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Skip. SIM vs. ARCADE
There's a raging debate on the net between fans of simulation racers like the Forza series versus arcade racers such as the excellent PGR series (or more recently Driver San-Francisco). I'm only going to rate this game on four factors which are important to me :-
#1. Sheer fun value.
#2. Visuals / Graphics engine.
#3. Crash / Physics engine.
#4. Pacing / Thrill / Driving on the edge-of-your-seat value.
For those 4 categories Forza Horizon achieves a 1 out of 5 IMHO!
GRAPHICS
I find it hard to believe the ex-Project Gotham Racing guys were involved with this game as it feels immature predating PGR3 / PGR4 by quite a margin. First off, the graphics do not feel current or next generation. Driver San Francisco destroys this game graphically! BTW: Driver-SF is flawed in its own way (see my review), but graphically its far superior. Whereas the Horizon physics engine feels incomplete even quite basic. Crash into a car head-on and the visual results are well... pathetic! A lot of other reviews have talked about the stupid in game gimmicks so I won't be redundant here, except to say the only thing I liked in this game was the in-car view.
SHEER THRILL
I primarily want to do a comparison between the more fun racing aspects of Driver-SF and PGR3 & PGR4. I play Forza 3 and Forza 4, and I'll openly admit that I'm not a huge fan of either, however, they both vastly surpass this effort. Forza 3 & 4 are closer to real-world racing for instance the FIA GT3 supercar series. But the fun value isn't there for me. I think video games should be slightly exaggerated and therefore the cars should have looser handling to capture the sheer thrill of racing! That's why I rate PGR and Driver-SF above the Forza series as the former are more fun IMHO.
OPEN-WORLD
Regarding open-world sandbox driving games, again Driver-SF kills this game stone-dead! Driver-SF is hugely ambitious and the game delivers a viable open-world. But Horizon doesn't feel like an open-world at all, it feels more like a Need-For-Speed imitation, albeit with better graphics perhaps!
ITALY / FRANCE
Overall the Driving genre desperately needs to be reinvented on the Xbox as its becoming staid. For instance, why are there no racing games based around Italian or French towns anymore...? Bring back and update the excellent handbrake racer 'GTI Club'.
IMDB: RONIN (1998)
I want a nail-biting racing game that feels as real as the DeNiro car chase in the 1998 movie 'Ronin'. The Forza series is not a patch on Driver-SF or PGR for that IMHO, but hey they're selling a ton of product so what do I know! | video-games_xbox |
The Return of Halo. When Halo 4 was first announced, I was both hopeful and skeptical. Halo has been my favorite video game franchise for a long time, but after being somewhat disappointed in Reach (particularly the multiplayer component) and with a new developer studio taking over the reigns, I wasn't getting my hopes up. The massive amount of media leading up to its release, though, made me buy it, and my skepticism has been washed away. The following review is divided into sections based on gameplay type:
Campaign:
Pros:
As stated by some other reviewers, the Halo 4 campaign is possibly the best Halo campaign to date. 343 has done an incredible job creating dynamic and interesting levels with lots of variety in vehicles, weapons and environments. As with all aspects of the game, the graphics, coloring and mechanics are very refined. The voice acting and cinematic scenes are superb. However, the most striking thing about the Halo 4 campaign to me is that it has the best story of any FPS campaign I've played since Halo: CE. It is exciting, gut-wrenching and intriguing. Combine this with the improvements in gameplay mechanics and level construction that have taken place since Halo: CE, and you have a masterpiece.
Cons:
The only thing I can think of to say in terms of campaign improvement was that more could have been done to explain the halo universe history necessary to get a good picture of what is going on at a couple points in the campaign itself.
Gameplay: 5/5
Story: 4.5/5
Replay value: 3.5/5
Overall: 4.3/5
Multiplayer (Spartan Wars):
Pros:
Spartan Wars is 343's term for competitive multiplayer, as opposed to cooperative (more on that in a sec). Although I've only played a few hours of multiplayer to this point, the system seems extremely refined. More than anything, it just feels like playing Halo again, a feeling that (for me, at least) Reach did not really deliver. Although elements that might be considered non-traditional in Halo are included - such as sprinting, customizable loadouts and a number of new armor abilities - it all works. The core aspects of the multiplayer experience that make it Halo are all there, and it feels terrific. Sound quality and graphics are once again excellent, and the maps (at least those I have played so far) are very well-built.
Cons:
There's really not much to be said here. So far I have yet to find anything that strikes me as really needing improvement in Halo 4's multiplayer, which is an achievement no FPS has managed for many years. If anything, perhaps more playlists that preserve the traditional Halo style of everyone starting with the same weapons, etc, or even some classic playlists with no armor abilities/specializations would be nice (just for when that's what you feel like playing).
Gameplay: 5/5
Replay value: 5/5
Competitive aspect: 4/5 (due to few options for "retro-Halo" playlists)
Maps: 4.5/5 (within each playlist there don't seem to be that many options, at least at this point in time)
Overall: 4.6/5
Multiplayer (Spartan Ops)
Pros:
Spartan Ops is 343's episodic, cooperative series of campaign-style missions that are going to be periodically released over the next ten weeks. I've played a few missions solo, but you can tell that they really are intended to be played by cooperative teams of 2-4 people in terms of layout and the enemies you are facing. The additional content is great, and the missions so far are decent fun.
Cons:
The missions for Spartan Ops (so far) seem to be more like Firefight mode from previous Halo titles and less like full-on campaign missions with an overarching storyline. I was hoping for more advancement of events in the Halo universe through these chapters, but perhaps that will come in some later episodes. Also, the play areas seem to be based heavily off of play areas that you also see in the single-player campaign. Not identical, but very similar in layout and graphical appearance. It would be nice to see some completely novel areas in at least some missions going forward.
Gameplay: 4/5 (Firefight with added objectives)
Maps: 3.5/5
Replay value: 5/5 (new content being constantly released for the next few months)
Overall: 4.1/5
Forge:
I haven't actually had the chance to play around with Forge yet, but based on the media and demo information released ahead of time, it seems that Halo 4's Forge promises to be everything that Reach Forge was and more. Of particular note, I am ecstatic about several new features in H4 Forge, particularly the copy/paste function and MAGNET POINTS FOR SNAPPING PIECES TOGETHER (Thank you 343!!!!). Since I haven't actually used it yet, though, I won't include numerical ratings on its features yet.
Overall:
Fantastic game, one of the best FPS games I've ever played with perhaps the best campaign of any FPS to date and extremely good online multiplayer options.
Would I recommend this game to a friend: ABSOLUTELY YES | video-games_xbox |
Quantum Broken. I just don't know what to think about this game. I've played Alan Wake and enjoyed it, but this...this is something different. Remedy tried something new here with the whole "choose your own adventure" feel and it sorta works. The episodes are of decent quality and I legitimately got into some of them and almost forgot I was playing a game, but herein lies the problem. I feel as if the episodes detract from the game and break whatever immersion you may have felt while playing. These aren't your average cut scenes, but instead completely live action and I think that's where this all goes wrong for me.
The game itself is enjoyable. Gameplay is decent, but you can tell the Xbox had a hard time digesting the 1080p visuals, so everything is scaled to 720 or 900 in order for the poor XO to keep up. The visuals are...grainy and I believe that's intentional, but you'll notice it at first if you're coming from playing something else and quickly forget it again. The special effects are top notch, but the battles are almost LESS creative than in Alan Wake. Combat is mediocre at best and quickly gets repetitive, nothing to see here in terms of combat.....so there's an awesome story to make up for it, right?
Well....sorta? The story as told by the game is fragmented and can be hard to follow, but the episodes clear this up a bit if you take the time to watch them all. The kicker here is that the actual meat of the story is in the collectibles you pick up along the way. The emails, phone calls and letters you pick up give you a lot of insight on what's going on and I suggest you read them, but that gets tiring too. I read through a ton of them before I gave up and told myself I would read them at the end. Remedy missed an opportunity to integrate these collectibles into the actual story and it's a telltale sign that the release, even after so many years, was rushed...boo Microsoft and Remedy. You guys had a REALLY interesting story here and blew it by making people read until their eyes bleed in order to really appreciate it, no bueno.
So if you liked Alan Wake, I think the game play will feel familiar to you and you'll more than likely enjoy Quantum Break, but if you're expecting something ground breaking, you'll be sorely disappointed. | video-games_xbox |
Groundbreaking retro-Sci-fi Mystery First Person Shooter. I think the title says it all: this game is a combination of lots of things that don't usually go together, and is the better for it.
Pro:
+ Interesting, original story! A utopia beneath the sea gone horribly wrong, a protagonist struggling to understand what happened, to determine who to trust, and just to survive!
+ Great gameplay elements. You can use traditional weapons you scavenge or buy, or genetic modifications called 'plasmids' that include a wide variety of deadly ranged psycho-kinect powers.
+ Buckets of atmosphere! The art is beautifully done, the theme pervasive and (sometimes tongue-in-cheek) creepy. Perfect for the story
+ Good play dynamics. I'm a hardcore first person shooter player, and I was right at home in this game. It has enough other elements to appeal to those who only dabble in FPS as well, I suspect.
+ Reasonably progressive gameplay. The game does a good job of nudging you the right way when you're not moving at a reasonable pace. I really appreciated this as I felt it was a bit easy to get lost. Also, it supports both manual and automatic checkpoints to keep you from losing too much progress.
+ Creative monsters and opponent, and great voice acting.
+ CHOICE. You can choose whether to be good or evil.
Con:
- Some of the puzzles were a little counter-intuitive to me. Others (such as hacking - the old pipes game where you have to place pipe puzzle tiles to connect input to output fixtures) got a bit old after a while.
It's a rare game that stands out, but BioShock really did: creative, beautiful art, good gameplay, nice voice acting, great story, and a compelling combination of genre's. If you haven't played it and consider yourself a hardcore gamer, you should absolutely buy either this game or its sequel, <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Bioshock-2/dp/B0016BVYA2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Bioshock 2</a> | video-games_xbox |
Capcom fixes one thing and breaks another. First of all, it's a 3-star game at best if you play alone.
Co-op is a pretty solid 4-star.
To sum up this installment: It's a shame -it's like Capcom addresses one problem, but creates another one in its place.
There are a lot of things that could have been great if not for this one other thing that was done in total counter conducive manner to the attempt they made at something neat.
To start, the characters seemed to have been rendered with this sheen over their skin and it makes them look plastic-y. And this is a shame because the acting isn't bad; the mo-cap and voice acting did a great job trying to make the characters as life-like as possible, and they destroy what realism the other efforts try to bring by making the characters appear plastic through poor rendering choices.
So, let's continue with the rendering. It really isn't bad -and it was obvious quite a bit of work went into the various locations to which you get to travel. It's a shame this is less enjoyable because some of it seems forced on you through wonky camera controls. So many scenes takes the camera control away from you like they're trying to show off, "look at the cool background!" If I'm running from a zombie horde, I'll be looking ahead of me at the gate I'm supposed to kick down, not with my head pointed up, staring at the skyline!
I'm glad they addressed the issue of being able to shoot and move and melee moves seem easier to execute relative to RE5, which are all what I consider a great improvement from RE5 -but then they take away being able to swap items with your partner. REALLY? I'm supposed to try surviving a zombie apocalypse with this other person and if they run of ammo, I -WHAT? Pray his fists are more solid than the next big B.O.W's exoskeleton?? This was really my biggest peeve, next to the camera controls. I guess it's a lucky thing melee is easier to pull off and does so much damage.
There's always the hoping that skill settings might alleviate some of the issues, but as much as I like the skill buys, some of them are kind of a shame because they're so expensive and don't seem to make a significant difference in the area of combat they're supposed to improve.
Overall, RE6 seems to be packed with lots of good ideas, executed very poorly. Capcom's just phoning it in with this franchise anymore. That said, I give them credit because it's still an enjoyable game even though they're obviously half-@55ing it. | video-games_xbox |
Not Too Shabby. If your going to get this because you want an immersive multiplayer experience, or because you want an amazing shooter with some team tactics elements, you should either rent it for a while or wait until it drops to $20.00.
Don't get me wrong, this game is really fun. I found the single player building your multiplayer character to be easy to switch over to, you don't have to win the game in single player and then join Live and have to start all over. But, this could have been amped a lot. Maybe with a much higher level cap, and a lot more weapons or customizations.
The game itself is a very fresh idea. The whole game is a squad based shooter, with some parkour elements in it. What they did with parkour is neat, letting you jump climb and slide your way anywhere you need to be, the only complaints I might have about it is sometimes you'll forget to aim where you need to go, or your under fire while you move.
There are only two complaints I have about this game.
1. During any mission, your AI teammates seem to be playing a different game than you, or are not as helpful as they could be. This isn't too big of an issue, because it forces you to get good at the game itself. It is a little frustrating, however, when your the only person working on the objective when a wave of enemies rushes into the room and your buddies are half a mile away trying to get a command post that won't effect much.
2. The only other thing I had issue with is the repetition of the gameplay. There are 14 missions (I think) to play through, 7 for each faction (Security or Resistance) but each level is a little bit the same. there are only 5 to 7 different maps to play on, and the objectives remain the same in every mode. Maybe I'm just nitpicking the levels, but this has made me only occasionally pick up the controller to keep playing this game.
All in all, the game is great fun. It's cool to play with a friend (online, there is no split screen) but like many reviewers on here, I feel they should make some nice DLC for it and maybe even make another game, higher budget and more time to master the game. Brink was one of my favorite games, and while I don't regret buying it opening day at all, I'd wait till the price drops a bit more. | video-games_xbox |
Best Game For XBOX. My standard for a great game is a game that when you pick up your controller, you are totally taken away into another world. Anyway, this game - Project Gotham Racing - I kind of stumbled upon and got it cause it was cheap. I am happy to say that so far it is my absolute favorite game for XBOX and the best racing game I've played in a long long time (I'm thinking SNES Super Mario Kart was the last racer that was quite as amazing during the time I played it).Anyway, to focus on PGR. This game has freakin' amazing physics, very hard and challenging races, and lots of variety. Even better, the game is consistent and fair in its physics, if your good at your sliding and maneuvering your car, you will learn to accumulate kudos and advance in the game. The cool thing is the game has very basic controls but it demands very deft skills, and this game is amazing because it is those skills that are constantly challenged and developed even more. This game becomes a real sport like challenge and take a life of its own as you progress in your skills. This game makes for an extremely challenging and immersive racing experience. People that do not like this game probably don't like it because it is hard. Each race is no longer than 3 minutes, so you don't spend much time on one race, but you usually have to do races over and over again to get real good at the race and get a medal. It may sound boring, and redundant but most of the time, you know you messed up and could do better and don't usually feal cheated, and mostly just want to restart and do the race over again. I love this game. I also have Sega GT and really do not like it because for the most part, while the driving physics are good and the graphics I think are much better than pgr, it is curiously more of a role playing game, because what ends up mattering the most is the car you drive and build up. Therefore, the racing most times is secondary to your winning and once you reach a basic level of racing in that game it usually is dependent just on your car. PGR on the other hand while occasionally you need a good car, for the most part the challenge comes in mastering the steering, physics and then trying to pull of a near perfect race. THis game rocks for a hardcore racing fan. It really takes a ton of energy and concentration and provides a racing experience that is console gaming at its best! | video-games_xbox |
A beautiful disappointment. Dragon Age Exposition. First of all, it's absolutely my fault. I played this flawed gem after The Witcher 3. Even though I've had Inquisition since Christmas of 2014. A Christmas present. And I'd been waiting for donkey's years to play it. Witcher 3, not so much. Sadly, once I got over the epic theme song, character creation screen, and intro, I quickly got overwhelmed by the many many characters saying many many things, all of which were of tremendous importance, but didn't really seem to matter. The opening hours of the game gave me a headache and I switched off, swearing to return to the land of Thedas (silly name, doesn't quite have the same ring of Skyrim does it?) at some point in the near future.
And I did. Now I know its the third game in the series, and I am the CHOSEN ONE, and the world is ending (but go pick some flowers for a potion), but I couldn't be arsed to care. Remember what they say, show don't tell? Well, a lotta tell here. Loads of tell. And show, to be fair. But I don't care. I just don't. It's a cartoon world, with cartoon villains, and a pointless plot, and I as the chosen one felt about as important as I do at my local DMV. World was about as interesting too.
I just couldn't get invested in the world. Part of it had to do with how the game began. With a bang, literally. How about easing us in, Bioware? But no, gameplay takes a backseat to information dumps and fetch quests, well before my poor Kunari can even get his bearings, or a drink. Or take an actual dump. I felt like I had wandered in at page 400 of Sword of Shannara or something. Clueless and least bothered.
Compare this to the Witcher 3. There's just as much going on, but the way they bring you in, gradually and ever so slowly, is the opposite of what Inquisition does. And it hurts the game. I had never played Witcher 1 or 2 or cared about Jerry O'Rivia, but had no problem finding myself completely immersed in the world of what was it? See? I don't even remember, and it doesn't matter. Lore is pointless if the player don't care. The stakes are just as high in Witcher 3, but unlike Inquisition, I 'get' it. The world feels like its on its way to getting f@cked. The characters say less, but do more, and my actions matter. Even though Witcher 3 has its share of silliness, it kept me going until the very end, and has me waiting expectantly for the Blood and Wine expansion. Inquisition, well let's just say, I kept wishing I was playing Kingdoms of Amalur instead: a criminally underrated game that puts the combat, lore and even world of Inquisition to shame.
It's hard to believe Inquisition is from the same people who came up with the incredible, magical, once in a lifetime gaming experiences that were Mass Effect 1 and 2. For all its size and beauty, Inquisition feels shallow and hollow. Sorta like Kate Upton, top heavy but ultimately unsatisfying on any sort of intellectual level.
The next Dragon Age needs to have a little Witcher in it. A little Dark Souls, a little Bloodborne, and a lot less talking. Give us a world worth saving, give us a mystery worth solving. Give us bone crunching sweaty palm combat, a huge living breathing world with actual things to do. Give us an action adventure RPG that's 50 hours long because it has 50 hours of content. 5 continents, hundreds of monsters, people worth saving, and quests worth dying for. Even Skyrim, with its butterfly chasing, navel picking pointlessness, had a stronger atmosphere, and a real sense of mystery.
Seriously, people need to play Kingdoms of Amalur. It's all of the above. I think I'll go play that now. Dragon Age 4. You know you can do this for me.
I'll wait for you. | video-games_xbox |
My faith has been renewed. Finally I can enjoy a Call of Duty game again. I haven't had this much fun with a CoD game since MW2 and the first Black Ops. The campaign is good and well acted, but you're probably not interested in that. Multiplayer is fantastic, with tons of new features and some old features that have worked with previous titles. The exo suit abilities add a fresh take on what was a very stale series. Getting used to these new abilities, and defending against them, takes some getting used to but really adds to the gun-play instead of taking away from it. It borrows BO2's "pick ten" system for create-a-class, only this time it is "pick thirteen", which presents seemingly limitless possibilities. The maps are okay, but some of them are dynamic and there are even map-specific score streaks (picked up from care packages) that are really cool. And on that note, there are no more kill streaks, just score streaks, so no matter what class you run with, playing the objective is always encouraged. Score streaks can also be customized, for example at a price of having to get a higher score streak, the UAV can be upgraded to last longer or also show direction. Specialized versions of guns can also be rewarded, as well as specialized gear (although gear doesn't do anything other than change the look of your character).
My biggest complaint is that there is no 4-player split screen, only two-player, like last year's Ghosts. It has always been fun to have friends over and play local multiplayer, especially with cool co-op missions that the last few games have had, so limiting this to two players is very disappointing. Having said that, I haven't seen a four-player split screen in any of the next gen games, which makes me wonder if it's a graphical issue or something, and not entirely Sledgehammer's fault.
So at the end of the day this is the best CoD in years. The campaign is great, although not as memorable as MW2 or BO1. Multiplayer is on par with the best CoD multiplayers (MW1/2, BO1, in my opinion). Sledgehammer really had to nail it with their debut CoD game, and they absolutely did. And if you're still debating about getting it, just get it. It's CoD, after all, you just have to have it. | video-games_xbox |
One of the best RPG's ever! *Spoilers. Anyone giving this game a negative review is a failure. This game not only exceeded my expectations, it blew me away. The graphics for the time it was released were top of the line. You can choose to be either good or evil in the game, which has a huge effect in Mass Effect 2 should you buy it. There are literally hours upon hours of missions to do(It took me over 15 hours to semi-rush through it for the Turian and Krogan Ally Achievements). It has a HUGE replay value, as I am currently working on my 4th time(this time on Hardcore with the Asari Ally), and I plan on 1 more play-through on the Insanity difficulty(I'm going to use my Insanity file to make very particular decisions to carry over into Mass Effect 2 and eventually Mass Effect 3). The downloadable content is fairly cheap for this game as well, since it has been out for a while, and it adds a few hours of gameplay at minnimum to an already lengthy game. From the first moment you step on Eden Prime to the last boss this game is fun all the way through. *You start off the game as Commander John Shepard on the Spaceship Normandy, you are sent to investigate a Prothean Ruin that had been dug up on Eden Prime. Shortly before you arrive an attack occurs on the planet led by an unknown being(I won't spoil who, as you quickly find out). Your team investigates the planet, eventually finding the Prothean Beacon, and one of your teammates accidentally activates the beacon, Shepard throws them out of the way and is hit with the full blast from it, which gives him visions of the past. He passes out from the overload of information, and awakens a short time later aboard the Normandy. He is told that he must visit with the Citadel council and inform them of what he has seen. Your ship docks at the Citadel and you progress to inform the Council. They inform you must find the person responsible for the Eden Prime attack and bring him to justice and so ensues a intergalactic chase.* All-in-all if you are in need of a game that is fun, replayable, and overall one of the best RPG's to date then this game is for you, just be sure to be ready to put in sveral hours worth of gaming to beat it(if you played Fallout 3 then this will seem like a short game). | video-games_xbox |
Pretty Much NFS Most Wanted 2. Alright, I beat the career mode of it yesterday and am at 66% of "game completion". It took just under 15 hrs to complete the career mode. So that's a bit disappointing since it took about 40hrs to complete the career mode in Midnight Club LA, although it's MUCH more non-linear.
The issues I have with NFS:UC:
1) The game is very easy. It never really gets difficult, although I think getting the last 1/3rd of the game may take as long as the first 2/3rds, since it's at a higher level.
2) The game is entirely linear. As other reviewers have pointed out, the "open world" concept is pointless in this game. That being said, this game is basically Most Wanted 2. You do some races, you avoid some cops, you beat a boss, you move on.
3) The environments are lifeless and boring. The roads constantly have this sheen on them like they are wet, but they aren't, and you can tell it's being done just to reflect the sunlight to "look impressive". It gets old really fast.
4) There is some SERIOUS slowdown issues in the game. To the point where I actually started getting annoyed by it during a couple of races. When you have a group of racers ahead of you (which doesn't happen very often unless you suck) and you're smashing into things, all the data on the screen brings the thing down.
What I like about the game:
1) As I said above, it's basically Most Wanted 2. If you loved Most Wanted you'll probably love this game. The cars handle about the same, the cops react the same way, the flow of the game is the same.
2) The graphics aren't bad despite the slowdowns. There's no night racing which is a real letdown, and all the races happen at either sunrise or sunset (and seriously, how many street races take place at sunrise or sunset??) and so the sun will be glaring at you quite often.
3) The sense of speed is INTENSE. The game is worth playing just to get the Bugatti Veyron. I can't even explain how fast it is. It's like driving a missle.
4) The types of races are a lot of fun. One of the most fun they have is "Highway Battle" where you have to get 1000ft in front of your competitor in less than a minute while ripping down a highway at high speeds and trying to avoid traffic.
Overall I've had a good amount of fun with this game. It won't provide me nearly as many hours of enjoyment as MC:LA but it's certainly a fun game to play. I totally disagree with any review that puts this below a 5/10.
I haven't spent any time playing it online.
If you're a fan of Most Wanted you really should play this game. It feels dated compared to other modern racing games, but it's still worth playing. It's probably not worth $60 to buy given the short amount of time necessary to beat it and non-replayability but it's certainly worth a 7 day rental.
Overall I give it a 6.5/10.
For reference I'd give these scores to these similar games:
Midnight Club Los Angeles: 7.5/10
Test Drive Unlimited: 9/10
Burnout Paradise: 7/10
Need For Speed Most Wanted: 8/10
Need For Speed Carbon: 7/10 | video-games_xbox |
Surprisingly good controller for Dark Souls. UPDATE 6/14/17:
So this was a long time coming (I completely forgot lol) but after about a year of heavy (mostly Dark Souls) use, the controller unfortunately seems to be showing signs of death. The rumble vibration is enough to disconnect the controller from my PC, as does tapping it on the sides too hard. It's a shame, because I rather enjoyed this controller for the paddles at this price point. I'll leave the review at 4 stars since I did get a quality year out of it, but I would be thrilled to see an updated and refined model of this from HORI.
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This is my early first impression. I've spent about a day playing Dark Souls II with this on PC, so I'll be making a lot of references to that game and why I think this controller is actually quite good for Souls games in general. I switched over from a 360 controller in preparation for Dark Souls III. I wanted something new, and I'm honestly not too crazy about the XB1 controller.
The handles are on the thinner side and more closely resemble the Dual Shock 4, which I really enjoy. The analog sticks are also really nice. They're large like the 360 controller's, but they have the concave design of the XB1 controller. The perfect middle ground, in my opinion. The D-Pad is fantastic and has a very nice matte finish. The ABXY face buttons are fine. Nothing wrong with them. They seem a little bit more raised up than the 360 controller's, but I actually like this.
Here's where the controller gets actually useful SPECIFICALLY for Souls games... The bumpers are very wide and flat. You can comfortably rest your index fingers on them. This is very helpful, since the bumpers get a lot more use than the triggers usually in Souls games. The extra programmable paddle buttons on the back are also amazingly helpful. If you can adjust to using them, you can map all the face buttons to them and never have to take your right thumb off the analog stick. This is EXTREMELY helpful in Dark Souls, and especially so in PvP. The quality of the back paddle buttons seems fine to me, but are understandably not up to par with the Xbox One Elite controller's. I'm not aware of other controllers with paddles for $50 though, so I'm very happy with them at this price.
The only thing I'm not too crazy about are the triggers. They work fine, but they do feel a little squishier than I'd like. I don't mind if the buttons aren't clicky, but I think I'd like the triggers better if they bottomed out in the same way the bumpers did. This isn't a big deal for Dark Souls, but I probably wouldn't recommend this controller for FPS or racing games. This is what keeps me from giving this five stars, though I'd much rather give it 4.5 instead of 4 if I could. Maybe I just need to get used to them though, so I'll update this review when I hit the 100 hour mark in Dark Souls III. We'll also see how the back paddles hold up at that point.
In conclusion, this is a surprisingly nice alternative to the XB1 controller that feels especially apt for Souls games. I hope this controller holds together for a long time. | video-games_xbox |
Saints Row 3.5. This is a single player critical review for people that are fans of the Saints Row series of games. I know the game is called Saints Row IV but I will call it Saints Row 3.5 since it does not feel like a whole new game.
A quick little bit of info here... Saints Row IV started off as DLC before THQ shut down, it was originally meant to be the final big DLC add-on (us older gamers would call it an "Expansion" pack) to Saints Row 3. THQ went bankrupt and Volition was bought up by Deep Silver. They took the final DLC, the core game, and stretched it out into a full game. I also wish I could give it a score of 3.5 but it feels good enough to go with 4 out of 5 for the moment.
So to be clear, this game is still Saints Row 3. Same city, same vehicles (less of them though), same graphics, same game engine. Just certain things added or taken away.
This game is absurdly fun and funny. So let me break it down as spoiler free as possible:
Game engine: The exact same as Saints Row 3.
Graphics and Models: Deep Silver took some vehicles and assets from the previous games and reworked them to the wonderful level of detail seen in the First Saints Row game, mainly the vehicles. They have a much higher level of fit and finish than even Saints Row 2 had. BUT, there are fewer vehicles in this game than in any of the other games. Boats are completely gone, so waterways are absolutely empty. Only 2-3 Airplanes remain and there is no civilian air traffic, though once you see the plot, it kind of makes sense to be that way as opposed to the same lack of boat and air traffic from SR3. The animation and characters are much nicer looking and seem to have had a once over by Quality Control. So all round the models are much nicer.
Sound and Music: The sound effects are pretty much the same from SR3. The music on the other hand is absolutely great, they have just about everything, and lots of big name songs. The voice acting is wonderful, even Nolan North (of Drake, Deadpool and seemingly every male video game character ever made, fame) lends his voice to the player character list, along with quite a few name brand voice and film actors as other characters... The roster is rather impressive and makes the game all the more fun.
Story: The story in this game is much more fun and involving than SR3 was. You will need to play all the previous Saints Row games to understand the back stories, banter, and in-jokes of many of the characters in this game. Plenty of "OMG!" moments, and lots of laughs. There is some great character development and banter that was sorely missing from SR3. Though at times it feels the game/writers spent too much time watching cyberpunk and action movies from the 90s and early 2000s instead of creating something entirely new. It was great fun, and worth seeing all the parodies of other games and movies, but at times the parodies feel more like blatant rip-offs. Also, the Choice/RPG style options are pretty much entirely gone after the first few minutes of the game and are there for comical reasons instead of giving you any rewards or boosts of any type. Example: In SR3 you could choose to destroy a building for a respect boost or keep the building for a cash boost, save someone or let someone die, and so on.
Player Customization: The level of visual player customization is the same as SR3 and nowhere near as amazing as the player character customization from SR2. Though carried over from SR3 is the selectable player upgrades/leveling system.
Vehicle Customization: The same as SR3 but with quite a few more parts and accessories for some vehicles, though you still cannot customize "special" vehicles, planes, helicopters, and VOTLs. Though for a game with cars and car customization it severely lacks in vehicle based missions compared to previous games as most of the time you are running, jumping, shooting, and fighting with super powers, instead of driving or riding shotgun like previous games.
Weapon Customization: Weapons have non-visual upgrades now instead of the visual upgrades like from SR3 (when you upgrade a weapon, it does not change its base appearance with things likes scopes or suppressors and such that SR3 had). Though you can change the "skin" of the weapon to look like other types of weapons and most have 1-3 selectable paint jobs, but you cannot add or remove parts of a weapon.
Other Customizations: Cribs/player bases are completely gone so absolutely none there. Gang customization is the same as SR3.
Game World: Still in Steelport, or a simulation of so to speak, exact same map size and most every location remains the same as SR3 just add some cyber bits here and there. Also, during the game it is perpetually Night/dawn/dusk/dark and there is no day cycle until you completely beat the game. The city doesn't really feel as "alive" as SR2 did, but when you figure out the plot it makes a bit more sense to be that way.
Super Powers: While they are fun, and have lots of upgrades, it ends up feeling too much like the game "Prototype" and not enough like Saints Row. Most of the game vehicles become pretty much pointless when you can leap, climb, fly, and run better than nearly any vehicle in the game rather early on.
Controls: It controls nicely and has the exact same layout as SR3, though with the super powers, some buttons now have secondary functions when you hold them or tap them.
Game play: You will go everywhere from space, to text adventures, to 2D fighters, to top down pixel battles, to platforming, robot fights, and more. The variation keeps things interesting, at least on a first play through. There is even a massive list of cheat codes built into the game as well to make the game even more fun, crazy, hard, or easy. So it works if you are a casual gamer or one of the hardcore challenging types of players. There are optional side missions that are basically just activity completions and rewards. There are no activities left over after doing the character "side quests" so at that point the end game just becomes a run around and collect random stuff/points you missed kind of thing. You can replay activities for money or better medals, but There is still no main mission or special character mission replay options... We had it in SR2 why can't it be in SR3.5?
