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A Great Car Racing Sim, a Must-Have for all Racing Fans. The first thing u think when u pop in and play SEGA GT 2002 for the Microsoft XBOX is A) How awsome the cars look and B) How hard it is.
This game doesn't have thousands of cars, or the most customizable ones. It doesn't have the greatest graphics, or the the most addicting gameplay.
What it does have is whatever u want. It's a good game, with a ton of options, and will keep you playing for many days to come.
1) The Gameplay: You start out with $13,000 dollars to buy a car. Unfortunantly, not many cars are at that price, so you'll have to start very small and build your way up. There are about 30 car companies in this game, each with 3 or 4 cars to buy. To name a few: Toyota, Lexus, Honda, Subaru, Ford, etc... Now, once u find a car that u can afford, u can buy it (first pick a color. Some cars have dozens, some only have 2 or 3 choosable colors), then you can upgrade it. Buy it a better engine, or make it less heavy. Unfortunantly, the upgrades will have to be minimal at first with the limited cash u have. So once you've selected a car, color, and upgrades, your ready to pick your race!
There are dozens and dozens of races to choose from. Each has a prize cash award (the first ones usually only 3 or 4 K). During the race, you have to watch your damage meter, because at the end, you have to pay for ithe damage u rack up. Now, once you make a few dollars and can buy a decent car, you'll realize how deep this game goes. A) You can buy 4 or 5 of the same car in different colors. Every thought of owning every color of the rainbow in Vipers in your garage? B) The never ending upgrades. Make your car cool itself better, or make it weigh less. The possibilties are endless. And with over 125 cars to buy and upgrade (and if u want, get in different colors) this game will take ages...and will be super fun in the process.
That's just the SEGA GT mode. There's also multiplayer (race against a friend or brother, NOT ONLINE), Chronicle Mode (race cars from either the 60's, 70's, 80's, or 90's and unlock NEW cars), and other modes. Each is a blast and should take a lot of time to beat.
The cars control very realisticly as well. You can't just make a sharp 360 degree turn! You often spin out, hit walls, and the whole thing is a major challenge...like really driving! This isn't some arcade racer at the mall, this is a real racing SIM. Are u ready?
2) Options: Dozens. Multiplayer, GT Mode (built a HUGE garage), buying every color of every car. Etc...this game could last u forever. But that's not all! You can also listen to some of your OWN toons while racing! Record some of your favoite music on to the MASSIVE XBOX hard disk and listen to it during gameplay! So much fun, and no offense to SEGA, the in game music isn't exactly great. A very good feature!
3) The graphics: Breathtaking! The cars shine, the backgrounds are HUGE, cameras flash from the stands. You really feel like your racing, and it brings the game (like many others now a' days) to life! Little things like 2D crowds are a bit dissapoining, but when your going 200 MPH in a Dodge Viper, your probably not going to notice. This game is massive, fun, and the graphics don't bring it down!
Overall, this is the best racing SIM out there for the XBOX. It's no Gran Turismo, but its a very good game, and should meat many people's needs. Though a few more cars would have been nice (GT3 seems to have thousands), this game has so many, it didn't really matter. Dozens of cars, companies to choose from, and colors to buy in. Customizable musicle soundtracks, and awsome mutlipler fun. SEGA GT 2002 is a great game, and a must buy for those who didn't get it with the bundle *like me* | video-games_xbox |
Metro Redux is One of The Best Deals in Gaming This Year. This mostly just a review on the 2033 Redux portion of the Metro Redux. On Xbox 360, I picked up Last Light in the back end of the summer just looking for something to play and I heard great things about it. It soon became one of the best games I played of 2013. Looking back I enjoyed it way more than smash hits GTAV, and Bioshock Infinite. The game had one of the most unique game worlds, and I loved that it had a more realistic post-apocalyptic approach in terms of humanity's struggle to survive. After beating Last Light, I definitely wanted to pick up 2033 down the road, but with the slew of new games, and the next gen consoles I held off. Then the Redux was announced for Xbox One and PS4. Now when I saw that I could get 2033 Redux separately on the digital Xbox Store, I picked it up. Now Metro is a game praised for its story and I really enjoyed 2033's story just like did Last Light, but nothing ever shocked me or anything since having played Last Light, I knew the key plot points from 2033. It it still a great story, but having known what happened at the end, I never got excited. Yet due to the gameplay and the game's atmosphere drew me in. Metro across is by far my favorite atmospheric game. The sound, the lighting, and the environments you play through just suck you in. Navigating the dark Metro with just a flashlight and a lighter adds for some intense experiences. Nothing is more intensifying when you are going through a level and you hear the roar of a nosalise ahead. You are in for trouble and its time to prepare. That is what I love about Metro. The game just sucks you in, and you really feel like you are a part of the environment. Having a stereo headset just adds to the experience. Now gameplay wise it plays just like Last Light. The basically took Last Light's gameplay and implemented it into 2033. What I like is the two play styles you pick when starting a new game . There is spartan where its more like Last Light where it focuses more to be a action packed FPS and then there is survival which plays like the classic 2033 survival style where you really need to scavenge for ammo and supplies. 2033 to me is the highlight of the Redux since 4A Games basically redesigned the game in terms of the gameplay and graphics. It has completely new textures and it plays like Last Light now. It is a fantastic game, but I still prefer Last Light since it has more depth such as more above surface levels which are some of the more intense levels. Thats where 2033 to me misses. It has very few above surface levels which is where the game really comes into play graphically and is more key to me in the survival aspect with the use of the gas mask and such. Last Light basically perfects upon 2033. I understand now the impact of 2033 and the ground it laid for Last Light. If you haven't played any Metro game or you've only played one of the two I heavily recommend this game if interested. Plus if you just want one of the games you can get it separately digitally for 24.99$. Metro is a great game, and one of the most unique games ever made, not just in the FPS genre, but games in general. | video-games_xbox |
FC3 my Instant Game of the Year. I played Borderlands 2 and had hours of fun, Halo 4 came out and wowed with it's graphics, now we have Far Cry 3 and at the end of the year no doubt. I have been following this since it was announced and I pre-ordered, mind you I don't typically do that.
I have spent 20+ hours with this done some story missions and climbed about 10 radio towers, there is just so much packed into this game. It took a little bit to get used to, as the game doesn't hold your hands, it gives you the basics and leaves you to your own devices.
Once I got the hang of how the whole thing works I was hunting and crafting to make my hunter more efficient. Vaas is an excellent villain one of the best I've seen in a while. What I love most about this game is the randomness. Yesterday for the heck of it I decided to run into the jungle ran into a rare tiger, fought with him, killed him, then stumbled across a motorboat and drove it down a waterfall.
Started an enemy base on fire that spread into the forest animals scattering everywhere. Then I came across a cave and the game cycle entered night, cave was kind of creepy, then I heard the sounds of something in there, found some good loot, then a bear comes out from deep within the cave and kills me.
This was just 20 minutes of messing around, its easy to loose yourself for hours playing this game. There's just fun around every corner and the encounters are always random and different. I'm very impressed with the amount of constantly random content in this game.
This is my first Far Cry game, the cons always outweighed the pros to me but this one is way different and I'm happy to close off the year with this gem of a game.
Pros:
-Graphics
-Gameplay
-Story
-Randomness
-Openworld
-Vehicles
Cons:
-Some missions when your near the mission area and try to wander the game warns you "Leaving mission area turn back or fail the mission" this sucks cause the other day I found a rare animal and hunted them, once I skinned the animal I failed and had to restart at the last checkpoint and lost my rare animal skin.
-I would say the checkpoint system and the inability to save in mission is a setback.
-Also, you can't change active quest or turn off active quest in game i.e. Skyrim, Borderlands 2.
Other than those minor gripes this is BY FAR my Game of the Year!!! | video-games_xbox |
Kenny. When compared to last year's game, this was year's game was bound to be an improvement. I wasn't expecting much. I've learned not to. Regardless, I found that this year's edition of NASCAR is one of my all-time favorites. It's playable, but not easy.
Let's start with the graphics. They are fantastic. The sun glimmers off of the asphalt. Imperfections can be seen in the track, including cracks in the painted lines and bumps on the SAFER barriers. The grandstands are not the most detailed, but once your car gets out on the track, it makes little difference. There are some flaws. For example, when you are on the backstretch at Dover, there is a buggy shadow that moves along the outside wall, but it's a great looking game overall.
The audio is decent, yet unspectacular. The stock cars sound like stock cars. The crowd sounds like a crowd.
Now onto gameplay. There is a great deal of customization, so you're bound to find a setting that works well for you. I found that the auto-braking made going around the corners easy, but it prevented me from accelerating off of the corner like I wanted it to. Also, it made the game a little too easy. I found that using manual braking with a low level of stability and traction control made the cars handle best. You still had to exhibit skill negotiating the corners, but it made the cars stable enough that you weren't wrecking on the straightaways, a noted problem last year. In short, the cars drive really well, and it's possible to have side-by-side racing this year, which is really, really fun. On the flip side, they don't handle so well that you can just dirt track through the corners. I like to drive off my right-rear tire, but if I'm not careful, I can use up my tires very easily. Even the loosest race car will begin to plow at the end of a run if the tires are abused. The pit road adjustments can help, however. The air pressure, wedge, and trackbar adjustments work well, allowing me to drive deeply into the corners, roll through the center, and get back in the gas early. I have had bad handling race cars, yet I've been able to get them right with adjustments in the pits. The key is to get your car handling well that you can negotiate the corners without burning up your tires. Another plus about this game is that it is important that you take care of your stuff.
The AI, on the other hand, has never been a strong point in EA's versions of NASCAR, and it's not great here, either. It hampers the overall feel of the game. It is tough to avoid bumping another car, and the game will black flag you for it. I got black-flagged for getting hit in the rear end at Martinsville. When I play a NASCAR game, I want it to be as close to an actual race as possilbe. On the good side, there have been races where I've been a 2nd place car and finished 2nd. That's good. I've been able to run down the leader, only to watch the car behind me pass me and pull away. That's good. You'll see that during a real race. What I don't like is when I take the lead, all of the sudden everybody gets faster. The lapped cars blow by me and pull away. If I'm on the pole, I can never pull away. I never seem to catch the tail end of the field, yet if I fall back to second, I'll hit lapped traffic right away. If I short pit, I'm light years faster than the field when I leave pit road, giving me a prime opportunity to make up 10 or so seconds on the track (yes, you read that right). With my new 10 second lead, I'll find myself back in second within 10 or 15 laps. While it doesn't make the game terrible, it prevents NASCAR 09 from being all that it could be.
You do have the ability to modify many settings from how frequently you pit, to the diffculty level of your opponents, to turning off yellow and/or black flags, to changing how your car handles. Again, this is the greatest strength of the game.
Whereas career mode in this game isn't as deep as it used to be, it still puts an emphasis on keeping your car owner (and sponsor) happy. You'll receive performance boosts if you can please your sponsors. If you don't please them, your reputation will suffer. A higher reputation will land you a more quality ride, even allowing you to sign with Gibbs, Hendrick, Childress, Roush, and Evernham. You can move through the Craftsman Truck Series, Nationwide Series, and finally to Sprint Cup. There is no modified series this year. I haven't tapped into other features such as the scenario racing, but they sound fun.
Overall, where does that put this game? It's a stellar NASCAR title. The racing is fun. The AI is far from perfect, but the game truly allows you to race as you want to race, making this a pick up for any NASCAR fan or fan of racing games in general. | video-games_xbox |
Solid core with insulting progression and (lack of) substance. I have the digital version purchased through Xbox Live and have had the game for about 10 months.
I did not buy any of the expansions and don't intend to do so in the future.
When a company offers an online-required product, it should put forth its best effort to ensure it provides stable access to the server for the clients. With Destiny, Bungie has not, and even after nearly a year, there is still a menagerie (errors are named after animals in Destiny) of error codes and disconnects from Live that I and many others face. It makes it hard to review a product that stops you from using it every few minutes. Not everyone has this issue (there seems to be an ISP routing issue depending on your geographical location), but its still widespread, and nothing appears to be happening to fix it. This is not a problem I experience on ANY other game. See the Bungie forums on errors and networking.
This is too bad, because the core gunplay of the single and cooperative modes of the game are really quite good. Enemy and weapon/skill variety is satisfying and finding or earning upgrades to your gear and character is nice.
...For a time.
The base game content can be cleared in a handful of hours. There are very few locations and after reaching level 20 you must complete daily and weekly challenges (the same missions you've already done, but with enemies that hit harder and go down more slowly) or play PVP, which has a few modes, but is uninteresting and isn't a great way to progress because the other players will have superior gear. Rewards are not based on performance, however, so you may have someone on your team who stays at the spawn point during the entire run receive the best reward after the mission while those who carry the team get nothing. Same is true of PVP. Eventually you'll have to buy the DLC to progress, which grants some additional new content, but is quite pricy, and with a new Taken King version of the game incoming, buying the base game, if you're interested in it, is a bad investment, considering the amount of content you'll be locked out of and the likelihood of your equipment being outdated when the expansion hits.
Music is nice. Graphics are good. Even though there seems to be some intricate lore behind the game, it's BEHIND the game; the acting and story are minimal and generally bad to mediocre.
Because this game has significant connection issues, fails to reward players for performance, gates progression with expensive DLC, and becomes a repetitive grind after a few hours, I can't recommend it, despite the fun and polished gameplay. | video-games_xbox |
Groundbreaking. Before I start my own review of the game, I need to address the critics of the best installment of Madden yet.
First of all... Those of you who play offline franchises with your "friends." This is the 21st century. You want to play with your friends? Each of you needs to buy a copy of the game, get internet and an XBOX. Problem solved. Living in your mom's basement hanging out eating Cheetos is not how this year's Madden rolls. And when you do move forward in life and into the new age of video games? Guess what? You can play with up to 32 people. Each of them can either play as a coach/GM running your entire organization and even playing the games like you used to! But this time, on your own 42" HD TV or higher. Some of those 32 people can even play as a player? Want one guy to be a coach, and the next guy wants to be Darren McFadden? Go for it. But seriously.. This game breaks the mold and the experience is infinitely more enjoyable.
Secondly.. Fantasy Drafts? This is the NFL. You are supposed to build a winner over multiple seasons and keep your job in the process. ANYONE can draft an assortment of all-pro players and win. I've played this game for years and not once have I even cared about a Fantasy Draft. I want to build my Steelers and make them repeat superbowl champs.
Ok.. As for my review itself. The gameplay is incredible. The new physics engine, combined with the new total control passing just blows me away. Each game, each play feels completely different over the course of a season. Blocking, tackling, catching, running, everything. Feels new, fresh and exciting. The Combined Careers Mode- Franchise Mode for those stuck in the past, is so deep and engrossing you will spend hours managing your team. Scouting draft talent, managing your finances, playing your games and even practice. That's right.. Im talkin' about practice. You earn XP.. oh that's right, you earn XP in the game. Seriously? How can that not be fun being able to make your players better by them earning XP? You earn XP by completing goals during practice, games, seasons, etc, etc. The possibilities are endless. It is an amazing new game mode that the vocal minority, aka crybabies are completely missing out on. There are so many ways to play this game it's incredible.
And finally.. Goodbye Gus Johnson and Chris Collinsworth! The announcing crew of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms are miles ahead of any announcing crew in any previous Madden. The new and improved presentation, combined with CCM make this a MUST BUY.
You owe yourselves to ignore the haters. This game is excellent. Time to join the 21st century of sports gaming. | video-games_xbox |
Fantastic game, but Amazon doesn't understand how Pre orders work. The game, so far, is magnificent but im never going to pre order through Amazon again. As a short review for the game thus far (haven't finished it yet), the game feels polished and a like a real continuation of human revolution. The only issue is that in crowded areas, the game suffers from a lower frame rate and stuttering. Not really a big deal.
But onto the real issue here, Amazon. This game was pre ordered on my account as a birthday gift back in September of 2015 (nearly 1 year before launch) the card that was used to pre order was lost several months later. This honestly shouldn't of been an issue since the game was already pre ordered months earlier. Anywhere you pre order a game, you put down money on the spot to insure that not only do you have the product ready for you without worry of the item selling out, but also to plan your finances ahead of time. Spend the money then while you have it so you don't screw yourself later. Amazon doesn't seem to understand this concept and will wait how ever long until the item ships to charge you. But because that payment option wasn't available anymore like it was when the order was placed, it not only screwed up the release day shipping, it also screwed up the very specific savings I had. Had the pre order been paid for on the spot like intended, this wouldn't have been an issue. To top it off, the multiple emails that were sent out in an attempt to quickly address the situation have yet to be responded on by Amazon CS as of this post.
Bottom line, great game, Eidos and Square have done it again. But do not pre order via Amazon. Choose Best Buy, Order though Gamestop, even Walmart if you have to go that low, but don't pre order through Amazon if you really care about the game you want.
(if you're wondering how i'm playing the game without having yet receive this collectors edition, I ended up also getting a digital copy)
EDIT:8/26/16 After finishing the game, I stand by my prejudice. The game play mostly well, the story is well put, and the ending (including after credits) set up for a hopefully grande finale. The character Miller, could have been fleshed out more as well as a need for another character with deeper emotional ties similar to Malik from HR. (i.e, there is not one in MD). But nevertheless, it does not take much away from the game overall and I highly enjoyed it.
I also still stand by my deep disappointment with Amazon. The package arrived 2 days after launch despite being a preorder for release day, the fact that you don't actually put money down on the game when pre ordered completely defeats the purpose of it being pre ordered and some people didn't even get their pre orders that were ordered months in advance due it the order being "out of stock" on release. Lastly, still have yet to hear from any of the emails sent to Amazon sent on the 22nd (day before release) till the time of this edit.
Again, great game. Getting at least the deluxe edition is well worth it. Many different endings, paths, and, choices to discover. Your first few playthroughs will all be different and have different outcomes. The replay value will hold up to it's cost. | video-games_xbox |
Best in the series. Dead Space 3 opens up with a glimpse into the past, and it immediately jumps right into the action. The game doesn't disappoint as you find yourself knee deep in mutilated corpses desperately scavenging for supplies in a attempt to fortify yourself against the coming onslaught of man and necromorphs alike. The new mechanics don't detract but adds a great deal to the game. You gather supplies then either "buy" a pre-built gun, or build one yourself using a simple interface at a work bench. Same for health packs, stasis modules, and ammo you either "buy" it with scavenged equipment or "sell" it for scavenged equipment. Essentially, it's the same game as Dead Space 2 in respect to buying/selling gear only Visceral added another layer you can choose to ignore or utilized to micromanage and expand your arsenal. The environments aren't as linear as its predecessors, but often feel linear. However, with the inclusion of Co-op sharing in a new a story line as told from Carver's perspective helps alleviate the linear feel, while allowing you an a friend to share the horror of the game. Dead Space 3 expands by offering side missions to get more resources for yourself, but you can choose to skip these objectives, so instead of playing straight through; there is an occasional branch from the main story line to help build your character and explore a new area. This allows you to further take in the new art styles implemented in Dead Space 3. You travel from Issac's apartment into the slums and streets of a space colony. Then into the familiar Dead Space 2 futuristic sterile feel of a space ship, which lands you into a graveyard of ships where you'll spend several hours exploring each ancient derelict ship traveling between them in debris fields out in space. Finally you reach the surface of Tau Volantis a frozen alien world with bone chilling environments scarred with massive frozen crags and dotted with various abandoned ancient man made military outposts. The new enemies, weapons, and environments drastically enhance the overall game play bringing Dead Space's gore soaked, horror inducing, white knuckle reputation to a whole new violent level. If you like horror you'll love the Dead Space 3. | video-games_xbox |
GH2 GREAT! GH3 TERRIBLE!!!!!!!!! 0 STARS. First I'd like to preface this and say that I'm a HUGE GH2 fan. I play practically any game genre, I own all three next gen consoles and handhelds and in all honesty GH2 is in my top 2 favorite games of all time.
With that said I bought GH3 (w/o the guitar) and to say I was highly dissapointed and dissatisfied is an understatement.....
The good: absolutely nothing! EXCEPT from what I hear is that the guitar is better than RB or GH2.
The bad:
The songs. I'm not into metal / rock music but in GH2 I was exposed to a bunch of songs I've never heard before. Not only that but they were fun to play. And I actually bought many of them on Itunes. As for GH3, in my opinion, only 3 songs in total were remotely descent to play. Even songs that you think will be fun to play like welcome to the jungle, are not. Whoever chose these songs should be fired or is probably out there making Rock Band. When I played the campaign I found myself waiting for the song to finish already.
The difficulty was raised up. I play on hard and yes, it is harder but not impossible to finish a song. The only thing I'll say about this is that it takes the fun away from the game
The graphics - although less cartoony, look worse that GH2 (I guess that crew is out making RB too!)
Only certain songs are able to be played in Co-Op.
Guitar battle - yet another addition that takes away from the game.
In closing, I don't write many reviews. I have a busy life, and don't have the time to write reviews. However I am so disappointed that I had to warn people like you NOT TO BUY THIS GAME! If anything rent it. The media feedback on GH2- on print and on podcasts has been overwhelmingly positive. After playing the game I have come to the conclusion that these people must have gotten exclusive deals / interviews, or are blind fan-boys. Believe me the SONGS ARE TERRIBLE AND THE GAMEPLAY IS BORING. BE WARNED SAVE YOUR MONEY RENT BEFORE YOU BUY!!!! | video-games_xbox |
Good Headset for the short and long term players...for the price. (Used on both XBOX 360 and PS3): In short, this is a really good headset if you only play under 4 hours a week, anything more than that and you can expect them to break within 4-6 months time. There are many reviews here about how the band breaks, mostly along the right ear piece (the one with the mic) and in my case this happened not once, but TWICE. Sadly, I did not read the reviews here...mostly because I bought my first pair in June 2010 and not many bad reviews were here. In late September 2010 the right earpiece broke off but I thought it was due to someone possibly sitting on them (I DO have kids after all) but everyone stated that they did not do that. I tried to make due, I even took another headset and placed it over these so the earphones would stay in place...I am no MacGuyver. After dealing with this for about a week I broke down and bought a 2nd pair. After all I did not have any issues other than this breakage (which I still thought the kids broke but had no proof). After 7 months BOOM! The new one breaks! It broke in the EXACT same place as the previous one and this time it happened as I was wearing it, CRACK...POP and now it is broken. For 2 weeks prior to that people kept complaining that they could not hear me, or that there was some static, it got to the point where I had to yell at times for people to hear me. Eventually I found out that if I did not move the headset, wires and mic too much it would work fine (how many games do you play where you don't move around?).
So, if you only play a little here and there, then this headset is great. However, if you play a good deal like I do (approx 4 hours/day) then expect this to break in about 4-6 months time. First the sound will get bad, then the earpiece will break off. Given the price, I don't really see many "occasional" users forking out the dough to get this if they are only going to play a little bit here and there.
UPDATE DECEMBER 2012
Like most people on here, my headset broke at the earpiece (see above) however the customer service did a great job fixing it and even explained the issue. The orginial design DID have a flaw with this specific area on BOTH ears since it got so much stress it would just crack and break off. In my case they replaced the headphones at 100% their cost (I had two headsets that both broke) and I was back up and running rather quickly. It has been over a year since all of that happened and I am STILL using the headsets to this day. Keep in mind that this is a bit of a "mid range" product and there are those headsets out there that do a better job at sounds, wireless features, etc, but I did not want all of the bells and whistles, I wanted a pair of headphones where I can hear what is going on the game clearly and talk and actually be heard without peple telling me there is some static or something. Given the fact that the headphones will work on XBOX 360, PS3 and the PC with good sound and good mic chat, I think this is a very good set to have but the price can be too steep at times...you want to shoot for something a little lower that the price of a new video game, anything more than that and I would move over to a competitor. Also, the earpads DO start to hurt your ears after several hours of gameplay (think like seven or more hours) but taken a little break and making a slight adjustment on how you wear them for a bit and your good to go. I also like how the design and specs of it allow you to bascially block out any noice around you while you play. So you can have people talking in the same room and not be bothered or distracted too much. | video-games_xbox |
Well, if you skipped Madden 13. *** Caveat: I was not going to buy this year's Madden for the 360 or XBOX One after last year's game, but the Anniversary edition's NFL Sunday Ticket bundle (granted for Computers/Tablet/Phones only) was too good of a deal for me as an avid football fan (cut the cord a few years ago, only thing I've missed since then was the Sunday Ticket).
So about the game (initial 3 hour impression):
Pros
- Owner's Mode is an interesting, albeit a "fluff" addition to the Connected Careers mode that debuted last year (Coach and Player Modes are still there). You take over the franchise of your choice, and through that you have goals as an owner to reach. While you can certainly still play the games like in Coach mode, the main attraction of Owner's mode is the fantasy aspect. Want to move a team to LA (maybe bringing back the Raiders or the Rams) ? You can certainly do that. Want to create a team in London? Go Ahead. Want to change hot dog prices? Let's charge 1 million per hotdog and see the masses starve! (well, maybe not starve but hopefully you get the point)
- The Skills Trainer (also in NCAA 14) lets new players pick up on the basics of playing the game, although there is no real value for veterans of the series unless you happen to be Ultimate Team Fans.
- Gameplay Pros- if you have not played NCAA 14, the improved blocking is the most noticeable difference compared to Madden 13. While the fullback blocking A.I. is still somewhat wonky, your lineman are pretty competent at what they do. This goes for both your guys and the computer, so the computer can actually run on you in this game where in years past they were pretty ineffective even on All-Madden.
- The biggest advertised addition to Madden 25 is the precision modifier, which gives your RBs that extra "oomph" in
their moves. I personally like it, but it does feel overpowered (if done correctly) vs the computer.
- Owners of NCAA 14 (like myself) can now import their draft classes to Madden (a feature which simply should of never been taken away from last year's edition)
- People with friends/family/roommates can now play together in one offline Connected Career Mode (yet another feature that should never of been removed from Madden 13)
- There seem to be more lasting injuries (or at least my Chief players seem to get injured a lot more), a positive for realism considering I finished a few Madden 13 seasons with absolutely no injuries on my team.
- Head to Head Play Nows against friends are still some of the best gaming moments you can have.
Cons:
- Anyone who has played NCAA 14 has already seen most if not all of what Madden 25's game play has to offer excluding the Precision modifier. Both games have the same engine, and with that many of the same quirks. CPU QBs have extremely (80%+) high completion percentages, it doesn't matter if its Manning/Brady/Brees or their backups (and yes, you will actually face a backup or two since QBs seem pretty fragile). Pass defense is a joke in the short and mid range passing game (Man or Zone), though interestedly enough deep passing seems fairly balanced. To compensate for this, I've found that I've called more blitzes than in any of the previous EA football games. It does make playing defense a bit more exciting simply due to the boom or bust nature of the game play, but sometimes the CPU QBs will just drive you up the walls.
- Presentation: well, they added a sideline reporter, that's pretty much it as far as I can tell. Phil Simms and Jim Nantz return from Madden 13, and alot of the commentary seems recycled.
- As far as I can tell, there has been no mention if a Career created in a 360 will transfer to the Xbox One. Since it seems unlikely, that is something to definitely consider if you are planning on getting the One when that releases.
N/A:
- Not a fan of Ultimate Team, so no opinions there.
Summary:
Would I recommend buying Madden 25 solely for the game? Not if you already have Madden 13 or NCAA 14. There just isn't enough here to justify spending $60 on it if you already have Madden 13. Definitely don't buy if you are planning on getting a next-gen console plus this game. For me personally, I consider the $100 well spent on the Sunday Ticket, and getting this game as a side bonus. | video-games_xbox |
Groovy game with a few minor drawbacks. This game rocks. The graphics, speed, and gameplay are superb, and well beyond the old PC versions of mechwarrior. The exploding buildings look great! The addition of defensive systems adds a new dimension to the game. As others have noted, the real strength of this game is in the multiplayer mode. Whether on XBL or otherwise, the multiplayer action is very intense and fun. (An aside, we hooked the xbox up to a laptop wall projector... if you like this game normally, try it on a 8'x10' screen! Fully imersive! Buhahaha!) However, as much as I love it, there are a couple drawbacks. Overall it seems like they had the foundation for a truly great game, but then rushed to release it before christmas, or cut corners for other reasons, and ended up with a merely good one.
First and foremost- NO CUSTOMIZATION! One of the best parts of the PC versions (and even Armored Core for PS) was that you could design and customize the mechs. None of that carried into mech assault. Each of the 7-8 standard mechs has TWO and only TWO weapons configurations to choose from. How lame is that?
Only one perspective- 3rd person. Yes, you get used to it after a while, but how hard would it have been to have an OPTION for 1st person cockpit view!?
The music is incredibly dull and while a token effort was made to make it fit the gameplay, it falls flat. One gets tired of the same old guitar riff over and over and over and...
The menu systems are clunky. By this I mean that they could/should have added a lot more depth and/or options. For one example (of several possible improvements), in the multiplayer mode, there is no way to see the stats of the various mechs. This is no problem for an experienced player who knows all the mechs and their capabilities/weapons, but what about the newbie who can't tell his Atlas from a hole in the ground?
If you have friends or have XBL, get this game for the multiplayer action. If you have no friends, don't bother. The one-player campaign is pretty silly but good practice for human-brained combat- the real meat of this game. | video-games_xbox |
Fun game, but a little light on features. Well, first off, I'd like to say that purchasing this game through Amazon, as opposed to through the XBL Marketplace was a delight. It's nice to know that I don't have to have leftover Microsoft Points sitting around. Those curious about how it works, you're paying for a unique download code. You can go to the marketplace on your 360, punch in the code, and download it right away. Not only that, but if you are away from your 360 at the time of purchase, you can just hop on the Xbox website, and redeem the code there! I choose to do it this way, since it's way easier to type in the code on a keyboard than hunt and peck with a controller. When you turn on your 360, it'll start the download right away.
Ok, enough of that, and on to the game. If you've played any OutRun games before, you'll know what to expect for the most part, but there are a few new modes.
The standard OutRun Mode lets you choose a path while you drive, ultimately ending up at one of 5 different locations. There are 15 areas to drive in total. There is also a 15-course marathon mode that lets you drive through each locale in succession.
There's also Time Attack, which is self-explanatory, and Heart Attack mode. This has you completing objectives to get the admiration of your girlfriend. The better you do on a given objective, the more hearts you get, and the higher grade you receive per objective. It's a different way to race, since the objectives can vary from "pass the other vehicles" to "don't hit anything" to "drift through the rings" and so on.
The game also has a 6 player supported online mode. This is pretty cool: It's unranked, so it's all in good fun, and you can race in a variety of modes. Unfortunately, there wasn't an abundance of games available to join when I tried it out. What also would have been helpful is a lobby viewer; something that lets me see who is in a room and whether the game is in progress. Currently, all that happens is you join a game, you get put in a room that has an open slot, and usually, there's a race in progress, so you have to wait for however long until it ends. There's no progress bar, no nothing. You can't even tell when everyone in the room is ready to race, because there's nothing to indicate it. I can't tell when my opponents are done choosing a car and color and transmission style. Not good.
The game is also missing some extras that the Xbox version had. Original outrun music, old cars, etc. However, that's not too big of a deal: the cars perform almost identically, so it's ok.
If you're a fan of the series, definitely pick this up. If you are a fan of arcade style racing, pick this up as well. If you're looking for something with a touch of realism, you'll have to look elsewhere, but I'm sure you knew that already.
Graphics are clean, although there are some draw-in problems that pop up (quite literally) when playing online.
Overall, this is a great game, and worth the $. Pick this one up. | video-games_xbox |
Attention to detail lacking. Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad game. Just seems to be one of those EA Sports games that (lately) seem to have become solid performers, but are not ahead of the curve anymore.
The main problem with this game is its attention to details (or lack thereof). I generally like my racing games as realistic as possible. So I enjoy racing with the FIA rules turned on, and the lick. Unfortunately, in this game, this simply is a pain. Example: You collide with one of your oponents, pushing him of his ideal line (so he at least touches the grass). This means that immediately, yellow flags are shown. That's fine with me, except that that there is a chance to now be ahead of the car you collided with (particularily if the collision was bad enough to cause the other car to stop) and that's passing under yellow, which gets you a 10 second stop-and-go penalty. Huh?!? Am I supposed to stop behind that other car?!?
