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I'm ready for Dream Time Mr. B (beware of spoilers. The Good and Primary Reason for Buying the Collection
1) bioshock for xbox one without the compatibility conversion nonsense
2) with all add-ons excluding the multiplayer from bioshock 2
3) new textures
4) hd 1080p resolution
Things that are New
1) a virtual museum where you can look at stuff that they didn't do
2) there's director commentary reels that you can find if you want
3) there's now 2 discs versus having 3 - but they lay on top of each other in the same case.. yea..
Issues in Bioshock 1:
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1) Textures Missing? (so far I only noticed one and maybe it's just me but see the pic pretty sure this isn't right)
(pretty sure something was off on the sub too during the smugglers level)
2) Stereo Audio only for Bioshock 1? - Splicers are everywhere around you! Just kidding they are actually like a room or two away but you'll hear them loud like they were right around the corner (it takes forever for splicer voice audio to fade) (eventually you get used to it and can tell 40/60 where the voices are coming from - it's harder in bigger areas like Arcadia or Hephaestus)
3) Copyright Overprotection?: wasn't able to get my xbox one to screenshot and video recording was not allowed? (have to check the error code) - which is why the pics are low q
4) Audio glitches -
sometimes you'll hear the radio messages, loudspeaker announcements (ex: Jim & Mary) loop 2 or 3 times (like a word or two) if you're moving around the camera a lot at the time
Doors that are open still make the sound that they are closed and cannot be opened (i really only took note of the 3rd level where Ol' Pete was standing behind that door that you knock on)
When you load a save after dying (vita-chamber off) the audio that was going on in the background will still be playing almost on repeat (which is probably only going to annoy you if doing survivor mode without vita chamber).
5) Some Elements Remain Unrealistic:
certain exposed lightbulbs like those on the bridge in smugglers hideout near the end of the level
water level around partially submerged objects is a non-moving line
televisions don't turn off when smashed (but their screen does crack wooohoo - these are actually getting ridiculous - i mean one's on it's side submerged in water how is it still running?) update: I finally saw televisions turn off but it wasn't until I got to the Point Prometheus that these started turning off
6) Saving/Load -
time for action completion - borderlines unacceptable sometimes
limit of how many saves - it will stop saving and tell you that you have too many which i never had happened with the original game that was played more than once
ability to delete saves - which you know wouldn't really be something you'd care about if just kept make new saves like the original did but yeah you have to confirm each one and no way to batch the action
7) Achievements - Could be updated (for example: Bioshock 1 and 2 have Brass Balls achievements where you complete the game without vita chamber usage but Bioshock 1 requires you play the game on Hard while Bioshock 2 didn't mention a difficulty requirement - surely they could have tweaked it so that Survivor mode also got the achievement but nope)
Bioshock 2 so far....
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Graphics - the first thing i noticed when i loaded the game was that the cutscenes or recorded video animation seemed not so hd. When the 2k logos were flying by and you watch the little sister play with the blocks before you can get to the menu I was already seeing choppiness or screen tearing. When you watch the first cut-scene the scene didn't appear high quality (i can't remember if there was a flash-back like effect on the video or not) seemed grainy or with pixel noise.
Glitches - I have not heard any audio looping or seen any little sister abandonment and even the tvs turn off when smashed (though obviously you weren't supposed to do that though when getting incinerate and you see the plasmid tv advertisements - which is why the tv glow doesn't go away lol). Hacked turrets don't always show green ally status light - sometimes it's just black where it should be green
Gameplay Changes - Just some particulars
Telekinesis Release: if you just want to drop what you're holding (you can't just switch to weaps you instead have to zoom in - any gun works)
Hacking: you can proximity hack security bots without using electro bolt and the game even lets you do it after the security bot is no longer in proximity as long as you initiate it when it passes you by
Neat Glitches Found (spoilers) - All Games
1) Little Sister Abandonment #1 Jack Love? (Found 10/1/2016 in Fort Frolic [2ND Pic]) - After not seeing any Big Daddies until Chris Fitzpatrick's piano explodes my first one was seen in the lower atrium oddly enough being assaulted by spider splicers. Well the splicers got bounced and I left the room to get some ammo I was heading back to the atrium to get that Big Daddy and leaving the bathysphere room when i saw it walking. I noticed that it was coming into the bathysphere where i retreated into and starting looking around for the little sister hole it was going to...and noticed there were none. It followed me from the atrium and abandoned it's little sister. I walked Mr B around the bathysphere to confirm I was the target of his route. In the pic I attached you'll see me looking at the Rapture Metro sign above where the bathysphere will be and the Big Daddy gazing peacefully at me content that I'm within a virtual foot away. Naturally I attacked it and it got angry but it didn't move.. it seizured like it wanted to move but it stayed there. While I was wrenching it to death (while it seizured lol) the little sister ran from the atrium all the way to the bathysphere room to cheer on Mr B. After about 20 or 40 wrench attacks it went down haha. Hopefully that happens with the Handymen and Big Sisters.
2) Little Sister Defense (Found 10/3/2016 in Hephaestus) - The room probably doesn't matter and I don't know if I could make this happen again. So I was trying to take out a bouncer in this room using all them explosives that they had in the beginning when the lights go out on you a few times when you first enter heat loss. Must have accidentally thrown the gasoline barrel around half health which was annoying because I think this was my 2nd attempt (the first one was funny as I accidentally shot Mr B in the foot while trying to aim at the barrel I momentum tossed at him). Decided that I was going to wrench and repeat (puns) but then something amazing happened - the big daddy was no longer hurting me. Seems somehow the little sister it was protecting got sandwiched between us. This prevented damaged somehow (invisible wall or reach distance idk) and the little sister wasn't budging and the bouncer wasn't charging or couldn't. Either way my wrench reached and his drill didn't so Mr B succumbed to the wrench yet again - I was ecstatic.
3) Little Sister Abandonment #2 Turret Love? (Found 10/3/2016 in Olympus Heights near the 1st GG [3RD pic]) - I don't really know what was happening here and it might not actually be complete abandonment. But right after the Rosie got Little Masha (hee hee) out of the wall for some reason the little sister just cannot take her eyes off the wall. Rosie tries to convince Masha to come out and play but gets tired and sees what my turret is up to. Honestly this is probably the most harassment I've seen a turret get as Rosie is constantly doing the sling over the shoulder motion within inches of my hacked turret (what a thug). When I saw that I knew it was wrench time... but it didn't go to plan... Rosie moved the second I wrenched it and I got beat down. So I reload the save state and was about to say my final goodbyes to my beloved turret when I remembered I had useless liquid nitrogen (useful though if you've had max wallet for a while) so I reload that ammo and go to work while my turret says hello and that was eventually that.
4) Rosie Stuck on Stairs (any stairs in Hestia Chambers outside the suites) - This was happening with splicers too so I wasn't really surprised when it happened to Rosie. Don't remember too much other than seeing the splicers and Rosie getting stuck on the 90 degree corner of the landing meeting the stairs near the outside railing.
Bottom Line: While I can't comment yet on the complete quality of all the games - these issues so far don't make me completely disappointed with my purchase. While the amount of effort put towards the series remastering is questionable and the reason why I rated 3 stars at this time, I do think that patches will come for consoles and when that happens maybe it will deserve more stars. And hopefully 2K finds it in their heart to make Bioshock 4. | video-games_xbox |
Unexpected Fun. 3.3 ***
I knew nothing about this game until a friend encouraged me to pick it up. The only thing I knew, was that it was touted as being a fun co-op hack and slash- a promise on which the game delivers. One thing I will emphasize is that this game, at least for me, is a lot more fun playing with a human partner rather than the game's AI. It's not that the AI is poorly programmed (though they do walk in front of you and impede your movements at times), but rather that the presence of a human presents a more dynamic and interesting game-play. One thing that ultimately sold me on the game was the Bethesda logo- it's hard for me to think of a game with their brand that does not meet expectations.
Graphics
The graphics won't blow your mind, nor will they disappoint you and render the game less playable. If great graphics are important to you, beware this will not be the selling point of the game.
GamePlay/Control
This game plays VERY similar to Gears of War, as others will note. The button layout is practically the same, with a dedicated "action/run/dodge" button leaving your other buttons for aiming and weapon selection. The controls in my opinion are very user friendly and excellent overall. One interesting element for this hack-n-slash is the use of block. Yep, you'll actually have to block.
Characters
The game has two interesting characters with engrossing personalities. The dialog is often humorous and feels relatively natural for the world in which the protagonists interact. Where some hack-n-slash games can become tedious this game prevails during such moments with interesting conversation through out it's presentation.
Challenge
This game is quite challenging on the higher difficulty levels. However, with a human partner this is very welcome and greatly adds to the games enjoyment as you both struggle to survive the next wave of enemies.
Should You Buy It?
If you have a friend to play with and are in the mood for a fantasy romp with a decent story- this game is a bucket of fun. If you are looking for an action role playing game, this will likely let you down a bit. The game is geared for fast pacing, without the need to halt the action. You will not collect items and have an inventory to root through. Instead, you'll have a sword, armor, bows, etc and replace them with better loot that you find along the way. This game is an enjoyable slash-fest/shooter that will keep you entertained for hours. The replay value is enhanced with the added ability to create your own dungeons, or play a friends creation. In my opinion, this game is definitely worth a play-through. However, playing single-player is rather dreadful and the game becomes quickly monotonous.
Have any questions or comments? Feel free to leave me a comment and I will respond ASAP. | video-games_xbox |
Even with it's flaws, The Godfather is great. The Godfather video game tells the tale of a young man that you name, create, and customize as he joins the famous Corleone family of New York to not only raise through the ranks & become a made man, but to seek vengance on the people who brutally murdered his father many years earlier.
This game plays like GTA, and by this I mean it's an open ended game. You can traverse all over a beautifully crafted (and large) New York & New Jersey. You get to do side missions that are covertly named "Favors" and "Hits" where you'll find yourself doing numerous amount of things like driving someone somewhere to taking out a well armed & protected caporegime from a different family. On top of that you can go and take over rackets, extort businesses (so much fun.. you can bash the owner's head into a cash register or shoot up his building), bribe police, hire protection, collect film reels which unlock parts of the movie, hijack cars, rob banks, buy safe houses & hotels, blow up 100 safes, participate in boxing matches, hijack racket drug trucks, bomb enemy businesses, perform all executions, earn money as well as respect, and take down enemy warehouses and compounds. On top of all these extras, you have to do the main storyline which takes you through the entire Godfather 1 and beyond In addition to all of that good stuff, you can also buy clothes and mess around with his hair, eye, and facial hair color. For clothes its mainly like suits and stuff... things that people wore back in that time period. The customization is pretty deep, besides what I mentioned already, you can choose how muscular or skinny he is, how big his jaw or eyebrows jut out, lip size, skin tan, etc.
You get a huge variety of weapons in The Godfather which include revolvers, shotguns, tommy guns, bombs, handguns, molotov cocktails... they are all at your disposal and are able to be upgraded via black market merchants scattered throughout New York, although you must buy these upgrades. Furthermore, if you have access to the X-Box Live Marketplace then you can buy & download even STRONGER weapons for you to purchase within the game.
It doesn't stop there. As you progress through the game you gain levels which, in turn, allow you to upgrade your characters abilities. These include aiming & precision, speed, strength, how well you fist fight, how much ammo you can hold, and many more categories. Also, by going up levels and upgrading yourself, you go up in rank which means you can hire better crew members/protection.
Graphically speaking, I have to say EA did an excellent job creating New York and all of the characters within the game. Each character looks like their real life counter part practically to the T.. it was amazing to see the detail and effort put into the character model. New York looks amazing as well, you can really see the difference in culture from back then to present day and its really cool to see it. Marlon Brando looks AMAZING. Easily a 10.
The music was spot on and really fit with the game, creating the perfect mood and atmosphere for you to enjoy it. The sound effects are perfect, I've never heard or seen a more satisfying explosion in a video game in my life. The voice acting is superb, sporting most if not all the original cast reprising their roles.. amazing.
But with all this good stuff, why didn't this game get a 10? Well the targetting system can be tricky at times, meaning that you will wind up aiming at an enemy behind you instead of the one standing right in front of you. Additionally, the game's difficulty is like a rubber band - one minute its ridiculously easy, the next its super hard. The cops seem to come at you for almost any reason, and the same goes for rival families. Finally, your radar and map are complete garbage when it comes to pinpointing your objectives.. I can guarentee you'll drive or run right past it maybe 3 or 4 times because the map doesn't indicate where it is very well. Also the ending was strange because your character becomes the Don of NYC & the Corleones... what happened the Michael Corleone..???
To sum it up, this game is guarenteed to give you atleast 30 hours of excellent gameplay that will drag you deep into the mobster lifestyle. For casual gamers and die hard fans of the book/movies alike, The Godfather is a must buy. | video-games_xbox |
Unbiased review. I am an avid baseball fan and sports gamer. I have not purchased a baseball game in several years based off the incredibly bad reviews that they have gotten. I own a 360 so MLB The Show is not an option for me, although I had considered buying one just for that one game. So, I preface this review by saying this is the first MLB 2K game that I have played from the series and I have only played the demo at Best Buy of The Show.