Re-play Value: As with most the Saints Row and open world games, it is pretty high in the re-play department. With the amount of character and vehicle customization, as well as upgrades, it is worth revisiting to see what can be changed or done differently on another play-through. Not to mention the amount of in-jokes, Easter eggs, and other things that you may have missed.
Overall Opinion: This game is much more fun than SR3 was, but still not as much fun and time consuming as SR2 is for me. It has more polish than SR3 did, and I hope the future of Saints Row gets much bigger than Steelport or Stilwater combined as the map just feels small compared to many other games out there, especially when you have super powers. My biggest gripe is that it needs more side activities and player customization. In SR2 most side activities had 6-12 levels to them, whereas SR 3.5 has about 2-4 levels or so to each activity (seriously, we want more Genki and mayhem levels!). They still have not added back in the optional service vehicle activities and rewards (taxi cab, tow truck, ambulance, fire truck, police car, police helicopter, and so on that SR2 had). Still no "Fuzz", "Septic Avenger", "Demo Derby" and so on. There is a distinct lack of vehicle races as well. If you are going to give us all these customizable vehicles; give us something to do with them.
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BOTTOM LINE:
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It is a stupidly fun game, but many times felt too much like the game "Prototype" and not enough like Saints Row. The absurdity has been turned up to 11.5 and had the knob broken off, so don't buy this game thinking it will have an award winning plot or basis in reality in any way what-so-ever. (And that can be a good thing as games are meant to be fun to play. That is why they are called games and not movies.) The vehicles and player models seem much more polished over SR3 with the wonderful detail that was put into the first Saints Row game. The voice acting makes it worth replaying, as the different player character voices have different things to say throughout each play-through. Goofing around and being a completionist and rabid customizer will take around 20-30+ hours depending on how much of a "collector" you are. Throw in Co-op craziness and extend that time quite a bit more. (playing Telekinesis catch with a car or baddie, racing, cat and mouse, Vs, and so on.) It is just a fun and silly sand-box game and not for people that take things too seriously, and if you have a twisted sense of humor, make sure this game ends up in your collection.
I say wait till it is more "expansion pack" priced, under $35 before getting it as I just could not get over the feeling it was an expansion and not a whole new game, since super powers were already introduced in SR3 add on content. Plus with the amount of DLC planned for this game, even if you get it cheap, you will likely end up paying full price or more anyway once Deep Silver finishes nickel-and-diming people for DLC for the rest of this game. | video-games_xbox |
Two Worlds, Too Bad. <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Two-Worlds/dp/B000NJH6YG/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Two Worlds</a>
Two Worlds was something I had waited for. Touted as The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion on steroids, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this; and as most things that get over hyped this one, too, fell on it's face and left a nasty mark.
Pros: There are not many. Character customization is simple. Game play is simple, press the button and bash something. You can create your own weapons by combining two like weapons or adding an item, such a gem, to make the weapon stronger. This also works with clothing (armor), and you can make your own spells by picking ingredients (if you can find them) in the wilderness.
You can not die, well you do, but instead of having to reload a prior save you are instantly "resurrected" at one of the many, many shrines you find along the road.
Cons: Story, if there is one somewhere, is your typical Fantasy fare. You are the heir to a magic thingamabob, only you can use said magic thingamabob, bad guys want magic thingamabob, kidnapped your sister to force you to comply and go get / find magic thingamabob, blah-blah-blah, yawn.
The graphics are sub-par for what one has come to expect from the next-gen consoles. You'd swear you were playing Gauntlet (arcade style graphics) or Baldur's Gate. YIKES! People look melted and backgrounds, although nicely done, tend to be muddy and mush into one big blob of grey-green space indiscernible from one area to another.
There is no tutorial, so to speak, and the on screen text will make you go blind, it is so bad you CAN NOT read it. Legibility is the key to making a game fun for me!
The in game map is as close to useless as one can get, with no text or the same illegibility problem, navigating the rather large world takes some doing.
The voice acting is terrible! I play with MUTE on! I'm sure they tried very very hard and such a valiant effort, but it is difficult to take all the "Forsooth"-ing and "Varlet"-ing when it is used in every sentence, it just kills the game.
A good intention gone horribly awry. Don't waste you time unless you absolutely have to play another RPG or are a glutton or punishment. | video-games_xbox |
xbox 180. I was lucky enough to buy this system long after the bugs were gone.
I bought this console because I have hopes of a left for dead sequel working it's way to it someday.
Though that may never happen.
I took a chance anyway, as I own an xbox 360 and figured it'd be an easy transition with better hardware and smoother graphics.
I had hoped for speedy install and load times as my ps4 delivered.
While the graphics are improved on from the last generation, they aren't as good as the ps4 for most games.
I will also never get used to Microsofts need to make the ac cord bulky with a power supply the size of a brick.
The system is super heavy and looks like the old vcrs from the 80s.
It runs on a platform similar to that of windows 8 to try and make everything interact with one another fluently (smartglass/pcs) which is bad news if you ask me.
I just can't stand windows 8.
The 360 layout was fine.
Microsoft included bluray compatability this time around which is nice.
I found out 2 weeks after I got it that you could plug your cable box into it via an hdmi input.
While it's a nice feature I don't know why anyone would actually want to do this but I actually ran out of hdmi ports on my tv so I kind of had to.
The kinect is an improvement over the last model, it's a wider lens so it can pick up your movement in a smaller space.
Microsoft also made it easy to expand hdd memory by simply plugging in an external hard drive and saving directly to it.
One of the major changes from last generation is the controller.
This is evident from the first time you play a game.
The triggers rumble.
And the dpad is alot easier to use.
One thing I did not like about it is that Microsoft insists on milking their products by not including a rechargable device like sonys.
It doesn't make sense to buy a $30 play and charge kit for every controller you own.
Instead I opted to buy a $15 charger that came with 4 double a batteries to use on my 2 controllers, this way I can just buy another pack of rechargeable batteries and use those on my xbox 360 controllers all for the price of what I would've spent on 1 play and charge kit.
I like this console for its exclusives but i can't really say I'd choose it over my ps4.
I bought this for 2 main reasons, killer instincts complete edition and to take full advantage of my existing xbox live membership which gives you free games each month.
Overall I'm ok with the console, but I already owned a ps4 before I bought this.
That said, I wouldn't be content if i had purchased this before my ps4.
Quite frankly the 360 functions alot better and the graphics aren't that much of an improvement as they seem to be stuck somewhere between the 360 and ps4.
The install times are ridiculous.
It took almost 6 hours to download and install the 4 map packs for titanfall.
While it does let you play games or map packs when partially installed, this feature has made me erase and reinstall some apps or games due to improper downloading on more than one occasion.
Call of duty ghosts installed both the game and update file I'm under 15 minutes on my ps4 and about 35-45 minutes on my xbox one.
Same game same graphics.
So you be the judge.
I would recommend buying this only if you have the extra cash for it.
Otherwise get a ps4, or a 360 if you're gaming on a budget. | video-games_xbox |
A good game, though the first Blood Omen was better. Kain finally returns in Blood Omen 2, but this latest installment in the series is missing some of what made the first Legacy of Kain such an enjoyable game.
Gameplay is very straightforward. Kain must progress through the world of Nosgoth by killing his enemies and solving puzzles. This is where some of the problems come in. Combat is all right, but Kain has very few options available to him. Attack, block, grab, and that's it. Occasionally you can use a Dark Gift (more on that in a minute) in battle, but it's nothing more than a stronger attack. Boss battles are usually more interesting, but in general, combat leaves something to be desired. The puzzles in the game are all very simple, and so they get tedious. Finally, the game is linear in the extreme. There is never a time when you can deviate from the path and explore a little; you're always on the one, pre-set course through the game.
Kain also has a number of Dark Gifts at his disposal, which he collects throughout the game. These can be pretty interesting. For example, you can change into mist (if there is mist present) and sneak past guards, or kill them stealthily, instantly. You can make insanely long jumps from one rooftop to another, like you'd see in The Matrix. You can control NPCs and force them to do your will. This is good stuff, but I wish there had been more of a focus on it, and that Kain had more varied abilities. The first Blood Omen had more variety.
Graphically, the game is fairly good. The atmosphere of Nosgoth is conveyed very well; it's definitely not a place you'd want to live, and it shows in the scenery, the ambient sound effects, and the bits of overheard conversation. The character models (other than Kain) seem relatively basic. There are some clipping problems as well. All in all, the graphics could be better for the XBox version of this game. They're decent, and get the job done, but it's not a game you'd use to show off the graphical power of the XBox.
The cutscenes in the game are top-notch. The first Blood Omen featured some of the best voice acting you could find on the PSX, and the quality does not disappoint here either. Plus, Kain is such a cool character, you look forward to seeing him interact with the other characters in the game (aside from drinking their blood, that is).
Ultimately, the game's many good points can't completely make up for the often-repetitive gameplay. Nosgoth is a fascinating world, and Kain a fun character to play, but the game can get boring at times, and with its very strict linearity, replay value is virtually zero. It's definitely worth a purchase, since you can now buy this at about half its original price (or less), but the first Blood Omen was the superior game. | video-games_xbox |
Active Fun for Kids (Who Won't Notice the Repetition. Just Dance Kids 2 is a Kinect-enabled game for your Xbox 360. Kids play along by mimicing the actions of the dancers on the screen.
There is a variety of songs for all age levels - both our 4- and 8-year-old managed to find some familiar favorites (while also discovering some new ones). The biggest hits were the ones from their favorite TV shows ("Yo Gabba Gabba"), movies ("Despicable Me") and silly classics ("The Lion Sleeps Tonight").
The dance routines themselves also vary in complexity and even dynamically shift based on how the player is doing - mess up enough and it ratchets down the difficulty on-the-fly. This is great for younger kids because they get to wiggle and jump around and yet still see a good score with lots of stars at the end. This not only reduces their frustration but also levels the playing field when playing with older siblings. By the time you get to the full-complexity routines, Just Dance Kids 2 delivers quite a workout as well - it's a great energy spend on a rainy day. Note that some moves take up more space than other Kinect games that we've tried, so plan accordingly (or suffer stubbed toes!).
The presentation is very kid-friendly, from the fun on-screen graphics to the kid dancers themselves. Maybe I'm just getting old-fashioned, but there were a couple of instances where I found that the hip moves were approaching the line of suggestive - more conservative parents may want to watch along with their kids and monitor/restrict certain songs or else risk seeing their little one learning to bust a move that's better suited to the teen years. The game does have a playlist feature that facilitates parental control of the songs.
My only concern was the relative brevity of the whole playlist. While our kids didn't seem to mind, it didn't seem to take long before we were all repeating the same tracks and routines.
All in all, this is a great Kinect game for kids. It keeps them active, helps build coordination and motor skills, and keeps them entertained. We found that it also was favored by kids of all ages, so the replay and overall value is high as well. | video-games_xbox |
Good but over-hyped. Don't get me wrong - this is a good game. I just think some of the "ground-breaking" elements it's supposed to contain aren't really that ground-breaking.
In Underground you are to progress through a story mode by which you start with nothing and end up as king of the skating world, all the while battling your once-friend-turned-enemy Eric. Throughout the story you complete several goals and missions to progress on to the next level. Once completing the story mode you unlock a secret level, a Kiss Concert arena, which is one of the coolest levels, by the way.
At this point you can return to previous levels and search for all the hidden goodies, learn new tricks, create your own tricks, or create a park for that matter. It's definitely an improvement over Tony Hawk 4 and is clearly the definitive skateboarding simulator.
First I'll give you the positives. The coolest feature in Underground is the ability to upload your own picture to the skater so it's actually "you" skating. Also, the game has a great deal of online features allowing you to share parks, tricks, etc. online, as well as compete in online tournaments. It also seems to be very faithful to presenting a real simulation of skating and doesn't allow you to defy physics too much, except for the rail rides and surviving horrific falls.
Now the hype.
Underground is lauded as a game that let's you "get off your board and walk around." Um...have you ever played a game called "Grand Theft Auto?" You can walk around - and do a whole lot more. I'm sorry, I don't really find the fact that you can "walk" to be earth-shattering.
I also feel the game is a little *too* real. For example, take SSX. This is a game that gives you a real sense of controlling a snowboarder careening down a mountain, but at the same time let's you completely disobey gravity at your will. Underground isn't really like this. If you are actually a skater I'm sure that compared to reality the Tony Hawk games are awe-inspiring, but to a non-skater the air tricks are rather underwhelming and don't look all that different from what you see on ESPN2. While this is in some ways good I suppose, it leaves me wanting to be able to do more spectacular stunts.
The controls are pretty jerky. One thing I've never liked about the Tony Hawk series is the erratic control and Underground doesn't fix it. One little move and suddenly you're facing the other direction.
Lastly, the story-mode is pretty short. The only game in the series I've played is Tony Hawk 4 (so I'm not a hardened veteran) and I finished the game in only a few days with moderate playing.
I gave the game 4 stars so obviously I liked it, and yes, it's a good game. But game of year? No way. There are other games that kill this (SSX3, Zelda, Metroid). I'm not sure I get all the hype. Sorry to all the diehards of the Tony Hawk franchise. | video-games_xbox |
Innovative; A Breath Of Fresh Air. Dishonored is a fantastic game, and it is worth considering regardless of your favorite genre. While it is first-person, it is not strictly a run-and-gun shooter. You play as Corvo Attano, a bodyguard to the Empress of Dunwal, a city compromised by the plague. Corvo returns to Dunwall after searching for aid for the city, but on his return the Empress is killed before him and Corvo is arrested for the crime and sentenced to death. In typical Bethesda-like fashion, however, before the sentence can be carried out Corvo is broken out of prison by loyalists to the Empress. Corvo's quest for revenge against the brutal dictatorship that dispatched the Empress and kidnapped her daughter summarizes the remainder of the game.
What makes Dishonored unique, however, is the gameplay. Dishonored is what you make of it. I mentioned before that Dishonored is not strictly a run-and-gun shooter, but it could be if you wanted it to be. On your quest for revenge, you could kill everyone standing in your way. Summon a swarm of deadly rats; rewire the security systems to target your enemies; summon a blast of wind to knock an enemy off balconies and out of windows; stop time and kill your enemies before they even know you are there. But you could also take a different route. Use "blink" to quickly move past enemies; throw glass bottles to create a distraction; knock out the guards with sleeping darts rather than killing them with a pistol. The choice is yours, and depending on which choices you make, the ending of the game will differ.
Dishonored is by no means perfect. Although there are multiple ways to accomplish your objectives, the levels feel cramped and your choices sometimes forced. And while the graphics are sometimes stunning, everything feels a bit washed out. Despite these flaws, however, Dishonored is an excellent game and is worth purchasing. It is a breath of fresh air in a video game market saturated by first-person shooters and unimaginative storytelling. | video-games_xbox |
It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up." - Ferris Bueller. I've been waiting to buy a headset for over two years now...just waiting for the right headset to come along and fulfill ALL of my sound needs for gaming, TV, movies, and music. The Elite 800X fills those needs and more.
GAMING
In regards to gaming, this is literally the best headset on the market for Xbox One owners. You all know the laundry list of gaming related features by now, but the two that I find most valuable is the bluetooth and sound quality. It's SO NICE to be able to pair this headset to your phone while you're gaming and either play your own music or even answer calls during gameplay. How many times has your friend/spouse/family member called you in the middle of an online match and you've had to ignore that call because you didn't feel like fumbling with all buttons necessary to answer that call? Well no more! And as for the sound...DTS 7.1 surround sound is "so choice." Enough said.
There have also been some reviews on here claiming that the mic is too quiet. While I cannot say whether those reviews are correct or not, my experience was anything but. My friend and I are heavy online gamers and both recently picked up the headset. We tested out every feature together and never noticed a significant dip in mic quality. Since there is no boom mic, you'll probably never be able to replace the quality you get from having a mic inches from your mouth, but the Elite 800X does a great job at eliminating the gaudy boom and holding serve to quality sounding game chat in my experience.
TV/MOVIES
For watching TV and movies, this headset fairs pretty well. Most likely not the greatest sound option compared to other devices/setups, but if you're like me and are a night-owl who likes to stay up late and watch TV but doesn't want to disturb the spouse/kids, then this headset will provide you with a great option for that with it's sound quality. There are multiple presets as well for different types of movies such as action, horror, drama, etc. but most of the time you're just better off using the Signature Sound preset.
MUSIC
The main reason I've been looking out for a headset is because I've wanted to have a quality sounding device for my music. The Elite 800X also has presets for the different types of music which is nice, but again I found myself using the Signature Sound preset most often. The headset is a little bigger (not heavier) than other popular headsets, but definitely has a premium look and feel to it. The leather padding on the ear cups are extremely comfortable and it really seals in the sound...I've tested this out a couple times with a friend to see if I could hear anything while they had the headset on full blast, but I couldn't hear a thing...very nice. No worries about disturbing your fellow humans at work, on the bus, etc. I mainly stream high quality music via Spotify, and really enjoyed the sound quality I got compared to other previous headsets/headphones.
In the end, as the title of this review states, you're going to pay a pretty penny for the Elite 800X. But if you game online with friends multiple times a week, and also want your headset to double as a good sound substitute for your music and movie consumption, then you'll find this headset extremely valuable and worth every penny. | video-games_xbox |
Gamebreaking At Times. This is the first Tropico game that I have played. I didn't know what to expect and came into the game with low expectations. I was pleasantly surprised to find out this game was really good. You play as a dictator and build a city, while you are building the city political factors come into play affecting the happiness of your fellow Tropicans. The controls are brilliant and very easy to use. That was one of the things I was concerned about because games like these are better on the PC. Not in this case, I was able to move around the menus with breeze and the Almanac was very easy to navigate through. I didn't like the fact that you could only have an x amount of citizens and the game is over after 50 years or less depending on how your settings are, but I grew to like this feature and makes the game a lot more challenging or easier. Importing and exporting is great, but you have to keep in mind that your civilians are lazy and have to build roads and garages strategically to get more money rolling in. Money is easy to make in this game, importing/exporting can and well make you A LOT of money if done correctly and you get foreign aid as well through the US and USSR. You have to be mindful about about your foreign relations because you don't want to get invaded. As the game progresses you will have access to new buildings and have the ability to upgrade some of your old buildings. If you want to use a building that is locked, you can buy the blueprint to use the building. Also while building, you have the option to quickbuild so you don't have to wait for your workers to build it. The only problem I have with this game and is the reason I knocked this game 2 stars is the fact that sometimes when I load an island that I have been working on for awhile, it will not load, freeze up my xbox, and am forced to restart the console. I try to load it again and again and again, but it never loads so I have to start back over again. It is very frustrating. If they fix this problem this will be 5 star game, but until then it will rest at 3 stars. | video-games_xbox |
Gigantic Disapointment. I am writing this review based on multiplayer:
Let me start off by saying I LOVE Modern Warfare 2. I think it was one of the most fun and exciting multiplayer experiences out there. So needless to say I have been totally geeked for MW3, especially after the crappy Black Ops installment. I thought to myself...there is no way MW3 is going to make that same mistake. Well I was wrong. Granted it's good...but c'mon already. After this much time, don't you think there would be some advancement in gameplay? It's basically the same as MW2 but only worse. If it was the same caliber game I would say great! Thank You very much! But it's not even close. While they have made some exciting changes to killstreaks, weapon upgrades, perks etc, it can't make up for the shortcomings in the graphics and problems with gameplay. My biggest problems:
1. The graphics: You would think after all this time that they would have been able to improve upon the spectacular MW2 graphics. I know the original Infinity Ward team from MW2 is gone but c'mon! You were basically handed the engine on a silver platter! The graphics are much more animated and less attention to detail was paid to the surrounding area. I honestly don't see one area where I can say it looks better than MW2.
2. Rockets: Now I know there are a lot of people who hated the "noobs" from MW2 but I must say there are just as many who hated the quick scope snipes. But that was part of the game and it made it fun and exciting. In this installment you might as well have eliminated the rockets all together. You can hit someone right in the chest with a rocket and get a hit marker for god sakes! I mean c'mon! At least make it a little realistic. The same goes for the grenade launcher attachements. You almost always have to hit an enemy twice to get a kill. If the makers of MW3 purposely did that because of the babies who cried about the noobs, then shame on you.
3. Grenades: Same thing goes for grenades. You basically have to stick someone with a semtex to get a kill, even if it lands right next to them. The art of tossing semtex in MW2 was one of the most exciting aspects to your arsenal. Who didn't love chucking a semtex across the map after getting killed and knowing where your enemy was to get your payback! The fact that they are basically useless in this game is a GIGANTIC letdown. It's just hitmarker after hitmarker. Even the trajectory of tossing is way off in this game. But whatever...you might as well be throwing stones.
4. Weapons: The weapons are great but they are incredibly inconsistent. It's basically a whoever fires first gets the kill and even then that's not always true. I myself have unloaded almost a whole SCAR magazine into an enemy without getting a kill. And then they will fire 2 shots and bang I'm dead. This is probably the worst aspect to the game.
5. Maps: They are basically all the same. No really...I'm serious. Small little maps that play like a maze. Sightlines suck and you are just as likely to bump into your enemy as you are all the garbage strewn around. If they did this to elminate the "campers" then they are really dumb. What the heck do you think killcam is for? I loved hunting down the little camping buggers and giving them thier due. Now you have to figure out how to navigate the maze before you can even think about finding your way back. Didn't the new Infinity Ward have anyone with some creativity!!!???
I truly hope that some or all of these problems get addressed and corrected in future updates. The potential for a industry changing game was right there but as of right now this can't even live up to the game that it is based on. Really...if you know someone who has this game and you are thinking about buying it yourself, I highly recommend checking it out before you plop your money down. At first glance you may think ok cool...here we go baby! But after a few hours of gameplay the problems really start to show. And then you get pissed that you waited and waited and this is what you get! Time to pull out MW2 and actually have some fun. | video-games_xbox |
Great product, only issues ARE known ahead of time. Detail to mobility, sound, and similar products below. I bought one from Walmart, I believe it was $65 instead, in store price. It is over comfortable, and nice sound quality, I don't like having all the wires, but given all the controls it offers, it is really nice. The ears are perfect circles, but that allows it to be ovallar and allow your pierced ears to breathe. I do plan on Getting the color changing wireless and one other solid one, similar to this one but with the head band also glowing on a strip, that's wireless for Xbox one when I do eventually get an Xbox one. I have tested of for music onb Xbox music and YouTube, its bass is not any skull candy or sharper image, but it is still pretty good. You CANT connect this to mobile device, however there is a new company present prototypes of neko-mi (cat ear) glowing headphones for mobile and regular jack devices. Needless to say I'm observing them currently, but being a new co. their prices are expected to be fairly high, and upgraded. There is surround sou d in the headset and it make gaming all the more real, you know where to turn and where to your left or right to head. You can control where you mic is plugging in or not, and whether it is on or not. You can turn the volume off on your TV, and still controlled the sound of this headset, seperately. There are two options to the volume control.. One adjustment for chats (such as Xbox party's and private chats) and the other to the co sole its self (the games, TV apps, and background music). The thing about back ground music on Xbox and the games, is that for games that allow you to have both, if you want a certain percetage of hear to that back ground music, you have to go to your volume controls to level it out from the game volume. It is like this REGARDLESS on if you have the head set or not. This headset does NOT NEED CHARGING, BUT I believe having controller chargers would help, because it will take 'some' extra battery usage when plugging into the controllers for chats. Overall, great quality, take good care of the product, and the glossiness does not seem to be leaving. I've had it for at least three months now, even when left plugging into Xbox over night (via USB) led lights weren't ruined while I was gone for the week. But I don't recommend doing this a lot. I will say, the glow is more vivid (obviously) in the dark, other wise it reminds me of destiny, halo, and ff holographic lighting, but it still REALLY neat. Enjoy your headset. | video-games_xbox |
A great idea but lackluster execution. X-Men Legends began with a great concept - take the most popular X-Men and let a group of up to 4 friends pick their favorites and go on a smashfest while engaging them in a comic-esque story. The concept was a good one, and as far as smashfests go, it's pretty fun. Unfortunately, a lot of little things combine to make the game frustrating.
First off, the ally AI sucks - several times a game your ally will walk off a cliff. In-game pauses don't actually pause the game sometimes, like if you're flying over a crevice - which expends energy - and the game brings up a dialogue box, your character continues to spend energy, and if they run out ... well, I hope you saved your game. Also, character levels max out at 45 (why not 99? ask the developers), which would be fine if 45 points would max out your skills ... but they don't. And since bonus skill points are rare - only one that I've come across without help - it's impossible to completely max out anyone. And since each character only has three skills - only two attacks and a boost - in addition to attribute bonuses and the super attack (which you have to actually unlock), people who like to train their characters will be sorely disappointed. Also, some of the boss fights get way too busy on screen - the one against Magneto is particularly bad, and it's hard to keep track of who you're actually beating up.
On the plus side, I love the levels in this game - with one exception they're all unique and unrepetitive (with one exception, but there's a good reason for it). While the staples like Cyclops and Wolverine are there, I love the inclusion of some lesser-known characters like Magma, who is the central character in the story and is awesome once she's playable.
Overall, XML laid a good framework for the Marvel franchise, but the game is clearly a beta test. XML II and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance fully realized the vision, and players will most likely want to steer clear of this title and go for one of those instead. | video-games_xbox |
Fantastic continuation of the SF franchise. This is one of the games that persuaded me to recently pick up an Xbox 360. As a more casual player of fighting games (my gaming tendencies have mellowed out since the 64-bit era), I must say THIS GAME ROCKS. I've kept up with the core SF series through the years and this is my favorite iteration so far. Here's my two cents:
GRAPHICS: Excellent! When I first saw screenshots of this game, I was a bit leery of the characters being too beefy - even the usually svelte ones like Dhalsim or Vega. But in motion, all of the characters look fantastic. The attention to detail in the animation is exceptional (keep a close eye on the slo-mo sequences in the end credits, just beautiful). The painterly appearance touted in the trailers aren't particularly visible from the normal distance, but as soon as the game zooms in on the action, all the glorious detail comes out. While the backgrounds are fun, dynamic, and look great overall, they don't have hard lines like the playable characters do, so the characters sometimes look like they don't belong in the environment. This is hardly an egregious thing, though, the rest of the game considered.
AUDIO: As is the case for many fighters nowadays, the games is filled with pseudo-techno tunes. They accent the gameplay well enough, but I do prefer the more rock-driven tunes of titles past. The occasional remix of classic SF tunes in SSFIV is welcome when you get them. There's no shortage of voice acting. Some are a bit cheesy and some are a bit repetitive (Hakan is a major offender, though I love the character), but the majority make the game feel more alive than a stock set of grunts and screams would. Sound effects are great overall with thuds, thwacks, and bone crunches that augment the sight of your character's fist burying itself in your opponent's chin.
GAMEPLAY: Reminiscent of classic SF, but with enough alterations to feel fresh. New or returning players will appreciate the pick-up-and-play action, and veterans will appreciate exploring the new characters, some of whom have special moves with refreshingly odd functionality. It's definitely a smoother experience that the previous sprite-driven games. The new mechanics offer a good amount of depth and it would behoove new players to spend some time going through the Training mode to get the hang of the combo timing and new Focus attacks/cancels. The selection of characters is great and offers a vast amount of variety. Balancing is excellent and I never felt as if the World Warrior I was using was at a disadvantage against my CPU opponent. Seth, the final boss, is an odd choice (I felt the same way about Gill in SFIII) and did seem a bit cheesy at first, but once you go through him with a few characters, he's actually a reasonable end boss.
Overall, this is a fun fighter and a great game. The graphics are flashy, fun, but have a lot of subtlety if you care to look. The fights range from raucous and wild to calculating and nuanced. The moves hit hard and the defeats - if you'd learned something in the preceding fight - can be as satisfying as the victories. I suppose I was lucky that I waited so long to pick up an Xbox 360 since it gave Capcom a chance to release SSFIV :D | video-games_xbox |
What a stupid game. This game is so dumb. I played the free demo that Microsoft threw out to all Gold subscribers this past weekend - I mean, who wouldn't? It was free for 24 hrs!
First off - it should be noted that if you try to play this game while it is installing but says "Ready To Play!", you'll be met with a lot of hang-ups on the title screen, as the game itself tells you it is installing as well. -_-
But anyways - the game. I can see what they tried to do here, really I can. It has been done in a very cutesy-comic-book style of graphics. Personally, that turns me off. When I play a game, I want realism. But - ah well. Onward....
I really thought this game would be more fun. It just wasn't all that enjoyable. For a game that sells itself highly on its world-traversal, jumping, leaping aspects, Sunset Overdrive's controls felt slow, unresponsive and unwieldy. It felt like I was wading through pea soup trying to get my character to do anything snappy-like.
I found it really hard to figure out where I was supposed to go in the introductory sections of this game - but I don't know if that was because of the game or just because of my terrible lack of direction when playing a game. You spend your entire time playing this game trying to avoid stepping on the ground (because that's what they tell you to do) - but apparently the world has been devised in such a way to allow you to do this because cars roofs are super-bouncy (?) and there are big vent fans blowing straight up into the heavens every 10ft.
The majority of your time will be spent looking for things to "grind" on. Now, admittedly, at first I thought that I was going to be whittling some rebar for the local blacksmith or something.....but "grinding" APPARENTLY means "sliding along" these days. Mmmmkay. My age is showing. Anyways - so, like I said, you'll spend your entire time in this game looking for things to "grind" on (and we none of us will begin to hear that in the double-entendre, sexual way at all ever, will we?). Walls, fences, power cables, wires, train tracks.......siiiiiiiiiiiigh. I haven't been this jaded since I discovered that Watch Dogs was nothing but Pressing X all the time.
To make matters worse, when you level up (which is apparently called "getting amps" in this game) you get a lightning meter for special moves, which is filled up more quickly as you displaying your grinding prowess. So - any special moves that you hope to pull off to make your trudge through the mutant-infested streets/rooftops a little bit more manageable is DIRECTLY tied to you continuing to execute this vapid 'grinding' phenomena.
By the time I got to the first little 'base' or safehouse or whatever you call it (place with friendly NPCs and a shop-dude), I was getting decidedly jaded......and that was before all the friendly NPCs started running their mouths off at me and sending me on mindless fetch-quests right off the bat. Oh dear.
