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Even My 6 Year Old Thought It Was To Babyish. As the father of three younger children who loved Just Dance 2014, I thought Just Dance Kids 2014 would be an excellent game for them. However, Just Dance Kids 2014 just did not impress the kids.
I popped the game into the Xbox and engaged the Kinect. The game was easy enough for me to control via the Kinect. The interface is easy and straightforward enough for someone like me to use. I browsed the song list and the song list was a mix of older TV show themes, nursery rhymes, and a few newer songs. I picked the theme to Victorious and took my chances.
The X-box with the Kinect rated me as a poor dancer, confirming what I already knew. I found this version with the X-box and the Kinect seemed to evaluate me much more realistically than Just Dance 2014 that I have on the Wii.
The interface was simple enough for even me to utilize, and the evaluation seemed fair and realistic. However, I just was not feeling the song list. I gave the game 4 stars.
I called my three children (10, 7, and 6) to come in and evaluate the game
6 year old: I watched my 6 year old play the game and saw that they had a lot of problems using the Kinect interface with the game. They told me that they did not really care for the game. In their words, The songs are like old from 2012 and they were disappointed that there were only a few bigger kid songs. They rated the game 0 stars and specifically said they would never play the game again.
7 year old: When the 7 year old played with the game, they said that there are some newer songs. However, they did not like the nursery rhyme songs. They seemed rather indifferent about the game and when I asked, they rated the game 1.5 stars.
10 year old: Like my 7 year old, my 10 year old seemed underwhelmed with the game. They said they thought most of the songs were already 1 to 2 years old. They thought it was an OK mix of little and big kid songs. They rated the game 3 stars.
While I thought the game was OK, my children seem to be much harsher critics than I am. Even my 6 year old seemed to feel she was too big/old for the game. When I average all 4 ratings, our family rating is 2.13 stars, which is rounded down to two. | video-games_xbox |
Madden With a Little Head Coach Thrown In. *IMPORTANT* I am writing this review from the point of view of a fan of Head Coach '09, by EA Sports.
I am not a Madden player. I don't get much thrill controlling the individual players on the field. I prefer the front office activity, the duties of the general manager and head coach, or even owner. I like scouting, drafting, free agency, dealing with the salary cap and various personnel decisions. I like building a team. I like turning a losing team into a winning team.
Head Coach offered all those things. But Head Coach wasn't a hit. It had many failings. And I would be forever limited to the 2008 draft class. When I learned that some elements of Head Coach had been transferred to Madden 10, I decided to give Madden 10 a try. It was worth it.
Madden 10 is NOT Head Coach. Some of the elements transferred; many did not. Still, for those who enjoyed Head Coach, Madden 10 is not a bad alternative. I will try to list some of major pros and cons here:
PROs:
* 2008 draft class
* Better graphics
* Yearly player progression report. This would have made Head Coach so much better. Here you can see how much your players have improved from the past season, not only in their overall score but in individual categories. And even players who do not improve overall might see improvements in skills such as awareness or route running.
* Free Agency system. I liked free agency in Head Coach but Madden is better. Here you make offers and the players take those offers under advisement while other teams put in their offers. At the end of free agency you find out if you were able to make the offer attractive enough.
* Ability to take control of players if you wish. At times, you can make a difference in a game if your players are repeatedly allowing the other team to run a type of play. In a real NFL game the coaches would make improvements. If you have the hand-eye coordination, you can make these changes yourself.
* Snapping the ball. In Head Coach it becomes frustrating when your team won't snap the ball. You have no control over this. In Madden 10, if you're in a hurry-up offense, you can snap the ball and it won't snap when you don't want it to snap, which also sometimes happens in Head Coach. It's nice to have that level of control as a way to limit AI stupidity.
CONs:
* Draft isn't as good as Head Coach's.
* Scouting. In Madden you scout individual players based on your scouting department's abilities. In Head Coach, you rely upon your GM who is rated in a variety of categories. Some might be better at scouting TEs and others defensive backs, for example. In Head Coach, as in real life, you can scout by schools and by position, allowing you to focus on individual players but also on entire college teams.
* Position coaches. Madden 10 doesn't have position coaches, only HC, DC, OC, ST, scouting and trainer. They make some modifications to your play but the modifications in Head Coach are more comprehensive and it is easier to fine tune the type of team you want to play.
* Lack of play books. Head Coach offers you various play books and offensive and defensive systems. Madden 10 is much more limited in this regard. You can run a 3-4 or a 4-3 in Madden 10 but there is no potion for the 46, or for college-type spread offensives or run and shoot.
* Kicking. In Madden 10 there is no way to have the AI do your kicking for you. I have a problem with keeping the joystick lined up to make my kicks go straight. I don't think my kicker's abilities should be handicapped by my lack of hand-eye coordination. It's not realistic. You can have the AI throw the ball for your QB but it won't kick for you. This is a serious draw-back.
* Statistical Realism. Head Coach is a simulation, while Madden 10 is more of an arcade game with some simulation qualities. The players are supposed to be as good (or bad) as in real life and their stats should reflect this at season's end. I think Head Coach does a better job in this regard than Madden 10, which allows your hand-eye coordination to effect the outcome. Thus, you will see more outrageous 70+ scoring performances by teams, or rookie QBs like Stafford throwing an NFL record 8 touchdown passess in a game (which even I, with my less than stellar hand-eye coordination, managed to pull off)
Neither game is perfect. Both have serious AI issues. The lack of a 2-minute drill is especially lacking in either game. Players know in the NFL to step out of bounds, to try to get out of bounds, etc, and the QB knows to throw to those players and not to some guy who not only has no chance of getting out of bounds but no chance of making meaningful yards. I've yet to see QBs or WRs operate this way in any EA Sports football simulation.
If you want a more ultimate front office experience, then play Head Coach. That's what is central to its design. Madden is an arcade game with some of these elements thrown in and while they are in some respects superior to the old Head Coach design, they are not as comprehensive and seem more skeletal in nature.
For a Head Coach 09 fan the biggest reason to play a Madden 10 franchise is not the front office framework, but the improved graphics and the 2009 draft class. | video-games_xbox |
A crushing bore. I decided to pick this up after reading the not-so-great reviews just to pass the time, and my expectations were really low for this game. Even so, it somehow managed to disappoint me. I certainly wasn't expecting Skyrim, Dragon's Dogma or Dragon Age by any means, just something mildly entertaining and enjoyable. Perhaps along the lines of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic or Divinity II.
Nope. This games wishes it could even aspire to the levels of some B-rated RPG titles. I've literally never played an RPG that was this annoying, and just out and out boring. I gave it 11 hours of my life, and I just can't continue with this mess.
The bad:
~Tired and pathetically overused storyline that even my 9 year old could outdo for originality.
~Annoying combat that wasn't remotely fun to play.
~Character creation is a joke, with a grand total of 6 pre-done faces to choose from and just as few hair styles.
~Repetitive waves of mook enemies that respawn over and over (how many times do I have to kill dozens of flying swamp ticks?!).
~Voice acting that made me want to stab my eardrums with an ice pick (seriously, did they invite anyone off the streets to try their hand at voice acting? These people couldn't possibly have been professionals...I hope.)
~The player character is a foul-mouthed punk. Why exactly would I want to play as him/her?
~You can give the player character a custom name (I named mine Valkyrie, naturally), but everyone in the game will continue to call your character "Vulcan" which is the default name. He/she will also refer to themselves as Vulcan, so what's the point of a custom name?
~The player character will say and do random things at times (entire fight scenes I just had to watch), and have whole conversations where I have very little input. Not much roleplaying there, in my opinion.
~Despite leveling fairly quickly, my character still seemed very weak compared to most enemies.
The good:
~Nice attributes and skills are available, and there is a crafting system.
~I liked that you could play as a Warrior/Rogue/Mage hybrid if you had a fancy to.
Um...............yeah, that's all I can come up with on the positive side.
The game looks quite average, so no complaints with graphics. I was hoping this would tide me over until Dragon Age Inquisition releases, or at least until something really fun and distracting like Destiny comes out, but no dice. Looks like I'll be dusting off Skyrim for another playthrough, or my tried and true BioWare games. If you love RPGs, my advice is to give this one a pass....I sure wish I had! | video-games_xbox |
Pretty good, but the thumbsticks have a problem. No problems shipping and the product came in perfect condition. I immediately tested the tension on the thumbsticks. The tension was nice at first; maximum tension would require a decent amount of strength to push the stick all the way to the edge, but after a few days of playing with it, the tension has loosened significantly. Even at maximum tension there is only a slight difference from medium tension, and that I do not like. I figure it's the rubber bands or whatever they used getting stretched too much. I definitely hope that the next Razer Xbox 360 controller model has improved adjustable tension thumbsticks or else I'm just going to stick with the standard model. NOTE: The adjustable tension sticks will only twist so far. DO NOT try to keep twisting them after they stop moving thinking you will get even more tension. You will only stress the mechanism and you won't get as much tension out of it as you did before.
The face buttons were very nice and much better than the standard controller buttons. They are called hyper-response buttons for a reason: they respond much faster than the buttons on a standard controller. You barely have to touch them and they click nicely.
I like the four separate buttons for the d-pad but think that they could have been designed just like the hyper-response buttons. As they are now, the d-pad buttons are raised off the surface of the controller and need to be pressed down a fair bit and seem too clunky. Why couldn't the d-pad have the same hyper-response technology that the ABXY buttons have? Though it has problems, it is still better than the circular disc on a standard controller
The multi-function buttons are great, but I find myself pressing the wrong button many times. My meaty hands want to press both shoulder buttons because they are so thin. Razer should have kept the size of all the shoulder buttons closer to the ones on a standard controller. As it is now they use the same space for two smaller buttons that can easily get your fingers confused, but they do their job.
The 15 foot cord seems overkill, but it's braided so it's tough, and the length will complement those who like to sit very far away from their system.
The rubberized texture is great. It allows me to grip the controller better than a standard one.
The ergonomic design of the controller is nice, but could be better. I think Razer should have used a more curved and smooth design instead of an angular, sharp design. Still, it's not bad. I'd say it's only slightly better than the ergonomics of the standard controller.
Bottom line: If you want a controller for first-person-shooters, this is a great choice, but you can still get by using the standard Razer Onza. The Adjustable thumbsticks are mostly for racing games to prevent you from overturning. The tension can also be used if you like to play fps' with high sensitivity and you don't want to swing your gun past your target instead of targeting him. I played Halo: Reach with the highest sensitivity and about medium-high tension and I felt a slight improvement in my aiming, though I am not the best at Halo. For fighting games it's pretty good. It would be better if the d-pad was also hyper-response, but sadly it's not. I played Mortal Kombat with it and was able to execute special moves much better than before. The only thing that got in the way was the stiff and raised design of the d-pad. But it's good to know that when I press left or right, I'm not also accidently pressing up or down, which happens constantly with the disc-shaped d-pad on a standard controller.
I thought about getting a replacement controller due to the loosened tension on the thumbsticks, but I don't know if Amazon considers that a "defective" product. | video-games_xbox |
Thank Goodness for Redbox. ......Or I might have wasted 60-plus dollars on this bundle of frustration masquerading as a game.
I love computer/video games, especially RPG's (e.g., the Star Wars: KOTOR series, Fallout series, Fable series, Mass Effect series, Elder Scrolls series), and was excited when I heard all of the sterling reviews for this game. I had heard about the extreme difficulty, but thought the "most difficult game ever" talk was probably hyperbole.
I could not have been more wrong. I love a challenge, and do not like games that have no penalty at all for dying. However, there is a fine line between challenging the player and presenting overly frustrating difficulty that saps the game of any enjoyment, and this game crosses that line within the first 30 minutes of play.
I can accept that bosses should be formidable enemies in a RPG, but when even lowly skeleton warriors encountered early in the game can decimate you within seconds, I think the game has gone a bit too far.
Beyond the insane difficulty, it seems the designers went out of their way to irritate the player: no ability to pause(?!), you can only save at campfires (and then if you do, enjoy re-fighting all the enemies you defeated that will respawn!), and often no clear direction as to where to proceed next. I happen to think that features in recent RPG's like the "Save Anywhere" function and the "Next Quest" marker in Fallout 3/Fallout: New Vegas/Mass Effects 1 and 2, while undoubtedly designed to make those games appeal to a mass audience, are improvements to the RPG formula that make them MORE enjoyable to play.
To the "hardcore" or "old-school" gamers that love the unrelenting challenge that "Dark Souls" throws at you endlessly- more power to you, and if you think most games out there today are way too easy, I wholeheartedly recommend "Dark Souls" to you. While I enjoy a FAIR challenge, I also view video/computer games as a way to relax, and I see "Dark Souls" as a game you FIGHT, not PLAY.
BTW: I am not certain it is a coincidence that this game does not have a demo on Xbox Live (at least as of the date of this review); one wonders if the designers are concerned how many copies of this game they might sell if most people had a chance to see just how overly difficult it is.
Finally, I have to say that I view an excellent RPG as being similar to a good book- one that gives the player a hand in shaping how a great story unfolds. "Dark Soul"'s story is almost nonexistent.
So, for those gamers on the fence about "Dark Souls" that have read the glowing reviews for this game: buyer beware- TRY BEFORE YOU BUY. As for me, I will wait for Skyrim and Mass Effect 3. | video-games_xbox |
Updated*** Understandable Band Aid but. People don't understand the difference between this product, the MS adaptor coming out, and the new Xbox one officially licensed headsets.
First off. I get that people want to use there current (and expensive) headsets. I modded my current headset and basically built my own version on this product so I could use my Tritton 720s. It works but takes some effort to actually set everything up to decode 5.1 Dolby and not end up with Prologic. I'm not going to go into the details of my set up, but let's say it involved a wireless HDMI extender that converts the 5.1 signal to optical on the reciever. Not a setup most people would have readily available.
For most folks, this adaptor will allow the use of chat with their existing headset while listening to the game in stereo or Prologic. If anyone decides to stick with this setup, hopefully MS patches the X1 so it outputs 5.1 over optical. I am guessing they will.
The difference between this product and the offical adaptor that MS will be selling is the ability to control game volume separately from the chat volume. The included headset (and consequently this adaptor) cannot do that.
As for the officially licensed headsets that will be hitting the market shortly, they are impressive. Most people don't understand this because MS has not done a very good job of explaining the technology. The new headsets are all wireless. Let me repeat, all wireless. There will be no cable between your headset and a separate decoder box. No gaggle of wires to keep organized. There will be a single cable between your headset and your controller. All surround sound is decoded and transmitted directly to your Xbox controller. We are talking 5.1 and chat, wireless from the Xbox to your headset, without any additional hardware or cables. I have owned my Trittons for over 4 years, but if I can shed all of the cables, power adaptor, and extra hardware, I'm all for it!
***Update***
I've been doing more research and I can't find any information stating what kind of surround mix, or decoding officially licensed headsets will be capable of. The Turtle Beach site states "cinematic surround sound". I guess we'll have wait and see. | video-games_xbox |
30 HOURS IN . . . I QUIT. [SPOILER FREE]
A veteran of Final Fantasy 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 and Tactics, for the first time, I have finally given up on a Final Fantasy game. Here are the contributing factors:
LINEARITY:
This word has been used so much in reviews that I feel it needs to be re-defined. Are the maps linear? In a general sense, yes, but there are dead ends, forks and roundabouts en route to your destination. You aren't walking down a hamster tube the whole time as some would have you believe.
However! One often FEELS as if they were walking down a hamster tube because this game lacks things that most great RPGs have in common:
Decision-making!
A good RPG should NOT be a novel. A good RPG should be more like a CHOOSE-YOUR-OWN-ADVENTURE-type book. In an RPG, there is no little to no fun in following a story that is completely predetermined.
Variety!
In the ~30 hours I've played this game, not once have I seen any side quests, mini-games or other distractions.
STORY:
To be honest, I found the general story behind FF13 much more interesting than the story of FF12. Despite that, it still falls short of the superb storylines found in games like FF 4, 6, 7, Xenogears, Chrono Trigger and the Lunar series.
MUSIC:
Being honest again, I did think the title music was very good, as was the choir-driven boss music when you fight Barthandelus . . . ~20 hours later! All the music in between was either too soft to hear, some funky jazz stuff that needed to stay in Kansas City, or some weird drum and bass jungle beats.
Nobuo Uematsu is not god. There are other composers who have also cranked out great video game soundtracks: Yasunori Mitsuda, Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata, to name a few.
But what all those great composers possess, is the ability to match the music to that particular moment on the screen.
Simply put, in FF13, most of the music doesn't fit the moment. The battle music is especially pathetic. Real good battle music should really get you in a MOOD to beat some guys around, not lull you to sleep.
CHARACTERS:
There are some good characters in this game. My favorite would be Sazh with the chocobo chick in his head. He's not as funny as Dave Chappelle, but he tries.
On the other end, the most annoying by far is . . . you guessed it! . . . VANILLE! She has just witnessed the Final Fantasy equivalent of 9/11, and here she is grinning and smiling and running around like a ditzy schoolgirl. On top of that, she moans and groans more than most adult entertainment.
But most inexcusable is the exclusion of the most important character:
YOU! THE PLAYER!
Final Fantasy 6 realized that the player was just as much a character in the game as the others were. If you recall, during the ~20 minute ending to Final Fantasy 6, the last character introduced was ". . . YOU!"
You were a character in that game because YOU got to DECIDE whether the raft went left or right, how to split up your teams, which town the airship landed near, which characters you rediscovered, whether Shadow got saved, and so forth.
So although Final Fantasy 13 has some good characters, in the end one ultimately feels detached because the player is not PARTICIPATING along with them.
WORLD MAP:
The lack of a world map was a terrible idea.
At the very least, a world map gives one the ILLUSION OF FREEDOM. You may be forced to walk down a mountain path on a world map, but you may also see villages on the other side of those mountains, seemingly inaccessible and mysterious. It may make you want to play the game more so that you can discover more of the world. In addition, it gets rid of the feeling of tunnel-vision claustrophobia that one gets in this game.
I had a hard time visualizing the world of FF13. Another thing that a world map does, is give the game some cohesion. Instead of just walking into towns, you now know where those towns and dungeons are in relation to each other. If you think about it, just about every major fantasy novel has a map.
I wonder why . . .
COMBAT:
In a nutshell, the combat is basically a dumbed-down version of the combat found in FF12. Instead of programming the actions of all your characters, you merely pick what task they should be doing and they automatically go out and do it.
If only your characters weren't so bloody stupid!
There are bonuses for characters attacking the same target. But guess what? If you have Lightning help out Snow, in the hopes of taking out that monster faster, what does Snow do? He switches over to the monster you just left! You can have 3 characters in your party fighting 3 individual battles.
So much for teamwork . . .
If the leader in the party dies, it is game over. The Medic often seems oblivious to this fact, healing characters that are not a priority, especially when you're at 245 HP and almost dead.
Early on in the game, there were some nice touches to spice things up a bit: You could find enemies that were fighting amongst themselves or change the weather to fight different types of enemies. A nice try at variety, but the developers didn't follow through with it or include it as often as they could have.
SUMMONS:
Not only is it mandatory to fight Eidolons, but once you get them, the reward is very small. Instead of the powerful creatures that laid waste to everything in sight, the Eidolons are now about as dangerous and effective as a Navy Seal with a Super Soaker. The Eidolons are good for healing and that's about it.
TOWNS:
There ARE towns in FF13, like Palumpolum . . . but they're just set-pieces, places where you fight your battles, not buy your gear.
STORES:
I thought the idea of "computerized stores" at the Save Points made sense for the futuristic world of FF13. After all, you are reading this review on Amazon, which is basically the same thing and here it is 2010.
But I was disappointed in how the upgrade system worked. While it is easy to pick out the best weapons and accessories, there is no indication of what materials actually DO and how they will help you meet your upgrading needs. You basically have to do it by trial and error, which is further complicated by the fact that gil is nearly impossible to come by.
POLISH:
The game is definitely polished and has some nice touches. I like the text on the load screens bringing you up to date. I liked the short animation of the character's faces on the Status screen. I liked the "Datalog" encyclopedia. A few other things. But if you take a piece of gravel from your backyard and polish it, is it worth anything? No. Although it looks nice on the outside, deep down it's still a worthless piece of gravel. FF13 may be polished, but polish means nothing when the original material is severely flawed.
GRAPHICS:
There is a reason why I mention graphics last, and that is because in an RPG, graphics are not all that important. Part of the joy of fantasy is using your IMAGINATION. Unfortunately, as graphics have gotten more life-like, less is left to the imagination. Sometimes for the better, but often for the worse.
That being said, the graphics in FF13 are definitely impressive, even on the Xbox 360. Honestly, I don't feel like I'm missing much graphics-wise by not playing it on a PS3.
CONCLUSION:
Is Final Fantasy 13 a terrible game? No. Like I said, it has its good points and it is polished up pretty well, but deep down, there are severe flaws that ultimately made this game unenjoyable for me. It's not much of an ROLE-playing game when the most important character--the player--has little to no input or ROLE at all. | video-games_xbox |
Liner, no exploration with bland gameplay. Bioware's attempt at streamlining the Dragon Age series has made it more a miss then a hit. It may be easier to jump inn, but the game now feels less immersive than other rpg's out there. Quests in DA2 feels really flat and boring. The sense of adventure, exploration, discovering secrets, varied interesting quests, character skill development are either missing or rather limited. The entire game takes place in the city Kirkwall and surrounding areas, which are pretty dull and lifeless, with many quests often taking you to the same cave over and over again. The quests themselves are hardly unique or the slightest bit interesting. Built around the same fetch or kill quests repeated over and over again. Making it a chore rather then something interesting as most quest outcomes simply use dialogue options to choose which faction you decide to favour. DA2 quests also feel as they're there nothing more than to earn experience points and find loot just to build your character rather then progress the story or open the game world. Battles are also averagely interesting. Rarely needing any strategic planning. The "Move To" and Allies command in the menu for your AI allies is of little use in most cases as in most times it's a simple case of hitting the attack/magic and heal buttons; no real help needed with your Allies to beat most battles. The problem I found with DA2 game after playing Rpg's like Oblivion, Divinity II:DKS, Two Worlds II, Demon's Souls, Fallout 3, which all used a more involving world with deeper exploration, more varied quests, deeper rpg elements, discovery and a sense of adventure!..DA2 offered nothing like this! DA2 feels like two separate mini games patched together: The overlong and blabbering dialogue, with the, walk a few steps before being forced into a battle. A formula which becomes dull and repetitive a few hours in.
This was of the rpg game I was most looking forward too, but, have now been most disappointed with. Thankfully I also discovered Divinity II:Dragon King Saga a game that delighted me more then DA2 in almost every way! | video-games_xbox |
Didn't like Dead Island at all. This changed my mind. I was on the fence on buying this game. Before it released, although I was interested in the storyline, the fact that the developers of Dead Island made this (Techland) made me skeptical about the game, since I didn't really like the Dead Island games at all. After some consideration and asking others about the game, I decided to go in blind and buy the game at it's current price, not knowing if I would like it or not.
I have to say, it is one of the most graphically amazing looking games I have ever played on the Xbox One so far. After playing this game for a good 10-15 hours already, I find this game to be a lot of fun. I've played many hours of the story mode so far and still have many hours to go, and so far it's good. The big world that you can explore, to find weapons and materials to craft useful tools and other weapons, and the realism of a zombie apocalypse is what makes this game probably one of the most realistic zombie survival games I've ever played, with the parkour aspect adding in some fun to the element of survival along with the side quests and future dlc to keep you playing for hours. In fact, I'm considering getting the season pass for this game because of the content that you'll get access too. Even playing co-op with up to 4 friends makes the game better.
Be the zombie mode: This is my opinion on the game mode, it's free to download for everyone now. This game mode personally is better played with friends. When it comes to playing with other random people, it's not as fun as playing with your friends, seeing them freak out as you attack them as a zombie from above, another element to the co-op experience.
Overall, this game definitely blows Dead Island away. I don't see why critics give this a 6-7/10. I give this game a 9/10 because of everything I've experienced so far and because it's one of the best zombie survival games you are going to be offered at the moment compared to other games that are out right now. I think it's a good game to pass the time before other games release later on. If you are unsure, you might as well rent it or try it at a friends house if you're curious, as everyone's opinion is going to different from mine. However, I made a good decision getting this game, and regardless of what system you get this game on, you are going to have the same, fun experience. | video-games_xbox |
Nightmare Fuel. I thought the original Dead Space was an entertaining game that I would have given 4 out of 5 stars to. I was skeptical when I started hearing raves about the sequel. The original (or "DS1," as we'll call it) was a claustrophobic experience with lots of "monster closets" -- magic compartments where beasties pop out of nowhere and jolt the daylights out of you.
This sort of thing can get pretty stressful and draining, to the point where you're inching forward painfully through most of the game and frequently reloading a save game. I also felt that DS1 was pretty derivative -- it felt so heavily influenced by games like System Shock and Resident Evil that it struggled to find its own character.
However, DS2 provides much more roomy environments, which are nevertheless just as dangerous. The Sprawl is a living area, so you'll see more than just computer consoles, medical facilities, and other typical sci-fi decoration. It seems they took a cue from Bioshock and presented a believable world with all the seemingly mundane routines of humanity: department stores, religious facilities, primary school, apartment complexes, train stations, etc. One gets a sense of a community of people whose lives were violently and tragically interrupted. (The abundance of blood spatter and mutilated corpses strewn everywhere is also a pretty good hint...)
If you skipped DS1, there's a "previously on Dead Space" video clip on the disc that does a fairly good job of bringing you up to speed. I'd still recommend getting DS1, because it's a great game at the now-discounted price of around $20. Also note that DS2 is on two DVDs for this 360 version -- it will need about 13 gigabytes of space on the 360's hard drive. If you still have an original 20GB drive, you will have to remove all other games and probably your related DLC on the drive to make space; you may still not have room for Dead Space 2 and all its DLC. Also, even if you have the game fully installed, you will be asked to switch to Disc 2 when you have progressed about halfway through the game, so don't put Disc 2 in storage right away.
At any rate, Isaac Clarke is a fully-voiced character now, and he has an appealing personality. All of the voice actors are quite good and convincing. The unfolding drama makes sense and pulls you in while you play. There's also more variety to the types of problems you have to solve, so things never get dull.
Although I liken it to Bioshock and System Shock, it actually reminds me of Doom 3 the most. Or rather, the game that Doom 3 could have been, if it had possessed more personality and fewer booby traps. There's something about that flashlight strobing through the dark corners, the gurgling of monsters in the shadows, and the constant evidence of violent struggle...
In short, I think Dead Space 2 is engrossing and a clear improvement on the original. I wouldn't recommend it for people under the age of 13, though, because it's a pretty creepy and gory experience. There's also some salty language sprinkled throughout. | video-games_xbox |
Typical Bioware - Fantastic characters, engrossing story, and great RPG elements. I went into DA2 with some skepticism. I mostly enjoyed the first game, but I never grew particularly attached to any of the characters or very much enjoyed the combat system. All of that changed in DA2 - and for the better, in my opinion.
I know some still prefer the turn based combat, but I do not. I didn't make a whole lot of sense, and I feel like the new system is a better mix. The characters are also infinitely more interesting to me. Each has their own story for why they follow you, they all feel like well fleshed out, fully developed characters. In fact, it was mostly the party members that kept me coming back for more. I just loved interacting and talking to them. Varric and Merrill specifically, were highlights for me. And of course I romanced Merrill. :)
This isn't to take away anything from the story, however. DA2's plot well... its sort of a hidden one. There are elements of its existence early on, but you really have to be paying attention to grasp what might be coming later on down the road. For the most part, its just a story that is slowly but progressively told. And its a damn good one. No saving the galaxy/Ferelden, stopping an invasion/blight or anything world changing like that... well, not quite. The story of DA2 actually feels much more personal and unique than any other fantasy RPG I've played. Without giving spoilers, the main meat of the game is about your character, Hawke, rising to fame and power within the city of Kirkwall. There is no underlying reason why you have/need to gain popularity/status - you just do. It feels natural. As if you were actually trying to live out your life in that city. You just knew the right people, worked hard for everything you did, and eventually you were a top dog. Its very interesting, and definitely one of if not the most political game Bioware has ever done. And that's definitely not a bad thing. The world of Dragon Age is a mature one, but at the same time it feels like home. There is a subtle atmosphere about this game, coupled with the outstanding music that I just found so charming. Similar to the way an Elder Scrolls game's score enraptures you. The score, atmosphere, and characters of DA2 give a very specific feel and uniqueness to the world of Thedas and Dragon Age in general. It really does feel like an original fantasy. Bioware went all out with this universe they created, and its well done.
Despite everything I love about it, DA2 never quite achieves ultimate 'greatness' because of its few but repetitive flaws. I'll list them:
Repetitive locations - you'll be visiting the same caves, backroads, and sections of the undercity numerous times over. Some might find this tedious and boring, but for me I didn't. After awhile anyway. It instead just made me feel a little more connected to the city and my/Hawke's home. However, I will not deny that exploring the same mountain or cave over and over again, did get repetitious and slightly frustrating. But again, I was more focused on the characters and current quest than I was the locale. I don't think you play DA for the interesting environments, you play it for the story and characters, and that was never more evident than in DA2.
Repetitive dialogue - This only pertains to combat dialogue, or 'post combat' dialogue. For instance, you finish off a group of thugs and Varric immediately throws in, "Sheesh, Hawke. You DO get results, don't you?". If you take Varric with you everywhere, like me, he'll say it all the way to the end of the game. Merrill did as well, so did Isabela. So I imagine its something all the characters do. At first, you'll think its neat how they comment on what just happened, after the 50th time though, you're wondering why they don't have anything new to say. Its a 'lil odd, if not slightly anti-immersive, but you get over it and used to it as time goes on.
And in light of its pros, I would definitely say the cons are a minor annoyance, at least for me.
To anyone who enjoys a well written, extremely well casted Bioware game, this is for you. Don't be looking for revolutionary combat, or varied and vast landscapes - this isn't the Witcher fused with Skyrim; this game is all its own, and thankfully so. The world of DA2 feels so fresh and unique, I honestly was a little sad once I finished it. It was a lot of fun over the course of the two or so weeks I played it. The game overall lasted me just over 30 hours. Standard Bioware fare. And yet by the time it was over, I found myself wanting another 30. Typical Bioware. | video-games_xbox |
Extreme disappointment. Obviously, no game with as much hype as this game had will ever live up to all the hype. Having said that, this game is downright awful. Halo 3, I could play for hours on end(and spent many a night up all night until the morning playing). This game, I am so bored of it in under an hour that it feels like I was robbed for actually paying for it. I have gotten more enjoyment out of games on the xbox arcade and the indie games for less than a third of the price of this game.
The campaign: About 6 hours for me. I was playing on heroic difficulty. I could have beat it faster, but I wanted to watch all the cut scenes. The story was cheesy. I felt NO connection to the characters at all. I felt like any bit of emotion they were trying to get from me was forced.
The multiplayer: Where to begin on this abomination? The guns are terrible. To anyone who actually knew how to use a BR, forget it, it is gone. They have replaced it with the DMR. A one shot, underpowered piece of garbage that sprays wildly if you try to shoot it quick. If you shoot it at about 2 shots every 3 seconds, it will stay fairly accurate. It feels to me like they just wanted to slow the gameplay of an already slow game down even more. Also, the map selection is TERRIBLE. This game comes with 9 maps, and a few are remakes of old maps. I believe Halo 3 came with 11 when new. Out of these 9, I feel like I play three or four maps repeatedly. That is boring. I want a wide variety. Also, the fact that Bungie has already released a map pack for it is just plain insulting. I just spent $60 on the game, and now you want me to buy a $10 map pack less than 3 months after the game came out?! That tells me Bungie had no respect for the buyers, but instead, held out on the maps so they could milk more money out of a horrific game. Bungie, you should be ashamed of yourselves. Next is the spawning. I have literally had an enemy spawn within melee distance of me after I had just killed them. That is worse than in any COD game, and I AM NOT a COD fan. Also, another complaint about the weapons. Where are they on the maps? There are nearly no weapons anywhere. It was like Bungie just forgot about them.
Firefight: It is what it is. You face round after round of Covenant troops. Pretty self explanatory. This may honestly be the most enjoyable part of the game.
Forge: I don't care for it. I actually preferred the forge from halo 3. That being said, many people love the new forge.
Theater: This is a train wreck and then some. Do you want to make a clip of an awesome kill you got? You can do that! Do you want to save that for some fun memories? You can do that too! Want to get some friends in and watch the clip together? You CAN'T do that! Theater only supports 1 person. This will not be changed, as that "would have been too hard to code" as Bungie says. I find that absurd, as it is nothing new. It has been done in the Halo series before. Why couldn't they just rehash that code and send it out again?
Custom games: They are custom games. You make the rules. Not a lot I can really say here. Make it what you want.
All in all, I give this game 2 stars. I feel I can only give it a 1 star rating if the game is absolutely unplayable. This is on the verge of that, but the custom games and firefight save it. The other reason I give it 2 stars is because it makes for a great coaster so I don't have to worry about any sweat from a glass causing my table to get spots in it. It also works good to level an uneven table. | video-games_xbox |
Great graphics, but the gameplay lets you down. Madden has always been the best game on the market. This year, it was the only game because EA bought out the rights to the NFL, stopping ESPN NFL 2k6 from being released. They obviuosly weren't worried about other games being better because this game was terrible.
The graphics in this game are pretty good. I have seen better and expected better from a game that's had the best graphics each year. The crowd is pretty fake, though the player motions are fairly good. I like how smooth the game flows too.
The gameplay in this game seems pretty good when you first play it, but beleive me, it gets old fast. This game has the amazing ability to make all other games you have seem boring. I had MVP Baseball 2005, NCAA Football 06, Halo 2, and Doom 3 and played them all very much when I got Madden 06. As soon as I started playing it, they all seemed boring, and I haven't played them since. In Madden, I played on Rookie mode until I won a game 103-20. That's when I knew it was time to go up one level to Pro. I won almost all of my games by 50 or more points. So I decided to move up one again to All-Pro. On that setting, I lose all of my games by 50 or more points, and I've been playing on it for a month! It's either way too easy, or way too hard. So I got really mad and quit the game forever. Unfortunatley, all the other games are still boring. So it ruins all your other games for you, and then it gets boring after about a month. So then you got nothing.