The Good:
That being said, I think the game is great! Hitting can be a little difficult to get used to, but the analog control is more fun than just pressing a button to swing. Pitching is very interesting and a lot of fun. It requires skill and if you mess up throwing your 12/6 curve ball, you could hang a floater over the meat of the plate that will quickly get hammered. Whether you are hitting or pitching, the pitch counts seem accurate. Umpires sometimes stiff you on strike calls which is accurate (and it's cool to hear the crowd respond accordingly). The pitch by pitch statistics that pop up are incredible (for example, if you are ahead in the count 1-2, it tells the stats for the hitter and pitcher in that situation and who has the advantage). The fielding is fun and I really like the throw meter which gives user responsibility for precise throws... if you hold it too long, you may overthrow first base. The commentators on this game are amazing and really gives the game a great feel and flow. Honestly, the commentating is the best I've heard on any sports games before. I like the live roster updates and dynamic player ratings. The stadiums look fantastic as well.
The Bad:
There are some glitches on this game but I have yet to encounter any that are game changers. The biggest issue is that the graphics seem to be well behind it's PS3 contemporary (although the gameplay makes up for that). Some of the players faces look zombie-ish. Every once in a while there's a hiccup on a pop fly where for a split second you have to really work to position your fielder, but again, that has yet to cost me any outs. I have yet to experience any of the automatic roster adjustment glitches but hopefully that is something that will get fixed via patch.
Overall:
I really like this game and think it is alot of fun. Like I said, I haven't played any others in the 2K series so I don't have anything to compare 2K11 to nor do I have an axe to grind with The Show. I was really in the mood for a baseball game and went against what many on here have reviewed... and I'm glad I did. I really enjoy the gameplay and the flow. Pitching is just as fun as hitting for me. There is certainly room for improvement in the graphics department and some of the glitches come across as a lack of detail, but for someone looking for a very entertaining baseball game and you don't have a PS3, I would definitely recommend this game (but take into account I have not played 2K10 and some have said that it's essentially the same game with roster updates--so that part I would not know). | video-games_xbox |
Pretty great for the price. I'll break my review down into pros and cons.
Pros:
-It looks exactly like a microsoft controller. I mean exactly.
-Hard sturdy plastic just like a microsoft controller.
-Plays pretty well. So far I've only played a couple hours of Gears of War 4 on PC with it, but it does a good job.
-Vibration works fine so far (I know other people have had some problems with it, but so far I have not).
-Cord seems sturdy.
-All the buttons work perfectly.
-Plug and play. Zero problems with that.
-Arrived one day earlier then it was supposed to. And the packaging was nice.
Cons:
-My biggest problem with the controller is that the analog sticks are a little loose. It doesn't seem to effect game play much but it just doesn't feel right.
-Although the spot where the cord goes into the controller hasn't come out yet, like other reviewers have mentioned, it is a little loose and feels like it could if someone tripped over the cord.
Other:
-The pictures show a black controller with gray sticks, bottom, and cord. In reality the entire controller (at least the one I received) is black. I put this in other because I don't consider it a con (I like the look much better than the one pictured), but others might.
-There is no spot near the end of the cord that comes apart. I assume this is to stop a console from flying off the shelf when someone trips over the cord. Not really a negative, especially if you're playing on PC, but it is something to be aware of.
-It's been quite a few years since I've owned a wired xbox 360 controller, but this controller seems a little lighter than a microsoft wired controller.
Conclusion:
For the price I don't think you are going to be able to find anything better. It's not the perfect controller and it may not last forever, but it is exactly what I was looking for. I really love how similar it is to a microsoft controller. That's really what sold me on it. And for anyone wondering, I did NOT receive a discount. I paid the normal price for this controller. | video-games_xbox |
Red Dead Redemption. It would be easy to dimiss "Red Dead Redemption" as "Grand Theft Auto" with horses and ten gallon hats. But Rockstar San Diego has in fact created a more heartfelt world than the rather parodic and cold world of Liberty and Vice cities. In other words, RDR's world is as much focused on the wild-eyed temperance preacher standing outside the saloon as much as the crazed and whoopin' drinkers inside. It's handling of characters -with some notable and unfortunate exceptions- is sympathetic. Most of all, it gives the impression of a lived-in world that is both old and new, tired and vibrant, and with room for both the myth of the charismatic gunslinger and the lonely and crazy people that the brutal society of the West created.
RDR improves on the template of GTA not only in terms of its superior and softer characterisation. Although the story is the same old tale of a wronged charismatic central character taking on a bette noir from his past, mission structures tend to be a little more varied, with the slo-mo Dead Eye mechanic a cool nod towards the films of Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone. Side-quests can vary from collecting flowers, to going after wanted criminals, to hunting the various exquisitely detailed wildlife -varying from birds to coyotes and skunk- dotted about. These side-quests give a sense of the richness of RDR's envirnoments. The whole honour system adds a motivation to really behaving like a good guy, as well. Furthermore, Rockstar's decision to set the game as late as 1911 means that we are always being given a concrete setting for the birth of our own world.
Although I'm not a big fan of online multiplayer, there are enough game modes to keep anyone entertained for many hours; the online free roam mode is excellent for just messing about and shooting innocent characters without worrying about the consequences to stats, too.
But the biggest improvement in my opinion over the rather needlessly detailed and cynical world of GTA is RDR's absolutely stunning score. Sparse musical accompaniment often refers in fragments to Ennio Morricone's famed scores for Leone's films and the more sweeping arrangements for Anthony Mann and John Ford's famous Westerns. It gees up effortlessly for fight and chase sequences, before ebbing away to occasional splashes of impressionistic and moody pizzazz. Most of all, the music perfectly illustrates how RDR so often favours feel, shadow, landscape and melancholic observation over the pyrotechnics of violence, flamboyance and simplistic story development. The music is so much about what represents RDR's lasting achievement.
This does not mean RDR is perfect. Although characterisation is generally very good, is there any need for a sneaky, alcoholic Irishman? The cover system can be a little unwieldy in tight situations, but RDR is not the first game in history to have this problem, and it certainly won't be the last. But the game works so beautifully, with so few snags, that you really have to nitpick to find serious faults. Plus it must be emphasised that RDR looks phenomenally good, at least on the XBOX360 version I've played: amazing detail to the various character models and environments, with very little pop-up. It gives a sense of scale, dynamism and -most of all- possibility to the game world.
"Red Dead Redemption" is an exhilarating and smooth ride of a game. It has the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen in a game. It is a Peckinpah film made by Leone, a Howard Hawks western with the conscience and heart of Jimmy Stewart. And I'll settle for that. | video-games_xbox |
Extremely Fun Game. A Definite Buy. Hello everyone! Before I begin this review I'd like to state that I did receive this game early and prepared a detailed review for you all's convenience. Now that that's out the way, lets begin. I'm sure all of you have been anticipating this game for what seems like years. But now... you wait no longer. ITS HERE! So, sit back and enjoy the review. I'll kickoff this review with information on the weapons. Here's a list on some of the weapons you can expect when playing MW3.
List of a few new/old weapons
* FMG Machine Pistol
* G36 Assault Rifle
* KSG Shotgun
* AA12 Shotgun
* M320 Grenade Launcher (OMG ANOTHER NOOB TUBE!!)
* Striker Shotgun
* Barrett 50 Cal Sniper Rifle
* AK47
* Walter P99 Pistol
* Remington ACR Assault Rifle
* Model 1887 Shotgun
* Remington Semi-Automatic Sniper System (RSASS)
* M14 EBR Assault Rifle
* MP412 Russian Pistol
* SCAR-L AR
* MP5 SMG
* Scorpian SMG
* Famas
* M4A1 Assault Rifle
* RPG
* MP5
* H&K UMP
* AK-74
* M1911 model .45 Caliber Pistol
* Sig Sauer P226 Pistol
Now, as you have looked through this list, you may have noticed, yup, ANOTHER NOOB TUBE!! Don't turn away just yet because there's still hope. Although the noob tube still exists, they have balanced the damage it produces so you don't have to dread that last kill with the most cheesy triple feed tube you ever seen. Now that's out the way, this is for all the SNIPERS out there. They have *not* made it impossible to snipe, QUICKSCOPING IS BACK!! It's back to a reasonable aiming system where you can actually aim down the site and have the bullet penetrate right where you're scoping. As to B-Ops, when you aim and shoot down the scope, your bullet ends up in a tree somewhere. One qualm I have about the weapons is the shotguns. These are not the MW2 shoties we used to know. It seems that you have to get extremely close before you can get that satisfying kill. They actually feel weaker and I was a little disappointed to be honest. But besides that all the other weapons such as the pistols and assault rifles look and feel great.
Single Player-My Rating(4/5)
I won't get too in detail with the campaign mode because who likes a spoiler to ruin their experience right? So, I'll just describe the aspects of the campaign so you guys can get a better idea of what the game will be like. The graphics are killer! It seems as if every game that comes out nowadays has that cutting edge graphical enhancement, which is awesome. This ties in well with the theme of the game because it makes you feel as if you're actually on the front lines yourself and it just adds to the overall experience of the game. The way the story was thought out and put together, I'd easily give a 4 star. You can definitely tell they took some time and effort out to create such a masterpiece. It's one of those games where you can't put the controller down, or if you do, you'll be back in no time to continue playing. As for replay value of the campaign mode, I'd say you can get about 3-4 play through's on different difficulties before you get board of it which is fantastic. The story of the game really pulls you in and makes you feel apart of it just like MW2.
Multiplayer-My Rating(5/5)
I'll start off this multiplayer portion by saying it looks and plays much like mw2. For me personally, I was looking for something a little different such as the switch from mw2 to black ops where you could really distinguish the difference between the two. Luckily, all the new kill streaks, weapons, weapon proficiencies, perks and game modes help MW3 stand out more and have it go above and beyond MW2. I feel that all the new features added to this game really help it give to you an all around better experience. It allows you the ability to adjust to what style you're comfortable with and not just throw you into a class with no variety. I believe the flexibility and options of the kill streaks, weapons and perks widens the spectrum to give you a complete better online gaming experience. Another key point to MW3's multiplayer that I'd like to mention is that it has you take a different approach to just point, aim, and shoot. It rather has you think strategy and makes you think out side the box as to just running out in the middle of the map chuckin' grenades and blasting noob tubes like there's no tomorrow. As for the game play itself, it is extremely addictive and as you might expect, wickedly fun! I'm sure you guys are curious about the kill streaks so here's a list of them with a brief description.
Assault Tier Kill streaks:
4 Kills - Care Package
5 Kills - IMS -landmines that cannot be stunned or flashed
5 Kills - Predator Missile
5 Kills - Sentry Gun
6 Kills - Precision Airstrike
7 Kills - Attack Helicopter
7 Kills - Little Bird Flock - Mini Helicopters which patrol the map
9 Kills - Little Bird Guard - Big Helicopter that follows you from above and protects you
9 Kills - Mortar team - Mortar team but with 5 predator missiles - all go off at the same time in different places
10 Kills - Talcon - Mini Tank Robot
12 Kills - AC130 (SWEET!)
12 Kills - Pavelow
15 Kills - Juggernaut Suit - From spec Ops
15 Kills - Osprey Gunner Cps - You control a chopper gunner that also drops an emergency airdrop for your team mates.
Support Tier Kill streaks:
4 Kills - UAV
5 Kills - Counter UAV
5 Kills - Ballistic Duffel - Drop Juggernaut perk for the whole team, not jugg suit
5 Kills - Airdrop Trap - Drops a hacked care package
8 Kills - Sam Turret
10 Kills - Remote [Missile] UAV - Target enemies with missiles
12 Kills - Advanced UAV - Blackbird
12 Kills - Remote Turret - Sentry Gun that you can control
12 Kills - Stealth Bomber
18 Kills - EMP
18 Kills - Juggernaut Recon Amour - Care Package Drop Amour
18 Kills - Escort Airdrop - Same as the Osprey Gunner but you don't control the gunner or chopper and Drops 5 care packages, one will be hacked
Specialist Tier Kill streaks (you have the opportunity to choose the perk each time):
2 Kills - You get 1 extra perk
4 Kills - Get another perk
6 Kills - Get another perk
As you have seen in this list, the kill streaks are placed under the tiers of: Assault tier, Support tier and Specialist tier respectively. I found it pretty neat how they categorized them. Another thing you may have noticed is that there is NO nuke. This may come as a disappointment for some, but I have no complaints because I could never get to that kill streak anyway. One pretty cool feature that I found of interest was that the stackable kill streaks are back!(only in Assault tier kill streaks) I am so glad they put this back into mw3, now getting to those high kill streaks won't be as hard to get as in B-Ops. Another crucial aspect to multiplayer on mw3 would be the perks, so here's a list of the perks you can expect when playing this game along with a brief description.