So I uninstalled this demo pretty quickly to get my 22-odd GB of hard drive storage back. it feels like the makers of this game should've made the snowboarding game they were lusting after, quite frankly. A definite pass on this one. I wouldn't even spend my time and life-breath playing this if it were free.....I'd rather do some gardening or clean house. | video-games_xbox |
gasp. This is the best star wars game hand down period. Why didn't lucas make this into a movie? Through out this review you will see things like do this to be darkside if you choose this path do as many dark deeds as you can from the begging to the end your face will become evil looking to>And if you are wondering about what other reveiws say such as you get little clues and comes together in the end, i'll explain the story line to you. You start of sleeping on the endire spire the ship soon comes under attack and you meet up and gain your first ally Carth Onasi. You find out the main jedi bastila was able to escape and you and him take the last escape pod. Next you land on the planet taris and while you're unconsis you have a vision of bastila fighting one of the dark jedi. when you wake you and carth explore the sith quaratined planet of taris. you soon will find a way to the undercity and meet 2 more allys that join you a, wookie named zaalber,and a 15 year old twi'lek girl named Mission Vao. You will be in a swoop race soon racing with either the Hidden Bek gaing or the Vulkar gang since they captured Bastila and she is the prize. If you win the Vulkar leader does not want to give her up and she breaks free and you fight the gang and Bastila becomes part of yor team. Back at the hide out you get a message to meet Canderous and ex mandalorian warrior now mercenary at the catina. He offers you a plan to escape the planet you must go to a shop and buy the t3 droid and he will help you get the launch codes from the sith base and he joins you on your quest. when you get the codes you go to javiars catina in the undercity and Canderous takes you the crime lord davik and you need to pretend like you want to join. then you make your way to his ship soon to be yours the Ebon Hawk. You meet Davik and his head bounty hunter Calo Nord. The Dark lord of the sith malak is now orbiting the planet and is destroying it to kill bastila. By the way she has a power known as battle meditation that makes the republic army almost impossible to beat so Malak fears her. After you defeat davik you escape to the jedi enclave on Dantioone. Bastila tells the council you are strong with the force. Master Vrook warns the council what if we take the time the train him and malaks former master Revan returns. Remeber to lie if you are in darkside training. The council sends you on a mission to stop a darkness in the grove which is a jedi named juani. Halfway through the fight she stops and convince her to join the jedi again and along with canderous she wiil join you. then in the second part you have a vision of Revan getting knocked out but hes wearing a mask so you can't see him. You also see a vision of him and his aprentice malak discovering something in the ruins that changed them two years before. You soon start on the quest to find the starforge as you to four differet planets, and you also gain an assaisian droid that doesn't know any of his programing known as HK-47. How ever when you leave the third planet you are captured by Malaks ship the Leviathan and you learn the truth. YOU ARE DARTH REVAN his old master. When the jedi caputured you they erased your memory and programed a new Identity. You have a brief fight with Malak and Bastila holds him off while the rest of you escape. When you get on the ship Hk 47 says he has returned to his orignal master revan and his programing is at full function. Continue to the last planet and then head to the star forger but an energy field knocks you out of the sky to the rancor homeword(they are young rancors not fully grown (unlike the one in the sewer on taris). You talk to the local people (The Takatan-Creaters of the star forge)until they help you in the temple to shut down the power source.(I'm going the follow the darkside path now). When you reach the top bastila has sworn allegiences to Malak. Say to her bow down to me the true dark lord, but she refuses and fights you but half way through she stops and you say I am the dark lord of the sith. She will join you but you have to kill the two comerades that came with you jolee and Juani. when you shut down the power return to the ship tell them revan has returned Carth will run away you will have to kill mission and Zaalbar, the droids and canderous along with Bastila will stay with you. When you get to the star forge you will fight hordes of eneimies when you get to malak fight him until he stops and drains the life from the surrounding jedi. After that destroy the jedi with lightning or destroy droid and defeat malak and you will crush the republic and become the true dark lord of the sith the end | video-games_xbox |
Good but could be better. Right now the 250gb version is the only version worth getting. I encourage anyone to go looking for deals at this time of year/new year, as many stores, including internet ones, are dumping excess inventory. With the free game Skyrim, the download is over 3 gigabits, which would take up the entire drive of the 4gig version.
The packages would be better, in my opinion, if they gave you the option of choosing between several items of equal value, instead of slapping two games in there that no one buys anymore.
As others had said, it would have been better to offer a second controller, although the games are nice. I have not touched the racing game, as I have other games to play, I really just bought this package for a different reason.
I got the bundle in a brick and mortar store for 1/3 of the listing price, for 2 years of Xbox Live Gold. The end cost is the same, and to receive the maximum benefit from the Xbox, you basically will want Gold. Many of the apps do not work without it, for example. The box comes with several preview games preloaded, which you could call bloatware, but it does not seem to affect the device, and unless you buy and download everything, you won't be filling up the 250gb as soon as you buy it.
It lacks an HD cable, which would be nice if included in a bundle as well. It seems that the bundles focus around game content instead of practical things you will need to run the console. If you buy the console, you will, more than likely, buy games to play on it anyway.
The HD takes a second to catch up, so the first few seconds of a video or display appears fuzzy at first, although this could be my network, as I am on wifi. This is also my only current HD device, so it could just be me being new to it.
The device itself seems somewhat slow to startup, my desktop with windows 7 seems faster and has quite a bit more to load. The box becomes warm after 30 min or so. Make sure you treat this just like a computer when considering ventilation, or you will shorten the lifespan of the innerds if you cook them constantly.
On the side: I found it interesting that the menu layout looks very similar to Windows 8, at a glance. | video-games_xbox |
Back in its day, a great game. I came very late to the Halo experience, mostly because I didn't have the capabilities of investing in Xbox live. My TV and Xbox is upstairs, my cable is downstairs, and plugging the Xbox into the cable box downstairs would require me to drill holes in the floor, yadda, yadda.
Well, along came wireless networks. I finally decided to convert my computer, Tivo, and Xbox to wireless, thereby skipping the awkward problem of cables between floors. My wife surprised me the Halo collection one day (I love my wife), and just like that I was playing Halo 2 online. But this review is about the campaign, which I just finished yesterday.
Halo follows the story of Master Chief (Steve Downes), a cyborg awakened for the sole purpose of kicking alien butt. He is ordered around by Captain Jacob Keyes (Pete Stacker) and the sassy artificial intelligence hologram, Cortana (Jen Taylor). We never get to see what Master Chief looks like, because he always wears a helmet. This makes him alternately customizable (that could be YOU under that helmet!) and strangely impersonal.
Master Chief is part of an ongoing war against the aliens known as The Covenant. Who exactly they've made a covenant with is uncertain. These aliens range from squat comical Grunts to the dog-like Jackals, from the predatory Elites to the behemoth Hunters. The Covenant ambushes Master Chief's ship, the Pillar of Autumn, and it ultimately crash lands on the ancient ring world known as Halo. But that ring is there for more than decoration, and both the Covenant and the human forces are in for a nasty surprise.
Halo has it all, from a veritable geekgasm of detailed human weapons torn right from the Aliens Space Marine playbook, to ground and air vehicles that can inflict even more destruction. Marines shout orders and follow Master Chief's lead, just like Starship Troopers. To paraphrase Hell Comes to Frogtown, everyone is there to kick alien posterior and chew bubblegum...and they're all out of bubblegum.
Halo is drenched with testosterone, a product so perfectly targeted to adolescent boys that I actually created Master Chief as a comic book (that I published, incidentally) long before the Xbox even existed. That's right, Brenkin Kree wore a featureless helmet, carried a rocket launcher on his shoulder, and had a wristwatch computer named Babe who bossed him around. Just like Master Chief, he was bred specifically for war.
Did Halo rip me off? As much as my ego would like to think otherwise, I sincerely doubt it. Halo is merely the distilled perfection of every boy's dream; the biggest badass in town, thrust into an Aliens flick and armed with all the military might of the future.
In retrospect, Halo is surprisingly mundane. Mostly, Cortana comes up with new missions and tells Master Chief what to do. There's very few twists, but plenty of old standbys: kill this target, rescue this person, flip a switch and kill lots of aliens while doing it. The vehicle missions tweak this paradigm a bit, but not by much. Mostly, I survived by having Master Chief smash his vehicle into the bad guys, jump out, and run for his life while spraying the countryside with hellfire. Shake well and repeat.
The character scripts are well done, but good scripts are now standard fare for most first-person shooters. We expect the marines to act intelligently, the bad guys to act even more intelligently, and the drones to act like morons. As my wife is fond of pointing out, the Grunts are funny and stupid-looking so it makes it okay to kill them.
The voice acting is passable. Taylor's voice acting in particular is uneven; she ranges from sedately reading her lines to infusing them with far too much enthusiasm, sometimes in the same breath. Since she's critical to the plot, this is a major flaw in the game. Because her commentary is only loosely tied to what's actually going on in the game, I often had difficulty understanding what she wanted me to do. Sorry, Cortana, did you say "that's an awfully big pit, don't fall in it" or "that's an awfully big pit, JUMP in it"? This led to several frustrating moments where I didn't know what the hell was going on and just ran around until either Cortana flat out told me or I figured it out myself.
There's a few things that make Halo different. For one, Master Chief has a personal shield that regenerates quickly over time. This means that, barring a series of sudden attacks, Master Chief will always survive (this is a difficult adjustment for someone new to the multi-player...there's no slow sniping, it's either one-shot one-kill or nothing). Master Chief can apparently leap tall buildings in a single bound, but the jumping mechanism isn't particularly precise...which can be deadly in the wrong situation. Finally, the same mechanics that give air vehicles a weightless feeling also applies to ground vehicles, making them maneuver more like gliding hovercraft than actually 3.25 ton road hogs.
Compared to today's standards, Halo's merely a good game. But back when it first debuted, it was a great game. I enjoyed experiencing a bit of gaming history. We'll see how Halo 2's campaign stacks up. | video-games_xbox |
Great dancing, so-so UI. I'm going to start out by saying I've only played Just Dance 4 and this, the Ultimate Hip Hop Dance Experience. This review will compare the two of them.
I bought this because I love hip hop and used to be a much better dancer in my high school days. I felt getting this would be a throw back and help me get my dance moves back up, geeky though that idea may be. As for the dance moves, this is a lot of fun. Nothing is all that hard as long as you keep the beat and can keep up with the dancer. There are some advanced moves and it can get tough if you want it to. This gets 4 stars BECAUSE the dancing is awesome and not boy-band-ish like Just Dance.
I can't give this a 5 star because I think a few things suck about this game.
1) I didn't see any way you can download more songs like you can with Ubi Soft's other games like the Just Dance series.
2) The navigation between menus, etc., was really lacking. Frankly, the Just Dance series has a GREAT UI for navigating around. It's intuitive overall and takes advantage of the Kinect capabilities. This UI was less so and it was easier to use the controller for menu navigations
3) Comparing to Just Dance, this game lacks some of the level up functionality that makes Just Dance fun. Give me the capability of getting new gear or unlocking new modes, and I'll be dancing all day long.
4) I really wish there was a LOT more music for this game. It's got a great selection, but there are are so many great jams they did not get on here. Honestly, how can you if you're limited to what you can fit on disc?
All the negatives aside, I LOVE this game. My kids and I have been playing the Just Dance and it's got it's cool things, but their dances make me want to shoot myself. The JD boy-band nod-my-head-like-I'm-cool-as-a-dance-move thing drives me nuts. What's awesome is that this has some really great moves without the lame pointing everywhere that you get with JD. I will grant that this isn't full on pop-locking or head-spinning either, but realistically, HOW many people can actually bust one of those out? This is certainly geared for those who enjoy hip-hop and have a decent amount of rhythm.
There are certainly some things they an improve, but this is SUCH a relief from the sugary sweet Just Dance thing that I'm excited about this. | video-games_xbox |
Needs a little refinement in certain areas, some extra weapon customization wouldn't hurt either. If there is one thing that I have to commend Dice on, it would be re-creating the authenticity of Star Wars. The Star Wars theme was captured beautifully. Music, sound effects, and visual effects combine so well to give you that immersive feeling in this game. Even if you have an underlying hate of the game for whatever reason, one thing you cannot deny is how beautiful the game looks and sounds.
I wish the same thing could be said for the actual gameplay. Moments where you're running alongside your teammates, with lasers flying past your face and explosions going on all around you are extremely exciting. However, with that said, the gameplay still feels very awkward. Vehicle camera angles could be better and the controls are frustrating to handle. This really surprised me because Dice is the master of vehicles. The first few hours of game play were extremely fun, but sooner or later, it'll dull on you. The fact that you can play key characters in this game like Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker was really fun. Not only because you're playing these iconic characters, but because they're moves feel so cool and you can turn the game around if you play them correctly.
The map design on Walker Assault modes are terrible, with the rebel side having the largest disadvantage because of their horrible spawn points. For horde mode, the AI felt like actual Storm troopers in the movie. By that, I mean they miss every single shot and sometimes run around aimlessly. In the end, its still a fun game mode for you to play with your friend in co-op. This game is definitely curated towards the casual player. There just aren't enough diverse weapons, skills, or customization that would really improve your gameplay. This game was definitely catered towards casual Star Wars fans who wanted to enjoy a Star Wars game.
Overall, the game isn't perfect, and I don't expect it to be for a very long time. The lack of story mode in this game was disappointing. Map re-balancing needs to be done as soon as possible and those vehicle controls definitely needs improvement. If they fix some of those issues, then this game would play and feel a lot better. | video-games_xbox |
GAME OF THE YEAR CANIDATE; MUST OWN FOR ANY SERIOUS GAMER. This game is awesome I could hardly stop playing it to write this review. All the new abilities, weapons, and levels are amazing. This is one real bad thing to the game play experience; it is the levels you play as the Covenant Arbiter. The levels suck so bad that I actually considered beating my head against the wall to help ease the pain of playing the horrible levels. The only reason I didn't is because it would take longer to beat the levels. The weapons you use on the first Arbiter level is horrible it's only Covenant and Sentinel weapons. But the rest of the game is beautiful. The graphics are some of the best I have ever seen, which is a huge step from the last game. The sounds from all the guns are pretty kool (espicially the SMG). The campaign is a great plot and story. The Marines last a lot longer some will be with you through half the level (if they are good). The enemy A.I. is about the same except the Flood act a little different but not too much. The weapons are just about the same with the addition of a couple new ones. The pistol has gone through some downgrades it no longer has a scope and is less powerful. The Battle Rifle is good it is powerful and is easy to conserve ammo because of its 3-shot bursts, it comes with a scope with a 2x zoom. The SMG's are good but only if the enemy has already lost its shields or you have them double wielded. Sniper Rifle's only change was that instead of just 2x and 10x you now have 5x and 10x zoom. The Rocket Launcher has one change the fact that you can lock on which helps in certain situations. The Shotgun is exactly the same except that you can only hold 36 shells. The Covenant has shown us (humans) more of there guns. The plasma pistol and rifle have no changes to them. The needler needles explode faster making it more deadly. The new weapons are the Covenant Carbine, the Particle Beam Rifle, and the Brute Shot. The rest aren't new they just were never useable before. The Covenant Carbine is powerful but slow comes with zoom of 2x. The Particle Beam Rifle is a Covenant sniper rifle. The Brute Shot I haven't used too much so i can't comment. The vehicles now show and take damage so the first time you hit someone you might lose the front end of your Warthog. This makes it more realistic but it also makes it harder which is kool because don't you want a challenge? There are new vehicles the new Warthog just has a new type of turret that fires a penetrating round. The Covenant have 2 new vehicles and one that you can now operate. The Wraith was on the last game but you could not operate it; it is not very good. The Spectre is good you have a driver, 2 passengers, and a gunner. The shadow is a transport vehicle that has a plasma cannon. That's all about all I can say about the game without spoiling it, it has many twist and turns. Having all that said I give it a 5-star rating, for everything it has to offer from the campaign to the X-box live play to the other multiplayer aspects. I say it's a must-own for fans of the original Halo game (I also recommend that you also get the Limited Collectors Edition, it comes with a DVD with footage of making of the game and other such things and the case is also pretty tight). 5-STARS PICK IT UP NOW!!!!! | video-games_xbox |
Not as good as Dance Central IMHO. So my review of Just Dance 2017 is coming from the perspective of someone who has played every game in the Dance Central series (1, 2, 3, and Spotlight), but who has never played a game in the Just Dance series before. So a lot of my thoughts are in comparison to the other series.
Overall I think I still prefer Dance Central (Spotlight on the Xbox One, even though Spotlight is the worst of the DC series).
Things I didn't like as much about Just Dance:
The upcoming move indicator is much less clear than DC's. It blends pretty easily into the background (Mom didn't even realize it existed until I told her where it was), and it doesn't feel as precise as DC. In DC, there are boxes and when the box clicks into the "current move" place you know exactly when that move starts. In JD, it just slides in from the bottom right corner, and there doesn't seem to be any sort of line or clear indicator of when "now" is the right time to change moves.
Each song seems to only have one routine in JD, where DC has eight routines in Spotlight. There doesn't seem to be any clear indication of how difficult a routine will be, so you can't warm up with easier songs and then play harder songs, or have a progression where as you master the beginner routine, you can move up to the standard, to the hard, etc.
Dance Central will highlight the limb you're not moving right for a given move in red, making it easier to figure out what you're doing wrong if you're having trouble with a particular move. Just Dance doesn't seem to have anything like that.
Things Just Dance did well:
It seems like it has support for more than 2 dancers at once. I didn't actually get to try this though, as I was only playing with one other person. I suppose this one is a bit mixed, because very few people are going to have the living room space to have more than 2 people playing a Kinect game at once anyway.
The subscription option for getting new songs seems interesting. The 24 hr pass is only $3.99, which is about the same as you'd pay to rent a movie from Amazon. It seems like that would be a great deal for a party, to get access to the entire library for the day, instead of buying each song one by one.
Mobile app controller thoughts:
I have a Kinect, so most of my playing was done via the Kinect (which is required for DC), but Just Dance had an option to play using a mobile app on your phone instead. I tried that method briefly, but wasn't impressed. Using it was quite easy, I had no problems installing the app on my phone (an iPhone 7+), or getting the phone and the Xbox to recognize each other. The app seems to work by just using the accelerometer on the phone to detect how you are moving. This means it's only tracking the movement of your right arm though, and not your entire body, like you can do with the Kinect. I can see where it might be fun for someone who doesn't own a Kinect (since the Kinect is a separate $100 purchase from the console), but as someone who has always used the Kinect for dance games I wasn't impressed. You could pretty much just stand there and wave your arm around and get credit for the moves, and not have to dance at all.
Overall:
I think Just Dance would make a good party game, with it's option for up to 6 players, and the subscription options that give you access to the entire library for a period of time. But as someone who enjoys dance games as a single player and likes to use them as a gamified exercise tool, and enjoys becoming better and better at a given song over time, I greatly prefer the Dance Central games | video-games_xbox |
Expected a different experience, but a strong, atmospheric action game. Expectations can be a funny thing. You set them too high and something good can stare you right in the face yet you'll completely miss it.
Such is the case with Alan Wake, a game I had eagerly anticipated for several years, back when this "psychological action thriller" game appeared as if it would be a little more open and would involve a slower, more psychologically gripping narrative.
What Alan Wake turned out to be was a moody, atmospheric action game with a solid enough story and gameplay that is fun but repetitive.
A recipe for disappointment? Maybe. But only if I demanded that the game be what I wanted it to be rather than appreciate it for what it is. Sure, I wanted the game I (mistakenly) imagined, with a more open world and intense narrative and true chills and intelligent puzzles. What I got instead was a different sort of game, but you know what? It was a solid game nonetheless.
Alan Wake bills itself as a psychological action thriller, and that's about right. The gameplay is third person shoot shoot shoot, no more, no less. Enemies appear, you shine a flashlight on them to wear them down (think of it like wearing down an enemy's shields), then you shoot them. Sometimes you're in a vehicle, sometimes you're dodging flying objects, sometimes the locations vary, but by and large the action is very repetitive. Crisp, well handled, and enjoyable, but almost no variety. It gets old fast, especially since the gameplay offers little else BUT that. Practically nothing in the way of puzzles, no platforming, and most exploration is purely trinket hunting with no tangible benefit. Oh, and the brief driving segments stink.
Where Alan Wake excels is in mood and atmosphere. The game's depiction of the American Pacific Northwest is gorgeous, but even more gorgeous (not to mention chilling) is the swirling, mist-like darkness that envelopes the world throughout the game. It's not scary, exactly - the Silent Hill games do a far better job of making you feel uneasy - but it IS glorious to behold. It's truly one of the most atmospheric games I've ever played. Despite the utter linearity of the levels, it's a joy to romp through this world. The town of Bright Falls feels surprisingly real.
So, too, do most (but not all) of the characters. Sure, the story is filled with Stephen King clichs (which the game itself acknowledges), but the characters, especially Barry, are well realized. You really get the sense that there is a lot more happening in this little town; as if there are many stories yet to be told. If there is one character who isn't well-realized, it is, sadly, Alan Wake himself, whose continuous pointing-out-the-obvious narration seems to be directed at an audience too dumb for words. That's too bad. Why assume the audience are morons? The result is that Alan Wake himself looks like a moron.
Does Alan Wake live up to all it could have been? Was it the game I hoped it would be all these years? The answer to both questions is no. The linear levels and unvaried gameplay amount to a game that is a standard third person action game with a new coat of paint.
But that doesn't mean it wasn't fun to play, because it was. When I took the game for what it was instead of what I wanted it to be, I enjoyed the world of Bright Falls and the slowly unfolding mythology of the story, found myself thrilled by the gunplay and combat, and was enamored of the mood and atmosphere of the game. The game may have fallen short of greatness, but I've visit Bright Falls again.
Four stars for being memorable. (Three stars is a good, solid, but forgettable game) | video-games_xbox |
Truly A Excellent Value. The BioShock series needs no introduction. It's one of the best new franchises of this generation for sure. Not for everybody, but regardless, an amazing series. Now, the whole series is up for grabs in this package, and for the price it's almost criminal to not pass out on it.
First, the games. BioShock needs no introduction. It's my all time favorite game of all time alongside System Shock 2, and it's one of those games that absolutely deserves its rankings amongst the top of any "Best of...." list. It's also the game that made me realize what Video Games are. As a former film buff who once turned my nose up at video games, BioShock was the game that made me realize I can't ignore video games; in fact, BioShock made me momentarily forget about film entirely. BioShock isn't all that perfect (as one knows, the endings are terrible, and the final boss battle lacks the emotional climax the game needed), but the end impact of the game makes little niggling story issues near vapid once you factor in the whole experience. That experience, rich with meaning, beauty, humor, horror, and so much more. I wouldn't trade it for the world. If any game proves that video games are an amazing art form, BioShock is one of those games.
Game play has always been a controversial part of the series. Some people love the game play, some people couldn't get into it, and some people hate it. Personally, I grew up on the mechanics (I've been a fan of the franchise ever since its inception, and I still play BioShock), and I've always loved the combat in this game over just about any other FPS, much more than Halo, COD, and even other sandbox shooters like Crysis (though I love all of those franchises, don't get me wrong. Well, except COD these days, but that's not really the developers fault). Either way, I go back to the game and find news and creative ways to play, so have fun and don't be afraid to use all the tools you have. There's a good reason why I replay BioShock over and over (probably played it from start to finish more than ten times), and to this day no other FPS compels me to do this. So yeah, still an amazing game, and still my personal all time favorite.
BioShock 2, even to this day, remains a somewhat controversial game in the series. Some fans loved it, while others feel apprehension towards BioShock 2 and is considered unnecessary. Some see it as a deeper exploration into the world of Rapture, insomuch that the title becomes another must play; the whole tale of Rapture just isn't the same without it. It also has better combat, as well as implementing a much better final act than the original (we all know how that turned out). Others, on the hand, are quick to dismiss it as a lazy retread of the first game. I've always felt that the criticisms were mostly a knee jerk reaction. Aside from the combat being improved, deeper, and extremely satisfying, the story itself does say some new interesting things, and touches on things the original did not have. Personally, I don't like it *as* much as I do the original, but that's not really an insult on my part. I never really considered it to be an absolute must play like the original, but don't listen to the detractors and ignore it wholesale. BioShock 2 is an excellent game in it's own right, and I always personally felt it doesn't deserve the vitriol it gets.
So yeah, so both games are terrific, but what about that bonus content? I've played through all of the bonus content plenty of times, and it's all a ton of fun. Organized lists rule, so here we go.
First, the BioShock downloadable content:
* Plasmid and Gene Tonic Pack. Includes the following: Sonic Boom, giving one the ability to knock enemies back with force. Machine Buster 1 @ 2, which increases damage towards security devices. EVE Saver, which decreases EVE consumption when using Plasmids. Vending Expert 1 @ 2, which decreases prices in vending machines.
* The Challenge Rooms. These were available, beforehand, to only PS3 owners, but thankfully this isn't the case here. These challenge rooms provide the player with the ability to participate in certain challenges, which are akin to solving puzzles, such as being able to defeat a Big Daddy without using any offensive weapons or plasmids. There's around three of these particular levels, and they are all set in different places in Rapture that we haven't seen before. They are pretty much made to give BioShock players fun and interesting challenges. They can be pretty short, but they provide any BioShock fan an interesting game play experience.
Second, the BioShock 2 downloadable content:
* Sinclair Solutions Test Pack. This is basically a minor add on for BioShock 2 MP. Aside from raising the level cap to 50, you also get two unlockable characters, twenty new unlockable trials (only available to those who reached level 41), a third weapon upgrade for all weapons, and five new masks.
* Minerva's Den. This is easily the best DLC this package has to offer. It's an absolutely wonderful single player story, dealing with the struggle between brilliant Mathematician Charles M Porter and Engineer Reed Wahl. Minerva's Den is also a fascinating, amazing place to explore (as one might expect from BioShock, obviously), the area being basically a big computer center (Think the halls of , with a Retro-Futuristic bent). Not only that, its ending is FINALLY the first game in the series to have a powerful, really beautiful ending. It's a great tale, and one that all BioShock fans need to play. Also, you get some new enemies (most notable a new Big Daddy), a new weapon (Ion Laser), and a new plasmid (Gravity Well).
* Rapture Metro. This includes six MP maps (Dionysus Park, Fighting McDonaugh's, Fontaine Fisheries, Pauper's Drop, Siren Alley, and Smuggler's Hideout), a new game mode (Kill 'em Kindly), and the ability to raise your level cap to 50 and start over again with a special mask. For those who are huge fans of Rapture as much as I am, it's actually really cool to just fire up an empty match and explore renditions of the city within its prime. For MP fans, it's simply an expansion to add to the arsenal of ways to face off against one another, all with interesting layouts to make matches interesting. Finally, the new game mode essentially makes players use nothing but MP specific Gene Tonics and the environment as your means of combat.
* The Protector Trials. Set during the events of BioShock 2, these game modes function very much like a typical challenge room. Basically, Tenenbaum wants you protect the Little Sisters, and each level is basically one long ADAM harvest run through. It works like this. Each challenge has their own specific plasmids and weapons for each level, and you need to know how to use those specific tools to fend off waves of splicers as they attempt to attack your Little Sister. Through each match, you then get awarded a certain numbers of stars, depending on how well you did due to various factors that overall mark your session and measure your overall success.
I think this amazing package makes it pretty clear this is an excellent value. If you've ever been interested in the BioShock series, you really have no reason not to purchase this. Seriously, I'd still pay full price for the first BioShock, and BioShock 2 has always been a seriously underrated game. With the addition of a plethora of excellent downloadable content, the fact that this totals up to a mere thirty dollars makes this package a complete steal. If you haven't played a BioShock game, what the heck are you waiting for? You have no reason not to get this! | video-games_xbox |
PC gamer who wants a gun controller? This is for you. I'll start off this review by saying I'm not using this gun the way it was intended- but it works exactly as I hoped!
I bought this to use with my PC for FPS games (mainly DOOM 2016). I've been looking for a PC light gun but none met my requirements- except this gun. Basically, I was looking for a controller shaped like a gun that would make it feel more like I was playing an arcade game. This gun does that.
It has two joysticks like a normal controller (one for movement, the other to look around), as well as START, BACK, X, Y, B, A, a plus pad, a pump action reload, and a trigger to shoot.
This gun comes with a motion tracker bar like the Wii, but I don't use that.
This gun connects immediately with my wireless xbox 360 adapter plugged into the PC and my PC recognizes the gun as a normal Xbox 360 controller, so games are as easy as plug and play.
However.... I had to knock off one star.
This gun doesn't have all the buttons of a normal controller, so you can't map all the functions you may want. The other weird thing is that the left stick controls looking around and the right stick controls movement, which is the opposite of a normal controller. So while you CAN do plug and play, it's super awkward.
Instead, I use joytokey and remapped the gun controls to exactly the way I want them. This has made playing FPS games SO MUCH BETTER. I'm still getting used to it because it's a lot clunkier than a normal xbox 360 controller, but now I'm totally addicted to shooter games because having an actual gun puts things on a whole new level.
This gun should work with any PC as long as you have a wireless adapter and any game, since you can set up a joytokey setting to have this gun emulate your mouse and keyboard.
One last thing- as fun as it is to use this gun, I don't recommend using it online. You'll get wrecked. Also, play the campaigns on easy mode, because you'll get shot way more. Still, if you're looking for a PC gun for your FPS games, this one is exactly what you're looking for. I can't wait to go play another level of DOOM!!
(The product works perfectly, FYI. I didn't knock off a star because it's defective or anything like that. It does everything it is designed to do. The star came off because it doesn't have all the triggers a 360 controller has so you lose some functionality, and the left and right joysticks are opposite of what they normally should be. The gun is well built and fun to hold, it doesn't feel cheap and I had absolutely no problems connecting it to my PC and playing immediately. It stays connected the whole time and I haven't had any weird finicky experiences. Works exactly like a normal xbox 360 controller attached to your PC, but it's shaped like a gun!) | video-games_xbox |
Amazing game, best comic game ever. Ok Im somewhat of a Batman fan, but Im more into Marvel then DC. I have played some of the Batman games out there but nothing close to being great. The only thing close was Lego Batman. Now when I heard about Arkham Asylum something about it intrigued me. Was it the plot? (dont know), the stealth element (probably not because I don't really care for that genre) or was it the fact that a lot of Batman villians appear in the game (very much likely).
So the first chance I got, I reserved a copy at my Local Gamestop. Around a month and half later bought my copy.
Now for the review. This game is amazing, the enviroment is so incredible, every single detail wasn't left out. Hell even Batman's suit has detail. As the game progresses he suit shows signs of ware. From bullet marks, to cuts and his cape looking ripped.
They even brought in Kevin Conroy (Batman) and Mark Hammil (Joker) to reproise their roles from the cartoon from the 90s which was a perfect choice.
As for the stealth part which I normally don't like the genre is actually very fun as you can attack from behind, above or below your enimies.
Everytime you die there is a funny cutscene involving one of the villians from the game depending on what level you are on.
Each villians, and character looks just as amazing as the enviroment, I mean have you seen Harley Quinn's new uniform? Or how creepy Scarecoew now looks?
There is even some challenge maps that lets you practive or beat others online (score wise, no online play) that feature elements from the game. Also the Riddler makes an appearance bt not phyically. He has left riddles throughout the game, if you solve them you get rewarded, he also left trophies of characters, recordings of sessions with the villians and more.
This game is just amazing, if you are thinking of buying it. Do that, renting is no good because you will have no time to fully enjoy the game as you might play this long after you beat it to collect the riddles you forgot the last time.
This could be one of the besat games of all time and the best comic game ever. | video-games_xbox |
worst X-Box game in a long time. This game is the worst game I have played since Land of the Dead: Road To Fiddlers Green. To start, how can this game get a decent grade for controls!? Its TERRIBLE and BROKEN!!!!!!! To aim down-sight you must press the LEFT STICK!!! WTF!!? And not only that, but you have to effin hold the thing!!!!!!! And since the control sensitivity is a default ULTRA LIGHT SPEED FAST, it is IMPOSSIBLE to aim. Jumping is left trigger... yeah, wtf!? Additionally, to switch weapons you must hold the RIGHT stick in and open an inventory screen in which you freeze your character in place and leave him open to be attacked and most likely killed.... on top of THAT your guns are atrocious in aiming... you will literally, I mean L-I-T-E-R-A-L-L-Y shoot circles around the soviet soldiers. ON THE SUBJECT of Soviet soldiers... these motha flippins take SOOOOO many shots that not even the marvel super hero Hulk could survive... gotta calm down.. back to the controls. Eventually you get to lead your rebellious New York soldiers, so "Y" tells them to go to one spot (if you hold down Y then the entire team goes to the spot while just tapping it sends ones soldier), pressing "B" tells them to defend one spot, and "X" tells them to regroup.. sounds easy right? well its NOT!!! I guarentee you will find yourself pressing X to reload, but wind up calling your men back... what IS the reload button you ask? HAHAHAH! There is none, you actually reload if you don't shoot for a handful of seconds. Very awkward if there is a break in an intense fire fight yanno? Its like... *RATATATATATATATA...reload automatically while enemy is standing there shooting you*
Lets talk about the AI and the bugs plauging this lackluster game. Theres a SERIOUS chopping issue within Freedom Fighters, where enemies can shoot through and run walls, appear out of thin air, or just never stop coming. Ontop of that you can stand in front of an enemy for about 5 minutes (yes I did time this) before they go "Holy **** thats an American soldier!" and shoot at you with 100% accuracy. Then comes your partner AI.... when it comes to shooting enemies they are okay, but they DO NOT LISTEN TO YOU!!!!! Numerous times have I told a soldier to stand in one spot only to see him run off and get slaughtered. OH YES I FORGOT TO MENTION: a LOT of the time, your soldiers will run towards fences that are suppose to basically be a barrier for the end of the level or a barrier to make you find another way around and actually run right through it.. I swear to Buddha.
