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Great Gaming Headset That I Choose Over Astro. I will have to say that I am prettty amazed at the sound of this headset. I don't have anything negative about it. But I will compare it to 2 other headsets I have tried for the Xbox One. The first headset to compare is the one that comes with the Xbox, the single ear headset. Not even a comparison at all for me anyway. My wife likes it becuase she can still hear what's going on in the house with her uncovered ear. I don't like the original headset becuase only chat (voices) are on that headset. No gaming sound at all. Then I have the Astro A40s. I have the A40s with the mixamp seperate box. Not the new A40s with the mixamp on the controller connection. But anyway I like the sound better from these Turtle Beach Ear Force XO headset. The sound seems more full. The crashes and explosions are awesome and with the added bass boost, that makes it even better. The A40s have a pretty good sound, especially when you use the dolby feature. It is really awesome surround sound and it almost seems as if you don't have the headset on, and there are speakers all around your room. But I still prefer the sound of the Turtle Beach XO Ones. I even used just the headset from the A40s and connected it to the headset adapter of the Turtle Beach, and still not the same. Turtle Beach XO ONEs headset was still much better for bass and full gaming sound. I can't really compare any mic quality or problems becuase I have never had anyone complain that they couldn't hear me, so I would assume the mic is good with all of the headsets.
So if you like a full sound and enjoy hearing a bassy gaming experience I would highly suggest this Turtle Beach Ear Force XO One Headset. And lastly the great thing is, if you don't want a lot of bass at a particular time, just hit the bass button to turn it off. There are 3 different settings for the enhanced bass. Just click it until you get the sound you like. Thanks and I hope I helped with my review. | video-games_xbox |
The Fractured But Whole Is Even Better Than The Original. After multiple delays, South Park is back and it continues the same shenanigans where it left off. Now right off the bat, the reason I gave this game five stars is because it handles being a sequel even better than it did when it was the first of the franchise. What I mean is that the first game had to prove to you that the game was as good as the show, had a unique combat system and worked over a 10-20 hour story. This game takes everything that's been established and takes it up a notch. The story is full of parodies but does a hilarious job of making fun of the Captain America: Civil War superhero divide and weaves a pretty fun story. I'm close to 8 hours in and I just feel like there is more of everything. Looting different parts of the home just makes you want to look at everything that comes up, pooping mini games are always strangely entertaining and lets be honest, we are here for the writing. Matt and Trey never let something hit the shelves or screens unless it's exactly what they wanted and I feel that polish here. Plus getting a copy of the original game is never bad if you know someone that never played the first or if you want to go back and get some achievements. I feel like they are tipping their hat to us when they give us the original for free. Now a heads up for those that don't watch much South Park but want to get in on all the fun (that was me years ago), there are a lot of poop and fart jokes. They are going to take it way too far but just keep laughing. Turn the analytical part of your mind down while you're playing and it's even better.
+The story is set up great and uses the original as a great stepping stone
+The writing is awesome and I expected nothing less
+Character creation is still there but the upgrades, items and so on, make the game feel deeper and richer
+Combat system is back and even more creative
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not a negative but just a heads up for all the "dumb" poop and fart jokes
Overall, be confident that South Park: The Fractured But Whole is a great sequel to a stand out game. A lot of us would never have thought that they could make such a great adaptation from TV to Game, but here we are with an even better sequel. Every time the game ended up getting delayed we knew that Matt and Trey didn't think that it was ready and were going to keep working harder and harder on it. Now that it's out, think of it as them saying that we believe it's ready. It's a hilarious game and if you liked the combat in the first one, be stoked that it has only been improved. | video-games_xbox |
Good and definitely worth playing, but multiplayer lacks purpose. If you are reading this, then you already know about the game. I just have to say that this game is pretty good, but has been a disappointment because it does not live up to the hype. Primarily due to the multi player. More about that later.
Single player is rather fun, but definitely is a lot better when you play co-op with a friend. I do have to give Kudos for allowing co-op over Xbox live. Please, bungie, put this into Halo 3. It can get a little predictable and repetitive at times, but it is interesting and fun even though the story line is somewhat non-existent. I rather liked the level where you had to stay in the light to keep from dying and sometimes you had to create your own. I thought that was rather innovative. Other than that, the story line is mostly non-existent.
Graphics are definitely pretty good, but I was really expecting more (too much hype). I also feel like they cheat by making everything very, very drab. I know that this is part of the feel of the game that they are trying to paint, but when black, grey, silver, and white make up 80% of the color palette, I think it is a lot easier for them to make things look realistic. It is much more challenging to use a full color palette across the board. I think Call of Duty 3 is underrated in this regard and has more impressive visuals due to their usage of color and active environments. Besides that, you will spend a fair amount of time just learning to figure out whether your enemies are enemies or friends because the colors are very similar. You need to learn to look for subtle clues.
Two game play aspects that I found innovative is the roadie run which gives you limited visibility and directional control (provides some realism) and the active reload system that rewards and punishes you for how well you do it. I think the active reload system should become standard fare in shooters.
Using the A button to do everything can occasionally become annoying as you'll sometimes find it not doing what you really want to do and will make things not seem quite as fluid.
On to multi player, where my big gripe is. It pretty much has no point other than straight up killing. If you are the type of person who only plays death match on other games, then this game is for you and you can ignore my gripe. If you get more enjoyment out of true objective style games (capture the flag, assault on Halo, war on Call of Duty) then this game will become boring. I've played it about 10 different times for a total of about 20 hours now and I find that it doesn't hold my attention. I've only played it this much because I kept hoping to have an epiphany as to why it is the most played game on Xbox Live. Half the games you get in become everybody rushing to the middle and just seeing who has better shotgun / chainsaw skills and half of them end up being sniper contests. The assault rifle is usually worthless because if you are close enough to them they can out shotgun you and if you are out of shotgun range they can just dive out of cover and regain health. If you play with friends who are good or randomly get a group of people who can organize, then it is probably more fun. However, don't expect much when you just get matched up with most people. Everybody will just run around with little strategy.
Bottom line, the game is good, but the level of hype surrounding this game created expectations for me, particularly with multiplayer, that could not be matched. In other words, the game is somewhat of a disappointment for me and may be for you if you believe all the hype and if you are the kind of person who prefers to have multiplayer games with a goal to them (like capturing headquarters, etc) besides just killing each other. | video-games_xbox |
Worst Game I Have Ever Bought. I am not one for over inflammatory reviews. I am not one to say "this is the greatest" or "this is the worst" just on a whim. But, I can without question say that this game is without a doubt the worst game I have ever bought. It is riddled with glitches and errors. Enjoy getting through most of a level, having to save and quit to come back to...nothing. It doesn't load to your spot. It will load to the beginning again. This is not to mention that the game simply is not fun. Many if not all of the levels are simply going from cut and pasted room to cut and pasted room blanket shooting everything. The most helpful hint I can give is, if there is something living in it - you haven't been in that room - because there is no other way you are ever going to be able to tell the difference.
And quite simply - the multiplayer is trash. You can't find a game and when you do, it stops randomly in the middle of some games or it places you against 6 other players.
I have never been more disappointed in a game. Halo was one of the most praised names in all of the video game world. But, what this new development company is done is disgusting. The schools that the developers got their college degrees from should revoke them from the developers for their parts in this massacre. The land lords that lease buildings to this company to do their "work" should evict them. No company should associate with a company that has so blatantly destroyed such a beloved title. How anyone would ever be able to look themselves in the mirror and go okay, yeah the public should play this - is beyond me. You may think I'm being over dramatic, you may think that I'm asking for too much, you may think that I'm some random troll. But, go ahead. Buy the game. It's cheap now, so you won't lose much. It is a travesty. A completely unplayable waste of time that never should have been allowed to be released. It is a miserable experience that will forever make you question whether or not you want to continue to play video games. | video-games_xbox |
Where to begin. I have been playing Madden football since I could first walk. every year, I go out and buy the game. Usually, I end up liking the game, even when the majority of the people are against it. This year however, I am through with it. I am sick of this game! The changes they made have gone too far! I buy this game primarily for Franchise mode. I love to build my team, maybe cheat a little and make some of my below average players and make them play like Hall of Famers, but now I can't do that because there is no franchise mode! Instead, they have this thing called. 'Coaches mode'. But people describing it, it may sound the same to you, but trust me, it isn't. You can't edit your players, you can't stack your team, you can't do half the things that you could in franchise mode. EA Sports claims that it is just like the franchise mode, but it isn't! They got rid of the main feature of the game! It's almost like a tiger without its stripes, it's now just a big cat! Plus, most of their other features has to do with online! I am one of those people who don't have their xbox's online, so I feel left out.
They also have two new announcers which I was excited about. I loved it at first, but then they got annoying after awhile.
Gameplay sucks. My running backs, when they are trying to find a whole. run into the offensive line and then they fall backwards! This happens every time. My QB is always Tom Brady, and whenever I have him through the ball is either deflected or intercepted. By the head of the game I find myself with a bruised head and a controller between my eyes. Even the easiest setting isn't easy.
Oh, and did anyone notice that they don't have the create a team? They have had that feature for as long as I could remember. I am so pissed they got rid of that because that was always fun to create a team.
So, please, do me a favor and do not waste your money on this garbage. Oh, and whomever came up with the coaches mode should be fired by EA sports because they replaced that crap with franchise mode. And no, it is not the same!
And one last thing, JIm Nantz and Phl Sims say they're going to the post game show but there is no post game show. Same with the Half Time report. There is no report. Didn't they once have a half time report with Erin Andrews a few years ago? I want something like that rather than them showing us replays of some plays.
I will probably still play this, but only because of the roster changes. I would like to see how RGIII and Andrew Luck do in this game. | video-games_xbox |
If repetitive games are your bag...buy Hunter. I'll start off with a disclaimer: I am not what would be called a 'hard-core gamer.' I enjoy video games when they are mentally challenging, require serious dexterity, or are historically engaging. Hunter does not satisfy any of these criteria.
I've played Hunter for about an hour. From my take, the graphics were decent, although they in no way take complete advantage of what the Xbox can put out.
The game play...is a dog. As stated in other reviews, you can't control the camera angle, and there were times when I cursed a lamp post that obscured my line of view. What is worse, though...is that you can hardly control your own aim. The targeting system tries to guess where you are shooting, and misses probably 1/4 of the time. It is a really good thing that you can get infinite ammo -- you'll need it.
That infinite ammo comes in handy when about a trillion nameless, faceless, indistiguishable 'monsters' come on screen and amble toward you. Have you ever had the desire to shoot at a bunch of monsters, kill them all, feel the warm glow of accomplishment, and expect to be able to move on...just to find out that there are still more to kill, ad nauseam? That pretty well describes Hunter.
I honestly spent about 15 minutes running in a circle shooting at one boss. You may find that to be a real load of laughs, but I considered it to be a waste of my time. What few bullets didn't hit the wall were hardly enough to keep my attention.
I have read from other reviews that the story improves with time. I can't attest to that. I actually happened to know some of the White Wolf folks who were involved in the development of the original Vampire game. Like those games, this one is fraught with angst against...er...somebody. It's not completely clear. Perhaps we (the Hunters) are bad for being alive. Perhaps they (the 'monsters') are bad for being dead. Perhaps they are only bad because they were criminals... Honestly, who knows?
The bottom line: I was going to buy this game today. I decided to rent it instead. I am exceptionally happy that I made that choice. Hunter is repetitive, unengaging, and boring. To wrap things up from the opening of this review...I am not a hard-core gamer. If I were, I would find this game laughable -- about as challenging and interesting as Nightcaster. As a mid-level kind of gamer, I found it challenging in only one way: it truly challenged my sense of good taste in game development. | video-games_xbox |
Terrific Game... If you can meet the curve. This game is unlike any that I've ever played and I love it for that reason. First off, Dark Souls is harsh. It never makes any attempt to ease you into the hang of things. The first hours/days of this game left me wondering if they remembered that games should also be fun. I questioned rather or not I should have gotten this game and if I'd continue to play/attempt it. I am glad I hung in there.
What I mean by the curve is this....
Dark Souls is a game where death is a certainty. But when you learn how to play and how to approach enemies, you realize that it's not as hard as people say it is. The bosses are tough, absolutely. Some of the areas are hard to deal with, yes. But once you get the hang of the combat, you absolutely love it. Likewise, you overcome all hatred towards this game. Well, almost all of it.
Dark Souls is a game of many secrets and hidden items. It rewards the curious player. The degree of diversity of the areas, items and enemies are seldom found in most games these days.
I do however want to caution anyone who would get this game in the hopes of it being an awesome rpg. To me, this is not an rpg. This is an awesome non linear action game with a few rpg aspects. You can build a character. There are the usual stats options that accompany most rpgs. And there are also some covenants that you can join. But its not quite what you expect. There are no quests or side quests. Everything you do is in order to advance to other areas that you can't gain access to just yet. (So no, this game is no Skyrim. Which btw, is a tremendous let down. Talk about a super easy game. Makes me mad that I stopped playing DS for a few months to play it.) Dark Souls lacks story or any true interaction that would qualify it as an rpg imo. Maybe there was more background in Demon Souls and any player who played it can carry that history with them to Dark Souls. But to someone who has never played Demon Souls, like myself, this game is no rpg. (Dragon Age Origins is a true and seriously great rpg, not the second one though, god that game was a disappointment!)
I can't speak much on the multiplayer interaction other than a few invaders that I made quick work of.
Other than not being an rpg, (which I don't really consider a con, its just misleading), there are a few things that even a hardcore gamer like myself have to point out.
-action responses can sometimes be delayed. It doesnt happen often. But in a game where death can be just a matter of a missed block or badly timed attack, it becomes annoying and costly when it does happen. Especially early on.
-dying in this game often means repeating a number of kills in order to get back to whatever it was that killed you. You kinda have to be in the mood for that sometimes. Nothing can get more boring that constantly doing the same thing in order to fight a boss or something. But you get over it. It does suck though and can cause you to take a break with another game at times.
-you cant pause! I honestly don't really really mind this as much as I just hate the notion that a bunch of geeky game programmers felt it was needed. I understand that they want you to do everything in real time, but any idiot could have told them to allow a pause that simply stops EVERYTHING so I can answer the door or my phone or some real life stuff that doesn't wait for a freaking game. Now if I'm involved in a multiplayer scenario, then it would be understood.
So if you're looking for a game that offers a true challenge, this is it. Its not for everyone though, some people simply won't make the curve. | video-games_xbox |
A Fine Welcome Home to Gothic Fans. Risen was made by Pirahna Bytes, the same scrappy outfit that put together the first Gothic games, and this is basically Gothic with just a different name. Like the earlier games, Risen takes a little time to get into, but once you do the rewards are great. One of the best parts of Gothic and Gothic II was that exploring and being clever are incentivized and rewarded. In many games, like Oblivion, so much is tied to your level that really you have no incentive to do anything other than level up and hope for the best. Risen takes this away by scattering the world with treasure chests, rare loot, combinable alchemy items, and a wide array of NPCs that can give you quests, treasure, and experience rewards. What this means is that there are many ways to develop your character; you can ignore the plots/quests and wander off into the woods, or hole up in the towns and run errands or engage in palace intrigues to get experience and levels.
Indeed, like the Gothic games, Risen starts off as a struggle. You will have poor equipment, terrible fighting skills, few resources, and no idea what is going on. A single boar or wolf can kill you, and god help you if you wander off the main roads into a cemetery or swamp. Many people find this challenging learning curve and free form environment frustrating, because you die a lot and do quests "wrong" or "out of order." Who cares? Gradually, so slowly you may not notice it at first, you get stronger. By spending precious learning points (earned 10 every level) with NPC trainers, you can increase your combat skills, unlocking new moves and faster ranged attacks. Spending points on blacksmithing will let you craft sharper swords, reforge pieces of magical weapons you find in the ruins, or even create protective magical jewelry to defend yourself. Greater strength permits you to both do greater direct damage, and also to use stronger weapons -- the difference between 40 strength and using a bastard sword, and 50 strength and using a sharp two handed sword is far more significant than just the 10 strength difference might suggest. You also go from clumsily hacking with a sword and being torn to pieces by packs of foes to fluidly sweeping your greatsword in big circles, slaughtering multiple monsters at a time. But opportunities abound for any style of character -- use a crossbow to anger monsters and then lure them into towns where allies will assist you. Get up on ledges or in narrow chokepoints to take on enemies one at a time. Use a wide array of spells to attack, avoid, or outrun foes.
Risen's graphics aren't great, and you will see some texture stretching (particularly on hills). But the gameplay is very rewarding. By collecting recipes, herbs, and buying Alchemy 3 you can suddenly make dozens of permanent stat boosting potions, and then wield one of those unique swords you picked up in your travels. The map makes the island look small, but it is riddled with complex cave systems, ruined castles (often with secret passageways or catacombs), elaborate river and swamp systems, and soaring mountain passes. Areas often have multiple entrances and exits, so if you are daring you can often sneak through places to grab treasure while avoiding particularly dangerous monsters you can't handle yet. It's hard to overstate the gratification level when, after hours of getting chased around and eaten by black wolves or packs of gnomes, you can finally afford to buy that powerful crossbow or manage to sneak up a hidden river into the mountain and find a berserker sword or rune shield. Soon monsters that you feared are instead valuable sources of experience points and lootable hides and teeth, and you're on to the next challenge.
If you ever played and enjoyed Gothic or Gothic II, you owe it to yourself to play Risen. Another nice feature for this console port is you can set up hotkey buttons for healing items and the like, often the difference between life and death. Whether it's sneaking into people's houses at night to steal their loot, tiptoeing around behind stalagmites with your heavy crossbow while a blind Ashbeast pounds the floor all around you, or crushing a horde of skeletal warriors one at a time in the middle of a narrow rope bridge, you will find that the overall experience of Risen vastly exceeds the sum of its parts. | video-games_xbox |
A Boost in the Right Direction. Call of Duty Advanced Warfare takes the series into the realm of sci-fi and gives the series a much needed boost. Pun intended.
Concept: 10/10
Take the Call of Duty franchise and add exo-suits to give the player superhuman strength, jumping ability, cloaking, and sonic blasts. Showcase these abilities with an 8 hour campaign that plays out like a feature film starring Kevin Spacey... and a guy who sounds a lot like Jason Statham. Also throw in a co-op survival mode, and multiplayer with a bunch of different modes. If you have Xbox Live, there's 20-1000 hours of entertainment here.
Story: 10/10
This feels like a feature film with story arcs, characters, villains, and a fiendish plot to destroy the world. There are also some parallels to current world events. You start off as a soldier who is seriously wounded in battle. But, with the help of Atlas, and their combat prosthetics, you're ready to return to battle, deadlier than ever. Atlas is a futuristic military tech company that fights wars for the highest bidder. In a nutshell, they solve problems the politicians can't. This story is tighter than most of the other Call of Duty games, and it's very well acted.
Graphics: 7/10
The graphics took a small hit because this game was originally developed for the PS4 and XBOX ONE, so this is a port down of the game. Most of the time, the game looks good, but there are a few scenes where you'll cringe and say, "Is this the same game?" The occasional drop in graphics quality is a bit distracting.
Gameplay: 9/10
This is your basic Call of Duty game where you get to feel like a super bad ass in 30 minute intervals. The addition of the exo-suits refreshes the series and the levels take full advantage of the grappling hook and jump jet abilities. In the firefights, you can battle the enemies head on, take cover, or jump onto the roof of a building or the top of a semi-truck and blast them. This literally adds a whole new dimension to the combat. You can also dash in 4 directions on the ground or in the air to evade. Your main weapon is an assault rifle, but there are some instances where you'll snipe. Unfortunately, there isn't much variety in the actual guns.
Campaign: 8/10
There are assault missions, chase missions, stealth missions, and some lackluster vehicle missions. Overall, the Campaign is fun, the story is engaging, and the levels do make you feel heroic. Except for this one fighter plane level. It's the 'Painfully Awkward Rob Lowe' of this game. Traditionally the Call of Duty games were a just a step up from rail shooters. The levels in this game are wider and taller, so the game is still very linear, but the levels are more open leaving you more avenues of attack.
Multiplayer: 9/10
The exo-suits add quite a bit to the Multiplayer because you can dash. If you get caught in the open and someone is firing, you're not automatically dead. You can escape to cover if you are very quick. The exo-suits also give you special abilities like more health, more speed, stealth, a shield, etc... So, this really helps compliment your style of play. You can play Multiplayer traditionally and run and gun. You can use Exo-Speed and jump dash all over the place. Or, you can stick to the shadows, prowl around, and hunt your enemies. Personally I prefer stealth, a silenced weapon, and a knife.
As you play Multiplayer, leveling up is a breeze. You can round out your character with exo-abilities, perks, grenades, and upgrades to your guns. Most of your cool toys become available as you level up. As you play, you get 100 points for killing an enemy, 25 for an assist, points for finishing a battle, and bonus points for various achievements. You unlock the cool upgrades for your guns by killing enemies with them. So, if you find a weapon you like, you'll slowly unlock better scopes, grips, silencers, etc... for that gun. When you reach level 50 and rack up a ton of kills, you'll unlock Prestige Perks and Skins for your weapons. You also get supply drops which are like Treasure Chests with random special guns or costume pieces inside.
There are a bunch of different games available in Multiplayer. Team Deathmatch, and others that involve defending an area, invading an area, or capture the flag. It's pretty easy to start with Team Deathmatch and figure out your preferred play style. When you unlock cool gear and weapon upgrades and get a feel for the game, you're ready to play more competitively.
There are quite a bit of comments here about people complaining about spawns in multiplayer. I just played Team Deathmatch for days and I felt like I was unjustly killed by a cheap spawn twice. If you spawn, walk 10 feet, and crouch, then you can expect to get shot in the back because you are camping at a spawn position with your back to the enemies. It seems like the best way to play Team Deathmatch is to watch your Mini-Map, see the firefights going on. Look for enemies, watch where your allies are facing and shooting. See if they have an unprotected flank, and cover it. Or just charge right into the action and trust your skill with a weapon. If everyone does this, the battle has a type of flow to it. If you start off in the south part of the map and battle your way north, wiping out the enemy, then the enemy will spawn from the south, and you battle your way back down. The battles seem to flow back and forth across the maps. If you do this, your chances of getting killed cheaply is greatly reduced.
Sound: 10/10
Good music, Great acting, and the effects really highlight the action!
Replay Value: 10/10
The campaign itself is about 8 hours long and you can choose from 4 different difficulties. You can play split screen if you don't have Xbox Live and get more enjoyment from the game. If you have Xbox Live, you can play the Multiplayer modes for months.
Maturity: M
There's some blood, gore, and profanity. If you play online, there is even more profanity, usually from kids who sound twelve. There's something about hearing the F word in a pre-pubescent voice that is both comedic and unsettling.
Overall: 9/10
The exo-suits and the abilities really breathed new life into the Call of Duty franchise. This is a good game if you like good stories, Call of Duty gameplay, or Call of Duty multiplayer.
Buy it if you're a fan of the series.
Buy it if you like FPS games.
Rent it if you have 8 hours to blow through the campaign.
Rent it if you have a few more hours to play the survival levels.
Avoid it if you love to hate Call of Duty.
Avoid it if you are getting a next gen system soon. The game looks much better on the new systems. | video-games_xbox |
Less would have been more. I have been a madden player since the beginning. I have won a couple REAL (side by side) tournaments as well in my time and in different countries. However, I believe this will be my last madden purchase. The new madden is confusing. Madden was about beating the guy next to you for either money or bragging rights. Now that the focus of madden is online, it's all about online this and that w/ papa johns adds. What is ultimate team and who cares?
BLUF: The game has way too much in it. So much the game itself can't handle. I just got this and played it 3 times and froze twice mid-game already. Nothing is worse then almost completing a game when it freezes. It's a definite risk just to play because you don't know if your wasting your time or not. Where is the REAL franchise mode? This coach career mode is suspect because you can't do everything like in 12's franchise mode like change a players position, have a LT play RG etc. The career mode is suspect and again too much is in it. Do I really care about twitter updates or what skip bayless thinks? Also, trading and re-signing is just terrible. Submit either and the game will get back to you? Un-necessary and complicated. We used to be able to re-sign/ trade in player management IE rosters, but now you must go to a different area to do anything.
The simplicity of md 12 is gone throughout 13. If newer rosters were available for previous maddens hardly anybody would buy the newer version. There would not be a need, but that is the factor that drives md players every year to buy the newer version.
In summary, madden folks should have went back to the drawing board. MD 13 is too complicated and its a risk of players time. They should have used the acronym "KISS" when creating the game. Less would have been more.
-Worst decision in madden history was getting rid of franchise mode and for that 1 star is being generous. Maybe EA should bring in REAL OG madden players to assist with designing the game.
If you like complicated and online everything, then this is for you. They are better ways to waste time and money. | video-games_xbox |
XBox Live Turns This Game Into a Winner. Partial Song List. I've just purchased this game, and I want to provide any potential buyers of this game with a partial list of what songs can be found in this game. There aren't as many songs as I'd like but with X-Box Live you can download both additional song packs and play online against other people. As of this writing, December 10, 2003 there has been one song pack released on XBox Live
Licensed Songs
Ian Van Dahl feat. Marsha - Castles In The Sky
Paul Oakenfold - Ready Steady Go
Who Da Funk - Shiny Disco Balls
Masai - Do That Thang (Mash Radio Edit)
Konami Originals
dj. TAKA - 0.59
NPD3 - AFTER THE GAME OF LOVE
Riyu Kosaka - Candy Heart (vocal version)
BeForU - DIVE
TaQ - DXY!
RevenG - exotic ethnic
BLUE DESTROYERS - Hypnotic Crisis
L.E.D. LIGHT feat Goro - INFINITE PRAYER
N.M.R-typeG - KEEP ON MOVIN' (DMX Mix)
OKUYATOS - Kind Kady
STONE BROS. - Let the Beat Hit 'Em (Classic R&B Style)
SySF feat. Anna - Look To The Sky (True Color Mix)
Jonny Dynamite! - On The Jazz
STM200 - PARANOiA ETERNAL
Togo Project feat Sana - Sana Mollete ne Ente
Crystal Aliens - SEXY PLANET
D.J. RICH feat Tail Bros. - Superstar
L.E.D. LIGHT - The Earth Light
2MB - TRIP MACHINE (LuvMIX)
Thuggie D. - ABSOLUTE (Cuff-N-Stuff it Mix)
NM feat Thomas Howard - Ballad For You
NAOKI - CAN'T STOP FALLIN' IN LOVE (SPEED MIX)
Scotty D. - DROP THE BOMB - System S.F. mix
TaQ - Electro Tuned (the SubS Mix)
DE-SIRE - Healing Vision
NAOKI 190 - Hysteria
Thuggie D. - INSERTION (Machine Gun Kelly Mix)
Thuggie D. - Keep ya body movin'
2MB - La Senorita Virtual
SHIN Murayama feat Argoe Phine - Let's talk it over
tiger YAMATO - Luv To ME
L.E.D. LIGHT - Overblast!!
dj. TAKA - Quickening
DIVAS - Secret Rendezvous
Caramel. S - So In Love
jun - Sweet Sweet Magic
Thuggie D. - There 4 You
RevenG vs DE-SIRE - Tsugaru
Song Pack 1
dj TAKA - Abyss
Naoki - Burnin' the Floor
Tomosuke - Mind Parasite
Mr. T with Motoaki. F - Burning Heat (3 Option Mix)
ric - in my eyes
There are also 9 unlockable songs.
A lot of these songs can be found on the PS2 versions of DDR. On its own, there aren't enough new songs to warrant purchase from someone that already has the two PS2 DDR games.
However, this game is XBox Live enabled, allowing the download of new songs. That feature alone is worth the price of admission. With other versions of the games, you are limited to what songs the game had. Not so here. Theres already been one song pack released, and inevitably there will be more.
Other interesting features include the ability to play with four people at once, and you can also compete over the internet via XBox Live.
On its own this game would rate four stars for someone new to DDR. It would rate three for someone that already has the PS2 versions of the game. However, the sheer expandability that XBox Live offers the game makes this a five star game. | video-games_xbox |
Good addition to the series. As a long time fan of the CoD series I was looking forward to this games release. I'm happy to say that it's a pretty fun game. I haven't yet played the multiplayer mode as I haven't finished the entire solo campaign. I always play the solo campaigns of games before I mess with multiplayer, it's just part of my personality I guess.
Anyway, The graphics of the game look very good, some of the water effects and mass destruction explosions looks very good while giving the player a sense of real action. The AI seems to be pretty decent as well, enemies will charge you when they close enough and will find cover when being shot at as they do in all CoD games. They've also taken the shoot through walls aspect of 4 and added them to them in as well.
The only real complaint I have about 5 is the restrictiveness of the guided path. 4 really opened up the path in many areas to allow the player a better free roam and choice of path...which is the complete opposite of what they did for 3 which was to force the player down a strict path and give zero options in that regard. CoD 5 seems to be a cross between the 3 and 4 leaning a little to 3's restrictiveness. I do not enjoy linear path games nearly as much as I do free roam games...but not many people do.
Now the weapons, they're WWII guns. Nothing too special of course. They did however seem to try their best to find guns that would sort of match the equivalent of CoD4 guns. They have a sniper rifle in the game that is a lot like the 50 cal in 4. I don't remember the name but it looks a lot like and sounds like the 50. They've also kept the add-on features of guns, some guns have bayonets, some have the ability to launch grenades, etc. They've also added the flamethrower...a very fun addition indeed.
All in all, I don't really feel this game matches exactly up with CoD4's greatness and it has everything to do with the fact that they've redone a now tired plot over again. But if it weren't for the storyline I think CoD5 would definitely be an upward step in the series greatness instead of just keeping it level.
***UPDATE***
After playing the multiplayer mode quite extensively while I was sick this weekend, I found it to be somewhat enjoyable. Sniping is more fun in this than 4 in my opinion...but that's about all this has over 4. The maps are bigger and the tanks they brought back from 3 are a pretty cool addition.
But if I spawn one more time in the middle of the enemy line I'm going to start punching holes in my walls. Nothing is more frustrating than holding your MG on someone hitting them 3 or 4 times, having them turn around, shoot you once with a pistol...killing you, then respawning right in front of 3 or 4 enemy players with their guns already aimed at you. I know, I brought up some other issues during that rant but this game seems to have a lot of multiplayer hit zone issues, but I'm going to leave it at just that otherwise I'll start getting annoyed. Anyway, multiplayer is fun if even though it can be very frustrating. It has a few more levels than 4 with a few more perks...heaven help me but I love the cocktail bombs and the bayonets.
******Oh and let me please mention that there are some people that play multiplayer and suck at it so bad that they have to take advantage of some glitches in a few of the levels in order to feel like they are better than other people at one thing in their sad lives. Please keep an eye out for those people and always record their names when you see them trying to get into the glitches as they need to be reported to Microsoft for cheating. | video-games_xbox |
This game rocks your face off. Of all the shooters I've played, this one is the most realistic and fast paced I've ever seen. If real war is anything like this, it truely is Hell! Now, you too can know the frustration of running in a heroic attempt where your actions could mean the lives of many...and catch a *ping* in the bucket and go "lights out" amounting to nothing but a heap of meat on the dirt.
It's truely hilarious how hard this game will kill you repeatedly. It's not so bad on regular, but in the higher diffeculties you really gotta bring an A-game, because you don't get any time to realize your mistakes, you're dead. Forget to check a corner, forget to take decent cover or get too bold -DEAD!!!
In all fairness, this game is excellent, the controls, the grapics, the sound, everything is perfect and truly a masterpeice of gaming. The lower difficulties are forgiving too, it's not always so hard, but the higher difficulties is where the fun is IMO. It's challenging, it's frantic as all Hell, it's almost unnerving if you have it piped through a stereo and you're gonna get popped, alot. It's okay though, it hurles you right back into the action almost right away so you can get perforated or blown up again. The funny thing is, you don't really mind, it's all a part of an amazing experience and you feel like a real stud when you do it right and kill some terrorists. The game is non-stop shooting and they give you a ton of weapons to find and use.
Nothing like plugging a guy with an RPG through your EOTech sights, spreading a cluster of hunkered-down enemies with your M203 granade launcher, drilling some poor SOB in a building with an MP5 or shotgun, or sniping a guy in the face while he's running for cover and watching is limp corpse tea-kettle and fall in a heap.
When you're smooth you're a machine, when your head gets too big, well this game makes sure to humble you right down. Bravado just fills a bag here. I suggest anyone get this game and give her a jaunt on normal, then jack the difficulty up and marvel at the realistic and frantic action.
I should mention there's an actual plot here too. They've done a very decent job at giving you a sense of purpose and consequence in the outcome of your team's trials. It takes place in Russia and the Middle East where a fictitous group of terrorists are trying acquire nuclear materials and overthrow leaderships etc. It all feels like our current events and does an amazing job of convincing you of it all as you're either a Marine or member of the SAS, both of which bring it to the bad guys as the story progresses, switching back and forth to mix it up as you go along. All the while, you are a part of a team, and feel like a valuable cog in the machine as your squad descends on the bad guys.
The developers threw in a really fun segment where you are in a C-130 raining Hell itself on the enemy while giving a team of soldiers on the ground some much needed cover. You can use huge cannons to destroy clusters of the enemy and watch their bodies flip all over, use smaller cannons to carpet specific areas and even zoom in with a 20mm gatling gun and light em' up even more, it's truly amazing.
Get this game, seriously, it can be hard, but if you pay attention you'll find it's a very balanced game with an experience the likes of which you'd be hard pressed to get again. It's one of the best looking games I've ever seen and on the 360 version the load times are really short for what the levels look like, and this game rocks you through about 10-15 quality hours of gameplay. There's definitely incentive to play through a few times too, on harder settings and such. A must have, best thing since the Orange Box. | video-games_xbox |
Works with Rock Band 3 on Xbox 360. I was looking all over the place for a mic that I could use while I played the drums. And I just found this one.
During my search people suggested that I just should get a mic stand with an arm to use the normal Rock Band USB mic. But I get crazy when I play the drums and I don't want to be focused on the mic or on my arms trying not to hit it.
The mic works well on RB3 but it's a little uncomfortable to wear after a while. Maybe it's a little overpriced for it's construction but since it's the only one of it's kind on the market, it's a good buy if you are looking to drum and sing at the same time.
I would not pay more than 30 bucks for it anyway.
The mic arm is very adjustable and comfortable. The cable that goes to the console is slim and light and very LONG, about 15 feet, which is great if you play far from it.
Personally I'm satisfied with my purchase since I really don't care so much about scores and in-game accuracy to the 100% but just about releasing stress every night after a long day.
UPDATE DEC 11'
After playing with it for a while I have to say that I'm downgrading it to 3 stars. The reason is that activating the OVERDRIVE during a song is a toss of a coin. Sometimes works, sometimes you can yell your lungs out making tons of noises and pitches and it doesn't do anything. It sucks, cause you can't save your band mates when you want to. There was this time when out of frustration I put my head down and that by itself activated the overdrive, it was really ironic.