Tier 1
Extreme Conditioning - Sprint longer distances (with pro>) Climb obstacles faster
Sleight Of Hand - Reload faster (with pro>) Faster weapon swapping
Scavenger - Reload ammo from bags (with pro>) Spawn with more ammo
Blind Eye - Undetectable from air support (with pro>) Faster launcher lock on and extra damage to air support
Recon - Explosive damage marks target on HUD (with pro>) Bullet damage marks target on HUD
Tier 2
Hardline - One less kill for Kill streak (with pro>) Two assists count as a kill towards next kill streak
Assassin - Immune to UAV, Motion Sensor, Thermal and Heartbeat Sensor (with pro>) Immune to CUAV & EMP
Overkill - Two primary weapons (with pro>) Second primary can have 2 attachments
Quickdraw - Faster aim down sights (with pro>) Faster animation of using equipment and throwing grenade
Blastshield - Flack Jacket (Immune to most explosives) (with pro>) Immune to stuns and flashes
Tier 3
Sitrep - Enemy equipment is visible (with pro>) Enemy footsteps are more clear
Dead Silence - Your footsteps are silent (with pro>) No fall damage
Stalker - Faster movement with ADS (with pro>) Delay on claymores
Marksman - ID target from range (with pro>) Longer hold breath on scoped weapons
Steady Aim - Increased hip fire accuracy (with pro>) Faster aim down sight while sprinting
Looking at this list, you've probably seen a lot of the same perks with different titles which is true, but there some that are new such as quickdraw which is like sleight of hand pro without the faster reloading. You may have also noticed that the pro perks are different and actually pretty cool. The new kill streaks and perks really do bring to you a variety of styles you wish to play.
On really cool feature added in MW3 is the weapon proficiencies, which upgrades your weapons the more you use them. With this new feature added, it gives players the ability to pick a weapon of choice and as they become familiar and comfortable with it, upgrade it so that it fits their unique style of play. I thought that this was a great idea and that it will be accepted easily into the MW3 community. Here's the list of all the weapon proficiencies along with a brief description.
* Kick -Reduced recoil
* Range -Increased range
* Attachments -Equip 2 attachments to the weapon
* Focus -Reduced flinch when shot
* Melee -Faster melee
* Stability -Reduced sway
* Impact -Great bullet penetration through walls (like deep impact)
* Speed -Faster movement w/ weapon equipped
* Damage -Shells do more damage (Shotgun only)
Another pretty cool addition to MW3 is the pointstreaks. Instead of the standard kill streaks for objective based games, poinstreaks are given to players who play the objective and help teammates to play the objective as well. Players will receive these streaks based on how many points they have. For me personally, I like this idea because it makes objective based game play a lot less boring and it gives you a little something to look forward to while playing the objective. So, to cap off this portion of the review, I'll just add that death streaks( includes final stand) did make a return. I don't completely hate death streaks, nor' do I really like them either, so I guess you could say I'm neutral, but we all have our opinions right? Now with that tidbit of information, were off to spec ops.
Spec Ops-My Rating(4/5)
Please note before I start this portion that this is my *personal opinion* and am simply stating what *I* think of MW3 Spec Ops. So the objective based missions are not bad and give a nice little extension to MW3 just as it was in MW2. These missions are actually very fun and challenging and with 16 of them, hold a lot of replay value. Now, for the new survival mode, I think a lot of us were hoping for zombies, but sadly It's not. Now I'm not saying this mode is bad, it's actually pretty decent and I had a good time playing it, but in comparison to zombies, it doesn't quite match up. I'm always open to new ideas and I found it quite amusing how you can purchase equipment and air support to help while you fight through the waves of enemies. The game play itself is very fluent and easy to play, well, at least till' you get passed wave 10 lol. Please don't get me wrong though, I really do enjoy this game mode, but I'm just a little disappointed that it wasn't zombies.
Conclusion Of Game-My Rating (Of Entire Game)-(4.5/5)
Overall this game is extremely in depth, addictive, challenging, competitive and most of all FUN! I'd definitely recommend this game to absolutely anyone who enjoys FPS! Sorry for the "novel" everyone. I usually don't write reviews this long and prefer to keep them short, explanatory and simple, but for this one in particular, there was just so much to cover. I hope you guys enjoyed anyways!
Please leave a positive vote if you found this review helpful. Thanks. Also, feel free to leave any comments for if you just wanted to share your thoughts and opinions, or if you have any questions related to the game or review. I'll try to answer them as best as possible. Again, Hope you all enjoyed! | video-games_xbox |
Easily a GOTY Contender 94. Visuals=95/100 (Terrific Art Style; technically sound well enough)
Narative=86/100 (Very Inconsistent Overall Narrative makes up for dense world and endearing characters)
Sound=94/100 (Great voice acting and terrific sound design drive the game)
Game Play=100/100 (Truly emergent game play and player choice allows for so many ways to play)
Replay Value=93/100 (Multiple play styles provide for an endless amount of ways to play. Game can take around 15-20 hours if you want to)
You remember Looking Glass Studios, right? The famous company who revolutionized PC games in the 90's? In general, LGS was one of the best studios ever, spawning some of the most innnovative game play ideas, which in turn has a lasting impact on games today. They are one of the most important video game studios to ever exist, a truly maverick studio that gave way to game innovation that still has a lasting impact. Why, do you ask, does this concern Dishonored? Well, I'm happy to state that Dishonored is the latest game to truly take inspiration from the Looking Glass legacy. Dishonored is easily one of the best games of the year, and it's one of those games that truly doesn't fall into any neat genre. An Immersive simulation* is the best genre Dishonored falls into, and it's the best game in this all-too-small genre since Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
There is much to talk about concerning Dishonored. Let's start with it's fiction. Dishonored's fiction, for the most part, succeeds. It's a brand new IP that truly feels fresh, and it's both distinct and memorable. You are Corvo Attano, a former legendary body guard, now a rogue assassin as the result of being framed by the corrupt leadership of Dunwall. Straightforward enough, right? Well, the somewhat straightforward story doesn't at all reflect the fact that Dishonored's insane world is anything but straightforward. Its personal revenge driven story isn't all that exciting by itself, but it truly falls upon a unique setting that manages to transcend its general plot, and makes for something extremely memorable. Dishonored's characters are interesting, its art style is an oasis in the horrendously vapid desert of "realistic" visual styles, and Dunwall is a stunning, engrossing location. It all adds up to make one of the most unique gaming experiences of the year.
Dishonored has quite possibly one of the best settings in a video game since Fallout 3's Capital Wasteland. Dunwall serves as a backdrop for the plot, and it's an extremely imaginative location with tons of absolutely enticing political and social over tones. Whale oil, political corruption (always a staple!), class division, population purification, rats, assassins, giant machinated monstrosities, and industrialization are all embedded within Dishonored's awesome world. Oh, and disease. Lot's and lot's of disease. It's all set in a stunning amalgam of late 18th century/early 19th century Europe and the futuristic tendencies of Half-Life 2 (particularity the Combine structures). It is a killer set up in a vibrant environment, and it's simulation game play model falls upon some memorable locales, interesting characters, and all end up making Dishonored a great experience. Along the way, a unique cast of characters rounds out the story, from assassins to natural philosophers, corrupt political leaders and horrifying zombies who weep blood. Dishonored as a new IP shines, and it's truly excellent.
Unfortunately, the story of Dishonored isn't perfect. Dishonored is well written, features interesting characters, and has a beautifully realized world but it's narrative structure is somewhat inconsistent. Its ending is a tad abrupt, and it sags with its narrative thrust at times. Most importantly, the game really didn't capitalize on the Outsider, which was a shame given how interesting the character was. You feel it doesn't dig as deep into the character as you wanted it to, and since the character is so intriguing it ultimately feels like a lost opportunity. HOWEVER, it's not a deal breaker, though. Even though the story doesn't reach its full narrative potential the whole way, its amazing art design, interesting characters, amazing setting, and player driven story telling don't let some story shortcomings suck up the whole experience. You shouldn't be worried about the plot overall, because Dishonored is ultimately a memorable experience.
The technical side came out unscathed, and while they probably aren't the most technically impressive around, Dishonored proves art direction wipes the floor with blistering tech. Having said that, it was the sound that almost even more impressive. The Sound design is outstanding. It's carefully crafted to the point of a sound scape. At the risk of sounding pretentious, it really does work for the game like prose does for a novel. The voice acting is just as good, with some huge names on the roster. Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking), Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs), Carrie Fisher (Star Wars), Brad Douriff (One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest), John Slattery (Mad Men), and Chloe Grace-Moertz all lend their voice talents to Dishonored. We all know that having big talent on board makes sure the characters get the voices they deserve, and Dishonored succeeds with its characters.
Oh, and as a side note, no asinine morality systems! I won't spoil anything, but for those who are sick of game developer's obvious failures to implement interesting moral choice will be pleased at Dishonored's Chaos System. Basically, your actions and how many enemies you kill affect the rest of the game in permutations and numerous incremental changes within the world, not through binary, A-B-C type changes. It's refreshing to see developers finally understanding how to really tackle "morality": leave it all up the player and let them decide for themselves, and instead stress consequence for their actions.
As nice as this all is, Dishonored's game play is easily the shining star. Dishonored is the newest game in the "immersive simulation" genre, where numerous genres and storytelling collide into one experience. Dishonored is a true spiritual successor to the Looking Glass pedigree, and those who long for the days of Thief and Deus Ex (two of the game's main influence) will be excited once they get their hands on this one. Don't fret though. This isn't a "lite" version of anything that came before it. You are going to get a new game experience; this is not a carbon copy of either game series. Instead, Dishonored keeps LGS's spirit deep within their design philosophies, and they created something unique and fresh. It's a game that refuses to be lassoed by genre conventions and spits in the face of the focus-group and play testers, offering a truly amazing mix of stealth, first person action, sword play, complemented with a sick arsenal of (mixable!) magic and gadgets.
As expected, the best part is how Dishonored focuses on emergent game play. As a result of the terrific game design, the game truly rewards replay and gives you the amazing thing we call player freedom. The levels themselves only make this even better. Dishonored is not open-world, as each level is a mission, with a hub level in between each mission (think something like Monster Hunter). However, like Crysis, each level is essentially a sandbox; and how! Aside from the baffling amount of combat freedom, the levels themselves are extremely sprawling and open ended, carefully suited to match and reward every play style any gamer chooses to do so. The combat here is extremely deep, and you can take your own approach in any way you seem fit, from sneaky stealth to all out action (and yes, you can play through the whole game without killing a SINGLE person!), as well as mix between the two. Basically, if you think you can do it, you probably can. In fact, players have done things the game makers themselves didn't know was previous possible! That's just awesome. Just wait and see what happens when the creative players get their hands on this one and experiment with the game play.
Each of the nine missions constantly reward exploration like no other game I've seen. There are so many ways to accomplish your objective, and in addition to the huge, extremely well made levels, the numerous side missions alongside the regular mission will provide even more playtime. The huge levels surely provide for some truly open ended game play, and you will want to do just that. Plus, no other game will want you to explore everything the levels have to offer, and doing so yields plenty of great rewards. It's the only way to get ruins and find the bone charms in order to alter your play style as you see fit.
To accomplish this, Dishonored's power and weapon system had to be extremely varied and flexible. Dishonored doesn't let you down. By collecting runes, bone charms, and money throughout the game, your play style is truly customizable in a vast amount of ways. Want to upgrade your crossbow so it sets your enemies on fire? You can do that. Want to choke an enemy out at the speed of light and be a general stealth machine? You can do that too! What's more, you can upgrade the numerous powers in order to help you specialize the play style you want to go for. Stealth players will be able to upgrade their level of vision, while those who prefer summoning rats will be able to do that to. Plus, being able to equip numerous powers in order to, say, improve your swimming speed, or being able to improve the effects of your elixirs. Dishonored's RPG level customization ensures you that, even with a game that will take you around twenty hours (and you should take that long), you will want to play it again and again, just to see what else you can do. It's a big layer of player freedom of an already player driven game, and that is all the more refreshing in a world of hand-holding, linearity, and restrictive game play. Dishonored's game play really has the joy of discovery within it, and it's up to you to discover all that can be done with the game play system.
With the various NPC's around, you'll need all the tools you can get. Their AI, when they become your potential enemy, is some of the best I've ever come across. The game's ability really does hinge on the NPC AI, and thankfully, Dishonored's AI is intelligent enough to support this (although you should play on the highest difficulty level to support this). Dishonored's advanced AI system allows for some truly unique AI, a dynamic system that controls the enemies through numerous factors. Sight, sound, perception, state of alertness, and every change to the world around you effects what happens in the mission. Playing carefully and being aware of everything you do is crucial to surviving the story, and it ensures that the encounters you come across in the game will make you think.
Dishonored is really one of those games that we don't see too often. Enjoy it. For me, this is easily the best game of 2012. Unless something ends up surprising me this year, I don't see Dishonored losing out the GOTY crown. It is games like this that make me believe that video games still have a pulse. The legacy of Looking Glass Studios still radiates through the game industry, and games like Dishonored prove it. So get off the fence and get it. You won't regret it!
PS: If you're interested in what I mean be immersive simulation, check out the comment box for an article describing the genre, by Steve Gaynor of Indie Game fame. | video-games_xbox |
An irritating, glitch-filled waste of time and money. First of all, I HATE 3rd person games where shooting is involved. Someone talked me into getting this game. I should have known better. You get ONE walk through on how to do a duel. I have no idea how the heck I made it through the first one.
