitely stick with me as I move on to other games.
Also, if you are worried about the rating, just a quick note: The violence is very cartoony, so I wouldn't say that the M-rating should scare parents away from purchasing the game for someone who is around the age of 14. There is lots of blood gushing out and War generally does 'cool stuff', but it all reminds me of the Hydra fight in the Disney movie Hercules in terms of violence... It's just cool, and the blood is just kind of there to emphasize how much War overkills enemies, basically. Check it out for yourself first, of course, but that's just my opinion. | video-games_xbox |
Halo 5 better than 4... But not by much. Here is a quick summary. Multiplayer is 'fine' you have modes you would expect to see in a halo game. However, the maps are kinda bleh and not memorable, you also have less modes than other halo games. Warzone is.... Boring... It reminds me a lot of how 343 hyped Spartan Ops and it ended up falling flat... Yeah that's Warzone. I much rather have Big Team Battle. That was at least fun. Single player is cookie cutter storyline and you okay 80+% as Spartan Locke's team... AI is pretty dumb too.
Detailed.
Multiplayer. I would have to say with any Halo game I spend most of my playtime on multiplayer. I am always happy to see not only competitive modes, but also fun modes like Griffball or infection. This game just has your standard multiplayer options with an additional mode new to the series called Breakout. It's kind of fun, you have a team of 5 each with one life. As for the other modes they all fall flat since it is just a few of 343 maps which each one lack creativity. They don't even bring back any of the fan favorite maps like what other Halo games have done. It makes even a fun mode like Breakout get old FAST since you're only playing on 3 very similar maps. They don't really even have any landmarks that help you identify position.
WarZone. A cool idea but really slow and really boring. You capture points, kill 'bosses' that are so far off the battle path it just seems like getting to them takes longer than actually killing them. My biggest complaint with this mode is that when you buy REQ pack 90% of the packs are items belonging to this mode. Granted, you can sell them to earn REQ points back but it's still annoying to get something worth 10,000Req to only get 3,000 back.
SinglePlayer.
Typical 343 thinking lack of ammo means challenge basically forcing you into picking up weapons you really don't like because they put more than 3 minutes into coding them. Enemies however do die faster than they did in Halo 4 but the story is sooooooo boring.
Customization. About the same level as it was in Halo 3 except less customization on Emblems and includes micro transactions that give you random pieces you may not want and won't be able to sell...
For a Halo game this is disappointing. For a game in general it's OK | video-games_xbox |
Addicting and Epic. Bless the Nine for this game! This is the first Elder Scrolls game I have played and I was impressed. This game is massive and it's not just empty space, there are copious amounts of dungeons, capes, inns, and most importantly quests. The main story is epic and many side quests are just as epic as the main one. This game is and always will be considered one of the greatest Action-RPGs ever.
The Story:
-So you are a prisoner and fate has brought you and Emperor Uriel Septim together as he had a dream about you being someone to trust as he needs to escape through your prison cell. You are freed with it because the emperor entrusts you with the Amulet of the Kings as he fears he will be assassinated.
- The emperor gets assassinated and you have to go find the new heir or all of Cyrodil and Tamierel (Elder Scrolls land) will be destroyed by the Daedric God Mehrunes Dagon.
Pros:
- Very strong story with amazing depth, the side quests add to the backstory of the area and game.
- Very addicting gameplay, feels a lot more complicated than it looks whether you are cast spells of destruction, summoning creatures to aid you, or fighting with a sword. There are a lot of factors that go into combat and gameplay. In the end it looks like you are just flailing and running in circles though.
- The AI is pretty decent considering how long ago this game came out. NPCs aren't annoying to work with in this game (except for following Baurus to the sewers, goodbye hour of your life)
- Every dungeon is different and unique in their own way, while there are a couple of styles, each layout is unique.
- Your enemies level up along with you so that way the game is always challenging. Of course there is a cap at like level 30, but at that point you know pretty much everything about combat.
- The game explains in great detail what each attribute does for your character when creating it.
- The main quest is rather short as far as most main stories go, but there are a plethora of questlines. It's not an achievement, but it should be just to complete every quest.
- Every person has voice dialogue that's not annoying.
- You can fast travel to any location you've discovered.
Cons:
- There are quite a few glitches in the game, most of the don't effect anything, but there are a couple that make it impossible to finish quests. I recommend you check the Elder Scrolls wiki should you think there's a glitch.
Other:
- On one playthrough I got all 1250G, (game of the year edition gives the Shivering Isles DLC which is the only DLC that gives any achievements). It's not hard because the achievements all revolve around quests.
- The Game of the Year edition comes with a DLC disk for the Shivering Isles and the Knights of the Nine questline
- Other DLC doesn't provide extra achievements and not so much extra story, just somewhat decent equipment.
- I've played 74 hours so far and I'm nowhere near to done with the side quests.
Buy this game if:
- You want to play an epic, amazing, and beautiful Action-RPG.
- The game is under $20 (Game of Year version)
- Haven't played Skyrim yet
To me there's no reason why you shouldn't buy this game except for price. | video-games_xbox |
The best Xbox controller for your money. I've been looking forward to the Onza for a while, and after getting one and playing with it, I can say that it almost lives up to the hype. It's not quite perfect, but it's still the best controller you can buy for the Xbox.
Compared to the standard 360 controller, the joysticks are slightly taller, which gives you a fair amount more precision with your movements. The standard edition of this controller doesn't have the adjustable tension that the pro edition does, but honestly, I think the tension is perfect as it is. It's a bit less tight than the standard 360 controller, and there's also much less wobble around the center.
The face buttons are great, also, and click with very little effort or travel distance. There's a pretty noticeable difference in how quickly I can press buttons due to the decreased tension and distance.
The d-pad is great also, but it's also the one area where the Onza really falls short. The original 360 controller uses a disc for the d-pad, which is absolutely terrible. The only way I can think of to make it worse would be to not have a d-pad at all. The Onza has four separate buttons for each direction, and the way they're laid out makes it easy to know exactly which direction you're pushing. Also, the way the buttons are laid out is great if you like to put the tip of your thumb on the d-pad and move it around, but if you like to rest the heel of your thumb in the center and rock it back and forth, it just doesn't feel quite as precise as a good old cross-shaped d-pad. Maybe I'll get used to it eventually.
The problem with the d-pad is that, unlike the A/B/X/Y buttons, the directions have to travel a fair distance before they click. I'd estimate it's at least a millimeter or so. There's also a fair amount of friction, so you do have to use a little bit of force to push them down. It's not a dealbreaker by any means, but one has to wonder how Razer could have included such an obvious flaw on the d-pad when the other face buttons are perfect.
I suppose the extra shoulder buttons are nice, too, but I'm having trouble thinking of situations in which I would ever use them. All you can do is map them to pressing a different button on the game pad, so I guess it would make it easier to push a shoulder button and another at the same time. If you plug the Onza into a PC, the extra shoulder buttons aren't recognized as distinct buttons -- they still have to be mapped to something else. It's a little disappointing, but not a huge deal.
Overall, the Onza's a great controller. It has a little bit of room for improvement, but it's still the best 360 controller you can buy. | video-games_xbox |
A dark masterpiece. I picked up a new copy of Alice: Madness Returns for the Xbox 360 back in April of 2012. Since it came with a copy of the original American Mcgee's Alice, I decided to start with that in May. However, it took me until November of that year to beat that game (it was good, just long), and then I didn't start the main game until the middle of August.
All I'll say about the first game is that it's definitely worth either watching or playing. It's not necessary for the enjoyment of Alice: Madness Returns, but it'll definitely help with the story. And since EA dropped the online pass requirements for their games, the first game is free even if you pick up a used copy.
As for the main game, it's rather enjoyable. It consists of 6 chapters which are actually quite long, where you'll be slashing and jumping around various areas. Each chapter has its own vibe, and even within the chapters the vibe can change a couple times.
The controls are fairly tight, although I probably had at least a dozen or more deaths that I felt were because of the controls. But, to some extent I'm sure a number of those were simply because I tried to rush things, or didn't fully think out my path. The battle system, having played on hard, is at times unforgiving, but ultimately satisfying when you squeak by or really get into the groove and plow through the enemies.
The story is top-notch. Playing as Alice, who is slightly insane, the story keeps you guessing on whether she's really insane or is in fact the only sane one in the game. I found that I guessed where the ending was going, but nonetheless thought it to be great when I got there.
Honestly, I can't think of any reason to take any points away from this game. It's long, but at no point does the game contain filler to pad the length; rather the length only allows the story to go to more places and tell much more.
For these reasons, I give Alice: Madness Returns 5 of 5 stars. | video-games_xbox |
One of the best Castlevania games. I'll admit that on my first play through of the game, I couldn't even finish it. It took everything I had to defeat the first final boss fight, let alone the 3 that followed. I knew something was wrong. Why was my character weak, where was all my upgraded weapons, armor, and abilities? I did a little research and found that I was missing out on a crucial element to the game: stealing.
Yes stealing is possible from every enemy in the game. In fact, it's required to get the materials you need to upgrade your armor and weapons. Once I played through this game again and started stealing from all the enemies, wow what a difference that made. The game wasn't that hard since I had every upgrade available in the game. It was fun trying to figure out how to steal from every enemy and boss. I did have to use some help from game faqs to figure out how to steal from some enemies and it can be very difficult on some enemies.
Another element to the game was the side-kicks called innocent devils. There are several types, including fairy, battle, mage, and bird. Each one has an evolution chart that you can evolve them to different forms with new abilities. Each of them fight alongside you or aid you on health and status (like poison). This is another huge aspect to the game. Once an innocent devil evolves to a final stage, it will start dropping new shards you can use to make another innocent devil of the same type. This allows you to evolve the same innocent devil type down a different evolution path. You evolve the innocent devils by what weapon you have equipped. Each weapon type produces different evolution crystals (called Evo crystals). You can see the chart on each one and see what evo crystals evolve it to each path. The evo crystals will be as follows: Red= sword, Blue= Axe, Green= Spear, White= special weapon. Different colors will take the innocent devil down different Evolution paths. Also, to get the ultimate innocent devil, you will need a special weapon to use to evolve the bird to an alternate final form. You will see this form and the weapon when you first fight the other forge master.
This game plays out like a world map with warps to each area so you don't have to go back through an entire area. You have a central hub area that lets you access the item shop and warp to any un-locked warp zone. As you un-lock new abilities in your innocent devils, it will allow you to access other areas that you couldn't get to before.
There is a tower near the last area that lets you fight a set of enemies on every level of the tower. Once you reach the top, if you have the long glide ability, you can fly to the next tower and fight much harder enemies. Trying to conquer the towers and trying to upgrade all your items by stealing from different enemies, really adds a lot of replay-ability to the game. There is also a chair side quests that wants you to sit in every chair in the game, but I can't remember what that accomplishes.
Lots of bosses to face and Richter Belmont is in the game helping you for the most part (but you have to fight him at a few points).
The game is loads of fun and at the time, had the most expansive environment in any Castlevania game. If you missed playing this game during the Xbox or PS2 era, I would highly recommend you pick this up. This game will stay in my collection. | video-games_xbox |
Odialo o Amalo. Mi hermano me presto este Juego, habiendo terminado Conan no tenia ganas de jugar un juego similar, sin embargo poco a poco me fui emocionando con las misiones y las hermosas graficas, (por alli un review lo menciono, creanme los efectos del Agua en este Juego son inigualables) , la forma en que puedes divisar a lo lejos otros castillos o Ruinas es increible, este es un juego donde te hacen sentir que estas realmente en un mundo Real...puedes caminar (si quieres) de un pueblo a otro y en ningun momento hay pausas para leer el Disco, eso por si es Fascinante; coincido con personas aqui que el modo Stealth (Azecho) es muy difcil, esas misiones realmente son desesperantes y frustantes, digamos que es lo peor del juego y la razon de deducirle en mi Review una estrella, por lo demas, creo que es un juego muy compacto, es divertido,emocionante,buenas graficas increibles combates epicos!! algunos parece ser que lo odian pues critican lo repetitivo que se vuelve a veces, pero creanme que yo disfrute esos momentos tambien, cuando caminas en los riachuelos o en los bosques...sumamente impresionante, es realmente triste ver que los Websites mas famosos calificaron de mediocre a malo este juego, para los creadores (SEGA)ha de haber sido muy destructivo despues de que invirtieron meses y meses para tratar de hacer algo diferente,supongo que por las ventas no habra Vikings 2...es una lastima pues corrijiendo alguno que otro error este juego se pudo haber convertido en una Franquicia grandiosa.....Excelente Juego SEGA!!!!
Duracion: 15~20 /horas
Graficas: 9 (las caras y los personajes centricos carecieron de variedad)
Sonido: 8 (quizas le falto musica Metalera en escenas de Accion, pero muy buena ambientacion de orquesta y opera)
Diversion: 9.... hubiera sido bueno que le hubieran dado un manto magico de invisibilidad para las misiones de Stealth, claro, con algunas limitantes.
en fin..yo lo aconsejo totalmente, el juego es muy barato, por favor comprenlo nuevo para darle soporte a los desarrolladores!!! no se arrepentiran!! | video-games_xbox |
One of the best of all time. I know this is a VERY late review ( some how my review of this game from 2008 and some before it disappeared ) , but I love this game so much I had to write another.
This and COD 4 set the bench mark of what war games should be like. The campaign is an awesome ride that you can share with 4 other friends online or 2 player couch co-op. This is the only game in the series that has allowed campaign co-op. I thought after this title was released we would see more Call of Duty games allowing this feature but so far we have not. Playing through a story with a friend or three makes the game so much more enjoyable. Now the game is not any less enjoyable playing by yourself , this is without a doubt the BEST World War 2 game out there. The story is very good and engaging and keeps you wondering what will happen next. This is also a VERY violent game. You might say well " its a war game " , well this game takes it to a level no other game has. When you shoot someone , their arms , legs , head ,etc ,etc, might come flying off into a squishy mess , especially when you blow them up with something like a satchel charge or grenade
Besides the campaign there is still after all these years plenty of fun to be had with the multiplayer. For a while the multiplayer was just about unplayable because of all the hackers ( cheaters ) that were in the game , but now it seems they have grown tired of this game and moved on leaving us with an enjoyable experience once again. you will run into a hacker once in a while but it is as simple as exiting the game and starting a new one , fast and simple . There are ALWAYS plenty of people online to find a match. My friends and I poped the game in a few days ago and had a blast for hours with only the occasional ( maybe 2 ) hackers in the game , but like I said before , we backed out of that match and found another quickly and continued to have fun.
One other feature of this game that keeps my friends and I comming back to this game are the Nazi Zombies mode. This mode can only be found on the Call Of Duty games that are made by Treyarch ( the Developers of this game ) . I can't tell you how many addictive hours of my life I and my friends have lost to this game and this mode in particular. There were 4 map packs released for this game and in each map pack was a new Zombie map as well. This is a game of survival and you and 3 of your friends can play together to see just how far you can go. This mode takes lots of stratagy on your part as well as your friends. You can play this by yourself but I would advise at least playing with one friend or hooking up with some random people online. .
This game is simply one of the best , if you have not played it, I can trully say you are missing out on a great gaming experience.<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Call-of-Duty-Black-Ops-LTO-Edition-Xbox-360/dp/B00519C7CE/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Call of Duty: Black Ops - LTO Edition -Xbox 360</a><a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Call-of-Duty-Black-Ops-II-Xbox-360/dp/B007XVTR3K/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Call of Duty: Black Ops II - Xbox 360</a><a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Call-of-Duty-3-Platinum-Hits-Xbox-360/dp/B000XYUVAC/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Call of Duty 3 Platinum Hits -Xbox 360</a> | video-games_xbox |
This Game Sucks. Let me first say that this game sucks. First, the loading in this game is rediculous. It takes 20 hours to load everything! The story mode is kind of numb, and i really hate the fact that you can't buy superstar points in the shop. if you're like me, you like to create a lot of characters, and, if you're like me, you like to copy your best superstar, then edit the copied one so you can have a new superstar with a good rating. Basically, you can't change their weight class when creating a new character off a copied one, to reset the attributes, so you can change them up. The create mode is really lame. The clothing sucks so bad in this game. My best friend's name is David and they don't even have that as a superstar calling name when you enter the ring like they did in the last one. Last time I checked, David is a pretty popular first name. Hell, it's Batista's first name.
Like all wrestling games, it does have a degree of fun- a very SMALL degree of fun. but this game is really really lame, and I find it hard to believe that people are saying it's "a turning point in smackdown history." how the hell do you figure? seriously. did you ever play the other games? you can't sit there and say it's the best of the smackdown games, because if you do, you must have never played another smackdown game. If you create a character, and, for example, you make them from Las Vegas Nevada, the announcer will say "On the way to the ring, from Las Vegas Nevada, from Nevada..." Why the hell are they saying the state twice? Make anyone from a city and state and when they are introduced, the announcer says the state twice.
There are so many damn glitches in this game, it's unbelievable. You have to be a damn cruiserweight to be a luchadore or martial arts?! That's pretty lame. Anyone remember Nathan Jones or Steve Blackman??? Both martial artists and Blackman was a heavyweight and Jones was a super heavyweight.
Story mode sucks. All I am gonna say. Music in the game is better, except for that one damn Money in the Bank song, which is probably THE worst song ever recorded.
Also, where the hell is Paul London? Sure, we have 4 friggon Mick Foley's, but no Paul Lundon or, as gay as they are, the Spirit Squad. They really screwed this game up in every way possible. They really rushed this game. All the little 10 year olds who like this game have no clue about any other WWE game, I can assure you, because this game sucks big time. There are barely any grapple moves!! WTF???? How can anyone sit there, after plaing the other WWE games, and say it is a good game? This game is utter crap! I brought it back within 5 days of getting it.
The heights in this game are all off. i put a wrestler at 5'7" and he was as tall as Angle... Angle is 6'2"! I have played every wwe game, and have been a fan of the wwe (wwf) since the early 80's. This game sucks plain and simple. They rushed it. Just like Mortal Kombat Armageddon.
if you feel like wasting 50 bucks, then get it- otherwise stick with 2006 or just wait until this one is cheaper- which shouldn't be too much longer, because the game sucks. | video-games_xbox |
A Game That Can Be Played For Over 100 Hours. Opening Statement...
War......War Never Changes....... This is a statement that I will neevr forget. You see it is a statment made in the Game Fallout 3 which to many including myself is one of the best RPG games that you can buy. It really does push the system to the max with a lot of diffrent items. It also take a good amount of time to beat so therefore it keeps you hooked until you beat it. This is a game that I can safley say has it all.
Gameplay...
This game at first takes a little time to get used to. But after that you get used to the controls very quickly. The specail V.A.T.S. System that is used throughout the game is awesome. It adds a whole new theme to the gameplay and I personally love it. It acts as a special homing device on enemies and works very well. There is an option to switch between 1st and 3rd person which I found to like becuase I am partail to 3rd person so when I want to use it I can with the click of a button. Now there are only a few things that I dislike. One is for the fact that walking around the wasteland while trying to get to one certain point you will encounter a pile of rubble. Now someone might think they can just jump over it but sometimes you get stuck trying to which means you have to get down and try another route. That is frustrating to anyone. Being able to use the Pip-Boy which is a small menu makes everything easy and orginized to find whatever you need in the blink of an eye. Being able to use your weapons switch between them moving and everything along this catagory are all easily picked up. I give this catagory a 4.3/5
Graphics...
Now there are a lot of people out there that can argue saying that this game has so-so or okay graphics. See I disagree with them for the main fact that this RPG is a huge one meaning that there is a lot of ground to cover. When you look at the graphics on that range I say that they are pretty darn good with the occasinal things looking funny. Like some of the enemy but not enought to make it hard to look at. Or for you to say the graphics such or anything along the lines of that. I give this catagory a 4.6/5
Storyline...
This game is imfamous in my opinion as having a outstanding long storyline. Obviously there is one main story that you foloow throughout the whole game in which you are trying to finish one main objective. But as you come to the end of that objective that you were trying to do throughout the game you are opened up with several more side quests you can do which makes this game something you can play for hours becuase there are many diffrent things you can do wheather you are finished with the game or not. I have played this game for about 62 hours and I'm not done exploring yet. So I have to say the many storylines or quests of this game is something to keep you occupied for a long time. I give this catagory a 5/5
Sound/Audio....
This game is freaky when it comes to the sound and audio of the game. Number one when you are playing through the wasteland you encounter diffrent types of enemies. Some of the noises you here can freak you out if you are playing at night. I'm man enough to say I jumped a few times haha. Now ontop of all of the noises you here they have this one radio channel you can listen to called Galaxey News Radio. All they play is music from the 40's and 50's now if that isn't enough to freak you out I don't know what will. Along with all of that the gunshots all sound clear and accurate and the sounds of killing enemies sounds cool. Along with the character dialoge. I give this catagory a 5/5..
Final Thought...
Now if you are one of many people who enjoy playing new games I would have to higly recommend this game. This is the first game I have played in the Fallout series and I really do enjoy playing it. It is a fun game to get a hold of and just play. ALso if you are someone like me who from time to time get in the slump of being board with what you have this is a good game to pop in. It appeals to a lot of gamers and what they want out of a game. This is a game that packs a full punch of awesomeness around every corner. It has a lot of what people want in every catagory. I suggest this game to anyone that wants a new fun and addicting game this one is all yours. With the exception of some of the minor things this game is a good one to play. I would have to overall rate this game a 4.4/5. ANd remember ...War.....War Never Changes....... | video-games_xbox |
Best Madden game yet. There has been so much hate around this game it's amazing. Sure, there is no franchise mode and yes, you can't edit your players ratings. But is this really what matters with Madden? If you really have your heart set on a franchise mode, career mode is about the same - I don't see the difference if you run it as the coach of whatever team you like.
For me, it's about the players and the gameplay. That's why I say this game is the best yet. Here are some reasons why I'm loving Madden 13:
1) User picks. Finally, if you get in position and read the route and your opponent is dumb enough to try for that receiver, you will pick it 7 times out of 10. Some people say user picking is easier than user catching and I completely agree but it just means you have to work harder on offense. About time.
2) Infinity engine. I dig it. Some flaws no doubt (guys flying off of normal tackles) but it's really good. No longer do fumbles feel like the flip of a coin. If you hit stick an opponent who doesn't protect the ball and you nail him straight on, you got a good chance of jarring the ball loose.
3) Reading defenses. You finally gotta do it. There are specific reads that you can take advantage of with beginners who don't use defensive hot routes and get 10 yard completions consistently. A more skilled player will protect against them and pick you off. How do I know? I've been the recipient of too many pick-6s that were terrible decisions. Live and learn I guess...
4) You can actually run the ball. No more of this 1-2 yard gains against most players, you can break a big one if the defense is caught back in coverage. And the hit stick is MUCH improved. Different from the previous couple years in how you use it but with the likes of McFadden and Marshawn Lynch in particular, you can plow through defenders. But be careful - a defender who is usering a LB may hit stick you up while you're fighting through the defensive end. (Again, I've been there and learned the hard way.)
5) QB passing. Can't say enough here. The players play like their ratings and you can choose where you want to throw the ball relative to the receiver. Less touch is required with the better QBs and more with the lesser QBs.
These are the main things that have stuck out to me after playing offline multiplayer, online multiplayer, and career mode for a while. It's worth it. Let the haters hate but this game is the best it's ever been. | video-games_xbox |
This was a Triumph. Having just recently bought the Orange Box by Valve, I can honestly say that it is a great deal, well worth the $50(25) for the Xbox 360 or $30 (15) for the PC. Since the entire collection is really five separate games, I decided to split my review into 3 parts: Half-Life2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2.
-Half-Life2: Despite their age, the Half-Life games are still some of the best sci-fi games available. Their graphics are still good by today's standards, only being surpassed by the newest games like Mass Effect and Bioshock. The physics are some of the best of any game out today. I have yet to see another game with physics even coming close to Half-Life's in realism. The storyline is good, with plenty of plot-twists and riveting action scenes, and very little, if any, boring romance. My only complaint about the Half-Life games on Orange box is the lack of multiplayer on the Xbox version. After playing through three whole storylines and becoming a master of flinging cinder blocks into enemies' heads, I want to show my skills off to random strangers over the internet! Sadly, all of the multiplayer content is left to Team Fortress, which has a very different feel to it... and no gravity gun.
-Portal: Portal is a very different type of game from Half-Life and Team Fortress, and even other shooters. Using the same graphics and physics as Half-Life, the makers of Portal could focus on building a great storyline and fixing the kinks in the Portal technology. Besides the gameplay itself, which is surprisingly simple, Portal's voice-over acting is perfect for the setting, with lots of quotable lines and hilarious dialogue. Once again, there is a disappointing lack of multiplayer for such a great game, and the fast-moving and spinning camera can make many players, or even spectators, motion sick. Overall, I'm really looking forward to that sequel!
-Team Fortress 2: Team Fortress 2 is a welcome change from games like Halo and Call of Duty 1 where every character has the exact same weapon choices and skills. The different classes of TF2 make it imperative that you put together an effective team in order to succeed. The stylized art makes the different character models and weapon effects much more believable than a realistic game would have. Despite a sadly low number of levels and a high percentage of players who seems to have Tourette's, Team Fortress 2 is one of my favorite multiplayer shooters so far.
In conclusion, sticking five awesome games in a single set for the price of one was a brilliant move on Valve's part. Whether you like puzzle, horror, action, or class-based shooter games, the entire set is worth your money. | video-games_xbox |
Lemme Cut Right to It: Revengeance Rules. Konami may have kept us waiting, but, man, did they deliver. A sharp left turn from Metal Gears of old, Revengeance proves a tireless assault on the senses as developer PlatinumGames eviscerated the deliberate and lengthy stealth-play of earlier entries in favor of a full-on barrage of ultra-violent insanity.
Metal Gear enthusiasts, rest easy: while MGRR's clear focus on lightning-paced, precision melee encounters eschews the series' foundations of tactical restraint, none its predecessors' tension or challenge is lost here. Gameplay is tight, unforgiving, and completely rewarding: while levels are fairly linear, combat is always varied. Take to the streets of a war-torn city and cut a swath of destruction through that army of mercs in front of you, or run up the side of a building (!!!) and rain death from above with a devastating lunge right into the unsuspecting crowd. Close-quarter sword fights are about as good as they come, featuring an endlessly exhilarating countering system and (the crown-jewel) a slow-mo free slicing mode which lets you cut your enemies to ribbons and use their battery-powered guts to recharge your cybernetic ninja powers. The boss battles are phenomenal, chalk-full of spectacular set-pieces and elaborate, multi-tiered challenges.
Those hoping for anything more than Metal Gear fan-service out of the story in Revengeance will be disappointed. Picking up a few years after MGS4, an infinitely less whiny and brooding Raiden goes on a bloody quest for (lo-and-behold) revenge after a generic president of a made-up African country he's protecting gets assassinated under his watch. Cue a typical Metal Gear-esque convoluted conspiracy yarn about the world's need for a "War Economy", introductions to ensemble of paper-thin and stereotypical supporting voices in Raiden's ear, ham-tastic villains, and Kojima humor galore. At a brisk four or five hours, Revengeance never outstays its welcome, though: the cut-scenes are shorter than any of the series prior entries, and the story is just as consciously ridiculous as the action. Sure there's plenty of BS in the narrative, but Revengeance is all about cutting through the BS with a razor-sharp katana, and super-charging itself on its battery-powered guts.
These days, MGRR is a steal. New Game+ features are abundant, as are the ever-present Metal Gear VR missions. Free DLC packs for two supporting characters are fun, as well, and add another three or four hours of carnage to the already impressive package. It's a terrific game: Ninja Run to the internet and pick this one up! | video-games_xbox |
The Best FPS for grown ups or for people who like simulation. Im a 33 year old father of two and this is my review of OP Flashpoint DR:
First, let me say that this is not like modern warfare @ . Its not meant to be a action game. If there was a movie that I would use to describe this game, it would be saving private ryan. There is alot of time where you can plan, like in real war you don't just rush in to a battle. This alone bought me. I truly dislike Fps games because most of them are the same: run, gun, shoot, jump, kill, repeat... But this game has the whole package for me. Firstly, the weapons are great, think of GRAW on playstation 2 where it was one shot one kill(yourself included), you can adjust your rate of fire and you can even select multiple ammo types if available. and the idea of the free open enviroment brings back to mind a game I think was on the xbox where (don't remember the name) you were in a sand box and you could tackle the objectives the way you wanted (even the though the graphics were horrid on the xbox) and you could play through the game on coop and work as a team to acheive your goal. Secondly, the vehicles are also inspiring and give you a sense of wanting to master them. But, the only cons I can think of is very minor glitches like your vehicle getting stuck on rocks which to me is no glitch because, if you try to drive a vehicle over a boulder, it is ganna get stuck. Also, the game is subpar if your playing by yourself, because who wants to tell AI what to do all the time, I'd much rather tell human players what to do and get real feedback. This game is all about working together and it feels much more rewarding since the game is catered to all the aspects of a simulation, meaning when you get shot in the leg, you will bleed until you patch it up and you cannot run unless a medic heals you completely
(not realistic but hey, everything can't bu uberrealistic). But enough said, Everything from graphics to sound to replayablilty I would rate a 9 or a 10, this is a game where you can actually play the same stage over and over again and do things completely different and still have a blast.
Graphics - 9 (would have been a 10 if they included rain) has day to night cycle that is truly awesome, tip: put your graphic to 30 for a more realistic looking night.
Sound - 10, very convincing ambient, weapon, misc & vehicle sounds (I was in the passinger area of the helicopter and I was thinking to myself, is a helicopter really this noisey?, it truly immersed me in the game)
Gameplay - 10, the best I've played on any system, me and my twin brother don't play our xbox's that much because of work, family and other activities but this game gave us the desire to take time to play it, which modivates me to play it because its such a great and fun game.
replayabibilty - 10, even after all the campaign is done I think this is one of those games I will keep like I've kept nfl 2k5, unless a part 3 is made and is superior, im not selling it because there may not be another game like it no matter how hard game developers try.