I think the story and how they pieced together the missions were probably the only good part of this title. Basically, the Russians beat the United States in building the first atom bomb, nuked Japan and forced its way into Europe seizing control of the continent. From there they moved into Cuba and then one day attacked Manhatten, NY. Moving on, each mission affects another one. For instance in one mission labeled "The Bridge" you must use TNT to blow up a bridge, but you must clear the stage, then go back to the stage "The Hotel", pick up the TNT while heading back to "The Bridge" and then use the TNT on the bridge which will help the people from the "Firehouse" stage to sweep through. I thought that was kind of cool... but thats it.
A combination of horrendous controls, disgusting music, glitches, bugs, atrocious AI, and punishing difficulty make Freedom Fighters one of the worst original X-Box titles I have ever played. How in the name of Zeus did this game get a 9.3? I honestly do not see it. | video-games_xbox |
One of the best games of 2012. When I first ordered this game, I wasn't expecting too much from it. It was on sale on Amazon for 30 bucks and I had been hearing good things about it so I picked it up. This was easily one of the best spontaneous video game purchases I've made.
The game is essentially a turn based strategy game with a resource management strategy game built around it. It's almost like two games in one. It does an excellent job of making your decisions feel meaningful and important, especially since you'll be hurting for cash during most of the game. The game seems to balance well and doesn't punish you too much for not sticking to some unseen formula. Here I'll break down the main factors that determined my score.
Graphics: 3.5 out of 5
Graphics mean a lot to some and absolutely nothing to others, but you have to admit, it's a little harder to get into an ugly game. Thankfully, unlike some games that spend so much time tweaking and balancing gameplay elements, the graphical fidelity doesn't suffer too much. The game looks nice, characters look realistic, and the environments have a good amount of detail. You see a lot of art getting repeated throughout the though which hurts it a bit in the graphics department. The game runs on the unreal engine so some of the characters look a little too bulky and somewhat silly at times (think Unreal Tournament), but it's no big deal. Overall, the graphics are presentable and don't draw your attention away from what's really important.
Gameplay: 5 out of 5
This is where the game shines. There is a pretty sharp learning curve at the beginning, but the game does a pretty good job of helping you through it. The game has you constantly managing resources, relationships with partner nations in the XCOM project, and research undertakings (all of which take time) while fighting off the alien presence. This is broken up by encounters with the aliens either in the air or on the ground where you'll have to send teams in to take them on. This is where the turned based strategy element kicks in. You and the enemy take turns moving, attacking, defending, and covering while attempting to complete some specific objective for each encounter. Everytime a member of your squad gets hurt, they'll be out of action for some time, and if any of them die, they're gone....forever. This adds an element of tension to every battle and makes you second and triple guess your choices before you carry them out. There are real meaningful consequences for mistakes in this game and that's part of what makes it so great.
Presentation: 4 out of 5
I love the presentation of this game. The characters behave as if they're really working as part of a big collective effort between nations to fight off an alien enemy. Everything is seamlessly transitioned to and from as well. As new research projects are completed or new creations are manufactured, bits and pieces of the story show up in the same way they likely would if this all was really happening. What makes it even more fun, is almost every part of the story affects what you do as a player. Discoveries need to be researched (which takes time), prisoners must be interrogated, losses must be replaced, and threats must be addressed. The great thing is, it's all up to YOU when, where, and what you do about these things. It really makes the player feel empowered while also making the player cautious about every move. After all, the future of Earth depends on it.
Controls: 4 out of 5
The controls map surprisingly well to a console controller. It was originally thought that this game would only be at home on a device with a keyboard and mouse. Well, you can get that idea out of your head. Playing it on the XBox 360, it will never be apparent that the game was developed for a PC. Dare I say, it may control better on the 360
Story: 3 out of 5
Probably the weakest part of the game is its storyline. The story follows the XCOM Project, which is a initiative put together by a number of countries to help combat the alien invasion. It's basically your run of the mill alien contact story. Why it doesn't detract from the game is how the story is told. You feel like you're in the driver seat the entire time. The game makes you feel like the story you've heard a hundred times over is fresh because you are actually a part of it. Again, this game's strongest point is its gameplay, but with it being a game, isn't that where you'd want it to be at its best?
Overall 4 out of 5 | video-games_xbox |
Ignore the X-Play Review. Very seldom do I actually write a review, but after seeing the horrible and unjust review that X-Play on G4TV gave, I had to speak up. So I will take this opportunity to lay it out.
X-Play: "I want to see more gore for something rated Mature."
Reality Check: When I ripped the wings off angels and then decapitated demons; that is what I expected in a game rated M.
X-Play: "Weapon Options are Limited."
Reality Check: Sword + Gun + Scythe + Cross blade + Gauntlet + Add Ons + Turrets = Almost more than I can keep up with when I'm playing.
X-Play: "Finishing off enemies is repetitive."
Reality Check: While yes, it can be repetitive at times, but as you level up and become very powerful or use the "turrets" or the horse in the game; you find yourself doing the finish moves less often, especially on the weaker enemies.
X-Play: They knocked the swimming for some odd reason.
Reality Check: The swimming is fine and fluid and adds a lot of depth to the dungeons. No pun intended.
X-Play: "Puzzles were predictable and easy."
Reality Check: Not all are "easy" nor are they predictable at all. You will have to think, especially when it comes to finding some of the chests.
X-Play: "Lacks Originality or a Soul."
Reality Check: I do not know what this game is compared to aside from mechanics "borrowed" from some of the all time bests, but in my opinion it gave the game an old soul that everyone can enjoy. Take something that works and use it. Sometimes people just want a game that is fun, easy to learn, and challenging at the same time.
X-Play: "Hack and slash that is clich."
Reality Check: NOT AT ALL! I do not think when I stun an enemy with my cross blade, shoot it in the face, then lunge forward with a stabbing blow, and then reel any other nearby enemies with a flame saw sword move, and then finish it off with a gauntlet ground pound, and then raise my horse on the fly and slash away from a higher position while galloping around. Hmmm...How is that clich??? Let's not forget you can turn into a 25 flaming monster and there are also special "magic" powers that can be used as well.
I could go on and on. Bottom line is that this is a fun game that has given me plenty of surprises. | video-games_xbox |
Great System. I found myself attracted to the Xbox because of an Exclusive Xbox Game (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) So that's why I spent 150 dollars on it. And Yeah It was worth the wait and the money.
When I first got the Xbox I was so grateful and happy. I didn't believe I got one (And apparently the Xbox is still expensive in this country, no one has it). I went running into my room and I connected the Xbox and all... Ok. I have to say that the Xbox?s main menu is detailed and with a lot of options (Including Xbox Live) setting the day, month year and parental setting. I felt like a champion when I got it!
As I mentioned above I bought the Xbox because of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But the first game I played on it was Spiderman and when I put the game on the Xbox it loaded fast, and I was playing and I had fun.
The Controller I got is small and comfortable for everything. I spent like 3 hours playing Spiderman and I wasn't tired because my hands wouldn't hurt me after the extended use of it.
I have four complaints about this system and that's why I gave it a 4 star rating:
1. If you unplug the cable from the wall. You need to set the setting again and again and its annoying since the electricity in my country is unstable and I didn't want my Xbox to explode (lol).
2. The Xbox game list is not a big deal meaning that you won't find titles like Final Fantasy or Resident Evil here... The RPG games are no big deal (Don't even mention Morrowind or KOTOR, they just sucks). All you are going to find in this system is a few good action games such as Ninja Gaiden or some short RPG (Fable!), nothing special, nothing outstanding...
3. Too many sports game. Im not a fan of those games. They are boring... make more RPGs and action games!
4. The Xbox can play DVD but you need a special Kit (doesn't come with the package) and that's why PS2 stands in the first place. Oh and its very big to carry... some people says that it's a PC cut in half lol.
These are my main complaints about this system, but everything is so enjoyable about it. The Microsoft Logo, the Menu, the fact that you can save your music and MP3 into the hard drive, replays and absolutely NO USELESS MEMORY CARDS. | video-games_xbox |
Splinter Cell; the best stealth action game of all time. Splinter Cell is one of the most amazing games I have ever played, and will probably always be a close favorite of mine. No game has ever reeled me in as much as this one, and I think I can speak for everyone when I say that this game throws you into international warfare and makes you feel like you are in a Mission; Impossible movie.
You play as Sam Fisher, a retired war veteran pulled back into the field to assist the U.S. government in resolving a tremendous conflict with the country of Georgia. You will have to sneak, shoot, and distract your way through 10 grueling missions spanning the globe. You will use shadows, closets and anything else you can imagine to hide from enemies, which by the way, have to be the most amazing A.I. I have ever seen in a video game. Combining unbeleivable lighting effects (when I say unbelievable, I mean it; a light will be shone from one side of a mesh fence and through onto the main character in incredible detail) and a new visual effect known as "bright blur" which causes lit up areas to create a blur to the viewer, this game is visually polished. Millions of polygons, tons of detail on all surfaces, this is the prettiest Xbox game this side of Halo, and even gives its lighting effects a run for their money.
I guarantee that anyone who is a fan of the Medal Gear Solid Series, Tenchu series or any other stealth action game will absolutely adore Splinter Cell. They call it "Stealth Action; Redefined" for a reason. You can shoot out virtually any light (and actually change the light source of the surrounding when you do so) you can climb onto any ledge, climb any pole, break any window, back up and shoot around any corner, and basically do anything you could need to do to sneak past those nasty Georgians. (You can even shoot a small camera across the room with your gun that makes a whistling noise that attracts the enemy, whom you gas once he has approached.) This game outdoes the gadgets of the James Bond series.
If you are a hardcore sneak-game fan or just someone who plays hide-and-seek a lot, Splinter Cell will soon become a proud addition to your gaming collection. Don't miss it. | video-games_xbox |
Awesome Controller Mod; Might Need some Handiwork. These bullet buttons make a pretty cool modification for your X-Box 360 controller. I just installed mine and they look fantastic. The brass shells are nice and polished with no ding marks or scrapes and look great with the black controller.
One thing to note is that they sit much higher than the buttons, thumbsticks, and D-Pad of the stock controller do. Think about whether this could be a con for you. It doesn't bother me, but I did notice my first time playing that when I could normally move my right thumb in a straight line (parallel to the ground) from the X,B,Y and A buttons right to the right thumbstick, I now have to raise my thumb a little along the way. It's not something I had to do before, but since I primarily play single player games, I'm not too conerned. Even if I was serioulsy into multiplayer I have no doubt it's something I will simply get used to.
Installation is pretty easy if you know how to take apart a controller. Look on the internet for articles on how to take an X-Box 360 controller apart. Even if you're not particularly "handy", it's a very straightforward disassembly and re-assembly. I will note a few things on the installation as the items took some very minor modification to work.
First off, I had to file down the area on the 'Y' button where the shell is glued to the cut button. The glue added enough material that it stuck a bit going in and out of the button slot. I had some already, but if you do not, go to your local Lowe's and pick up a small pack of "Project Source Metal Files" for a couple bucks and file down any trouble areas.
Second, the "D-Pad" gave me some trouble. The shell portion is supposed to "click" into the plate that would normally house the pad. You will see this when you remove the stock D-Pad as you need to take a small screw driver to pop out one of the little locking tabs that hold the exterior portion of the D-Pad. I had to file down the top of the new modified D-Pad housing as the stack that the bullet D-Pad sits in was too tall for the locking tabs to catch. After about 20 seconds per side with a file, it was fine.
Forty bucks is pretty justifiable for these buttons as not only are you paying for the shells and bullets for the controller, someone also has to modify the pre-existing parts to get them to work. They look awesome on the controller, are easy to install with a tiny bit of elbow grease, and make your controller something unique. I highly recommend these! | video-games_xbox |
Fantastic upgrade to the stock drum kit. I have been drumming may way through Rockband (and Rockband2) for about 18 months now, during which time I have gone through three stock drum sets. Finally, last October I took the plunge on the Ion drumkit, and I have absolutely no regrets. If you have room in your budget and you want to take your drumming to the next level, this is the kit with which to go. For what it is worth, I use the Xbox360, and drum at hard and expert levels in the 95 to 100% range.
The Good:
The kit uses a solid and excellently adjustable aluminum frame and is very stable. Between the swing in the arms and the way the connectors attach to the pads, you can put the pads just about anywhere (within reason) to suit your play style or body type, which is a tremendous step up from the fixed positions of the rockband drum set. The pads themselves are very quiet and 100% responsive -- no cross-talk between pads, and they provide great feedback and rebound response. I have found they pick up taps from edge to edge without difficulty, which is nice when you are running a series of 1/16th notes across the toms and can't get the stick heads right in the heart of each pad.
The cables are standard 1/4" connectors and in the event of damage, easily and cheaply replaceable at any music store. Ask me how I know and I'll mention I have a toddler in my home.
Although I am aware of other complaints regarding the sensitivity of the cymbals, I have had no problems (save one, discussed below) with any dropped notes even during extended eighth note runs at 200 BPM. (FYI, I have added a third cymbal with the same level of satisfaction.)
The foot pedal is a bit light and, despite its anchors and velcro, it still moves around a bit in kick heavy pieces (yeah, Tom Sawyer, I'm looking at you), but compared to the basic rockband set, it is a huge improvement. I also found that its action has improved with wear. Fresh out of the box it could catch now and again (the pedal would depress but not rise again), but within a week that problem had resolved itself and broken in, I find it a delight. The spring action on the pedal is quick, but not heavy, so it is ideally suited to my heel-up style. If you favor heel-down, or you wear heavy footwear, the spring may be too light for your taste, and you may find yourself accidently triggering the kick from time to time. However I put this in the preference category, not a knock against the pedal itself.
The Not So Good:
There is still room for improvement. The connectors that hold the pads and cymbal struts to the frame are plastic and a bit fragile. Although they hold firmly, and with no sagging, they can easily be overtightened and cracked. That is a problem I see only growing as the drum kit ages.
The pads are very quiet and with excellent rebound, but I have begun to see a bit of wear on the snare (red pad). Although the modularity of the kit would allow you to replace any or all of the pads individually in the event of a failure, I am not aware that replacement pads are available.
More seriously, the electronic "brain" is insufficiently shielded from static electricity build-up generated by the foot pedal. During the dry winter months (interior RH around 42-45%) I have had problems with static build-up from the kick causing the brain to either short (resulting in a disconnection from the Xbox console)or causing the high hat (yellow cymbal) to fail to register hits correctly (the input for the kick is directly next to the yellow cymbal input). This has been frustrating, but solveable with a stack of unscented dryer wipes. Between songs I quickly rub down the tips of my sticks, the pedal, and the cable connector for the kick. This generally allows me about 10 minutes of playtime before I need to repeat the task. A quick google search will show that this is a relatively common problem, and one ION will hopefully address in its next iteration of the kit. I did not have this problem during October and November when the RH was routinely above 55%).
The final issue is that while I do not have a problem with the kit being wired (instead of wireless), I do wish that the "power" cable was not hardwired into the electronic brain of the kit. If something happens to that cable (and it isn't particularly heavy duty), the whole brain will have to be replaced/serviced. I can see no reason to not have the cable connect at both ends, just like the cables for the cymbals and pads, allowing for easy replacement in the event your cat, dog, toddler or shut-in grandparent chews through the darn thing. But this is really a fine-tuning nit-pick, not a huge complaint.
To sum up, I have found my kit to be a fantastic improvement over the rockband or rockband2 stock drumkits, regardless of mods to those systems. The ION's cymbals and pads are responsive, sensitive, and precise while its frame and connections are adjustable yet solid. I find nothing about its price unreasonable, and if you are finding that transition from hard to expert frustrating because of the limitations of the basic rockband drum set, this set may be the answer to your prayers. It has certainly helped my game. | video-games_xbox |
A good game that is not better than Dark Souls; it's much worse. I'm not a huge Demon or Dark Souls fan, but those games are gorgeous, with expansive environments and super tight controls. Lords of the Fallen is supposed to be a lighter take on the Dark Souls formula, but for me at least, it just doesn't work. While I could play and play Demon or Dark Souls for many hours before giving up in frustration, I can't make it very far in Lords of the Fallen, and at this point I think I'm giving up on it altogether.
Lords of the Fallen does some things better than the 'Souls games, but not enough to help its cause. It feels more like a Western RPG, with more and better loot, more NPCs to interact with, and an easier to grasp character development system. It also provide frequent check points and feels a little less grindy.
Where it stumbles are in the graphics and combat department. The visuals just have an odd, fuzzy quality, and are often not very interesting or even easy to see. Combat, on the other hand, seems clunky to me. You have light and heavy attacks, and when using big, heavy weapons, they deal a lot of damage. If you select the class where you use lighter weapons though, the controls don't feel a ton different, but you do very little damage at all.
You also have access to magic, potions, shards, which can restore magic or energy (you have to manage endurance like in the 'Souls games), as well as a gauntlet that conveniently serves as a ranged weapon. It's a lot to manage but the game does a good job of making them all easy to access. The problem comes when in a battle and trying to decide which to use, and trying to get them to work the way you want them to. I never had problems like these in the 'Souls games, because their controls always worked exactly like I thought they would.
I only wish the controls worked well in Lords of the Fallen. Alas, they do not. It's not a pretty game, and its combat is just sub par. | video-games_xbox |
Good at what it is. It just isn't all the you will want it to be. The truth about this game can already be found in the current reviews, but the average review is undeservingly high. It feels like the Rocksmith people rushed to get it out, and came up with a minimum set of requirements, met them, and published.
This game is good at being a fun way for a beginner to get better at guitar, so its worth buying, but don't expect perfection it has one limited linear gameplay which is good, but leaves you wanting all the rest that this game should have. I can't comment on how a more experience player would like it.
This game has several major shortcomings that can't be ignored just because there is some excitement that you get because you feel you are actually learning to play guitar (a little bit).
The lack of being able to set any skill level is by far the most major problem. I'll finally get it the easy way, so it then gives it to me harder and I never get enough chances to practice it harder before it switches back to the easier way. It is insanely frustrating. The "auto-skill" is still cool and good, but you also need to be able to say give it to me at level whatever so I can practice.
I've gotten stuck on a couple songs where it took me 5-10 times through before I would "pass" it. Being forced to repeat the same song until I make a certain mark is really annoying. An "I'd like to move on" option would be awesome.
Lastly almost all games load lags really annoy me. They generally make them just long enough that you can tolerate it, but this games load times cross the line, and are too frequent, one load before playing the song seems ok, but then it loads again after the song to get to the menu, and even the saves take too long. Also the check tuning before every song is annoying, this could certainly me done more infrequently.
I don't notice the HDMI sound lag others mention. Maybe its a PS3 vs XBOX thing. | video-games_xbox |
Tons of fun, but even more frustrating at times. First off...this is the BEST Godzilla game that has ever come about. The only one that came close was probably the old Japanese Godzilla game for the Sega Saturn. But this is not only the best Godzilla game ever, it also blows its Gamecube predecessor out of the water.
Lets start by comparing the two:
I'll be honest. The reason I bought a Gamecube was because of Godzilla and Resident Evil. I've been a Godzilla nut all my life. But when I heard the Xbox version was coming out, I couldn't beleive it. I traded in my Gamecube copy immediately and bought the Xbox version.
The Gamecube version looked ok, but the XBox version completely blows the cube away. Graphics are crisp, sharp and clean. The monsters are very heavily detailed. The environments never looked better, and the effects are awesome. The sound is also alot better, with Dolby Digital support. There is considerably less slowdown and the monsters all move fluidly. The Xbox version also lacks the graphical distortions that plagued the GC version. And of course, it lacks the infamous gamecube exclusive graphical anomaly 'pixelation distortion', which causes shiny or detailed objects to turn black and extremely pixelated, as if playing on a 16-bit system.
Exclusive to the XBox version, which just completely makes the Gamecube version inferior, is the addition of all game modes available for single player. In Gamecube, you could only play Adventure or Versus mode. To access any other mode, you MUST have 4 people playing. For the Xbox version, you can play any mode you want with computer controlled 'bots. Not only does the Xbox version have more game modes, but it also has new levels, larger levels, and even a new monster: Mechagodzilla 2003, a truly awesome monster. There is also XBox live capability.
There are a few problems though.... For starters, the difficulty in this game is outrageously insane. The A.I. in the game can be very smart at times, but the problem with that is that it anticipates your every move and blows you away before you have a chance to pull it off. Also, the inclusion of power-ups in this game only hinders it. Whenever a power-up appears, the computer player automatically knows where it is, and makes a b-line straight for it. 99% of the time, the computer will get the power-up, leaving you at a major disadvantage.
Other issues include balancing. Some monsters, namely Destoroyah, are so powerful that they simply throw away any fun factor in the game. Destoroyah has a series of uninterruptable and unblockable moves that can literally take half of your lifebar away in little over 3 hits. And once the computer gets a hold of the 'rage' power-up...forget it. You'll be knocked into next Tuesday.
Control is another issue...the control is so clunky that you won't even know whats going on. Reactions are delayed so much that you'll be mashing the controller and having your monster swing away at air while the computer charges up a beam attack. However, I blame this mostly on the Xbox controller, which is quite possibly the worst controller ever conceived in the history of video games, only second of course to the gamecube controller.
Those issues aside, once you get some pals over, this game is just a ton of fun. Team Battle mode and Melee battle modes are so much fun that you'll be sitting there for hours hammering away at each other. There's nothing more satisfying than hurling two giant monsters at each other and watching them collide in mid-air and hit the pavement like a ton of bricks. All in all, the game would have definitely benefit from an option to turn off power-ups, mainly because it would balance the game more. But overall, this is the best 'zilla game ever, and is tons of fun to play. | video-games_xbox |
Best of the series -- comparing to former titles. The Complete Saga improves over LEGO Star Wars II.
Load time is faster especially for character based levels.
The local co-op camera push bug (first AT-ST floating forward in Battle of Endor, and TIE Fighter turrets popping one player out every 30 seconds) was fixed. One player (in local at least) still needs to drop out sometimes to grab some minikits. (Still get stuck at the farthest, last Death Star Escape platform; don't go there.)
True Jedi only needs to be accomplished in Story or Free Play mode. I sort of miss having to get True Jedi in both modes. They replace that gold brick with a Challenge mode where they take away all extras enabled and give you a time limit to find 10 different (blue) minikits. I'd rather take the old trade since time based levels suck in general.
The lobby is better overall. While the outdoor area is smaller than ever, they make up for it by having two cars available! They also added "Beep-Beep" Extra for honking the horns while in the car. My girlfriend thinks that's the best thing ever. They add the band characters in the bar this time. The mini-kits are no longer in the way. They have a gallery for them which you scroll through. There is nothing for bounty hunters/super ewoks in the lobby.
The Jedi glow detection remains the same. Wish they improved it (needed some work -- should prioritize to items and characters over your own buddy). Some NPCs get stuck randomly (but rarely) and twitch in place like crazy. I think it's a new bug.
The grass areas have added lush. It's a nice touch.
There is a new LEGO City: "New Town". It's an improved version of LEGO City with dumber stuff removed and cooler stuff added (boat in water and power lines). Easier to unlock (just 50 gold bricks). They also kept LEGO City as an option too.
There is an alternative New Hope level where you play as Darth Vader and Stormtrooper.
All the stuff from LEGO Star Wars I is definitely improved to at least LSWII standards or better. | video-games_xbox |
Run away. <div id="video-block-R2QD1VV5FS9F9L" class="a-section a-spacing-small a-spacing-top-mini video-block"></div><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91Iuy3v39vS.mp4" class="video-url"><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91NX6qRXwKS.png" class="video-slate-img-url"> Get nauseous after thirty minutes of swinging around a room of randomly generated pirate avatars until you finally find one that you kind of like. You cannot develop your own look. Why not? Because. Select your ship type from a whopping two choices, your crew settings (again...two choices), and then log into the game world. Or don't, because you won't be able to 85% of the time. On the odd chance you make it past the initial (and only) boss fight that is the act of just logging into this game, you wake up in a pub with absolutely no direction - not even a vague hint to set you on your path. Wandering outside the pub you see a ship slowly sinking into the surf (Surprise! It's yours!) and a few shops dotting the coast. Checking out these shops proves to be a challenge due to the morbidly obese naked pirate following you around, shooting you in the face with his pistol, and screaming racial epithets into his microphone. Suddenly, you find yourself magically teleported into the brig of a ship. There is no way out, and several crew members - including the naked pirate from earlier - dance in a circle around your cage playing the hurdy-girdy. With absolutely no other way to leave your sea-based prison, you reluctantly log out to try your luck at logging into the game again. Fifteen tries and thirty minutes later you finally succeed (maybe). You find yourself on a new island, with a new crew....locked into a new brig while a high-pitched 12-year-old shares with you intimate details of your mother's reproductive anatomy. You log out again. Logging back in (maybe), you learn that you can play solo by selecting the smaller of the two ship types - essentially a rowboat with a sail. It may not be glamorous, but at least you'll get to finally stay out of the brig, right? Setting out on your first mission, you realize quickly how tedious even basic navigation can be. Check the map in your hand, cross it against the map on the table, run upstairs to adjust the wheel. Run back downstairs, check the table map again - all while the ship is changing direction because no one is at the wheel while you're downstairs attending to the maps. Run back upstairs, take an educated guess on a heading, and adjust the wheel....before running back downstairs to check on your progress. When (if) you finally reach your destination, dig up the chest, and carry it back to your ship, you make haste to the nearest port to turn it in. Pulling in you see a galleon that immediately opens fire on you, sinking your ship and stealing your treasure. You re-spawn nearby with a mind for vengeance, so you sail back over to the port with loaded cannon. Suddenly, the pirate you didn't see climbing up the side of your ship stabs you in the back. You re-spawn again, enraged, right back onto the deck of your ship. The pirate who just killed you in still there as well, anticipating your return. Another racial epithet is shouted your way just as a bullet impacts your skull, killing you instantly...before you re-spawn again for yet another round of what is surely a hilarious game for the other guy. Giving up, you elect to scuttle your ship from the game menu as that's your only option left at this point. Upon doing this, you wake up on a new island, with your new ship floating off the coast. You've accomplished exactly nothing, you're back at zero.
If this sounds fun to you, then you'll have a fantastic time in Sea of Thieves.
4/4/2018 UPDATE:
After writing this review I met up with a fun crew of guys and we've played together off-and-on for about two weeks now. This play time has given me some new insight into the game that I will offer here. My 1-star rating however will not be changing due to the below mentioned:
* Wonky combat mechanics: Skeleton damage varies WILDLY from barely a scratch to insta-kill single hits with absolutely no rhyme or reason. Their FOV checks and precision aiming border on hack-level, with deadly blunderbus hits that seemingly penetrate through solid rock, and cannonball headshots made from a mile out against wind and rough seas. They also have the ability to clip completely through your body, standing inside you and swinging away with a sword. You don't have that same ability, nor do you reload your weapon or swing your sword as quickly as they do.
*Blatantly missing or broken features: (There are literally dozens, so for the sake of space I'm only mentioning a couple here) For a game whose progression is 100% cosmetic, there is a serious dearth of options with only a handful of clothing sets available, and a measly four ship dressings. Many of the clothing options present in the beta and shown in the trailers do not even exist in-game; likely held back for a future "content update". Ships also have a very prominent and decorative name plate hanging over the door to the captain's quarters...but you can't use it. Clearly you were intended to be able to use this, but it's presently non-functioning. When directly asked about this during a recent Reddit AMA, a Rare developer said "Boy that sure is a nice plaque up there. Sure would be a shame to have it go unused in the future! ;)" The persistence and prevalence of game-breaking bugs is also inexcusable. Since release I have had almost daily occurrences where I completely lose my second weapon slot, making any sort of combat nearly impossible. Weapon skins revert back to their defaults on death, negating the entire purpose of collecting them. Item names appear as string codes in the shop (see screenshot). Ships will also randomly rocket out of the water, spiraling into the sky for no reason whatsoever, spilling cargo and passengers into the ocean before disappearing into the clouds forever (see video).
*Griefing: This game is a griefer's paradise. If you sink a ship, it simply respawns at the next closest island - within sight of the person who just sank them. This means that as long as your opponent is stubborn enough (and in my experience they almost always are), you will NEVER win a battle. Sinking a ship carries absolutely no penalty for the loser, and they are free to roll right back up on you within a minute and engage you again. This makes competing for contested skull forts an impossibility as you simply cannot focus your attention on the island, while simultaneously fending off the same ship over and over and over again. All fights therefore become a battle of attrition, and only end when one guy decides it's over.
*Hacks: As if competing with PC players wasn't hard enough already for the average Xbox user, the game has already been hacked on PC. Now you get to deal with ship-loads of invulnerable aimbotters.
Mind-blowing developer stupidity: Tying into the hacks above, this game is riddled with some absolutely questionable decisions. For instance, player health is controlled completely client side, with no server checks. This has already been exploited to create a god-mode hack. Additionally, all ships have a brig - presumably for dealing with problem players. However, in practice, it's one of the most poorly implemented ideas in the entire game. It's constantly abused (see my earlier remarks above), and serves to only punish the rest of the crew as the person who is "brigged" doesn't have to contribute to any of the work, but still receives a full share of treasure. What this boils down to is people who join four-man crews with absolutely no intention of playing. They get themselves put into the brig, and then they go AFK - leaving the rest of the crew down a man, while collecting their money. The only way to combat this is to have the entire crew drop the server and start a new game, losing all of the work they've already put in because NOTHING in-progress persists across play sessions.
To sum up, this game is horribly, horribly broken, and it is completely unfinished. Any other game in this state would still be in Alpha. As it stands, this is a $30 game at best. It's a "pretty water simulator" and pirate-styled chatroom. Some fun can be had if you're grouped up with a good crew and get placed into an instance without hackers and griefers, but that's an increasingly rare occurrence I'm afraid. | video-games_xbox |
Not much to fear in F.E.A.R. I bought F.E.A.R. instead of Gears of War because I thought it looked scarier based on the screen shots of it I saw. I'm really into horror games like Resident Evil & Silent Hill, and I expected F.E.A.R. to be like a cross between a horror game & a war-based FPS combat game, similar to Resistance: Fall of Man, but it's not... F.E.A.R. is more suspenseful & nerve racking than it is scarey. The creepy environents, dark corridors, and the presense of a creepy little girl with psychic/pyrokenetic powers make the game seem like a horror game from a distance, but once you play it there isn't much horror there...
The emphasis of F.E.A.R. is focused more on action than horror.
Pros: Great graphics!
Incredibly detailed partical effects & destructable environments, when your bullets hit something it reacts just as it would in the real world. Bits of cement, wood, metal, and dust go flying when an object is pelted with heavy fire!
Good voice acting.
Intense FPS combat!
Cons: If you're expecting a horror title, F.E.A.R. probably won't be what you're looking for..
There are no monsters, no aliens, no zombies, and no demons in F.E.A.R. Just a cannibal, a creepy psychic little girl, and an army of clone soldiers.
The game is tense and creepy, but not really what you'd call scarey... At least not in the same sense as other horror titles out there.
The games environments look so creepy, but there's nothing creepy lurking within... The most common (and pretty much only) enemy you face in the game is the Clone Soldier. A guy in army fatigues with a gun wearing a fighter pilot's helmet, nothing too scarey about that...
In short, F.E.A.R. is a good action game, but not much of a horror title.