Another thing I hate is games with a lot of cut scenes. Oh my God but you have to wait a friggin' hour before this game finally gets through all of its opening cut scenes and lets you finally play the game. (I exagerate here only slightly)
Fast forward to tonight. I played the game for two hours. I go through cut scene hell, pushing cows (lots of excitement in that), roping horses, and figuring out how to stay on them to break them. It says "stay centered" but the screen jumps around so much you can't figure out what is centered. I finally get through all of that and take my new horse to town.
Now, when you first load the game, it tells you it has an auto save and gives you the option to turn it off. So, of course, I left the auto save on. Rockstar's definition of autosave is apparently not the same as mine.
After getting my new horse to town, I run into a guy who wants to duel. OK. I saw that it gave me a walk through last time, I'll get one this time just like you do with poker, right? Wrong. Nothing. I hit one button and I'm dead. Guess what else? No friggin' auto save. I'm right back to where I was 2 hours ago. I will have to go through all that stupid cow herding and horse breaking again, with all of its associated and asinine cut scenes. I snatched the game out of the xbox, put it back on the shelf, and it will likely stay there for quite some time.
This game sucks. Period.
Edit: I found a how to dueling thread on [apparently, Amazon won't let you post a link, but it is on [...] -- see the comments for the actual link] for those who are going to buy this game anyway and those who already have it that may be as frustrated with the lack of instructions as I am. It helped me figure out the dueling system. Whatever you do, don't ask for help there without searching the threads or the fanboys will be on you faster than they are here on Amazon.
Second Edit: I am forcing myself to finish this game. This space will catalogue the various glitches, bugs, and annoyances that I find with the game as I go along. Will these get fixed in a patch? I hope so, but I doubt it.
1. Despite what is claimed in the comments to my review, not every cut scene can be skipped. The larger ones can be skipped by pressing "a". However, the more constant and smaller cut scenes such as looting, skinning and picking flowers/herbs cannot be skipped by pressing "a". What I have found, at least with skinning is that if you stop your horse just to the right of the animal and dismount on top of it, it will SOMETIMES skip the cut scene.
2. Broken camera angles. This is the major failure of ALL third person shooters. In this particular game, it means that in a confined space (in a building, mine, or some such area) you can be looking at whatever it is you want to shoot and have the dot on the target, but when you pull the trigger the round hits whatever object you are standing next to. This can get you killed in a hurry because while you can't hit the target, the target CAN hit you.
3. The instructions, both in-game and the manual, are pathetic. As some of the fanboys have said (with a perverse sense of pride that I cannot fathom), the game leaves you figuring out a lot of its controls through trial and error. Error in this game means you die and go back to your last saved area. Sometimes this means completely across the map. That's a heckuva price to pay for trial and error.
4. Senseless mission fails. There are ways to fail missions that make no sense and cannot be avoided unless you know about them. In the first horse roping mission, for example, if you get too far away from Bonnie, you fail -- even if you are pursuing one of the horses you are supposed to catch. You can fail the barn burning mission by bumping into Bonnie (you "assaulted" her), or jumping the fence on your horse (you "terrorized the townsfolk").
5. Crashes. After learning my lesson the hard way about autosave (it has now failed me twice), I am living by the mantra, "save early, save often". After completing the main story line mission that involves assaulting a fort, I immediately ran from the fort (because the game will not let you camp/save in a town, on a road, near water, on slanted ground, or any hideout), got to an open area, hit my improved campfire and the game froze. Hard lock. I had to reboot the xbox. And guess what? I had to do the entire mission again. I think this technically counts as the third failure of autosave because it did not save the game after completing the mission.
6. Following the chatty NPC. Many of the mainline missions require you to either walk with the NPC or go on a ride with him while he talks about all kinds of crap. Some of these rides are ridiculously long and involve you just sitting there, holding down "a", and correcting the steering every now and again because the autofollow is even less reliable than the autosave.
7. Teleporting bear packs. Someone needs to give Rockstar's programmers a biology lesson. With the exception of mating season, bears - particularly grizzlies - are solitary animals. They do not hunt in packs. There is an open area in Tall Trees where the bears not only hunt in packs of five at a time, but their reinforcements teleport from God knows where to appear right behind you if you try to skin one of their comrades. After getting killed twice by bears appearing out of nowhere, I had the camera angle up high and looking nearly straight down so I could see what was happening. A bear popped out of the ether right behind me and proceeded to maul me before I could do anything. If hunting here, do NOT try to skin a bear until you have killed at least four of them.
UPDATE: It appears that I was wrong on my numbers. I shot a bear near Tanners in Tall Trees that started an endless loop of bears. They popped out of thin air in ones and twos, and kept coming until there were no less than 25 bears dead on the ground. In one place, I had four of them piled up dead on top of my dead horse. The spawns came about 2 seconds after the previous wave died. I found that the only way to skin was to wait for one to pop far enough away from the ones you had already killed, leave the live bear alone, and try to skin before he noticed you (using the no cut scene trick helps). They kept coming until a random encounter popped up in the middle of it. They stopped right after that.
I also hit this same loop further down the road from Tanners in an open area across the trail from the area where Jack goes to hunt bear. I died before they stopped coming because the random encounter that popped in the middle of that one involved a bunch of guys shooting at me while I was trying to fend off two bears.
8. Inexplicable horse deaths. Another skinning issue I guess. I got off my horse to skin a deer on the edge of a messa. There was nothing in the area except me, the horse, and the dearly departed deer. As the skinning cut scene started, the horse whinnied and fell stone dead, passing right through me as it did so. I guess it couldn't stand the sight of blood.
9. Aiming. The LT locking feature is about the only way to get through this game, but its got some serious problems. As an example, I had a bear coming at me. I pull LT. Guess what our hero, John does? Aim at the bear you say? Wrong, says I. He points his gun straight up in the air and aims at some harmless passing bird. I had to hit dead eye quickly, bring the aim down manually, and dispatch the bear before I got turned into lunch. That's not the only aiming problem. Get a gun with a scope. Pull LT. You can have a target dead center on the screen and the scope aims at the ground a few yards in front of you. This bit of stupidity makes using scoped weapons all but useless in combat. About the only place you can use it and hope to survive is the first couple of shots in a long range battle.
10. The ending. Lame. Completely and totally horrid. I don't want to post a spoiler, but they have Marston do the most asinine thing I have ever seen in a video game. I mean, really. Good grief. You guys couldn't think of a better ending? Oh, and if you do play this game through to completion and want to keep playing it, make sure you let the ENTIRE credits roll.
11. The 100% completion achievement. I'm sitting at 95.5%. Guess what the .5% is? Bounty missions. You have to successfully complete a bounty at every bounty location on the map. The problem? The assignment of a bounty area is completely random. I've been trying all day to get the last three I need in Mexico, and all I am getting are the same sites over and over again. 3 more missions and I can trade this stupid game in.
FINAL NOTES. I'm still trying to get those last 3 bounty missions so I can get the 100% completion achievement. While it is entirely possible, I do not believe I'm going to see anything new that warrants editing this review again. Having completed 95.5% of the game, I can make my final observations.
I will plagarize the first one. RENT this game before you buy it -- particularly if you don't ordinarily like 3rd person shooters. Don't buy the hype, this game is not that great in my opinion. If you rent it, and you conclude that I'm wrong, you can always go buy it. If, however, you agree with my opinion, you have saved yourself about $50, and the time I will have spent doing battle with the fanboys will have been worth it.
Second, to say something nice about the game, the graphics for the world are outstanding. This could have been a great world to play in. Kudos to the people who designed the sandbox.
Third, the game still sucks. Maybe not "period" (because of the gorgeous sandbox), but it still sucks for all of the reasons I listed above. A pathetic 1 out of 5 stars.
OK, ONE MORE FINAL EDIT. I am now at 99.7% completion and have been for a week. I need three more bounty missions in Mexico. The way it works, the name of the bounty doesn't matter, it is the location where he is holed up. You have to get all the LOCATIONS. The problem? It keeps spawning the SAME THREE MISSION LOCATIONS. It has done this for a solid WEEK of real time. It will not give me anything but three of the same locations over and over again. It doesn't matter how I complete the missions it gives me (kill or capture). It does not matter where I get the missions from (there are three locations in Mexico to pick up bounty missions and I've done all three). This achievement is COMPLETELY BROKEN because the game is stuck in an endless loop of the same three bounty locations.
I really wish I could give this game a zero. | video-games_xbox |
A New Fan to the Series. As the title of my review suggests, I'm new to the XCOM series and Enemy Unknown has been an excellent introduction into the alien-smashing real-time strategy franchise. I'm not sure how it's possible that I've never played or worse, heard of this series but if previous entries in the series are anywhere near as good as this title then I might have to go back and pick up previous titles for my legacy systems.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown comes from Firaxis Games. As in Sid Meier. This studio has some major chops in the strategy genre and has produced some incredible games not the least of which includes the Civilization series.
So first things first, yes this is a turn based strategy game. I'm not exactly a huge fan of the genre and outside of Final Fantasy tactics the vast majority of my RTS'ing has taken place on my PC. Replacing a keyboard and mouse with a controller is always a daunting task - even more so with genres like RTS. But the guys at Firaxis have done the console proud! There are times where I did find myself missing the flexibility and customization that comes with a keyboard and mouse but overall you couldn't really ask for more out of the controller integration.
The basic premise of the game is this (Spoiler Free): you're put in command of the XCOM (Extraterrestrial Combat Unit). You're essentially a god-like commander that controls everything from individual unit commands ie: movement, attack, defend; to more complicated tasks of resource allocation, research and development, engineering; to which hot-zones around the world you'll defend at the expense of others. The game is set in the "real world" with some deviations where needed. You start out by picking your zone to build your XCOM home-base - North America, South America, EU or Africa. Each has distinct pro's and con's. Starting out in North America might net you more resources at the beginning but a lower monthly stipend for example.
When you're not directing troops against the alien invaders you'll be at your bunker HQ allocating precious resources to gain the upper hand in combat. There is a lot to do here... You can capture alien technology or even aliens on the battlefield and then invest in interrogations and R&D; recruit and train troops, invest in capital projects such as satellite uplinks, foundries, labs, energy plants and more. There is a ton of depth to this aspect of the game and honestly it quickly became my favorite aspect of the game, even more so than the combat action itself.
Troops gain levels (in the form of rank) and experience the more they fight. A troop will climb the rung from "squaddie" to Lt. Colonel and unlock a slew of bonuses and abilities along the way. You can invest in research projects to improve guns and ammo, scopes, body armor and a whole lot more. To counteract a player having nothing but super-soldiers the game features permanent death for troops that are killed in battle. So likely you'll have a steady stream of new faces rotating into the lineup. Initially I wasn't such a big fan of the injury or KIA system (troops can be knocked out of commission if injured in battle for a set period of days to recuperate) but it adds the right amount of tension to the game. Battles tend to play out a little slower as you have major consequences for sloppy, haphazard movement.
Graphics are what I'd call acceptable. They're not bleeding edge but they're not terrible either. The game is built on the Unreal Engine 3 so expect the familiar sheen to the graphics. Troops slightly resemble the Tonka-truck physique of Gears of War characters but with less detail. You're able to customize your troops on a basic level: hair, color, and later equipment.
So why not 5-stars?
There are some hiccups in the game. The camera can be wonky. Especially having to use the D-pad to rotate the camera in set 45 increments. There are situations where you'll just have to accept a less than ideal vantage. There are a few glitches that I ran into that required restarting my X360 as well. Also, as much fun as this game is it can get extremely repetitive. I was absolutely hooked on the title at first but then slowed down a bit and started playing a few missions at a time. I think it would've been great for Firaxis to mix things up a little bit more especially with the cutscenes that constantly repeat over and over again.
Overall though I'm definitely a new fan to this series and recommend this title! | video-games_xbox |
The Game To Beat. I purchased my copy online, but so impressed, wanted to share my thots here, where I normally purchase everything.
Ive been playing golf games since Links 386 on the pc. I just picked up a copy of The Golf Club (TGC) this weekend on the Xbox, and was really impressed with the game play! TGC is the gold standard for golf games and you should buy a copy with the Collectors Edition for the following reasons:
Dev Team Update the Heck Out of TGC. None of this once a year release stuff with a single patch that fixes some things, breaks more things, and thats it folks, youve got your golf game see ya. The Dev Team are continuously upgrading the game based on user input. TGC has a very active user forum that the Dev Team participate in daily. Its refreshing to say something on the user forum and get an immediate response from their Dev Team Rep (Keith) . Really . . . thats what happened to me. I posted a question on June 8th, and Keith had an answer for me on June 9th. I posted a comment at 1 a.m. Sunday morning on June 21st and Keith commented back on Sunday morning at my 7:45 a.m. And the user base is made up of helpful and gracious folk, not like a pack of poorly fed dogs that are snapping and snarling in their malnourished abused state.
Graphics. Reviews prior to June 2015 that talk about poor graphics on the Xbox version have to be discounted, as TGC was better optimized for the Xbox and now has 900P I think (as compared to PS4 pumping out at 1080P). Im playing on a 70 inch ultra TV and the Xbox version looks great! No clipping or frame drop outs or stuttering. User created courses may tax the Xbox, but that is because the author put too many trees or grass in their course. There are tons and tons of courses where the Xbox will play just fine.