Another problem is the pit-crew. Let's say you planned your pit stop just a bit past halfway. It then begins to rain just short of that (which, BTW, it does way to often... several times during every race if whether is turned on, what's up with that?!?), so you have to enter the pits to get new tires. While you are at it, you can also indicate that you want to make the remainder of the race your last stint. But for some reason, the pit-crew forgets to give you enough fuel, so you run out on the last lap. Makes you wonder why you told them you didn't intend to stop again...
The pit-crew instructions also are bad. Example: They tell you to come into the pits at the very last lap. Duh! Or let's say you are just shy of being lapped when someone else wins the race. Of course, this puts the winner right behind you. In that case the pit crew will radio you that Xxx is pushing hard and is coming up along side while he is maintaining position. Hu? I thought he already won?!?
Graphics would have been considered cool a little while back, but the xbox can certainly do much better. C'mon EA, go the extra mile and fix these things! A little more attention to detail, a little better AI and a smarter pit crew, and this would be an awesome game! | video-games_xbox |
Possibly one of the BEST games I have played! Fresh and Unique. Obviously, all that I state has alrady been said, but Crysis 2 deserves more 5 star ratings. Just to validate what everyone else has stated; this game is amazing, badass, fun, fanatastic, and yes; EPIC!
The graphics are some of the best that I have seen in a while (this is not on HD). I cannot tell anything about the multiplayer, because sadly I have dial-up and cannot play Live. (I know, this sucks, but I live rural). With this being said, I buy games just for their campaign (and multiplayer that does not require Live). I can justly say that the game is worth paying 60 bucks JUST for the campaign alone. It is the longest campaign that I have played since Halo/2, Gears/2. COD took me a good 5 hours (on veteran), on veteran for this game, about 10-11 hours. For just campaign, this is awesome! Am playing now on Supersoldier. Crysis 2 has not left my 360 since it first came out. It is a campaign that is still fun 5 times through. It also provides continuous variation in game play, for there are so many tactical options: stealth, assault, range, point blank, or combinations. Crysis 2 does a great job in making the campaign continuously fun by providing two seperate enemies.
The story line is gripping and entertaining not as good as Mass Effect, but up there and the music is freaking amazing! Like another reviewer said, you do not need to have played Crysis to understand Crysis 2. Though playing this game makes me want to play the first.
The options of cloaking or armoring is a nice change and adds a fun and strategic spin to the campaign. Weapon upgrades and armor upgrades are always a great addition to FPS's.
What is most great about this game is that it is unique and fresh. Yeah, it is about alien invasion, but a little different twist. Actually the aliens remind me of the aliens from Battle LA. The nano suit is awesome and is also fresh. All FPS games overlap in some areas, but Crysis 2 does a great job in keeping this to a minimum.
Like many others have stated, this game is most positively a runer-up for game of the year. That in itself is a reason to buy this game. Crysis 2 has set the competition sky high for those other amazing games that are coming out, i.e., Gears 3, Mass Effect 3, Skyrim, TC's Ghost Recon 3, etc.
Crysis 2 will not disappoint! | video-games_xbox |
Great Game. I played Halo in a 16-person multiplayer capture the flag competition at one of Microsoft's "Xbox Unleashed" parties. I also got to watch a decent player run through a few levels of the single player mode. The biggest issue with any first person shooter on a console is control. Honestly speaking, Halo's control is just not as good as the classic PC mouse and keyboard setup. And yet, for first person shooters on a console, Halo's control is a breakthrough. I, and many others around me, were surprised by how easy it was to adjust to Halo's control scheme. Furthermore, it is highly customizable, you can even adjust the sensitivity of at least one joy stick. I would not be surprised to see claims in the future that Halo's control is superior to the mouse keyboard combination.
Onto the graphics... Evil Empire or not, Microsoft delivered on the graphics in Halo. Halo is a sunny world with bright blue skies complete with drifting clouds. Jutting steel towers hiding vast underground complexes are set against a background of curved landscapes (another words, Halo's engine does curved surfaces and they are not afraid to show it off). All the character models look and move organically and the vehicles, though somewhat derivative of Star Wars, are very cool. I heard some complaints about frame rate from a guy on the losing team of our little competition, but I thought it played smoothly throughout.
Because of the noise at the party, I can't judge the audio, but I can tell you that the game would be worth it with no sound at all. Halo is packed with features, including, I'm told, new multiplayer game types and all the networking software needed to make hooking up your Xbox to a LAN, or directly to a cable modem, a snap. And last but not least, lets not forget that the fun factor is high, after all you even get to jump into vehicles and mow down everything in your path. Basically, I am willing to go out on a limb and say Halo looks like it will live up to, and maybe exceed, all the hype. Buy an Xbox so you can play this game. | video-games_xbox |
Decent self-defense content wrapped in a less-than-impressive interactive experience. I wouldn't call Self Defense Training Camp a "game" as much as I'd call it an interactive instructional video. There are no points to rack up, no real levels to achieve. Instead, the main objective is educational: to teach you practical self-defense techniques.
Violent crime is something none of us like to think about, but it's an unfortunate reality of life. The organization RAINN says that 1 out of every 6 women will be the victim of an assault or attempted assault in her lifetime. And even more devastating, 44% of victims are under the age of 18. But as frightening as these numbers are, as the old adage goes, knowledge is power. Any woman, no matter what age or size, can disarm any attacker if she's knows the right moves to make--and will have the confidence to make them when the time comes.
That's why I really appreciate this title. I'll start off by saying it's not perfect. The instruction can be long-winded and even tedious at times. But if you stick with it you'll learn some pretty good self-defense techniques. Self Defense Training Camp doesn't replace getting real self-defense instruction from a real trainer, nor does it really pretend to (one of the many random tips it presents throughout the game is to enroll in a physical class to continue your learning). But it is definitely a good introduction to a very important skill all woman (and men) should have.
When you start up, you'll see a number of menu options in this order:
1. Cardio Workout
2. Options
3. Profile and Extras
4. Balance Practice
5. Self Defense Rehearsal
6. Reflex Training
Oddly, #1, #4, and #6 are all locked until you complete a certain number of classes in #5 (which begs the question, why didn't they make that one #1?). There are a number of user interface oddities like that.
You start with "Self Defense Rehearsal". This is a bit of a misnomer. It's not so much "rehearsal" as it is step-by-step training instruction. Specifically, this section is broken into 5 different classes.
1. Wrist Grab situations
2. Arm and Shoulder Grab situations
3. Attack from Behind situations
4. Choke Hold situations
5. Frontal Attack situations
Each of these classes are further broken down into a number of very real and practical scenarios that a would-be victim of an attack may encounter. For example, for Wrist Grab situations, it goes through six scenarios.
1. Crossed Wrist Grab (when the attacker grabs your left wrist with his right hand or vice-versa)
2. Parallel Wrist Grab (when the attacker grabs your right wrist with his right hand or vice-versa)
3. Double Wrist Grab (when the attacker grabs both your wrists)
4. Double Wrist Grab from Behind (when the attacker grabs both your wrists from behind)
5. Side Wrist Grab (when the attacker comes from the side)
6. Choking (when the attacker grabs your wrist with one hand and tries to choke your neck with the other).
The four other classes all each have 6 similarly practical scenarios. Each scenario consists of two phases: a Learning Phase and a Timed Phase.
In the Learning Phase, you start out by seeing a demonstration of the defense technique. Two animated male figures will act out the scenario, with the narrator explaining what's going on step-by-step.
One of the very first things you learn, which is repeated over and over again, is to how kick an attacker in...his most vulnerable spot. Admittedly, it's hard not to snicker the first few times you see the computerized "attacker" get kicked there over and over again. But of course, at the end of the day the point is a serious one--if you're the victim of a real attack, be prepared to use whatever you have at your disposal in any number of situations. Aside from this universal tactic, you do learn important other techniques.
After seeing the sequence played out once, it's broken down into smaller components. You'll see each component demonstrated again by the two male trainers. Then, you (as a female character) can try it yourself. To help guide you, you'll see a white silhouette of yourself in the upper left hand corner, as well as a red silhouette reminding you of the next move you need to make.
The Kinect does a mostly good job of detecting whether you're doing the moves correctly. In some cases I was pleasantly surprised at how accurately it was able to distinguish between subtle movements--for example, the correct move to disarm a wrist grab is to rotate your arm at your elbow. I tried to "trick" the system by just flailing my arm, but it wouldn't take it until I did the proper technique. Having said that, it's not perfect--there were a few cases where I was doing the right moves but the system failed to register it. Similarly, in other cases, I would just twitch and the narrator would exclaim "incredible!" But I'd say for the majority of cases the system is quite accurate.
Once you master the one component properly, the process will proceed to the next one. You'll keep going until you've mastered all five components of the entire sequence.
Then comes the Timed Phase. After you've learned the sequence, you then need to try to execute the whole thing by yourself, remembering what the moves are and in what order to do them. If you execute all the moves, you'll get five stars for the scenario. It's not challenging at all to get five stars, but again it's not supposed to be; again, this is more of a class than a game.
Overall, I found the "Self Defense Rehearsal" section to be helpful, if a little drawn out and tedious. But again, if you approach it like a class and not like a game, it's definitely helpful. And what makes it more powerful than a video is the ability to perform and practice the moves yourself. .
The "Cardio Workout" section, has ten sessions of progressively more intense aerobic fitness exercises that incorporate boxing moves. This part of the game was reminiscent of Gold's Gym Boxing Workout for the Wii. Your trainer will do boxing moves and you need to mimic the moves to a beat. Each move you have to make is both announced by the narrator and shown in timeline of icons to the left of the screen. Overall this provided a decent workout, and of course the motion detection is spot-on. What I wasn't crazy about was that the workouts were all under 4 minutes. And once again you need to "unlock" each lesson one at a time. I would much rather them have provided complete set of cardio boxing routines that each lasted a good 20-30 minutes. As it is, your heart rate is barely elevated after one or even two of these sessions.
The "Balance Practice" section of the game are essentially yoga exercises. You're taken outside the training camp to a beautifully designed garden scene with cherry blossoms, running water, and relaxing bird chirping. Your first session takes you through yoga moves with names like "young deer", "spreading the wings", "buddha pose", and "circle of chi". As with the Cardio section, you mimic an on-screen trainer's moves, while each move is announced and shown in a timeline of icons.
The "Reflex Training" section contains various reflex games where you punch and kick or you try to dodge and block punches and kicks with your virtual trainer. Again, the motion controls are adequate on these, but the exercises themselves are fairly repetitive and uninspired. It's what we've seen in many other games--do a jab, hook, or upper cut in response to instructions from the on-screen trainer, or dodge punches to the left and right.
Overall, I had the same impressions of all three of these "unlockable" sections. They're not horribly executed, but they all feel somewhat incongruous in this particular title. There doesn't seem to be any obvious connection between these activities and the self-defense training. In addition, all of these sections just felt far too short and shallow. I get the sense that the developer was trying to make this a comprehensive "martial arts instruction" title. But it falls a bit short of that. (In fact, after progressing through some rudimentary exercises, you start to earn different colored "belts", which was quite misleading).
It's hard to rate this game, because as I said it's not really a "game". From the perspective of the self-defense training content alone it's very good; in fact, I think it's material that every woman should know.
But in terms of its quality as an interactive game, I'd say there's a lot of room for improvement. For example, it would have been interesting to have a section where you can be "quizzed" where you face a virtual attacker in different scenarios and have to choose the right defensive techniques for the situation.
Something else I found a little disappointing is that your on-screen character doesn't have freedom of motion. In other words, when you go through the exercises, you don't really control the on-screen character directly. Rather, the system will show a still image of the character, and it will only respond once you perform the exercise correctly. I think the title would have been much more powerful if they used real "video game technology" (like the kind you see in fighting games) to let you control your character in a more fluid and dynamic way.
Something else I found a little disconcerting was that the developer invented yet another way of selecting items from a menu--you need to "swipe" to browse through menu options and then "punch" with your right hand to select it. Once again, it's a shame that Microsoft never enforced consistent user interface guidelines to its developers, resulting in dozens of different UI behavior.
In many ways I see this title as an early example of what I hope will eventually be whole new genre of "self help" titles. Some day I would love to see the Kinect used, for example, to let you do things like take a cooking class in a virtual kitchen, or take a ballroom dance instructional class on a virtual dance floor.
Overall, I'd give the game 3 for "It's OK". As a "video game" it's a bit disappointing and could have been so much more. But as an interactive instructional video, while it's not perfect, I do consider the content extremely useful, especially for women who have had no prior knowledge. Put in more peoples' hands, it may even help save lives, and that's certainly not a bad thing. | video-games_xbox |
Great, but not perfect. The Xbox One is step forward for Microsoft, not a leap or a bound, but a step. While it has brought many new features that you would expect from the new generation of gaming consoles, it also has a few glaring missteps which can't be overlooked. The inclusion of day-one downloads and overnight update installation are more than welcome, but the clunky, confusing UI is a real letdown, considering the fantastic UI its predecessor, the Xbox 360, had. Overall, though, the Xbox One is an almost-complete package that is satisfactory, but not perfect.
Some of the welcomed, new features include the aforementioned day-one downloads, which allows fans of digital purchase to be able to play new games the day they come out, instead of having to wait a few months after their release as with the Xbox 360. Another great feature is the updated game library app, which has a more robust feature set that allows for better organization of games, app, and other installed software. One particularly nice feature is the downloads menu, which now not only display the percentage until completion, but also the amount of data installed and the download rate of the software. This skew of the Xbox One also includes the updated controller with the 3.5 millimeter jack, which allows for third party headset and headphones.
Unfortunately, this transitions into some of the issues with this package of the Xbox one. While the updated controller still supports first party headset, there are none included. This is a bit of a step back, as many previous packages of Xbox One included headsets, as well as almost every package of the Xbox 360. Another issue that the Xbox 360 didn't have was the UI. Even though multiple updates have been released, the Xbox One's UI still isn't pleasant to use. The main screen is still cluttered with advertisements and apps that will rarely be used. Microsoft seems more concerned with making the UI consistent with Windows 10, rather than console-friendly. With no options for customization, Xbox users will be forced to settle for this lackluster offering.
Overall, the Xbox one isn't a terrible console. It offers many welcomed features that we've been waiting for. It such a shame that it is hampered by annoying features that can't be ignored. While it isn't everything that it was expected to be, it still is worth a purchase for those interested in picking up a current generation gaming console. | video-games_xbox |
and over analyzed & revamped a class that was a favorite among players for no justifiable reason. For myself I believe they focused too heavily on the open world aspect, added too many side stories that served no purpose, and over analyzed & revamped a class that was a favorite among players for no justifiable reason. The the game may seem huge in area, but the story is so small.
I am a huge fan of the series. The books and the first two games are staples in my collections now and things I play and read over and over again. Ok, sigh, now DAI. While there are moments of intense emotion and bits of more than worthwhile information I vastly felt a disconnect between the story and the game play. It seemed very disjointed and plagued with glitches, busy work, and tedious scenarios and activities. I finished the game yesterday at about 80 hours, and that's with doing many of the side missions and killing over half of the dragons. Something that hurts me is how fragile the mages are. Wielding magic in any gaming or story has always made the caster a formidable opponent even when they stand along. For their lack of health and armor they can cause massive damage. For me that is a balance, and who doesn't want to throw fire balls and throw someone around using telekinesis? The mages powers are staggered in this game in such a way that you can use a few minor spells, barriers, and one in a blue moon a SEMI interesting focus spell that barely does anything. My mage lacked any power and I don't understand how they can at all be considered a rivalry for the tanks that are every warrior in the game! They castrated the mages and for that I'm furious. I'm glad Hawke was not a playable character bc mine was a mage army on her own. No wonder she seemed less than in awe of the Inquisitor. As I said, the glitches plague this game. Visually it's annoying at times, but I missed whole selections and stories, and some missions all bc the game would freeze or the conversation would fade and the game would eventually *dismiss* the conversation or would choose a random reply for me. Usually one where I basically reprimanded a team member, and once it made one leave. | video-games_xbox |
Is this really a Resident Evil Game. I wish i could rate this 2 1/2 star. I don't know maybe 2 stars is enough. The game is worse than i expected. I didn't expect it to be that good, but it turned out a lot worse than what i had expected. This is more of an online game, everything is based online. Here are the pros and cons to make it easier:
Cons:
- way to dark!!! the whole thing is way to dark and there is no way to actually adjust it. Its hard to see anything so it makes the game sort of unplayable.
- No 2 player!! Really capcom?? why when RE5 had 2 player. That's not much fun seeing how it takes forever to find someone to match up with and most of the time you can't find anyone!!
- Story isn't that good. (kinda unbelievable) why does nemesis in parts look like a robot instead of something extremely terrifying? even the lickers don't look as scary anymore. The brains on the outside just don't do it for me. expected something better (not that many scenes). IT honestly doesn't really feel like a resident evil game and i played every last one that came out on game cube before getting a ps3.
-AI is really stupid. its really annoying to have 4 partners that don't do anything. It's bad when its 1 but 4? Most of the time they are running around getting killed leaving you to go in the open to try and heal them because you need back up and it ends up putting you in a bad spot.
-herbs and first aid don't heal like they used too. Unless you have the medic Bertha the first aid won't get you full like it used to in the previous resident evils which makes this game suck even more...
- Did i mention one of the worst parts is no 2 player? I would rather have someone playing beside me that i know instead of having someone online or the stupid computer to always rely on...
- weapons suck. hardly make any impact. worse weapons by far. I even pre-ordered this and had an extra weapons added on but they all suck so it was pointless anyways. even the extra costume pack that came with the game sucked cause all it did was change the costume color not the costume itself....
- no item organization which makes it annoying and really feel like its not a RE game. IT also makes it one of the worst parts in the game. They were really lazy on this one... I have to constantly drop my weapon to pick up another one to use for the time being than try and find my weapon somewhere on the ground. No more can i switch between weapons so i don't have to carry the same two weapons all the time. no more can i assign a different weapon to one of the keypad slots like i used too. If resident evil 6 turns out like this you can count me out!!!
Pros
The graphics are a bit better more realistic looking, but that's about it. there are NO improvements in this game.
In the End, I really wish i would have never pre-ordered this game. Another game that got me all hyped up only to let me down (hint ssx).
I will be renting before buying again because i don't want to have to go through this again. There are so many cons to this game im pretty sure im not getting to them all because im so upset. I haven't said anything about the multiplayer as far as versus go because i don't like to play RE games online so as far as online play go im not rating just only the campaign. oh yeah another con to this game is that there are TOO many online trophies which makes it hard to plat. I love plating the games i play and this one is beyond me..... That really annoys me too. I will be trading this one in asap.
Another con - when i say weapons make no impact i mean they literally don't. i can shoot a human in the face 10 times and they won't go down. I can shoot a zombie 3 and they fall no problem? why is it easier to kill a Zombie than a Human? That makes no sense!!! why does it take like 20 shots just to take someone down?? | video-games_xbox |
Inexpensive and works as it should. <div id="video-block-RU5BGY0UTYZ45" class="a-section a-spacing-small a-spacing-top-mini video-block"></div><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/C1KSmjlvwvS.mp4" class="video-url"><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91dr6XGvYvS.png" class="video-slate-img-url"> First off, I had been keeping my eye out for a cheap alternative to the 360's wireless adapter for sometime now, and when I saw this unit as apart of Amazon's lightning deals for $30 I couldn't pass that up.
Before buying this unit, I was sure to peruse for reviews to see other peoples' luck with the item and was left a bit confused on how the product would perform. After playing around with the various settings and getting it to work, I want to just clear the confusion on how this will perform. Also, I have a Bachelors in Computer Networking, not that that means anything, but I have had a good bit of experience playing around with different routers/switches and while reading through the reviews I was left baffled by the varying contradicting opinions of the product.***On a side-note, these types of At Home networking devices are aimed at ease-of-use and my experience had very little effect on how much more/less difficulty I had getting the product to work other than enabling me to filter out the weaker/inane reviews of the product.
Let me clear up the marketing confusion first. This item is a Wireless adapter. IT WILL ALLOW YOU TO CONNECT VARIOUS ITEMS WITH AN ETHERNET JACK TO YOUR WIRELESS NETWORK. That means if you have a desktop with an ethernet jack in the back that you would like to be able to hook up to your WIFI without stringing it to your router, this will work. For the "gamer's" that for some reason this item is targeting(most likely the xbox 360 owners), this item works flawlessly and comes strongly suggested given a few caveats(i.e a bit more cumbersome than Microsoft's options <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Xbox-360-Wireless-Network-Adapter-A-B-G-Networks-Only/dp/B000B6MLV4/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter A/B/G Networks Only</a>,<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Xbox-360-Wireless-Network-Adapter-A-B-G-N-Networks/dp/B002RS7NB2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter A/B/G & N Networks</a> given that it has to be plugged into an electrical outlet).
I'll try to give you guys a step-by-step run through of how the configuration process worked for me.
First, I plugged it into an outlet and connected an ethernet cable from my PC to the unit(for the non-techies out there, this should work the same regardless of the Operating System you're on).
Second, I popped in the CD that came included and loaded the router setup software off of the CD. This step was a breeze given that there was no installation of anything onto your computer, as other reviewers had falsely alluded to.
Once in the router setup software, I did run into a few odd hiccups that slowed the overall process. The software was able to find the device right away and I was off and running setting up the unit, although almost every time I hit OK or Next through the prompts, I was returned with something like "Error, the changes were not made" though they were... Other than that, the setup was pretty quick and painless and should be no problem to those that dread anything techie like many of those in my family, given that they read the manual and follow the instructions. And once you have it setup to your wireless network, it'll pretty much connect any of your devices that has Ethernet port to your wireless without having to run through the setup process again. All the settings are saved so you can just move the unit anywhere. As long as you don't tweak anything in your router, this unit should be able to be unplugged and moved around as much as you like and still connect you every time.
**My issues with the strange contradictory error messages were solved once I upgraded to the latest firmware
As for performance, this unit has worked flawlessly for my needs. I was playing Left 4 Dead 2 and a few other games through it and had no significant lag or difference between playing through this unit over playing it hooked up to my router with an ethernet cord. I also tried streaming a few movies from my PC, and again, it worked flawlessly while I fast forwarded/backward and skipped chapters. Though I have yet to try streaming anything HD from services like Netflix, I don't imagine anyone would have any problems given the much more than sufficient bandwidth that this router provides as long as you have a capable internet connection from your Internet Service Provider. I also unplugged my computer from the router and plugged it into this unit just for kicks and, unsurprisingly, it works just as it should.
The device itself is surprisingly small and sleek, though it is a bit of a finger-print magnet. Something of note too, is at the top of the router lies a Wifi Protected Setup button(WPS) that I'm guessing would make the process even easier by eliminating the need for the PC setup process if your router has support for it, mine did not so I can't comment on that.
Overall, I would strongly recommend this product to anyone looking for a cheap way to connect their devices up to their wireless network. Even if I hadn't gotten it on Amazon's sale, knowing what I know now about it, I would gladly by this unit again. That's my 2 cents anyways and I hoped it helped. | video-games_xbox |
Very good entry in the Raiden series. The Raiden series has been around since the early 90s, with games on just about every console since the 16-bit days. If you played video games in that time frame, chances are you've tried a Raiden game at least once. Raiden IV has a lot of similarities to III, however there are a lot of improvements that make this one a much better game.
Raiden IV is a textbook example of the shmup genre. You fly a futuristic craft, blowing up everything in your path while dodging enemy fire, on a play field that automatically scrolls towards you. Mistakes are quickly punished, as a single hit destroys your craft. Grabbing powerups increases your firepower, with vulcan cannons, lasers, and missiles.
There's an arcade mode which is supposedly true to the arcade machine, however I've never seen one in person so I don't know how accurate it is. The "360 mode" seems to be the main course, as it has extra levels and slightly rebalanced stages.
Similar to Raiden III, scoring is based on how quickly you destroy enemies. It's simple, encourages aggressive play, and very fun to execute. New to part IV is missile volleys: If you pause your fire for a few seconds, the next time you shoot you will get a large volley of missiles (assuming you have at least one missile powerup). These award bonus points, so the key to really high scores seems to be a combination of using volleys and point-blanking to destroy everything at the maximum multiplier. And as always, there are medals that award extra points for finishing levels with them intact.
While ship speed is still a bit slow compared to enemy bullets, the hitbox seems a bit smaller than previous games in the main series. The extra levels in 360 mode is where this is most noticeable, especially the boss fights with tighter bullet web patters.
The third boss fight is what I like to call the Gatekeeper in Raiden IV. It's an amazing fight with a battleship that transforms multiple times and adds on more parts as you blast them off. Once you get good enough to reach it and win without continues, you just feel on top of the world. And then you realize you're not even half way through the game and there's tons left to master.
Difficulty settings make this accessible to new players or veterans. The easiest setting lives up to it's name, while anything above arcade difficulty gets sadistic. There's also a doubles mode, that lets you control two ships at the same time on one controller, which is as insane as it sounds.
Two player mode is great fun as well. It can get a bit confusing as the screen moves left and right to match the players, but the amount of destruction is just amazing as your firepower buries the screen.
On the down side, there are a couple ships locked by DLC. They aren't really worth purchasing in my opinion, and the game is very playable and complete without them. | video-games_xbox |
Solid Game. I'm surprised by the amount of poor reviews on this game. I suspect that it is falling prey to the same problem as Fable (which, for the record, I thought was an awesome game). Two Worlds was hyped as the next big thing in RPGs and while it's a GREAT game, it's not going to change the world of RPG gaming as we know it. However, I take issue with those out there who feel justified in ripping this game merely because it is not the second coming of Oblivion.
You must give this game at least 3 hours of play time before passing any judgment. Once you get into the story line and understand the vastness of the game, it's addictive. The game gives you a vast world to explore, plenty of baddies to beat, goodies to find, and a fairly interactive and free form story line. You're not stuck to the beaten path, you can venture out into vast terrain until your heart's content. The guidance from quest to quest is available, but not overpowering. The game doesn't direct you to stick to the main story line in any way.
Ok, there are admitted down sides. Yes, the voice acting is not good. But if you want good acting, rent a movie. Besides, you can skip over most of the conversations and review what you need to know in your quest log. I thought the graphics were fine, even when viewed on my non HD tv. Gears of War set that bar so high that I am not surprised that the games which come close to that level of graphic genious are few and far between. But, Gears could also be beaten very quickly. I suspect that will not be the case with Two Worlds.
The controls are a bit hard to get used to, particularly when trying to ride horseback - but this is in part because the game tried to adapt some physics to the riding aspect of the game. Combat is also a little tricky initially (I thought Fable's combat system was better) but the combat element of the game is very playable. The camera is a bit hard to control and I wish there was an option to invert the camera control system.
The issues I noted aside, don't miss out on a great game because it isn't "THE GAME" that it promised itself to be. It's well worth a play and I would rate it 8.5/10 if you're a fan of the RPG genra. Even if you're not, judged against 360 games on the whole, it's still a solid 7.5/10 title. | video-games_xbox |
Great game, if you haven't bought the original and have an incredible willingness to learn. As the title speaks for itself if you have bought yourself a copy of regular marvel vs capcom 3 you don't really need this unless you really would like the 12 characters that are added.
- Much like it's predecessors the characters require much time and discipline to understand and master so if you have the patience & time then this game is for you. The gameplay is very fast paced, and requires much knowledge of being able to read your opponents and being able to respond to what they may throw at you....Whether it is spamming from a far with lances (Arthur from Ghouls n' Goblins), or people comboing the living daylights out of you in a corner.
- There are 3 modes included with UMVC3:
*Offline Mode: Here have you your basic Arcade, Training, Versus, and Mission mode (mission mode containing a staggering 480 combos to learn and do) at the final stage of arcade you have much to look forward to in battling Galactus and his Heralds (minions). *sidenote* there are 6 stages before the Galactus battle.
*Xbox Live: Here is where your skills will be put to the test where you can look for player matches or ranked matches, much time will be invested in training before you can plan on competing in this mode not to discourage anyone from buying this game.
*Heroes & Heralds Mode: In this mode you have 3 decks (A,B,C) each deck contains 3 slots for a card, each card has a perk that will aid you in battle where you can pick a main card for extra effects, as the name implies you pick either the heroes or heralds where you can save the earth, or takeover the earth. Each side has particular cards exclusive to each side.
- Graphics:
* Nothing has changed from MVC3:FO2W, so don't look to this for improvements on graphics if it was one of your gripes about the latest installments, the style and texture of the graphics are completely appropriate for the gameplay being presented here.
- Characters:
*With the original 36 characters in place UMVC3 adds 6 Marvel characters & 6 Capcom characters:
on the Marvel side you have: Ghost Rider, Doctor Strange, Rocket Raccoon, Hawkeye, Ironfist & Nova.
on the Capcom side you have: Firebrand, Frank West, Nemesis, Vergil, Phoenix Wright, & Strider Hiryu(for those that loved Strider in MVC2 you might still love Strider here)
In all the game is extremely fun and as mentioned is very fast paced UMVC3 piqued my interest and has instilled much adrenaline during each battle, it is that intense. Although I definitely don't recommend this game to those that aren't that great at fighting games and have a super competitive ego, to those people you have been warned.
*EDIT* - One thing I did fail to mention as it was not an issue for me, was the lag while playing online you have little to no lag, and even before proceeding with a battle you have the opportunity to screen your opponent's connection and decide whether or not you still want to battle said opponent. | video-games_xbox |
The last good Guitar Hero before it ruined the rhythm band genre. The Good: Better graphics, harder, Judy Nails is hot, a lot more songs, more downloadable songs, online play is awesome
The Bad: It's TOO hard, not as good cover songs as previous installments, doesn't do anything really new, GHII songs are compatible, boss battles rely on luck
...For 99.9% of the people GHIII is the same as GHII yet we get online play (which is just as awesome as you'd think) and tons more songs yet it is probably the most disappointing GH when it comes to cover songs. You get songs like One, Number of the Beast, School's Out, Cult of Personality and more, but they aren't show stoppers like in GHI and II. GHIII, however, has the best song list for more indie music and lesser known covers like My Curse, Stricken, Before I Forget, Through Fire and Flames, Prayer for the Refugee and more. This is also the first GH to be IMPOSSIBLE TO BEAT! While the game is hard enough on Hard good luck beating the last few sets on Expert. It'll take you months to master these songs if at all. Through Fire in Flames is probably impossible for most GH buffs on Medium or Hard. Luckily, after hours upon hours of practice, I BARELY scraped through the song on Expert.
Some new features are the updated graphics...they're finally next-gen! The game has great physics with bouncing and swaying clothes, high-def textures so denim looks like denim. The characters also get more of a sexual upgrade (thanks Neversoft!) Judy Nails is as hot as ever yet they left out Pandora and added a preppy Japanese chick. There are a few great new characters like Slash, Tom Morrello, and Zeus the Rock God. Speaking of Slash and Tom you now get boss battles. These don't play out like you think. The first few are easy, but the last one, playing Devil Went Down to Georgia, is just pure luck. You have to hit sequences like when you get Star Power but instead you get weapons. These include breaking your string (you have to press a button really fast), raising the difficulty, blowing your amp (all the buttons flash on screen) or doubling the notes. This is fun, but some may NEVER beat it on Expert.
Minus all of that you can now play a Co-Op Career which is really fun as well and is pretty self explanatory. Overall GHIII is more for indie and lesser known band fans. If you want famous songs then you're out of luck. Thankfully the game has lots of downloadable songs now. I just wish the GHII songs were compatible. | video-games_xbox |
Rough Start. I actually bought this game (with "band in a box" bundle) from a local Game Stop for my X-Box One.
THE GUITAR*
I opened up the box and immediately put the guitar together. I tried to turn it on, but it would not get power. I tried new batteries, plugging it in (there were no available firmware updates), and every combination of buttons I could imagine. I called Mad Catz as suggested, but they were closed due to it being the weekend. I Googled for an hour or so before determining I was just given a faulty guitar controller (most posts on this topic are from 2008-2011). I submitted a ticket with Harmonix and Mad Catz. The next morning, I called Mad Catz. The representative was not at all friendly, but said he would overnight me a new controller with a return label for the original. I will try to update this review when I get that controller in. (I am actually crossing my fingers that my old wired Guitar Hero 2 guitars will work eventually (currently in testing))
THE DRUMS****
Don't bother trying to sync your drums to your console right out of the box. My X-Box wouldn't recognize it at all until I updated the firmware. You will need to download the "firmware updater" from Mad Catz and then plug in your drum set to your computer (Windows 7-10). I used the battery charger cord from my regular controllers. It took about two seconds to update and then synced easily to my X-Box One. I can't really judge the gameplay as I was never really good with this "instrument" to begin with. However, I thought it worked just fine. The kit seems much sturdier than my previous version (RB 1 version with several mods over the years to keep it going), but the latches to keep the height in place are really tough for me to get undone for adjustments.