Summary: So if you like games that take time to plan through, you like taking a role (commander, medic, smiper, engineer, etc..) and you don't mind taking orders and working together as a team, and you also like realistic playing games, then this is for you.
Not very good at writing reviews, but I hope this has helped you. And if you get online look me up (adults only) my Gamertag is Kendall Frost.. | video-games_xbox |
Just good. I played for half a year with the Razer Onza Tournament Edition. Bad enough the rubber on my left analog stick went of and my left trigger didn't work properly. But I really liked the product so I decided to buy the Sabertooth!
Received it two days ago and I'm really happy with it.
You get a case with it. I think Razer could have save on this. I don't think people will use it.
One of the things I really liked of the Onza is that the analog sticks were customizable. With the Sabertooth, unfortunately, u can't do that and that's a miss.
U get two rubber covers for the analog sticks which is very nice. I use it on the right one, and the grip is much better.
The OLED screen is very nice. Looks good with the Razer logo on it when you're not using it. There are a few options on it. U can choose between two of your profiles, u can turn the rumble on and off (I don't know why you should turn it off), u can configure the extra triggers and buttons and you can change the sensitivity of the analog sticks.
The D-Pad has also changed and I actually prefer the one of the Onza. It looked better, and felt better.
The ABXY-buttons of the Sabertooth are higher, which I like. You still hear the click when pressing them.
The Select and Start-button are now at the same position as on the original XBOX-controller. When I bought the Onza I had to get used to it that went down and now I have to get used to it that they are back up again! ;) Of course it was neccesary for the OLED screen.
The places of the extra buttons and triggers are good. But you can't rest your fingers at the back of the controller when using the two triggers. U get a screwdriver from Razer to remove them but then u also lose 4 extra functions. The two buttons next to the bumpers are nice. You always touch them with the top of your finger so you can always press them.
It's a nice successor of the Onza, but or it's better? I wouldn't say that. It's always better than the original controller I think.
If the controller would be $50 I would recommend it. Now I think it's just a nice product ;) | video-games_xbox |
Blackwater (Kinect review. Yeah, KinectAddict always had me interested in this game. You probably know who he is. He's a pretty fit guy who plays all sorts of Kinect games. He turned me on to Motion Sports Adrenaline as well, which I'd say is also one of the best and most underrated Kinect games next to this. This game really is a blast to play, especially for fans of military shooters, or FPS in general.
Are there bugs? Yes. That's why there is no way that this game can receive 5 stars. I bought this title from XBL and haven't looked back. The ratings on XBL are in the 2 star range. Why? This game is HORRIBLE with a controller. I'd give it one star. As a Kinect game, it ROCKS!
The game is cover based, which means you take cover at the beginning of every firefight. You can lean to the side or duck. To reload you simply lower the arm you are firing with off the screen. You can also slap your elbow and hold it, but I found that the game didn't always pick this up. To throw a grenade, you use your other arm above your head and aim with your arm that usually holds your firearm. I've ran into bugs 4 times in the 5 or so hours I played, and all were related to not being able to fire the weapon. The game is a little older now so I doubt the issues will be resolved.
Graphically, the characters are fun and cartoony, and remind me of Homefront which also isn't top tier graphics. At the current price, it's an easy purchase. More than anything else, it's fun, and the controls work very well. A definite hidden gem, and I'm usually harsh with reviews on Kinect titles. For some people, they just hate without playing the game. It's essentially a 5 star game with a few bugs. In terms of fun factor, you'll enjoy yourself tremendously, but will be annoyed by the small amount of bugs.
Currently, there aren't any other Kinect games like this, and hopefully this genre doesn't die out.
Hint: I first had some issues with the training map because I fast forwarded through the instructions which said to hold out your arm to one side to change weapons, and thought it was a bug. I played through this 3 times until I just didn't do anything so I could read the instructions. You'll understand what I mean if you play the Quick Play mode. | video-games_xbox |
xbox 360 wireless wheel, blast for dad. OK, after getting schooled by the 13 year old Halo III expert, was time for dad to have his day. Despite the crying and begging, we did not get another first person shooter, "Dad wants to race cars" I had the boys set it up in the living room while I finished up some work. Initially, they were less than impressed, "Dad, it doesn't work very well." "Hmm. Did you plug it in for the force feedback?" I am a consumate instruction reader, the kids are of the wonderful text message and instant gratification generation. Ok, so maybe my gen X started it, theirs perfected it.
After plugging it in what a difference! the Forza 2 demo was only one track long. After growing weary of the demo game we IMMEDIATELY drove back to the store. We discovered Forza 2 is almost impossible to find even post Xmas. However, since my instructionly challenged teenagers never took the time to connect the surround sound and high definition television we did buy and take home a new high def tv connector and optical digital audio cable to use our home stereo surround system. We bought the most advanced non Forza 2 they had on the shelf and hurried home.
WOW! the sub woofer and surround speakers and life-like background on the TV... we spent the next six hours sweating as we took turns in the front room racing and crashing $1M Ferrari Enzos, listening to the engines coming from behind us on the 2,000 watt sound system. With the surround sound, you can hear where the cars are in proximity and location, and the force feedback is spot-on! If you over steer and lose traction, the wheel gets lose. Loose on high speed straights, resistance increasing at the apex of lower speed corners! A complete blast. Highly recommended. And it gave me a valuable opportunity to teach the benefits of reading directions: they had been playing Halo 3 with the tv speakers and RCA video. How sad for them. Now we have large screen high def and optical 6.1 surround total of 2000 watts connected. This wheel is great. Tried to use the game pad and that is a dead, un-fun perspective. | video-games_xbox |
Well done and artistic. I have played a variety of video games in my life, starting with Zelda and eventually moving on to role playing games like Oblivion as well as first person shooters. Few games have been as impressive to me as Bioshock, I like videogames, but I love art, and the setting and time period in this game are remarkably artistic and well done.
Graphics
For its time period the graphics are really impressive. The water effects blew me away, and you can tell a huge amount of time went into creating this underwater world. When I played this game I spent a lot of time just wandering around and looking at things, there are posters everywhere to read and if you look out the window you will see a remarkable world that is very different everywhere you go.
Story
I was quite surprised by the story in Bioshock. At first I thought it didn't make much sense, but as the story progresses there is a shocking and disturbing twist that makes the story more interesting as well as more logical. Aside from the German named Christmas tree who has a very Russian accent (Tenenbaum), the characters have the right voices, are depicted very well, and are quite interesting. They all use the right slang for the time period and have in depth personalities and motives.
Setting
The setting may be my favorite part about Bioshock. It was a creative and unique decision to have it set underneath the ocean in the early 50s, and was done impressively well. The most challenging thing about a setting like this is making it believable. Exploring the city of Rapture you will find out how everything works to keep the city alive. First you find out their oxygen is supplied by plants cultivated inside the city, and eventually that the heat is produced by magma from underwater volcanoes. The time period is also done with accuracy. Everyone in Rapture uses the right slang, speaks with the right accents and shoots the right guns for the late 40's/early 50's. For some reason the believability of this world makes the game even creepier than it already was.
Gameplay
I got a different game at the same time as Bioshock, and I really like it but I am unable to play it for more than an hour at a time or I get really confused. I use Bioshock to relieve myself of that confusion, because its intuitive gameplay refreshes me. The controls make a lot of sense to me, and I like it that you have a variety of ways to aim your weapons. The fact that there is no inventory makes it so you don't have to spend any time looking through boring categorized lists, and can go and explore the world instead.
Replayability
Bioshock does not have a multiplayer or a vast open map to explore, but I am still inclined to go back and explore all of the levels again to deal with any leftover little sisters, or to find weapon upgrades, or honestly just to go battle splicers. Most games with a definite ending I don't ever play again but this one I would, partly because its made in such a way that playing it is like watching a good movie that you're inside of. | video-games_xbox |
Not a bad game. The last time I played a Sonic game was Sonic Adventure 2 Battle for the Gamecube and that was released a long while ago. I've never been a huge Sonic fan, although growing up I did play Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles quite a bit. As a result I haven't experienced a lot of the series more recent ups and downs. I'm not sure what it was that drew me to this game, whether it was the nostalgia of classic Sonic or just curiosity of how the series has developed over time. After playing the demo I decided that it probably would prove to be an interesting purchase. I have to say, I wasn't disappointed.
The plot isn't terribly complicated; both Sonics and their friends are pulled into a timeless world (known as White Space) by the Time Eater. It's now up to the two Sonics to save their friends and restore everything back to normal. This is how the game explains why the two Sonics interact and traverse through some of their previous locales. The stages are fairly well spread out across Sonic's history, but of the nine stages only three are from the Genesis era. Personally I was hoping for more stages in general. Especially some more from the Genesis games since those have been considered the heyday of Sonic. With nine stages the game isn't terribly long, considering that Act 1 is played as Classic Sonic and Act 2 is Modern Sonic. There are a handful of bosses as well which does help to lengthen the game a little bit, but it still won't take more than six hours to get to the ending. As a result every stage has red star rings to collect as well as stage challenges for each Sonic to undertake. They're not required (although you do have to complete a couple of challenges to unlock the boss stage) but it does give you something extra to do, unlocking songs and artwork or even new powers to customize your Sonics with.
So far my biggest gripes come from the Modern Sonic stages. Sometimes the camera just konks out and can't keep up with where you are, oftentimes showing you an obstructed view of Sonic. The other issue is the homing attack and how it doesn't always lock right on. I've missed more than my share of jumps just because it didn't lock onto a spring or enemy. Oh yeah, the final boss is kind of a joke, I can't forget to mention that. There wasn't as much of a challenge to that I thought.
Yes, Sonic Generations is short, but it does prove to be an interesting and enjoyable game. I'm finding it hard to describe what it is that keeps drawing me in. Maybe that's the best way there; that it keeps me coming back. Usually I beat a game and that's it, I'm done with it. After seeing the credits roll, I still find myself turning it back on to see if I can get that S rank or find that last red star ring. If you haven't played a Sonic game before I think this is a good game to get on board with. If you've been away for awhile (like I have) give it a try. Hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised as well. | video-games_xbox |
Take from: Mass Effect: Limited Edition. I will simply say this game is awesome! It's intensly epic and if you're a fan of the RPG format, this is a must play. There are naturally some comparisons being made to the two Knights of the Old Republic video games. I think these comparisons are very appropriate because the general game design is a fairly similar, though I'm sure many Star Wars fans are disappointed to not see laser swords in this game. Anyway, both games are very epic in scale, however, I think Mass Effect improved and built on from some areas.
Now anyone who plays RPG styled games HAS to realize that the screen view offers quite a bit design limitations. For example you're not going to have super high-detailed characters that look life-like all the time, though Mass Effect does a damn good job. People have to remember you're not seeing things through a first person view, so those who complain that it's not as "detailed" need to get over themselves, I grew up with Diablo, which I still think has a pretty good design. The screen interface to me is one of the most important, however, Mass Effect is a little hard to figure out at first. Such as when you want to change weapons quickly or use your special abilities. After having gone through the game, I realize now that it is by far the absolutely most logical control development for the user to interface with the screen.
Everything is in 3rd person view so the user is sitting sort of "far away" in perspective, aside from video sequences of course. Despite this, I think the graphic design is very well done. I see people complain about things not being "Next Gen" on a Next Gen console, seriously, what do these people expect to see? Graphic design wise Mass Effect is probably comparable to Half Life 2, and really, is that such a bad thing? I'd rather have developers spend their time developing a really epic game with an awesome story line than spend all their time amping up the graphics to the point where systems can't process all the detail so they have to shorten the game to compensate for data overflow. Which, is something I will complain about in Halo 3, because it was far too short, despite how beautifully designed the game was.
Another thing that was really interesting was the weapon designs. You get new weapons as the game goes on, but they're energy based weapons so you have unlimited ammo. I thought this was a really interesting way to treat the weapons, granted I enjoyed the unlimited ammo because running out of ammo in a game really sucks. You basically have access to all the weapons from the start of the game, but you have to put points into being trained on them to actually get good at using them. If you don't have access to build up points for the Sniper Rifle your character will always be really bad at using that weapon, but each character has the ability to build up at least one of the options!
The real part to focus on in Mass Effect is the highly original world and engrossing story line! You're thrust into a future universe of humanity where we have contact with other alien cultures and we are trying to work our way into the politics of the situation. I would say the story line is somewhat influenced by Carl Sagan's "Contact" because it starts with teh discovery of something called a Mass Relay, which can send vehicles far into distant reaches very quickly... yeah, kind of like "Contact, but this takes place long after that initial contact. I found the story-line very intelligent and very well thought out, to the point where it's believable in that situation. I haven't played through that many excellent Science Fiction RPG's, but this is probably my favorite as much as I liked Knights of the Old Republic. The story line does have a serious shock ending that I really didn't predict in the least, whereas I found Knights of the Old Republic II's story line slightly predictable.
Mass Effect really shines in my book. I was one of the lucky few to pick up the Limited Edition version and it comes with a bonus disc, which I haven't watched yet, but I will add to this review when I see it. It also comes with an added booklet with extra information about the historical time-line, which I thought was a really cool game addition.
As anyone can see, this game is VERY highly rated by users and I personally have no complaints about this game whatsoever. I found it to be challenging and intriguing. I don't have a lot of time to play games and this thing kept me occupied for two months (I do spend most of my day at work and only can play like an hour or two a night). Most games I can beat pretty quickly, but the grand scale took me as long as Knights of the Old Republic. Seriously, get this game! | video-games_xbox |
Expect, the expected. I play a lot of video games and about 50% of them are FPS. As far as war games, I am a big COD fan. The night before this came out I preordered it off amazon. I was expecting some type of detailed and entertaining storyline. You basically have a series of slightly related missions in the single player mode. It's based off of the current war but the cut scenes don't tell you much about the basis of the war and the objectives you are about to complete. Where as COD and BC had very detailed and drawing stories and characters. You never play the same person twice in a row. After each set of ovjectives is completed you are in someone elses shoes being called by a nickname of a different name than you were last time. You have to move WITH the NPC and don't have the option to explore otherwise. I know it is suppose to be more realistic, but it is still a video game, and you don't seem to unlock any new gear or weapons when playing single player. You request ammo off of your squad.
Multiplayer mode is ok. The maps are pretty good BUT you don't have a chance to do much more than kill between one and three guys before getting your head blown off by a sniper. If you are playing a sniper, it takes about 3 shots anyway to actually kill someone, but it doesn't register on their screen that they have been shot three times. There are obvious glitches that come with any game.
Long story short, expect simple, main streamed missions in single player mode with very little freedom to complete the objective your way. Everything is guided by a NPC. And Multiplayer is cool, but there is much better out there and it is a constant respawn every few minutes ( sometimes spawning in the map) and that's not because I am not good at FPS, I am very good at them, better than I should be for my age, but the set up and range of damage for the guns vs real time play is just off. I would wait until it is a little cheaper. Worth some $$, but not $60. | video-games_xbox |
Very Disappointing. I was eagerly waiting for "Call of Juarez" because it looked like it would be an updated, more freeform version of "Gun" from last year which I liked a lot, except that it was short, and much too linear, and thus, in my opinion not worth $60. Well this game is a tiny bit better as far as visuals, and a little more bloody (which I like; if you're playing a shooter, it's more realistic to have a HAVOC type engine with blood, ragdoll physics and so on, instead of the "enemy" just dropping where they are, and their body disappearing 20 seconds later). but it's too short, too linear, and in my opinion, not worth $60.
You play as 2 characters, sort of like in "The Getaway," but this is back in about 1870 so there are no cars to jack, the weapons are simple, and you don't have too many original things to do. The controls to me were awful; very confusing; I'd try to draw a gun, but bring out a Bible instead, now, I like the Bible, but it doesn't do much good when you bring a Bible to a gunfight, ha ha. The shooting part is frustrating; the enemies can take like 10 hits, unless you manage a head shot, but you can take about 4. You only have limited ammo; you can take guns off dead enemies, but they usually have less ammo than you did, because they shoot at you non stop, whether you are hiding are not, (and hit you sometimes at random, when they cant even see you, which SUCKS); and since headshots are hard to hit with the lousy controls, you have to use 7 or 8 shots to take an enemy down, so when you get to that big gunfight parts you will have like 5 bullets left and die quck. And unless you hide a lot and "rest" you will die, and reset a lot. The save system sucks; autosave at certain points, no quicksave.
The gameplay is disappointing; very linear. You can only go to certain areas. You can't shoot innocents (at least I was never able to), which I HATE in a shooter. "Freeform" games are supposed to give you the choice of being evil or not. A big part of that `is getting to kill innocents. If you cant do that, the game sucks, IMO. (I know, I'm bad, but thats my preference-I don't ALWAYS kill innocents I just like to know I CAN).
Gameplay is too short-not even 10 hours. Multiplayer didn't impress me. There's either no one else on line, or brats that think they're playing Halo 2. This game is not recommended; especially at full price. If you're interested, get the demo first; you'll see a good sample of how the gameplay and controls are frustating (stupid me, I figured the full game would be better. I was mistaken). If you're still interested, RENT first. If you STILL want it, wait at least till the price drops DONT pay $60 for it.
NOT reccommeneded. If you want something like this "GUN" is a better game and is $19.95 now. | video-games_xbox |
Review for Limbo. Since i couldn't find a single directory for limbo, ill create my review under this heading. I have not played the other two games in this pack yet, so this one is just for the game limbo.
Let me start off by saying i have played quite a few downloadable XBL and PSN games, some are engagning, but yet still lack alot of substance to be a great game.
Limbo is a game some people will shortly be referring to as not just a great game but a true accomplishment. And it is. The story of this grim, gorgeous puzzle platformer is one of the most addicting, satisfying and yet oh so rewarding games ive ever had the experience to play. This game is simply a work of art. To be more precise, there is no color, absolutely none. The eery yet disturbing monochromatic style of black and white visuals, or shades of grey is what sets it apart from other games but it really fits a game like limbo. The design and starkly minimalist visual style create a short but indelible experience that deserves to appear before a lot of eyes.
In the simplest terms, Limbo is a side-scrolling action game featuring a little boy looking for his sister in the big dark forest. Beyond the menus, the game itself uses no words (written or spoken) to communicate any sort of story. It doesn't even have real music, just a sublimely rendered ambient soundscape. And it doesn't need any of that stuff. You wake up in the woods, and off you go into an increasingly weird, oppressive, sinister dream world. Your sole occupation is to run left to right and try to avoid all the myriad ways this awful wilderness is trying to kill you, and the game focuses all of its efforts on enabling that single objective.
You won't manage to avoid most of those dangers the first time, because so much of Limbo's action centers on brutally immediate, unforgiving environmental hazards. A blade might come swinging out of nowhere and slice you in half, or a gigantic spider could impale you on a wickedly sharp leg almost before you realize it's there. There's really never a moment when you're not in danger of meeting some grisly end or other, and most of those ends you will not see coming. Note however that the timing and triggers in each scenario are the same every time, so getting through the game requires a lot of trial and error, dying to some unforeseen menace two, three, four times before you work out exactly what you need to do and how fast you need to do it to keep yourself alive and continue on.
Though this game can be seen as short and for the price of $15 dollars some people may not consider it. But trust me on this. There is not a game out there that will give you this much satisfaction of just knowing how to master each element of this game. One of the trophies requires you to get through the entire game in one sitting with 5 or less deaths. I will bet your first play through you will probably die some where around 50 times. So getting this trophy require patience, perseverance and dedication. But its so satisfying, knowing that you 100% limbo, cause the game has a challenge that not only tests your reflexes, and puzzle solving skills but your physical state of mind as well. Make no mistake this game is a mind bender. I often took some time away to actually carefully take notes on each scenario in the game, so when i got to that certain part, i knew for a fact that i had the confidence to get through the game. This is not just an average run of the mill platformer, don't think it is. Try not to get to frustrated, each puzzle provides you with careful planning and precision to make it through this game and trying to figure out each puzzle on your own is what gives you that degree and sense of accomplishment.
The game steadily introduces new environmental mechanics like water, gravity, and magnetism through the end of the game, so you never feel like you're doing the exact same thing twice. Every puzzle is keyed to the unique environment it's taking place in, almost like an adventure game. It's evident one or more people put a ton of thought into every single thing you do in this game.
In case it's not clear already, Limbo is a really hard game, but not immpossible probably too hard for casual players that are used to just finishing games quit and fast. But the extreme difficulty is bearable because everything in the game behaves in a very measured, deliberate way, especially the boy himself. He runs, jumps, climbs, and moves objects at a steady and predictable rate that feels really natural when you control him. That makes it easy to gauge timing and distance for your jumps and other moves. And everything in the game obeys a fairly realistic physics model that gives the gameplay a weird sort of tactile feel. Also, there's a checkpoint about every five feet, so you can load up any chapter you want in the game and retry each puzzle as much as you see fit, Death is no burden here, just a means to further exploring each obstacle. Taken purely by volume this isn't a long game, but you'll feel like you've gotten plenty out of it by the time you've worked out every puzzle and survived every challenge.
The game is a joy to behold in every aspect.
Limbo has a quality that's hard to articulate. It so expertly realizes both its internal gameplay logic and its prevailing aesthetic that it almost creates a sort of reverie as you play, fully removing you from your physical environment and plopping you into this cold, mesmerizing other land. Though you'll find it's a tough place to survive, it might also be one you're in no hurry to leave behind. I believe every gamer out there should at least try this title, it deserves every bit of attention.
Also for PS3 users that want a little extra challenge, there is an exclusive level in the game that the xbox version does not have. "gold trophy" It will test your ability to think quickly as well as using your senses to determine where your at, in this nightmarish level.
This game is in every sense of the word a "masterpiece". One of the most challenging and rewarding experience, ive had the privileged to play. Once i 100% this game, i couldn't help my self but boast to all my friends that i accomplished something great. | video-games_xbox |
Much better than its reviews. I bought this when it came out and played the first Chapter and put it aside. I decided to pick it back up over the holiday break and I am glad I did. I have read the books as they were released and I watch the HBO show. I am 50 and have been playing games for over 20 years years and mostly play RPG's. Once I got used to the mechanics (and also swallowed my pride and moved down to easy) I was able to get into the game. THE STORY IS INCREDIBLE AND FANS OF BOOK WILL LOVE IT. The problem might be book and the show fans that are not big gamers might find the game portion too hard and gamers who are not fans of the book and show might find the story portions boring and the game play to unreliable. (Notice I said unreliable not easy because there is an issue with the game play that it can be too easy on EASY but if you move up out of the blue you can get stuck were you die over and over.) There is more strategy involved in the game playing than normally found in RPG's that are targeted to people that might not be seasoned gamers. Even on easy I hit some places where I just kept dying until I figured out the proper strategy. I am afraid casual gamers might not hang in there until they figure it but they will be missing out on a GREAT story if they give up. (Online help is your friend.)
Remembering the pre Final Fantasy 7 days of RPG's I do not really get the complaints on graphics. If you liked Dragon Age Origins then graphics here will be fine. Also, since this is story driven the word is not open so people who do not like linear game play will be bored. I bought this for the fun of playing a character in the Game of Thrones and that is what I got to do. I was a "water-dancer" and red priest. I got to fight with a flaming sword. I was also a Black Brother of the Wall who could skin-change with his dog. I got a story with twists and turns that really surprised and moved me. After so many games with good game play and little story (Skyrium) or middle book stories that leave you hanging for the next installment (Witcher 2) it was great to get lost in a game and truly feel l like was playing an interactive book. | video-games_xbox |
Microsoft's Latest Grand Slam! A box of pure perfection. Well. Its here. Amazon delayed my delivery until monday so me being impatient, I went out and bought a second one. Boy am I one happy camper. I'd like to start off by saying that 99% of the 1 and 2 star reviews are false. There are isolated incidents of course but for me its so far so good. My console was up and running within 15 minuted (which included the half a gigabyte update!). I am so surprised by this little miracle. It truly is almost like a remote for your TV and cablebox.
I wasn't even aware of the features such as turning up/down the volume of your TV without even lifting a finger. Or changing the channel by simply saying "Watch HBO" (It even auto tunes to HD!). There is just so much stuff I can write about that I won't have time ti play my console! The download times are extremely fast. I downloaded 3 games so far (80 GB worth) in just under 4 hours. I could have been playing them within 20 minutes without any roadblocks!
The graphics are great. The multitasking is even better! I am so disgusted with myself that I can't even wait for a match to be found without me going back to the new "dashboard" and messing around (It automatically notifies you when you find a game!). Everything is so revolutionary it is astounding. The whole thing is super quick as well.
I have ran into a few issues. Mainly being the console would freeze up for a few seconds then jump around the place (keystrokes I made while frozen) but this is understandable considering I was downloading games and having many apps run in the background. The other issue is sometimes a menu item is unavailable due to a connection issue but it was resolved by restarting. These quirks are nothing more than a slight bump in this console!
All in all, I am so happy I went the Xbox One route. The 500$ price tag is extremely justifiable. Kinect is such a central part of the console, there definitely should not be a edition without it. Microsoft you truly are a fantastic company. If you are a parent considering buying this for your son or daughter, GET THIS CONSOLE. Thank you for making me a happy camper for my thanksgiving break. I hope my teachers can understand when I fail my math test on monday! :) | video-games_xbox |
May Be The Most Impressive Game Released To Date. Halo is one of the most graphically impressive games released in videogame history. The attention to detail is excellent. For instance, when using an assault rifle, you can see each clip as it is used. Incredible draw distances, outstanding cutscenes, and marvelous camera work contribute significantly.
In respect to audio, Halo outshines the competition. The sound effects are spectacular and the soundtrack is killer. In-game voice acting has never been so good. You can hear your allied marines chatter about the enemy, when they have been hit, where the enemy may be, etc etc. In addition, you can hear the frantic cries of the running enemy when you and your shotgun sneak up on them. Playing this game in Dolby Digital will give the gamer an unsurpassed gaming experience.
In actual gameplay, this is where Halo redefines first person shooters. No other console game has gone where Halo goes. Halo is comprised of 10 well-designed, surprisingly large levels, mixing indoor and outdoor environments, to give the gamer an experience which will not soon be forgotten. And this is no normal shooter either. You can play campaign mode single player or with a friend. This is the first game to have a great "co-op" mode. If you can't beat a level, call a friend and work together. Playing the 'single-player' mode with a friend makes the game a far more enjoyable experience.
The developers of Halo knew what they were doing when they included vehicles in the game. Throughout the game, you will use a variety of vehicles to help you defeat the enemy. Some are slow but powerful tanks, while others are quick hovercraft. Several of the vehicles allow more than 1 player to get in, thus letting 1 person drive while the other blast the enemy away.
However, where Halo really shines is in its multiplayer. With 4 players, 2v2 deathmatches are just a blast. However, with a Cable or DSL connection you will be able to play Halo online! You can play with up to sixteen players in pure madness. Of all the time I spend playing Halo, 90% of it is online. It is just incredible. It takes everything positive about console gaming and pulls the online gaming from traditional PC games to make Halo one of the most enjoyable games ever made.
Should you buy Halo? Absolutely! And don't worry about getting bored anytime soon. With friends and online play, you will be playing this one for months. | video-games_xbox |
Finally, a game meant for Co-Op. If you're like me, you love video games. You love shooters, and more than that, you love to share the fun with a friend. Sure, it's a blast to have multi-player where you can kill each other, but what the industry has been lacking til now is a game meant to be played with a friend. Army of Two delivers.
First off, there's various modes where you combine forces with your characters, including a dual-sniper mode that allows you and a friend to coordinate sniper shots to take down two foes at the same time. You'll still depend on your friend taking the voice-cue from the game, but if they don't know how to fire when the game tells them to, it's the least of your worries. There's also back-to-back mode, which looked a LOT like the final shoot-out scene in Mr. & Mrs. Smith - very cool how the characters twist and turn around each other to shoot the badies.
There's a lot fo the game that depends on two people helping each other, but there's also a lot of subtle things added in that make it fun enough to want to talk about. Not only can you congratulate your co-op buddy with a high-five or smart remark (via game controls), you can also insult them or give them a well-deserved headbutt for overwhelming idiocy in the line of duty.
The great part for me is that as you advance, you make money. You can then use this money to outfit yourself with new and more powerful weapons, armor, and even facemasks. (The facemasks are the best part, as you can get ones that with a desert motiff, a "street" motiff, or my favorite, a clown face!!!) you can also save your money to focus in areas you're good at. I'm a sniper, so I spent most of my money getting the latest and greatest sniper rifle.
The story line is solid, the game controls take bit of getting used to, especially with all the bumper use, but all in all I have to say this is the best 360 game yet this year. | video-games_xbox |
They pulled it off.... OK almost. I am a big fan of Spiderman and seeing how this game looked, I had to give it a shot. I mean comic book like artstyle, 4 different versions of Spiderman and worlds and variety of villains, got to check it out. After spending 16+ hrs on this game (finished on normal mode and unlocked almost everything), here is what I thought.
******************PROS******************
AMAZING ARTWORK OF 4 DIFFERENT SPIDERMEN AND 4 DIFFERENT UNIVERSES: This is the first and foremost thing you will notice if you are a Spiderman fan such as myself. They have done really good job animating 4 different versions of Spiderman (Spectacular Spiderman, Noir Spiderman, 2099 Spiderman and Ultimate Spiderman), 4 different worlds and most importantly villains in 4 different worlds. As you progress further and further into the game, you will get to experience more and more of this variety and chances are you will like what you see.
13+ VILLAINS OF SPIDERMAN UNIVERSE: To me, after artwork, this was the strongest aspect of the game. There are 14 different levels. First is just tutorial. Then the next 12 levels you have 12 different bosses with different powers. So each Spiderman gets 3 different bosses each and then all 4 of them get to defeat one final boss in level 13. The best part is each one of these bosses is very artistically animated and for most part there is some level of creativity and variety involved in boss battles. Loved it just loved it. If you are a Spiderman fan you should buy this game just for this.