The mic volume is another issue, no matter how you put the mic volume in game, the sound is the same. It just goes from mute to activated ignoring the in game volume levels and if you move the slide the volume remains the same, which by the way is plenty. I have a low voice and I can hear it clearly above the singer's in most songs by just talking normally.
The sound is fine, actually maybe better than the normal mic, since it sounds to me that it captures more voice frequencies. Too bad that sometimes in the middle of a song, for like 2 seconds, my voice shifted from natural to one that is sort of robotic. I don't know if this is the mic or if mine is particularly broken, which I doubt. I think sometimes it saturates and starts to act funny. It's not a volume shield thing, it does it randomly.
What can I say about this product? If you just want to sing and drum for the fun of it, get it. If it's for competitive playing then maybe you can order half a dozen of other headset USB mics for PC and find one that works with RB3 on the console of you preference and return the others cause this one it's just not good enough for that. | video-games_xbox |
A dud from id Software's grenade launcher. There are good first-person shooters out there. Those shooters contain a story that captivates the player enough to blast through a dozen or so levels of shooting, dodging, and grenade-lobbing. Those levels generally have multiple objectives that are varied, from bombing a structure to rushing a certain location and killing everything from point A to point B while staying alive. Those shooters are generally accompanied with attractive graphics and pulse-pounding music. The Xbox 360 version of Quake 4 doesn't have many of those qualities. It's not a terrible game, but it's one of the least impressive shooters I've played this year.
In Quake 4's brainless campaign, you'll strap on the armor of the space marine Matthew Kane, a member of the Rhino Squad that is attacking the evil Strogg on their home planet. The biomechanical beasts are foul, dirty, and ruthless--and a small twist near the middle of the game will show you and Corporal Kane just how dirty the Strogg can be. I thought that it was nice for Raven to throw in a truly unexpected story twist but I never really found the rest of the game to be very interesting. At least the second half of the campaign is fast, frantic, and intense. It's preferable to the first half. Overall the game is about 10-12 hours long, clocking in at or near the shooter average.
It's the gameplay that had me let down and shaking my head. Quake 4 plays like a good first person shooter...from 2001. The fragging is so ridiculously generic from the start of the game until the very end. Some will say it's just Quake's traditional gameplay, I say it's boring. You'll pick up progressively stronger and better guns but at the same time your enemies get a little faster, a little bigger, an a little more deadly. There's a balance established between strong weapons and strong enemies. However, most of the action consists of running forward throughout similar rooms, finding the Strogg, and shooting them until they fall over and their corpses disappear. They don't move around much at all, they often don't even try to evade your fire, and they don't try to outsmart you in the slightest bit. Usually they'll stand in place, move towards you, and shoot you without taking much cover or attempting to get around you for an easier kill. A few of the enemies have different tactics but these tactics are usually just slight variations from the "stand-and-shoot" or "run-and-slash" strategy. It's disappointing when games like Call of Duty 2 have such impressive intelligence.
The guns you get can be pretty cool but I discovered that almost anything can be killed quickly and effortlessly with a few well-placed shotgun blasts or an entire clip of machine gun ammo, even near the end of the game. The enemies don't take much cover, which is an example set for the player--running around and mindlessly shooting doesn't have many repercussions, because it isn't necessary to hide very often. Because of this, even inexperienced gamers can plow through this game's action. If you have to play through this game, play it on a hard difficulty setting unless you simply want to cruise right on through it. The only things that break up the action even the slightest bit are a few vehicular distractions, which are admittedly a lot of fun. One of them puts you on the back of an on-rails truck, shooting off the Strogg with your own weapons. The next throws you into the cockpit of a hovering tank, where you can quickly fire off missiles and pound the opposition with machine gun fire. The most exciting and last vehicle is the walker, which can use lock-on missiles and machine gun fire to rapidly take down enemies. These distractions are a lot of fun and it's a shame that the rest of the game is so generic.
Multiplayer, on and offline, isn't any more interesting than the single-player. What should have been a robust, fast-paced, frantic set of games turns out to be pretty dull and generally unexciting. Eight people can join up in a single game and of course you can frag each other in deathmatches but there isn't anything here that impressed me in the slightest bit. All these years I've heard about how much fun Quake can be in terms of multiplayer and I'm let down by gameplay that simply isn't interesting. Not to mention, Xbox Live is very inconsistent and the already-low frame rate (which I'll mention momentarily) makes Quake 4 more frustrating to play than it ever should have been.
Visually, it is very difficult to classify Quake 4. There were certain parts during the game that I was admittedly impressed with Raven's choice for art and style. There is a lot of detail throughout the environments, from blood-splattered walls to gears and mechanisms scattered around the various rooms. Even the nicely-lit interior locations, which compose most of the game, are interesting. Corridor shooting isn't nearly as repetitive when the bulk of the graphical factor isn't stale and boring. On the other hand, player models are very generic and almost every marine looks like his partners. One marine might have different hair and another might have a different skin color. The models also look so jagged without a high-resolution screen that it appears they have spikes or fur. Quoting a friend, "Quake 4 has cactus graphics." The effects are extremely dull, whether it's the Nintendo 64-calibur muzzle flash or the fire and smoke effects that would look at home in a generic Playstation 2 game. The music isn't very good, either. Where Perfect Dark Zero set a mood with its tunes, Quake 4 does nothing to pump the player up for any battle or confrontation. It's not epic, it's not exciting, and it fails to impress me at all. The voice acting is alright, but the dialogue is so cliched and generic that it cancels out any sort of impressing aural quality.
Overall, Quake 4 is a big disappointment. What was supposed to be a visually stunning, fast-paced, pulse-pounding shooter ends up being one of the most dull launch titles on the Xbox 360. The story is interesting enough to pull you through 10 hours of generic and brainless action, and the vehicular distractions are a quick and effortless blast, but that's about the furthest Quake 4 goes. If you're a Quake fan, I wouldn't question you if you rented the game but I'd have to frown down on anyone who decides to buy this game. There isn't enough here in terms of depth or new, modern shooter attractions. Pick up Perfect Dark Zero or Call of Duty 2 instead. Believe me, you won't regret it. | video-games_xbox |
Fans of psychological horror would be pleased. Remedy worked their tails off on this game, and their effort is apparent throughout this masterpiece
With issues occurring and changes in speculated release dates, Alan Wake was thought to be trapped in Development Hell and would never see the light of day. Remedy managed to pull it off and the 5+ year development time was a major payoff.
PLOT:
Writer Alan Wake and his wife, Alice, take a vacation trip to Bright Falls so that Alan can get over his long-time bout with Writer's Block. After some interaction with townsfolk in a local diner, Alan is given a key to a cabin by the lake from a mysterious elderly woman. Outside the cabin, Alan hears Alice screaming, causing him to rush back inside. Whatever took Alice dragged her into the lake; Alan dives in to save her. A few seconds later, Alan regains consciousness on the side of the highway
The rest of the game follows Alan in his search for Alice, and answers to the mysterious "Darkness" plaguing the town
Sam Lake did an excellent job writing the story. There are some David Lynch-like influences found throughout the game, and if you've ever watched Twin Peaks back in the 90's (its on Netflix, watch it now!!!), you'll spot various similarities between the game and the show
GAMEPLAY:
Remedy is well known for their story-driven action game: Max Payne, and some of it's elements appear in Alan Wake. During the game's down-times, you control Alan in his interactions with the local people. They either say something interesting, important, or quirky. The game succeeds in the interactions by immersing the player without making you feel bored. I found myself drowning everything out and keeping all my focus on the story, interactions, and Alan's commentaries (outstandingly narrated).
The exploratory bits are the meat of the game. Progress is made by reaching certain checkpoints. While it feels somewhat linear, there is much exploration outside the main paths which can lead to some hidden goodies or manuscript pages (dont rush the game, you might miss important stuff). You can even listen to radio shows and watch TV show bits called "Night Springs" (similar to Twilight Zone) which are pretty entertaining
Alan is not an action hero, he is a regular guy. The action does not limit the player too much, as Alan is not a clunky moving character. You can fight "the Taken" (your enemies) using Light and firepower, but you can be overwhelmed with masses of enemies relentlessly hacking at you. When the action gets hairy, tension begins to mount as you'll be forced to flee for your life. The Taken try to rush you, they take any chance they get to chop you to bits. If you get caught in one of their melee combos, their buddies gang up on you and give you little time to react. Time your sprint correctly and Alan will duck and dodge incoming attacks (successful dodges trigger a flashy slow-motion scene), but Alan is still a human being, he cannot dodge or run forever. You can feel the tension really boil when Alan's stamina and health run low, as you have to drag yourself away from enemies that see your condition as the perfect chance to strike. Use your resources wisely (batteries, ammunition, flares, etc.) or you will find yourself having to restart certain segments over and over again (fear not, the game saves quite often).
This is not a game for those with itchy trigger-fingers (there are other games made for that). This game requires some thinking.
GRAPHICS AND SOUND:
Bright Falls is a BEAUTIFULLY done setting, Remedy's hard work is demonstrated in the game's visuals. Light and Dark are amazingly detailed, I was gawking at the level of attention to detail on the lighting effects and the darkness shrouding your enemies. The forest portions of the game really shine (in the darkness, if you catch my drift) as bundles of grass, bushes, trees and any other bit of nature move so life-like; Remedy put much consideration and work into just about every little detail.
As for the sound, I have one hyphenated term to describe it: Ear-Candy. Voice work is excellent, especially the sounds of the Taken. They'll say some freaky things in the creepiest way possible, their voices rapidly change from Human to Demon whenever they speak. The eerie tune that plays when they appear has a nice ring to it, too. Flash grenades, flares, gunshots, and reloading sound spectacular, even reloading a battery into your flashlight sounds sexy. Alan Wake boasts a soundtrack with contemporary (and classic) tunes playing at the end of every "Episode."
OTHER THOUGHTS:
I love this game very much, but it is not for everyone.
The difficulty can be overwhelming on occasion (though, I do LOVE a challenge); I had to restart certain parts countless times. Minor frustration set in after I would be killed in a barrage of attacks and I would decide to try again later, but beating those tough parts gives you a very rewarding feeling. Casual gamers beware: if you're looking for mindless fun, look elsewhere, this game is for those who don't mind thinking and are interested in a psychological horror story.
As for the ending, I personally didn't feel it was weak. I liked it, the only problem is that I was left wanting more. I found Alan Wake to be an addicting experience; putting down the controller was not an option. This is a good thing because the game is really engaging. The ending makes anticipation sweeter, as Remedy is hard at work on "Alan Wake's American Nightmare" as well as Alan Wake's sequel
BOTTOM LINE:
If you prefer casual games, shooters and whatnot, this might not be for you.
If you're into psychological thrillers and immersing stories that require thinking, then give this polished gem a chance, you will not regret it. | video-games_xbox |
A look at Sudeki. At present I am almost finished with the game (at only 17 or so hours into it, mind you). So, I thought it an apt time to voice my opinions on the game.
Gameplay: The place where this game truly shines is its real-time combat system, which is quite unique to a RPG. Depending on which character you use, the game is played as a FPS (first person shooter) or as third person action game. The FPS mode is fairly traditional, but the melee combat is unique. It is comprised of a combo system in which the player must enter in three button combos to complete attacks. Each combo is unique and may yield an interesting effect on your opponent (such as stunning or double damage). Here's the catch. The combos have to be inputted in a particular beat. If you mash the buttons, your character will still attack, but you won't get the desired combo. The system takes a few battles to get used to, but once you do it functions well and is enjoyable.
There are several attempts at puzzles in this game. Most of them are far too simple to be interesting, although a few block pushing puzzles at the end are rather interesting. For the most part, though, the puzzles fall rather flat and seem to be used only as a way to break up combat (something which wasn't necessary in the first place).
The level up system borrows a bit from titles like Arcanum. Each level, you receive a few points (one or two) which can be used to increase stats, hit points, spell points, or grant your character new spells. The system offers an interesting amount of customization not usually afforded in linear RPG's. Also, a bit of exploration will unearth items which permanently increase specific stats, thus allowing even more customization on the player's part.
Graphics: The game looks quite good. It is very stylized and cartoonish. The game does occasionally suffer from slow frame rates, particularly just before reaching a new area. Thankfully this slow down never happened during combat and it never hampered the gameplay. The camera could occasionally be tricky, but it was usually quickly resolved by moving the right thumbstick.
Sound: Here is where most people will probably be split. The voice acting is Sudeki is campy, and by campy I mean full blown campy. I must admit that when I first turned on the game and watched the opening sequence, I grit my teeth when I heard the voice acting. However, as time went on, and I got a better feel for the game, I began to realize that the campy voices really did fit with the game. For the most part, Sudeki is a fairly comedic and cartoonish game. The campy voice acting does seem to help bring out these qualities. The voice makes the game feel like an anime, like those old translated episodes of Dragon Ball.
The soundtrack for the game is quite good. It's an interesting mix of New Age acoustic guitars, heavy techno, with a little bit of roadhouse twang thrown into the mix. The theme from New Brightwater is certainly one of the standout songs in the game.
Story: The story in Sudeki is rather a mixed blessing, probably because it is so end loaded. The beginning of the game eases you into the world, giving you just the slightest tidbits of information about the bigger story. You explore the entirety of the first and second world, as well as part of the third, before the plot finally starts moving. Then, it seems like too much information is being thrown at you at one time. There are a few major plot twists, but the story itself is not intracately layered. It seems to be delivered bluntly.
The characters are alright, if a bit two dimensional. Tal, your main character, is a soldier how constantly feels the need to prove himself to his father. Allish is a princess mage who wants to do what she wants when she wants to. Buki is your typical tribal warrior, cold and impersonal with a distrust of human society. My favorite character, Elco, is a steam-punk scientist who's given his life and his hand for the kingdom of Illumina. The game actually seems to take a bit of advice from Classical Theater by using the original meaning of Deus ex Machina. The gods literally appear before the heroes and tell them what to do. Although it may come off as trite, it is an interesting choice, especially given that the pantheon of this world seems quite classical.
The world of Sudeki is fairly interesting. It is a combination of pretty much every RPG world concept ever used (save for Fallout's post nuclear apocalypse). Illumina is a sort of a steam-punk city, large gears coinciding with parapets and high castle towers. Brightwater is your classic medieval town by the bay. Shadani-Mo is a tribal city out in the desert. Transentia is a cyber punk city with ray guns and clockwork robots. The only complaint I have about the world is that I want to see more. What is already there is interesting, but it does seem as though some aspect could have been flesh out a bit more.
Closing comments: Sudeki is a very fun game with an interesting combat system. The world is vibrant and interesting, although I do wish it had been fleshed out a bit more. The story is alright, but the combat really is where this game shines.
4.5 | video-games_xbox |
Introduction to an amazing universe. Mass Effect. A title in gaming that I hold with very high regard. At a point when I had somewhat hit a wall in my gaming life, this comes along and just smashes right through. I've been playing video games ever since I could competently hold a controller and games like this are the reason I can give for still enjoying it so much. Just owning a PS3 & Wii at the time, Mass Effect was something I was only able to admire from afar in the beginning. Then when I was able to get a 360, I picked up a few games along with it and this happened to be one of them. I went into the game only knowing the name and very little information other than it being a Sci-Fi Action/RPG. I knew right away this would be something i'd love. Customizing my character, choosing their background story, selecting a "class" each with their own advantages and disadvantages, it all just meshed together so well. Then, sitting there watching the opening cinematic and the first time the dialogue wheel pops up. Being able to control where the conversation goes was a big deal and something i've missed in games ever since that don't allow me to do so. Whether you still end up at that "point B" or not doesn't matter. Just the fact that I had input in what was said and the conversation is slightly or sometimes drastically different was fantastic.
The Story. Not since FFVII have I cared so much about what happened in a video game. The cast of characters in this game are amazing and brought to life by some great voice acting. I think everyone brought something to the table and gave their part to the overall cast just as they were intended. There wasn't any character that I didn't enjoy and for the size of the cast that is a very good thing. The main character of Shepard is a great hero and the character of Saren is a great villain. The story of trying to stop the bad guy from essentially taking over the galaxy may not be entirely refreshing but the way it's carried out and slight variations make it worthwhile.
The Gameplay. This is the only aspect of the game that didn't really blow me away. It was of course vastly improved in the next game but if you're going back to playing ME1 after playing 2 or 3 then this can be something that may disappoint. It's a bit hard to explain but the combat here just sort of blends in with whatever else it is you're doing. If you've played the game hopefully you know what i'm trying to say, but it's definitely not the game's high point. It's not terrible at all, just pales in comparison to what they did with ME2. Then there's the Mako debate. Personally, I didn't have too many problems with the Mako other than getting stuck on parts of certain planets because of the vehicle's physics but it didn't ruin the experience. The amount of customization for armor and weapons is great as well. I'd always spend alot of time assessing what type of armor i'd need for each mission along with the right weapon and ammo mods. Another downer can be how most missions outside of the mainline story pretty much all evolve the same way. You land on a planet do some scavenging, find a building to go into, walk through some hallways and ultimately end up in a room with with your objective. This can become a bit tedious and again seems to pale in comparison to what how they did side missions in ME2.
Overall, this is an amazing game. Something that brought back the love of the game for me and is the starting point to one of the greatest stories and cast of characters to ever be seen in gaming. If you're looking for a deeper more involving experience in games and are a fan of science fiction this is something you should no doubt enjoy. | video-games_xbox |
As of today, this product is useless. You're probably confused between my rating and my title for this product. Well, it's true and I do believe that this is a good product, but in this current time, it's useless. I used to be that 15 year old kid who spent most of his money on the orignal Xbox console and a $20 CRT 14" TV. I saved up birthday money and did a lot of allowences that got me to have this original Xbox and the TV, so guess what? I don't have anything to watch any movies with and it just so happens, that the Xbox I bought... couldn't read movies... yet. So I picked this up at EB Games for about $15 (EB games is an old gaming company that got bought out by GameStop)and finally got everything a geeky 15 year old kid wanted. But now, I am on my third original Xbox thinking to myself, why would I even need this? Now in today's time, I can play a DVD movie on just about anything, other then the Wii console or iPod Touch and yet, I found other ways to do so. I also discovered that this little culprit caused most of the DVD drive failures in the original Xbox. Most people were wondering why after a while of watching DVD movies on their Xbox, that they kept getting a DVD error. It's because Microsoft did a shitty job at desiging the DVD drive for the original Xbox that the laser in the drive could easily burn out. It's one of the most common failures for the original Xbox. So now, I realize being older to be more careful when using my original Xbox that not to play CDs, that not to play DVD movies, and don't play video games for too long. I am glad that they made most of the original Xbox games compatitable for the Xbox 360, but there are a few of my favorites that never made the list. So before you think about buying this product, think about this. It's 2012... am I really that desperate to watch DVD movies on my Original Xbox? Couldn't I just buy a DVD player that has progressive mode or even better, how about buying a blu-ray player? This product is great for those who modified their consoles because they can use the controller to navigate on the Xbox Media Center, but not for those who haven't already done so. Save yourself the money and troubles and just go buy yourself a real DVD player/Blu-Ray player. | video-games_xbox |
Buying guide for Xbox One bundles. I wanted to create a guide to help those interested in purchasing an Xbox One, since there are so many bundles, and offers change constantly. I'll attempt to keep this up to date as the bundles change. This is NOT a comparison to Playstation 4 or Wii U.
Amazon's taking $50 off each bundle for Black Friday (matching most retailers), with sporadic other offers with added stuff. The best I'm seeing is from Microsoft Store, which includes the discount, a $60 gift card, and an extra game for any bundle in stock. Dell has the Gears bundle with the discount, an extra controller, and Fallout 4. Best Buy has the Tomb Raider bundle with an extra controller..
A short list of features that may interest you, shared by all Xbox Ones (more details can be found in product descriptions and Microsoft sites) -
HDMI pass through. You can hook up an HDMI device to the back of an Xbox One to view the content from that device without changing inputs or leaving the X1 interface. This allows for split screen viewing and if a cable box or the official TV tuner, you can view the channel guide, watch TV, and set recordings.
It is backwards compatible with some Xbox 360 games. This is great for those with backlogs (like me...) or those who want to revisit finished games without having another console plugged into the wall/TV. In the fall, owners of publisher approved disc or digital 360 games will be able to play them emulated on the X1. Some X1 games also include their 360 precursors with purchase for play on the X1 in case you missed them. Gears or War Ultimate Edition includes all 4 Xbox 360 Gears games and Fallout 4 includes Fallout 3, for example. List of games and other info here -[...]
It will stream content to Windows 10 devices.
Xbox Live Gold now applies to households instead of individuals; meaning that multiple accounts on the same console can have access to the same features but have differing account restrictions (I.E. parental controls). So you can let your kids play Garden Warfare online, but not Gears of War.
External USB 3.0 storage. This is great because, 1) you don't need to open the console and replace a hard disc to add storage, just plug in and the X1 will format the drive, 2) even disc-based games have compulsory installs and can be upwards of 50GB each, eating storage space quickly, 3) external drives can be spacious and cheap, and last but not least, 4) USB 3.0 is actually faster than the internal hard disc interface. This means that a game on an external drive will load faster than one on the internal drive, usually by a significant amount.
The bundles-
The bundles can be split into 3 different groups based on time of release. The upcoming and current bundles include a newer controller that has a standard 3.5mm audio jack built in and output both game and chat audio through it (excepting the new Kinect bundles). Legacy consoles include an older controller without the standard audio jack (excepting the Forza 6 bundle) and shouldnt be expected to be widely available at the suggested price (and some I haven't included, due to their rarity at this point). There are no other functional differences. All bundles include a controller, HDMI cable, chat headset (with exceptions), and a 14 day Xbox Live Gold trial membership (paid $60/year service to play online and download the Games with Gold, a monthly rotation of full games you're free to download and keep (forever for 360 games and as long as you have Live Gold in active subscription for X1 games).
Upcoming bundles (with rating based on what you get for the money. Star and letter ratings are intended for the suggested price listed next to the bundle, not whatever current prices are.) -
Xbox One Elite 1TB bundle. $499. Includes a console with a 1TB hybrid SSD and hard disc for quicker load times for the items you access the most and the Elite controller, which has replaceable/customizable sticks, buttons, and triggers for the professionals or tinkerers. While the internal storage on this will be better than the standard HDDs in other X1s, the performance increase PROBABLY won't match external USB3.0 drives, due to the continued use of the SATA interface. There's little information about the size of the SSD partition and many hybrid drives don't allow you to choose what content is on which partition. The elite controller has been released to wide acclaim (modifiable professional controllers can easily go for twice as much), but is scarce at present. If you want the best/most storage and best controller out of the box, this is the bundle for you, but you won't get any games with it, or a headset, from the looks of it. B rating. Also note that this version releases earlier if purchased from the Microsoft Store or Gamestop.
Current bundles -
Fallout 4 1TB bundle - $399. Includes 1TB console, Fallout 4 game confirmed to be a disc (!), a download of the Xbox 360 version of Fallout 3, and a chat headset. B+ rating. Two open-world RPGs for grownups.
Rise of the Tomb Raider 1TB bundle - $399. Includes 1TB console, downloads of Rise of the Tomb Raider, DLC, and its predecessor, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, and doesn't appear to include a headset. Releases November 3rd. B+ rating. The Tomb Raider reboot from 2013 was pretty good and I expect the sequel will be even better. Great for adults who love action adventure.
Kinect 500GB Bundle - $399. Includes 500GB console, the Kinect camera, a chat headset, the old model controller, and three Kinect-focused game downloads: Dance Central Spotlight, Kinect Sports Rivals and Zoo Tycoon. Finally another Kinect bundle! The X1 UI is made better and more easily navigable with the Kinect, and there are fun, energetic games to be played with it. A rating. Great for those who want to move and enjoy motion and voice controls, but it has little storage.
Holiday 1TB Bundle - $399. Includes 1TB console, Gears of War Ultimate Edition disc (as well as all 360 Gears games as downloads if you play online before the end of the year), Rare Replay disc, and Ori and the Blind Forest game download, the new controller, and doesn't appear to include a headset. Releases October 27th. A rating. Something(s) for everyone in this bundle, with 36 games included.
Halo 5 Limited Edition 1TB bundle. $499. Includes custom console with Halo sounds, and custom controller, with the Halo 5 Limited Edition (steelcase, guardian figure, game download and add-on content). Why a limited edition would come without a physical game is beyond me... It may not bother some, but it will upset many. This is a higher premium than the Forza 6 bundle (charging an extra $100 for an extra $40 package). For Halo aficionados/console collectors only.
Lego Movie 500GB bundle - $349. Includes 500GB console and the Lego Movie Videogame and no headset, apparently. C+ rating. Game is a cheap one and good for kids, but little value in this bundle compared to others.
FIFA and Madden 16 1TB bundles. $399. (I think these are being phased/sold out) I'm grouping these together because other than the type of football you prefer, they are the same. Both include either the latest Madden NFL or FIFA soccer game download and a year of EA access, a paid ($30/yr) service which allows Xbox One users early access to EA releases, extended demos with progress that can be saved if a full game is purchased, discounts on EA games, and free access to the Vault, currently 14 full games. Great if you like EA's games. A- for each. With the live Gold card and Forza Horizon 2 download (separate product pages) A rating.
Gears of War 500GB bundle (also in white). $349. Includes Gears of War Ultimate Edition download (as well as all 360 Gears games if you play online before the end of the year). This 500GB model includes the new controller, but does not include a headset. B+ rating. With the live Gold card and Forza Horizon 2 download (separate product pages) A rating.
Legacy bundles-
Forza 6 1TB Bundle. $399. Custom Forza-inspired console with racing sounds and custom (new, with 3.5mm audio jack) controller, and download code for Forza 6 and extra content, and a chat headset. A- rating, though some may not like the custom design and sounds.
Halo Master Chief Collection 1TB bundle. $399. Looks like this being phased out. Standard console, plus download code for the Master Chief Collection (the four numbered Halo games in a single package). B rating.
Halo Master Chief 500GB bundle. $349. If you can get it at the retail price, I'd consider it an A-, since the cost to upgrade storage to 1TB or greater is around or less than the $50 to get the 1TB model, and it'll perform better.
Keep in mind that the lowest prices and best bundles tend to happen around the winter holiday season, so unless you really want to get one now, you're probably best served waiting till around Black Friday, when multiple stores will be trying to entice you with lower prices and more pack-ins. This is especially true since Sony recently cut the price of the Playstation 4.
At this point, I think the best offer for the holidays for an X1 bundle will be for $50 off current price point, plus an extra game and second controller (Dell at least, will offer such a deal). The risk is availability and whether the bundle or extra game would be one you'd want.
Hope you found this useful. | video-games_xbox |
Sci-fi first person shooter done right. Let's get this out of the way first - Crysis 3 looks awesome. I bring this up because the Crysis series has always been known as the benchmark for current gen graphics more than gameplay. To a certain extent, this holds true, but what we have here is a game the plays (nearly) as good as it looks.
What we have here is a first person shooter that is set in a near-future setting where an android-like race of aliens has set out to destroy the earth. Original? no. But the story is very servicable. If nothing else, it drives the action forward. When you get right down to it, that's really all I want from a shooter. What makes the story cool is the inclusion of the nano-suit that your character wears throughout the game. It's basically an adanced piece of tech that makes you a super-soldier capable of killing thousands of enemies with ease. And yes, that is as badass as it sounds.
When it comes to gameplay, the suit comes in to play in a number of ways. First, by tapping up on the d-pad, you turn on a recon visor that lets you tag and track both enemies and supplies scattered throughout the game world. This is a seemingly simple gameplay mechanic, but as you play the game, it will unquestionably be your most useful ability. The other primary functions of the suit are stealth and armor modes. They are exactly like they sound. Tap LB (or L1 on PS3) and you turn invisible. Tap RB (R1) and you get an extra degree of armor. Both modes expends a rechargable energy bar, so you can't walk around invisible or armored forever (although that would be a nice bonus for beating the game).
Personally, I didn't find a ton of use for the armor mode unless I was near death. Invisiblity on the other hand, I used quite a bit. The main reason for this is because we are given a composite bow to use very early in the game. Compared to all the gadgets in the Crysis universe, a bow might seem very low-tech, but there's actually a pretty good reason for this. You see, when you are cloaked and fire a gun, you become visible briefly and you expend energy quickly. On the other hand, you can fire your bow while remaining totally invisible and expending no extra energy. So, for lack of a better comparison, the combination of the bow and your invisibility basically makes you the predator. And yeah, it's just as fun as it sounds.
The awesomeness of the bow aside, the gunplay here isn't too bad either. Not quite as tight as say, Call of Duty, but it's very well-done. What I really like about the shooting gameplay comes from the way gun attachments are handled. In most games, you can add silencers and scopes between levels. In Crysis 3, you can change things up on the fly. You can put on silencers or drum magazines one second, only to affix a fore-grip and a scope the next. This gives you a number of options to tackle any situation, and you can do it at will. If there is one thing I wish other shooters would copy from this game, the attachment system would be it.
The last thing I want to mention is the multiplayer. I have spent a decent amount of time here, and while it's pretty standard stuff, it is fun. Deathmatch and hold-the-area game types are all here, along with a very Call of Duty class loadout system. The standout mode here however, is the Hunter game type. In these matches, several players will start as humans with firearms. A few players will start as hunters, equipped with unlimited invisibility and a bow. Any time a human agent is killed by a hunter, he respawns as a hunter himself. This process continues until either all the humans are dead, or until a time-limit is reached. These rounds are fast and tense, and I had a blast. Nothing beats the tension of being the last human standing with 10 seconds left, knowing that at least 5 or 6 hunters are prowling about. The only unfortunate thing about multiplayer is that even during launch week, I would rarely find more than 1,000 players online. That's an alarmingly low number of players, and I can only imagine that the multiplayer won't last simply due to the small community. It's unfortunate, because like I said, it can be good fun.
So that is that. I do highly recommend the game. As far as first person shooters go, this is a good one. Graphics are probably the best ever seen on a home console, and the campaign is fun and fairly long. Add in the entertaining (albeit lightly populated) multiplayer, and it's easy to recommend this game even at full price. And remember, this game will make you feel like the predator. That could be reason enough for some people to get this game. | video-games_xbox |
Spectacular, but extremely disappointing . . . If you're looking for a noticeable upgrade to the past versions of NCAA Football, you're out of luck this year. This game is excellent, but no more excellent than its predecessors.
A lot of things were supposed to be 'fixed' in this version. A particular weakness of video game football has always been the lack of intelligent pass defense play. This version of NCAA Football, while noticably better in that aspect than older versions, still has a long way to go. It's still fairly easy to hit a receiver 35 yards down field while he's double covered. The man coverage still can't seem to make plays on deep balls and coverage guys still have a little trouble when coming around a receiver to make a play on a floating catch. It seems like the man to man covering AI has actually worsened. This makes the four and five receiver sets almost indefensible without better than average personnel when using man coverage. Sometimes the coverage man will even out run the play, allowing the receiver the easy catch behind him. The zone coverage, something that never worked terribly well in NCAA Football games, is slightly better and is often your only like of defense against deep fades and deep posts. THe AI has definately improved when it comes to making interceptions. You won't see a big pick bounce off a corner as much as in previous games. The AI defenders have gotten a little more timid as well, apparently. You'll often see a tackler stop and wait for a runner when they're a few yards away, eventually causing them to be out of position to make the tackle or causing them to not make it quickly enough. Even when it's fourth and one and the runner is crossing the line of scrimmage, you'll still see a corner shuffle over a yard past the first down marker to wait for the runner. By the time you've switch defenders, it's too late. On a similar note, switching your defender while the ball is in midair or when there's a runner on his way upfield is also somewhat of a crap shoot. Sometimes it will give you a tackler slightly away from the ballcarrier (say, behind and to the left) sometimes it will properly give you the one with the angle on the runner or ball.
The rushing AI of computer opponents has also improved somewhat. I've still never had 100 yards tallied against me, but it's at least a threat now. Unfortunately, the opposite has occurred for human rushing. Don't even think about using a zoomed out camera angle when rushing the ball, because even the slightest brush against a computer defender will result in an attempted tackle. Talk to anyone that's ever been engaged in a trench fight with a 275+ lb. lineman, and they'll tell you that you can't just jump off a block. However, the AI defenders do so with ease. Another problem that still exists is the "getting blocked from behind" issue. Even if you're running the opposite direction as a blocker trying to engage you, you'll get held up and "blocked" by that blocker. If you're chasing a run down from the opposite side of the field and a blocker's chasing you, you'll turn around to be blocked by him even though you're heading the other way.
Running with the quarterback, in my opinion, is way too easy now. You could probably pick up a consistent six yards per carry even with a slow QB. It almost makes passing a secondary option when you play against friends. The addition of a camera angle change when a QB scrambles to one side of the field is a long overdue addition. Unforunately, the execution is poor. The camera rotates behind you allowing you an angled view of the opposite side of the field, but that's a little disorienting. A zoom out might have been easier on the user. The rotational effect obscures your ability to see where the defenders are in relation to your receivers. The more I see it, the less I like it.
Return team blocking is also much better in 2004. Blockers are smarter about choosing targets and hold them more realistically.
How about consistency in the kicking game? As Lee Corso says, "Fuggetabahtit." There is little margin for error in your button tapping with average and above average kickers. It's not difficult at all to miss extra points and short field goals if your attention lapses for even a millisecond. This is actually something that's depreciated from former versions, as this was never an issue before. Even the computer opponents will kick more than their fair share of kickoffs out of bounds (I've seen three in a single game), something else that's not terribly common in real life NCAA gridiron. I also dislike the fact that I have to use the left stick for adjustment of the kicking arrow (I think it's less precise since you can't tap out small increments as easily), but that's a subjective thing.
Another major problem that still exists in the passing game is the receiver improvisation. Even when a receiver finds a soft spot in the zone that he can sit in, the QB will throw the pass somewhere that the receiver has to chase it and often right to a defender. Receiver AI should allow the player to recognize that he's uncovered and QB arm AI should throw it to him on that spot, not five yards to his right. Also, receivers that have borken off their routes should move with the quarterback as he scrambles as they would in real life, instead of running off on their own tangents.
I've got a few minor gripes about Dynasty Mode (my personal favorite) as well, but most of them are pretty small (redshirting should be handled before depth charts in the preseason and powerhouse programs shouldn't be so dominant when they have inferior personnel, among others).
On an aside, I've also had this game freeze up on me more than once despite it only being one week old.
All in all, this is still an incredibly fun game and a solid sports gaming franchise. However, I'd think twice before spending the money to buy this version. If you absolutely must have updated rosters (which probably isn't the case if you're a Dynasty Mode fan), then go for it. However, if you're looking for an improved football simulator, you might want to wait for next year's. | video-games_xbox |
Great controller- Worth the price. This review is all based on a comparison with regular 360 controllers- considering them as a 2.5/5 all around (as a measure).