THE MICROPHONE***
The microphone is nice, but I am not a fan of the game play. They have taken away the option to adjust the volumes (singer and/or mic) from the regular controller during a song. The echo makes it sound like you are in an large empty building. You are also unrealistically expected to sing every line in the song (not just what a lead singer would sing). It would be helpful if the "solo" versions of the song were actually made for a single person to sing. After playing a few songs with tambourine/cowbell parts, I realized it is much harder to hit those with the new microphone.
THE SONGS***
Right off the bat, I recognized quite a few of the songs and bands. Most I have never heard of (and 2 that I couldn't find on Amazon music). I am really excited that I could re-download my songs from my 360 through the store in the game (274 songs took me about 2 hours to find/download). However, I have not found out how to get the songs that came with the previous versions of Rock Band into the new one (I'm assuming this isn't possible yet - if ever), which is extremely disappointing. I do like the new search and wishlist features in the music store (how did it take them four versions to come up with this?!?).
OVERALL***
I am happy that I can finally play Rock Band on my X-Box One (instead of hiding in my dungeon of a basement where we keep the old 360), but am extremely disappointed with the follow through considering I paid $250 for the game. I am really hoping that future updates will make this more of what I would expect from Harmonix in this series that I have loved and been loyal to since 2007. | video-games_xbox |
Amazing Visuals, as usual. In typical Ace Combat fashion, this title continues to push the envelop of visual realism in flight simulators.
If you have enjoyed previous Ace Combat games you will not be disappointed by Fires of Liberation. If you haven't ever played an Ace Combat this one is certainly a great place to enter the series.
While gameplay is solid as usual and missions vary in style and objective, one can't help but focus on the absolutely stunning visuals.
Ace Combat has always been known for great realism in its aircraft, but in this iteration the developer really put the focus on making the landscapes come to life. I have yet to play a console flight sim that provides such an immersive experience as Ace Combat.
On the other hand, (also typical of the series) the story is a cheesy mess of melodramatic fluff. You'd be better off skipping each cutscene and focusing on the gameplay.
My only real complaint is that level difficulty is inconsistent. One mission will be moderately easy followed immediately by one that is near impossible. Then you're back to easy again. I believe this is due to the fact that Wingman support is utterly useless, which makes any level with a lot of enemy planes that much more challenging.
In one particularly frustrating mission your comrades continually chime in over the radio to let you know that one or more of a dozen enemy fighters has a missile lock on you but they neither attempt to take out your pursuers (cover command) nor attack the target objective (attack my target command) whilst you shake the bogies off your six. There may be "friendly" planes occupying the sky with you but for all intents and purposes they are just spectators. As a side note, the lack of worth of your wingman is evidenced by an achievement you can earn for his taking out a mere ten enemy targets by your command, meanwhile you might eliminate 40-50 targets in a single level.
In the end, Ace Combat 6 is good for 8 or 10 hours of single player fun, not to mention multiplayer action. | video-games_xbox |
Malfunctioning Out of the Box. I have stayed away from Mad Catz for a long time due to their bad reputation with cheap peripherals in the 1990's and early 2000's. But, around the time Street Fighter 4 first came out they seemed to be putting out quality sticks and acquired a reputation as one of the better arcade stick manufacturers out there.
So, I decided to give Mad Catz a try and purchased myself a TE S+. And wouldn't you know it, it's like the 90's all over again. The joystick itself does not register one of the diagonal inputs correctly. If you were to start a match on the left side of the screen and push the stick down and then directly into down+forward it does not activate the switch for that input. I only get a down input instead of the down+forward. The switch is actually just above the square gate corner, which is a huge problem. If you were on the right side of the screen crouching, and went directly to down+back to block it wouldn't actually register and you would eat a huge combo.
I can't even open the stick to see if it is something that I can adjust myself. Doing so will void the warranty.
The stick also has a problem with maintaining a forward input long after I have let go of the stick when in the LS (Left stick) setting. It doesn't seem to happen in Dpad setting. I tend to use my sticks in dpad mode, but, I still happened to notice this issue when testing the stick out. Either way, it shouldn't be doing that. I tested this using two other sticks and it only happens on my Mad Catz TE S+. Characters just keep walking forward on their own because this stick maintains the input long after I have let it go for some reason.
This is the worst stick I have ever owned... Especially at $150. What a rip off. Save your money and go buy from any other major stick manufacturer instead. I was wanting to buy a TE2 for PS4 as well. But, this purchase has made me lose any faith I might have had in Mad Catz to actually deliver a quality product for once. Still the same ole Mad Catz from the 90's. Some things never change. | video-games_xbox |
Good story...buggy as ever. I'm not going to get into the story and such. If you want that kind of review, find a site who specializes in that. Rather I'm focusing on playability of the game and presentation...the portions that really hurt the game.
Graphically, this is by far one of the best games I've seen on the 360, and probably any of this generations consoles. There's tons of detail in all characters with lots of fluid motions, very defined features, loose/flowing clothing... It's clear Ubisoft is pushing the 360 to it's limits, but perhaps pushed a little too hard. Framerates are inconsistant throughout the entire game with lag being visible throughout the entire experience. And for once, I'm even seeing some issues with draw distance! At one point the system would freeze momentarily every second while running from guards (along with the major drop in framerate) which completely ruined the experience... There's also many low-resolution textures which is disappointing when half of someone's clothing is blurry while the other half is extremely sharp. Given the amount of detail presented, it's clear they stepped away from anti aliasing. This does result in very pixelated images and rough edges, but I can't imagine how bad the frame rates would be with any AA...
Game play is much the same as the graphics. It has it's very high points along with very low points. Controls are very similar to previous Assassin's Creed games with a few changes. You're down to two primary buttons, the triggers/shoulder buttons and the analog stick. I suspect they're preparing for the Wii-U? At any rate, if you're familiar with past releases you'll pick it right up. There are a few new aspects with the ability to jump through trees but it's no different than going building to building. Combat has progressed with this version too. The general execution is the same but there are many new "kill animations", new weapons, etc. Nothing too much new here.
Fit and finish could use some work still. There are multiple times where a "trigger" wasn't set so I got stuck in some area and had to restart to the last checkpoint in order to proceed... Or other times where I got caught between a tree and wall and had to reset in order to get out... Quite annoying.
I do recommend this game... While not getting into the story, it's clear plenty of thought and research has gone into this game. However, being as complex as it is brings that many more glitches to the table. That along with aging gaming hardware leads to a game that's simply beyond what this generation can handle. I do believe the PC version will run tremendously better (given decent specs...), but I can only hope they also work on the number of faults that prevent such an awesome game from being simply incredible... | video-games_xbox |
Just short of pure AWESOMENESS. I am reviewing the console and the game here, so bear with me please while I try to put this into words. =)
Pros:
1) Limited Edition Graphics are sweet.
2) 250GB HDD, need I say more about that.
3) Comes with the MW2 included, a Black 360 headset and 2 wireless controllers to match the console.
4) Elite has HDMI port on the back so you can use HDMI.
5) Surprisingly quiet in use compared to older 360's.
6) MW2 is "simply delicious" (thank you M.Bison).
Cons:
1) M$ only shipped an RCA cable with this Elite console.
2) No transfer Kit.
3) Although it's got the new Jasper chipset, it's still prone to RROD
4) Not so "beginner" friendly (steep learning curve for some)
Okay, that's a breakdown of the main things I can think of. Now, I will go into more detail about some of the Pro's and Con's.
As far as MW2 itself is concerned, it is CoD4, but better. I will admit that I've barely started the campaign, but I have spent a few hours in multiplayer. They have added quite a few tweaks to the multiplayer aspect. They have given you a crap load more unlockables as far as attachments and weapon colors go. They've given you a different assortment of newer weapons (maybe not more, but at least they're different). They've also added something to display your name in a different way. I'm not quite sure what it's called, but you have a rectangular background to your Gamertag that you set a picture to and the picture comes with a name (example of this: a picture of a flashy race car with the word "Track Star" on it). I believe you unlock it as you go through multiplayer by meeting the criteria to unlock that specific background. Trust me, they are cooler than I am making them sound and collecting all the available ones to collect might just be an achievement in and of itself =D.There are more killstreak rewards now and you can also unlock them rather than just having them all from the get go which adds another little nuance to the game. The voices, sounds and graphics are top notch of course and you will probably know some of the actors who did the voices in the game just by how distinct they are in real life. The aiming feels just a little tighter than before which is a good thing.
Now for the things I think might be "not so good". The RCA cable...um...yeah....it's an elite....and uh...it should make full use of the HDMI port...thanks for jipping us on that one M$. Not only did M$ leave out the HDMI cable, but the casing around RCA cable where it plugs into the console BLOCKS YOU FROM HAVING AND HDMI CABLE CONNECTED AT THE SAME TIME!!!! What kinda BS is this! Some genius at M$ said "Let's make the casing to big for another HDMI cable to fit if you have the RCA cables in so that it will make the consumer have to purchase our [...]RCA/HDMI cable!". What this means is that if you have, oh let's say a Turtle Beach headset, you would have to use the [...] cable from M$ to play with both HDMI and RCA cables at once (because for sound, Turtle Beach uses the Red and White Audio cables from the RCA cable and you play the game through the HDMI cable) or just use the RCA cable to play in SD on your HD TV (lame). Fortunately, a video on youtube helped me overcome this obstacle and save my [...](Thanks interwebs!;p). The game itself kinda thrusts you into it where COD4 left off without very much back story which to the newcomers out there, doesn't really help. Also, the multiplayer is just about as friendly with the explanations on what to do. If you are new to the game, you might want to find a friend familiar with Call of Duty Modern Warfare (in real life or online) that can play the game with you to show you the ropes because your gonna need a little bit of schooling about what you're getting into (not that controlling your character is hard, just how to handle everything else =D).
I tend to go off ranting sometimes,sorry for the wall of text, I'm just excited. Even with all the complaining I've done, the issues probably aren't that big of a deal to everyone else and they aren't to me either now that I've found a workaround. I would say that for [...], this is a great deal. I would give the whole package (console and game) a 4/5 rating. | video-games_xbox |
Overlooked title...lacks content, but has flaws. This is a typical FPS. In each level, the point of the game is to get from point A to point B. There are no specifics to each mission, there is very little to accomplish, nothing to gather, and there are virtually no goals. The objective is to "survive the enemies" and make it to each checkpoint, finishing each episode. There are a handful of bosses that are not that difficult to defeat. In general, enemies are not challenging, and the variety of enemies is lacking. It's a very short game, with some replay value based on the way the achievements are constructed.
The game is fun, though. The story is fairly entertaining, and the idle conversations between characters is sometimes funny. Parts within each episode are creatively titled, based on some common phrases used throughout the Bush administration. The story plays out like a typical low-budget sci-fi flick, so don't expect a lot of depth. There is a good mix of gameplay types -- from gunning, driving, and manning a turret on a chopper. The music and voice acting is actually pretty good -- the music develops at the right moments and helps build excitement. The controls are easy and once you figure out the layout, you won't need to consult the manual.
Visually, this game is superb. The character models are excellent and are about as lifelike as we can expect at this point in time in gaming. Most of the environments are extremely varied and well-rendered, with very little repetition in design and layout. Loading is tedious sometimes, but bearable.
I did encounter several problems. The game has crashed twice. I also managed to end up between two doors without clearing a milestone, so I couldn't actually open either door, causing me to restart from the latest saved checkpoint. At one time, a member of my squad was floating above the environment, and I encountered several issues of "cover crates" that just floated in the air. In the last episode, large concrete blocks would bounce away at the slightest touch, so the physics engine is flawed. Earlier levels are much more tightly-designed than later levels.
Even with these flaws, I think this game has been overlooked and is a fun FPS that can be completed in a relatively short period of time by even the most "recreational" of players. It lacks excitement, and you certainly won't feel immersed in it. It gets 3 stars because it could have been better, but it isn't bad. | video-games_xbox |
Could be fun for families, I guess. As a single, twenty-something gamer I decided to check out a Kinect sensor over the summer. Figuring it would be worth the buy because of the variety of games available (if only I knew), I straight-up bought and brought the bundle home.
Kinect was very easy to set up and get going with (especially for those with a Slim model, since those are Kinect-ready outta the box). However, here's a bit of a warning: If you're buying this for a smaller bedroom, make sure to purchase that Nyko accessory for being closer to the sensor because it's a workout alone trying to get the darn thing calibrated. Then, it finally calibrates (kinda) and I get going.
When not playing games with Kinect, you can use your voice to navigate Xbox Dashboard menus. However, in order to do any motion-sensor type movements involving the Xbox menu, you first have to open up a very primitive and rudimentary Kinect menu. And if you really think about it, that's just about all Kinect offers outside of games. When it comes to gaming with Kinect itself, depending on the game and the way you're situated in the room your game can either be as smooth as a controller game, or as buggy as a patch-free version of Skyrim. Like I said before, Kinect is very uptight about where exactly you're positioned, and if you even remotely goof it up the game holds on until you get back in position.
Now, speaking of which I found Kinect to be more of a frustrating piece of equipment than anything else. Sure, it may offer controller-free gameplay unlike Wii, but is it really worth shelling out that much more for? Maybe if you've got a lot of friends or you can see yourself shuffling through the many shovelware titles that have been released for Kinect since its launch: "Yeah, as a single male gamer I'm totally up for non-stop rounds of Dance Central and Zumba Fitness. And instead of Guitar Hero, let's play Child of Eden!" Gimme a break. [though I will say, I really wanted to check out Rise of Nightmares before I gave up on this]
To wrap up an already-too-lengthy review about this POS, I had the sensor for a good week or so before trading it in for a piece of hardware MUCH MORE DESERVING of my hard-earned money: A 3DS. If you're a gamer's gamer, pick up one of those or a couple new PS3/Xbox/Wii games instead. If you're either (a) a large family, (b) a rich family that doesn't care about wasting money, or (c) a large and rich family that doesn't care about wasting money, this is right up your alley.
Oh, and about Kinect Adventures... It's nice seeing Microsoft is getting better at making multi-colored coasters in glorified plastic cases. | video-games_xbox |
The only great Star Wars game (besides Battlefront. Let me just start off by saying I have played through the game about 4 times, half way to 5th. Even with having to go to the same planets again that many times, I have not ONCE gotten bored. This game is one of the only ones I could call good that was a star wars game. I thought republic commando was just a Halo ripoff, and lego star wars got boring after completion, and I loved Battlefront, but both of my copies broke. I bought this game 4 years ago, and I still keep it in good shape and play it occasionally. It is a cool game, don't even take it from me, take it from all the other reviewers. This is my second all time favorite game (first is splinter cell, I have always absolutely loved that game, but in this case the games are a close tie pretty much), and I have probably played it at least 600-1000 hours, and not got bored. Each playthrough gives you (A.)Over 200 hours easily, if having fun and taking your time to explore the lands, or (B.) 100 hours give or take, if you try to get through it as quickly as possible. This game is longer than any assassins creed game, and a lot more fun (In my opinion) too, and that is saying a lot, since I never really liked star wars anyways. Here are the pros and cons:
PROS: Very long gameplay, that is entertaining throughout the whole 100+ hours
Also has a PC version, an IPAD version (Which is pretty cool, too bad I only have a kindle), and even has a sequal (and also if you are looking for a newer version, there is a F2P online version called The old republic.)
Tons of stuff to do. (For example, Free a man from his crazy wifes attack droids, using your uber math skills, lol)
You can choose to do good or bad things.
You get to choose what you say in the dialogue (So you can say to a surrendered man, either "Alright, drop your weapons and leave", or "I don't care, I am going to kill you"
A TON of looting to do, with a ton of items. (By the way if you do buy this, keep an eye out for the hidden crystal cave, I found it on my 3rd playthrough, and it gives you a ton of really useful lightsaber crystals.)
A LOT of free roaming, since you get to free roam, what was it, like 6 planets.
A pretty good storyline.
Challenging bosses, which you can choose how to attack. (For example, about 10 hours or so into the game, you meet a rancor which you have to get past, you can either attack him (Kind of dumb), OR you can put a vial that attracts him with a grenade attached, so he will eat the grenade.
You can switch between party members, so you don't have to play the same person the whole time.
CONS: Even though the Xbox version is the best, it costs more then a new just released game, but trust me, it is worth it (even though I got mine from a friend, had to give it back since it wasn't working, then found another one out of the 90 dollar ones for only 30 dollars. Steal!
Some people may not like the style of fighting, but if you just spam the attack button, it is almost like you are controlling it anyways...
The game is old, so don't expect Crysis graphics or something like that.
You pretty much have to throw your life down the drain for a couple of months for this one. (I literally spent every single day for about a month just staying in my basement playing through this through as a good guy, then a bad guy.)
Overall, this game is amazing, but you have to keep in mind it is old, and costs a lot because of it, but this game is one of the best star wars games ever. If you can't afford it, get the PC version for 10 dollars. The fighting will be a little bit worse, since instead of mashing A you have to actually click on the guy you want to attack, but it is still worth getting if you can't afford a 10 year old game for 90 dollars. Overall, I give this game a 9.8/10. | video-games_xbox |
The Persian Formally Known as Prince. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is available for the XBOX, Playstation 2,
Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance and PC. This review is in reference to the XBOX version.
Prince of Persia the video game was released in its very first incarnation 17 years ago for the 8bit Apple II series personal computer. Players were wowed with its fresh style of game play that used acrobatics and swashbuckling to solve action based puzzles and aid you on your way though the stages. You didn't have projectile weapons to blast enemies from a distance, just your agility, wit and trusty sword for intense close quarters combat. Other games in the same vein came soon after to create a series, however, not until The Sands of Time did the Prince of Persia truly begin to rule.
You play as the young Prince. The story begins as your naivet? and your attraction to the alluring dark magic dagger force you foolishly claim it as your own. As a result, you unwittingly unleash the sands of time along with a deadly evil. You must now right the wrong you have created by seeking and destroying all of the evil creatures you released and recollecting the sands of time from their fallen corpses.
You will acquire new strengths and abilities as you collect the sands. These abilities will allow you to control time itself. You will be able to slow time to gain an advantage over your enemies and even reverse time to make second attempts when you fail to conquer an obstacle (or face your death). In addition to these temporal abilities the prince possesses cat-like acrobatic skills, such running on walls and incredible fighting skills all combined to make a truly powerful being.
The game is beautiful, amazingly beautiful. I had never seen a game that looked so soft and inviting while at the same time evil and menacing. The environments are lush, expansive and richly detailed. The game play is very fluid with a comprehensive combat system that just feels right and is loads of fun to use. This is one of the rare games that you simply cannot stop playing until you reach the end. Utterly superb! | video-games_xbox |
Huge Letdown. I've been a fan of the NBA 2K games since the original one on the Dreamcast, and although each new year doesn't always bring a lot of game-changing new features, it's always been the best basketball game out there. Trying to play the Xbox One version has been a nightmare though.
In terms of changes over the previous versions I have played on XBox 360 and other consoles:
The Good
- The more storyline oriented aspect of MyCareer is nice. Certainly better than the old "answer the same old questions at a press conference over and over" system, and they could probably build on it for future years.
- Looks nice
The Bad
- Very microtransaction heavy. That's fine for a free-to-play game, but when I pay $60 for a next-gen AAA title and then get forced to spend $20 on fake money to unlock core aspects of the game (especially in MyGM mode) it becomes very annoying. There should be more of a system to earn arbitrary amounts of money in game by grinding (maybe practice?) because right now the in-game microtransactions heavily favor players who pay for extra money.
The Ugly
- Always online connectivity requirements for the main offline single-player mode combined with huge server problems is a terrible combination. There's no benefit to the player for forcing the single player modes to be connected, and the end result so far is that I have only been able to play the game for a few hours on two different days in the last week I've owned it. And adding insult to injury, today the saves I had made for that amount of time stopped working and it seems that I have to start all over. Submitted a ticket to 2K last week and never got a response, but checking online shows that pretty much everyone else who bought the game is in the same boat.
Overall this is the worst rollout and initial playing experience of any game I've ever owned. It's understandable to have server problems the first few days but things are just getting worse rather than better, and I don't trust 2K to make things right. There are hundreds of games that cost a fraction of the price of this one that would be a better buy, don't waste your money. | video-games_xbox |
Perfect: Just like a yoga master. My husband and I bought the Kinect for Christmas with the intention of playing Dance Central. While we love the Dance Central game, I have to admit that The Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout is my favorite "game." I use the term "game" lightly as it really is a workout. I have the Wii and own Wii Fit (and Wii Fit Plus) & EA Sports, but The Biggest Loser for Kinect is the best workout game I have played. It is so wonderful to work out and not have to worry about any controller.
What I like:
*As I said before, I love that there is no controller to worry about. This makes it feel more like a workout routine and easier to focus on actually doing the moves rather than wondering where to put a controller.
*Workout Customization. The Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout allows the user to take a fitness test before deciding on a routine. This helps place your workout in an appropriate level of difficulty. However, you are still able to change the difficulty, if you want an easier or harder workout. The system also lets the user chose what areas of the body they want to focus on. I will be honest, I am pretty out of shape and was worried that the game would be too difficult for me, and was surprised when I was placed in the "moderate" level. This was a challenge, but not crazy hard. I am happy to know that there are still several levels that are more difficult that I can progress into.
*So, it sounds crazy, but I like that the trainers provide feedback and encouragement. This helps motivate me to finish the workout or push through a difficult exercise. I have to admit, Bob says: "Perfect, just like a yoga master" so many times I hear it in my sleep, but it still helps. The trainer checks in and asks how you are holding up or if you need a break. The Kinect allows for you to respond verbally, which is awesome.
*Lifestyle tips. Although many of the lifestyle tips are common sense, I like that the game provides challenges to the user in their daily life. The game also has recipes and additional tips, but I have not really used these much. The few that I checked out seemed cool, though.
*Customization. The game lets you select how long your workouts are (from less than 15 minutes and up) and how often you work out. I like that I am able to create my schedule and feel awesome when I stick to it.
What I don't like so much:
*Controls. While working out, I have no issues with the Kinect sensing my movements. However, trying to select something off the main menu is difficult. I don't know why it is a problem in this game, as I have Dance Central and don't have this issue. I wish you could use the XBox controller to navigate through some of these menus. For example, creating your avatar is pretty painful and takes too long. I finally gave up and used the default avatar out of frustration. But again, once I was in the game working out, I didn't have a problem.
*Graphics. I realize that I didn't buy this game for the flashy graphics, but instead wanted an excellent workout. While the graphics aren't horrible, they are not the best. Trust me, though, you won't notice when you are working out. :)
Overall, I really love this game. In my opinion (as someone who didn't exercise a lot), it is an excellent workout. It's challenging, and although I was a bit sore after a few of the workouts, I feel better. I am only a few weeks into the program and have noticed that when I started, I had a hard time doing the amount of jumping jacks in the routine, now I am able to do double the amount. It's a small victory, but I am proud of it. | video-games_xbox |
Well done RTS for the console. Halo Wars is a truly fantastic RTS game for the console. I've been wanting to play an RTS game for a while since StarCraft and Warcraft3. While I haven't been a big fan of Age of Empires, I did enjoy Age of Mythology on the PC. I was happy to hear that Ensemble Studios was going to be doing Halo Wars and they would make sure everything worked as it should on a console.
The game is fast paced and there are enough units to keep things entertaining. Each unit has a purpose and has advantages over other types of units. The population limit is pretty low (50, i think) but it doesn't detract from the action within the game. In fact, you'll need to scout regularly to gather intel on what the enemy has so that you can make sure that your units can properly defend (or attack).
There is no resource gathering like in other RTS games, in the traditional sense at least. By that, I mean there is no dedicated unit to gather materials such as vespene gas or gold. However, there are two types of resources: Reactors and Supply Depots. The supply depos generates the resource for building units, while the number of reactors enables strong units and more advanced buildings to be created. Because each base has a limited amount of 'slots' for each building, you'll find yourself trying to figure out which building is the most important to build next. Do you build additional supply depots to increase your marine production? Or do you build another reactor so that you can build the vehicle producing buildings and begin pumping out vehicles? Or is the academy needed, instead?
There are a couple of shortcomings of the game. The pathfinding of the units can be frustrating at times. However, I was used to playing StarCraft and micromanaging units is a necessity at times, but it wasn't necessary most of the time in HW and it took some getting used to. The campaign is pretty short (finished it in 3 days of casually playing) since you only get to play the UNSC and not the convenet. However, you are able to play the covenant in skirmish. Nevertheless, there's enough in the campaign to give it replay value to get the achievements, increase your medal earned, and to hunt for black boxes/skulls.
The cut scenes are beautifully done and it really adds a great deal of immersion to the game. I would have liked to seen more, but that may take away from the action.
In the end, I'm happy with Bungie (edit: I mean the now defunct Ensemble Studios) has done with HW and I am looking forward to a sequel. In the meantime, this game has enough replay value until that game does arrive.
Halo Wars is a fun, action-oriented, and challenging. Anyone who isn't expecting a FPS game or a close-minded PC RTS fanatic will thoroughly enjoy this game. | video-games_xbox |
Like watching a Greek Tragedy. Before I begin, let me say that I own Halo 1,2,3, and Reach. I've even read some of the books.
By the time I got to Reach, my love of the franchise had dwindled quite a bit, but I played the hell out of Halo in LAN parties and I really felt I needed Halo CE Anniversary so I could experience some quality nostalgia.
I played through the whole campaign, and it's pretty much the same. Though it would seem there was a plot point added involving a cutscene where Guilty Spark 343 has a conversation with an unidentified construct. I don't recall that being in the original and If 343 Industries intends to change Halo history, then I'm going to be a tad miffed. Or should I say, more miffed.
I expected this to be a multiplayer gem. It's not. First mistake, they didn't remake all the original Halo multiplayer maps, or if they did, they aren't included on the disc. Second mistake, NONE of the maps are on the disc! You need a download code which is included, so access to XBL is essential. Third mistake, not making the consumer aware of this before purchase.
I expected this game to have NO fewer features than the original, and I am livid that there are only 6 multiplayer maps available and that they aren't even all from the original Halo. I feel like I was robbed, and I am expecting 343 Industries to try and sell me the other half of the game VIA DLC. I will not buy that. I bought the original, I bought the sequels, and I've had enough. This idea that you can nickel and dime your customers to death has been played out by EA. If you're going to pull that crap you need to release the base game for free like Farmville and make your money solely off the DLC.
Does the game look nice, yes. I'll give it that. It's even kind of neat that you can switch between the 2 game engines. But even at the most intense moments, the game still seems to suffer from nasty frame rate issues, which is kind of sad because graphically I think they could have made it look better. Just a hunch, but that limitation is probably caused by the hardware being made to run both engines simultaneously.
Also, I realize that it's basically the same single player game that was produced 10 years ago. But having played so many other games since then, you become aware of just how stupidly repetitive the campaign is. By the time you're trying to get the index and following 343 around like a lap dog you begin to be so annoyed that you want to shoot yourself in the head. Which loops back to the main problem. Halo's saving grace was always the multiplayer. Releasing this without all the original maps makes this game essentially worthless. I mean the very LEAST they should have done was port the original maps over without bothering to gussy them up. Just having those available for online multiplayer would have made it a worthy purchase. But I guess they settled for the least they could have done instead of the least they should have done.
So this is where I part ways with the Halo Franchise. I'm not giving you another penny. | video-games_xbox |
Together At LAST. I just bought this bundle recently. You can't beat the amazon price of $32.99 for 2 game of the year titles! Both go for $29.99 individually.
Bioshock is a twisted first person shooter that takes you to the depth of the water where a city was built called rapture. Parents beware this game is pretty demonic and sick! I would definitely recommend at least 17 years or older to play. Lots of dead or undead creatures lurking around with sedistic tendencies. You can harvest or rescue little girls and as you play you unravel the mysteries of the city rapture. I have yet to finish the game but im half way through and it's safe to say i will be buying the sequel bioshock 2 when it releases. The storyline to this game is amazing! I swear it will have you hooked for a few days straight on some 8 hour gaming sessions. The graphics are well detailed and the theme takes a kind of old fashioned look to it (hard to describe but reminds me of old movies back in the day) like a 1940's look. This game is not short by any means so if you rent it, you better give take some days off from work because a couple hours here and there will take you past your rental lease hahaha. Also, there is a free dlc on xbox live for this game.
oblivion is a beautifully rendered fantasy type of game. not like the traditional rpg's where you push a button to fight or push this button to cast a spell and then you watch a cutscene do the work. it's like a first person shooter if you will...if you loved fable, fable 2 or even mass effect you will definitely love this game! there is tons of dlc's for this game via xbox live. again, i haven't finished this game yet but the graphics and visuals are breathtaking, the load times are quite long but there was so much depth put into this game that it makes it understandable and tolerable. The character creation in this game is by far amongst the most specific and detailed ive come across! there is tons of different routes you can take through out the game through side quests and the main story mode helping evolve your character into whatever you dreamt it to be. many different skills to level up through and character traits to build on but as you upgrade the cpu's upgrade as well so you won't just be dominating entirely through out the game.
i know i didn't get way in depth on the review but i figure if you want the best reviews on each game look at the reviews on each game separately but trust me this is the best bang for your buck on two game of the year titles...just look at the picture! both combined won over 80 game of the year awards. | video-games_xbox |
Updated version - WIRELESS headphones for my XBox One. <div id="video-block-R30M0V354ERXH7" class="a-section a-spacing-small a-spacing-top-mini video-block"></div><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/C1xFF1P6stS.mp4" class="video-url"><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/911PGuFUGkS.png" class="video-slate-img-url"> I read some of the earlier reviews and it seems there was some issues with the earlier version of these headphones. As you can see in my video, I had no problems connecting or pairing the headphones. The process was quick and once it was paired, I was able to use the voice commands on my XBox One through the microphone and hear them clearly through the headphones.
The headphones are extremely comfortable with thick padded ear cushions and headrest, making it comfortable to wear for hours of playing games or watching movies. I am constantly yelling at my daughter to turn down the volume when she is using the XBox One since it is located in her bedroom. She is constantly watching Netflix or Amazon Movies on Demand. Now she can watch without the worries of wires running across the room and listen in the comforts of her bed. Also now with the mic right near her mouth it seems like the XBox responds better to voice commands. I can't really comment on the chatting abilities since she really is not the type of gamer to chat online. However she does have the Microsoft Xbox One Stereo Headset Adapter and Kinect if she wants to take advantage of having the best online chat gaming experience.
Battery life of the headphones is pretty long. The only annoying feature she has come across is that when the headphones are turned off the transmitter goes back in pairing mode and starting blinking red and blue repeatedly. We turned the transmitter over so the back is showing and now the problem is fixed - no more bright lights blinking at bedtime.
Time to get rid of those wires and get a wireless headset - you will ask yourself why you waited so long.
Review sample. | video-games_xbox |
Slick game! A well-deserved 4.5 stars. This is a truly superb game. It is fun and fast and slick and kick-ass. It can also be political, sensitive, sneaky, greedy, and everything in between. The interface (and game itself for that matter) is fully perfected. They even included minute adjustments for every control, if it doesn't match up to what you are looking for. But for me (I have been a gamer for closing in on 30 years now) everything was perfect other than the head bob, which I had to turn down.
The game has fighting with olde fashioned weapons as well as cool magic effects. But they don't overdo it with a sub-machine gun. You can get by with 10 bullets and 10 darts. The magic effects are some of the most interesting I've used. There are only about 8 or 10, which you can choose as the game goes on. The best of course is the ability to summon rats from the ground to attack your foes for you. Nothing like hiding on a building and watching your foes dance and swat at rats.
The graphics are beautiful and fast. Never did I have an issue with loading times or stuttering. The story length (while leaving me with a hankering for more) is a good length. As you progress, your choices shape your path. Whether you prefer to knock people out, sneak around them, or kill them will change your game and how other characters view you. I still contend that it's pretty friggin hard to play these levels without killing or without being seen. Sometimes people do need to be killed if they're in between you and your mission. Other times it's perfectly appropriate to let characters live.