VARIETY OF SPIDER POWERS AND MOVES: While all 4 spidies have shared set of abilities and fighting moves (web swinging, sticking to wall, punches and kicking in combination with web etc.), each one has distinct powers, style and looks. Amazing spidy will do a lot of web based attacks, Noir has more stealth based attacks, 2099 can slow down time while ultimate spidycan use unique rage ability of venom based suit. Noir stealth mode was especially quite impressive. Reminded me of Batman Arkam Asylum.
VARIETY IN GAMEPLAY ELEMENTS: While a lot of gameplay in 4 worlds share common redundancy in terms of beating thugs and then beating bigger thugs and saving some civilians before you face off with bosses, they all have some very different gameplay aspects. For example, in Noir world you will heavily have to rely on stealth and in 2099 you will be doing cool things like chasing bosses while gliding through futuristic cities. Happy they didn't make things too redundant.
INTERESTING FIRST PERSON HAND TO HAND COMBAT MODE: Each boss you face, there will face them in first person view mode where you get to give them a piece of your mind by punching, jabbing and uppercutting them. If a boss has given you hard time or annoyed you this is the time to let it all out. Furthermore, they also have some cutscenes where you dodge through enemy attacks in first person mode. I personally enjoyed it.
PLATHORA OF UPGRADES, COSTUMES AND UNLOCKABLE: Spiderman fans will love it. Every time you beat enemies you get experience points through which you can buy more moves, upgrade your abilities or buy costumes. This adds a lot to replay value to the game. Even after finishing it once (12+ hrs). This can get you to play it again and again. Some of the costumes you can unlock are pretty unique while others are just plain funny.
VIDEO, FIGURINE AND ART GALLERY: If you are like me, someone who doesn't like to play through the game 10 times just to enjoy some in game cutscene, this is the game for you. Completing the game will unlock different movie, art and figurine galleries. Big plus.
DECENT VARIETY IN ENEMIES: Now this game doesn't have as much variety in enemies as God of War or Castlevania games, but I am happy to tell you enemies in different levels are still somewhat different. My biggest fear in Spiderman game is having the same enemies over and over again. While in this game in all levels you will be fighting goons and bigger goons, they have have different looks from level to level. Not only that you will also need to change your fighting strategy to overcome enemies in different levels. Salute to the creators.
*******************CONS********************
REDUNDANCY: I didn't mind it as much, but if you are someone who doesn't like redundancy in games, then you will mind this. As stated before, one type of redundancy you face is beating goons and then beating bigger goons in all levels. But the one that can really get on your nerves at time is saving civilians. Fortunately, for most part, it is not as bad as these civilians won't die easily if at all. And also we have to remember that this is a superhero game so I guess they had to push it in. Just wish didn't have to save civilians so often.
*******************CONCLUSION****************
So the game is not perfect, but if you are a Spiderman fan like me, you will surely enjoy it. I truly enjoyed playing as 4 different Spidermen with different powers in 4 different world. Unlockables truly kept me coming back for more. I would give it 9/10 and highly recommend it. | video-games_xbox |
Was this game made in 1998 and then left in a vault for 14 years afterward. I have no idea how this game came into my life but while it has it's ocassional moments of glory, "A:CM" I swear, must have been a re-issue from some previous release.
So apparantly the game came out in 2013, that is after the release of Assassin's Creed III, Battlefield 3, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, and even Call of Duty: Black Ops II, all of which are to varying degrees fabulous games in their own ways. Yet judging by the look and feel of the entire game, I could've sworn that I must have accidentally gotten on a time machine and travelled back to 1998 or earlier and played this game on a PC because the graphics are extremely dated-looking, even by 1998 standards. The way the entire game, both single and multiplayer function is of a nature that I could've sworn would've looked like a prototype for an early Playstation 1-era console. I can't even begin to go into details of how big a missed opportunity "Aliens: Colonial Marines" has turned out to be.
To me, my impression is that the game combines aspects of the Halo Series and the engine-interface aspects of Call of Duty, but completely strips away any of the things that made both franchises worth the countless hours, worth spending rainy days and nights, and earning achievements, playing with. "Aliens: Colonial Marines" combines Halo and Call of Duty but more of the scraps of both franchises, resutling in one of the most poorly-produced games I think I've come across in the last decade.
Most games usually shine on their multiplayer servers rather than single player campaigns. Crysis, Call of Duty, Battlefield, and even Halo and Ghost Recon. However, that is not the case here with A:CM. The multiplayer suffers from horrendous lag and lacks any significant edge with the graphic interface showing the kind of quality I'd expect from an amateur prototype made on somebody's home computer. Not only that but there is very heavy bias towards the marine faction with limited ability to level up on the Xenomorph side. Mentioning that, controlling the xenomorphs is an unnecessarily difficult nightmare due to the changing camera angles when climbing on walls and ceiling, all of which completely throw up my playing. It ruins at least half of the multiplayer fun for me and made it nearly unplayable. On both the single and multiplayer portions of the game, I see entire graphic sceneries that look more like small to large colored pieces that attempt to become holes in walls, ceilings and floors, or blood stains but simply look like glitches in the graphics. Just the way everything about the game operates gives me two impressions.
One-Somebody or some past crew were working on producing this game probably as early in 1996, but then stopped further production in early 1998, and then put it away in a vault and was forgotten for the next 14 years and then somebody, in a foolish decision, decided "Oh let's release it now!" and released it in it's half-assed state.
Or two, the makers put almost no effort into the quality or playability of the game rendering it perhaps the most poorly made product I've ever come across in the video game realm. The ultimate result is something that is easily showned to have been rushed right out the door with zero input into the background, the graphics, the sound effects, and the aliesn themselves looked like mere cartoon-puppet props, rather than the feared alien antagonists they were/are in the movie series.
Either way, it's hard to believe that in 2013, considering the price listed, that A:CM could have turned out to be so haphazardly done but it really is. It's far from terrible but considering the hype I've read and heard about it, this is perhaps the weakest game I've come across and the biggest letdown of a video game since "Twisted Metal 3" from 15 years earlier.
Don't bother wasting your time with this mini-lemon of a game. If you want to play, fine. Rent it or borrow it from a friend or family member. Even "Medal of Honor: Warfighter" and "Homefront", for all their issues, were better than this. | video-games_xbox |
Fear the spear. Fright Rider is not only an interesting looking Skylander, but one with a neat backstory! Rider and his ostrich Fright were once the best jousting team in Skylands, but when a rival sent Rider to the underworld, Fright turned himself into a skeleton and journeyed there himself to rescue his longtime friend. They are now dedicated to helping others all across Skylands. An added cool factor is that they're one of the two Skylanders that are actually composed of two characters, the elf and the ostrich.
Speed: Average
Fright's movements can be a little awkward, but I wouldn't call him slow. If you still don't find him fast enough, I'm sure a hat would fix the problem quickly.
Primary Attack
As a jousting team, you can easily guess that the attack one button is used for spear related melee attacks. If you press attack one three times in a row, Fright will lash out and bite at enemies as well. The spear is eventually upgraded first to a powerful Ghoul Glaive, then to an even more powerful Halberd of Horror; both upgrades cause your spear to change in appearance. If you choose the Sir Lance A Lot upgrade path, your melee attack becomes more powerful, you gain the ability to hold in attack one and release several small undead ostrich heads to attack your enemies from underground, and you get much better combos. Attack one, attack one, attack two gives you Spear Vault, where Rider will vault off the back of Fright and slam into enemies. Attack one, attack one, attack three gives you Skull Slam, where Fright will rear up and slam his head down.
Secondary Attack
Also related to their way of life, Fright Rider's secondary attack consists of them jousting forward in a short, fast charge with the spear. It's eventually upgraded to be more powerful, and lasts a bit longer. A lot of people don't seem to like this one, but I use it quite frequently. It's especially good for the Arena Battles where your enemies are invincible and need to be pushed off or into things. If you choose the Joust Jockey upgrade path, the attack becomes more powerful and even faster, the spear can be swung at 360 degrees while charging, and while charging you can press attack three for a downward strike.
Tertiary Attack
My favorite of the three main attacks! Fright burrows his head underground (the direction of which is controllable) and once the buttom is released or the max amount of time for the attack has run out, Rider will be dragged underground and pop up where Fright's head has ended up. This is good for getting away from smaller and slower enemies quickly, and for getting out of places where you've gotten yourself stuck. The best part of this is the Soul Gem ability, which will be addressed below.
Soul Gem:
Another great Soul Gem attack! When you burrow underground, instead of Rider just traveling underground the spear remains above ground and drags down enemies that get caught in its path. It's very effective if you start getting swamped. The only downside is that large enemies, like crystal golems or Blaze Brewers, cannot be dragged under.
Overall:
Definitely a worthy Skylander. I was a little leery about purchasing a Skylander that does their melee attacks from the back of a steed, but it actually opened up the windows to some interesting attacks. | video-games_xbox |
Garden Warfare is a fun, polished shooter, and what it lacks in gameplay depth it more than makes up for with fun cosmetic gear. Changing genres mid-franchise is a tough sell, especially when you're taking a popular series and saying "screw it, we're making it a shooter!" Popcap's Plants vs. Zombies is the latest to make the leap, and arguably the strangest example yet; Garden Warfare outright ditches the tactical gameplay of the original for large-scale multiplayer gunfights. No longer are you planting Bonk Choy and standing back as it clobbers zombies--you're in the thick of it, firing peas from your pea shooter mouth and sniping zombies with the Cactus's long-range shots. And though there are some strange design decisions and balance issues, the resulting shooter is charming, enjoyable, and wholly worthy of the Plants vs. Zombies name.
Whereas the PvZ of the past was a lightweight tower defense series, Garden Warfare is a class-based third-person shooter, with plants and zombies going to war in suburban areas with guns, seeds, rockets, and petals. It's a much more action-oriented experience, obviously, but the core of the franchise--the delightful struggle between plants and zombies--is pleasantly intact, and held up by strong core gameplay that's enjoyable in its lunacy.
Garden Warfare lacks a single-player campaign of any kind, instead doubling down on a trio of cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes. Each dips into the same five rural levels, repurposed to scratch a different multiplayer itch, and though none are all that outstanding, they're enjoyable in their own right. Vanquish (Team Deathmatch) and Gardens & Graveyards (Control Point/Rush Mode) are polished and engaging, and take advantage of the idiosyncrasies of the PvZ universe in 12-on-12 battles. While Vanquish doesn't deviate from the team deathmatch archetype, G&G allows the vegetation side to defend its points with potted plants, while the zombies can spawn undead AI to help swarm the enemy's gardens. This minor change makes the already large-scale battles feel even more massive, and gives you additional control over the mayhem.
Garden Ops flies closest to traditional Plants vs. Zombies gameplay, with a team of four plants fighting off increasingly difficult waves of zombies and battling the occasional boss wave. Sure, it's just Gears' increasingly prevalent Horde mode, but the premise translates perfectly into the PvZ universe. Though it lacks the scale of the 24-player skirmishes, the more intimate setup and focus on co-op make for engaging gameplay--and the ability to fortify your base with potted plants is a clever tip of the hat to the franchise's roots (pun not intended but, wow, that worked out well). Each multiplayer level has a few locations to start the waves from, too, making up for the otherwise paltry list of multiplayer maps.
The Plant and Zombie factions each feature four unique, playable classes, and they all come with a trio of special abilities that help them stand out. While there are some that are blatantly better than the rest, they all have their own place on the battlefield--from the high-damage Zombie All-Star (who can kick explosive zombies, dash, and spawn tackling dummies) to the healing Sunflower (who can fire beams of solar light when she's not healing her allies). There's a good deal of asymmetry to it as well, creating a fun dynamic between the sides and making for chaotic bouts. It also lends itself to some balance problems--good luck finding anything as powerful as the one-hit-kill Chomper on the zombie side. Seriously, that guy's a dick.
These eight classes (and the ability to customize them) is the most surprisingly deep part of Garden Warfare, and adds depth to the otherwise lightweight shooter. Every character has cosmetic slots that can be outfitted with a number of items, letting you don sunglasses, helmets, facial hair, oven mitts, and other random gear to change your class's look. There are also entirely different characters you can unlock that not only totally overhaul the character's appearance, but switches up their play-style as well. Sure, strapping a beard onto the Scientist is cool, but it's even more exciting when you can get a totally new character skin that swaps his weapon for a telekinetic dolphin. There are even passive upgrades that can be unlocked as well, making for a huge amount of content to discover and plenty of reasons to continue playing.
New cosmetic gear, potted plants, deployable zombies, and other items are found via booster packs, which are purchased using in-game currency (at launch there aren't any microtransactions). Yeah, rewards could technically just be doled out for successful play, but locking them behind booster packs makes them significantly more exciting. It's a psychological trick and it works--I'd be lying to myself if I didn't admit to playing a few extra matches just to get the slightly more expensive pack to see what was inside (in case you're wondering, it was a few plants, a pair of goggles for the soldier, and one of six pieces needed to unlock a new Sunflower skin).
There's nothing groundbreaking about Garden Warfare, but beneath the absurd premise there's a clever, polished shooter with heart--even if it's held back by balance issues and a lack of maps. Whether you have a dozen friends you want to play Gardens & Graveyards with or a small group to grind booster packs in Garden Ops, there's a lot to like in Popcap's first shooter. Wow, I really didn't expect to ever write "Popcap's first shooter" in a review. | video-games_xbox |
Turtle Beach 500x VS Astro A50. Since this headset is in the same "realm" of headsets as the Astro A50s, and since I own both, I can offer a clear comparison between the two.
Turtle Beach Stealth 500x - I bought these for my Xbox One after being fed up with poor or unusable chat functionality on my pair of Astro A50s.
Comfort is 8/10 - earpads are soft, unit is lightweight, fits snug to the head. Earpieces are somewhat smallish, so that can feel cramped at times.
Sound is a 7/10 - lacks "punch" but detail is adequate once you select EQ preset you like
Customization is a 10/10 - EQ presets that are user selectable - up to 12 loaded at any given time
Features a 8/10 - Loaded with presets, would have liked voice indications of which one is selected
Chat 10/10 - User selectable mic monitor @ 3 different levels, individual mute button and chat volume dial - this feature, and the complimentary features for it - work!!!
Battery life 10/10 - At least 10hrs of gameplay, what more do you want
Astro A50 - I bought these during my Xbox 360 days, and whereas the sound quality was great, the chat never really worked - chat volume would fade in and out (I'd imagine fault mic volume gate software). I got to the point that I just never used the chat. For the Xbox One, I tried three different cables and none of them gave satisfactory results. Astro has had major problems with their own chat puck adapter. Again, I found myself not using the chat at all due to inconsistencies and terrible quality. Whereas mine are Gen One, and now they are on Gen Two (supposedly for Xbox One) - the ONLY difference between the two generations is that the newer comes packaged with the chat puck adapter and the build quality has changed slightly with a different color scheme - functionally they are the same unit on the inside.
Comfort 10/10 - Ear pieces larger than the TB 500x set, however the pads are just as soft and are overall more comfortable because of the larger ear cups.
Sound 9/10 - More punch than the TB 500x set - although only the "pro" EQ setting gave me acceptable sound - the other two settings were bass heavy and not useful for gaming. Slightly better audio quality and detail than the TB 500x set. Difficult to explain - but the A50 sound is more "full".
Customization 5/10 - Having three EQ settings is nice, except the top two are bass heavy garbage and not useful for FPS gaming. For music I would imagine it'd be ok. For the price of this headset, not having adjustable, or at least more options for EQ, is simply not acceptable.
Features 6/10 - Flip up mic is nice for mute (except that chat is garbage on the xbox one and even on 360, the noise gate is trash). I wasn't impressed with the chat balance toggle - would have much preferred a knob/roller.
Chat 0/10 - That's right, zero. When pressed about chat quality, Astros response was they are a headphone first company, so the chat is simply a bonus, and not their focus. That's fine, except that's not what you market your product as - a chat enabled headset. To put it simply, the chat volume, consistency, and quality is absolute garbage on the Astro A50. If you want to game chat at all, even once, do NOT waste your money on the A50 headset. It might work, if you buy some extra cables/adapters, make sure you plug them in in exactly the same order every time, and then readjust headset settings, or it might not. Valuable time wasted, especially considering the A50s are nearly quite a bit more expensive than the TB 500x set.
Battery Life 10/10 - Again, at least ten hours of gaming, what more could you ask for.
Bottom line
If all you care about is Audio Quality, then perhaps the A50 would be right for you... then again, if all you care about is sound, there are better headsets for less money. Simply put, the Astro A50 headset is overpriced when you compare its feature set to the rest of the field. Reviewers that peg them as #1 are simply too biased by sound quality and choose to overlook the drastic chat and sound contouring shortfalls.
If you want or expect anything more than simple sound quality, the Turtle Beach 500x Stealth set is most likely going to fit the bill. The only real critique I have is that I wish there was a voice indicator played through the headset calling out the name of the preset that you choose, but that is a minor, strictly feature oriented critique. Overall, I am very impressed with the Turtle Beach 500x set and am very happy that I took the chance and tried them out. | video-games_xbox |
Campaign Review - Solid execution but a boring story and little gameplay innovation. Halo has always been one of the few FPS series that had a campaign that was worth getting excited about. Good graphics, solid gameplay, clever enemy AI and an epic story made it a great single player game.
After renting and beating Halo 4 I feel fairly ambivalent about it though. The gameplay is still as solid as ever. The graphics are good but something is missing.
Halo 4 has two failings that really hurt it. The most important is that the core gameplay is almost unchanged from Halo 1. There aren't any new abilities that really change things. It still works but it's gotten stale. You spend most of the game fighting covenant troops, the same guys you have been fighting for 5 games now. They behave exactly the same and you use the same tricks to beat them. The new enemies lack the kind of inventiveness that that made fighting the covenant fun. The new guns are also disappointing. Most of them handle just like other guns already in the game. The few cooler guns just never get used. I hope you don't favor human weapons because you hardly get to use them in campaign.
I also didn't like the cheesy "objectives" they would send you on. I need to start up the shield? Now I need to hit these buttons to turn off the shield? Apparently nothing works by remote control in the future.
The other failing is the story. To start, there isn't much of one. The Chief and Cortana hardly speak to each other all game. No other characters really stand out. The whole things is just by the numbers and boring. Nothing has any meaning to it. The ending is also awful. There is no sense of resolution and you get a kick in the gut for your troubles. The ending reminded me of one of those cutscenes you get when you lose a game.
343 did an OK job their first time out but they need to be more inventive next time. The writing needs to improve for the next time out too. Halo has a really cool universe and it deserves a better story. | video-games_xbox |
Have You seen the Video for this Game. Please pick up the Nov. issue of the official XBOX magazine. It has an awesome video for Ninja Gaiden and a wonderful Dead or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball music video. One word. Delicious. OK, OK, OK. Besides all of the half naked women running around, I do believe this will be a great game. A great game that revolves around half-naked women, but great nonetheless.
Story: What a great story!!!! With his DOA tournament winnings, Zack goes to Vegas and hits it big gambling, and with his newfound wealth, he buys an island. He then sets up the lovely DOA ladies to come to his tropical island getaway by making them believe a DOA4 tournament is being held there. When they show up and realize there is no tournament, "Hahaheehee" they laugh it off and spend a summer on the tropical island playing volleyball in bikinis. Delicious. But that's not all. There's a new character named Lisa who joins in on the fun. Yah!
Gameplay: Tecmo makes great games and this will be another solid title. It will have solid volleyball action, playing out with simple button actions. It will be very user friendly. But don't let that fool you. So was Tennis 2K2. Easy to learn, but the real joy will be in mastering the game. Timing bumps and sets will be vital in becoming a DOA Xtreme beach volleyball champion. The multiplayer will be great too. 4-player volleyball is going to rock. And the one player story/career mode will actually be pretty deep. You can build relationships with other potential volleyball team partners. You can buy a potential partners a gift, and she may wear it during a match or even buy you something in return. Sounds like the sims. But regardless, it will be an important part of the game for strong relationships off the court will lead to better tag play in the matches. Sega had a simialar aproach early this year with Beach Spikers. (Which by the way is a solid volleyball game also) Also, on the relationship aspect, past DOA grudges will come into play, and rivals will not play as well when paired together, so you'd better know your DOA!
Features Features Features: This is where the game gets good. 100 swimsuits and 50 accessories to choose from. Playing games will earn you points to buy new items. Just like Tennis 2K2 on Dcast and PS2. There will be tons of patterns and styles to choose from or even use your artistic skills to create your own! (This feature may or may not be in the final version) See-throughs here we come!!!!! Ok what would an Xbox be without the use of the hard-drive. Not only will the game have a 20+ song soundtrack, but you can use your own custom soundtrack! (Make sure to pick up the "Top Gun" and "Cocktail" soundtracks with your purchase) And you can record volleyball matches to the Xbox's hard drive, then watch them later or show them to your friends! "Remember that time I destroyed you in DOA Xtreme Volleyball? Don't remember? Well, I have it right here!!!" Hahaha.
Not just Volleyball going on: Not only will there be extreme volleyball going on, but extreme partying. You can explore Zack Island's night scene. The island casino features many favorites like blackjack, roulette, slots and poker. An arcade even lets you play a DOA 3 mini-game. Speaking of mini-games...
Mini games: Lifeguard drill, a dance competition, and a beauty contest. My my my. Delicious.
This game is just that: Delicious. I really don't have to tell you there will be half-naked girls running around on the beach, because you probably already know. But aside from that, It will be great game. Pick it up. | video-games_xbox |
Possibly the Best Fighting Game of the Current Generation. + Huge roster of over 40 well balanced characters with huge and unique move-sets
+ Solid online play (as of the latest patch)
+ Beautiful computer generated FMV's for character endings and in the scenario campaign
+ Easy to pick up and play for beginners but incredibly deep and difficult to master
+ Packed with loads of modes and extras including Scenario mode
- Scenario mode can be ridiculously frustrating and uninteresting at times
- The story may be hard to follow for those who haven't been keeping up with the series
- Some long load times
It's been four years since the last major installment hit consoles but I think it's safe to say it was worth the wait. Tekken 6's easy to pick up/tough to master gameplay leaves it as a great addition to the collection of any fan of fighting games while remaining welcoming to newcomers. The gameplay, while similar to previous installments has been tweaked for balance and fluidity and seen the inclusion of a couple of new features namely the Bound and Rage systems. Bound lets your smash a downed opponent into the air to continue an aerial juggle while Rage gives a large increase in damage once your health falls below a certain point. For new and intermediate players this is a great addition that gives hope even the most dire of situations but in the hands of an experienced player, Rage can easily lead to an insta-death combo.
With over 40 varied characters, you'll always feel like there's no way you'll have trouble finding a character you like and you'll always feel like there are new characters to master. Each character is extensively customizable through the in-game item shop where you can use the "Fight Money" you've earned from winning matches or through the scenario mode. With the amount of customization, it's no surprise that there was no need for character creation, though some items can be pricey and take some time to accumulate the wealth required for a purchase. Even so, Tekken 6 provides a neat way to personalize your character. Considering some other recent releases such as Street Fighter 4 where you had to pay real money for alternate costumes it becomes clear that Tekken really makes the effort to provide a large package in a single purchase.
All 40+ characters have their own story with their own CG ending, though the endings are somewhat short and in some cases utterly pointless, a good example would be Bryan Fury's ending which does nothing to further his story or character but just shows him doing the exact same thing he has been for the past few games, destroying stuff. Some endings however are really interesting and all of them are rendered beautifully.
Though each character has his or her own story, the main focus of the game's story are the characters Lars and Alisa. The scenario campaign follows these two characters through the backbone of Tekken 6's story. The story is pretty interesting if you let it pull you in but it can be confusing especially if you haven't played previous games. The structure of scenario mode in general is kind of wishy washy and tacked on. It plays like a brawler with RPG elements in the sense that you can improve on your scenario character with items dropped form enemies. Scenario mode has some really annoying instances and levels and becomes repetitive fairly quickly, however some players may like it. For those that don't however, you're out of luck since unlocking characters for single player revolves around Scenario mode, however for any mode based around versus all characters are unlocked off the bat. I feel that scenario mode could seriously have used some polish, instead of making all the characters available for scenario mode, it should have only integrated Lars and Alisa but spent a lot of time tweaking it to make it different and interesting by possible throwing in platforming, a better fixed camera and more varied enemies and bosses. I also feel like a lot of characters are kind of just throw into scenario mode whereas it would probably be a lot better if they would added into the story with a smoother transition. I hope for better in future games campaigns.
The graphics in Tekken 6 are the best in series by far though there are a couple of nicer looking fighters out there, the underlying engine is 2 years old and this doesn't really stick out except for in the cutscene in scenario mode. The console versions of the game do however run at 576p whereas I feel like they should have set the resolution to 720p to make everything look a little crisper.
The online play in Tekken 6, though a little wonky on release is now solid, with decent matchmaking and minimal lag. The game runs smoothly and online play is fun and addicting. The load times throughout are a little less than ideal though this is nothing game breaking, only a couple more seconds than you may be used to.
All in all, Tekken 6 is a brilliant addition to the series and a probably one of, if not the best fighting game of the current generation. With the number of modes, features and customization options this is definitely a game worth the purchase. | video-games_xbox |
Great Plot, Above Average Elsewhere. I've been looking forward to Homefront for a few months once I read up on the story. The idea of a dystopian future where a unified Korea occupies the USA? Sounds cool to me. Tack on that the script is written by John Milius, the same writer of Red Dawn and Apocalypse Now and I'm sold.
I'll say straight up, the story delivers. It's an involved story in a well developed universe that really sucks the player in. I even read the book leading up to the game <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Homefront-The-Voice-of-Freedom/dp/0345527151/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Homefront: The Voice of Freedom</a> to get me in the right mindset to play. Even though the campaign is relatively short the story was solid all the way through and the set pieces were very cool and dynamic.
Enough gushing about the story... how does it play?
Slightly above average is the quick answer. It is a typical shooter, the controls, the enemy AI, the level layouts, etc. all remind me that this is a genre typical game. If you're looking for something groundbreaking in terms of play, graphics, sound, etc. you're not going to find it here. That's not a bad thing. Everything in the game is very competently done, I was very happy with it. The graphics looked decent, the controls were tight, the sound made me feel like I was in the thick of battle. The only problem is that at the same time, nothing really stands out to me.
I haven't had a chance to delve into the multiplayer yet but there are a lot of offerings, but is it enough to pull you away from Black Ops? Depends on you. It's not an upgrade, just a different offering. As I said before though, this isn't a bad thing, it really comes down to preference.
To sum it up: if you're interested in the story in any way, absolutely pick up this game. If you're looking for something groundbreaking in terms of graphics, gameplay, engine, etc. than this may not be the best choice (that would be Battlefield 3, or much sooner, Crysis 2).
I personally enjoyed it and I don't regret picking it up at full price, but it's ultimately up to you.
Pros:
Great story
Competent gameplay
Decent graphics
Booming sound
Lots of multiplayer offerings
Cons:
Doesn't break new ground (but that's okay!) | video-games_xbox |
If you want a Story, Read A Book. This is a true Shooter title. First of all, if you want a story read a book. If you are into the whole story/campaign aspect you are playing in the wrong genre of games. Just admit you are not into shooter games anymore and move along to RPG. No true shooter finds playing against A.I. characters with a story challenging or fun. If you find this fun you must also find fun in hunting deer as they are easy and predictable as well. Now with that out of the way if you are into shooter games and like a challenge then Titanfall is where it's at. No it is not like Ghosts or BF4 like most of these people are saying. They say this because they don't want to buy the game. How do I know this? Because I have some friends who use the same reasons to not buy the game. I know they are full of it. If you try to play Titanfall with the same Ghosts style then you will lose. Titanfall plays vertical not just horizontal and there is a serious learning curve to get out of your normal COD style of play that most have become accustomed to. You basically need to "Free Your Mind", and start using running on walls, hanging on walls, wall jumping to your advantage. Another plus, Capture The Flag is back and done right. It hasn't been done this good since Halo 2. The vast amount of play space in this game compared to Ghosts makes it feel like a real battlefield scenario. Go into buildings and your back into that same close quarter feel that Ghosts gave you. I would also like to mention that this game has a lot of room for new content and new maps. I actually cannot wait until a new map pack or game mode is released compared to Ghosts or BF4 where every new update was always the same or a map was just re done. By the 4th map pack release on COD or BF I wasn't even playing the game anymore because a new shooter was already out by that time. If you really want to compare Titanfall to another shooter then you would compare it to Unreal Tournament. It shares more with that game than it does COD or BF. All in all this is a great "FPS" game that I bought at midnight launch from BestBuy and thats why it does not show verified purchase. A definite step up in the right direction for this genre. | video-games_xbox |
Average installment at best. I'm not really sure what Bungie was shooting for with this installment, but I'm guessing they missed the mark by a long shot. I had read that they wanted to create an earth-based game because the fans of Halo 2 really enjoyed those first few levels, myself included. But it seems like they took all of the elements that made those levels great--and took them out of the game.
First of all, the game was overpriced for what you get. If not for the firefite mode, I'd have been very irritated at spending [...] for a campaign that was that short and mediocre. Level design, story and the ending were all very flat.
Lighting was terrible! Its almost like they made the levels too dark just so you'd have an excuse to use your VISR mode. The end result was terrible, because most levels are too dark without the VISR, but too bright with it.
Suddenly we can't dual wield weapons anymore...what? Are we too weak to hold a second weapon? To make matters worse, we can still flip our warthogs over when they tip. We are further plagued by the inability to carry much ammunition and most of the best human weapons don't have much ammo for them anywhere.
Level design was repetitive, which is a Halo trademark, and not a good one. A repetitive level that is GOOD wouldn't be a problem, but these are just plain unexciting. I assume they wanted the pacing of this game to be different, which I applaude. The "run and gun" of Halo is getting to feel very dated and played out, unless you're a 12 year old. Because of the focus of this game, I was hoping it would be more tactical, but unfortunately not. No cover system--you can't even sprint. Its like they wanted you to play a tactical type of game, but they took away every possible tool to make that possible. The weapons are cool on one hand--silenced riles and pistols, but what's the point? Everything in this game has shields so its not like you can take anything out covertly aside from grunts and jackals. They ARE going to know where you are, period. You're only chance for an effective ambush is to toss in a few grenades with a buddy and then mop up whatever is left, but this is not in any way covert.