I tried all the different game modes, Franchise, Superstar, Tournament, and Situation. All of them are the same, too hard or too easy. I never got to try online play becasuse I don't have XBOX live, but I'm sure it's the same. I tried changing all the settings but it was the same.
So please take my advice, don't play this game. Usually I reccomend at least renting it, but don't even do that because you will just think it's awesome, then buy it and a month later regret it. Please don't play this game. | video-games_xbox |
Best in series. Far Cry Instincts Predator is a repackaging of the Xbox game Far Cry Instincts and its stand alone expansion Far Cry Instincts: Evolution. There are some minor differences between the two, such as improved graphics, but this is more or less the same game that came out months earlier on the original Xbox. It is important to make that clear right away so there is no confusion over what exactly you are getting.
For the main campaign, Far Cry Instincts Predator puts you into the shoes of Jack Carver, a retired Navy commando who now pays the bills by taking tourists out on his boat. After being hired by a woman to take her to a mysterious tropical island, Jack finds himself on the receiving end of a helicopter gunship. With his boat destroyed, Jack must find a way to rescue the woman and get off of the island. Of course that sounds a lot easier then it actually is. You will discover that there are some odd things going on deep inside the jungle, something that an army of mercenaries don't want you to discover.
The game's setting is probably the most important part of the game. The entire main campaign takes place on one huge lush tropical island. This setting opens the game up to some interesting gameplay. For most of the game you must rely on Guerrilla warfare since you are almost always outgunned. Hiding in the jungle and sneaking around is a big part of the game. It is possible to sneak up on enemies and perform stealth kills by stabbing them in the back. You can also set branch traps on trees, and then throw rocks to lure unsuspecting enemies to their death. There isn't much that is more satisfying then taking out whole groups of enemies without any of them ever seeing you. While stealth is more of a suggestion rather then a strict requirement, you will have a much easier time covertly taking out as many mercenaries as you can then if you run in guns blazing.
That's not to say that there isn't a ton of gunplay to be found in the game. The firefights can be pretty intense at times. There is a pretty good selection of weapons, though they are pretty much what you would expect to see. You have your assault rifles, machine guns, sniper rifles, shotguns and more. Jack can carry three weapons at once: a pistol, a medium weapon like an assault rifle, and a heavy weapon like a rocket launcher. This doesn't include grenades or claymores that you can use as well. You can also dual-wield many of the games smaller weapons.
Your most effective weapon in the game though is definitely your own two hands. Not too far into the game, Jack becomes a victim of one of the strange experiments going on (this is written on the box, so it's not really a spoiler). The experiment gives you "feral abilities" like super human strength and speed. Early on you can essentially rip enemies apart with your own bare hands. As you progress through the game, you are constantly getting new tricks. For example, you will gain the ability to pick of sent trails from your enemies, or run extremely fast and jump incredible distances.
You can also take control of a few vehicles in the game. These range from ground vehicles like ATVs to water craft like jet skis. There are even a few hang gliders in the game which you can use to fly around the huge environments. While you can shoot while in the vehicles, driving and shooting is pretty difficult. The awkward vehicle physics can make a lot of the vehicles frustrating to control. You will mostly use the vehicles simply as a way to travel across the big levels.
There is also a pretty good variety in the environments. While most of the levels take place in large outdoor jungles, there are a few underground levels as well as a volcano fortress to mix things up a bit. This keeps the levels feeling pretty fresh throughout since looking at a bunch of trees the entire time could get a bit boring. On the PC, Far Cry featured very open ended levels, where you could pretty much pick your own path through the island and tackle objectives in a variety of ways. This seems to have been scaled back for the console game. The underground levels, which last for a good amount of time, are completely linear. The outdoor levels do offer you more freedom then most first person shooter, but they feel pretty linear compared to the original Far Cry game. Perhaps this was due to technical limitations of the first Xbox, but it is unfortunate that one of the best features of the original game has been watered down.
Once you have finished the Instincts campaign, which should take you around 12 hours or so to complete, there is the Evolution campaign for you to tackle. It is no big surprise that it is actually pretty similar to the main campaign. It is an expansion after all. This time around however Jack Carver is hired by a woman (again) to help her with some illegal gun-running. As you would expect, things don't go as planned. Shortly after delivering the weapons, rebels attack, stranding Jack on another tropical island. While the expansion is still a good amount of fun, it doesn't manage to meet the same level of excitement as the first campaign. This is mostly because it doesn't manage to feel as fresh.
Since this game is set in a tropical island very similar to the last one, the game plays almost exactly the same. There are, however, a few changes in the level design that are worth mentioning. On the good side, some of the levels feel a lot more open ended this time around. For example, early on you will have multiple objectives across a few smaller islands that you can tackle in any order you want by using boats to travel between them. On the bad side, the game has some very annoying jumping puzzles later on that seem to simply be there to extend the length of the game. Also, sometimes there are infinite amounts of enemies that spawn in. It may take a while to realize what is going on and that you are supposed to just move on.
There is one bug that shows up pretty often during both campaigns that deserves mentioning. The bug involves locking onto enemies to use your claw attack. Similar to the sword attack in Halo 2, when you target an enemy to attack them with your claws, the game automatically has you fly in a straight line towards your target until you hit them. The problem is that it is extremely easy to get stuck on objects while flying towards your victim. When you do, you will be unable to move until the game gives you back control. The problem is that it takes way too long for the game to realize that you are stuck and give you back control. There will be many times when you will die because of this, and it can be extremely frustrating at times.
There is not much else to say about the expansion campaign. It's pretty much just more of the Instincts gameplay with a new storyline. But that is not necessarily a bad thing since Instincts was pretty fun. The Evolution campaign should take most players around 6 to 8 hours to finish. After finishing both campaigns, there is still the multiplayer left to check out.
Far Cry Instincts Predator has great Xbox Live support. It is one of the few games to feature an easy to use map editor. It's surprisingly easy to create your own levels. Most of the map editing is point and click, so you can very quickly develop and test your own ideas. When connecting to a game running a custom map, it is automatically downloaded. The custom map editor combined with a good number of retail maps and game types makes the multiplayer experience pretty solid. You could easily spend a good amount of time playing this game online.
Overall, Far Cry Instincts Predator is a pretty good game. It is a complete package that features a ton of content and is definitely the best version of Far Cry to date. That being said, if you already own Far Cry Instincts on the Xbox, there is not enough here to warrant buying the game again. You would be better off just buying the expansion separately. But if you have yet to play Instincts, this is the best version to play. | video-games_xbox |
Nice product, not for everyone though. This review is based on the headset prior to me doing any sort of googling the technical issues with it. I purchased this headset after my Turtle Beach PX3 headset broke. Oddly enough, it was just the plastic that cracked (no idea why, I never did anything to break, no throwing or anything), so with the help of some tape, it worked but I still wasn't happy with the cheapness of the plastic, so I decided to test out another headset. My friend has the wired one and loves it, I opted for the wireless because I've been spoiled by the convenience of wireless and won't go back.
My first complaint: Size. This headset felt extremely tight on my head and at times felt like there was a vice on my head. The ear muffs were too small for my ears and also caused some soreness. The PX3 is much more adjustable and has a much better fit and is much more comfortable on my head. The PX3 can rest on my head and I don't feel any aches from it, but the Afterglow feels tight and I can't wait to get it off of my head. It's also hard for me to wear glasses while in this because it pains my head even more.
Second complaint: Sound. While the audio choices of Pure Audio, Bass Boost, and Immersive Audio are nice, it's not an "important" factor to me in my purchase. It did help with muting some sound around me, but on a lot of Skype calls if someone wasn't talking, it would go quiet, almost silent, and then I would have to say something, and the person on the other end would reply, and the sound would come back on it. It did this also when I wasn't on Skype and just listening to game music or computer (ie, iTunes, Spotify). Not cool having your music go in and out. Also, whenever it was silent, no voice or music or anything, there was almost a small fainting buzz hum, like a speaker before music comes out.
Third complaint: Voice. I tested my mic on several different occasions. One person complained my mic was way worse, almost typical cell phone quality. Other people in vent would say that there was little to no change, most of them remarked that I came in much louder and they had to turn me down, and whenever I would hear myself in their feedback, it came off almost like megaphone quality. Another person said my mic picked up background noises a lot, even in the other room. I like how I could push it back, if say I was eating.
Fourth complaint: Feedback. I'm not a very loud person, but too often I could hear myself whenever I spoke into a variety of applications (Skype, ventrilo, teamspeak), which my PX3 never had this issue.
Fifth complaint: Power. This headset, when turned off, stayed off. However, when I plugged it in to charge, it came back on. So if I got a Skype call or music was still playing, it would come through the headset. This also made it super annoying to during the night, because the blue light would stay on. So either charge it during the day or go to sleep with a blue lit room (or cover it I suppose). Granted, it's not BRIGHT blue light, but still, when I power off my headset, I don't want it to come on when it's supposed to be just charging. The PX3 has a small light when charging, and when it's fully charged the light just goes off.
Sixth complaint: Installation. Installing my PX3 was very easy. Just plugged it in and go. Pretty much the same with this one. However, I've had to do some major tinking to make the Afterglow work for me, but just like what I said in complaints, there have been a lot of problems with the overall audio and mic. The most trouble I've had with my PX3 would be that someone couldn't hear me, then I would just reset the "pairing" button and all would be well.
Overall, while I'm not happy with the plastic on my PX3's cracking, I am still very happy with that over this product. With the help of some Gorilla plastic glue and bonding tape, the PX3 is working just fine and is back to fitting properly. The PX3 never needed this much changing around as the Afterglow did, and I've had to google many problems of the Afterglow with no results to help. So I'm not sure if I just happened to have the unfortunate luck of getting a bad headset or have just not been able to fix these issues. I don't want to have to tamper a lot with a headset and I shouldn't be having so many issues with one headset. I will be returning this product even with assistance of fixing the audio issues, because of the size of the headset and the lack of adjust ability. | video-games_xbox |
Failed me as a media player and is simply creepy to me. Everyone I grew up with plays console games online since 2007 we all had Xbox 360s we all moved far apart and its basically the only way we stay in contact. I made the assumption everyone would go with the Xbox one but instead they bought PS4s. This isn't a negative point for the Xbox One but its important to see if who you are playing with now is upgrading to it otherwise you need new friends. I work in a field that requires a lot of secrecy ie no cell phones at work, background checks on new people you meet etc. The idea of this always listening creeped me out so I wanted to see if what I was saying was sent to servers to be processed like siri. I looked into what the xbox was doing on my home network and it always sending and receiving data I disconnected the camera and this crippled the experience (Data usage was lower) and keeping it offline ruins the whole reason I bought the system. These two reasons are both situational but everyone should value what little privacy they have because you always have less than you think.
My primary reason for not being able to justify the console was it would not play any files on my online FTP server or my networked hard drive they all worked fine all my 360 and $25 Raspberry Pi. 70 percent of the time I use my tvs to watch movies or tv shows I downloaded and im a cable cutter so the HDMI passthrough serves no purpose.
In summary I wish I had researched my decision more especially media playback and privacy concerns. I will probably buy a PS4 and keep my Raspberry PI running Xbian and keep my Xbox One in storage until I see a future update that disables the voice services and improves media playback.
Positives:
.Next generation gaming looks great
.The console looks professional in a home theater setup.
.A future update can fix all my issues.(If theirs a way to fix now please comment!)
UPDATE: I've been using this console without kinect to play xbox only games but overall I still enjoy my PS4 better and use a fire tv for my media needs. Its a decent console but an example is Watchdogs it will play at nearly 1080p on PS4 while only 720P on the Xbox. If you have the money definitely get both since they are both $399 now but if you can only get one on a budget get a PS4 instead. | video-games_xbox |
great. Halo is one of the most graphically impressive games released in videogame history. The attention to detail is excellent. For instance, when using an assault rifle, you can see each clip as it is used. Incredible draw distances, outstanding cutscenes, and marvelous camera work contribute significantly awsome.
In respect to audio, Halo outshines the competition. The sound effects are spectacular and the soundtrack is killer. In-game voice acting has never been so good. You can hear your allied marines chatter about the enemy, when they have been hit, where the enemy may be, etc etc. In addition, you can hear the frantic cries of the running enemy when you and your shotgun sneak up on them. Playing this game in Dolby Digital will give the gamer an unsurpassed gaming experience.
In actual gameplay, this is where Halo redefines first person shooters. No other console game has gone where Halo goes. Halo is comprised of 10 well-designed, surprisingly large levels, mixing indoor and outdoor environments, to give the gamer an experience which will not soon be forgotten. And this is no normal shooter either. You can play campaign mode single player or with a friend. This is the first game to have a great "co-op" mode. If you can't beat a level, call a friend and work together. Playing the 'single-player' mode with a friend makes the game a far more enjoyable experience.
The developers of Halo knew what they were doing when they included vehicles in the game. Throughout the game, you will use a variety of vehicles to help you defeat the enemy. Some are slow but powerful tanks, while others are quick hovercraft. Several of the vehicles allow more than 1 player to get in, thus letting 1 person drive while the other blast the enemy away.
However, where Halo really shines is in its multiplayer. With 4 players, 2v2 deathmatches are just a blast. However, with a Cable or DSL connection you will be able to play Halo online! You can play with up to sixteen players in pure madness. Of all the time I spend playing Halo, 90% of it is online. It is just incredible. It takes everything positive about console gaming and pulls the online gaming from traditional PC games to make Halo one of the most enjoyable games ever made.
Buy this game it is great | video-games_xbox |
Two Worlds (PC. This review is for Two Worlds (PC) Epic Addition.
This is one of the worst games ever made!!!!!!!!!! I do not say that unless it's true!! As a game Designer myself, I can speak with fact and professionalism and not with a love and hate relationship for a game.
When developing a game, one of the biggest factors to take into account is "Game Balance." What is "Game Balance?" It's just that, how everything in a game will balance out game play wise. Like rather or not enemies will be too hard or two easy, rather or not an item drops too much, rather or not gold is obtained too quickly, rather or not the plat forming is too difficult or not, rather or not the character level too fast, rather or not aiming with guns is off and on and on, you get the idea, I'm sure.
One thing you'll notice fast in Two Worlds, even on easy game play, enemies will kill you with one to four hits!! That's ridiculous!! Where talking about the beginning of a game where your character is pure weak and you're dealing with Elite and Raid Boss type enemies....!? WTF!!!
That's why game design is not for everyone and why there are so man games out there like Two Worlds that suck big time and cause publishers to lose money and take up shelf space from good games! These developers should really learn what some of the major "elements" and mechanics of game design are before they jump up and put garbage on the market like this Two Worlds BS. Games like this kill the Gaming Industry!
Right now I'm currently building a Hardcore Action title that will run on Windows, Mac and Linux. The company I work is "masterminded" with talent so expect PC games to start getting hot in the future. I would never take part in developing garbage like this!! I should of considered all the bad reviews a read about Two Worlds, but I don't like to let other people make up my mind about a game since I have all the knowledge I need to creat hit titles as well as analyze one. Besides, people will rate a game wrong for stupid reasons and that's part of the reason I tried Two Worlds.
I wanted to analyze TW for myself and find out where the developers went wrong. Unfortunately, I may not be able to continue the game because "Game Balance" is like a huge part of the foundation that makes a game even playable or not. "Geezus Kyrst", what foulness in game Developers!!
Get a clue already! | video-games_xbox |
One of the best, only some very minor annoyances. Another awesome Borderlands game. I know a lot of people don't like the half G environment and the need for more oxygen. The need for oxygen is only rarely a problem as there are plenty of places to stock up on O2 plus just about every enemy you kill drops some oxygen. It is usually only a problem when you are traveling great distances and want to avoid any fighting (and you are on in a vehicle). At that point, it sort of becomes a mini game having to monitor O2 levels. Even when you run out, it only slowly depletes your health. I am the cyborg Wilhelm, and his special heals you up anyway. Without O2, however, you can no longer "double jump" or "butt slam".
Now onto the half G environment (or like 0.25G?). I like it because it allows you to travel very quickly and you can reach higher places. The half G environment does change the dynamics of combat. For example, in the other Borderlands I used sniper rifles almost exclusively and only switched to other weapons if any enemies happened to get close. Since you and enemies can effortlessly zip around the battle field and conduct dive bomb attacks aka "the butt slam" (sorry Mr. Torgue), I now almost never use sniper rifles, because its just too easy now for enemies to close in. Sniper rifles still have use for those giant floating sack monsters that shoot a bunch of crap at you from a distance, but the half g environment definetely changes things up. Basically, it makes combat a little more chaotic and in close and if you stay on the ground, you are asking for trouble. Contrary to what other people have said, I find the butt slam attack to be very useful in this borderlands. Its basically a free and decent area of effect grenade like attack that can have various environmental effects (cyro, burn, acid, etc.).
Now, need to talk about some issues with the game. For me, the hardest missions in Borderlands were always the timed "racing" missions where you only have so much time to zip around and interact with different objects. With no surprise, they are also very difficult in borderlands and impossible to complete the first time without watching a Youtube video as you have to know exactly where to go in order to beat the time. Another highly annoying point is trying to find certain quest items in this expanded 3d environment. It can be frustrating to have to find a way to somehow go up 50 stories to interact with some quest object, and trying to find different objects on the Dahl ship where you fight the BOSN was very annoying. Also, it can be difficult to keep up with the story while battles rage on around you in real time. It would be nice if there were more cut scenes where you can take a break and catch up on some story. Oh, and driving can be annoying because you have to constantly consult the big map because the minimap is just not zoomed out enough so you can see how to navigate the area. If you don't consult the big map constantly while driving, you can fall off cliffs or get stuck and have to find a way around the area.
As far as taking a long time to travel for quests.... One of the best tricks in this game to cut down on travel time is to simply quit the game to the main menu and then reload. This works great for quest turn in since you can quit and reload the game, and then maybe a minute later, be back in Concordia to turn in the quest. Traveling back halfway across the map is going to take you a longer time and you still have to go through loading times anyway.
That being said, I think the story is awesome and the best part about it is the humor. Borderlands never took itself seriosely, and this one doesn't dissapoint.
Any borderlands fans out there, do yourself a favor and go get this game. You won't be dissapointed. | video-games_xbox |
Thouroghly Entertaining. I openly admit that this was a game that I had very little interest in playing initially. I don't know why, It just wasn't high on my list of games I wanted to play. Well, that all changed when the original Crysis came to Xbox Live On Demand. I was in the mood for some FPS action when I saw that Crysis had been put up on Xbox On Demand so I purchased it. Well, to make a long story short, I ended up putting the game down like 14 hours later, after finishing the game on both Hard and Delta difficulty. In short, I loved it. So I simply had to buy the sequel.
I was a bit disappointed at first as I really didn't want to play as a new character. I wanted to pick up where I left of with Nomad in Crysis especially considering I jumped from Crysis to Crysis 2 in the same week. Don't get me wrong, I understand why they went this route as it makes it so console gamers can play it without having to know what happened in game 1. It was still disappointing as I really liked Nomad and that is who I was expecting to play as in Crysis 2. I think he was a great character and the voice acting was top notch in Crysis. I also liked Psycho and was bummed he wasn't involved as well. Overall I think it would have been a better game had they stuck with Nomad and kept the supporting characters in the sequel. Yes, Prophet is involved but that doesn't really make up for the lack of Nomad and Psycho and Nomad's role is small in this game. I eventually came to accept these changes but Alcatraz just wasn't as interesting of a character and even at the end of the game I was wishing they would have stuck with Nomad.
I was also a bit disappointed with the story as it really felt separate from Crysis. Even tho they are connected, it just felt like it was a different game altogether. The aliens were completely different and all of the sudden you dealing with a virus, something that wasn't even mentioned in the first game. New characters, new location, new aliens, new virus etc.. Short of the name and the Nano-suit, it really just felt like a completely different game series altogether and I found this disappointing as again I wanted to pick up where I left from Crysis. Don't get me wrong, the story in this game is top notch and very entertaining, it just doesn't feel like a sequel to Crysis. It felt like a completely new series altogether. Again I understand why they did it, I just don't like that they did it. They could have done something like Bioware did with Mass Effect to bring people up to date with the story.
As for the good parts of this game, there are many!
1 - It has a lengthy campaign, something that is becoming rare these days. Overall it took me roughly 12 hour to finish the game and there are plenty of reasons to play through this game multiple times.
2 - The graphics are top notch, one of the best looking games I have seen yet. The art design is really stunning. Overall, IMO, its one of the best cities ever produced in a videogame.
3 - The overall design of the levels is outstanding. Most battles have at least 3-4 unique approaches. The best way I can describe it is its like little mini sand box battles wrapped up in a game with linear progression. This alone adds significantly to the games re-playability.
4 - Huge assortment of weapons. I wish you could carry more than 2 but that just adds to the games strategy. The guns you choose can make all the difference in the world especially when you factor in all the different approaches one can take to the battles.
5 - A great story. Even tho Nomad and Pycho were left out of this game, it still has a great story and was highly entertaining to proceed through.
6 - Highly entertaining combat system. The suits cloaking and armor ability makes the combat extremely unique and highly entertaining.
7 - One of the best gaming soundtracks I have heard yet. Han Zimmer is one of my favorite composers and his work on Crysis 2 really takes the game to a whole new level. In particular, the music that plays during big battle stages, its outstanding and really adds to the excitement. Its brilliant and is easily one of the best soundtracks we have seen yet in gaming.
Bottom line - Crysis 2 is an amazing game. Easily one of the best FPS I have played on consoles yet. My only complaint is in regards to the story and the characters. Ultimately this game would have been just that much better had they chosen to stick with Nomad and some of the other supporting characters from Crysis. Then again this isn't even an issue for people that haven't played Crysis, which I am sure is the case with a lot of console gamers (at least before they released it on Xbox Live On Demand). Hopefully we will see a Crysis game that focuses on the whereabouts of Nomad and Psycho. That's personally where I would like to see the series go.
Overall an amazing game!
5 stars! | video-games_xbox |
I would like to state that you CAN make the colors of . Before I start this review, I would like to state that you CAN make the colors of the controller scroll through on their own like a mini lightshow while you play, it's just not documented in the instructions. I found this out on my own by messing with the controller, so if anybody is having any complaints about that: All you do is hit the Program button (large circular button on the back) once then tap the D-pad up once. This will start the lights scrolling on their own. If it comes to a color you want to leave it on, simply press the Program button on the back once, then hit down on the D-pad. Otherwise, just pick your colors how you normally would by using the Progam button + analog sticks to your liking + hit Program button again when you're all done. With that out of the way, I would personally give this controller an 8 out 10 & it's one of the best 3rd party controllers I've ever used for the price. On my scale, I consider a Xbox Elite controller as a 10, a regular Xbox One controller as a 9, and this comes in right behind it as an 8. This costs less than a regular Xbox One controller, so it's a really good deal for an extra controller to have. If you're really competitive, I would say you would still prefer the Xbox One or Xbox One Elite controller over this. What we are talking about here more so is having an extra controller around with extra functions that looks cool for a lower price if you aren't exactly "MLG Finals" all the time. First off, the controller is wired only & that does not bother me as I sit a couple feet from my Xbox anyways. It responds quickly because it's wired even if it is only 1-2ms faster compared to a wireless controller. The LED's are great, they did a nice job of the colors & how you have a lot of controller over the brightness of them. They look professional & not tacky. You cannot use a chat adaptor with this controller, but it does have a 3.5mm jack to plug a headset straight in. This means the tiny headest that comes with your Xbox One will not work with this controller, but countless others like Turtle Beach, Tritton, etc...will right out of the box. The D-pad controls the chat mix/volume while holding a tiny button next to the right analog stick. The only thing I think it is missing in that regard is that it would be really nice to have a "Mute" button right to the left of the right analog stick as I currently cannot find a way to mute my mic quickly while using this controller. The D-pad is nice, less "clicky" than the one on the standard Xbox One controller. The analog sticks are very good for a 3rd party device, but I did notice they are just a hair below the precise quality of the official controller when you play online in a game like Halo 5. The analog sticks weren't bad for a game like Star Wars: Battlefront, but something a bit more competitive like Halo online, you noticed the sticks were just a tad bit "looser" & felt like 3rd party sticks compared to the official controllers. The material of the analog sticks is also a bit smoother/less grippy than the official controller, I prefer the official one better in that regard. The face buttons are all fine to me, it's personal preference there, but they are just a tad harder to push down than the regular Xbox One controller. This is again fine with me because they feel a bit more robust like they will last longer. The triggers & bumpers are of an acceptable quality again. They are just a hair under what you get with the regular Xbox One controller, so I have no problem with them. Most people are buying this controller for the mouse wheels underneath. They are very easy to program, which was surprising to me. In fact, the whole controller is very easy to program, which is great. My only gripe about the wheels underneath is that they are way up in the middle back of the controller. I have really long fingers & I don't think most people grip their controller way in the top middle? So for me, it's hard to use the mouse wheels because I feel they would have been much more useful if they were slid down about half an inch to the very tops of the back bottoms of the controller handles themselves where my middle fingers naturally rest. I have not been a huge fan of 3rd party controllers in my life, especially since the dual analog stick era. I owned a few of them on the original Xbox & there was always something that just felt "off" about each controller. I never bought another 3rd party controller on Xbox 360 because of this, I figured I might as well spend the couple extra bucks & buy something I was much happier with, although I did use my friend's 3rd party controllers on 360 a time or two. So the point I am making is that for me to give this controller an 8 out of 10 for a 3rd party controller, that is high praise. It is a really decent controller for the price & just a *few* slight modifications from being a 9 out of 10 if they changed a few small simple things. (placement of wheels, mute button, maybe a "white" color preset to match the white lights on the Xbox One) One last thing, I noticed my hands would sweat a little more using this controller & I do not know why. I'm guessing because of the material of the controller or how I was constantly trying to grip it a little more because of the really smooth clear plastic where it was a tiny bit more slippery in your hands. Not a huge deal, but worth adding at the end here. | video-games_xbox |
Most Underrated Sports game of the Year. I had rented this not knowing how good this would be. I had rented this out of the frustration of Madden's weak gameplay and unrealistic ratings and that there was nothing else there. When I came home, I popped in the CD, and I was hooked! And if all goes well in NFL 2K5 I could safely say that "I am no longer a slave to the EA corporation!"
Pros: 1. Realistic Simulation of the game of football
2. First Person Football a smash hit (feel the game without breaking your bones and tearing up your ACL's)
3. ESPN License used to perfection (and the scary part is, It can go even deeper into the license)
4. The Crib is just what NFL 2K3 was missing, something to do outside the franchise mode (much cooler to go through a pimped-out house than a generic menu)
5. Progression of players much less erratic
6. The O-Line Blocks! See how it is much easier to run up the holes than in Madden! (Only on ESPN)
7. The Secondary Defends! There will be more battered balls and less one-on-ones where the reciever usually wins, meanwhile not having such a strict secondary so how CB's are picking off balls left and right (Makes you proud to have Champ Bailey!)
8. More Fluid Running in Players (more button mashing and players no longer run like mechs!)
9. Xbox Players can import their Crib music to to main menu.
10. E-Mail system makes it easier for gamers to cruise around the franchise mode
Cons: 1. Franchise mode has done minimal to respond to Madden's Owner Mode (last year's Iron Curtain is this year's Achilles Heel)
2. False start is never called
3. Online play hasn't improved much as well (just tweaks, no major overhauls, but still a great experience)
4. Corners usually tend to tackle the reciever when the ball is in the air, and pass interference is never called except for some exceptions!
5. Tackles don't keep up with defensive ends when rushing for the QB in the Pocket
6. Some crib accompilshments are too easy to get (enter Franchise mode) while some are near impossible (0 total yards allowed the whole game?)
7. Cutscenes of fans and cheerleaders are good, but too generic
QUESTIONS: Do all cheerleaders have implants? Which move like stone? Wouldn't you have started out in apartment in a ghetto or skid row THEN move your way up to a pimped-out house?
FINAL VERDICT: Buy it! if you are anti-EA, it is all the better to buy this game! I will guarantee you that you will play this game for hours on end! | video-games_xbox |
Everything the game does, it does right. The only problem is that it doesn't do very much. Shadowrun is a game that seems to have a lot of potential. In the end, though, it isn't fully exploited. The game mixes fantasy games and sci-fi shooters in a marriage that should be any nerds dream, and it does so very well. When you go online the game is solid. The problem is that there are only 3 game modes. So, after completing the tutorials and playing a few matches online, you'll be wondering where the rest of the game is. Sadly that is a question the will forever remain unanswered.
Shadowrun is set in a fictional future where, in addition to technological discoveries, magic is uncovered for the first time in 5000 years. The discovery of magic lead opposing forces into war and also created different races of meta-humans. As the player, you're fighting for the forces of RNA or Lineage for control of magical artifacts simply called "artifacts" (creative, right?). Anyway, the story doesn't matter at all and serves only as an excuse for you to be shooting at other players online.
When you join a match you'll be placed on a team. At the beginning of each round you'll have a chance to buy your choice of weapons or skills. For anyone who has played Counter Strike, that should be pretty familiar. Then you'll set off to destroy the opposing team. Should you be killed you will not respawn, but you can rejoin the fight if one of your team members revives you. Once the game gets going there will be people flying and teleporting around, as well as shooting and healing, killing and reviving. It is a lot to wrap your mind around and that is the real strength of Shadowrun.
In the game there are four races, human, elf, dwarf, and troll. Each race has its own advantages and they are all balanced very well. In addition to the races there are Tech and Magic... oh and of course guns too. Magic skills allow you to heal team mates, or teleport, or even summon minions and more. Tech abilities allow you to use a glider, or have radar like vision, or improve your speed, or aim better. As for weapons there is your standard fair of pistol, machine gun, rifle, shotgun, sniper rifle, mini-gun, rockets, and (maybe not so standard) katana. When you start messing around with Race/Skill/Weapon combos then you start to understand Shadowrun's complexity, and its uniqueness. From my experience it is easy to make a combination you like, but difficult to master all the different aspects of what your enemy may be doing at any given time.
So, the game is totally based around team play and, as I previously mentioned, there is an astounding 3 different modes to play and that might even be brought down to two. Each map is set up as either a Extraction Map or a Raid Map, and Extraction Maps you can't play Raid on and vise-versa. Extraction has both teams fighting to bring the artifact back to their base, while in Raid only Lineage tries to capture the flag while RNA tries to protect it. In either of these game modes if one team eliminates all players on the other team, they win the round regardless of the artifact. The third game type, availible on all maps, is called Attrition, where the objective is to kill the other team. In Attrition the artifact stays on the map, but only serves as a kind of power-up that either team can use. While all of these game modes are fun they're not very diverse and I really feel the game could use more modes to choose from.
Graphically the game does pretty well, but there are a few issues. Each team has a different look for the different races, but other that that there is no difference between characters. You can't change your clothes or looks in the slightest way, there isn't even a choice to change gender (everyone is male). The developers also failed to put in a ladder climbing animation for some unknown reason. Still, everything looks good and holds up, even with 16 players quickly moving around and using magic and skills.
Sound is pretty simple in the game. I don't know that there is much to say on it. It isn't bad or distracting, but its not something you'll be looking for the soundtrack for. One thing the game does that I appreciate, is that it gives you auditory warnings as to where enemies are and where your team mates are fighting. Some people might find that annoying, but it isn't overdone, so I'm glad they included it. As far as sound effects go everything sounds like it should.
In the end, Shadowrun is a fun, but limited game. Everything it does works well, but you might get sick of what is really just two different types of matches. The game can actually be picked up fairly cheap now, especially if you get it used. If you're the kind of person who enjoys playing games like Counter Strike endlessly and want to try something different you need this game. For everyone else, you won't be hurting yourself if you decide to skip this one. | video-games_xbox |
Great Multiplayer Fun. This is one of the few games that I have bought and since I had 1 game to pick for Christmas I decided to go with this one. My 1st thought is if I was not on XBOX live I probably would not have wanted this one just for single player. Even though I found I liked the single player its more getting from point a to b (like multiplayer) with no story and no side anything so its escaping from locations. Even though the single player is fun I just don't think I would have spent 60 bucks for just single player unless I can get a lot of hours out of it. I don't get to play on Live except usually weekends and a couple week nights but I think its great being on teams and everyone taking care of each other, usually anyways. I love co op so this game really appeals to me and split screen makes it even better.
The graphics are fantastic and crisp and gameplay is absolutely fun with zombies running at you it reminded me of Counter Strike with crazy zombies which I guess makes sense given the company that made it. The sound is great and I like the way the characters tell you when they are healing or reloading to let you know who to watch after. Just the sounds the creatures make are great and a good job has been done with this game. The single player A.I. bots are kind of annoying simply because I found they didn't act too much like a real player which is a minor unless you play single all the time.
This game is more a love or hate since I have not heard too many in betweens. Renting is actually what I recommend to do 1st for any game unless you know for a fact no matter what anyone else says you will like it.
This is probably one of the best multiplayer co op games I have ever played. Its just plain fun and usually unless you are in an annoying group, people play all the way through the campaigns and stick together. This is from what I have seen even though I am sure people do skip out when they die or something but this is what I have seen when I am on Live. I found it lots of fun to set up in a location like a house or building fighting off the horde and sometimes it can get hilarious with your companions. The infected fall into overuse in campaign mode and it can get tiresome fighting the same enemies over and over but the so called director usually keeps it fresh. The only bad thing is just same enemies all the time and the horde of zombies are overly simple to kill. I laugh a lot when someone disturbs the witch and she chases them down but thats just me. Another great mode is versus, though it can be annoying to where the infected can spawn to attack the people pretty much anywhere nearby its still great fun. I like to play serious when I play but I also have fun so the game modes thrilled me to play. I hope there will be downloadable levels and stuff later b/c I don't know how long this game will keep me in the current modes. Its fun but I don't know how long the same enemies and same levels and choice of weapons (which there aren't many) over and over will last.
I don't really use the mic so much on XBOX live but I enjoy listening to people talk and since I tend to have more a quiet nature. I do talk during this game since I found it is kind of essential to do so and it tends to be more fun that way. I also like to find people who play as a team so when I played with this one person who kept running ahead of the rest and dying I got pretty annoyed.
Me personally I will say don't miss this one but the hard thing about games is what I love you may hate. | video-games_xbox |
And a thousand fell to two swords. N3II is far better than the original.