The one area where the game both excels and loses 0.5 stars is the objective navigation. As you get a new objective you can see the arrow on your screen as well as the distance away. And as you enter rooms, things you can interact with will shine a bit, so you never miss anything. I've never played a game this slick in this area before, and it makes gaming a breeze.
But it also removes at least some of the fun in playing, since there is no need to "find" anyone, you always know where the secret rooms are or where someone has moved to. And if you see nothing shiny in the room you are in, you simply leave, rather than poking through a bit more. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather have a game err on this side, rather than so confusing you have no idea where to go, poking around for hours. But this game goes a little to easy on the gamer, the only place where it fell short to me.
But so much else was amazing, and it was so much nicer than Witcher 2 I was playing, and the magic effects are so useful and creative (try possessing a rat to get around a guard) that this is a truly must-play. Something in the neighborhood of Half-Life or Deus Ex, but with many of what I like to call "lessons learned". You can tell this was tested and tested and then retested. I've never played a slicker game. | video-games_xbox |
A Completely Unnecessary Reboot That Has A Relatively Deeper Gameplay Experience. Homefront: The Revolution, officially developed by Dambuster Studios and published by Deep Silver, is a complete reimagining of the alternative history story of North Korea becoming extremely powerful and trying to conquer all of America. The one word that I could use to basically sum up this entire series would be Unoriginal. The first Homefront game was basically a clone of Call Of Duty and Battlefield, the two juggernaut FPS franchises that were at the height of their popularity when it was released in 2011. HTR, on the other hand, is basically a clone of popular open-world FPS franchises Far Cry and Crysis. Comparing these two entries to each other, the first game had the better story, but the second game has the better gameplay experience. If these two aspects were properly combined, there is a chance that the Homefront series could have a small chance at better establishing itself as its own unique brand.
In this completely redone origin story, you play as Ethan Brady, a rookie resistance grunt in Philadelphia where the North Koreans (Norks) have taken over virtually the entire city. Things immediately go south when your crew is executed and the leader of The Resistance, Benjamin Walker, is arrested. You make your way to an underground subway tunnel that turns out to be a primary resistance stronghold. After they find out who you are, you're welcomed into their ranks. Now, its up to you to take back the different zones of Philadelphia and inspire its citizens to rise up against the Nork invaders.
Even though the core gameplay of HTR is really not original in any way, it still manages to provide a deeper and more layered experience than the first game. Similar to Far Cry, you have to conquer enemy strongholds through the city in order to transform them into new supply points. To do this, you can play stealthily with silenced weapons and melee takedowns, or you can go in guns blazing. The one aspect that really elevates this game is the extensive weapon building and customization systems, similar to Crysis. Once you buy special conversion kits, you're able to completely change the foundation of your weapons. For example, a pistol can be changed into a sub-machine gun, a pump-action shotgun can be converted into a fully automatic one thats drum-fed, an assault rifle can become a light machine gun, a sniper rifle can be transformed into a mini rocket launcher, and a flamethrower can even be created from a crossbow! In addition to all of this, you're able to combine random scrap that you find in the environment into different improvised weapons like Molotov cocktails, pipe bombs, noisemaker distractions, hacking devices, and tiny explosive RC cars. Of course, theres also the standard open-world aspect of personally upgrading your character. At any friendly supply point, street merchant, or stronghold, you can spend money that you collect on many improvements. These provide benefits like quieter movement, decreased reload time, a longer slide distance, better protection from damage, and higher accuracy.
The sections of the city of Philadelphia are split into two different zones: red and yellow. Your objectives in Red zones basically just involve pushing your way through the enemy forces and capturing key stronghold locations. Yellow zones, however, are different because civilians are allowed to reside in them. In this case, you have to perform certain actions that will cause the civilians to rebel against the Norks, and then fulfill some additional story missions to finally reclaim the entire section. These zones also allow you to exercise a much higher degree of stealth, since you're able to make use of designated hiding spots in order to make your enemys alert level go away. Scattered throughout the different zones are special resupply drops with hidden motorbikes. These are especially helpful, as you can use them to rapidly navigate the landscape, track special Resistance stashes, and avoid enemy forces along the way.
HTR suffered from a deeply troubled development history, which included development and publishing duties being shuffled around between numerous companies after the developers of the first game Kaos Studios went out of business and original publisher THQ filed for bankruptcy and was forced to sell off all of its assets. This painful process unfortunately resulted in some negative aspects that mar both the story and the gameplay. For its story, the fact that HTR is a complete reboot hurts the entire universe. The original Homefront had a scarily plausible, near-future story about North Korea, under the leadership of its real-life dictator Kim Jong Un, becoming a global superpower and conquering other countries after a series of catastrophic events devastated the rest of the world. The first games portrayal of North Koreas occupation of America was shockingly brutal, and included barbaric mistreatment and executions of innocent civilians, as well as overflowing mass graves and concentration camps. HTR, however, completely recreates an alternative, convoluted past history where North Koreas Silicon River became the face of world technological advancements in the 1970s instead of Californias American Silicon Valley. The North Koreans then sell their proprietary technology, mainly created by their Apex Corporation, to all other countries of the world, including the US. When the US experiences massive financial issues and cant pay back its debt to North Korea, it subsequently invades the country after it activates a secret backdoor that shuts down all of Americas military technology. Using American citizens as slave labor, North Korea begins to strip-mine the USs valuable natural resources in order to pay off the debt. In all honesty, this version of the story feels like a secondhand Call Of Duty where you're fighting against yet another generic evil corporation/federation, in this case, the Apex Corporation. With the complete reinvention of past history, the story no longer has any grounding in reality, and therefore contains no degree of plausibility or relatability at all.
The gameplay has also sadly suffered as a result of the constant shift between multiple developers and publishers. For example, after every auto-save, the framerate suffers from extreme seizures, although this is admittedly better than before recent patches where the entire game would completely freeze for several seconds before resuming. Also, for a game that supposedly emphasizes stealth, there are very few ways that you can actually kill enemies silently. The only core weapon types that you can add suppressors to are the pistol and its sub-machine/pneumatic variants, as well as the crossbow. When you're spotted, the game just continuously bombards you with respawning enemies until you somehow manage to hide or break their line-of-sight. In the red zones, this happens when you're caught by KPA zepplins, which keep you in its spotlight and direct all KPA troops to your exact position. In the yellow zones, this happens when a security camera or Nork recognizes you. To add insult to injury, some strike points require that you eliminate all occupying enemies before you can reclaim them. If you're spotted, enemies just keep endlessly pouring in and overwhelming you, especially heavy gunners, who are insanely armored and wield light machine guns. Liberating these strike points therefore becomes more about luck than actual skill.
The production quality of HTR is shockingly decent for the most part. The graphics, powered by the much-beloved CryEngine, help to really sell the idea of an occupied Philadelphia. The contrast between the Red Zones and the Yellow Zones is used to great effect, with the former resembling desolate, bombed-out wastelands where the Norks will shoot any intruders on sight, and the latter resembling polished internment camps where all civilians are under constant, heavy security. The real-time day-and-night cycle also manages to produce some pleasing views, with sunlight bathing the landscape during the day, and nighttime allowing the stellar lighting effects from alternative sources to really pop, especially when you use your flashlight in pitch-black areas. The sound design is pretty impressive as well, especially the deep bassy horn of the KPA Zepplins and the loud cracks of your firearms.
I actually feel sorry for HTR. Had it not experienced all the unfortunate mishaps that it did, it could have ended up becoming a vastly superior sequel to the original game. As it stands now, the new story ends up being disappointingly sub-par, and the open-world shenanigans are constantly at war with each other over how you should approach the situation versus the limitations that you're forced to work with. Overall, it has greater depth in its gameplay than the original, but fails to make its different elements come together as a logical and cohesive whole. | video-games_xbox |
To buy or not to buy the SFIV Collector's Edition. That is the question.
What you get with this
Street Fighter IV game for Xbox 360
-What more can I say about this? The game is solid to me, they really put a lot of thought into the technical aspect of the game and it has a high replay value. The characters look amazing and the online battle system is mostly fluid when connected to someone with a decent connection.
A limited-edition Crimson Viper figurine (This figure is the quality and size of a gashapon figure)
"Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind," a 65 minute anime movie created by Studio 4C (output at 720p), that sets up the story of Street Fighter IV by explaining events post-SFII. (The animation quality is not the best I've seen, I don't see myself watching this more than once or twice again. It IS nice to see Yun & Yang make an appearance)
A mini-strategy guide from Prima, written by the same people doing the full-on guide and illustrated by Udon Comics
-Artwork is not up to par with most of the Udon Street Figher comics, which I like quite a bit. The guide shows you special commands for the four newcomers, as well as basic combos for them. The Challenge mode in game combo tutorial is much more useful than this guide.
The CD soundtrack
-The music in this game is a mixed bag. I am sure everyone will find equally enjoyable and not so enjoyable tracks. There are some remixes of classic SF2 tracks which old school fans will hear right away.
(3rd strike followed by HD Remix collection much better than SF4 music IMHO)
Additional downloadable content
-This is the brawler pack costume set.
It includes the following costumes:
Mike Haggar (of Final Fight fame) costume for Zageif
Wrestling Leotard for Abel
Chef Uniform for El Fuete
70's type track suit for Rufus
Traditional Sumo outfit for E.Honda
I do not regret the purchase, as I think this is one of the better collector's editions out there. I enjoyed the extra costumes the most.
The game is quite enjoyable and I will be playing it for some time. | video-games_xbox |
Keeps me out of the sportsbars... and it even comes with a video game. Since a bunch of trees block my view of outer-space to the east-southeast, I'm unable to subscribe to DirectTV (and therefor, the NFL Sunday Ticket package). So if I want to watch anything besides the Cardinals or Cowboys on a fine Sunday in AZ, I'm heading to a sports bar. Which is alright once in a while, but I really don't want to spend every Sunday throwing down $50 - $75 on beer, wings and brats, then walking home. So I got into an every-other Sunday routine, then just put up with the broadcast games on off weeks.
Even to watch the games online, you had to have DirectTV's dish setup and subscribe to the Sunday Ticket package (approx. $225 - $300 without the introductory specials). Yeah you could usually find some pirate stream and suffer through the buffering and random disconnects, but that's more frustrating than fun and I'd just as soon watch the score updates - or cruise on down to the sports bar... again. Then I gotta schlep my work stuff back over there Monday morning and there's not even any leftovers in the fridge! Ripoff.
Well, those days are over with MADDEN NFL 25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION! You see, MADDEN NFL 25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION is a card enclosed in a box. On that card is a code and a website address. What you do is navigate to that web address, put in that code, and Bam! All the games. You can even download an app for Android or iOS tablets and phones and watch on the go.
My preferred setup is a laptop behind behind the HDTV, hooked in through an HDMI cable. Picked up a $20 Logitech remote mouse/keyboard setup for the coffee table and I'm watching football like a boss. You can do picture-in-picture, quad screen, full screen... all that stuff. Switching games is as easy as moving your cursor towards the top of the screen. All the game scores slide down and you just grab the game you want. You can also load your fantasy football roster and get on-screen notifications if you're into that stuff. The connection is stable, switching is fast, and I've experienced zero buffering through the first five weeks of the season.
I hope DirecTV continues to offer this as long as they retain the rights to out-of-market NFL games. It's a hell of a deal at $99. Oh yeah, this thing also comes with a video game. Apparently this "Enhanced Edition" of that game comes with extra players that you can't get in the Standard Edition, so I was able to sell it for $60 and I don't see that being a problem next year either. So for a net of $39 a year, or even the full $99 (if you actually want the video game), I highly recommend MADDEN NFL 25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION. | video-games_xbox |
Decent western-themed game. RDR is the best western-themed game I can think of. Overall it's a decently fun game, I use the word 'decent' because I'm not that crazy about westerns or anything similar. I actually first played this out of boredom but I was surprised to find it fairly fun and enjoyable. However it has a few very strong technical issues that prevent it from being the best it can be. The way you control John Marston is very awkward. I think this has to do with the developers trying to give him a sense of realism, but the way it's programmed into the game makes things like getting on your horse and/or running away from trouble very irritating. He has to make wide-brimmed turns and sometimes trying to balance yourself on a precarious edge of a building, especially when you're trying to climb down a ladder, will cause him to fall and kill himself almost all the time.
Be very aware that it is extremely easy to die. Not only do you have to go up against the odd gunman or outlaw but you must also contend with wildlife such as wolves, cougars, and bears. Most of which will kill you in one hit. As well as take out your steed. Speaking of which, horses are an important component of this game. You either have to buy, or find these thoroughbreds. However once you do purchase a breed of equine you'll have access to it throughout the entire game.
There are many things to do in this wild west world. But these activities don't add up to anything other than gaining achievements. Collecting wildflowers, hides from animals, and going on bounty hunts to earn a little extra cash & gaining a goodly reputation. Unfortunately one might think that with the possibility of being a hero you could be a villain; not so... There is no real way of being a 'bad guy'. Robbing banks or stores is out of the question as the entire town becomes your enemy the second you pull a gun on a clerk. And oddly there is a train that makes continual rounds through out the game world but it serves no other purpose than to hitch a ride on. And even then you don't need to, since you can buy a 'campsite' kit that gives you the ability to fast-travel to any location you've already been to. The train, sadly, cannot be robbed. You would've thought a western game would have at least that in it's deck.
Speaking of which there are plenty games of chance. From Black-Jack, Five-finger-fillet, to liars dice and horseshoes (Horseshoes is extremely tough). Poker is also in the game.
The story tends to drag on in many places. Essentially john's family has been abducted by the United States government. They force him to hunt down the members of the gang he used to run with in the previous Red Dead Revolver. Over the course of time you'll travel the entirety of the fictional state of New Austin. Eventually you'll end up in Mexico & help start a revolution over there or something. I won't give away too much of the plot. | video-games_xbox |
Why Divinity II continues to receive poor ratings is beyond me. I can honestly say that I enjoyed this game more than Dragon Age: Origins. Though, to be fair, BioWare set the bar way too high by claiming that DAO was the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate. The game definitely has the unique feeling that Divine Divinity and Beyond Divinity had. However, the transition from 2D isometric to 3D is a disappointment, as I absolutely love of isometric RPGs -- particularly the "fog of war" (unexplored areas are completely black), that rewards exploration.
The framerate on the 360 version is not the greatest, but it does not detract from the playability of the game at all. This is in sharp contrast with Neverwinter Nights 2, which is painfully slow regardless how fast your computer is.
Controls cannot be remapped, but the default button configuration becomes intuitive after the first couple of hours. Of particular interest is the ability to pause the game while you select your target, which is very much needed when playing with a game controller instead of keyboard / mouse. What is more, you can setup a "tactical pause," much like the auto-pause feature in Baldur's Gate, that will pause the game when your health reaches a certain threshold and allow you to quaff a potion, regroup, etc...
The difficulty in the beginning of the game is worth mentioning... you absolutely must do side-quests in the beginning to be strong enough to progress the main storyline, even with the difficulty set to "low." If you purchase one of the armor sets on the 360 Marketplace, that will also help tremendously - look up the stats on the net and find the set that best suits your character's desired stats.
Although not as good as Divine Divinity, this definitely has more depth to it than your run-of-the-mill WRPGs these days. Admittedly, I jumped ship and no longer play new RPGs on the PC platform (because I stopped pouring money into upgrading my computer about 4 years ago), and this decision limits my choice of WRPGs and user-created content. But as far as Xbox 360 WRPGs w/ first-party content only, this one is a gem.
In short, this is a severely underrated game. I can only assume that people who do not enjoy this game have not given the game enough time... The beginning of the game, and various other parts are extremely difficult and frustrating, but if you press on, there is a very good game to be had. | video-games_xbox |
Without a doubt, my favorite game of this generation, and one of my all time favorites. I've spent about fifteen hours in game now, and I have thoroughly enjoyed every single second of it!
I have had my eye on this game since it was very first announced, and purchased an Xbox One entirely for this game alone.
I play both on solo, and in a three man crew with my brothers, in solo the game is a bit more challenging, but still entirely playable and extremely fun, when you're alone you can sometimes get a sense of fear, as you have no support when hauling a ship full of hard earned loot, or sail across a stormy sea as you watch the Kraken swallow another ship in the horizon praying that you're not next. When in a crew the game becomes much less serious and more for the laughs, I have never laughed so much while playing a game, it is complete joy in all aspects of this game. I am extremely happy with the game, and super eager to for the future of it.
Pros:
Playable Solo, or with friends and random players.
large map with lots to explore.
beautiful graphic style, and color pallet.
gorgeous sound effects.
fantastic soundtrack.
tons of customization options for players, ships, weapons, and accessories.
intricate ship control mechanics.
a lot of quests, and other things to do in the world.
small amount of storage space taken. 9-18 gigs depending on what you play on.
seemingly endless replay-ability for me.
Cons:
The controls can get a bit sticky at times during combat, In a sense of urgency I'll try and switch to a banana to gain some health, and end up not switching at all, then pressing RT thinking I'd have the banana out and firing off a shot, not sure if it's due to lag while in larger battles, or what.
Lag spells, at times while playing during combat or non combative moments I will suddenly begin to lag really badly.
However it's possible this is my internet, though it never happened during the beta, this could also be due to high server stress right now, and may be fixed over time. | video-games_xbox |
First Reallistic War Game EVER. First of all I'd like to start by saying Brothers in Arms is very enjoyable and always offered something different to do whether its lobbing a grenade into a enemy tank, sweeping a small town or rushing through a smoke bombed field. Many people have compared this ubisoft title to Pandemic's Full Spectrum Warrior as both require suppressing and flanking the enemy. Although BIA is graphically and ambiently superior, FSW simply features better squad control.
The graphics of BIA is absolutely intricate. From the accurate recreations of actual sites to the foliage of trees bushes and shrubs, right down to the detail of the characters and weapons. Fun aditions to the graphics lend to the reallistic feal of the game such as blurring effects from rain or streaks of blood speckling on your face from a gun shot wound. The most impressive of these, the shock of a near miss from mortar shells.
The sound compliments the graphics perfectly. Bullets make distinctive sound depending on what types of surfaces they impact. A lot of production value was poured into the Foley department of the game and it shows having one of the best sound qualities of any game on the market. Voice acting is also superbly done. The men sound believable and shout back and forth during combat. I regret not speaking German as I can't understand what the enemy yells out-I'm sure its entertaining.
The playability of the game is the only aspect I had problems with. Although you have control of a suppresion and fire team, the squad AI is lacking. I'm sure most of the reviewers would disagree with me since everyone claims the AI is brilliant. While I do think it's very good, there are too many ocassions where my squad AI is lacking. Many times I've ordered one of the teams to take cover behind something safe, what happens is two of them will listen while the third runs in front of the cover and gets picked off by the germans. Another example is ordering my men to sprint across roads covered by MG's. They'll run across and get halfway to where I tell them to go and then decide to stop and stand in the middle of the road to shoot back at the MG, resulting in the entire team being mowed down, however sometimes they will obey and run across and hit the cover as I oredered-it seems random when they will listen and when they won't. The tactics of this game are very promissing but lack far behind Full Spectrum Warrior. Not once in that title did my squad disobey orders and engage the enemy with no cover from enemy fire. FSW also had good tactical features such as designating a field of fire to catch enemies by surprise. The poor squad AI is the only problem I've had with the game and in many times had to leave them in one area while I take out 20 enemies alone-IT TAKES AWAY FROM THE EXPERIENCE.
Overall I give the game a 8 out of 10. Despite some bugs in the squad AI its still a very enjoyable title and one of the most respectfully reallistic portrayals of infantry warfare. | video-games_xbox |
I finished it. I am writing a post because I have been reeding the rest of them. I've finished this game, and only because it has the best fighting mechanics of any game I've ever played. Besides that, it is the most un-intuitive game I've ever played. If From Software had put any effort into explaining anything, it would have been funner.
I started with the deprived guy, because at first he looked like he had better stats, well......, any of you who have played this know what I went through after that decision. The only reason I finished it is because I checked the walkthroughs and checked what areas I was supposed to go to next. There were areas that I never would have even found if I hadn't checked the guide. Trails leading to some of these places are so obscure that you may never find them. The only truly difficult part of this game is the confusion, it is not the gameplay, although it can be tough at times. Nobody likes to get lost, Which is why I got rid of Witcher 2 after about 5 hrs of gameplay, that game sucks. The map system is the worst I've ever seen, and the same with the player/stats/equipment/etc.
Anyway, most of the areas are ok, IF, you know that you are supposed to go there next. It's different near the end of the game when you can go to one of four locations and it doesn't really matter, but getting there is much much tougher than finishing once you get there.
I can't imagine getting stuck in Anor Londo without properly upgrading first, eek. Of course none if this is explained or even hinted at. It would have been nice to get a message like "are you ready to go?" or something like that, hinting that you have to fight a boss there that will eat your lunch if you don't prepare, or have some kind of plan.
Anyway, The game is fun if you know the path, Nobody likes to get lost, and in this way it utterly fails. I don't think it makes the game difficult, I believe it makes the game creators look stupid. Especially since they could have created a game with the exact same mechanics that all of us Dark Souls guys love, and included some kind of map system, anything really. I understand all of the 1,2,3,4, and 5 star ratings. This could be a fun game, unfortunately its a sales gimmick for buying a guide. | video-games_xbox |
Reloading!" = perfect word for the game. The original Left 4 Dead came out the same day as Tomb Raider Underworld (never cared for the series) and the Wrath of the Lich King expansion to World of Warcraft (not an MMO player) so looking at the game it seemed like perfect timing. Unfortunately what immense amount of fun I had at first dwindled where I noticed I was spending most of my time doing the same thing over and over again. Getting kicked for no mic, re-running through the same campaigns, Versus with moronic players or rage-quitters and a general feeling that the game wasn't exciting anymore. Literally a day away from being a full year do we get Left 4 Dead 2, a sequel many wanted but few expected so soon especially in light of the complete absense of Half-Life 2: Episode 3. I mean, Blizzard is taking awhile with their games but at least we get the occasional new trailer or class reveal, Valve is taking the "we're not saying ****" approach so I guess this game is supposed to be our placeholder until that comes out so how's the game? The slightly-changed phrase "more of yet still the same" comes to mind as Valve added a lot of more features to the game yet it feels like the last game, decomposing limbs and all.
Story: Whereas the campaigns in the first game felt slightly disjointed, each campaign in this game seems to directly link to the next. The car you drive in the climax of the first campaign breaks down prompting the 2nd campaign or a rescue boat in one campaign's finale becomes your transport to the next. The new 4 survivors are Ellis, an auto-mechanic with wild stories about his buddy "Keith", Rochelle a tv news employee, football coach Coach and drifter/con-artist Nick and together they brave a freakish amusement park ("ho.lee.****...it's Kiddyland!"), a swamp, a town hit by a huge storm and a mall. The problem with the game's characters is that they kind of lack personality and whereas I didn't mind playing any of the previous 4, I would always beeline straight for Ellis for his hilariousness or Nick for his "I just walked off the set of Miami Vice and I'm a badass" vibe.
Another issue I have in that it relates to the quick turn-around between the last game and this is that many campaigns are not completely perfect and they range from generic to awesome. Dead Center for instance has the most unique finale where you have to fill up a car with gas rather than wait for rescue but from that point on, every finale is the same ol "wait for rescue" schtick. Hard Rain, the highlight of the whole game, has a pretty cool first half till it becomes awesome in its latter half while The Parish has one of the more intense finales yet it's got an absolutely boring middle section. Almost feels like Valve would've had a stellar release if they waited a year to pool all their ideas except they just brought it out as quickly as they can which is a bummer.
Graphics: Let's face it, the Source engine is in need of a replacement or a massive overhaul. While smaller things have been upgraded, on a whole this isn't a leap forward and zombie animations feel recycled, level design is still a bit too barren and devoid of any reality to it but then Valve hits us with improved gore, unbelievably impressive weather effects (Hard Rain) or atmospheric touches (Swamp Fever) but considering other companies like Naughty Dog or Ubisoft continue to make leap forwards in their graphics, the Source engine still looks like it's churning out the same graphics with a couple of tweaks. Oh and I hope you have a great internet connection beca.use. thi.s. thi.n..g wi..l..l la..g on yo...u. It literally lagged so much my entire Xbox disconnected from Live. But end of the day, a company like Bungie who goes from Halo 3 to ODST with not a whole lot of upgrades is apparently introducing a brand new engine for Reach so hopefully Valve is on their way with this too.
Sound/Music: During the opening cinematic for the first Left 4 Dead, it completely set the tone for what was to come: freaky, possibly scary and it's still one of the most intense movie clips in a game. This game opens with a tone that might as well come with grindhouse-era film scratches and movie trailers because it's filled with guitar twang and while the music in-game does carry with it some horror stuff, they seem to be going for a more chaotic fun vibe than previously. Sound effects are again more of the same with the still awesome Hunter scream abound, the gurgling and bubbling of Boomers though I noticed Witches have a new crying sound and guns are fairly similar but I wish some guns had more kick. It's a shotgun damnit not some clicky pistol thing. Voice acting as always is strong lack-of-personalities aside and apart from Ellis, everyone does functional roles but they're not exactly endearing either. Nick for instance who apparently is one of those "I don't trust anyone except me" guys never really comes across as such.
Gameplay: For the most part, it's the same. Guns don't have ADS (aiming-down sights) and you can only carry 2 guns at a time but there's been one change and that's the addition of melee weapons. Crowd control in the previous game mainly consisted of pressing LT to butt zombies away to get you a shot but now one swipe can literally down 4 zombies at a time so it becomes surprisingly invaluable to bring a machete or axe or even The Freeman's (said in a vortigaunt's voice) crowbar over dual-wielding pistols. The guns also had a bit of an upgrade so it's no longer just Uzi and Assault rifle but they also added my new fav, a silenced machine gun and even a grenade launcher. Carryable items have also added some new members included the teammate-reviving defibrillators, the boomer bile that you can use on enemies instead or ammo that can light zombies on fire or explode em. Nice. All in all it's a nice bit of additions that doesn't add a whole lot especially in light of the major additions found in Assassin's Creed II but still fundamental nonetheless.
Left 4 Dead 2 adds some more modes as well as opposed to the first game's patch so we have standard campaign in either co-op or single player (don't bother, they're dumb as wood yet excellent shots), the familiar Versus where you switch teams to either make it to the safehouse or prevent the other team and the new Scavenge mode which I'll get to because I want to nitpick Versus for a tad. The problem with being an Infected is that while they're fun, the cooldown for abilities seems strangely a bit too high and more often than not I'm simply waiting around for an attack to regenerate before I can use it. I know it's meant to balance the game and not have boomer bile every 10 seconds but the wait for it to be re-used seems oddly long and the 20 sometimes even 28 or so seconds to respawn is just aggravating and as Yahtzee said, "flow-breaking". As for Scavenge, you play as a team to refill a generator with gas cans while the other team prevents them from doing so and team with most rounds won wins. It's quicker than Versus to trade places. Oh and I'd recommend playing with friends since I think it's the ability to vote makes this game a breeding ground for people to kick you for no apparent reason. Once I was kicked for actually incapacitating the rest of the team single-handedly (I guess they wanted something to do?). Hopefully the community will smarten up and not vote to kick because of some inane reason.
Is the game worth a buy? Honestly no, the game is fun for awhile and there'll be some people that will indeed enjoy the game for awhile, the repetitive nature might just grate on you. Oh and this is an incredibly small and somewhat petty gripe but I hate the achievements are in caps. At least previously it was a nice "Red Mist" or "Burn the Witch" but here it's like "THE REAL DEAL" or "SEPTIC TANK". It just looks odd but again they're small gripes. The game isn't worth 60$ or 70$ if you're Canadian but it makes for a good Christmas present so consider asking for it instead of buying it yourselves. | video-games_xbox |
My review contains spoilers, ignore if you haven't played or are playing. Where to begin... I won't go into the step by step detailed analysis of the game, there are enough of them out at this point that the general gist of the gameplay can be determined without my input. With that being said want to give a shout out to Ubisoft.
Positive:
The navy part of this game is absolutely amazing. If you aren't currently creating a series based off of this but with a slightly better storyline you all need your heads checked. I spent *HOURS* replaying navy battles so that i could get the best results. Do this in a non-historic but wooden ship filled world and you probably could go MMO with it. And I would throw my money at you every month. Before rent and food.
Sadly... that was the only positive...
I bought the first AC on day one, i got in on the ground floor as it were. I fell in love with the free running, Altair was a total badass and the end of the story left you begging for more.
The 3 games with Ezio were all great too.. I didn't always like/use all the new features, but there was a consistent story-line that seemed to be an undercurrent throughout the series that covered for a lot of sins. Plus each game tried to give you more control over the world you lived in, through minion assassins to control or purchasing stores.
AC3 did not have any of that. Oh you got to upgrade your boat.. but whoop de doo .. after you get enough to fix that up the economy of the game is pointless. And don't get me started on having to push 6 buttons for each item sold x all the slots.. Sell all furs needed to be an option.
The first quarter of the game was played at Haythim. I actually approved of this plot device. It was a total shock to me, and when Desmond found out I was right along with him in going WTF??? And then came the disappointment.... Aka. Conner. In the series of games he is the one character who is the weakest written. He comes off as two dimensional and his interactions with his father are abysmal. I actually ended up agreeing with the Templar way of thought about halfway though this game just because of Conner.
As a side note.. I absolutely *love* the American Revolution as a time period in history. There is so much depth of character when you look into the founding fathers and the British generals who fought them. This game did not do either side justice. I wanted to punch Washington after the very first interaction with him in game.
So.. Fast forward through the entire playable game (I got to 65% showing completed on the load screen before the "last mission" popped up out of no where) and get to the final cut-scene. This is where your writers make their money. They've got 4 amazing games of history to build off of, upwards of 160hrs of continuous game-play. After all of that (which btw I replayed so that the whole series would remain fresh in my mind) the writers choose to just have Desmond die to pursue some totally terrible end scene were apparently Juno goes off to do whatever she wants?? That was the best you all could come up with? I'm appalled.
This ending was worse than the Mass Effect 3 ending.. At least there i got to choose the color of the "screw you" the writers gave me.
And then we get the credits... Upwards of 15mins of credits.. and the entire time i'm fuming.. going "This cant possibly be it... surely the last quarter of the game will be after the credits because the folks making this game know we'd skip their names otherwise.. "
No... Sadly no....
Instead we get to bury the old man and watch the British sail off..
Writers of AC3.. Are you for real?? That ending is *shameful*. As someone who's trained in the video game creation industry this is an absolutely shameful way to end such an amazing series. And the part that gets me is that no one said "Hey this ending is a little bad" in the editing process. I sincerely hope there is another game planned, because if this is the end of the series then I personally wish I had *never* played your final game. It was worse than Mass Effect 3.. hands down... And that's saying something because this game series was so much more than ME3 could ever hope to be. I honestly had a lot of negative things to say and this is the censored version. I was a total fan of your games and i own every single game. And now I'm ashamed of that. | video-games_xbox |
Buy It. Buying the right gaming headset for your gaming needs can become a stressful and cumbersome task. But it doesn't have to be.
I purchased the striker pro zx headset from Best Buy for $119.99 in October 2015. I am very satisfied with my purchase.
My main use for this headset (and headsets in the past) has been for fps games such as battlefield and call of duty. Previously, for my xbox 360, I had owned a set of turtle beach x32's, which I had returned for a pair of tritton triggers'. I had the triggers for about a year before they broke, and then purchased a set of Logitech f540's.
I upgraded to an Xbox one in sep2015 (Forza 6 console) and this started my search for a new headset. I watched many YouTube videos and read many online reviews for headsets. My first Xbox one headset was a turtle beach stealth 500. Sound quality was decent but I returned the set due what I considered a flimsy build quality.
Next in line was the Astro A50s. Amazing sound quality and sturdy build design but one fatal flaw (in my opinion); poor mic quality. Returned this set the following day. I then bought the striker pro zx's on a whim because I like the aesthetics.
The headset is quite sturdy. I am confident this set will last (as well as they are treated responsibly). The sound is on par with the Logitech F540's (which was my benchmark comparison). The Astro A50 sound quality is better, but not $180 better. Where this headset shines is mic quality. Crystal clear sound. My one complaint with this set is with the ear cups. They are very snug (as in small). With that being said, I typically game for 4-8 hours continuously and comfort is not an issue (ears do sweat, but that is expected with a closed design).