Firefite mode is pretty fun, but falls short of what it should have been. Terrible variety of weapons and not enough ammo. Not very many levels either, which doesns't help matters. It was nice to see them trying to emulate the fantastic Horse Mode from Gears 2, but they didn't do it well. You have to "earn" lives so you can keep playing. This should be something you can turn off if you want, but that's just me.
In a nutshell, this isn't worth 60 dollars. I noticed that they dropped the price on Amazon by almost [...] within the first few days, probably because its not selling very well, and if it is, it shouldn't be. There is no innovation here, which was obvious when the original Halo 3 came out. The concept of this game was great, but it just didn't deliver at all. | video-games_xbox |
You're getting more than what you are paying for. I have had this headset for about a bit of time now. I absolutely love them. There are many advantages and very few disadvantages to the headset.
Pros:
Comfortable
I have gamed for several hours with these on and haven't had any discomfort while doing so. They are over ear.
Mic monitoring
One thing that this set has that the XO Fours or XO Sevens don't have is mic monitoring. This means that you can hear yourself talking into the mic. This is great because you won't end up elevating your voice to hear yourself talk over the game or chat audio. This is a very important function I look for in my headsets, and you won't get this feature in the XO series until the very expensive higher end headsets.
Portable
You can detach the mic and the controller adapter to you can plug these into any 3.5mm headphone jack. You can use these to listen to your laptop, phone, or whatever and use them that way. The actual cups swing inwards so you can wear them around your neck comfortably. They aren't huge either.
Sound
As expected, sound is great. It isn't perfect, but unless you are an real audio junkie, it feels top quality. The bass is rich and the boost is strong, but not overpowering. The headset has 50mm with neodymium magnets with a impedence of around 32. The isolation is also wonderful. I've gamed in a noisy crowded room and was able to hear all the footsteps in FPS gameplay, whispered dialogue in movies, and so on.
Cons:
Short cable
The cable that connects to the controller is a tad bit too short. If you only intend to use the headset for gaming, it's the perfect length. However, listen to a movie on my laptop or from my phone, I have to be conscious about how far I move my head away from the device. It is just long enough to connect to my phone from my pocket before the wire goes taut.
Adapter interface
The adapter that actually connects to the controller is a little difficult to get used to. The left side changes the balance between the chat and game audio. It looks like these are separate setting but they are not. When you reduce one, the other goes up. It's not too difficult to understand, but I'd like to have two separate audio levels for game and chat. It also is a tad bit hard to plug into and remove from the controller. Be careful and look for the perfect angle or else you risk breaking your adapter or controller.
Overview
It does exactly what it is intended to do, and it does it so well. Sound quality is great, they are comfortable to wear, and mic monitoring is an essential feature that many more expensive headsets may not have. They aren't the very best when it comes to sound, and there are little things that may annoy some people. There are better headsets out there for more money, but if you're on a budget these are the best you'll be able to find. | video-games_xbox |
Non-stop action at it's best. Ninja Gaiden was one of the reasons why I purchased an original Xbox years ago, the gameplay, graphics and story were amazing. The game became an instant classic for me. Now it's 2008, next gen is here and so is the long awaited sequel from Team Ninja and Tecmo.
First, let's get this out of the way. Yes, the in game camera is bad, and there will be more than a few times when you'll be facing enemies that you won't be able to see at first. To remedy this, I just use my left thumb to cross over the controller and adjust the camera, it's not that big of a deal. I think people are making way too much out of the camera, especially since you can control it. If you think it will be an issue, then rent the game first before buying, but I think you'll agree that it's been blown out of proportion a bit.
As far as sequels go, this game had some huge shoes to fill and expectations to meet after the first game. Is it better, does it measure up? Yes and no. The graphics are amazing. This is an Itagaki game guys, with all the 3D models, environments, textures and cut scenes made by the incredible designers and programmers at Team Ninja (they're the best in the buisness - in my opinion). So the visuals are unparalleled. The violence and level of gore in the game have really been ramped up since the original. Beheadings, dismemberments and even full body explosions are the norm here. If there's a more gruesome game out there, I haven't seen it. The gameplay is fast and furious on the Xbox 360. Hayabusa wields his weapons with a frenetic pace, even large weapons like the Eclipse Scythe (the large sickle Hayabusa is holding on the box cover). There is some slight slow down, I've beaten the game, and there were only two times I experienced this, and one of those moments involved taking on an overwhelming, almost endless stream of Ninjas, so it wasn't that big of a deal.
The legendary difficulty that Itagaki is known for putting in his games (<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Ninja-Gaiden/dp/B00008KTNW/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Ninja Gaiden</a>,<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Dead-or-Alive-4/dp/B000NQD6NY/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Dead or Alive 4</a> and <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Dead-Or-Alive-Xtreme-2/dp/B000HKKM2Y/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Dead Or Alive Xtreme 2</a>) is still present. Plus, with multiple levels of difficulty, and rewards for defeating each one, the game provides numerous opportunities for replay.
My only real complaint is with the story. It really only gets good near the end, but I spent most of my time just wanting to get to the next level and not caring about the lackluster story at all. This wasn't the case with the first installment. Story aside, this game is a blast and my copy of GTA IV has been collecting dust ever since Ninja Gaiden II came out. In my opinion, it's arguably the best action game currently on the Xbox 360.
At the time of the game's release it was announced that Itagaki was no longer a part of Tecmo and Team Ninja. So, this will be the last game Itegami is involved in with the amazing characters from the Dead or Alive world. However, if he's going to go out with this title, it's a fitting end to his amazing run with Tecmo.
Here's a tip, DO NOT use your "Lives of the Thousand Gods" when you find them or are rewarded with them. I saved all of mine for the final stage where you must face not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 bosses practically in a row. I wouldn't have survived without doing that. | video-games_xbox |
Good game, but not blown away. I love the Battlefield series, it has to be my favorite FPS. I've got about 5 hours of game play in on BF1. Having said that, I am somewhat disappointed in this game so far. Graphics are great, sound is great, character movement is pretty good, ground vehicle movement isn't that great, and multiplayer seems to work good. There is something missing, though, that makes this unlike the past several BF releases. It seems like I've really gotta lay into someone to get them to go down, good luck trying to ambush a small group of soldiers; and on top of that character movement seems to be a bit slower. While the maps look beautiful, they don't seem as dynamic as past BF games, not a lot of places to hide, not a lot of differentiation.
We'll see though, I'll give it some more play time and see what the first patch or two addresses and edit my review if I think its getting better.
Overall, it still is a good game and fun to enjoy just on the audio visuals alone; way better than BlackOps3, but that's not hard to beat.
EDIT:
11/1/16 I had played BF3 & BF4 on the XB360 and playing this on the XB1 is a step in the direction of BIG. I must say I actually prefer the smaller maps with less players. Why can't there be an option for the same map / game mode but with smaller boundaries, less players, and reduced checkpoints / flags? Should be pretty simple, right?
11/6/16 Multiplayer is consistently BUGGY. Can't throw grenades half the time, can't shoot my primary weapon, not able to run / get stuck in slow motion, and I can be aiming right at somebody standing still from close range and I can't hit them.
Menu system and end of game stats are unbearably slow to move through.
Leaving the game is a matter of timing. You've got about 10 seconds to leave the game after the previous game has finished or your forced to wait for the next game to load and then quit out of that.
Update 5/11/17
Ok, after having multiple updates come out addressing some of the major issues and bugs that the game shipped with I can say this is now a top notch game that exceeds my expectations. The only thing missing is "gun game" mode. | video-games_xbox |
The best of the Xbox Live Arcade. If Bejeweled and Fable got together and had a baby, that baby would be Puzzle Quest. Combining the quest and character customization of an RPG with the addictiveness of a puzzle game, Puzzle Quest is the must-have download from the Xbox Live Arcade.
Outside of combat, the game plays like an old SNES-era RPG. Players go from town to town, collecting rumors and optional quests, building a party, customizing their equipment and their abilities as they level up.
The true genius of the game lies in its combat mechanic. On its surface, it's like Bejeweled or Chuzzle: the player and their AI (or Xbox Live) opponent have to move adjacent pieces to form rows or columns of at least three identical pieces, with extra turns and/or wildcards awarded for matching four or five in a row. But where those games get repetitive after a while, Puzzle Quest ensures each encounter is different. There are seven types of pieces: Skulls (which damage your opponent), Coins (which give you gold to spend outside of combat), Stars (which give you experience for leveling up), and four colors of gems, each color filling one of your four mana bars. This mana is used to cast spells, with each character being able to learn dozens and equip seven (six from themselves and one from their "mount," a captured animal). In addition, each player can have up to four pieces of equipment, each of which has a various effect on the battle, and can be resistent to certain types of spells. Add this into the fact that each character has seven traits, all of which have an effect in combat, and you're certain never to have the same encounter twice.
There are a few other game mechanics that flesh out Puzzle Quest, like the ability to capture enemies to learn their spells, building a citadel, and a few other odds and ends.
As far as gamerscore goes, there's the standard 200 points spread out over 12 acheivements, all but one of which are available to get from the single-player campaign mode.
As for downloadable content, there's an expansion pack available that doubles the number of character classes and expands on the number of quests, enemies and areas. It adds another 4 achievements worth 50G.
I can't recommend this game highly enough: I would have gladly paid double what it cost me for all the enjoyment I've gotten at it. Prepare to be addicted. | video-games_xbox |
Best of the bunch. Ah, the "Guitar Hero" franchise. Wonderfully simple and accessible, yet endlessly complex and challenging. I've played several different iterations, including this one, and of them, I gotta say this one is the best.
When you start up the game, it takes you to the title screen and, interestingly, gives you the choice of either going to the start menu or jumping right into a song. One of my friends chose the song option and spent the next few minutes playing some Nirvana and Garbage, having a great time with the game before even getting to the menu. Not too many games you can say that about.
Once in the game itself, you have all the usual options. New to the game is the ability for all players to chose their own instruments. If you really want to have a band that's nothing but bass and drums, now you can! If your dream is to sing "Under Pressure" with three of your friends, now you can do that!
Additionally the Xbox version gives you the chance to incorporate your avatar. This is a welcome addition, but unless you have a band of nothing but avatars, it looks a little strange. Seeing your small, super-deformed character standing there grooving out next to some other semi-real look people creates a bit of an eye-strain.
The song list is about what you've come to expect and happily it allows you to play songs you've downloaded for previous versions of the game. You say you really like the version of "We Are the Champions" that you downloaded for GH4? Never fear! You can play it in GH5 as well!
There's also several challenges to unlock new gear, new venues and the like, as well as all the usual achievements and extras that you'd expect with the game.
Overall this game does what all sequels should: it takes the best from the previous versions and adds new things. What more can you ask for?
Now excuse me while I kiss the sky... or floor. I'm not well coordinated. :( | video-games_xbox |
Amazing Graphics but still a piece meal assemblage of disparate apps. Graphics are amazing. Good. let's get that out of the way.
It's seven months since release and it's still a piece meal assemblage of disparate apps.
It wants to own my media - but it can't rip CDs. I can't play music in the background unless it's one of my snapped apps. It still doesn't have DLNA. It's media control is still pretty basic for TV & DVRs and lacks many DVR control features. The TV lacks numbers. It requires me to name all channels.
The Kinect is better and worse. Better resolution and detection - but audio detection and translation remains very very poor.
The new Xbox One media remote is also very poor (they really want you using Kinect). it's cute but again if you've used the very nice XBOX 360 remote you'll find it quite lacking. it's also not wireless (unfortunately also like the 360 media remote)
Unfortunately Microsoft, as usual, has a very narrow and myopic usage profile. if you like to do the things the exact way they planned then you will be very happy. Otherwise you'll find it very jarring and annoying to navigate.
Don't get me wrong - I like XBOX. That is the XBOX 360. The XBOX ONE still isn't as capable nor as seamless as the XBOX 360.
So if my son hadn't saved up to buy one then I'd have continued voting with my wallet and we'd be exclusively on XBOX 360.
So we have one. But it won't be getting much money or time from us until it has all the missing features (many mentioned above) and isn't so jarring to use.
Sorry Microsoft but I wish I hadn't bought this. If you don't like this review then please just write your own review.
I would have paid for an XBOX 360 MK 2. I.E. Major hardware upgrade but pretty much everything else the same. I need to see if the PS4 is what I really need; can't be worse than this.
I liked the near singularity of the "gaming box". As for PCs, when I got the 360 one still had to chase hardware on PCs, and I didn't want to do that. Esp for two kids and I each with their own PCs. So a "if it's a game for this box it will work" was a major draw. The other that most of my friends were on 360. So the social hook.
PCs have come a long way power wise, and chasing hardware isn't much of an issue, at least to play most games reasonably well. Other paradigms like STEAM are really disrupting the "game console" mode. That said, performance of Steam game ports varies widely, and I have had to juice up my two sons machines a bit. Mostly memory but an opportunistic hand-me-down for the other. Not like the old days but all the non-native code is still very inefficient. Works good enough most of the time.
I think the Steam type paradigm will ultimately win. Especially as with PCs and other devices - Roku, Google TV, Apple TV, Amazon Prime/TV, Cable/SAT DVR, that (1) too many people want to be my exclusive, and (2) they all want $70-$100 or more per year if not month.
Anybody not worried about the lock-ins with the above should remember (do you?) Yahoo Music. Once a premier service it overnight turned off all the servers.
The PC type paradigm is the only things for the most part that can give us the autonomy. Roku to some extent isn't a lock in, but it also doesn't manage ownership of content, and that's a big part of this. But a Roku type device (so "standard with standard apps and deterministic performance) with some storage and maybe DRM could give us the deterministic behaviour of a box with the autonomy of a PC. (and naturally, PC versions of all the apps).
My son love the graphics, and is admittedly a console geek, but even he doesn't think we should make the ONE the centerpiece of the living. So yet another expensive toy to add to the selectable mix. | video-games_xbox |
Severely Underrated and Heavily Criticized. Let me start off by saying, I LOVE this game. It's fun, team-based, tactical, and a shooter that you haven't played before.
This is a tactical, team-based FPS. You die, you don't respawn. You can go into either Casual or Ranked matches. From there, you play either Hostage, Secure Area, or Bomb. It's a 5v5. In hostage, the attackers need to find the hostage, grab him/her, extract. In secure area, the attackers need to secure a room. In bomb, the attackers need to defuse one of the two bombs. The attackers need to do this while the defenders set up shop and defend. You can breach walls, ceilings, and floors. There's a lot destruction, but not an overwhelming amount. It's balanced. You can't just blow up every single floor and wall. It depends on how reinforced they are.
Each team has operators to choose from and each play an important role.
The game currently has around 10 maps. With each map having around 3 different locations, you get a lot of variety. You might think "I don't have a lot of friends to play with, so this game won't be for me." WRONG. I usually play by myself a lot, or with one friend, and I still have a blast. Also, A LOT of people talk in game chat, so it's guaranteed you're bound to meet people online.
Let's talk about the criticism and hate I'm seeing on the game.
1. This isn't Call of Duty. This is a slow-paced tactical shooter. If you're going into this game expecting to run around killing everyone on the team, drop-shotting, and doing your other little CoD tricks, you WILL have a bad time. Your ass will be dropped before you know it.
2. The servers. I'll admit, the servers aren't the greatest, and launch was rough, but after the recent patch, the servers have been amazing and nearly flawless. You find matches fast. Once in a while it'll take a minute, but besides that, I find matches in 5-10 seconds.
3. No campaign. Ok, look... I was disappointed with this as well, but after playing this game, I got over it. If you want to be upset for no campaign, I believe you have the right to be. Personally, I don't mind it since I'm having a blast with the game. Don't forget you have Terrorist Hunt if you like challenging yourself against AI.
4. The beta sucked. Trust me, the final game is a million times more polished and better than the beta. I didn't like the beta, but the final game is top notch.
Look, if you're looking for a fun shooter not like Call of Duty, look no further. You won't regret this game. Things will be a bit confusing at first, but take your time, practice, understand what each thing does in the game, and you will have a blast.
DON'T FORGET ALL FUTURE MAPS AND CLASSES ARE FREE! | video-games_xbox |
PC version review (same game. Amazon US doesn't list the PC version of this game. But it's pretty much exactly the same anyway.
First off, I hated how hard it was to stay alive in the first level. I went searching for codes on the Internet and surprisingly there is no codes, F.A.Q's, walk throughs, help guides ...nothing! (Ignore a code that says if you pause the game and type "best kept secret" it makes you immortal. It does not work at all)
I managed to find a site that had a download to run during the game that gives you max energy, power and ammo (invisibility). Found at [...] download that trainer thing. I give it 5 stars for working flawlessly.
Now that I couldn't be killed (except when I got squished in a thing) I was free to test out Robocop. I thought the game was pretty good. I played a level each day cause I'd have enough by the end of each level. I loved getting to level 3 and confronting ED-209. the graphics are decent 3D stuff. The quotes are amusing for a while, especially when you kill a good guy and Robo says, "sowwwwwwreeeee"
However, a few of the levels I really grew tired of. Playing out like a Duke Nukem/Doom kinda game, it kinda got annoying on a level down in a mine where you have to destroy all the boxes before a certain door will open. A map would really help navigation out instead of wondering around till you wing it. The levels are too big to become instantly memorable so that you know where everything is in future. Sometimes they're just confusing as hell or annoying.
CONTROLS
The controls aren't that bad. You use your mouse to aim and shoot. The right button can be changed; I used it to open doors. You use your arrow keys to move. And various other keys do different things; Like a zoom feature. Or press 1 on the num pad to make Robo twirl the gun around. "Can you do that, dad?"
GRAPHICS
Compared to similar sort of games like Duke Nukem, GoldenEye, Wolfenstien ect... this ones nice on the graphics in its own way, the 3D graphics look awesome on some stages, others there quite boring. Tho, some stages have had more time and effort put into them. In some stages sometimes you can shoot various things like lights, signs, cars and things, but on other stages there just a graphic. Ed-209 looks great, but there are some things added for the hell of it I think. I didn't understand what a giant rat in a sewer was about. It's like someone developed a rat on their computer and decided to put it in a game just to see what it would look like.
The videos look dodgy. I'm ok with it that they're just to tell the story. But they looked like they where made and then there was no room left to add them to the game after it was completed so they got compressed to hell to fit on the disc.
SOUND
A lot of people complained about the sound of this game. I didn't complain about much of it. I didn't take much notice of the music, the quotes where amusing for a while. But in the end I was just playing without the sound on. It doesn't help with anything you need to do.
LEVEL 9
Overall the game was OK until the last level. For starters, it took me a few minutes to work out what the hell I was supposed to be doing. It seems Robo freezes in spot while you wait for the bad robot to climb into his diplodocus neck, robotic machine. You cant skip this bit which sux for this reason; Once you've killed the robot by standing in the middle and shooting at the red things on the neck when it's shooting its lasers at you; the robot dies, it plays a video and then you have disarm the bomb going off in one minute. You walk to 8 different machine's and choose which code you think de-activates it. If you get 3 wrong, the whole lot restarts and you have to do them again. I thought I might find the correct codes out first, write them down and then restart the level and get them right. But nope! After waiting boringly for the robot to start up, I finally got back to the bit to disarm them, and what do you know, codes aren't the same! That really sux when you can't finish the game without LUCK on your side. There is no skill I could find to it other then a good memory, you just have to be lucky to get through it. Other wise the clock runs down and Robo says, "OH, S###" and the whole city blows up. Yet some cop is still alive to say "I wouldn't want you on my team, go back to the police academy" then you have to wait too long for that robot to start up again when you start the level again and for me, I have no patience, i want to get into these things instantly, not be made to wait.
OVERALL:
The game was fun to begin with. I thought it was cool. That was until I clocked it. And realised it has no replay value. Once you beat the game there is nothing to do. Why it lets you save it after you've beaten it is beyond me, cause all it does is lets you see the crappy 2-second ending of a TV report and then goes back to the main menu when you load your saved game. What's the point of that? You can go back and re-do missions you didn't get all the stuff for, and maybe when you do that and get them all 100% complete it unlocks something? But quite frankly I don't care if it does or doesn't, I'm done playing it. Once I beat it, I had no desire to play it again. It was cool while it lasted, but nothing to redeem it like other shoot em ups have had. Plus, something other then walking around shooting would've helped the game a bit. Like driving, boating, flying, something other then 9 levels of the same thing.
Something that I heard about this game was that they had ignored the movies part 2 and 3 and said this was like they hadn't existed. This was the follow up to the original movie. Honestly, I couldn't tell AT ALL. I didn't see anything that looked familiar at all apart from ED-209 and Anne Lewis of OCP. (so ignoring the fact she got killed in the sequel is reason enough to say that stuff is it?)
PROS
- Decent graphics
- fun quotes
- huge levels
- good controls
CONS
- sux without the cheats to stay alive
- levels can be too big to be bothered navigating
- no replay value
- no ending after completion
- no multi player mode
- not enough levels
- needed something other then just walking and shooting all the time
- Needs more guns
- No spike (that thing in Robo's hand) | video-games_xbox |
Great game, find a friend though. Story
Well, that is hard to say, there are several characters to pick from, and each has their own reason for doing what they are doing. Most characters will, however, end up fighting a single final enemy, Encablossa. Encablossa is something of a dark lord, who controls the realm of darkness (and Nibel being the lord of light) and is trying to end the Age of Light and bring forth the Age of Darkness.
Graphics
The graphics feel a bit dated today, but that is simply because the game was released 2007-2008, but is not horrible. There is also the problem that there are so many areas in the game, that they start to have that, 'Wasn't I here before?' look to them (this is more true when you get to the library), but other than that they are, again for the time they were released, good.
Controls
The controls are very simplistic in Kingdom Under Fire, there is no elaborate combos. It's a hack and slash, if you can button mash, you're good to go. Items can be hot keyed to one of the buttons or shoulders.
Music/Voice/Sound
Another meh area, there is very little in the area of music, generally only playing when in combat, otherwise it's very low and quite. Voicing, in my opinion is done well, characters aren't cheesy and don't sound like C grade actors.
Other
Once the game is beat, you unlock harder difficulties, the last being Extreme, in which the beginning area has level 80 enemies. This is a great way to level up friends, invite them, have them run in and hit the enemies and run out, then you kill them.
The game offers online play, which is what makes the game great, when I played it, it was still surprisingly alive. You can join any game as long as you have access to the difficulty. You'll pair up with others to destroy enemies and it makes the game stupid easy.
Achievements
The achievements are pretty much for doing the story, you will have to do somethings in certain order to unlock secret events in order to 'finish' the characters story. | video-games_xbox |
Loved the Game / Hated Store idea . I've been wanting to have this game for very long time, I had a feeling it's gonna be Great after trying the division, I knew I wouldn't be disappointed, I've played both closed and Open beta, Great. But there was some glitches like the helicopter glitch, anyways it was still under constructions.
I think if you like Farcry 3/4 you might like this one aswell, Because I find it similar to it, but bit boarded because in Ghost recon wildlands, you can do Character customization for both Male/Female But I personally find it very limited. Specially when creating a player look for example, in each gender, you get around 11 faces to choose from. As for clothes choices its not much either but thanks to the ton of Materials to choose from you can hardly find someone wearing something like you.
Overall, every Game has its Pros and cons:
Pros:
Great graphics and lightning / Cars light could be dim at night though.
Big map, fun to explore especially if you're hanging out with friends / yet as soon as your familiar and far in the game with it you might feel some emptiness.
Nice weapon customization, lots of free weapons paints matches your taste.
Lots of clothing Materials to choose from.
Playing Solo is quite fun, Thanks to the AI mod and rebels support.
There is some very helpful 90 hints you can check out in both loading screen and pause menu
Cons:
- I didn't like the Store idea, because you're required to buy things with real money.
- Playing coop is almost impossible sometimes due to error "Tarija 00013/14"
-Cars in Bolivia are very limited.
-No first person view or honk in cars.
-Face/Hair/Tattoo options are limited.
-You can't choose voice for character.
-You can only Mute a Coop player mic / no option let you control the volume, some people speak so loud which I find annoying, I could hear them breathing in my ear.
In the next updates I hope they allow us to control volume of coop mics. I also hope they add more FREE casual style clothes I know it's supposed to be military type thing but it's always good to have more options and styles. And also FREE Cars, FREE hairstyles, FREE Tattoos. Because we already paid for the game. it's not fair to add some Goodies in something you called "Store" and ask us to pay more. | video-games_xbox |
Thank GOD - Take That GTA IV. GTA IV sucked. If you don't agree that is sucked, I want you to wear aluminum foil on a daily basis so if I see you walking down the street, I can go, "Okay, avoid that guy - he's an idiot."
Saints Row 2 is what a Sandbox "Guns & Glory" RPG should be. This is how GTA began so many years ago (anyone else play the original top-down version were you got mad points for running over a bunch of chanting tribes-men all at once?) I wasn't but an hour into Saints Row 2 before I was riding along in a Sewage truck, spraying fecal matter onto homes, people and cars because some realtor wanted to get revenge on a competitor. You can't learn that kinda stuff! That's pure genious. Ever spray crap on a cop before? I hadn't!
I won't go into too much detail for now - I just started the game. The character customization was nice but kinda difficult - I spent over an hour on it and my guy still looks like a tard. But in the end I'm pretty content with him - he looks like a good s**t-kicker which is what he should be.
Graphics are okay - nothing awe-inspiring. I'll admit GTA IV looked better. But there's none of these heart-felt phone calls from your whiney cousin going "We don't hang out anymore!!" or stupid girlfriends that you have to dress up for... In fact, it appears that you don't even have to wear the Saints Purple to earn street credit - you just buy nicer clothes. You can buy multiple versions of the same shirt and just keep racking up respect, as long as you have cash to back up the binge.
Car customization is AWESOME - they really beefed up that aspect of the game. After completing just the first few missions, I came across a "Superiore" - looks like a Lamborghini Countach. I took it to a custom shop and went nuts on it - multi-layered black tints with a "Saints Purple" stripe, purple interior... There's over 30 different wheels! You can also upgrade the performance of the car - most of it appears to be body strengthening - I'm guessing so you can take more thumps and bullets.
The appearance of my character, wearing clean, "stonewashed" jeans and his black-and-purple Saints football Jersey, standing alongside his black-and-purple "Countach," arms crossed - lookin' all thuggish - was the neatest thing ever.
And by the way, whoever does the voice of Johnny Gat is one of the best, most talented voice actors in the history of video games. That guy is HILARIOUS. He delivers lines with perfect precision, dripping with sarcasm and laced with dark humor. I am absolutely relieved to see that he has returned to the series. My applause to you, sir.
I still have a lot more gaming to do, but with so many let-downs in the prior year - GTA IV, Mercenaries 2, etc - it's GREAT to see one title that took a good idea and actually made it BETTER.
Let's go SAINTS! | video-games_xbox |
Best RPG ever, with just a few kinks. I bought this game a while ago, and after playing it, I let it sit on the shelf for a month or so, because despite the fact the graphics were beautiful, the whole world seemed confusing and difficult to get arround in. Recently, I've been playing this game a whole lot, because it took me a while to adjust to it. It's a great game, and after the first two or three quests, you really start to get into it.
I think one of the reasons that Morrowind is such a great RPG is also why I didn't like it so much at first. It's so versatile, so much like the real world, and like the real world, it's easy to be confused by. However, once I got to know the world pretty well, and I had completed some nifty quests, I was absolutely hooked.
Here are some of the advantages of this fine game:
1- The graphics. The graphics are absolutely beautiful. The environments, cities, and weather effects look extrordinarily realistic. The water looks incredibly real.
2- Quests. Quests in this game are a lot of fun, because they aren't bound by a strict set of rules. For example, if somebody tells you to go collect guild dues from another person, you can collect the dues, then run away to another town and keep them for yourself! Or you can be a good person, and give the money back. Freedom of choice makes this game awesome.
3- Versatility- This game lets you do almost everything you can do in real life. You can lie, cheat, steal, make friends, make enemies, pickpocket people, persuade people to like you by a various means of ways, be virtuous, or be an evil wretch, you can do virtually anything.
Now here's some of the cons of the game:
1)- Combat- In most RPG's, it's loads of fun to kill monsters out in the wilderness. But Morrowind's whole fighting system is just, awkward. To attack, you have to hold down the trigger, then release it, as opposed to simply pressing a button. You also miss your target a lot, and the animations are relatively lame. The spell effects are also not aesthetically astounding, as in some games. If you're all about the weapons, buy a game like Fable instead.
2)- Physics- While the character animation is pretty and realistic, the real-world physics engine is sort of weird. For example, when you stand still, you just stand there rigid and erect. When you jump off a high ledge, you fall and land still in that rigid possition, which not only looks cheesy, but also totally contradicts what would happen in real life. If anyone tried to jump like that, they would probably invert their kneecaps.
3)- AI- Let's just say that the AI in this game is not the brightest crayon in the box. Characters walking, or running, tend to get stuck in one place over and over again, which can make escort quests a real pain in the @$$. However, personality and being influence is done very well, for which I must give Bethesda credit for.