I was expecting something else from F.E.A.R. and thus was disappointed by it... However, that should not suggest that it's not a good game, just not what I expected it to be.
I would've liked to see afew zombies... Or at least a light saber to go with all those clones and the little girl who uses the force. | video-games_xbox |
This is a nice alternative controller for the Xbox One. This is a nice alternative controller for the Xbox One, however there are better ones out there. The location of the extra buttons at the back are not very good, and the overall shape seems to be designed for smaller hands.
The first thing I noticed when I took the controller in my hands is that rough plastic texture. I'm used to the smoother texture of the official controller, and this did not "feel right".
Also the contour of the handles is different, it is not designed for larger hands. Basically I hold my Xbox controllers with both hands, and index and middle fingers resting on the shoulder buttons (LT/LB,RT/RB), and the thumbs on left analog, and face buttons (A/B/X/Y) for most games. This one seems to be designed to have your thumb on the left DPAD, and middle and ring fingers on the back buttons. I still had to have my index fingers on the shoulder for better grip. But that means the default back button configuration is not proper (since LB/RB are duplicated). And overall it felt less comfortable on my hand. (Holding it with the regular grip makes the back buttons less than useful, since they stay at a very bad angle, so I assumed that was not the proper way).
The controller is wired, like all non-special purpose third party ones (I only saw special ones like guitars, racing wheels, etc to be allowed on the wireless channel). It seems to use the old Xbox 360 detaching head, in fact it fit very well. The cable itself is nice though, it has a cloth cover for longevity. And it comes with the proper 3.5 audio jack, and does not require a separate adapter like the original controller.
Anyways, the controller plays fine, but I could not see much advantage over the official one, or the better third party <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/PDP-Afterglow/dp/B00ZJRHSRW/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">PDP Afterglow</a>, which has better grip, and comes with detachable micro-USB cable, however has even more useless lights. | video-games_xbox |
Multi-player review only - Disappointed. I have been playing the multi-player for about a week and I'm not very happy with the changes. I really don't like the fact that the game now plays like call of duty. I would escape from Call of Duty to Play Halo where the game play IS different. Now, I feel I might as well play Black ops where the game play is better because their engine is on version 5 while this is 343's first shot at it... and it shows.
I don't like the feel of the game play. The controller is a bit different adding the run and removing the run as a special ability... and I don't know why, but the crouching down is an issue for me now where I hit it and the crouching stays down until you click it again... where you would bounce up automatically before... hence no more tea-bagging which was actually something sophomoric I enjoyed in the game.
I don't like the fact that someone who plays a lot can have an advantage over me because they play more. Everyone having a shot at rockets or sniper was something I enjoyed. Balancing the teams when you are playing with people you don't now just became more difficult... it used to be just on skill... how does it work with skill and the type of loadouts/weapons you start with? Seemed to me that some matches were terribly unbalanced and I don't think these two factors have been taken into account.
I did like the introduction of the Mantis. It seems overpowered. Can you take it down with a sniper or are only rockets and laser effective.
My last complaint is on the sniper and the Banshee. I could not bring down the Banshee with 2 sniper shots in Multi-player. Did something change with this? Sniper used to be one of the most effective ways to bring down the Banshee....now, not so much.
I know 343 wanted to make their own mark... and probably wanted to keep some of Bungies legacy... but the balance of the end result is not 343 and Bungie.... but a mash-up of bungie and Activision's call of duty that is not balanced or leaning heavily to Activision. Borrowing from others I guess is what software developers do to incorporate trends that bring a product up to par with a leading product... which is weird because Halo was not call of duty and therefore was not in competition as a competing product. Now they feel like competing products where Halo is chasing call of duty which I think is a loss for Halo legacy players.
I'm sorry, all of these glowing reviews boggle my mind. Maybe I'm old fashion. I would like to see us go back and build upon Halo 3's multiplayer strengths and abandon the transition of Halo to a Call of Duty clone. | video-games_xbox |
Nice Try Konami. Let me just start off by saying that I am a huge fan of music games. I own all the Guitar Hero's and the two Rock Bands so some comparing in the review is inevitable. Also my review will be limited as I have only played the guitar charts for this game and not the drum parts.
Rock Revolution has 4 difficulty levels: Beginner, Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert. In playing this game I started off on Medium as I often do to "warm up" and get myself into the groove. Now players of GH or RB already know that the Medium level introduces playing two chords at the same time. Rock Revolution doesn't just introduce the chords..that's almost all you play. The notes come incredibly fast and the note chart is so aggravating that it ends up not being fun to play. The Hard and Expert levels are even worse.
The song selection isn't bad albeit they are all covers, but I bought the game already knowing this.
What I did like about Rock Revolution is that they introduce new modes of game play. I especially like the Poison Note mode. In Poison Note mode you play normally but there are :poison notes" scattered along the note chart and the idea is to NOT strum on the poison notes.
They also have Crank It Up mode. Crank it up mode is you start pick a difficulty level of either Medium, Hard or Expert and you gradually work your way up to that given level. For instance the note charts will start on beginner, then will crank up to easy, then finally will crank up to medium. This might be useful in warming up and practicing to play songs on Hard on Expert.
Another mode of play is the In the Zone Challenge: play normally but the higher your multiplier is the faster the notes come (also a fun mode).
Band Practice Challenge and Studio Recording Challenge are memory games.. where you hear/see some notes play and you have to duplicate it from memory without seeing the note chart.
These modes are different, fun and offer a different way to play other than the GH or RB titles...however its still not enough to make this game a favorite on my list.
Worth the $50? no..wait until the price drops or at least rent it. I bought it as something to play just to hold me over while I waited for GH World Tour to release (and get some extra achievements). | video-games_xbox |
Sounds Great, Well-Made, Mic a Smidgen Quiet. Anyone who has ever run a raid and/or PvPd on a team for an online game knows how critical it is that everyone in the party knows what their role is, including in relation to others. Whether you are the group leader and directing the action, or simply filling a role and completing your assigned task, without solid communication even a simple mistake could prove disastrous. Sure, you could type out messages at 120 WPM, but in the hectic pace of combat no one has the time to reply; there is no guarantee someone could type as quickly, read your question, and process your answer, all while they keep up their role as well.
The obvious solution? Voice chat! Whether you use an in-game chat system, a free service such as TeamSpeak, or pay for a server such as Ventrilo, the other half of the battle is acquiring a good headset. When I was asked to review the Sentey Harmoniq Pro I jumped at the chance. While I already owned a wireless Bluetooth Plantronics model, it was getting older and I wanted something that had better sound quality. So, without further ado:
Construction
The first thing that you will notice upon removing the Harmoniq Pro (HP, for short) from the package is the weight. This headset feels durable and has a solid feel to it; the twisted-wire cable is wrapped in a nylon paracord material that is long enough to run behind a desk to keep it out of sight. The volume and mute controls are located on the cable and hang roughly where your hand is if you were walking around with the headset on. Finally, the headphones come with a spare pair of ear puffs to replace should yours become damaged/dirty.
The overall feel of the headset is one of comfort: the padding around the ears is very soft, and the opening is large enough to cover my entire ear so that nothing is being pressed against my head. The pad at the top of the band is also a nice touch and keeps the entire unit from leaving pressure marks/causing pain. The non-padded areas have a rubbery-soft paint that helps them to feel nice while being picked up. When the unit is receiving power, six lights (three on the front and back of each ear piece, for twelve in total), will light up; when the mic is ready for use the tip will turn red, also. If the mic is muted, the light will turn off.
Functionality
As you know, all of the comfort in the world amounts to a hill of beans if the headset sounds horrible. Fortunately, Sentey knows what it is doing. The HP does a damned good job of both playing the sound (whether it is the music/sound effects of a game or chatting in Skype) and also relaying my voice for chatting with another person online. Since there is a lot of information that I could break down here, I am going to summarize it as best as I can to keep it brief:
Pros:
1) The noise cancellation feature works very well. My boyfriend was yelling for me not five feet away once and I never heard him over the sound of the game that I was playing. I did not have the game music turned up, and it took him raising his voice and coming next to me to tap my shoulder until I heard him.
2) The microphone is very flexible and easy to move into the optimal position to hear your voice.
3) Setting this up was a breeze. Simply insert the cable into the USB port on your computer and Windows will recognize it and set up the HP headset. In addition, any programs that you use a headset for (such as Rosetta Stone) will have no issues recognizing it, either.
4) The sound quality of the Harmoniq Pro is amazing! It has great bass and is truly vibrant. I was able to hear singing and tones in games that I never knew existed. Take World of Warcraft, for example: the sound effects and area songs were rich and the ambient noise was so much more realistic. Music on iTunes was great, also, ranging from heavy rock songs by Dio to the dulcet tones of a string Quartet.
5) Setting up the surround sound was easy with the HP software. You are able to test each speaker, enable/disable each one, and adjust the sound level for them as well. In addition, you can manipulate the sound through the controller that is on the USB cord.
All of this is great, but there is a Con:
1) The microphone is VERY soft. I had to turn the output to 100% when using Ventrilo, and even then my friends were straining to hear me. If I adjusted the Output in the settings options within Ventrilo, there would be so much distortion whenever I activated my mic that it hurt their ears. I plugged in my Plantronics headset and had no problems, so it is some sort of issue with the Harmoniq Pro.
In the End
If you are in the market for a high quality headset that is durable, looks great, has sound comparable to a high-quality pair of headphones, and is easy to setup, the Harmoniq Pro by Sentey is simply too good to pass up. To be honest, the comfort level alone could sell this headset, but when you factor in the 5.1 REAL Sound, the meticulous setup for said sound, and great design of the unit, and the overall quality, you are really paying significantly less than this headset is truly worth. So I say to you, every Logitech, Turtle Beach, and Plantronics fangirl and fanboy, check out the Sentey Harmoniq Pro headset; you will be as surprised at how good it is as I was. | video-games_xbox |
If you want to maximize your use of this speed wheel, then read this review. As most already know, no LB or RB. Not the end of the world, but pretty lame of Microsoft to not put into the wheel. I use this wheel for F1 2013. I really, really like it. Initially, it kept on disconnecting, but for the past couple uses it has been staying connected. I like it a LOT more than using a regular controller. For those thinking of buying this for F1, heres what happens with it not having the LB or RB. The A button will now do the Rear Look. You'll need to pause the game to change the camera view, so obviously you won't be able to change the camera view during multi-player...but who cares, you should have a favorite camera view, and only need to use the A button for Rear Looks anyways. The B button will be KERS, and the Y button will be DRS. Oh ya, by the way, I think there are a lot of people complaining about this wheel before they even get used to it. You have to use it for a bit, get the hang of it before slamming it. It SOOOOOO dang inexpensive. Trust me, I'd love to have a wheel by Zeljko Roso that fits on the Logitech G27...this set up is supposed to be amazing because the solid build and actual working buttons of the Roso....which far surpass the plastic/fake buttons of the less expensive Thrustmaster F1 add on wheel. Before I forget to mention, I have only raced with this wheel using automatic transmission, I don't know how nice it is when using manual trans. Also, even though it lets you think you can assign keys, once you save your new set up of new assigns, it doesn't work.
So, here's what I suggest. Get a reclining office chair, get a footstool and a lot of foot stool size pillows. Stack up the pillows on your footstool to get your feet up high, and lean back in your office chair...this is close to the real seat position of an F1 car. Then, get F1 2013, its killer and SMOKES Forza 5 as far as a full on F1 game. Then, if you didn't buy F1 2013 with the classic pack included, download the classic pack for like $13.00. The classic pack has some cars/tracks/drivers from the 1980's. Go put on an old pair of the really short Ocean Pacific shorts, a Le Tigre collard shirt and some checker print slip on Vans shoes, and play the 80's classic mode.
Also, go get an Astro Gaming Headset, this lets you stream your own music into the game...you plug your cell phone into the Astro MixAmp, etc... I'd suggest a lower volume as to not totally overtake the regular game sounds. Play the regular/non-classic game modes of F1 2013 while streaming music like Megadeth's Skin O' My Teeth, Motley Crue Kickstart My Heart, and Turbo Lover by Judas Priest... these any many other songs are quite fitting to the racing.
"BUT" you ask..."but if I wear the aforementioned 80's outfit while racing the 80's Classic mode, does this mean I am supposed to wear studded leather while racing to Judas Priest?". Let me tell you how to answer that....do you want your significant other to walk into the room and not only NOT be pissed that you gaming again, but be turned on more than ever before, if the answer is yes, then wear the studded leather.
Oh ya, this speed wheel is exactly responsive. IMHO, it has zero lag. If you want to get off the sticks and into a wheel on a budget, this is for you. The fact that I can use the office chair/foot stool seating position with this wheel is great, I don't have to buy one of those massive, expensive Racing Simulator Seats. Also, if the wheel seems to touchy, you can go into settings, at least in F1, and set the sensitivity, saturation, etc... Again, I'd love to have a G27 Logitech with a Roso wheel attachment, and put that on a full on simulator seat and have foot pedals, etc...but as far as keeping it cheap, this is a great unit.
Oh ya, some people complain about their arms getting tired. Heres an idea, pull your head outta your A, and in the office chair position I described...put a nice pillow under your upper arms, it works great.
Very solid build for the price, feels really solid, does not feel plasticy to me. I honestly think this is worth $49, and having used it, I'd pay $79 if it had the LB RB. I would be 5 stars and not 4 if it had LB RB.
Oh ya, get on Google Play/movies, and watch a movie called 1 (Formula 1 the movie), its sick...and get on Netflix and watch Hunt vs. Lauda, the true story documentary behind the movie Rush by Ron Howard.
Reminder: Astro Headset and Studded Leathers
Oh ya, YOUR WELCOME. | video-games_xbox |
Great bundle option for any Halo fan wanting to get a Xbox One. Great bundle for any Halo fan (like myself) - If you don't care for Halo, look at perhaps the Assassin's Creed bundle or none at all.
Heads up - the Halo game (Master Chief Collection) is for a digital download - so if you're internet sucks, it may take a while for it to install (so please don't expect to be up and running within 5 minutes. It installs pretty nice though, allowing portions of the game to be playable while the rest downloaded (I could play the 1st campaign pretty shortly after starting the download, other campaigns unlocked a bit later).
For coop in campaigns, Halo 1 and 2 are 2 players only (I think it would have taken a massive overhaul of the campaigns to put in 4 players) - Halo 3 and 4 are up to 4 players like they originally were.
Multiplayer is pretty fun (although I believe they still don't use dedicated servers) - I like how I could jump into a Halo 2 map with Halo 2 multiplayer gameplay, then flip to Halo 3 for the next match, etc. It kept it fresh (although I didn't care for the layouts in Halo 4).
I would rate the game 4/5 (since Halo Reach was my all time favorite Halo game and it is not included) but the bundle 5/5 - its a great deal. Great system. I was pretty happy with how the User Interface with Xbox One is - the operating system I think is a big improvement from the 360, I like the game recording / the "snapping of apps" (think of it like an option to hit Alt+Tab on a xbox), and how I can boot up my xbox one and be right where I left off in Halo or GTA within a minute (it must keep it in a sleep mode or cache the game somehow) - is really neat.
Diehard Playstation fans will always knock on this system, diehard xbox fans will always knock on the PS4 - if you're on the edge, take a look at the different platforms exclusives, and try and get a hands on with both systems in navigating through stuff. It is basically a Pepsi vs Coke thing. The PS4 is also a great system but I just like Halo too much to pass it up completely with a PS4.
Overall though PC kicks the crap out of both of these (my computer has more power than probably the 2 systems combined) - but the ease of use of a console (for party connecting etc), the social aspect for me (since I know very few who game on PC), and just the experience of being on a gaming console has had some sort of neat feeling for me ever since getting my Sega Genesis.
kthxbai | video-games_xbox |
know much about consoles and such so it'll be pretty simple and what you need to know. I'll write this review for people who don't know much about consoles and such so it'll be pretty simple and what you need to know. This is an Xbox bundle meaning it comes with everything a normal Xbox 1 would and some extras. The major differences between this bundle and a normal Xbox 1 is that it comes with a hard copy of fallout 4, a DIGITAL DOWNLOAD copy of fallout 3, and 500gb more memory than a normal console. The deal is that you will probably pay around $350 for a Xbox 1 console, with no games and 500gb memory. With this bundle you are paying $50 more for a new game and 500 extra gigabytes of space, which you are definitely going to need if you plan on playing multiple games. Fallout 3 is pretty old and with the reverse compatibility I think it can be played on the 1 and it only costs like $20 so that doesn't make much of a difference.
THIS NEXT PART IS IMPORTANT: if you do not have a normal internet connection whether it be wired or wifi, DO NOT plan on being able to play any games online or updates games that you have. If you have a satellite internet connection the amount of data you will use will probably require you to take out a small loan... Most of these games have initial installation multiple gigabyte downloads even before being able to access network features (DLCs, multiplayer, game store, game updates) and even after that the network features will use a large amount of data. Also if you are going to buy this console for your children who play video games often make sure you get the 1tb hard drive console. Otherwise your kids are either going to be deleting a game off the console every time they get a new one or they're going to be forcing you to buy an external hard drive to fit everything which will cost you at least another $100. Other than that it's a pretty good deal. The console that you get is a normal looking Xbox 1 no different because of the bundle except for the hard drive. The microphone you get is a piece of junk but it will allow you to talk to friends if this buy is for someone's younger child. Older users 12-99+ are going to want a better headset. Turtle beaches are decide, triton headsets are better. But that's all you need to know.
My last bit of advice is to get a ps4 instead. That console runs much smoother and has less issues than the xbox1 but when it comes to game quality they are about the same...I guess. Xbox 1 has more family options (tv options, more streaming apps, more of an entertainment system). Happy buying hope this helped! | video-games_xbox |
If more time,thought,energy put into it it would be the best. This must be one of the finest martial arts games I have yet to play. As I said in my title if more time, thought, and energy was put into this game it defintley would of been one of the best! The story is very solid and so is the fighting, allies, characters, etc. The story is- In the future demon offspring and there armys have taken over all of China except for one kingdom. Sun Soo(the main character)is the son to the leader of that one kindgon. Once the kingdom is taken over and his father killed sun soo is sent to a prison. There Mongolian rebels invade the prison and free him. Thats when the serious gameplay starts to take place. Sun Soo must defeat Zow Gon(the boss of the whole game) but to do that he has to kill Zow Gons 5 demon offspring(and go through hundreds of bad guys to do that!!)and get their 5 forbbiden blades.........that right there is probaly one of the best plots I have ever heard of in any game! As I said to beat the 5 demons you have to go through many, many bad guys and trust me after awhile they get very hard! And they seem to change in every level. speaking of levels the levels in this game range very much. One of the levels takes place in his dream! But don't worry cause through all these levels youll have many allies helping you ranging from- prisioners, rebels, soldiers, snipers, half demons, dragons, peacemakers, armys, etc. And while you are playing youll be kicking @ss with many different weopons like swords(many different kinds), sticks(many different kinds), wrenches, guns(many different kinds), etc, etc, etc, etc!! Now you say after all these positive things why did it get such low reviews? well as I said all the way in the beggining the makers didn't spend as much time on this game as needed. with N64/dreamcast type graphics and other things like that is why. So if you can look through that and see the excellent storyline, characters, fighting, bosses, weopons,etc then youll be opened up to a whole new exciting game! | video-games_xbox |
Owned, Played, moved on. STORY LINE
This is unfortunate. Because Ive played "Armored Core" since its birth, "Steel Battalion: Line of Contact" until the servers went dark for its campaign mode, and "Chrome Hounds" until it died. So with over a decade of mech gaming experience it's not hard to determine THIS games worth. Which appears to be accurately priced around 8-9 dollars. The story line in single player is the ever so redudndant "Chase bad guy", "Bad guy runs", "Catch up to bad guy", "Bad guy runs". Problem with the story which youll encounter time and time again is the main character ("you") is voice acted as a "whiney" and "immature" emo dude. They portray you as this "I don't care I'm going to attack all the time despite the fact Im piloting the junk of the universe". Theres even a few 3rd person missions where on foot you have some shoddy gunfights. Which suck btw.
CUSTOMIZATION
The customization for the Mechs in this game are basic. What was EXTREMELY disappointing beyond anything was the fact that when given the chance to upgrade to better parts they looked exactly identical to the parts you were using beforehand. Basically they designed a pair of arms for you to equip, and gave them 5 different names with 5 different sets of stats. They all look identical though. All heavy arms look like the last, all medium weight arms look like the others, and the smaller arms are the same thing. And this applies to the legs, torsos, weapons, and everything else.
GAMEPLAY
Its not that bad in the single player. It offers Game-Engine generated movies (of where you are constantly whining), and the single player battles appear on par with barely any lag ever at all. I had the game installed on my console when playing this. The reasons for that will be mentioned below. The battles are smooth and satisfying, however they always felt limited due to the fact that you were forced to engage your nemesis time after time, and each time if you didn't have the most recent mech upgrades (which all look the same as aforementioned) you got your butt kicked. So either equip the ugly arms that weigh too much and complete the mission OR use the arms or parts that were good enough for the last mission and die repetitiously.... all while whining.
MULTIPLAYER
Ah yes. Good ol fashion Mech-on-Mech battles. Ive got the equivalent of a T1 connection. And no the HUB is not far. It didn't mean anything, cause if someone in the server battling it out with you has his grandmother skyping with yer mom about how you need a job and is bogging down the internet connection, the entire game and everyone in it is going to feel the wrath of grandma. The game simply has lag, I installed the game after suffering this over and over again and to my dismay having it installed made barely any difference. Not too mention there does not appear to be any kind of level matching system, as time after time myself and other players were subjected to death after death at the hands of people who had all the good things available for themselves and we had just started playing on day 1. So forget common sense multiplayer matches. Did I mention Grandma and lag?
BOTTOM LINE
If you enjoy mech games and like simple non-intuitive mech customization with simple storyline and simple objective based gameplay that removes story advancement and forces you to use things you don't want nor need... its a good game.
If you're looking for groundbreaking mech combat and cool mech customization with the ability to kick ass without being forced to use things you don't want this game is a big NO. | video-games_xbox |
Amazingly Spectacular. Graphics- The graphics are so amazing from the beautiful mountains to the vehicles. If you are flying in the sky you get the feeling that you are actually there looking down on everything there. When you are under water the graphics are a little less detailed but still are great. I think it has the best graphics ive ever seen.
Controls, and Gameplay- It is so fun to play that you will never stop. after a week of having it now it still doesn't get old. I have over 25 hours of playing time and i still have only finished 10% of the story(partially because its so easy to get sidetracked doing fun stuff). The controls are very easy to get use to. the only thing is that sometimes its tricky to land planes and do complex grapples while in the air, but i don't mind much. It still gets me every time when i dual grapple an enemy to a high wall or tree then ram a car or plane into him, or when i pick up a car with a heli and drop it on him. It is very fun to just jump out of a plane and free-fall.
Vehicles and weapons- I love the diversity of weapons and vehicles. There are over 140 vehicles and over 20 different weapons and explosives and there are still goingg to be more add-ons. I definitely recommend the arial assault package( very fun).
There are soo many endless possibilities with the weapons. There are all kinds of cars from crappy Volkswagens, to a civadier 999 which is kind of like the new audi r8, to tanks,to boats, to airplanes or helicopters.
Story- You are Rico, a free agent whos looking to kill his old mentor. You come to this island of Panau. You are taken care of by groups of anti-government people. You do their dirty work, they help you find the man to kill. You can do many missions that are easy or complex and everything in between. From assassinations to saving a teammate. The only downside is the cheasy voice acting
Pros-
You are in a vast vivid and beautiful environment that has thrills around every corner.
There are many vehicles to choose from and many weapons.
Controls are easy.
Good story.
Cons-
Underwater graphics are not the best
Voice acting is bad. | video-games_xbox |
Fortune City is worth a visit. This is a excellent game, especially for the current price. I was a fan of the first. Actually got an Xbox 360 because of the first Dead Rising game. I loved it but it was awesomely frustrating because of the time limit, very few save points and clunky controls. 2/3 of these issues are improved in the sequel. What you realize though about the Dead Rising series is that it's greatest design feature is the frustration you go through while fending off thousands of zombies trying to rescuse survivors before they succumb to the hungry masses. The features & flaws are tied together in this game and it's that contradiction that makes this game so brilliant. Capcom has pulled off something really impressive.
STORY / CHARACTERS:
kudos to Capcom for bringing in a whole new cast. Even though they already had plenty of wonderful characters established from the original game. Part of me thinks they did this because depending how you played through the first Dead Rising would determine who survived and who has parished. That's right, there was consequences to your actions. You could take Frank West to the end of the game and he could still not make it out alive. Each playthrough reveals different scenarios and outcomes. Other games play around with this concept but Dead Rising is one of the best at pulling it off. So they replace the Frank West with Chuck Greene. Frank was awesome. Chuck is not as awesome as Frank. But he's still pretty cool. Chuck is his own man. He doesn't have the Bruce Campbell swagger that Frank West had but Chuck has an infected daughter, so you can forgive him if he doesn't have a sense of humor. That's right, his daughter is infected from a zombie bite and will turn into a zombie if she doesn't get a dose of Zombrex every twenty four hours. Oh yeah and I forgot to mention that his wife has recently been killed too. The story is darker but it is also more emotional. Scenes between Chuck and Katey are done well. DR2 still has humor in the other survivors and the environment. The tone and art style is still comic bookish. It's a pretty wild mix of content going on.
SAVE SYSTEM / TIME LIMIT:
DR2 has essentially the same save system from DR but they have increased save points and given you two more save slots. I like this save system. It is designed to be a little frustrating. I can see how people may complain about the save system but I don't see a problem how time plays into the game. This IS the game in my opinion. This is the cornerstone of the whole game. It is a zombie outbreak, people are dying, you have to make choices. This is what it's all about. If you don't get this then you don't get the whole zombie genre. You have to ask yourself. "Do I help this person out or do I go loot this store and let them die." Things happen in a (sped up) kind of real time. There is a frantic suspense to it. The save system adds to it.
CONTROLS / GAMEPLAY:
DR had stiff animations and clunky controls. This is corrected in the sequel. The controls are great in this game. The action is fluid and the controls are much more natural. When Chuck is in a car or bike the triggers are gas and brake. When Chuck is shooting a range weapon the trigger buttons are used for aim and fire. Only one true melee button but used in combination with other buttons opens up dozens of combat moves. The combo weapons are lot of fun and mjor addition to the series. I don't quite get the combo cards though. When you're lower level they make sense because they help you level quicker but I wish the game gave you more incentive to try more combo weapons. Also you will probably max out at level fifty before finding them all. So they don't serve any purpose after level 50.
SOUND:
The music and sound effects are great and appropriately change from Muzak to techno. The sound effects of a spiked bat being driven into the skull has a nice punctuation that is still rewarding thousands of kills later.
MULTIPLAYER/CO-OP:
I'm afraid to say I need to halt my cheerleading for a moment. I was one of those original fans that pleaded for Dead Rising Co-Op. Now that I have it, I don't do much with it. I can't really explain it but it isn't as much fun as I imagined it would be. It's not horrible and it is fun teaming up with someone but it feels like something that's just tacked on to shut people up. There is much room for improvement. Still I like the Co-Op better than the multiplayer. I don't like the Terror is Reality storyline and don't care for the multiplayer either. It comes off very half baked.
OVERALL:
This is a great sequel. If you enjoyed the original then it's a no brainer, this is what a sequel should be. They started with a great original game, listened to the fans, threw in improvements, surprises, characters and a new environment to explore. It has great replay value. Pick both DR and DR2 up. They are excellent games. | video-games_xbox |
BIG LET DOWN . I was looking forward to playing this game SO MUCH, and now that I have, it's one of the most poorly made games I've ever played. PROBLEM 1: Why must a game that has mediocre graphics require an additional download of almost 7 gb??? PROBLEM 2: Why does the character, a grown man of average-athletic physique, have the cardio capacity of a 400 pound diabetic??? It makes ZERO sense to have to build up a characters stamina in a game like this. PROBLEM 3: The Chapter 3 mission with the chainsaw guy won't allow me to save whenever I go into the mirror. The game just freezes when I'm at the front desk. Because of this, each time I to reload the game after running out of ammo or dying, I have to start all the way back at the beginning of the chainsaw part. PROBLEM 4: I don't play games unless I can play on the highest difficulty. I became thoroughly confused when I encountered the deformed wolf boss. A poorly designed boss can ruin a games appeal completely. Personally, I think bosses are NOT necessary in all games, and this one is nothing but a game stopper. If you don't have enough ammo, then the game simply ends for you there. Is it fun to have to go back and start the chapter over again? NO. That's not what gaming is about and certainly doesn't justify the price you'd pay if you bought it new, which I'm HAPPY to say I didn't. PROBLEM 5: If you want to load a saved game, be prepared to wait longer than thirty seconds. The more you die, the slower and more boring loading a save becomes.
I'm HIGHLY, HIGHLY DISAPPOINTED in Bethesda for making this substandard garbage and it shocks me that it has a high rating. As an advanced gamer since the SNES days, this aggravates me and only speaks volumes of the lack of taste in most gamers these days. DEAD SPACE has this slop beat in spades. I wonder if a horror game will ever come close to it? It won't be anything by Bethesda, I know that much. | video-games_xbox |
More than just God of War meets Zelda/Metroid. Darksiders, like Nier, the last game I played through and beat, didn't get all that much respect when it first came out. But Darksiders features more than just God of War meets Zelda gameplay, it tells a story worth seeing through until the end.
The following review is based upon a playthrough on the Xbox 360, on the hardest - Apocalyptic - difficulty.
Darksiders is similar to God of War in that you play in a third person view, slashing up enemies and powering up your weapons and variety of moves. Unlike Bayonetta, for example, for the most part you can get away with mostly just slashing away, so long as you dash and jump to avoid attacks, even on the most difficult setting. Blocking is also an option, but whether because of the button combination to do it, or more likely because of my recent playthrough of Bayonetta, I didn't find much use for it.
One grace that Darksiders provides is that the button smashing cutscenes in Darksiders are limited to only a couple. As someone who dislikes God of War because of the large number of these types of scenes, and had a heck of a time in Wolverine during the one scene that used them, this is absolutely wonderful.
The gore and violence is approximately what you'd get with that type of game as well, so the M rating is well deserved.
Darksiders is similar to Zelda, or even Metroid, in that not all areas will be accessible to you when you first start out. Only a few areas are absolutely required, but the optional items make full use of backtracking (not that the game doesn't require backtracking). Puzzles also make an appearance, only a few of which really drove me crazy, especially near the end.
The music in the game is quite majestic, and I found myself sitting and waiting in some areas just to hear snippets, but is never in the way. The rest of the soundtrack is equally good, and do a fairly good variety of enemies, I didn't find anything horribly repetitive.
The story is the last part I'll mention. As is usually the case you start out strong and rather quickly lose your powers. Here you actually lose them, instead of a game like Prototype where you flash back in time, and must recover them, learning new powers along the way. You really don't make much use of your powers at the beginning of the game, so it's not a horrible loss.
But I found the story compelling enough to draw me into the game, and that was most clear by how I felt during the ending.
During my game I ran into three spots where my console completely froze up, requiring me to turn the console completely off. All were after long playing sessions, so it may have been related to that. They were also rather late in the game.
As noted above, I played on the hardest difficulty setting, and my total play time was approximately 22 hours, with around 90% of the achievements complete, and grinding to level my weapons and moves, found all optional unlockables. I choose the Xbox 360 version only because it was available where I picked it up. As far as I'm aware, there's no difference between the versions (although one article discussing a possible sequel suggested the PlayStation 3 version was better, for some reason).
Normally Darksiders wouldn't be my type of game, and I honestly wasn't expecting much, but it completely blew me away. In the hope that they'll release another Darksiders, changing only the story, I give this game 5 of 5 stars. | video-games_xbox |
Game of the Year; already. Hmm, well... in short, if you have an Xbox, and you aren't playing Gears of War 3, you might as well sell it.