Main point: Very good headset. Excellent for the $$$. Great mic. Very good sound quality for stereo. Will work with older controller design (has Xbox one chat adapter included) and is compatible with new Xbox one controller (without the adapter and use of 3.5 mm jack). | video-games_xbox |
The Xbox One offers superior game play with stunning graphics that will surely immerse . I purchased the Xbox One with Kinect about two years ago. This is the third-generation product that Microsoft has released in the Xbox franchise, and by far the most advanced yet. I have been using video game consoles for almost 30 years; starting with the original Nintendo Entertainment system in 1986 to the Xbox One that was released in 2013.
If you fall somewhere in the spectrum from the occasional video game session to the hardcore gamer than this is the system for you. The Xbox One offers superior game play with stunning graphics that will surely immerse you in whatever fantasy world that you enjoy. Whether it is playing as your favorite Quarterback in the newest Madden football game, or as a custom-designed character in a post-apocalyptic world in Fallout 4, the Xbox One will make each experience a highly enjoyable one.
The jump from the Xbox 360 (the 2nd generation Xbox) to the Xbox One is very noticeable. The graphics are superior in every way and run fluidly as the action gets intense, meaning the graphics hold their integrity as the characters on screen are engaged in any activity. The controller only has slight improvements from the previous one, but honestly there wasn't much room for improvements. The Kinect is what really makes the Xbox One different from its competitors. The Kinect uses different cameras that recognizes movement and even recognizes different faces, even in low light, and will even tell you hello when it recognizes someone it knows. The Kinect also recognizes voice commands which really comes in handy when you are watching movies on the Blu-Ray player already installed. You can pause, play, stop movies, and any other action that the standard television remote can do just by telling the Xbox with your voice.
The Xbox One was designed to be a total entertainment system, not just for video games, but for anything that gets hooked into a tv. When you have the Xbox One you have access to a Blu-Ray player, cable tv, internet, Netflix, Hulu, and hundreds of other applications all on one screen. This ability allows you turn on one item (the Xbox One) and everything is either a touch of a button, or a voice command away.
The two major draw backs, are the fact that you need to have access to the internet in order to do anything but watch a dvd or a Blu-Ray. The other is that the Kinect sometimes has trouble hearing your voice commands, especially if there are background noises present. Besides these minor inconveniences, I would recommend the Xbox One to anyone and everyone. | video-games_xbox |
Multi-player Bloodbath for the Mature. I like choices. I like the idea that mature-rated games are available and mature players can enjoy them without another senator or congressman making it a political issue. I say ban firearms if you want to stop violence, but don't ban violant games and make mature gamers suffer. OK, with that out of the way, Hunter IS a gory bloodbath mayhem. There are blood and amputated limps everywhere, and the bloodstains stay. You have plenty of ways to dice up, blow up and hack up any undead that gets in your way. It is violent, repetitive, yet addictive and most importantly fun.
Graphics 8.0
Don't expect an eye-candy galore. The graphics are nice and adequate, but nothing new or mind-blowing. There are a couple of Next-Generation XBox titles out there that make it tough for others to match. Player models and the monsters are nicely done; some are better than the others. One obvious thing people will notice is the texture and bit mapping that XBox can achieve easily. Some monsters show slick, bloody, and slimy endodermis that reflected very well on Xbox, so as some character's shinny leather.
Sound 8.0
Sound is OK too. People with Dolby Surround setup can enjoy the nice feature that comes with this game. When playing a hack-n-slash game like, you want to listen to the loading and bursting of firearms, explosions of surroundings, and the groan and roar of the monsters, and Hunter does a good job in that.
Gameplay 8.5
At first, you will just hack-n-slash away mindlessly, just to witness your power of mass destruction. Not long into the game, you will appreciate that you CAN actually devise some strategy to dispatch the undead. If you want to finish the game, you HAVE to strategize. The choice of 4 character types is very good. One is good at melee-attack, one is good at speed, one is pretty balance, with a slight incline to Edge(magic power), and one is an all-round who is good at range-attack(the Defender, my personal favorite). There is nothing complex, sophisticated, or innovative about Hunter's gameplay. It is just simply good old bloody hack and slash funfest.
Value 8.5
Few Edges (magic power), a handful of special weapons (chainsaw, machine gun), and the 4 character types you can pick from, Hunter is a fun game to play through the first time, and still enjoyable to play through again.
Overall 8.75
I just can't figure out why, but Hunter is one simple but fun game to play. I STRONGLY recommend getting at least a co-player, it will just increase the fun a few fold. Nothing spectacular if you take every element apart; yet when all the above-average quality elements are put together, Hunter is just a classic gaming experience you should not miss. I am more inclined to give it a rent for those who only want to own Classics; BUT (the big but) if you want a great multi-player hack-n-slash in your Xbox library, Hunter will not disappoint and it is well worth the money. | video-games_xbox |
don't buy it, this game for the current-gen systems is better, play that 'til next year. EA rushing this version of the game, combined with the new game engine made this game actually unenjoyable to play. First of all, there are features that have been in the Madden series for years now, not to mention features that are in every sports game made nowadays, that are not included in the game.
1) There is no control of the camera. Not in any menu. The default is right behind the running back, just above his head. It is very difficult to see where you are if you are playing the d line. You can press the right or left triggers to zoom way out, but once you do that you cannot zoom back in before the snap.
2) THERE IS NO FANTASY DRAFT AT ALL
3) Not only is there no fantasy draft, there are absolutely, literally, no options when one starts a franchise. You pick a team, and then you see the preseason schedule.
4) THERE IS NO WAY TO SHOW THE LOS. The game shows the first down line and that's it. You can't ever see the line of scrimmage, and it's pretty hard to tell where you are in relation to the LOS given the new, low-to-the-ground camera angle.
5) With the new game engine, everything and everyone seems to move really really fast. It's difficult to explain well. After playing the xbox version of madden, it's like everything's been speeded up by 50%. Also with the new engine, people move around like they have no mass, no momentum; they turn on a dime, much like the NFL 2K games. It really detracts from the new realistic player models, which look really good, if not a little too muscular and veiny.
6) THERE IS NO RUMBLE! IS THAT A JOKE? You may not notice it when you play this year's version, but the rumbling is really very helpful to let you know when the game registers a hit and so on.
7) There is no smart route system, where you can make someone's route extend to the first down marker if it doesn't by default.
8) Now, only B button changes player, so when you pass the person you are trying to get to, you can't press A anymore to go back and be him, you have to press B ten more times to go all the way around again. What makes this more annoying is that THERE IS NO OTHER FUNCTION ASSIGNED TO THE A BUTTON ON DEFENSE BEFORE THE SNAP, and of course you can't put "change player" there, because that function is assigned to B. You can hold B and press a direction to choose a person however, which mollifies the situation a little bit.
9) Now, to give a player a hot route, you have to use the botched pre-snap player selection system to actually get your blue icon under the reciever, and then press Y, and then press the direction. This method is more cumbersome, and it also makes it clear to your opponent (if it's a human) what reciever you are giving a hot route. The old system was better all around. I just don't understand.
10) When choosing plays, the individual play you are selecting is shown, not just the button for the play. Although the play-calling menu is much better, why wouldn't they just do that part right? It is made clear which play you choose in multiplayer against a human on one local 360. It doesn't ruin multiplayer by any means, but it's harder not to notice your opponent's play.
11) YOU CAN'T CHALLENGE PLAYS. I'LL REPEAT THAT. YOU CANNOT CHALLENGE PLAYS. IT'S IN THE GAME, AND IT'S NOT IN THE GAME. WTF IS THAT?
12) There aren't any minicamp or practice modes, or any minigames at all. Those were easily some of the best parts of the other versions of madden, and you can't play them here.
Indeed, the graphics are really good. Maybe you should rent it to check them out. It's one of the few launch games that can run in 1080i, most of them just run in 780p. The gameplay, on the other hand, just isn't fun at all. If you really want to buy it, rent it first. It's probably not what you were expecting. In my opinion, the lack of almost any options at all and the weird, fast, turn-on-a-dime gameplay really ruin the experience. | video-games_xbox |
A few flaws pointed out. I am only writing for the single player experience, I have not played Live. The game is awesome, as hundred of previous reviews have mentioned. But I want to air my gripes, in the hopes that Activision reads this review and finally fixes some major and annoying flaws on CoD4 and dosen't include them in future CoDs. So here are my gripes to Activision and anyone else buying the game (I am in "Hardened" level when describing the flaws, I think Hardened is another word that Activision uses for make your guys stupid, and the enemy unrealistically good)
1. Activision dummies down the play:This is my biggest gripe with CoD4.
-One example is from "Sins of The Father" level. When trying to chase down Imran Zakhaev's son (when you reach the street, after the junk yard) Activision stops you from running at full speed to catch Zakhaev's son. This is unbelievably frustrating. no matter how hard you try to run, it makes you walk for a few seconds, so you don't catch up to him too fast. Why can't Activision be smart enough to just make him run faster, and allow me to run my normal speed.
-Another example is in "One Shot, One Kill" where you have to assassinate Imran Zakhaev. This is 15 years ago in the story, and of course he can't be assassinated because that is what you are trying to do in the present part of the story. So even when you get a sniper shot on Zakhaev right at his heart or head, and there is no way in heck he lived, your partner says "Look's like you took out his arm." No I didn't, I SMOKED Zakhaev dead, and yet I couldn't have killed him no matter what. STUPID!
-My best example is that my other teammates do NOTHING at times. Just like CoD3, at certain times guys on your team are in situations where you see them just standing there doing nothing (except being shot at and not dying). This is STUPID, because once again Activision dummies down the other characters to make it harder for you. This is a weak way of making the game harder. What Activision should do ONCE AND FOR ALL is instead of dummying down my guys, is to create more bad guys that I and my team have to fight, rather than have my team stand there doing nothing.
2. Enemy fire TOTALLY unrealistically accurate. The enemy can hit you the MILLISECOND you are discovered. Even when I am in prone position 200 feet away hiding behind a very small tree, the MILLISECOND they know I am there they lock on me and shoot. This is TOTAL bull-crap because they wouldn't even have time to look down their sights, even if they saw my gun fire it would take them more time to hit me. It is TOTAL CRAP, and needs to be fixed.
I am all for CoD4, but Activision needs to fix these SLOPPY mistakes once and for all! | video-games_xbox |
Owning this game will not make you lose weight. You have to actually use it. Well, the first thing I can tell you is that owning this Xbox game will not make you lose weight or get fit. Even owning it specifically so you can write a review won't do that.
The bad news: you actually have to use it for it to work.
<sigh>
I did own <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Your-Shape-Fitness-Evolved/dp/B002I0H9WM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Your Shape Fitness Evolved</a> and I found that to be a decent workout, but I really struggled to get it to do what I wanted it to do. The menu system was frustrating and cumbersome, and it seemed like I had to go through so much to get to the actual workout.
Plus, I'm not the one usually doing Xbox games in my household, so it isn't like I have a lot of experience to draw on.
Once I actually opened this and tried to use it, I was thrilled with how much easier it is to navigate the menus, and I don't have to fill out a medical history to access the program.
You can read the product description to get a good idea as to the variety of activities available. I find that listing to be accurate.
My background -- I'm a lightly active, overweight mom. It's been a long time since I've been regularly "exercising" as such, though I walk a lot and get out hiking occasionally. So I am nowhere near a 'power user' and I am clueless as to exercise physiology or anything like that.
So what do I think of this "game"?
I love having variety. The various activities are creative, and there are enough to keep me interested and not feeling like I'm doing the same thing all of the time. I love that it shows me when I've made a personal best. I particularly enjoy the running tours, and I like the ability to focus on a specific body part (arms, legs, glutes, etc.) I love the fitness classes, and wish I had figured out where those were a bit faster (but I told you, I'm an Xbox novice!) I love that the program sets various little goals for me, so I always have something achievable that I am working towards.
When I do the activities, I feel reasonably good about myself and I love seeing that I'm getting better.
My biggest frustration is the number of choices, and I don't feel I have a lot of guidance as to what to do. I'd love to see something where it would suggest to me: choose two warm-ups. Then choose... blah, blah, blah. Kind of a "Your Shape for Dummies" option. That is really what kept me from doing much with this in the first place, I just didn't know what I was "supposed to" do.
That being said, I punched my way (you punch the various menus!) through a number of activities and classes and eventually did figure out a system that seems to work for me.
I love the various trainers giving hints and help. I love that I feel like I'm being coached without actually having to face a trim, fit, patronizing real person. I love that my teens can set up their own accounts and get some exercise in, or do some group challenges.
This is a product I can recommend. But you do actually have to put it in and do something with it. | video-games_xbox |
Ghosts make me give this 4stars. I've been playing for a month now, and am utterly in love with this console. Migrate from pc to consoles can be not a very easy decision to deal with, but well... I chosed xbox instead of the others.
I really really really really would love to rate this with even 6 or 7 stars out of 5, but the ghost behind it makes me rate it with 4.
It's just a shame that such an unbelieveable console has to make us be worrying about issues like overheating, which chipset it has, how to keep it cool, keep it away from dust bla bla bla. When I decided to migrate to a console I mainly wanted to get rid of the headache of regularly checking my pc specs in order to keep playing games at decent levels and performance. I wanted something that ensured me that I would get top notch graphics and not have to worry about its components. Plug and play, have fun and be amazed by all the newest releases... and partially got that... as for what this console can do, but everytime I turn it on I get this awful feeling that tells me: there's your first rrod ever!!! but so far so good, never had a problem but hey, it's been only a month!!!! and I find myself with all these recurring ideas storming me... if it wasn't for the outstanding graphics and fun I'd be hating it and never want to buy one again.
If I get RRODed soon, I will get another one, since I live outside the US and have no warranty, and hopefully those jasper chipsets really fix the problem, or maybe they will be just another hoax from microsoft just to make us buy more and more of these flaw machines.
Amazon delivered the item in perfect conditions, cant complain, great as always.
this version isn't that noisy, I didn't have the previous one but this one doesnt really bother me. I use it with a hd 42 lcd tv, hooked to the hdmi port... absolutely amazing. Best gaming experience I've had so far.
It does heat up a bit, but just what you'd expect from a console, nothing out of this world. I couldn't really believe that it gets rroded because of that amount of heat, my tv or stereo systems get hotter than this console but people keep saying that it dies. Actually haven't really read a comment saying that these ones manufactured in june 08 got rrod, sure it's been only 2 months, but well... time will tell if these falcon chipsets work better or not... If I have this for at least a year and a half I'll be more than satisfied.
If only microsoft really knew how to make consoles!!! they could definitely rule the gaming market. I read on some gaming webpages that they always knew about these flaws, but released them anyway. They wanted to save some million dollars and did not invest just a bit more in developing a decent hardware for these. What a capitalist shame!
Anyway, buy this if you can return it to MS or if you don't care taking the risk. It'd be better if you could wait until the new chipsets come out, but you'd still have to wait and see if they really work. I did not want to wait and took the risk, if it dies I will wait for the new jaspers to come out and buy a new one, one more time. For me, it's definitely worth it. | video-games_xbox |
Destiny is good, not great. Destiny (XboxOne version) is a good game. It's controls feel a lot like Halo with some upgrades to make the 3 classes you can play as all feel unique - to a degree. The controls and mechanics are pretty well put together and that's what makes this game good. If you liked playing halo's campaign, you'll like playing Destiny's campaign.
So why the 3 star review? Because mechanics alone do not make a great game. Destiny is still (as of the most recent DLC - The Dark Below) too shallow of a game to hold my attention. Multiple gaming review sites have tackled this and spelled out the problems with Destiny but I'll quickly cover why I am disappointed.
1. The story is very weak and shallow. For all the sprawling content that is promised by the multiple worlds advertised, the story is almost non-existent. That is something I judge a game on as story is typically something that keeps me interested in playing and exploring the world. There's more you can learn by logging off the game and checking out Bungie's website but most of the content provided there does little to fill in the gaps. It's mainly tiny story snippets taken out of context and sheds little or no light on the overarching story.
2. The leveling system is ill-conceived in my opinion. You level your character to level 20 - that's your max level for your character. To level beyond 20 you must grind (grinding is killing lots of enemies/completing missions or bounties over and over again) to level up rare, legendary and exotic armor to gain "light" the artificial level enhancer that brings you past 20. So your post-20 level is always tied to armor and always drops down whenever you encounter a new piece of armor that you have to level up with experience and materials to get it to increase the light bonus it gives you. This is a painful way to address leveling and stymies your feeling or progress whenever you get a new piece of armor OR when they increase the level cap and all the armor you just spent time leveling becomes obsolete. And in order to have a chance at tackling some of the challenges in the game, you have to be at the highest level available. So grinding isn't optional.
3. 30 seconds of fun, wash, rinse, repeat. The mechanics are just like the Halo video games and you have beautiful controls for a first person shooter but you will be repeating the same actions over and over again. You will kill the low level enemies over and over but for some reason, this isn't actually as fun as it was in Halo. Instead it becomes pretty tedious and boring - and since you have to level your guns and armor, it's not really a choice but a forced action to slowly creep incrementally higher.
4. Random Loot Drops. There's not a gigantic amount of loot in the game as of yet and while you can buy some of the legendary and exotic stuff you need, this requires more grinding to get to a place where your reputation is high enough to actually make those purchases. And the random loot you can get by killing enemies? Well, that randomness is part of the problem (though Bungie is still playing around with this mechanic). Player A will log hundreds of hours to get a legendary item to drop only to find out they didn't get a weapon or armor and instead got a tiny amount of upgrade components. Player B will log the same amount of time and get no legendary items to drop. Player C will log the same amount of time and get multiple legendary weapons and armor pieces. It's wildly inconsistent and so each player will have vastly different experience.
Overall, this game is not going to be the best choice if you are a casual gamer or if you prefer playing solo. Unless you have a ton of friends on the same system and can all get online together to play this, you're not going to have much fun once you pass the initial story missions.
One thing to bear in mind is that this game is supposed to have a content update cycle that extends well into the next several years. So this review might someday be completely irrelevant if Bungie, the developer, patches their game and improves upon these weak points. I honestly hope that is the case.
Until that happens though, I don't see this game as worth the investment unless you have a lot of time to sink into it and a lot of friends to play it with. Even then, the content right now still feels very lacking to keep a hardcore and dedicated group interested in the long run.
I recommend waiting until 2016 to see if this game has been upgraded to something that feels like a more valuable investment of time and effort. | video-games_xbox |
Ridiculously fun but becomes boring. The cover of "Rabbids: Alive and Kicking" just hints at the quirkiness that is contained in this game. Nearly everything you will be required to do while playing involves embarrassing or ridiculous movements. The entire game creates an atmosphere that will allow you and your friends to have a ridiculously good time for a few hours; although, most likely, you will be bored with this game by the end of the night.
"Rabbids: Alive and Kicking" is composed of various minigames that you undertake in the attempt to stop the rabbids from taking over your city. There's no real story other than the idea of this Rabbid invasion.
The minigames vary in length, style, and exertion. Some games will be done in ten seconds, while other games may take you five minutes to complete. In addition, the games may be specifically multiplayer or solo; they also may require you to do an action vocally as opposed to physically. An example would be a certain game that requires you to yell at rabbids and scare them away. It can be difficult to complete some such games if you're playing at night while others are sleeping nearby or in a location where yelling is not conducive. Also, some of the games will require you to run as quickly as possible or swing your arms in a rigorous swimming motion while other games will just ask you to wave your hand or stick out your tongue. It was often underwhelming to go from a high-adrenaline game to one where you mostly just stand there for a few minutes.
Overall, some of the games were winners while others were boring duds. There's enough variety for everyone to find something he or she likes, but since most of the games are ridiculously silly, they will probably be enjoyed most by children and people who host game night parties. Even then, the games aren't engaging enough to keep excitement up for very long. The boring factor sets in pretty quickly.
Space is definitely something you need for this game. With some Kinect titles, you can get away with just using a small square on your floor; but in this game, you will need a huge amount of area so that you can move side to side, kick, and run around.
The loading screens are the biggest pain! They take a significant amount of time, and when you're playing one of the quick 10 second games, the loading screens will take the short experience and force to take about a full minute. After every game, there's a loading screen; after every menu selection, there's a loading screen. It gets annoying and detracts from the fun.
The actual menu setup is fine and easy to navigate through. I rarely found myself incorrectly selecting things.
There is a reward system in place that awards rolls of toilet paper for doing well in games. I haven't found anything to do with the toilet paper, so it seems to be just a point system of sorts that really doesn't serve much purpose other than setting records.
Graphically, the game is pretty darn good. The areas are vibrant, cartoony, and give a happy atmosphere that almost makes you want to jump in and start playing. The music is also very happy, but it tends to be forgettable and doesn't add much to the game.
It's difficult to say definitely whether or not YOU personally will like this game. I'm a silly person; I love playing ridiculous games, but this just bored me after playing it for a while. I tried playing it with some friends who also enjoy silly games, and although some of them got into the minigames for a bit, others didn't find the game appealing at all. The menu loading is obnoxious, but the graphics are lovely. The gameplay is OK, and the music is bland. This is a game I'd recommend trying the demo for or looking up some gameplay on YouTube before deciding to buy it.
The game has potential and will most likely be more fun for kids, but I honestly didn't find it much better than a short distraction that was fun while it lasted. | video-games_xbox |
Great sound, comfortable, a few issues, but good value. The sound is great, and the fit is excellent. I have had them for over a year now and they are pretty durable too, at this point when I take them off I just dump them down wherever because I trust the durability so much. For the money it's a great headset. For 90% of the time this thing is great. There are a few negatives right out of the box that take away from the quality feel of the X32:
1. When the battery is dying - I get a warning beep, and the signal drops easier than usual. If I don't heed these warning signs for 20 minutes or so (e.g. I have no replacement batteries) the unit suddenly makes the most annoying sound in the world at ear damaging volume, no matter where I have set the volume. Yes, I am referring to Jim Carrey's "most annoying sound in the world" in Dumb and Dumber, it really is uncanny. Only way to get rid of it is remove the batteries. I almost had a heart attack the first time it happened. If this was intended by the designers it is a cruel and dangerous joke, if it's a defect in my particular headset.. well I guess it's my fault for not trying to get it repaired.
2. The wireless transmitter is crap. You may have to mess with its location to get a good signal, and pairing it with the headset initially could be easier. It is very light and there isn't much friction on the bottom, so the cables are enough to move it away from where you want to place it for the best signal. Range is poor if there are obstacles between it and the headset.
3. Constant buzzing noise through the left channel - it's a problem during quiet moments, but mostly tolerable. I have experienced it from multiple input devices.
4. The sound expander effect is extreme, and the setting is persistent after the headset has been switched off. You need to understand this feature because you will eventually accidentally press that button, and any music you play through the headset will sound like crap until you go back to the normal setting (1 beep when you push the button means you're on normal).
5. I feel like the maximum volume could be just a little louder.
That may look like a lot of negatives, but for the money you pay this is headset is worth it. | video-games_xbox |
More like "Killer is a Strange Creeper. I never played Killer 7 or either of the No More Heroes games, but I really enjoyed Suda51's "Lollipop Chainsaw" and "Shadows of the Damned" (the latter of which may be more Shinji Mikami than Suda51). So I've been looking forward to "Killer is Dead" for several months.
One big plus is that it comes in a collectible box with a soundtrack and art book, for the same price as many other games that can't even be bothered to include as much as a real manual in the case these days. It's definitely a collection-worthy set.
This is a third-person action game with combos to learn and upgrade, sub-weapons (amounting to various guns, plus a drill) to earn and upgrade, and various skills to improve. The combat here doesn't disappoint. In some games -- I'm looking at you, Meal Gear Rising -- the combat just doesn't seem to make much sense, and seems to depend more on wild button mashing and luck than any actual skill and understanding of how the systems work. What I like about Killer is Dead -- which was true in Lollipop Chainsaw as well -- is that the combos make sense. The game offers meaningful prompts, there is a good variety, and skill as a player actually improves. The upgrades help too, making things easier in challenges and replays.
There are three kinds of missions: story missions (12 of them), challenge missions (which are unlocked by finding Nurse Scarlett hidden multiple times in some of the levels, and challenge you to defeat enemies in a certain way -- without losing health, or using only a certain weapon, and so forth), and side missions (which unlock over time, and offer various other mission-based objectives). There is a good variety to the side missions especially.
Well, there are actually four kinds of missions, with the last being a "Gigolo" mission. This has to rate among the strangest things I've seen in a video game. It amounts to "ogling" some girl (there are two to choose from, plus a third with the included DLC) while sitting near her. You're supposed to look her in the eyes when she's looking your way, but then take mental photos of her body (chest, legs) when she's looking away. This fills a meter which eventually lets you offer some gift, and once this is done two or three times, you "seal the deal" so to speak. Later, you'll be able to get x-ray glasses to temporarily get a glimpse of their undies.
Yes, it's just as creepy and uncomfortable as it sounds.
Without spoiling anything in the story, I'll say this. It makes no sense whatsoever. I mean, there are pieces of it that do make sense. But taken as a whole, it's almost incomprehensible. That's a shame, because it's presented in a cool graphical style and with a kind of noir feel to it. So it would have been nice if certain aspects of the story were actually explained, or at least hinted at a little more. This level of absurdity seems out of place even for Suda51. For all I know, the whole thing is just the protagonist's fever dream, although that doesn't appear to be the case. And I say this after doing three full play-throughs. It doesn't seem to make more sense than it did the first time.
The included DLC seems to be content that was purposely excluded from the game for the sake of having a first-buyer incentive. There is even a section in mission 7 where one of Mondo's comrades comments that the target is similar to a vampire he fought earlier. I remembered fighting no vampire, but shrugged it off. Later, while playing "Mission 51" (part of the DLC-locked content), lo and behold, there's the vampire fight. Plus, the extra content has another "Beauty" Gigolo mission, making it all feel like stuff that was originally intended to be part of the main experience.
With various missions and difficulty-based achievements (which don't stack), it does have a good deal of replayability. There are no online modes (other than a leaderboard, which people have already maxed out in ways I can only assume involve cheats or exploits) or multiplayer modes. It's a game that I do recommend, but it's in no way mainstream. If you're a fan of Suda51's other work, and like something a bit more esoteric, this may be the game for you. | video-games_xbox |
best wireless headset available for xbox. build: it is made with mostly hard plastic matte plastic like 4gb xbox + glossy plastic like the 250 gb, plastic seems durable looks like it could take a beating but i wouldn't give it a drop test lol...but at the same time the plastic is kind of creaky like when picking it up by one cup or putting it on if you stretch them out to them out ull hear some creaks...it seems to have gotten better and less creaky the more i use it though.
fit: the headset is big, and opens up 10 notches...i wear glasses and have a semi big head i have them opened to 3 comfortably and i could take off my glasses without taking the headset off, thats a big plus for me because with other headphones ive owned they have seemed to be tight and uncomfortable on my glasses...the padding is thick on the ears and the head it has the form fitting feel if they make mesh ear cups available i would purchase them, the headset has some weight to it but as soon as they go on my head with the padding it seems to form to my head i don't feel them one bit and have wore them for 3 hours at once without taking them of or adjusting them it was like i didn't have anything on
buttons: theres 2 buttons on the outside of each cup power and mic mute on the left mode and sync on the left...if your like me and only play online and are not going to be around other razer chimaera 5.1 then you'll use the sync button 1 time...there is mic volume up and down buttons on the headset too and headset volume...i feel the placement of them is ok i pick up my headsets/phones from the cups and put them on my head, if you do that your most likely going to be raising the volume its not a big deal ive learned to not do it.
setup : setup is very easy...plug in dock, plug optical cable to dock then to xbox or tv and turn on dock then headphones and sync and your done...took about 3 mins couldn't get any easier...yes you need to put the cable into the xbox controller to talk...but if your just gonna sound ****** you don't have too...there is Dolby surround setting with normal, bass, treble also non dolby normal bass and treble
sound: this headset uses 5.8 frequency and wow was i surprised how clear sound they are, there is no hiss or white noise in the background its like your @ the movies playing a game...i played mw2 mk mass effect and black ops...im going to not count black ops because that games sound is terrible footstep sound is horrible in that game...but in mw2 on the other hand they work perfectly you can hear directional footsteps air support and gun fire easily playing mw2 i use the non dolby settings the dolby settings were too rich for me to hear directional footsteps and gun fire, one thing about this headset compared to others it gets loud but its never gotten to that scary loud, you know that loud where u think your ears are gonna explode and you rip the headset off these don't do that and thats a plus...i watched zombie land on netflix with the headset and it was great i used dolby normal and it you can hear the blood splatter and every little gushy sound really felt like i had surround sound going on
mic: hearing players voices is great its clear, the mic says flexible but its not it goes up and down but doesn't flex towards or away from you...if you put the mic up it automatically mutes...i personally felt like i had to talk a little bit louder than i normally do to get sound from the mic i haven't had that much feedback from the mic i didn't tell no one i had a new mic so i guess no said anything
battery: it does take 3 hours to charge and i get about 7 hours and half of use from them...on razers site it states that you can use other rechargeable batteries and charge them with the dock so im gonna buy some extras just incase
i emailed razer asking them about daisy chaining with the astros mixamp they said "It depends on the functionality of the Mixamp. What connection are you trying to use 3.5 mm? It does sound possible, but it would depend on the connections you are trying to make and for what reasons."
if your in the market for a wireless headset for xbox i think these are the best that money can buy TODAY not being astros
i was going to get the px5 when they were 200$ but i seen these and took a chance...although the px5 have dual bluetooth and eq settings i think these are the better wireless headset FOR XBOX users your getting 5.1 sound 5.8 frequency rechargeable batteries that charge on the dock | video-games_xbox |
BF3 Doesn't even recognize the controller when using it on the PC. This thing is a joke. The item clearly states it is supported for XBOX 360 or PC. It should detect and work like any other XBOX 360 Controller. I attempted to get Battlefield 3 to work with it, but it doesn't detect it. Resetting the game bindings doesn't fix it. Reinstalling and getting the latest drivers via windows update for the controller didn't help.
Reinstalling the game, nope. Switching USB ports, nothing. Switching USB buses, no. Works just fine for the XBOX 360, but I bought it for flying helis and jets on BF3 for PC. I am returning it for these reasons notwithstanding that it will likely break in a few months anyway if other reviews are indicative of RAZER's inability to produce quality products. My XBOX wireless controller works just fine using the XBOX 360 WIRELESS Transceiver for PC. I wanted a wired controller so BF3 would recognize the controller prior to the game launching because the wireless controller must be turned on prior to starting game or it will not be detected. I only use it for flying and it turns itself off and I forget to turn it on. I will be buying a regular old wired XBOX controller to serve this purpose.
No support from EA/BF3 or RAZER as they are too busy counting their money and launching marketing campaigns.
RAZER - We make things that break and don't work & things that don't work and than break (But not necessarily in that order)
EA Support Chat starring: ANGAD (wherever you are I hope your supervisor reads this):
Angad: Thanks for contacting EA Help!
My name is Angad how may I help you?
you: I purchased the official Battlefield 3 Razer Onza Xbox Controller to use for Flying on the BF3 PC version, but it doesnt recognize it
you: It works fine on the Xbox 360, but BF3 doesn't recognize the controller when i use it with my PC running Windows 7 X 64
you: There are no drivers or software for this controller, and it is suppose to work out of the box for XBOX 360 or PC
you: I reset the bindings, but it did not help
you: I uninstalled and reinstalled the controller, but nothing works
you: I repaired my BF3 installation and still it doesnt recognize the controller at all
you: The controller is properly installed, and device manager shows the controller is working and up to date with the proper driver from MS update
Angad: Please be informed that the disc for XBOX will not work for PC.
you: huh?
you: I own Battlefield 3 for both my XBOX and I have it for my PC via Origin.
you: Really?
you: The game runs off my SSD drive without any problem
you: I simply can not get the Official RAZER ONZA Battlefield 3 Controller to work on my PC.
you: There is no DISC for my PC.
you: Why would you assume this when it has ABSOLUTLEY nothing to do with what I am asking you?
you: If your not going to respect me enough to read what I type and comprehend it than please escalate my request to the next level up
Angad: Please allow me some time to work on your issue.
you: Sure
Angad: Thank you.
info: Your chat transcript will be sent to XXXXXXX at the end of your chat session.