This review is from a casual console gamer who plays xbox 360 almost exclusively with friends or just to play through a quality story. I am not a competitive gamer. I am not hard-core. I am 100% comfortable not having the latest gen console.
FEEL- 5/5
The feel of this controller is great. I feel slightly dirty when I pick up a regular 360 controller now. It is light, but not 'cheap' feeling. The weight distribution is nice. The buttons are very quick and responsive. The thumb-sticks feel nice, but aren't drastically different to normal controllers. It actually feels quite nice not having a battery pack on the back.
RESPONSIVENESS- 5/5
The responsiveness of this controller is really a step up from your normal controller.
EXTRA FEATURES- (not a comparative score- since normal controllers don't have extra features...) 4/5
There are 6 extra programmable buttons, with 2 profiles. I currently have one profile for Gears of War and another profile for Mass Effect. Switching is easy. The lost point is in a small glitch that happened just the other night where my programmed A button just stopped working. I simply switched profiles twice and it worked again. The buttons, their ease of use, and locations are amazing. They change the way you play, allowing you to multi-press buttons in new ways.
The only other downer would be that this is not wireless. Don't buy this if you don't want to be stuck to your xbox. For me, I have my own personal xbox that I play solo from. I then have what I call the 'party xbox' that has 4 wireless controllers hooked up to it with a big TV and couches.
PRICE- 5/5
I live in New Zealand where 360 controllers are still up around $70-$80. To pay a little bit more for all the extra features and feel and quality is definitely worth. I would always choose to pay the little bit extra to get more than to save a few bucks for a norm.
OVERALL- 4/5
It will not make you a better player. It will cost you more. It takes a while to get used to the feel of. It glitches at times. It costs a little bit more. Get rid of the minor glitch and I would have said 5/5. It is easily better than your average controller. Like I said, I don't like the feel of old ones anymore.
Great controller. Worth the price. | video-games_xbox |
An exercise in frustration. This was the title I've been most anticipating since I bought my Xbox, and, I must say, I'm rather dissapointed.
The game does do a couple of things right. Aside from the characters walking as if they have to go #2 really bad and are trying to hold it, the entrances are great, and the character models are about the best that they've ever been in a WWF game. This is a testament to the Xbox's graphical prowess. However, as has been proven time and again, good graphics don't necessarily make a good game--good graphics can only make a good game better, but they can't make a bad game good.
I found character creation a bit tedious, (do we REALLY need this right thigh/left thigh, right foot/left foot thing?) and I found it difficult to get exactly what I was looking for in terms of the way that my character's look, etc. I also thought that there should be a good guy/bad guy option, where the crowd cheers or boos accordingly. And what was with this "name your faction" thing? Does that ever come up in gameplay? Still, it gives you a TON of moves to choose from, which is cool, and it gives you a lot of nicknames as well, which Lilian Garcia will announce.
This game also does some things wrong:
The options are rather limited compared to other wrestling games that I've played, (I'm thinking particularly of WWF Attitude for the Dreamcast.) There's no career mode, no storylines, no cage matches, no backstage brawling, etc. For as long as this game was delayed, I was expecting a bit more depth here.
And where are the announcers? OK, yes, the announcing in wrestling games can get repetive, cheesy, and can lag behind the action, but you can turn it off if you don't like it. I believe that it would add more Raw flavor to here good ol' JR and the King announcing.
The game is also a bit dated in terms of roster, but, considering how fast things change in the soap-opera world of the WWF, and the development cycle of most video games, it would be unreasonable to complain about that. At least the game includes my man HAKU.
However, I could forgive all of this games imperfections if it weren't for one simple fact; this game simply isn't fun to play. Actually, the gameplay here is pretty bad. Actually, playing this game is likely to drive you insane with frustration. Put it this way; people can knock the Xbox's controller for being to large if they want, but the thing is durable. I've proven that by throwing it to the ground in sheer disgust at least ten times while playing this game.
I mentioned before that the game gives you a plethora of move options in character creation, and I believe that the adjective I used to describe that was "cool." Well, it would be even "cooler" if you could actually pull those moves off in matches once in a while. Instead, the gameplay is punch/kick, get punched/kicked, try to grapple in order to pull off one of your moves, get hit on the way in, then have HIM grab YOU and stomp a mudhole in you, (on easy mode, I might add.) And you might as well forget about pulling off a finisher. I managed to do mine ONCE in hours of gameplay, but I had to break it because we were near the ropes. That was a throw-the-controller-down moment. The game makes you jump through about three-hundred hoops to pull of your finisher.
I've managed to win a total of one match so far. ONE!! And before someone accuses me of being a poor gameplayer, I've mastered just about every other wrestling game out there. I've been playing on easy mode here, people. Most wrestling games have a learning curve, but the difficulty in this arcadey game is just ridiculous.
Don't bother. Even if you are a huge WWF fan, don't bother. | video-games_xbox |
Catherine Review. In the game Catherine you get to act out a very dark and twisted soap opera of sorts. You will be playing the part of Vincent a man scared of commitment and yet in a long term relationship with a girl named Katherine. It isn't until Katherine starts pushing that the story begins, along with the nightmares. Soon after the discussion of marriage starts to heavily weigh into the conversation Vincent meets a beautiful blond at his favorite watering hole, the Stray Sheep. This is where the real fun begins. You'll have to deal with two combating relationships, as well as survive each nightmare filled night.
Graphically this game doesn't have ot pump out all that much as the majority of the game takes place in only a couple of places, and most time is spent trying to get through another nightmare. That basically includes a lot of different types of blocks you'll have to work with to try to climb out of each stage. I do have to say I did appreciate the mixture of animation and in game graphics in parts, it definitely helped get the story along, and the characters all had a very unique feel to them and allowed me to relate to each of them as separate people.
Music outside of the nightmare goes from your average background bar sounds, to some stressful music to help punctuate the moment. I'm a huge fan of voice acting, and there is going to be plenty to listen to in the game. The best part is that almost all is unique dialog so there's not a whole lot of rinse and repeat that you have to go through. You'll want to actually talk to as many people as you can in the bar to help get you further into the story.
The controls are REALLY simple. You're going to have the d-pad, you could use the left analog stick, but believe me you're going to be making way too many mistakes that way. You'll also be utilizing the X button to use items that you either picked up or purchased, and then there's the A button, which is what really causes all the magic to happen. You'll be using that button to hold on to block to move them in the direction you specify.
The true meat of the game is in the puzzle levels where you'll need to move blocks around so that you can accend up the level to the exit. Most of the time it is not a straight shot and you'll find that you'll have to backtrack in order to truly reach your goal. As you go through the levels you'll notice that more blocks are introduced, which will definitely spice things up. In most levels there's just a time limit that you'll have to combat with, but from time to time you might find enemies trying to stop you, or kill you, and then there are also those rare cases where there will not only be that but something coming up from below to try to take you out and make you really think on your feet. Overall this game had me from start to finish. Sure there were some more than frustrating deaths that happened because I screwed up somewhere or the thing(s) from below got me when I wasn't ready. My one issue with the game, though, was that there were times where you're hanging on to an edge of a block and you accidentally get behind the block and trying to get you to come back out, or perhaps pop out the side gets a little confusing with the controls as you get disoriented with the left and right directions.
This game is definitely not for everyone, but for those willing to give it a try, you might find that this is just the type of game that has something so strange, being a romantic horror puzzle game, for one, that it latches on to you and the only thing you can do is continue to play it. I fully recommend this game to all who wish to play it, and with that being said I have to say that this game gets a 9.4 out of 10. | video-games_xbox |
Tiger may no longer be great, but his game is. I've been playing this series for many years. I've often skipped a year here and there since most iterations don't change all that drastically from one year to another. I bought last year's game and enjoyed it for a few days and then got rid of it and never yearned to play it again. The focus last year (EA tends to do this with their sports games - they pick some new angle, hype it, and then forget it next year) was the caddie system. The caddie talked, gave advice etc etc. I thought it was stupid and got in the way of the flow of the game. I tried the demo this year just to see what changed and I liked it a lot. The swing system is better than it's ever been. Gone is the ability to pound on a button to add power. Now power is applied in your swing like in real life. You can still spin in the air, but only on easier difficulty settings. On real difficulty settings, your spin will be determined by where you hit the ball.
Putting has also seen a huge improvement over past years. It takes skill and a steady hand now.
Anyone familiar with EA's football games will understand the new pin system (similar to card packs in the football and hockey games). Coins are the currency you earn by playing rounds of golf. These coins can be spent on rounds of DLC courses without having to spend actual money on them. Play them enough and you'll master them, after which time you now own that course and no longer need to spend coins to play it. This will take a lot of time since it takes a long time to earn enough coins to play a DLC course. You also have the option to just buy the courses. People are whining about this setup, but come on, there's 21 courses in this version of the game. That's more than enough, and if you need a change of pace just spend your coins on a DLC course.
The addiction factor with this version of the game is much higher than I've felt in any Tiger Woods game in a long long time. You're always earning coins, exp points etc to keep builing your character and earning new clubs and clothes. There's a ton of courses to master and numerous difficulty settings to move up to if it starts to get too easy. And for the 2nd year in a row, the game includes Augusta National (plus the par 3 course). It's one of the best courses in the world, and it's well represented here. Many courses in the game are easy, but not this one. It's always a challenge. | video-games_xbox |
Buying guide for Xbox One bundles. I wanted to create a guide to help those interested in purchasing an Xbox One, since there are so many bundles, and offers change constantly. I'll attempt to keep this up to date as the bundles change. This is NOT a comparison to Playstation 4 or Wii U.
There doesn't seem to be a promotion for these currently (though there should be some for Black Friday). The new designation for Console with one controller and Console with two controllers just lets you toggle between the standard bundle and the bundle with an extra new controller at about full price. You'd actually save a few buck buying separately, so I wouldn't go for any of them (I don't expect any controllers, except the Elite, to be scarce this season).
A short list of features that may interest you, shared by all Xbox Ones (more details can be found in product descriptions and Microsoft sites) -
HDMI pass through. You can hook up an HDMI device to the back of an Xbox One to view the content from that device without changing inputs or leaving the X1 interface. This allows for split screen viewing and if a cable box or the official TV tuner, you can view the channel guide, watch TV, and set recordings.
It is backwards compatible with some Xbox 360 games. This is great for those with backlogs (like me...) or those who want to revisit finished games without having another console plugged into the wall/TV. In the fall, owners of publisher approved disc or digital 360 games will be able to play them emulated on the X1. Some X1 games also include their 360 precursors with purchase for play on the X1 in case you missed them. Gears or War Ultimate Edition includes all 4 Xbox 360 Gears games and Fallout 4 includes Fallout 3, for example. List of games and other info here -[...]
It will stream content to Windows 10 devices.
Xbox Live Gold now applies to households instead of individuals; meaning that multiple accounts on the same console can have access to the same features but have differing account restrictions (I.E. parental controls). So you can let your kids play Garden Warfare online, but not Gears of War.
External USB 3.0 storage. This is great because, 1) you don't need to open the console and replace a hard disc to add storage, just plug in and the X1 will format the drive, 2) even disc-based games have compulsory installs and can be upwards of 50GB each, eating storage space quickly, 3) external drives can be spacious and cheap, and last but not least, 4) USB 3.0 is actually faster than the internal hard disc interface. This means that a game on an external drive will load faster than one on the internal drive, usually by a significant amount.
The bundles-
The bundles can be split into 3 different groups based on time of release. The upcoming and current bundles include a newer controller that has a standard 3.5mm audio jack built in and output both game and chat audio through it (excepting the new Kinect bundles). Legacy consoles include an older controller without the standard audio jack (excepting the Forza 6 bundle) and shouldnt be expected to be widely available at the suggested price (and some I haven't included, due to their rarity at this point). There are no other functional differences. All bundles include a controller, HDMI cable, chat headset (with exceptions), and a 14 day Xbox Live Gold trial membership (paid $60/year service to play online and download the Games with Gold, a monthly rotation of full games you're free to download and keep (forever for 360 games and as long as you have Live Gold in active subscription for X1 games).
Upcoming bundles (with rating based on what you get for the money. Star and letter ratings are intended for the suggested price listed next to the bundle, not whatever current prices are.) -
Xbox One Elite 1TB bundle. $499. Includes a console with a 1TB hybrid SSD and hard disc for quicker load times for the items you access the most and the Elite controller, which has replaceable/customizable sticks, buttons, and triggers for the professionals or tinkerers. While the internal storage on this will be better than the standard HDDs in other X1s, the performance increase PROBABLY won't match external USB3.0 drives, due to the continued use of the SATA interface. There's little information about the size of the SSD partition and many hybrid drives don't allow you to choose what content is on which partition. The elite controller has been released to wide acclaim (modifiable professional controllers can easily go for twice as much), but is scarce at present. If you want the best/most storage and best controller out of the box, this is the bundle for you, but you won't get any games with it, or a headset, from the looks of it. B rating. Also note that this version releases earlier if purchased from the Microsoft Store or Gamestop.
Current bundles -
Fallout 4 1TB bundle - $399. Includes 1TB console, Fallout 4 game confirmed to be a disc (!), a download of the Xbox 360 version of Fallout 3, and a chat headset. B+ rating. Two open-world RPGs for grownups.
Rise of the Tomb Raider 1TB bundle - $399. Includes 1TB console, downloads of Rise of the Tomb Raider, DLC, and its predecessor, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, and doesn't appear to include a headset. Releases November 3rd. B+ rating. The Tomb Raider reboot from 2013 was pretty good and I expect the sequel will be even better. Great for adults who love action adventure. Amazon won't be stocking this one, unfortunately...
Kinect 500GB Bundle - $399. Includes 500GB console, the Kinect camera, a chat headset, the old model controller, and three Kinect-focused game downloads: Dance Central Spotlight, Kinect Sports Rivals and Zoo Tycoon. Finally another Kinect bundle! The X1 UI is made better and more easily navigable with the Kinect, and there are fun, energetic games to be played with it. A rating. Great for those who want to move and enjoy motion and voice controls, but it has little storage.
Holiday 1TB Bundle - $399. Includes 1TB console, Gears of War Ultimate Edition disc (as well as all 360 Gears games as downloads if you play online before the end of the year), Rare Replay disc, and Ori and the Blind Forest game download, the new controller, and doesn't appear to include a headset. Releases October 27th. A rating. Something(s) for everyone in this bundle, with 36 games included.
Halo 5 Limited Edition 1TB bundle. $499. Includes custom console with Halo sounds, and custom controller, with the Halo 5 Limited Edition (steelcase, guardian figure, game download and add-on content). Why a limited edition would come without a physical game is beyond me... It may not bother some, but it will upset many. This is a higher premium than the Forza 6 bundle (charging an extra $100 for an extra $40 package). For Halo aficionados/console collectors only.
Lego Movie 500GB bundle - $349. Includes 500GB console and the Lego Movie Videogame and no headset, apparently. C+ rating. Game is a cheap one and good for kids, but little value in this bundle compared to others.
FIFA and Madden 16 1TB bundles. $399. I'm grouping these together because other than the type of football you prefer, they are the same. Both include either the latest Madden NFL or FIFA soccer game download and a year of EA access, a paid ($30/yr) service which allows Xbox One users early access to EA releases, extended demos with progress that can be saved if a full game is purchased, discounts on EA games, and free access to the Vault, currently 14 full games. Great if you like EA's games. A- for each. With the live Gold card and Forza Horizon 2 download (separate product pages) A rating.
Gears of War 500GB bundle. $349. Includes Gears of War Ultimate Edition download (as well as all 360 Gears games if you play online before the end of the year). This 500GB model includes the new controller, but does not include a headset. B+ rating. With the live Gold card and Forza Horizon 2 download (separate product pages) A rating.
Legacy bundles-
Forza 6 1TB Bundle. $399. Custom Forza-inspired console with racing sounds and custom (new, with 3.5mm audio jack) controller, and download code for Forza 6 and extra content, and a chat headset. A- rating, though some may not like the custom design and sounds.
Halo Master Chief Collection 1TB bundle. $399. Looks like this being phased out. Standard console, plus download code for the Master Chief Collection (the four numbered Halo games in a single package). B rating.
Halo Master Chief 500GB bundle. $349. If you can get it at the retail price, I'd consider it an A-, since the cost to upgrade storage to 1TB or greater is around or less than the $50 to get the 1TB model, and it'll perform better.
Keep in mind that the lowest prices and best bundles tend to happen around the winter holiday season, so unless you really want to get one now, you're probably best served waiting till around Black Friday, when multiple stores will be trying to entice you with lower prices and more pack-ins. This is especially true since Sony recently cut the price of the Playstation 4.
At this point, I think the best offer for the holidays for an X1 bundle will be for $50 off current price point, plus an extra game and second controller (Dell at least, will offer such a deal). The risk is availability and whether the bundle or extra game would be one you'd want.
Hope this was useful to you. | video-games_xbox |
NCAA Football goes out with a bang. For anyone curious about the title, well a short explanation is that NCAA ended their licensing agreement with EA Sports. Also after the recent lawsuit, EA is done making future College football games as of now. Which to me is disappointing because EA was really starting to pick up their game and had a great looking future of NCAA games ahead. With that said I will start the real review, with what I liked and disliked about the game.
This year it seems the mechanics were a lot more polished than previous versions of NCAA Football. Now I've been buying the NCAA Football games since '04, (With the exceptions of '09, '10, and '12) 2006 has always been my favorite version from the series, and to be honest, it's been hard to find one since then to match it. EA Sports has been known to just throw out a new version year after year, with no big changes. This really goes for Madden as well, but there is always something special about the College football games that I liked. For one, it's the atmosphere of the crowd, that's 1 thing they can never seem to get right with Madden. Madden always feels too dull (Nowadays anyways) whereas NCAA always felt energetic and fun.
This year they have made a lot of steady improvements with the infinity engine. Initially I was disappointed when playing Madden 13 (When they introduced infinity physics) the gameplay didn't really grasp me, so I was a bit wary when I heard they were bringing pretty much the same thing to this years version of NCAA. Well my initial doubts were quickly thrown out when I played the demo and realized how much better the game felt. Now having it and playing it quite a bit, it is a huge improvement over last years game and the years before that. It even works much better than Madden. It feels like a real college football game again, no more of players "gliding" across the field, no more stiff looking animations. The game plays much more fluid now, with the players actually being able to make cuts, and they actually look like they run now. Before the running animations seemed off, and clunky. NCAA 13 was fun, but NCAA 14 has really set the bar. A bar that can no longer be passed with the cancellation of the series lol.
If you're a fan of the series, you'll love the new look, the players look more realistic. Catching, running, tackling animations are much more realistic this year. The atmosphere is still there and better than ever, which like I said before is 1 thing I always enjoyed about the series. Whether you like to play with friends or like to win the championship in Dynasty mode, you will love this installment of the franchise.
Dynasty Mode: My favorite mode I use, it's pretty much the only mode I use anymore. This year they've fixed it and returned back to the days of old.
Recruiting: Is so much better this year, ever since they introduced the calling system of NCAA 11, I've been wanting back the system of 06 where you just used points to recruit your players. This year they finally brought it back! Don't get me wrong,I liked the calling system at first, but after the first few weeks in a season, you get tired of it really quick. It took you away from the time you could be playing the actual game. Now it's quick and simple.
Other than recruiting Dynasty mode hasn't changed a whole lot, in terms of features, but that really doesn't matter as all we really want to do is play football anyways right?
With that said I do have a few minor gripes about the game. The actual gameplay itself, like I said is really top notch and fun. There is always those lingering issues they can never seem to get right. The "Shoestring tackle" for instance, when you dive for a player a fair distance away and tackle them at the feet, EA Sports haven't really been getting this entirely right. As it is annoying when the CPU goes for a shoestring tackle and they are further away from me when they are on the ground, them bam, they fly forward and bring me to the ground. An annoying issue when you have an open hole to break a huge run, it can get annoying. Also interceptions in the game, I get they wanted a more fluid style of play, which is what they have created, but also it's annoying when you intercept the ball, you're holding down to run and the camera turns around then you're running away from where you want to. I do more so prefer the old stop, screen turns then you go. I guess this way can make things a little more interesting in some instances.
The Pause Menu: Ugh I don't know where to begin here, I don't get why they insist on changing this every year. To get a "Fresher look" I can understand that, but do they really have to make you go to such great lengths to find things? Like when you are in the game and need to use that 1 challenge you have, you have to pause, go over to strategy go down to coach's challenge. They could have just put it in the pause menu for in game use. It can be a nuisance to be looking around for something when you just want to get it over with to play the game.
There still is the other issues of calling a fumble from the QB an incomplete pass, when you look and it's clearly a fumble. You can't do anything about it though, the commentating is off in some parts of the game. Saying things that really don't make much sense to what is really going on in the game.
One last thing that annoys me this year, EA Sports finally brought back Draft class exporting. I've been wanting this feature back and the year they finally do it, the timing couldn't have been more worse. It's practically useless (to me anyways) with the problems I've been hearing about Madden again, and the fact that I didn't much care for the Madden demo again. I will be skipping on Madden this generation, and I'm holding out for Next-Gen to see if it is improved at all. (from what I've seen, no lol) With no NCAA on Next-Gen (Or anymore NCAA games at all for that matter) them bringing back draft class exporting is like a slap in the face. IMO.
Those are just a few of my minor gripes about the game, I'm sure I would have more, but no sports game is absolutely perfect, so those issues will always arise. I will finish by saying this is definitely the best NCAA I have played in a long time by far. If you are a fan of the franchise, then you really have to pick this one up. Because there is no more "holding out" for a better experience. The college football games are now finished it seems, and this being the last installment is perfectly fine with me, because this title will have longevity for the years to come, with downloadable rosters, the game should live on just fine for this gen. You can take this for what it is, it's just my opinion on the matter, buy the game you won't be disappointed.
TL;DR: Best one in awhile, Buy it. Lol | video-games_xbox |
pretty frikkin good headset. I actually picked these up at best buy because at the time they were a little cheaper than on amazon. Well actually i wanted the white ones but could only find them on the PDP website, and they have a horrible return policy that if i didn't like the headphones, i still couldn't return them. That didn't sit too well with me being that I've never even tried or used them before so I didn't know what to expect. If they were weak I wasn't going to shell out almost 200 for them, which is what i ended up paying back when they were worth that much.
I ended up really liking them, but instead of returning them to get the white ones, i just kept the black pair. Setup was pretty easy and straightforward. it came WITH the stand :D which i really like, and i fell in love with the fact i could change the color. that was a major selling point for me, i'm somebody who really loves to customize things as much as i can and appreciated the ability to set whatever color i wanted.
Another feature i really like is that they're wireless, and i don't have to worry about being tangled in the cords because i lay in my bed a lot and use my laptop. and it's also nice to be listening to music or a video and walk away and still hear whats going on.
The 3 different sound options are awesome too. there's like a gaming sound mode and a threatre one and a heavy bass, so you can choose which one suits your current application, and it works on windows 8.
My only beef with them is the ear cups. they are soft and padded, and fairly large, but they still hurt my ears. I have my ears pierced 4 on each side, and it puts pressure on them as its rounded. but again not much of an issue for those without a ton of earrings.the retractable mic is great too.
I became addicted to gaming headsets and moved on up to the Astro A40's those are much more comfortable on my ears as they're the larger rectangular shape, which i prefer, however I've got to say i'm honestly disappointed by the mixamp. it supposedly has multiple sound modes like the pdp, however i really do not notice any difference whatsoever when changing between them. my astros don't really have much bass at all. and not a lot of features and settings to play with. i love that they rotate sideways to lay flat. but they didn't come with a stand....
I was going to sell my PDP's since i got my astros and thought it was a good upgrade, but now i think im keeping them because they just have so many great aspects to them that they're worth hanging onto. They can actually hold their own against my astros, which are not wireless (i chose that on purpose as opposed to the a50's) so now ill keep them because they are pretty much a lovely looking jack of all trades. | video-games_xbox |
Used this to mod a non-transforming controller. While the description says that this will only fit for controllers that have a transforming pad and will not fit older shells, I took that as a challenge. I did a little research and found pictures of disassembled controllers, looking for the old shells and new transforming shells. From what I found, the difference between the old shell and the new shell is only a few extra pieces of plastic. With this information in hand, I decided to modify my old white 360 controller and add the transforming d-pad myself. Here's how I went about making the modification:
1.) Disassemble your controller. You will need a Torx T8 security driver to open the controller (one was provided for each d-pad I purchased, free of charge from Geniusmods360). If you do not know how to do this, Google "how to disassemble xbox 360 controller" and use the excellent Instructable created by MyCustomXbox. You will need to go as far as Step 11 to continue with this modification.
2.) Using a pair of sharp clippers, I cut out the inner circle and added a few notches into the controller so that the transforming d-pad will fit and sit flush. You can use a dremel to get the same results, but be careful as the plastic used in the controller is very soft. See my photo for further details.
3.) File and smooth out any sharp edges. A clean look is a happy look!
4.) Insert the transforming d-pad. It should NOT sit tight in the controller. You will want to have a little bit of wiggle room so that the d-pad does not get caught in the notches. At the same time, you do not want to have too much room either as this will cause the d-pad to move all over the place, defeating the purpose of the modification.
After the modification was done and giving it a go, I must say that it works very well. I purchased two transforming pads because I intended on modifying my black 360 controller as well after I dye the grey plastic to flat black. It's a pretty cool mod to try out and it can give your controller a pretty unique look. I'll never confuse my controller with my brother-in-law's again! | video-games_xbox |
Is Final Fight back? Nostalgia lends a hand. I'm an old school 2d gamer at heart... no matter how much 3D you throw at me I still love classic games 2d gaming. The original Final Fight was one of my ALL TIME favorite arcade games and console games when it got ported over to the SNES and Sega CD. Plain simple fun.
Capcom has finally made a new Final Fight for us many years after we saw the last batch of games. (FF1-FF3 on SNES, Final Fight Revenge on Saturn). This version is completly 3d and features Kyle Travers (who would be Cody's brother) trying to find out what happened to his bro after Cody goes missing at the start of the game.
The gameplay involves you walking around different parts of Metro City talking to random NPC's who usually don't have anything of interest and beating thugs up along the way. You can also complete some small "side quests" along the way to finding Cody. The fighting itself is ok, nothing spectacular or new we haven't seen before. Music mostly consists of hiphop tracks and some run of mill sound effects. The voices and mini story clips which focus in on Kyle talking are one of my favorite parts of the game, most are humorus and were done well. The graphics definetly leave alot to be desired as they look pretty low scale most of the time being that the game doesnt even support 480p.
The game will have you run into people of Final Fight lore along the way which makes for some of the better parts of the game. Most of the thugs and goons you fight in this game don't compare to the classic thugs of the original, but hey they're just there to get beatup.
All in all, the game needed more polish before it got out the door, and I woudlnt recommend it to anyone who isn't a fan of Final Fight. The cameos and flashbacks to old school Metro City are what ties it in for me, just getting to bust some heads in Metro City again just like back in 1990.
As info, the only way to save the game is to select to "Quit" from the pause menu... it will then prompt you to save before exit. (Another little thing which Capcom should have don't differently..) | video-games_xbox |
More like 4.5 stars. I've been playing Rock Band 3 mostly by myself for the past few weeks, and I think I've played enough where I can make some observations on what's good, what's bad, what works and what doesn't.
The setlist:
Great. When I look at the setlist as a whole, it is mostly fun, full of catchy songs, but also challenging enough where I don't lose interest. Every instrument has its challenging songs: guitar and drums has "Free Bird," bass has "Jerry Was A Racecar Driver," keys has "Saturday Night's Alright," and "Good Vibrations" is nearly impossible on expert vocals.
Furthermore, some of these picks are just plain inspired. The alternate version of James Brown's "I Feel Good" is loose and funky, while "Whip It" and "The Power Of Love" are plenty pop for pop music fans. "I Need To Know" and "Rainbow In The Dark" are great rockers. There's something here for everybody, and this is perhaps the best setlist for any rhythm game. There's a few stinkers in the game ("False Alarm," "Oh My God"), but the good songs far outweigh the bad ones.
Keyboard:
Awesome. It's an amazingly welcome addition, and opens up the game to so many more styles of music. Novices can play five-button keys, but Pro Keys is the ONLY way to play the keyboard.
Gameplay:
There's much that is improved from RB2. The menus are different, and take a little getting used to, but there isn't as much menu navigation required for RB3; it's very convenient.
When you play a road challenge, you're given the opportunity to pick one of three setlists. These can be fixed, random, or ones you make. This adds a great element to the game, instead of playing the same songs over and over again.
When playing drums, you're given the option to set off Overdrive by doing a drum fill or hitting a crash cymbal. It's a nice touch that allows players to decide how they like to play.
I like the spade challenges. It adds another challenge element to the game, and while some may not prefer them, I think it's a nice way to mix up gameplay.
Songs are easier to sort through. The player is given an option to limit their searches to songs within a certain game, genre, length, or lighter rating. this is very helpful if you've got lots of DLC. The lighter ratings are also awesome; if you don't like a song you can rate it one lighter and filter it out of your random setlists. It's a feature I like a lot.
There's lots of things I like in this game, from the ability to create and save your own setlists to the hundreds of specific goals within the game that can be achieved on quickplay or tour mode. Needless to say, there's a lot that I like about Rock Band 3.
Now, the not-so-good:
Overdrive is very hard to set off on the keyboard. I've been playing the keys with two hands, like a normal keyboard, and I've found that it's really, really hard sometimes to set off overdrive (it's a button off to the side on the keyboard).
The vocal mechanics in RB3 seem to be different. I was a gold-star vocalist on RB2, and some of the songs I've gold-starred easily I've had some troubles with. It took me some time to adjust to the vocal in this came.
I do miss the Red Hot Chili Peppers songs "Give It Away," "Dani California," and the Oasis song "Rock N' Roll Star (they weren't able to be licensed for RB3). Here's hoping that they eventually get back on the platform, because those tracks are a lot of fun to play.
Despite this, Rock Band 3 takes rhythm gaming forward, and if you like music and video games, this is the game for you. | video-games_xbox |
The hype was deserved this time. Putting aside from the typical reactions one gets from those who are predisposed to dislike this game due to its controversy (such as so-called "attorney" Jack Thompson, whose crusade against this and other violent video games has become an unintentional self-parody), it seems that there are those who are quite vocal about disliking this game due to the ridiculous amounts of hype the series receives. I can't completely blame them; after all, certain magazines (such as Game Informer) seem to throw any semblance of journalistic integrity out the window in their quest to write slavishly glowing and obsequious previews and reviews of any games from GTA's developers, Rockstar Games. These publications make it seem that there are no other worthwhile games out there aside from the GTA games, to such a degree that it almost screams payola. Or does it?
By this point, you probably are familiar with the Grand Theft Auto premise, established by Grand Theft Auto 3 in 2001. You control a criminally inclined character in a city, who can take a variety of missions from characters scattered about the area, and can pretty much take over most any vehicle. While there is a storyline in the game, you are allowed a significant amount of freedom, to the point where you can choose to not take any story missions, and instead either take on minor side missions, or simply drive about and cause chaos. GTA 3's sequel, Vice City, was the beneficiary of relentless media hype arising from the swell of unexpected success from its predecessor. While it boasted a number of improvements, such as better graphics, a great licensed soundtrack, a more cinematic storyline (complete with celebrity voice acting), somewhat better targeting, and the addition of motorcycles and helicopters, Vice City was really not the quantum leap in gaming it was billed as. Not only did it fail to correct some of the failings of GTA 3, but it also took a step backwards in environmental design, as Vice City's flashy '80s neon cool couldn't make up for its flat and boring design (as opposed to Liberty City's multi-tiered, busy design).
When the hype over the next Grand Theft Auto game began to build, my reaction was more of a "so what"? Sure, I loved the GTA Double Pack (and had originally played a fair portion of Vice City on the PS2), but did I really need another stint in a small city, pursuing the same kind of missions and mayhem as before? However, when I found out the true scope of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, my interest grew exponentially.
GTA: San Andreas is certainly one of the most ambitious action games I've ever seen. Instead of providing one mere city, this game provides an entire state, albeit a relatively small and abridged one (when compared to the real thing). Three very distinct cities (based on Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas), a dozen small towns, a mountain, desert, woods, prairie, farms, rivers- this game's environment is the definition of "throwing in the kitchen sink". The number of missions has increased from the prior installments' 60-odd missions to over 100 story/side-story missions, plus the "career" missions (vigilante, ambulance, firefighter, valet, trucker, pimp, burglar, etc.), and the inevitable racing challenges. If that's not enough, several "just for kicks" mini-games are included, such as pool, basketball free-throws, and arcade games. But wait- there's more! The variety of vehicles has once again increased, and now includes a selection of "proper" airplanes (including a fighter jet!), ATVs, and mountain bikes, in addition to cars, boats, motorcycles, and helicopters.
Beyond these changes, the gameplay mechanics have been kicked up a notch. Your character, Carl Johnson, can now not only swim, but can also climb over fences if needed. In a move unheralded in the series, the developers threw in RPG elements: the more you perform an action (running, firing a certain weapon, driving), the higher your related skill stats go. You can customize your character to a certain degree (haircuts, individual clothing items), affect your characters physique by eating and working out, and even have a few girlfriends (who you can go on dates with). Targeting has also been improved, with the addition of a new manual aim mechanic for all projectile weapons, and a fully controllable camera. At several points in the game, you'll also get to lead your own posse of gang members, and engage in territorial conflict.
The storyline this time around is a little less tongue in cheek, and a little bit more serious. You control Carl Johnson, a former gang member, who is dragged back into the lifestyle by an unexpected death in the family. Even if you were never into the "Boyz In The Hood" genre of melodrama, the game is so well executed, and expands so far beyond that conceit, that it's hard not to be drawn in. (The downside is that this game may hit too close to home for anyone in a neighborhood terrorized by gang violence and the resulting "collateral damage".) The true breadth of the game really hits you when you first drive beyond the Los Santos city limits, into the countryside of Red County. Not only is there variety to be found in the three general country areas bordering the cities, but each of the three big cities is distinct from the others. Los Santos (the Los Angeles clone) combines the sun-drenched, beachcomber vibe of Vice City with the gritty sprawl of the L.A. seen in Quentin Tarentino and John Singleton movies, and the elevated highway interchanges and lofty downtown metropolitan look of more decadent depictions of the West Coast. San Fierro's (the fake San Francisco) vertical inclines and polished architecture come off as a more genteel, pleasant version of Liberty City. While the Las Vegas-inspired Las Venturas sports the weakest layout of the cities, being too reminiscent of Vice City's flat, low-rise tract design, its neon-lit casinos, scattered industrial depots and encircling highway system provide their own charms.