So I ordered this game and got it at 3:00 P.M. on Tuesday. Right on time. I waited til the weekend so it wouldn't interfere with my school work. Then, at 4:00 P.M. , on Friday, September 23rd, I popped it in.
Fourteen hours later, I found myself speechless. Keep in mind, it is 6:30 A.M by now.
We completed the Campaign, amazing story, very gripping and emotional, almost made me cry =..).
(We completed the Campaign on Normal in 5 or 6 hours) Then we hopped online.
POLISHED TO PERFECTION. Honestly I can't say what I was more excited for on this game. We played for 2 hours before getting in to Horde mode and Beast mode. The Online experience was great, with the new dedicated servers, the new-to-Gears Team Deathmatch mode is by far my favorite. Epic has totally fixed all the problems from the Second Gears of War. The hit registration is perfect. The only flaw in the multiplayer is the sawed-off. Honestly, that is the most annoying thing I have ever seen in my life besides the people who walk exceptionally slow across the street. The re-vamped Horde mode "Horde 2.0", is so much fun. The tower defense aspect to the game is great. Laying down laser wire and turrets really helps with the tougher waves by holding off the enemies while you mow them down. Not as easy as it sounds though because of the new boss waves every 10th wave. These wave can be easy or extremely difficult. Then, on top of all this, you have bonus waves. These wave can be so fun. They vary from things like "kill eight enemies with the Chainsaw or Retro Lancer Bayonet" or "Complete the wave in 2:45". Overall, the multiplayer aspects themselves are worth 60$. Then you have Beast mode; and let me just say, DIFFICULT. The Beast mode cannot easily be beaten by yourself "excluding Casual". The best way is to play with 5 friends to diverse your small army to defeat any opposition.
By far, this game could not possibly get any better. I have sold my soul to EPIC with this game and man did I get a great deal. I have already decided Game of the Year for this game. There's is no contest, between PS3 or Xbox. Thanks also goes to amazon for their help with my pre-order bonus issue and the quick help with the problem.
Your dedicated Gears fan and amazon.com shopper,
Jacob Tessandori | video-games_xbox |
Best Iteration of the 360 thus far. Foremost, this console is quiet. I'm pretty sure it doesn't have a fan at all, and it's much better ventilated than the previous models. With a disc in the drive, sometimes the noise is noticeable, but it has never been loud - my first console often sounded like somebody was using a belt sander, even when I wasn't using the disc drive. If you're familiar with the NXE content, the huge hard drive makes it possible to install any and every game an owner possesses, and because the console plays those games without using the disc drive, this machine makes zero noise - so quiet that I've walked away from it and been carried away by other things, and walked back into the room having completely forgotten that it is on, and not realizing.
The built-in wireless is a definite plus. There isn't an ethernet port to speak of, which makes LAN gaming somewhat frustrating, but it also cleans up the rear of any entertainment system, and makes internet access quick and easy.
The 250GB hard drive is also quite nice. Because of formatting and system data, there's actually only about 230GB available on the console, but this is inconsequential - it's enough space for any DLC, installing most game libraries, and any number of videos or music.
The buttons on the front of the previous 360 models have been replaced with touch-sensors. I had an original model xbox 360 that had a worn-out power button that sometimes wouldn't respond, no matter how hard or often it was pressed. That problem doesn't exist here. The lightest touch with a finger on the power sensor activates the console. The same is true of the disc drive - there's a touch-pad instead of a button.
Notable downsides:
- The console doesn't come with a component video cable - just an RCA. If you're not concerned with or don't own an HD display, this isn't a problem for you, but it's annoying for those who are. If you own an earlier Xbox 360 model, those cables will work just fine with this one.
- The power button is very sensitive, which can be a problem if it's at a level where somebody else can brush it if they walk by, or if your feet can touch the front of the console. | video-games_xbox |
Works well if the drive is the right size for the belts. I ordered these to repair a DVD player, not an XBOX, but since Microsoft appears to have used a number of DVD drive suppliers the application issues will be the same. Amazon only listed one other belt that might have been suitable, but the stated 16.5 mm size was too small for my needs, and probably for most DVD drives.
Unlike the experience of other reviewers, the package I got contained only ten belts; no pads, shims, radiator hoses or whatever else might sometimes show up. These are apparently repackaged by the seller, in this case Stellar Depot, and the small resealable plastic bag had just a printed label, "10 Pack Genuine Replacemen...Type, Bulk Lot of 10 belts" so they might have been made by the Genuine Belt Company. But they seem to be of good quality, and the important thing is to check the original belt since not all DVD drives use the same size. This should be done anyhow; stuck tray problems can often be corrected by cleaning the belt with alcohol or in household ammonia if the old one isn't loose on the pulleys. Fortunately the belts listed here do not match the dimensions shown in the product details, "8 X 1 X 4 inches" but instead are about 0.8 inches inside diameter when formed as a circle, and 0.050 inches thick. The old belt from my DVD player had broken, but when glued back together was still tight enough on the drive, and measured almost an inch in diameter. While a new belt can be expected to be a little smaller, 20% is quite a stretch, and some reviews by actual XBOX users have noted these as being a little small. The added tension initially almost stopped the loading motor but after a few operations the disc tray started working properly. The added stretch could reduce the life of the belt, but probably not by much at only a 20% size difference.
I give this just a 3-star "OK" rating because I think these are a bit too small for most drives, and size information is inadequate in the product description, but they are of decent quality and the price is reasonable for ten belts. | video-games_xbox |
Myths and Facts. Introduction:
I've had this intercooler since it was released last spring, and it has worked well and done its job. My 360 is on for at least 3 days at a time with and without a game running. Here is the latest update from IGN regarding the Intercooler:[...].
Here are some facts:
1. Scorch Marks? This device was a hassle to make sure it was properly and securely plugged in all the way. If you move your 360 a lot, the cable can losen VERY easily. The "snap" on of the power cord holds the power cord, but it doesn't make sure it is plugged in straight or not at a slight angle. You can try this out yourself: move your power cable around, you will see that if you have a habit of moving the 360 around and not recheck the connect in the back, it CAN be moved slightly to an angle. What would this do? It would most certainly cause major power issues. You know how the end of the powercord looks like; with all the holes that pins on the other end need to connect to, you can't afford to not constantly make sure your cord connecting to the Intercooler is nice, tight, and secure.
2. Loud noise? I have a lot of old PCs in the house, and if I ever do turn them off, turning them back on would cause temporary loud noise coming from the fan. This is due to dust and the ball bearings either wearing out or starting up with dust in the way. Is this a problem? No, because my Intercooler currently starts up with a louder than usual noise, but like my PC fans, the noise stops within a seconds to a minute and everything is back to normal.
3. How loud is the Intercooler when it is brand new? I DON'T even notice it. My xbox1 makes more noise than the xbox360 + intercooler. Moreover, when you're playing a game with the volume on, you will forget you even have an Intercooler running.
4. Stealing power from 360? This is rediculous. What do you think the controllers and USB devices are doing when you plug them into the 360? Supplying power? Yeah right. These tiny fans use less power than plugging in your ipod or whatever usb device and controllers. It's true that microsoft has not publicly recommended this product, but neither would microsoft allow a product that would damage their expensive consoles. It's Microsoft who has to pay for the repairs, shipping, and replacement of these consoles. Microsoft would NOT allow a third party to develop hardware that would break the 360 100% of the time.
5. What is this 100% of the time thing I just typed? I do know for a fact that there are lots of faulty intercoolers. I've read about lots of exchanges on intercoolers, actually, my first intercooler never worked. It never turned on. I took it back on the same day and everything has been fine since. If you have a problem with it, don't wait or let your Intercooler continue to run. Just take it back and get a new one. It's onmly 20 bux, the thing is made of plastic, what do you expect? It does, however, do its job. I have never had my 360 lockup, overheat, or any kind of problems. I have an xbox from the second wave/shipment in december, and it is on ALL THE TIME!
Recommendations:
PLEASE, don't have your 360 standing up. That is just about the dumbest thing Microsoft could have suggested. Take a look at your 360 and tell me where the largest and majority of the vents are? EXACTLY, they are on the bottomside where you would stand your 360 up. The Nyko works better if those vents are not blocked. It is EXTRACTING air, and thus need more air to pass through. Even if you don't use an Intercooler, please, don't stand that thing up. I've read more problems about overheating and disc scratching due to verticle 360's. How does it scratch discs? Think about it, when it is released from the drive, how does the disc stand straight up? It is just released and it drops down to the slot that holds the disc, and it doesn't hold it in a perfectly level or straight up position that would allow the overly sensitive drive to pick the disc back up at the right angle. | video-games_xbox |
A woeful experience. This racing wheel is a woeful product. First let's look at the physical hardware, and then we'll consider how it performs with Forza 3.
One of the fist things you will notice about the wheel is how small it is. Think personal pan pizza size, somewhere around 10 inches. If you've ever had occasion to drive a real car, even a sports car, you know that this is incredibly small and unrealistic. In terms of buttons, it seems to have all that you would expect, except for the left and right shoulder buttons. This is a big oversight, considering many games utilize them. Another area that I found rather disappointing was the battery and power configuration. The wheel has a receptacle for a standard xbox controller power pack, but this power pack alone only allows the wheel to function at a minimal level. In order to receive the full force feedback you need to plug it into an outlet, which is inconvenient to say the least. I don't recall the package indicating that this 'wireless' wheel actually requires being plugged in to an outlet to be 100% functional. There is also a lack of configuration options that you might expect, such as wheel sensitivity, wheel acceleration, force feedback adjustment, etc. The box also touts a 'lap mount' which I expected to be something that you might hook under or around your legs for support. But no, 'lap mount' apparently means it just sits on your lap. The 'table mount' that is provided is some kind of joke as the mount requires it to be mounted to the side of the table, rather than the center. At any rate, none of the tables in my house would work with this mount, and I suspect non of yours would work either.
The gameplay experience with Forza 3 is just as disappointing as the hardware. The overall feel of the wheel when driving is so far outside the realm of reality it will boggle your mind to the point of ruining your gameplay experience. Imagine that you test drove a car that required you to manhandle the wheel even at cruising speed. Would you buy such a car? I wouldn't. I've driven old and new cars, sports cars and econoboxes, power steering and non power steering vehicles, and none of them has fought back as much as this racing wheel. It is truly insane and will have you wondering if anybody that designed this product has even driven a car. The wheel torques so hard, and resists movement so much, that if you lift the wheel up off of your lap it will violently spin and shake the entire base station around. If you've ever caught a large and irritated fish, it is something like that.
It is possible that I was expecting too much from this product, but then again, $100 is a decent amount of money to spend on a peripheral, and I think others will agree with me that this wheel falls short.
I think this would be an OK product for kid that doesn't have many expectations, but as an adult and a long time driver, this wheel is irritating and unrealistic in the extreme. | video-games_xbox |
An obscure game that is worth your time. Prelude:
This game really surprised me. I'm sure I'm one of the black sheep here who's actually played the original Magna Carta for the PS2, and if any of you out there are with me and have played it, you may be wary of this game. Let me start out for those of you who HAVE played MC1, by saying that this game is TOTALLY UNRELATED IN ANY WAY to that game, to the rest of you, just read my review.
STORY: 4/5
The story is typical RPG fare, with more political influences in it then most. You're a young man, Juto, whom is on an island and has lost his memory. Yep, you got it people, the biggest, most over-used cliche in Role Playing Gaming Ever, Amnesia. Anyways. Stuff happens, You join a princess, you go to fight against the evil man and his empire to reclaim the throne.
Despite it being really cliche, it grew on me. Your character's interactions with another member, who goes by the name of crocell, were especially humorous. Don't go into it expecting anything really overly deep, and you'll be pleasantly thrilled. the story does fine in advancing the plot.
As a side-note, the game has a few AWESOME scenes with the main character, Juto. Let's just say, this man is fully capable of badassery from time to time.
GRAPHICS: 5/5
They're great. Everything looks really good. The battlefields are bereft of life, they're scorched, dead, burnt. The forest's are very vibrant and bright, cheery and have a nice green palette. They're great, but they don't do anything different than other games like Lost Odyssey have done. They do a damned good job at what they do, and we'll leave it at that.
Oh, and special attacks looks really cool :3
SOUND: 4/5
The music is pretty good. I felt that it fit the locales perfectly. It's calm when it needs to be, Lots of drumming and whatnot in the battle areas, and the towns are all cheery and have that "Bazaar" feel to them. The music is really well done, but none of it really stood out.
On another sidenote, the first area you spend the game in, the island, had a very "MMO" music feel to it, like a bad porno flick. Anyone play FlyFF? Lol.
GAMEPLAY: 5/5
Okay, the gameplay. The lifeblood of an RPG. Here's the rundown. It's like Final Fantasy 12 but without the autopilot and with a few things that keep it fresh and interesting. WAIT! Don't stop reading because I mentioned Final Fantasy 12, this game really did a good job with it and deserves a chance.
You walk around on the map, and when you see an enemy, you have the choice to whip out your ole' sword/Flaming Fists of powah/Hammer/Whatever it is that you're using to mercilessly slaughter innocent animals, and you engage the enemy. Each time you press the A button, you whack the cute little death machine. This expends stamina, and if you fill your stamina bar to max, you enter "Overdrive". When in overdrive, your attacks are much more powerful, but when you quit attack (You have a limited number of attacks in a combo) you go into "Overheat", and have to sit there looking like an idiot while your stamina recovers.
Here's where it gets fun, though. Later on, when you enter "Overheat", you can switch to another character. If you can successfully enter overdrive and unleash a special skill while in it, you and your buddies in the chain can recover without losing A THING. AWESOME! Right?
The gameplay is fun. It's nothing revolutionary, but it does the job, it keeps you entertained. Plus, you get to choose one (or both) of two weapon trees, so you get a little bit of variety.
RECAP:
It's a good game with a decent storyline, good music, and a great battle system. You can get it for a steal (Around 27$) and it'll keep you entertained for a good many hours. I would recommend this game to ANYONE who enjoys rpg's.
It's a shame it never sold well. | video-games_xbox |
Not put together well, and Ion's customer service is a joke. Short story: Fun product, but it is not crafted well at all - Ion cheaped out on the materials (which really ticks me off considering the $300 premium price). On top of all of that, the Ion customer service is some of the worst customer service I've experienced in years. Not recommended.
Long story: I bought these drums for my husband for Christmas of '08. Since he has always wanted to get to play around with a drum kit, I thought by purchasing the more upgraded Ion kit that I would be getting a superior product to the standard RB2 drums. However, this has not been the case.
He has had to replace clamps, cables, cymbals, and screws. The only items still left from the original kit are the frame, the kick pedal (which is getting less and less accurate the more he plays), the Xbox 360 "brain", and a couple of cables. The materials used in the electronic sensors in the drum heads and cymbals have broken, meaning that notes will either double-hit or not hit at all. We have discovered at least 4 or 5 of the screws used to clamp everything to the frame were rusted completely through.
We contacted Ion back in January to get them to send a replacement clamp. Two months later, we finally received something in the mail - which happened to be the wrong part. My husband immediately contacted them to tell them of the mistake. Another month goes by and we have *still* heard nothing from them, nor gotten the part we needed in the first place. Ion service is a total and utter joke. Luckily, my husband found a great online forum that helped him figure out what other parts he could buy (from other retailers) to help him replace what he was waiting on.
So to sum up, the brain of this thing is great - it acts just like you would expect. Everything else, from the cymbals to the drum heads to the clamps to the screws to the kick pedal to the cables, really stinks. Shame on you, Ion. | video-games_xbox |
Clunky controls, very very short. I don't play online so I need games with a good story and decent single player mode. I was very excited about Homefront because it sounded like a lot of effort had been put into the single player portion of the game.
The overall plot is good. A great and refreshing variation from the standard, 'the US rocks, has the coolest guns, and it is your job to destroy lesser opponents,' or the whole alien thing. Regarding the actual characters and story line - there is no back story and no real information about your character (beyond learning that you are a pilot 5 minutes in). The other characters who are with you throughout the whole game don't really get any story time beyond being generic characters (the tough girl with the conscience, the nerd who makes witty one liners, and the gruff yet emotional team leader).
The controls are somewhat clunky and most people will want to turn up the sensitivity. Following people up and down ladders and getting in vehicles (press x to climb, press x to get in HumV, etc) is poorly designed and at certain points glitches to the point where you find yourself moving back and forward to find the 'sweet spot' where the 'press x' note pops up. This affects game play when things are exploding around you and you are strafing forward and back trying to continue in the game. I also found myself running into the friendly NPC's, often times causing my death.
The weapons, while seemingly varied, range from one or two that are useful to others that jump immediately when you fire or deal no effective amount of damage. I believe most people will choose one or two guns and run with them for the entire game. The grenade launcher attachment for guns are plainly planted and I got the feeling that they were contained to certain portion of the levels, much like the rocket launchers. I enjoy having a wide variety of weapons available at all points of the game. The old gimmick of having to find a rocket launcher for a tank or helicopter repeats itself throughout the game and becomes tired very quickly (as it does in every game).
The game is short and ends in an unfinished odd place. It felt like the developers ran out of time. I was fully expecting to move in and liberate San Francisco but instead was met with rolling credits. I'm not asking that we liberate the entire US in a single game, but at least one city would have been nice. They obviously ended this game with the clear intent of a sequel. Unfortunately when you do the math: $50 a game, 2(?)Homefront sequels per city, and 5 major cities, means that you will end up paying $500 to play the story through and $100 just to play one decent game.
The story does set an interesting mood that is different from the first person shooter. Think Medal of Honor meets Fallout 3.
Hopefully the multiplayer is much better and people don't feel ripped off. | video-games_xbox |
Good game...not perfect (Updated Review. Others have already written excellent reviews explaining the technical ins and outs of this game. Instead of re-hashing what they said, I thought I'd offer my thoughts based on my personal playing experience.
The biggest thing one must realize about this game is that once you start play, you are immersed in the game. You cannot simply pause the game when you want or need to take a break. As others have so adeptly pointed out, this is particularly important if you are playing a racer. Unless you are in a hideout, you are always at risk for takedown by both AI and live player cops. In addition, it seems as if there is a cop bias. What I mean by this is cops will gang up on you. As a racer, it means it's you against the world. At times, that world can feel a heck of a lot smaller than you wish it were.
I have so far played predominately as a cop. There are advantages to this. First, unlike playing as a racer, you can pick or choose your battles. If you want to get a feel for the lay of the land, admire the very realistic scenery, or choose whether or not to engage a particular event or situation, this is the way to go. It's helped me as a racer too, as when I do go that route, I find I'm much more comfortable working the streets as I've seen them already at my speed and pace. For the novices, I highly recommend playing as a cop at first, at least through the Patrol missions, as by then you should get a good feel for the game.
My only complaint about the game is I was originally under the impression that it was a true free roam experience. This isn't the case. No matter which career you choose, cop or racer, you access game play via missions. Whether you choose to complete those missions is up to you. However, in order to access better vehicles, you have to complete those missions. Which is kinda frustrating when all you want to do is go medieval on a racer or cop that is trying to bust your chops.
Overall, a pretty good game. Some technical hiccups, aka host migration as others have pointed out, but nothing that can't be overcome with a little bit of patience. Go fast, have fun!
UPDATED 23 OCT 14...
For the third time now progress hasn't been updated despite careful consideration to ensure I'm signed into EA servers. Went from 58 to 50 ranking in racer mode all three times. That's a lot of ground to lose over and over. Didn't have this issue in cop mode, seems to be prevalent more so in racer mode. Others have overcome the hiccup, seems I'm not that lucky. Don't know where the issue lies...Xbox, Microsoft, EA...but this is a well documented issue that no one seems to care to rectify. Game is no longer being offered at full price so worth trying out of the bargain bin. I'm patient but not that patient...this is the last time I play this game...the frustration isn't worth it. Shame on someone. | video-games_xbox |
Awesome Headset. Okay.. I did a lot of checking around, reading and everything else that goes into deciding which one to get. Surprisingly, when I came across this headset it sold me easier than any other I'd previously checked out. I was a bit hesitant since I hadn't heard a lot about Chimaera's tech... so once I learned little more it wasn't to hard to commit to buying it. I never worry too much about the manufacturer's warranty since I always use SquareTrade warranties for things like this... just in case. I'd highly recommend them as well....
Now getting to the unit itself...The sound is amazing and everyone can hear me crystal clear... however I find its hard to hear others sometimes.. but I feel it's due to how they're connected on their end...this does not happen often if at all...
Its features (you can read more about these so I won't go into it in too much detail) are great and it's very easy to use while playing--easy touch controls and things of that nature. You can adjust sound quality and the 5.1 surround is incredible. Have never had it cut out and the batteries are very long lasting... I like that the boom mic will mute automatically when you raise it to the stored position. I was aprehensive about the wireless feature but once again...no issues whatsoever.
The stand it comes with is just as awsome and gives it a resting place when you're not using it (charges automatically with on stand). Has a neat glowing base feature as well... IF I had to pick on anything it's the comfort (gets a little sore but not much) but when you're playing for a few hours of more, well anything can get a bit uncomfortable... You just can't go wrong with this headset and so far I have not been disappointed. Not to mention.. it looks amazing too.. Hope this helps anyone trying to decide on a headset... I'm glad I chose this one. Oh one more thing... I am strickly an xBox 360 gamer and apparenty this particular headset is great if thats what you're into (pc is good too from what I've read but I haven't nor will I be testing that feature since it's not what I'll ever use it for) ... not for all consoles so just be careful with the compatability issues if you have more than one console you're gaming on...
03Dec2012- Well I've been gaming with this unit for a few weeks now and I'm still just as satisfied if not more... The sound is incredible and once I did engage the dolby it was even better. I can hear people crystal clear and I love that I can change the chat and game volume independantly. It comes in handy that way... I wasn't convince enough about how you can hear sounds behind you or beside you but after playing and using this headset... WOW! I don't think I could say enough good things about it... | video-games_xbox |
One of the best games ever. Back in the Fall of 2001, Playstation 2 got the game that would help define this generation of console gaming in Grand Theft Auto III and Xbox fans got...the Xbox itself. If there was ever any way for those two forces to come together, GTA3 on Xbox, there would be a whole lot of happy Xbox fans. It only took two years and the reversal of an exclusivity deal between Rockstar Games and Sony for it to happen, but GTA3 is here along with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City in one tidy package known as the Grand Theft Auto Double Pack. For the price of a standard new Xbox game, you're getting the two biggest PlayStation 2 games of the last two years with upgraded visuals, better sound, custom soundtrack functionality and better controls thanks to the Xbox's Controller S. It's like a doubled-up Platinum Hits package for games that were never hits on the Xbox until now. The two games definitely show their age, but the Double Pack is still a very strong value.
Everybody from Ted Koppel to your half-blind great auntie Lizzie has heard of and gets the basic idea of what this pair of games is about. For this reason, rather than diving in with our own opus about the value and philosophy of Grand Theft Auto III's and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City's gameplay, we'll defer to the 80,000 words of wisdom dropped by El Capitan himself, Doug Perry, when each of those games was released in 2001 and 2002, respectively. Sure they're PS2 reviews, but there's very little difference in content between the PS2 and Xbox versions of both GTA games.
Gameplay
There are a few enhancements to the gameplay and presentation of both games that are definitely worth noting. The cutscenes in both GTA3 and Vice City now feature full lip-synching throughout. This helps drive home the gangster-movie appeal of the Double Pack when you hear voice actors like Guru, Luis Guzman and Dennis Hopper giving life to the characters of Liberty City and Vice City. The heartbroken Thug with No Name is missing moving lips and that's only because he doesn't talk at all in GTA3. You even get a few facial animations here and there like a nasty scowl when somebody's about to drop some expletives.
The loading times are drastically improved in the Xbox version of both games. The 3-4 minute wait when you first start up a saved game has been cut by at least 68%. When you travel from one island to another in either game, the loading time is a matter of split-seconds. It happens so fast, and the new area you're traveling to is so complete already, that you wonder why the "now loading" screen even pops up at all. Whether you're on the water, in the air, on the street or on foot, waiting for a new GTA area to load is a thing of the past on Xbox.
The feel of the Xbox controller's analog sticks makes a difference in the way you'll play GTA3 and GTA: Vice City. We're not going to start a debate about which system's controllers are better, but the fact that there's less play in the Xbox's sticks lead to some more precise driving and fewer spinouts from overcompensating. Also the re-mapping of the controls for the Xbox controller is very intuitive considering how many different actions you can pull off in the game. The Dualshock 2's X button was accelerate on foot and in a vehicle for example. On Xbox the A button is for sprinting, the right trigger is your attack button on foot as well as your accelerator when you're driving. The Xbox developers at Rockstar Vienna mixed a little of the familiar (many of the face button controls are the same on PS2 and Xbox) with what Xbox gamers are used to. Managing your inventory of weapons on the D-pad is a nice touch and a great way to get around the Xbox's lack of extra shoulder buttons. | video-games_xbox |
Best DW yet - and awesome Create-a-Warrior. Let me preface by saying I'm a huge DW fan, having played all of the Xbox <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/DW/dp/B00CBNV7UQ/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">DW</a>,<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/DW-E/dp/B001L8DKK2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">DW:E</a>,<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/SW/dp/B000G7X0B8/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">SW</a>,<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/SW-E/dp/B000MAFXTQ/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">SW:E</a>,<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/WO/dp/B00KM671JA/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">WO</a>, and <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/DW-G/dp/B004VMX81G/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">DW:G</a> titles. Heck, in the PS2 days I even played the <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Nobunaga-s-Ambition/dp/B00104KJ5G/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Nobunaga's Ambition</a> side series. For those of us who've been with it for a while, there seems to be some consensus that DW5/DW5:E was the pinnacle of the series. While 6 and 7 had improved graphics, the new gameplay made it significantly less challenging, and neither had the Empires strategy as nailed as 5 did.
DW8:E looks to change that. The first DW game made directly for the current-gen consoles, I had high hopes for DW8 and was not disappointed. For starters, the roster in DW8:E is the largest yet, with hundreds of characters. As a series, my favorite part has always been Create-a-Warrior, and it returns to DW8:E with a completely overhauled and improved system. You can now create hundreds of your own custom characters (albeit with KOEI wanting $4 a pop for costume DLC, an unfortunate turn after making them free for DW6:E). Each character is fully-customizable in face, articulation, costume, voice, moves, and play style. You can then put together your own Team from your characters, to play with or upload so they appear in other people's games. You can also customize your mount, banner, and (to a limited degree) troops. This makes the game feel incredibly customizable, and is a blast when you make Warrior versions of you and your friends to play. Have a friend over and you can play co-op on split screen, or hit up online and you can play co-op or versus - something fans have been wanting for a long time.
Gameplay is also vastly improved, with the switch-attack from DW7 now far more responsive and not requiring quite the hair-trigger timing it did before. There is still the three-element (earth, heaven, man) weapon system, and you'll still have two weapons at a time to play with. Unlike previous Empires games where strategies went into play before the game started, this time your strategies cards are played real-time on the battlefield. Each of the strategies has a recharge time, and bigger strategies require someone to leave the battlefield to prep. For example, if I play the Flood strategy then two officers leave the battlefield for 120 seconds (there is a countdown over the battle-tide bar on the top right) at the end of which the battlefield will be flooded, wiping away the enemy archery towers. During that 120 seconds there is something that you must defend to ensure the strategy is successful, or an objective the enemy can achieve to disrupt it. Lesser strategies can do things like increase your attack for 30 seconds, rain down fire arrows, heal nearby allies, etc. Timing these strategies can give you a command of the battlefield never before found in DW and makes the strategy an even bigger part of the game than it was in previous Empires titles.
Before the battle begins, you have the option to set up your side how you want, including fortifying bases and placing allied officers. Once the battle begins, you have four quick commands that tells officers to attack, defend, rally to you, or do whatever they want (like you would ever want to use that option). A quick pause of the game will allow you to zoom in and give each officer individual tasks, such as capture a specific base, attack a certain enemy, defend a specific ally, etc. Unfortunately the command doesn't let you specify the route, so sometimes officers will take the least advantageous route and you'll have to go bail them out from behind enemy lines (or risk them getting captured).
As you gain resources, you'll be able to build item and weapon shops which allow you to build all your favorite DW items (Red Hare harness, Fire Wolf collar - you know, the good stuff). There is a really bad lag on item purchasing that I keep waiting for KOEI to patch, but for now it's the only lag I've found in the game, which is an accomplishment for a DW title. The weapons are much slower to upgrade than previous DW titles, and the officers are a bit, too. Like DW6:E, you can rule (almost always how I play), but you can also step down and become an officer or a free-range mercenary. Marriage and sworn siblings also make a return, and like DW6:E they have a flavor effect on the game, but little appreciable impact on play.
Curiously, DW8:E seems to use more of the map graphics from <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Warriors-Ororchi-3-Ultimate/dp/B00KM671JA/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Warriors Ororchi 3 Ultimate</a> than from <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Dynasty-Warriors-8/dp/B00CBNV7UQ/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Dynasty Warriors 8</a>, so the maps are smaller - in some cases significantly. You also do not have the level of control over weapon powers that either DW8 or WO3U, which seems like an unfortunate miss in a game that so otherwise customizable. But with so much else going on, I can see why the developers wanted to get the focus back on strategy. Hopefully, like DW8, there will be more challenging DLC in the future. Right now if I go all-in, I can unite the land in just over a year (12 turns), with the change in difficulty largely being the damage-vs-life ratio, not a change in strategic play.
I've never met a flawless KOEI game, and DW8:E is no exception. If you didn't like the button-mashing madness of the previous titles, this won't do anything to change your mind. But for fans of the series this is a big step forward, and definitely worth picking up. Enjoy! | video-games_xbox |
The Real deal behind tha game. I went to my friends house to see what this game was all about. Well we started with such excitment but yet, I grew board of this game really fast. He ended up beating the SOL story in 2 days, and I hardly played any of it. He got board of it too, cuz he had SOL as well. Well here's the deal
Gameplay:Well the same except on the Xbox you have to hit the left anolog stick to get out of 1st person view, and that makes you not wan't to get your cover blown, and the game suffers from slowdown, which really ticked me off.
Graphics:Whoever said that this took advantage of the Xbox graphics is lyin. There nearly the same as the PS2's or a slight bit worse, but anyway, they look kinda the same. So not much canged here.
Sound:Well yea the sound is a bit better than the PS2's, and that so far is the first advantage the Xbox had over the PS2
Value:Well if you are a fan of metal gear and have every single game, like me, then you pretty much have this game. The VR and alternate missions:You can just pop in MGS VR missions and there u go; Snake tales:They were intruiging at first, but they are very dissapointing once you're done; SOL if you have SOL for the PS2, then it's pretty much the same old game, just a diffrent system, unless you wanted to play as Snake very badly, but I don't give a ...
Overall:This game is very dissapointing to me and my friend. This will not even be as nearly praised as MGS2. This is baisicly a port of MGS2. I was expecting another great port like Max Payne, but got Resident Evil's directors cut. Anyone with a PS2 and has MGS2, and thought that substance was the reason to buy an Xbox, belive me you rather wait till it comes out for the PS2, unless that'll be a letdown as well. If you have both systems with MGS2, I'd rather wait for Splinter Cell, DOA Xtreeme Volyball or Halo 2 than buy this if I were u. My friend wanted to sell it, so I got someone for him that brought it. If u have only a Xbox, then u jes might get this game. | video-games_xbox |
One word to describe this: "Frustrating. If I had to describe this game in one word it would be "frustrating." The beasts can't be controlled well, the game continually sends incoherent respawn creatures to surround you in an enclosed area, you are surrounded by environment elements you cannot touch or interact with, the "necessary" defense stuff really is atrocious, and you get money that you never can use. Truly a waste of $$$.