Angad: May I know have you tried any troubleshooting steps for the controllers?
you: The controller works perfectly, just not when i use it to play Battlefield 3, your game doesnt recognize it even though it works fine.
you: I have reset the configuration settings for Battlefield 3 to ensure the keyboard and joystick bindings are set to default
Angad: Im just asking have you tried any troubleshooting steps?
you: Only the ones I previously typed
Angad: Okay!!
Angad: I would suggest that you follow the below given troubleshooting steps: -
*****. Please end all background tasks to prevent conflicts with other programs.
*****. Empty your Temp folder to prevent file conflicts.
you: Who is your supervisor?
you: There are no background tasks running
you: There is no temp folder of relevance?
you: What are you talking about?
Angad: Okay,Please stay online.
(I was disconnected shortly there after; I know shocking!) | video-games_xbox |
Resident Evil:Operation Failure. First I would like to say that I am a huge fan of Resident Evil. To shed some light to back my sentence up I own all the games for PS1, PS2, PS3, Dreamcast, Game Cube, Gameboy Color, Nintendo 64, Wii, Xbox 360, DS, and Nintendo 3DS. I also own statues, figures, hot toys, movies (DVDs, PSP movies, VHS, and Blu-ray), posters, fan merchandise, and one of the rarest items a Pachislo Slot machine from the game. So you can say I'm a fan boy for the series.
Now on to my review entitled "Resident Evil:Operation Failure!". Please note that this is my personal review and it's just my opinion. I am giving it 4 stars to be fair. The story goes, you play as Umbrella's elite team sent to Raccoon City to destroy all evidence to clear Umbrella's name from the incident that occurred of the virus outbreak in Raccoon City and to kill any survivors as well as heroines Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield, and Ada Wong who knows about Umbrella's outbreak.
I was so pump for this game because it was unlike any Resident Evil game. I even told people although it doesn't fit into the actually storyline of the series, it was a game that would be considered a "What If" scenario. When they released the first trailer for the game, it looked amazing! Then when they released the "Triple Threat" trailer with Umbrella's team, Spec Ops team, and Mr. X it looked even better and then they released the Heroes trailer and it sold me! To be able to play as Jill Valentine (my favorite Resident Evil character), Claire Redfield, Leon Kennedy, Ada Wong, Carlos, Hunk and the others was just going to be freakin' sweet!
So on the day of released I picked up my copy of the special edition. I can't really complain about the price for $69.99 as I thought for a collector's edition version of the game, it was a fair price for what they give you. In the collector's edition it gives you 6 costumes, 8 weapons, a nice tin case that shows the same picture as you see on amazon and on the back the Umbrella logo, and 2 patches. Compared to other collector's editions that really aren't that good and charge $99.99 for things that really aren't that exciting or useful.
So as I started the game with friends, we started off on the elevator going into the lab of Umbrella. The controls are a little confusing at first and you find yourself hitting the wrong button at times (such as if you wanted to switch your weapon you would use the first aid spray you picked up). In the first stage of the game you are fighting the Spec Ops team (not the one's you saw in the "Triple Threat" trailer but just random Spec Ops soldiers) and going to find William Birkin to collect the virus samples he created. So when you find William, Hunk and just a random Umbrella team member shows up out of the blue to reenact the scene from Resident Evil 2 where William gets shot by Hunk. You don't get to see anything but you hear the conversation go on. So then after that you hear the self destruct system go off, What!? That never happen in Part 2 at that point and time. So as your running you have to fight the first form of William while trying to avoid the bursting pipes of fire. If your not using the sprint you should consider yourself dead! William was a little tricky as you had to focus on his mutated eye to stop him. But through the stage your still running from William but yet taking out zombies along the way.
******SPOILER ALERT!*******
If you plan on picking this game up don't read this section as I am giving my input on the ending! If your the kind of person that doesn't care then feel free to read it.
At the last stage you race to the end to find Leon who yells to Claire to fire the grenade launcher at you. When Claire appears your like "OH LOOK IT'S CLAIRE!" then your like "CRAP! She's trying to kill me!". She appeared with her playful voice "Hey there". So then you start to chase Claire through the stage, which after 2 minutes it says "Claire Redfield has disappeared your main focus is Leon Kennedy". So as you shoot Leon he disappears for a minute and then returns to fire at you. You can literately run to the ladder and get right to the cut scene. When you get there Leon is bleeding and yells to Claire to run with Sherry (who you must also get to bring her back to Umbrella), Claire says "Don't hurt him, were coming down" and a person from your team says "Hurry Up!". At this point do you really think Claire and Leon would surrender like that? I don't! So you have the option to choose to Execute Leon or Defend Leon. If you go with Defend Leon, you appear in a warehouse defending him from another team of Umbrella's soldiers and once you kill the soldiers it goes to the ending of Claire holding Leon up (who was bleeding at first, then he was fine, and now he's injured again and it just makes you scratch your head) and Leon saying "Why didn't you kill us?" Is Leon really asking for a death wish?
If you choose to execute him your in the warehouse and you have to fight him. I purchased the guide for this game and it says fighting Leon is a hard match. I found it so easy that I was able to run up to Leon and constantly use the Melee attack, not to mention the zombies also help out. When you kill him it shows Claire over Leon's body and the Umbrella team says "We are taking the girl" and Claire stands in front of Sherry and says "Please don't hurt her" and it shows one of the members pointing the gun to Claire's head and it goes to black and you hear a gunshot. This ending really aggravated me as they made both Leon and Claire weak! I don't think Claire would just stand there as they pointed the gun to her. But it goes back to the "What If" scenario.
As I completed the game in 2 days I just thought to myself "Wow.....That was it?". The game is literately 6 stages long. You can complete the stages just by running to the check points. In fact you could even beat the game in 1 day, maybe a tops of 2 hours. It's not much of a game. The Umbrella characters are strong leads but they make the heroes (Leon, Claire, and Ada) lack any kind of fighter that we know from the series. The voices from the Umbrella team is pretty strong and you think they are awesome characters, but when you get to Leon and Claire your like "What is wrong with their voices? They sound all kinds of messed up". The graphics were pretty good but again except what the heroes look like. Leon's hair was like a block, and Claire's hair and outfit were like blocks and glued on. Also Nemesis' voice (who you only see in 1 stage) is horrible! It doesn't even sound like him.
The multiplayer matches are pretty fun, but your playing as the Umbrella team or the Spec Ops team that have the same voices and abilities. The stages are kind of eh, there's not much to them. The Hero mode that they advertised and I was hyped for wasn't that good. In Hero mode you play as the hero characters (Leon, Claire, Jill, Ada so on and so on) but once you kill them you come back as one of the Umbrella members or Spec Ops members (depending what side you chose), which kind of sucks.
The abilities are decent, I personally played as Four Eyes and one of her abilities is to be able to control the infected. I found this worked sometimes and not other times. I did enjoy using it on Mr. X (as you will have to fight 2 Mr. X tyrants in one of the stages) and watching the one beat up the other Mr. X. It was actually pretty cool and a lot of help in that battle.
A feature that was new to the franchise was being able to play as a zombie. If you get bit or scratched you are considered "Infected". With this engaged your screen slowly becomes a blue cloud making everything blurry. It will use all of your health unless you heal yourself with a Green Herb or First Aid Kit to keep it up. They introduce a "Antivirus" that you can use to cure yourself. If you go into zombie mode you have very little time to do any kind of damage to the other team. When playing in story mode your own team can choose to kill you and then revive you. I thought this was a pretty neat feature.
The other neat feature was the bleeding status. If you were in bleeding status you would have to fight to stay alive against numerous zombies who come running towards you. If you fail to keep them off, your character will be dead in the matter of seconds.
There are not too many enemies in the game, as it's just repeats of Zombies, Crimson Zombies, Zombie Dogs, Parasites, Lickers, and Hunters. The bosses you fight is Mr. X, Nemesis (who is only in the game for 1 stage), First stage of William, and super tyrant. They made the Hunters very hard to kill, the lickers are such a pain as they just constantly use their tongues to strangle your character (which you will find yourself constantly shaking your analog stick left and right), and the zombies are not even a smart AI. The Parasites look like they took something out of Resident Evil 4 or 5 and said "Hey it would be cool to bring something from that game to this one".
The weapon selection is pretty good, but a lot of them are weak. I personally used the Cowboy Shotgun and Matilda. With the Cowboy Shotgun, even though you get 2 shots with it you can do a lot of damage.
All in all, It's a good trip down memory lane for Resident Evil 2 fans and it does show a lot of remake graphics (which Capcom....We are still waiting for our remake of Resident Evil 2 and 3!). The game lacks a lot of what I was expecting from it and what they hyped it up to be, but if you have friends to play with and you can look past all the issues it can be fun.
My personal feeling is they could have done better with the game as they had a GREAT idea going but it got spoiled at some point. Weather it was creating the storyline and working the Umbrella team in (since this was just a random input on the storyline) or because of the announcement (which was announced back in June/July 2011 if I remember correctly) they just decided to rush the project. They needed more stages like the clock tower from Resident Evil 3 or more of the police station from Resident Evil 2 & 3, this would have made things a lot better. A better storyline would have been key to this game as the storyline seem like it was missing something to complete it. Having classic enemies like the spiders, the Ivy plants, a better nemesis battle, 2nd form of William, etc would have made fans like myself even more excited and more willing to explore the areas to see these classic enemies remade. Stronger character dialogue for the heroes would have been very necessary as you are interfering with a major storyline for the game's series and the end of Raccoon City. Although Jill is in the Heroes mode you do not encounter her in the entire game. Somewhere I read an article that there will be a DLC where you will encounter her and have the choice to kill her or save her, but there is no date set for this DLC. And finally more multiplayer modes that would be worth playing it as much as I did Resident Evil 5's "Lost In Nightmares" and the 2 mercenaries modes.
If your considering to get this game, I would say rent it and try it first and if you like it, buy a used copy somewhere. I'm not saying it's not worth the purchase but it may not be some people's taste in a game as it does not play like the other Resident Evil's and it lacks a lot of different elements from the franchise.
Again, This is just my personal review and my review is just an opinion. | video-games_xbox |
A Refreshing RPG For Xbox Users. First off, if you're more into Japanese Rpg's or Epic Rpg's or anything of that sort, press your back button now and never think about this game again. However for the other gamers out there who are like me and prefer easier, more "drop in and out", and less complicated RPG's, then this just may fill you up.
The game is flawed, not heavily, but noticeably, from the occasionally lagging framerate, the lower level visuals, and the inexplicable lag issues with the Live co-op. Sometimes while I'm playing with friends over Live, enemies will continue to attack me without taking any damage from me, until the lag catches up and kills them, or in one particularly infuriating moment, my character was unable to attack at all, while the monsters pounded on my friend and myself.
Apart from these flaws, the game is excellent. I couldn't bring myself to give it 5 stars because of how much the flaws detract from your experience sometimes, but this game is an excellent experience.
No matter what you're more into, be it a heavy shooter game or a melee focus, you can get your kicks here. The melee was handled very well, by using the thumbsticks to control all fighting, without worrying about combo systems or carefully timed button presses and such. If you see a bad guy you wanna hurt, just move the stick toward him and your character reacts. The shooting is even more fun. I prefer to hang back and play the gunner while my friend handles melee, and there's not much better than watching your character unleash gunfire into a crowd and shooting grenades into mobs of machines and watching the explosions go off.
The amount of customizing in this game is also huge. All different types of weapons and all different types of armor drop constantly, as well as the introduction of extra bonuses (charms) that you can't just get, you must earn. And the runes that you can augment weapons and armor with are amazing.
Lastly, I do have to bring up something that will drive people crazy just like myself and my friends... This game is hard. Not Ninja-Gaiden-Hard, but hard. You will die many many times (and have to watch the lengthy death scene) and then you will fight again and die again. | video-games_xbox |
Worst FPS I've Ever Played. It feels as if this game was created as a joke, where the monkeys they hired to make it just copied the worst of every other FPS on the market.
Single Player:
The campaign is short, but that's nothing new in this genre. What is new, is half of the campaign is spent listening to people talk, watching in-game scenes, and walking with no action.
The enemies have no recoil on their weapons, infinite ammo with no need to reload, can throw a grenade with pin-point accuracy several hundred yards and only attack the player, leaving all the friendly AI alone and can curve RPGs "Wanted" style.
The friendly AI will stand 3ft from an enemy and be unable to shoot him, or shoot in the opposite direction at a wall.
There are constant gliches with picking up weapons, using the action button to move up/down a ladder, attaching trackers, etc...
It is so clunky that if a grenade lands close enough to you for you to see the grenade icon, it is impossible to avoid death.
The story is poorly done, giving you no reason to care about what's going on, due mainly to a horrible script and the fact that every 5 minutes you're forced into a non-playabe/action sequence that lasts several minutes.
You are forced to wait for your overly incompetent friendly AI before doing anything also.
Multiplayer:
It's a straight camping sniper fest, due to the way you get attachments, vehicles, etc...
You start each round with 500BP (Battle Points I'm assuming, it's never explained) and earn BP for each kill (130), assist (50), headshot (30), etc... Once you have enough BP you can buy a vehicle, flak jacket, RPG, etc... This leads to entire teams camping out and sniping so they can earn enough BP to call in an attack chopper, which they will do all at once. If you end up on the losing team, half way through the match you will be faced with 3-6 choppers in the air raining missiles down until the round is over.
There is no matching based on rank or skill, so the more you've played, the better weapons you have to start with and better things you have to buy in a match, leaving the players that have a job/life, at a constant disadvantage.
I have a 25/25 fiber connection and the lag at times was so bad it was locking up the game for a few seconds at a time.
Wrap Up:
All-in-all, this game is a zero star game, but I can't give it zero, so it got one.
Little to no thought was put into any of the game. Anyone that has played CoD and/or Battlefield will see just how many bad things about those games were taken and put together to make this one horrible game.
Referring to the tile of this review; I played Darkest of Days and enjoyed it 1000x more than this game, and Darkest of Days is just awful.
Don't waste your money on this garbage, or any other THQ game for that matter, as this is par for the course for them. | video-games_xbox |
Alan Wake came so close to a great game, but failed. Alan Wake is a good game that feels like it should have been a great game. The story is interesting, though a bit convoluted at times. However the setting, the feel, the way they tell the story, all feel really good. That's the high point of Alan Wake. The story was enough to get me through the game, and have a decent time with it.
Alan Wake's biggest problem is the way it plays, and the endless forest sections of the game that have you on a fixed path. Time and time again the same enemies jump out at you, you fight them, rinse and repeat. You fight the same battle, against pretty much the same enemies, in forests that all feel the same, time after time after time, from the beginning of the game until the end. It gets really old.
To make matters worse, the controls feel off, and the combat mechanic feels goofy too. So the worst part of the game is the shooting and the forest corridors, and it's what you'll spend most of your time doing in this game. The parts where you're indoors feel great and are interesting, but those sections aren't a big part of the game.
This game left me wanting for what I had hoped it would be when I first saw it several years ago. This game and Fable II were the two games (unreleased at the time) that convinced me I need an XBox 360, and both were a huge letdown to me. I'm VERY glad I bought a 360 though, as there are plenty of great games that have kept me more than satisfied with the system. It's just too bad that the two I was most excited for turned out to be duds.
I read a reviewer that said that Alan Wake was like the first Uncharted, a good foundation which lead to Uncharted 2, which is one of the best games of this gen. I'm not sure I agree with that. I think Uncharted one's core game mechanics were fun, as well as having a superb story, it just lacked some technical polish and a bit of variety. Alan Wake has the technical polish down, and the story down, but they have a long ways to go in terms of designing levels, and core gameplay mechanics. I'd still love to see an Alan Wake 2, but they need to go back to the drawing board and spice the level design up, and make the core mechanics of the game feel better. If you're going to have people shooting a gun through most of the game, it had better feel right, and satisfying.
My advice, if this game looks cool to you, as it did to me, pick it up at $20. For $20 you'll have a good time with it, and you'll have the right expectations. | video-games_xbox |
Dreadful build and not really surround. I have tried the Z6a's attached to a Xonar D2 and to a DVD/SACD player with 5.1 analogue outputs. The sound is quite reasonable for the price, with a smooth frequency response from top to bottom, though it is a bit shy in the 250-500 Hz region. Deep bass is acceptable, if a little "one-note like".
The build is reasonable though far from bullet-proof. They should survive a year or two of normal, careful use, but they aren't going to last if abused. The cable from the amp to the phones is unusually robust and the connector in the middle of it should help prevent damage if the cable gets caught on something when you stand up.
The build of the amp however leaves much to be desired. It gives the impression of something out of a $25 RC car unit. The thumb dials used to set the volume of the different channels seem to be of a design known to slowly fail introducing lots of crackly noise as they go. The master volume knob crackles from the get-go. There are no markings on the dials or knobs to help create different settings that you can return to. And then there is the hiss as pointed out by others. This is not a problem if you have lots of signal, but these are not suitable cans for people listening to dynamic music. For example on the start of the Dark Side of the Moon SACD the headphone hiss was louder than the tape hiss - which is saying something on this rather hissy recording.
The biggest disappointment by far though was the total absence of surround sound. For a long time I thought I was doing something wrong with the set up (and I was at the very beginning with the Xonar), but the proof lay in connecting them to my DVD player. It has very few set-up options so it's hard to get it wrong. And there, using calibration tones, I heard the front and rear channels sound spatially exactly the same. The left front came from the left side and the left rear came from the same place. This means that the whole surround thing is bogus.
These phones do play all the information on a multi-channel disc or game, unlike units relying on virtual sound-spaces, so that's a clear plus. They are comfortable enough, and reasonably balanced for music. But don't expect to get a real surround experience. You won't hear sounds coming from behind you, and at least for gaming that's a huge loss.
[Update: The phones broke after 2 months. Both mechanical failure of the head strap and electrical failure of a driver. Useless.] | video-games_xbox |
An awful shooter that can't even follow FPS rules. The Good: Scary atmosphere with lots of gore, decent visuals, only four hours long
The Bad: Horrible gun play, dumb AI, sloppy animations, lame story, bad quick time and scripted events, enemies are way to tough to take down
The first ShellShock was a blip on the FPS timeline that no one knew about, cared about, and quickly forgot. The game was poorly designed, and why a second game was ever approved is beyond me. The game is terrible, in fact, one of the worst FPS games I have played in a while. Not only is the story boring and uninteresting, but the game has bad level design and FPS mechanics that go against what everyone is used to.
Blood Trails has you trying to find your brother and a mysterious person called Whiteknight. Suddenly there are zombies everywhere and that's where the game starts to head downhill. The biggest issue is how you kill enemies. You have to pump dozens of bullets into one enemy just to kill them so headshots are essential. This game might as well be called ShellShock: Headshots because that's the only way to put enemies down quickly before you are overrun. This especially goes for zombies because most can take on almost 10 shotgun shells before going down. This is completely ridiculous and unnecessary, but for some reason I guess the developers thought it was funny. Towards the end of the game you will literally get hordes of zombies come after you, so you better be precise and an expert shot.
You think the guns would at least be fun to shoot but they aren't. There is no feedback from the gun so they all feel the same. It doesn't help that you can't carry much ammo so you will find yourself whacking enemies with a useless machete. The guns reload at a snail's pace and you can't interrupt reload animations to take out zombies that are charging after you. I also don't know how I keep missing zombies at point-blank range, but it must be the POV or how the engine is designed because this little mishap is just annoying. It doesn't help that all the animations in the game are terrible and robot like. Even the enemy AI is completely dumb because if you are high up a zombie will just keep running into the wall and bounce back and forth at hyper speed.
If you want to talk about the atmosphere the game nails that decently. The game can be scary at times and is very dark and gory with body parts hanging everywhere, babies crying, horrific screams, and just plain old scary. There are some scripted events and some quick times events but even these are poorly designed and boring. The game seemed to have a good start in the beginning, but after the first level you will just keep wondering when it will end. The game can be beaten in about 4 hours so you won't have to play it for long. Why should you play it you ask? Only if you really need an FPS fix for some reason or are just bored.
Overall, Blood Trails has decent visuals, but has terrible lighting effects that wash the scenes away. The gun play is horrible, the enemy AI is dumber than dirt, enemies are way to tough to take down, and there are just so many bad quirks that you will regret even starting the game. There are other FPS games out there that are better, but if you have to then go ahead. | video-games_xbox |
Awesome decals. I have a lot of experience with painting cars and applying decals to cars after and before painting them. Let me tell you, this decal is just as good quality as a decal made for a car! Vehicle decals are made to withstand sun, rain, snow, dirt, road grime, and the car wash. This decal feels exactly like a car decal. Now I don't want to test this out by leaving my Xbox in the sun or taking it through a car wash but the decal is nice. Application takes a little patience but is pretty easy. The decals are cut almost perfect. They line up great to the parts they are designed for as long as you follow the included instructions and line them up with one of the straight edges. The decal for the top of the Xbox and the one that goes on the front takes a little brains to install properly because on goes around the power button and one goes around the Xbox symbol so of course you would want to start in that area so those things show like they are supposed to. The decal for the controller is probably the most difficult to install but not impossible. Start applying the decal around the buttons on the right side of the controller and slowly work your way across the center of the controller so you can place the decal around the control sticks before pressing all of it down. The best part about this decal set is if you mess up you can pull it back off and try again if you are careful. The quality of the decal makes it quite durable and sticky so pulling it off once or twice won't hurt much as long as you stick it right back on and have cleaned the Xbox before installing the decal. This item was purchased at a discount in exchange for my honest review. I only rate according to my opinion of the product because I am like you - I appreciate honest reviews. Also, I have two other Xbox Ones in other rooms (3 kids) and I will be buying another decal like this for another room at full price. | video-games_xbox |
Best MMA Game Available. This is definitely the best and most realistic MMA game on the market, however like graphics the uncanny valley comes into play, the closer it gets to a 1-1 simulation the more glaring the problems become. This game has an extremely detailed set of moves, with an incredibly steep learning curve, even after spending hours playing through the tutorial. After taking a character all the way through the career mode and feeling kind of like a bad ass, when I tried the higher difficulties for some of the achievements it was extremely difficult. Ultimately the lower difficulties are where most people will have the most fun, and most of the problems aren't so obvious. When you try the higher levels, the AI is almost prescient to your moves, and the previously extensive move set seems too limited for what you need to beat the opponent. There is one thing that sucks on every difficulty level, and that's the new submission system. I don't know if there was something wrong with my controller or my co-ordination, but I could never get the hang of it, and I maybe succeeded with one submission, and got out of only a few. I would maybe be okay with the system if it accurately represented the submission game in real-life MMA, but it doesn't at all. I would feel safe to wager that the submission system will be completely revamped for UFC 4.
For the Career Mode, I had a lot of fun with it, but I was disappointed to see very few changes from the previous games other than the addition of Pride rules (which were awesome at times). I would love to see more of a story added to this mode, and they could even use their Ultimate Fighter reality show as a great beginning to this mode. For the RPG stat increase system in career mode, there were a lot of problems. Personally I found some of the exercises to be fun and others to be incredibly annoying. However, the likeability of the exercises doesn't really determine which one's you'll use, as many of the exercises for some reason greatly decrease other stats (Equally or greater than the stats being improved!) so I really only stuck to two exercises especially towards the end of my career (the Heavy Bag and the Tire Flip). The create-a-fighter ratings were also screwed up, I think that I won the UFC belt before I broke the 80's, and I retired as the best fighter in history before I broke the 90's.
In the end, if you still have the previous UFC games, there's really no reason to buy this game. However, if you don't own them and want to play an MMA fighting game, this is absolutely your best option, and I would highly recommend it. | video-games_xbox |
JUMP, RUN, DIE, REPEAT. An insulting RIPOFF. RIPOFF. Want my money back. I would not waste money on this for anyone I cared about. Im an adult over 21. Old enough to expect my money's worth compared to other first-person shooters. There are plenty of negative reviews highlighting the same concerns. Take a look on you tube as well. Angry joe reviews. Down right lazy, moronic, monotomus design all around with no point whatsoever. Run around and kill everyone insight. No story to invest in or to put war in context ( if that's possible) If that's not enough, the server connection support is ridiculously atrocious. I'm sure it was a big money maker with all the hype.
Purchasing this game cheats you of a full gaming experience. This is not a full game and requires you spend money investing in Microsoft BEFORE you can even have access to it.
While other games have a multiplayer feature as an side benefit, the creators of this game have elected to shortcut the need to be creative to make JUST a multiplayer option. Result: before even being able to load this game, 1. Users must spend money on getting internet access 2. buying a XBOX Live Gold Pass. 3. More money for a hard drive if you don't have one already (which I didn't).
Totally multiplayer. Totally online only. With intermittent server connection this game is particularly frustrating. Whyske a game totally online and not create servers sufficient enough to handle it? No way to play BY YOURSELF or try to master the complicated moves short of dying repeatedly by hidden snipers who have nothing better to do than sit in front of this game all day long. Sickening.
While every other shooter features some semblance of a story or plot to put some perspective on killing everything in sight, the game barely mentions a reason to invest your imagination and dedication to playing the game.
Having this TITAN machine turns out to be an elaborate means to kill yourself or others. Such a wasted opportunity to use this innovative technology for some potentially great entertainment.
Obliviously going after a specific market and eliminate the rest of us who don't care to play online, or multiplayer for the sake of cheap means to make a quick buck.
First person shooters are a favorite of mine but I Won't be supporting this company on anything. | video-games_xbox |
I miss Ezio. I love the assassins creed series. Mostly II brotherhood and revelations. ACIII was fun, I enjoyed it. However, I had some serious issues.
First of all glitches. I had to reload so many times. Connor is a moron. Carrying two of the same handgun is impossible due to glitches with certain pistols spawning in your holsters every loading point. I had desyncronize all the time to restart missions due to fialing misson ques.
Firearm fails. Okay, so the most powerful pistol would be the Italian flint lock, barrel length is the leading factor in high muzzle velocity, not name or exterior decor. The flintlock musket would outrange all the pistols by double the distance. Less maybe the italian flintlock. Double barrel pistols have two hammers on either side. Not one that magically recocks and re primes itself. The duckfoot was correct. I tend to have a field day in video games with firearm fails.
Conner sucks, a lot. At first I liked Conner, native American badass, son of a Templar. But as the story progressed, I hated him. I wish haythem killed Connor, I liked haythem. He should have had a change in heart or something. Then I would have been happy. Conner is a immature, lacks assassin values and seemed more like a robot than a man. I disagreed with a lot of his decisions. He reminded me of terminator. No heart in anything he did. Ezio was amazing. He was funny and heroic, I always loved it when he won! He was the boss.
Desmond was annoying and fail. I would had been happy if they allowed more free roaming of new York in modern times. Also, the roaming of the wilderness outside of that end of the world tomb. It all felt boxed and too pre determined. All you do is walk into cut scenes.
I liked hunting, that was fun. I wish the bow was more detailed. Custom arrow heads would have been nice. Like a rope arrow, poisen arrows, flaming arrows and armor piercing would have been cool. Also maybe customizable projectiles for guns. assassins should be at a higher technology base than the average citizen.
All in all, I enjoyed the game, but since I played the previous AC's, I was left a little bummed. | video-games_xbox |
Best Multiplayer I ever played, but where's the rest of the game. I wanted to play through everything and experience it before a review. I am now level 30 gen2 pilot (level 30 first prestige for COD players or I beat the game and basically doing the same redundant process over again for the average joe reader). The multiplayer I do believe has brought some amazing elements of adrenaline fueled gaming.
From the moment you start it is a rush to get the first kill as you sprint across the map, wall running across a building and jet boosting yourself to the heights of a skyscraper to jump down and unleash a fury of ammunition upon your opponent. The added NPCs allow for the a quick excitement of "THERE'S A GUY". As the players spread across the map, it becomes heart pounding as you sprint through the streets and have to pay attention to every detail, if there a person on the roof? what was that in the building window? Gone are the days of set paths and restricted walkways and here to stay is the feeling of an open world (even though you know it is closed). As the battle progresses you are placed in the dangers of running into a Titan, the metal monstrosities strike fear into your heart until a friendly titan engages. And then as the battle ends and you find your team has conquered the opposing faction, the thrill isn't over. Now you have to evacuate and you have ONE chance to get it done! With all this thrill and excitement, how could a game be bad?
Customization, originality, story and "next gen" all missing. If you work to level a character you want the character to represent you, from the armor he wears to style of his hair. With the added Titans you want to pilot a titan that represents you that you can add a cannon on each arm or different legs, etc. Mechassault was a more exciting "mech" game that entertain for hours and that was from the original xbox (you know the giant black box from years ago, not the giant black box released just a few months ago). Titanfall is based SOLELY off of Call of Duty, I level, I get stuff and max out and do it all over again. BUT Call of Duty had a story and a single player game to play, with a moving story that kept you engaged.
While I support a multiplayer campaign, you can not take a "ground breaking game" and not apply a story for everyone to remember. Honestly I have played through the campaign five times, Once as Militia and four times as IMC, I can't really tell you anything about it other than the people don't get along and want to fight. There are a few small details I can remember ( but we don't want to ruin the 30 seconds of plot for you) and those details do not leave me craving more story.
"Next gen" has not impressed me thus far with any game. From Capcom's Dead Rising where we plug in sounds from Devil May Cry because we are too lazy to make new ones, to Call of Duty where the graphics improved, but we just continue to do the same thing over and over again with a different title. Next Gen to me meant more people playing together, more dynamic environments and graphics that entailed seeing sweat drip off soldiers next you (ok maybe not that detailed, BUT CLOSE). Titanfall made a small step in that direction with solid graphics and a few new things to introduce to the world, but left everyone feeling that only half the game was there.
I think overall if the game didn't have as much hype over how amazing it was pre launch it would have overwhelmed me with joy. I still enjoy the game and think the multiplayer is the best I have played. But to promise a change to the world and how we play games, Titanfall did not deliver. If you enjoy Call of Duty and want a game that will fill a void during you "COD Burnout Stage" this will deliver, but as far as a complete concept, this falls short. | video-games_xbox |
Disappointing second installment. I have not gotten into every single facet of the game just yet, but I'm so disappointed in what I have experienced so far that I decided to go ahead and write a review on it. I gave this game a 3 out of 5 because, while it is entertaining in short bursts, the developers have definitely not realized the potential of the game and the technology that it uses. In my opinion, the sports in the game are over-simplified and unrealistic to a fault.
Tennis: this it is a sport I am extremely familiar with. It is eerily similar to playing table tennis in <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Kinect-Sports/dp/B002I0JBVY/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Kinect Sports</a>. Your character does all the moving for you, but you can make small steps in the direction of the ball to put a little more speed on your shots. In this version of tennis, there's no such thing as volleying, as the only time you get to come in to the net is when your opponent hits a lob (usually after you hit a good shot), and you just swing with any technique you prefer and hit a smash (just like in aforementioned table tennis). The concept of hitting with a lot of angle is absent in this game. You can put some angle on the ball, but the only time you'll hit a line is if you have to stretch for a ball and you hit a bad shot. At least in table tennis you could keep hitting to the same side and put it a little closer to the line each time. Furthermore, anyone who plays tennis knows that you can hit a hard, sharp slice that can move just as quickly as a top-spin shot. But in the game, 95% of slices slow the ball down drastically. You can't hit drop shots, and you can't hit lobs on purpose. I do like how you can change the speed of your serve, but you have to make sure you don't make any unnecessary movements, as the sensor will freak out and you will hit a weak 50 MPH serve. Overall, it is entertaining, it just seems to have missed out on a lot of potential facets of the sport of tennis.
Skiing: Skiing is much better on the Wii with the Wii fit board. Because the Wii fit board recognizes your weight balance, it takes a lot more skill and is therefore more challenging than it is in this game. From what I've played so far, it was just a lot of leaning back and forth and crouching. Not much to it, but I haven't given it much of a chance just yet.
Darts: Darts is one of the more realistic sports in the game. The sensor can be fidgety at times and it's not as fluid as I'd like it to be, but the location throwing is pretty accurate.
Football: Running the ball in football is pretty lame. You just run in place, and you can't juke or spin, you just run. Playing quarterback is fun: you can say "hike" to snap the ball, or you can just stand up out of the crouch position. From there, you can throw the ball to one of three receivers by angling your throw in the direction of the chosen receiver. But once the ball is caught, you're back to running in place.
Golf: You don't need any technique at all when it comes to golf. If you want to hit the ball hard, just swing as hard as you can. If you want to, you can be told how hard to hit each shot, and there's basically three power levels based on how hard you swing. It would be nice if the game required a little more work on the player's part.