The Overall story revolves around a Entity called The Lord of the Night's conquest of the world, leaving the country of Orphea one of the last standing. While the first game's story was merely connected by chance meetings of few characters, N3II story is about 5 individuals who unite under Orphea's banner to fight back against the Lord of the Night (reminds me of power rangers). While each character has their own narrative which shows their part in the game's events, the flow is disjointed. You learn about the Lord of the Night mainly in Galen's side, while Sephia's does not reveal a thing and only serves expand her character(that's when i learned of her very one-sided crush on Galen). One could play each missions in chronological order with out beating any character final mission. All 5 characters are unlocked by Galen's 4th mission. 3 1/2 stars
Graphics
The game has nice detailed graphics, it's not AAA gorgeous, but it's still good. Unlike the first game which can show hundreds of troops, N3II has just two hundred at most, no slowdown. The setting feels akin to Lord of the Rings, Color Range varies for each level, From dark and gritty to Arctic blue. The levels are huge and have diversity, You will fight in Forts, castles, caverns, forests, caves, and N3 II version's of Hell/Purgatory. Animation is smooth, though enemy movement seems a little too fast. Each weapon has their own design and each character has extra costume colors, both reflect the chosen character in cutscenes. Camera can freak-out when fighting to close to walls and a FEW graphical hiccups. blood effect are average and could be turned off, while gore is mainly separation at the torso and waist, as well as one arm for giants. Partial nudity, because some people don't understand, is at most a Bikini, which is what Zazi wearing, and when the cut-scenes focus on Sephia tattoo some cleavage. Strangely enough every character basically dual wields 4 stars
Sound
I don't recall hearing music in certain cut-scenes, though none of it is memorable to begin with, it does fit the mood. Combat sounds are as expected, but may drown out the in game chatter. The voice acting for the most part is decent, and most fit the lip sync. Maggni is the only one I'm bothered by for the sole reason that I think he's an idiot. The Lord of the Night doesn't sound menacing enough. Japanese VA is available. 3 1/2 stars
Game-play
Anyone who enjoyed Dynasty Warriors 6 or 6 Empires will feel at home. Just like DW6, N3II does away with branching combos and basically uses DW6 Empire's Renbu and Skills. While the X Combo is not endless, the Y combo is slower, but is a stronger and wider set. X can flow to the Y set but just continues and finishes the Y combo, holding the Y button during a short combo will add a slam while holding Y near the end of the chain will add a few more hits followed by a launching attack. Characters special called Orb Attack (Super Combo) and Orb Spark (Area Attack)which can be activated by either a tap or holding down the button respectively, and the power depends on how many section the bar is filled out. Plus the 2 air attacks, a dash attack, and the murderous counter attack (Block then YY, or break a block YY)that's all characters have. The Skill System is like DW6 Empires, while holding a button you can activate a skill map to the buttons, these skill vary and range from physical attacks, magic of all types and stat buffs. you can dodge as well, which can cancel most attacks. Again, if you enjoy DW6, you will enjoy this game.
One thing N3II does differently is something i call " Devil May Cry Lite" focusing on strategic combat, very lite (sometimes horrendous) platforming, and small puzzles. Characters play the same, but they have an exclusive action. Other than Zazi's action, most are very useless in combat. Levels are long (some linear) and checkpoints are placed at the halfway point and the boss battles
Co-op is limited to Xbox live, and serves more as a challenge mode. You aren't really missing out much other than a few skill and very crappy "legendary" weapons
Fixes the first game's problems, in N3II it seems like every character except Maggni was trained in ninja running, difficultly has 3 settings, Recovery items are more common (the game still expects you not to get hit), length is, varied prepare to spend 30-45 minutes on most missions (most have a boss to finish). Boss only missions take 10 minutes tops. Galen took me round 7 hours, while Sephia was 4-5.
4 stars
DLC is planned for those who care.
and don't expect the manual to have any information (Honestly five pages of the basics- rest is the same 5 in different languages.)
All in all, this game while a step back regarding combat, takes many steps forward as an 1 vs 100 game. | video-games_xbox |
This is the game we should have gotten last year. The last WWE game to truly capture my attention was WWE 13. With that said, 2k16 feels like a huge step back in the right direction.
Let me preface my review by saying I've only played about 5 matches but in those 5 matches the drama and excitement was something that was definitely present. Something I haven't felt in a wrestling game in a long time.
The all new limited reversal system is a welcomed addition. Playing with Seth Rollins I had 5 reversals at my disposal allowing myself to burn one off here and there while when playing as Cactus Jack and only having 3, I found myself taking a bit more of a beating holding on to my few reversals for bigger moments.
Before, strategy in a wrestling game was to revserse almost everything, gain a special, hit the special, gain finisher, hit finisher and so one, it had a more mortal kombat like feel to it.
With the new systems in place, Limited reversals and stamina, I found myself actually strategizing about how I'm going to wear down my opponent with out getting too gassed and keeping enough "just in case" reversals in my arsenal. And changes depending on who I was and who I was taking on.
The graphics look a lot better than last years game, although I think there is some room for improvement (they'll get there)
There are tons of superstars (120) most of which all need to be unlocked, but still a good mix already at your disposal
Lots of match types to choose from with the inclusion of some favorites that were missing last year.
Create and Arena and title are back and it was fun to mess with the options on those modes.
One thing I've really come to like is the atmosphere of the game while playing in a match, commentary is still pretty bad, but the crowd getting into it and the expressions and body language by the wresting models as the game goes on makes the drama feel more
Epic.
I don't think it's a great game, it's not perfect, but it certainly isn't nowhere as bad as most folks seem to make it out to be. There are a lot of improvements that have been made since last years entry and in many ways this is the game we should have gotten last year to be honest. I think of your a wrestling fan of the past, present or both, you'll be thoroughly entertained, especially with all of different modes at your fingertips.
I'm giving this game 4/5 stars, 8.4/10!
Can't wait to dig into it more. | video-games_xbox |
Do you love the worst parts of MMOs and Halo: Reach? Then you will love this. What we have here is the most expensive 7/10 game ever. Half a billion dollars to make and budget this game has gotten us a messy, buggy experience that only appeals to hard core MMO lovers. If you love doing Dailies for World of Warcraft, then this will be your dream come true. Bungie has pulled out all the stops on graphics. Then they stopped and did nothing else. The story is a long and boring trek from planet to planet. None of the game feels truly innovative. The social aspect of this game is almost non-existent. It is impossible to trade weapons with friends. The story felt like one third of a better game. Maybe the larger middle chapter that everyone hates. You know, like Mexico in Red Dead Redemption. The bosses are usually just giant versions of other baddies. Every bad guy feels like a generic rip off of a Halo bad guy (which is sad since Bungie made the superior Halo: Reach before this). There's a Flood type, the Covenant types, and the guys from Halo 4 (which is better than this game and not even made by Bungie). They took the worst elements of Halo Reach and Diablo and made a game out of it. It never feels as open as they claim it is.
Don't even bother with the multiplayer. There's "capture the zone" and "deathmatch". That's it. The team that brought you Halo gave you 2 freaking game types. Hey, at least it is being supported by DLC. Lots of DLC. The kind of DLC that makes it so you have to buy it or you can't go any farther. You see, after you hit level 20, your level is then decided up on by the gear you have. So, if you randomly get good gear, you can level up. It's all random, so you might not level for a while... or ever. I'm not buying any of the DLC.
The Master Chief Collection is buggy at times, but more fun. Far Cry 4 is a superior shooter. Shadow of Mordor and Dragon Age Inquisition are much better experiences. Heck, DAI has Co-Op. I just got Dying Light and it is a much better experience overall. Save your money or get something else entirely. I bought this digitally for Xbox 360 so I would have a digital copy on Xbox One also. That way, I could play with everyone I know. Psh, I should have just not bought it. | video-games_xbox |
I would give this a - 5 if it were possible. Beware the super soldier. Do not buy this POS!! Here are the pro's graphics are great, doc emmerick commentary, that's it. You feel like a refrigerator on ice when skating, their new bump into your own player thing goes horrible wrong when your players fight each other the whole length of the ice as your right wing try's going right whole your left wing pushes him left and vise versa. This leave you without a wing to pass to and ruins great breakaways you could have had so often it's a feature they should dump. I'm a traditionalist and I play without tweeting much because I don't want to make it easy but play how it's set to play. The only feature I change is the game speed. "Beware of the super soldiers!" Their players get into super trooper mode and become unstoppable. There are gifted players so it's partially understandable but in 15 like all other ea games all of them become unstoppable at that moment. Stupid! Great players yes, great potential yes, but bad players and bums? Really????? I'm playing on all star and just getting owned. I lost 8 games in a row and all of their goals where the thing of legend. They were mostly super soldier goals or pure magic. The magic relates to their captain America team that has one of their players run over two of mine laying them out as dead and in the same stride taking the puch from their corpse and stuffing it in my net in which the goalie is clueless. I have yet to ever see something like this in my life in real life so it's magic. Here's what you lose: it either not there or I haven't found it yet. The ability to set your teams strategies. The only way I've been able to do it is before each game which gets old fast because it only resets every time. The AHL no longer exists.... I use to play both my nhl and AHL games. This helped me figure out who to promote or demote and build my franchise. It's MIA. So now you see you have players in the system with no way to gauge whether or not they are any good or not. At the end of the season they just spirt out points:( they added a good feature that was missing every since the game included drafting and that it actually records how often you scout a part of the world. Still missing in this feature is what you scouted, forwards, defense or goalies. It seems you still need a piece of paper for that:((( then there's player progress. It's there and it's still a mystery on how that works as there is no explanation and point magically appear. The feel of the game is horrible. Your own players get caught up in your skates so often your dragging them up the ice with you killing any break away chance you thought you had. There is that ref that skates right at you for some weird reason when you go on offense. It's so distracting that for the first 10 games I thought it was a dman going to crush me and I broke off my rush only to realize this idiots was a ref. Your players give up on the puck so easy whole the computer doesn't miss a step. Lots of time you will feel like your team gave up. Non responsive players abound in this one. There's alway the guy close to the play that can keep your drive alive that you can't seem to get control of for some stupid reason in ea sports nhl well 15 doesn't dissappoint here either. There are a ton of lost opportunities due to this ghost player issue. Seeing player states is a horrible change from the old, setting up lines is unnecessarily antiquated, the hitting the pipe is so over done I recorded around 15 or so by me in one game. The auto save isn't there so lost games ensue if you forget. Everything seems harder then you'd think it would be being a supposedly better device. There are moment where you will be like wtf. That happens often. More often then you'd like. | video-games_xbox |
Why did I wait so long to get this game. ...and why is this game, despite getting AWESOME reviews on tons of game sites and by gamers around the world, continue to be one of the best priced Xbox games available?? Even if you have negative feelings about inline skating, drop them and give it a chance. I love this game!
If you know the Tony Hawk series and are a fan, I can take care of you folks pretty easily: stop reading this review and GET THIS GAME. So many of the controls are the same, you will easily be able to jump in to this game and have a blast. At the same time, this game isn't so similar that it would be a waste of your money. Tony Hawk 4 (TH4), currently getting some of the best reviews of all Xbox games, actually changed their career modes to model after Aggressive Inline (AI)!! Plus, there are a bunch of other moves that you can't do in Tony Hawk (more on that below).
If you aren't familiar with the Tony Hawk series, you are in for a treat as well. I bought Tony Hawk 3 (TH3) before I got AI, so my expectations were already high for AI. If I were to buy AI as my first skating game, I would seriously be blown away. The levels are absolutely huge, 4-5x as big as TH3. Exploring is a huge part of this game. As I mentioned above, there are just a huge number of tricks you can do but some other pretty neat stuff as well. You can skate backwards, skitch (grab the back of vehicles for a ride), swing around horizontal and vertical poles, do flips over walls, and skate off walls. All of these tricks can be done in combos, raising the amount of points you get. Take care of each goal on the level and you unlock new levels. Oh yah, remember how you could go off the side of a pipe in TH3 and do nothing but land on your neck? Yah, AI has a bail button. TH4 is now incorporating that too.
I would get this game even if I had to pay the full standard Xbox price for games. Graphics are among the best I've seen, the controls are refined and natural, and the game itself offers plenty of hours of entertainment. | video-games_xbox |
Decent arcade game, beautiful graphics, not so great FX. First off, I'll admit I'm a simulation type guy. I've played in-depth games like the JANES series, Microsoft FSX, and the sort. However, even I get tired of managing all those switches all the time and I just want to dance around the sky and blow things up. If thats what you want, than HAWX is definitely worth a look.
First off, the graphics are the game's strong attribute. The landscape and the planes are beautifully modeled. The effects however, such as flak, missiles, enemy fire, and certain explosions, seem to be lacking in authenticity when compared to the graphical quality of everything else.
The flight model is obviously very simple and easy to use; I wouldn't recommend hooking up a complex control system to play this game. I tried my Saitek X52 system with rudder pedals, didn't work so well. But a Microsoft Sidewinder with a throttle slider and twist-style stick works outstanding.
The one area that will be a challenge is when the assistence mode (AKA the alpha limiters for those aviation buffs) is turned off. This will allow some very high angle-of-attack manuevering and snap turns. However, the other reason this mode is challenging is because the camera viewpoint in this mode is normally off to the side of your plane, keeping your plane and your target in the same line of sight. But when you get into these close-in tight dogfights, the camera can't seem to keep the enemy plane in view for more than a few moments, and good luck trying to engage with guns in this mode if you run out of your three dozen missiles. Luckily, gun ammo is infinite, and bursts are limited to the gun's heat build-up.
Overall, this game makes me appreciate the other flight sims out there that are extremely realistic, but works in a pinch if I need to give my brain a break and blow stuff up. The one remaining downfall of this game is it is VERY much like the Ace Combat series, its practically a twin. And the missions can get somewhat repetitive. At the time of this review, I've only played ten missions in, so we'll see what remaining missions have in store.
Bottom line, definitely a console arcade game for the PC, shallow learning curve, repetitive gameplay, but awesome graphics and fun, if unrealistic flight modeling. Head to head matches will probably be the main focus of HAWX fans...Lastly, this is just one man's opinion, so feel free to try the game and make your own conclusions. | video-games_xbox |
Arcade control, simulator look, REAL FUN. This is just what I've been hoping for, a combat flight game with state-of-the-art graphics, and simple fly-now controls. I really like flight simulators, but the control and weapon systems can get very taxing sometimes. There are times when you just want to get in and fly and blow stuff up, and HAWX is the answer!
I used to love the arcade game "Afterburner", a simple combat game with a stick and throttle. It looked good enough, and the action was intense without getting complicated. Tom Clancy's HAWX brings that feeling to your computer now, with leading edge looks. There are numerous planes to choose from, on an "unlocking" basis as you progress. The physics engine is simplified so that they pretty much feel the same regardless, but you get the cockpit and external views of your favorites at least. There are no complicated rules to flying, either, such as stalls, exceeding wing-loading, changes due to load-out, etc. Simply hit the throttle to go fast, and back it off to turn tighter. No blackouts or redouts. Nearly unlimited ammo. The targeting, one of the tougher things to master in simulators, couldn't be much simpler in HAWX--line up the plane on what you want to shoot, and select "change target" if it's not already designated, and when you're in range (it will tell you), squeeze the trigger. Occasionally, you may need to choose a different weapon, but it will tell you that, too. Program a few buttons (very few) on a decent joystick/throttle combo, and you're all set.
The planes and the terrain are beautiful. I always get a kick out of seeing the sun effects on the aircraft, including "flares" and halos, etc.. While some of the close-ups on the ground look a bit off, overall it's hard to complain--you can fly right down on the deck, and things still look mighty good. Of course, once the bullets and missiles start flying, you won't have time to enjoy the scenery much, as the simplicity of the flight controls are offset with massive engagements. From the second mission, where wave after wave of enemies keep coming in, you realize that this is not going to be a piece of cake. You can vector your wingmen to attack others, or to protect you while you get a better line-up, so you do have SOME help, but in general, success is pretty much up to you. It can get frantic, especially in air-to-air engagements with top-notch enemy fighters, where you may have to go around many times before you get a proper angle for a missile kill (there ARE guns, but good luck, because they are very tough to line up).
If you want the look of a top-flight simulator, but just don't feel like remembering all those keyboard commands to have a little fun (actually a LOT of fun), HAWX is the game for you! Save the rocket science for another day--this game is all about giving everyone a chance to be an ace, not just the hardcore fanatics. | video-games_xbox |
This is SC for Dummies. Yes, there are probably hundreds of other reviews that can verbalize this much better than I. I just wanted to submit one so it went into the statistics.
I've been a fan since the first release of TA. I've bought everything Cave Dog and GPG made, just to put money into their pockets and hope the ultimate version of TA was made. It looks like that high was on the original Supreme Commander and expansion pack.
There were no steps forward made with this game. Visually it may be a little better but nothing that you can tell offhand.
The engineering dynamic is complete crap now. There is no strategy or complexity. Just dump a lot of money into research stations and max out your tree and all of your units are instantly upgraded - stupid.
The AI has been dumbed down quite a bit too. I used to enjoy large skirmish matches against the AI. Get a large map, put 8 enemies on there, set various difficulties of AI, and you could hunker down for a good 4 hours of fun. Not now. The "normal" AI seems to focus on building nukes, so you're forced to build a boat load of nuke defenses. But, they took out the auto-build, functionality so you have to micro-manage the defenses. If you disable nukes, "normal" becomes "super easy". The more challenging AIs do very little to make it more challenging other than increase the unit count.
I want the old resource management back. You can build 100's of shields w/out any affect on your resources. There are no more uber-guns that would soak up your energy, forcing you to increase your storage. It is the lowest-common denominator that you can think of - resource management in its most simple form.
Aircraft management is also just as simple. You never have to refuel. You only have to go a few nodes into the research tree to give your planes the ability to repair in flight.
The levels are boring and small.
In the end, it comes down to who builds the most experimental factories and can pump them out and also something to keep the aircraft off.
After playing this thing for two weeks, I think I've come to conclusion that this is "Supreme Commander Lite" and it was targeted towards 8 year olds playing it on their 360. This is not targeted towards any of their previous fans. This is a money grab. Console games outsell PC games by far so they're probably trying to figure out how to boost sales in that market. That also lends itself to the Steam requirement. They're losing money on the PC side so maybe Steam will help stop some pirating.
I am really hoping they release an expansion pack for this that turns it back into what we all really want. I'm uninstalling and going back to Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance. | video-games_xbox |
Scoring goals never looked so classy. Nothing beats the heart-pounding adrenaline rush of playing a close game of Fifa 12; pass, dribble, lobbed through-pass, run run run, shoot, and. . . GOAAAAAAAAAAAL!
If it's a soccer simulation that you want, then Fifa Street offers no competition to Fifa 12. But Fifa Street does offer a fun, satisfying, accessible soccer experience that focuses on fast, clever dribbling; the point isn't just to score a goal- it's to score a goal in the coolest way possible, leaving the defenders frozen in their tracks and the goalie diving the wrong direction.
The team selection is fairly limited compared to Fifa 12: You get most of the major International teams, England's Premier League, Spain's La Liga, Italy's Serie A, Germany's Bundesliga,(I can't remember if France's Ligue 1 is in or not, but it probably is), and the U.S. MLS league. Brazilian, Portugese, Russian, and leagues from Asia are not part of the game.
There are a few game modes; there's the traditional 5 v 5 mode with no boundaries; you can even make limited use of the walls for passes. There's futsal mode, which is 5 v 5 but with out-of-bounds, so you have to be a little more careful with controlling the ball. There's a mode called last man standing; when you score a goal, the opposing team loses a player. When the other team scores, you lose a player. First team to eliminate the other team's players wins. There's also a game mode where points are entirely based on getting pannas (a panna is also known as a nutmeg, where you kick the ball between an opposing player's legs and run around them to retrieve it and continue your run).
The world competition mode lets you create a team, whether from scratch (which I did) or from some pre-made players. This is the "manager" mode for Fifa Street. You can compete in various competitions and matches, leveling up your player's abilities, and unlocking new skill moves in the process. You can design professional uniforms, as well more casual outfits for your players to play in. By winning matches on different difficulties, you unlock more uniform and clothing options.
If there's an aspect of gameplay that I don't like, it's defense. Playing defense is frustrating; The general format is very similar to Fifa 12, but it's just not as effective. Obviously this is because Fifa Street is a very offensively focused game, and if the defense were to be too powerful it would defeat the purpose of the game. But even still, while playing on hard it can be next to impossible to get the ball away from an opposing player.
In conclusion: Fifa Street is a very fun, playable street soccer game. As with any sports game, it's at its best when you play head to head against another human player. The demo that's available offers an excellent representation of what this game offers; I recommend downloading and trying it out first before buying. | video-games_xbox |
Review after a weekend. Received the XBox 360 as an early XMas present, and here are my impressions.
Setup: I've installed a full home theater, so the hookups were not a problem, just I did not expect the power supply to be the size of Rhode Island. The unit fits comfortable in the vertical footprint of my old PS2. The HD component cables were no problem, and I will spring for a digital audio cable. I wished the controller came with rechargable batteries, instead they are aftermarket items. When everything was set up, the controller was recognized no problem. The only issue was in setup of XBox Live. Turns out my router (Linkys 54g) needed a firmware upgrade before it would play nice with the XBox. No big problem, but it required a bit of searching in the XBox Support page to find it. Once that was resolved, the system downloaded some patches.
Games: As part of a promo I recived Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfare. Tactical shooters are not really my game, but I can say this game looks and feels fantastic. I bought Madden 07, and in HD and full Dolby surround, this is fantastic. I was aware of the complaints about the fan noise while playing games, and it is loud, and can be obtrusive. Note that this is only when playing games on disc, not off the hard drive.
XBox Live: I was never a big online guy with my PS2, so I am holding off on buying the Gold membership ($50/year) for now. The marketplace, however is crammed with goodies. My wife, who is not a video game fan, loves the puzzle games found in the arcade, and I can download demos from just about any game available. TV shows, movies and trailers are available in HD. Of course most of this content is not free, and is limited by the 20 gig hard drive. Until a bigger unit is available, this is a problem. In contrast Sony made it easy to upgrade the HD's in the PS3.
Overall, I am quite happy with the XBox 360 | video-games_xbox |
Bring true gaming to the pc. Video gaming is one of my favorite activities to do in the lazy times of the day. I'm a console stud by heart and have a deep love for the console games. It is for that very reason I am very skeptical working with a video game that only works via a mouse and keyboard. Worst of all there are just so many people daily who seem to spam the hell out of others like me saying " Get used to it, it's way better!" and while this could be considered with games that REQUIRE keyboard and mouse use such as final fantasy/etc When it comes to games like first person shooters, you learn to grow a deep hate for the W,S,A, and D keys. Not to mention in the heat of the matter who wants to reach halfway across their keyboard to tap R to reload, or hit U to talk, or N to switch weapons?! I'm a shooter by heart and games like Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, Borderlands and Call of Duty it takes much more than just skill mastering a keyboard. You break your fingers on the pads and lose a lot of esteem working that way if you aren't into it. It is why that when I had recieved this controller for said games I was in heaven. I had spent weeks attempting to master the games and even as I had grown used to them the fact had remained I was not a PC gamer. With the mad Catz xbox controller I felt like I had the control again and the edge. Most of all I had a one up factor over even the console controller: A smoother compact feel, a more sensitive grip, and full access control mapping to give me the comfort on which buttons I felt better with. I will say I was deeply skeptical over getting a controller for the PC just as much as playing on it. For all I knew I was getting a piece of junk and that worried me. I am glad to say I had it all wrong and in the end I now have another new console to work with that will provide me another full year of entertainment. :)
A few things I should mention however about the controller that is not specified is that this is not an exact replica of the 360's version. This was designed to be more compact and the controls to remain tighter as a group. The layout is designed, in my opinion at the very least, more forward for quicker response and certain buttons were redesigned larger for use of ease such as the left and right bumper. The biggest thing I should mention is the Left and Right triggers which were made in a hook like mannor that when tapped feels so much greater than the 360 version. The bonus side to all of this is that it doesn't just stop on the pc though. This controller can also work on your very console providing the same awesome control. A word of advice however to users who are playing Team Fortress 2: In order to gain the full function of your controller you must enter your options menu, go under the keyboard section, go into advanced options and click " Enable developer console" upon returning to the menu press the wave key "`" and then enter on the command "exec 360controller" without the " " at which point your controller will auto tune to the original controls featured on the 360. For all other games the controls easily adjust and can be tuned. :) | video-games_xbox |
My real life is over, thanks to this game. It's been a while since I've been this addicted to a video game. I played the first Sims and I loved it very much though I felt there were definite limitations to the console version. Fast forward to the Sims 3, and it's definitely a much more fluid and fun experience than the first game that I played way back in the day.
As someone mentioned here, it's fun to play God. It's even more fun when I have the chance to create real life friends in the virtual world (they even look and act eerily like the real people I know) and see what kind of crazy awkward situations you can put them in (or watch them flourish in specific job situations and/or hobbies/talents).
This game is like a black hole that sucks away any sense of time you may have in the real world. On the first day, I sat through 11 straight hours without even batting an eyelash (other than to grab a quick bite or two and use the restroom). That's how addictive this game is. It's incredible that you can have so much control over everyone's lives, as well as how you make friends, interact with NPCs, and learn skills that really define who your Sims are over the course of their lifetimes. I also like how there is so much attention to detail in terms of how you can design and build the home of your dreams. You can landscape, paint, wallpaper, roof to your heart's content, and buy all sorts of cool stuff to put in the house.
I have heard about the glitch involving people who have game freezes due to possibly too many objects in their inventory or game (I have yet to encounter this problem, fingers crossed) - however, I'm just being very careful about how I manage my stuff in game and am hoping that the problem doesn't affect me.
The game controls fabulously. There is definitely a bit of a learning curve at first when you pick up the game. But once you figure it out thanks to some helpful tutorials, it will all make sense and feel like second nature to you. I do notice that there is a slight lag when it comes to load screens in game (and there are a lot of them) but for the most part it didn't distract me that much. I was too busy in my little sandbox, watching my Sims move up in life (and watching my kid grow up). Throw in some intrigue (such as one of my housemates bringing her lesbian lover home for some "woo hoo"), a little karma here and there (which is one great addition to the game - it really makes it fun when you can use 'powers' to create dramatic situations) and you have the recipe for an amazing game that will suck the very life out of you.
My challenge now is to not ditch my real life friends because their Sim counterparts are just that much more interesting lol! | video-games_xbox |
Excellent Simulated Surround Sound, but still simulated. From dorm rooms to bedrooms headphones are the one of the best accessories you can have for gaming in private. Since I have never owned a pair of simulated surround sound headphones I can only compare the sound to stereo headphones and real 5.1ch surround sound and the XP500 fall between the two. The XP500 does a great job with low frequency, front mains, and center channel sounds; unfortunately it falls short at accurately reproducing the rear channels. However you may never notice this if you do not have access to a real surround sound setup.
The Bluetooth connectivity is very nice but will kill rechargeable batteries in both the headphones and the controller faster than normal. It's important to note that BT frequency is 2.4ghz as is the "Digital RF" channels used by the base station. With all things using this spectrum, a hiss can be heard within 30f of an operating microwave, wireless phone and any WiFi device. Yes, even a WiFi connect XBOX 360 will cause hissing. However the hissing isn't loud and cannot be heard while gaming.
The base station is powered by usb and comes with a lengthy optical cable. Missing from the package is a 2.5mm to 2.5mm RCA cable that will be needed for direct connection to the controller when Bluetooth communication is not preferable. The base station's base is not removable, while it did fit in my checked luggage it would not fit in my carry on.
Over all the XP500 made my gaming experience much more fun while away from home and it pairs very well with the <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/G155-Gaming-and-Entertainment-Mobile-System-Xbox-360-PS3-Not-included/dp/B004XGN8W4/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">G155-Gaming and Entertainment Mobile System (Xbox 360/ PS3 Not included)</a>
In the future I will probably pickup the <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/ASTRO-Gaming-A40-Audio-System-Black/dp/B005EGHE6I/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">ASTRO Gaming A40 Audio System (Black)</a> the newest version uses 5ghz RF and the base station is portable, but there is no BT connectivity. | video-games_xbox |
Madden 13 FAQ: What is new and different then Madden 12. There are a lot of people complaining over Madden 13's lack of a franchise mode. Yes the name 'franchise mode' has been replaced with connected careers. I am going to address some of the most common questions. I have played Madden since 1994. This Madden is the best yet, despite missing some features that I am sure next year will be addressed.
Q: is Connected Careers the same as Franchise mode?
A: no. it is franchise mode minus and plus a few things.
Q: what has Madden 13 Connected Careers got that Madden 12 Franchise Mode didn't?
A: Connected Careers allows you to control your team as a Coach (aka same as franchise mode from previous years) or as a player (aka superstar mode). Connected Careers has more realistic features like the ability for the head coach to be fired, also you have that ability as a coach to be fired. You can also shut this feature off. Players and coaches have goals each week and year. achieving these goals provides experience points to the players and coach to which you can distribute to the players and coach to better their attributes throughout the year. you can choose when this occurs for the CPU teams. you can do this at anytime with your own team.
Playing CC as the Coach you now have more purpose then just another year in the NFL. Your coach gains experience with each win in his legendary status. you can compare then with HOF or Legend Coaches and see where he ranks. When your coach retires he will be judged against the legends before him. He may or may not make it into the HOF.
Another new feature of Madden 13 is the ability to create your own coach and choose the type of coach you are. team builder, motivator etc. these attributes allow you to choose what kind of coach you are. are you a spread scheme coach? power run coach? what kind of defense do you implement?
These are a few of the features in CC mode as a coach. I have not played as a player yet (superstar mode)
Q: What Madden 13's features?
A:
1. Physics Engine - No more Clipping of vectors! It is the first iteration and has some good and comical moments though an excellent start to a feature desired by many fans for many years. The run blocking is awesome and feels right. As a running back you have to watch out for players on the ground, you may trip. Now when you make a collision you feel the struggle and there isn't that scripted feel to the animation. Ragdoll effects do play a great part in unique looking and feeling plays. It keeps it quite fresh.
2. Connected Career Mode - replaced the franchise and superstar modes. Though as stated above implements the majority of those features into CC.
3. New Commentary - Jim Nantz and Phil Simms do a pretty awesome job this year. Best commentary in years for Madden.
4. News Center (HUB) - Twitter feeds from famous broadcasters and column writers on your CC mode. they talk of trade speculation, injuries, thoughts on gameplay and players, and up and coming draft players possible for next year.
Mike Hill (ESPN)
Trey Wingo (ESPN)
Ross Tucker (NFL Network)
Mark Schlereth (ESPN)
Matt Miller (Bleacher Report)
Scott Wright (DraftCountdown.com)
Robert Flores (ESPN)
Skip Bayless (ESPN)
Susannah Collins (Inside the NFL)
LaVar Arrington (former player, CBS Radio)
Todd McShay (ESPN)
Chris Mortensen (ESPN)
Adam Schefter (ESPN)
Q: What is missing from the game?
A: There are core elements that didn't make it into the game this year but looks like will be implemented next year.
1. You CAN edit rosters, BUT you CAN'T put those edited rosters in offline CC mode.
2. No multiplayer in the new franchise mode (aka Connected Careers) offline. It is single player this year. It is suspected next year a full offline multiplayer system will be utilized. If not, there will be trouble I suspect. Online mode you can have 32 players in a league and multiplayer action there. Not offline though apparently. Not sure why. This has caused a great deal of discomfort and frustration to the community of Madden fans. Understandably.
2. No Import of draft class from NCAA 13. This year the engine of the news center creates story lines of up coming draft potentials and creates 'hype' that is the new system for the draft. This feature is the reason I bought NCAA football in the past. $60 saved now is a way of looking at it. The downside is significant for some including me. I use to create players in NCAA see them progress and get into the draft for Madden and get drafted. This is no longer possible. Again, I suspect this feature is being worked on for the NCAA football and Madden team. I can't remember where I read this, but the NCAA and Madden teams are no longer separate entities in this regard, so it should be a tighter integration. Lets hope so. (unconfirmed)
3. No CPU vs CPU CC broadcast mode. You can't watch other teams play their games in CC. You can only play your games. This means you can't watch the Superbowl, unless you are in the superbowl. I use to like to 'scout' the teams by watching the week before I would play them by having the CPU vs CPU play with that awesome broadcast mode view of the game. This is not possible with Madden 13. | video-games_xbox |
Simple and fun. If you accept the fact that this game isn't perfect from the start, and you're just looking for a fun and decent RPG, I think you'll enjoy this game much more. I enjoyed this game thoroughly, and although there are several ways the game could have been made BETTER I think it is still a lot of fun to play through and has enough little unique twists in it to make it better than many other RPGs hashed together from older more successful games.
I disagree with a lot of the negative comments in other reviews regarding the battle system and save spots. I played through the game on normal mode the first time (hard and expert must be unlocked by beating the game on the easier modes) and I did not have a hard time with most of the battles. If anything several of the bosses were a little too easy, but I prefer that over some of the ridiculously complicated and difficult battles you may find in other games. I also never got to a point where I needed to keep away from the bosses and allow my party to do the work as other reviewers have complained. I do admit that there is a lack of advancement in your character's fighting style through the game as you keep the three basic attack combos, though you unlock new special moves as you level I also would have liked a little more variation in battle.
As far as saving goes, I believe there is a save spot before almost EVERY boss and in many cases a person to heal your party and sell you some basic items near the end of most places.
There is only one major complaint that I have: there was a lack of usefulness in the item/weapon/armor/etc creation abilities the characters have. Different characters can create items or armor or clothing but there is very little reason to cultivate these abilities.
As far as storyline and characters go there are hits and misses. The story was pretty decent, though it could have been expanded on and made a bit better. There are several characters that are completely superfluous, though most are likable enough and none of them should ruin the game for you. | video-games_xbox |
A must for PS3. I have a first gen PS3 with wifi. About a year ago I got netflix thru the console and it worked good...although with the HD content it would buffer about every 20 min...small annoyance. I watch a lot of Vudu movies and on PS3 I couldn't rent HDX movies only up to HD or regular movies. Well I bought a 3D tv that came with blazing fast wifi. So I never even cared about watching movies on PS3 anymore. About a week ago I brought home CoD MW3 and figured I'd try it out online. The online seemed seamless and it wasn't glitchy, jerky or freeze up or anything but my kill to death ratio was horrific! Like 7 deaths to 1 kill. I started noticing on replays that the person I was shooting at was in a different location and I was just shooting at air and I'd get killed. I knew what the problem was and I just had to fix it. The PS3 wifi is only g/b...even on the new slim models it's only g/b...Not sure why Sony hasn't fixed that yet!! Anyway when I saw this I was ecstatic and just had to get it!!!