For the Xbox version, there's the good...and the bad. One of the greatest improvements is the inclusion of custom soundtracks. As huge as the included soundtrack is, I feel that Vice City's '80s soundtrack is better, and I'm not much of a fan of rap or grunge (I do sort of like the New Jack Swing station). The ability to make my own soundtrack is key for a game which depends a lot on cruising around; King Crimson, Deep Purple, Angra, The Four Tops, and more make the experience more unpredictable and just more fun. The graphics are improved in that the draw distance is better, textures are a bit nicer, and the almost-overwhelming orange glow present in the PS2 version has been toned down. However, the cool car reflections of the PS2 version are MIA, for some reason. In general, the graphics are not as shiny and "clean" as the Xbox version of Vice City, but do seem to provide more detail and variety (even if in a somewhat grainier fashion). Controls are a similar mixed bag; while the Xbox control sticks are a sight better for targeting, the controls for "drive-by shooting" are abysmal, compared to the GTA Double Pack (why the change?).
This game is so huge in scope that you'll find yourself playing for 70 or more hours, whether engaged in the more elaborate missions (which involve such diverse objectives as chasing a train, framing a DA, infiltrating a military base, a high speed mid-air dog fight, and even an assassination in far away Liberty City!), betting on the horse races, or in just exploring the huge environment. It's true that the "open world" genre is no longer new and enough in itself, with competition from Saint's Row, Just Cause, and True Crime: NYC. However, while those games may have better graphics, or a more refined targeting system, none of them has the depth of gameplay, variety and attention to environmental design as this game. For once, the hype was right. They finally made a game that feels almost as immersive as an actual world, but without as many limitations. (Note to the parents reading this: DO NOT get this game for any kid under 16. It's very entertaining, but the subject matter and context of the violence [of which there is plenty] is better for a "less impressionable" mind.) | video-games_xbox |
My Final take. I was fortunate enough to be able to buy this console on the week it was released. I've owned an xbox 360 before but It has not worked for some time now due to the red ring of death. With the new xbox 360 the red ring of death isn't even possible because there in no red led light in it and microsoft has addressed the issue by having the new xbox 360 produce a significantly lower amount of heat inside the hardware. I love the xbox 360, Forza 3, and halo reach (i know its not out yet). I also own a ps3 here is why i like my ps3:
1)When you save videos on the playstation 3, the video icon is way better. For the ps3 it plays a small loop of the video and its up to you to choose which section of the video to loop. With the xbox 360 there is simply a picture that comes with the video.
2)When you fast forward videos on the xbox 360 its glitchy and it skips scenes, with the playstation 3 there is a smooth steady flow of the video.
3)Blu-ray makes the xbox 360 suck, but not too bad because you can download hd videos on the xbox 360 through the xbox live video market place.
4)You can play online games for free with the 360 you have to pay 50.00 a month some people say your paying for better service, well i played battle field bad company 2 all the time and i never had a slow down so all those people can choke. Lol you think my 1 star will stop people from buying this? NO if you are lazy enough not to read this, you just look at the star rating sorry, here goes
I GIVE THE NEW XBOX 360 A Five 5 Five 5 Star ***** 1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5 yey
Im giving this a 1 star to make you read my article if i were to give it a 5 star you would not read it because there are so so many. for all of you who complain about my 1 star rating lowering the overall rating i have three words get a life. honestly if that bothers you, you must have a perfect live we have a bad war in afghanistan, politicians who depend on corporations, and an oil spill.
Reasons why I enjoy the 360...
1) 250 gig hard drive verses my 40 gig on the ps3 i know they make better and bigger hard drives with the ps3 but this is my situation.
2)It is so, so, so quiet.
3)Both the ps3 and 360 have wireless internet but the new 360 downloads faster, a lot faster.
You getting a video, cd, a xbox 360 player. With this you will be able to download almost any movie straight from your home into the hard drive of the 360. Same goes with almost any T.V show and music video. Halo Reach is the best thing to happen besides halo 3 and forza 3 I hear mass effect 2 is amazing and gears of war is amazing. You are only able to play these great games on the xbox 360. | video-games_xbox |
Straight back to the used game place you go. Alright, I've got to admit it. I was swayed by the rampant hyping of all things Star Wars that's going on right now. Very swayed. The commercials show the few highlights of a game that, while having a few stellar moments, is in the end, wholly unsatisfying.
With Star Wars Battlefront, it seems that the developers were looking to create a "WOW! This is SO COOL! I'm playing the movies!!!" feel for this game. It didn't work. Instead, they've managed to create a fairly mindless team-based shooter that really isn't all that much fun when compared with other titles available for the X-box.
Anyhow...without further adieu, the GOOD and the BAD.
GOOD:
-John Williams' soundtrack is woven throughout the game very well. I just wish I had a soundtrack as good as this for my day at work.
-The vehicles. Sort of. See, there's a HUGE "But" here; which I'll address later. Now then, it IS cool to be able to strafe and bombard the battle field with mechanized assistance. AT-ATs, AT-STs, speeder tanks, and the like all seem to have reasonably devastating fire-power that's a hoot to play with.
-Lots of different playable character types, all adapted to do something different. Snipers, pilots, heavy weapons soldiers, scouts, jet pack troopers, and basic infantry soldiers are all at your disposal.
-The battlefield environments: I've got to admit, it's great fun to be able to run around the forests of Kashyyyk, the platforms of Cloud City, and the ice-fields of Hoth. Most are well executed and do an adequate job of immersing you in the game. You'll recognize locales and scenery from the movies and be exposed to some new stuff that you haven't seen before.
-The control scheme: If you've played Halo (or pretty much any other FPS/TPS) on the X-box, you won't have trouble picking this up quickly.
-And finally; the satisfying (but unrealistic) way that enemy soldiers go careening though the air after you fill them full of blaster fire. It makes me crack a grin...but the fact that I'm grinning also makes me wonder if something's wrong with me. But, I digress...
Okay...the BAD:
-It's repetitive. Basically, EVERY battle is the same. To win a battle, you either capture all of the enemy command posts on the map, or kill all of the enemy troops. Sometimes you have the added element of vehicle support. Sometimes, you don't. Other than terrain variation due to the various maps you may be playing on, that's about it. Both allied and enemy AI is reasonably effective, but when the objectives are as rudimentary as these are, that's not really saying much.
-It's mindless. For a "battle" game, there's remarkably little strategy involved here at all. Basically, you just run around and shoot stuff until you either a) run out of ammo, or b) get killed. Then, you a) either find more ammo, or b) spawn again and repeat the cycle. There are some rudimentary commands that you can issue to friendlies in your area, but they don't add much to the experience. It's not like you're moving platoons or brigades of troops to defend the base at Hoth. The only real strategy is dictated by which soldier class you choose to play. If you choose the assault class with heavy weapons, your time will best be spent using your limited ammo to blow up vehicles and stationary gun turrets. Chose the sniper class? Better find a shady spot (preferably elevated) to lop off the odd enemy as he stumbles into the field of view of your hyper-zoomed scope. There are some maps where certain classes of troops will be more effective than others, but you'll pick that subtle nuance up after playing the game for about 38 seconds.
-The vehicles...actually, to be more accurate, it's the star-fighters that bother me. The AT-ATs, AT-STs, and other ground-based vehicles are fine. Good, even. The X-Wings, Y-Wings, and various TIE variants available on some of the maps are just ridiculous. See, star-fighters aren't all that effective at a close air support role; and, to be honest, their inclusion as such craft doesn't make sense. When did we ever see an X-Wing doing a strafing run on a group of Imperials huddled in a ditch on Tatooine? Never. Didn't happen. Besides, they're rather difficult to control in this environment. Star-fighters need space battles...and other star-fighters as their primary targets. For instance, check out X-Wing or TIE Fighter for the PC. Those games let star-fighters shine. God, would I love to see X-Wing for the X-Box, but I'll have to keep dreaming, I'm afraid.
-In the "historical campaign", you can't choose sides, which absolutely drives me nuts. If you want to go hawg-wild and blow up shield generators as a member of the Imperial assault force on Hoth, you should be able to! However, you shouldn't be allowed to fight along side of the Ewoks on Endor. In fact, no-one should be allowed to do that. Ever.
Anyhow...all in all, Star Wars Battlefronts is a pedantic, predictable game that Star Wars fanatics will probably enjoy immensely; if, for no other reason than to be able to lop off the occasional Ewok. However, people who are looking for a truly immersive team (or squad)-based battle simulator would be better serviced looking at Ghost Recon or Rainbow Six. | video-games_xbox |
Giant Robots are awesome. If you're a long time fan of Mechwarrior and were thrilled to see this title hit Xbox like I was, I think you were pleasantly surprised upon playing this! Now I'm not as die hard a follower of the Mechwarrior titles as some people and I've only played a few here and there including Mechcommander 2. I think some people who were really into the PC version of this game will be slightly disappointed in a few things. The control and views of the Mech are a little dumbed down for the users; I think this has more to do with controller limitations because there's no keyboard. The second major difference is you can only use in game stock Mechs during the campaign. You can't customize any of them unfortunately. However, if you can get over these changes I think you will still have fun with the game.
I felt like Mechassault had a bit more of a cogent story line than some of the other Mechwarrior titles. In Mechassault you are playing the role of a member of the Wolf Dragoons and you've been commissioned to infiltrate a planet controlled by the Word of Blake. For some reason I never felt like I had this precise of a purpose in Mechwarrior game before. The campaign mode is pretty much a solo mission where you have to do everything on your own; unfortunately you don't get any help from another group of Dragoons, even though you hear about reports of them fighting in other parts of the planet. The new stock Mech designs are actually pretty cool along with some old favorites and I did like using most of them. The favorite Mech called the Atlas is available in this game as well, but I found myself using the Timberwolf a lot when I played this game through a second time. Although, I think I favored the MadCat IV my first time through and I outright hate the Summoner. You do get lots of Mechs to choose from so I'm sure any Mechwarrior can find their favored machine to use. Unfortunately there are a couple missions where you are forced to fight with a specific Mech, this is alright because it's only for like two missions worth.
The graphics and environment are quite awesome. The graphics are pretty comparable to the Mechwarrior IV game for the PC. While I have seen better graphics on other Xbox games, I felt these were decent enough for Mechassault. The environment you get to interact with is really awesome though. You can destroy anything to your hearts little desire. Even though you're trying to save the people of the planet from the Word of Blake faction... you can still destroy all their houses and cities in the process! One major downfall of this game is the saving function. There is no mid-mission save ability. If you do not complete the mission you fail and thus have to restart the mission. This is incredibly annoying if the mission is kind of long. This happened to me a couple times; I made it to the final part of the mission to essentially fight the boss Mech and was destroyed at the very last part. I had to restart the mission in order to get back to where I left off which took another hour of game play. While I'm not complaining about a game being challenging, I'm complaining that as a user I don't have save options which is really annoying not to have.
Overall I think this game was quite a lot of fun with a better story line to follow as well. There are a few things I would change here and there, but they are technically minor over all. I've enjoyed Mechs and Battletech stuff ever since I was a little kid, being able to enjoy this on Xbox was a lot of fun for me. I have to spend a lot of time in front of a computer for my job, so being able to have this in a console format when I don't want to play a computer game was great fun! | video-games_xbox |
Great Story, Mediocre Game Play. This game is a good buy for those who enjoyed Syphon Filter, Silent Hill or Alone In The Dark. The good feature of this game is the narrative. Unlike a lot of other story games, the plot and writing in this game aren't clunky and awkward. It unfolds like a graphic novel with cleverly worded chapter titles and film noir-style narraration. The auto-save feature kicks in after every chapter. It saves you from all that annoying "typewriter ribbon" ... in the Resident Evil series, keeping the pace crisp and cinematic.
Max is a likable fellow with good motivation for doing what he's doing. He's genuinely funny sometimes, too. When's the last time a character in a video game made you laugh with a good quip? My problem with this game is the actual mechanics. Max doesn't move as precisely as Lara Croft, but there are times in the game when he needs to. Note to game designers: if you're going to make him jump through moving laser beam mines, Max's controls need to be a lot tighter. The targeting system is weak, also. All you get is a dot which is centered on Max's POV, controlled by the right toggle. This is frustrating if you're spoiled by Gabe Logan's targeting system in Syphon Filter. ... I guess Max is only a cop, not a special forces guy, but still. There is a slow-motion bullet-dodging mode (a la The Matrix) to aim with, but I found that a little hard to use. There aren't a lot of puzzles in this game. Most of the problem solving is tactical or fairly simple lock and maze problems. There's some trippy dream and drug sequences that are unusual and cool, in the vein of Silent Hill. What I liked the most though, was the game's fast pace, which is very refreshing if you're used to Resident Evil or Tomb Raider where you can wander around for hours without knowing how to proceed. So, in short, if you like games with good story and character, this is for you. It's an okay game if you're into collecting different guns and blasting baddies, but not as good as Syphon Filter. | video-games_xbox |
FIGHTER OF THE YEAR. This generation has seen a resurgence in the fighting genre. I, for one, couldn't be happier about this. Fighters are pure simple fun and the original vs. multiplayer. The market is dominated by Capcom fighters (SSF4 and UMVC3) The problem with capcom fighting games is that they took a much more beginner friendly approach to the genre which is all good and fine except capcom thought it would be a good idea to give players a tool that can turn the tide of battle on a whim (like Ultras in SSF4 and X factor in UMVC3). The problem is that this system rewards you for getting the crap beat out of you for most of the match. SNK takes the genre back to its roots with amazing fighting mechanics and just enough technicality that never feels over whelming and certainly never feels cheap.
Graphics- This game is a sight to behold when it is in motion. The animations and backgrounds are really amazing. The sprites begin to look a little pixilated when the camera zooms in after a match but this is a minor gripe 4/5
Gameplay-this is what separates kof from every other franchise. The controls are perfect. The button lay out is even more simple than Street Fighters. The special attacks look great and have a certain weight to them that makes you feel as though your really dealing damage. Every character controls and plays differently and their are no clones to be found like in Street Fighter. (Technically one character literally is a clone of the other but they don't play very similar).There are even movement options beyond just jumps and dashes. In kof you have the abillity to roll which opens up a lot of ways to get in close, or get away, from your opponent. 5/5
Longevity- Unlike it's predecessor, kof xiii has a lot of options outside the arcade and vs. modes. Theres survival, time attack, and even story. The story mode is actually sorta cool but I never knew what was happening, ever And the online multiplayer is much improved over xii. Although I don't think the netcode is as solid as it is for Blazblue and Street Fighter its still entirely playable. 5/5
Overall this game has my vote for the best fighting game released this year and many would argue that it's the best fighter released this generation. 5/5 a must own for fighting fans | video-games_xbox |
Don't get me wrong, this game is fun, but there are too many problems to overlook. I am a huge fan of the arcade style NFS games, so I was excited to pop this game in and dive right into the action. There are a few very annoying things that really hurt the NFS franchise in this game however that cannot go over looked.
Where to begin? As soon as I started the game, they FORCE you to watch a trailer for NFS: Shift 2. Hey EA, that's great and all, but I don't care. I like the arcade style games (Most Wanted, Undercover) not your wana-be Forza games that you slap the NFS name on. So that is a major no-no for me. Second of all, this new 'EA Online Pass' thing is complete crap. You are one of the most successful game companies in the world, and you feel the need to screw the people who buy the game used, borrow it from a friend, or rent it? No. Sorry, strike two.
Now this is what really bothers me and makes me scream at my television. This game is simply downright unfair at times. Yes I know that the NFS games are generally difficult towards the end of the game, but Hot Pursuit just goes WAY overboard. You are basically doomed before the race even starts during some of the duel and hot pursuit events and if you don't pull off some kind of speed miracle, there is absolutely no way for you to win. No matter what car you pick, the CPU will ALWAYS catch up to and pass you and it will be near impossible to recover. For example, during a duel event, I naturally picked the faster car and was still passed up and blown away by a much slower car. During a straightaway, I was slip streaming AND using boost and the CPU car managed to still pull further away from me. This is horrible programming on EA's part and really ruins the game.
Overall I would still recommend this game to the casual racing type gamer, just don't expect your controller to work after you throw it through a wall because of the absurd difficulty and unfairness. | video-games_xbox |
For newbies and Forza pros. With Project Scorpio landing, I expect there are many people for whom Horizon 3 is their first intro to the Forza series. If that's you, hang in to the end and I'll get you caught up. For the rest of us who've been playing since Forza and Horizon 1, you're with me.
I'm not going to spend much time comparing to F:H, since that was 360 and much smaller. Compared to H2, H3 is much more open-world. And I mean that both in gameplay and in driving style. Unlike H2 where cutting across country is often hampered by rivers, walls, and dense forest, H3 plays up its open Aussie outback feel so much that for the first few hours of play I rarely used roads outside of race events.
This is both really cool, in that bumping across the outback will rack up skill points quickly, but also something H3's AI hasn't quite figured out. Get behind a car and challenge them, and most of the time you can quickly cut across to the destination while the drivatar meanders the winding roads. Maybe that will get patched, or fixed as H3's system learns how people drive.
The physics are pretty sweet, and I love the off-road feel of H2's Storm Island without the annoying rain torrents. The car lineup is what you've come to expect from Forza with the notable exclusions of Porsche and Volkswagen (sorry, no baja bug... for now). I wasn't a big fan of how H2 sorted your garage, and H3 uses the same UI. It is nice that any of your cars can be brought to you (for 10,000 credits), and that you can immediately jump (free) to the nearest Horizon Hub.
If you liked H2's UI and pause menu, this is pretty much the same. I wish there was a way to skip certain radio stations, and the Groove integration for non-Groove subscribers means every time you open the Settings -> Audio menu it will complain it can't download your playlist (hopefully a quick patch).
H3 is big into horns. Old beepers, regular blowers, or fancy tunes - your R3 (down on right stick) is about to get a workout. You can buy all of them as a DLC add-on for $2.99 or just earn them from your skill tree. In solo, honking your horn behind somebody tags them into your convoy, and some skills let them work for you getting extra skills points or seeking hidden items (hint: *every* bridge has a Horizon billboard to smash). As with H2, you can also buy the Treasure Map to show all billboard locations.
H3 uses fewer Forza racing championships and more "PR Stunts" (everything from speed cameras to jump zones to racing a speeding locomotive). This really plays up the arcade nature of the Horizon series that separates it from the core of Forza. That said, any and everybody can blueprint their own championships, so this game explodes with possibility. Don't see the event you want? Make it. Pretty cool.
Finally, a word on AI (drivatars). There doesn't seem to be a lot of change from H2 to H3. AI is good, and on the easiest levels seems slightly more competitive than the blowout wins of H2. The only thing I've disliked is certain PR stunts, like the drift zones, are sometimes so populated with drivatars that it's difficult to achieve your goals. Again, probably just a tweak on Turn 10's part.
So for my fellow Forza fans, bottom line: buy it! Horizon 3 is really freaking fun.
Okay, newbies to the series, let's chat. Forza was a race simulation series that was/is very serious. <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Forza-6/dp/B00SVVUOGU/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Forza 6</a> is the latest installment and it's beautiful. The core Forza series is for true race simulation, so everything from track temperature to humidity and tire pressure come into play. Horizon is the arcade-happy sibling, using Forza's gorgeous graphics engine and vehicle renderings, but setting it in a music festival-with-street racing setting. Want to take a Ford Focus, pop it to 4WD, bump it to 800hp, and fly through the air without worrying about killing yourself/shattering your axels on landing? Horizon is for you. While you can set damage to realistic, Horizon's physics and damage engine is much (MUCH!) more forgiving than Forza's. Horizon is a series to jump, groove, and not take yourself too seriously (but, I mean, still win of course). And it's a lot of fun, so go ahead and get it!
For newbies and old friends: I'll see you online!
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9/26/2016 update: in the four days since launch, a *lot* more trees have cropped up, so maybe Turn 10 noticed noone was using roads. Still very open and easy to cross country, just not the sandbox it was. You also can't just ignore the center of traffic circles any more like you could in H2. Which is probably good. They also seem to have throttled down the number of drivatars contesting events, and the AI's are getting smarter, so Turn 10's dynamic code seems to be working - which means this game will just get better and better. Awesome job!
My only critiques (after playing for 35 hours now) is that either the petrol in Australia sucks or the mechanics do, because every car backfires All. The. Time. Also there's no way to edit a song out of a playlist, or to remove a radio station from rotation. Both are really audiophile things not related to gameplay, but I hope Turn 10 tweaks them in an update. Groove has had issues since launch, but Turn 10 has already committed to that fix.
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1/8/2017 update - well I've logged a couple hundred hours playing and am still enamored. Every tweak I could have hoped for has been addressed, the online community is really fun, and the Blizzard Mountain expansion is fantastic (loving it much more than Storm Island in H2). If you still haven't picked this title up, what are you waiting for? I'll see you in the Outback! | video-games_xbox |
Extremely Over the Top Game. In the day and age of action games being overly exaggerated, many titles come to mind when recalling over the top action/adventure games. Titles such as Devil May Cry and God of War are two of the best action adventure titles that truly take the action and adrenaline rush to an extremely exaggerated level. Scenes where Kratos rips apart mythical creatures with his bare hands, and scenes where Dante jumps atop a moving missile and navigates it with his feet, are prime examples of why these games are non-stop action. Never did I think I would encounter a game with just as much gameplay exaggeration as these, but then I bought Ninja Blade.
Ninja Blade looks beautiful. Its crisp and sharp graphics are stunning to look at, and its in game animations are top notch. The scale of the levels and boss battles also take full advantage of the graphical powers the game is boasting. The action is fast paced and even though it resembles Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry, and God of War, Ninja Blade has an identity of its own.
The story focuses around a group of soldiers/ninja who are codenamed G.U.I.D.E. They are responsible for the elimination of threats that normal weapons and humans are not capable of defeating on their own. The player takes control of an American born ninja named Ken Ogawa, who happens to be the son of the leader of G.U.I.D.E. The team has been called to Japan to assist in containing a sudden outbreak that has occurred as a result of parasites referred to as "Alpha Worms". These worms are causing the citizens of Japan to mutate into horrible creatures who are under full control of the parasites. After being betrayed by both his father and his friend, Ken Ogawa is left to contain the outbreak on his own.
Fusing elements from the three games quite nicely, Ninja Blade is truly a lot fun to play. The game contains a wide range of weapons, from small and fast, to large and slow, Ken's arsenal is greatly diverse. Ken has access to various forms of Ninjutsu, each with different element properties such as fire, or wind. Portions of the game require the player to protect a vehicle while fighting off enemy hordes in "on rail shooter" type moments. These moments do not last very long, but are still quite interesting and unique to the overall feel of the game. Many of Ken's combos resemble Kratos' fighting style from God of War, utilizing lengthy combos chained together in various ways with sudden "kill commands" that require fast reflexes to initiate more in depth and over the top kills on each opponent. This brings up the next subject for Ninja Blade, the boss battles. The boss battles are epic, placing Ken at the top of buildings, forcing him to fight off enemies twice the size of the entire building. The fights always finish with "quick time events" that take the kills to even higher levels than what the game already depicts. Moments such as flinging motorcycles at oncoming bosses, or riding missiles (ala Devil May Cry) utilize the "quick time events" greatly. Using the quick time events, the player must control every aspect of Ken's decisions, even things such as landing and jumping are based on these, and all boss battles boil down to this formula as well.
Despite the fact that the game looks like Ninja Gaiden, plays like God of War, and acts like Devil May Cry, it still has enough of its identity to make it worthwhile. With over-the-top action scenes, quick time events, epic boss battles, and great combat systems, the game is a lot of fun to play and is definitely worth checking out if you own an Xbox 360 | video-games_xbox |
Fourteen hours of unrivaled gameplay. As a fan of both bioware's Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire, I had extremely high expectations for Mass Effect, their latest RPG for the console. Although skeptical at first, I found that it surpassed either of the latter two games, and achieved something no other RPG had on the console.
Mass Effect revamps every aspect of bioware's typical games, improving it vastly, without changing their unique gameplay style. Rather then duplicating Knights of the Old Republic again, bioware has decided to branch off in a unique and interesting direction. The result of this is a game that will surely stand the test of time through the ages, being for the Xbox 360 what Morrowind was for the Xbox or Zelda for the Nintendo.
The combat system is probably the greatest change, taking away any codified system, and allowing it to become a third person shooter. This allows a lot more skill to develop over the course of the game; the AI is quite good, and you'll have to think about tactics. On any difficulty aside from easy you will probably die a lot getting the hang of it, but once you are accustomed, it is much more rewarding than any of the previous games systems. The weapon variation is a bit lacking, but this is balanced out by the biotics system, similar to force powers in KoTOR. However, rather than having good and evil powers, a character specializing in them has access to all of them. I found that the leveling system in relation to these powers was very well thought out, and improvements made were very obvious upon combat.
The class you choose, whether it be exclusively weapons, powers or mechanics, or a mix of two is very important in deciding the balance between weapons and powers you will be using. As a first time player the most obvious choice is a mix, but the game is flexible to accommodate anyone who gets the hang of their chosen gameplay style. I found that the character creation was much more developed and sophisticated compared to the latter two releases.
Another, and by far my favorite change, is the good/evil bar. Rather than make it a moral system, with clear definition of good and evil, bioware has introduced a system that is removed from moral reality. Every choice is just that, a choice, with given consequences you must live with for better and for worse. You can opt for a Machiavellian pragmatists style character, with consequences of your ruthlessness, or a humanitarian with just as many disadvantages for the more sympathetic choices. This is ideal for allowing the game to encompass a level of realism, and attaches deeper feelings for characters. Certainly a lot trickier than a simple good/evil bar, but bioware pulled it off, and the result is fantastic.
Overall I thought that Mass Effect succeeded with its characters (character development), storyline and combat system. The graphics are wonderful and the gameplay is easily up to the standard of any typical RPG. I found very few flaws, except the seemingly short length, and frankly didn't find any of it less than enjoyable. Give it a try, and savor bioware's newest gift to the console. | video-games_xbox |
Amazing RPG. My purchase of Jade Empire was solely due to my love of BioWare's best known title, Knights of the Old Republic. I was concerned that I might not be so engrossed without the Star Wars factor, but I was quickly sucked into this game.
As someone who might have only recently thought to describe herself as a gamer, I am sorely lacking in the controller skills one might expect a real-time combat system to require. I was pleasantly surprised to find Jade Empire's combat more than accessible; I'd be so bold as to say I was quickly kicking major kung-fu butt :-). Seriously, the variety of styles, both in types (Martial, Weapon, Magic and Support) and the sheer number of available styles, made the fighting beautiful to see, and although there are no complex button combinations, the Harmonic Combinations, while never necessary to defeat an opponent, allow the player to rain especially gory death on his or her enemies.
The storyline just rocks. The larger, overarching action constantly beckons the player to continue, and the romance subplots are one feature significantly improved over KotOR, in my opinion. Both male and female PCs have more than one character available for love, and one's chosen can be converted to the PC's philosophic path, or suffer the consequences. As (I admit it) a sappy girl when it comes to romance, I found this aspect of the game contributed significantly to my immersion in the plot. This game can be beaten in a little over 20 hours easily, but the game experience can be significantly enriched by the many subquests. The first time through, however, the larger plot drove me to skip several of these quests, simply because I couldn't wait to find out what happened next.
Although the "morality system" is not perfect, I found the Ways of Open Palm and Closed Fist intriguing. There are several subquests where I felt like I was being given straight good or evil choices, but overall, the options given to the player when choosing how to deal with characters reflects divergent philosophies, rather than nice or mean options.
The most out of place element in Jade Empire is probably the flyer missions, although once you become immersed in this mythical world, rather than thinking of this as simply medieval China, the presence of the flyer becomes much more natural.
A large part of this game's success is definitely due to the quality voice acting. The voices were never dull or flat, and there weren't many obviously repeated voices. The followers' voices are just brilliant, too, particularly the more comedic characters. And despite a slight tendency to relate large amounts of background information in random NPC dialogue, the script was, on the whole, great.
Overall, I absolutely loved this game. If you're looking for a game that balances simple, yet deep Player Character statistics, enjoyable gameplay, stunning environments, and riveting plot, Jade Empire's it. | video-games_xbox |
Great Game. OK frankly, I'm addicted to this game. Just yesterday I played it till my left thumb was raw and aching, lol. Had to force myself to quit. When I bought this game I just wanted something simple and fun. So many of todays games are just really complicated, and I wanted a break from that. This game is very simple, but there is also a lot of depth, and it takes skill and strategy to be really good.
One thing that's jarring however is that when you move up to a higher difficulty level, the game gets a lot harder. There is very little middle ground. What I mean is, when I started, I played the game on normal. But it didn't take long for normal to be just too easy. But when I moved the game up to hard, it seemed just a little too hard. In other words, it would have been nice to see a more incremental jump in difficulty. There are 6 difficulty levels in all ("expert", being the hardest). Playing on expert is a lot of fun and very frustrating at the same time.
These are my biggest criticisms of the game:
-load times are ridiculous, even when the game is installed to my harddrive.
-In career mode, if you lose a match, you can't replay your opponent. You're out, and have to start a new tournament. I know that they are just trying to make it like real tennis, but this is video game first, and it'll never be like actually stepping out on the tennis court. Lets say you're trying to get your first grand slam title, and you're playing on one of the harder difficulty levels. Just one match can last 20-something minutes. So that's a lot of time invested. But just play one bad match and you're out. The only solution to this is to restart the game and have to deal with the nightmarish load times in order to get a rematch.
-In the next game I really hope they improve the player models. Many of the character faces look like zombies, and the posture of the models tend to look a bit off.
But at the end of the day, I really have enjoyed this game. 4 stars! | video-games_xbox |
UPDATE 3 ... broken plastics and inferior quality. UPDATE: 03/15/16
The plastics on these things are terrible. Not only have both extension arms broken on my pair, but so have 2 of my friends' pairs. My pair hung on the extremely over-priced stand from Turtle Beach and were never under "undue" stress. I've since epoxied mine back together and have looked to brace them with a thin metal exo skeleton on the arms, but this should not have been necessary. Due to the price, this is necessary to avoid wasting a LOT of money. Do yourself a favor and skip these.
While the sound on these things are indeed excellent, you won't be able to here anything when the cups are bowed away from your ears due to the inferior plastics.
UPDATE 11/7/14:
TLDR: Sound great, usability is weak.
The Details:
The sound is top notch and the ability to hear yourself in the headset is a huge plus. I've heard little details that I have never heard before. I've got a pretty nice audio set up with Martin Logan speakers in front and Pinnacle 3-Element speakers in the rear all being pushed by an Elite receiver and an SVS cylinder for low end. In order to hear this level of detail from my set up, I would have to crank the volume to a level that wouldn't be acceptable in a family home. These cans put the audio right next to your ear without it sounding like you're standing next to a speaker.
The mic is sensitive enough that, when combined with the 3 levels of personal audio, I can hear most of the things going on in the house even though I've got the cans on. This is a big plus for anyone with kids. I haven't really played with all of the various pre-sets on these things yet, because I found the default to be quite good.
All is not roses and rainbows however:
Charging is a problem as described by other reviewers. (most disconcerting is the lack of a removable battery pack) Over-all the buttons on the mic side can are harder to manage than the other side due to the mic protruding from the center of the can. A better design would have put the mic on the edge. The center mount is only necessary if the cans were reversible but they are not. The angle of the cups makes wearing in the opposite direction a little odd and the direction of sound would be reversed (no option to switch). This of course would mandate the personal audio wheel be relocated, but that is a design concern. Oddly, the mic side ear cup is smaller than the other. This isn't TOO big of a deal, but you will likely feel your ear touch the inside of the cup. (when I wore in reverse to test this, understanding these are not reversible, my other ear touched the inside of the cup. I measured depth to verify.)
The only odd occurrence with audio is when I first start using them. Each time, my party says I sound distant or muffled. Within a couple of minutes, the issue resolves itself with no adjustment from me, so I am not 100% on the cause.
Over-all, if I could, I would give these 4.5 stars. Since I can't, I am going with 4 stars.
Because this is not Turtle Beach's first outing with headset design, it is a little annoying that they haven't added simple things larger volume wheels, more tactile buttons, and a separate controller mounted puck for quick muting and volume control. (The lack of controller mounted puck with mute and volume control means you have to relinquish the controller to make adjustments on the mic side can making their use during game play a little cumbersome.) At this price point their 15$ stand should have been included. Those things did not, however, influence the loss of a star.
UPDATE 11/6/14:
Turtle Beach released additional information for failed firmware and a method for getting the device into bootloader mode for a clean install. The information can be found at the following:
[...]
I had to follow clear to the last step before there was success. My gear is now at the following versions:
Transmitter (1.2.3)
Headset (1.0.5
The 1 star rating is now a 2. I will update again in a day or two once I have had time to actually put these things through their paces. It is nice that Turtle Beach recognized an issue with their headset, not so nice that their promised business day response time was not followed through. More to come.
OLD:
I pre-ordered these things as soon as I learned about them. It's hard to believe a truly wireless headset didn't come with the One, and odd that it took so long for one to be released. (and the premium... ouch)
The reason for the one star: Bricked. Opening the package, I decided to RTFM. The first thing is says is to update the headset. So I hop on Turtle Beach's website, download their v2.0.4 Ear Force Audio Hub and install it. It updates immediately to v2.0.5. It says "...please attach a Turtle Beach device..." so I plug the headset in. The computer updates a driver and the Turtle Beach tool immediately hangs on "Loading Device" then goes to "Load Device Failed." while advising me to disconnect and reconnect the device.
After a couple rounds of plugging in and unplugging, I sift through the Turtle Beach site and find that I need to plug in both the Transmitter AND the Headset. Fair enough, my mistake just doing the headset. I plug in the transmitter first and it recognizes the device. It then updates the firmware, as expected, and then prompts me to plug in the headset, which I do. No joy. Same issue. I unplug and re-plug the device. Still no joy. I then unplug both and plug them back in. Now neither device is recognized.
I thought, ok.. maybe it still works, it just won't update. I plug everything into the One as directed by the instructions. The transmitter just flashes LEDs 2 and 4 without ever going solid. I can find no literature on this flashing. I am now dead in the water with what is essentially a DOA device.
All instructions were followed as written online at their website and in the provided documentation. I can hear some of you saying "But this isn't a review of the HEADSET!" Actually, it is. There was no external or negative test case here. This headset was provisioned and installed as documentation dictated. I submitted a trouble ticket to Turtle Beach and am waiting to hear back from them. If/when I hear back, I will update this review. For the time being, I am stuck with a 250$ paper weight set. | video-games_xbox |
Flexible, clear, quality headphones. These are pretty good headphones that I'll break down in a minute. But here's the 'executive summary' for those short on attention spans. These headphones excel at flexibility and I really love that about them. It's incredible to have a set of quality gaming headphones that can pipe in your phone, mix in your own music, and work pretty flawlessly across anything you can think of (phone, PS3, XBox, Mac, PC). If you plan on using them heavily for things outside of gaming, you'll probably find them a bit too unbalanced in the lows, but that's completely alright. They should be; games (and voices) sound incredible through them. Think of them more as gaming headphones you can use if you want, not all-around mavericks. And now, details!
BUILD: 3/5
This is the one letdown of the area. For this high of a price, I was expecting higher quality components. The actual build quality is high, but the cans remain fraught with plastic and faux leather. It's really my only sticking point. The 'ears' (?) rotate so they can lay flat, but it would be nice if they had came with a case. I haven't tried to remove the cool-looking Spectre things on the side since I manage to destroy everything I try to take apart.