I haven't made it to baseball just yet, so I will post an update when I do.
Overall, the game is a big disappointment for me, as after playing the first Kinect Sports and loving it, I thought that this one would be even better. However, I feel that the game has regressed. I got a really good deal on the game, and because of that, I don't feel cheated since the game is somewhat entertaining. After playing it, there is no way I would advise anyone to pay full price for it. | video-games_xbox |
Xbox 360 Pro Holiday Bundle 2008. Xbox 360 Pro Holiday Bundle 2008
Pros: Reasonable price, Bundled with 60GB drive and two full version games. Easy to set up and use, free 1 month Xbox Live Gold membership
Cons: Connecting it to a wireless Internet access requires a lot of work. Still uses DVD which is a shame.
The <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Xbox-360-Pro-Holiday-Bundle-2008-Includes-60GB-Hard-Drive/dp/B001FPBZ3U/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Xbox 360 Pro Holiday Bundle 2008 Includes 60GB Hard Drive</a> provides a rather decent bundle for players who want to get a piece of the Microsoft gaming goodness out there. The Xbox 360 Pro Holiday Bundle 2008 includes a 60 GB hard drive, one wireless controller and full versions of Kung Fu Panda and Indiana Jones Lego (which is packed in one case). If you've been a gamer all your life, setting it up is quite easy. Plug in the power brick and attach the AV cables to your TV, power it up and you're all set. The packaged AV cable has got HDTV capability so this will be great if you've got a high-def TV.
If you're a first time beginner, using it for the first time won't be a horrendous experience. All you need to do is read through the concise but detailed manual, complete with illustrations and instructions. Although I am a PC gamer at heart, I have always loved the way video game consoles make it so easy for people to play. After turning on the Xbox 360 and activating the new controller, I slapped in Kung Fu Panda and got the game running in no time. To play <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Xbox-360-Live-12-Month-Gold-Card-plus-1-Month-Bonus/dp/B000B9RI00/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Xbox 360 Live 12 Month Gold Card plus 1 Month Bonus</a>, you will need to connect your Xbox 360 to your Internet connection. The Xbox 360 Pro Holiday Bundle 2008 comes with its network cable so connecting it to your router is pretty easy. Just follow the onscreen prompts to connect to Xbox Live and it'll update your Xbox 360. Don't worry about it. It's necessary to get it up dated because there are a number of features available on the Xbox 360 that can only be used once the system is updated. Once it's updated, you'll get a spiffy new interface. The Xbox 360 Pro Holiday Bundle 2008 comes with a free 1 month Xbox Live Gold membership. With it, you'll be able to download exclusive Xbox Live arcade games (most of which are on free trial) and content. The only thing I have to gripe about is that it's a real pain to connect it to a wireless Internet connection. I've got a wireless connection at home and a Linksys Wireless Internet bridge. It took me days, scouring online forums and fiddling with my wireless Internet router system and wireless bridge to get it to work. That's Microsoft's way of saying, "Hey, Spare yourself the trouble and grief and Get the <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Xbox-360-Wireless-Network-Adapter/dp/B000B6MLV4/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter</a>." The thing is, it's too expensive. Taking the non-Microsoft network adapter will be exhausting, but once you've succeeded, it'll be worth it (and definitely $100 bucks richer). But if you don't like the pain and the hassle in connecting the Xbox 360 wireless, get yourself the Xbox Wireless Network Adapter.
Since I am on gripe mode, I'll take a potshot on the Xbox 360's dinky DVD-ROM player. The Sony PS3 has Blu-Ray which in itself, is a pretty swell enough reason to get it. I was hoping that when the HD-DVD tanked, Microsoft would get in the Blu-Ray wagon as well. Alas, they didn't and this Holiday Bundle only has a DVD-ROM player. Oh well.
In spite of the wireless network drama I had with my Xbox 360 and the standard DVD drive, I'm still a happy puppy. Xbox 360 has some of the best game titles on the planet and this Holiday Bundle is more than enough to keep me and my kids happy for a long time. Well, at least until a new next generation Xbox console shows up and rears its ugly, er, beautiful head. | video-games_xbox |
Great game " IF IT WOULD SAVE YOUR PROGRESS " . I REALLY like this game and I usually don't like race games. The only problem ( and it's a huge one ) with this game is that for some reason the game doesn't save properly and you might lose hours/days of play time.
I was a level 19 yeaserday then when I turned my console on today , I find that I have lost most of my rank AND TIME because I was reverted back to a level 9 .Since I do really like this game I started playing again and gained a few ranks then decided to see if my progress was saving so I entered a garage to save my progress then shut my system down. Upon restarting the console and game I found that I have been reverted back to level 9 again !!! I simply cannot get past level 9 !!!
I'm going to try playing off line ( with the net completely disconnected ) to see if the game will save like it is supposed to ( directly to the hard drive and not to cloud servers ). If this works I will continue to play and like the game , if it does not I will be sending this back to Amazon for a refund and pick up Forza 5 .
EDIT : 6-29-14
I tried playing completely off line and it worked.. After I completed an event or anything really , I went to a garage and saved . Now just to be sure it saved I went in and out of the garage 3 times before continuing on to another event. I know this sounds aggravating but it really doesn't take much time.
The problem must be on The EA servers because while I'm not connected to their servers the game saves to my hard drive just like it should . I have many other games that automatically save to the cloud while playing and NONE have had the first issue so I really don't think its Microsoft's fault , especially when the ps4 is having the same issues. Its quite a shame EA doesn't fix this problem because it is a five star game if it worked properly.
Since we can play this game ( off line ) like the other need for speed games and still have a blast I will upgrade my stars to a 4 star game , if I could play the game as advertised ( ONLINE ) then I would give it a 5 star review.
If you don't mind playing offline then I would recommend this game , if not then stay away , you have been warned. I don't mind the offline play one bit because its so much fun without being online.. I must say again , DO NOT BUY THIS GAME IF YOU ARE GOING TO PLAY IT ONLINE !!! also just to be sure it saves go in and out of a garage 2 times , just to be sure it saves.. I hope this helps , happy gaming peps :)
Edit : 7-1-2014
Well I decided to risk it and go online with my game and I was still able to keep my saves with no problem . The only thing I did was before I quit the game I took my console off line and then saved the game and just for good measure I went out of the garage and back in again to make it save again. I turned my console off , went to bed and got up this morning to play again and it worked flawlessly , my saves , rank and everything were just as I left them. So from now on I will be playing the game online but taking it offline to save and exit the game before turning the console off. I just can't believe no one else has tried these steps to get the saves to work. I can't be the only one to have thought of this. So if you want to play online you can , I would just do what I have done to make sure the game saves before turning the console off.
1 - Disconnect console from the net.
2 - save the game by visiting a garage , do it twice for good measure.
3 - Quit the game
This has worked every time , I tried this numerous times today and havn't lost a bit of my save data. | video-games_xbox |
Zombies is great, multiplayer is ok and the campaign is boring. just like any other recent COD you get a campaign, multiplayer and zombies, and even a nightmares mode after the campaign. I am going to break up these parts and review them individually.
Multiplayer:
Basically it's just like any other COD but with a touch of Advanced Warfare/Titanfall mixed in. The maps are all similar which is nice for simplicity and competitive play. There are a few side routes that differ from Mao to map. The movement is not as crazy as AW which is good. I really did not like the moment system in AW. The customization of your character is not as good as AW either but gun bench and gunsmith are pretty cool and unique. The pick 13 system is back which is great. I think it is a good system overal as well. Score streaks are the same as well which is great if your good but are a nightmare of your not and on the opposite team of a good player.
Campaign:
I'm just going to put it bluntly, the campaign is boring and flat. The acting is bad, it does not explain things very well like who the CDP is even though they are one faction in MP. I may not have been paying attention but that shows how boring it was. One highlight in the campaign was when the incorporated zombies into a mission. Kinda trippy but it made the mission. Plus I've seen videos showing the campaign doesn't hold a steady FPS either and has other issues. Comparing it again to BO2 and AW this campaign pales in comparison as usually I really enjoy COD campaigns as I am a battlefield player and DICE does no do campaigns well so it's one reason I buy COD and again I'm disappointed especially since treyarch is the best COD studio.
Nightmares:
Nightmares is an alternate campaign where instead of fighting humans, zombies are the enemy. It's a great concept and I hope treyarch expands on this for DLC or a future zombies game entirely. However, this mode feels very tacked on. All they did was replay the campaign but spawn in zombies and way too many if I may add because the progression slows down too much. I actually got bored and I usually love zombies stuff. Also because it was just tacked on there were no new cutscenes or audio except for those dialog scenes with that picture of the tree in it between the hero and the Dr. Also, the original character dialog was taken out so at times you wonder what's going on because your teammate is just standing there doing nothing but in the regular campaign he is talking. Even the cut scenes play without audio so it's boring to watch simeones lips move in a scene and it isn't even matching what's going on. You can tell Activision wasn't really ready to invest a lot of money into this but I hope it's just an experiment for a future game.
Zombies:
As usual, treyarch is delivers here! This is basically why I bought BO3! SOE is great! It's like a traditional zombies map, narrow, twisty and hard to navigate with a train of zombies behind you. It may actually be too hard. In fact treyarch even had to tone down the zombies. They were too aggressive before. The story of the map is good. I think it's actually got depth and it even connects it to Mob of the dead and origins. It's definitely a different spin on zombies. I'm looking forward to playing DLC maps and the giant.
So to recap, multiplayer is the same, the campaign is a letdown, nightmares is just tacked on and zombies is great.
If you like what COD has been doing then you'll like this then but it's getting kinda boring. I hope zombies takes off more as its own title or something along those lines. A polished zombie campaign would be great!
Update,
I sold this game. I am not good at multiplayer and it suffers from a crappy community. Everyone always quits zombies which is why I bought this game. It makes for a bad experience. I'll be sticking to Battlefield 4 and rainbow six siege. I'm officially done with cod | video-games_xbox |
The Problems Are Too Annoying To Overlook. I admit, I bought into the hype and bought this game. It had more positive reviews than bad and I was really craving a football game to play. Well after 3 days with the game I am going to sell it and pick up another copy of All Pro Football 2k8 because that is a football game that gets gameplay down right.
First thing I noticed and what actually made me happy was no online pass code. EA has said they will no longer do this and I am grateful they decided not to use the shady tactic again. So online for everybody. The first disappointing thing I noticed was no EA Trax. That means there isn't really music from artists but instead in the menus we just have epic football music playing constantly. Probably not a big deal to some but I was looking forward to seeing what music would be in the game this year.
So the main problem I had with this game is the gameplay and it is still broken. You still can't challenge plays so if you feel cheated out of a play, "deal with it bro" seems to be the games attitude. I can't tell you how many times I am playing defense and the ball carrier runs up to me and I press the B button to switch to the closest guy and then move the right stick or hit the X button to tackle him, and my player dives in the complete opposite direction. It is like the AI had a moment to think for itself and with you pressing that button, the AI freaked out and you go in the wrong way causing more yards to be gained by the other team.
I could talk more about the gameplay but to make a long story short, it just doesn't feel natural at all and the absolute random nature of the gameplay elements and AI, just made the game aggravating for me. For people who don't know what I mean by random elements, well that shows off best in the new drill modes where you practice the new features of the game and get medals for them. In order to get a gold medal, you can only mess the drill up one time. You will soon figure out this is much more easier said than done and the gameplay will just make this a controller breaking mode that will make you never want to jump in that mode again.
Overall, I don't find this game to be fun and all of the features and modes can't mask the poorly designed gameplay. Maybe if people started petitioning and stop buying Madden to make it known world wide, we can get 2K football games again or at the very least, let EA know, something has to be done with this franchise. But Madden will continue to sell and we just have to deal with it. One can dream for a better football game though. | video-games_xbox |
This is definitely Dead Space, and it is a proper sequel. I was extremely skeptical of the quality of dead space 3 after playing the demo. It had the production values, but quite frankly, it wasn't scary and it felt generic. Well, I was dead wrong. I've never written a review, but I decided it was worthwhile since this game has received the most ridiculous misrepresentation of a game I had ever seen in many of the reviews I had read prior to purchase. I almost skipped it, which would have been a huge mistake.
Disclaimer: if you want to play this as a horror game, PLAY SOLO. I played the entire game alone, and then played a little bit of the Co-op feature. Co-op is the equivalent of having a firing squad, where the necromorphs do not stand a chance against decent players. You can afford to be much worse at the game, and a lot of the horror is lost with a partner to share the fight. If you want classic dead space, play alone. If you want dead space lite, play co-op. It's fun, but its a feature to please those who don't have the stomach for real dead space games.
Now that we've settled that, here's my take on the game. Dead space 3 is dark. Really dark. For a game that supposedly was much easier and wide open and bright, I was suddenly plunged back into tight corridors with flickering lights. Sounds fluttered around me, reminding me that I was never alone. It was classic dead space at its finest.
I will say that I felt like I had too much ammo and health packs, but I solved this by switching to hard mode. It said it was for veterans, and it was a great decision. It added that last bit of pressure I felt was missing, and never felt cheap in its difficulty.
Then dead space 3 did what the series had always done for me- found a new way to terrorize me. On the surface of the icy planet of Tao Volantis, I realized immediately how unsafe I was. The snow was the perfect hiding spot for a lurking necromorph, or five. Ambushes awaited in the blizzard, and I was always at the ready. The further I traveled, the more hopeless the quest for survival grew. Incredible set piece scenes underpinned the most dramatic of moments, and took the story to revelations and horror that I could have never predicted. In short, without revealing the story, they got it right.
Not all the characters are great, but dead space has never been popular for fantastic characters. I was underwhelmed by the human villain, but our protagonist Isaac proved to do a solid job again.
Weapons customization was a surprise to me, but it turned out to be one of the best new features. Veterans will at first balk at the idea of building guns, but it soon gripped me with its depth. I was able to test my mind, and make the most effective weapons to survive the long campaign. It will satiate your creativity.
I fully recommend it for those who loved dead space (play solo) and those who like shooters, but tend to shy away from horror (play co-op). It's brilliant, and deserves to be played. | video-games_xbox |
Recreational realist. My impressions are based on a couple statements that qualify my play type: I believe, the lure of the game - when you get your money worth - is in the online multiplayer mode. I don't like the unrealistic hyper-fast sprinters, and enjoy stopping them whenever I get a chance. I don't mind campers, and I like sniping. Finally, I prefer kill-them-all due to the deficit of time.
1. MW3 campaign is what I expected - one pass only, a bit light on concept and effort it takes to complete, but somewhat entertaining. I didn't bother to go beyond regular difficulty. Special Ops are nice and make it a tri-star-fun game for me. Unfortunately it's the only enhancement over MW2 that makes a positive difference, IMO. I also think the new complexity in weapons features and perks is unneeded overhead.
2. It seems that MW3 multiplayer mode is, by design, frenzied and promoting relfex-based game play. Add to that a huge gap in capabilities between the higher-ranking players - who had spent countless upfront hours with their consoles - and newbies; as well as people with super-fast connections and those on slower speeds. The seemingly *poor player-matching logic* is bound to create a lot of frustration for recreational or entry-level players who would be killed so quickly and so many times that this will make them stay in Special Ops forever.
3. I feel that MW3 turns off "realistic" players, and strongly dislike its maps that take some degree of realism away from the gameplay by piling in garbage clutter, corridors and pass-through rooms. In addition, you can't even climb or jump onto anything; and can't stay in any elevated position for longer than one kill because of multiple points of access to the structure. IMO, this setup favors "the crazy sprinters" with a hand gun-knife or a UMP on steroids who you wouldn't ever see in real combat.
4. I read one of the reviews here stating that MW3 discourages camping. Given what I mentioned above, I agree completely. However, I think that campers must be punished by other players, not by the artificial and forceful removal of "camping" from the game. This to me amounts to the squashing of yet another degree of realism in the gameplay.
The bottom line is, I hope that they keep MW*2* multiplayer servers online for as long as possible. Perhaps, I should give a shot to the MW3 team play during the holidays when time permits this sort of "committment". | video-games_xbox |
An Excellent Racing Simulator That Rivals GT4. Ive been playing this game for days now & Ive lost alot of sleep because I cant get enough of it ,its a great game,but I will warn you it is a Racing simulator type game that does have a slight learning curve & it will be a harder game when you first play it,because the driving physics are based on real-world driving. The vast amount of different cars you can buy & race in FORZA is amazing . You can buy just about any real-life car that are in showrooms today and also some of the older cars from the early sixties all the way up through to 2005. The manufacturers are all represented here from ASIA,North America(USA),Germany,Italy,United Kingdom,Sweden,France,Korea,Spain. You could buy a 1991 Honda CRX SI and upgrade it to about 580 HP & race it against a Ferrari ENZO. You have a ton of different race series from Point to Point, Amateur, Professional, Championship series, & Long Endurance races which require pit-stops. Each race is limited to your cars category from D class, C class, B class, A class , S class, R class. Classes D through S have four subclasses ,with 1 being the highest rated & 4 being the lowest. Class R has three subclasses R-GT, R-GTS, & P1. You cars class will raise as you upgrade it & you can sell,& remove parts,adversly you can lower your cars class if you remove parts. There are also brand specific races like Impreza vs. Lancer, RX7 vs. Supra ,American Muscle event,Roadster Challenge,Club Mustang event,Light Weight Challenge,300 HP challenge & many many more. There's also FW drive event,AWD event,MR event & many more. The vast number of different class restricted races is mindboggling ,this game is HUGE! You can Upgrade your cars with a large amount of options including Intake/Exaust,Fuel Ignition,Turbo Charger, Supercharger,Intercooler,& you can swap up to bigger engines ,say example you could put a b18c5 engine from an Integra type R into any Civic. Also you can upgrade your cars other parts like, Tires from Y-rated ,DOT,to Slicks,Brakes,Transmission,Clutch & Flywheel,Weight reduction,Suspension. You can also add body kit parts from Front & Rear bumpers,Side skirts,Roll Cage,Hood,Rims,Spoilers. You can custom paint your cars from about 80 different colors. You can add custom Decals & Vinyls on your cars left side ,top side,front bumper,rear bumper,& wing & change the shape color of each Vinyl for a completly unlimited amount of custom options. You can move,size,spin,tilt,EACH vinyl & decal & layer them up to 100,you could easily spend hours alone on vinyl applications. You can FINETUNE your cars set-up from Front & Rear tire pressure,adjust each individual gear ratio,adjust degree of camber /toe/castor,adjust ride height front & rear, adjust spring tension from soft to firm,adjust Damping Bump & Rebound,Adjust AERO downforce on front bumper & spoiler/wing, adjust Differential accell & decel,adjust Braking balance & pressure & the E-brake slow/fast. You can then go test your adjustments on any track youve unlocked & while your on the track you can fine tune it as your driving a test run in the pause menu. You can then save your cars tune set-up & then load that set-up before any race to match the track your gonna race on. You also can get a Benchmark setting to see what your adjustments have done ,it will show you Acceleration 0-60mph time ,0-100mph time, Top Speed,Braking Distance In feet ,& Lateral G's. As you win races & championships you will get credits towards purchasing more cars or parts,Also sponsors will give you discounts on parts when you win races & championships. Car manufacturers will give you free cars for winning races,series,& championships. The graphics are pretty good in this game ,the only negative thing is the people look like cardboard cutouts,but its still looks pretty good alot of nice detail. The New York & Tokyo tracks are realy nice. The cars all look fantastic and after youve finished a race you can watch and/or save your replay which looks fantastic. The strongest part of this game is the racing gameplay which is outstanding! And I did notice a big difference in performance after you add parts to your car and/or fine tune it .Its a very realistic racing game that does have a learning curve to get used to ,but once you get familiar with the driving physics its realy fun. The developers did a great job with this game & it shows. FORZA is must own for any fan of Racing sims & it could possibly win game of the year award ... HINTS: I noticed some reviewers saying that they couldn't adjust the steering response & control .But you can by adjusting everything from the camber to the tire & the front bumber rear wing downforce not to mention a TON of other adjustments that can be done to make the cars handle alot better .You can adjust the understeer/oversteer which will effect the smoothness of driving physics, but you cant adjust many of these things until you purchase the available upgrades. Also if your having problems with high-powered rear wheeled cars spinning out, try adjusting the toe/camber & also the tire pressure for front & rear. A good combo is a lower pressure rear wheel & a higer pressure front. It affects the oversteer/underseer balance. But it might be opposite for some drivers. Try different tire pressures & for better handling . One of the best handling cars in the game is the PORSCE 959 ,its handles extremly well because its a four wheel drive car & can be upgraded to a S class car, In which I had great success with up against the mighty Chrysler ME 4-12 in the S class races & the mighty TVR 12 CYLINDER.The ME 4-12 is very hard to control because of its rear wheeL drive. Another good thing to remember is to go very easy into the brakes ,dont ever slam on the brakes you'll just slide all over the place. Remeber slow is fast in the tight turns . Also if you wanna be a better driver in the long run turn off ALL of the assists except for the green ASSIST line so you'll have a great adavantage in knowing just how fast you can barrell into a turn & try different apex lines into the turn .The green assist line isn't always the best or fastest line. But and I say but that makes a big difference in how your car is FINE-TUNED. FORZA is absolutly the most advanced & most in depth racing game I have ever played. Move over GT4 ,FORZA is in town. | video-games_xbox |
Mediocre attempt, flashes of greatness. This game suffers from an unusual problem that most sequels don't: it seems the developers listened to the gaming community. The first Spider-Man The Movie game was a lot of fun, but it had it's limitations- it was too linear, there was no room for exploration, and your activities were limited to the skies and rooftops and a few indoor areas. Spidey-fans and gamers alike wanted more room to swing and more opportunities to use their great powers with great responsibility- but less linearity.
S-M2 bucks that trend. In a nod to Grand Theft Auto 3-style gaming, the city is now yours to explore. There are huge skyscrapers, dark alleyways, and bustling streets. You can either choose to follow along with the linear plot, seek out mini-missions that net you points you can use to purchase upgrades, or hunt down hidden items (for no apparent reason than a higher overall score).
While great in concept, the implementation is sorely lacking. There are only a handful of randomly-generated mini-mission types (car chases, robberies, air-land-and-sea rescues), which forces you to replay the same tired action sequences over and over and over. Fun for a bit, but not for hours and hours of filler. The way the game is structured, you have to purchase upgrades to progress- so you are forced to take hundreds of these mini-missions to follow the game's main plot.
Swinging around the city is lots of fun, and you get a bunch of different upgrades (web zip line and slingshot for example) that aren't really functionally necessary, but still add to your enjoyment. In addition, you can pull off weird midair Tony Hawk-like stunts (also purchasable)for no apparent reason other than that they are marginally enjoyable as well.
The main plot is well done. It diverges from the movie and adds in some nifty comic book characters such as Rhino and the Black Cat, but the generally outline- defeat Octavius and win back Mary Jane, remains the same.
The fighting system has apparent depth, but most combat against non-bosses can be resolved with button mashing. It can be fun at times, tossing bad guys left and right- but after awhile pounding thugs into the pavement or hanging them off lampposts looses all semblance of a challenge. S-M2 is also the 700,000 game to feature a Matrix "bullettime" mode. Yawn.
So much could have been done with this game that I can't help but suspect that we were given an unfinished product set to be released concurrently with the movie. It is truly a shame.
Not worth the full purchase price. Rent or buy used unless you're a Spider-Man fanatic. If so, find a good sale... | video-games_xbox |
MANY THINGS TO LOVE . FIRST I WILL START OF BY CORRECTING EVERYONE WHO SAID IF THEY BEAT THE GAME ON EXTREME THEY WOULD GET THE FOURTH CHARACTER.THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN GET DRIZZT IS IF YOU BEAT THE GAUNTLET....ON TO MY REAL POINT NOW,THIS GAME IS REALLY FUN,ADDICTIVE(WARNING),AND A GREAT GAME FOR MULTIPLAYER..MY FAVORITE CHARACTER IS THE ELVEN SOURCERER(DESCRIBED AS MAGE).SHE HAS A GREAT AMOUNT OF INTRESTING AND SUITABLE MAGIC ATTACKS,SHE CAN THROW A BALL OF FIRE,SHOOT AND ACID ARROW,FIRE OF LIGHTINING(WHICH CAN CHANGE TO CHAIN LIGHTINING IF UPGRADED MAXIMUM).SHOOT BOTH A COOL ICY MIST,AND A HOT FIREY MIST FROM HER HANDS(SNOW BLIND,AND BURNING HANDS),SHE CAN SHOOT A MAGIC MISSLE-THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITES BECAUSE AS U UPGRADE IT THE MORE SHE SENDS.FOR EXAMPLE WITH EVERY LEVEL SHE UPGRADES THIS SHE FIRE AN EXTRA(FIRST BUBBLE ONE,SECOND 2,AND SO ON).AND THE MONSTER OF ALL METEOR SWARM.SHE CALLS ABOUT 8 METEORS TO STRIKE HER OPPONENT.THESE ARE JUST FEW SHE HAS MANY MORE.WE MOVE ON TO THE ARCHER.HE CHANNELS ELEMENTS INTO HIS ARROWS(FLAMING ARROWS,ELECTRIC ARROWS,ANDMANY MORE).HIS TARGETING IS PERCISE AS WELL AS HIS USE IN THE GAME.THEN WE MOVE ON TO THE DWARF(NO REALLY HIS NAME IS DWARF SOMETHING),THIS CHARACTER IS THE ONLY THING THAT DISAPPOINTED ME IN THIS GAME.HE ONLY HAS TWO OR THREE MAGIC ABILITIES.AND IN THIS GAME MAGIC ABILITIE ARE A PRIME REQUIREMENT.ALL HE IS REALLY GOOD WITH IS CLOSE QUARTERS COMBAT,WHICH LEADS TO HIS DEATH SOME TIMES,BUT HE IS GOOD AT WIELDING TWO WEAPONS. BY THE WAY THERE IS A MUCH EASIER WAY TO GET THE EXTRA CHARACTER IN THE GAUNTLET. FIRST USE THIS CHEAT TO GIVE ELF SOURCERESS ALL POWERS: LEFT TRIGGER ALL WAY DOWN,THEN PRESS R,Y,AND A.SHE NOW HAS ALL HER SPELLS(SCROLL THROUGH THEM USING DIRCTIONAL PAD).AFTER YOU ENTERED THE CHEAT SAVE THE GAME,THEN LOAD THE GAME OVER AND PRESS EXIT TO MAIN MENU.PRESS START NEW GAME THEN CHOOSE THE ARCHER PRESS START AND THEN IMPORT CHARACTERS.TAKE THE ELF SOURCERER,SAVE THAT GAME IN THE TAVERN THEN PRESS GO TO MAIN MENU AGAIN.THEN GO TO THE GAUNTLET,YOU WILL PLAY AS DRIZZT.WHEN YOU DIE RIGHT BEFORE IT TELLS YOU TO EITHER QUIT OR TRY AGAIN PRESS START THE IMPORT CHARACTERS AND CHOOSE THE SOURCERES.YOU NOW HOLD CONTROL OVER THE MOST POWERFUL CHARACTER.THEN IF YOU DIE WITH THE SOURCERER,CHOOSE THE ARCHERER FROM IMPORT CHARACTERS,THEN FIGHT IF YOU DIE.DO IT AGAIN IMPORT THE SOURCERES UNTIL U BEAT THE GUANTLET AND HAVE DRIZZT.EVERYBODY SHOULD ENJOY THIS GAME.RPG GAME REALLY OUTDONE ITSELF WITH THIS RELEASE:))) PS.I THINK YOU CAN ONLY GET THE GAUNTLET IF YOU BEAT THE GAME ON EXTREME IF SO,USE THIS CHEAT FOR LEVEL WARP:LEFT TRIGER ALL WAY DOWN,RIGHT TRIGGER HALF WAY DOWN,THEN PRESS Y+A+LEFT STICK,RIGHT STICK,AND START.THIS IS TRICKY IT COULD TAKE TWO PEOPLE TO DO THIS. | video-games_xbox |
A competent 2D fighter for XBOX. Yes, this game has been bashed to death by the gaming press, but believe it or not, some people will actually enjoy this bargain-priced game IF they give it a chance and cast away all the negative comments made by the press.
What we have here is a 2D fighter on the XBOX with some remarkable realistic graphics and movements. The animation and movements of the fighters is almost lifelike, and the power of the XBOX is utilized in ways to make fabric move convincingly and so on. It's amazing that 2D fight fans will salivate over a new 16-bit Neo Geo fighter (beleive it or not, they are still releasing games for that system!) yet will completely overlook Kabuki Warriors. The backgrounds are nice too with some clean 3D polygonal effects thrown in for good measure. Any problems so far? Yes. There seems to be too many variations of just one character and you won't see any of the more spectacular ones until later in the game. The default character that you'll see more often than not is just a boring guy painted in a shade of white who fights with chinese stick weapons. Also, the backgrounds are kinda boring...but this is intended as Kabuki is a type of stage art very popular in Japan.
The game consists of a tour mode and a time attck mode. The tour mode is cool in that you need to earn money to progress to the goal. You earn money by quick, clean victories and for posing and winning the crowd during the fight. After a fight you can trade one fighter to get the best mix of weapon and styles for the fight ahead. The game really picks up when you get some of the characters who fight with the various swords...some insane fun can be had with the usual combos and air juggles you can pull off with these guys!
How does it play? Imagine Killer Instinct-style gameplay where moves and combos can be strung together with simple button presses. Persevere and learn the combo system and you have yourself a competent fighting game. If you just mash the buttons and jump around hoping for random victories, then you'll get less out of this game.
The bottomline: If you enjoy 2D fighting games and you like learning the combo and timing system, then this is definitely a reasonably priced game for you. If you prefer your fighters in 3D, hate fighters or are one of those people who just mash buttons and "hope for the best", then forget it. Get Dead Or ALive 3 instead. | video-games_xbox |
A must have for any football fan. It's amazing that Madden NFL is in its 14th year of release!! The graphics and gameplay are almost photo-realistic at this point, and you can control EVERYTHING.
First, of course, the graphics. We play this on a 36" TV and even on the big screen the graphics are incredibly sharp. The characters are realistic down to their hair styles and tattoos. The fields each have their own configurations - including the baseball diamonds on some. The lighting, player moves, reflections and more are incredible. You easily get the sense that you're playing a real game and controlling it.
The gameplay builds each year on what came before. So you can create your own team, go through the draft, play it through a season, and get the full satisfaction of getting through the superbowl (if you're good enough). You get to make decisions everywhere from the owner level down through the manager and actual player level.
If you're not into that level of detail, there are of course many ways to just "play". There are training levels to get you learning the basics. There are many training camp features that feature great graphic/gameplay combinations to really help you learn about blocking, throwing and more. Once you understand the game mechanics and keys, you can jump into a wide variety of games under all sorts of conditions to see how well you'd do.
Like any strategy game, this is NOT a game just to pick up and expect to do well in after 5 minutes. If you're looking for an "easy arcade" kind of game, you might do better elsewhere. The strength of this release is with its details. Once you get into the great complexity of really handling a team, you learn real life lessons that help you understand how actual football teams are managed and developed. You can almost consider this game a training system for people who really want to enter the NFL and work there. You learn a great deal about how plays are designed, how managers coordinate the team's efforts and how owners work to make the team the best it can be.
I found the 'background comments' far less annoying than in previous versions of Madden, but on the other hand the choice of music in the background wasn't the best. I'm a big fan of all varieties of music, but what they have playing just isn't enjoyable after the first listen or two. So it might be good to mute that and play your own stereo while you play.
In general I highly recommend this for any football fan. Even if you're not really into "gaming", this becomes an incredibly well done football education tool which will be sure to open your eyes to something new - no matter what your knowledge level. | video-games_xbox |
Great Game But. The guitar is this games biggest downfall. Before I start talking about the controller, I will start with the game itself.
I have played Guitar Hero before and loved it. This years Guitar Hero is the best one that I have ever played. I love it. When I first got it, I would unknowingly spend hours and hours playing it. The Live mode is great but I really enjoy playing Guitar Hero TV a lot more. In Live mode, you have a total of 42 songs. In TV mode, you have a lot more. However, when playing GHTV (Guitar Hero TV), you can either select a specific song, costing you a token in the process, OR, you can just jump right into the action and play a random song by selecting one of the current playlists.