Game Play. My wife and I played the game in co-op and had a great time. It was just as frustrating as the real game, and my wife beat me . . . just like in the real game! The course looked great and I had the feel of really playing a golf game in that there weren't a bunch of gimmicky doodads to cheat in the game. The first game we played my wife was regularly getting below par scores so while the mechanics of the game are less about swing meters and putt previews . . . it is easy for a newbie to pick up the game and get down to business, even if that business was soundly cleaning my clock!
User Created Courses. A huge deal! No longer paying $200 for a golf game and a handful of courses that the publisher creates for the user base each friggin year. As Tiny Tim once said, Oh my! Look at all the wonderful things to eat! We must thank Mister Scrooge. We are done with those days! Good bye Mr. Scrooge . . . Hello TGC! Well . . . actually, Ill probably eat at Scrooges table again . . . probably in July, instead of at Christmas . . . but just because Im a glutton for punishment!
Co-Op Plus Multiplayer online. This is a really big deal to me. TGC supports 2 people in house A playing in a single game with another player in house B. And the Dev Team are actively in the process of improving co-op/ online multiplayer based again, on user based input.
In conclusion get this game and the Collectors Edition expansion. Xbox, PS4, whatever . . . but get this game. | video-games_xbox |
Madden 16 is a Great Football Game. Madden 16 is a very good football game. There are a lot of different ways to play the game:
1. You can play a regular game against a friend, AI or online against a random opponent
2. You can play a franchise mode where you take control of an NFL franchise and make key decisions/play games in the hopes of making your team a multiple super bowl winning dynasty.
3. You can play the Madden Ultimate Team mode, which is where you create a team using Ultimate Team Cards that you can earn from completing challenges. You can also earn cards in the auction house. This is a fun game mode because it's exciting to try and get the best cards/players for your play style, and you can try to find the exact players you want on your Ultimate Team. Want Cam Newton, Calvin Johnson and Dez Bryant on your team? Get their Ultimate Team Cards and make it happen.
4. A new mode this year which I love is Draft Champions mode. This mode sets you up with a standard average team (around 70 rank) and then gives you the opportunity to select a coach and then 15 players to add to the team. The players could be rated anywhere from high the high 70's to the 90's, and you get to choose from 3 players each round. So, in the first round, you might have a choice between a QB, Linebacker or Safety. The 3 types of players you can choose are randomized each round. The draft is interesting because based on the coach you select, certain players will perform better in your system than others. It's also exciting because you want to make sure you get what you're looking for in your 15 picks without missing out, as you can only choose from 3 players each round. I've had teams where I passed on drafting a QB in round 9 and then I never got a chance to draft another QB again, so my team was forced to be lead by a 73 rated Mark Sanchez at QB (thankfully I also had drafted Greg Olsen and Dez Bryant, even Sanchez can hit them). You can then take the team you drafted online and compete against other players teams that they drafted as well. I have played this mode the most because it's really fun to see how your drafting skills stack up against other players. Also, this mode challenges you to go 4-0 with your Draft Champions team, and rewards you with a Madden Ultimate Team Card pack based on how well you fare. After you go 4-0 or after your first loss, it's time to re-draft a new team and try again.
Now that I've covered the major modes in this year's Madden, what about the gameplay? It's really good. This is the most realistic Madden I've ever played. They added a new mechanic for receiver's where you can hit A for a posession catch, X for a run after the ball catch, and Y for a spectacular catch. Throwing the ball to the corner of the end zone and need your receiver to catch the ball and stay in bounds for a touchdown? Go for A, the possession catch. Throwing a quick slant route to a fast receiver and want him to explode up field? Go for x, the run after the ball catch. Finally, throwing a pass where you need your receiver to go all out or elevate for the ball? Go for Y, spectacular catch.
The tackling and defense is handled very good as well. When you're playing on the defensive line, you can tap either "a" or "x" based on a prompt to perform a rip or swim move and try to sack the quarterback. For pass defense, you can hold Y to play the ball when it is thrown to a receiver that you are defending and this gives you the chance at an interception. For general tackling, you can hold "A" to generate a safe tackle, or you can go for a huge hit with the hit stick, potentially forcing a fumble.
It is possible to successfully run the ball in this years Madden. If you call the right play and read your blocks correctly, you can break out a nice 5-10 yard run. However, if you call a run up the middle and your opponent has a good D Line, or you run into a blitz, or you run a toss play with a slow running back, you're probably going to get stuffed or gain only a few yards. It is possible to run successfully in this years Madden, but you have to be smart about play calls and how you read your blocks.
The presentation of the game is Amazing. The graphics are amazing. The gameplay is very tight and refined. There are still "Madden" moments that will drive you insane, such as a random fumble here and there or a perfectly defended 60 yard bomb completion, but these kind of moments just come with football as a whole. There are just times where the game of football is unexplainable, which is what makes it so exciting. I highly recommend this years Madden. | video-games_xbox |
An all-time great masterpiece. Im a bit late on my review, as the game was released over 2 months ago, but I prefer to spend quality time playing a game before I send out a review. I meant to post my review after around 50 hours of gaming. Im currently 250(!) hours in and just now getting around to it. My free time has been so consumed with actually playing the game that I haven't taken the time to do anything else. That should tell you what you need to know about this game. If it doesnt, then this should GO BUY THIS GAME RIGHT NOW!
I am a Bethesda fanboy so I hate comparing games to the Elder Scrolls series in terms of how another game stacks up against it. So I will say this, Witcher 3 is by far the best third person RPG I have ever played. CD Projekt Red knocks it out of the park with this game. In an age where games are pushed out half completed, it is refreshing to have a game developer take their time and deliver a home run product from the moment you open the wrapper. Do you remember what it was like to open a game case and have it contain more than just the game itself? You may have to think back several years. Thats why I was shocked when I opened the case and, along with the game itself, it contained a thick manual, a map of the game world, a thank you from CD Projekt Red, and a few other goodies. It took me back to my younger days in a good, nostalgic kind of way.
Before I begin my in-depth review, I feel I should state my Witcher series background as a point of reference. I never played Witcher 1 (although I read a quick summary before I began W3). I did play Witcher 2 but, to be quite honest, I never really got that into it. So my review comes as someone who isn't a biased fanboy, but someone who was actually looking for ways to not like it. And so we begin
Combat: 9/10
Ive read some reviews where the combat was given a poor score as an X and Y button masher. This couldn't be farther from the truth, in my opinion. You have your two basic light and heavy attacks, sure, but there is so much else that goes into the combat. Each monster in the game has a unique style of fighting and you must change your fighting style accordingly. Some monsters have quick attacks so it is best to fast attack them because if you try to heavy attack they will hit you before you swing and cancel your attack. Some creatures are slower to attack so you can afford that extra time to hit them with a heavy attack and deal more damage. You can block (some) attacks with a parry. Others you have to backstep or roll away from. With dozens of enemies comes dozens of combat strategies.
I haven't even began to talk about using signs (magic abilities) and preparing for combat with blade oils and potions. Monsters each have weaknesses to certain oils and signs, which are fortunately kept in a Beastiary glossary on the menu screen in case you forget (which is easy to do since there are dozens of unique monsters). If you're playing on easier difficulties, preparing before entering combat isn't as important. But if you're playing on one of the harder difficulties, preparing before battle becomes vital. There are blade oils for each species of monster that you can apply to your weapons that increase damage. Oh yeah, did I mention that there are about a dozen unique bombs and a crossbow at your disposal as well?
Movement: 7/10
The movement is weird to get used to at first because Geralt doesnt react immediately after giving him a command. You know, like a real person. Once you get used to it its not so bad and I actually prefer it now. With the v1.07 patch, a more reactive movement option was added as an alternative that you can switch to in the Options menu. I used it for about 10 minutes and had to switch back because it didn't seem as real. The only time when I don't like the less reactive movement is when Im in a confined space.
The underwater swimming movement was horrid at first but a patch seems to have corrected it some. Its still not perfect, but its better than it was. Its easy to get caught swimming in circles underwater and almost drowning.
Plot/Quests: 10/10
Its been a LONG time since Ive been as immersed into a games story as I have with W3. There are some recurring characters from previous games, so I recommend reading the Wikipedia plot summary if you haven't played them, but it is not make-or-break to enjoy this game. Apart from the main quest, there are countless side quests. Its such a great feeling to open the quest log and see 20-30 quests sitting in there. I won't divulge too much information because its hard to do so without giving away spoilers. But there are certain quests that will leave you emotionally drained. I got so invested and emotionally attached to some quests and characters that I was left empty when it was done, and not all of them have happy endings. That is the mark of truly great storytelling. The game also has great replayability because there are 36 different endings that your actions throughout the game determine. Im currently 100 hours into my second playthrough and its like Im playing the game for the first time because Im, for the most part, taking different routes on quests that will change the ending.
Exploration: 9/10
The W3 world is enormous! Easily the most expansive world Ive ever experienced. On their Wikipedia page, its described as 30 times larger than previous Witcher games and 20% larger than Skyrim. That should give you a scale to realize how large this world is. Ive played Dragon Age: Inquisition which is possibly close to the size of the W3 world (hard to compare since DA:I was several separate regions), but in Inquisition it annoyed me at how large the world was. By the end of the game I was so sick of exploring and hated it when I looked at the world map and realized I still had 3 or 4 more regions to explore. This never happened in W3. There are so many villages, caves, camps, monster nests, and many other things to explore. Despite that, I never felt that it became redundant. I had just as much fun clearing the last cave as I did the first one. The only reason I took 1 star off is because there isn't an abundant amount of diversity of the landscapes. Of the two main areas, one is a snowy, mountainous region and the other is a sprawling grassland with forests and swamps.
Difficulty: ?/10
Obviously, difficulty is a hard topic to review because there are 4 different difficulty settings and everyone prefers something different. On my first playthrough I played on the second easiest difficulty. The early parts of the game are tough as you get used to the controls, learn what combat strategy to use against different monsters and people, and as you don't have many upgraded abilities. Once you get into the groove of things and start upgrading your character, weapons, and armor, it becomes quite easy, in my opinion. On my current playthrough, Im playing on the hardest difficulty and its made the game even more fun. The early game is extremely tough, especially since meditating (in game waiting) doesnt replenish lost health (which it does in the easier difficulties). But once you get start building your character, it becomes easier and less frustrating while still maintaining enough difficulty to keep combat interesting. On the easier difficulty by mid-game I found myself consistently fighting monsters 10+ levels above me, simply because I could. On the hardest difficulty I would get my face stomped in if I did that. It keeps the combat exciting. If I were to give a suggestion, I would recommend playing on the second hardest difficulty on your first playthrough.
RPG Aspects (Character leveling, abilities, crafting, etc.): 10/10
Trust me, there are enough RPG elements to keep you interested for the long haul. What I loved about the character leveling is when you reach a certain level (not sure which), the experience needed to get Geralt to the next level is capped at 2000 XP points. So instead of leveling up quickly at the beginning of the game and grinding for a bazillion XP points to increase one level in the later game, it allows you to continue leveling up throughout the game. We all know that slight feeling of excitement when you hit a new character level. This allows for you to keep experiencing that throughout the entire game. There are three main areas to spend your ability points: combat, signs, and alchemy. Each area has 5 sub-areas to spend points on. For example, in the combat tree you can spend points on upgrading fast attack, heavy attack, your crossbow, adrenaline points, and combat defense. You won't have enough ability points to upgrade them all, which helps the replayability factor. In my first playthrough I wielded light armor and primarily used fast attacks (as light armor offers benefits to fast attack). In my current playthrough I am wielding heavy armor and primarily using heavy attacks (heavy armor benefits heavy attacks). It lets you play the game in an entirely different way. As far as crafting, I don't even want to venture a guess on how many armor, weapon, bomb, oil, and potion recipes there are. Hundreds upon hundreds. Heck, you can even craft the ingredients that you need to craft the items. Youll just have to take my word for it that you won't be disappointed in a lack of crafting.