Overall, this game is totally worth buying. I would also reccomend Fable, as it picks up in many areas where Morrowind missed. | video-games_xbox |
Unreal graphics. I'm actually a first time Forza Motorsport player, but what a time I chose to enter the realm of Forza.... Simply put, WOW! The graphics are absolutely unmatched as far as racing games are concerned, and if you've ever played Midnight Club, this game's graphics are the turkey that you've been missing for that thanksgiving feast. You will be blown away by the realism, and every time I turn it on, I literally let it sit in the menus for a while and just pan around my Bugatti Veyron just to soak in the beauty and the "I really wish I owned you.." feeling. I may sound like I'm ranting, but be that as it may, I guarantee that you'll love this games immersive feel. Also, this game has a wide range of cars to choose from, from awful cars that you wouldn't even dare own in the real world, to drool inducing cars that you can only dream of, including the Lamborghini Reventon, Bugatti Veyron, Pagani Zonda and much more. Trust me when I say that this game will keep you busy for a while, and at least for me, I have loved every second on and off the track. By that I mean that I love upgrading my cars as much (if not more so) as I love racing them. With every turbo, every engine swap, and every weight tweak you will become more and more involved with your rides and treat them accordingly. I find myself actually trying not to hit walls because I don't want to see my cars scratched or dented, which is unlike how I used to play the Midnight Club series. Also, another feature that I'm sure is a must have for auto-maniacs, you can do a variety of advanced tune-ups to your car, including gear shift ratios, brake pressure, shock pressure.. and a bunch of other stuff that goes over my head. Whether you get into that part or not, the game is still addicting, and I have been in love with it since opening the package.
Now, with all that being said, let me get to a few cons. These aren't enough that I wouldn't recommend the game to anyone, but I just want you to be aware. Like I mentioned, this is the first Forza game that I've been privileged enough to play, and while the graphics are astounding, there are points in the game (especially very early in the game) that you will feel like you're crawling around the track. I found myself craving more speed simulation then I was actually given, and that can be disappointing to feel like you're going 20 mph even though your speedometer reads out at 100+, I don't know if I'm the only one who feels like this, but it was a very disappointing feature to me. Possibly a lot of this came from playing a lot of Midnight Club: Dub Edition, and LA, in which you are gripping the steering wheel from minute one and flying through the cities, even on the lower end cars, not to mention the use of NOS in Midnight Club. Either way, I feel that on the lower end cars in this game, you will feel a lack of speed, but again, that is not enough to steer you away, or at least it shouldn't be. Also, I really like the huge customization options that Midnight Club offers, including body kits and internal touch-ups, like what type of seats you have (sounds stupid, but I find that appealing), and Forza falls short in this category. I can't gripe too much though, Forza is geared toward a much more realistic feel, and they've nailed that head on.
All in all, this game gets a 5 star rating, a must have for racing addicts!
**EDIT**
After playing many many hours in the game, tweaking everything possible, and just about losing every minute of sleep over this game... I've found that the "realism" that I was talking about earlier in this review can be found if you switch the view that you're in. I find that my favorite view is "driver perspective:over the hood", so my view is as if there were a camere from the driver's side of the car, mounted on the hood of the car. That REALLY adds to the feel of the turns and the speed simulation in this game, and without that, you might feel that this game is lacking (as I once did). But please, make sure to switch through your views, find one that you like, and tear it up out there! This game is absolutely fantastic! | video-games_xbox |
It's been done but I'll take Warriors Orochi 3 for a spin again and again. First, stop reading if you don't like Dynasty Warriors 1-7 or any of its' offshoots. This is not an original experience. It is exactly what you think it is but with a few nuances thrown in like the first level when you avoid a fire ball spewing dragon. But this is a bit of window dressing because you will soon find yourself in the same modes battling a huge army, gradually unlocking the impressive 100 plus generals from Chinese and Japanese history and lore. As you unlock them in Story Mode you can then open them up in other Musou modes... Sound familiar?? It is.
But if you were to buy one of these games as a staple I would suggest that this is the one. It has a good feel to it and doesn't lock up too bad with 100s of enemies clustering around you. Although it's clear that it's pushing it's bounderies as you sometimes find enemies appearing immediately around you as the action grows and the game pushes to fit all the action in. I liked the varied characters and it was a good enough grind to get to each new stage and each new character unlock... (sometimes up to 5 characters unlocked after a level). You can build them individually or as a group by spreading out distribution points (which are a bonus to the grinding experience you get).
As mentioned before the game is entirely voiced in Japanese/Chinese. But this actually worked for me because the translations can be laughable and horribly out of place when you are getting your swerve on taking out pocket after pocket of troops. A fun game but not a fresh idea. I think the top line price is a bit off as it is nothing different for me but with the sheer number of options and characters it won't leave you second guessing as long as you know what you are getting into and like that game type.
In short, It's not genre busting or original though it does attempt a few moderate improvements over the last one. It is a larger game than the previous and is a good co op experience if you and a friend want to have some mindless fun. It does achieve the fun it sets out for and you can't hate the game for being more of what it is. If you like level grinding for new weapons and characters this is a good place to get your Musou on. | video-games_xbox |
This is the NEWEST version. Many have complained that this version isn't the newest due to manufacture dates on the machine. Well, my machine was manufactured in 02/17/09. States it right on the machine with the original lables, no cover ups or overstamps. Even so, the older machines will have been updated with the newest software and whatever parts that originally failed will have been replaced with updated equipment. My machine still sports the 16.5 Amp rating, however it's dual cooling fans are much quieter than other xbox machines I've seen. Plus, with the HDMI cable, the picture resolution is 1080p, not 1080i. Plus you also get the option of component video, S-video, composite video, and separate analog stereo or fiberoptic digital surround connections. You get 1 month free subsrciption to Xbox Live Gold membership, plus a free trial membership to netflix. This machine will play DVDs right out of the box if you don't already have a DVD player. Not sure if it supports HD-DVD, but that's not important since they don't make those anymore. They went the way of BETA! Based on my experience, this machine is exactly what it says it will be, and along with the bundled games, it comes fully loaded with all the arcade games as well. And, sorry Sony fans, but now that the xbox 360 supports 1080p, and bosts the largest library of the best videogames, the PS3 doesn't even compare in value when you look at the gaming quality. Though Sony has great specs, the xbox 360 just has a higher clock speed. And no matter how much ram, how many cells, or whatever you have... none of that matters if you don't have the clock speed to run it all. The xbox 360 (at least this Elite edition) does come with 3 3.2Ghz dual core processors, as stated on the Xbox website, in which each processor can process two threads at once, doing twice the work as standard. So, in essence it runs at 9.6Ghz, or possibly just under 20Ghz when considering the dual thread capabilites. The other gaming machines just don't come close. So now with the new editions to the Elite model, this is the one to own for the biggest game-o-phyle!
Update:
Just thought I'd throw in this bit of info. I've been playing my xbox 360 for over a month for several hours a day. The console hasn't had one hickup yet. I'm not using any cooling fans other than the ones the unit came with. Also, I have recently taken to installing my games on the harddrive. This has significantly reduced heat output from my Xbox and noise since the DVD drive isn't running the whole time. So to all the people who are complaining about this new version, you all need to get a better understanding of electronics, heat output, and where to place things. Don't put this unit in confined spaces, and make sure it's well ventilated with outside air, just like a high power stereo or surround system. | video-games_xbox |
Something new, fresh, different and simply amazing. Typically I think Atlus games look cool but are never very much fun. Well, they hit the nail on the head and slammed the ball out of the park when they made Catherine. I play a lot of games throughout the year and typically don't walk away with much of an impact having been placed upon me- Catherine made sure to change that. I didn't expect the game to hit US shores when I first saw the trailer. It seemed a bit too raunchy and overall like something that American companies wouldn't produce because it wasn't another crappy sequel to a cover based shooter covered in brown and grey graphics. Thank goodness it did.
I can honestly say that out of what I played so far (and since all the carbon copy sequels coming out this fall do not interest me) I call Catherine my Game Of The Year [GOTY!]. I can back that up with almost every aspect. There wasn't a thing about this game I did not enjoy. Firstly, let me review the product.
I got the "Love is Over" edition from Amazon and don't regret it a single bit. The shirt fit nicely (which is SO uncommon since companies assume gamers are obese and ship them with XL-XXL shirts if one is included) but the boxers were much too small for me. I found it odd the boxers didn't fit since they were a large and I wear a medium... not true to size at all. As for the pillow case, I am an awkward individual and currently have it enveloping one of my pillows (but am upset the reverse side didn't have Katherine on it). The sound disc is exactly that. It's not a soundtrack with all the songs on it- but it has the music from the levels which are remixes of classical music which sound astonishing. The art book is... well, an art book. It has a bunch of pictures of Catherine in it and barely anything else. Not worth mentioning, but I didn't buy the LE for the book. Overall, for an extra 20 dollars, I'd recommend getting it for the shirt alone.
Onto the game. It's fun. Seriously, I haven't experienced this much enjoyment from a puzzle game in quite some time. The mechanics of the climbing aspect are simplistic but they have a mastered appeal that can become intricate. Multiple difficulties add replay value and challenge for more advanced players, and with Babel mode along with Rapunzel the fun never stops! Between levels you're granted the ability to socialize and change the flow of the game even more. There's plenty to see and do in Catherine that you'll likely play it twice (I know I am) and since there's about 8 endings you can't go wrong in replaying it a different way.
Rather than overdo this and talk on and on, I'll leave it at this- the game sports an amazingly fun story that makes me doubt the loyalty of certain writers over at Atlus. The overall message of it promotes something genuinely good and somewhat moral (which is highly uncommon these days) and is pleasant to experience. The game feels so real at times in the aspect of socializing that you want to take a seat next to Vincent and enjoy a beer with him. You gain a sort of relationship with him because he's relatable; this creates a much more immersive experience in which you care about him and the struggle he goes through. This makes the game that much more compelling. The actual gameplay itself is fun in all its forms, from the dating sim aspect up to the climbing puzzles. The music is fun, dramatic and cool with all the contortions of famous classical pieces and some more modern setting music that really create an atmosphere for whatever scenario is being played through. The design, whether it's characters, concept, scenery or pretty much anything else is what we expect from Atlus- amazing. And the graphics actually look decent with cel-shading. Typically I hate cel-shaded graphics, but since this game adapts a dark anime style, it looks decent and seems rather fitting. There's plenty of fun to be had in the game and I really hope there is downloadable content for it later along with a sequel of some sort because this game is getting put in my list of favorites. Check it out if you enjoy using your brain. | video-games_xbox |
Mic is STILL TERRIBLE - Even after firmware update "fix. The sound on these headphones is excellent and the battery life is very good. That said, the microphone(s) that are embedded within the ear cups are terrible. I used these headphones for about 20 days for several hours of gaming each day and was greeted by just about every other player telling me I was too low, that I was very "tinny" sounding, or that it sounded like I had a bucket over my head. It amazes me that Turtle Beach could put so much into the design of these and absolutely nail the sound in the headset, but complete whiff on the microphone end of the design. I get it - no boom mic is an awesome goal, but if the idea can't be implemented well you go back to drawing board and fix the product. Turtle Beach's support website has the audacity to claim that they are unaware of any sound quality issues with the mic and that no problems were found during their testing of the product - how can that even be possible?! Regardless, I ordered a set of the Stealth 500 headphones to try them out and they're much better. Quality is not as high as on the 800x, there's no bluetooth, no voice prompts announcing the modes/profiles, and the nice controls on the sides of the ear cups of the 800x are replaced with much simpler analog dials to control volume and a few buttons. However, the Stealth 500s get the basics right - the audio is still 7.1 and while not quite as good as the 800x they're good for the price. The 500s still support the custom profiles and modes that you get with the 800x, and in stark contrast to the 800x, the (boom) microphone works flawlessly. Just as a test, I swapped between both sets a couple times with the group that I regularly game with and 100% of the feedback from other players was that the Stealth 500 headset was hands-down better. So...in conclusion, if you're using these for single-player gaming they're probably one of the best headsets around, but if you ever intend to get into a group with others online to communicate while playing, you should step DOWN to the Stealth 500 headset or go with some other non-Turtle Beach product. Sorry TB - but you just whiffed on this one, especially when this is supposed to be your cadillac product. | video-games_xbox |
The next best thing. A must have for any gamer. 10/30/02 - I've been a beta tester for about a week now. The experience thus far has been fantastic. If you have a broadband connection and an Xbox, this is a must have subscription. I'm very impressed with the voice sound quality of the other players as it's almost as clear as a telephone. The disguised voices are a little annoying, but to each his own. I've not experienced any lag associated with the MS servers, but occasionally a contestant will fall off due to their own connection issues. After all, with or without broadband the internet can still be a bit fussy.
The only issue I've had is that since I don't have a router other family memebers can't surf the net or check email with the PC while I'm playing XBL. There is a list of certified routers on the xbox web site. You will need to purchase a router if this is an issue you can't live with. Another solution is to have your ISP provide you with 2 IP addresses and use a cheap hub, but Roadrunner charges $10 extra per month for an extra IP address so for my dollar the router is the best solution.
Here's how it works. When you purchase the starter kit you are subscibing for a year. However, when you activate your account you will still need a credit card because MS wants to automatically renew your subscription after one year. Also, MS needs a credit card on file in case you want to purchase any of the proposed "premium content". If you're concerned about your kids purchasing content without your consent you can block that feature, but you still have to submit a valid credit card.
MS is monitoring behavior on the site and there are strict rules of conduct. Users have the ability to post feedback about each other and MS has promised to ban or restrict users who break the rules. There is no guarantee that your kids won't hear a few "f-bombs" and other colorful language from frustrated losers, but if they are reported enough they will be asked to tone it down. You also have the option to mute any player you find particularly obnoxious.
Look me up when you get on! My Xbox Live usertag is Ekim Namtort. | video-games_xbox |
Tons of fun with friends... when it works... when it isn't freezing... when I'm not fighting the interface. EDIT 2 12/12/2013: A number of people have commented below and I feel the need to add their sentiments to the body of this review.
We're on update #3 for the 360 and other various platforms. I have a friends group comprised of 360, XB1, PS4, and PC players that all experience issues with this game.
The crashing continues, with little rhyme or reason. Our group used to experience the 360 hard-lock issue on Hainan Resort without fail, and that privilege is now bestowed on us by Dawnbreaker.
Our solution: Quit the game before the next map in the rotation loads. This is hardly what I'd call an ideal solution, and it's hardly limited to Dawnbreaker. Dawnbreaker just happens to be the map that will do it 9/10 times. The main issue this brings about is that then you have to regroup your party on another server, wait 1-5 rounds for the server to magically autobalance you with your party, or manually switch teams.
Putting it bluntly: This process sucks.
After looking through the live issue tracker on Battlelog, [..] I'm confident in saying that this game was released in this state on purpose, and that they knew it was going to be a S***storm of issues. We are somewhere past Alpha, but not anywhere near out of the Beta phase. We are actively Beta testing this product. I've currently paid $110 for the privilege of being inconvenienced by this game.
Thoughts:
Look through the Battlelog post linked above. If you read between the lines you can see that the Netcode is hopelessly screwed, and the apparent stress of launching across 5 platforms was more than the company was capable of. They are in full blown damage control at this point. During Double XP week, my console locked up so much that I probably missed out on half of the XP was supposed to be earning double on, and as a result, stopped caring and stopped turning it on.
This is literally the most broken Triple A title that I've ever played. For EA and DICE to be anything but utterly transparent about this situation is going to result in ill will that will turn people off from playing the next iteration. I sold my copy of Battlefield 3 when it was still worth 40 bucks as a trade in, I like this game, even in it's broken state, more than I ever did that game, but I won't make the mistake of buying the next title or it's Premium counterpart as a first run product.
Never again.
___________________________________
Edit: (THIS DIDN'T FIX SQUAT)There is a patch coming out soon for Consoles that may address the freezing issues. The fun factor of this game when playing with friends rates this a 5/5 in my book, but the technical issues are such a turn-off that I literally turn off my Xbox the first time it locks up and don't bother going back.
If they can fix that, it take this game from merely "Good" to GREAT!
Original Review:
***The Good stuff***
The sound engine is INCREDIBLE!
When this game works, and you aren't fighting against the design to actually get in a match a play it with friends, it's a blast. They've stepped back some of the design changes that were brought about in Battlefield 3, and changed the all-around feel of it, to more Bad Company 2, than Battlefield 3. Battlefield 3 was an obvious attempt to capitalize on smaller battles and get in on the Call of Duty money train.
There are still flashlights that can blind in dark corridors, red-dot lasers that act as a "SHOOT HERE" target beacon, and some weirdness on the sniping front that could use some tweaking.
When the game is working the way it should, it's a 5/5.
Thanks for making 5-man fire teams a thing, and thanks for bringing back Commander
***The meat of the Crap Sandwich***
There are lots and lots of problems. Capital 'L' LOTS. These issues are anecdotal (NOT ANYMORE - see above), and vary be user experience but there is an EA support page that has vetted issues across multiple scenarios,and every one of my friends are having issues in some fashion across PS4, XB1, PC and 360.
Playing last night (11/15/13) we were all booted from various servers at various points of time (loading in, playing, checking the score, changing maps)
This game is obviously half-cooked on current gen consoles, and according to the support thread PC players are not exempt. There have been server patches but no client patch on 360/PS3 yet. (THERE WAS, IT SHUFFLED ISSUES AND RESOLVED NADA)
***The dirty truth***
-Random Freezing: During map cycles, during "Levelution" events, during server join, during round changes, during, "just standing there". This is absolutely freaking unacceptable in a retail release. This is some entry level QA stuff right here. They knew about this and let it release anyway. Shame on them.
-No party feature: I have to get a little teenager-y here but, Seriously! WHAT THE HELL? Dice has always missed the mark on this in their BF games on console, but this is just too much. In 2013, when every top tier release since 2006 has had a party system that isn't bass-ackwards, I simply can't understand the thinking behind this.
They also pulled Platoons from Battlelog, with the statement that they'll be back in 2014. DOUBLE WHAT THE HELL
-Graphical step back: If you need proof to see that the 360/PS3 are at the end of their run for pushing the graphical envelope in newer games, look no further. Halo 4, this ain't. When you've played every map a handful of times, you'll stop noticing or caring. There's stuff to blow up.
-No pre-game customization: I hate Battlelog, you shouldn't be forcing me to use my computer or tablet to organize stuff when I'm playing the damn game. During battle is not the time to force people to mess with their loadouts. This is, frankly, just stupid.
-Loadout Screen: The loadout screen is garbage. Pure garbage. I'm not unintelligent, I can navigate it, I can make it work. Somebody is in love with their UI design, and somebody has forgotten that you design this stuff for the players benefit, not your ego.
-LET ME EDIT MY CLASSES BETWEEN ROUNDS. Christ almighty how is this a hard concept?
-The UI: The UI sucks. It's a mess of menus and menus and more menus. Open up a menu? LOOK MORE MENUS! Say the work menu enough and you'll start to question your sanity.
-Battlelog: Seriously- EA, DICE? NOBODY LIKES BATTLELOG. If you like Battlelog, great. I hate you. For realsies, guise, I'm super-cereal, I won't play this game on the PC where it arguably is superior on all fronts because of how bad Battlelog is. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND BACKING A FAILED HORSE LIKE THIS. Quit floggin this dead animal.
- The Battlelog App sucks, reaaaaaaaaaaaaaally bad. I've queried all my friends, and so far between the Ipad 3, Nexus 7, 7.2, an overclocked HP Touchpad, and some random Samsung thingy, the Battlelog app is Crap. It's a cr(app)
Miscellaneous:
I am constantly baffled by the design decisions they've made starting with BF3.
We should just start calling it Bafflefield. | video-games_xbox |
Halo 2 killer and maybe Halo 3. I really love the Halo franchise, but after playing through GOW I think Halo 3 has a tall order to fill to try to come close to the experience GOW just gave me. From the insane graphics, booming military orchestrated music score/s and incredible game play. GOW is levels above the rest in quality and fun. Halo developers have a lot of work cut out for them to beat this obvious "Game of the Year" winner. Gears looks to me as the next Halo 2 (and maybe 3) killer.
What can I say that hasn't been said by everyone already. Instead of writing the same comments about how great the music, sound effects, game play etc... I want to talk about how great the Co-op mode is.
Of course this game IS the best action shooter game for the 360 and the single player campaign is a lot of fun, but it doesn't EVEN compare to a co-op experience with a live "online" player (friend or online stranger). Playing this game with someone IS like being in a action movie with a buddy. This game is like Syphon Filter DM meets Starship Troopers. There is even a level that resembles the movie "Pitch Black" where you HAVE to stay in lighted areas at night or you will be shredded by what looks like a huge swarms of flying, razor blade bats. Shoot those propane tanks to light those areas as you proceed, or you will be quickly turned into liquid goo giblets!
GOW has a great co-op online feature. You can host a game and start playing right away in the single player campaign by yourself and a person can join while you are playing. No longer do you have to sit bored at a menu screen waiting for a player to join. Take notes Marvel Alliance!
As you play, you can give support to you buddy with cross flanking fire or yell for help to get "revived" if you are downed by the horde and vice versa. There is no reviving yourself in single player so this changes the game play a bit when playing co-op. Hearing your buddy on your headset cry for help to be revived while you are trying to fight your way to him can be a nerve wracking experience, but in a good way. "Hurry and save your buddy so he can help you in the fight!" "He might return the favor when YOU most need it!"
When playing in co-op there are times where you will be split from each other in a fork in the road type set up. The host will decide what path they will take and you will take the other. If you die, there is no reviving and you start over at a checkpoint. The fun thing about the path diversion, is one player will be able to see and help the other player shooting through hole gaps in pipes/walls or high above in a building or cave ledge. If you have the high path, many times you can see the horde coming to kill your buddy and provide flank fire from above that greatly changes the gameplay dynamic to another fun level. If you have the Hammer of Dawn weapon you can aim a target onto a horde and let the powerful space satellite laser do the work. You can even move the painted laser beam as it fires to hit other targets. Your buddy will thank you for it. The separate path feature changes the co-op experience in a positive way and I hope to see it in other co-op shooter games.
The bo-low whip grenades are a blast as well. You can hold the left trigger and see the actual path the grenade will take or if you are good enough you can just hit the throw button and try to hit your target. Also, if you have the grenade equipped, you can also run up and shove it in his chest and run. Boom! A fun, rewarding feeling will come over you when you make a successful hit.
Wait until you see and hear a guy explode from a grenade or a close up shot gun. The bodies fly in chunks that actually look like what exploded. Most games just show random pieces of body parts when someone blows up. In Gears, the developers actually custom "cut up" every model and added gore to it so when they explode you see the parts fly off the models. Looks great and is a sight to see and hear.
It is hard to explain into words how fun the co-op mode is. Halo 2 should have had a mode like this. In fact ALL online co-op games need to be built with this function of "come in when you like".... "leave when you like." I hope other developers try to add this feature to their games as well.
So let's recap.... Yes, this game is the best looking and sounding game ever, and plays just a good. You have NEVER seen the amount of graphic detail in a game like this before. The environments are insanely beautiful and come in different flavors of: city, caves, Factory, Mines, city streets and even a battle it out on top and inside of a speeding bullet train. Mind numbing graphics like this need to be seen to be believed. I hope this is a vision of what we should expect from future games.
Triple A titles of this caliber don't come out often but when they do, it is something really special. If you haven't bought GOW yet you are missing out on one of the most beautiful, captivating, engrossing and enjoyable games to ever come out besides Resident Evil 4 and God of War. The online death-match stuff in Gears is great but I will let someone else write a review on that mode. I am sure I will be playing it a lot after I have played the campaign/co-op a few more times.
Microsoft made sure that they had a killer app in their arsenal and I think they have it. I am sure this game will sell many 360 systems and give the PS3 launch a "serious kink in their slinky". Shows how great a game can be when a title isn't rushed out the door and time can be taken to make a really fine tuned and polished game.
I have a feeling that this game was finished months ago, but Microsoft held the release back so it would hit with the PS3 launch. This might have given Epic time to work out every little detail and make this game the awesome gem that it is.
Thank you and Thanks Cliffy B for adding the chainsaw weapon. I get "warm fuzzies" every time I land a successful sawing-up of a baddie.
Two high Thumbs up to Epic and Microsoft for making such a masterpiece!
BTW.. Where is the Gears of War soundtrack? | video-games_xbox |
All the NFS flaws with few of the perks. I wanted to love this game so much, and the graphics are awesome (for racing), and the sense of speed is great... but under the pretty skin there's an almost total failure of game design.
UNEVEN AI. No matter how far in the lead you are or how perfectly you race, if you crash you'll fall down to 3rd or 4th, even in Easy races. But if you're a little behind, and you crash, it's virtually impossible to get back to the front even if you race perfectly. Bad balance and indecent rubber effect. This is so even on Easy races. Matter of fact, the difference between Easy, Medium, and Hard races is nearly unnoticeable after a while: they're all equally frustrating.
ABYSMAL MOST WANTED LIST MANAGEMENT. Three problems: (1) MW races are insanely difficult, which I suppose is good, but see above: the AI is just plain cheating. (2) When you win a race, you don't actually win the car! It is "released into the world" and you have to wait for it to "appear" near you and take it down to be able to drive it. That is really, really, really stupid. (3) When you eventually do get to drive a MW car, it may be hours after you won it, and by that time it's surely NOT the fastest available car. Even if you get to win it right away, chances are that by the time you've racked up enough speed points to challenge a MW list opponent, your current rig is already much faster (not that that helps you win MW races, even, given that the AI is a cheater). So why are we doing all this again? Literally the main goal of the game is useless.
IT'S NOT A RACING GAME. As others have said, this is basically Burnout with some NFS elements. There is very little "racing" and a lot of smashing and crashing. Let's leave aside, for the moment, that you crash on level geometry more than on actual obstacles. At least Burnout used to privilege good reflexes and creative trajectories, but in NFS:MW it feels like you win races by pure luck. Just try and try again until something happens that lets you win. That "something" may not even up to you to control, like the AI taken down by the cops, traffic that does or doesn't slam into you, etc. Sorry, but that's not racing. It's not even really playing, and you feel quite powerless.
ILLOGICAL OPEN WORLD DESIGN. (1) Not open enough. What's the point in having no invisible walls if there are constant checkpoints that dictate a route anyway?! Opportunities for creating new and inventive urban routes are wasted by having to abide by a completely arbitrary route, you constantly have to look to the map to know where you're supposed to turn, and if you miss a checkpoint you might as well restart the race. What is this, National Geographic Travel? (2) Too open. You don't have a garage, safehouse, or any place where to organize and display your car collection. In fact, you never really own cars at all, but just steal and drive them if and where you find them. Isn't that what GTA is for? (3) You can't start races when they're first introduced, but must drive to them. Yes, even if they're 10 miles away and it takes you 10 minutes of boring traffic-dodging to get there. Helloooo? Even RPGs have fast-travel systems!
COP CHASES ARE BORING. In the original 2005 Most Wanted, cop chases were tough to beat and escalated with heat level, but here they're easy, nail strips are clearly marked on the ground by yellow puffs of smoke (LOL! right), and there's no major difference between police cars (remember those cop Corvettes, armored SUVs, and helicopters? I had nightmares about those!). Moreover, two of MW's best features -- the cooldown hiding spots and the chase breakers -- have been partially or completely excised from this game.
COP CHASES ARE USELESS. If you escape you get "speed points," which is fair enough... but forget about those million-dollar bounties from the 2005 Most Wanted, where a truly long and awesome escape basically bought you a new car: here, the points are meager and you feel like you worked for nothing. And if you're busted... get this... NOTHING HAPPENS TO YOU. Your car doesn't get impounded, you don't lose your speed points, you don't lose jack. In the 2005 MW being busted was reason enough to reload a previous save, but here you're just back to a jack zone like nothing happened. You even get speed points when you've been busted three or more times!! Talk about making games easier and more accessible to, you know, children.
LACKLUSTER CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS. Custom stuff is unlocked by placing in or winning races, which I suppose is fair, but all custom stuff is tied to the individual car. That means that whenever you get a new car, not only is it stock (as it should be), but most upgrades aren't even unlocked!! I don't know about you, but unlocking nitrous boost ten times is really boring. Also, remember all the cool custom shop decals and colors and rims and spoilers from 2005? Yeah forget about it. Here, you just drive through a mechanic shop that picks a random paint color for you. Yes, even in the middle of a race. And if you're being chased by the fuzz at that time, you hear them say things like "suspect description is updated: the car is now orange." I'm serious. I don't even want to talk about it. I'm still choke-laughing myself to death.
FRUSTRATING HUD. The idea of an in-game overhead menu is great, but it's very poorly realized. Everything is text-based, the game doesn't pause, and the menu options stay on the screen for five second tops, after which they're automatically hidden... which means that you can't even study the specs on your car and compare/contrast them with other cars' without having to exit and re-enter the menu at all times. That, plus the fact that there is NO GAME MAP (and, consequently, no GPS options) is 100% intolerable in 2013.
A near-complete waste of $40 and the worst-spent 15 hours of my gaming year so far. | video-games_xbox |
Defective Product. I strongly recommend trying other alternatives before buying this product. First of all, the product uses the 360's power supply, and giving extra work to a console that already overheats is not a smart choice. Second, it sucks hot air through the back of the console, if you put your hand you can actually fell the air getting out very fast. The downside? Well, imagine this hot air coming through the back of your 360 and slowly melting the two devices together, because that is what eventually will happen. In order for this product to "work" you need to put a fan on the side opposite to the hard drive so the air can circulate through the system. Third, the noise it makes reminds me of a vacuum cleaner, its pretty annoying when the game or movie sound is on lower levels and the only thing you can hear is the intercooler.
Other than that, it does cool the system (until it melts the back) and because of that causes the games to run more smoothly. Like I said at the beginning, I strongly recommend trying other alternatives before buying this.
Personally, I use a cooling method slightly unconventional. The system has little holes in the back, in the sides and in the bottom for air circulation. Due to the product's overheating issues you don't want to waste any of those spots. But what to do? If you put the system vertically you waste the biggest air circulation spot, and give extra risk to your discs; if you put the system horizontally the system loses the holes in the bottom. What I did is to put one of those lengthy novels bellow the 360, so now it's kind of suspended in mid air but still horizontal. Second, I bought a small fan and dust filtering pad, which you can get at any hardware store. So the fan with the dust filtering pad goes on the side opposite to the hard drive in a 45 degree angle pointing from the front to the back of the system. Believe me, it's better than the intercooler or any other cooler you might find in the market, and it uses an external power source which is a BIG +. | video-games_xbox |
great for Mini-ninjas. I bought this mainly for playing mini-ninjas on a PC. Since the game is designed for console it works so-so with a keyboard. So I decided to invest in this controller as it was recommended on the game boards. I am not an avid gamer, not even a regular one.