I absolutely love playing GHTV. You are introduced to songs that you have never heard of. It gives you a huge variety and to be honest, it helps keep the game from getting stale. It prevents me from playing my usual, same old set list, that I would have stuck to in the past GH games, making it get old and boring quicker. Sure, there are some songs you might not like but they're even enjoyable just playing through them. The playlists change every 30 minutes if I can remember correctly, so if you choose to just jump right in to play the Metal playlist, it will change to something else later on. Tired of playing Metal after two songs? All you have to do is move the little directional stick to the side and you will be able to change the playlist mid-play. You'll need to earn in-game Guitar Hero Currency to use for playing songs on demand in TV but the game is so fun, you won't mind playing to get them and will have a bunch of them in no time. The currency can also be used to customize some in-game items. And you aren't playing alone when playing GHTV. You are playing with others, fighting to get and keep that number one spot, making you play at your best. I also enjoy having the music video for the song playing in the background as well.
With the new guitar, it makes it even more fun. Having the six buttons set up the way they are adds a little more realism and more of a challenge. However, one day, the guitar just started giving me problems. I purchased this game on day one and the guitar started acting up a little bit about a month after I purchased it. I love how the guitar is set up but it is quite crappy that it stopped working on me that quick. Like some of the others have reported, it double strums sometimes, and it sometimes won't even work. I've tried different methods such as calibration, switching the USB dongle to another USB port, and more and it still gave me issues.
Summary-
The game is great. The guitar is crappy. Maybe some will be able to luck up and have their guitar not quit on them any time soon. I do recommend Guitar Hero Live, BUT, buy at your own risk. I was going to return it to amazon and get it replaced but it was too late. However, I did contact Activision and they helped me out. I give Guitar Hero Live a 5/5. | video-games_xbox |
Full Clip. First and foremost, I'm not posting this to bash anyone or even dissuade anyone from buying this product. I've had no issues w/Nyko products and further cooling high end silicon components is NEVER a bad idea. With that said, here's my beef with some of the comments for this SKU...
Unless there's a lot of unobstructed space right behind it (I'm talking several feet of space from the back of the X360 to the wall and room above and below), please take your X360 out of your entertainment center. I know, it looks pretty sweet in there, I was tempted as well, but you have to leave room for all of that hot air to circulate and clear away from your new $400 console. There's a solid reason why there are 2 strong fans blowing hot air out of the back of your X360 and keeping it in a closed entertainment center is all kinds of crazy defeating that purpose. If the back of your center is open, you're safe and your X360 should be cool to the touch, otherwise, please move it first. You really don't want to keep that fast CPU and GPU that hot = you're only killing the lifespan of your X360. I don't know it all, I've just melted my fair share of overclocked PC gear and I'm only posting this so you don't end up in the same boat.
If, however, your X360 has plenty of room behind it to blow out hot air and it's still hot to the touch (regardless of how many hours spent gaming), you need to take it back, if possible. I have a first gen X360 and it doesn't overheat like that. No one I know with that has a X360 has that issue. If you do, there's a production issue with your console (or, again, you're trying to kid yourself that it can live in that closed up entertainment center). This isn't an issue only the X360 faces, the PS3 will heat up as much, if not more. Case fans are loud, ask any hardcore PC gamer. I know that your X360 looks and sounds better out of sight, buy you have to face the facts here and admit that you're going to have to deal with some amount of noise henceforth (unless you plan on modding your X360 will a water cooling kit....and even most of those are not totally silent).
If your X360 is burning rings on your game discs, the solution is simple: stop moving the X360 from a horizontal to vertical position right after you insert the disc. Overheating does not cause that burn. Seriously, I'm not trying to make fun of anyone, but please learn how to insert discs while the X360 is vertical or just leave it laying down on the floor. I've heard of burnt X360 discs and it only comes from ppl moving their console from one stationary position to the next right after the disc was loaded. GameStop/EB will very quickly tell you to stop doing that and that you can't return discs for that reason. It's not b/c your console is too hot, it's b/c you're making a mistake.
SO, if you don't care for the extra noise, of if you're X360 is past the date of return (you really need to buy an extended warranty, yo) and you have no choice but to buy even more fans to suck hot air out of your machine, I have no doubt Nyko will hook you up. Or, maybe this item will allow to keep your X360 in that closed entertainment center w/o it melting what you paid for b/c the extra fans are able to find ways to blown the hot air out of what air passages are left.
I love my X360. I take care of it so it can continue to kick high def resolutions all over the place... at a low price. You have to come to terms w/the fact that the high end components in your X360 and PS3 are running at stupid-fast speeds = they will heat up 100 x's more than components in previous console iterations = air cooling is being beefed up b/c there's no way that MS and Sony are going to drop liquid cooling in their new machines. You would have to spend THOUSANDS to build a PC that can outperform a $400 X360 (thanks to bulk sales and MS/Sony/Nintendo taking a hit on each machine sold, only to make that $$$ up on software sales). Please think about that and treat your nice new gaming console with the respect that it really deserves (or at least don't be surprised when it freezes up b/c you treat it like an inexpensive DVD player).
Also, don't forget ya'll, MS just announced that the X360 will soon be shipping with a CPU that will run cooler = the entire box will be that much more silent and, erm, cooler. If you really want to protect your investment, you should still buy a Nyko Xbox 360 Intercooler to keep your X360 that much cooler/safer... but do you need to? Probably not now and definitely not with the new X360 CPU. (And I'm aware that folks who love this SKU and will take personal offense to this post... as well as Nyko employees who don't want to see someone telling folks that they might not to need their product. Please, USE YOUR OWN JUDGEMENT. If this SKU sounds like a winner, buy it and be happy, I just want to pose another view. xoxo, wb) | video-games_xbox |
Unmissable for the genre. I picked this up while looking for a JRPG for my wife, who is a fan of the genre. Being a fan definitely helps one to enjoy certain aspects at face value, such as our protagonist Rush's asinine remarks. My favourite is shouting, "everyone's getting hyped!" during a battle. I read a lot of reviews which almost put me off, but we both ended up playing it and have found it one of the better ones on the console. We both play other genres of game, shooters, Assassin's Creed, and the amazing Mass Effect, so the ideal in a turn based game is one that justifies the format with some chance to do thinking and decision making.
The battle system is something of an evolution of other systems, with play split into squads that get bonuses based on how they flank or lock enemy units (mostly the difference between 1 vs 1, 1 vs many.) Despite what some comments have implied, you do get a lot of choices and control in the game, and the way they limit you during battle turns makes good sense - at times you wish you had some more granular control, but it feels fair in the context of the game. Or as fair as any JRPGs tend to be. On that note, compared to say Lost Odyssey, we've found less need to consult guides online to find some obscure trick of a boss or certain item we're lost without.
Another big plus in the design comes under the category of "Things to keep your attention". It pays to take on more enemies at once, so if you do any quests / levelling, you try to keep it at where it's a challenge. Even in the exploration parts, things can be a little tense opening a door (not Silent Hill intense, but more in-the-moment than a lot of RPG exploration sequences). In the battles themselves, similar to the shrinking-circle combat moments in Lost Odyssey, you have a chance to suddenly hit a button or trigger to help an attack or counterattack - but in a great piece of design thinking, these can happen any time, during your attacks or when you're being attacked. They also build up - because you hit the button quickly once (easy to miss even for an arcade game enthusiast), the order of turns changes, someone else in your squad gets an even quicker button chance - sometimes even a whole different attack. Because of this, the battles keep you involved, clutching the control watching the nice graphics of the fight in case you miss your one chance to turn the battle around.
I haven't seen technical problems, some textures load as sequences start, which is fine - we're only half way through so we could still have some loading grief to wait for, but from what I've seen so far it's overstated (or was patched a bit at some point?) The world is expansive and there are lots of side quests to play with. I wrote the review in case others ended up with the same indecision - I noticed a big range of views so it's definitely not for everyone. After getting into it we both agreed it would have been a real shame to miss out on. | video-games_xbox |
Choose Your Path. It is four thousand years before the galactic empire and hundreds of jedi knights have fallen in the battle against the ruthless sith. You are the last hope of the jedi order. Can you master the awesome power of the force on your quest to save the republic? Or will you fall to the lure of the darkside? Hero or villian, savior or conqueror you alone will determine the destiny of the entire galaxy!
A great game overall. A brand new star wars role - playing experience with unique characters, creatures, vehicles and planets. Learn to use the force with over 40 different powers and build your own lightsaber. Travel to seven enormous worlds including tatooine and the sith world of korriban. Choose your party from nine customizable characters, including twi'leks, droids and wookies. Build up your party and upgrade equipment in your own starship, the Ebon Hawk.
Here's the real story line: Four thousand years before the rise of the galactic empire, the republic verges on collapse. Darth Malak, the last surviving apprentice of the Dark Lord Revan, has unleashed an invincible sith armada upon an unsuspecting galaxy. Crushing all resistance, malak's war of conquest has left the jedi order scattered and vulnerable as countless Knights fall in battle, and many more swear allegiance to the new sith master. In the skies above the outer rim of the world Taris, a Jedi battle fleet engages the forces of Dark Malak in a desperate effort to halt the Sith's galactic domination........... (Now you start to play)
The game had many good qualities and is probably the best role-playing game out there on the xbox and probably the best star wars game to date. It makes you feel like you really are a jedi. You can create your own lightsaber, let it be double bladed or single bladed, you can pick the force powers you want to learn, inlcuding lightning, choking and 0ver 40 more. You can choose which path you go down, the dark or light. You can customize your party members also and even your ship. There is no limits to this game in the star wars universe. You are totally free to go anywhere in the universe.
This game is reated T for teen, for violence. But I would let your child under the age of 13 have it because there isn't that much violence and there is no blood what so ever. | video-games_xbox |
Bo knows baseball. I was reluctant to spend [this much] on a baseball game, given that most baseball games get boring after a few weeks, but thought I'd give the Sega line a chance. I think WSB is worth the money if you're a big baseball fan (but I don't think any baseball game could be worth [this price] if you're not a true baseball fan).
The game play is exceptional; graphics are great. There are many many many options which allow you to tweek the difficulty any which way you like. On the default settings the first few games I couldn't buy a run (which is good b/c it makes for a challenge). Batting options are nice - you can set it to Timed Hitting (press a button - extremely boring), Standard Hitting with a Cursor (good - difficult at first), and Power Bar Hitting (a little harder). You can also change the Batting Cursor size -so if you're scoring too many runs, make the cursor size smaller. Pitching is similar in that you can tweek the Variable Pitching - turn it off and the pitcher (even if he pitches for Detroit) will paint the corners in and out - or turn it to High and watch your guy make some mistakes. And the game will punish your mistakes, which is nice for the realism. Don't leave pitches down the middle of the plate - they make for pretty movie cut-scenes of the other guy trotting around the bases. The ability (though rare) to rob a home run is pretty cool too.
I also really enjoy the General Manager function in Franchise mode. You can promote Rookies from the Minor Leagues - or leave them down there and groom them for the future. You can sign free agents, make trades (have to watch your Budget though). It's quite realistic - makes you a real George Steinbrenner.
Only negatives about the game - sometimes it seems like the players in the field lob the ball instead of throwing a bullet. The coaches names are ridiculously dumb (Sundial Serbert is my Coach?). The create a player is kind of weak in the appearance - not much customizing of the face - and the announcers won't pronounce the guy's name even if you named him Bill Smith. Again, baseball is a long season so if you're going to go the full 162 games, it can be a long haul.
Overall though, WSB is a very satisfying game for the true baseball fan. I think it's better than the other series out there but that's just my opinion...before purchasing them I'd rent a few of them first. | video-games_xbox |
3 chances epic,3 chances and you still fail us. First off iv'e been a gears fan/player since gears of war 1 days so i think i'm fit to review this game. My main focus in this review will be on the multiplayer,i will talk about the campaign and everything else but i'm not going to go too in depth with all that.
Campaign-the story still follows Marcus and delta squad in their struggle for survival. But this time the story revolves more around a new threat which is the lambent(locust/people that are infected by imulsion),this new threat is pretty interesting because not only are the humans struggling for survival but so are the locust. Overall the campaign is very good and you should play it in four player co-op to get the most out of it.
Horde 2.0-Horde is back and better than ever,with new additions such as fortifications,a currency system,challenges that pop out every so often so that way you can earn extra money,and of course(the best addition in my opinion)boss waves. All in all horde is even better now and it will surely add some extra time into this game.
Beast mode-Beast mode is basically horde mode just except you play as the locust. It's kind of fun but it gets really boring and old really fast with just 12 waves that can be done in less then 10 minutes if you're running a full team of 5,even if you play on the hardest difficulty it still can be done fairly fast. Overall,beast mode probably won't keep you busy too long.
Versus multiplayer-Ever since gears of war 1 epic has always had very bad luck in the multiplayer department so to make sure gears 3 would be perfect epic released a multiplayer beta and added "dedicated servers",and to be honest...it finally seemed as if epic games had finally succeeded in making the most polished and smooth multiplayer game anyone had ever seen or played. During my time in the beta the game was soooo smooth,there was little to no lag at all,there was finally no "bullet Sponging"(where you shoot someone and the shot never registered),and Weapons were finally balanced. So once the beta was over i was insanely excited for the full game,and then finally when the big day came the first thing i did was go straight to multiplayer knowing it was going to be awesome,and it was........for about a month. All of a sudden the games multiplayer went into a downward spiral,the "dedicated servers" were mysteriously turned off,epic made a few changes to the weapons that made them incredibly unbalanced or just stupidly over powered(the retro lancer the regular lancer and the starting pistol to name a few),also bullet sponging started to happen and got worse as time went on.people began to use modded controllers to shoot really fast with the hammerburst and pistol,sure modded controls have always been present,but still it's just ridiculous for this game because of the over poweredness of most of the weapons. Back to the "dedicated servers",epic released a DLC that you HAD to buy in order to play on "dedicated servers"....sooooo basically you have to spend 800ms points(10$) on top of the 60$ you have already paid just to play the game. On the back of the game case it clearly says that you can play on "dedicated servers",not that you have to later on pay an extra 10$ just to play on them,what a rip off.now it is a good thing that the game does have a decent amount game modes to choose from.team death match,king of the hill,capture the leader,execution,warzone,wingman,weekly events that really aren't weekly anymore instead now it's just "we will add new events whenever we feel like it events",and guardian(only available if you download the add on for 800ms points).All in all epic games failed 3 times in a row for the multiplayer,i would have given the game a higher score but just due to the fact that versus multiplayer takes up a good 70-80 percent of this games enjoyment im forced to give this game a poor score.
So,if you are looking for a game with a great campaign,amazing cooperative modes,superb graphics and blood flying everywhere,then by all means buy this game.
However if you're the type of person that loves a good multiplayer game that isn't laggy,has good hit detection and is very smooth,then your really going to wanna skip out on this one. Unless of course you don't mind paying for extra DLC that may or may not really even have the "dedicated servers" we all should be playing on. | video-games_xbox |
Still wailing on my fun-sense with a piece of bent rebar. This is the last title I got to play before my 360 broke down and died at the ripe old age of 9 months. (I know, pathetic, isn't it? Heck, I still have my Sega Master System from 1984 and it works GREAT! ...yeah, so I still play it sometimes.) Luckily, it was a really, really title to end on. At least for the time being. Until I fix it.
Anyway, let's get down to brass tacks. Bloodshot.
Creepy, creepy, creepy--that's the name of the game here, Bubba.
Different in subtle ways from the original Condemned. How so? A bit more depth. I loved the added element of receiving rewards based on how well you perform in each level. You can accumulate all sorts of (permanent!) goodies, such as brass knuckles to increase your punching power, a kevlar vest to halve the damage you take from gunshots, and--my absolute favorite--the holster.
In the original Condemned, you could carry one (1) weapon with you. It added tension and not a few frustrating moments when you found yourself with a single bullet and had to decide whether to toss the pistol for a 2x4 with rusty nails in it, or keep the firearm, knowing that--placed correctly--that one bullet could dispatch an enemy at range with no risk to yourself.
This time around--providing you perform well enough--you can be granted a holster. This'll let you tuck away a pistol for later, and pick up a second weapon to wield in the meantime. There's at least one level where I know I made it through because I had that backup saved.
The story, alas, alack, has become akin to Lost: rather convoluted and confusing. (For example, some people in the world have a very special ability: they can explode your body by yelling at you. Yeah, I know. I was thinking, "Huh?" too) Still, the atmosphere hasn't changed at all. I focused on that and had no problems.
There are changes to the crime scene investigations, too. Now you actually have to look at the evidence and infer what happened based what you, the gamer, see on the screen. You have to be good at this to get those rewards I was talking about. I suppose you could get by on trial and error--the inferences are multiple-choice--but where's the satisfaction in that? I enjoyed studying those vicious, creepy crime scenes. Take your time. Soak it in.
I have to admit I also enjoyed the personification of your character's inner demons. Twisted versions of yourself, they show up from time to time and represent different fears and vices--read the scenes for cues as to which demon is there at any given moment. Most screen time is devoted to Alcohol, the demon that seems to be the strongest.
And speaking of alcohol, I'd watch your young, impressionable kids around this game. Just like the questionable morality of showing plumbers eating random mushrooms in order to grow big and strong, this game causes you to sate your character's addiction by chugging bottles of liquor from time to time. Without it, your hands shake badly, and you can't aim a weapon to save your life.
Was there anything I didn't like? I'm not sure I liked the survival of an important evildoer from the original (not spoiling anything with names). I would have been much more satisfied with him having died. It just doesn't seem likely that he wouldn't have.
And there also seems to be an overabundance of firearms in this title as opposed to the original, which gave it less tension and worries over your character's health.
Still, those are very minor things, and should not in any way dissuade you from giving this title a shot. I thoroughly enjoyed it. | video-games_xbox |
They Proved Me Wrong. The first thing that you should know about this SOF is that it was not made by the orignal game's developer, Ravensoft. Instead it was made by losers, who have no business making games.
Soldier Of Fortune Payback for the xbox 360 is a First Person Shooter (FPS) where you play a mercenary that belongs to a company called the "Shop" they send you trekking to countries in the middle of war or small battles against small military rogue units. The action still has the blood and gore which the series is known for, that aspect of the game is done well. You can target specific body parts on enemies and when you shoot them they will react and bleed profusely. In addition to enemies bleeding you can blow their limbs off (their heads also explode like water mellons). Sometime the enemies can be wounded and they will automatically pull out their pistols trying to get a revenge kill... *in COD4 this is called a "last stand".
So Payback sounds like a solid game no? I bought SOF on the faith that it would be a good purchase because I have been a long time fan of the series. The last two games were considered excellent multiplayer games coupled with a decent single player story mode. Payback however, is a lost cause. And I was thinking to myself there was no way that the developers can make it worse than the previouse versions because this is afterall a nextgen title. They proved me wrong.
The graphics are worse. The character designs look outdated and jagged. the animations have a few hiccups with framerate. The enemy AI whose only strategy is to run and shoot at you. They will rarely seek cover or try to flank you. There is no way the AI can employ much strategy against you because the game is very linear. And because of that very fact you don't have many options for tactics either. The worst offender for me though is that all weapons sound very much alike. from the shotguns, to sniper rifle, smgs, pistols and assult rifle. They used the same sound effects for all of the guns. Maybe the developers thought we wouldn't take notice of the identical sound effects...which is wacked!
Multiplayer is also lackluster, with only a handful of maps and even fewer game modes. The maps don't look bad but their sizes are much too big. Since there are only like four people online, You'll be hard pressed to find a full room of players and even with a full room, the maps feel much too big requiring players to search out each other for the fire fights. That spaciousness also creates moments without action and boredom. You'll also be hearing people commenting on the fact that the older Soldier of Fortune is still better than this itteration.
If I can convince just one of you people to save your money and not buy this junky game, then my mission is accomplished and I have fulfilled my new years resolution. Let's just hope that the original developers make a comeback and show us how it's done.
Pros:
+blood and gore
+ragdoll physics
Cons:
-stupid A.I.
-ugly graphics
-boring single player
-boring multiplayer
-bad controls
-dumb story
-dumber voice acting
-dumbest sound effects
-badly designed maps
-weapons don't feel right | video-games_xbox |
WORST GAME IN THE HISTORY OF VIDEO GAMES. OK, guess you can call me a hater. Yes, I play COD. No, I'm not that good at it. No, I don't hate this game because it isn't COD. I didn't think I would ever find an FPS worse than a third person shooter, but this is it.
PROs
Yes, despite the title, I think there are some pros here. As others have pointed out, the story line is unique. You are on board the ARK, out in a world covered in oceans, trying to either get off it or keep everyone on it depending upon the side you choose. While the art work of the world is a matter of taste, I like it. I don't like the cartoony characters, but the world is beautifully done.
The SMART system for movements is somewhat interesting. The ability to jump, climb, and fly around is pretty cool if not too useful in combat. However, it isn't very SMART. It makes you do a lot of things you have no intention of doing. I have found it a lot more of hinderance than a help, but it may be that you can get used to it. I'm just tired of it making me continue to run when all I want to do is hop up on something and stop.
The class system is innovative. What I especially like is the ability to change classes while running a mission. You don't have to pick the "right" class (soldier, medic, engineer, operative) for the particular mission you are going on. You are also not stuck depending upon the AI team mates who are pretty darn stupid. If they can't get it done, you find a command post, change classes, and do it yourself.
Cons:
This is the game killer. The combat system is HORRIBLE. The targets fly around at super human speed and are simply impossible to track with iron sights. You have to spray and pray from the hip. Worse, you have to put an entire clip into an enemy to take him down. You, however, are a walking one shot one kill target. The AI throws a never ending wave of grenades at you -- which makes your one shot one kill self just that much medic bait. The wait time to throw grenades yourself is TOO long. There is no way to replenish ammo or grenades from dead bad guys or friends. The former is particularly irritating as you start with very little ammunition and the soldier team mates just do not resupply you often enough -- particularly when you consider you spend all your time spraying and praying. "Frustrating" does not even begin to describe how difficult the combat is (even on normal difficulty).
Turrets. I tried to even the odds a bit by going engineer and picking the turret skill. This allows you to build a turret that is computer controlled. The turret is even dumber than your team mates. Half the time it won't even shoot. The enemy AI takes advantage of this by simply rushing the turret en mass and easily takes it out.
AI. I thought the team mates in Black Ops were stupid. They are regular Einsteins compared to the guys purportedly on your side in this game. Engineers won't set up turrets half the time. As near as I can tell, no one on your team throws grenades. The only guys who seem to work right are the medics. They will come and save you if they are nearby.
Missions. I played all of the challenges multiple times. In the campaign I played the first mission all the way through (twice because I failed it the first time), and gave up half way through the second mission which requires you to escort a prisoner in the second half. Success in the escort missions are just shear dumb luck. The bad guys come in never ending waves that grossly outnumber your team. The escortee will go down and stay there until a medic gets to him. Stepping out there with him is a sure way to get 20 grenades thrown at you and a one shot one kill round to your skull.
After my last review, and after reading the first few reviews here, I realize there are different strokes for different folks. No doubt, someone will comment that he has no problem getting headshots on the AI all the time with iron sights, and just stormed through all the levels without ever dying once. To those I say, "good for you, glad you enjoy the game, don't bother to comment." This is one that you really need to try before you buy. It was hyped, looks VERY cool, but is just not enjoyable because of the insane degree of difficulty involved.
PLEASE, game developers, normal difficulty should be just that -- normal. AI enemies should run at the speed people run, not at cheetah speed. If you want to challenge all the 14 year olds who still have those cat-like reflexes, bump up the speed with higher difficulty settings. Don't start at nightmare and go up. Dying repeatedly just is not fun.
After initially writing this review I went back and gave it another go. This time, I dropped the difficulty down to easy and tried to get through the second mission solo. I actually had a HARDER time getting through the first part of the second mission (had to go into "overtime"). Easy does NOT make the enemies easier to kill. It does NOT make them less numerous. It does NOT make your guys any smarter. It does NOT take the enemy's ability to kill you with one shot. I cannot figure out for the life of me what the difference is between easy and normal in this game. There was simply no difference whatsoever. And it did NOT make the mission any more possible to complete solo. I still failed it on the escort mission. You guys that are claiming you got through the campaign can not possibly have been playing it by yourself. It is simply not possible to get through the second mission by yourself without a ridiculous amount of luck
This game is going back to GameStop tomorrow. I'll take the hit this time, but will NEVER again pre-order another game.
Edit on 5/17:
For you folks that may be on the fence about this game, looking at the reviews, and are trying to decide who has the valid point of view I encourage you to look at the reviews from "real name" people. As of this writing there are only two real name users who gave this game five stars and nine real name users who gave it four. There are 20 real name folks, including me, who have put their name to their one star review and put up with all the annonymous fanboy and Bethesda employee comments. It also appears that there are some Bethesda and/or Splash Damage employees that are writing reviews -- including one guy who has a grand total of two reviews, both of which are Brink, that he spammed on the xbox and PS3 pages. [After me calling him on it twice, he finally took it down claiming he thought he was writing an xbox review -- yeah, right.]
If the looks of this game still have you wanting to try it, for the sake of your wallet, RENT it first. I promise you, unless you are some kind of uber gamer god (meaning all you do is play games -- you have no life), you will find this game horribly one sided and difficult to the point of just not being fun. If nothing else, wait just a bit longer. The price is already down $11 on Amazon, and it won't be too much longer before this stinker is a $29.99 game. There are some other games coming out soon, such as Duke Nukem, that will occupy your time while Bethesda tries its best to patch the more obvious flaws. Waiting will allow you to play the game much cheaper and in a far better state than it is in now. Besides, developers should not be rewarded for this kind of effort. These two companies deserve to lose MILLIONS on this game. | video-games_xbox |
It's alright and I love it for bringing the series to the 7th generation . Yup, it's a Budokai game, don't let the title fool you. It's alright and I love it for bringing the series to the 7th generation of consoles along with beautiful cel-shaded, HD gameplay, but the controls were too dumbed-down for my taste.
Where this game had it's faults I do give it respect for bringing the good things this game did to Infinite World on the PS2, but hate it for being short and uninspired.
The ki meter is there but doesn't matter. It's only used for unleashing your ultimate attack, which means you can spam your ki blasts or super attacks all you want.
Another issue is the use of in battle cutscenes, team member interruptions, and quicktime events.
The real icing on the cake was the melee system. Yea it still all works the same, but instead of the Y or Triangle button being used for kick attacks it creates a half-assed combo, and it's the same story for the X(360) and Square buttons, which means custom combos have been cut in half and lacks the fuidity of the characters controls.
I won't talk about how it's story ends at the Cell Saga as many fans believe that should've been the real ending of the series, but instead I will talk about environments. You can launch your opponents into the sky which is cool, but it happens every single match which means you barely ever get to see the beautifully sculpted stages which is a real bummer because where the character's got an amazing graphic overhaul, so did the terrain.
I do however really like the character customization feature in the VS mode. In past Budokai games you could only increase the health bar, and in some you can increase the AI to give you a challenge, but in Burst Limit you can customize the AI, health bar, attack power, and defense power which means you could play as long or little as you'd like.
If you get bored but want to keep the vibe going, I recommend going to VS mode, selecting Broly and Nappa, putting there health bar, AI, and defense to the max and their attack to the minimum. It makes for an entertaining and decisively intense battle between the 2 biggest characters in the game.
another thing I like is if you Play as Vegeta and use Goku as his assist, Goku will cheer on Vegeta while he gets pissed off at him for doing so. | video-games_xbox |
This game probably took more effort to make than it was really worth. This game is very retro--like one of those old-school Sega games in which some frenetic fighting is interspersed with wacky cut scenes of strangely over-dramatic dialog. I know there is a type of gamer out there who just eats this stuff up. But I'm not that type...if you are anything like me (someone who thinks Mass Effect and Dragon Age are the best games), don't expect much more than to blow off some steam beating the tar out of various creatures and enjoying the lush graphics.
Bayonetta has some incredible production values, superb art direction, plentiful voice acting, and a pretty deep combat system...all of which looks like it took quite a bit of effort to come up with. Unfortunately, that doesn't really add up to much more than a few afternoons of finger exercise for me, so I can't help but feel that this game was not worth the effort it took to make, and probably not worth my money to buy...a good rental, perhaps.
That being said, the graphics, fight mechanics, and overall design, all completely over-the-top, is very well done.
Taking in the imaginative scenery and insane character designs is one of the hight points of the game and my main reason for playing it longer than the time it took to master the controls
The fighting is a nice balance-- if you have skills you can really make an art of it. If you don't, you can basically go crazy on the button pad and muddle through enough to enjoy yourself.
Look, if you want any sort of depth, or anything to remember a game by, other than thoughts of Bayonetta's animated rear end, you better look elsewhere. This is basically the kind of game it is ok to have on at a party-- anyone can pick it up and enjoy, there's good eye candy, but no one is going to get so involved in it that they forget to socialize, or so wrapped up in it that they won't pass the controller on to another guest after a while. | video-games_xbox |
Ignore the bad reviews (this is a real review. Before I review this I would like to warn you to buy the newer version of this, since it has almost a whole games worth of extra DLC, and the graphics have been improved upon~
Let me start off by saying that this game is huge, and it will definitely be alot of fun to any true RPG fan out there that likes content in their gaming experience.
I won't give away the plot, but in this game you play the role of a dragon slayer, but you also possess the inhrent ability to eventually become a dragon when you unlock the power inside of you. You do start out able to read minds though, and in some quests, you can actually earn bonus items or more money by doing so, but there is other benefits as well by doing this.
This is basically a sandbox game, except it gives you very huge areas one at a time until you have them opened up, and then your free to go back and forth whenever you like. The areas are huge, and there is only four different areas, so it is far from linear. Now...if you played Oblivion or Skyrim, then know that this game absolutely blows them away in area design and originality. This game is alot harder also, and tends to make you scavenge for experience. There is more than enough experience to be had to get you were you need to go, if you don't overlook areas that take a little bit of exploring to find. Like going into a hollow tree that leads into an underground crystal cavern. No more spoilers, I promise.
The skill sets in Divinity are wide-ranged, and working with the Atk/weapon damage stats is very fun. You will have to do alot of maintenance to your character in this game though, and then you might just barely (or slowly) break down the hordes of enemies in order to progress. It truly feels great when you have to work for your experience, and the enemies that you were dreading for so long turn into more experience in the end. It feels like a great acheivement.
I feel like I'm rambling because I like this game so much. Just let me say, when you finally become a dragon, and can morph at will, and fly over towers, and earn skill sets with you dragon form as well as your human form, it all becomes well worth the wait. Just know it doesn't get any easier from there. I haven't played the newer version with the DLC and updated graphics, but I am definitely adding it to my collection soon. If I wasn't poor I would order it right now. If you don't buy that game, then you will miss out on losing alot of sleep. Who needs to sleep anyway! Buy it! | video-games_xbox |
Wake up people. I just don't understand why people continue to waste their hard earned money on this series. MW3 uses the same engine as MW and MW2. They touched up the graphics a little but other than that, IT'S THE SAME GAME! The game play is the same, the menu looks the same, the movement is the same, everything!
Maybe I'm not getting it, but I don't see the appeal of this game. It takes no skill, (whoever has the better connection wins every time) movement is choppy, and the game play is the same stuff we have seen over and over and over for years. The campaign has some cool moments but most of it is cheesy and unrealistic.
Review after review continues to rave over this game, yet, it's really not that amazing. Are we all deceived?
People, please wake up! Stop letting Activision and Treyarch steal the money out of your pocket for a polished version of the old game. This series has such a hold on the gaming community that they could come up with "Call of Duty 9, Dora the Explorer's revenge" and people would still rant and rave about how wonderful this game is.
Save your hard earned money in this economy and spend it on something else. The Call of Duty Elite should show everyone that all they want is your money. Xbox live is $60 per year, now you are paying $50 a year for ONE FREAKING GAME!? Please someone wake us up! We have to realize what this game is really about and stop supporting them.
And we will, when you wake up one day and realize that you spent half your life playing a unrealistic FPS, which amounts to nothing in the end, then maybe you will see... Until then, have a great time wasting your life and money on Call of Duty, while Activision continues to rake in millions of dollars. They will be driving around in Porches, while you sit in your basement yelling at some 5 year old over the mic.
Oh and P.S. I don't know a single girl that finds a Call of Duty fanatic attractive or appealing. Good luck. | video-games_xbox |
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