I set it up manually threw my PC and the instructions were great. From all the reviews I knew I had to update the firmware, because I didn't want to have drop issues...so that's were my problems began. I couldn't get my PC to recognize the routers web address so I called the 24/7 help line and I was talking to a rep withing 5 min. She walked me thru the update. It took about 20 minutes and got everything going good. Looking back it was operator error...I would disconnect from the internet but I forgot to disable wifi on my PC(wifi will reconnect automaticly and default back to wifi)...so try disabling wifi after you download the update before calling the help line...but they helped out tons!!!
The adapter works beautifully!!! I can now watch Vudu HDX movies! The CoD difference now the other player is were they are suppose to be my kill to death ratio is 1 to 1. Absolutely loving it!!!
To all you PS3 people. Vudu has a speed test feature. I tested with the built in wifi and was only getting 2-3 mbps...with this adapter I'm getting over 9 mbps. If you want to improve your online gaming or watch better movies...this is the product you need!! | video-games_xbox |
Review THE PRODUCT, not the seller, you not-knowing-how-to-use-Amazon customers. I tend to wait a while before buying games, I'm just not into paying $60+ anymore (can you tell I'm an old gamer? ha). GTA has always been a personal favorite... having played every single GTA game since the original GTA!
So... the unfair comparison is this: I'm jumping into GTA5 after playing the abysmal Mass Effect Andromeda. I mean, if you eat a slice of NY cheesecake after downing a pack of Twinkies, of course the cheesecake will seem like heaven.
I bought Mass Effect Andromeda back in Oct or November and played that game for about 4 months (I only get little chunks of time during a week, and I'm the type to explore every corner and play every side mission). However, ME4 is such a tedious mess of game, that I quickly started hating it about a third of the way through. But no matter, I started it, I'm going to finish it.
Once done, my next game was GTA5. Now I'm facepalming at myself in the mirror because THIS is the game I should have been playing for the last 4 or 5 months, not that awful dirt stain-under-the-shadow-of-its-former-self-of-a-game Mass Effect 4. While ME4 is inferior to its previous games and in of itself, becomes increasingly worse the more you play, GTA5 is the exact opposite: Perfectly inline with its predecessors and becomes increasingly more fun the farther you get into the story. I'd also have to say the missions and side-missions in GTA5 are some of the most perfectly balanced ever in any game. Even in older GTA games, some tasks or jobs become a bit tedious and repetitive, but not in GTA5. There are some side-story missions that are so fun, you wish there were more! Even BETTER than GTA4, your entire map is practically unlocked from the get go as well.
And all this I'm typing about? Is just the single-player mode! I've yet to even take a crack at GTA online or try Director mode yet. I feel like this will be the only game I play until Red Dead 3 releases.
The GTA series is the king of open world sandbox games. Its closest rival, which I also love but is more the b-movie version, is Saints Row. Sleeping Dogs was a worthy attempt, something about Crackdown doesn't quite cut it either, and [the first] Watchdogs is absolute garbage compared to GTA. | video-games_xbox |
This Controller Is Fatally Flawed In Two Ways- The Xbox 360 Controller is Much Better. I received my new Xbone controller 2 days ago. Setup was almost trouble-free on my Windows 7 x64 machine- I just plugged it into a USB port and... and... waited for Windows to find a driver for it. After an interminable wait time over (5 minutes,) Windows said it had been unable to find a driver! Since I was replacing my old Xbox 360 controller that had been plugged in to the same USB port, I found this strange. No, it's not the fault of the controller that Windows couldn't find a driver, unless you consider that Windows and the controller are both Microsoft products, hence one would think that they would make sure the driver for it was instantly findable online. I had to open Device Manager and remove the controller, then unplug and replug it in, at which point a driver was miraculously found. This is not the "Plug-n-Play" experience you would expect when installing a Microsoft product into a Microsoft-operated computer.
I have now used my new controller for approximately 10 hours, and overall, I find it to be almost unusable, and definitely much less suitable for even single-player offline games than my old Xbox 360 controller... which I had used for so long the the tops of the X, A, B and Y buttons had been worn off by my fingers, forming little volcano-like crater concavities instead of the original hump-rounded button faces.
Here is a list of comparative findings between my new Xbone controller and my 5-year-old Xbox 360 controller that I replaced only because the cord finally frayed at the strain-relief fitting and stopped connecting. I will confess that I had expected the Xbone controller to be better than its predecessor because I foolishly imagined that "newer is better" and that nobody in their right mind would produce a 10-years-newer product that was inferior to the old one in several ways. Mea culpa, lesson learned.
OVERALL LOOK AND FEEL
The Xbone controller looks a little more "futuristic" because it is more angular on the front and top. It also feels a bit lighter and smaller in my hands than my old 360 controller. The smaller dimensions are no doubt aimed at very young console gamers with tiny hands but it makes it more difficult for me to get my grip right with my large-ish adult male hands.
CORD
Unlike the 360 controller, which had a molded-in, permanently-attached cord with a good-sized strain-relief fitting and a braided anti-chafe covering, the Xbone controller's cord is identical to the charging cord on my Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone- it's detachable, with a USB connector on one end and micro-USB connector on the controller end. This is a mixed blessing- it means I can easily replace the cord at any time (the irreplaceable cord finally breaking internally is what killed my 360 controller) but it also means that it pulls out of the controller (disconnecting itself) if I move it around too much during a game. It also doesn't have any kind of anti-chafe jacket and seems to be flimsier.
JOYSTICKS
The joysticks are smooth and linearly analog, meaning the further you deflect them the greater the in-game reaction you get. This is exactly what they are supposed to do. However, the return springs are exceptionally weak- they are only about half as strong as the 360 joysticks. As a result, the left joystick actually gets stuck in full left or right deflection and fails to return to center when I release pressure on it. On several occasions this was merely inconvenient because it happened when navigating in-game menus so it simply resulted in me involuntarily moving uncontrollably across the columns of the menu, but on at least one occasion the hung left stick in full deflection after releasing it actually ran me off of a cliff to my death in Skyrim. So this controller fails in its primary function- the number one reason to use a controller in games like Skyrim or Fallout 4 or Tomb Raider 2013 is the additional control precision of analog sticks, and when they don't work right there is no further reason to use a controller. This is one of the two "fatal flaws" in this controller.
BUTTONS
The X, A, B, Y buttons are slightly larger than the old ones, and also slightly less visible because the old ones had brightly-colored backgrounds with dark letters while the new ones are all black except for the colored letters. That's no big deal because if you have to look at the buttons during a game you are in serious trouble, but it is a difference and it makes the Xbone controller harder to learn for new users than the old one was.
The Back and Menu buttons (the little black buttons just to the left and right of the illuminated "X" connection indicator) are larger and more legibly marked than the old ones- this is the one and only actual improvement I can cite for the Xbone controller- the ones on the 360 controller are so tiny that I had to use a fingernail to press them, and the new ones are easier to press without fingernail-jabbing.
The action of all 6 buttons feels identical to the old ones on the 360 controller- smooth, predictable, sensitivity about right.
D-PAD
The D-Pad is a raised "+" design, not as flat as the 360's, but the action is about the same. An online review I read before purchasing my Xbone controller stated that the Xbone D-Pad was less prone to mis-presses (for example, inadvertently moving it diagonally up and right when you intended to press it straight to the right) but I don't find it so- both D-Pads are equally susceptible to mis-presses... or maybe I'm just equally clumsy.
TRIGGERS
The left and right triggers feel and respond identically to those on the 360 controller. They are smooth and equally sensitive. The Xbone triggers feel and act exactly like the old 360 triggers.
SHOULDERS (aka BUMPERS)
Here is where the design of the Xbone controller epically fails. On the 360 controller, the shoulder buttons are "floating." By that I mean they are free to move inward when you press any part of them- think of a large doorbell button, which is equally sensitive to the touch no matter whether you press the top, bottom left or right part of it. Not so the Xbone controller. The shoulder buttons are solidly attached (hinged) to the body of the controller at their inner ends! This means that pressing them anywhere toward their inner sides, which, of course, is precisely where my fingertips land when I'm using the controller, does ... NOTHING! They do not respond at all because they cant- their inner sides are firmly and solidly attached to the body of the controller and cannot be moved. This is the most boneheaded design flaw I have ever experienced (and I remember the AMC Pacer and Gremlin!) and has caused me several in-game deaths as I struggled to shift my grip on the controller after my shoulder press did nothing so I could get my fingers contorted so they would press on the OUTER edge of the buttons, which means now my fingers are no longer on the triggers due to the awkwardness of my grip, and pew-pew-pew, so long Hoggy Dog! This is the other "fatal flaw" in this controller.
I wish I could return the controller to Amazon but I foolishly threw out the box it arrived in, along with the 30-page legal disclaimer in 17 languages warning me not to shower with the controller or whatever. Sadly, trash day was the next morning- the Xbone box was already at the landfill by the time I realized I needed it. It simply never occurred to me that Microsoft would produce such an poorly-designed, patently-unusable controller to succeed the almost-perfect Xbox 360 controller! I am going to do some serious research now and find a (non-Microsoft!) controller at least as good as my old, beloved and dearly-departed Xbox 360 controller. | video-games_xbox |
Yes it costs money to import the old songs from rocksmith 1. Some people seem to lack a simple understanding. That is that when a publisher makes songs available for two games the band gets a fee for both games. So yes, sadly it is $9.99 to import the 55 songs over to your new game. But all dlc is free! That being said it means your old game you can then trade in for $10 and that means this is basically free. To lower the game score because of this is petty and silly. It also makes little to no sense to me.
Ok now on to the actual game here. I have been playing for 20 years and I am a self confessed guitar junkie who learns every song like it is friggin Mozart. I love music and playing it is something so few people do and do well it is pure joy to have this as a game. The first game blew my socks off and I scored the maximum points when I hit 100,000,000. I however will say that as far as knowing the songs outside of the game, I can't remember the first game songs at all. Even the ones I master moded I just blank out for some reason. The songs I liked and played forty times or more I knew. But the ones I was forced through I just hated them and forgot them almost immediately.
Now on to rating the game. Which I gave five stars and I will tell you why. First there are always bad things on a game so let's start there because my list is meager and small as it should be.
The bad things that upset me.
-no gigs! No more gigging or actual career mode where you can see the venue you are playing at. Even your view of the venue is so blocked by the amps and blur that you don't see the crowd or what venue it is. That was kind of fun and was a little bit of a bummer to not have songs set up automatically. But then I thought about a key thing. Did this teach me how to play the songs better that way or is it better now? Only one way to tell. Let's get to playing.
-No real career. You will notice you have no actual career progression here. This is a total teaching tool. You won't find anything more than an announcer telling you about how you did after the song.
-a tuner that confuses you. Oh my goodness it is weird when you first tune up and it doesn't make it easy to understand what you're doing. I actually bought new strings and popped my big e because I didn't get the tuning. It was very weird at first but I get the tuner now. They don't really go over the tuner much even though it is brand new and very different. I finally get the tuner now and it is fine but it took awhile.
-Custom creating of your sound. The first game the amp sound never changes. So if you had a custom sound it lasted the whole song. Now is very different. You never and I mean never have one sound the whole song and you can't change this before you begin playing. So if you say want to play two separate sounds you have to hit the stick mid song or shout at the kinect (a tool which is used incredibly on this game). So this is tough because there is no quick fix or easy way to handle this. For the first game I just used my awesome custom sound and blew through songs just on one tone. But with tone switching it is near impossible for this to be possible.
-they have genuine equipment but they don't show the real amps during songs? I think I got this after thinking it through. Not every band is sponsored by say Marshall or Orange amps. So using generic looking rocksmith amps makes sense now that I think about it. But it was kind of a bummer not to see a custom Marshall during say "Pour Some Sugar on Me". This became again not a big deal once I played a little more.
-some of the lead guitar parts are still wrong. I mean it usually isn't a huge deal. But sometimes they have you ride a high e for the chorus of pour some sugar on me or something that you know the lead player didn't do except maybe on the album. Which is meaningless if live they don't do this. I mean really I hate to nit pick but it is sad to know that I am not playing the song how it should be played live. A couple other songs just have you playing things a harder way than what you need to. You don't need to play cult of personality like that on the verses and panic switch doesn't have him switching strings or doing that weird solo live. I know. I watched them play these songs!
No more unlockable pedals and guitars. Yeah they thought to just eliminate these and make it just amps and such.
-the song list once you get past what you know. Some of the new bands maybe people like. I mean new music is what makes music great. But the bands chosen here are awful for the most part after the good bands. But there are a lot of good bands and it doesn't kill the game.
And that's really it for negatives and that may seem like enough to have you just go over to another game or just stick to tabs online. But let me to over the good stuff before you get bothered by it and let me tell you why my calloused fingers are proof enough of how good this is. Let me first correct my negatives.
Fake gigging did not help me learn the songs at all. I was merely trying to score enough points to get past a song and then I totally forgot the songs and they wouldn't come up again after about five plays. Now they give you a different way of learning and it is pretty addictive and pretty cool. You now are given a percentage score based on your performance. Now you set the difficulty each time on the song. You decide if you want to see a whole solo or not right away and try it. Which is great since sometimes the first game would not allow you to level up enough to see the notes and you were clueless how to play certain parts correctly and you got the kids version of how to play songs. I suddenly began forgetting gigging and it became all about could I 100% these damn songs! Now pushing me to finish these songs off or raise my mastery on them were the little mission statements. Like get to level 6 on ducks redux. Or try and get 76.85% mastery on round and round. These were never ridiculous and usually came with a reward. Maybe a new amp skin or a fretboard inlay like prince of persia's prince jumping across the frets or other little carrots to keep you going. They seem silly when you say them but they really push you and you keep playing to see what unlocks next!
So learning a song is now all about how hard you WANT it to be and not what they dictate. If you want to just shove the song to full difficulty and keep seeing if you can do it. Then have at it like me!!!
The riff repeater is now right in the song. Which means if you get baffled on a part of the solo or a breakdown? You stop the song and say hold it, hold it. Let me go back and see what the fingering is again. Oh and speaking of how the fingers should be. Well you actually see your position on every note on what finger to play. If there is a weird or whacky chord shape. They show you now! You know how the real person played it.
Kinect! Finally a use for this bounce around garbage. Shouting the next song is kind of like telling your band what to play next. It means my controller stops being used after initial launch of the game and never touched again till I leave. It is a little touch that makes the 360 version a little better.
Unlocking pedals and guitars was great but was it really that great? No, and it never added anything other than something to look at. You didn't sit and say hey you know I unlocked the Gibson special and t plays like a dream. Why? Because they all sound the same on the first game anyway. You never had the nuance of each little guitar. They aren't some awesome unlockable. Now the pedals were a little fun for me. I would use them but having them not unlock and just be there from the start is really not worth crying over is it?
What makes this a five star game for an old head that has played for 15 years or longer? Because you can actually teach an old dog new tricks. My hand speed is better, my picking is better. My playing is more precise and better! This is really a matter of rededication for me on my guitar. I lost touch with it. My interest was still there but my push to get better ended. I was playing the same stuff and if it was a chord I didn't know or was too hard I didn't play it. I now am ready to rejoin a cover band and list these songs as ones I could play with a band. It really is a lot of fun. Did I mention how much better the games are? There were maybe two or three decent games before. Now, they all amuse me and only the finger destroying temple of bends and the ever difficult scale runner seem rough to try and play.
So I can't speak as a new player. But if I was 16 again. I would beg and I mean beg my parents for this game. It is that incredible. Also this is the price of maybe 3 guitar lessons so tell that to mom and dad or think about it when you talk about it being $60 or $80 with the cable. It is worth your time and money. I love it and I played the last game a year. Maybe this one will last even longer or until a new one comes I a couple years or so!
Love it guys and girls. I just love this game even with its flaws. | video-games_xbox |
So near perfect. First off, this game is SO close to a 5-star review for me but I just couldn't bring myself to do that based on a few complaints I have for it.
Pros:
- Great character selection and variety
- Regular updates and character nerfs
- Strong community (by that I mean there are a lot of players)
- Simple gameplay and game varieties, so you can jump right into the fun, but so many ways to play each character based on our own desire and skills.
Cons:
- Only two game types (control point and plant the bomb) *Currently there is another game type called Lucioball for the Summer Olympics which is a 3v3 soccer match using only Lucio. Similar to Rocket League, but I suck with Lucio, so I just avoid it. It should be noted that this is the first new game type, but that they do have weekly challenge modes which offer some uniqueness (ie - double health, only certain varieties of characters, no ability to change character chosen)
- Small selection of maps which can lead to repetition
- Some characters are amazingly over powered if you are up against someone who's good with them. As I type this, and I know people will dispute it, Genji, Tracer, and D-Va are frustratingly difficult to catch and defeat. I have regularly watched Genjis take out most of a team on their own. Add in support and health and they can be nearly unstoppable. That said, this balance of power has come and gone on different characters and Blizzard regularly modifies.
- No limit on how many of each character you can be in matches. Again, a point of dispute, but to a casual gamer who's on a typical random team (see next point), certain maps can be impossible when you go up against 3 or 4 turret characters.
- Team based game with VERY VERY VERY few mic users. This is endlessly frustrating at times when you're on a team that treats the game like a deathmatch instead of team objective. You can have a fantastic game and still lose because half of your team is fighting nowhere near the objective.
Overall:
The game is still great. I have my good days and bad days, but I almost always enjoy playing. Since it's cartoonish in nature, similar to PvZ:GW, it's hard to take it seriously. As a result, I don't find myself as angry when I lose. I do get angry at my teammates when in situations like above, but the good matches make up for it. Once this game adds in some new game varieties and maps, it will be a 5-star game. Content just seems limited after character variety. | video-games_xbox |
Well-designed, entertaining -- good for everyone. This is a well-designed game translated from a movie. The graphics are good, and gameplay is consistent. There's enough variation to keep a seasoned player from getting bored. The cutscenes are entertaining and humorous.
In terms of gameplay, keep in mind that this game is relatively short, and probably will not take a seasoned player more than 5 hours or so to complete. Each level has a specific set of optional challenges, however, so to complete each level "100%", you may need to play each level at least twice, and sometimes three times. As with any "fighting" game, there is a wide variety of button combos to unleash various types of attacks. This is a button-masher game. It's quite easy to get through most enemies by using only slight variations, or one or two buttons. Again, this game is designed for everybody "10 and up", so if you're looking for a real challenge, this game might not be for you. The game even sports an upgrade system, so you can increase Po's powers and abilities, which seems to make the game even easier.
The sound in this game is good. I enjoyed the voice-acting. The music helps set the mood. Sound-effects are standard for this type of game, but don't expect to be blown away by any of it.
The game has one annoying design flaw which I cannot forgive. When you complete a level, the only on-screen option is to "upgrade" or go to the "next level". You cannot launch a menu to "replay" the level you just completed (in case you did not complete it 100% and want to try again). You have to launch the next level, wait for it to load, bypass the cutscene, exit the game, and then load the level you want to play from the menu. This involves entirely too much effort to replay a level.
Overall, this is a fun game to play. It does not have a lot of replay value, however, and for an experienced gamer, it may provide only 10 hours or so of entertainment. However, it is a good diversion from the standard shooters, if you're looking for a quick break between games. | video-games_xbox |
Streamlined in all of the right ways. Dead Rising 4 has been getting a bit of flak from so-called fans of the franchise. Much like many worried that Dead Rising 3 would make the franchise more casual, many have the same concerns about Dead Rising 4. While they were wrong about Dead Rising 3 since it was still very much a Dead Rising experience through and through, there's a case to be made for Dead Rising 4 being a much more streamlined and friendly experience, and it's for the better. Why? Because this is the best Dead Rising's ever been.
First and foremost, the timer is gone. No longer will you be rushed because you're on the clock. Honestly, I always found this a bit contradictory since the Dead Rising games were large & open, ripe for exploration, but you felt restricted because of the time limit. While I understand that it made the Dead Rising games a bit more "hardcore" and differentiated it from the other sandbox games available, I still feel like Dead Rising 4 is different enough without the timer. Listen, I bought an Xbox 360 in anticipation of Dead Rising in 2006, so I've been with the franchise from the beginning.
Another difference is that while there are survivors to save just like in the previous games, they're not the nuisances that they once were.
Let's just get it out of the way, this game's easier, but that's not a bad thing since it's easier because things have been improved, gameplay feels better, etc. If you enjoy the difficulty that comes with rigid gameplay, perhaps you'll be disappointed.
Where Dead Rising 4 really delivers, IMO, is the story and setting. Frank West has a new voice actor that resembles Bruce Campbell. I think the story delivers a serious tone while still staying true to the absurdity and humor of the Dead Rising series. Since the game takes place during the holiday season, it's one of those rare games that can become a tradition to play every year to get into the holiday mood; I know that I've done this with Costume Quest and other games.
If you're turned off that they sacrificed a few of Dead Rising's more "hardcore" and, IMO, outdated elements, then maybe Dead Rising 4 isn't for you, but as a series faithful that's been with it since 2006, I couldn't be happier with how enjoyable this game turned out to be, and I didn't have nearly as much hype for this one as I did the previous 3. That said, it's better than 3, better than 2, and about on par with 1 -- though definitely a more competently made game with superior gameplay. | video-games_xbox |
Its just not the same. I bought this game thinking they would try to go back to how the original Most Wanted game was but I was wrong. There is no story line at all except to beat ten "most wanted" cars. There is no modifying your car beyond a couple mods and different colors. The thing that made the first Most Wanted great was the ability to make your car your own, that is to say modify everything about it from the rims up to custom paint jobs. There was also the feature of owning your cars in the first Most Wanted. You had to race to earn money in order to purchase the next car you wanted. It was a little time consuming but satisfying when you finally bought a new car and test drove it. But in the new Most Wanted game you wonder around the world and stumble upon the cars. It destroys the excitement of acquiring new cars. For example, you start out with a Porsche 911 and I started to drive around the city to check it out. Well I just happened upon the Ford GT (one of my favorite cars and one that in the past was a tier 3 or so car which took a while to get). So right at the get go I had one of the fastest cars in the game. It was disappointing to lose the ability to purchase and modify cars. Next is the whole "crash sequence." This is by far the worst thing about the game. Lets say you're strolling along at 50mph. In real life you'd be dead if you hit another car head on, but this is a video game and isn't supposed to be real life (hints why its a video game). So if you hit a person going anywhere between 40mph and 240mph, this cut scene comes on and shows your car tumbling through the air only to land, broken, on the pavement. The camera just sits there, focused on your broken car. All the while racers are speeding past you. Its annoying and any little bump will make you crash. That takes the joy out of driving recklessly and ramming into cop cars because you're afraid to hit them. That brings me to the next part: cop chases. They mean absolutely nothing. If you get away, nothing happens. If you get busted, nothing happens. No consequences, no impounding, nothing. So what's the point of it? There isn't one.
All in all this game is okay. I wouldnt buy it new. The graphics are fantastic and the online play is the best part of the game. But not worth $60, more like $25-30. So just wait for a good used deal to come by. | video-games_xbox |
Lighten up Everyone - it is only a game. I only write this review after reading the review by LasVegas007. First of all, I have already owned quite a few poker and casino games myself and you will always find your expectations fall short of the actual gaming experience in the casino. Lets get to the review shall we? I like the Career aspect of the game - it is very challenging and the game speed is very good. This isn't rocket science it is Texas Holdem after all. I don't understand the need to over think every hand. You can wait for the game to cycle through the hands, or you can fast forward through the other players to get to your next bet or fold or whatever. There are plenty of tournaments in different games other than Texas Holdem as well. You play against many of the big names you see on ESPN's World Series. Nice touch - I don't know if they really play with the same habits of the pros but it is pretty cool none the less. As for the AI, I will say this; how many of you play like the pros. I constantly play with people online that play like idiots and go all in on every hand because after all it is not real. I have to think that professional AI would be too difficult for at home players to handle. That would hurt sales and the programmers would lose their jobs. I like the AI it is very level and believable. Lighten up LasVegas007. My only complaint is the online play. Very slow and that gets very frustrating. If I were to program a online version I would let the host determine how long everyone has to bet or fold. I think 10 sec would be about right. There is a timer online for other players but it is like 45 or so. Too long. Graphics, sound, and replayablilty are very good. Faster online and a 5 would have been in the works. Good job Activision. If you see me online throw me a friends request - Master Phatchef is the tag - can't wait to take your cash. Oh yeah good luck. | video-games_xbox |
Halo 3: ODST. the question on everyone's mind was....is Halo 3: ODST worth the $60 price tag? for people who already own the original Halo 3, this will be overpriced for you unless you don't own any of the Halo 3 multiplayer map packs. if you do own the original halo 3 and all the map packs i suggest you try to find someone selling the odst on ebay or craigslist or try buyin it used somewhere.
lets do the math on the contents of halo 3: odst:
-the full halo 3 multiplayer experience on a separate disc $15 (half the price of halo 3 full version)
-all of the halo 3 multiplayer map packs and 3 new maps unreleased which price at almost $40
-ODST campaign and firefight experience $30
-Free Sgt Johnson download for preorders
-Free Halo: Reach beta invitation
that puts the total at $85 and i payed $60 so i got my moneys worth!
i felt the campaign for odst was short in comparison to its brother halo 3...depending on difficulty, it can be anywhere between 5-10 hours of gameplay...i beat the campaign on normal in 5 hours solo play and around 11 hours solo on legendary.
you start off as a rookie in an odst unit...while during drop you get separated from your squad and this is where you begin the story tryin to maneuver through new mombasa finding clues into where the rest of your squad is. as you unravel another clue to another one of your squadmates you get to play a level as one of the other sqaud mates--the level is all the events the squad mate endured between the drop and up to the point where you found the clue. the clues are also beacons which help download data to your visr and intel. with out spoiling the whole campaign, you pretty much find your self fighting covenant, finding audio logs and clues, and tryin to rejoin up with your squad while at the same time diggin more into the story of halo 3.
this game plays alot more tactical and different then the orginal halo 3 because yoru not master chief no more. you have to find med packs in the game to regain health and theres some new weapons introduced and some old weapons that aren't offered in the game i.e. br assault rifle w/scope.
the firefight mode is similiar to horde on gears of war. you fight off reinforcements of enemies through multiple round. where you and your team share a collective of lives. during certain stages certain skulls are activated/deactivated/combined to make the game more interesting and difficult. between rounds there are bonus rounds where you can't lose lives but you can get some juicy points by killin as many covenant as possible in a 60 second period..as of right now there is no matchmaking for firefight, but the reason it was left out was because it was going to push the release date six months so they released the game and will release an update later.
but if you need a firefight or campaign partner just hit me up on xbox live my gamertag is Mister Hyphy | video-games_xbox |
Excellent Toy. Now is the best time to purchase an Xbox 360. Supply is up and there are several package options available. Xbox 360 is like a desktop with it's parts crammed into a tiny console box. After waiting for three months, supply of this elusive system is back up and is flooding some of the gaming stores out there. I finally decided to get the Xbox 360 Fully Loaded package. It came with a wireless controller, a 20gb HD, cables,Xbox Live 1 month trial, and the headset.
I highly recommend that you connect it to an HDTV LCD. This is the only way to fully appreciate the breathtaking graphics this system offers. You may have to invest on an HDTV LCD I hooked up my system on my 37 inch HDTV LCD and I was completely blown away by the graphics. Kick up the resolution at 1080i, and everything becomes so lifelike and real. If you hook up this system to a regular tube TV, you'll be missing out on a lot of things. I connected my Xbox 360 to my 37 inch flat panel HDTV LCD and it just changed the way I look at console gaming now. Setting up the system is easy. With HDTV connection, you'll have to connect to the Y PBr connections; and for regular TV, just connect it to the R Y B connections. The system also functions as a progressive scan DVD player. I don't play DVD movies on this because I have a feeling the DVD drive might burn out faster.
First complaint I have though is the noise it makes. Well..typical for any PC but for a small console like this, it does make quite a sound. Obviously it's the cooling fan.
Second complaint, the AA batteries don't last too long on the wireless controllers. It'll last for a week, again, depending on how frequent you play with your 360. Wireless does have it's benefits for a gaming console. You can be in your most awkward yet comfortable gaming position and still manage to play without having to worry about wires. Distance for wireless effectivity is about 30 feet. I tried it in my lounge at 30 feet and it still works.
I'd recommend several games to test out the 360. Get Call of Duty 2, Condemned, Ghost Recon, and Oblivion. Excellent games and a good test platform to see the power of the 360. Just a word of caution that this is still a console and not a PC. Expect some extended loading times, slow framerates when screen gets busy, and hard drive space. The Xbox 360 comes with 20gb but when you check the drive, the available space is 12GB. I would think the missing 8 GBs is where the firmware is loaded...or not.
All in all, a good investment and a a good system that will stay in the market for a good long while. | video-games_xbox |
I wish Beenox had more time to develop this game. The Amazing Spider-Man does some cool things with the characters, but overall the game never really jumps above being average. The gameplay noticeably borrows from the system used in Batman: Arkham City, though a bit more simplified and without all of the gadgets. The gameplay can be fun, but it's not varied enough and the levels can feel too familiar. You'll spend a lot of time roaming sewers and the corridors of Oscorp fighting robots and cross-species; the enemies are repetitive and not all that interesting. The Web Rush addition works better than the zip-line did in the other movie games, possibly too well since I always successfully used it to avoid enemies until my health regenerated. The enemy AI simply wasn't developed enough to be competent in light of the amount of control that Web Rush allows you in web slinging, which makes the gameplay feel unbalanced. You can zip in an out of battle very easily, this is true to the character, but the way it's implemented feels less like a tight gameplay experience and more like I'm cheating the system. With Web Rush you can zip around the room for a bit until enemies lose track of you and then you can hide in the shadows and take them out easily. Web swinging looks cool, but lacks the depth and fun of swinging in Spider-Man 2. Here you just hold R and swing; it works well, but there's no complexity.
There are a few standout moments in The Amazing Spider-Man that show Beenox could have made this a truly "amazing" game had they been given more than two years for development. The final three missions in particular flow pretty well story-wise and they play like the conclusion to a blockbuster movie. However, the overall plot is made weak by a lot of grandiose nonsense. The plot allows for some ridiculous moments in logic involving massive spider slayers, but I mostly let them slide because those moments are often when the game is the most fun. The voice work is not done by the cast of the film, but the actors here did a really great job. Don't expect Peter and Gwen to have interactions as playful as the ones in the film, but there are some nice scenes between the two that help to ground the plot.
I plowed through the story in about 6 or 7 hours. I did a handful of side-missions, if you do more you can probably get about 10 - 12 hours out of the game. There are tons of collectibles to grab, you can spend a lot of time finding them, but I never really felt compelled to do so. | video-games_xbox |
Dead Space 2 is alive & kickin. This is a no-brainer - DS 2 is flat out awesome.
The same seamless HUD, more responsive controls, new monsters, very cool new weapons and more powerful familiar ones - and importantly - a well told & portrayed story.
Isaac has a voice in this one and it was well cast (unlike his nonspeaking role in DS), and the supporting cast do a great job too. The sound is astounding and a very important part of the horror element and the textures and detail of the environments convincing. The only drawback is that having played DS you are somewhat inured to the eerie sounds and scary surprises. The new monsters are pretty hideous and disturbing enough to enjoy dispatching them by the dozen.
Mini games are cool and have a lot more variety than DS, and there are incentives for upgrading weapons with special features unlocked for fully upgrading some of them.
The multiplayer is fairly engaging and you can play as a human or a Necromorph (the antagonistic monsters) which adds a new element to the experience.
As in DS you carry over all your upgrades when you replay and up the difficulty, so this makes it worth replaying. But on Hardcore difficulty you only have 3 saves so you have to be quite strategic.
More incentives are available through DLC in the way of modified weapons, tools and suits. I do wish there was more distinct variety in the suits available which can look samey.
SPOLIER ALERT:
The games has a satisfying ending and has no indication of a 3rd part - which is kind of disappointing as it certainly could have been extended. I recommend playing the first instalment before giving this one a go - but you can happily enjoy it on its own.
It doesn't get 5 stars simply because they weren't able to introduce wildly new elements regarding the horror. But sometimes you end up going wrong when you try too hard.
Get it. And I think it's worth keeping. | video-games_xbox |
Simply, Very Well Done. Having not been much of a fan of the original incarnation that was released back on the PlayStation 2 a year ago due to it being short-lived, I entered Genma Onimusha (a mere upgrade, not sequel, to its predecessor) as a person who's played and beaten the original would. And that, of course, being the "it's no big deal to see and play an upgraded version" feeling.
If you've played the original, you're not going to find much new here that would make you want to pick this title up, as it still is basically the same game with only minor enhancements. But if you haven't, then Genma Onimusha is the game for you. And for those familiar with the Resident Evil series control, you'll feel right at home.
The story behind Genma is exactly as its younger PS2 brother: playing as two characters - Samanosuke and Kaede (meaning "female ninja") - in a demon congested Feudal Japan in search of the princess who has been turned up missing, it is your mission to save and protect the young princess by all means. And much like Buffy of another mother, this place has some freaky stuff going down.
Resident Evil fans will find themselves at home with this game, as the control scheme is set up identical to that of the renowned RE series (up is always forward, down is backwards, etc.). For those of unfamiliar with the series this will take some time to get use to and may become a pain, especially if you prefer the more linear games, where the directional pad corresponds to the direction in which your character is currently facing. Characters still seem to move rather slow and groggy-like and it takes forever for your character to do a complete 360 degree spin. This becomes a problem in heavy battles where your enemies are attacking from all sides. Luckily, though, the game has a button that makes your character perform a 180 degree spin for quick attacks.
An arsenal of ninja style weapons, ranging from swords to bow and arrows, is available at your disposal. Samanosuke is even equipped with a demon gauntlet on his right arm that he gets from the spirits, which allows him to absorb the souls of the demons he kills. These souls can then be used for customizing your weapons with added abilities and strength.