SOUND: 5/5 for gaming, 4/5 for music
The inline amplifier is pretty slick. It's nice to be able to adjust a bunch of stuff (volume, bass, treble, you hearing yourself, mic volume) easily on the fly. I plugged them into my Macbook to see if I still had the same adjustment while rockin' out and I couldn't. Ahhhh well, looks like they'll remain purpose-driven. Again, a bit disappointing in the lows categories when listening to music, but AWESOME for hearing small things in games. It really makes them come to life!
COMFORT: 4/5
I found them a bit tight. Not so tight that they're uncomfortable, just tight enough to always let you know they're present. The padded headband's a really nice touch.
MIC: 5/5
YES! THANK YOU TURTLE BEACH! I'm tired of terrible boom mics that act like springs and are garbage. Not only is this thing crystal clear for listeners, it's essentially a wire that you can bend and adjust every which way. You should be pitching THIS!
SETUP: 5/5
I added this as a category because I had an older set of Thrustmaster PS3 headphones that you needed an advanced engineering degree from MIT to get up and running. A little 'quick start' guide is included (as well as more wires than you can imagine, though conveniently labeled) to tell you how to wire these beasts to everything. REALLY simple -- something not too easy to accomplish for some reason on systems these days, especially the PS3.
In all, I'm pretty happy with them! I'm also hoping that -- since they're wired -- they'll have an easier time working with the PS4 (yet to be determined), too. If you're a serious gamer that cares about their headphones (and I assume you are or you wouldn't be eyeing a set of $200 gaming 'phones), these should do the trick for quite some time and leave you pretty dag gone happy!
*UPDATE* -- This thing rocks so well at voice that I've begun using it for video conferencing/work as well. It really is that good.
I received this from the manufacturer for testing and review and have shared my honest experience in this review. | video-games_xbox |
A must have. I'm going to start off by saying that I am NOT a fan of the vulgarity of the GTA series and V is no exception. It would be nice if there was an option to turn off the horrible language and if you weren't forced to go to the strip club in story mode, but unfortunately there isn't and you are. Keep these things in mind if you're one of those parents that buy M+ rates games for your children. There is a strip Club with breasts revealed, there are prostitutes which do indeed come into your vehicle and "service" you (sometimes you end up with one in your car without even realizing you "summoned" them, as you get their attention by honking your horn), pretty much everything is a sexual innuendo, the entire game is built off of violence and sex. So if you're ok with your 10 year old participating in all that then by all means...buy it for them.
Now with all that out of the way......on a graphics quality, storyline, free roam, creativity scale there is absolutely NO GAME that comes close to the GTA series. Nothing. The graphics are just insane, the storyline is detailed and interesting, and you will rarely get bored since you can pretty much go anywhere or do anything. Like being in the air? Grab a plane or helicopter and fly around the map or parachute out of it and listen to the wind whip by your head. Everything looks amazing from above and reminds you just how much crazy detail Rockstar put into this game. Would you rather be on or in the water? Go for a swim, dive underwater, cruise around on a jet ski or boat, or even find a submarine and go down into the deep dark crevices of the ocean. It's almost a little freaky so I don't do it much. lol If you prefer to keep it on solid ground, drive around in the usual car/truck/motorcycle/bicycle/4-wheeler/trike. Or just walk around on your own two feet and sight see.
I'm personally a big fan of the storyline of this particular game. I loved that you can switch between three characters (Michael, Trevor, and Franklin) and that their story's all tie together. There are a ton of small missions to do, as well as the big story missions. My favorite character to play as is Michael DeSanta. The reason Michael is my favorite is because he's a rare family man on GTA, or at least he tries to be. He had a wife and two kids that he fights with when he has them and fights to get back when he doesn't. It adds a bit of realism to the franchise I think. Trevor is absolutely crazy and it will not be unusual to find him talking about or trying to eat someone or perform sexual acts. Be forewarned. LOL Franklin is your typical GTA character. I've played the story mode all the way through probably 5 times but have yet to get 100% completion on the game. There's just that much to do! From hunting expeditions to photography classes where you have to track down different animals to take pictures of, it seems endless.
As if all that isn't enough to keep you from getting bored, there is GTA online now as well and I have been playing that pretty much nonstop since I got this game. Create and customize your own character, form crews with friends, complete awesome missions (only downside is there's not very many), form motorcycle gangs and start your own meth/weed/cocaine/forgery/counterfeit business, become a business CEO and purchase a warehouse, make money racing or fighting each other.......it's completely addicting.
Like I said at the beginning, I wish they didn't have to get quite as disgusting as they do in some forms, but the gameplay itself is phenomenal and makes this THE game to own. The only one that will replace it for me will be the next Red Dead Redemption 2 when it comes out. | video-games_xbox |
Close to perfect--much closer than I expected. There's something to be said about limiting five stars to only perfect or near perfect products, but this remote makes me question that. It's definitely not revolutionary or world changing, but for the price I paid ($15US), it's a a fantastic deal that I wish I'd gotten earlier. No setup required with my launch console Xbox One (also XB1S as well, but I have no way of testing that myself), just put the batteries in and use it immediately. If I happen to get Microsoft's future offering ("Project Scorpio"), I'm pretty optimistic it'll work with that as well.
First, functionality is excellent (which is the point I'd imagine). The volume buttons worked for me, even though holding them would be slower than pushing them repeatedly. The channel buttons seem to work perfectly with the cable in service (using your console to navigate, get program info, check the schedule, etc.), including the numbers. The console specific ones also work, of course. And the general media buttons work great with the console BR player and apps like Youtube, Netflix, Crunchyroll, etc.
The construction of the controller seems pretty good (for the price). Presumably it feels a lot cheaper than the less advance models of Harmony controllers, but the rubberized feel of the bottom is nice and the buttons feel suitably solid (though I could see them being a dirt and dust magnet).
The downside? No ejection button (though that seems to be more an issue with the XB1 and PS4). You do have to point the remote at the console, so don't expect it to work through a wall the way an actual game controller would. Because it is replicating almost every function on a console, there are quite a few shortcuts and similarly-labeled buttons (two back buttons, for example) because the OS has them, so it might take a little getting used to if you want to bother with them. Really, the only function I wish it had, but it doesn't, is changing TV input--and seeing how the console can't actually do that (to my knowledge), a remote isn't going to coax that out of it. But if you want a media remote for your console, this one is almost perfect. | video-games_xbox |
Great start for those new to Metro Series. I have to say I loved the original metro 2033. The atmosphere, the story, and weapons. There were many flaws with the original that were greatly improved in Metro Last Light. There are a 5 main things that make this game good, along with a few small flaws.
1. The combat is well improved. Unlike the first Metro I didn't have to sit there and unload a full clip into an enemy to kill him. The AI are well improved to the point were sneaking is the greatest weapon in the game which seemed impossible in the first game.
2. Button mapping and interface are well improved. By pressing different buttons it brings up a nice screen that shows you your inventory nicely as well as buttons to push in order to access that part of the inventory. Also selecting the military grade ammo was even better instead of accidentally switching to it while pressing x you have to press two buttons to do it. It helped me so much knowing that i didn't accidentally switch to military rounds when i didn't want to.
3. The choice of action is greater and you have more options in how you approach your situation. You can sneak through the whole game without killing a single human, go guns blazing, sneak around a kill everything, or a combo of each. Also the two endings are back with a good and bad. Both are good endings and I didn't disappoint myself by which ending I got because both a good in their own ending.
4. Weapons are stealth abilities are greatly improved. You can now carry three weapons of your choice with you. Also at markets you can upgrade them there. No more hoping for a gun with the right attachments you want. You can decide what you want just there. The amount of weapons in this game are even more. From the previous metro to this one there was close to 5 more guns added giving players new game styles to try. You can snipe if you want to now which was missing from the last game. The stealth is greatly improved to the point where it is too easy at times. It is still hard deciding who to avoid or kill but it is easier to do so than in the previous game. There is even an added instant kill sneak kill or knock out.
5. The graphics are beautiful and could compete easily with some of the top graphical games out there. It can even lag on some better pcs which is scary.
Now aside from the many pros the cons are there but are minuscule. For example ammunition is limited. You can't just go and stock on as much ammo as you want to. I get it is a realistic shooter and people can't carry 1000 assault rifle rounds with them but come on it was fun having a lot of ammo especially for the mutants. Also the ranger mode was only a preorder bonus and the only information on public release suggest a 5 dollar fee which is crazy for an added difficulty level. Also the game seemed shorter compared to others out there and with no multiplayer aspect YET, the game could have been longer.
All in all this game is great game and for its appeal to many people its a great buy.
5. | video-games_xbox |
Overall Letdown. Exactly why people would be so foolishly naive as to expect some groundbreaking new game from this, and then bitterly whine and complain on it in reviews, is beyond me. You saw COD4: Modern Warfare. You saw how little changed in COD: Modern Warfare 2.
Honestly, I was in this mostly for the story. It compelled me, and this is the concluding portion of it. I don't care what people think about it or if they complain about things that have been done before or are clichè, I enjoyed it, and the story ultimately satisfied me, while leaving me with an empty, yet relieved feeling, much like the player character at the end of the very last mission.
Everything is pretty much the same as in the previous game. I don't care; it's what I expected and what I wanted. If you wanted a totally new game, buy a different shooter. Get Battlefield 3 if you want, and brag and strut and taunt MW3 fans all you want; just leave my game experience alone.
Fanboyism? No, I'm not. I got legit criticisms about the game. The music sucks (no Hans Zimmer return), some of the missions are ridiculous (3 people against an entire Somali militia), there aren't any compelling characters aside from Makarov, and there isn't enough emphasis placed on the whole WORLD WAR 3 aspect hyped in the trailers. But it's still worth playing, and still exactly what I wanted.
Edit: The story. SPOILERS be here.
Compared to the raw, visceral experience of the previous two games (COD4 and MW2), this game had a very numbing effect on me. Not the sense of "We've seen it all before" on our part, but a sense of "We've done this all before" on the part of the game company.
What struck me hardest about the Modern Warfare series was how realistic it felt (50 foot snowspeeder jumps aside) and how it took old hat (Russians invade America) and made it feel horrifyingly new, helped along a great deal by Hans Zimmer's music.
And adding to that realism was a sense of scope. Things had a grand scale; events somewhere else affected the story involving you. You felt as if the world was truly watching when America was attacked (both in MW and MW2) and when America attacked.
There's no sense of that in this game. The game opens with missions in New York... and ONLY in New York. We don't even get a token glance at the fight in the rest of the east coast, a check-up on Washington or Sergeant Foley and such. And as soon as you beat the missions in New York, suddenly the Russians are pulling out of America entirely.
Perhaps the biggest sense of scope was with Makarov in the second game. Like with Osama Bin Laden or any major terrorist leader, he was top priority, but he was NOT the end-all of the conflict. The tagline for this game applied more perfectly for the previous one; "It doesn't take the most powerful nations on Earth to create the next global conflict. Just the will of a single man."
In Modern Warfare 2, this was absolute fact. Makarov set up a masterful series of events leading to, literally World War III. And by the end of the game, he'd created a juggernaut that had gone far beyond him as a man. Soap and Price were left with the dismal realization that their only hope was to "Find Makarov" and... then what? By that point, Makarov didn't matter anymore; no one person did. The war was started, and a great host of individuals were involved. The same way killing Bin Laden doesn't end the war in Afghanistan or Iraq, killing Makarov would not end World War III.
And yet that sentiment and feeling is completely gone from this game. One of the earliest missions of the games even sees the Russian president Vorchevsky negotiating for peace with the United States. This and the events of that mission completely KILL the product's salepoint of WORLD WAR III---it's no longer a dismal, distressing shade of gray, with Russia going to war because America was found to have committed a massacre at the Zakhaev International Airport, a massacre actually committed by terrorists disguised as Americans, complete with an undercover soldier-turned-CIA agent unwittingly exposed, and his body left for the authorities to find and identify.
Here, it's right back to simplistic black and white---Makarov bad, Everyone else good. Americans and Russians still fight for most of the game, but you rest easy in the knowledge that it's not REALLY Russia; it's just Makarov in control of it all. Makarov is no longer the catalyst causing the next international crisis; he IS the international crisis. He takes the President hostage, and SOMEHOW manages to control all of Russia in the process.
Compared with the last game, it went too far with regards to Makarov. He went from being the instigating force to THE force. The nearest equivalent I can think of would be if Gavrilo Princip, the anarchist who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and started the Great War, had kidnapped the Kaiser and taken control of all of Germany, and started personally directing the war.
It's just not as good, and the entire story suffers as a result. | video-games_xbox |
An Unplayable Port of a Decent PC Game. I was looking for a walkthrough for this game online. There aren't any. After playing it, I know why.
I thought the Human Campaign was sort of fun and kind of easy once you learn that you can blow up all of your enemies with cannons. But after playing 4 missions into the Orc Campaign, I couldn't take it anymore.
Concept: 9/10
Make a Real Time Strategy War Game with heavy RPG elements so you can upgrade your armies and heroes. Include 3 fully developed campaigns with approximately 24 missions each. Include an online battle mode where you can create armies of Humans, Dark Elves, High Elves, Orcs, Chaos, and Skaven. This is a GREAT IDEA on paper! What went wrong!?
Story: 8/10
The story for the Human Campaign and the beginning of the Orc Campaign are pretty good. They involve battle campaigns across a fantasy world. There are interesting characters and twists in the plot. If you enjoy fantasy, you will like the story.
Graphics: 3/10
Aside from the beautifully rendered opening movies from each campaign, the graphics are horrendous. I know this is a PC port and that we're not talking Assassin's Creed Brotherhood or Call of Duty here, but the graphics are PS2 quality.
Gameplay: 3/10
There is a world map and you can choose to stop and equip your soldiers, or continue on to a battle.
There are two basic types of units.
Hero Characters and Soldiers
Heroes are a single unit with about 20 Hit Points.
The Soldiers are about 20 units arranged in a formation with 1 Hit Point Each.
The Heroes can be equipped with magic items that improve their stats and potions that replenish their health. On the battlefield they have lots of hit points and have three types of special abilities. Combat abilities enable your hero to fight on the battle map. There are spells that improve your defense, allow you to hit multiple enemies at a time... Dueling abilities enable your hero to fight against an enemy hero 1 on 1. These are spells that only appear in Hero vs Hero duels. Your Hero can also be attached to a unit of troops (An elf can join 25 archers). Leadership abilities give the hero and everyone in that unit bonuses to hit, move faster, attack faster, resist damage... As your heroes perform in battle, they earn XP, which is used to buy abilities on a skill tree. It's best to figure out if your Hero is going to be a Warrior, a Duelist, or a Leader and equip them for that purpose.
The Soldiers can be equipped with 3 types of improved armor, 3 types of improved weapons, and morale boosting banners that keep them from fleeing the battlefield. There are melee units like spearmen who are good against cavalry, swordsmen who are good against spearmen, and cavalry who are good against swordsmen. There are also troops that attack with ranged weapons like archers, gunners (muskets), or cannons.
Once you equip your army, you can advance to the next mission.
Missions: 5/10
There are Assault Missions, Defend Missions, Siege Missions, Duels, and Escort Missions. All of the Missions have a Primary Objective and some Secondary Objectives. To win, complete the Primary Objective, to gain more gold, complete the Secondary Objectives. The missions also have conditions for Failure. If your army dies, you lose. If a hero dies, you lose... even though there is resurrection in the game fiction, if your hero dies in battle, you fail. This makes no sense to me... Why can't the hero be resurrected just like everybody else on the battlefield?
What you need to do is very clear most of the time.
But sometimes, you fail a mission because a Hero character gets stuck somewhere and killed.
Or, your heroes are far apart on the map and you can't micromanage both of them at the same time and one dies.
Or, you aren't exactly sure how to trigger an event in the mission and you fail...
Or, you can't click on one of your units because it is surrounded by 100 other units who are all moving and fighting.
There is no saving your game during or right before a battle, so one of these little mistakes means that you have to play a 20-40 minute battle over again.
Controls: FAIL
It is obvious that this game would be more fun with a mouse and keyboard. The control scheme often relies on moving around the map with one analog, then pushing up, down, left, or right, with the other analog, then pressing the right button A, B, X, Y to issue commands. So, to select a hero, hold down RT, then push the Left Analog Stick Up, then press Y to cast a spell with that hero. To change a formation of units, Hold down RT, push the D-Pad Right, then press B... It takes a long time to get used to, but once you get used to it, it isn't that bad. But, when you combine the convoluted controls with trying to select a unit in the middle of a battle with a super sensitive mouse pointer controlled by an analog stick, it becomes incredibly frustrating.
Interface: FAIL
These are the most convoluted interface screens that I have seen. The game hates to give you the information that you need. If a new hero joins your party, you must Hold RT, Press the Left Stick Down, then Press the Back Button to pause the game, select Skill Tree from a menu, highlight the skill icon, then Hold RT to see what it does. The game also assumes that you know about Warhammer because it never teaches you anything.
Maturity: Teen
There is no sex or swearing. It's basically like watching Lord of the Rings with really bad graphics.
Overall: FAIL
Avoid this game like herpes. Play the PC version Warhammer Mark of Chaos instead. I did finish the Human Campaign, and it was kind of fun because the maps are fairly linear. The enemies only come at you from the front, and you can weaken them with cannons. But in the Orc Campaign, you are being attacked from everywhere and the controls aren't responsive enough for you to save yourself from failing.
If you like games like this, check out the Total War Series or other Warhammer games on the PC. But there is no reason to play this game at all. | video-games_xbox |
If You Like Previous Versions of Forza, Pick This Up. I waited a long time to finally purchase this and the biggest reason why was because of the previous reviews. The biggest thing that came up in reviews was the word "Microtransactions". That scared me away from the game for the longest time and I made the decision that I'd only buy this game when it dropped to $39.99.
As soon as I received the game and installed it, I was blown away from the very start. The graphics are crazy! The feel of the road, acceleration, braking and power sliding on the controller are just amazing (unless the batteries in your controller are low, then you lose the vibration function). It may be true that there a lot of cars that you have to pay real money for but the game provides you with enough of a selection that purchasing a car pack isn't necessary; though you may buy one or two individual cars because sometimes there is one car that you feel drawn to. But as someone who rarely buys an add on, the game feels complete without the "micro transactions" that others complain about. Yeah, of course I wish we had 500+ cars and a few more tracks but for $39.99, I am completely satisfied.
There are a good number of tracks, depending on what you like, I feel there is enough variety to satisfy most racers. I prefer long tracks with a mix of open roads, tight sections and enough straight aways to open it up (but not get up to top speed) and there a few that meet that need for me. I really do enjoy that when I am going through my career mode, I can see the avatars of people on my friends list and it adds a more competitive feel to the race. I have one friend who races nothing but BMW's on the game and the majority of the time, if a BMW is available in the class that I'm running, the game puts his racing avatar in a BMW. That's a really nice feature that I like. I also like that it learns you driving techniques, so that when the driving avatars of your friends are in your game, they drive very similar to how they do when they play (hey bud, when driving into a curve, use your brakes, and not other cars to slow you down).
Overall, I find the game to a lot of fun. My wife has even picked up the controller and played herself (first time she has ever done that). The controls make it that simple for anyone to pick up and play but it also let's you customize your driving experience too. One example is the option to drive manual with a clutch, which I loved in Forza 4. You'll find the majority of online racers drive with an automatic and that might be fine and all but to get more out of your engine, you should use a manual. I prefer using the manual with clutch because it allows you to feel your car and you develop more of a connection to what's going on under the hood.
So I guess, if you're the type of person who purchases a lot of the DLC, yeah, I could see how this game might sting a little but if you're like me, a casual game who isn't that involved to drop more money just to have everything, then this game is definitely a good one. I love racing regular cars (I have no use for the exotic cars) and this provides plenty of that. | video-games_xbox |
NBA 2K13 is like a second time All-Star, it still needs a little push. Lets talk about some Basketball shall we? You might agree or disagree with me, but does anyone appreciate how athletic the game is, all within the limited space of the court (relative to a hockey rink or soccer field), or how the moves are allowed to be as fluid as it can be, governed by the constraints of the dribbling and ball movement rules. It would be easy to consider all of this, with a total disregard of the other aspects, and yet the shooting and hand-eye coordination skills of the game are just important as anything else.
Now let us take a closer look at NBA 2K13. Accurate game mechanics, check, realistic ball movement physics, check, a rule system that does not favor incessant hitting of the steal button or blatant blocking of layup lanes to stop fast breaks. Those are clear signs of a franchise's maturity, and the natural next-step for the virtual-Basketball genre.
Now, what about the almost godlike accuracy of your AI opponents, that leads to highly unlikely shot percentages...or the almost unstoppable momentum-based fast break comebacks that will wreck all big leads (I'm looking at you, Milwaukee) into empty vestiges of earlier quarters?
Thankfully, there are the online modes, where you get to play against human opponents, and the human efforts to score will be hard earned and deserving, but one can't help but lament about what a pity it is to have such subtle imbalances ruin an otherwise beautiful show of athleticism on the virtual court.
Granted, it has improved a lot on the realism front since last year. The gameplay actually emphasizes a tactical approach to the game this time, and open jumpers actually stand for something. The presence of a shooting opponent's vicinity actually affects shot accuracy as much as jumping up to block. Player momentum actually favors clear driving lanes to create more secure layups or dunks.
When Derrick Rose, or Kevin Durant, or the almighty Kobe goes up to the rim, though, all of this can be thrown out the window immediately, as their 90+ shot averages rule supreme. And those 90+ stats on the player attributes become the written word instead of the preordained gameplay code that makes the game tick. Against these All-Star players, all realism is rendered useless and you will be flailing helplessly against the AI opponent's godlike dunks or pull-up threes.
One thing can be said for this: 2K Sports likes overwhelming momentum in numbers a little too much for comfort. Or so it seems, as you see the opponent team score break after impossible break, after outrageous stops.
But it does look and feel like substantial effort was made to keep the action realistic and enjoyable, building a lead actually works like the real game would a majority of the gameplay, and the achievement of doing so drives on a player to play more, making it a great point of addiction to the game. And that translates to the online play - although the lag is noticeable at times, and button presses take a little longer than usual to initiate on-screen action, the online component is surprisingly playable on the Wii U, despite having the sheer disadvantage of having the sparsest online community of all the top consoles right now. If you can actually get a friend going for an online match, it can be great wits-against-wits action. You just need decent latency to reap the results of your hesitations, jukes and cruel pump fakes, and experience a whole new world of competition and replayability.
Good utilization of the Wii U gamepad to select the formations and tactics is an added bonus, and it actually does form a certain strategic battle mentality where you could, potentially, counter pick formations or tactics to properly neuter the opponent's choices. However, the ugly parts of having your smirk wiped out by the Boston Celtics after seeing a fourth quarter 20 point lead get erased cannot be ignored.
And certainly 2K Sports need to address this for next year, because it wouldn't be this pretty then. | video-games_xbox |
Best. Game. Ever. Hey, all of the reviewers who gave this title 5 stars can't be wrong or misguided. HALO is simply the best game ever created, on any platform (PC, PS1/2, Nintendo, what have you).
The graphics are lush and gorgeous, with an attention to detail that I have not seen since. Fire a slew of bullets at an enemy and spent rounds not only fly off your gun, but also stay on the ground. Blast marks, errant bullets, and blood stains all stay on the environment map, which can leave maps looking like real battlefields after a particularly intense game. Draw distances are also phenomenal, allowing players to pick off enemies from across the map with confidence (an no small amount fo skill).
The sound is terrific as well, as bullets, grunts, and other ambient noise all add to the atmosphere. Playing this game with surround sound is simply awesome.
The single player campaign is also great, and offers players of every skill a good challenge. Legendary is exactly what it sounds like, and beating the game on that level is quite a feat. A great advantage of HALO's campaign mode is the ability to team up with a friend and take out the Covenant as a team. The A.I. is also excellent. The enemies are challenging without 'cheating' (essentially becoming inhuman and never missing), which is what commonly happens on other games at the upper levels.
Another of HALO's strenghts is the fact that it is a *tactical* shooter, meaning that the player must use good strategy to survive. Being able to only carry two weapons at a time really drives home this point, and means that players will have to make sacrifices in order to carry an effective all-around combination of weapons. Vehicles are also great, and although learning to drive them can be a little frustrating at first most people catch on fairly quickly and are able to go around running their opponents over in short order.
HALO's controls are also excellent--easy to learn, with lots of customizable options making them accessible to players of all levels. This is hearsay for a hardcore PC shooter fan like myself, but I prefer HALO's controls to the mouse/keyboard setup on the PC (yikes!).
Finally, where HALO really shines is in multiplayer. With several different game types to choose from, customizable options affecting scoring, respawn time, weapon/vehicles available, etc... you and your friends will be coming back for more. No matter how good HALO is as a single player game (and it is very good), it is elevated to Best Game Ever through multiplayer. There's nothing quite like getting together 7 other friends and blasting each other apart. No X-Box live support, but it is possible to play online (with some patience).
The praise could just go on and on... If you have to get one game for XBox it has to be HALO. Accept no substitutes. | video-games_xbox |
The best game of 2002 enters the Xbox world. My sister's boyfriend recommended me to buy this game, and as soon as I launched the Czech PC version of the game - which is the version that I started with - I found it totally amazing. I am proud of my fellow Czechs who were able to construct this game - a game chosen as the best game of the year 2002 (at least in many European countries). The amount of data (contained on 3 CD's) that the creators had to put together is shocking, and initially it seemed to me that a team of 20 people would need several centuries to finish this task. Well, fortunately they have used a lot of modern technology, for example a system to scan the motion of the real actors which is subsequently translated to the motion of the artificial humans, and therefore the task was doable. There are many hours of "movies" in between the different scenes, and there is a lot of audiovisual effects everywhere. The individuals in the game have pretty good artificial intelligence, and you will be impressed how realistic all these objects and their motion are (unlike the cartoonish style of GTA, for example).
The Lost Heaven City is a completely realistic city, designed according to the actual buildings in the New York City and Chicago of the 1930s. Everything seems to work perfectly in this city - including the gas stations, public transportation, banks, car races, ships, small airport, and so on. Imagine more than twenty squared miles of the urban architecture where everything responds in a realistic fashion, including many things that are unnecessary to fulfil the game's twenty main missions (e.g. you decide jump from the bridge in order to see the ship from another side). There are 60 different models of the cars - that you can steal on the street if you learned how - that were carefully copied from the real cars in the 1930s (but they were renamed). All these cars respect all the laws of physics and they are described by 100 physical parameters each. If you shoot at the car (or use some explosives), it's getting destroyed in a very realistic way.
Moreover, there are about 30 fan web sites dedicated to the game, and the people who understand computers well enough can have a lot of additional fun with modding the PC version of the game - changing the cars, textures on the buildings, music, sounds, and so on. The Xbox version does not allow you to do it, I guess, but it has other advantages over the PC version - it seems that the graphics is even smoother.
The game has a tutorial where you learn how to control Tommy (which is you). On the PC version, the arrow keys and other keys on the keyboard are used for motion (and changing the weapons, jumping, and so on) while the mouse allows you to change the direction where you look (or shoot), and this combination is very natural. You can practice as the taxi driver - you will learn geography of the Lost Heaven City after some time (the map is recommended). The main game has 20 main missions with 106 checkpoints or so where the game is saved, and afterwards you may continue with the "free ride extreme". Nevertheless, I needed about 50 hours to complete the main missions.
The story seems as a good piece of literature - you are a taxi driver who accidentally becomes a member of Mafia, and you are getting increasingly difficult tasks. Well, you will have to shoot a lot of people, but from a moral perspective, I am sure that at the end you will agree that being a mafioso is not the best (and easiest) option for your life - especially because your friend will betray you, and you will have to kill him. After the war, they will kill you anyway.
The game was banned in Italy for some time in 2002 because the authorities viewed it as a perfect textbook to become a criminal. The most natural audience for this game are almost definitely Americans like you, but the publisher company of the PC version did a bad job when they promoted this game in the U.S. and the success in the U.S. was much weaker than the game's achievements in Europe. Therefore you are sort of lucky to read this review. Mafia might be the best game ever (so far, as of January 2004), and it is much less known in the U.S. than it should be (so far). Don't get manipulated by the advertisements of less perfect games. Buy Mafia, and you will be impressed. | video-games_xbox |
The Good The Bad The Review. The Good
| Very Destructible Environments | Fast paced very open Multiplayer | Beautiful, well-designed environments | Amazing Sound Quality | Class specs and Squads assignments
The Bad
| Some occasional Server Failures | Using Helicopters is not easy | Short Single Player campaign |
The Review
As many of you sit and play Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, I shut my copy into its box to give the new Battlefield Bad Company 2 a try. As many of you have read and heard the hype of how this game is going to shut out Modern Warfare 2 this isn't true. Even though this game is a very good game, you can't compare these two hot-shot shooters side-by-side. This is because the play-style fits different needs. Modern Warfare 2 is a smaller map fast paced run-and-gun game, where as Battlefield Bad Company 2 is a much larger scale map with squad spawning. A great example of the difference I noticed is sniping. When most people think of a sniper they think of a person who lays down hidden where no one can see them. With Modern Warfare 2 this isn't the case, because the maps are smaller and players can find landmarks on the kill cam the sniper has to move positions, in Battlefield Bad Company 2 it is much harder to spot a land mark after being shot by a sniper. So I will not be comparing the two shooters head-to-head because I can't.
First thing I did when receiving my copy of Bad Company 2 is starting the single player campaign. The first thing I noticed was the beautiful and exotic locations where you'll be sorely tempted to take a break from shooting bad guys and blowing things up to admire the scenery. Sadly there is now two player campaign for those who love to have a friend with them, but the squad mates that tag along are hilarious and defiantly make up for your not so funny friend who speaks to much. My only complaint about the single player campaign is that it felt very short (about 6-8hrs).
Even though the scenery is very beautiful, it didn't stop me from trying to blow anything and everything up, from trees to barricades, buildings, out-posts, vehicles and bridges all demolish from gunfire and explosions. Nothing is more satisfying then blowing up an out-post with a sniper in it, well unless you just blow a building down with soldiers in it. But on the contrary buildings do have a bad side, once you take cover and notice the gaping hole forming right where you were ducking, where enemies don't mind shooting you through that hole, you notice yourself always on the move for cover. Yet, as you watch a building crumble to the ground you almost feel invincible.
Another reason you'll want more of this game is the Humor of it. Humor is another way that Bad Company 2 distinguishes itself. Your squadmates each have great personalities, and their banter is witty and entertaining. Sit and wait around for them to start their conversations, it is well worth it.
But what will keep you coming back for more with Bad Company 2? The online multiplayer will have you playing for hours with up to 24 players compete in squads in a few different match types. In Rush, the attacking team assaults an enemy position in an effort to destroy two targets of opportunity. If the attackers succeed, two more targets open up, as well as an entire new section of battlefield. These progressive contests are fierce and engaging, and each new area offers new challenges to which both teams must adapt. In Conquest, two teams strive to hold three control points while fending each other off. The natural flow of combat is unpredictable here, as points can be captured by a lone soldier or by a heavy armored assault. These battlefields are more fluid, and because the action doesn't move on like it does in Rush, they tend to be more thoroughly ravaged by destruction by the end of the match. Then finally, Squad Deathmatch, pits four squads of four against each other in a more traditional, yet still very fun competition. Each mode offers a different take on the core combat, providing a great variety of ways to do battle.
Bad Company 2's technical expertise puts itself on a whole other level as well, and the large, well-designed maps make for superb stages for combat. Everything from snowy forests, dried out deserts, coastal industrial complexes, to jungle villages and riverside settlements. These maps are impressively varied, they offer diverse terrain and more buildings than most players would need in a match which gives you great spots to hide. Each match is incredibly dynamic and demanding constant adaptability. In addition to the beautiful maps, you can use the unique spotting mechanic to increase your team's battlefield awareness. By getting an enemy in your sights and tapping a button, you put a temporary marker over his head that your whole team can see. It's a simple yet potent move that is immensely helpful to your team, and if it leads to his death, you'll get a nice little point bonus for your troubles.
Earning points unlocks new items such as weapons, gadgets, and attributes specific to the class you are using, some items are not class specific and can be used with any class. The classes in Bad Company 2 range from: soldiers who wield assault rifles, grenade launchers, and ammo kits; engineers who wield the rockets and the ability to repair vehicles; medics who support with light machine gun fire, heal injured and revive downed allies; and snipers who provide long-range support and close-range demolitions. You earn all your point from kills and assists, supporting teammates and medals earn throughout the match. Earning new gear only makes your soldier more powerful, allowing him access to newer weapons and abilities that others may not have.
Squad based re-spawns are another plus, when you have entered a squad you can choose to spawn on another player in you squad who is still alive giving you the benefit of not having to hoof it to the next rush point, or if your squadmate is planting a bomb you can spawn on them to help protect him as he is planting the bomb.
All around this game is top of the line shooter, the amazing landscape, great humor, crisp sound quality and amazing multiplayer set-up will have playing for hours, besides some minor malfunctions with server connections this game is near flawless, the action is one-of-a-kind and I would suggest picking up a copy as soon as possible. | video-games_xbox |
A No Spin Review. Let me begin the review by saying that this game is not my first Tom Clancy title, but it is my first Ghost Recon game. I have played Rainbow Six Vegas, which is a third person shooter somewhat like Ghost Recon but also different. I play many games and I am not completely biased towards a particular game. I like third-person shooters just as much as first-person and role-playing. I will review the game by parts split between campaign, guerrilla mode, and online competitive multiplayer.
Campaign:
The campaign as many others have said is not the most enthralling storyline. The control system is fluid and the campaign gives you the choice between stealth or running and gunning. I have not played all of the missions yet, but I can say that the AI that works with you is not the most intelligent. The AI can sometimes goof, but most of the time are extremely helpful for coordinating sync shots. The campaign is extremely enjoyable by yourself, but if you have friends it is even more fun. Working together with your friends is very fun, but since there is no matchmaking you have to actually have friends with the game. Overall the campaign is an enjoyable experience but with some flaws that hold it back from being a perfect experience. The campaign gets a 4/5.
Guerilla Mode:
Guerilla mode suffers from some of the same problems as the campaign. There is no online matchmaking so again, you'll need to have friends with the game. An extremely odd implementation by the creators is that they only give you a random weapon for guerrilla mode rather than let you use gunsmith to customize the weapons. This game type is like many other horde-esque modes where you face wave after wave of enemies. Guerrilla mode is fun but flawed so it gets a 4/5.