In more detail, the Beasts, which look like smallish dragons, really sound cool, but don't turn well, and LOSE HEALTH whenever you use their special attack. So you're stuck trying to run past the bad guys to run them over. But if you get hit (you WILL get hit), they throw you off the beast, jump on him and start attacking you with your own beast. Basically, they are sort of useless unless you try to run past all the bad guys - but often you have to kill everyone before the next gate opens.
You collect gold, which they call "tribute" for no apparent reason. Whenever I finished a level, I always got a "C" rating - with no explanation of what I did wrong, or how I could have improved. Meaning, it doesn't tell you the percentage of stuff you got, or what the expected time requirement was, etc.
The defense is the worst! You are stuck having to choose "dodge" or "block" throughout most attacks or you get whacked. Worse, when surrounded by TONS of bad guys, you WILL get whacked regardless if you chose right, because they hit you in the back. They often have spell throwers hitting you in the back.
Mana cannot respawn, so you only have a few "spell" points, which are sometimes required to open things. So you really don't end up wanting to use them. AND you have to use this poorly aimed axe thing to hit random targets while enemies fight you.
Truly, I normally love hack and slash games, and especially RPG types. There is no character customization, and every part of this game is...frustrating. | video-games_xbox |
Why did they ruin my favorite game. Final Fantasy has been an important game in the Video Gaming industry for the past decade my favorites being Final Fantasy 7,8, and 10. I did not enjoy 9 because of the throwback nature of the graphics, X-2 was an excruciating chick flick, and 12 was annoying as well because of the main character Vaan who was an irratating pubescent boy who looked like a female, seriously how are we supposed to be believe a story that involves a guy with the body of a 7 year old saving the world and fighting monsters one hundred times his size. Final Fantasy 13 is a very, let me repeat VERY linear game, i have not stopped playing it since midnight and all I have done is walked down hallways and button mashed the attack button over and over in between cutscenes. It seems like I am playing a chopped up movie instead of a videogame.
The characters bother me as well, we all know characters from other final fantasy games, I liked Cloud, Squall was cool, and Tidus was as well despite his annoying voice at at times, but I just cannot click with lightning, her personality is dull her voice is monotone, and trying to make her some deep mysterious soldier girl seems a little played out at this point. Snow is LAME, who goes around saying I'm a Hero over and over again? And secondly who brings their fists to a gunfight? Vannile and Hope......who the hell at Squarenix is responsible for these kids playing a huge role in final fantasy games and Japanese RPG's in general of late? Seriously like someone at their company must be a pedophile, quite simply put I am not a fan of playing as a little boy or girl, and if I am playing as an adult female she better have an interesting personality which lightning does not. Kazh pretty much acts like chris rock, or chris tucker, or eddy murphy throughout the entire game, they never include black people in final fantasy games ( I don't count Barret becuase he was an Stereotypical idiot who cursed every 2 seconds, I'm talking about an actual black character with some depth who isn't there for comical relief) but you would have hoped the first time they choose to implent one if the game, they wouldn't make him act like a fool AGAIN and have a terrible character design with a goofy looking afro with a chocobo living in his head its ashame. Actually the character design of pretty much everyone, looks like everyone is about to go a beach wearing the same anime like hairstyles, just like in Final Fantasy 10. I am a fan of Adult RPG's, this is not what I expected at all. The only good thing about the game is the graphics and the cutscenes are amazing, but why am I buying a game for the cutscenes? I should just go watch a movie instead.
This game is not worth 60 dollars at all, it is not an enjoyable experience the first portion ( about 20 or more hours) of the game feels like a tutorial of how to play a game that is remarkably simple........don't explore and watch un-intersting cliche' characters walk in a straight line pre-determined path and press X and a A over and over until you kill an opponent and repeat until you get to a cutscene, and in the end you will save a world that you really don't care about saving. I bought this game because I was a huge fan of 7,8, and 10. They have not gotten it right since.....and its a ashame that such a great franchise has fallen so FAR, they have no creativity up there at squareenix, they just keep regurgitating the same old sterotypical japanese RPG, no one wants to take a risk at that company. Can I hear one curse word, love interest, have a conversation between two players without 2 little kids vannile and hope interrupting?
I am going to return this game today and I do not recommend anyone buying this game, we cannot support a game that does not live up to its title or predecessors, lost odyssey, last remnant, infinite undiscovery, and final fantasy X-2, 12, and 13 are ALL the same pretty much, we cannot keep supporting this company if they keep putting out games with the same exact themes except with a different title just for the sake of milking american consumers with minimal effort put into the actual game itself, what gaming company is actually lazy enough to not allow free roaming in a video game??????? Squarenix is. | video-games_xbox |
too many gameplay flaws = frustration. When you first start playing it, `Singularity' comes across as an under-appreciated gem of a game.
In terms of its artistic design, it adheres very closely to the `Fallout 3' aesthetic, with lots of retro, atomic-age machinery in various stages of decay; abandoned cities filled with shriveled corpses and melancholy mementos of pre-catastrophe times; the Russian equivalent of feral ghouls and Super-mutants; and a variety of weapons with which to face down enemies both abnormal and normal.
The inclusion of dilapidated billboards, workplace posters, and laboratory signage in Cyrillic, the use of voiceovers- spoken in both English with a pronounced Russian accent, and of course native Russian itself - in turn give the game a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. aesthetic as well.
Unfortunately, once you get into the 6-hour mark and beyond, the flaws in the gameplay start to add up, making `Singularity' increasingly frustrating to play.
The major weakness is the Boss Battles. These invariably take place in enclosed or artificially constrained spaces, and involve several iterations of the standard `whittle down the Boss's health until it retreats, then comes back for another round' design. It usually takes 4- 5 (if not more) attempts until you understand every nuance of the Boss's motions and can time that precise moment when you need to shoot the glowing sac on its body that makes the Boss retreat for several moments, during which you frantically sweep the battlefield for health packs and additional ammo.
Barely have you upped your health and reloaded your assault rifle, when the Boss re-spawns and another round unfolds. After a while, these sorts of encounters grow increasingly tedious and unrewarding.
The numerous set-piece encounters with human and mutant enemies also can be frustrating, mainly because of the limited interactivity with the environment. In Half-Life 2, you were not only provided with the Gravity Gun, but given plenty of crates, boards, rusted cars, and sawblades to use in making your own strategies for handling your adversaries.
While `Singularity' gives you the equivalent of the Gravity Gun, the circumstances under which you can use it are tightly scripted, and players are given little chance to improvise. Practically every encounter comes down to blazing away at enemies who spawn at various points along a predetermined route. Want to stack crates so you can climb to the top of a gantry and safely gun down the homicidal Zeks milling in the courtyard below ? Won't happen. Want to use the TMD to blast the Phase Ticks out of your way as you run the gauntlet in the sewer tunnels ? Well.....the TMD runs out of energy so fast, that you're better off just trying iteration after iteration of running as fast as you can down the tunnel, in the hope that you'll arrive at the checkpoint to the next level with a tiny, but sustainable, level of health still left.
The various powers provided by the super-powered PipBoy equivalent - your `TMD' - lend some interesting aspects to the gameplay, but again, with the exception of using crates to open half-closed gates, or applying it to resurrect broken staircases, the opportunities to improvise are lacking.
I also noticed problems with the aiming reticle, which displays lag; my character suffered too many cheap deaths when the minute nudges on the right thumbstick needed to center the reticle on an enemy soldier resulted in my health evaporating in a hail of return gunfire.
Developer Raven, who made 2009's `Wolfenstein', is a developer that shows promise. However, their games need more polish before they'll approach the top shooter franchises like the Gears of War, Halo, and Half-Life 2. | video-games_xbox |
not at all a dancer before. I've always been awful at dancing, I never even really danced at all my high school formals and proms. It's partly from being shy, partly from being a total klutz and spaz. When I received Zumba Rush for my birthday from my mother in law, I almost returned it! I *did* want to try it, but I was afraid I would fail and it would just collect dust.
When I finally did try the game, I started with the section where you learn the moves. For whatever reason, the game did not pick up on me well during the tutorials. After getting frustrated several times, one day I finally decided to just go through a class and ignore the fact that the game wasn't picking up on my moves. Fortunately, it picked up on my moves in the class and I did pretty well!
I haven't explored the entire game, but I have done several of the classes and created my own custom class. I LOVE the ability to come up with my own class playlist. I found myself quitting early in the premade classes because of songs that were too slow or I simply didn't like, since I haven't discovered if there is a way to skip a song in a class. I can't seem to figure out how to get the voice commands to work, but that could be me and not the game. Previous reviewers mentioned a facebook connecting option, I have not been able to find this anywhere.
The one thing I dislike greatly is how the "euphoria" begins. The big flash often causes me to miss the move changes, because it covers up the entire screen -- the little move change dialog box doesn't stay on top of the animations. If they just changed it so the flash didn't cover the dialog box, I would be fine. Same goes for the flashes at the beginning of each song where the back up instructors multiply.
One feature I haven't been able to try but want to try is being able to go through a class with two players. You need a huge play space available to do that, which even though my play space is big... it's not large enough to fit two people doing the moves.
If you are someone who tracks your calories burned, DO NOT go off of the estimations provided in the game. I wear a heart rate monitor to accurately track my calories, and often times the game says I burned twice as many calories than I really did.
I recommend this game to all my friends who have kinect systems -- it's definitely a great workout! | video-games_xbox |
Good game but feels like a missed opportunity. I enjoyed this game but not as much as I was hoping I would. Still, it's nice seeing a shooter that tries something different and relies on your actual skill for success rather then just sitting behind cover and recharging health or shields.
Basic Story - Starts out fairly interesting. You go into a time warp and save an evil scientist who continues research on a new element that allows Russia to get advanced weaponry and take over the world. You spend the rest of the game trying to restore the original time line.
While the story starts off fine, there are some fairly obvious plot holes during the rest of the game. Nothing terrible but it's still annoying that they're there. You'll find notes and tapes that give you a little better idea of what was happening. The game has 3 endings that you can decide between right at the very end.
Gameplay - Plays and feels a lot like Bioshock if you've ever played that. The unique component is the TMD you acquire during the game. It gives your character the ability to control some time elements (allows you to age soldiers causing them to die, can use it on certain objects to restore them to the way they used to be). You get more powers with it at certain points along the way including being able to pick up and throw objects, putting up a time lock bubble where anything inside moves in slow motion. I actually enjoyed these powers and unlike Bioshock, where you rarely ever need to use any powers, you will use these powers fairly often. The time revert power is not used to great effect and is kind of disappointing how limited it is used. The game is also extremely linear, you'll move from point A to B and only rarely will you find some side door that you can go explore for about 20 seconds. The game will also shut some doors behind you if you go the "right" way making it impossible for you to go back to explore. The game also relies completely on checkpoints for saving which is somewhat annoying. Once you beat the game and the credits roll, you can hit continue to start right at the end to experience all 3 endings right in a row. I'm not sure the exact time I played but I'd say somewhere around 8-12 hours.
The biggest problems with the gameplay are the lack of challenge (even on hard difficulty) and lack of enemies. The game starts out fairly hard. All you have is a weak pistol and the starting enemies are fast and strong and can kill you fairly quick. You also get a fairly limited amount of ammo for your weapons at the start and you'll run low on ammo for a little. This gives the game a little bit of a horror feeling at first and I enjoyed this and wished they'd kept this up for a while. Alas, within about 10 minutes you'll get a shotgun and an assault rifle and you'll start finding a ton of ammo for everything. Once you get the time lock ability, most major battles will be simple. There's about 2 or 3 parts where the difficulty spikes for a moment but then it comes right back down which is a let down. There's also a lot of places that look like they're set up for a nice battle but then nothing happens. Occasionally you'll be running around for a couple minutes in between battles. I don't know why they didn't add more battles and more enemies during the battles to make them more chaotic. It would have made the game a lot more enjoyable.
Characters - There are 4 characters you'll actually talk to during the course of the game. None of them are really fleshed out that great or very interesting. They're mainly used to give you some purpose and continue on. This is a shooter though so this isn't a huge deal.
Enemies - There is a good mix of human and monster creatures. There are certain points where you'll find them fighting each other which leads to some interesting choices for you. Some of the monsters have powers that you'll need to make use of your TMD powers to stop. There's a couple bosses along the way. Nothing super tough but they might give you a decent challenge and the second one might kill you a time or two. Sadly there is no end boss. The little exploding enemies you'll run into during the game are fairly annoying. There are blind enemies that rely on hearing at a couple points but they are very few and aren't hard to kill, which destroys the tension that should have happened when trying to sneak by them. Why bother though when a couple rounds or one burst from the TMD kills them. They should have made many more of them at certain areas or made them far harder to kill.
Weapons - There are some interesting weapons here, it's too bad some of them end up fairly useless. You can only carry two with you at a time but you can change them out any time you come to a weapons locker. The pistol, shotgun, assault rifle and mini-gun are all fairly standard. As long as you have the Assault rifle and either the shotgun or mini-gun, you'll be fine for the whole game. The sniper rifle is interesting as it has the ability to slow down time while you're aiming with it. Most of the time that you'll want/need it, the game will provide it just prior to the fight. The Spiker is charged and shot into enemies which causes them to explode a few seconds later but it's just faster to shoot them with a regular gun. The grenade launcher can be used to fire grenades that you can control by rolling where they go. There's just not a lot of good uses for it. The best of the optional guns you'll find is the seeker gun. When you fire a round with this, the game will go into slow motion and the camera will follow the round while you control where it goes. It then explodes on impact or when near an enemy. The amount of times you get to use it though are fairly limited but it's fun to use when you get it. You can upgrade almost all these weapons but the upgrades are the same for all of them (more damage, more rounds, faster reload).
Multiplayer - Unfortunately at this point, the multiplayer community is pretty dead. This is a shame as I actually found it fairly enjoyable. There are two types, a team death match and an extermination mode. The gameplay is interesting as one side controls 4 different types of human players with certain powers and the other team controls monster characters that have certain powers. Once a round is done they switch sides. They don't bother explaining to you what to do at all during extermination mode so the first time I played I had no idea what was going on. After a little bit you get the hang of it though. The humans go through and try to restore some objects that will kill all the monsters. The monsters of course try to prevent this.
Overall - It's a solid enjoyable game that is just too easy and missed an opportunity to be better. It would have been nice if they'd fixed the story a little better so it flows more coherently. Making some of the weapons more useful and having different upgrade options would have been nice. If there were more enemies during battle and more battles overall, I would have enjoyed it a lot more. I'd say the single player is a solid 7. Hard to rate the multiplayer as my time playing it was very limited and it's hard to find a game. | video-games_xbox |
Works great, but using it can be a hassle. It functions like you think it should for the most part. Wanna play a game at your friend's house? Transfer the saved game from your xbox onto the card and bring it to your friends house - then copy it to his xbox.
Notice that last step?! I have not yet encountered a game that lets you save or load directly from the memory unit. So game saving, copying, etc - cannot be done from within a game menu. Only from the xbox explorer (or whatever they call it) menu.
If it's such a pain to use, why buy one? Well, maybe you shouldn't but THIS one. You might consider purchasing a different brand memory unit - some say at the risk of compatibility (so be warned). They can be MUCH cheaper!
Also - consider buying a card if any of these circumstances may apply to you:
1) Did you just spend 30 hours playing Morrowind and don't want to risk having a guest save over that spot? Well, you can back up your game file.
2) Some have mentioned hard disk failure which isn't at all common on computers. However, if your xbox is getting on like 5-10 years old - could be a problem... ALSO - frequent moves might play a role in this whereas a home PC is much more stationary and probably isn't getting bumped as much.
3)Wanna play at a friends house or vice versa? Even though the process of copying game files to and from the memory unit is a pain - you don't have a choice unless you want to just bring your xbox over.
RECENT ADDITION: I have discovered through trial and error that a great majority of the recent game releases are NOT supporting saving to the memory card. I have no idea why they wouldn't. But this memory card is useless to me now. Most games I play cannot be saved to the card nor can they be transfered to another xbox (as a result). Check the back of the box to try to see if the game supports the memory card (it won't always be clear). | video-games_xbox |
Collectors Edition-Tomb Raider. I GOT IT! Sorry I had to get that out of the way. So, back in 2012 I was entralled by the trailer for the new Tomb Raider. The graphics, the story and even the new lara were amazing. I have done this review in a few parts. Each item will be discussed in what I hope will be a fair amount of detail. Here goes!
The Play Arts Kai figure!
http://www.amazon.com/Square-Enix-Tomb-Raider-Action/product-reviews/B00A8ZD6HQ/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1 (I have reviewed the figure on amazon already. (I made sure to keep it detailed and nice)
The Box, Endurance Tin.
Great qaulity, great paint and some pretty cool little details. The hinges for teh tin are broken(NEVER ACTUALLY THERE)
Its about ten to eleven inches in length, and maybe six to seven inches in width. the same for its height and depth.
The game figure and everything else fits in there nicely.
The Sound-track.
Ten songs from the game. Most are pretty great, Warning, they rip as unknown artist and song name. Everytime.
It comes in a simple, albeit pretty card-board casing. Eh.
I need to point out that the sound-track is a SCORE. All instruments.
Little Art Book.
Great pictures, thirty eight pages total. All in colour. It covers mainly just concept art of enviroments. There is a minor bio on Lara and Enixs new version of her origens. Also, there are a few concepts of the other crew members.
Poster.
Cool picture of Lara. Seen on the steel casing cover. Its pretty big. Not much else to say though.
The back comes with a map that won't help in-game. Maybe for a general idea as to what area has what type of enviroment.
Lara Picture Card.
Again its a piece of paper with Laras face. Feels very Hunger Games-y. I love the picture.
The Game(SO FAR)
The story starts you out as a ship-wrecked Lara. You are taken hostege by crazy cave people and hung upside down. After a pretty intense fight to escape the cave Lara is free(ISH).
You will go through a VERY strict pathway that will act as your basic walkthrough. Its fine enough.
After a little bit you meet the cast again. Not much there, Sam is sweet, the others are pretty untrustworthy. To me at least.
A heap ton of action will happen right in the begininnig. It will hook you pretty quickly. Great!
I will update this review as I go through the game. | video-games_xbox |
Too many annoying things. I liked NFS Most Wanted and Carbon, and this one is more or less in between. If you don't know anything about NFS you may find this game a lot of fun, but if you know the racing franchise then you may be disappointed.
I don't want to repeat all the things that other reviewers have written, but if I may, I'd like to cite at least THE MOST annoying things happening in the game on a PC.
- the story line kind of blows because you have the boss lady telling you what to do and when, and if it would make sense I would have no problems with that, but all of the sudden she tells you to infiltrate a new team of racers as an undercover cop but you don't even know why.
- the voice messages you get during game play may be totally inappropriate, as there is sometimes either a delay, or some comments are just plain not part of that mission (you can tell if you played several times)
- the game is ARCADE, yes, you got me: ARCADE. The car are seldom totaled, (besides in a highway battle) otherwise you do the craziest moves on your wheels and you're still going full speed ahead!
- cop cars, as well as other cars, sometimes drop on the street from the sky!!! Also, maybe to make the game more difficult, some random drivers change lane abruptly right in front of you, just to slow you down.
- even if you drive a super car, like a McLaren F1 or a Bugatti Veyron, and you're doing 250 MPH, you have stupid cop's SUV going FASTER than you! What the hell?
- The most annoying thing ever: CUT-SCENES! During cop chases, you can drop the cops by breaking stuff. The chase breakers are accompanied by a cutscene DURING WHICH YOU HAVE NO CONTROL OVER YOUR CAR, and if you're unlucky a road block with spikes is put right ahead of you and after the cut scene is over, you have no way to avoid the spikes!!!
- At the end of a long chase with the cops, as you're about to be done, a helicopter shows up right in front of your nose out of no where, forcing you to replay the mission if you want the 'domination' award
- sometimes, objects like concrete walls and fences THAT YOU CANNOT BREAK are not visible on the road but you will crash on them anyway
- While you are playing, especially when you get a really fast car, the scene is not drawn fast enough (even with a super fast computer or lowering game quality to medium) and the road ahead of you is not shown, when the game finally get its sh** together again you find yourself with a short time lag of no control and you may crash
- sometimes while you're customizing your car (aftermarket stuff) the game freezes for no reason!
If you think you can cope with all this, and the fact that EA has not yet released a patch to fix all these things, then go ahead and buy the game. Otherwise...
The Good things about it:
- The in game music is IMHO really good. That's just me.
- Cars are really well drawn, all details really well done.
- The Tri City is kind of cool, giving you a SoCal city kind of feeling.
- The open space is not so open, you can quickly get a hold of where you are and where to go.
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My setup: DELL 24" monitor, X-Telstar ATX case, Corsair 650W PSU, ASUS M3N72 Mobo, nVidia 750a SLI chipset, G-Skill 2x2Gb DDR2-1066, Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition, EVGA GTX260 core 216 superclocked and 2x500Gb WD 7200 rpm and Logitech Z5500 5.1 surround sound system | video-games_xbox |
5 reasons to buy an xbox 360. BASICS
- 1st to next-gen market.
- 2 versions available, both cheaper than the PS3. future versions rumored (w/internal HD-DVD/HDMI).
- external cosmetic customization and internal modding.
- external, detachable hard drive and/or memory unit which can transfer files or be backed up onto a PC
GAMES
- great 1st and 3rd party games such as... Halo3, Halo Wars, FEAR, Gears of War, BioShock, Prey1&2, Oblivion, Half-Life Orange Box, Unreal Tournament 3, Splinter Cell Double Agent, GRAW1&2, Rainbow Six Vegas, Quake4, GTA4, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed, Fable2, Tomb Raider Legend, John Woo's Stranglehold, Alan Wake, Call of Duty2&3, Medal of Honor: Airborne, Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, Burnout Revenge, PGR3, Test Drive Unlimited, Need for Speed Carbon, Resident Evil 5 (08), World of Warcraft (08), Guitar Hero II, DDR Universe, EA and 2K sports games, a new Tom Clancy franchise, and a future untitled Halo game with LOTR director Peter Jackson.
- offline cross-platform 360/PC game development theoretical.
- easy-to-understand best-of "Platinum" treatment price-drops.
HD
- next-gen HD games (720p, 1080i) standard. 1080p when those games are developed.
- Widescreen (16:9) picture format standard.
- Dolby Digital 5.1 sound standard.
- Regular DVD (internal/standard) and HD-DVD (external/optional) movies, with future internal HD-DVD rumored.
- Many original already good-looking (480p) xbox games (Halo, Doom3, etc.) are playable on the 360 with visually upgraded HD visual enhancement (720p) while PS3 and Wii legacy titles will only be playable on those consoles at original non-HD rez.
NETWORK
- Wireless and wired networking
- Xbox Live. Voice and/or video chat. Team or one-on-one online gameplay with anyone anywhere in the world. Live Arcade. Live Marketplace. Download new levels for your games (many free), movie trailers, game demos, TV shows, movies, etc.
- Cross-platform online 360/Windows gameplay.
- System Link. Connect multiple Xbox360s and/or Xboxes and/or PCs together for networked gameplay.
- Streaming media from a portable media player (mp3), PC, or digital camera.
- Windows XP Media Center. Watch movies-on-demand, live and recorded TV.
- IPTV (Internet TV - hundreds of domestic and international channels).
- Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows. Allows you to play 360 games (do anything 360 on your PC).
- Multiple cable connectivity, composite, S-video, component, digital optical, even VGA. 3rd party also available from companies such as Monster.
CONTROLLERS
- Wireless (flawless) and wired controllers.
- Controllers rumble (PS3 don't).
- Multiple 3rd party controllers available.
- Wireless controllers take regular or rechargeable (long-lasting) batteries.
- Multiple 1st and 3rd party chargers available. 1 allows you to still play while charging.
- Controllers can turn console on/off remotely.
- Controllers also work on PCs for PC gaming.
- 1st and 3rd party remote controls including the Logitech Harmony Advanced Universal 360 remote.
- Other peripherals. Tons of 1st and 3rd party toys like video camera, wired and wireless headsets, wireless racing wheels, etc.
Criticisms:
- heat and fan noise | video-games_xbox |
Waste of time, just like the Kinect itself. Bought this for a Christmas present for my kids b/c it was on sale, thinking they would love it based on the description. It spent about 30 minutes in the system before my kids turned it off in frustration, and we spent 20 of those minutes simply trying to set up in-game avatars for them.
This game is terrible because the Kinect is terrible. I am so sick of the Kinect. It sucks. Its a failure. I should have learned my lesson with the atrocious Kinect Star Wars, but no. My fault. The biggest problem with Kinect is that 99% of its games are designed for kids but it requires the patience & precision of an adult to use. If you are old enough to get around all of its annoying quirks, you are not going to be interested in playing the kiddie Kinect games. If, like my kids, you are age appropriate for the games, the Kinect will be a frustrating obstacle to gameplay and youll be switching back to a controller-operated game after a few minutes.
Anyway, this specific game is for up to two players, and is supposed to scan them into the Pixar world with the Kinect camera. It vaguely does that. The avatar it made for one of my kids looked a little bit like him but not really. You can change some of the avatars features manually, but the Kinect menu interfaces are so frustrating to use we skipped that. The Kinect flat out refused to scan in my other son. At one point you have to stand up straight with your arms & legs spread out, inside a green outline. My son did that, several times but the Kinect refused to register his knees or elbows. It only gives you a few seconds to complete this scan before popping up an error message and forcing you to start the process all the way over again from the beginning. We spent most of our time slogging through this process and I wanted to snap the Kinect in half.
Then we got to the actual game, which wasn't much better than navigating the menus. Kids tend to jump around as they try to have fun with the game, but the Kinect penalizes you for that. My kids would get too far forward or too far right or left, and they had a lot of trouble with the controls. The gameplay is also repetitive and confusing. You run your avatar around with characters from various Pixar movies and are presented with puzzles, sometimes given with no hints. That would be all right for an adult, but its not fun for a 5-year old. One puzzle involved having to jump up on a little raised platform, and the controls are so awful my kids were not able to do it. Theyd either jump past it, over it, or theyd jump and the Kinect wouldnt recognize they were jumping.
If you want a fun Kinect game for your kids, get Kinect Party. Even if you manage to get through the avatar creation menus in Kinect Rush, there is no reward waiting for you in playing the actual game. Hopefully I can get a dollar or two for this junk on trade in. | video-games_xbox |
Great culmination to a great trilogy. I continued playing this series because the PoP-I had such a great story and character interactions. I was really disappointed in PoP II when a lot of that was lost, the Prince's personality dramatically changed, and the gameplay focus shifted to fighting.
However, the Two Thrones makes a great comeback by combining the best elements of both of the previous games. A lot of the great story writing and the character monologues are back and you start to feel like you can connect with the Prince again. At the same time, the fighting elements were improved with the addition of speedkill. I felt that in PoP II there was a little too much button smashing in the game. Its great if you're playing Dead or Alive, but for an adventure type game like Prince of Persia button smashing shouldn't be at the forefront.
Given that though, the game is still ridiculously hard in some spots. The fighting is still difficult so much that near the beginning of the game, I started over in easy mode so I could focus more on the story and physical environment puzzles rather than button smashing.
The biggest thing about The Two Thrones is that the whole game is about TIMING. Even the fighting is really about timing, e.g. with speekill you have to hit the button just at the right second. Even in the "big boss" fights its more about navigating the terrain and doing things at the right moment instead of being able to smash the right combos into your controler to hurt your enemy. In a lot of parts of the game you have to jump at the right time, rebound off walls at the right time, strike your enemy at the right time etc.
The sand powers are a little bit simplified but still pretty important. Like in PoP II it really helps to slow down time to navigate terrains and to defeat enemies. You also get a couple of new moves in this game, like being able to rebound of shutters diagonally, being able to stab dagger plates, as well as the Dark Prince's new abilities. In terms of story I don't really understand the real need for the Dark Prince, but it sure was really cool to play him! You can really kick butt with the daggertail. Another nice thing about The Two Thrones is it ties up loose plotlines, and since I'm so into the story, that's really a plus. I would give it 4.5/5 stars overall! | video-games_xbox |
THQ does it again. Pros:
Game engine is still pretty fun
Lots of create mods to make your own wrestlers, rings etc.
Cons:
The character models do not look very good in most cases. Mick Foleys head is too small, Randy Savage looks like he is from the planet of the apes. Kevin Nash is wearing Diesel gear and cowboy boots. Booker T is white. The list goes on, but those are the biggest offenders to me.
RTWM is NOT fun this year at all. You are not trying to win most of your matches, but instead you end up trying to survive long enough for a cut scene to come up and screw you out of your victory... DUMB! I sorely miss the season mode from "Shut your Mouth" and "Here Comes the Pain".
Running attacks do not hit correctly. Running knees send you flying past your opponent. Running cross body will cause you to bounce off of the other guy and hit the ground. Clotheslines seem to have a 50/50 chance of hitting, or just kinda bouncing off the guy.
Top rope moves are too hard to perform because your opponent no matter how beaten will not stay down. This has always been a problem with the Smackdown series (now WWE series), but it's the worst I've seen it since "Know your Role" the first PS2 entry of the series over a decade ago.
The online servers are garbage. I honestly do not play very many matches online so I can not comment much on that, but I can say that I have played a couple of matches with a friend of mine, and out of 3 matches only one was not a lag fest. I real complaint about the servers for WWE 12 is that the community creations does not work as intended. This is where you go if you want to download some new custom made content for your game, including superstars, arenas, paint tools, and move sets. The problem is that you will be met with many random disconnects, extremely slow load times (I'm talking up to minutes just to load the first page) and about a 5% chance that your search for content won't boot you from the servers starting the whole process over again.
THQ addressed this problem shortly after the game came out and promised server updates that never helped. Then they promised a patch that, when released only made things worse. Good job guys! If you buy this game and enjoy using custom content be prepared to make most if not all of it yourself.
Other comments
Honestly the game is fun when playing Universe or Exhibition, but the Story mode (RTWM) and the Community Creations are broken and no fun. For me WWE 12 is good enough, and lackluster enough that I am just going to sit on it and skip WWE 13 and WWE 14 until THQ looses the WWE license to another company (PLEASE SAVE US EA) or just goes bankrupt because people are getting tire of buying there rushed broken products. THQ has never been a great company as far as working out bugs in games and offering support for said bugs, but the team that makes the WWE games are really the worst.
They promised patches for Smackdown vs RAW 2009 and 2010. 2009 was NEVER patched, and 2010 did get patched, but did not fix any of the problems.
Heck I still have my copy of WWE No Mercy for the N64 that had a glitch that caused the game to erase all of the saved data. I had read that THQ was offering replacement carts if you called in and mailed them your glitched cart. I called them up and was told that no such exchange program existed, and that THQ was unaware of any problems with the game. REALLY you are unaware of any problems with the game? There in lies the problem at THQ, ether they try to save money by not hiring testers for their games, or they just don't care about you once they have your money.
Either way that's not a company that I want to buy $60.00 games from anymore. | video-games_xbox |
A nice try, but. First let me start off by saying I absolutely love the Aliens vs. Predator franchise. Its probably one of the best ideas that had ever been conceived. Pitting two of the most popular movie monsters of all time against one another in a fight to the death...what could be more fun? Well, unlike the other Aliens vs. Predator games, AvP:Extinction breaks the First Person Shooter criteria and comes in with a Real-Time Strategy game. Its a nice attempt, but ultimately flawed.
The graphics in the game are sub-par...as far as a strategy game goes they're decent, but just very average...clearly nowhere near the caliber of Warcraft III or Command and Conquer: Generals. However, examining the creatures up close yields further distortions in graphics. Some of the aliens look ridiculous, and the Predators look just plain silly. The design is very cartoonish, just like Aliens vs. Predator 2 for the PC, which many people complained about. The environments are also very drab and dull...nothing really stands out. Some of the jungle environments are nice, but most of the environments, such as interior settings and caves, are just lifeless and boring.