The controller is comfortable, feels sturdy (we shall see how long it lasts) and the buttons are laid out well, all controls are easy to reach. Since this game was designed for this controller the functions are laid out nicely. (That is though about the game, not the controller.)
I have a logitech wireless rumblepad and there is a config file available for mini-ninjas from a third party, but even with that, it is just not right. Sad. The logitech controller is a bit smaller, I prefer the MS, but that is personal preference.
I am running XP, so I downloaded the newest drivers from MS and installed BEFORE plugging in the receiver. Worked w/o any issues. (Did not even request a reboot.)
I (accidentally, I multiboot the machine and I forgot to unplug the receiver) tried it under Win7 and Win7 could not find the drivers automatically. I assume it would work if I downloaded the drivers manually, but still, it is a shame that MS HW can not get this work. Tons of other HW makers publish their drivers via MS and so those work under Win7 w/o manual download. Anyhow, according to my (limited) experience in the past, MS HW is not very good at supporting their older gears under newer OS-es. Again, shame.
I did not try to connect it directly, based on the advice here, I connected it via a powered(!) USB hub - it works fine.
According to the reviews the (separately available) chat-board does not have drivers for Windows at all. As I said - shame.
But as a straight game controller to play XNA based (which I think mini-ninjas is) games, this is a solid and very well designed controller.
I bought it for $40 when it was on sale. Since the controller alone sells around $35 that sounds reasonable, but honestly, the controller and the receiver are both overpriced. The controller should be $25 when sold alone and the receiver $10. The regular price for this gear is simply highway robbery. | video-games_xbox |
A great option for old-school lovers. This is just what it looks like - a collection of Sega Genesis titles for the 360, complete with updated graphics, achievements and save capability.
The collection is a decent cross-section of the platform's offerings, with the noticable exception of sports games, which are totally absent. Most of the classics are here though, like Sonic, Streets of Rage and Ecco. There are also a few deep cuts and the occasional "why did this one make the cut?" choice, but as a whole the collection is solid, especially when counting the nine unlockable games.
The achievements (33 total) are a curious lot. Not all the games have them, and the ones that do have only one as far as I've seen. Sometimes they're involved (like unlocking Roo as a playable character in Streets of Rage 3) and other times they're almost ridiculously easy (like "Get a Chaos Emerald" in Sonic). Most are worth 30G. I would have liked to see more achievements worth less. That way each of the 40 primary games could get 25G and have multiple achievements. Instead of having only one achievement for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 ("Get 100 Rings with Tails in the first level" for 30G), we could get four or five ("Beat the game in any mode" (5G), "Get 100 Rings with Tails in the first level" (5G), "Get a perfect on a Special Stage" (10G), "Collect all the Chaos Emeralds" (5G)).
The "Save" feature is very nice, meaning you don't have to have a five-hour session to beat a particular game. The listing of the games is also a nice touch: you can do it alphabetially, by genre, by release date. Players can also rate the games on a scale of 1 to 5 and sort the games by their ratings.
The graphics have also improved, though not so much so they don't still feel like the originals (think what the memory add-on for the N64 did to that console's standard games and you get the idea). This is accomplished via a widescreen option and a smoothing option (like the Genesis titles you can get on the Xbox Live Arcade).
All in all, this is a good collection of classic titles at a decent price (if you downloaded them all from the Xbox Live Arcade - most are available there - you would be paying a lot more) with some other titles thrown in for good measure. | video-games_xbox |
Simply put, this is a great game. The best way to describe Mass Effect 2 is as a refinement. Bioware took what worked with the original, enhanced it, and either streamlined or removed what didn't fit. The end result is a game which smartly improves on the original - both technically and in terms of plot - and turns what were weaknesses in the first game into strengths.
Graphically, this game is a tour de force. It retains the overall vibe of the first game and enhances it with better lighting and more varied locales. The sunset vistas of Illium are just as thrilling as the Blade Runner inspired Omega Station. The character models range from nearly lifelike (see: Miranda, who was modeled by real life actress Yvonne Strahovski) to intelligently subtle (Mordin, whose face and expressions showcase his age) to interesting (Thane, whose species, the Drell, are a new addition to the franchise).
The audio is much improved. The voice acting is even better than the original. Old favorites shine, and the new additions more than hold their own. Mark Meer, the voice of male Shepard, in particular, has improved. The weapons all sound different, and have a much more forceful sound than the generic dull thump they all shared in the original Mass Effect. The music is solid, even if most of it seems to hide just beyond notice.
The biggest changes are in the gameplay. Mass Effect 2 plays a lot more like a 3rd person shooter than the original game did. There's a reloading mechanism and limited ammo. While the in-game explanation for the move is tacked on, it makes battles a bit more tense as you will run out of ammo if you don't manage your resources correctly. Cover also matters more in the sequel. It's far easier for enemies to chew through your armor and health, so it pays to fight smart and use cover to your advantage. Above all else, combat finally has a semi-frantic, visceral feel to it. Geth are dangerous here. The weapons all pack a different kind, yet immensely satisfying, punch. Squad powers and abilities are almost all useful and fun to use. Combat is no longer a chore to slog through. Instead, its rewarding in its own right.
The maligned inventory of the original game is gone. The changes one can make to their Shepard and squad are much more granular here. It's an okay system, but I feel it goes a bit too far. A happy medium can exist between the clutter of the first game and the minimalistic approach this one took. YMMV, of course.
The uncharted world system of the first game has been completely revamped. There are far fewer planets with sidequests, but those that exist are far more rewarding and involved than the repetitious nature of the missions of the original. Even better, there are no Mako segments anywhere to be seen.
I'd speak about the plot, but it's hard to mention anything without spoiling it. I will just say that many things mentioned in the first game are explored in much more detail here. While not everything is answered, there's a lot of meat here for those that enjoyed the setting in the original to sink their teeth into. The galaxy feels even larger here, despite the narrow focus of the plot.
All in all, Mass Effect 2 improves on just about everything the first game had to offer. It's more than just a worthy sequel - it's an incredible game in its own right, and one of the best ever created for the genre. Despite its early in the year release, it should be considered a Game of the Year candidate. Maybe 'refinement' isn't the best word to describe Mass Effect 2. No, 'satisfying' is far more accurate. In just about all aspects, Mass Effect 2 satisfies. You can't ask for much more than that. | video-games_xbox |
Beauty in the eye of the beholder. I admit during my first play-through of Dishonoured I felt slightly less than entertained. To someone used to modern first-person games, the charm of Bethesda's 2012 release Dishonoured does tend to swoop over heads, myself included in that matter. Maybe I was just ignorant, maybe I am formularised to only enjoy the carbon copy games. This deserves a second play-through, the one I enjoyed most, where I realised how special and rare this game is.
You play Corvo, a bodyguard who is truly that of the games title; framed for murder of a figurehead in a huge governmental cover-up. Corvo attempts to uncover the mystery of why he was framed, setting out to prove his innocence and expose others in a world which is comprised of the future-industrialisation of Half Life 2, mixed with Thief's quasi-medieval city setting. Disease is rife in the form of the plague, as well as the supernatural; power granted to Corvo enables him to teleport to any position he wishes in the near vicinity. Other magic allows possession of living creatures (including humans), abilities to see through walls, and stop time.
Dishonoured truly shines in moments of realisation that this world is a living, breathing entity; the levels present themselves as thriving with artificial life. The huge, sparse environments contain a feeling of depth and warmth (and sometimes isolation), that many games struggle to reach or even attempt. NPC's talk to each other, stories are told, secrets can be eavesdropped - everything feels "real". Stealth is promoted at every turn, players are penalised for killing and are always encouraged to "ghost" - the act of manoeuvring the levels unseen and remaining undetected. You are even penalised for completing cadaveric mission objectives, so alternatives should be considered. This makes sense since our mute character can prove killing is not in his nature, which by default underlines his innocence of the murder charge made against him.
It borrows heavily from Thief: The Dark Project, even referencing it in "easter eggs" - but Dishonoured has its own style and unique setting which allows you to forgive the developers and separate it entirely from Looking Glass Studio's classic title of 1998.
The third mission, House Of Pleasure, is probably my favourite mission of any game in recent years. It uses the same environment as a previous mission but takes place in the day, with added exploration opportunities such as hotels, a dock, and a massive mansion. Initially levels may appear small, but explore a little and you discover an awful lot. The attention to detail and the depth in not only present in the mission structure, but also the text in the form of books and letters in the many homes you raid. The characters in the game are interesting and act humanely. There is plenty of urban settings contrasting with domestication. The atmosphere Dishonoured builds is like a rollercoaster. This can be at times tense, then others sinister, then on finishing a mission, back to the calm of your seaside village. The thought of returning to your cosy retreat in the Fox And Hound makes you feel all fuzzy.
Dishonoured is a rare treat, and looks simplistic yet effective in both style and immersion. It's a game which proves beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
9.5/10 | video-games_xbox |
Why Crysis 3 Multiplayer is SO good, and MUCH better than COD. I have been looking for a great FPS MP game for a very long time outside of COD, and this finally does it for me. I have been playing FPS games since COD 4 on XBOX and other games earlier on PC. I don't care about the single player - I played it and it's cool, but I buy and play games for the MP. After basically 2 straight disasters (MW3 and BO2), I've soured a lot on COD. I've logged about 30 hours of MP gameplay so far in C3 - my first Crysis game, and think I am qualified to report my findings. Here is why this game is so MUCH FUN and a much better experience than COD.
1. Maps: The maps in Crysis are not only beautifully designed, both in outlay and appearance, but they are all multi level, with 3 or 4 different "altitudes" you can be on. This is important, because it makes player movement unpredictable! Tired of seeing someone in COD lying down in the middle of a hallway aiming down sights with an iron finger? Those guys would get absolutely trashed in Crysis. This encourages "hunting" your enemies and actually looking around. The tension/feeling created by knowing there is a guy around you and the thrill of anticipation of the coming engagement is great. Especially when you spot a cloaked guy but are not quite sure where he is. A guy could drop down, run around, and flank you, and even come at you from above, or below. Keeps you thinking, you experience the thrill of the chase (or being chased) and not becoming a COD robot. These engagements are so addicting!
2. Using the Environment/Ways to Kill: There are lots of ways to kill your enemies outside of the guns. You can jump from up high and "Stomp" when you land to take out guys. You can slide/melee. You can pick things off the map - this morning I picked up a pole from out of the ground and went on a 5 kill streak, running around frantically, whacking people with it. Loads of fun and I was laughing my bung off. You can kick cars to kill someone, or pull giant machine guns off turrets. I saw a guy turn a water main on Skyline to fill up a pond, and then use his electrical gun when a guy jumped into the water! One of my favorites is to sneak up on someone and break their neck. These types of kills are SO satisfying, which you get rewarded for, and give you the option to add skill and variety to your game, but most of all, fun. How can you use the environment in COD? Head glitch a wall?
3. NanoSuit/Cloaking: Managing your nanosuit has to be one of the best parts of the game. It adds yet another important element that allows you to formulate a strategy with it.
I have heard/seen a lot of comments that cloaking is a campers dream, and that everyone will just be cloaked all the time. While it is true that you will get killed by the occasional cloaked camper, cloaking is totally offset by multiple things. First, you run slower cloaked and you use your suit energy quickly this way. It's the best to watch someone's suit energy drain and come out of cloaking while camping and then just smack them down. Most importantly, you cannot be in armor mode while cloaked. This means that you are basically getting one shotted and have ZERO chance at winning a firefight if your enemy is uncloaked and in armor mode. And while you are up close, you can mostly spot cloaked enemies, (which is one of the reasons why activity is rewarded.) Also, as soon as you shoot, you come out of cloaking, except with the bow, which is basically my biggest complaint about the game as it is very powerful AND you can use it cloaked. If you are camping while cloaked, you won't be scoring a lot either and won't get much out of the game anyway. I see more players not using cloaking than those who do. I tend to use it right after a firefight, if I am damaged, or need to reload. Or if you like, you can play COD, and "cloak" while head glitching a bale of hay while guys predictably run out of their spawn.
3. Game Rules/Mechanics: There are other things about C3 that are unique. The only way to get kill streaks, which are preset by the game, is to collect dog tags your enemies drop in every game mode. Other players cannot pickup your tags. Another anti camping tactic. You could use the "Retriever" perk to automatically pick up your tags, but that takes up a valuable slot. Snipers tend to use this alot. The animations and movements are flawless, Vaulting up levels, and moving around is very, very fluid. Everything works the way it should.
4. Weapons/Loadouts: There are a lot of perks available in Crysis 3, and they make creating classes pretty cool. They are all multi - tiered and have to be earned as you use them throughout the game. As I feel that the game rewards activity, "Maneuverability" is one I like to use on my rushing classes. For example - The tiers of this are run faster, then vault up faster, and finally, take no fall damage. They are all this way. The weapons have recoil and take skill to use, but again, that makes the kills more rewarding. Weapon sounds are awesome! The Marshall shotgun sounds ridiculous with recoil to match, but so much fun to use. You feel powerful using it, which is the way a weapon should feel. You can also change your weapon attachments ON THE FLY. Want to go silenced? No problem. It's pretty awesome to be able to do this during the game.
5: Connection/Spawns: I have found the connections to be pretty good so far, but most importantly, they are fair, even for XBOX. There is no lag comp in C3, and found hit detection to be excellent. Usually about once or twice a game, I die at the exact same time as someone else during a firefight. This shows me that there is little to no delay or lag comp, and all the bullets connected are registering. How often in COD do you die at the same time? No complaints in this dept. Again, from movement, to mechanics, to connections, I have found it all to work very well together and make the entire experience pretty smooth.
As for spawns, I have yet to get shot in the back. You cannot spawn right away, and you have to watch the killcam to see how you died, which can get a little annoying, because I want to get back in the game so quickly, but I am assuming the computer is figuring out where to spawn you, and you will not be disappointed with this aspect of the game. Or perhaps, if you are an impatient COD sheep, you want to spawn immediately because you are not willing to wait to make your game experience better.
6: Complaints: Other than the bow, I have 2 other main complaints: I have noticed that the sound tend to disappear and phase out during play sometimes. Not too much to make it unbearable, but it happens. Hopefully they will patch this. My other complaint is how difficult it is to take out a "Pinger", which is a futuristic "tank" that appears on certain maps sometimes like in WaW. You can rip a guy out of it and toss him aside, but you have to jump on him from above and it can be hard. Pretty OP IMO. There are also not that many people on Multiplayer so far, which I am hoping it will grow. None of my friends have the game yet, and I'd love to party up, so if you want to add me, my gamertag is "uglybassplayer".
This game has made FPS alot of fun for me again and the design in almost every aspect is spot on. If you are a COD player, open your mind, take the time to learn a new game, and never turn back. | video-games_xbox |
My two cents on this game. I first became interested in this game when I saw the preview in Maxim. So, I kept my eye out for it. On a whim, I bought it when I saw it at the store. I have finished the game, and I've come up with the following...
CONS:
1. Draw in of the game. It reminded me of playing the PS1 when you'd see nothing, and then, all of a sudden, you'd see the city just pop in.
2. The radio stations: Now, i like the KRUNCH, however, theren't weren't that many songs, so I got to hear Winger way too much. Plus, you could hear the DJ talking, but not the person he was talking with on the phone at times. I use the Dolby Digital optic cable.
3. also with the sound, there were times that the sound would just cut out for no reason.
4. Games freezes at times. I had to replay two missions over b/c the game froze up, right after it showed me that the mission was completed.
the
5. My biggest complaint was the fact that several times, I'd be driving along, and my car would just disappear. It happened quite a lot. I'd still be in a sitting position, but i couldn't go anywhere, b/c there was no car. Sometimes, i could hit y and get out and just get another car, and other times, i had to restart the game.
PROS:
1. Of course, the graphics are awesome. It was nice to see reflections of the lights of the police car chasing me.
2. the fact that you DON't lose all of your weapons when you are killed or busted.
3. The ability to mark waypoints on the game is wonderful.
4. The ability to save a lot of cars in one garage, and to fix them in your garage too.
The game is addictive to play, and I wasted a lot of hours and sleep time playing just one more time until i completed the mission. It would've been nicer if your character talked a little more, but it wasn't bad. Ireally don't care that there were no motorcycles or bicycles, boats or planes to drive in the game. I do look forward to the next installment of this game, but I'll also continue to buy the GTA as well. | video-games_xbox |
Beautiful scenery, dull game. I loved Red Dead Redemption, so purchased this game. I knew from reviews that the games were different, and wasn't expecting another Red Dead Redemption, but I was expecting a superior product. Some aspects of this game are first rate, and others aren't.
The positive: The game is beautiful. Driving around Los Angeles circa 1947 is a treat for those of us who love the current Los Angeles. The amount of research and the design effort that went into creating the city in that era are staggering, not only the buildings and parks, but also the people, automobiles, and interiors. Most photos from back then are in black and white, but in L.A. Noir the city is in full color.
The negatives: 1. Much of the game involves interviewing crime witnesses and suspects, and guessing based on their demeanor whether they are telling the truth or are lying. This is interesting once or twice, but it gets old quickly, and as the game progresses becomes a nuisance rather than a pleasure. For the player, these interviews are tedious and aren't much fun.
2. A lot of the game is finding clues (which are usually in plain sight) at crime scenes or at suspect's homes. This, too, gets old quickly. Find something, pick it up, examine it. Again and again.
3. There are some inserted scenes regarding the hero's service during World War II. Novelists know to avoid backstory (anything that happened before the story begins) because it's usually more interesting to the writer than to the reader, and because it stops the story cold. It's true for games, too. L.A. Noir's backstory wasn't interesting enough to sit through.
4. Successful crime novels have a balancing act: the reader is offered enough clues so the reader at the end of the story thinks he might've determined who the villain was, but the reader isn't given enough clues so that he actually does so. In L.A. Noir, the clues are obvious and simple, and the perpetrators are obvious. Don't look for much challenge figuring out whodunit.
L.A. Noir held my interest for a third of the way through, then I quit. | video-games_xbox |
A Very Poor Game. I struggled with decided whether to rate this one or two stars, opting for two at first. I decided that one star better reflects the rating I give in my head, which is a 3 out of 10.
I'm not a longtime Resident Evil fan, but my friend is a diehard one. He's played each game and, while he sees them as departures from the original feel of the series, he thoroughly enjoyed 4 and 5. I've only played 5 (with him, in preparation for 6) myself and have watched another friend play most of 4, so this is not coming from a place of reluctance to change, both he and I are actively angered over the course of our playthrough of this game.
We played Jake/Sherry first. I was trying to bite my tongue for a long time, lest my friend think he is forcing me to play something I dislike, but upon reaching the second chapter, an icy level, I exclaimed, "This game is broken!" Admittedly, we had the game's difficulty on Professional, but the challenge of the game did not feel too strenuous in the first chapter. At this point, we began to realize that ammo was scarce, but not in a way that lent itself towards conserving ammo and finding clever ways to defeat or avoid enemies. What we ended up doing was changing the difficulty to Normal, but experienced no change in what was problematic. A (seemingly) long segment where we ran up an ice-covered hill where enemies would snipe us, sending us sliding moronically down to the bottom of the hill was excruciatingly aggravating. Even after lowering the difficulty, our only working strategy became to simply run past all of our enemies like helpless children. Over the course of this campaign, it became clear that the writers didn't care about making Sherry seem important as the entirety of focus was on Jake, who is a new character whereas Sherry is at least somewhat established (she was a child, but at least we'd heard of her, unlike Jake coming out of nowhere). Most actions were his to take leaving the person playing as Sherry to sit there waiting to regain control. Cutscenes did essentially the same thing, playing Jake out as both the ultimate badass (a big boss fight ends with Sherry far, far from the action, pushing a button to send a suspended crate toward an eight-foot monster to stun it so that Jake can Superman Punch him into a vat of lava or something) as well as the story's MacGuffin (he is the key to finding a cure to the plague outbreak). He also gets to play the Han Solo role, requesting $50 million to help this cure while Sherry is forced to play den mother to him while being charmed by his roguish ways. The final segment of the game was ridiculously set up as we both had to alternate holding two different buttons in correlation with the movement of our crawling characters while the camera would suddenly change (which became more and more frequent/bothersome through this and our second campaign) and, even more infuriating, the icon indicating what buttons to push BLOCKED OUR CHARACTERS so we had more difficulty timing our button switching.
Next we did Chris/Piers. I actually began to enjoy this one, figuring, "Well, it's not what I'd think of for a RE game, but as a shooter it's not so bad." I got better at utilizing their system of dodges and rolls (which is seldom useful, but occasionally fun) and even cover to an extent (a very, very small extent, because it's terrible. I'm a big ME3 fan, so it's not helped by past experience, but this is far more problematic than the cover system in RE5). I attribute this to my playing as Piers who starts equipped with an Anti-Materiel Sniper Rifle (we later both find another, weaker sniper rifle that does not have the option for a thermal scope... I have no idea why they start me with the better version). Soon, the game corrected me for thinking that I was enjoying the campaign. Finding ammo for that gun was so rare that it became almost useless. I would accept having to spare its use for bosses or dangerous but far away targets, but so frequently I was rendered without ammo of any kind. A small issue that hampered this even more was that, for some reason, we could not carry ammo for weapons we didn't have, meaning my friend couldn't grab me some sniper ammo and give it to me, even at a point where we are split up and my goal in the situation is to cover him with sniper fire and no enemies that come near me drop any of my desired ammo (my friend could not even pick up ammo to the second sniper rifle despite being able to equip it. Ridiculous). I even spent skill points (which are stupidly placed in breakable crates where one would, often in desperation, expect to find ammo) to assign an upgrade to the amount of sniper ammo that would drop and, I swear, I think more of it dropped when I unassigned the perk after an entire chapter of using it (since one cannot assign single skill upgrades during gameplay). The later part of the game deviated from this straight shooter type game to... I don't even know what. The player(s) is made to run from the giant boss on platforms that encircle the inside of a cylindrical, silo-like facility, the creature destroying the platforms all the while as he tries to strike us. The camera becomes so, utterly frustrating that I nearly quit at this point; the game is almost spiteful in how it removes control from the player and puts the camera at odd angles while we are running so that we have to change direction mid-motion. Many times we were killed because my thumb slipped off the damn analog stick because I had to rotate it in such an unnatural way. On top of this, and feel free to correct me if this is wrong, but it sure felt like running with a two handed weapon like the sniper made me go slower and would lead to death. Sure, I could just switch weapons, but Piers only has two-handers while Chris carries a handgun and combat knife as options. I had to switch to a useless flash grenade that rendered me unable to help during portions where we had to shoot the monster. The final portion of the game sees a radical shift in gameplay, but only for the one playing as Piers. This campaign at the very least made us feel like both characters were worthwhile; Chris was clearly more of the story focus, but Piers held his own (granted, there was enough forced dramatic tension that I created a jingle to sing whenever a problem arose solely to make our characters fight over what to do before immediately resolving to do whatever Chris wanted. Mostly revenge... on an invisible snake... and a lady).
We are currently still on Leon/Helena. We've enjoyed it the most thus far. It's doing what it was designed to do (be a callback to the actual survivor horror concepts of the series) better than the others seem to (C/P's full on shooter turned into a muddled mess by the end, and I have no idea what J/S was supposed to harken to, aside from RE3 in the, -in my opinion overly- reoccurring boss featured throughout), but we're only at the beginning of the second chapter, and, considering that we've seen Chris and Helena appear at points during the other campaigns (admittedly, a cool concept, but I feel I would prefer the option to play all of the events in proper chronological order, rather than straight through the individual campaigns, some of which jump around in points in time), so we'll eventually stop facing the more scary, more interesting zombies and start having to fight infected humans who have guns and turn into giant crab arm monsters. My friend came to the realization that part of the issue with the ammo's scarcity is that all of the enemies can also shoot us, so conserving ammo is detrimental (in addition to turning from the core ideals of the game).
All together, this is a game that feels like something we'd pick up used for $10 on a whim, made by a developer that we never heard of that had already gone out of business, not the work of a high level company, for one of their most popular series no less. While I feel bad for my friend (not only because his favorite game series has been reduced to this bloated mess) for having bought this, I'm glad we didn't split this as we did RE5 (we decided to get the Gold Edition for PS3 because he had it on XBox and my system was more readily available) because this game (plus their endless amounts of reissuing games; Street Fighter 4 and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 most notably) has caused me to swear off Capcom as a company. This game seems almost antagonistic to its player and its fanbase. | video-games_xbox |
Simply the worst 50 bucks ever. First off, I have been playing nba on 2K since dreamcast. I totally loved this game and played it all the time. This version sucks. No way like past versions. Buyer beware!
When people compare it to nba live, it used to be a joke. Now I am not sure either game really is good. Both suck.
The online play is awful. People abuse the features and drop games after going down by 10? The feedback system sucks.
AND WHERE ARE THE DAMN ROSTER UPDATES? You would think 2k would keep rosters more accurate since they stole 49.99 from you right? Can some lazy jerk at 2k copy the rosters from the trade deadline 4 weeks ago? Sheez!
This game is seriously messed up. It might have been worth 19.99 as was the previous years was. The 2k people basically changed everything familiar with past versions. Including using ESPN to sell it.
THIS GAME IS A BIG STUPID COMMERCIAL! You would think that all the advertising would have made this game more affordable? Not much graphic improvement from past versions unless you have 360 and a fricken HDTV.
Kenny smith's commentary is good and that mat be the only improvement from past versions. If you even like KS.
How come in a tourney , season , playoff you cannot trade players? How come if I am playing with the sixers in a season, kobe bryant suddenly is a knick? WHERE ARE THE ROSTER UPDATES?!?
And if I hear that johaz "the nba" song one more fricken time I am going to scream. The soundtrack has some gems but overall it has crappy rappers who should have tried for american idol instead.
What is the deal with the shot stick and freethrows? Who was the idiot at 2k who went with that idea? It works great for dunking but, not for fast breaks or, mid range shot? And neither is the x button or, whatever controller layout you choose to shoot.
WHERE ARE THE ROSTER UPDATES?
And when you play online why does it only give you 2 minutes of pause time? You can be killing some guy and he'll get the win cause your timer expired? What if your playing with a team like SAC or NJ and need to sub all the time? The subs also are whacked out.
Why do you have to wait for your opposition to set his settings for two hours before a game? That is lame why can't your profile in the game be the same as online?
Why is there no option to create your own playoff? You only have tournament and season? And if you advance from season or, franchise you never know who is on what team? The suns with garnett? And tournament is only one game and somewhat difficult to master if your not familiar with the bracket. And if you control trades in options, you have to forward all the way to the end of the season and go up against the hawks in the first seed? 20 pop ups asking to trade peja for marbury? Come on? And in franchise with injuries on, all the other teams will sign free agents.
There is ZERO realism with the rosters. For 20 bucks, I would expect that. For 50, I expect 4 roster updates from the lazy staff at 2ksports by now.
How is it that nash, jones, allen never miss three's yet everyone who is WIDE open misses?
The game lags badly online. Too many attitudes and antagonism online.
I seriously will never buy a toyota, powerbar or, gatorade again.
This game is a giant waste of your money.
I would not even recommend renting it!
The sad thing is that live is not better.
I am not happy that somehow 2k lost its bid for NFL either.
I used to trade/create/import players during the offseason so I know it's not that hard to update rosters. 2k is just lame.
If the reason you play this game for is the realism, move to another game cause this game is a huge disappointment.
From someone who has been loyal to 2k since dreamcast. | video-games_xbox |
First off I would like to say that the product that I received is . First off I would like to say that the product that I received is working as designed, and I have no complaints with it. The reason why I gave a 2 star rating is because what I received was not what was shown in the main product picture. I wanted a charge stand that would hold the controllers from the front. One of my controllers uses a clip on keyboard style keypad for inputting text, and will not fit in a controller charger that requires the controller to be placed in from the back. The picture that was originally shown for the main product picture showed controllers plugging in from the front. I wasn't to happy when I received the package and it was not what was shown in the picture. So, I went to the product page to check to see if I had made a mistake and ordered the wrong charger, and what did I find? "NO IMAGE AVAILABLE" on the product page! Funny there was one there when I ordered it two days ago! Hmmm, makes me wonder if they realized their mistake and took the picture down. I also noticed when I checked the product page today that they had pictures farther on down in the description that shows the type of charger that the controller plugs in from the back. I don't remember these photos being on the product page a couple of days ago, they might have been and maybe I just didn't notice them when I scrolled on down the reviews. So I guess I'm giving two stars to the company that sells this for having the incorrect photo on the product page. I have decided to keep the charger though. I bought it mainly for my 6yr old Grandson so that it would be easy for him to charge his controller by just placing it in the charge stand. The controller that has the keypad is my controller and I'll just use rechargeable AA batteries for that one. Just be forewarned, what you order from this product page may not be what you get. | video-games_xbox |
Not without its flaws, but still a fun game that's true to the original Fantasia in letting you experience music in a new way. The concept of Fantasia: Music Evolved is fantastic. This game is loosely based on the original Fantasia short where Mickey Mouse is "conducting" the stars and the heavens as the Sorcerer's Apprentice. Your goal throughout the game is to match patterns on-screen with your arm and hand movements. It's more like Dance Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero than "real dancing games" like Just Dance or Dance Central in that it's really more about pattern matching than dancing.
On the positive side, the use of the Kinect 2.0 is excellent. The game detects your hand movements more precisely than any other game I've played on any other platform. Before you start the game, you'll go through some clapping exercises to make sure the sound and picture are perfectly synchronized.
The graphics are beautiful as well. From the opening screen, there's a silhouetted version of you on an orchestral podium, similar to the opening scenes of Fantasia where Leopold Stokowski is introduced. Your silhouette will continue to appear at the bottom of the screen throughout as you "conduct" in different "Realms". While I wouldn't go so far as say that the graphics match what you'd find in Disney's traditional or computer generation animation titles, they did produce graphics that seem to take good advantage of the Xbox One's advanced capabilities--and managed to avoid the sluggishness that plagued games like Dance Central on the Xbox 360.