Online Multiplayer:
I have mixed feelings about the multiplayer. It is quite fun at some times. I like that the creators encourage the use of cover and working with your teammates. You get much more experience by working with teammates to take objectives than running and gunning by yourself like most first-person shooters. A couple of the game modes are innovative and really fun. There are many ways to get experience and an interesting thing added is that you get more experience for killing people from behind cover than when you just kill them. The online multiplayer for some parts is extremely fun. With that said, you will get pummeled online when you first start. I was destroyed for a while before I started getting the hang of the controls. After a couple days in some matches I will do well, but in others I still get beat down. The multiplayer is balanced by having you make choices and lose certain things to gain others. You must choose between certain weapons. The gunsmith for multiplayer is awesome. It lets you customize many things about your weapons and is extremely fun. In gunsmith you can enter the firing range and test your creations, this makes gunsmith even better. Overall, multiplayer is very fun, but just as a warning, you will most likely get pummeled. The multiplayer gets a 3/5.
This is a great game. I don't know why so many people have given it really bad reviews. The game is fun to play and has so many possibilities for gun creations it makes the game even more fun. I gave this game a 4/5, but I do not believe that this game is worth the $60. I would definitely buy it, but wait for a price reduction. This game is fun especially if you have friends with the game. It definitely is a buy though. This game is somewhere between a 3/5 and a 4/5 but closer to being a 4/5. | video-games_xbox |
More Intense than the TV Series. The Walking Dead game is more about the tough decisions you have to make in life or death situations, than fighting zombies. This is intereactive storytelling at it's finest!
Concept: 10/10
Bring the grim graphic novel to life, but allow the story to adapt to the reader based on their decisions. Include puzzle elements, some bursts of action, and meaningful dialogue trees with memorable characters.
Story: 10/10
This is a standalone story that runs parallel to the TV Series / Graphic Novel Series. There's no Rick, Shane, Governor... Instead, there's a convicted murderer named Lee who is on his way to prison when the zombie apocalypse happens. Shortly after Lee's escape, he runs into a resourceful little girl who has been surviving on her own named Clementine. As her guardian, Lee must make very tough decisions for the survival of the group and the well being of Clementine as they're thrown into life or death situations. There's the constant threat of zombies and things worse than zombies: Bandits, weirdos, liars, betrayers, and insane people... Lee's decisions affect his future, Clementine's future, and often times, the fate of the party members who join them. The story is well told, well acted, well presented, intelligently written, and your decisions affect the outcome. It's GREAT!
Gameplay: 8/10
Most of the gameplay involves conversations with other characters and dialogue trees. If you want an action game where you blast 1000 zombies with guns, this isn't the game for you. Other gameplay includes searching environments for items, clues, and solving puzzles in creative ways. Then there are quick bursts of action, where you must aim a cursor and quickly perform the correct action. For example... A zombie tackles you to the ground and you must put the cursor over the zombie's face and press the X button (which represents kicking it to buy time). Or you may have to button mash to push it away. The gameplay is pretty minimal because the story progression is the main focus of the game.
Graphics: 9/10
It's no Halo 4, instead, it's a highly stylized graphic novel looking game. The environments, characters, and zombies all look true to form.
Sound: 10/10
The background music is dramatic and mournful. During the action sequences, it's exciting. The voice acting is also well done.
Replay Value: 4/10
You can play the game over again and make different choices, but there really isn't a reason to. There are no multiplayer elements.
Maturity: M
There's swearing, gore, intense situations, disturbing situations, and the general stuff that you'd find in horror films.
Overall: 10/10
If you're looking for a very dramatic story that changes based on your decisions, then this is as good as it gets!
Buy this game if you love the Graphic Novels or TV Series.
Buy this game if you like dark storytelling.
Buy this game if you like interactive storytelling where your decisions drastically affect the outcome.
Rent this game if you have 12-15 hours to play through it.
Avoid this game if you want it to be like Resident Evil or Dead Rising. There's very little action.
Avoid this game if you can't handle heavy drama. There are some disturbing scenes.
If you enjoyed the dark story, check out Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill Downpour.
If you like games where your decisions affect the outcome, try the Mass Effect or Elder Scrolls series.
If you like good storytelling, check out Red Dead Redemption, Bastion, Limbo, or Bioshock. | video-games_xbox |
Great Tennis Game. If you're a tennis fan, then this is definitely a game to get. You have a wide variety of real life stars to choose from, or you can custom design your own to match your playing style.
Your character selection is great - 24 names including Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova, Andy Roddick, Roger Federer and much more. You can custom create your own character with the hair style and look that matches you.
As you play, you earn stars which you can apply to a variety of skill types. You can buy training and enter in low level tournaments to hone your skills. Sure, some of those beginning tournaments might be on questionable courts with only a few audience members - but once you begin to prove your talents you can work your way up to the larger scale arenas.
I really appreciated the fine detail in each court. You don't start out in large, lush arenas. You start out on concrete courts with cracks, with barely a dozen people watching. Random passer-bys walk or bicycle along the court's edge. Take heart, though - after months of hard work and practice (in game time) you'll be wowing the larger audiences.
My boyfriend used to play tennis quite seriously and was quite impressed with the accuracy of much of the game. The different types of shots actually sound differently. The characters move very fluidly for the most part and react as a real tennis player would. There are stumbles as they chase the ball, racquet spins while they wait for a shot.
They try to give you an "environment feel" with the sound. For example, when you're playing a tournament in Japan you get asian style music. As mentioned, the tennis shot sounds do actually sound like the ball would in various situations. Really, other than that, you get audience clapping. What else do you want to hear in tennis?
If you've never really played tennis before, you might really come to appreciate just how much strategy is involved in a game of tennis. If you're a tennis player, you can really hone your strategic skills by playing this, seeing what works and what doesn't work depending on the court type and situation.
Well recommended! | video-games_xbox |
Online review (Xbox Live. The time I have to sit down and play video games as I get older is dwindling year by year. I don't really have the time to sit and grind at a game for days on end like I used to be able to. Unfortunately I haven't really given survival mode, zombies, or the campaign much of a chance. If that's what you're looking for, go skip ahead to another review.
Call of Duty's multiplayer has been the bread and butter of this franchise since it's introduction. Black Ops 2 has overhauled the whole system into a familiar yet different packaging.
As you may know, Black Ops 2 takes place in 2025 and many of the weapons in this game reflect that. Don't get me wrong, there are still several guns carried over (Scar, MP7, Remington 870 to name a few) but most of the guns in this game are either based on current weapons or completely new. This can be a little confusing at first because the familiarity of the M16, M4, Barrett M107, and several others are only found in the campaign mode. This is going to take some time trying to familiarize yourself with the nomenclature and characteristics of each of the weapons and how well they work in a multiplayer environment. However, after a short amount of time, you should be able to notice which guns have their similar counterparts in the other CoD series (M27 = M4, SWAT 556 = M16) and so on. So you're not left completely in the dark.
CoD's multiplayer has been progressively getting faster paced as the franchise ages and this is easily the fastest CoD to date. This has lead many people including YouTubers (Woody's Gamertag, Drift0r) who have said this can be the most frustrating and rewarding Call of Duty ever made. Treyarch accomplishes this by decreasing the size of the maps, making the spawns closer to the action, and balancing the weapons where nearly any gun can be used on any map depending on the gametype and your playing style. So this game works well for people who want to run and gun, PTFO, or hang behind.
This is also the first CoD that really rewards people who play the objectives, taking domination flags, picking up dog tags, using the UAV, and getting assists. This is something that has really benefitted me. In MW2, BO, and MW3, I would get mega assist points per game (8+ on average), but had an average KD of 1.00. Personally, I feel like this game is suited towards my playing moreso than any CoD to date.
That doesn't mean that this game doesn't have it's issues either. So to shorten this review, here's a pros and cons:
Pros:
- Huge rewards for playing the objective
- Pick 10 system allows you to pick up to 3 attachments on a gun, any perks from any of 3 tiers, multiple perks per tier via wildcard, secondary, no secondary, extra lethal grenades, no lethal grenades, tactical grenades (or 2x), and so on.
- Weapons level up like MW3, but you don't lose them when you prestige
- Gold and Diamond gun camos are something fun to work for
- More different attachments than ever before
- Smaller maps = more action
- All weapons are good in the right hands on most maps
- Killstreaks are based on score, not just kills. So you get points for playing objective, getting kills, assists, UAV as mentioned
- I enjoy the new maps, you're rarely more than 10 seconds away from combat
- Prestiging isn't something you hate doing now, nothing to lose really
- No matter what you're using and what you're doing, you're adding to some sort of longer term score or leveling up a weapon, which feels very rewarding.
Cons:
- Still no matchmaking from what I can tell
- Some scorestreaks are a bit overpowered* Many of the high point scorestreaks that are OP will take significant skill to attain
- Smaller maps lead to short lives
- Some attachments are OP (target finder, although fun, is way too easy to use)
- Spawns are terrible. I have literally spawned in people's crosshairs. Other times I have spawned with an enemy in my crosshairs.
- More people tend to back out of games, and it takes longer to find a game and get into one.
- There is an issue with the lag compensation and bullet damage, 99% of the time the person initiating the gunfight will win.
- The dolphin dive/dropshotters are still annoying, however it has been nerfed some
- Although most guns are fairly even, some are clearly a notch above the rest (remington 870, MSMC or PDW, FAL)
- The spawns and face paced does lead to a lot of camping and spawn trapping
- No real graphical improvement
- Knife is extremely difficult to use, I find myself bumping into enemies and then having a shootout before considering the knife
- Grenades feel much weaker than MW3, which were already considerably nerfed.
Sandy Ravage in one of his videos said that this CoD has the steepest learning curve of any CoD to date. I would have to agree, but once you find a few guns you like to use, use them a lot, prestige the guns a couple times, then try out a couple more. Once you get the hang of this game, the initial frustration tends to fade away and quickly become the most fun Call of Duty to date. | video-games_xbox |
My Favorite XBox Game So Far. I absolutely love this game. Graphics need to be seen to be believed! This was one of the three games that I first purchased with the system (the day it came out on 11/15/01) and it is the only one that I still play. I have finished the game completely, but I am still addicted.
My favorite aspect of the game is how you are scored on your driving by amassing Kudos. A cerntain level of mastery of control needs to be used in order to gain the kudos (style points) needed to progress through the game. I particularly love this feature of the game -- you don't just drive, you have to learn how to drive with style (i.e., control your slides around a turn, come off of a hill just right, and still maintian a top speed). There is a tremendous amount of skill and strategy that needs to be employed in the later rounds of the game, which can be frustrating, but adds to the longevity of the game.
Another thing that I love about this game is the type of racing that you do. There is the typical road race scenario, but there are also challenges of different sorts (how many cars can you pass in a minute and a half, how many kudos can you build up over two laps, how many laps can you do in three minutes, etc., etc.) This is another feature that adds to the longevitiy of the game.
The only negative thing that I feel is in the game is the fact that on road races it is INCREDIBLY challlenging to catch up to the leader once you fall behind. It can be done, but the computer drives the courses near-flawlessly, and some aggressive, well timed, and lucky driving needs to come into play if you need to catch up. There was a time when I thought that it was downright impossible to do so, but I have done it -- albeit only a few times. The upside to this flaw is that the races aren't overly long (until the end of the game), and you can restart a race as many times as you want without penalty.
I recommend this game if you are looking for a challenging, visually beautiful, and just over-all FUN game. | video-games_xbox |
Fun during story missions up to level 30, but end game is broken beyond repair, developer is incompentent, just not fun anymore. I've never reviewed a video game before and don't generally review things in general, but I feel compelled to do so for The Division because so many of the reviews are overlooking the game after you complete the first 30 levels. DO NOT TRUST ANY REVIEWS that have not played it after the original story missions.
Where to start... This game looked so incredible! Wonderful and very impressive art, a promise of a tactical (strategy) shooter with role-playing game elements, and putting together a team to tackle increasingly harder missions and enemies. For the first story based part of the game, you get much of this, however, once you hit level 30 and the original content is played, things become horrible. There basically is no end game and the developer continues to make the end game WORSE after every update. Here are the major issues that made me and OVER 90% of the player base quit.
- Game play is frustrating with too many bugs causing major issues with play. Things like falling through the ground, heals not taking effect until after you are dead, lag on servers making it unplayable, cheaters/hackers for PC platform, and updates not fixing bugs but introducing new ones.
- End game content consists of either repeating the original story missions with enemies that now take HUNDREDS of bullets to kill, or participating in an "incursion" which lacks any creativity and is basically a fixed area with waves of enemies that you must survive. Many of these enemies can kill you in 1 or 2 shots, but take literally HUNDREDS of bullets to kill them.
- The "Dark Zone" was supposed to be the interesting area where you could find hours of fun things to do and compete against other players in player vs player for the best gear (loot). However, the entire balance of PvP is broken and instead you have people that play for 8 hours a day, or who played a lot when it first came out being geared way more than anyone else and they just kill all the other players in boredom. This results in the only area of the game where you can get new gear and progress your character being impossible to do those tasks. Instead you have an entire area of the game that is unplayable because of the bullying and "griefing" done to people that just want to play the game and progress their characters. The developer seems in love with their broken experiment and refuses to separate out the PvP and PvE elements meaning THERE IS NO OPTION TO DISABLE THE BROKEN PVP to be able to progress your character.
- The level of random chance involved in the gear that you get is incredibly bad odds. The random elements are combined with randomness on top of more randomness so that you LITERALLY have a better chance at winning the lotto then getting the pieces of gear you need to build your character to a specific style of game-play you want. There is many types of gear and you have no ability to even know what type of gear you will get in the end-game missions. In the earlier missions you were specifically told what gear type and quality to expect for completing a mission. In the end game you have to just pray you get what you need (e.g. holster) and if don't, well tough, go play that boring content 100 times more until you get it.
- Thus... there really is only a few character builds that you can effectively become, and each time a new update is released it shifts this "meta" so that you have to start over or with the 1.3 patch making it so that only one type of build is effective at all ("tankitician"). The developers basically have killed any role-playing element in the game. Worse, the decisions around the design of these end game mechanics have made it so that cover is dangerous to use and you are better off "running, rolling, and gunning" just like a regular FPS game. However, there is no balance between the weapons and you must grind for hours to even get a weapon making it like playing Halo except only 10% of the players have access to all the best guns.
- In the end game it is basically impossible to complete any content without a team of other players. When the game was new there wasn't much issue finding people to play with from the over 1 million people playing it. However, because over 90% of the player base has quit the game the match making system isn't even reliable at forming a group. If you do get in a group you likely won't have people speaking your language, and that is if you are lucky and they have a headset/microphone. If you are really unlucky then you'll play through to the end of whatever you are working on and get kicked from the group to either lose the reward for the mission or be killed by your former teammate and have your gear you just worked to get stolen.
In conclusion, if you are going to buy this game, get it to play the story missions and get to level 30. Then uninstall the game and you'll remain happy with it. If you continue to play you will only become more and more frustrated, upset, and eventually be writing an angry review like myself and others. | video-games_xbox |
Spectacular, maybe the best third-party game of the year. Calling Assassin's Creed eagerly anticipated is saying it lightly. In what may be the best holiday season for video games ever, Assassin's Creed may very well be the best third-party, multi-platform game to come out all year, as it delivers on every level and then some. From the minute you plunge into the huge, absolutely gorgeous world of the major cities of the 12th Century Holy Land, you will be immersed in the story progression of the game, as well as the overall presentation of this long in-development project. Assassin's Creed puts you in the shoes of Altair, a master assassin who has more than one trick up his sleeve. His graceful moves are what makes Assassin's Creed so good to start with, as you run, jump, and take out targets. Altair's stealth moves are performed surprisingly easy thanks to the incredibly fluid controls, which shine even more in the heat of combat. Presentation wise though, is where Assassin's Creed will receive the most accolades. The three towns that take up the game; Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus, are brilliantly realized. Everything from the townspeople to the brilliant sound designs and effects will get your attention, but it's the little things that really make Assassin's Creed special. Little touches in terms of character movement and behavior as well as environmental effects are what also help make Assassin's Creed a real winner, as well as the brilliant music score to boot. If there's any drawbacks to Assassin's Creed, there are occasional graphical glitches, but nothing that super noticible. The game's ending may cause some confusion as well, and leaves the door open for an inevitable sequel, but if there ever was a game that deserved a sequel, Assassin's Creed definitely does. All in all, Assassin's Creed is a spectacular game that lives up to it's hype, and saying it's an essential pick up is saying it ever so lightly. | video-games_xbox |
Great racing game--accessible to a wide audience. Dirt is a great racing game that features enough customization to cater to a wide range of fans. There are 5 difficulty levels on Dirt, each with varying amounts of realism, damage, and AI skill. Arcade racing fans can set the level on Rookie or Clubman (I believe that's what the 2nd lowest difficulty level is called), while more serious racers can ratchet up the difficulty for a more realistic experience. Dirt features several types of racing in a few different modes and a total of 46 available vehicles you can collect (along with several paintjobs for each), and for the most part is a pretty good game, though it does have some shortcomings. The good and the bad:
THE GOOD:
- Career Mode is great. There are 11 tiers of competition which expose you to all the various racing types in the game, and you can earn money from career mode to buy more vehicles.
- The races are fun and the control is great. Difficulty can be adjusted to suit your needs and the car can be tweaked if you so desire (but doesn't have to be if you don't want to mess with it).
- Several tracks offer quite a bit of variety, and the ability to race different classes of vehicles on most of them provides replay value.
- Great graphics, great sound effects when you drive or crash
- Upon completing a race your time is uploaded and you're given a worldwide rank based on everyone who has ever run the race. Nice touch.
THE BAD:
- Championship Mode is, ultimately, pointless. Sure, it's a great idea to have Championships of 15 or 30 races (or more if you choose the long option), but when you win a Championship you get no money, no trophy--not even a cutscene of any kind. Couldn't there be SOME kind of award, even if it was a new skin for the vehicle you won the championship in?
- Multiplayer lacks, both on and offline. First, there's no split screen multiplayer, which is annoying. But even online play is limited to only 2 kinds of events where you don't actually see your opponents but are only aware of their time relative to yours. This would be okay (and doesn't bother me that much), but communication between opponents is limited as well.
- The frame rate can suffer sometimes, though this doesn't happen often.
Dirt is a great game overall, but a few shortcomings keep it from being a spectacular game. Why not offer money or some kind of prizes in Championship Mode? And why not allow the XBox mileage achievements to be earned in other modes of play (you can only get the mileage in career), which might encourage more people to play online rather than playing the career over and over again? Still, if you're a fan of racing at all I highly recommend Dirt since it's few flaws are not enough to keep this game from being a lot of fun. | video-games_xbox |
This game is a pain in the neck. This game is annoying. It really takes work to master all the controls. From aiming, to switching between weapons, reloading, crouching/lying down/taking cover/goggles/battlefield map, etc., etc., this game probably has the most complicated control system of any shooter. Then you have to gain competence deploying all the various resources the game gives you--at the same time, while taking fire from enemies. At many points you command your squad which is walking with you, plus a ground vehicle, plus a helicopter, plus an "eye in the sky" reconnaisance drone! The wheeled vehicle, helicopter and drone have no AI, so they don't do anything unless you command, btw! Not to mention controlling your actual character at the same time.
The other problem is the fact that the character just moves really slowly. He aims slowly, he reloads slowly, he does everything way slowly, and that gets you killed but quick. The aiming is just painfully. freaking. slow. Dudes will blow you away while you try haul your gun around. I'd say the character moves his gun at about 1/2 the speed a person in real life would. When you have the scope up on the rifles, that speed gets cut to about 1/6 the speed it would be in real life. Ridiculously frustrating.
Then there's the fact that you can be blown away with just a couple of shots from enemies whose targeting is impeccable, and who are camouflaged really well. Add to that the fact that it is about 1 million miles and a thousand bad guys between save points, and that any type of healing is even more rare than the save points are!
I like hard games. I really enjoyed Rainbow Six Vegas, for example, depsite the fact that some levels are just killer (like the dark construction site at Dante's!!). But GRAW is just too freaking complicated and difficult in an annoying way. Not in a challenging way--an annoying way. Like when you get continuously blown away and have to restart the level at a point WAAAY back and kill the same 2 dozen dudes all over again. And again. And again. And AGAIN!!!
I've been playing this for quite a while now and despite having long ago mastered all those darn controls and commands, I'm throwing in the towel. Too frustrating. | video-games_xbox |
For every 'fix', a new problem. When Naruto Generations was announced and I saw the previews featuring some of my favorite characters and cool cutscenes, it was definitely something I was looking forward to.
I was even more impressed by the fact that in Generations they seemingly tried to address some problems in Naruto Shippuden Storms 2: online substitution spamming and the near uselessness of combo attacks for example.
Combo attacks (taijutsu to the fans) are now a much more significant piece of the action mainly because substitutions are now limited by a substitution bar, though they are easy to pull off.
However, this change is undermined by the simple fact that chakra dashing can be done at virtually anytime, meaning that even should you substitute, your opponent can chakra dash just as fast to your new location and continue his/her assault. A chakra dashing opponent can whittle down your Substitution bar in an instant, leaving you open to incredible amounts of damage. It takes getting use to and you'll usually find yourself either very pleased or very aggrivated, depending on whether you're the one with the empty Substitution bar.
The characters feel particularly unbalanced unfortunately. Several, like Danzo, Masked Man, Kisame, and oddly enough Part 1 Tenten as well, are so over-powered that you'll be running into those handful of characters a majority of the time online.
All the item collection is fun and the Story mode cuts out the QTE's and exploration found in Storm 2 and though I found Storm 2's QTE's to be a negligable experience, taking out the exploration completely does make the game feel a bit lacking.
Of course, both those things were replaced by fully animated cut scenes before and after every 'Tale' and all of them are pretty amazing.
It is worth mentioning though that during almost all the 'Tales', the story progresses just through screenshots from the anime and a few contain fights that seem tacked on just to give the story a few extra fights.
Lastly, there's no music from the show in this game at all, which I think might just be a 'thing' with the Storm games. All the music is just low quality generic music.
All in all, this is a fun albiet very flawed experience.
It's a blast to see and use so many of your favorite characters, to see some anime scenes not in the show or manga, to have plenty of things to unlock and utilize, an online mode that has tournaments and such, but the fun is reined in by unbalanced combat and characters and the tedium of nearly every online fight being against the same few over powered characters. | video-games_xbox |
This Actually Exists. When I saw they were letting people write reviews on this, I let out an involuntary cackle of malicious glee, and pursed my lips for the cathartic venting that is to come.
You may have heard legends of terrible games, depending on how much of the internet you are exposed to. Superman 64, Bubsy 3D, Atari's E.T., and the entire Sonic Franchise. Well, even amongst the sordid mediocrity and perfidious failure that is the Sonic Team's trademark, Sonic '06 may be the coup-de-gras. The queen mother. The magnum opus. Etc.
Where does one begin to write a review when I am limited to the tiny chat-box of Amazon's review service? It cannot possibly contain my unfocused vehemence or general saltiness towards this-oh, most hateful of games!
Let me just say that, were I to choose between rolling a cannonball down a hill onto a group of small children, or to beat this game in its entirety, I would be stifling a giggle as I quipped about, "getting the ball rolling" and waving to the kids below. It is an historically bad mistake to play this game.
It feels much like playing the Alpha version of a bad indie game. Y'know the ones- from the back alleys of Steam or the corners of the internet. Unfocused, with glitches sprinkled about like a seasoning of idiocy, this game leads you by a hook in your navel on a tour-de-force of history's worst missions and side-quests. Along your maddening way, you run into a motley cast of characters so two-dimensional, they could fit into the pockets of an emo-kid's skinny-jeans.
The soundtrack...exists. I need say no more. But I will. Think elevator music done by an "up-and-coming" garage band. In reverse.
The voice acting was done by a team of out-of-work car salespeople,who were given one take to say all of their lines in what sounds to be a cotton-ball manufacturing plant.
The vague gesticulations at a plot were written down by a man with a 109 degree fever and an addiction to hallucinogenic drugs. (He also died after the first campaign was written, it seems. There is no plot to speak of after Sonic is conquered.)
And much more tomfoolery and shenanigans abound. All I have to say for playing this game..."It's no use!" | video-games_xbox |
this appears to be a wonderful option for someone who can comfortably wear medium-to-small sized . From the short amount of time I've spent with the device, this appears to be a wonderful option for someone who can comfortably wear medium-to-small sized hats and doesn't wear glasses. It does expand to fit larger heads, but there is a strange pulley system within the padded band underneath the large glowing plastic frame that has a very hearty tension to it. On the one hand, it appears really well-made and unlikely to wear down or lose its strength over time, but on the other, if your head is too big, it causes the headset to pull up on your ears and pinch your head. I considered simply cutting this piece off, but the cable runs through it and based on the tests I was able to make the plastic frame is strong enough to put considerable pressure on your head anyways--great for keeping the headset in place, but quite bothersome for a guy with glasses.
As for the connectivity, the package is deceptive and makes it appear to have a standalone USB dongle for transmitting sound, but in actuality there is a standard audio-jack cable connected to the USB dongle. So, not only does it take up a USB slot on your PC, but also your headphone jack (although... I can't think of why you would need the headphone jack if you were already planning to use this). This is good because it makes the device plug-and-play, but it also slightly reduces the portability. Cables tend to wear out faster than things that don't get wrapped and bent up repeatedly. The headset also comes with several other cables, my favorite being an auxiliary cable that plugs directly into the headset and whatever iPod-like device you so choose. I'm not quite sure, but it appeared to be powered through the cable too, as I didn't have to turn them on for it to work. To connect to videogame consoles, the package includes an xbox proprietary auxiliary cable that plugs into the controller and also a really funky audio-jack-to-L/R component audio cable. In theory, you plug the USB adapter into your console of choice (for power and microphone feedback), and then plug the cable for that into the component converter, which then plugs into your TV and allows the console's component cables to plug into the back of the plugs you just inserted, intercepting the audio and transmitting it back to the headset. This, of course, doesn't work with HDMI connections, so make sure your TV has a headphone jack before you buy this if you happen to be in this scenario.
I am not much of an audio connoisseur, but the quality seemed really great. If the headset had been designed a little bit bigger and/or looser, I would most definitely be keeping these. Love the quality, love the features, don't love the headache. | video-games_xbox |
Not Perfect but Best Baseball Game On Market. *You won't be hearing MVP Baseball Baseball anymore(2k gets the the first party license fr the next seven years) which means you will be seeing much more of the MLB2k series. In this year, there some great elements to keep eveyone(even players that dispise sports) playing. There many new features and game modes including, Face Mode. In this mode, you have challenges set up and the first to get to that challenge gets to disable on your opponent ability( like bunting or diving etc).
Also, the GM Mode is pretty nice but it isn't as in depth as MVP basball 2005* (at top)but it still is pretty good. In Gm Mode or in any actual game you earn tokens, from which you can spend on cheats, unifroms, ballparks,etc.
The player soundtrack is pretty cool additiion but it is pretty much wasted. They overate it and all it is 15 seconds of a clip of a song(when a player step into the batter's box) and it made me wonder, how can that really be cool? But it's not bad just really a wasted experience.
Now, how do I talk about the baserunning? It's hard at times to control. You to stop the runner at third and the runner at second goes to third and you start cussing at the TV at that moment. While, it's not that bad, it is annoying after time but you just get used to and the basruuning mistakes go away by them selves.
Now how can go on without mentiong SLAMZONE? Slamzone is great. It's where the pitcher throws a mistake pitch and you pay him back for it. You then press the A button as fast you can and he does the same. If you get it high enough and you swing when it says to press B, you just got your self a big fly, if not then it's abck to the drawing board.
The last thing I wasn't to touch one is the basestealing. I absolutely love it! When you have a fast runner on first or on second, you come into the basestealing zone. You would press the l button to dive back in case of a pick off attempt, R to steal, and left thumbstick to lead off. The reason it's loved by so many is because it's easy to do . And to gaet to bases quicker( in baserunning, and stealing) you just press A as quick as you can to beat out an infield single or to stretch out a single into a double.
Another aspect of the game that shines ( and the best) is the commentary. Never before have you said,"Wow, that actually sounded like it was it was televised" They make it sound genuine by keeping the voices ESPN baseball( none other than Hall of Famer Joe Morgam and Jon Miller) so the game is is all reall sounding.
There are some minor flaws at times when running(as I said before) but at the price this game is at, they are almost invisible. In fact, I would buy this even if it wasn't just $19.00. Now let's compare that to MVP 2005( which is $49.95), so it's a no-brainer for me and it should be for you to. It's 2k games first stab at it and it's a Homerun!!
This game( if you are a baseball fan) should be a definite>< OH yea It's Only $!19.00!!!! And you can even expect a price drop to $14.88 soon. GO BUY IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Graphics>9/10- Great looking faces, players, ballparks. Everything looks pretty nice
Replay<>9.5/10-many things to do at all times, including the GM career, Franchise Mode,homerunderby, and more than ever!!
Depth<>8.75/10- It's good but for example: in franchise mode it's not as in depth as MVP
Overall<>9/10-. A solid score and even the mild baseball fan should add this title to their game collection. | video-games_xbox |
OK game, nothing spectacular. After completing the game (full gamerscore unlocked, 1480 at the time of writing this), I'd say it's an OK game. Nothing special, but worth playing. As a very casual fan of the series, I'm not disappointed but definitely glad I waited for a price drop before purchasing this game. It is reminiscent of the older Need For Speed games (Underground, Hot Pursuit, etc) but with some changes to refresh it. The graphics are on par with other racing games that have released recently. The controls and sound are also great. While I'm not a aficionado on cars, everything seems pretty good to me.
The biggest drawbacks this game has are the following: the story was a bit too cheesy for me, the forced online play is very lacking, and a large part of the game seems like a huge advertisement for Monster Energy.
As far as the story, it's very cliche and cheesy in my opinion. Without giving away any spoilers, it's very predictable. Think new kid on the block making a big splash.
The forced online play made certain parts of the game very unenjoyable to me. First, you have to be connected to Xbox Live. If your connection drops, or Xbox Live has service issues you're being booted off of the game and will be left unable to play until these issues are resolved. If you're in the middle of a race you'll lose your progress and have to reconnect. In addition to connection issues, there are other real drivers roaming the streets with you. Cool in theory, not so much in practice. There were plenty of occasions where I had to restart races due to other players driving through the route of a race against the AI (story mode races). Traffic is one thing, real people being able to affect the outcome of a story mode race against the AI isn't something that should be an issue in my opinion. There also isn't really any real online competitive play. You can challenge other players to spontaneous races by approaching them from behind and using a button prompt but you can't join a lobby or queue of any sort for organized races. For a game with so much focus on being the best driver I'd expect some sort of matchmaking system to race others.
Finally, Monster Energy. The product placement is just in your face to the point it's obnoxious. Many of the cutscenes are clearly intended to make the player want to drink Monster Energy products. I understand that some people enjoy these products and that product placement is an unavoidable thing in certain genres, but it's just way too prevalent in this game. I imagine part of it is due to Ken Block featuring in the game, Monster Energy being one of his major sponsors. Hopefully the sequel won't have us drinking verification cans.
All in all, if you're a fan of the series the game leaves something to be desired. If you're new to it, it's fun and easy to pick up. The free DLC is nice and the daily challenges can help keep things fresh. The game just needs something more that isn't currently there. I personally believe online lobbies to race other players would add a lot of replay value to the game (it currently takes about 20-25 hours to complete, there isn't much left to do after the story). | video-games_xbox |
Personal Opinion of Halo 4. WARNING: This Review Contains Spoilers about previous releases, and may not be factually accurate! It's my take on the previous games and there is much more meat in the games than what I have written!
Halo 4, the continuation of Spartan 117's, Master Chief, romp across the galaxy kicking extra terrestrial butt and saving humanity. This seems to be a pattern in all the games actually, as Master Chief, by himself, kicks entire legions of Covenant and Flood rear ends, while saving humanity in the process. Halo 1, save humanity by preventing a Halo ring from being fired, while stopping the Flood (all sentient life form consuming parasite) from leaving the ring by blowing it up. Halo 2, stop the Covenant from taking over earth/destroying it while again battling the Flood at some point or another, while at the same time getting sucked to a different part of the galaxy and fighting them there too. Oh, and the Arbiter, a shamed commander allowed to don the armor of the Arbiter, joins your side when he see's corruption within the Covenants ranks. Halo 3, once again you fight the covenant while pushing them off of earth, while you then fight a re-emergence of the flood who in the end you kill by firing (and destroying) a ring, which tears your escape ship in half, leaving Master Chief floating in space for four years in cryo sleep.
Kind of hard to figure out how much better this can get when you've already fought the same alien species throughout three games right? Enter the Prometheans ancient sentient robots that are remenents of the Forerunners (beings who built the Halo Rings) who are a challenge to kill. The Flood do not make an appearance in this game unfortunately, but the Covenant, bearing all new weapons, have rejoined us in the life and death struggle, despite making a truce with the human race in Halo 3. A lot can happen in four years of cryo sleep when blasted into space right? Not only do the Covenant have a new arsenal of weapons at their disposal, but so do you, with the developers bringing in new guns like the SAW, sticky grenade pistol, and several other fun goodies.
Halo 4 dabbles with new stuff, while lacks some of what made the old stuff good (WHY THERE NO DUAL WEAPONS!!!), but spicing it up enough for someone like me to enjoy it enough to recommend it to other people.
Fun Rating: 4, Great Game, few rough spots
Overall rating: 4, highly Co-op reliant single player, much easier with more people, multi-player is fun, but weapons need balancing, and not as many maps as previous releases. Soon to be fixed I heard. | video-games_xbox |
Fable 2 through my eyes. I am simply going to list what I believe are Fable 2's pro's and con's and analyze each.
Pros:
1- Graphics, they are beautiful.
2- Side quests, the most original I have ever seen.
3- Character morphing, the physical appearance of both you and your dog will change according to your actions, as will the interaction of NPC's with you.
4- The dog, he never gets in your way, he can't die, and he helps in combat.
5- Family, I like having this option; you can have a wife, kids, its quite fun.
6- Multiplayer, you can bring a friend.
Cons:
1- Combat, while they did improve range combat from the first game, I think they took a step backward in melee and magic, they just aren't as fun.
2- Character customization, you can really only customize which type of combat your character will excel in, and since combat is boring who cares.
3- Boss fights, where did they go? The first game had lots, this game has none.
4- Difficulty, there is only one setting and it is very easy, I didn't die once, there was no challenge.
5- Itemization, because the game is so easy it hardly matters what weapons you carry and there is such a small variety that it's really quite sad. As for clothing, I like being able to wear what I want without wishing it had better stats, but why didn't the developers give each piece of clothing an empty augment slot and allow the character to put something in there like "increase health by 5%" or something...
6- Economy, money is way to easy to get, this makes every item in the game have no value.
7- Unique items, there should be more and they should be better than items you can purchase, to add to their value.
8- Tediousness, decorating houses is not as simple as the first game, adjusting prices has to be done individually, why can't I say `every house in Bowerstone increase by 20'?
9- Going evil, if you go completely evil every NPC will run away from you screaming, this is not as cool as it sounds since you won't be able to interact with anyone.
10- Multiplayer, your friend's character won't look like his character, what's that about?