The game itself is very simplistic. While creating endless droves of Aliens is alot of fun, the whole game just lacks substance. Aliens use the Queen to lay eggs, and drag back hosts that they killed (or more likely, just invaded and nearly wiped out your colony the moment the mission started). The Queen is basically the epicenter of the hive...you purchase all upgrades by selecting her, and using 'currency' earned by killing your enemies, you can upgrade your aliens. The basic Alien species are there: the warrior, the drone, the dog alien from Alien 3, the praetorian introduced in the AvP games, and new Aliens called 'Ravagers', which are huge, monstrous aliens with blades for hands that rend and maim opponents. The 'Carrier' is a large Alien that allows facehuggers to attach to its dorsal spines and leap out at enemies as you go. Nice ideas, though the creatures themselves look uninspired. All the aliens have unique abilities, and playing as them was an overall fine experience, but the game is just not executed well.
As for Predators, you are very limited in forces, which is understandable considering how powerful they are. The only building they have is the 'Shrine', where upgrades can be purchased and new Predators summoned. All the Predators have unique abilities and weapons, though some of them look uterly ridiculous...one Predator has a scythe, and it just doesn't go well with the whole Predator look. Cloaking is utterly useless, since it seems that everyone and everything can see you regardless. Predators earn curency by killing, as well as taking trophy skulls of their enemies.
Marines are simple enough to use, though difficult to play. The 'CommTech' is used to purchase upgrades and summon more units from the dropship. If the commtech is killed, you're out of luck. Some of the humans are immensely powerful, which throws the balance of the game off alot. The marines don't have any structures of any kind, just one landing beacon where the drop ship lands. Marines earn currency by fixing 'Atmos' which generate steady income. They must be defended, since Aliens and Predators will try to destroy these every chance they get.
The game is unbeleivably difficult...it should be the Aliens that come in countless swarms...not marines and Predators. The final Alien mission is infuriating...the moment the mission starts out, you are attacked by all three sides (Marine, Predator, Mutant Aliens) and they don't attack each other...they attack you. Some of the earliest Predator missions open up right into the middle of a fire fight...the Predators should be able to decimate marines but the endless swarm of marines and their incredibly strong fire power are too much. The game can end before you even get out of the starting area. As for marines...forget it. Aliens and Predators swarm you so much you won't even know whats going on half the time.
Overall, the game's biggest fault is that it was designed narrowly...with the consoles in mind. All the races, while characteristically different, are fundamentally the same. None have any structures, other than the main population center (Queen, Shrine, Landing Beacon). The game is somewhat unbalanced, with some units just being far too powerful. The idea of Alien procreation is good and is probably one of the best aspects of the game, but this game is just far too basic of an RTS. Perhaps its biggest fault is the complete lack of Multi-player and custom missions. Once you beat the game, that's it. You're done. There is nothing else to do, unless you want to try for a 'medal' by fulfilling all mission requirements in a certain amount of time. The game is virtually devoid of extras, and there are no ending cinematics...when you beat a campaign...that's it...you're just done. You won. Nothing else. There is no downloadable content or anything else...this is strictly a one-player strategy game that, once beaten, has absolutely nothing else going for it. This was a decent attempt to expand the Aliens vs. Predator franchise into a new game genre...but it fails. Perhaps they should've paid more attention to existing strategy games...its utter lack of options and extras throws this game back almost ten years...compared to other RTS games, it is basic and completely mediocre. The game was fun, but it took only about 2 or 3 days to complete, and playing it anymore beyond that became pointless, because there was nothing else to do.
This just further proves that RTS games belong on PCs, not consoles. Had this game been released for the PC, with multi-player options, extra content, and a better game engine overall, then this would have been a winner. As it stands, it was a decent but failed attempt. | video-games_xbox |
How should a sequel be. Having played the first Dead Rising, I am a fan. I love the free roaming zombie killing action. That being said, if you have not played the first game don't bother... just pick this up. It is the same game play but has several improvements. If you are a fan of sandbox or open-world games (GTA, Crackdown, etc) and really like to kill hordes of enemies in fun and unique ways then I would recommend this game.
The old...
This is basically the same game, rehashed (period). But Dead Rising was a great game IMO. So this is just what a sequel should be (think Halo2, 3, Reach or COD2, 3). The game has timed objectives, which may not appeal to everyone, but it does give the game a nice pace and you don't necessarily need to do any of them. Plus the ability to play the game over again while keeping all of your progress counter balances that aspect.
The new...
There are 2 new game mechanics/features that are introduced that actually have an impact on the game. The first, custom weapons, is a great addition... and the amount of combinations surprised me. But the whole thing is a novelty (the feeling of how cool these weapons are is passing after you have used them a few times).
The second is TIR (Terror is Reality). The idea is brilliant, have multiplayer minigames that count toward the main game. But the execution is poor, and it is not really beneficial to play because there is a way in-game to get money much quicker. Games are laggy and it takes an excessive amount of time to find a match. But on the bright side the minigames are fun. I would recommend playing this offline as a party game.
Story: 3.0
Graphics: 3.5
Gameplay: 4.0
Replayability: 5.0
...3.8 out of 5
I don't really care about the story so much because I really don't need a reason to kill zombies (other than the fact that they are zombies). And the graphics are good (a step up from the original) but they really had to tone it down because of the amount of bodies on screen at one time. Overall the game is fun (definity worth your money) and extremely replayable. Replayability IMO is one of the biggest factors in determining who gets my money and for a single player game you cant beat Dead Rising. | video-games_xbox |
My 360 Repair Experience Had a Happy Ending - For 3 Months. My Xbox 360 died a little over a month ago for the second time. Unfortunately this time it was no longer covered by warranty so I was faced with either purchasing a new one or paying $80 or so and sending it back in to Microsoft for repair, or so I thought, until I discovered a myriad of repair kits available for the 3 Red Light issue that I was now experiencing. I went in to this purchase figuring that I was taking a risk. I could make an error during repair or I might complete the repair and have my 360 still fail to operate, but for $14 I figured it was worth a try. I had decided that I'd rather purchase a new system instead of pay $80 given that this was my 2nd problem with this hardware, but here goes nothing...
First, I believe it is estimated that the repair will take an hour or so. I spent 4 hours performing surgery on my console. Most likely that's because I was pretty meticulous about doing this, am not terribly experienced working with hardware (I'm a software guy), and, quite frankly, the instructions leave something to be desired. One of my favorite phrases from the instructions was 'put in whole'.. huh? Oh, hole. I thought they were telling me to put the whole thing into something, but that didn't make sense... anyhow... that said the instructions do provide plenty of pictures and I do understand how hard it is making good, explicit directions that every idiot can follow. It would have been nice to have a warning here or there such as before slicing my finger on the metal tape, but at least I can now say the repair took both blood and sweat to achieve.
The initial part of the process comes down to pulling your XBox 360 apart to gain access to the motherboard. One neat thing about this kit is the little key that makes pulling the 360 apart easy if you understand that it's a key which I did not feel was adequately explained. I'm sure I could race through repairing a second unit now that I have some experience doing this.
The hardest part of the repair was getting the clamps off of the heat sink and I felt the instructions were just completely wrong with the suggested technique. I ended up puzzling over it until I was finally able to figure out how to do more of a prying action to get them off. After that it's removing and replacing the thermal compound on the CPU and GPU. How clean do I need to get it? I don't know. I was able to get the stuff off the top of the CPU and much of it from around it, but did a far from perfect job. The instructions make it clear that it doesn't have to be perfect though. I suspect the goal is for the heat sink to be nice and flat against the CPU so that's the critical part. Next was the challenge in opening the thermal compound. I'm sure I did it wrong, but I couldn't find a best way to open that stuff from the manufacturer's site either. In the end I did a pin prick at the bottom and treated it like caulk... but that didn't work well as thermal compound was pushed out both the top and bottom as a squeezed the syringe like container. I was able to get enough on the CPU and GPU to my satisfaction... I just hoped the Xbox 360 was satisfied.
Next was getting the heat sinks back on. That was fun. They recommend strips of electrical tape to hold the screws on the bottom in place while you place some washers in the top (you have to see it to fully understand)... I'll amend that by recommending 8 little pieces of electrical tape (one per screw) so you can more easily work one screw at a time.
Once I got that clamped back together it was time to reassemble things. I left the pieces in the order in which they were removed on my counter so that didn't go too bad although I did make a mistake here and there that involved back tracking. Fortunately I had now mastered the little key tool to help reopen the system so that wasn't much of a problem.
And then came the moment of truth. Did I just waste $14 and 4 hours of a Saturday? Nope! My Xbox 360 worked again and has been working for a few weeks now (I waited before writing this just in case the fix was temporary). I was amazed and was able to proudly proclaim to the family when they returned home that Dad just fixed the Xbox. I was a hero.
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Updated - And 3 months later my Xbox 360 is dead again. I have not had time to analyze it further than the RRoD lighting up again with 3/4 lights on as before. | video-games_xbox |
Great new installment to a franchise I thought had been long gone. I have to say this hits the nostalgia really hard. I remember playing Guitar Hero II as a kid, and the rest of the titles. Around 2009-2010 I remember the franchise getting less popular and eventually it all ended. Me growing up with Halo, Star Wars Battlefront, and this with all new titles coming out in 2015 I was pretty stoked. As Star Wars Batlleftont was a major dissapontment, and Halo not leading up to expectations, the commercial for this with James Franco had me completely sold. I waited of course, being as cheap as I am until I found it for $50 on Amazon a couple of months after release. Now, onto the game itself, it comes in a nice large packaging which is something you don't see every day since everything is now digital. Inside is the guitar with a much more modern look, which you assemble in 2 pieces, and once assembled you cannot take it apart for traveling and such, also is a strap for the guitar which I actually don't know how to attach so I set that aside, the game on disc, and a little USB chip you plug into your Xbox to connect the wireless guitar to it. Now, Originally I had a defect chip. So I immediately contact Activision customer support and within 7 days got a new chip which worked like new. Once all set up and connected I was ready to rock on! I like the new take on Guitar Hero Live. First off, the "Live" mode is cery unique. It basically takes on the concert modes of the originals except with a live audience reacting towards your performance. Now I have only done two concerts, but it is very unique. Next up is my favorite part, Guitar Hero TV. A genius idea to mix up multiplayer online. With hourly playlists changing, the fun is never ending. You get to play on radio playlists with different genres, songs, etc. Forsay "Rock Classics" at 10:30 PM then at 11:00 PM it will change to "Indie Hits" And for each song on Guitar Hero TV the music video plays in the background instead of an animated concert. Genius! On top of that, you get updates every couple of weeks with about 20 songs. You can play rivals head on head online, jam out on the different playlists with 10 people to reach 1st place, or just go on song list and pick your favorite jams. I highly recommend this for any fan of the originals. My only complaint, is no Nirvana yet! I mean we got a Nickelback song before Nirvana what is up with that! I demand Lithium, In Bloom, and Dumb added before Summer! | video-games_xbox |
Xbox One Bundle Comparison. There are now several Xbox One bundles to choose from over the holidays, and this Assassin's Creed bundle is one of the better options in my opinion. But just in case another one will be a better match for you, here is a comparison with holiday price drops:
Xbox One, no Kinect: $349
- Barebones, nothing extra, not a great deal, don't get this one.
Xbox One with Kinect: $449
- Same as above, but includes Kinect. No other bonuses, don't get this bundle.
Xbox One Assassin's Creed Bundle, no Kinect: $349
- This includes both Assassin's Creed black flag (digital version), which is playable immediately after download, and Assassin's Creed Unity, which you can pre-download, but it is not playable until release date, which is still 1-2 weeks away. As you can see, this is the same price as the barebones XBO, but includes 2 free games, making it a pretty sweet deal if you don't care about the Kinect.
Xbox One Assassin's Creed Bundle, with Kinect: $449
- Same as other AC bundle above, but also includes Kinect. It also includes a free Kinect game: Dance Central Spotlight. The Kinect sells separately alone for $149 MSRP, so this is an *extremely* good bundle. The standard MSRP prices would put this value at $399 console + $149 Kinect + $30 AC Black Flag + $60 AC Unity + $20 Dance Central Spotlight = about $650 total. Even if you believe the separate prices are kind of inflated, or they go down further over time, still a great deal.
Xbox One Sunset Overdrive Bundle: $349
- This bundle does not include a Kinect, but includes the new Sunset Overdrive game for the same price as the barebones bundle. But what makes this one stand out is that both the console and controller are white, which is pretty cool. Color preferences are subjective, so you'll need to look at it and decide if this bundle is right for you, or if SO is the type of game you'll like. It is currently the only way to get a white XBO. If you really want the Kinect, you'll have to buy it separately for $149, which makes the deal less awesome. But if you don't care about Kinect and like the look of white, this is a great choice.
Xbox One Call of Duty Advanced Warfare Bundle: $449
- This bundle is priced the same as the normal Kinect bundle, but this one does not actually include the Kinect. Instead, that $100 premium gets you Call of Duty Advanced Warfare (digital version, not physical), a custom Call of Duty themed console and controller design, and a 1TB hard drive. This is the only way to currently get a 1TB hard drive, which to me is the biggest selling point of all. But again, if you want the Kinect, you'll have to buy it separately for $149 which makes it not as great of a deal. But that 1TB is great, and with how large full games are, will quickly become necessary. I'm hoping 1TB becomes a standard hard drive size very soon for this console, but for now, you'll have to get this bundle to get that extra space (or get a separate external drive).
Since this review is on the AC bundle, which I actually did purchase, I will specify in a little more detail what it includes. The design you see in the product description picture is a cardboard sleeve over the normal green Xbox One box. Inside that box, is completely identical to the normal Xbox One bundle, except for those extra cards with download codes for the two AC games. There are no actual physical games or discs included in the bundle. The console is the standard black with the standard 500GB hard drive. Prepare to spend a few hours waiting for the games to download and install. Xbox Live definitely does not utilize my full 50 megabit connection, it seemed to download at around 10mbps consistently, which meant a long wait to actually play, since these game files are HUGE.
After the last few system updates, the Xbox One has become an even better gaming/media device that I am still using and enjoying just about every day. So pick the bundle that works best for you and you won't be disappointed! | video-games_xbox |
Halo 4: Excellent gameplay, no theater mode. While it has already been publicized that Theater mode didn't 'make the cut' for release date, this is a huge problem for 343 (and they seem to be treating it somewhat too lightly). Part of what made Halo 3, ODST and Reach so much fun was that you could go back and review what you had done and share that with others. In addition, you can review your strategy based on placement of items and determine the best course to take the next play through. Without a working Theater Mode, this is just a fleeting game experience without any way to share your experience (other than recording the output with a DVR or something). 343, you need to get Theater Mode out.
For me, half the game was reviewing my game after the fact. Without this feature set, this game is only half as much fun. 343 better wake up and get the update out that they claim that they are working on. And no, I'm not going to be happy if I have to spend $29 extra as DLC to add Theater Mode in on top of the Limited Edition price tag.
If you are contemplating purchasing Halo 4 or Halo 4 Limited Edition, know that it does not contain Theater Mode for campaign play. Since I haven't tested multiplayer yet, I don't know if it exists for that either. So, when you play through Campaign mode, you cannot record it for posterity, sharing or any other reason later. That game you've just played is lost. If and when 343 decides to release Theater Mode, you will have go back and replay the entire campaign over again just to record it.
Frankly, I'm considering stopping my play through of my single player campaign at this point and play it at a time after Theater mode comes available. While I understand the need to cut buggy features, they really should have warned people up front that Theater mode wasn't there and not assume that people who just 'live without it'. Better, hold the game release until Theater Mode was ready.
At this point, the lack of Theater has put a major crimp in the enjoyment of this title for me. So, I thought it would be fair to warn other would-be buyers that there is no Theater in this release. That doesn't mean there won't ever be, but it may end up as a 'for pay' DLC.
Story
Not done playing, but will update this part after I've played through more. Clearly, I'm only about an hour in, so I really can't say much yet. So far, I've enjoyed what I've seen of it.
Gameplay
The gaming system feels much like most Halo games. Although, the gun sounds ring just a tad on the hollow side. I was expecting higher quality sound effects from the guns. I'm playing on Normal mode and it's relatively easy to do away with the covenant on board the 'Forward Unto Dawn'. As for much else beyond this, I'm debating about continuing with my game at this point or waiting until 343 gets Theater mode out the door (which, of course, could take months).
Guns
So far, it's standard weapons both UNSC issue and Covenant. Farther in, I'm hoping to get hold some even cooler weapons.
Limited Edition
With the Limited Edition, you get codes to unlock various things (Male or Female avatar, full video access to live action movie 'Forward Unto Dawn' in Halo Waypoint, and some other exclusives). It's got some reasonably nice small books included, but nothing I would jump for joy over. The books are more for looks than anything else. It's got one silver pouch that you can rip open with a briefing in it and a zipper pouch containing the extras codes. I was actually expecting just a bit more from the Limited Edition, but I guess the game itself is enough. The game itself is two disks in a white metal case with the UNSC eagle logo on the front. | video-games_xbox |
L.A. Noire Review. LA Noire is from RockStar and Team Bondi. It puts you into the shoes of a cop of the rise named Cole Phelps. You'll get the chance to solve case for multiple different departments within the LAPD. You'll find yourself in the Traffic division, Homicide, VICE, and Arson. You'll have to track down all the clues and get your witnesses and suspects to tell you exactly what you need to do. If you can accomplish all of this you might find yourself as one of the best in LA.
Graphically this game starts off stunning. The lay out of the city looks spot on, the characters that you'll interact with will have you constantly thinking, haven't I seen that face before, somewhere else? There's also the long list of vehicles that you'll have at your disposal. The one thing that is revolutionary is the face tracking technology, and you're going to have to use it if you're going to be able to find out what you need to know. The odd thing though is that as you play the game the graphics actually seem to decay. You'll noice more and more texture pop as you go on, and the characters also seem to decline in appearance. I noticed near the end of the game that several of the characters' mouths will appear to be melting.
The music of the game definitely gives you that 1940's vibe. The voice acting really sells the story when you couple it with the faces that you'll be encountering.
The controls are for the most part easy to pick up and will be your best friend. There are some issues when you're trying to get in and out of cover with the shoulder button, but other than that you'll find that you won't have too many issues with your controls.
As stated before you're a cop in 1947 name Cole Phelps. You'll get your chance to show that you're a star pretty quick off the bat, and as you continue to complete cases you might just get those promotions. There's a set number of cases for each division and you'll be ranked on how well you collected all the clues, got the correct answers, and caused minimal damage to cars, the city, and individuals walking the city. You'll also find that there are other crimes that you'll pick up on over the radio, and you can choose to complete those as well. The better you do with the questioning and taking on the street crimes the higher you'll rank up. As you rank up you'll have access to other suits, and you'll also get rewarded with Intuition Points that you can use to either remove wrong answers from your interrogation or you can pool the audience (if you're connected to XBL) to see what the most popular choices are.
You'll find that this story will keep you pretty glued to your seat. I did have some issues with the VICE cases as I didn't really find them nearly as enjoyable as the Homicide cases, but the overall layout of the story, filled with twists, definitely kept bringing me back to this game.
If you're looking to a Hard-Crime game in which you can sink your teeth into, then this is the game for you. If you're looking for a GTA type of game in which you play a cop, you might be slightly depressed as you won't be able to draw your weapon unless its a time for a gun fight. This game, even when the graphics starts to go, is something that you need to get. This game gets an 8.7 out of 10. | video-games_xbox |
good but no classic thief. ok lets get straight to the point. As a game taken on its own merit, this is a 4 verging on 5. However as part of the Thief legacy, originally started by Looking Glass studio's classic Thief: The Dark Project, the game falls flat on its face.
The most serious problem is the small levels. They are tiny and extremely linear. No longer will you be exploring and getting lost in the Thief world. Sorely missed from this edition are some of the great gadgets from the earlier games, such as the rope arrow and scouting orbs. Instead we have the completely stupid climbing gloves.
Now the idea of having the City as an open area where you can blackjack and pickpocket to your heart's content was wonderful, but the City - like the other levels - seems stunted and abnormally tiny. Not what you want a sprawling City to feel like. Levels are very atmospheric and full of tension, but not even the likes of Shalebridge Cradle come close to matching the genious of 'Return to the haunted Cathedral' or 'Down in the Bonehoard' to name a couple (both of which to be found in the original Thief).
Add to this poor AI and guards that seem to have taken too many stupidity pills and its not looking good. These guards will all too easily give up. In previous Thief's you had to hide from them and tension often hit incredibly high levels. There was nothing more enjoyable than having stolen the loot, running down to a cellar or whatever only to find no way out and hiding in a corner while a couple of guards get perillessly close trying to find you. Will they give up searching or is the game up? In Deadly Shadows, they will walk approx 10 feet and go back to patrolling.
My final thoughts on Thief: Deadly Shadows is that the design team either willfully set out to create a diluted game that would appeal to the largest spectrum of players or their development time was cut short. I constantly felt like I was playing a demo. Looking Glass must be rolling in their graves...
However, Thief: Deadly Shadows offers a good bit of entertainment for as long as lasts, and is more compelling than probably 70% of the games on the market. | video-games_xbox |
The Only Good Review. Now, almost all of the reviews that I have seen for this game are negative, claiming that it is a complete rip-off compared to the original game. On most aspects, I disagree. Also, I think that a lot of people are intentionally going against everyone who says that the game is good by giving them thumbs downs and commenting against them, so just know that people are going to purposely spread false information about the game, and don't be surprised if this review has lots of thumbs downs and negative comments.
Pros
1. Games don't take 5 hours anymore-In the original, games often took more than five hours for me, and I didn't really like saving, because then you had to re-adapt to the middle of a battle, so I usually spent hours on end playing the games. One main reason of this was because the, for example, nuke launchers took over an hour to build unassisted by a single tech 3 engineer, and the actual missiles took about 10 minutes, during which they were eating away at your resources and getting you nothing. Now, nuke launchers take just a minute to build by the ACU, and the missiles take about 2 and a half minutes. Overall, most of my games now take less than an hour and ten minutes, with my shortest time being 4 minutes and 40 seconds (this was to get an achievment on Steam, called Rushin' Front, which requires you to win a skirmish in less than 5 minutes).
2. Research-Although a lot of people think that the research is retarded and pointless, it actually is a really good idea. Basically, you have research points which are generated gradually over time or quickly during combat, and you use these points on five tech trees, all of which use the same points: Land, Air, Naval, Structure, and ACU. There are three types of techs: Unlocks (which unlock new structures or units for construction), upgrades (which give units new guns or shields or etc), and boosts, which enhance preexisting systems (the UEF (human) faction has a bosst which gives their tanks and mobile artillery guns 1 extra barrel).
3. New UI-The strategic mode, for instance, seems weird and is annoying at some points, but it actually makes the game easier to handle, especially when coordinating large assaults, because the unit groups stack together and you just click the number for the group and you get control of the units.
4. New Experimentals-Now, instead of there being just one type of experimental units which are built by the ACU or engineer, there are now technically 4 types (Land and Air, which are built by factories, and Naval and Structure, which are still built by ACU and engineers) and there are minor and major experimentals. Minow experimentals are cheaper and build faster, but lack the firepower and abilities of major experimentals (the Cybrans (the half-computer faction) have a minor experimental, the Megalith II, which has heavy beam and aa lasers, but is lightly armored, whereas the bomb-bouncer, which is a massive experimental deflector shield, deploys a large shield over a large area which projectiles bounce off of back at their launchers, while charging the Mega-Blast, which releases a massive explosion that damages and destroys all enemies in a large radius). Some experimentals lack certain features, like the darkenoid (the new CZAR) which doesn't have AA guns.
Cons:
1 A bit too simple-not much to elaborate on there
2. You Need Steam to get it-Another obvious one that i won't explain
3. You Can NOT SAVE SKIRMISHES-I hear that Square Enix is working on yet another patch to correct this, but sometimes there are the "Got to Go" moments in life where you just want to finish the battle later.
Overall:
Play the demo first, see if you like it. If you aren't really interested, get third-party opinions from friends or people online who have the game. Don't go with what people here think, ask people who actually have played the game (as retarded as it sounds, some people reviewed the game and mentioned in the review that they had never actually played the full version). If you like the demo, stil ask others, but this is still a great game. Remember, experience is greater than what a stranger said, and I am talking about my own review negatively. | video-games_xbox |
Medal of Irritation. I have been playing the Medal of Honor games since their inception. However, this one is worst ever produced. Are the graphics bad? No, they are pretty good. How about the weapons and setting? Those are pretty good too.
The problem is that playing this game will really piss you off.
The difficulty is really off on this one. Sure, you can take some hits, but the enemies can take half a clip of .30 caliber ammunition and still charge at you too! Also, let's say you die, you are started in a spot where it may take minutes (1-2) or (5-7) for your "squad" to show up and help you. So basically, for some unknown amount of time, you must fight the entire German army by yourself. Phew, my "squad" is finally here. I hope they can help me out now. Aaaaawe they are all dead from a single grenade. Your "squad" AI makes them act like a bunch of drunken raccoons, rather than a crack airborne unit.
Lets take some of the weapons:
When you fire a submachine gun, you really cannot hit anything further than about 30 meters, however, when you have a rifle and are trying to hit a target at, oh, say 100 meters, that guy is peppering you with submachine gun fire the whole time you are aiming.
How about rocket launchers? Everyone loves those. When you fire a Panzerschreck at a tank, it will take a good 3+ hits before blowing up. Also, if a guy is standing behind a steel girder, and you hit the girder with 10 rockets, he is still not going to die.
Now lets move on to the SS troopers in the train yard that shoulder MG42's. After I emptied a full BAR clip into one guy, and he didn't die, I turned a $50 controller in a $.05 pile of rubble.
Hey, since you are going to die often (about every 30 seconds or so), there must be a good way to save your progress right? No, not really. There is a "checkpoint" system in the game. This system, however, does not use your progress in different areas as some other games do. Rather it uses the completion of a mission goal as a save point. Not too bad, right? The problem is that there are some missions where completing a mission goal can take quite a while. These same missions always appear to be the ones full of snipers and 500 nazis hiding above you in scaffolding. After the 35th time you try to get a particular goal, you will know what I mean.
I used to play both this game and Call of Duty, rating them pretty equally, but I'm afraid the MOT franchise has gone downhill if this is the kind of offering they are moving forward with.
Save yourself some broken glasses, controllers, coffee tables, etc. and buy one of the Call of Duty games instead. You will be 10 times happier. | video-games_xbox |
A Great Adventure. Quick Summary
An excellent follow up to the original XBOX game, Fable 2 maintains the great character development and story telling of the first Fable while expanding the experience in many different directions. Four stars because it is "only" a great game - not perfect.
This game is definitely worth owning.
A Few Deeper Thoughts
Fable 2 fulfills many of the selling points promised to us gamers by the first Fable game on the original XBOX. A large and fairly open world (although this is certainly isn't Oblivion) to conquer and explore, well done character building both in terms of appearance and function, and an expanded "game after the game" and different story endings promise very high replay-ability. And of course who could forget your trusty sidekick - loyal dog that follows you throughout the game, helping to find treasure, fight the bad guys and even entertain a crowd. This game will provide different types of players with very different experiences not just in terms of the type of hero (or villain) they become, but also in how they play the game. If you did nothing but play the main story quests with one character this game MIGHT take you ten hours. On the other hand you could complete all the side quests, buy all the property, attain every skill and expression or attempt to murder every citizen in the game (or all of the above) with multiple play-throughs and spend hundreds of hours to do so. Most people, like myself, will likely find themselves somewhere in between those two extremes and invest 30 - 50 hours into this game before they're ready to move on. One of the main downsides to me was the incredible monotony in terms of the types of enemies you fight. I can literally list almost all of them right here: beetles, bandits, hobbes, skeletons, wraiths, trolls, shards, and two types of guards. Yes, I may have missed one or two here but even if I did, what is that, ten different enemy types? That's just not what I expect in fantasy adventure games, especially one in which there are literally hundreds of different outfits I could dress my character in - am I playing dolls or an action adventure game?
Pros
* High replay value
* Great character development and story telling
* Wide variety of things to do both during and after the main quests are complete
Cons
* Optional activities that aren't really that "fun" - like chopping wood for money
* Repetitive enemies. Really repetitive enemies.
Reminds me of...
* Fable (duh)
You'll like this if...
You like adventure/questing games and character development.
You'll hate this if...
You don't like video games.
Bottom Line
Fable 2 is a great game from which most gamers will find many hours of enjoyment. There are a few flaws and you will stop and ask yourself why you're chopping wood so you can afford to buy a house when you could be fighting bandits and hordes of undead, but overall - a really fun adventure. | video-games_xbox |
This is where the troubled series starts it's decent, but this one is good. The Good: Amazing visuals, fast fun combat, lots of gore, cool enemies, easy mode is actually beatable, leaderboards, more everything, Sonia is hotter than Rachel
The Bad: Sluggish controls, frame rate can't keep up sometimes, bad camera, difficulty is more insane this time around
I never beat the first Ninja Gaiden due to its insane difficulty. I wanted to very badly, but no matter how much I tried I failed in the end. Thankfully NG2 is a bit more forgiving on the easy setting, but new comers will never make it past the first level. The game's story is nothing special and feels like a rehash at best. You have to save the world from the Arch Fiends taking over the world and destroying so you have to hunt them down one by one. The game play is essentially the same as NG1. You have light and heavy attacks along with projectile weapons that you can charge. The game has many more weapons and Ninpo scrolls to use. Weapons range from scythes, tonfas, flails, and even staffs. All the weapons are great and you can upgrade them for up to three levels and after the enemies get too strong for that weapon you'll never use it again.
The Ninpo magic is useful for enemies, but useless on bosses since it doesn't do any damage. The can be used to cripple enemies and finish them off with a finishing move. There are a lot of new moves in the game yet they are repeated far too often. You can hack enemies apart into a bunch of pieces and continue to hack them up for overkill bonuses. While you rack up your Karma score you can also buy items from the Masamusa shops which are generously spread throughout the levels and the same goes for save points. I never found the game unfair with checkpoints or saves. Once you die at a boss you start right there in front of the boss again so this makes things less frustrating. Another cool element is being able to run on top of water. You can fight enemies this way as well and just adds to the awesome ninja feel to the game. I also found the controls less responsive than the first game and also a bit sluggish. You'll try to hit an enemy, but they'll back away and hit you but you're stuck in an animation that you can't back out of. This isn't a huge issue but it's still there. Another problem is the camera which is terrible. Instead of following Ryu it'll always stay in one spot so enemies are coming at you blindly. While this also isn't a huge issue it doesn't make things better.
Throughout each level is a Test of Valor portal which has you killing as many enemies in the room as you can and rewarding you. These get extremely hard then super easy. The game also looks amazing. While it's not Assassin's Creed or Gears of War amazing it looks astounding with awesome lighting, high res textures, realistic physics and what have you. Another problem is that the game is insanely linear with literally only one straight path to go on. this makes fighting a bit cramped sometimes, but overall isn't a huge issue. A lot of people will have the biggest problem with the difficulty. While it's tolerable on easy you'll never beat normal or, god forbid, hard.
What makes the game so hard are the limited healing items, some cheap enemies, and the sluggish controls. You never really feel powerful enough no matter what weapons you get. I really hated this and is the most disappointing part of the game. There are also times where the frame rate will chug when there are tons of enemies on-screen. This makes those sections even more annoying.
The game has lots of gore, sexy women, cool weapons and magic, a long campaign, leaderboards, amazing visuals, but it falls down some with sluggish controls, a bad camera and insane difficulty. If you loved NG1 you're going to have a blast here, but if the first game made you feel standoffish then pick NG2 up because you'll be able to at least beat the game. | video-games_xbox |
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