By all means being a great game, Genma falters in that its short, repetitive and just plain gets old rather fast. After all, it is old. After playing Capcom's latest for the PS2, Devil May Cry, Genma really only made me want to go back and play that game yet another time due to the game's similarities and the fact that DMC is obviously a superior game. As a matter of fact, I did go back and play it.
If you haven't picked up the original, this is definitely worth a look. If you're a great gamer who will sit through the game for a few hours to play it then the game is more of a rental for you because within those few hours somewhere you will have most likely beaten the game. Genma Onimusha is still a game like no other for the Xbox though and is worth your attention after heeding its shortcomings. | video-games_xbox |
Shadowrun only in the name, not the content. The 360 version is completely unfaithful to the Shadowrun RPG. I can see making modification for a FPS shooter game, but this is a complete bastardization. Furthermore, it's boring and uninteresting.
Gameplay quickly becomes monotonous. People compare it to Counterstrike, but it falls short of even that mark. Yes, it has magic and technology in addition to weapons; however, you're then left with so many functions that you can't possibly use them all effectively and fluidly. What's the point of having 6-7 types of magic and cybernetic abilities if you only have 2 slots to put them into (assuming you want to keep using gernades). It's impractical to switch things in a fight, so you end up never using most of them. It tries too hard to do too much with a poor human interface. So the potential enjoyment of having all those powers and technology? It never materializes.
To add insult to injury, the game appears rushed to production. For instance, if you look at a character climbing up a ladder, they aren't actually climbing the ladder. They just sort of "hover upwards". This is acceptable for a beta version, but not a finished game.
Want to customize your avatar? Too bad. You can't. Why? I can only assume that this is because it was rushed out the door. Or FASA realized that the game sucked and decided to just take whatever they could get with what they'd already sunk into development.
Last, but certainly not least, is the fact that there is no campaign mode--either for solo or co-op play. FASA totally blew their opportunity to establish a worldview and history here, and the opportunity to actually care about things/factions that could have been integrated into multiplayer (like Spartans vs Elite in Halo 2 multiplayer). And so you're left with what is essentially a soulless, mindless FPS with no background context or story. There's nothing to draw you in, nothing to make this game stand out. Once you've used a new magic or tech a few times, it quickly becomes bland and boring.
This game will be going for $15-20 in the bargin bin rack in under a year. I'm selling my copy after having had it for only 3 days. I gave it a chance. It failed.
Seriously, FASA. What were you folks thinking? No karma for you. | video-games_xbox |
full pros and cons. Pros
ok graphics
Fun combos
creating a character
brand new stages
Cons
Religious in a BAD way. The game make more "GOD" characters making heavy use of the word in the game over and over. Not cool at all if you actually believe in God.
No difficulty setting option. Most battles are 1 vs 2 leading up to 1 vs 10+ with no health regeneration. Its a handicap gauntlet and the a.i is very hard. I lost track of the amount of deaths.
Rpg not a fighting game! This on is big for me, this game was advertising its "tenkaichi" inspired combos promising to be a DragonBall masterpiece. .we its no, its a slow rpg level up mentality no a 2015 dbz fighting masterpiece.
Slow level up system
Creation clothing hard to get.
Fan fiction story that feels like a power point as you click thru endless pointless text rambling. It feels like they did whatever they wanted not what fans needed.
No traditional story mode in HD. Zero use of z heros in storytelling, the entire game can be seen in trailers, you fix time by stopping evil thats the big game. ..no really thats it..they just drag that concept out.
no 1 vs 1 menu option. Because this is an rpg you must search for the option under the in game kiosk labled offline battles in a very buried option...rediculous.
Extremely lacking characters,the focus of the game was to cater to the new fans and leave the loyal. There use of dbz kai voices is heavy, even gt kid goku who was never recasted got a new pitchy voice. Gotenks now talks like a hipster and so does recome.
The wost fighting mechanics, you're strike attacks will only land 65% of the time. I found dead because more often than not, my character was punching air.
power point presentation gameplay. .out with the voice overs and in with the endless reading. This game take a HUGE step back with this, as it feels like a ps one game with enhanced graphics in a bad way.
overall I can do this all day, it is for the new crowd of fans not the real fans. It just caters to people born after the show went off air..its harder than any game has a right to be. .and isn't going to be much fun...just buy a ps2 and play the tenkaichi series..raging blast one if you want HD..the is the truth. Goodluck! | video-games_xbox |
DA:I is a decent game, but did need several patches. BioWare/EA really wants to push the "Dragon Age" IP to be a big seller, especially after the lackluster (some would say disastrous) game: Dragon Age 2. Dragon Age: Origins is one of the best RPG's of the last decade for sure, and it stands to reason that BioWare/EA should try and cash in on that success. It's safe to say that "DA: Inquisition" is fairly good, it has an excessive amount of content, and while not as stellar as the original, it is a fresh and well made game.
The story of Inquisition is pretty standard fare; the player character takes the roll of a "last-survivor-chosen-by-the-divine-blah-blah" and the game branches out from there as you build up power and attempt to solve a mystery of who-killed-whom & why you're the last survivor.
Combat is decent, there are a few options as far as skills go with additional subclasses later on to spice up the tedium. Mostly while in combat you will be swapping between characters, popping potions (no healing spells in this game!?), holding the trigger to deal damage. Over all, the game-play IS fun and you won't be bored, though MANY of the quests are very simple (i.e. fetch, kill elite, clear area).
There's also a mass of side content that should keep you busy for hours and hours; included in the side content, is a simple but fun multiplayer (4player mission co-op, does not affect single player), immense item and weapon crafting, special timed missions to send agents out on, a large number of special monsters and dragons to kill, etc. The multiplayer was very entertaining with friends, and while the "free to play with micro-transactions" model is off putting, there's still enough access without spending a cent to enjoy it fully.
The largest Con for me is the near removal of buildable "A.I." for companions as in the last 2 games; the wonderfully complex commands and variables have been replaced with a less than perfect (but mostly functional) idiot's version that works but leaves so much to be desired, which can make some of the harder modes a bit of a chore. The so called "Tactical Mode" is piss poor and nearly useless except to catch a slight break in the action.
Over all I have been harsh on this game but I have high standards, it's not perfect but BioWare has created a decent entry for the franchise and most people will enjoy it. | video-games_xbox |
Rewarding if you have staying power. When is something entitled 'Ultimate' not actually meant to be 'Ultimate'? When you're Team Ninja of course. Painfully unfunny jokes aside, Tomonobu Itagaki was certainly suffering from a case of premature appellation with his stop-gap DoA reimagining for Microsoft's original games system. Dead or Alive 4 is actually the 'ultimate' Dead or Alive game so far, but for the purposes of clarity (and conformity) we'll continue to call it Number Four.
On 360 it was impossible to think that DoA4 would look anything less than stunning. Certainly DoA3 was one of the Xbox's best-looking earlier titles and the apple certainly hasn't fallen far from the tree. While the cherry blossom-strewn courtyards, Las Vegas-style strip and wrestling-ring levels are all graphically impressive, this time around it's the little things that make the major difference. The wavy heat haze on the Savannah level, the reflections of the characters and environment in glass and puddles, the neon lighting effects, the sense of scale provided by distant mountains visible from the top of the temple steps, even down to spectators in the wrestling-ring stage holding up boards with slogans and pictures that actually correspond to the fighters taking part (or booing if the fighters don't land a punch for a while) - these are just a few examples of some of the small details that, when combined, add up to a very large and juicy cherry atop the cake.
Characters have also received extra attention to detail, with clothing fabrics looking even more impressive than ever before. Fur, mesh and silk are all wonderfully recreated and richly produced. An attempt has also been made to accurately provide long flowing hair for the female fighters, however this is not always successful with some odd results where it appears to flow around their shoulders like liquid. There are also some Soul Calibur 2-esque clipping issues with hair and some characters' clothing. The game also allows for photos and replays of the action to be saved for posterity, preserving forever that moment when you dished out (or received) punishment.
The attention lavished on fine detail is unsurprising however when you look at the game's character models. As exquisitely produced as they are, again Team Ninja have backed themselves into a narrow cul-de-sac with the art direction of the game which now seems to have gone as far as it can and even peeked around Number Three. DoA has and always been the digital equivalent of playing Barbie Vs. Ken for adults, with characters that have an almost plastic sheen to them and with some male characters looking very much identikit aside from hair and clothing.
Following criticism of the earlier games' fighting system, Team Ninja have made quite a few changes to address issues such as unbalanced fighters and problematic mechanics. More emphasis has been placed on the Critical Hit and Counter system and while it may take a while to adapt, it certainly makes the game more tactical and interesting to play. Fights are much faster (to a giddying degree in later rounds and higher difficulties) and it certainly feels more fluid and fun, with amendments made to characters like Kasumi and Ayane to balance them. This tinkering will certainly go some way to making the game more appealing to those who found it unbearable before.
Scenery-smashing moves are again present and have been, quite literally, expanded upon. Levels now often sprawl in a multitude of different directions meaning fights can take any number of paths. As an example, brawling on the Temple Steps means players can fight under the archway and into the courtyard, or in the opposite direction down the steps. This in turn leads them to being able to knock opponents over a barrier and off a tiled rooftop, or down another flight of steps. Players can never be sure of which direction a fight will take them, meaning a new dimension of intra-level variety is created.
There are also static and moving obstacles such as benches, trees, fences, traffic and even dinosaurs. There's a real sense of showmanship in belting your opponent into an oncoming police car (as it swerves to avoid the two nutters fighting in the middle of the road), watching with glee as they roll over the bonnet with a thud of metal and a 'plink' of shattering glass. Or much more simply, but just as satisfyingly, kicking your nemesis over a stone table, following it up by vaulting across and punching them in the head as they struggle to recover.
Disappointingly Team Ninja is guilty of committing the same crime as in DoA3 (and a felony duplicated recently by Namco in Tekken 5); that of the cheap and dirty boss fight. Alpha-152, a see-through version of Kusami, is a nasty and unforgivable little addition to the game that introduces a difficulty spike that spoils the Story and Time Attack modes. Complete with a low-down, dirty, unavoidable charge-blast attack that decimates half your energy bar (something which should be outlawed from modern-day fighters under pain of death) players will find themselves (at the very least) gnashing their teeth at the vile tactics employed. Thankfully Alpha-152 is not present as the final encounter for every character in Story mode, meaning it's not all frustration and tears.
The A.I. also seems to occasionally lose all control and self-restraint, with characters like Hitomi, and most notably Jann Lee, presenting a spike in difficulty that is off-putting and soul-destroying at times.
There are noticeable problems with collision detection, meaning some grabs, punches or kicks don't connect. Thankfully there are workarounds as the player adjusts their gaming style, learning when these may occur. However a more sordid glitch means that floored opponents sometimes correct themselves and break into combos in a heartbeat, an almost impossible feat that no recovery move could ever produce and which feels like the A.I. is cheating. In a game where contact is everything, such activity will frustrate when, during a pivotal moment, the player finds their breathing space throttled from them and their opponent attacks instead of going prone.
The game's saving grace from niggly faults with the A.I. comes from the system's Live capability. While first unveiled in DoA: Ultimate, Live's seamless integration with the 360 and its games makes taking fighting online easier and much more fun than ever before. DoA4 contains an avatar-based lobby system that allows players to fight, meet others, or simply hang out and spectate. Winning the various online matches (including Winner Stays On, Loser Stays On, Team Battle, Survival etc) results in the player earning Zack Points which can be spent in Zack's shop to change the appearance of avatars or to buy new wacky costumes for the fighters themselves. Taking a leaf from DoA's Volleyball outing, items available change on a daily basis meaning that it will be some time before a full wardrobe of accessories and outfits is accrued. Online play is given a further edge in that losing fights means Zack Points are deducted, adding that real incentive to keep winning.
Although unique, DoA's lobby is not as innovative as it could have been. While understandably limited to one fight at a time per lobby, in order to join the queue to fight, players must leave and enter the in-game spectator view. If they choose to go back to the lobby, they then lose their place in the queue, making the fanciful and delightful lobby almost redundant. Far better would have been a system that allowed you to register your place in the queue and then transport you back into the game appropriately. Of course there's nothing stopping those who want to go off and challenge someone to a one-on-one in their own lobby (which is graciously donated free of charge the first time they go online), but that seems overly fiddly and may be far more trouble for some than it's worth. Presently some games also suffer serious lag that can stop proceedings mid-combo as everything plays catch up.
As an overall experience DoA4 is thoroughly capable and enjoyable, proving through its latest incarnation that it has certainly evolved into a fighter that can be taken seriously and seen as more than cheap titillation or a T&A simulator for prepubescents. While not as close to perfection as Team Ninja would have everyone believe, there is certainly enough substance to put the series back on track and offer a serious contender to the next round of Virtua Fighter and Tekken games. | video-games_xbox |
Bullet Babe. A witch with a big gun? Hunt the undead? The time in 2012. It is a time where over 1/3 of the human population is dead, due to war, disease and unknown creatures. A witch stands up to put a stop to this chaos. Her name is Alicia.
Players will take control of Alicia throughout the game, togeher with some Resistance soldier NPC. On the top right corner of the screen indicates your HP, EP and bullet rounds.
Like all action shooting games, your HP will decrease when you take damage from enemy, but it will auto-recover after some time. However, one hit from any vehicle or sniper will kill you instantly. EP gauge will only fill up to max, if you defeat an enemy. It decreases when you reload your gun or using magic.
The giant gun will be your primary weapon, and 10 collateral magic attacks, including Ancient Wall, Sacrifice, Raven panic etc. There are also 3 Major Magics to deal Major damage: Thunder, Tornado and Meteor. Unfortunately, players are required to fill up their HP/EP gauge before casting Major Magics.
There are 6 stages in this game, running from the city of America to the sewers, country side areas and heart of the forrest. It takes approximately 1 hour to complete a single stage. After every stage, you will be graded and given points. Use these points to unlock Shotgun and Rifle, also new magics and stats. Major Magic can be obtained automatically in later stages.
If you died middle of the game, it sends you back to the last checkpoint, and the good thing is, it only take several minutes to return where you left off. Simple and easy.
Beginners may find aiming at enemies is hard, due to big cursor and small aiming areas. But when you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy.
These are some good character models in this game, especially Alicia, who is the perfect example of a video game babe.
There are more than 10 types of enemies including bosses. They usually come in small numbers, but don't underestimate them. Blind fire without keeping an eye on your HP may be fatal. Boss fights are pretty interesting, I can ensure you that you'll be amazed.
If you get bored with Alicia's outfit, there are some extra ones in Xbox Live Marketplace. There are also some Concept Missions up for grabs also.
Archievement points are easy to gain here, finishing each stage gains you some points, and beating the game in different difficulty gains you more points as well.
Bullet Witch may be one of those normal action shooting game, but it is fun to use a female character and shoot around with 80 rounds out of a giant machine gun. I strongly recommend this game to Gears Of War Fans - it's similar to GOR, except the main character is a babe! | video-games_xbox |
Blowing my expectations out of the water. Honestly guys, i'm not a huge fan of FPS games. I don't play many and hell, I didn't even touch an FPS game til Perfect Dark all the way back on the N64. But for whatever reason, I was interested in playing the Halo games. Specifically, the ones made by Bungie not 343i. And after getting myself a 360 I ordered a copy of this game and honestly, I quite enjoyed it.
For a first entry it did a lot right I admit. Now for the first thing I really do like about this game and even stands out for me in many ways is the atmosphere. Now unlike your modern FPS games like the COD series this game I feel has a very strong atmosphere that makes the world of Halo very interesting. Levels like the Piller of Autumn does encourage me to explore the levels to see what I can find. And some levels are even a little open.
The next thing I really like about this game is the gameplay. Again, for a first entry the gameplay is very satisfying,fun and even rewarding in many ways. Now with that said I admit it's not perfect and since it's a first entry I won't be too hard on the gameplay given that it's as solid as it is. It even encourages you to try out different weapons and strategies to take out certain enemy types which I think is a great thing.
That's not all though. You can even use a few vehicles in this game. Ones like the iconic Buggy and the Banshee are two examples of vehicles you can drive in this game. While the sequels did add more depth and layers to the gameplay Combat Evolved I still think holds up gameplay wise even if isn't perfect.
Then there's the music which is one of my favorite things about this franchise as a whole. The composer being Martin O'Donnell I would say is one of my favorite composers for video game music as a whole. This game is no different as the music stands out to me whether being atmospheric,catchy or even dynamic when the situation calls for it. I know that music is all subjective but I at least recommend to check out the soundtrack for Combat Evolved. It's good stuff I will say.
For the story, it's very simple and straight forward. I won't try to spoil anything but basically you play a character named Master Chief and you go to all these areas to do a variety of things. Like one example is saving Captain Keyes. Your main enemies you will fight are the Convenant but later on you will fight a new type of enemy. I won't spoil what it is but suffice to say it did make the 2nd half of the game a lot more interesting.
Now yeah, the last thing I will mention with this game is the multiplayer. Now if you know anything about Halo is that the multiplayer especially around the years of Halo 2 and 3 was really popular. Keep in mind though that this game doesn't use Xbox Live so it's only local multiplayer unfortunately. (Then again, since the service was shut down in 2010 it doesn't even matter anymore regardless.)
Now back the multiplayer component itself, basically there are different types of modes whether death match,race,capture the flag etc. Now for the first game there aren't many multiplayer modes from what I checked. I can't say though I played the original's multiplayer given I don't have another 360 controller but from the gameplay footage I have saw of this game it's very solid I will say.
Now yeah, now that I brought up all the positives with my experience with this game I will also bring up the negatives. Since it's the first game in the series it's a given that the first game like any first game will have flaws. And for the first one is that especially later on in the 2nd half level design does tend to repeat for certain rooms.
Now while it isn't the worst thing ever it is very noticeable especially on repeated playthroughs. For the 2nd flaw I would say the health system does have an issue in that if you're looking for a health pack and your shield is wiped out well consider yourself dead by then in the game. I'm not too terribly upset that 2 and 3 ditched this system and I hear it was handled better in ODST and Reach. Again, not the worst thing ever but it can get on my nerves especially if I keep dying in one area.
My last negative with this game I feel like the level design while solid I can sometimes get lost. Especially with one mission in particular because in that mission the arrows point you one way but then you realize you have to go the other way. Now for Halo veterans you probably consider this a nitpick and that's fine but it is annoying when it does happen.
Now for the score I give this game I give it a 8.5/10. A great game I recommend if you haven't played it but does have a few flaws that keeps it from being my favorite in the trilogy. | video-games_xbox |
mediocre overkill. I installed this thing, it is overkill and most likely, your kinect will not function as well as other positions. Basically, my tv (55") sits forward (about 1 foot) from the wall and is quite tall. I put the kinect behind and above it at 6 feet (which allowed every angle to clear the tv). part of the rationale was that when I had the kinect in front of it (on the cabinet), we were stepping too close to the couch to get in the "better" zone. The thing appears well made and had good reviews so I thought I had my solution.
Problem #1. My kinect didn't work well at this height, at all. It had a hard time tracking period. With two people it didn't really work at all. In actuality, despite what the manual says, the kinect simply doesn't have a good picture at 6 feet height, 6-8 feet away. Yes, you could move it, but if you actually installed it the way they suggest (4 screws and anchors) moving it would not be at the top of your list. Perhaps if I lowered it it might have worked better, but at this point, I was already irritated with it.
Problem #2. The thing is overkill. They include 4 screws with anchors when one is necessary and a totally unnecessary base unit attachment which doubles the base size of the kinect (it could have easily been designed to clip into the shelf itself). It is also unattractive because the black cord hangs down (a cable hider will help). Personally, a portrait shelf from Target or something like that would be both more attractive and more functional. You would still need to deal with the cable being visible, but if it didn't work out, you could leave the shelf up and put some decorations on it instead of having to patch your wall.
Anyway, after deciding the thing sucked, I searched on the web and found you could use the sony Move-camera tv mount ($10-$13 or so, available on amazon) and velcro your connect to it to place it on top of your tv (the offical kinect tv mount seems to be terrible, even though mind you they are all made by the same third party company). I bought it at Amazon, had instant shipping,, and it is quite stable, attractive and works as well as the kinect up front. It also gave the kinect a couple of extra feet so my "better" zone was more suitable for game play (before we had been too close to the couch).
So my advice is avoid this product, and buy the Sony one and some velcro instead. Search on the web for lots of good illustrations of how to do it. | video-games_xbox |
This game has alot of flaws not worth full price. First of all i have been waiting for a better sniper game to come out ever since sniper elite was out. I miss the old sniper elite. thinking this game was going to blow the old game out the water. I WAS WRONG. as far as shooting the sniper rifle watching your bullet reach your target then getting that head shot nothing feels better. I do like how much effort has to go into shooting your sniper rifle. But I noticed during the game that if you attack any of the op4 and miss or are almost seen, just like the other review they will always find you and no matter what you do or where you go they will find you. sounds cool right? NOT FOR THIS GUY.its almost as if its a real world thing right? wrong. If you watch the op4 trying to find and kill you they will be looking and shooting in a whole different direction. and yet they still manage to hit you. Or you can be 400 meters away and they are behind a wall or your behind something only your rifle exposed and they will still be able to hit you. yet you cant snipe them since they are behind something. If they intended for this game to be realistic, You can tell not alot of thought went into making this game. the terrain sucks and the graphics are not the best. Some scenes you think you found who is shooting at you and really its just the terrain flashing. I find myself always getting trapped on some off the wall places. In this game you are limited to certain areas. you cant really jump over anything Let me put it this way if its more than 1 ft tall you have a 30% chance that you can actually jump or go over it. most of the time you cant. You can get in the water and swim in the game but it is hard to get out. it has to be a flat dry area with no rocks at all. Not cool. oh yeah and your enemy will spot you from miles away. Not very realistic to me. Im not very pleased with the game in whole but i do love trying to snipe people from as far as possible. Or multiple people at the same time. If you just want a slow paced game you will prob like this you really have to take your time but trust me you will try to be patient and prob get angry just like i did when you see all the BS that comes with the game and then write a review. I really do think the game could have been worked on a lil more before being released. Well hope you find this worth reading. | video-games_xbox |
Greatness & powerful emotion cease Payne for a final time. Max Payne is hauntingly scarred by the past. Gone are the mobsters, noir, police and various professional killers from the preceding games, swapped for war lords, alcohol, more painkillers and a last attempt at redemption that makes this the most fun, bloody and personal game yet.
Max has left all his ghosts behind him in New York, finding shelter in Brazil alongside meds & booze. He no longer goes undercover or hunts down leads, serving as a private security for a wealthy family. Amongst various kidnap attempts and close deaths, Max hits rock bottom, putting it all on the line to right the wrongs, delivering some of his most private & possibly suicidal commentary yet, even dawning a hair & beard combo similar to rapper Rick Ross. The iconic series storyboards only appear during loading, replaced by cut scenes that are continually delivered in between action.
The third person zooms in for a more over the shoulder style, including a nice close up of Max's bloody and bullet infested corpse if he takes too much damage. Still swallowing a hefty amount of painkillers to relive harm Max can now duck, hide or take cover within the environment, which is very destructive and overwhelming with detail. The A.I. puts up a hard fight, bullet time; another iconic element is more effective, allowing for better aiming and convention. The debuting multiplayer doesn't pattern itself after other titles, throwing players into gangs with addition points earned in task completing and rivalry with opposing players. One will find it hard to choose which mode (single or multiplayer) to start with but both are quite acceptable and worth some serious game time.
The people, building interiors and outdoors look beautiful, very comprehensive. The seamlessly play orientated cut scenes are powered by the graphics with everything opening with a single loading screen. The sound is great, providing more firing guns and explosions effects then a Michael Bay film. Controls are standard though the right stick used for aiming could be tad faster but that might possibly be Max's old age. Replay value is rich here, included in multiply levels of difficulty, arcade challenges, multiplayer and various scattered collectables in the main story.
Max Payne 3 is undoubtedly the best in the trilogy. Not only bringing everything from the original game full circle it shows the rise and fall of seemingly self pitted but not lost human being. Game play hasn't changed much, if at all but it hides an assuming, lengthy adventure, matched with fun & challenge multiplayer. Simply put newcomers and veterans will find something to throw hours away with this worthwhile purchase.
Last Words: A, easily the best entry and a standout title on any platform. | video-games_xbox |
Great Value for Campaign, But Disappointing Multiplayer issues. I love Halo. After I got this bad boy installed, I utilized my tactically placed days off of work to play through the campaigns for about the billionth time. Well, except for Halo 4. Halo 4 is just okay, so that was only the third time.
Anyway, I could spend all day talking about what is good about the Halo games, and what is good about Halo 4 with some caveats. I could tell you about how much time I've spent playing campaign missions over and over again, trying to hit the par times, and finding all of the easter eggs. But most people who buy this game already know how fun Halo is, and lots of you probably like the multiplayer too.
I enjoy the multiplayer. Perhaps not as much as those Mountain Dew-guzzling pink polo-wearing MLG competition-watching bro gamers do, but I enjoy it. Unfortunately, when it comes to multiplayer, one of the most important aspects of the Halo franchise, especially in this day and age, Halo MCC is completely broken.
As of this writing, there are maybe 10 playlists, but only one of them has ranking. For a game that has 4 different games crammed into it, all with multiplayer, that seems more than insufficient. If you select one of these playlists, you should expect to wait at least ten minutes before it finds a game for you. If you ever manage to get through matchmaking, some games seem to work better than others. Halo 2 anniversary multiplayer and Halo 3 usually play without a hitch, but the original Halo 2, for instance, feels really buggy and laggy. My friends who have played a lot more multiplayer on this game than I have tell me there are various other features MIA, too. Multiplayer is overall just a big, unfinished mell of a hess.
So, if you just want to play some amazing balls-to-the-wall super fun campaign missions, This is your game. If you want to ...pwn some n00bs, as it were... maybe wait a while. Check some Halo forums or Reddit or something like that until the general consensus is that they've actually fixed it.
Oh, and if you're thinking about getting this for the Halo 5 multiplayer beta, just keep in mind that it also has serious matchmaking problems, but at least ranking and in-game netcode is working to some degree. | video-games_xbox |
Improved but some hardware issues still present. I enjoy having an Xbox 360, it has some great games and out of all the systems, it is pretty much the only one that does on-line multiplayer. The Xbox 360 is also my console of choice to use as a media hub that streams content from providers such as Netflix. I recommend the Xbox 360 for these features but the 360 is the only console I provide a disclaimer due to its history of poor craftsmanship.
This is my third Xbox 360. The first one got the Red Ring of Death, my second console (less than 2 years old) started crashing frequently (a pre RROD symptom) and ironically my second console also had trouble running Halo Reach like some of the older 360s.
I was excited about this console because I heard that some of the past issues with the Xbox 360 had been resolved. Not only with the console but with the controllers themselves, and here lies my biggest gripe with this bundle so far. The Xobx 360 has always been known for having non-precise directional pads but both controllers that came with this bundle are faulty. When retrieving my gamer tag, I noticed that the directional pad was not flushed, when pressing on the right direction of the d-pad, it would grind/click on the controller and it was not responsive. When pressing up, left, and down on the the d-pad, there is a cushion and it was responsive on the screen. After a while I tried the second controller out of the box. The second controller had the exact same issue but instead of the "right" direction on the d-pad having the issue, it was "up" direction. You would expect after 5 years on the market, Microsoft would have figured out how to make a reliable controller. Three out of the four 360 controllers I have owned, did not work properly, my first one had a faulty analog stick.
(UPDATE: The console has trouble running some games, it plays them but the 360 spins certain games faster making a very loud rattling noise that drowns out the sound of your TV unless you significantly turn up the volume. I called Microsoft about this and they said it was normal. So much for a whisper quiet console.
Only after three months of regular use, the motor on one of my controllers that causes the rumbling/feed back has died. Lame!)
The game itself is awesome, the best Halo game in the series. One of the more enjoyable campaigns with diverse missions, new weapons and vehicles. The online features and options are very robust and will provide several hours of entertainment. | video-games_xbox |
Makes my brain hurt, but I like it. I don't really know how Catherine showed up on my 'recommended for you' page because I'm more of a shoot 'em up kind of gamer, but I'm glad it did. I went on to try the demo first before spending any money, and knew I had to buy the game. Then when I got the game, I was too proud to play on 'easy' and went straight to 'normal'. I haven't won a gold trophy yet, and I'm currently on stage 7, so I'll definitely have to play this game again.
No complaints though. It's really cool that this game has 8 different outcomes and the questions Vincent (the playable character) gets before going into each stage really get me thinking about myself. This game is DEEP. I never felt myself caring so much about the characters in a video game before. I really want the best for Vincent, but I think I'm just as confused as he is. I don't even know what C/Katherine to go with, and I'm more than halfway through the game. And I think I get just as flipped out as him in the boss battles at the end of each stage. This game really messes with you, and will get your heart beating. Don't think because this is mainly a puzzle game, it won't be scary. The atmosphere of Vincent's nightmares will create more anxiety for the pretty darn hard puzzles you'll have to solve and is intensified by some creepy looking monsters.
But at least after having your pulse rate skyrocket, you and Vincent can have some R&R at the Stray Sheep (a bar) and get some interesting trivia about alcohol. Trust me, you'll treasure this time at the bar after crying and cursing your whole way through a nightmare.
I rate 5 stars for Catherine across the board. Easy to learn controls, outstanding voice acting for a translation, super challenging (but adjustable to everyone), gripping story, a lot of replayability, and not to mention the beautiful (but terrifying graphincs).
***UPDATE***
Just finished the game for the first time and got one ending. Now I started going through the Golden Playhouse (the storyline) again to unlock another ending and switch out my bronze trophies for gold (which also allows you to skip ahead for future endings). After the first time, this game becomes a lot easier because you'll know about all the different techniques ahead of time, and makes you consider changing to a harder difficulty. Oh, and the questions you get in between stages change as well.
And for you true masochists, once you start collecting gold trophies on either normal or hard, you unlock new stages in Babel, which is even more challenging than the Golden Playhouse. It's the Tournament portion of the game where you're timed while climing up to the goal, and your record is compared to other players around the world. But the hardest thing is that 'undo' is no longer and option. But from what I've heard, completing the four stages in Babel unlock a ninth ending. | video-games_xbox |
It's survival horror that's scarier than Resident Evil 5, not as scary as Dead Space 2, but better than both of those games. MENU SCREEN:
This essentially is where the magic begins. If you click up and down on the main menu screen, the highlighted tabs play creepy piano music. Of course you're not going to play around with this for a period of time, but it certainly is a nice touch that brings you into the world of Bioshock.
HOLY B**P/INTRO CUTSCENE:
So, the game starts off in a first person POV cutscene where you're in a plane, smoking a cigarette, your character says something (in the form of a VO) that is reminiscent of the first line in The Great Gatsby (novel), and BLAAAM, CRAACK, SMASSH, "AHHHHHH," BOOM, WHACK, the plane crashes. You're in the water with pieces of flaming plane spookily sinking here and there and I had the fear that the sinking of those pieces would have pulled me under. You don't know what the hecks going on, so you just swim. Where to? Well, you'll find out. I don't really talk about premise during reviews because that always leads to spoilers for those who want to play a game like reading a book. And this game is like reading a book. And, like reading a book, it has some "SNAPE KILLS DUMBLEDORE" types of twists that you'll be bummed about if someone tells you ahead of time.
SYNOPSIS:
Your name is Jack and you wind up in an underwater city called Rapture, where the inhabitants are addicted to a genetically altered type of drug which makes them, too, genetically altered in a multitude of ways, and they're junkies, running about, causing chaos and destruction. Their motives are simple; they just want ADAM, that's all. They'll kill you for it. But, here's the catch, you have to use ADAM to just to survive down there. And you're trying to escape with the help of another survivor down there via walkie-talkie. Simple enough; good luck.
THE VIBE/ATMOSPHERE:
Dark, depression, and almost like there's an omnipresent force of the deepest evil seeping into the walks and in the air just waiting to get you into a nice, cozy corner and rob you of your ADAM and your life. It feels like a Post-Apocalyptic setting in an underground city in the fifties, oh boy, what an interesting concept. And the Old music. Eerie, just eerie.
GAMEPLAY:
Obviously the gameplay was so revolutionary that BETHESDA took notes and applied some of it in ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM. Essentially you can alternate between weapons and then the "abilities" granted by ADAM. It makes for a smooth sort of play style that doesn't take away from the game in any way at all.
BOTTOM LINE: The concepts and the vibe of the game are essentially so big and dark that the game pales in comparison in terms of gameplay. Sure, it's a fun game, but it's not as open-ended and RPG like as I would have hoped. You're only in an underground city once or (unfortunately) twice in a lifetime, so why not utilize every aspect? For instance, the water. *shrug* But, either way, in terms of Survival Horror, it's right up there at the top.
RECOMMEND:
If you like these following games, I recommend Bioshock; or if you like Bioshock, I recommend the following games.
Resident Evil 1-4, Fallout 3, Dead Space 1-2, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | video-games_xbox |
For Honor Is Intense and Addicting. ***This is my original review for the game but I also purchased a copy of the Gold Edition because Target had a killer deal on it but the additional content isn't worth it. The Season Pass content may be worth it over time but initially, I'm unimpressed by what I got for $40 more. However I didn't change my 4 star review and you can read why below.
For Honor is here and after numerous opportunities to play the game early, the release copy is here. I picked up For Honor with a little bit of skepticism as to how it would keep me entertained with the heavy focus on multiplayer but I was very surprised.
Positives:
-The multiplayer is well established and with a handful of modes across more than a dozen maps, I'm enthused. I also like the very similar set up to Rainbow Six Siege with the different classes and characters
-The currency and packs to buy with the currency are surprising addictive in the age of this kind of mechanic (Gears of War, Battlefield 1, etc.). Being able to use these items to make my character look different or break down the item to construct something different is a nice addition
-The story has surprised me and though I haven't dived too deep into it, I'm optimistic about it. Honestly, Ubisoft adding any story support at all is a plus in my book and they could have made this just a multiplayer game and walked away.
-Gameplay and environments feel like they have been fleshed out and worked on over the course of the preview periods. Though I'll have more to say in the list below, I especially tip my hat to the environments and wanting to look around the world so bad but remember that people are hunting me down.