The song selection is also very eclectic. I love the fact that they included some classical pieces in a nod to the original Fantasia, but also included modern pieces as well. When you start the program the entire song library is locked, but you can turn "Party Mode" on to view and play all the songs in a group setting. Here's a list of all the artists and songs that come as part of the physical game.
Lady Gaga - Applause - Difficulty 4/5
New Order - Blue Monday - Difficulty 4/5
Queen - Bohemian Melody - Difficulty 1/5
Mozart - Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (Allegro) - Difficulty 1/5
Depeche Mode - Enjoy the Silence - Difficulty 3/5
Gorrilaz - Feel Good Inc - Difficulty 3/5
Jimi Hendrix - Fire - Difficulty 5/5
Cee Lo Green - Forget You - Difficulty 2/5
Vivaldi - The Four Seasons: Winter, 1. Allegro Non Molto - Difficulty 4/5
M.I.A. - Galang - Difficulty 2/5
Missy Elliott - Get Ur Freak On - Difficulty 3/5
Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 - Difficulty 2/5
Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes - Difficulty 3/5
Avicii - Levels - Difficulty 3/5
Bruno Mars - Locked out of Heaven - Difficulty 3/5
The Police - Message in a Bottle - Difficulty 1/5
Mussorgsky - Night on Bald Mountain - Difficulty 2/5
Tchaikovsky - Selections from The Nutcracker (Medley) - Difficulty 3/5
Imagine Dragons - Radioactive - Difficulty 2/5
The Who - The Real Me - Difficulty 5/5
Elton John - Rocket Man - Difficulty 1/5
Lorde - Royals - Difficulty 3/5
Kimbra - Settle Down - Difficulty 3/5
The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army - Difficulty 3/5
Fun. - Some Nights - Difficulty 2/5
Nicki Minaj - Super Bass - Difficulty 3/5
Dvorak - Symphony No. 9, from the New WOrld, IV. Allegro Con Fuoco - Difficulty 3/5
Drake - Take Care (ft. Rhianna) - Difficulty 2/5
J.S. Bach - Toccata and Fugue in D Minor - Difficulty 3/5
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - Difficulty 2/5
David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust - Difficulty 4/5
There are also two songs by video game musician Inon Zur (Main Theme and Scout's Song) that need to be unlocked in Story Mode.
Of course, there's plenty of downloadable content as well. But the mix that comes with your original purchase price is a pretty good one that should keep you satisfied for many hours. .
As I mentioned, there are two ways to play the game: Story Mode and Party Mode. Story Mode is required to unlock all the songs and features of the game.
Once you start "Story Mode" you're brought to the workshop of Yen Sid, the Sorcerer in the original deluxe short, whom most Fantasia enthusiasts will recognize as an alter-ego of Walt Disney (try spelling his name backwards). They quickly get Yen Sid out of the way but then replace him with an impish young girl with a Fantasia-looking cap named "Scout" who, like Mickey, was a washed-up former apprentice and serves as your tour guide through the rest of the story. For some reason she grated on me as much as the impish, obnoxious dancers in Dance Central. I don't know what it is about Xbox game developers, but developing likable character doesn't seem to be one of their strong suits.
"Story Mode" itself is pretty contrived, as if the developers focused mostly on the actual gameplay and threw together the story as an afterthought. The "Story" is mainly a way to get you to play through all the songs.
To play the game itself, you select a song and then you'll stand up and "conducting" it by following on-screen cues. You start out learning the basic motions of the game. There are "push cues" where you punch your screen forward with either or both hands as a "sphere" hits the screen. There's a "sweep cues" where you sweep your hands in the direction of an on-screen arrow. There are "hold cues" where you keep your hands raised in a certain place. And then there are combinations where you "sweep" then "hold". There are "path cues" where you push forward and trace the path of the cue. And you'll encounter "switch cues" that you hit in the direction of silhouettes of instruments on screen to select or change instrumentation or song styles in the middle of a performance. While the names sound kind of complicated, all the motions are pretty intuitive, similar to the motions a conductor will make on a podium. Hit a cue correctly and the music plays loud, miss one and the music is muted. I have to admit, the first time I played I really felt like Leopold or Mickey on the podium, even if I didn't quite look like it in real life.
The story continues as you help Scout "unlock" the "Magic" throughout the world of Fantasia. You're introduced to "The Muse", a ball (really a cursor) that you can use to explore the different "Realms" (including The Capsule, The Press, The Shoal, The Nation, The Hollow, and The Shadows). Using "The Muse" to navigate within the different realms is itself an exercise in frustration, something that seems to be endemic to all Kinect games.
You're suddenly bombarded with confusing phrases like "Magic Fragments", "Composition Spells", "Hot Spot Recordings", "The Noise", and "Mixes". This is where I started to have issues with the game. I know they chose these exotic names to try to make the game sound "cool" and "mysterious", but what they really did is just create confusion. I felt like I had to learn a foreign language here just to play the game.
But after some trial and error you'll start to figure out what's going on. In a "Realm", you need to unlock a certain number of "Magic Fragments", by completing tasks such as finding one of 11 hidden "Hot Spots", by unlocking "Mixes", by unlocking and using "Composition Spells, or by otherwise completing song goals. Collect enough "Magic Fragments" and you clear each realm of "The Noise" (which is evidently something bad).
"Composition Spells" are basically ways you can create audio samples visually--all with your arms and hands. For example, a Composition Spell called "Sound Sketcher" allows you to move your arms and hands up and down to play a series of notes on a sphere, which you "save" by putting your arms to your side. You don't have the precise control that a real composer would have, but even by randomly moving your arms and hands you can create some pretty interesting and totally original mixes which will show up as samples throughout songs later in the game.
"Hot Spots" are a little less interesting. You basically need to hunt and peck through screens to find "hidden" objects which you can wave your hand over to play notes and create a "Hot Spot Recording". This seemed kind of pointless; it's as if the game developers asked themselves "What can I do to artificially prolong Story Mode so users don't finish it right away".
In addition, each song also has three "Mixes" that you'll unlock through the game. For example, you can hear Antonin Dvorak's New World Symphony performed by a Big Band, or Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody set to heavy metal.
What makes thing interesting is that these different things that will let you customize your sound and literally make the music unique to you. In fact, after particularly good "performances" you'll probably want to save the performance for posterity, and what you save will be a creation that's uniquely your own.
I have to say that the more you play this game, the more it grows on you. Again, I won't say there aren't frustrations. The Story itself is tedious, and there is a learning curve for figuring out how to execute the "cues" in a way that the Kinect recognizes you. For example, I found after trial and error that I actually have to make Sweep motions a split second before I *think* I should, and I also realized after a while that rather than always making broad sweeping motions I'd be better of making a mix of long and short motions in a way that flows with the music (sort of like a conductor would make small movements for pianissimo and grand movements for fortissimo).
After a while, as the motions start becoming more intuitive and natural, you can start literally "feeling" the music, and that's when it becomes really enjoyable. It took me about 2 days of playing to finally start scoring in the 80-90% range, and I'll admit that my enjoyment of the game increased as that happened, not because I cared about the score but because I started to really "experience" the music. In that sense, this Kinect game starts to realize the vision that Walt Disney had with the original Fantasia--of letting you experience music in a brand new way.
As for fitness and exercise value of the game, I can't say there's much of that. I do find that when I play for extended periods of time, I do build up a sweat and my heart rate is elevated, particularly on higher difficulty levels where your arms are moving frantically. I'd be kidding myself if I said it was anything close to an aerobic workout. That said, add some wrist weights and move your feet while you play, and suddenly you will have a game that is a lot of fun and can help you tone your arms.
The game also has a two player mode. As long as you're playing with someone who's had the same level of practice you've had, this can be a ton of fun. It involves cooperation; you each need to hit your own colored cues properly for the song to play, and the choices both of you make with Switch Cues and Composition Spells can influence what the final song sounds like. But it involves competition as well--you're both judged on how well you performed and it can get pretty competitive. And because the Kinect 2.0 is so precise, unlike with games like Just Dance you can't blame a loss on anything except yourself.
Overall, I'd give Fantasia: Music Evolved a solid 4 out of 5. The story mode seems a bit sloppy and lazy at times, but the core game play, graphics, music selection, and motion controls are a decent, if not revolutionary demonstration of what the Xbox One with Kinect 2.0 is capable of. | video-games_xbox |
Lovecraftian fun. Those who ever dreamed of experiencing the dark and fantastic world of Lovecraft will rejoice that Call of Cthulhu is a game that fairly captures that world.
Much like the writer's long list of stories, in this game you start as a normal human being whose life takes a subtle, but very absolute descent into madness. You assume the role of Jack Walter, a 1920s Private Detective who is summoned to a house by the local authorities of Arkham. The house is the dwelling of an infamous cult that has gone too far in their religious practice and are unwilling to cooperate with the authorities until they talk to you.
You are committed to an asylum after your body was recovered from the house, being diagnosed with schizophrenia. Six years later, you abruptly recover from your mental absence and are released from the asylum's care. Having no memory of the events that occurred within that household or of your hospitalization, you try to discover for yourself what caused your sudden illness by delving into books which you yourself purchased while you were not yourself. But the answers you seek sure enough find you when you receive a mysterious phone call by a Mr. Anderson, who wants you to investigate a missing person's case in the infamous seaport town of Innsmouth.
This fateful telephone call is what starts you on a long and dangerous ride into earth's remotest history and darkest corners, where you will meet the Things from that history and see firsthand what Lovecraft so often referred to as, "the unimaginable."
One of the greatest aspects to the game is its number of unique locations and settings. The Occult house. The town of Innsmouth. A refinery. The Marsh dwelling. Devil's Reef. And eventually the underwater city where the prison of the flying Polyps reside (people who have read the stories would know what I am talking about). You even embark on a sea voyage on a US Military ship.
Stealth is used when you are weaponless, and you often times are, while at the same time you can take a more direct approach once you have obtained numerous guns, including a Tommy Gun. People have complained about difficulty aiming in this game since there is no crosshair to assist you, but I found the absence of a crosshair and a lifeline obstructing my vision actually made the game more immersive and believable.
Another feature, or a mistake depending on who you read from, is the Insanity Meter. The more pressure or horrific events you encounter affects Jack's mental stability, as it would anyone. The way the game attempts to portray mental instability is by blurring your vision, waving the screen, magnifying objects, heavy panting, mumbling to yourself and slowing down all physical motion. A great idea, but even a permissive player will object to the way a mentally unstable Jack Walter can affect game play. The panting and mumbling to yourself in panic is good, but I don't think your vision should be impaired or your actions slowed. Perhaps if he screamed, or even laughed in his moments of extreme peril...will surely get the message across that he is being driven completely insane. And another thing extremely disturbing about this whole concept is after you have escaped the horrors one moment, the next moment you seem totally calm and ordinary. You go from an uncontrolled state of frantic mumbling and panting to a normal state of composure, just because you activated a talk sequence with another character in the game.
Some parts of the game have an unlimited supply of enemies, namely the refinery, which makes elaborate puzzle solving and a thorough search of large levels tedious. I would have also liked to see my fallen enemies to remain fallen, not just disappear.
Graphics are moderate.
But the biggest fault the game has is with its countless glitches. After some online research I've come to learn that these glitches are prevalent in both the Xbox and the Computer version. Most are activated when you do not do game puzzles in a correct sequence and are fixed simply by reloading your last save. But there is one glitch that may require you to restart the game. I encountered it on the chapter, "A Dangerous Voyage." What it dose is freeze up the moment you reach a certain point in the chapter. I asked technical support on the game's official website for a remedy to the problem and of course they did not reply. The only sure way to avoid this glitch is to not save on the chapter until you have successfully entered the Captain's quarters. If you should encounter the glitch before the Captain's Quarters is infiltrated, you are inclined to reload your last save in the previous chapter and fight your way back up to that point. If ever you save on the corrupted chapter before surpassing the glitch, you will literally have to restart the game or reload a secondary save file, because reloading a saved game on that corrupted chapter will not correct the glitch, because the save file itself is corrupted! What I did is save a game right after the Captain's Quarters have been infiltrated on a separate file should I encounter that glitch again during another play through.
However much the game's numerous faults interrupt the experience, the Lovecraftian authenticity that this game has managed to savor cannot be denied and therefore remains to be one of greatest horror games ever made and I look forward to playing the two more expected to follow.
"Primal myth and modern illusion joined in their assumption that mankind is only one--if not least--of the highly evolved and dominant races of this planet's long and largely unknown career. Things of inconceivable shape, they implied, had reared towers to the sky and delved into every secret of nature before the first amphibian forbear of man had crawled out of the hot sea three hundred million years ago."
My favorite quotation among the many I come to like from his stories. | video-games_xbox |
No local co-op, "empty" open world, and the invincible sand castle. Okay, so after sitting down the day after getting Dead Island I thought I would give it a good run. It didn't even take an hour of play to realize that after playing this game for a mere 15min you have probably found everything that this game has to offer. The opening trailer for this game showed such promise, a father trying to protect what was left of his family from a relentless zombie horde. Instead you're given a cameo to that scene as you watch the little girl from the trailer drop in front of you, something that no one would get unless they saw that first trailer. They didn't even have a cut scene for it in the game! So you're thrown into the middle of an island zombie Apocalypse as one of four underdeveloped characters. I chose Logan, mostly cause I liked the name, and no matter who you pick it's the same result. Yes, each of them have different skills, but nothing that really seems to make them different from each other. Everyone can use every weapon in the game, everyone can do all the same basic moves, and everyone won't shut the Hell up. You constantly listen the same damn one-liners over and over again until you almost want to mute the TV. When accepting, or not accepting, quests the dialogue gets very stale, at least for Logan. It sounded as if he was doing a generic answer for a phone company or soundboard.
Zombies spawn in the same area, as well as bosses, so you can quickly figure out the areas to avoid if you don't want too much of a fight. The game is open world, but still feels very empty. You can only interact with weapons, health items, mod items, cash, and OH BOY sink facets! Oh wait, you can also kick a beach ball. Know what you can't kick, or even run over? A freaking sand castle! Yes, a sand castle that will stand the test of time. Speaking of kicking, it plays a major role in the game as a way to piss you off. In the beginning it serves as a great way to conserve your weapon durability, but that's only if your leg doesn't pass right through the damn zombie. Several times I had my leg go all "phantom limb" and slide right through a zombie's chest, stomach, or whatever the Hell that aiming reticle had chosen for me.
Trying to aim for a zombie's head was much more of a chore than it should have been. The reticle flies all over the place sometimes and can make what should be a one-hit kill turn into a free hit for the zombie that's trying to munch you. Weapons were interesting, quite creative, and probably one of the best pros for this game. Making an electric machete out of a few batteries, wire, and duct tape doesn't make a whole lot of sense, yet still feels satisfying when you fry the undead. Some other random glitches I came across were found on the map. If you look at the area in the Resort, behind the South Bunker, you'll notice it shows a lush forest area. Guess what I found behind it? Open "water" that was terribly layered with large polygons of shattered light and dark blues with no forest in site. I didn't even get a "Leaving playable area" warning until I was already disgusted with the lack of attention paid to this spot.
One of my favorite glitches has to be the "killing door." There was one particular shed that I came across where when I opened the front door, a metal bar was hanging in mid-air. The door was originally supposed to be locked until I found another way in! I attempted to remove the floating bar and when I finished the door slammed shut, as if never opened, and killed me! Now for my favorite part of this game. I read online about a month ago, that this game would contain local multiplayer (aka couch) split-screen co-op, similar to that of Borderlands. Much to my surprise when my buddy and I tried to play that night, we found out that we couldn't, but that was after trying for about 30min. The back of the game even clearly shows a Green 2 - 4 players, representing local co-op, along with it's other system link and online options. Someone really screwed up on this one. Kudos to the idiot that designed that packaging. Needless to say, my friend and I were really pissed off when we couldn't play the game together and were stuck looking around online to find other gamers that we could put up with. This game does have a few small positives, but in the end it comes no where near living up to its hype. Do yourself a favor and save your money and wait for Deep Silver to not only fix the bugs, but also for the price drop to take place.
Happy Gaming
For Those Who Don't Like To Read:
Graphics: 6 (Not bad overall, but needs a lot of work. Lot of glitches that need fixing.)
Gameplay: 5 (Extremely Repetitive after playing for an hour. Simply rinse, wash, and repeat in a new area.)
Sound: 7 (Background sounds are pretty good, but the main characters constant one-liners get old FAST.)
Replay: 4 (Once you beat the game, that's it. There's no multiple endings or extras and nothing really compels you to play it again.)
Overall: 5 (The game isn't the worst thing ever made, but it sure isn't the best. Wait for the price drop.) | video-games_xbox |
Worst Call of Duty. I've played all of the call of duties since Call of duty 4. This one is by far the most frustrating I have ever played. The killstreaks are overpowered and annoying. For example the announcer will say Hunter killer drone inbound as a warning AFTER you have already been killed. Not to mention the Hunter killer drone is a total luck killstreak. The overpowered killstreaks remind me somewhat of Modern Warfare 2 but this game doesn't hold a candle to MW2. The guns in black ops 2 don't have a signature feel like the mini-uzi, m1014 etc of Modern warfare 2. All of the guns feel like the same gun with the same type of recoil. The shotguns handle differently than CODs of the past. For some reason, aiming down sight reduces the spread of the shotguns, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me. The shotguns seem pretty weak in this game. This was disappointing to me because I enjoyed playing with the olympia and stakeout in Black ops 1. This game just doesn't remind me much of black ops 1. It is more like a Modern warfare 3 with weird shotguns. But when it comes right down to it, I would probably recommend Modern Warfare 3 over this game even though I wasn't crazy about it.
This game just is not balanced very well. The shotguns are very weak (except maybe for hardcore). Treyarch, for unknown reasons, introduced a timer into Domination which really affects the game. In past Black ops, there was no timer technically, but the game could not go longer than like 12 minutes because the point limit would be reached. If nobody captured the B flag the game would become a tie at some point ( after about 4-5 minutes). I think that this hurts the domination game mode because if your team gets down big and the other teams gets around 178 points, the game is basically over. Both teams might as well stand there. This is bad because I have seen some frantic domination comebacks in Mw2 when I used to play it . The maps are very symmetrical with a wide open B flag which basically becomes darn near impossible if the other team is doing a decent job defending it. I think the symmetrical maps contribute to the stale feeling of the game. | video-games_xbox |
don't get A40. I researched for about 3 months before purchase.
My friend and I both bought our headsets at the same time. He purchased the A40 I got TB 500X. I can only explain it like this.
He sounds like a phone cutting out. His A40 starts crisp and 2 words in it damn near mutes him.
I only need to remember not to push my mic out too far or on my beard, but his problem is firmware.
Okay on to the review.
Pros
Battery life has never been an issue yet even after 14hrs.
Detachable mic
Charges while on
Independent Party and Media Analog Vol dials directly on Left Ear Muff.
Passive Noise Reduction OR you can also crank up active noise amplification via the Party Chat Volume Dial and feedback button to hear your own voice or everything in your house!
COMPLETELY wireless headset independent from the Anchor that is your controller. No 3.5mm jack required for party chat.
Lots more but I don't think other Pros are anything special so on to the Cons.
Cons
On when Charging, as in can't be turned off if plugged in. Same goes for transmitter, if it's plugged in it is on, EVEN if you power off your Xbox 1 the transmitter continues searching for the 500X with an incessant blue light.
Requires a windows PC to update.
1. Plug it AND THE Transmitter in to the PC at the same time!
2. Wait for windows to find drivers (I'm not kidding you better fricking wait or you're gonna fail! Takes a while)
3. Install Software from manufacturer.
4. Explore the software while both devices are plugged in and each time found drivers by Windows before you mess with it.
Despite premium performance the materials feel chinsy. I built a peg board on a wall in my Gaming Room and hang up my 500X away from direct sunlight after each session. Just be nice to it, it's fragile.
After about 3Hrs my glasses are pushed against my head by the conforming ear muffs. They feel wonderful for upwards of 8 hrs without glasses. Also I play at max extension and they just fit me. I am 5'10 235 pounds German Irish muscular build if that helps you and I wear XL hats.
You can mute yourself (pro) but you can't mute the headset when your wife walks in to say something without turning down the volume all the way and then back up after you forget what she said (immediately)
They are Ugly
You cannot use a different headset until you remove the device from the Xbox!
All in All I Love them! 4 stars for not charging while off or allowing other sets.
They just work better than anyone else. | video-games_xbox |
Unsympathetic character. Alan Wake tells the story of a horror writer suffering from writer's block who has gone on sabbatical to the Pacific Northwest. While there, his wife goes missing, and he battles mysterious shadow men as he searches for her, along the way finding manuscript pages of a novel he doesn't remember writing.
Alan Wake has a great premise and is beautifully executed, but I have to say I am extremely displeased with the character himself. Alan Wake, the person, is a jerk. From the very beginning, he's full of the "oh, I'm such a famous writer, and I wish the public would just leave me alone" movie star angst. He blows up at his wife when she encourages him to use their vacation as a time to conquer his writer's block.
The worst was the scene when he's in the sheriff's department, conferring about his missing wife. A pop psychologist who specializes in writer's block enters the station for presumably some unrelated reason, and Alan attacks him. Alan knows that this is the doctor whom his wife wanted him to see, and he assumes that the doctor has something to do with her disappearance. Maybe he's right; I haven't played far enough to find out. But a few things about this cut scene especially bother me. First, why would anyone get up in somebody else's face and punch him out for no apparent reason? (And why would any self-respecting sheriff, who watches this transpire in her police station, right in front of her, fail to arrest him on the spot? The game's realism went right out the window there.) Worse, Alan's literary agent, Barry Wheeler (named because he's a wheeler dealer, I suppose), suddenly storms into the police station, screaming and swaggering as if he's some high-blown Hollywood lawyer, which he's not, and pulls his client out of there.
I could forgive this if I believed the game's writers knew they were setting up Alan Wake as an jerk. Maybe their plan was to give him a character arc so that he's a humble, nice guy by the end of the story. But I suspect that that's not the case. I have this niggling thread of doubt that we're supposed to be on Alan's side, sympathizing with him because his wife has disappeared--particularly since we're using our Xbox 360 controllers to puppet him through the story. So, basically what I have here is an unsympathetic protagonist whom I care little about, which discourages me from continuing through the game.
The character of Alan Wake particularly bothers me because I've known writers like him, and I simply don't understand how a writer can act that way. I scrape and work hard for every fan and positive review I get. I'm grateful when an editor thinks highly enough of my writing to publish my work. When someone tells me he's read my stuff and liked it, or asks me for an autograph, I'm thankful for the validation that I haven't wasted my time writing that story: that my creation was worthy of spending some time in somebody else's head. That's the way writers should be-not these angsty, self-absorbed idiots who think they're very smart and clever and wonderful when they're really not.
The writers of Alan Wake did themselves a great disservice when they wrote their character to be a Hollywood-style figure of arrogance. | video-games_xbox |
Almost a masterpiece. If it weren't for the (relatively few) flaws, this game would be a masterpiece. I've been a fan of the tomb raider series for a long long time, but for whatever reason haven't played the last two. I'm glad I gave this one a go.
The pros:
- Gorgeous and expansive levels
- Great acrobatics
- Puzzles are the perfect difficulty
- Lots of puzzles
The cons:
- Controls take some getting used to, especially the grappling hook
- Lara gets "stuck" in the environments sometimes, especially if it's right on top of a terrain change. Can usually escape pretty easily, but it's annoying nonetheless
- Invisible walls and "special" walls. I prefer delimiting the boundaries of where you can travel by walls that are simply just too high to jump on. Invisible walls feel cheap. "special" walls are walls that you can jump on and climb (as opposed to unspecial walls that look absolutely identical, but for some reason Lara refuses to grab it). In this sense the environment isn't totally autonomous, I would like to be able to do everything that the laws of physics allow me to do. If there's a wall that isn't any higher than my hands when I raise them straight up, I should sure as heck be able to climb it.
- Axis inversion doesn't work on vehicles. This is a little weird, and really feels like a bug in the game, but when playing 3rd person games I really like axis inversion. It's broken on vehicles.
- Lack of keyboard mapping. On the Xbox 360 version anyway, there is no option to remap keys.
- Autosave feature is a little weird. It uses 8 save slots, the same 8 save slots for if you do manual saves. So if you do a manual save, it will get overwritten later by an autosave.
There is also the obvious comparison to Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. I would rate them about the same, each with its own cons, with Uncharted just having a different set of cons. There are obviously a lot of similarities between the two games, but if you liked Uncharted you won't necessarily like TR:U. For starters Uncharted is much more heavily focused on the combat. In Tomb Raider you might encounter a total of 10 enemies in a level which takes you 3 hours to beat. In Uncharted you would have encountered 100 enemies in that same level. Because of this, the combat system in TR is less refined. There's no "taking cover" for example.
All in all though TRU is a solid, if not the best, game in the Tomb Raider series to date. If you're a fan of Tomb Raider, you will love this game, no question about it. | video-games_xbox |
Oh the disapointment. To think that a game with such potential can so sorely suffer at the hands of ego. I can feel the dastardly hands of Yoko in this one. First complaint... no boos. Apparently failing at a Beatles song is not worthy of getting you booed off stage. I can almost hear the lawyers talking this one over, and in their eagerness to get the rights to Beatles songs, true game mechanics were tossed away like the cores of apples. Can't you just hear Yoko saying "under no condition are you permitted to simulate crowds being dis-satisfied with a song by the Beatles."
More frustrating is the second game mechanic that got tossed by the road side... no wrong note sounds. Playing through a song and missing 40% of the notes sounds exactly the same as playing through the song and hitting every note. Sorry if the creators of this game were too terrified to actually negotiate for their game's integrity, but bowing to the demand that "under no conditions will you distort or allow a player to distort or mangle a Beatles song." Perhaps I'm alone in this judgement, but audio feedback in a music based game is necessary. You get a constant reward for playing a song well by hearing the song as it was intended. Play a wrong note, and you should hear it. It makes you try harder to get the song perfect! I nead more than just visual cues to improve my play, and I'm very annoyed at how much of the actual game mechanics were sacrificed to secure the Beatles titles.
Next complaint... No 50% speed... Ok... I know the early master tapes are mono, but couldn't the programmers do something here? Practicing the guitar part, I should be able to focus on the guitar at slower speeds the way I can with other songs. I shouldn't be forced to start out at 70% speed just so that the main track can be played with vocals in place, and no wrong notes can still be heard even in practice mode...
Frustrating is the best word I have for this title. | video-games_xbox |
The scariest game ever released, I kid you not. I played this on the PS2, beat it at least three times and still purchased it immediately for the Xbox once it was released. Why, you ask? I'll keep the reasons simple.
1) This game is unbelievably scary. You may think I'm joking about this but this game actually gave me nightmares. If you play this game under the right conditions with the lights down low and the sound way up, believe me you will be spooked pretty bad. The story in this game is quite eerie and as you play the game in harder difficulties, you find out a little bit more about the backstory, which makes the game a rewarding experience everytime you play through it. Also, if you like Asian Horror films at all, stop reading now and pick this up.
2) The sound. If you have your Xbox hooked up to your surround system with the proper connections (i.e. optical cable), you owe it to yourself to get this. The use of surround sound is exceptional in this game. When a spirit comes screaming out of nowhere and you hear babies crying or children giggling quietly from behind you, you'll know what I'm talking about.
3) The extras. This game is definitely worth the purchase, even if you played the PS2 version to death. It has way more unlockable goodies, better graphics and better sound. A really nice little addition is the FPS mode, where you play the game from a first person perspective.
I cannot recommend this game enough. It's one of those games that you really have to sit down with because it may put some people off when first playing it. This isn't the kind of game to play in the middle of the day with a house full of your friends. This is one to play when you're by yourself. My only complaint with this game is that the controls can be a little funky at times. Also, I would've loved to have the original Japanese dialogue and it isn't a selectable option. The English voice acting is just fine though and nowhere near as bad as say, the first Resident Evil. | video-games_xbox |
Fans keep asking for Shenmue 3, well HERE IT IS! You get the 3D graphical adventure game genre along wiht questionable dialogue. This game is what Shenmue 3 would be like if it had a bigger emphasis on fantasy. The dialogue and voice acting is better than Shenmue, but the things the character's so can be very strange and at times hilarious. (like when Carla goes up to someone and says "I don't know her" right in front of the girl's face. Another instance is funny where a guy asks if he can take Carla in his truck. It makes you ask: "WHAT???" Also the story is very interesting and exploration is a huge emphasis on this game, just like Shenmue. Dialogue does drag on for a long time. You often find yourself talking to one person for 5-10 minutes. It can be unnerving at times, but if you pay attention to the dialogue, it can make the world you're exploring more immersive. However, not as much can be said about the combat. It's very bare bones. Shenmue's combat is vastly superior to this, but Dreamfall's story is a lot more intriguing than Shenmue's story. (in my opinion). I liked Shenmue's story but this story was just fantastic. Talking to people was funny too. When my friend and I would play Shenmue, we would meet very weird people in the game and they have horrible voice actors and they said the stupidest things. That was one major charm Shenmue had on us. This game has it too, only the voice acting is better and the dialogue is longer and just as weird and pointless as Shenmue's (that's a good thing). It's weird but I would have preferred awful voice acting because that made Shenmue absolutely hilarious. Voice acting in this game is like voice acting in Doctor Who. It's all British, which is ok but it's not that amazingly bad voice acting Shenmue had. There was a prequel to this game that came out on PC about 5 years before this game and that was a straight point and click adventure game. Couldn't even compare that game to Shenmue, but it is very good for a point and click adventure game. If you pick up Dreamfall, be sure to pick up Shenmue 2, also on xbox. And the prequel to this game is simply called The Longest Journey. | video-games_xbox |
Instant Classic 2. I was completely blown away by the first Mass Effect and I spent untold hours playing it. I could not wait for this game, and I had high expectations, perhaps too high, I feared. At the risk of sounding like a fanboy, not only was I not disappointed, but I was blown away - again. Mass Effect 2 is the same immersive cinematic experience that its predecessor is, and this time brings even more to the table.