11- Dig spots and chests, neither holds anything of value since money is easy to come buy, in the first game these had some meaning.
12- Story, the main quest was short and boring, the first games story was much more interesting in my opinion and also wasn't over so quickly.
JD-UT | video-games_xbox |
EA inhibits freedom of choice. I did not purchase this game on Amazon, but I wanted to alert other potential buyers.
#1- An internet connection is required. If your internet connection goes down for whatever reason, you can not play a game that you paid for. It does state this in the product descriptions, but just to alert everyone that this takes away your freedom to choose whether or not you wish to play online, and if you lose your connection for whatever reason... tough cookies.
#2 - A separate EA account is required. This is NOT advertised. I have an EA account but my children do not. I am not signing each one of my 3 children up with their own separate EA accounts just so they can play this game. Again, your freedom to choose whether or not you wish to sign up with EA or not has been taken away. So it's... SIGN UP WITH EA OR YOU CAN NOT PLAY THE GAME YOU JUST PAID FOR. ***update*** I did not check to see if there was an option to sign my child into MY EA account on this game, however I did attempt to do this with a different title, but this was not successful. I will need to investigate the reason for this, but you "may" be able to use a pre-existing EA account for your children??? But again, I would prefer if that were optional, not required.
#3 - There is no option to disable controller vibration. Further limiting your freedom of choice.
#4 - You have to sit through the cutscenes, like it or not. No way to skip through... some of them are rather long... thumbs way down.
I am glad at least that EA does clearly state that a persistent online connection is REQUIRED. I now know that when I see this, to steer clear. Also, if EA is going to REQUIRE an EA account to play all of their games, rather than making it OPTIONAL, I will steer clear of EA altogether from now on. This is not a good thing in general, and if you have children it's even worse.
As a gamer, I like having OPTIONS. I appreciate a game company that presents things in that way. It makes me feel like they respect my freedom of choice and that their customers are their first priority, not their own objectives or agenda. | video-games_xbox |
A Great Entry Point for Metal Gear Newcomers. I've wanted to experience all what the Metal Gear series has to offer for a long time, however due to different reasons I always passed up the opportunity to get certain game in the series and moved on, but not anymore as I've set out on a personal "quest" to consistently play and complete every canonical Metal Gear title that has been released until now and what better way to start than with the HD Collection.
HD Collection Review:
One can notice the hard work that went into upgrading-porting these games, task done by Blue Point Games the same developer which ported the first two God of War games for PS3 known as <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/God-of-War-Collection/dp/B002NN7AKU/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">God of War: Collection</a>. There is only a bug worth mentioning and that is in Peace Walker which doesn't give you an option to quit and go to the main menu, but nothing game breaking for sure.
The high quality of this Collection is palpable right from the game selection menu (Disc 1: Snake Eater & Sons of Liberty), the in-game menus and of course the game-play itself which is safe to say has aged decently. The aforementioned games have been out for several years now, so we all know how excellent these are, and in the case of the more recent release being Peace Walker, you"ll feel right at home as it takes advantage of both joysticks making the gameplay feel natural and not awkward. Is very important to know that some Metal Gear games have been re-released to include updates, new items and most importantly gameplay features so up next I will detail the exact games included in the collection and which version it is.
Metal Gear Games Included:
- Metal Gear (Original and first game of the series, first released for the MSX 2 in 1987. You can access it through the Snake Eater's main menu).
- Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (first released for the MSX 2 in 1990. You can access it through the Snake Eater's main menu).
- Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (Substance Version, first released for Xbox, PS2 in 2002 and PC in 2003).
- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (Subsistence Version, first released for PS2 in 2005).
Note: both Substance and Subsistence versions include many new features, if you wish to know more about this I suggest you to check the Metal Gear Wikia site.
- Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (first released for PSP in 2010, the only game in the Collection to feature online multiplayer).
So in total you are getting 5 Metal Gear games in a great package, most of us would have liked to get Metal Gear Solid included, but still for the price you're getting lots of content for $40 or perhaps less, and because of this I would say this is the best HD Collection that was released in 2011.
If you're a newcomer and would like to finally experience what makes the Metal Gear franchise so emblematic this HD Collection is currently one of the best ways to get into the series, and for Metal Gear Veterans, chances are you already have all the games included, but you can't deny how nice and convenient is to have these great games for your current generation console.
Happy Gaming Snake ;) | video-games_xbox |
Surprisingly Great. When this game first came out, I did not have an xbox so It passed me by. I did however always thought it looked awesome and wanted to try it out. Boy did I miss out.
With the exception of Halo, Republic Commando is the most modern feeling FPS of the last generation. Its hard to describe but many older FPS games have a strange grid based aiming system. It made it difficult to be precise, and felt really cheap. Especially after playing modern FPS games which almost always have good controls. Almost. Republic commando avoids this flaw by using a smart aiming system that locks onto enemies while you attack them. Instead of a punch or rifle smack attack, your melee attack is a metal cutter that pops out of your wrist.
Aside from its fluid controls, its graphics are pretty good too, once again considering the time period it came out during as it doesn't hold a candle to modern game. The effects are cool, but to be honest the locals are kind of bland. most of the character models are very cool though. They're aren't pretty by today's standards but they are unique and detailed all the same. This is especially present on the battle droids, who begin to fall apart after they take enough damage. Chipping off the face of a super battle droid with your metal cutter is very satisfying, and looks really cool. In my humble opinion its the best looking character damage system in any game.
The story while there, is nothing to write home about. Its pretty lame actually, and the dialogue for the Commandos is far more interesting then the actual mission they're on. There are however a few interesting things that happen towards the end.
Also, as a side note, this game came out before episode III, and they pronounce "Kashyyyk" with a short I. Just some trivia.
There are only 3 levels in the game, although these levels are broken up into stages with specific objectives. Also, there are only a few kinds of enemies. Geonosisians, Battle Droids, Super Battle Droids, Trandoshans, and sometimes vehicles. Ocasionally you'll fight Destroyer Droids or IG-100s.
Yes, its a good game. Yes, if you like star dance contests and FPS games you should by it. Yes, it might surprise you with how well it stands the test of time, unlike so many other games. | video-games_xbox |
Good buy, but definatly optional. First off, let me say that this game is absolutly brilliant. It's by far one of the best, if not the best, 360 game out there. Here are some pros and cons of the game itself.
Pros
-Great story and campaign.
-Campaign is challenging, but not frustrating.
-Custimization in multiplayer is fun, it makes you want to do stuff to unlock new peices of armor. Very satisfying when you have the coolest armor in your match.
-Vehicles are fun, and theres a vehicle for everyone, whether you want shear power,(Scorpion, Wraith) speed,(Mongoose, Ghost) or a mix of power and speed(Warthog). Theirs even some aircraft too, like the Hornet and Banshee.
-Good ending to the seiries.
-Forge can only be descibed as EPIC!!!
Cons
-Campaign is good, but pretty repetitive. I swear i did like, 5 missions about rescuing Cortana. That could have been shortened.
-AI in campiagn are retarted, they don't ever help you once.
-In multiplayer, if you do any team event, you get EXP based on your team. This sucks because if you do amazing, but have a horribe team, you get nothing for it.
-Forge controls are a bit shaky. I really wish you couldn't knock over you stuff. Many of my creations have been ruined when i accidenly hit a block causing an entire tower to collapse.
-Weapons are a bit repetitve, the Brute Spiker is basicly an Assault Rifle but more powerful, and all the explosive weapons are basically the same.
-New weapons suck, the Gravity Hammer if great in close quaters, but from range you just get mowed down. And Setinal Beam absoluly sucks. It has no power, and little range.
On to rating Legendary Edition.
Pros
-Great for a collector or fan of the series.
-Cool downloads like gamer pics and themes
-Helmet is amazing, i sometimes just stare at it.
-The behind the scenes and stuff is cool. You find out some neat stuff.
Cons
-A bit pricy, seeing as the helmet serves no real pupose. No, you cant wear it to protect yourself from the upcoming Covanent invasion.
-If you have the new xbox experiance the themes are basically obsolete.
-Helmet is made of plastic, which is fine, exept the price is way to steep for plastic. For close to $130 i would really like it to be metal.
-And, obviosly, the price.
Overall, Halo 3 is a must buy. The Legendary Edition, not so much. But, if youhave the extra cash, i highly recommend it. | video-games_xbox |
DSS vs. DSS2. I just purchased this sound processor to go with my COD Foxtrot headset (px21). I was waiting for the DSS to go on sale and this was just released and the DSS mysteriously dissapeared. One question I have that concerns me about this device is the original DSS advertises Dolby 5.1/7.1 surround sound and the NEW DSS2 which is $10 less brand new with the added option of adjusting speaker angles with 6 presets, is why did the Dolby 7.1/5.1 disappear? The old one says it all over, this one just says Dolby. I am wondering if it is a lesser quality of surround sound or why would it not mention anywhere on the new one it has 5.1/7.1 surround? I did some research and could not find an answer, but never having the first one I am sure I will be happy with this. Just a few things I was wondering before purchasing and seeing as the old one is nowhere to be found at a reasonable price, made me think something is fishy. I will update once I get some use after it is shipped to me. I hope this helps a little and feel free to comment if you know something I dont. Thanks
**** UPDATE ****
I spoke with several Turtle Beach employees after being transferred to someone who could answer my questions, he assured me this was an improved model over the first and TB decided to go with a different price point and for licensing reasons they may have excluded putting the DOLBY 5.1/7.1 on the DSS2(even though he did not sound like he knew 100%). From what I gathered it sounds like they don't know. I will update actual product usage after I test it out some. Feel free to comment again and thanks for the info. By the way, Amazon is overcharging $10 more for this at $89.99, go to Turtle Beach direct for $79.99
*********BREAKTHROUGH UPDATE!!!!**********
Well, well, well, I figured out the mystery of the DSS vs. DSS 2. The new Dss2 is not dolby 7.1 or 5.1 it is closer to 4.1. Thats right, after massive research and some calls to Turtle Beach(which got me knowwhere); I have discovered why the old one dissappeared and the new one is lacking the labels of 7.1/5.1 Dolby. Ready for it, drum roll please..... The new DSS2 has adjustable speaker angles as an added option because you only get 4 sound outputs, thats right ONLY 4: front right, rear right, front left, and rear left. If you look at the amazon video from a Turtle Beach representative showcasing the original DSS, it has a diagram of the sound outputs, seven in total which some are front right and left, rear right and left as well as a center and behind. I knew something was fishy and if you look at Turtle Beachs website at the new and IMPROVED?, DSS2 it has specifications and its own sound diagram, displaying only 4 sounds, FR, FL, RR, and RL. The big upgrade is the speaker angles which are preset and you will need to adjust just to get sound in front and back. You can see for yourself at TB website and under Amazon as well for the DSS 1. I feel like I solved this case and I hope i saved someone else the headache. Please comment if you have more to add and like before I will update with actual usage.for DSS
******DSS2 USAGE UPDATE******
The DSS2 is packaged nicely, with a TB sticker, manual, and all the necessary wires. For my PS3, I simply plugged in the digital optical cord supplied from the unit to my console and a usb cord as well which is supplied with the DSS2. Plug in your headphone jack and usb cord into the dss2 and you are pretty much ready to go! There is a setting you have to change in your XMB menu, but it is explained in the manual. First thought was, wow more wires, but that was expected. The 6 speaker angle presets are pretty good. The equalizer presets go from horrible sounding to great, depending on your sound preference. The burning question for most I would think is, is it worth it? Well that is up to you, I wanted the best sound possible for a wired headset and for the most part it is an upgrade from stereo headsets, nothing major, it won't help your kill to death ratio go from 1 to 2, but it is a must have for audiophiles and people that want the best sound they can get from their headsets. If you go through TB they have it coming soon packaged with the p11 headset for $119. The manual does mention 5.1 Dolby and for less money than the original DSS, this is a good buy. If you own the original, I would keep it. Thanks for all the comments and I will include future updates after I have had this a month or two.
*****New Headset with DSS2*****
Well, I decided to return my Foxtrot headset, which paired with the DSS2 was great! I jumped on the TB MW3 BRAVO wireless headset when I saw the price dropped to $93. Gamestop sells this headset for $180 and it is just a stereo headset. I love the fact 1) Its wireless(DSS2 plus a wired headset = lots of wires) 2) Unlike most wireless headsets the Bravo has a rechargeable battery with USB(No Batteries!), however this is not a review of headsets but I just wanted to add the DSS2 takes my Bravo Headset to another level! I now have wireless, Dolby surround, and all for around $160 ($93 for BRAVO headset and $73 with shipping for DSS2). If you want to spend $200 plus you can skip the DSS2 and go for a wireless Dolby headset, but for under that I am extremely satisfied with my set now, and I love the speaker angles the more I use them. Please add comments about your DSS2 experiences, I would love to hear other opinions! | video-games_xbox |
An impressive game. Grand theft auto 4 is one of those games that makes me marvel at how much detail got put into it. It's such a big game but so much close attention was paid to make it play well and look good as well.
The graphics are great. Liberty City is fully realized city with tons of people and traffic. Its one of the most impressive cities in a game that I have seen. It truly feels alive.
The story is great overall. The main character is Niko Belic, a russian immigrant that arrives to the US on a ship. From there you pretty much work with all kinds of shady folk in order to make money. Niko has his motives that he works toward throughout the game. He's an interesting character and his story is an interesting one to play through. Its a lengthy one as well.
If I had to say the one thing I think rockstar nailed down almost perfectly in this game I would have to say the physics. From the people to the vehicles in the game everything reacts in such realistic way. It's very apparent to how much attention went in to making everything act realistically. Each car has its own kind of physics. Trucks are heavy so they will plow through other vehicles a lot easier than cars. Different cars have better handling than others making it so you have to adjust to the weight of each one to get turning down. When a pedestrian is hit. They will react realistically. If you clip their leg or arm they will jolt and whip around in a violent way. If you hit them straight on they will fold on top of your hood in a very gruesome spectacle. To put it simply its the best ragdoll effect that I have seen in a game. Even today.
If you shoot an enemy they will react accordingly. And each weapon has its own power to it. If you shoot someone in the leg while they are running they will topple to the ground. My favorite is shooting their leg while they are climbing steps. What follows is an amusingly realistic topple down the stairs. If you take advantage of the physics in the game you will have a lot of fun watching what happens in each segment of the game.
The missions in this game are very well done overall. Some of them aren't that great and sometimes leave you wondering what the point of it was but for the most part they take advantage of the strong points in the game. My favorite mission of all time is in the game. It involves a bank heist and has you running from the cops trying to escape. It's just awesome.
There is a great addition the the gta series that helps immensely in missions: the cover system. This mechanic works well. Niko is able to snap into cover easily almost anywhere. Behind cars, dumpsters, walls, etc. While in cover he can aim, pop up, shoot and repeat. This makes firefights a lot more enjoyable than the ones from past gta games.
Once you have completed the single-player campaign you can hop into some of the most entertaining multiplayer available. There are a bunch of different game modes to play including team deathmatch and you can play them throughout the whole city or you can choose a section of it to play in. You can have up to 16 players in a match.
I did give this game 5 stars but I don't think this game is perfect. There is pop in every now and then that can get annoying sometimes. Combat in tight spaces doesn't work all that well and can result in some frustrating deaths. And Nikos movements are a little too stiff for my tastes. These complaints are minor, however. This game is just an awesome package. I recommend it. | video-games_xbox |
Far Cry 4 is more like Far Cry 3.5. But is that a bad thing. Far Cry 4 proves to be nothing more than taking what Far Cry 3 did, changing the story, and enhancing the multiplayer features. But is this a bad thing? The answer there is no. Far Cry 3 proved to be one of my favorite games of all time. The massive open world, the large arsenal of guns (including super powerful signature weapons), the optional side quests, the depth of the characters, and the wonderful story are what made Far Cry 3 the 10/10 game that it was. Far Cry 4 takes all of that and adds to it.
Story 9/10:
The game opens with the main protagonist, Ajay Ghale, headed to Kyrat, a fictional country in the Himalayas, to fulfill his dead mother's final wish, spreading her ashes. Things take a turn for the worst when he is kidnapped by our villain, Pagan Min. Ajay finds himself in the middle of a civil war between the Golden Path and the Pagan's Royal Army. Throughout the game you capture bell towers and outposts to unlock side quests, extra loot, weapons, and fast travel locations. Capturing these towers and outposts are optional but provide you with free weapons and the ability to purchase signature weapons. These signature weapons are my favorite parts of the game. Weapons such as the Buzzsaw, the AMR, and the Shredder allow you to tear through the opposition with ease. My only complaint with the story is that we did not get to choose the side of Pagan Min. I love fighting for the Golden Path but with how Pagan Min treats you I would've loved to be able to fight with him.
Multiplayer/Co-op 8/10:
There are two options for Multiplayer in Far Cry 4: Campaign Co-op and Chronicles. Chronicles gives us three modes: Battles of Kyrat, Map Browser, and Map Editor. Battles of Kyrat is your standard FPS multiplayer. You can select from 4 game modes (5 if you have dlc). It's your standard 5v5 multiplayer with nothing too special. The real fun in Chronicles comes from the Map Editor. You get to create your own map choosing from 5 terrain types. It's your standard map editor allowing you to place in several objects, AIs, weapons, and vehicles. It's a lot of fun to create and play your own maps. My one complaint with Far Cry 3 was the way they handled co-op. Only giving us a few missions that really weren't fun at all. Far Cry 4 makes up for this big time. You can join another player's game or have them join your game. The second player of the game plays as Hurk and you can do anything in the campaign excluding main story missions. All side missions, bell towers, outposts, loot chests, and extra items can be collected on co-op. This provides for hours of fun. My only complaints with the co-op are that you can't do story missions together, both players are forced to fast travel together, and if two players stray from each other one is teleported to the other.
Far Cry 4 is a must buy for any gamer who enjoys any aspect of First Person Shooters or Role-Playing Games. If you played Far Cry 3 and enjoyed it, you will certainly enjoy this game as well. | video-games_xbox |
Bradford. This is the first gaming headset I've purchased and I couldn't be happier. Having owned and used this headset for two months, they work perfectly every time and provide an impressive gaming experience. These provide crisp, clear, uninterrupted gaming sound without glitches or interference from other wireless devices (phones, computers, tablets, wifi mp3 players, other gaming consoles, fax/printers, etc.). I can wear them for hours at a time and only start to feel the mildest discomfort around my ears around the third hour, but it is easily bearable and ignorable. While these do not have surround sound as found in the MW3 Ear Force Delta, I find they provide excellent points of audio reference while in gameplay (e.g. I can pinpoint the direction of footsteps in Modern Warfare 3). I've easily put in over 100 hours of gameplay with these and cannot find a legitimate problem with them. The dual controls of XBOX Live audio and gameplay audio are very handy, and the ability to stream my iPad while in gameplay make these a luxury I now could not live without. In all this gameplay I have yet to explore the different presets (no need to), which is something I'll try to do in the near future. If forced to provide negative critiques, they are merely nitpicking and not enough to lower my five-star grade.
PROS: (1) Dual audio control for XBOX Live and Gameplay; (2) Long battery life (used for over four hours and have not drained the batteries); (3) Very comfortable and breathable for several hours; (4) Excellent range throughout the house and in other rooms; (5) Stream separate audio devices during voice chat and gameplay; (6) Seemingly simulated surround sound; (7) Quickly accessible and operational, both easy to charge for the night and use for immediate gameplay.
CONS: (1) Separate $20.00 purchase needed for AV audio adapter if console is connected to t.v. via HDM about which I was not aware when ordering; (2) Though headset is wireless, the various cables/cords from console to receiver can be messy and unwieldy, becoming easily entangled and hard to keep organized; (3) Music streaming volume is not separate from gameplay volume, but must be adjusted on the audio device instead of on the headset; (4) Seemingly cumbersome to switch from use of one console to another console or computer.
Two things I have not done are investigate the various presets (no need to with quality of audio on default preset) or try on other consoles or computers. I bought these because they claim to be universal from XBOX, to PS3, to a PC, to a Mac, all of which I own and use. However, due to my gaming being limited to the XBOX since the purchase of this headset some two months ago, I haven't tried to use them on my PS3, PC laptop, or Macbook Pro. For $100.00, I cannot currently find anything on the market that can compare to these.
***I wanted to add a bit to this review after some difficulties with downloading & installing the additional presets. This is not to detract from my 5-star review. This is to bulster the review by focusing not upon the glitch in downloading additional presets, but the customer service I received to fix the error. On a Friday night (after two months of flawless factory performance) I decided to connect my headset to the computer for the first time and download the additional presets from the Turtle Beach website. The first problem was the incompatibility of the preset manager with my Mac. I had to d/l it on my wife's PC, though the website did not stipulate the Preset Manager download was only PC compatible. After downloading it to the PC I found little help in direction and instructions. I fumbled around and synced my transmitter to the PC and updated the presets, so I thought. Unfortunately, my headset failed to work even after trying to restore the factory settings. After trying all day Saturday to fix the problem, I emailed the Turtle Beach customer service. I knew they were not open on the weekends, but I was thrilled to see a personal response (not an automated quick-fix post) first thing Monday morning. After a few quick exchanges & replies, my headset was functioning as perfectly as ever. The customer service was great, regardless of the seemingly flawed download function from their website and executable files on the PC. | video-games_xbox |
An under appreciated entry with a Western flair. The Good: Amazing atmosphere and graphics, eerie sounds and music, good voice acting, story is engaging, new combat system and extra content makes for replay value
The Bad: Really short, puzzles are still confusing, more atmosphere less scare
Silent Hill was one of the first survival horror series that was 3D along with Resident Evil, Clock Tower, Alone in the Dark, and Parasite Eve. While Resident Evil and Silent Hill became more successful Silent Hill still remains the most frightening survival horror series ever made. Homecoming is no exception with lots of fog and lighting effects, unbelievably freaky creatures, a great story with lots of plot twists, and a new and improved combat system. I have to first mention that there is so many little things in this game for hardcore SH fans such as homages to the movie (which most of this game is based on) such as the "Otherworld peeling" effect, barbed wire in the church, ash/snow, the Grand Hotel and the nurses. There are references everywhere that mention famous horror authors, horror movies etc. Most people may never find these but they are there such as the streets being last names of famous horror authors.
This is really great and thankfully Konami kept all of this in mind for fans, but what if you've never played an SH game before? Well then you came in at a great time. Most people's concern is if the game has the same creepy atmosphere and it does. There are less "out of the closet" scares however because the game concentrates more on sheer atmosphere. Everything is dark and creepy, and we have the same spooky unnerving sounds effects and music that we've grown to love. The combat system is what I was mainly concerned about. Gone are the fixed camera angles and tank controls. The game controls very well in a third person style action game. You lock on to enemies and use light and heavy attack combos to kill them. This may be very repetitive and simple, but it's better than being broken. Shooting is easier as well because you know control the gun in a Resident Evil 4 way.
Also introduced are button pressing sequences and this helps to the intensity because if you don't do this properly you could die and the game is totally up to you. Also new is a way to control your outcome of the story. Certain moments in the game have you make a choice and this will decide your ending (there are 5 all together). There are a good amount of weapons to pick up such as knives, pipes, axes, shotguns, pistols, rifles etc. Nothing we haven't seen in an SH game before, but you have to decide which weapon is best for which enemy.
If you want to go story side it's good and its here. You are a man named Alex Shepard who comes home from being in a war and everyone in Sheperd's Glen is missing (just outside Silent Hill) and his brother Josh is missing. You must find the deep secrets of Silent Hill and why your brother went missing. There are tons of plot twists and it's probably one of the better less confusing stories. The puzzles in Silent Hill are still weird and confusing as ever. I had to get a FAQ for almost every single one because they require you to right down stuff and rattle off riddles in your head and...well...they're still confusing. The game is a bit short, however, and you can beat the game in about 8-10 hours depending on how you play.
There is plenty of replay value thanks to the multiple endings, different costumes, and new weapons you can find after you beat the game. There are also collectibles to find such as drawings, photos, and serums to unlock achievements. The game is just very well put together, but you can tell the developers didn't do anything risky with the formula. It's pretty safe and basic, but you'll want to visit Silent Hill again thanks to the excellent story, voice acting, graphics, atmosphere, new enemies, and the button pressing sequences and not to mention the humongous disgusting boss fights! If you love survival horror this is probably the best one of the year so far (Alone in the Dark was almost a disaster). | video-games_xbox |
One of the WORST MADDEN's to date...You;ve been WARNED. This game flat out sux!...Sorry but I've been a Madden owner/player of EVERY SINGLE version of the game since it first debuted on the Sega Genesis back in the 1991-92 years and let me tell you this. They've completely stripped out all the cool stuff that they added over the years to Franchise Mode like the ability to Import NCAA rosters, edit and customize players, change Camera VIEWS and even removed the fun features that have been in the game for years and years like the ability to simply PLAY ANY GAME on the schedule/ Now you cannot even do that in Franchise mode. So you are just restricted to your own teams games and thats it!! All other sports titles like MLB the Show, NBA 2K Basketball, etc, allow you to jump in and play any game on the schedule except for Madden. Even EA's own NCAA Football allows you to do it!!...what where they thinking when they removed this fun feature???
Also the physics model they added this year is an absolute train wreck...literally! Players collide into each other like WWF Wrestlers highlight reel mid air collisions. Players fall and fold down to the ground when hit at very awkward angles! Nothing looks natural at all and the dynamics that this new tackling engine was supposed to add to the gameplay is almost non existent. The game doesnt feel any more organic or dynamic than previous versions that had scripted mo cap animations. The only difference now is that you get tackles at the end of the play that will make you laugh. Also the CPU RBs run in these odd hunchedback zig zagging animations when they try to hit the holes and continue to stay crouched as they run to daylight. The whole thing looks like a sloppy mess....The other game BACKBREAKER had a much more polished and better looking physics engine implemented into its game than this half backed feeling add on module of a physics engine. Obviously this game wasn't ready for prime time for at least another year....at best!!!
Do Not waste your money on this....You've been warned by a LONG time Madden player.....I know what Im talking about. Pick up Madden 12 and the updated rosters for a much more polished gameplay engine than this! (search the internet on how to update the rosters) | video-games_xbox |
Good start, but falls apart. I really did enjoy this game a lot when I played it... the first time. But I'm also a completionist, so I like to try to get all the achievements and this makes that incredibly time-consuming. I've owned it for 3 years now and I only play it every now and then whenever I have the time to wade through the next play through.
The game is absolutely immense. There are 8 different regions, each with its own part of the main questline that must completed and dozens upon dozens of side quests. Exploring the world for the first time is actually a lot of fun. The rewards for completing quests are a pittance at best, but it can at least provide some motivation to run around killing things and collecting experience and loot.
But then the game makes you play through a ridiculous number of times to get all the achievements. There are two different campaigns, one light and one dark, and you get an achievement for playing through each. But once you set a campaign for a new character, you can't change it even for the 'neutral' heroes that can play through both. In order to play the second campaign, you have to start a brand new level 1 character. There are also 5 different levels of difficulty, but you only have access to the first two when making a new character. That means any new character, not just your first: you don't get credit for having played through a difficulty setting with a previous hero. There are achievements for reaching the top 3 difficulties, and while you only have to start a playthrough to get the achievement, you still have to run through 3 full playthroughs and start the 4th just to get that last achievement. This makes a total of 4 full playthroughs right off the bat. In order to get all class-based achievements, you have to play each of the 6 heroes to level 15, which takes about 1-2 hours of repetitive opening game action per hero.
You can level up your character as far as 200, and that is apparently generally recommended just to make it to Niob without dying so much you put your controller and the whole console through a wall. However, even on the highest available difficulty and a survival bonus of 100% (meaning your hero has never died), leveling comes to a crawl around level 60. At level 100 it can take hours just to get enough experience for one level. The lower the difficulty, the less experience you get, meaning that playing through on an easier setting with little risk of dying will take even longer to level. You also have to keep moving through the game, as each of the 8 regions have a relative 'max' level at which they stop providing good experience. This level doesn't scale well new difficulties, meaning that when you beat the game and start over at the next difficulty, you get less experience per kill than you were getting at the end of the previous playthrough. So if it was slow before, it'll start anew even slower. Bosses also scale poorly, often being grossly overpowered compared to surrounding enemies. There are also random optional mini-bosses scattered around the map, so you can turn a corner and get nailed while exploring and trying to level.
There's an immense and in-depth skill tree with lots of skill interactions. However, if you don't pick literally the perfect set of skills for your hero, they can die in the blink of eye. If you pick one wrong skill or take them in the wrong order, it's just poof, bye-bye. Combined with the leveling issue, this is especially frustrating when trying to get an achievement for making it through one of the easiest two playthroughs without dying. Even doing things absolutely perfectly, and taking your time to level up to a seemingly reasonable number, you can get to the end and meet up with the poorly-scaled final boss and have your hero's entire health bar depleted in just one or two rapid hits. I learned the hard way that the death count doesn't reset on a second playthrough, so once your hero dies you have to start over completely with a brand new level 1 character. This makes this one particular achievement exceedingly frustrating, and has nearly killed the game for me and is the main reason I've had it for 3 years without completing it.
Finally, combat is bland. For a game that is so long and involves so much fighting, the combat system could be a lot better. In essence, all you can do is attack and use combat arts and combos. Combos are defined by the user by stacking combat arts into specific attack slots, but you need to waste one of the precious 10 slots on an otherwise absolutely worthless skill in order to open up 3- and eventually 4-move combos. There is no blocking, and no dodging. You just pretty much pick a spot, hold the attack button, occasionally hit the button for a health potion, and generally pray that the screen full of enemies dies before you do. When facing melee bosses (which is most of them), you'll want to have at least 100 of the most powerful health potion available for your level, and just keeping hitting the button for it to constantly heal, and pray that the boss doesn't get two critical hits in before your next potion takes effect. It's just pitifully mindless and dull.
But it's also incredibly addictive. After a certain point, armor and weapons become irrelevant. Especially if you play as a Seraphim and use the ranged weapon skill with the BeeEffGee and choose the piercing modification: entire rows of enemies just evaporate before you in a single hit. At higher levels with lots of skill investments, even the grotesquely overpowered bosses can't stand up to it for long (but they can still kill you in two hits if you're unlucky). You can slay monsters to your heart's content, collect their loot, destroy what items you don't want to keep in exchange for gold, and move on to the next enemy-populated area. It may be bland and boring, but sometimes mindless slaughtering of giant spiders and werewolves is a great way to wind down at the end of the day.
This games falls victim to the tendency that game developers have these days to make incredibly difficult and poorly balanced games that play like part-time jobs instead of actual interactive entertainment. It also falls victim to the idiotic tendency that game developers have for creating poorly thought-out, monotonous achievements that drag completionist players like myself kicking and screaming through multiple frustrating playthroughs that shouldn't be necessary and which nearly kill the enjoyment factor of the 'game'. But it *is* addictive, and there are lots of combinations to try, and it is incredibly long, and those things all make it at least satisfying for the amount of money spent. | video-games_xbox |
2009's Most Underappreciated Game. After a long ninety-five hour experience with my first character, I can say that Dragon Age is, if nothing else, a game that actually earns its $60 price tag. But, of course the great thing is that it's not simply a long game with endless meaningless quests (unlike other modern 'RPGs').
Many recent, so called 'next-gen' RPG's have endeavored to give players yet more freedom to cater to their their play style. Obvious examples like Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout 3 have given us expansive lands to wander about and get lost in, and others have attempted to give us a near endless amount of freedom and level of customization (the Fable series)...but there's a problem; these games, while fun at times, lack the essential qualities that are mandatory for a truly great RPG: memorable storylines, and even more important, a great cast of colorful characters. Since the whole objective of the RPG genre is to actually 'roleplay,' it seems almost ludicrous to label a game a RPG simply because its combat is dependent upon stats. In Dragon Age, you will see plenty of stats and numbers, and there will be much loot to plunder as well, but what makes this game truly remarkable is its attention to character and story.
No game is perfect, and in this respect, Dragon Age is no different. There are numerous bugs (while I haven't come across anything game-breaking, I have read about some devastating examples), the game's difficulty, while pleasantly challenging, can be erratic at times, and yes, as everyone seems keen on pointing out, the graphics are not all that impressive. But personally, I think it is a mistake to judge a RPG based upon its graphics. Besides, Dragon Age is hardly the worst looking game out there, and as a matter of fact, in some areas it looks pretty good, it is simply that the game lacks polish in many areas (most notably in dark areas, in which it can actually be quite muddy and yes, ugly), but, none of it hampered my enjoyment of the game (besides, the art style more than makes up for it).
Dragon Age takes us back to Bioware's (and Black Isle's) past; when games like the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series ruled the RPG market. As a fan of those titles who still plays them regularly, I can say that Dragon Age has earned its title as 'the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate.' This is not simply a marketing ploy, Bioware has delivered a game of incredible depth, and one the likes of which the market has not really seen since the incredible, Shadows of Amn.
The main story itself, at least in regards to its most basic components (an evil army of orcish-things are amassing to wipe out civilization, and of course only YOU can stop it!), is rather cliche, but Bioware, like any good story teller, knows that the devil is in the details, and in this regard, you'll not find many other games that can compare to Dragon Age's world. Yes, there are dwarves, and elves, and orc-like enemies known otherwise as darkspawn, and dragons, but it's what Bioware has done to these existing fantasy traditions that makes this game's seemingly hollow story so compelling. In nearly every aspect of its tale you'll discover numerous details (many of which enhanced by the game's remarkable codex system) that make it feel alive, and will draw you in despite one's initial apprehensions. The game has a large cast of exceptionally well-written, well voiced, and intriguing characters. After spending some time with your party and learning bits and pieces about their personalities and independent lives, it's nearly impossible not to care for at least one of them. My personal favorite being Alister, with his often awkward sense of humor, and (if you choose so) his surprisingly heroic progression.
To top it all off, Dragon Age gives players choices throughout the game that actually affect the game world. The story itself, while largely linear, has many details and subplots that altar depending upon your avatar's choices. Most of these choices will seem small at first, but as the game progresses, your choices will grow more and more difficult to make. Dragon Age is honestly the first game to ever actually make me stop and think for a time to actually consider what the best solution would be. I even found myself wondering afterwards if I had made the right choice. Even the great Baldur's Gate games didn't make the player choose such difficult, and sometimes, devastating choices. Much of this power lies in the fact that decisions are no longer purely good or evil, unlike past Bioware titles. Many of your tougher decisions, whether decidedly good, or bad, will have many shades of gray attached to them. The depth of one's decisions, coupled with characters that one can actually care about, make Dragon Age an evolutionary step forward in Bioware's outstanding catalog.