Negatives:
While this list is shorter (hence the 4 Star rating) these drawbacks really get to me personally. Repetition starts to naw away at me while playing this game. Though I love the environments, the dueling system is how you are successful and you have to use all the mechanics you are taught in this tutorial. So often I want to just run in and start swinging but I have to remember that I need to be calculated in my attack. To some this is perfect, to others it can keep you from wanting to start another game.
-This is more so a warning then a true negative but if your team isn't playing together or you aren't playing with a friend, success isn't always easy. If you find yourself with two player enemies coming at you, you probably won't win. It can get disheartening but if you have a friend, get the game and work together.
****I try to recommend games in my reviews and a good game to check out is Rainbow Six: Siege. Though it isn't in this time period, the multiplayer, customization and setup will feel very similar in a game that has a great online community. Rainbow Six is coming out with a "Season 2" batch of content and is surprising many gamers with all the support. Consider checking it out if you enjoy first person shooters but wish people would take them more seriously (breach and clear, moving slow and calculated).
Overall, I commend Ubisoft for making a different type of game and if you have read some of my reviews, that is huge for me. When developers and publishers take risks and make new IP's (Intellectual Property. New games; New concepts; Not based on anything else) I respect that. For Honor puts me in a different time period and forces me to work together with my teammates. It also gives me something to do on my own and seems like it will get the support it needs to stay alive for some time.
I hope you grab a copy! Let me know what you think below! | video-games_xbox |
Just no. EA/Dice deserve to be punched in the dick for this. This is a horrible game. It's not the horrible net code and all that other crap, it's the actual game. The campaign is poorly thought out and the main character has no personality whatsoever, but who really cares about the campaign these days. There are just too many things in the multiplayer, while I appreciate all these new and old awesome features like attack chopper smart rockets and incendiary smoke screens, I completely hate the rest. The gun mechanics are just too damn complicated; often times the best guns are like the second to last unlocked guns or earlier when traditionally the best guns are the last. The entirety of the game is just some stupid plot milk money out of the buyers: the battle pack system which gives a small chance of something nice and conveniently one could buy these battle packs rather waste time and work an insane amount for just one gold battle pack, the best guns and features are usually buried in the dlc, the map design, specifically in rush, is horrible and I can guarantee under my two hanging balls that the designs were just taken from somewhere else and copied and pasted in the game. In rush the object is to arm a set of bombs and move to the next until you have destroyed all of them, and naturally the challenge to arm the bombs gets harder and harder the more you move in, wether it be the bomb thrown into a small room that can be easily defended or there are more tactical positions for the enemy to hide in and defend, but in this game the bombs are just thrown almost at random into the map. There are some gun attachments that are essentially different skins of others, such as there being three different silencers that practically all do the same thing, or there being multiple ever so slightly different laser sights. There are just way too many things that complicate the game more than it already is. This is like Pizza Hut's move of adding much more products to their menu only thing is that Pizza Hut was actually successful. | video-games_xbox |
One great video game experience. This is the gem of dialogue driven games; as good as the game play is, the real reward is talking with your crew after a mission. And that's something that's rare outside of the Mass Effect series. The story may be as linier as that in most games; but, it feels like you as the player get to determine how the important events play out. And in this case a little goes a long way; you feel like your game is uniquely yours, and that your Shepard is uniquely yours. Heck, I was a fan of the first Mass Effect and even I was surprised how much I'd missed this series.
Compared with its predecessor, Mass Effect 2 drops some of the classic sci fi atmosphere for a more Hollywood-ized galaxy. In the first game alien worlds looked like artist conceptions from NASA; in the sequel most of your missions occur on the streets of futuristic cities, and explorable worlds either resemble Caribbean islands or brown Marscapes. The Mako wasn't a fun vehicle; but, dropping it for tedious orbital scanning makes outer space feel much less palpable.
It's also less intimate; the new characters are more colorful, but not as believable as those in Mass Effect. And, I was disappointed not to have more time with the original crew; in particular, I was disappointed not to have the opportunity to develop the love story from the previous game. Luckily, it sounds like Bioware has something special planned for the love story between you and your first Mass Effect partner in Mass Effect 3; I hope they don't disappoint me.
But Mass Effect 2 is a success, not a failure. Replaying the first game I could understand the praise heaped on the new combat system; combat in the first game feels clunky and awkward by comparison. The core story is very strong, maybe not quite as compelling as the original; but, good in its own right. And some of the character specific missions are really well written. Even morally Mass Effect 2 gets high marks: Female characters are strong, self sufficient, and don't have elaborate histories of sexual abuse (which goes someway toward making up for Dragon Age: Origins). And I for one like having "dark side" options that are more Dirty Harry than Hannibal Lecter. Now, if Bioware would only tie the character missions back into the main story, substitute something for the tedious planet scanning, and open up the galaxy they'd have the perfect game.
In a nutshell, Mass Effect 2 is one of the most engrossing games ever made. Don't wait too long to pick this one up, because video games don't get much better. | video-games_xbox |
Blackwater. S#^+. I'm still only in Blackwater. A man is forced by the government to accept a difficult task . A powerful man, who was formerly a popular leader but is now considered a criminal, must be eliminated. Getting close to the target will require a long, arduous expedition to a highly fortified compound. The government must not be connected in any way to the mission. Sound familiar?
No, the target's name is not Kurtz in Red Dead Redemption. But it might as well be. Rockstar has once again taken inspiration from a masterpiece of cinema. In the same way that the Grand Theft Auto series is strongly linked to works by Singleton, Scorsese, De Palma, and Kurosawa, Red Dead Redemption pays homage to Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now.
On the surface, RDR appears to be based on classic Westerns. The game is set in the American frontier at the beginning of the 20th century. There are plenty of references to films directed by John Ford, Sergio Leone, Clint Eastwood, and Sam Peckinpah. The driving forces behind the game's narrative, however, are questions about duty versus honor, confrontations with enemies who may not truly be opposed to what your character represents, and most importantly, the achievement of spiritual redemption by completing a psychologically harrowing journey. Western films often address these themes as well, of course, but without any ambiguity or ambivalence. It's always crystal clear who is good, who is evil, and what is right and what is wrong in these films. In contrast, RDR and AN deliberately obscure their moral viewpoint on the actions of their characters.
Anybody familiar with Apocalypse Now will recognize that many aspects of RDR's story are directly analogous to events in AN. While the characters and motivations of John Marston and Final Boss (no spoilers here) are never as fully developed as those of Captain Willard and Colonel Kurtz--due to both Rockstar's avoidance of Metal Gear Solid-length cutscenes and the limitations of the videogame medium--all of AN's key plot points are present in the game. There's even a minor reference to the sniper execution scene in Full Metal Jacket that helps reinforce RDR's connections to AN. All of this adds up to a rich and compelling story arc, especially considering RDR is a videogame.
Story and influences aside, the bigger question is whether or not Red Dead Redemption is fun to play. The answer is YES. The graphics, especially the environmental effects, are outstanding. There's a good chance you will find yourself just sitting on a horse admiring a spectacular sunset or taking in the dramatic view from a mesa or hilltop and not doing anything else. The controls are easy to learn and quickly become intuitive. Finally, as is the norm with Rockstar, the game's world is gigantic and full of missions, mini-games, and random encounters. A few minor things feel a bit unfinished, such as some missions that involve long journeys without characters saying anything, or unrefined (it's left to the player to figure out how the inventory management system works while playing) but there aren't any glaring flaws overall. Well worth picking up.
------
A note about the John Hillcoat DVD
The 30-minute movie on the bonus DVD uses footage from cut scenes that mostly occur early in the game. Don't watch the movie before playing unless you want a "Preview of Coming Attractions." Also, the movie can be streamed or downloaded from Rockstar's website. | video-games_xbox |
Dragon Age Issues abound. I am a BioWare fanboy. I have played almost every game they have put out (MDK one day I will play you too) and to be succinct I think they are moving the genre forward in storytelling perspective most times. This game is not the game I hoped to play. I think that its fast sales success figures to more a lack of product in the market at this moment then the fact it is a great game.
Cons:
* Bugs.
-There is an unlimited xp gold bug that is extremely easy to take advantage of.
-Corrupting saves. I am one of the many people who had most of his saves corrupt at one point.
-Getting purchased extras. So I have multiple accounts associated with my EA ID and well that pretty much breaks the system.
* Tightwad questing. You don't get much money. Resource management is fine except the equipment that costs me 49 gold to buy sells back for maybe 2 gold.
* Racial hegemony. Great part about first game was being able to play multiple races. Thats gone.
* Armor for your party. Only you will be able to use the equipment you find. Yep it sucks as much as you think it does.
* Mana pool with a spell recharge rate. Mana pool disappears as you try enable sustained effects. And the spells take forever to recharge.
* Weak central story. The overarching story is just not well developed or really good.
* Depressing. I get this is a dark world and things have consequences. But there is a profound lack of joy in this world.
* Extra weak ending.
* Overuse of the same environments.
* Racially Insensitive. Try to make a black character.
Pros:
* Character dialog. It is adult and hilariously disturbing at times.
* Smaller quest stories really well done.
* Excellent characters.
* Control changes for console players. This is probably a negative on a PC.
* Sense of consequences of actions.
I played to the end for the first time. I want to play it again but I don't know that I will there are many problems with this game. It does feel rushed. They addressed some of the problems that people had playing the first Dragon Age much to the detriment of Dragon Age 2. The move to make you more present in the story and voice the character does do that. But they then take you out of the story and kill continuity by having you direct only certain years in your characters life. You spend a year as a smuggler or a mercenary. You do not play that year out. This is a major missed opportunity. Oh and that major fight in the game trailer you see is not the major fight of the game. It is one of the subplots(one of the better ones but still a subplot). And get ready to walk the same maps. You have seen almost all the maps you will ever see nearly 15 hours in. One map does take a while to unveil and then is immediately overused.
Dragon Age is suppose to be dark fantasy. It would be nice to for once meet a group that does not completely hate some other group. Also although the treatment of mages in this environment is truly wrong they nearly all deserve it for the propensity to turn to blood magic at the drop of a hat. It achieves a depressing environment that just does not have to always be.
The loot system here is crap. The best weapons you get for 2 stalwart characters you get possibly at the beginning of the game and then should never not have them equipped Bianca (crossbow of Varric) and the Fadeshear ( one-handed sword for Aveline or you). This means 2 of the characters you will use the most don't need anything you can basically give them. And only you get to wear any of the armor. Each character has a look and that doesn't change no matter how you go through the game. Your appearance can change quite drastically. Oh and the pounds of loot you turn in is worth basically nothing. So the only reason you want loot is that the random drops will probably have better armor then you can find in the stores.
There are just too many issues. I keep wanting to hit on a good part and it is hard to find them. I can not recommend this game to anyone. | video-games_xbox |
The most fun and addiction you've had in years. Despite all the reviews you may have seen on the gaming sites, don't believe the negative reviews about this game. This is a follow up to Earth Defense Force 2017, that being said you can't miss out on this newest version. This game is so much fun, and it gets addictive. Once you get into it which takes about an hour, after that you will find yourself hooked in, just like edf 2017 this version is even better! The giant space ships, the hundreds of giant insect monsters! It's all in here plus more than 500 weapons and new character types. I've played it for a week and it's one of those games where you find yourself saying, "just one more round." It's that good.
-The Graphics, the graphics are really good to me, this isn't Crysis and it's not supposed to be, this is an engine that is meant to be broken apart blown up and destroyed! Everything you see is just temporary once the action starts, just like any Monster movie set the City is there for the sole purpose of crumbling down into piles of dust!
The best part about the newer engine is that the monsters and insects all blow apart, loose limbs, heads, abdomens everything gets blow apart! Now you really feel like you are destroying everything with your weapons. When that 40 foot robot comes crashing down, and then seconds later BA BOOOOOOOM!!!!!!! It blows sky high in a tremendous screen shaking explosion you will have a smile on your face!
I can't explain it enough. When you hit that giant ant with a big missile you now get a violent blood blast explosion that blasts out of the insect, it's really got a good impact and the weapons really pack a good punch!
The buildings collapse and come down on more detail too! It's breath taking to watch, when that missile sails into a small building and it blows the walls out, or when a big weapon hits a 100 story sky scraper and blows out a wall then the rest of the building comes crumbling down, you will just say DAMMMMMNNNN.
-Sound; oh boy the sound effects, very cool and fun, this adds to the atmosphere of the game, the NPC's constantly talk about the ongoing war minute by minute with updates about encounters with new monsters and interesting battles taking place out there somewhere. Hearing about a big encounter on the Moon, and battles elsewhere on the earth is so cool, you can just imagine what's going on. Scientists periodically chime in with the results of research and tests, and data that they've been studying. Your fellow EDF soliders sing as they charge into battle after battle, they talk about home and other things, and chant EDF! EDF! it's all so cool you feel right there in the game. They fight the monsters right there with you and help even the odds.
The NPC civilians run away stumbling screaming and falling trying to escape the carnage and the monsters, and you really feel like you are there facing a huge threat.
The weapons are equally excellent, from the Air Diver's laser weapons to the Rangers Missiles and Sniper Rifles! You will have so much fun! Plus there are so many difficulty levels and on the harder levels you unlock stronger weapons!
So worth the $50!!! Don't even get started on the Multiplayer...
Oh and the Air Diver can basically fly... You have to earn some weapons to give the air diver some punch but once you do her weak body is backed up by her powerful weapons, like continuous fire laser beams and giant plasma cannons... LOL
All in glorious third person view too so you get to see the weapons modeled on the characters and everything.
I could go on for another page, but i just want to say one thing.
SANDLOT! Yesssssssssss! This is IT! If you've been on the fence about buying this, go ahead and get it. I was reluctant because of so many boring games recently but this is from a company that seems to know what their formula is and they don't stray from it. You'd think it would be tiring to keep destroying monster after monster but everything melds together so well that each thing supports the other. I also think adding in the Havok engine's ability to rag doll everything and blow the insects apart really adds to the random appeal of the game, it no longer feels like ugh 500th ant or spider because they now die in so many different ways!!!
Sometimes you can blow them completely apart...
This game is so good for you shooter fans! Get it you won't be disapointed, this is for the EDF 2017 faNS and anyone wanting a good arcade shooter!!! Trust me! | video-games_xbox |
Waste of time! (spolier alert. If you want to play a good sims game then go buy The sims bustin' out. Do not even bother to rent the urbz it is awful. I thought this game would be similar to the sims 1 and the sims bustin out. Instead they tried to be "hip" and ruined the whole game. The best thing about the game is that it is really short and the black eyed peas did the music.
The loading time is very long,in fact I bet if you added up all the loading time, its longer than the actual gameplay. You carry your furniture around with you and the furniture is different in every district which I thought was annoying.
Every district is different. There are the goths, the artsy people etc.. When you go to different districts you get a job. I thought this was going to be cool because in Bustin' out you didn't get to see your sim at work. But it all turns out to be boring. You press different buttons on your controller in different combinations to perform your tasks. Some of the jobs were cute and funny (like training pet ferrets) but the button pressing was very boring and repetitive. They missed a perfectly good opportunity to be inventive.
Its all about climbing the social ladder, impressing people, and proving how cool you are etc Every night each district has a party at a club but you have to have the right reputation to get into the club and wear the right clothes or you won't be able to get past the bouncer. So for example, when you come back from the artsy district don't think you are going to get into the hip hop club dressed like andy warhol.
Changing your outfit when you go to different districts was very annoying. If you wear the wrong clothes in the wrong district the natives will insult your clothes. But if you have a great rep they will start dressing like you. I thought the whole point of having the different clothes, hairstyles, etc was to be able to make your sim look the way YOU wanted?
At the club a dude dressed like a Run DMC reject will teach you a power social move that will help you impress others and get a reputation faster. But the characters all are exagerated stereotypes with stupid names. The game tries really hard to be funny but its just corny.
Unlike in the other games your character couldn't even get married and have kids which I thought was lame. There were no real goals in the game, its all about fitting in and impressing characters that were irritating. People from different districts don't get along so for example, the goths might want you to pull a prank on the artsies but who cares?
Being from New York I thought The Urbz would be a funny take on the urban inner city. Its just corny, repetitive, and annoying. | video-games_xbox |
NCAA 2K3 Comes Through Big (Long review, be patient. It's that time of year again... college basketball is in my veins, I'm watching/following my UVa Cavaliers, and what better way to occupy my time than buying a college basketball game to keep myself busy when my team isn't playing. NCAA Basketball 2K3 is an amazing game; despite several flaws, the game's pros put the cons to shame. I'm going to review this backwards so that you can finish feeling good about the game, and want to go out and buy it.
Cons:
Repetitive commentary- after playing two seasons with a team, you'll be able to recite the lines of the commentators word for word (for the most part)
Fouls are rare- besides the end of the game when you're winning, fouls are pretty much nonexistent in this game
Strange AI calls- when the computer is losing by two with five seconds left, they just dribble! i don't have to do a thing, they won't shoot the ball at the end of the game unless they're close enough to make it, meaning that half-court buzzer beaters NEVER HAPPEN
No name teams end up #1- as i entered the NCAA tournament, Baylor was my opponent for the final four, seeded #1?!
Teams have no legacy- if Duke has a poor season, it will take forever for them to get back on top... they will not be able to sign blue chippers, they will disappear off the top 25, and not even make the NCAA tournament
Crowds are once again, poor- when will the developers realize that people like to see crowds that are real? when the coach is shown close up, the crowd is very choppy and fake
Some things too easy- on starter (rookie) setting, i can steal the ball 25 times in a game, but the rest of the gameplay is about my level... it doesn't make sense!
Pros:
Pregame- the pregame is unbelievable.. you get to hear about the teams, the matchups, while watching the players do warmup shooting before the tip-off
Stadiums- the stadiums and courts look exactly the same as they do in real life.. U-Hall for UVa looks exactly like it does, with the pep band in the same spot, and the regular fans in the spots that they sit in real life
Free Throws are challenging- using the triggers for the xbox, the free throw system is wonderful and show ingenuity, people who complain likely need more practice
Fancy finishes- the dunks and 360 layups are so fun to watch in this game, you rarely see the same move to the hoop twice
Momentum meter- the momentum meter is a wonderful touch.. the home team racking up points, the crowd getting into the game, and the intense gameplay of the winning team, the meter captures the energy in the building
Crowds get into it- although they don't look real up close, the crowds start going wild, you can even hear individual shouts from fans
Running plays is easy- with the right analog stick and the ability to call your own offensive and defensive plays, picking up on a defense is a piece of cake, run the offense you want to run, when you want to run it
Dive for balls- for the first time that i can remember, players can dive for loose balls! hardcore basketball gamers know how frustrating it is to have a ball on the ground just roll out of bounds because you can't get to it, but with this button on your controller, diving for balls is one less complaint from this gamer
Good options- you can fully customize your game, from the offensive and defensive plays to the game tempo, to the substitutions, to the pressure, to the crashing of the boards
Graphics- seeing this game for the first time was like jumping into a cold shower... it took the breath out of me. my jaw must have hit the floor, seeing the pregame layups from each team, the gameplay, and after the game, the menus are even easy on the eyes
Editing names is a snap- although it does take a bit of time, many college basketball fans were turned off when they realized that players were replaced by numbers, but this year you can have the option of actually naming players what you want, it's pretty simple too. if you'd rather keep the players numbers, that's okay too, as the real life player corresponds with the number and position in the game. also, time is saved as the game has a name-recognition system that can find most names of real college players such as Duhon, Watson, etc. (p.s. announcers do a fine job of pronouncing most names)
Onto the legacy and its wonderful features...
...the legacy feature for hardcore gamers is wonderful. so much depth and so many features provide you for an unbelievable experience. you can choose open or career, meaning you can choose the team that you would like to coach, or start off a coaching career by being offered small-time team head coaching spots.
Recruiting- this feature is not only easy, it's also fun. at the end of a season, you get to see what big-time players are interested in your school. the more winning seasons you have, the more big-time players want to come there. give it some time, and soon enough a team like Lehigh (who i coached in my career legacy) will sign blue chippers.
Media coverage- when your small-time team does well, the team makes it onto TV/radio
Conclusion---
This game really captures the essence of college basketball, it has emotion and the real feel of college hoops. Sega did a wonderful job and should be commended for doing so. I'd give this game an A- for certain problems that continue to reappear (such as crowds), but the rest of the game is great. I recommend it to anybody of any age that enjoys a great game, sports or not, and I hope that my review was helpful!
-Sam Latter | video-games_xbox |
Just below average game. This game just does too much that players don't know what to make of it. As you may already know there are 3 different stories for this game. 4 stories if you do count Ada Wong story. Anyways, every story is different from each other in some ways. For example, when you play Jake's story, you will find yourself doing a whole lot of chase scenes and action commands more over than any other story. For Leon's story is more slower peace and a bit more old school scary feeling to it. For Chris's story, you get an action pack non-stop military story. This game has it all, but way too much of it and beyond that.
I found this game has VERY BAD CAMERA. You are trying to play the game and suddenly the game takes the camera and points you to what it wants you to see. You might be wanting to doing something else and don't want to do that just yet, but nope. The game doesn't care about what you think and will force you to see what you want. You can't even move the camera anymore and if you were looking with it at somewhere else you won't even see what the game wanted you to see all together.
People that play shooter games all the time, will feel quite use to the controls and won't have a problem with it at all. But, for me, I had to get used to them. I don't play shooters that much and I didn't like to move the camera myself. I liked the controls from RE5 much more than this game!
The game play is okay, once you beat the stories, you can go back and play them again and again to get the stuff you miss...but maybe you don't want to do that because it takes quite some time to finish each story. 5 chapters in each story. One chapter may take about 30 mins to 1 and half hours to do, so it's not a quick thing at all. Also, if you want to blaze through the game then you want to do the easy mode for sure as with each higher difficult it gets much harder to kill anyone and you take way more damage too.
The only thing I really found fun was the Mercenaries mode. This mode is given to a player right from the start of the game and you don't have to beat the game to get it. You just have to play the prelude, which is forced to play anyways. If you play with a friend from the start, your friend also would have to play the prelude as the first player as he/she can not access Mercenaries mode until they do.
Mercenaries has 3 stages to for the disc, but you only start with one stage. You must beat the other 2 stories to get two more stages to come out for the rest of Mercenaries. Also, there are 3 more stages that you can buy as DLC for $1 each stage. If you really enjoy Mercenaries than you should get the DLC, as it fun to play them over and over again.
What I find different from RE 5 Mercenaries and RE 6 Mercenaries is that RE 6 Mercenaries is WAYYYYY Easier to beat with a 150 combo. My friend and I already have done that on 3 stages and we only had the game for a week. This is because the time for killing enemies has increase from 10 sec to 15 sec. That's so easy!!! Also, the weapons for RE 6 are soooo powerful against enemies that it's child's play! Come on! Boom, Boom, Boom. lol Also, RE 6 Mercenaries makes it very easy to get used to what skills you like and if you're so good at doing that skill you can totally destroy any stage with an amazing score!!!
The game fails in Mercenaries mode for helping a partner recovering when he/she get's knock down and is in dying mode. I found myself running towards my partner, but realized that the camera will always turn your character backwards. If you where pushing your character to move right, after the dying screen comes up you find your character running left instead. Total BS!!!
I didn't know at the time when I wrote the above, but I know now why, the camera goes all crazy and white out when a partner is down. You can actually, equip a skill called "first responder", which would let you still be in total control after a partner is down. If you're a pro player, you would never put on this skill because a pro player would rather die and start over for a high score than use this skill. Also, pro players would almost never get taken down, so there's really no point in using that skill.
Finally, do I recommend this game? This game is only good if you in love with Resident Evil series and you will find that you don't mind it. You would also like this game if you love shooter games. You won't like this game, if you wanted something like Resident Evil 1 to 3. That side of the RE series is dead and won't ever come back....well in this RE series you can do counter move from RE 3, but most likely, if you wanted the scary feeling then that's not in this game. You won't be scared at all! This game has gone action pack and if that's what you wanted then this is it!
2 stars for Mercenaries and a good fail for campaign mode.
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Update:
There are more mercs stages since I wrote my review. I of course bought them because they are still fairly cheap. They have a totally of 10 stages. Not sure if they will have anymore stages, but it is still possible.
There has been couple of free updates as well. The updates helps mainly the campaign mode and is helpful if you plan on playing and doing everything in it.
There are 4 more online modes that you can buy for this game now. Since, I don't play online - I didn't get them. They do look quite good if you play online though. Some modes allow you to play with others as a team and some modes allow you to play against others. Check them out, if you like this game and do play online a lot. I'm sure, you will like them.
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3/12/2013
They have now combined all the DLC 7 Mercenaries stages into one bundle DLC. Buying the bundle would save a player a few dollars. Of course, if you liked the mercenaries mode, you would probably had already brought all the stages already and still be happy with not waiting for a bundle. If not, this is your chance to get even more play value out of this game at a discount. | video-games_xbox |
Beautiul & historical, but a lot of trial and error. Admittedly, (as of this writing), I've only been playing the game a few days and have about 6 hours (passed game time, but in reality much longer) invested into thus far. So how can I rate something with only 6 hours play? Well, because I've played the rest of series before hand and believe I should know what to expect...with obvious improvements and new features.
The good:
- Game is stunningly beautiful. With each new incarnation in the series, the graphics, effects, details, sounds, landscape always seem to improve and this is no exception. It's a beautiful world.
- Cities are HUGE. One of the first cities, Boston, is gigantic with a lot to discover. It feels like a real city with many more people, animals, and day-to-day life going about.
- Educational: As you come across new NPC, landmarks, buildings, your "online" database, the Animus, does a nice job of teaching history, just not the intersting facts, but also the "feel" of teh culture at the time. I've actually learned 'real stuff' here that you won't find in your generic U.S. History classes.
- Cut scenes and cinematics are really well done and draw you in deeper and depper.
- It's still fun as all heck to explore the cities looking for collectibles, treasures, and other goodies.
The bad:
- Some of the cutscenes and cinematics (at least early on) seem long and tedious at times. Sure you can 'skip' them, but you also don't want to miss important plot points. But sometimes conversation go on and on thus breaking up the gameplay experience.
- Many times mission instructions text scrolls by way too fast to read. I wish I could 'pause' at times just to read what I am expected to do before it disappears.
- Enemy 'Red Coats' are numerous in cities, and it seems this time around, it's harder to avoid arousing suspicion or breaking line of sight. While I appreciate the step up in enemy A.I., the constant annoyance of Red Coats everywhere can be frustrating.
- Very first tutorial is confusing for new players. Even as someone whose played earlier incarnations, I found starting tutorial direction lacking at times. I would like more 'practice' options in figuring out the controls, especially combat/fighting....My first few fights were more about button mashing then it was about strategy and countering.
- Quirky writing: Some of the database entries try to be cute and funny with forced humor - Note developers: the jokes aren't funny and seem forced and hackneyed at best. Don't do this in the future.
- Too many people in cities can cause for some confusion at times when the action gets intense. With so many people on the screen at once, you'll sometimes lose sight of your own character and who you are actually controlling....they all look alike after a while.
The ugly:
- No print manual. I know everything is digital these days, but I like to be able to turn pages for quick reference or look up. The 'ingame' manual can be difficult to navigate, or even find at times, and information contained within seems lacking of gameplay details.
- Trial by fire instructions/objectives and their subsequent consequences. Because the online manual is not fleshed out and early tutorials don't divulge everything or let you practice a lot, you sometimes are thrown into situations where you only figure out what you are supposed to do by failing a few times first. Yeah, it's nice you can restart a mission at anytime, but vague (and I mean vague) instructions and/or mission parameters will leave the player frustrated by not understanding what Ubisoft intends for you to do at first. | video-games_xbox |
Defying closure. Just about the time I began to wonder when we'd see the next Legacy of Kain game this game was announced. It seems that this game was released only six months or so after the initial announcement of it and while the game is superb there are some serious problems that should not be over looked.
Legacy of Kain has become my absolute favorite game series, and it looks as though it is either over, or drawing to a close very soon, with the way that Defiance ends, however I believe the series may be over. I will explain momentarily. The plot has been one of the most intriguing and genuinely brilliant storylines ever committed to a game. The type of story that would go down in horror novel history as a true classic, only with the cinematic flare of available technology.
I remember playing through the original Silicon Knights "Blood Omen: The legacy of Kain" and while the game is very dated it was still filled with a breathtaking story, and every installment of the series since then has kept me wanting more, but now it seems there is closure, and its very satisfying.
See the events of defiance do a lot to tie many of the loose plot threads together, even giving the events of the convoluted Blood Omen 2 some semblance of credibility, leaving only one question... Vorador was killed in BO: LOK, it was reiterated in Soul Reavor 2, and again in Defiance, so why is he alive in Blood Omen 2? I rather enjoyed the twist with Janus Aldron, however, and this could explain how the Hyldan ended up imprisoning him, but unless Vorador was rescued at the last second... At any rate as you can see although this game does have satisfactory closure and it would be okay with me if they end it here there's still a few more issues to resolve. The problem is that only one between Raziel and Kain can carry on. The story for this installment is phenomenal, up there with the original BO: LOK, and Soul Reavor 2, not down in the dredges like the ill conceived BO 2. This game finally outlines the true villain, the Elder God himself, not the Hyldans, not the vampires, or the humans, and even Moebius gets a huge surprise with the revelation of the games true villain.
Although the story takes huge strides to get the series back on an artistic track (where as Blood Omen 2 was a slapped together cash cow) there are serious flaws that another month or two could have easily fixed. Legacy of Kain has always had problems with clipping. BO 2 had slowdown, and there were times when the lip-synching was of as well, but nothing like what I experienced here. Of the games the clipping in Defiance is the worst. There are times when your weapon will go right through enemies without hurting them. Walking through some scenery, while others cannot even be approached, stepping through a wall out of the gaming world an getting stuck there, and worst yet, falling through a floor into the gaming world and getting stuck in an icky green matrixy looking screen. Worst of all there was one glitch that impeded my progress for hours. Whatever happens once you have the heart of darkness DO NOT TURN THE GAME OFF until after you have resurrected Janos Aldron. The heart of darkness vanished from my inventory, and I could not go back for it. Thankfully I save on multiple files incase I miss something, but having to start that chapter over was annoying. Glitches like this need to be fixed before the game ships. I feel like this game was rushed to the shelves when it needed a couple more months.
The voice acting, once again is superb, although Mobeus's voice is strangely more like Richard Doyal's Pias Agustas from the sleeper hit Eternal Darkness (a Silicon Knights title exclusively for Nintendo GameCube) than the Mobeus I'm used to, a stark contrast from the weak old man voice that has been used in the past, and to some degree, a Kain sound a like. I do not like that change, and to know its being done by the same voice actor who has done the character all along makes it worse. Simon Templeman, and Michael Bell return to the role of Kain and Raziel, more confident in their abilities than ever, all of the original voice actors make a return and each one performs on levels that most movie stars only dream of reaching. Its only a shame that the acting in most Hollywood productions can't be this good.
Although I feel the Edios aught to consider a price reduction because of the seriousness of the glitches I do recommend this title for LOK fans. Considering that his may be the final chapter of the series newbies may want to pick up at least Soul Reavor 2 to understand where we're at in the story, although the further back you can go before playing this game the better, otherwise do not miss this title. | video-games_xbox |
Excellent design, poor translation. Seriously though...
Given the low number of RPG's available on the 360, I've been anticipating this game for quite some time now. Suffice to say, I was excited when I first popped the game in. From the art design to the seamless transition between cut scenes and player-controlled combat, the introduction was impressive. Though I didn't have access to skills or magic yet, the combat system seemed to be enjoyable.
My problem with the game occurred shortly after Kaim arrives at Uhra. I was starting to get a bit worried while watching the cut scenes featuring the debating Uhra Council. The dialogue just seemed...wooden. I don't know if it was the voice actors or the writing itself that irked me. It was probably a combination of both. Come to think of it, the only voice actor I was truly impressed with was the one that played Jansen. But I tried to ignore it. After all, I've played decent RPG's that have had their share of wooden dialogue.
The situation became impossible to ignore by the time Kaim had his first flashback of the past. I was initially hopeful. The brief cut scene was intense and emotional. It worked. But then the game launched into a bloated short story. The next five minutes were filled with screen after screen of text that transitioned in and out like it belonged in a PowerPoint slideshow. That wasn't really the problem. It was the writing itself that rubbed me the wrong way. Do you want melodrama? Look no further, folks. This little gem read like the premise of a Lifetime movie, except it was written by an eighth grader. I'd like to think the blame lies on the translation of the game to English. Maybe the Japanese version doesn't come across this sappy.
But man, is this bad. They beat you over the head with an over-abundance of flowery adjectives and clich metaphors, all but screaming in your ear, "This is beautiful and poetic! Feel bad for Kaim! NOW!" I am sure that some of you out there may know what I am talking about. It was the kind of writing that made me think of Christopher Paolini's Eragon novel. It read a little something like this:
"The nighttime dew glittered on the delicate crimson flowers like a thousand twinkling stars in the shadowy midnight sky, untouched by the bitter harshness of the cruel world. Kaim felt his very soul cry out in eternal pain and sorrow as he glanced at her and saw the shimmering pearly tears gliding down her beautiful milky cheeks...blah blah blah."
Do you get my drift? My friends and I groaned as we struggled through this tripe. We were relieved once it was finally over and the game resumed. But no more than ten minutes later, we were treated with YET ANOTHER flashback story that was even longer and more juvenile than the first one. Except this one didn't have the interesting cut scene before it. If I were in charge of this game's translation, I would have smacked the person that wrote this junk with a giant "Writing for Dummies" book. This prose needs some relentless red pen treatment. The emotion they are trying to pound into your skull would have been a hell of a lot more subtle and effective if they had cut out the melodramatic flab.
From what I've seen so far, they treat Kaim like he's the emo poster boy for Immortals. I understand the game is full of these "dreams" of Kaim's past. I don't think I could personally handle that, no matter how cool the other aspects of the game are.
I already know some of you may bash me for this review. You may criticize me for rating the game this low without playing it the entire way through. Save your breath. I am entitled to my opinion. I'm certainly not going to play this game the whole way through if I have to be bombarded with wishy-washy middle school creative writing projects that take me out of the story rather than immerse me.