***
Overall: 10/10
In an age where game developers are pushing out broken content once a year to maximize revenue, its refreshing and I appreciate that CD Projekt Red took the time and spent the money to develop a game that is truly one of the best ever released. If you don't believe me, Google Witcher 3 reviews and check out the scores that is was given from gaming websites that criticize games to their bone. In fact, Gamestop awarded Witcher 3 a perfect score, making it one of 9 games EVER to receive that honor. I cant gush enough about this game. Years from now I will look back on this game as one of the select few to make my personal list of favorite games ever. CD Projekt Red has gained another follower and I will most certainly be anxiously their next release. Do yourself a favor and pick up your copy as soon as possible. | video-games_xbox |
Tons of fun!! Plus: Tool fans take note. My wife had been asking me to get Rock Band for the longest time after playing it at a friends house. I did a little research on both Rock Band and Guitar Hero: World Tour and I finally decided on Guitar Hero. I'm glad I did. She loves the drums and with the two cymbals we both feel it gives a more realistic feel while playing. NO PROBLEMS with our drum kit. I know a lot of people have been voting this product down because of the recognized issue with some drum kits. Ours works perfectly. One of the best parts of the game for me is that Tool agreed to license their music to Guitar Hero exclusively. I'm a huge Tool fan and with a little playing time (just a few hours in our case) you can unlock all three Tool songs. Tool also wanted to work with Activision and created their own venue in the game. While playing the Tool songs you don't see a band on stage, but instead a visual show/collage inspired by Tool album art. Tool fans will understand what I'm talking about. It's pretty wicked. Plus, being a Metallica fan as well, I downloaded the entire Death Magnetic album to play (also exclusive to Guitar Hero). My wife loves a lot of the classic rock and 80's rock that is available like The Eagles, Steve Miller Band, and Blondie. We had a few friends over to play and everyone loved it. Game play is great and there are a bunch of songs available immediately to play in the "Quickplay" mode including Nirvana, Wings, Willie Nelson, Smashing Pumpkins, and Beastie Boy's just to name a few. Something for everyone really. You don't have to go directly to "Career" mode if you don't want to. If you do play "Career" you will start opening new songs after your first few successful gigs. I know Rock Band has way more music downloads available at this time, but Guitar Hero is going to catch up real soon, no worries. Also, from what I understand, the hardware for the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero: World Tour will work on both Rock Band 1 & 2, so 360 owners can get the best of both worlds if they want. | video-games_xbox |
Knot a killer kombo. Mortal Kombat Armageddon is supposed to be the finial installment of the Mortal Kombat series for the Xbox and Playstation 2 consoles. It is supposed to end the franchise with a mighty bang, but ends up being nothing more than a weak whimper.
Since this is supposed to be the swan song for this iteration of the series, they have thrown in nearly every character that has ever been in a Mortal Kombat game which gives you more than sixty characters to play with. On top of that, you can even create custom characters.
The graphics and character models are good for the aging Xbox platform. The stage design is acceptable, but they are not nearly as engaging as those presented the previous games. They are decent, they work, but they are nothing to get excited. Everything seems to be a bit overly dark and gloomy to me, and I can't help but wonder if this has been done to hide limitations in the game engine. The sound is adequate, nothing special, or memorable.
The kombat game play works well though. It hasn't changed much from the previous titles. The biggest difference I noted is that you now have two fighting styles instead of three. I assumed this was done to accommodate the huge roster of playable characters. This game also marks the return of aerial attacks which have not be been present in the series for at least the last two games.
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon has multiple play modes. There is the traditional arcade mode, versus mode, online mode, Konquest adventure mode, and Motor Kombat. In the traditional arcade mode you fight a series of progressively harder opponents until you reach the boss character. The versus mode lets you play against your friends on a stage of your choosing. The online mode lets you compete against other players worldwide. The Motor Kombat is basically a dumbed down version Mario Kart with a dash of Mortal Kombat violence thrown in; it's entertaining, but it's not the real meat of the game.
By far, what I found to be the biggest disappointment of the game is what they did to the Konquest mode. In the previous title, Mortal Kombat Deception, Konquest mode was a full blown adventure game. You could of almost called it `The Kombat RPG'. It was a vast and fully fleshed out game, though it lacked any real ending, it was very entertaining and enjoyable. I spent a lot of time playing it.
I beat the Konquest mode in Mortal Kombat Armageddon in two sittings. And the only reason it was two sittings instead of one was because I had to get up to use the bathroom once.
The Konquest mode in this title was basically watered down version of Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks, without the in depth character progression, freedom to explore, or story scope. It amounts to little more than a uninteresting imitation of one great games, and an unworthy successor to another.
Mortal Kombat Armageddon is a decent game. It is disappointing when compared to other recent Mortal Kombat games like Mortal Kombat Deception and Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks. It you are a fan of the Mortal Kombat universe, it will undoubtedly tickle to get to play will of the characters presented. If you are not a Mortal Kombat fan, I would at least suggest you rent the game and try it out. It does have it's enjoyable moments.
Knot every kombat game is going to be a killer knock out, but at least here you have a klue as to what is koming and what to expect. | video-games_xbox |
Review for WotS 3. I bought this game at my local GameStop while looking for a way to spend some trade in credit. I happened upon this title and am now pleasantly surprised. I have played it since I got it, and the day I got it, I played it for 10 hours straight (I actually got an acheivement for this w00t!!). I definitely love the fact that you can make your own swords. My recommendation: A Tengu Long Blade, Forest(?) Small Grip, (the guard name starts with a C and is long, but I can't remember it. Get it from Upon), and a Gold Dyed Pommel. I crafted two of these, and both are now lvl 50 (master), Legendary (appraised), 100% skills mastered, 0 weight, 130 attack and 80 defense (give or take, after being appraised. Originally about 70-80 attack, 40ish defense). Using these both in Dual Sword Stance is killer, and definitely a big help in Hard mode.
Now, about the actual game. The game is fun. Simple as that. I have only discovered six so far, but there are apparently over 20 endings you can discover. I like the fact that my actions in the game affect what scenes take place and if scenes take place at all. I once killed the recruiter for Ouka clan and couldn't ever join afterwards, even though the other guards were still friendly. Also, scenes are made different by your actions. For instance, there are scenes with a certain character that take place at a memorial stone and a broken Sakura tree. If you kill him you will see a scene there, but instead of him, there's only you and you are greeted by a raven who sits on the dead Sakura tree, then nothing else. Also, killing certain people makes it harder to gain the trust of the faction to which they belong. Once, I killed the person mentioned above and it took me forever to get in to see the shogun, rather than after only four or five jobs (usually it's only about 300 or 400 Yen, instead I had to wait until about 2 or thee 600 yen jobs). So the point is, your actions definitely affect the story and world in general.
As for unlocks, there are quite a few unlockables that are pretty cool.
SPOILER ALERT - You can unlock cool outfits and different faces, as well as different characters and accessories. My favorite is probably the futuristic armor you get that kinda makes you look like a Gundam. I also enjoy running around as Shouzen Fujimori, or Zuji the Nobunaga ninja. Once I unlocked Ninja dual stance, I ran around as Zuji just because it seemed natural lol.
All in all the game is awesome, definitely one of my favorites on the 360. Right up there with MW2, AC: Brotherhood and Halo 3. | video-games_xbox |
Not Bad, but its no Oblivion. Well I guess I'm the one to go ahead and "Bite the Bullet." I Bought this game and after a few hours of playing it, its not what I was expecting, but not entirely without merrit. First let me say, this game is unflinchingly linear compared to Oblivion and other games of the like, Its more akin to playing "Thief Deadly Shadows."
The skill selction is extremely limited as well (You pick a class and your stuck with that Class' Skills/Spells/Weapons) with no ability to mix and match the diferint skill sets. If your a Mage, you can't use anything aside from your spells and a staff. If your a Warrior, get ready for a big sword and not much else. If your an Assassin, sure you can backstab and hide in the shadows, but you can't equip a bow. If your an archer then this has become ye olde FPS, just don't run out of ammo.
Don't take this as a reason to give up on this game. Its like Playing 1st Ed. D&D just by your self (Haven't tried Multiplayer yet, after some more people buy the game and get online with it, I'll try it out and edit this review). The combat is acutally pretty good, with different Classes having a unique feel for combat and environmental objects adding spice to the mix. You can sneak up behind a gaurd taking a break by the fire and either backstab him, or boot him firmly face first into the fire and watch him scream. You could be being chased by a group of monsters leading them along and round a corner close to some wall spikes or other trap, just go Sub-zero on them by freezing the floor with an ice spell and watch the fun as they lose their balance and fall face first into the trap. You could take out the supports of a scafold and drop it along with whatever its holding onto your foes. Found a vase of Oil? Toss it at an enemy, shoot him with a flaming arrow and grab some marshmallows.
The gameplay is fun, and the game only holds your hand for about five minutes in the training stage before cutting you loose. Not very challenging at times, I only died once when I couldn't find a way out of the courtyard of the first stage (not the training stage), but the game gives you a number of options in combat and it is easy to pick up if you have played Oblivion or other FP games. On a technical note the game does a good job with full body emmersion, your not just a floating pair of arms in this game.
Its not the best game, but its fun to play (The mage has a "Gravity Gun" spell) and offers a good story. It looks fairly good, not as good as it could have looked; and the voice acting is decent, but not spectacular. Its worth a couple of play throughs, and the multiplayer may further the replay value. Check it out if you like Fantasy games. Its not as good as Oblivion, but its a dang sight better that Two Worlds.
If it cost $40 I would give it a higher rating. | video-games_xbox |
Love it. Best Star Wars Game...Ever. My stepson got this for his birthday last March. I don't really like video games, but the very first video games (post-NES) were Star Wars PC games for Windows 95/98 (Tie Fighter, X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter) back in 1998 and 1999. Loved them so much my dad and I would have to replace joysticks every 3 months or so because we wore them out. I stopped playing games after Nintendo 64 for several years until I got a laptop and played the COD and Medal of Honor games. Then took another long break until my stepson got Star Wars Battlefront for PC in 2013. I played it and was immediately hooked and played the crap out of it until I beat it twice.
Fast forward to 2014 and we got him Battlefront 2 for his X-Box 360. I hesitated playing it until I did multiplayer with him and was hooked. I am not a "gamer" by any means, but I really enjoyed this game. Hard to believe it's 9 years old. The graphics are pretty good. There's no HD-quality graphics, and everything is in D1 720x480 resolution, which is fine, scales well on a CRT television or a LCD flatscreen. There are lots of missions. You can play as a clone, the droid army, the Empire, or the Rebellion. There are different classes of soldiers for each group: engineers, regular soldiers/troops/storm troopers/droids, shock troops, pilots, marines, ones with jet packs, commanders/officers, snipers, and droidekas for the droid army. Unlike the original Battle Front, you can play as Jedi or other characters (Boba Fett, Jango Fett, General Grevious, Darth Maul, Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windou, Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, Count Douku, Yoda, Obi-Wan, Luke, Leah, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and some from the Clone Wars I can't remember their names. You have tons of maps as well. All the good ones from the movies are there: Endor, the Death Star, the Rebel blockade runner from the New Hope movie, Mustafar, Hoth, Dagobah, Tattoine, Naboo, Geonosis, Yavin 4, Kamino, Kashyykk, some I never heard of. You can do space battles and fly into enemy hangars and go inside the ships to destroy stuff inside. Really cool. The space craft are accurate to the movies as well. If flew in the movies, it's on the game. Same with the vehicles, AT-AT, AT-ST, snow speeder, speeder bikes, Tauntauns, some I've never seen, the droid vehicles too. You get blaster rifles, pistols, blast cannons, thermal detonators, rocket launchers, sniper rifle, etc.
You can do instant action mode, a storyline mode where you play as a member of the clone army unit 501st Legion, which evolves into the Imperial Army later in the campaign. There are campaign modes where you play just as the clones, the droids, and rebellion too. There's also a conquest mode where you play against the CPU to conquer the galaxy by capturing and defending planets. Pretty fun, but a little boring after a while.
The AI is good too, realistic, and they say remarks during the gameplay that are hilarious! It's clean too, not like the M games out there. Nice to see a shoot-em-up game that's tame enough for a younger teenager to play. It's rated T, and that's appropriate. There's no blood or gore or cussing, or sexual themes. Guys go flying when you blow them up...that's the most graphic part in my opinion. I hadn't tried the multiplayer on X-Box Live because I don't want to. I'm not that into it. I'm sure it works fine 8).
I love this game and can't wait for the 3rd one to come out. Why this is $104 is beyond me though. I got it for $60 in town at a game store used. I am NOT a gamer, but when I do play games, it's only this one. | video-games_xbox |
IT IS A JASPER. Worth the money so far. Ok, short story about what happened to me.... Saturday, before MW2 came out, my Falcon Elite displayed an E74 error message. My falcon had been "repaired" before due to RROD. So as you all can understand, I was pretty pissed off. Anyway, since amazon claimed this bundle was the "newest" version (newest chip), I decided to take the plunge and get it. My Falcon will be back from Microsoft next week and I plan to sell it, now that I have the MW2 console.
Anyway, so far, this bundle is the "newest version" and a must buy IMO, why? it comes with TWO controllers, a 250G HD and Modern Warfare 2. Reviewers have made arguments about the controllers feeling either smaller or cheap..take it from an actual Elite owner...the controllers or console's obvious built is NOT different than previous Elite versions, someone said something about this console having "too much plastic",so I guess they were refering to the DVD tray; it is now all black, the regular Elite tray is silver, this of course does not mean it is metal, it is still plastic.
Anyway, you will get the following in this bundle: two black controllers, an ethernet cable, a basic video cable (not a componet one), NO HDMI cable, a black headset, and the 250G HD, MW2 regular edition and that's pretty much it.
Now, how do I know this is a Jasper console? The power brick is smaller and the voltage is different compared to the Falcon Elites. It does run smoother and the noise from the DVD drive has been taken down a notch.
I should mention though, that so far, I have been forced to use my Falcon Elite' 120G HD, because Microsoft's customer support claims they are out of the "data transfer kits", that I MUST WARN YOU, now cost $12 and you can only buy it from MS. Quick tip: Microsoft's CS hours are US Eastern time, so, if you call in early, they will have the transfer kits, if you call too late, near their closing time (1:00am US easterm time), they'll claim to be out of kits, trust me, I called them at least 4 times.