As far as music, voice talent, and sound design goes, Dragon Age is of decidedly uneven, if acceptable quality. The sound effects are mostly standard for a game of this type, and they neither enthrall nor distract from one's overall enjoyment. The voice talent is almost always fantastic however, and while not every voice is done superbly, they at a bare minimum, get the job done. In other words, you'll find (as one would expect from a game of this size) a varying degree of talent from Tim Curry(!), Jim Cummings (which some of you may know did voices for previous Bioware/Black Isle titles), and many, many not so famous, or talented, actors. What's impressive is simply the amount and overall quality Bioware has attained. The music, which is done by Inon Zur, consists of well done, if not entirely memorable compositions. In other words, the work he does here in no way competes with the likes of Icewind Dale 2, but that's hardly a problem. Mostly, the music simply isn't always mixed (in terms of dynamics) well with the game, and serves mostly as 'background' music, which is a shame, since some of it is quite good. It can be really uneven on a dynamic level, when one can barely hear it whilst exploring, but when engaging enemies, will be blasted by horns and the like.
Dragon Age is not a perfect game, but like my perfect score suggests, it's many small technical problems are overwhelmed by the sheer amount of quality and true depth of role playing Bioware has achieved with this title. From its story, world, characters, and stellar combat (despite the fact that you can't zoom out in the 360 version, which is regrettable since it can make tactical decisions that much harder in large scale fights), makes Bioware's Dragon Age a truly incredible role playing game experience. It cannot compete with many modern games in terms of visual finesse (such as Mass Effect 2), but it bests just about every modern game, RPG or not, in terms of depth, replay value (and thus, dollar value), and craft (story, and presentation), and lastly, satisfaction and overall enjoyment. If anyone has been disenchanted with the current industry's trend towards 6-hour-long FPSs, and has yearned for a game with more to sink one's teeth in to, Dragon Age is a must. To anyone who does not like roleplaying games, Dragon Age will likely not change your mind, but if you desire something different from the next Halo or CoD, give it a rent.
Bioware has given its older fans a love letter in the form of Dragon Age. It may not quite top Baldur's Gate 2 (which is perhaps due to nostalgia, and charm), but it is an outstanding achievement in its own right. For my money, its easily the best, and most underrated game of 2009 (and perhaps of this generation). Buy it, play the game all the way through, and then play it again, and again. I know I will. | video-games_xbox |
Best Game in the Last 10 Years, easily. I am embarassed to say that I have put in at least 500 hours into this game.
Easily my favorite game of this generation. The fight mechanics are pretty much perfect. The developers were able to perfectly balance light weapons versus heavy weapons, shield versus no shield, pyromancy versus magic versus miracles. As it stands, pretty much any magic type, armour type, and weapon type is viable in both PVE and PVP.
The game itself is CHALLENGING. And yes, it is punishing, so this game is more for people who love to get pushed to the limits. When things get too difficult, it is possible to Co-Op and try to get help, however, once you make yourself qualify for C0-Op, you are also in danger of being invaded (PvP). And although at first, getting invaded at an inopportune point in the game may be frustrating, it is spontaneous/unpredictable PvP that leaves us with lasting memories. Queing up for a 15-minute gankfest can be pretty forgetable. But making it to the Giant's room in Anor Londo in human form, getting ready to summon Solaire when you see the "AXE MURDERER II has invaded your game" notification can be pretty jarring. It is especially rewarding if you are able to kill your invader with the odds stacked against you.
Some people will criticize Dark Souls for it's "lack" of story. But the amazing thing is that Dark Souls gives you just as much story as you want. In other RPG's, the story is spoon-fed to you by long, sometimes boring, NPC monologues. In Dark Souls, you have to piece out the story based on item descriptions of weapons, armour, and miracles you find. You also find out some story by talking to NPC's, but some NPC's are liars! Learning the story and piecing the history of Lordaron back together is also quite rewarding, as inevitably you will read message boards and forge a community with other Dark Souls players.
All in all, I would say this game is perfect. I could go on and on about how great it is, but I think by now you get the point. | video-games_xbox |
excellent gameplay but the graphics show it's a port. some people say gameplay > graphics. They're wrong. In a video game, the video(graphcis) and the game(play) are equally important.
the gameplay here is solid, excellent except for one thing. running along side the wall with the grapple and then jumping in the opposite direction (or to the side) SUCKED in this game. it didn't work half the time. difficult to control.
the visuals? they're good, but not great. I was extremely disappointed that we had to take a step down, just because this is a port. while this game does use the Legend engine, it's completely missing the shine and shimmer (HDR lighting, blur effects, etc) of Legend. Maybe they left it out because the Wii couldn't handle it and they wanted a multi-platform release without having to do too much work with the raw material?? Not sure what the deal is because the 360 version of this title popped up out of nowhere. Seems like it was announced and then released in just a month or 2. Don't know, don't care, it's a step down from Legend visually and Legend was released over a year ago. It makes me appreciate how good-looking Legend actually was.
there's a glitch in a Peru - Qualopec that if you do something in a particular order, you won't be able to swing from one hook to the next - you'll jump, try to attach the next hook, but keep attaching to the same first hook. That was crappy.
I experienced occasional "image tearing". This is a problem with many next gen games I'm noticing more and more. No framerate drops that I can remember...not many or any camera problems.
Other than that, this was an excellent release, very lengthy, very reasonably priced, even available to download in separate chapters or entirely on XboxLive. Nice extras (commentary), cool cheats, the mansion is a nice level. there's even an unlockable playable "test level". That's all good. Great homage to a great and important franchise.
For the next release, please return to the full Legend engine. Don't dump on us 360 people. | video-games_xbox |
Awesome for gaming. I got these headphones yesterday. Honestly, I only purchased these headphones because my older, cheaper headphones had died out (right earphone quit playing sound); these older headphones had a bass amp in them and worked great for music and games as well as movies.
Anyway, I bought these headphones because I wanted to retain the bassy feel I got so used to when I would play games. However, when I saw that these headphones were 5.1 surround sound including the subwoofer, I figured I had to try it.
Delivery could have been better considering I paid one-day shipping and got it 4 days later. When I finally got them, first thing I noticed was the weight of the packaging. When you have it all in one place, these headphones and the amplifier can be a heavy thing to lug around.
I tried them on to see if it was true what people were saying about the headphones clamping onto your head and the earcups pressing against your ear. Yes, the headphones clamp on just a bit, but a little adjustment fixed that issue. As for the earcups pressing against your ear, I didn't feel a thing. I guess that depends on the person wearing them.
The sound took quite a bit to configure, as to getting the right volume for each channel. It definitely needs to be changed around if you want to get the perfect sound for a song, for example. But usually, once you get how the sound works, its very quick to set up for gaming.
Quality. Man. These headphones can give out a clear sound in any direction. The game I tested this with was Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Good lord, that was the freakiest playthrough I have done in a while. These headphones work great for directional cues; anyone whose played this game will know that Amnesia has a lot of ambience, and that the protagonist seems to hallucinate a lot of the noise around him. With these headphones, this only brings you into the game that much more, making you feel like you are the one trying to survive instead of controlling the person that does. I would hear a whisper down a hall on my left, and I immediately knew where it came from because of the directional cue.
I would recommend this for the gamer that wants more out of their gameplay. Especially the gamers that do "lets play" series videos on YouTube. | video-games_xbox |
Endless Adventure. For anyone who's ever thought about a combination of two great games, into one greater I always had an idea as of recently. Take the sheer massiveness and incredibly detailed world of Shenmue, use its complete sense of freedom of going into any building and examining just about anything and everything in sight, sprinkle in the vigilante factor of Grand Theft Auto 3, with the ability to kill and maim at will, and what'd you end up with? Well it certainly wouldn't be Elder Scrolls, but what you'd see here in Morrowind is the next closest thing of freedom in gaming history.
In the medieval land of Morrowind you are nothing more than a lowly prisoner captured and released into the world as a freeman after a journey across the sea. And after those first steps outside the sea-ports door the world is at your fingertips. Live the life of a noble dispatching thieves and bandits and serving the empire. Or be a thief, murder shop keepers and civilians at will steal items from their home and sell them off to afford more weapons and armour. With the possible exception of Grand Theft Auto 3 and Shenmue, I've never played a game this free before.
Being able to venture off on your own without following the storyline and diving into hundreds of side-quest and finding hidden caves and bandit camps is Morrowind's biggest strength. Within the first 15 minutes of my game I had already found a cave of bandits, freed their slaves, and swam into a lake finding the remains of a skeleton at the bottom where I found a sword and gold pieces next to his body.
Your character is chosen from ten classes of races, from Dark Elves, Wood Elves, Orc's and humans. The faces, hair, and sex can be altered, though shallow does make for a nice variety in at least making your character seem somewhat customized to your liking, once chosen you also are given the ability to generate, choose or even create a class/profession. This ranges from Warriors, Knights, Crusades, Thief, Mages and many others. Choosing a class gives players a certain abilities the others work without, Knights and Crusaders can wield heavy weapons from hammers to double-sided axes. While Thieves and Assassins can be deadly striking in stealth and small daggers.
The entire game plays similar to Drakan: The Ancients Gates; your character can be viewed from 1st and 3rd person points of view. Along the empty dirt roads beasts and enemies will be encountered along the way, killing so many increases your characters attributes depending on what method is used, stealth, strength, magic, ect. Outside of towns you can camp to regain your health and pass time. The weather will constantly change from misted mornings, to rainy nights and even heavy thunderstorms with lightning crashing overhead. If you're not fond of travelling such vast distances on foot, hitch a ride on a mammoth insect-like creature to the next village, it costs money but takes no time to travel. Decisions, decisions.
The Elder Scrolls series has been a phenomenal success on the PC, and after reading the features for Morrowind during my purchase I was sceptical as to the notion "Go anywhere, do anything" Gameplay. Of course it didn't take me long to realize, they meant it. Morrowind is a great RPG that no Xbox owner should be without. Not only is it massive and seemingly endless in its production but it's also a lot of fun. A must-have title. | video-games_xbox |
Great Game. This is a great game. Like others who have reviewed it before, I'll echo that you can do anything that Spidey can do. This means there is a long learning curve, but its a FUN learning curve! I stay in the first scenario (thugs on roof tops) and do a lot of experimenting. When you play into later levels you learn tricks that you can take BACK to earlier levels. For example, when you get past the first boss (Uncle Ben's killer) the next level is actually a tutorial level showing you that you can shoot web bombs while in the air. I now use this in the first level, which results in perfect scores a lot since I'm nowhere near them.
My only complaints are the camera motion IS sometimes difficult to work with, especially in corners. I often find myself travelling the opposite direction I thought I would travel. The other minor complaint is with the instruction manual. It needs to be more detailed. For example, it needs to say what aspects go into scoring for "Combat Style". I have played a perfect level with a 0 combat style, and I've gotten a 1000 (perfect) score on combat style while fighting a level where I take damage (imperfect). So I don't know what the difference was.
It is a good thing that a lot needs to be discovered (i.e., not in manual), but certain details which should have been explained were left out. Another example is the ability to web-throw-a-bad-guy in a direction. Now I've done it, but I have no idea what I did to cause the bad guy to be thrown left or right instead of just pulled directly towrds me. And I still don't know. (On a 'light' note, one of my favorite manuavers is to pull a bad guy off the roof letting him fall to his death. One can also fight with a bad guy near an edge causing both of you falling off, but YOU can cast a web and recover, HE keeps falling!).
Finally, a cool tip. One of the coolest things in the movie is the "Organic Webbing" spidey had instead of the comic book invention. Well, in Cheats use "ORGANICWEBBING" to get unlimited web fluid! This makes you really feel cool since you can do all web tricks without thinking about web fluid cost (on other hand some fights are now very easy by using the web dome).
Love the game! later.... :) | video-games_xbox |
Good, but is the price justified. What I like:
[+] The sound. You won't get audiophile sound from this set, but they are on-par with my similarly-priced SteelSeries and SkullCandy headphones. Certainly comparing these to the included Xbox One headset will make these look like $1000 headphones, not that it means much.
[+] The ear cups. They are soft and comfortable, but the comfortability of the headset as a whole could be improved.
[+] The cord length. It is easily long enough to do anything you could possibly want to do, short of walking around the room with the headset on after setting your controller down.
[+] The "control panel", or whatever you want to call it. It has the mute and volume up/down buttons, similar to the included cheap-o headset, but since you can also have the game audio go to this headset as well as chat, you can use the two new buttons to control the volume for game & chat independently, unlike the included headset. I also like the backlight on the mute button for a quick visual cue that no one can hear you, in case you forget (cheap-o headset also has this feature).
[+] The mic can fold up and hide well, to make it look like a normal headset, in case you want to look 5% less nerdy wearing these. But personally, I embrace the nerdiness.
What I don't like:
[-] Comfortable as the ear cups may be, the headset as a whole is a slight downgrade from my SteelSeries Siberia v2 set. The Xbox One headset feels very rigid with its lack of pivot points my other headsets have.
[-] The cable is long, but I wish it were thicker. It seems to be about the same size as the basic headset, which took about two seconds for my cat to chew through and ruin. I will make sure to keep this one away from hungry animals.
[-] Price seems maybe $10-20 too high. This is really the only option you have at the moment for a fully Xbox One capable headset, so you I can't say I would have expected them to price it lower, but there are many other non-XBO headsets in the same price range that feel higher quality and more durable. I guess time will tell.
If the price isn't a big deal to you, the quality and excellent integration with the Xbox One makes these a pretty good sell. I certainly don't regret buying them. | video-games_xbox |
Scripted, linear campaign = very little fun. This was the worst campaign of all the CoD games, and I've played all of them (I don't do multiplayer). The missions are absolutely linear. You cannot do ANYTHING other than exactly what the writer and level designer intended or it's a fail/respawn. And, when I say exactly, I mean, you can't even take a step out of bounds from what the scripted gameplay requires or you have to do it over.
The scripted action is so bad that there are moments when an NPC will start moving, and if you're in the way, he'll push you (like a crate) completely ignoring the fact that you're standing there. This has been problematic in all of the CoD games, where A.I. friendlies will walk through you, shoving you out of the way like Ezio through a crowd, but in this game it's the worst I've seen yet, where you will actually get stuck in the small corridors (is that how the graphics look so great, because the levels are tiny?) until the guy pushes you, crate-style, out of his range or make a turn down a hall.
Your A.I. teammates are complete morons who will not even shoot a guy standing right in front of them until you show up next to them. They won't get your back, won't flank, won't cover, they'll go EXACTLY where the scripted gameplay sets them to go, and will just stand there and occasionally shoot--mostly just duck and cover--until you show up in exactly the spot where you're supposed to be to move the action forward.
SoD never kicked in for even 5 seconds. And since I don't play MP, just the campaign, this was a non-game for me. Even MW3 was more entertaining because at least there was a little variation. I was CONSTANTLY saying, "OMG, is this for real?" throughout every stupid mission.
Also there's a serious problem when I try to run EXO SURVIVAL (Co-Op) it just displays an error message and quits: "Error Out of memory 5". LOL. Never seen a memory bug in a AAA game like this before. AAA FAIL.
I will continue to play CoD games, but will continue to buy them used for $20, like I did with this one. | video-games_xbox |
Who said mullets can't be heros. Pros:
Tactical, stealthy
Interesting storyline
Good voice acting
Cons:
Difficult to control
Questionable aspect in story
Overly dramatic cutscenes
Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance (MGS2) is a welcome addition to any XBOX gamer,
especially for those who like Japanese Anime, especially those overly dramatic
Animes that for me personally, is annoying. Moreover, unconventional and
somewhat confusing style of control takes a little getting used to--after bouts
of frustrating trials and errors.
The game has two main levels, Tanker and Plant. There are other smaller levels,
under Missions and Snake's Tales which I have not played yet (and not covered
in this review). There are additionally reference materials that add to the
background.
In the first level, you play as Snake (the guy with the mullet) to infiltrate
inside a cargo ship that has the superweapon, Metal Gear. Unknown to the
operators (US Marines), the Russians have secretly infiltrated as well in an
attempt to steal the weapon. Your mission is to find and photograph the weapon
while avoiding enemies. Simple.
The second level has you playing another character also named Snake, but has his
name (these are mission names) changed to Raiden. Raiden is somewhat annoying,
and I found the story/plot development strange with the involvement of his
girlfriend as a mission specialist--which I will cover later.
The game is played in a 3/4-format--most of the time. At times as the character
moves, the camera angle switches automatically. Sometimes the placement is not
where you'd expect, and you end up with a character that had been sneaking along
the wall to his left, suddenly sneak along to his right, or worse, start running
somewhere you don't want to. I think it may have to do with the
preference--having played Splinter Cell where I had total control over the
camera angles, it took a while to get familiarized with the controls. Moreover,
you have to switch between 3rd person and 1st person view if you want to shoot
and hit your target. But while in the 1st person view, you can only look--no
movement is allowed--which makes it incredibly frustrating: The 3rd person view
does not allow you to see exactly where your character is looking, so often
times as I switch he's looking the wrong way! Luckily, the enemy AI is so dumb
that he can't see you (let along hear you) 20 feet away.
As you progress, you are confronted with "boss" enemies which I believe are
ridiculous given the nature of this game ("Tactical Espionage Action"). In
between, there are myriads of cutscenes that are beautifully rendered and for
the most part, acted well, and if seeing for the first time, add valuable
insight to the story. If not, you can mercifully skip them.
And the cutscenes is where I find overly dramatic nature of some Japanese Animes
so irritating. I think that's personal preference, though. However, the story
between Raiden and his girlfriend Rose leaves a lot to be desired. I don't know
about you, but if my significant other was involved in a mission that was
life-or-death, I probably would not keep asking "Do you know what day tomorrow
is?" and other very personal--yet so engmatic questions that only females are
capable of asking. She reminds me of my past loves--always asking questions that
I had no answers to leaving it up to me to figure it out... but I should stop
talking about that!
The game is very tactical. A radar appears on the top left corner to let you see
where your enemies are, and their field of vision. It's not terribly hard to see
your enemies, which sometimes diminishes the suspense. Thankfully, the radar can
be turned off. On the other hand, I didn't find the game terribly
stealthy like Splinter Cell, but both reward you if you're patient and put in a
lot of thought. This is NOT a game where you can walk in and start
shooting. Patience and strategy is rewarded.
Naturally, action sometimes can't be avoided. Because the game requires you to
constantly switch between 3rd person and 1st person because at critical moments,
you can't exactly tell where your character is looking at. Additionally, the
game controls the camera angles, not you. In that sense, I didn't find the
controls even remotely intuitive, and led to many frustrating bouts of trials
and errors.
Graphics is good as any good XBOX game, with complex objects (most of which are
not interactive) and good lighting effects. Music is superb, as well is the menu
and general interface (NOT the character movement).
Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance is a game for those who enjoy strategic games. It
takes a bit of getting used to, but you should give it a try regardless. | video-games_xbox |
Great Game with Minor Issues. So far from what I have read this game seems to run the gamut of reviews. Some people love it, some hate it, and some find it okay for what it does well but not great because it has faults.
I happen to love this game a great deal. I like it more than Left 4 Dead. My gripe there was that the only time you truly got to enjoy the beautifully rendered infected in detail was when you were in online versus mode playing the infected.
This game does a fantastic job of allowing you to enjoy the beautiful scenery without bombarding you too much with infected. Yes, they attack, but a well-timed kick and a well-placed headshot and often you could go right back to enjoying the scenery.
I've played to 40% completion and the areas that open up after the first section can be a bit crazy. The best advice I can give is to use your surroundings. Anyone who has said it is difficult to navigate with the walls of infected is correct, however with the right application of tactical maneuvering and an explosive/fire grenade-type weapon you can eliminate a large number of the enemies in one fell swoop. That being said the scaling of enemy level by character level instead of area can make things very difficult at times. To the point of frustration building and the game ceasing to be fun when you've died for the fourth time because the auto-save occurred right before a mob of infected noticed you.
I didn't find the co-op-centric story progression breaking my suspension of disbelief. As to the pop-ups about other players playing in the same area as me, I haven't gotten a single one when I've been playing solo. Simply set the option for co-op to System Link Only and you'll never see that pop-up. If you ever decide you want to co-op with other players online you can go back in and flip that switch back to Live any time you want.
As to any bugs in the game, I ran into two minor quest bugs but the most recent update fixed both of them and I didn't lose any game data or progression. I don't mind bugs as long as the devs are quick with fixes and responsive to concerns. A quick hop on over to the Dead Island Official Website will show anyone that they are very responsive to concerns and are working on patches and fixes for issues that have cropped up since release.
The only gripe I have with the game is the awkward save structure. It's very difficult to tell whether your game has saved, where it saves, and at what "checkpoint" you will load to after you have reloaded. The save icon is very unobtrusive, which is good and bad. Good because it doesn't interfere with my experience while playing, but bad because I'm always a little nervous that my progress isn't saved (and this can be nerve-wracking if you've found a very powerful weapon, need to quit, and can't recall seeing the save icon).
Truly I would give this game a 4.5 rating which would fairly easily advance to a 5 rating if they did two things: 1) scaled difficulty by area instead of character level (going back to the initial area should scale to Character Level -5 or something to keep it "easy")
2) either added a "save" function on the menu or changed the "quit" function to "save & quit" so you know for sure your progress saves when you have to stop playing. | video-games_xbox |
A Improvement But Overhyped. First off, I would like to state that I have been a GTA fan since the very first game was released, so here is a summary of my thoughts on the game.
I have written a full in-depth review of the game at [...]
I have played both the Xbox 360 and PS3 version of the game, there is almost no difference between both version.
To summarize my thoughts, I think this game is an improvement over GTA IV, let's be clear about that. If you love GTA IV, you will enjoy this new installment even more. Instead of 1 main character, you get 3 main characters.
Now coming to the reasons why I'm rating this as 3 stars...
In the 5 years since that game was released, alot has changed in the gaming landscape. Therefore I'm rating the game against the other games of today's standard in all of gaming.
Gameplay works very well and is vastly improved over the last GTA. There's much more you can do beside main missions. Also love the music, you can always count on awesome tracks on the radio stations.
Right now, the graphics in GTA V are good but not really impressive compared to what's out there now. The animations could have been better with the amount of budget available in developing the game.
The story, I think it's a little boring and didn't feel connection to the main characters. The story start off strong and then fizzle out in the middle. By the ending, I had lost interest.
With 3 lead characters, this is a story driven game, but GTA V didn't deliver a compelling tale or memorable characters, although it does offer a humorous commentary of modern American life, the exaggeration and absurdity of it all.
The size of GTA V's world is almost too big for the game engine, I encounter several bugs along with noticeable loading time between missions.
Overall, I would still recommend GTA V if you're a fan of the GTA Series, it's definitely an improvement over the last game, just don't get too overhyped and you won't be disappointed. | video-games_xbox |
Tremendous value, but is it any good. As soon as I heard this game was coming out, I sold my regular edition of MvC 3 immediately, knowing that the sooner the better b/c the value could only go down.(Got around 20 bucks...not bad.)I finally received this update, knowing that I was buying a glorified dlc, but anyway...I don't know what I was thinking both times. I love Marvel, love Capcom...and the novelty of it is great, but unless you enjoy playing games with outdated senses of challenge, don't buy it just for the novelty. What I'm saying is, I really don't see how this game is really any fun...at all. Is it cool? Yeah, its awesome...but fun? Not really.
The additional characters are pretty cool, but after a while its like...I want my money back...
They have made a few changes to character moves and have de-balled Wolverine. :/
My major problem with MvC3 is that it is just messy. You have to be one of those people who plays nonstop and memorizes every move to be any good at it. Even Galactus in arcade on very easy can be a chore for someone like me. I consider myself a gamer. Not really competitive, but I think it should feel like less of a grind playing arcade. Pretty boring really. Plus no story or anything worth unlocking.
Also, dashing is pretty lame on the 360 controller. I would get it for ps3 if you really want it.
You could argue that dlc characters Jill and Shuma were 5 bucks a pop, and the addition of 12 characters alone, more than pays for this game...that's very childish thinking. For one, these characters would have been released over time and paying 5 bucks here and there is sometimes easier. Also, if we are pricing a game at 5 bucks a character, then why wasn't the first game like 180 bucks? Secondly,I could just as easily say, WHY DOES MVC2 HAVE MORE CHARACTERS THAN MVC3?!! Shouldn't they have added more characters in the first place? Also...the lack of stages is just embarassing. Don't get me started. I'm ashamed I contributed once again to Capcom's dirty, filthy, low and disgusting tactics. | video-games_xbox |
Volume level Issues - otherwise great. Downgrading review from five stars to two stars after a few weeks of use. You can see my original review on how to get dolby below. However, I have noticed that the lowest volume level is actually not low at all, but very loud. In fact, the problem is that the value cuts off completely about 60% of the way down the dial. Basically from zero - 40 there is no volume, then the volume kicks in at a level a tad higher than is comfortable, and then of course you can make it louder. This is across all games and apps on xbox one. I am sending in for an RMA to see hopefully if a new one addresses this problem. I will post the results when I get the new one back. There is no setting in xbox to adjust the volume.
Original Review:
They sound great and are incredibly easy to setup. A few tips:
1 - Fully charge them before you do anything else. When you first get them charge them before use - mine took about ten minutes to fully charge from the moment they arrived (partially charged). They are red when charging and not when fully charged.
2 - You need to find a paper clip to push a small hole to sync the transmitter to the headphones. You only need to do this once. I actually had a hard time finding a paper clip. I am not sure why they couldn't include one in the box. Pleas give me a paper clip with a Turtle Beach logo on it - that would be more useful than the refridgerator sticker with logo that is included.
3 - You still need to turn them on though by clicking the turtle beach logo on the right headphone panel to use them. Turn them off when not in use to save power.
4 - To get 7.1 surround sound, get a Turtle Beach Earforce DSS (I have a version 1 not a 2) - plug the DSS the optical cable into the xbox optical out and the DSS USB cable into a USB on then back of the xbox. In xbox settings go to 'display and sound', change optical to bitstream out and bitstream format to digital dolby. Push the button on the DSS to enable dolby. Plug the headphone USB dongle into the out port on the DSS unit. Congrats - you now have 7.1 Digital Dolby surround sound. | video-games_xbox |
It feels like a game on TNT. First of all, NBA 2k6 is a sweet game without question. But it's also the same game on the XBOX with slightly better graphics.
But what about NBA Live? Is it the same game on the XBOX? Heck no! It's a new hoops game and feels like a next gen game. Read why!
NBA Live 06 has been really bashed hard on the 360 and it's without merit or reason. It's the best 2 player game around and it feels totally new to me and I'm a longtime NBA Live junkie. My buddy and I have been playing it since November. It's the basketball game for anyone to play, as it's easy to pick up and deep enough for the hardcore gamer too. The graphics are astounding especially if you're loaded and have an HD TV. Watching this game in 1080 is like watching a game on TNT. It looks eeriely real! Sure the modes are missing and that's a bummer for some ,but what it does offer is a solid game of NBA basketball, and in the end, that's why people buy these games, right?
The level of the gameplay can be altered with the sliders. Sick of the rampant offensive rebounds by the computer? No problem, lower it in in the slider A.I. Too many layups? No problem, lower it in the sliders. Blocks, rebounds, steals, fouls, anything can be adjusted to your liking. If it's too realistic, up the sliders, too arcadey? Lower it.
NBA Live incorperates the most ingenious system on timeouts "without pressing pause". During breaks, you can call your plays, make subs, tell your players to up the tempo, crash the boards, check your players stamina, all with some taps on the directional pad and all without having to leave the game and pressing pause. It's really ingenious and I hope it sticks around for 07.
Now the graphics. This game simply could not be pulled off on the older consoles. It really looks amazing. The players look fantastic, every single one of them, from every tatoo, from every ankle brace, head band, drip of sweat, it's all here. I admit the players need more emotion, but i can forgive E.A. as this is their first attempt and I'm expecting 07 to rock.
In summary...NBA Live for the 360 as a standalone 5 on 5 NBA game is a solid game of hoops and I personally love it and you should really give it a whirl. Give it a chance, it's a bit disappointing the modes are missing ,but the game feels like a next gen game unlike 2k6 (which is basically a port of the XBOX version) but this game feels and plays totally different, that's why you should give it a try. Thanks E.A., you're doing just fine for the 360! | video-games_xbox |
Not perfect, but better than a 360/One controller. THE GRIPS ARE TRASH. Just throw them away immediately. There was literally no way to put them on where it looked anything like the picture. The thumbstick condoms, while they do look cool, are slippery and will kill you about 1/10 of the time if you excrete any amount of sweat through your hand pores. THAT MEANS YOU.
Now that the negatives are out of the way, this is actually a pretty solid controller. I never realized how squishy regular controllers (360 and One) are until I started using this controller. It's very much like moving up to a mechanical keyboard from a regular one. It is much more precise; you KNOW exactly when the button is getting pressed.
The additional buttons are useful, though very sensitive and require some mental retraining. It is kind of hard going back and forth from this controller to a regular one. That having been said, if you get used to the Wildcat, you will have much more precise control over your game than with a standard controller.
A random tip if you get this controller: the LB and RB buttons are really poorly placed; you have to move your fingers way too far to hit them. BUT--the alternate LB and RB buttons (the top two extra buttons) are AMAZINGLY placed. MUCH better than a standard controller. You can have your fingers placed normally on the triggers and just move your fingertip a little to the side to hit the alternate LB/RB buttons. Extremely good design IMO.
The main feature of this type of controller (including the Scuf and the One Elite), other than the mechanical-ness of the controller, is that you can turn (with the right stick) and do a combat command (usually the X and B buttons) at the same time. Like in Dark Souls III, I can turn the camera and dodge at the same time, which is super useful. You can't do that on a normal controller because your right thumb is responsible for both actions.
Overall, it's a great controller that will up your game after you get used to it. I think the grips and the thumb covers were 100% so the controller can be more visually appealing in pictures; throw them away immediately. It's a shame because they look cool, but that's the way it is. Think MECHANICAL CONTROLLER. You don't need cosmetics, you need to DESTROY THE ENEMY PLAYER. | video-games_xbox |
Worked well for about 50 hours. Keep in mind this review is intended to be short and to the point (I may digress) after usage over three months
I bought the Razer Onza Tournament Edition and received it around April 11, 2011. I have used it for Gears of War, Crysis 2, and Call of Duty: Black Ops; totaling about 50 hours (~25hrs, ~16hrs, ~2hrs respectively). It felt pretty nice while playing since it had the rubbery grip feeling, but skin and grim might starts to stick to it. It also takes time to get used to using the re-mappable bumpers (muscle memory).
What I liked:
- Re-mappable bumpers: I mapped A to the left side and B to the right side. It was useful for FPS games where you play on tactical and other variant of that button mapping. The mapped B bumper allows you to melee instead of reaching for the normal B button. Personally, I found it really hard to get my muscle memory going for the left re-mappable bumper, nothing else to say about that.
- The A/B/X/Y buttons: It felt responsive and has a nice mouse click noise.
What I didn't like:
- The tensions: I never thought much about the tensions but it doesn't feel that bad. One gripe is that it loosens itself over time. Recently my stick felt like it was failing on me, I would have to continuously fight the stick to move.
- The triggers: It doesn't feel good either because of the curve at the end. For some reason, I am able to shoot semi-automatic weapons faster on the stock controller than the Razer Onza. It felt like the controller had a hard time picking up my pressing.
I would also like to say that FPS Freaks don't work well on this controller unless the you set the tension to allow for the Freaks to grab onto. The Freaks will also scratch off the rubber on the stick if you take them off.
Nothing specfic but when I have both the Astro Mixamp 5.8 and the Onza plugged into the Xbox 360, my mic would give off a hissing noise which would quickly annoy others. The hissing noise isn't present when I use the stock controller. But when I plug in the Mixamp to the outlet via this Belkin product I have, the hissing noise isn't present. I guess you can have both of the products plugged in.
Like I said earlier, not too long ago the tensions were loosening and I would have to fight the stick to move. The product has a good step for third party controllers, but the quality control is just horrible. It's been only 3 months and the sticks are failing me. I'd say save your money and stick with the stock controllers, the re-mappable buttons isn't worth it. I think a majority of the people who buy this controller are FPS players, chances are you won't use the button because knifing doesn't occur too often. When I was using the stock controller after I got tired of fighting the Onza, I never felt I needed the re-mappable buttons. Save the money and use it to buy a game instead. | video-games_xbox |
Top notch sound - Works with PS4 w/ Firmware Update. My wife got these for me for Christmas and so far I love them. I use them for TV, movies, games & music from my iPhone.
First, I'll explain how I hooked this up. A lot of people are talking about not being able to use multiple systems for these at once and switching cables and such. Simple solution is to use the Audio Out on your TV. The headphones came with a basic RCA red/white jacks to hook up with, and my primary TV has audio out RCA's so I am able to use this without worrying about switching cables and such. Please keep this in mind with ALL headphones. My Vizio secondary TV has 3.5MM Audio Out and I use a RCA-to-3.5MM adapter for this and it works perfect. Most TV's have Audio Out's & USB jacks that you can power this through. Although, if you are using the Mic for gaming, you will need to plug the USB into the system you need it for. Or use a $10 USB hub to connect them all together and not worry about switching cables.
Sound wise, the bass has 3 settings via slider on the right side. Some heavy bass/action scenes in movies/games can overpower the rest of the sound so I usually have it set at the middle setting and still sounds great. The first thing I watched with these headphones was The Ghost and the Darkness and when the lions roared, it sent chills down my spine it sounded so good.
Occasionally, when the batteries are going low, speech will sound distorted, especially when the characters are saying words with s's or CH sounding words.
These are great headphones and I would recommend to any casual gamer.
EDIT 6/7/14 - Since I wrote the review, both sides of the earpieces have broken. I will attach pictures showing what has happened, but there are 3 screws through plastic housings that secure the earpieces to the headband. These plastic housings shear off from the earpiece part and the earpiece will hang loose, attached only by the wire. I emailed Skullcandy after the first (right) side broke and they asked me to send it in for review and potential repairs, but it would be 4-6 weeks for results. The results would be either they wouldn't cover it under warranty and I would have to pay to ship it back to me to fix myself, or they would give me a credit for their website for the amount of the headphones value. I didn't like this answer, as I didn't want to drop $20+ in shipping just to fix it myself. I attached pictures of the break and provided clear evidence that this is a prematurely wearing joint and pretty crappy, to be honest. I just used gorilla glue and glues the pieces back together and it will probably never break again.
The second (left) side just broke today and I already have it glued and it's setting now, but be aware that the earpieces are not secured very well and be prepared to either deal with Skullcandy's typically good customer service, or just repair yourself.
I personally love Skullcandy's, but I cannot guarantee I will purchasing more from them if they cannot acknowledge a product failure and make good on it when proof is clearly provided.
EDIT 1/16/15 - I have repaired each side of the headphones twice now. I did not glue & secure them properly the first time so the glue didn't adhere to both sides well. Should be done solid now. I recently purchased a PS4 and wanted to use these for chat and audio, but didn't see where they were compatible. I found a Firmware update on their website :http://eu.skullcandy.com/setup/plyr-2-pc
I updated the firmware on both devices and it is now compatible with PS4! NOTE: This update is only for Chat & audio from the console itself. As mentioned before, if you just use the audio you can just plug into the audio out from your TV/Receiver and it won't matter what the source is. | video-games_xbox |
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