What is my final word on the game? If you can stomach this kind of stuff without being instantly turned off, go right ahead and pick it up. I'm sure the rest of the game is really cool. As for myself, if I want a dramatic RPG, I want one that doesn't try this hard. I want one that conveys emotion without making me want to puke all over my Xbox 360. Thanks for reading. | video-games_xbox |
Wow. I have been an avid PC and console gamer for...well, as long as there have been PC and console games, and have probably played hundreds of the darn things over the last two decades, and I can comfortably say, that Bioshock, is one of the top two or three games I have ever played, and absolutely the best console game.
It's one of those rare games, that has all of what you love about a great game, with none of what annoys you. I realized, after about 10 hours of play, that absolutley nothing was ticking me off. If there was ever a game that got everything right, it's Bioshock.
Normally, you hear much about a shooter having an "absorbing story", and you're just like: "yeah, yeah, just shut up and let me shoot you". But Bioshock, actually does. The bleak, dystopian world scenario is hardly new in gaming, but Bioshock puts a great twist on things; and the art-deco 1940's sci-fi world is very refreshing and incredibly rendered. If you are as sick as I am of endless hallways filled with crates, you are in for a helluva treat. Not only does this game look amazing, but the design is so good, and so original, that it really does "absorb" you.
The biggest suprise to me, was level of literacy, and period detail. This game wasn't really designed for modern kids, and certainly wasn't designed by one. The villian, an obvious nod to conceptual novelist Ayn Rand, ends up being more complex than the average "evil rich corporate Republican" guy we're all so sick of by now, and not only is the voice acting a-list quality, but they even speak pretty authentic 1940's dialogue, with accurate period inflection. If you watch an old movie from the 40's you'll notice that not only was the slang and colloquial language different, but so was the actual style of speech. The characters in Bioshock don't sound like modern mallrats in seersucker suits, they sound like people from the 40's. The sense of period is very accurate, moreso than most Hollywood films (although a "German" lady character has a very obiously Russian accent lol).
Even the shooting, was fabulously fun. When I first started playing, I thought "oh no..shooting old revolvers isn't fun." But don't forget, even though Bioshock takes place in the 40's, it's still a sci-fi what-if adventure, and the assortment of weapons are a gas to use. And "adventure" is really accurate. Even though it's an FPS with a fair amount of bloody shooting, it really feels and plays more like an old Sierra adventure game than a Quake-style shooter. The plot matters in this game, unlike many others, and you spend more time exploring the amazing world and solving puzzles than actually shooting, so consider that a mild warning if you are a shooting "rivethead".
Bioshock is a very long game, but it was so addicting, that I played it almost non-stop for 4 days and finished it. I actually just rented it, because normally games that are centered on plot don't have a lot of replay value for me, but this one I can imagine playing over and over, so the lack of multi-player doesnt really matter to me here. I'll be buying this sucker as soon as payday hits.
In short, the hype around Bioshock is no hype. This game even killed Half-life and Halo for me, and that's saying a lot. Halo3 is going to have a helluva climb to even get near Bioshock, and i never thought I'd say that.
To wrap-up, even though much of Bioshock's conceptual nods and references will probably sail over the heads of most modern teen gamers, it won't matter a darn. They'll be to busy being knocked out by the best visual world and gameplay mechanics I've ever seen. | video-games_xbox |
I was legitimately excited. Okay this is lengthy, so I've decided to give it a Chapter title
COMMAND & CONQUER RED ALERT 3: RTS SHAME
Chapter 1: Why this game sucks
When I first saw previews of this game back before it came out, I was excited. Look and sounded like Red Alert 2 , which was one of the most exciting and entertaining RTS campaigns I've ever had the luck to play. I remember the developers of Red Alert 3 saying how they were designing a Co-op campaign, which I thought was cool at the time. Unlike most of the low star reviewers on here, I don't care about the SecuRom issue, its never caused me problems, though lack of Lan is distressing.
The problem with this game is that the "co-op" campaign, is forced on you. I don't believe reviewers covered this. Sure I would love to play with a friend. But if you don't, you are forced to play with an AI partner, which is the most annoying thing ever and ruins the game. It also adds like 6 more "actors" to be annoying during gameplay. Having them divides your forces, your resource management, and overall you control and fun over the game. You are able to give the "Co-Commander" no more than 4 very basic commands, which they barely even stick to. Its muddled down, light, this game isn't even a fraction of what C&C 3 was. I personally like to take my time in an RTS. I usually build up defenses, build 50 tanks, go have a some fun. In Red Alert 3, you can't really do this, and say it was fun.
If you play it on Easy, the Co-op AI will beat the level for you, if you play it on Medium, they rush in and die. I now understand the pain of Resident Evil 4 fans for Resident Evil 5's forced AI partner (I loved RE5, but I always had a friend over to play splitscreen which is the only way), but sadly its much more difficult to play multiplayer with my friends with Red Alert 3, being a computer game without lan. Also only knowing two people who would be down, one who has the system requirements. I play games in the same room as my friends, not over the internet.
Command & Conquer 4 came out after this heap, and it not a C&C game, but it was more fun than this. The only problem is that game, which is a class based (Offense, Defense, and Support, none get a full loadout) on the move RTS type, needs Co-op, so its like they worked on the Co-op aspect for the wrong game.
Overall, Red Alert 3 on a technical level is great though. The graphics are really awesome, they look like Red Alert 2 but shinier. The music is badass just like a C&C should be. It plays just like all C&C, mostly. Seems to be some Starcraft 2 competition. With dumbing down mineral mining to just having gold mines essentially which is a bore. There's also a half thought out balancing of the 3 sides. They tried to pull a Starcraft and make everyone build different. The Allies play like any C&C game. The Japanese build everything into all in one vehicles which you move around and deploy. Then the Soviets, my favorite are ruined, you have to place a building and then let it build, which completely unfair because it can be destroyed, this is something other sides don't have to worry about. This is how you would build a building in a game like Warcraft, or Starcraft, except one of many builders could do it. In Red Alert 3, you get one building at a time, so its crucial to to stick with C&Cs formula, which is it builds then you place it. Simple
This could have been one of my favorite Real Time Strategies, but they ruined it with irrational design choices. AI Co-Commander takes the fun out of it 100%. If you're an RTS fan, you should feel quite insulted by this dumbing down of gameplay. Sad day of RTSs, at least Starcraft 2 was really fun, with the exception of the occasional screw up. | video-games_xbox |
It's good to be back, but doesn't last long. It's good to be back...
I was a big fan of the previous installment, even with some significant flaws. This time around they have made some significant improvements that make the game much better. First, let's hit the basics.
Graphically, as many have noted, the game isn't exactly cutting edge. Frankly, I couldn't care less. It isn't so bad that it was jarring, it just isn't quite as nice as some of the other games that currently call my console home. But don't let this put you off, they really are still nice to look at.
Some of complained about the controls, which I really don't understand. There are a number of control schemes that truly cater to all types of players. Want a traditional FPS layout--go for it. The third configuration is exactly what you are after. In addition, I would point out to all the complainers, that even in the FPS world, there is NO "standard" configuration, with notable differences in the major franchises such as COD or Halo.
Load times, as noted by others, are pretty long. This isn't THAT big of a deal, because you don't see the load screens all that often. It is a minor irritant at best. If having a great game comes with some longer load times, it is a trade I have no problem making.
Now let's move on to some more positive aspects of the game. First of all, you START off as a badass this time around. In the previous game, our hero had just received his "augs", so you really had to build yourself up from nothing. This time around, Adam starts out pretty well loaded up to kick some butt. I really love the way they did it. After the first primary mission, Adam gets himself into trouble and essentially has most of his augs reset. But don't worry, that is where the beauty of it becomes apparent. You've had the opportunity to test out some of his powers, and now you can decide if you want to keep them! You don't lose the points either. When the reset happens, you get the points back to spend however you'd like--a very nice feature.
Ammo this time around is a bit more generous than we saw before. In the last game, I tried to play more of the "run and gun" style, which was virtually impossible because of the ammo limitations. This time around things are more generous, although you still have to be mindful of ammo, and may have to utilize a number of weapons to keep the bullets flying. Along with some of the upgrades, you should still be able to go in guns blazing if you want. This time around, I decided to go with a bit of a mix, and I'm enjoying it a great deal. I started off by maxing out my "battery" upgrades. I mean--why have all these cool powers if you can't use them very often? I do think it is silly that some things cost you battery power, like takedowns, for example.
The world itself is nicely done. There is a REAL feeling of tension in the game world. Police are EVERYWHERE, and they harass you and the citizens every step of the way. It is a wonderfully created atmosphere that really pulls you into the game world and the stresses of the conflict happening with the issue of augmentations.
You really can approach most conflicts in a number of ways. Straight up gunning, stealth, or a combination of the two. In fact, with some of the stealth upgrades, it almost makes some of the encounters feel TOO easy. Most returning players will find similar mechanics that they are used to from the other installments, such as hacking, the inventory system, weapon mods etc. There isn't a huge assortment of weapons, but then with this type of game you don't really need them.
In terms of augs, you'll see not only the returning abilities from the previous games, but plenty of pretty cool new ones that can make you feel like a REAL bad ass. They have even added some additional functionality to some of the old augs, making them even more useful and fun.
One reason I knocked off a star was because of the TERRIBLE "breach" mode. I won't waste much time on it, but I will point out that it does nothing to increase my enjoyment of the game. I had really hoped this would be a cooperative mode that would allow me to enjoy this wonderful franchise with friends, but it was not to be. It feels rushed, incomplete, tacked on, and just plain bad. And, as others have noted, they have implemented the often hated microtransactions. Personally, I think if folks want to toss real money into a game to make it easier, then who cares? I just don't like this game mode, so I think it is a missed opportunity. They could have done something here to really expand the reach of the game, and they just blew it.
I'll give one example of "good" microtransactions. You can actually purchase Praxis kits for use in the campaign. Here again, some folks will complain. But if you want to spend a few extra bucks to get some extra upgrades and dominate your way through the game, why not? You paid big money for YOUR game, and you should be able to play it any way you want. I think it can take away the thrill of leveling up as you progress through the game, so although I haven't utilized it, I don't fault anyone who does. Besides, it may be nice on a second playthrough to do it as a 100 percent stud with all the upgrades!
The only area where the jury is still out is on the length of the game. I haven't finished yet, so I may be back to add an update after it is all said and done, but so far I am very impressed with the game, and it feels great to be back in the Deus Ex universe.
*****Update*****
Okay, wow. I had to post an update and knock off a star when I beat the game and ALL side missions in about 35 hours. In an era where we have games like The Witcher, Dragon Age and Fallout--the bar is set pretty darn high for game length. For them to release a game this short is not a good indicator of the future of the franchise. I will certainly not buy the next game on day 1. I'll wait for it to drop in price and buy it used next time around. Bad, bad move folks. | video-games_xbox |
Internet acess required plus 3 additional accounts, no manual. It is nice. Nice enough to get you off the couch and moving. Excuses like "too wet", "too cold", "too..." outside loose validity.
And one can get really sweaty - so one core goal is achieved.
However, it is quite disappointing:
- If your really want to see your basic facts and figures (duration of exercises, calories, progress, days trained), you need three additional accounts (Xbox Live, Uplay and Yourshapecenter) plus an additional Internet-connection. No thanks, might surprise MS, but I do not need to share my activities with the rest of the world. Even the 4GB Xbox should have space enough to store this data for a stand-alone use.
- Some scarce data can be found. To check the total minutes, you need to choose "My goal" (be careful not to change it by accident), not statistics (these are locked). The total calories burnt are displayed on the screen after an exercise has been finished, but not on the statistics page (locked).
- If you do not have an Internet connection, the moment you run the DVD the console's date and time is always reset to some time in November 2005, no matter how often you correct it without the disc. It is not possible to set the date and time with the DVD in place. The calendar continuously shows the wrong date and time. Very annoying.
- After having filled in the questionnaire at the very beginning, a training plan was set up (3 * 30 min per week for 4 weeks). Expected that there would be some feedback, e.g. some signal after 30 min. Or an overview. Nothing (unless you connect to the Internet). Actually, one could skip this, it is of no importance at all afterwards.
- Some exercises are flagged (blue flag). No explanation anywhere what this means. Shall I do these exercise? Shouldn't I?
- Exercises done on two days for about two hours in total, burned off (according to screen) 250 calories. Count on statistics bar: 4 min. Sorry? No explanation anywhere of how the minutes are calculated. The warm-up exercises seem not to qualify as countable exercises. Maybe, maybe not. Burned calories are counted...
- Exercises done on two days - only one day is counted.
- If you do not finish an exercise, all progress will be lost. I chose by accident a 30 min workout, but had to stop after 12 minutes.
- There's no "log out" procedure ensuring that all data is stored well. Even if the creators do not want to show it to you, it is stored if you follow the correct procedure. There's only a warning "if you do not follow the correct procedure, all data will be lost". Unfortunately there is no explanation what this procedure might be and where.
- If you are not in sync with the trainer, your exercises will not be counted as valid. So you exercise more, but without clue how many. But at least you know you moved... On the other hand he/she cheers even when you do not do anything at all.
- Some exercises are difficult to follow because of their speed. You get told what to do, but it does not help to tell me this 20 times, I got it. Slowing down would be helpful here.
- The tiny manual in the box is advertising the webpages, but almost no useful information is given for stand-alone use. So even it is stated that the connection to Internet is optional, it is a necessity.
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It is kind of underwhelming. Expected more, especially the easy parts, like displaying core data. | video-games_xbox |
Geat sound and graphics - but way 2 hard and gamplay lacking. After hearing all the hype on this game I decided to give it a try.
Graphics:
The graphics in this game are the best I have seen in any racer yet. the cars and the cities look amazingly real and the cars show off a showroom shine and reflects all lights that come from the city around them. The details are amazing as well. Your driving can be actually seen shifting gears as you speed down the city streets. The cities show off spectacular lighting effects and even have logos of popular resturants.
Sound:
Next to the Graphics the sound is the second best part of this game. Different vehicles have different engine noises. The Ferraris gives off a high pitched roar while other cars have lower sounding engines. Everytime you shift you can hear the engine actually changing gears and it is pretty realistic sounding. Aside from the cars, you have a wide range of music tunes to choose from while your driving, depending on what city your in you have the option of choosing 3 different local radio stations which each play about 6 different songs. If you are in Japan, you will actually hear Japanese music being spoken in Japanese! When you get tired of the radio you can choose from your "CD" collection which is included on the game CD. When you get tired of that, you can always play your own music while you drive.
Gameplay
The controls are very responsive and are not loose like alot of other racing games; which is a good thing. When you press left or right to turn, your car does not spin out of control...most of the time. Sometimes when your turning a corner at 15 MPH your car will mysteriously start spinning for no apparant reason. Also the computer seems to have "tank" cars. By that I mean, if your racing against the computer, all he has to do is just "tap" you and your car goes spinning out of control. However if you ram into the computer at 50 MPH it will keep moving as if you did not even hit him. That is very stupid and frustrating to say the least. The gameplay gets pretty impossible after you reach a certain level. Unless you have hours upon hours to spend each day just restarting the same race over and over again, you will probally never get all of the cars and tracks.
Presentation
This is where I feel the game is most lacking. First of all, there are not that many cars compared to other racing games. While most of the cars on the game are great, it is missing a lot that I would have like to have seen in this game. Where is the Lamborghini? M3? M5? Mclauren?. They have a Chevy Camaro, Subarau Impreza and even a Ford Focus, but they don't have a Mustang Cobra. In fact the only car represented by Ford is the Focus, big dissapointment. No Honda's either, but they do have a mitsubishi lancer. Strange. This game needs more cars period.
In addition to the lack of cars, I am not too crazy about the "Kudos" system. Basically what it is, is that you get points for "cool" things you do, (ie. sliding, spining, getting air time etc). The kudos you earn add up and depending on how many you get, you can unlock new cars and levels. This is not as easy as it sounds, because while your kudos are adding up, if you hit a wall or a cone, you lose all of the kudos you will have earned, very frustating especially when "unlocking" the next level or car depends on if you earn enough Kudos. The kudos system makes the game VERY difficult, and after while it becomes more frustrating then challenging. It seems like the game concentrates more on how many cool tricks you can do rather than how good you can drive. This is racing not an X-games competition.
Finally one more bad thing about the game play, While the city driving can be very fun, the tracks the game does have are not made in such a way that you can ever reach top speed in your car. They do have a speed challenge course, but it still is not made in such a way were you can actually maintain your speed. The track has two straight-a-ways but end in a hairpin turn where you almost have to come to a complete stop to turn. The highest speed I ever gotten was 152 in the Ferrari F50, and since I was out of road I crashed into the wall. The Ferrari has a top speed of over 200 MPH, I would have liked to have reached this speed, in a race. I remember in Need For Speed 2, I was able to get 238 MPH in the GT90, and actually was able to keep it there for a few seconds. This is impossible in PGR, which takes away from the game. What is the point of having all those fast cars if you can't really see what they can do? If they weren't goign to let you get over 150 MPH in your car then they should have had all Sedans and Coupes in this game rather than exotic sports cars!
Conclusion
Overall I am dissapointed in this game. While the sound and graphics are the best I have ever seen, the amount of cars and gameplay is lacking. This game is not for everyone, some people might like the Kudos system, but it is not for me; I I just want to race not see how many cool tricks I can do; who cares that I can slide and spin on a turn going 80 MPH?, or see how many cones I can drive through. (Again, this is supposed to be a racing game not a driver's ed course.) If you want to spend hours and hours (and I mean HOURS) trying to gain kudos points just to unlock new cars and tracks then this game is for you. If you just want to race and push your car to its limit then wait on another racing game to come out. | video-games_xbox |
Awesome. Every once in awhile, a piece of tech comes along and makes me say, "Finally, something practical and cool looking!" This is one of those products.
I was on the fence about getting one of the cases with the screens built in from Gaems. I wanted a reason to get one so that I didn't have to cart around a separate tv whenever I traveled, but just kept putting it off. Then I saw this bad boy on here and ordered one within a week. Sadly, it was out of stock and had to wait a few weeks for it to arrive. (I am in Canada, so I shipped to a family member's house to save on customs costs) The wait was well worth it, and rushed across the border the day after I was told it was delivered!
I did not experience any kind of scratches on the case from packaging like some have reported in other reviews. Maybe they fixed that issue, or I got lucky with that. The screen is better than I expected, and even is clear enough for 2 people to play split screen in Halo 4 - albeit a tad small to spot things, naturally. :) This case goes so well with my Halo 4 XBox as well...
I held my breath initially though, as I noticed a bit of 'debris' or scuffing on the screen itself. Not sure what that is, or if it can be removed. I tried some gentle scrapping with my finger, but fear I might damage it if I push too hard on it. Its mostly transparent, and ultimately does not affect gameplay. I can live with it. At least there are no dead pixels around it.
The latch near the handle can be a bit difficult to unhook when trying to open it, but just give it a little wiggle and it will come open without too much of an issue.
The short HDMI cord is a perfect length, though I worry it may wear out over time due to the contortions I have to do to make it fit into the ports of the monitor and XBox. Its not super flexible.
Well done product, love the fact that you get some stickers with it too. Simple thing, but a nice bonus. I don't regret getting this one bit! Despite my minor nitpicking, I give this beast a 5 star rating, only because I can't rate it higher! :D | video-games_xbox |
Fantastic addition to the Fallout saga. I purchased this as an online download. I played it with a level 20-30 character(after installing the Broken Steel download that raises the level cap), and earned about 4 levels while playing it through. I think this would still be an excellent experience even playing with a level-maxed character, because of the tight quests and very effectively staged battles.
This add-on is so good--it not only adds an additional mini-world, Point Lookout, that you travel to from the Wasteland (at any point in your game, and you can go back and forth), **it adds another large building to the Wasteland itself in order to flesh out one of the quests originating in Point Lookout**(--I was incorrect about this, see comment). It also provides several new weapons, and a few new creature types. The new weapons can be added to your inventory and be used back in the original Wasteland setting.
You can't take Dogmeat or any other companions along on to this location- the computer has them automatically wait for you back at their home bases. Just as well, since the feeling of being all alone and far from your usual base of operations serves to increase the tension and jeopardy.
The Point Lookout environment is a really welcome change of pace from the Wasteland. It combines white trash Maryland with some white trash Louisiana flavorings, and uses lots of new textures, graphic elements, and building designs to create a very unique look, in comparison to the endless slog through concrete rubble that you may be tired of back in DC. Atmospheric swamps, ramshackle inbred family farms, dilapidated mansions, a rural prison camp, and submerged caverns are a few of the settings.
The new enemy types are really fierce- truly nauseating inbred locals that will remind you of mutated versions of the Appalachian rednecks from Deliverance or the inbred family from that infamous X-files episode(!), complete with some "I'm gonna make you squeal!"-type scripting. They employ the new weapons, such as a nastily accurate rifle, and a mule-kicking double-barreled shotgun. These muties and some other enemies in the module can be quite a challenge, as many fights will have so many enemies, coming at you so quickly, that they will really test your VATS point-management and free-targeting abilities, as well as your tactical skills in laying mines, using cover, and employing various weapons.
In fact, the best aspect of the combat in this module is that many of the fights are incredibly staged set-pieces, with enemies coming at you in waves, employing the environment--they blow holes through ceilings and jump down, blast a hole in the wall and pour through, shoot at your from rooftops while their allies storm your position--in short, these foes come at YOU, in scripted and staged battles that will make your pulse pound. This lends a highly frenetic and tense pace to the action in many places--a sense of urgency that was lacking in many of the original campaign's fights.
Of note as well is the nice balance between tightly plotted quests with some choices to make in how to carry them out, a bit of exploration time to wander, and a good balance between indoor and outdoor locales. In short, I loved it--awesome combat, totally fresh change-of-pace from the original setting: all-in-all, well worth the money. | video-games_xbox |
DO NOT BUY - Product lacking features and poor customer support. I bought this controller yesterday and I am not happy with the product. I will be returning it today. I will also be posting a negative review thanks solely to Gilbert Garcia from pdp.com support website.
Pros:
Good button layout for MKX
Light weight.
Microswitches.
Cons:
Not compatible with any headset.
Poor customer support.
Wired.
Sharp edges on dpad.
X and A buttons is a far reach, buttons should be smaller and closer together.
Loose buttons, feels cheap.
No user manual or any documentation in box.
Product not listed on pdp.com website or the support website.
Glossy finish collects finger prints.
I used the controller the last two days and I have to say its a great design improvement for mortal kombat x over the standard xbox one controller, however, it lacks some features; one of which is a deal breaker for me. I will be going back to the standard xbox controller. On first impression when I opened the box I though, "oh wow this looks and feels cheap" in a hollow nurf toy kind of way, very different from the quality you get from the microsoft xbox one controller. The buttons are loose and sitting ontop of switches, if you shake the controller you can hear the buttons rattling. Its also really light weight, it's obviously bare bones basic inside, no wiresless anything, no vibrators, no headset port, just a few switches and a couple LED indicators that I have no idea what they mean or do.
My biggest problem, and also a deal breaker for me, is the lack of a headset port. People were talking to me in game and I had no way to respond with this controller plugged in, the only way I could chat with people is if I used my standard xbox controller, but only one can be on at the same time or it will ask you to sign in as a different user. I was trying to play a team fight and I could not talk to my friends.
After using it for a day by thumb developed a blister due to the sharp edges of the dpad, not a big deal as im sure my thumb could get used to it if I decided to keep it. But still not comfortable. Those of you with callused "gamer" thumbs probably won't have an issue.
There is a USB adapter at the end of the cable, im not sure what its for, and a user manual does not exist online or on pdp.com so I couldn't tell you what its for.
There are 5 leds on the controller, one is obviously power, the other for I am not sure of because the only time they turned on for me was briefly when I flipped the switch from xbox one to xbox 360 to see what it did. This might have been another question easily answered with a user manual.
Customer support is extremely poor. I called the phone number and was put on hold for a bit then another recording came on saying no one was available and to submit a support ticket online. When I went to submit a ticket online they do not even list the product to choose for support. I selected "048-012 XB One Rock Candy Wired Controller" as it was the closest thing to the MKX Fightpad. I wanted to know if there was a way to use the fight pad and possibly my other controller to utilize the headset functionality. Instead of an answer my question, first he got my name wrong then I was told "in reality [chat] is not part of the game and is not needed to play a game. Chat is a feature and not a necessity in all games. You don't really need chat to play a game." I was also questioned by pdp with my concern of lack of user manual and was told "As far as a manual do you need one for a plug and play controller with no real special features other than a platform switch?" Since my integrity was questioned rather than my support question answered, I replied to that, and of course I got a completely professional response of "Your welkome, glad i was able to help." I really appreciate the 1337 gamer slang response from Gilbert over at pdp, he really knows how to make customers feel happy. In case you are reading this Gilbert, I am being sarcastic, since it probably went over your head. I'll post the full ticket dialogue below. You all have been warned!
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Adrian ********:
Hello, I just bought the mortal kombat x fight pad for my Xbox one to play the new game. People are talking to me and I have no way of talking back since the controller does not have a headset input. How can I use this controller and talk to people on a headset? If there is no option to communicate with people I must return this product and let other people know it isn't fully compatible with the game or Xbox one. Also the product comes with no user manual or any documentation and the product doesn't seem to be on your website under x box one or controllers.
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Gilbert Garcia: Hello Alan *******
How is this controller not fully compatible with the game?
So far the only issue you have mentioned is that you purchased a MKX fight pad and are unable to speak to people on xbox one while playing the game. Which in reality is not part of the game and is not needed to play a game. Chat is a feature and not a necessity in all games. You don't really need chat to play a game.
As far as a manual do you need one for a plug and play controller with no real special features other than a platform switch?
Also just incase you didn't already know. "Currently, third-party wired controllers do not have this port. Therefore, peripherals designed for the Xbox One Wireless Controller that are dependent on the expansion port will have limited or no functionality. In other words, if your headset requires audio to be plugged into the Xbox One controller via the Xbox One Stereo Headset Adapter, it may not work on a third-party controller, which does not have the expansion port." Source: Microsoft
Feel free to return the controller back to the retailer for a refund and buy your self an official microsoft controller as that will suit you needs to chat in game.
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Adrian *******:
The controller is not fully compatible with the game because it does not support all features of the game, chat being one feature. There is no way to text chat in a fight only voice chat which will not work with this controller. There is co-op and team play in online which makes voice necessary. As far as a manual goes, the controller came with a USB adapter that I am unfamiliar with and it would have been nice to have some kind of reference to read should I want to know what the product I bought is for, and maybe even an explanation which you cited as to why not all features of the game are supported by this controller. At the very least put a manual on your website or even a simple web page. Kudos for a stellar support system that instead of answering question goes on the defense with an opinionated argument of if chat is a necessary game feature. Maybe YOU don't like to chat but others do.
Thanks for your help, I will inform the amazon community possibly interested in purchasing this product.
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Gilbert Garcia: Your welkome, glad i was able to help.
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The Best Game of the Year that Will Most likely Be Ignored. There was a lot of buzz for Watch Dogs before it came it. When it was released it received good, but not amazing reviews. I have had the opportunity to play this game for many hours now (15+). This is one of the best games for XboxOne yet. It is also a game that history will likely ignore.
Graphics: The graphics are impressive. Hands down. This is a sand box type game, i.e., a style of game which typically sacrifices graphics for larger environments. Not Watch Dogs. It is my understanding that this is only a taste of XboxOnes computing power, but it is impressive. The city truly looks like Chicago, but, more importantly it FEELS like Chicago. As I am driving down the highway, I see the trees and the sky line and I feel the autumn air. When it begins to rain, I begin to feel like it is raining. The water, fire, and smoke graphics are taken to a whole new level. When I am in a car accident, it is, literally, jarring (in a fun way). I will also note here, the non-playable characters react extremely realisticallymost of the time.
When it comes to the cut scenes, sometimes it is still not perfect, but it is noticeable just how far the technology has come. There are times that you will watch the characters and realize how realistic their eyes and facial features are.
Sound: The sounds is fantastic. In addition to the normal sounds, we are also given a soundtrack from some very popular artists. You can flip through this songs while driving or access them while walking around. As you go throughout the game, hacking peoples phones, you will unlock new songs. This keeps the songs interesting and allows the gamer to chase another, more rewarding carrot.
Game Play: This game is a mix of Grand Theft Auto 5 and Splinter Cell. It offers numerous types of game play and mini games to keep every gamer happy. There is the campaign, which is a mix of everything and, along the way, you will need to complete puzzles, which are surprisingly varies and the perfect difficulty, to access features of the city. There are Fixer Contracts in which the gamer is, amongst other challenges, to deliver a number of cars across town, running against the clock. There are Gang Hideouts in which the gamer infiltrates a gang hideout and takes down or kills the gang leader and his crew. There are Criminal Convoy missions, in which a convoy of enemies is driving to a destination and you must stop them.
Some of the missions allow for a brazen, gun slinging assault. Others require car chases which require driving skills and usage of your technology to change traffic lights, trigger road blocks, and blow up steam pipes to evade opponents. Other missions require subtlety, accessing cameras to unlock doors and knocking out the guards, one by one, blowing up pieces of the environment, distracting them with insidious text messages, or even by just causing a black out. There is so much variability, you can play for hours.
But, there are also mini games. This includes Texas Holdem, Chess, Find the Ball in the Cup, and a few others. I found these to be very fun. But, you can trigger little races to run and collect coins. You can play through techno trips which are mini games which warp the rules of the reality in the game. These were interesting, but, ultimately boring to me.
There is also online multiplayer features which offer varies types of game play, all of which was exciting, but, not taking part in it does not take away at all from the experience.
The game does a lot of things right. It gives the gamer a number of tools (Weapons, explosives, and hacking tools) and allows them to mix and match, get creative, and make their own experience. Almost every situation can be handled in more than one way. Gamers can unlock vehicles and have them delivered nearby. Gamers can unlock new weapons and upgrade their character with skill points. This allows for a natural progression to the game, as you become stronger and more familiar with the game. In many ways, the game reminds me of Grand Theft Auto in terms of the sand box nature, but more of Splinter Cell in terms of how the gamer can choose how handle situations in various ways: either stealthy or guns blazing (except not nearly as hard as Splinter Cell). The weapons and vehicles are notably varied and well balanced, further indicating how well put together the game is.
Note: One of the coolest things the game does is while driving, if you cause a high speed impact, such as causing the vehicles chasing you to hit a steam pipe explosion or fly through the air, it will go slow motion. This is a lot of fun and reward the gamer with a cinematic experience.
Story: This is the games only draw back. The story is not very good. It tries hard. It is even interesting at many points. However.it is slightly drawn out and sometimes difficult to follow, even if you are paying close attention. But, even if you lose track of what is going on, you get the idea of what is happening. And the characters are not exactly well developed eitherNonetheless, it remains fun, draws you in, and triggers some of the most memorable moments of the game.
Overall, this game is incredible. The graphic and sounds are some of the best Ive ever seen in a sand box. The game play takes it up a notch in terms of variability and cinematic style. It offers a ton of variety, finding new and interesting carrots for gamers to chase and stay interested in the game. It combines the style of Grand Theft Auto and the RPG/Strategy elements of Splinter Cells and creates a sum that is greater than its parts. I played this once and put it down thinking it was a good, but not great game. I picked it up again the next day, investing in it, realizing more and more just how great it really is.
I wholly recommend this game, particularly to those parents whose kids are asking for Grand Theft Auto, but are reluctant due to just how much explicit content is in it. 5 Stars. | video-games_xbox |
One of the best games of 2012. I remember visiting ign almost daily in 2008, waiting for news on the release of Max Payne 3, and when I saw that it would be released in winter of 2008 I was ecstatic. Winter of 2008 came, and nada. It had been delayed, and since since, Max Payne 3 has been delayed more times than I can count, but finally! It is here. This game is great, plain and simple. Bullet time is back and more epic than ever. Seeing that final bullet completely rip apart your enemy in a bloody gorey fashion is sickly satisfying. The controls are a little tricky at first, but you should get the hang of it after an hour of play or so. You might have to refer to your booklet a few times, but you can do it!
The gameplay is much more fluid than previous titles obviously. Now when you dive and your close to a wall or an open door, you make contact with it, you just don't simply float around it. Like in real life, you die with just a few shots, and head shots in this one mean instant death, and that's including you, so you can't always just run and gun. You have to take cover and strategize. As for weapons management, you have a wheel that you can bring up in game with 4 slots. 2 for handguns, one for a larger weapon such as a shotgun, and the other slot is for dual wielding the two handguns. The graphics are beautiful, an easy 9/10. Everything is finely detailed. This game also has absolutely excellent sound. The guns actually sound like REAL guns, go figure. The voice acting is some of the best I've heard in a video game ever, and did I mention you get to kill guidos? YES! You can now kill your very own Jersey Shore look alikes in what I believe is chapter 4. This game is worthy for purchase solely on that premise. The only negative thing I can really think of is really subjective to the player. This is a heavy cut scene game, and they disguise the loading times. I'd much rather watch that as opposed to a black loading screen.
As for the multiplayer, it's effing addicting. I was expecting something a bit meh to be honest. Team deathmatch is a blast. You can level up, purchase weapons and accessories that aid you in combat, such a vest, helmets that reduce damage taken etc. I highly recommend you pick this up. | video-games_xbox |
THIS is how you do a sequel. If it came down to reviewing just the base line product quality of the game, face value, as I mean in its packaging, I'd say the only thing I was disappointed by was that it didn't come in an authenticated vinyl sleeve like most, MOST, XBOX360 games get... instead it comes in a kind of plastic-cardboard sleeve which I'm afraid to handle continuously in fear I might damage the poor thing. It's not delicately fragile, but considering paper has a tendency to tear? It worries me...
Either way, the contents of the package from this deal are great. Great DLC's, artbook, soundtrack, bonus features such as the making of ME2 and all-- it comes with what you'd expect out of a great Collector's Edition and then some.
But then it comes down to the actual game...
In the 33rd hour of the 32nd minute... maybe give or take a couple seconds-- I just finished Mass Effect 2, and let me tell you: WHAT A RIDE!
Everything you expect about Mass Effect is left intact give or take the skewed, redone, rehashed bits noted here and there which you can read from the other people's reviews about them. I for one won't bore any of you with the details that can easily be read here, I'd only be repeating what others said and this is based on my own experience with the game, however, I will note a few key features that Mass Effect 2 offers.