Now, about the over all look of the console, honestly, it does look good, but $400 good?? not really. The only reason for anybody to buy this console is the HD storage room, plus the fact that if you do the "math", the bundle is a pretty good deal, because a normal Elite will cost you $300, that's with only one controller and no game. Anyway, if you have a 120G Elite with plentyof HD space; this bundle is a matter of wanting to upgrade to a bigger HD, having a broken/malfunctioning Elite like mine or simply having the cash to spend.
Hope this helps. | video-games_xbox |
Batmobile- Arkham Knight. First off, before I review this game, let it be known to anyone reading this that I have almost every Batman game that ever came out from Batman Returns for the Snes to Arkham Knight for the Xbox One. (I even bought Batman Begins and Arkham Origins which were a little better than given credit for) And now, onto the review-
Graphics-
For a next-gen only title, I'm somewhat disappointed in the graphics. While they're not bad at all, they're nothing like what we saw at E3. Textures are nice, particle effects are awesome, even minor things like Batman's cape being generously peppered with raindrops or tracks in the mud left behind from your Batmobile are a nice touch. Characters faces have never looked better; but this game doesn't exactly say "next gen" in my honest opinion.
BAK is still plagued with glitches like character clipping and weird animations ater a knockdown. In fact, it's one of the key complaints I had about past batman offerings...dropkicking a baddie should literally make him fly backwards, instead, he falls down right in front of you with a disappointing thud. Other times, the animations can be downright brutal looking and speedy.
In the very beginning of the game, rain falls for what seems like forever, and it didn't look good to me graphically speaking. In fact, it looked like some weird film grain.
What Arkham Knight gets right is the look of villains. Scarecrow looks more menacing than ever, the Arkham Knight looks cool with his armor on, Batman, Alfred, Barbara Gordon, Robin, Nightwing and others sport convincing facial detail that's a serious step up. Still, when I've played games like Ryse- Son of Rome, Metro Redux, and even Farcry 4 took advantage of next gen hardware far better than this game. The one noteworthy aspect about this game is the sheer size of it...it is huge!!! Getting from point A to point B can take quite some time.
Score- 8/10
Sound and music-
Gone are the epic and climatic songs of Arkham City during a boss fight and you get more of an ambient score to go along with the barren and grim atmosphere. The voice acting is top-notch. To hear dialogue from some of your favorites is a real treat...and the villains sound epic. I really had no complaints about the sound other than there being a lack of climatic music to bring close to a great encounter.
Score- 9.5/10
Gameplay-
Here's the good and bad about the game.
First off, the combat has been updated in a good way. Fights are fast, fluid, and harder. Takedowns have been subtly updated. Arkham Knight also introduces the Batmobile...and this is where the game goes downhill.
At first, it's refreshing to finally be able to use the batmobile. The first time you blow up a tank/drone and watch the sparks fly seems really badass. Then it becomes apparent that the batmobile is featured way too much. You'll use the batmobile to get to locations (which is optional), to fight drones, to solve puzzles, to save batman, to power up generators, and to solve more puzzles and fight more drones.
When you're on foot, the fighting is excellent, and then ever so often, the batmobile pulls you right out of this experience by forcing you to use it again and again and again.
Gameplay elements like solving crime returns, but not in the same way. I felt that Origins was a step in the right direction when it came to solving crimes...with complete scenarios that required you to actually apprehend the criminal and bring justice...Arkham Knight on the other hand does feature light elements of this, whilst tossing in something that feels off. For example, Riddler has an entire slew of side missions dedicated to him, that requires the batmobile to solve...why? Now, you can even skip riddler puzzles if you take too many attempts to get them done...but only on foot...in the batmobile, you'll have to do driving challenges while he taunts you the whole time in order to free Catwoman, whom he captured.
Batman isn't the only character you're able to use. You have Azrael, nightwing, robin, catwoman, and sadly, a brief DLC campaign with Harley that can easily be completed in under a half hour...you may not even get the chance to spend 15 minutes on Harley's DLC to complete it...(there's also the Batgirl campaign, just released), there's plenty of unlockable side quests, and one thing I liked about this game is when you bust a villain, you get to actually see them locked behind bars.
Without spoiling the story much, the very best part about this game is JOKER!!!
I won't spoil the story for anyone who hasn't played it. It's basically a big ol' mystery, batman-style, and it is good...but with so much batmobile in the game...it just comes off as a decent batman game that's the victim of a good idea overdone.
There's also the issue of the Season pass...40 dollars? Really? When the game itself isn't really worth 60 in my opinion...this is travesty. Shame on Rocksteady...and going against the grain...if you're expecting to be mindblown by Arkham Knight, think again...not a bad game, but a definite step down in content. There's about 2 boss fights which fall flat. (I wouldn't even consider them boss fights. Remember fighting Mr. Freeze, Clayface, Deathstroke, Killer Croc, Joker and all those villains...not the case here. In fact, you can sneak right behind Two-Face and knock him out with a takedown...what a flop)...
If you can find this game for considerably less than 60 dollars...even used for 30 bucks, and purchase the season pass, I'd recommend it, but at full price, plus a season pass, this game does not justify the 100 dollars it asks for. | video-games_xbox |
underwhelmed us (aside from Forge and Noctus which are good additions IMO. We all know that these Halo 5 updates have largely underwhelmed us (aside from Forge and Noctus which are good additions IMO), and it seems that January's update will be no different in that we still aren't getting gametypes (which are easily the most requested and the most lacking in Hali 5 as it is).
Now, one thing that truly grinds my gears, not the updates themselves or the way 343i stays silent and doesn't try very hard to show us they have a plan and that we will get what we want at some scheduled point instead of the monthly addition of silly REQ skins... what truly pisses me off, is that some of you- the Community- are calling out us normal, sane folks saying we're "ungrateful" or "entitled" and that 343i "owes us nothing", that "we should be thankful because this is all free content" and it is "better than nothing".
So let's settle this, here and now. These updates? They're not free.
Halo 5 shipped an incomplete game, a game that fails to meet both our expectations and the promise of 343i to deliver a good, complete Halo experience. Now, I'm a patient man- I'm willing to dig through the mountains of pineapple grenade REQs and see the positives: we got Forge, we got two real dev maps in Noctus and Overgrowth, 343i has promised both improvements to File Share, UI, Social playlists and most importantly gametypes (all of which are things that SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE at launch...). But what I'm not willing to do is sit here and read the rants of blind 343i supporters telling OPs of constructive posts that this content is free.
Because it isn't- we payed for it. We payed 60$, and got an incomplete game with the promise that one day- be it two months from now, or perhaps a year (which doesn't seem far fetched at this pace) this game will be what we thought we were buying. What we SHOULD have been able to play and use and share AT LAUNCH. These updates are not any sort of added bonus content, they are a contract between us and 343i where they drip-feed us the things that we deserve for our money and as I said- one day in the future, when there are dev-made BTB maps and gametypes galore, that when we'll start saying thank you to our game-making overlords.
People here have every right to complain about these updates and about the way 343i converses with it's community. They have every right to be bitter and even angry, because the game they payed for isn't here yet. We're waiting three months, and it's still not even close to being finished- nor does it look like the missing features will be here any time soon. | video-games_xbox |
Great Party Game. I had been playing GH II for some time and have been wanting to get this game. Thanks to Amazon's speedy shipping, it made it here in no time flat and the party started right away.
The guitar is a bit different to get used to, but it's ability to make less noise than the other available versions is nice. Plus it has some smaller buttons that work nice if you don't have fat fingers or little kids, but they are a bit awkward to hold onto. My guitar also stopped strumming after 5 days, but I messed with it a bit and it worked again.
The drums are very durable and when you get into the music, really take a beating. The only thing is that they are really hard to get used to compare to the guitar. As opposed to the guitar where you work your way into the other colors on the other difficulties, this one starts you out using everything. The only difference in levels is usually more foot pedal action and a couple more taps in between some notes. So it goes from hard to insanely hard for those like me that have an issue with coordinating rhythm with two arms and a foot.
The mic compared to other USB mics seems like a "real" mic, it is heavier and has a metal look. Just so happens that I have another game that came with a mic for a different system, but because it is USB, it works just the same. It makes the singing part of the game into karaoke wars.
There are 58 songs and getting the chance to sing, play guitar/bass, or beat the drums to it really shows all sides of the music. There is a fair range of songs, not all are considered rock, but most are your typical male voice singing rocking type songs. I find the graphics truly amazing as well. You get to customize your characters with tattoos, face paint, clothing designs, hairstyles, even their attitude. This character continues to reflect through the entire game as well, loading screens, interacting with the singer while playing Bass, everything, it makes you feel like you are the one on stage. The only thing I found an issue with is that is per character, per instrument. So in the solo tour, I have to build separate money pots as I progress through each tour. Oh, and the "Hammer ON/Off" notes are hard to distinguish.
This is not a kid easy game either though, if your kids are good at Guitar Hero and about 7 years or older, they should be ok. My 5 and 6 year old have a tough time but enjoy it, especially thrilled if they make it through a song. | video-games_xbox |
Overall Not to Bad. Hunted: Demons Forge
This is an interesting game to review, for it has an abundance of strengths and weaknesses. When I went into this game, I didn't completely know what to expect. I'd heard this was supposed to be a dungeon crawling RPG. I'd seen comparisons drawn between Demon's Souls and this; never in a million years would I have thought that it would have been so similar to Gears of War, but it was. This game is a far cry from an RPG. That's ok though, I loved Gears of war. A forewarning to those coming into this game expecting an RPG, get the thought out of your head. This is as much an RPG as God of War, Ninja Gaiden 2, or Gears of War is one; that is to say, it isn't. Some minor customization doesn't make a game an RPG.
Basically, the game plays like a dark fantasy (as opposed to dark science-fiction) Gears of War, cross to some extent with Dante's Inferno for combat. It actually works, but there are issues.
Story: 7/10
The game is fairly weak here. There is very little character development or back-story to them. Aside from the banter exchanged, there is little to go on. They are obviously friends, and their motivation is money, but aside from that, there is nothing more to their actions. As for the actual main-story, there is an evil horde (comprised of Minotaurs, Wargar, spiders and dragons) that has subjugated the towns people and are using them for slave labor...your job: you are hired to liberate them (more or less). There are also side characters (witches, etc.), but it's not really much more complicated than this.
Graphics: 7/10
While the graphics aren't bad, they aren't great either. They are basically a little like the game: Darksiders , albeit less refined. That said, the designs are quite good and there are a decent variety of enemies to fight through. A few are recycled, but that's typical of this genre. The effects are quite average to be honest. The shading work could have been better, there are also quite a few artifacts (e.g. when you prompt the glowing light for guidance), and there are quite a few jagged lines, but a lot of it is forgivable.
Audio: 7/10
The soundtrack is average. There isn't anything epic here that will likely make you remember the game for its great music (much like Gears of War 2 - the music was average in contrast to the original game where Embry Square and the Locust theme were quite memorable). Similarly, the dialog is delivered largely monotone, and what dialog is presented (especially in game), is usually reused so much so that you will get sick of it by the end (e.g. "Look! Another door!")
Game-play: 8/10
Where the game is lacking in the other areas, it more than makes up for here. The combat is fun. I played this solo and for the most part had a great time. I played E'lara and sniped like crazy. There weren't a multitude of bows to choose from (slow and high powered, medium speed and medium powered and fast and low powered). Basically from these, you get various drops you can use (I chose medium because I wasn't quick enough on the triggers to take advantage of the fast paced ones) many of which have a limited enchantment on them making them much more powerful (e.g. In Chapter six I found one that was around 490 for standard power and enchanted to well over 1200 - that was a beast).
The movement was also quite smooth, you could dash long distances and dive roll ala Gears of War. There was also a hack and block element to the game too that wasn't unlike Darksiders. Attacks were quite smooth, and evasion through dive rolls could generally be done mid-way to cancel (not always though).
In regard to co-op there were quite a few attacks which worked well together, e.g. the levitate attack of your partner helped you to take out quite a few enemies in tandem. All in all, the game-play was quite cleverly done through elements like this.
Despite the positive aspects of the game-play, there were negatives as shall be outlined below.
Firstly: there were a few too many hordes of enemies for my liking. Basically, once you turned a corner, you got three waves of enemies. This aspect got a little repetitive. It would have been nice if there were less enemies so that you could play a little more strategically.
Secondly: it would have been nice to have a scope for your bow so you can focus on headshots. Supposedly some of the bows do have this function, but I didn't encounter it during my play-through. I think it would have helped to make the game more strategic rather than the 'at times' purely button mashing extravaganza that it was.
Note: I've since been told that every bow has a scope (I tested this and found otherwise)...that said, the hordes of enemies that come don't make the game any more strategic. I still think there is a little to much enemy flooding in this to make it strategic, and they seem to pop up from everywhere; it's never fun get get flanked when you 'know for a fact' that you have cleared out an area.
Length/Last-ability: 7/10
The game has: the standard Co-op, Crucible where you can make your own levels, as well as standard Campaign. The first play-through should take you around 12 hours possibly a bit longer depending on how much exploration you do. There isn't a great deal of exploration though, as many areas are simply 'cut-off' from access though they look like they should lead somewhere (a slight annoyance, but you get over it. The game itself is six chapters, and each chapter is divided up into sub-objectives (again, much like Gears of War). There are collectables like Death Stones, Dragon's Tears, and secret areas to find (I only found one of the areas in my play-through). It should keep the average person quite busy.