If you've browsed the other reviews, and I'm sure you have if you're reading this, you've probably already figured out that Bioware took suggestions from players and integrated them into the game to improve it. As a result, the game has more of a "shooter" feel than the first one did. Granted, the first game was like this, but its combat system was flawed, meaning it felt like a mediocre shooter instead. Combat in Mass Effect 2 is much smoother. The unlimited ammo/overheating system from the first game is gone, in favor of a "heatsink" system that functions like ammo clips in shooters would. Some may feel that Bioware is "selling out to casual gamers" here, but I disagree. In Mass Effect 1, you could reach a certain point where you were so powerful you'd just steamroll enemies with the shotgun or assault rifle regardless of class, especially if you were playing with achievement perks that let you use any weapons. By limiting the amount of rounds you can expend (and don't worry, if you get low on ammo, switch weapons and wait a couple of minutes and more heat sinks will drop), you are more inclined to think tactically. You'll have to use your biotic and tech abilities, you'll want to, and they will have a significant effect on the fight. This game is probably much more palatable to shooter and action fans than the first one was. However, if the cinematic touches, dialog sequences, and plot don't matter to you, this honestly just isn't your type of game.
I will list the complaints I had about the first Mass Effect from my review (updated comments are starred):
- Ally AI is at times insanely stupid. Sometimes they are a big help, sometimes they are just cannon fodder you send out while you shoot from a safe distance. The squad-based commands do not work very well.
*No longer true, AI is much improved now. In the first game I didn't particularly care if my squadmates died, but now they actually matter. If one dies, you notice, and you have to work harder. In fact, the AI in general is better - the enemies are more decisive and they do things like try to outflank you.
- The graphics are slightly glitchy, most noticeably during the menu screens with the character models. My game also froze once during a pretty inopportune time, I hope these bugs are fixed via update.
*Roughly 25 hours of play, and not a problem. The loading for the character models isn't sloppy anymore, either.
- I am not a fan of the vehicle combat, I feel this could have been done better. The Mako vehicle handles very strangely and is hard to get used to controlling. I've died a few cheap deaths while using it.
*After writing this I eventually got used to the Mako and didn't mind it so much, but players hated it and Bioware listened, so it's gone. In fact the whole system of planetary exploration is gone now in favor of a scanning system (scan and probe one particular planet in the solar system to hear what the ship's AI says, heh). The scanning system does get boring, but I really can't think of a better way to do it (plus this time you actually USE the resources you find). The old exploration system sucked, though - after you do a couple, all of them look the same with different colors, and the developers either ran out of disc space or got lazy, because all of the buildings and caves were recycled. Fortunately, all of that was strictly optional and had nothing to do with the main plot, but in Mass effect 2, when you do land on planets, they are all unique now.
- No option to skip past dialog scenes you've already seen.
*What the hell was I talking about? Yes there is. Press X, same thing in Mass Effect 2. I guess I didn't figure this out before I wrote this review, lol. There's no way to skip past movie sequences that I know of, though.
- Too many times having to go to an elevator to load - the game is pretty creative about what it displays during loading screens to distract you, but it gets old pretty fast.
*The load times for the first game were brutal (especially in the Normandy, I used to cringe when I had to get on that elevator) but it's not as bad in this game. The load times are still annoying but no worse than you'd get on any other disc-based game. Unfortunately my HDD is almost full so I couldn't install the game to see the load times that way.
Another thing I didn't mention in the first review was the sloppy inventory system from Mass Effect 1 that would get overloaded, and clearing it out was a chore. It was diverse, but unwieldy. How many players would check a weapon and realize they forgot to keep up with the upgrades, so it has Cryo Ammo II on it when they actually have Cryo Ammo VIII in their inventory? That doesn't matter anymore, ammo upgrades are on the Power Wheel and you can change them during combat if you need to. They are upgraded with the points you spend when you gain a level. This comes in especially handy when you've had ammo powers designed for synthetic targets and you need to switch to organics on the fly. When you upgrade weapons, it is permanent, and available to all squad members. This is simple, if unrewarding for some.
As I also said in that review, the world (well, more literally, universe) the writers created was vast, and ripe for expansion. Bioware did not waste this opportunity, and immediately delves deeper into the universe than the original went. As the plot advances you'll encounter new places, ideas, and alien races. If you kept your game saves, you'll randomly run into characters you encountered and you'll hear comments on things you did, things you may not have even remembered doing. Most of these things don't affect the main plot, but it comes up often enough in the game that I want to finish another play through with a character from the first Mass Effect (I had a Paragon and a Renegade and I ended the game differently both times, but didn't finish with a female Shepard, who I think does better voice acting, but I digress). Sometimes this feels a bit forced, after all there are hundreds of billions of people in the galaxy and it's kind of hokey that you'd meet some of them again, but pointing this out is nit-picky if you ask me. If we're going to go down that road we may as well point out that it's hokey that Shepard was brought back to life, that asari live for thousands of years and reproduce and don't seem to be overpopulating, etc. I put this in the category of "minor gripes" that don't affect the quality of the game.
I don't really have very many complaints about this game like I did the first. I wish the squad assembly screen was more straightforward so I can know what strengths I'm bringing, like the first one had. I wish the point distribution system for leveling up was move diverse.
Bottom line, this game is a must-buy, the second installment of a classic series. The only reason to delay getting this game is because you missed the first one and had to play it! | video-games_xbox |
Good installment, but feels half done. WWE 2K14 is the first WWE game under the 2K franchise and was developed by YUKES. During the process of the game being made the old developer THQ went bankrupt and as a result, lost some development time and the game didn't feel as hyped as before, but its not necessarily a bad thing.
First and foremost, The game has the same if not a little worse graphics then last year's game. The hair looks horrible on people like The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, etc. People with long hair basically. Another feature which may turn people off is the commentary. The commentary in this game reminds me of WWE Smackdown: Just Bring It. A person will play the game and Shawn Michaels will make a entrance. JR will say things like "Oh My!" "What a ride." "Gosh." Just constant one liners and it sounds annoying and really can be better in this day in age.
WWE 2K14 has a really good creation suite and one of the reasons its good is that they didn't take anything out. Everything from a singlet to a gorilla suit is still in the game. They also have create a championship included which is, what it is. Making a championship. Players can't defend belts online or share them which is kind of a bummer cause it would of made the game funnier.
The 30 Years of Wrestlemania mode is done really well and is a improvement of last year's attitude era mode. Last year in attitude era mode some matches like tag matches felt like a chore and just was not fun to play at all. Majority of the matches in this years are single player matches with the acceptation of the Wrestlemania 2000 4 Way Match, and others. The AI in the single players are really well but the Triple Threat matches in the mode are frustrating. The match with The Rock at Wrestlemania 29 ends on a sour note as well and when ya play it you will see why. Overall though way better then last years.
Expect online to suck as always.
The roster in the game is really the best to date. People can play as anyone on the current roster, and anyone in the past from Randy Savage, to Steve Austin, to John Cena. Its the best roster to date and players can increase the roster by adding or downloading created wrestlers with 50 new slots. impressive.
If this game didn't have a lot of features and the cool creation suite, it would be awful. But because of all the content and things a person can do in the game, it ranks pretty high up there in terms of wrestling games. If you liked 13, this is a good update for you. However If you are not a huge wrestling fan I would wait for 2K15 | video-games_xbox |
Basketball Video Games Continue Horrific Run. If you're interested in playing a basketball video game, do yourself a favor and go back to NBA Live 2001-2002 years. The games nowadays are just horrendously terrible. This is probably the worst. The gameplay couldn't be worse. Choppy movements, choppy camera angles. No fluidity whatsoever. A crossover takes your player about 10 seconds and then the computer will pull off the most insane moves that's inpossible to defend. I'll hold the joystick in a direction and it will take a couple second to respond. I'll have a wide open lane and my player just slowly walks down the lane awaiting a defender to come, and create contact which means the layup will not go in. Game also couldn't be more unfair. Your team will make no shots, their team will make every shot. I never knew Andrei Kirilenko could hit so many threes. Comically unfair. If there is any body contact what soever when you attempt a layup, it will not go in. Running plays are impossible. Some things happen that just make you laugh out loud.
Now, let me address the real catastrophe, the My Player mode. I'm not sure if I've ever had less fun in my entire life. I'm actually upset I've wasted several hours doing this. I made the NBA right away even though my guy was bad. Within two NBA games, my guy was playing the entire 48 minutes. He would be dead tired, couldn't even use turbo, yet they wouldn't take my guy out. Missing wide open layups, wide open threes. My guy is 0-8, 4 turnovers and playing terrible defense yet they are playing me all game. I'm only rated a 51, I can't compete with these guys. But they never take me out of the game, it's horrible. Whenever you pass the ball, the player you pass to will immediately shoot and miss a shot. Then on defense, their team makes absolutely everything. I've played 5 NBA games. I've lost each by 40 points every time with my team shooting 20% and their team shooting 75%. Guys like CJ Miles hitting 5 threes. It's really unbelievable, I can't say enough bad things about it. The last four minutes of the game I just played, I didn't even move my player, and they still kept him in the whole game. And they're playing me instead of Chris Paul.......
DO NOT BUY THIS GAME!!!!! | video-games_xbox |
So this is what it's like to live a fantasy adventure. Rannek, a forlorn warrior with a haunted past, walks along a lonely path. He believes he is alone in the world and has nothing to live for. A dragon's shadow passes overhead. Are those orcs he hears stalking him? There is a cry for help.
Without even a moment to consider the danger, sword drawn, Rannek thrusts himself into a battle for which he is destined.
Thus began one of the best written video games I've ever seen.
Yeah, it's short. Seems that every bad review out there has this as their top complaint. You can finish the game in 5 to 10 hours. (Probably 10 unless you are good at this sort of game.) Since this game was originally sold for half the price of other games, I failed to see the point of this criticism back then, since "short" is meaningless except in the context of how much you get for your dollar. Now that you can buy the game used for a few bucks, this criticism is entirely meaningless. Even the worst reviews of this game admit it's got good graphics, nice action, and an interesting story. But they just couldn't see past the short play time -- which never did turn out to be an issue. Heck, you'll probably want to replay the game more than once.
The other main complaint about this game is it's lack of multiplayer. Okay, that would have been awesome. But isn't that a bit like complaining that High Noon just isn't a very good Sci Fi movie?
This game is what it is. It's hands down the single best example of how to integrate narrative with action game play and RPG elements. (There are plenty of places where the narrative was ill adapted to multiplayer, so the choice to be single player only isn't merely an oversight.)
This is a living breathing world populated with believable and sympathetic characters. Not a word of dialog is wasted. By the time I was done, I felt like I knew the characters and cared for them. I felt more connection to Rannek, Zhai, and Illius then I ever did for the characters of my favorite RPGs. And this was with only 5 hours of game play! Oh my gosh, the game industry needs to hire the writer(s) and let him (them) do something of some length. This is no small feat we are talking about and it's sad that people "didn't get it."
Many of the levels are just breath taking. I know, I know, graphics don't matter. Oh, except that they do. And this is on an old style x-box and ps2, no less. It still puts many xbox 360 and ps3 titles to shame.
But it's not really the graphics that mattered so much as how they integrated so well with the world, the action, and the narrative. For example, my heart stopped beating when I realized the "cutscene" dragon -- that looked so real -- was attacking me. He transitioned from "cutscene" to "boss" seemlessly. And the digital actors show real emotion. Moments like this kept happening.
And the game has real emotional impact that is so often lacking in games. I nearly got up and cheered when Drizzt entered the fray. (Then I realized I was controlling him!) But that was nothing to all the other poignant moments where the characters shows us what they are made of and display what's in their hearts through their actions. I still remember the moment where Rannek finally gives a nod to Zhai as they decide to help Drizzt fight and the music swells as the leap from the wall into battle. I truly felt Rannek's anger as my own at the trolls who had destroyed his town -- and I felt true companionship for his friends helping him come to terms with his past.
And who could forget the moment where Rannek decides to take up the silver sword -- and to seize control of his life and take responsibility for his actions.
And I loved the ironic ending where Ygorl (ably performed by Michael Clarke Duncan) realizes that he sowed the seeds of his own destruction.
Do yourself a favor and buy this game. If you don't like it as much as I did, don't worry, you can always sell it used for basically the price you bought it for, so this is risk free people. But don't be surprised if you end up keeping this one for the collection. | video-games_xbox |
Fun game - good rental. This is a review of Timesplitters 2 as a rental option. A friend and I spent a few hours playing this game and found it to be a very enjoyable game with a wide variety of weapons and enemies, plus more interactivity with the environments than Halo has.
To start with, the graphics were great. Nice and colourful, running smoothly with a reasonable amount of variation. Each setting looks markedly different from the last, whilst the characters look good but not great.
Good gameplay. We played two-player story mode and there was a lot of scope for cooperative play, in that we could let each other pick up the health packs or weapons, and provide cover fire for each other. Plus, unlike Halo, one person could go and complete a task while the other person focused on something else. Remember in Halo when one player got too far in front then the other player got magically 'beamed up'? That doesn't happen in Timesplitters 2. On a negative note, the gameplay isn't quite as smooth as in Halo; movement is jerky, as is aiming. What's the point of having a sniper rifle if it takes ten seconds to aim it accurately? With Halo you could let loose a barrage of sniper shots with incredible accuracy. Not the same here. Other than this qualm, the action is particularly fun because of the variety of weaponry on offer, including tommy guns, mines, shotguns, etc. The future weapons are excellent also.
Interactivity with environment: You can pull levers, interact with computer terminals, shoot through windows to take out snipers, shoot watermelons, etc. In one level there was an eightball table and you could shoot the balls into the holes. My friend and I spent literally seconds playing a game of eightball with tommy guns. If only you could do this in real life and not be arrested and/or maimed by debris/bullets, life would be so much more meaningful.
As a rental option, Timesplitters 2 is very good value for money. The 'easy' setting is easy enough to allow novice players to make their way steadily through a few levels - my friend and I completed four levels in about 2-3 hours - and the gameplay is engaging and enjoyable. | video-games_xbox |
An atrocity to my beloved franchise. I have been a huge Halo fan boy ever since I saw screens running on Apple Hard ware in the late 90s. When Halo moved on to the XBOX it was the very thing that prompted to me to go out and purchase said console. The game for me was revolutionary, and gave me years of system link fun. Halo 2 however, is a horrid piece of trash. This does not come from someone who hates Xbox, or the Halo series, but from a fateful fan who feels disinfranchised. First off none of the touted story line of an epic battle on earth even appears in the game, with the exception of a haphazardly thrown together joke of a level in the beginning. Secondly the graphics though noticeable better, glitch in and out distracting, and detracting during the horribly scripted cinema sequences. The story line is pure and utter pedestrine bs, that could have come better prepared by a couple of three year old's let loose with felt tip markers and giant poster boards. The campaign mode is boring, and the highly touted AI is downgraded to such a point now, that is possible to jump past entire levels of enemies without once firing your weapon. Not too mention, now your teams AI is downgraded, their ability or I should say inability to maneauveur vehicles ruins all aspects of using your troops tacticly. While Halo ones levels could be monotonos they did have an epic feel and provoked exploration, this game however is so linear, that it drives you to just run and gun ignoring the small but at time intriquing environments. Now, some are going to hate me for my next comment, but it must be said, the new weapons are a disaster. While I entriely enjoy the new covenant weapons, as well as a few tweeks to the existing ones, the human weapons have either been removed or downgraded. The new assault rifle is not only underpowered, but the lack of ammunition throughout the campaign (and multiplayer for that matter) voids it entirely useless. The downgraded magnum is left in the game but without a scope and is so powerless now that it is nothing more than a slap in the face for those who were skilled enough to own with it in the first game. Finally the rocket launcher has now become a weapon of little to no skill. One of the things I once prided myself during multiplayer Halo one was my ability to gauge where the enemy would be and kill them half way across the map with it. Gone is this skill, and replaced is the overpowerful, and at times absurd lock on rocket. Because of all these changes the only thing that remains remotely fun about the game is multiplayer ctf with vehicles, as myself as well as friends rarely bother with the crappy aresenal. I urge all who were excited about this game and have not yet been duped into buying it to at least rent it, especially if you do not have XBOX live which appears to be its only real saving grace. | video-games_xbox |
Good sound solution for gamers. I just received my Ear Force X4 a few days ago and have been busy "testing" it for several days now. I have played with it in Gears of War, COD4, Battlefield:BC, Rock Band, Guitar Hero 3, and more. I have played online and off, with voice and without. After all this, I am finally ready to give my opinion on if it was $200 well spent, or a costly mistake.
First, let me say that I have a bit more experience with 5.1 headphones than the average consumer. I have owned many, made by everyone from Kinyo to Zalman and Tritton. With this knowledge it carries some weight when I say these offer some of the richest and clearest sound of any of them. I hear details in the sound and a wider range than with any of my previous headsets. The 5.1 is also quite good, I can pinpoint where sound is coming from pretty easily, and the sound fields sound a lot more balanced than with something like the Tritton AX360. Finally, the bass is very good even without the boost enabled, with it on it can almost be overpowering. The sound continues to impress even when watching movies or TV, and the Pro Logic 2 is nice when you only have a 2 channel source. The X4's are easy to hook up, with Optical in and RCA in you can easily hook up any audio source for use with them.
Overall, I would say the sound is some of the best I have heard from a 5.1 headset. That isn't to say it's perfect, there is a very slight hiss at all times when the headphones are on. You can only hear it when there is no other sound so it's not detrimental, as you don't notice it while using them, but it is there. Honestly though, I'm not sure if it is really anymore prevalent than the hiss found in most of the other headphones I have tried. It seems like they all had this to some extent. As for the wireless, it works very well and I haven't had any problems with it, the hiss doesn't really seem to be associated with the wireless, because if I cover the receivers on the headset I get different white noise.
The headphones themselves are very comfortable, easily half the weight of the AX360 and don't make my ears get nearly as hot. It is easy to forget they are even there.
The thing that really sets these headphones apart is not the great sound or comfortable design; it's the expert implementation of voice chat. Unlike the AX360 and every other 5.1 headset the X4 allows you to adjust the chat volume independently of the other sound. This works very well, you can clearly hear people talking even over a cacophony of other noise. On the AX360 I would have to turn the in-game music off, and lower all the other sound to be able to hear the other players reliably, the X4 takes care of all that. The microphone for speaking to other players is good and clear, it is easy to remove and attach. Additionally, some of your voice is transmitted back into the headset, so you can more easily hear yourself speak, and thus speak normally unlike with other headphones.
However, as great as the voice is, it also is not perfect. When you hook the voice up the hiss I mentioned before intensifies significantly, I attribute this to the controller putting out some white noise, but it is noticeable. It won't bother you while you are talking and playing, but I found myself unplugging the voice when no one was talking because the hiss was a bit disruptive. I wouldn't call this a deal breaker, but it is a minor imperfection and worth mentioning. Even with that small problem, the X4 is easily the best implementation of voice in a 5.1 headset, and a must own if you plan to play multiplayer while using your headphones.
Overall, the X4 is a very good attempt at a gaming centric pair of 5.1 headphones. The wireless is great and does not seem to degrade the audio. The headphones are comfortable and provide clear and rich sound, with good sound fields for the 5.1 support. The voice implementation is the best found anywhere, and works great aside from some slight background noise. I would recommend the X4 headphones to anyone wanting a great pair of headphones for use with their Xbox 360 and other game consoles and audio sources. With gaming in mind they are the best solution available. However, if you do not own a 360, I can't really recommend the X4 over other headphones, because the thing that really sets them apart is the voice support. They are very good headphones in their own right, but for less you could get a similar pair of headphones for movies and music and such without the voice that would sound just as good. | video-games_xbox |
Are audiophile headphones better. If you are like me you are reading just about every online forum, watching most YouTube videos, and reading every review for the latest gaming/audiophile headsets. I think I've spent close to 4-5 hours on forums alone. Many of the forum debates go between people who know what they are talking about and stupid teenagers either ranting about brand names or repeating what their chubby best friend told them, so to help you make a decision and save you time, I'll summarize most of what is out there.
The most popular and most endorsed audio system is the Astro Mixamp, people disagree on what headset is best for the Mixamp however. It is usually between the Astro A40's and any "audiophile" headphone in the 100-200 price range (Sennheiser, Audio-Technica, etc.).
The Tritton's AX720 are the best budget headset. They do the job but do not match the Astro's sound and versatility (I have not personally tried them, but this is what most say). Opinions about the Turtle Beach's are mixed - some like them but most agree that they are not as good the Tritton's/Astro's and thus are not worth the price (X41).
Be careful when reading forums and pay attention to the posting date. Some are comparing an older version of the Astro system, pre-2009 (they have since updated the Mixamp and I think re-wired the headphones). Also, take note on what system they are using a headset. The Xbox 360 has an inferior sound output compared to high-end PC sound cards. PS3 also has better sound than the Xbox. Some are even using headphone amps. Obviously the source of sound affects the headset. So when people claim "this sucks" or "sounds hollow," while others say "music sounds great," they are using different sources more than likely.
If you are looking for a quality, versatile headset with the best sound, I recommend buying the Astro system and another pair of headphones you think would be better and compare the two, then just return the ones you don't like. It all depends on your setup: Xbox, PS3, PC, etc. They are a bit pricey, but I'd rather spend $200+ on something good than $100 on something sub-par.
The Mixamp is pretty sweet. It's powered through USB or batteries, it is small/light, and it mixes voice/sound like a champ. You can hook it up to pretty much anything and use any headset/headphone you want. I like it especially because it doesn't take up much room and doesn't clog another outlet on my power strip. Right now, there is nothing like it.
The most popular audiophile headphones people are raving about are the Sennheiser 555/595 and the Audio-Technica AD700. I purchased the AD700's, along with the Astro system to see how they matched up. From most of the reviews the $90, AD700's seemed to be the best, either way I just wanted to see how audiophile headphones compared to the A40's. Some have claimed the Sennheiser PC 350's are pretty good too, but again I figured most of the audiophile headphones in this price range are roughly the same, so if the A40's beat one, then I didn't see much use comparing it to another. I used both headphones with and without the Mixamp: Xbox 360, iPod, home JBL Stereo w/digital out, and my DVR w/digital out. I care mainly about sound, so if you want to know about comfort and aesthetics then you'll want to read the countless reviews online. The AD700's are a bit different. They have a larger "soundstage" and the highs are really, really high - almost too high. For games it hurts my ears (MW2), but for music they are pretty nice. The bass is clear and clean but not deep. The A40's sound much better for gaming (better lows, clear highs yet not ear-piercing). And don't forget that the A40's have a built-in mic and accessories. For music the AD700's stand out, but they aren't all that much better than the A40's, especially not enough to give up the mic, mute switch, and accessories. If you go with something like the AD700 you'll have to find a suitable mic for the 360 (another $10-$30) and purchase the Y-adapter from Astro (another $10). Some have rigged a mic to the headset, while others have used a neck mic - I'm too lazy for all that. For me to give up the convenience of the Astro system and create my own headset the sound had better be freakin' spectacular and blow the A40's away...the AD700's did not do this. Sure they sound a bit brighter and have a slightly larger soundstage (they should with 53mm drivers), but it isn't enough to boot-kick the A40's as if they're crap. Again, it all depends on the source. So if you have some sick 5.1 Dolby receiver or a record player (does anyone listen to records anymore?) then you'll probably come to a different conclusion. In order for audiophile headphones to shine you really need a quality source. For the Xbox, iPod, and the everyday CD player the differences between the A40's and AD700's are minimal.
The Astro system is a total package deal. You can connect it to multiple systems and it sounds great with each one. While the AD700's sound a little better with music, I don't think the difference is enough to forgo the convenience and compatibility of the A40's. Personal preference determines which headphone is best, so no one will agree completely. You have to try them out yourself. | video-games_xbox |
Glad I picked the white one. For the longest, I've been wanting an Xbox One simply because I was a fan of the Xbox 360 and owned at least three of them. Now, I'm partial to Sony and have always been a Playstation person, but I love some things about the Xbox market. I only just got my Xbox One last night and I ordered the white one because my girlfriend has the black one and I wanted to be different lol. The only complaint I have so far is that it took a painfully long time to download Gears of War Ultimate Edition even on a direct connection, but it finished and I got to enjoy it. The system functions very smoothly, the game looked GORGEOUS (I played all four installments), the controller looks and feels wonderful, and the system itself is massive, but still beautiful. It was very worth the wait. I now have both systems and I'm happy. :)
UPDATE (1/6/2016)
I've had the system for a few days and have had a chance to really get a look at how the console runs and plays. I brought it down to four stars because the one thing I dislike about this system (even having dealt with the same thing with my PS4 since the day it came out) is the installation process. I don't like that it has to install the software even with the disc installed. I understand digital copies as my copy of Gears Ultimate is digital, but I bought Forza Horizon 2 and Battlefield 4 and they both took a little while to install even after popping in the discs. Though that's not a HUGE deal to me, I wish it were a little different. Also, the Windows 10 style interface is nice looking, but I sometimes find myself getting lost navigating it, but it's not so bad. But overall, I love the system. Everyone is always fighting over which system is better, but I always want both so I can have the best of both worlds. So I'll enjoy my Xbox One and Playstation 4.
UPDATE (3/8/2016)
I've had my Xbox for almost three months now and my schedule doesn't let me enjoy it as much but I've enjoyed it as much as I can. The games all function smoothly, graphics are actually pretty impressive on exclusives like Halo 5, I've gotten over the absurd installations. I now own at least 10 games and love every one of them, and the ability to sync your cable TV is probably the best thing about this system. I watch my favorite shows on it without leaving my room as long I got cable. And that's dope. Lol | video-games_xbox |
It's Amazing. I've waited a few years to dip my feet in the Wheel Stand arena and now that I have one I don't know why I waited so long. The Wheel Stand Pro has been around for years and always looked great. It has some competitors now and I looked long and hard at them weighing the cost vs. benefit of each. Ultimately I bought the Wheel Stand Pro for the Thrustmaster. I am absolutely loving it!
The back story. I currently have the Logitech DFGT wheel for PS3 and the Thrustmaster T80 for PS4. I needed a stand that would hold both. Plus, I figured at some point I'd pull the trigger on the Thrustmaster T300rs. All of this made for a long thought process in trying to determine if a single stand would cater to all three. The answer is a resounding YES!
First I hooked up the T80. I used the table mount because the wheel doesn't have holes for a screw. It was pretty painful to get on but once I did it was a rock. As you know, the T80 pedals have no grip so they slide. Not with the Wheel Stand. They don't move a millimeter!
After that adventure I did the same thing with my DFGT. Used the table mount and because of the way the DFGT has their mount it was a piece of cake. Same stand worked for both wheels and pedals in exactly the same way.
I then wondered what the extra bracket was in the packaging. I realized that it mounted to my T80. Holy moly! It was spot on and instead of using the table mount, I could now easily screw the wheel to the base. I was in nirvana!
Between the PS3 and PS4 wheels I was crushing my old lap times when I just had the wheels mounted to a table. I no longer had to worry about pedal slippage or wheel vibration. I just drove and the wheel and pedals were locked into place. It was easy to get the set into a comfortable position due to the way the stand is configured. If you've ever done any dirt racing with Force Feedback, you know how jarring that can be. Nothing fazed the Wheel Stand.
I was so impressed with how it all worked, I found a sale on the T300rs and jumped on it. Now the T300rs is a little beefier than either of the wheels I had so I wondered how it would work. Let me tell you, perfectly! No adapter was needed. The two screws for the wheel were included in the Wheel Stand Pro. I screwed in the wheel to the mount and it is amazing. An absolute kick and joy to drive.
One of the best parts of it all is the Wheel Stand is small! I thought it would be much bigger than it is. So it looks great, folds up great, and now I can easily move my wheel from bedroom, to living room, to patio and race whenever and whereever I want knowing that I'm rock solid. Oh, why did I wait so long! If you've been sitting on the fence, get a Wheel Stand. You won't regret it! | video-games_xbox |
A Disappointing Diablo Clone. I need to preface this with saying that I love D&D, and I love fighting through dungeons. Any game that lets you set the character's armor and weapons makes me happy.
I really liked D&DH when I started playing it, but it became repetitive after the first few hours. I finished it, but quickly traded it in. Read on for the reasons why...
You are one of a band of heroes raised from the dead to fight an evil warrior you defeated years before. His power is legendary, and it is believed that only you (and your friends, if you are playing multiplayer) can defeat this undead hellion. He has, of course, unleashed a pride of monsters upon the various worlds you must travel to find his lair.
Characters
The characters in this game are good, keeping in tune with traditional D&D classes. I played through as the human Warrior (I mean ''Fighter''), my hack-'n'-slash favorite. You can also choose from Rogue, Wizard, or Cleric. Other than the players, the NPCs are well animated, but their character development is pretty two-dimensional.
Bad Guys, Monsters, and [SPOILER]s, Oh My!
Ok, I won't spoil my favorite part of the game for you. Let me just say that some of the monsters that appeared brought back some great PC/earlier console memories. There's nothing better than beating a monster easily that has kicked your backside before, and there is plenty of this in this game. The monsters are well animated, and have decent sound effects. It would be nice if there was additional variation within levels (rather than just among levels), but overall there are is a wide variety to kill.
In other graphic/sound areas: The NPC voices are good, and well cast. The animations for fighting and spell casting are nice, but are not unique to D&DH.
Will This Gather Dust?
I traded it in after finishing it in one week, so it might be gathering dust at the store -- I don't know! I have absolutely no desire to play it again, because the repetitive hacking and slashing became tiresome the FIRST time through. Only about 20 hours worth of playing time, but I only played through as the Fighter (thank goodness)! There is nothing new in this game, but that may not be a bad thing, depending on your taste...
Overall Recommendation:
If you like Diablo, you'll like this.
If you liked playing earlier D&D games, you'll like this.
If you like pushing one button to attack and another, occasionally, to use a health potion, you'll like this. | video-games_xbox |
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