CONTINUING WHERE YOU LEFT OFF-- while Bioware promises a unique, original experience out of this sequel of a propose trilogy, if no one has ever played the first game, it honestly to me is a shame because ME1 offered one of the most ambitious, largest in scope, unique as well as lovingly developed world any game designing structure has ever known. Am I saying you'll be left out of the dark? No, but you WILL have missed out on alot of things that make the Mass Effect experience a whole lot more deepening. When the first ME came out, I was captivated, enthralled and stuck to my couch easily for over 10 days doing, playing and ultimately memorizing nearly every bit and scope of the ME game and the universe of it itself. So much, in great detail that even after having bought the ME strat. guide out of curious necessity, and after having gone through its pages, I'd found out I had actually done everything as noted in its pages, to the word.
Yet again, will you be left out? I honestly cannot tell you because I have anticipated this game since the edgy cliffhanger that has kept me on my toes for this sequel for so long, and now here it is. I will say though that in moments where I have played the game, I imagined myself as someone new to the experience "What if I've never played Mass Effect 1?" And Bioware has taken careful consideration to fill people in on loose ends that might confuse newcomers. Much like soap operas, it leaves no error out to quickly patch you in, given you pay attention and actually care (which this game does very VERY well at bringing you in). The story is deep, the characters have a very distinct quality to them which often took me by surprise that I'd believe these fictitious entities felt closer than some of the people I've ever run to in real life (makes me wonder sometimes...).
The combat system feels a whole lot different than from the original Mass Effect... for those who haven't played it, allow me to allude it to Gears of War's. There's a very distinct cover system where you stick to walls, obstacles and such which prove beneficial to your survival and overall performance in the game. Compared to the original though? This sequel's revamped combat system, along with improved AI proved challenging. Expecting this to be easy is an overstatement. If you aren't careful, things can get dicey very quickly if you aren't paying attention. It's fast, it's visceral, but not so much "I'll kick your ass into tomorrow and make you feel it for a week" kinda a way. More like a "This action kicks ass as long as you're maintaining your situation, maggot!" It's not hard... and others might argue it's not even challenging while others will comment on the revamped combat system's shortcomings. Personally? Every fight felt exactly the way it should have been. Each fight went down exactly as I imagined they should, and I'd replay every outcome similar, if not the same to them every time which I'm sure I will in many future replays to come.
Speaking of replayability-- this game will deliver. With so many ways to handle a situation, so many outcomes to expect, you'll never know or imagine what your next game might end up like. Take into consideration that you can pair this experience up by going out of your way to actually the original Mass Effect? I promise you, if you want to get the full on experience about Mass Effect, play from 1 to its sequel now and you will see just how big of a game this really is, I guarantee it. I even imagine had I not ever played the original and after playing Mass Effect 2, it would have developed a curiosity so massive, there would have been no way to ignore that kind of experience. Combine Mass Effect 1 with Mass Effect 2, you have got one BIG game ahead of you that you will not regret. Even my fiance, a woman who's not into shooters of this sort, plays this game and even suffers through the pains, what she finds irritable, because of the rewarding satisfaction this game delivers elsewhere, storyline.
Seriously, I could go on and on and on about this but trust me, if you're reading this, you're probably just bored or need a reason to buy this game. Either one of them could be easily remedied at once-- just buy the game.
I've recommended the first ME to so many people who weren't even mildly interested in what it could offer, with the expected "Wellll, I dunno..." till they actually played the game and came back "I cannot believe I hadn't played this earlier!" You wanna be surprised? Dig into some Mass Effect, even by its sequel right here, right now. It's a big universe out there, go and getcha some with Mass Effect!
I've only played through this game once, but I'm seriously considering booting up the old Mass Effect 1 games, playing through the other characters I planned on playing up to bring them into ME2 just to see how it would all play out. This'll be a game which will never see the dust looking to collect on itself, it's just that good. | video-games_xbox |
Underrated but still not as good as other truly open-world games. I think this game is underrated. I usually only play games that are totally open-world, but I went ahead and beat this game anyway. You get to walk around large areas and takeover buildings (I guess outposts) in whatever order you want to. The missions might be more open-world than some of Farcrys but still sort of restrictive. Theres more than one area to explore, but they're separate and it loads between them. Also, when you finish the game, it won't let you go back. The very last expansion (outside the walls) isn't open-world at all, but its still fun.
This game combines lots of games into it. You take over outpost-like places, like Farcrys radio towers. I mean, it feels the same; you have to climb and jump and stuff. It sort of feels like 007 games when you sneak around sometimes too. Also, like some games (I guess Fallout with some of its companions), you get to ask any random soldier on your team to join you and he/she will walk around with you (they don't really talk or anything). And like any open-world game, theres random bad guys you can kill all day because they just spawn and patrol.
I like the feel better than Farcry and others because the acting is really good. The games really dark and realistic. I know some people like the comic relief and silly fun of Farcry and others (I like some of that too), but this game has a better atmosphere. Its less repetitive than other games because each new zone has something different to it. One looks all war-torn, one has gas all over (where you have to wear a gas mask), one is nice and has citizens living it, and another has people too, but its more dumpy-looking.
The feel and gameplay is pretty good. You sneak around sometimes. Theres even these blimp things that float over you that you hide from. And in yellow zones, you try to blend in with the regular people. Theres only a few weapons, but you get the main types. You can choose early on which one you want. Theres a submachine gun type, automatic assault rifle type, slower riffle type, sniper, shotgun, pistol, etc. You can change the scopes and other attachments too. Theres different bombs too. You collect money to buy stuff at the safe houses or those outpost-type places. The only vehicle you get to ride almost anytime is only a dirt-bike (or maybe its a motorcycle).
So if you have time, you could try this. Keep in mind that only Skyrim and Fallout (that I know of) are super great games that Im totally satisfied with. I try to look for other open-world games. This one is probably the least open-world game of the ones that claim to be. Tom Clancys Ghost Recon: Wildlands has realistic feel to it too but also has better graphics and is really open-world with all the space you can explore and random things to do. However, it has a third-person-view while Homefront and my favorites have a first-person-view. | video-games_xbox |
It's Reach Seems to Have Extended its Grasp. I truly believe that if the developers took a few more months to polish it up, [PROTOTYPE] would have been a real jaw-dropper. There are so many moments that the game almost becomes immensely fun to play, but for me, there always seems to be some irritation the prevents the game from really dropping into "5th gear" so to speak.
I won't rehash the plot. It's a little different and modestly interesting, but the way that it's told, in my opinion, makes it extremely difficult to really immerse yourself in it. The basic idea is that you wake up with amnesia and need to "consume" certain people who are flagged in the city as having a small piece of your memory. Doing this triggers a flash-back and from there, you put together what happened to you. In a nut-shell, it plays like a big jigsaw puzzle. The issue is that you start off knowing so little, that for me, it was difficult to feel like you're understanding what's going on. This lends the game to degenerating into a "run here" "Hit this check-point" "Take out the target" without really understanding why you're doing it. This might be something that certain gamers don't mind, but for me, the style of story-telling was a bit of a turn-off.
The city itself is a replica of New York City. Unfortunately though, it's really pretty ugly. There not a lot of color or variety and it can make it difficult to just "know" what part of the city you're in just by looking at your surroundings and not checking the map. Think for a second, for comparison's sake, at GTA 4. That game was stone-brilliant at the way it crafted its environment! This definitely is a missed opportunity here. Even the citizens don't have a whole lot of variety to them. You can probably count the number of character models on one hand.
The graphics are a pretty interesting mish-mosh of above and below average points. On one hand, the frame-rate is absolutely absurd. There are points where there is so much going on that the feeling of complete chaos will be totally and convincingly conveyed. This is one of the things that [PROTOTYPE] is doing really well and it's impressive! On the other hand, on top of a fairly ugly city, the amount of "pop-in" graphics, I thought, was unacceptable. For example, there's a mini-game throughout [PROTOTYPE] that has you collecting these "landmark" and "hint" orbs of light. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to hijack a helicopter and do a fly-over of the city in order to look for them in open-areas or building-tops. The orbs won't show though, unless you're virtually right on top of them. The ability to see objects at a distance is really poor.
The controls definitely needed work. I had the same complaint about 'Star Wars: The Force Unleashed', but the environment being as destructive as it is, is both a blessing and a curse. There's so much debris to pick up and potentially so many enemies on screen, that in highly-chaotic situations (which is often) it becomes frustrating to try and target the object that you want. I could be mistaken, but the AI seems to default to selecting artificial targets for me to attack, regardless of distance. So lets say I'm in the middle of a war-zone and I'm being besieged by both tanks and a bunch of these mutant hunter-things. If I just hit the "target-lock" button, it'll default to selecting the tank, NOT the monsters that are directly in front of me and beating me senseless. That extra second or two it takes to get the targeting correct makes a huge difference in maintaining your character's health on the higher difficulty levels. The other thing about the targeting is that it's being controlled on the same joy-stick that controls your camera. This isn't doing you any favors when you feel you have a good angle on the action ...
Where [PROTOTYPE] really becomes a game worth checking out though, is your super-powers and your ability to upgrade them! There's a ton of really cool stuff that'll keep you playing just for the chance to unleash some of these beauties! Organic blades, whips, Hulk-like biceps and fists, full body armor, a shield, the ability to glide ... [PROTOTYPE] has got it all! It's wildly fun to drop yourself in a military base (for example) and just go bananas, you really start to feel invincible! Conceal your identity by absorbing a military officer and sneak into a military base. You can then turn around and take an APC, tank, or helicopter for whatever use you please. Wreaking havoc is what you gain experience from, and that's how you earn the ability to upgrade your powers. It's all very cool and a lot of fun!
It's just frustrating that a lot of, what I felt were, missed opportunities here were totally fixable, if the proper time was just taken to do it. Whether it was because of time or money, I was left with the impression that [PROTOTYPE]'s designers really wanted to do more then they were ultimately able to. I'd still have no reservation about giving it a thumbs up though, especially now that it's been released for a while. I'm not sure it was worth fifty or sixty dollars, but at this point you should be able to grab a copy at a price that's more then fair. | video-games_xbox |
The completed version of 2k6-sort of. OK first, this game is basically 2k6 with all the glitches fixed. there are no new game features, aside from a little polish in the GM mode (set ticket prices and a cool league news ticker). so if you're hoping they FINALLY got around to stuff like expansion teams, rule 5 drafts, 3 way trades, you're out of luck, wait till next year and hope.
gameplay has improved. the interfaces for batting and hitting are the same. pitches come at you a bit quicker, and the whole hitting experience is more realistic. whereas you could just swing away all the time in 2k6, plate discipline is important in 2k7. pitching is still outstanding.
baserunning and fielding have both been marginally improved. they eliminated the sprint feature in baserunning, which is really annoying. now all you can do is sit back and watch your guy run-you can no longer help him out. fielding is smoother, but at the same time your fielders have to be perfectly positioned-if the ball's hit just slightly to your left or right, instead of reaching for it, the fielder just lets it go by.
graphics are the main point of this game-they're spectacular. walking into a room and seeing someone play this, you'd probably at first think they were watching a game on TV. signature styles are very well done. overall, 11/10 for graphics-awesome job!
the one thing about the game that really annoys me is something very characteristic of the 2k series-a blatant disregard for minor leaguers/prospects. minor league depth has never been great, but this year, you've got your mlb club, only a couple real minor leaguers, a bunch of made up guys, and thats it. the lack of depth outside the 25 man mlb roster is astonishing-you'd think they could at least get the top prospects in there, as well as some veteran minor leaguers. but no.
if you're a baseball and video game fan, its worth the money in my opinion. graphics are breathtaking and gameplay is improved. just don't expect any off-the-field improvements. | video-games_xbox |
Metal Gear Solid Retrospective: Part 2. Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance
This is an interesting title. I'm a little apprehensive about what exactly I want to do with the review.
I was a little torn between what platform I would even place the review.
True, it would be easier to just use one of the HD collections and then I could get MGS 2, 3 and Peace Walker all in one shot and there's a greater chance of it being seen more by more people which is what I would actually want of my review. Like it or hate it I would like the feed back.
However, my verbose style of reviews wouldn't lend it's self well to a 3-in-1 and probably people would see a giant wall of words and just skip past.
Instead what I will be doing is review the item I had originally purchased, although I own this game across several different platforms as of July 2016, what I will be reviewing is the format and platform where I originally purchased and played the game.
Now with all of that jibber jabber out of the way,
It wasn't until after the advent of the PS3 that I ever picked up a PS2, needless to say that when Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty was released I was disappointed at not being able to get it on my X-Box console. However, I had discovered a new darling of the stealth genre in the Splinter Cell series and to some degree the original Rainbow Six games. This coupled with the plot of MGS 2 being spoiled for me by a friend who had informed me that you don't even get to play as Snake in the game I quickly lost interest and wasn't going to rush out and buy a whole new console just for one game. X-Box was what I had put my stock in and I was going to support it to the bitter end. A machine I still have to this day which still functions albeit it's old age has developed a few mechanical quirks but I did pop this disc in for a while and played through the tanker sections and the opening of the Big Shell section as a bit of a refresher.
Now, owning the X-Box version of Substance, the PS2 version of Sons Of Liberty and finally the PS3 and PS Vita HD versions, I'm not going to review or compare graphics between the different platforms.
What I will instead do is mention that as reluctant as I was to play this game, I have purchased it an unfathomable amount of times so this would be indicative that I liked the game right? Right.
As I said I never purchased a PS2 until after the PS3 had been released and a friend sold me his old PS2 (FAT) for an amount I shall not disclose because I don't think Amazon likes reviews listing prices even if I'm referencing a transaction between me and a personal friend and not an online purchase of any type. I will just say it was an amount less than was one fifth of one hundred dollars. I hope Amazon finds that number sufficiently vague.
Moving along now, I picked up a PS2, grabbed a copy of Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater and my fandom in the series was instantly reinvigorated. Now during this time period the advent of GameStop and it's cheap used games was in full swing. The PS3 and X-Box 360 were in full swing however I had access to this massive library of used and never played before PS2 games along with some XB games along the way.
On a frivolous purchased I grabbed MGS2 for the XB just because I'm slightly OCD, I can't own parts of a series without owning the whole series.
This is the reason I own films like Batman & Robin, Superman IV: The Quest For Peace and so on.
The game itself, I couldn't tell if it was just the superior graphics capability of the X-Box, but this game was rendered beautifully. At the time it was as photorealistic as anything I had experienced. As one of the early adopters of the widescreen TV format I was pleasantly surprised that there was no dead image space, due to the X-Box already being set up with these type of displays in mind with this game being one of the compatible titles.
Snake finally had a face instead of the featureless visage that I was used to from Metal Gear Solid back on the PS1.
New gameplay mechanics such as the first person aiming and hanging from railings seemed fluid, it all fit and came together well. Also stashing bodies and the non-lethal M9 weapon were all welcomed additions.
The Solid Mullet also makes it's first appearance.
Could my friend have been wrong, so long ago? Snake seemed to be the main character. Perhaps for the XB release Konami had listened to the fans and reworked this game so that Snake stayed as the main character? It seemed as though Snake wasn't going anywhere with the way the story unfolds during this section.
The game it's self still functions the same way as the old game. Inventory is controlled by shoulder (trigger) buttons. However, since you have access to several different equipment types and sub categories where now you would select an item and then move left or right to select the particular item or weapon contained in the sub section. For instance, you have access to two different types of pistols, the M9 for non-lethal kills and the SOCOM for lethality and greater stopping power. You would select either of the two and then slide left or right on the d-pad to select one of the two. I felt like this was an idea to reduce clutter in the inventory but to me it felt like it actually complicated what was previously such a simple system. Not something that ruins the game but it was enough to annoy me.
The Tanker Section ends with a huge cliffhanger and you're given a new intro, with another character calling himself snake and working with Colonel Campbell from the last game. Your character is being called Snake but you don't recognize the voice. But he's wearing a rebreather mask. Could that be why the voice sounds different?
Finally after a familiar infiltration of lower level and boarding an elevator Raiden is revealed. The games new protagonist and you will spend the rest of the game with him for better or worse.
But Mr. Voice Of Treason, how come you're not panning the game so far? Weren't you made about not getting to play as Snake?
Well to a degree, I was disappointed. Snake is featured heavily in this game just not as a playable character.
The mystery of what was going on was enough to keep me interested in the game. Although the character was different the gameplay continued identically to what had been set up in the first part of the game.
So no, there's no reason to pan the game for me.
So the game it's self feels much bigger than the previous title but while I'm playing it I keep getting all these weird feelings of familiarity. Like I've played this game before, and I'm like well did I get drunk and play it somehow before and forget? I don't really know what's happening but it's like a weird Deja Vu or glitch in The Matrix type of feeling as I go through one thrilling boss battle to the next. Moving across sections of this ocean clean up facility for an oil spill supposedly caused by Snake in the first section of the game.
I move towards the end of the game, listening to codec conversations. I find them a bit droll and robotic this time around. Not nearly as interesting or fulfilling as last time around. However this game features much more room and gameplay options so I think that might have been the intention to focus more on playing the game rather than listening to conversations between characters.
That's not to say that there is nothing there but I guess for me it's just not as interesting as it could have been. It could very well have been just the story that they were telling.
I'm having a lot of fun sneaking and stealthing my way through the game. You're given a lot more options in terms of locomotion and your ability to bypass encounters completely and then the hallway section occurs.
This strange even in the game where you are stuck in a narrow hallway sneaking past guards or knocking them out or even killing them. You could be doing fine but regardless the game forces you into an alert status and you will go into a pretty action shoot-em-up style cover and fire game. Which I didn't feel like was necessary because I mean what is the point of trying to sneak at all if the game is going to force you into gunfights no matter how you're doing?
The story of the game falls apart for me towards the end.
The narrative literally collapses on it's self as a revelation is revealed that the entire game has been a recreation of the incident from the first game. Finally I got why everything felt repetitive although I had never played the game before.
More revelations, more talking.
And then more revelations, more talking.
Solidus Snake who is he and where did he come from? This game nor any other game in the subsequent titles and spin-offs have still yet to explain. I make it a point not to spoil games so I won't go into what it is but it's another Big Boss clone but not a brother to Liquid Snake or Solid Snake. He literally just pops out for this game and then is quickly forgotten about by the rest of the franchise.
Now, I will say this. Although the crux of the game is that Raiden has been placed in a recreation scenario of the Shadow Moses incident, this game is not a remake. The story and plot are totally different. However the story it's self just falls apart with a bunch of nonsensical character revelations, overly dramatic cut scenes about characters of no import to the story in this game and who don't really feature in heavily in the overall arc of the series.
The gameplay and the journey save this game and make it a worthy installment in the overall series but I would say that this is by far the weakest story this series has ever had. No I know what you're thinking, why am I so concerned about story, it's a video game, not a movie or a TV show.
I get that. It's a valid point.
However, if I wanted a game that was just pure action and I didn't want to hear an interesting socio political plot thread about world controlling secret super powers I would have just played something like Ghost Recon or Splinter Cell, which gives you just enough story to explain why your character is there but that's about it.
MGS had gotten me invested in the characters and I wanted to see that pay off in the sequel. Instead you get one of the most confusing and quite frankly, just stupid tacked on endings I have ever seen in any form of media.
That's not to say that this game is bad or that I hate it, as I mentioned above I have purchased this game again and again across multiple platforms and I derive enjoyment from the gameplay and certain aspects of the story. Which is why it still gets a four star rating although I have stated that I think it's the worst game in the series.
Metal Gear Solid 2 plays and looks the same across all platforms I have played it on. I do recommend the game, but I say to take it with a grain of salt because it's certainly not the greatest but it's not awful either. It's just kind of middling. The following sequel will more than make up for any shortcomings this game might have had. | video-games_xbox |
THERE ARE KEY CHANGES TO THE XBOX ONE, BUT NOT ENOUGH TO BUY. THIS ONE IS JUST FINE $199.00. During Easter break 2014, this went down to $199, XBOX AND THE KINECT ( from AMAZON)
I will start by first pointing out that, I purchased this for Toddlers. My kids are 4 and 5 years old. So I am looking for games that are physical and fun. Not controller dependent. Hence, why I purchased the Kinect. And purchased it over the Playstation and over the WII, since, the kids are too small to manage even the wand. They will want to JUMP AND DANCE, and do things, with their entire bodies. So the Kinect has the best catalog, for their age group of games, clearly over 100 titles. And I am a 40 year old mom, who has not owned a game system since SEGA Genesis. So this is bringing me into the 21st century.
The graphics, are good, not the greatest, compared to the Xbox one ( meaning games designed for XBOX ONE), but just fine for kiddie games. The XBox 360, has a smaller RAM capacity, and that may be an issue for heavy FPS games, or Community play. Also the XBOX one, require FULL install on all the games. Which not required on this system, and I purchased the 4GB system for that reason. I will pick up a @ 2 TB (Terrabyte) hard drive, for $80 bucks, instead. So it will have more space that both systems.
Again, they system is really plug and play, and the games are dropping in price, so no need to join the GOLD membership. Works with HULU and Amazon Prime, so it's a nice little features.
DOES NOT PLAY BLU-RAY. So that is something you might want to consider. But BLU-RAYS are dirt cheap, so I suggest by a stand alone of this as well.
In short, for occasional game play, and very young children, this is a GREAT alternative, to trips to the movies, or as a funtainment for rainy days inside. Or even days, where the pool is too crowded ( we live in NYC), and you just wanna BBQ and chill with the kids with Mocktails.
I purchased this, instead, as alternative to the amusement park, REPEAT trips. Since even with the SEASON PASSES, YOU STILL DROP $100 bucks on food, and NOT included games.
I took this out of the Hershey Park/Dutch Wonderland, fund. So the kids will only get Rye Playland, and Local Playgrounds/Beaches this summer. Which they will probably love playing this even more, than Hershey and Dutch.
I picked up 10 games , all under 15 bucks each ( new), To keep the lil guys busy and surprised for the summer.
I did break down and buy the square trade, still not sure, if it's a good investment ( $20 bucks), because they never seem to be worth it. But the discount seemed, worth it.
I have heard that these game systems, can get unstable and crash with heavy use ( as it is still nothing more than a computer).
with proper care this, I am hoping to get 3 years of use out of it. | video-games_xbox |
Warrior the could have been. Sands of Time was one of the best games of 2003, and was in contention for Game of the Year on numerous websites and TV award shows. So this "sequel" to SoT had high expectations to live up too.
Gameplay: The new grittier direction was unnecessary, and actually takes away the inherent cool factor found in SoT. The new combat system is hardly worth memorizing, when repeatedly hitting A and Y will down enemies just as well. There were a few times when the camera angles where horrendous and actually hindered gameplay. The platforming elements of SoT are still here and just as fun as ever. The time control is intact and basically the same. The second weapon option is novel, and throwing it was helpful in a few situations.
Sound: The metal music didn't bother me as much as others, but the Arabic feel of SoT was sorely missed. I did experience Audio glitches twice during cutscenes when the sound completely dropped out, so leave the captions on if you want to know what is happening.
Graphics: The graphics are very high quality, although the light halos and blurry feel of SoT is toned down quite a bit. I will say the pre-rendered cutscenes seemed to be of low quality rendering. They appeared to have very low contrast, and noticeable distinctions between colors instead of smooth transitions. Its pretty rare for the in game graphics to look better than the rendered narratives. I played on a 48" progressive scan TV - fyi. Don't bother watching the unlockable videos in the "extras" menu. They are extremely low in quality, and even pixilated.
Story: The story does tie into SoT, but it is not necessary to have played the previous chapter. There are some interesting use of time shifts and different points of view of the same event used in the latter portion of the game. Overall it was adequate.
I'd say if you liked SoT, you'll enjoy Warrior Within, although you may feel it's a bit over the top in a few instances. Although it is supposed to be 4-5 hours longer, it took about the same amount of time to complete as SoT. There are two different endings/final battles, and the Xbox version does offer two extra novelty modes to play. Still a great platformer, but a little disappointing in terms of following one of the best games of 2003. I suspect it was rushed to get it out for the holidays, and the shorter production time lead to the shortcomings. Hopefully Ubisoft will return to the Prince's roots for the next installment. | video-games_xbox |
Great buy if you're a casual Silent Hill fan. Before beginning this review, let me give my background as a Silent Hill gamer. Previous to purchasing this collection, I had never played either Silent Hill 2 or 3 before; however, I had played Silent Hill 1, 4: The Room, Homecoming, and Shattered Memories; thus, I had some experience of this survival horror world. With that being said, I definitely consider myself a fan of this franchise since discovering it about 3 years ago without being someone who's followed the series since its inception in 1999. I give this brief and seemingly pointless background of me so that you somewhat know where I'm coming from when I negate several of the other top reviews of this game and argue that this game is really not bad at all. Perhaps, it's because I missed the originals that had more fog or different voice actors, but I actually found that these games were well worth my time and money.
Silent Hill 2 is a standalone game in the series, so you need not have played any other SH games before diving into this one. The story follows James Sunderland as he travels to the town of Silent Hill after receiving a note from his supposedly deceased wife. The plot is timeless and should keep you intrigued for the entirety of the game. The controls are a tad outdated, but I didn't find them to be much of an annoyance at all. The graphics are also old, and I didn't really find them to be particularly HD, but I also didn't find them to be an eyesore either. The music is wonderful at setting the mood, and the voice acting is spot on (I thought for both the old and new voices, which you do get to choose between). The monsters are creepy and the puzzled are satisfyingly difficult. This version of the game also has a follow-up story, which adds an hour or 2 of gameplay to the experience. Overall, I have no major complaints about this game except, as expected, the graphics and controls are a touch outdated. Otherwise, the game is just as enjoyable now in 2016 as it was when it first was released 14 years ago.
Silent Hill 3 is a direct sequel to Silent Hill 1, so if you haven't played the very first game in the series, SH 3 might not be the best game for you to start with. Without giving much away, the story revolves around Heather who begins to have nightmarish experiences as she attempts to leave the mall and head home. The plot takes a while to really get into, and once again, if you aren't familiar with the very first Silent Hill story, you're going to be confused as the plot progresses. I found the controls to be really smooth albeit repetitive; the fixed camera angles were what killed me in this game. Like SH 2, the graphics are old but still not painful to look at, in the least. The music is creepy, and the voice acting may not be the best (nor does it match up with the subtitles), but my ears weren't bleeding too badly from any of the actors. The monsters are also creepy in this game, and the puzzles were just as well done as in SH 2. Once again, really all I can critique this game on is the not-so-contemporary graphics and the fixed camera angles; everything else made this game such a fun experience.
Some reviewers noted that there was a lack of fog in the games which ruined the experience; I did not find this to be true at all. The fog levels were perfect for me. Other reviewers complained about the voice acting, which admittedly isn't the best but also isn't the worst. When Konami did not release a patch for this Xbox 360 version of the collection, people got really upset, but I didn't experience any glitches at all that need a patch. Was I playing this game so intently that I was looking for flaws in the design or gameplay? No, but I don't think that diminishes my opinion that this collection is a great buy for Xbox 360 owners who have either already somewhat enjoyed the Silent Hill universe or are looking for a way to become introduced to the series (SH 2 only). I don't find this to be a waste of money at all. | video-games_xbox |
Allot of Spartan laser bang for your buck. I'm a 52 year old gamer who has been on board since the original Halo game. Have played quality sessions with my son as well as having to listen to my wife's commentary as far as my kill to death ratio. The game plays seamlessly and has many options for replayability as far as setting various difficulties, coop play, earning achievements, playing levels with different stratagies, online multiplayer and so on. One can decide to play a level stealthy, tip toeing around and taking out enemies one by one or just go all out kamakazee on the Covenant invaders. One favorite feature of mine was an option called Firefight where there is an endless swarm of Covenant that you have to fight off until exhaustion. What is thrust upon you are squeeky little grunts who throw grenades at you continuosly, pesky snipers, growling ape like brutes, flying insects, invisible enemies and more. Sometimes, all the time. All the map pack expansions are included. After finishing the offline campaign there is the online multiplayer gaming option if you desire to challenge yourself further against others, not only from the States, but all over the world. I've played with other gamers from Mexico, Japan, United kingdom, Canada, France, Germany and other locations. Online play offers more bang for your buck due to so many online options and varying game types such as flag games, bomb games, death match games, team sizes from doubles to large scale big team battles on well balanced maps of varied sizes. Ranking systems and community features round out a great package. if you haven't played prior games, it is fine to start off here. I appreciate the fact that throughout the series, i have been able to play not only as the enhanced Master Chief, but also as the invading Covenant and now as a special ops human player and additionally all members of the squad. I've been mvp of some games and last in others. This is a must have, must play game. | video-games_xbox |
Falls Short. I'm a die hard Halo fan. I've played the series since 2001 when this story was new to me, and it was amazing. The story was ample, the shooting and format was new and was introduced to a world that was sure to only grow and get better as the years went on. To someone who can simply get chills from listening to the music would surely get shaky over the story that is beholden to me. Like Halo 3, they shortened the story in order to focus on multi-player. When it has been a story that you purchase the game for, you expect a story for $60.00! But no, you're a given a second disc, and think to yourself "Wow! a second disc! this is a long game", after games like Mass Effect you think they would've worked to give you a long story that is worth it. But no, instead, disc 2 is for the MULTI-PLAYER! Something a die-hard fan cares nothing about. Why? Because this game was meant to have a story, not to end up like the COD Series and have a shot story so you can get used to the controls for multi-player.
If you want multi-player, you play games like COD, you don't take a story and a well known franchise and twist it so it can be like the others. Halo has a story, had a story. In this they made you listen as you're given a chopped up story that you would have only guessed about if you didn't read the Forerunner saga from Greg Bear. I used to love this series for the story, 343 Industries has lost site of what the die hard fans like, and have lost site of what they "Could Had" accomplished in 3 years. I will not likely be buying the next one because of this companies step forward the COD repetition phase. Good graphics, new weapons, great cut-scenes. Very upset with what they did at the end of it as well. And to make you BUY separate content for more of the story "Spartan Ops", is just bad story telling, and basically saying "We wasn't ready to release this game".
I'm giving this game 3 stars and being generous when I do, because they ruined a story that the die-hard fans have been waiting for, not the simpleness of multi-player repetition. I beat this game in 6 hours. And before you think "Well you take longer just to earn the achievements", no. A true fan want's their story, adult's prefer a story. If you want multi-player, play COD. And now I guess you play this game for that as well, because that is all it's good for. | video-games_xbox |
AWESOME GAME, SEVERLY DISAPPOINTED IN LANCER. Normally I do not write these sorts of things, but under the circumstances, I decided for a change of pace to do so.
1st off, the description states: "constructed from "weapons grade" plastic" THIS IS NOT TRUE WHATSOEVER. THIS IS NOT MADE OF ANYTHING EVEN CLOSE TO WEAPONS GRADE PLASTIC. ESPECIALLY at this price, I expected A LOT MORE than was actually delivered, and I am thouroughly disappointed that I purchased this. The packaging was ok, BUT NO PAPERWORK (ie: manual, directions) WHATSOEVER! A short set of directions on the box for how to install the batteries was not good, and did not even show a diagram of where the battery compartment is! Not to mention, the graphic for the batteries is backwards when aligned with the text! Again, no directions to show the functions of ANYTHING on the item. I was able to figure all of this stuff out, but I find it unacceptable that there are no directions included, and disappointing that it was shipped in a brown box with styrofoam for packing.
ALSO THE THING DOES NOT WORK!!!!!!!!!! I will be contacting amazon as to how to obtain a replacement!! THIS IS TOO MUCH MONEY TO SPEND FOR A NON WORKING ITEM!!!!!!!!!!! and doing ANYTHING along the lines of a paperclip, foil or ANYTHING in the battery compartment is an unacceptable thing to have to do when paying this much for something that should be working, and having spent this much for the thing, I want something that works AS NEW WHEN PURCHASED, not something that has to be modifed or repaired out of the box just to make it work!
Bottomline, cheap plastic, not working when received,if I could, I would return it for a refund, but since I got the game with it, I am stuck with it.
IN ALL FAIRNESS NOW THOUGH, it is INCREDIBLY detailed, to the point where the blood actually has texture to it, and the moving parts are pretty cool. And the magazine is ok as well, however has no internal detail that a magazine should have (this may just be me who was wishing for this as I do shoot and would have liked to see some kind of internal detail on a removable part). It would be MUCH MUCH better though if the plastic were as it was advertised, and not the cheap thin plastic. AS of this point, I am about 75% positive that I will not be buying ANYTHING else like this from amazon! I do not mean to knock amazon here, as they do not manufacture the product, but at this price, having just gotten it and seen the quality of the product, I am not very likely at all to purchase another similar item, or at least ANYTHING made by the same company.
The game itself is by far the best game I have ever played, and I reccommend it to everyone! | video-games_xbox |
Skip the PS3 and buy an Xbox 360. A great value for an awesome video game system. I would like to give the flipside comparison to be fair, versus the PS3 fanboy that posted his review below.
1. The bundle comes with the Kinect, which is much better than the PS Move. I own both, and I can tell you that it just collects dust. If you want a motion controller, you might as well go with the Wii U, as there are quality Wii and Wii U compatible games. Kinect full body game works great as well, but the Wii is simply better for certain type of games.
2. The Xbox 360 has plenty of exclusive titles, such as Halo 4 and Gears of War 3. Certain titles just simple work better on the XBox 360, such as Skyrim. As you might already know at the time of this review Skyrim DLCs are available for the 360 and PC, but not PS3. In fact, certain games just play better on the 360. Many also prefer the Xbox 360 controller. There is also the indie game marketplace, Xbox Live arcade, and on demand games. Just like the PS3, Xbox Live offers apps like Hulu, Netflix, Crackle, etc., but most of use utilize motion and voice controls of the Kinect.
3. The other review mentions that the PS3 online play is free. There is a reason for that, as it's not well supported and is poorly done. Features as simple as matchmaking/lobbies are just terribly done on the PS3. Play on Xbox Live and you will find a large multiplayer community with features that are constantly added and updated. The PS3 has been quite stagnant while the Xbox 360 has evolved over time.
Of course, both systems do the job (I have both) and you will notice only minor differences. For me the PS3 has simply become a Blu-ray player, and is never used for games. The XBox 360 just works better in that regard. If you want true interactivity, or the best multiplayer gaming experience, go for the Xbox 360. If you don't care about those two, either system will work for you as most games are available on all platforms. | video-games_xbox |
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