Overall: 7/10
The game is quite solid all in all. With a bit more work, this game easily could have been an 8 or a 9, but it's with the areas that this game is lacking in (voice work, graphics and some of the tweaked combat mechanics mentioned like a scope for the bow) that this game loses marks. Hopefully this game will be like LA Noire in that it will motivate other companies to try and innovate on what they have done here. I personally love Dark Fantasy games (ala Demon's Souls and anime like Berserk), so I would love to see a game of this style with a beefed up story, graphics and voice work. That said, this will leave many happy, but for those coming into this expecting an RPG...I think you will be sadly disappointed. | video-games_xbox |
Boredom NO MORE. When I purchased this bundle, I had moved far from my friends (college does that) and I missed all the days we had on the couch playing our games. Well, with this system, I was able to reconnect with all my friends after some minor changes (first: I had to purchase a HD and second: I had to get an online account).
All that aside, with the DVD player, I have found some minor issues. I create my own movies, that I edit on my computer and while the original XBOX would play them seamlessly, this new version includes many pauses and skips during the playing of these discs. I have heard that it's due to some software within that is searching for an authenticity code. I wish Microsoft would have thought ahead to see that home movies are not likely to have an authenticity code.
Let's not forget that the reason this console is better than its other versions is price. With the money saved between this console and the one closest to it, you can purchase the HDD cables and the HDD that are required for serious gaming. Of all the add-ons that I have purchased for this, there are some basic components that nobody should be without:
If playing on an HDTV, then the first thing to purchase is the HD cables for this device. I have found that aftermarket cables are on par with the quality that the Microsoft cables claim to have but at a much cheaper price.
The memory card provided with this unit is insufficient for serious gamers. As such, it won't allow any connection to XBOX Live. Purchasing the HDD made for this console is well worth the investment. At this point, I chose to purchase a Genuine Microsoft HDD, however, there are others on the market in which to choose from.
Overall, as a game system, this is the best for my needs; as a movie player, it is sufficient when not playing home movies. Were you to purchase this console, neither you, nor the ones you purchase it for, will ever regret the decision. | video-games_xbox |
Great game with a bit too much hype. Not KOTOR. Fable is, simply stated, a great game. But, IMHO, it is not a "groundbraker" as many people defined it.
PROS of the game:
1. Your character will evolve based on your decisions. He will age, show a Halo over his head if he is good, horns if he is evil, grow fat if he eats too much. Scars will cover the body of fighters used to close combat, magic induced wrinkles will wear out the skin of mages.
This, ultimately, links you a lot to your character as you have a vivid image that shows your characters demeanor.
2. Lots of sub quests, and they are VERY cool. Almost better than the ones that are part of the main plot.
3. Vast economy of game, lots of weapons and equipment. Enormous possibility of character personalization.
4. Awesome graphics and fighting engine. Some spells are so well done you'll just want to use them over and over again to see them in action.
CONS
1. This game is sort of a "the sims" meets Kotor. What comes out are lots of emotes, possibility of getting married, having sex, getting drunk, people liking you... etc. I really didn't get too much of a kick out of it. NPC (AI driven non player characters) do not have names, unless they are main characters from the main plot. You can get married, but what you base that decision on is probably just the looks of the maiden. You can rent and live in houses, furnish them, etc... but I couldn't really understand if the effort of putting such features in the game was worth the gameplay boost they should deliver. But I'm not a sims gamer so, this may be a PRO for other gamers.
2. Talking about KOTOR... the game reminds of it. Actually the real time fighting engine is even better than the turn based Kotor one (expecially for those who like more action and less tactics)...BUT... Kotor had an awesome story, which fable lacks. Fable's story is as simple as the name of the videogame.
3. Your character will NEVER say a word. I wen through the game and started thinking he was mute. People will talk to him and you will not have any possibility of interaction. It made me feel I was getting "talked over." Very annorying.
Bottom line:
Overall Fable is a strong game and a MUST BUY for:
1) Rpg lovers
2) Those who loved the Kingdom Hearts and/or Kotor
3) Those who enjoy sims games and would like to see it applied to a fantasy world | video-games_xbox |
Great for a new developer taking over! Major Glitches Fixed. Updates at the bottom. (See my Arkham Knight review! http://www.amazon.com/review/R1ROO06Q4Q5FQF/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00IQCRKW0&channel=detail-glance&nodeID=468642&store=videogames)
I am not a gamer that is close or follows the Batman story or development outside the games/movies. So whatever story is developed I enjoy very much. I just play games because I enjoy them. I remember trying the demo for Asylum and loved it because I fell in love with the fight system. I'm a perfectionist and the fight system really challenges me and also annoys me when I know I can do better. With that being said I am glad WB Montreal kept the fighting/predator system the same. Here are my thoughts of how I view the game of just being a gamer.
Here are some of bad things first for some people:
1. Lack of innovation: This might drive some players crazy because there is not really anything new to the fighting/predator moments. At the same time if you are a fan of the older games...why change something that is great? There are some new things that were added but not much different from the base of the old games. The only new things seem to be the detective mode, where scanning crime scenes go more in depth and you need to find evidence. There is also multi-player which I have not tried yet.
2. Lifeless: Since this is a prequel you are doing missions across Gotham city and of course Arkham City before it was converted for the inmates in AC. I wanted to see civilians in the street and traffic but there was nothing. In AC there were those helicopters flying around and would follow you if they spotted you, there's not much going on in the air this time around and I felt alone in the city which should be full of life.
***SPOILER***
When you run in to Joker for the first time and he blows up the building across the street. Then Batman grabs Joker and asks "How many innocent lives did you take?" I felt nothing because you don't see life in the city to make that connection to the citizens in the game.
***END SPOILER***
3. Prequel: I mostly hate prequels because you always know what the future outcome is going to be with some of the main characters. I liked to be surprised. Like I said above I don't follow Batman stories outside the movies/games. Introducing some lesser known villains was a plus and it helped balanced that out for me for unpredictability.
4. Freezing: I have had the game freeze up on me 4 times already within the first 24 hours I had it. There is no pattern for it and it's random. It happened to me on the title screen the first time I started it, when I was in a fight, when I was gliding around, and when I was upgrading my abilities. It seems like many people have run into freezing issues and hoping this is something that can be patched.
Now for the good things:
1. No learning curve: This could be a good or bad thing for players but for me this was good. Why change anything if it's something we fell in love with in the first two games? I loved being able to dive into the game without having to look up the controls.
2. Challenge: Even though fighting and predator is copy/paste, I found myself dying a lot more in boss fights and even a couple of street fights. Since I am a fan of the fighting in this series I paid close attention to detail in the fighting. It made me think WB Montreal put more thought into the beginning of Batman and I saw that in the fighting.
As you level up, you are limited to what you can upgrade because you can only upgrade certain abilities as long as you follow the upgrade trees. I liked this because you can't start off getting the combo finishers after a 5x hit combo as soon as you level up and pick it. This means you're stuck with 8x hits before using a combo finisher for awhile. There is no such things as perfect hits anymore as well (which is replaced by an alternative later in the game). It made gang fights a lot more challenging and made me think "this is perfect" since this is a prequel. Batman should not be an expert yet and this made me feel like Batman was "learning" and grew into the fighter he was in AA and AC.
3. Story: Seems like a lot of people are finding the story boring and ill admit at the start it felt boring until there was a good turning point within a few hours of game play. I thought the voice acting is also incredible. I knew Mark Hamill had retired from the Joker's voice and they were using someone new for Batman as well. I had to look up the voice actors as I was playing it because Joker sounded identical. I could tell the difference with Batman, but the actor was still great for him.
Final Thoughts:
The game has its ups and down and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I'm looking forward to multiplayer and challenge maps. If you liked AA and AC, this is worth a buy. I think most of the down sides is just players being picky.
I was very worried hearing that WB Montreal was taking over this game, but in the end I am very happy with what they did. There was so much worry and buzz around WB being the new developer that I was almost expecting this game to be bad. In the end I find myself smiling because WB Montreal stuck with what we loved in the game and tried to add some changes of their own. I loved that it was something I was familiar with, unlike others might not like the lack of innovation.
People complaining about the lack of innovation are just bored with the game period. I love the fighting in the game and it will be awhile before I am "tired" of the game play.
For example Assassin's Creed. I loved those games, but when I got to the 4th game (Revelations) I was so bored with the repetitive game play it took me over a year to finally force myself to finish the game and play Assassins Creed 3. Its part of human nature to get bored of things and I wouldn't be surprised if I got bored with the next Batman game like I did with Assassin's Creed.
It's almost seems like lose/lose for WB. Players will complain that everything is the same, but at the same time if WB had changed up the game play, those same people would be complaining how it's not as good as the "older" games. If you are one of those players...move on already.
If you loved the first two games, you will love this one as well. Don't over think it before you buy/rent the game because you will get lost in it like you did with the others.
Thanks for reading and I will update this as I complete the game and try multiplayer.
**UPDATE 10/27/13**
I made a mistake in my original review above. I said there were no such things as perfect/critical hits anymore. As I got near the end of the story I noticed my combo meter building up faster then normal. I looked into my upgrades and critical strikes was unlocked. I am not sure what unlocked it but it is not something you can manually level up to unlock.
Multiplayer was actually a lot better then expected. It's very hard finding a match at this time and it's probably because not enough players have finished the story before moving on to multiplayer. Since the game is new, I expect to see matchmaking to speed up by next week when more people finish the story and definitely a huge spike in players after the holidays. Currently I have only played in 2 matches and it took about 5 minutes to get 7 other players to join in a match.
Playing the 2 matches was actually pretty fun. The controls are very similar to Gears of War since you play as henchmen with weapons. Aiming/zooming is the same as Gears and you can take cover behind objects. Its basically 3v3v2. 3v3 are henchmen and the other 2 are a team of Batman/Robin. Basically its a domination style match while Batman/Robin can interrupt you. Batman and Robin get their own score by building up "intimidation".
I don't know how the scoring works in the end, because after both matches, the heroes won both times. It is random if you're playing as a henchmen or a hero. Of course if you play a hero, the controls are all the same like they are in single player. The best way to describe it right now is Gears of War mixed with Batman. There are other multiplayer modes as well but I was only able to play one mode since the others were still locked?
**UPDATE 10/28/13**
I changed my rating of the game overall to 4/5 stars. It probably should have been this rating from the start but all the freezing in the game is really starting to get to me. After reading many forums and seeing other reviews on here its a common technical problem for everyone.
Now I'm trying to get through game mode+ and when I'm trying to be more focused and into the game, it freezes up on me and I have no idea where the last save is going to be. Because of the constant freezes, it makes me more aware of the save icon in the corner of the game because I am always ready for the game to crash or freeze. Obviously that is not something you should have to be aware of when playing a game like this! If this gets patched then I will change my rating back to 5 stars. Since this is a very common problem, it probably should be patched soon... we can only hope.
**UPDATE 10/29/13**
This might be my last update for awhile since there is really nothing more to go over. I did do a few more MP matches and got to see how bad the online servers are.
They are a little laggy because when you knock someone out as a hero, the player's body could be 5 feet away as you are punching the ground to knock them out, and it still counts as a KO. If the host leaves the match, it will try to find a new host, but in the process it won't ever transfer to a new host and you will have to reset the game. Same thing happens if you finish a match and a lot of other players leave, the game will try to find another session for the remaining players to join and it gets stuck in that process and you would have to reset again.
Until they patch the freeze issues for single player, I won't bother continuing game mode+.
**UPDATE 10/30/13**
Game developers WB Montreal has acknowledged problems with the game.
"We are currently reviewing and validating issues that have been reported to us," Warner Bros. told X360A. "Updates will be deployed once we have fixes available."
**UPDATE 11/8/13**
Put the game in today to find an update! Since I wasn't sure what was updated I looked on WBM website. Looks like they fixed some on the random infinite falling points. I was able to play 3 hours without a crash or freeze even though they said they were still working on the crashing and freezing. They are still working on the corrupted game files too.
**UPDATE 11/12/13**
I continued my story and that is where the freezing happened again. The update must have fixed something because I only froze 2 times in 2 days which before it would be 4-5 times a day. With my last update I was doing the challenge maps and I guess those are fine for not freezing up on you.
**UPDATE 11/19/13**
Changing back to 5 stars since my freezing issues appear to be gone. (Even though corrupt files can still occur, this has not happened to me)
I was able to complete new game plus. Throughout my whole play through I only froze up 2 times which are the freezes I mentioned in the last update. It feels stable enough now for me to try I am the night mode. Tried to get into multiplayer again but it couldn't even match me up with one other person. Not sure if most people gave up on multiplayer or if they are having server issues.
**UPDATE 11/25/13**
I tried I am the Night mode. It does add extra excitement while playing it. I actually played it for a couple of hours and got to Gotham's Police Department. I ended up dying in the predator mode in the GCPD building. Weapons definitely do more damage in I am the Night mode because I took a shot gun shot in the back and died with almost 75% of my health left.
I read that physical damage from punches do more damage to Batman as well, but after getting hit once or twice, it appeared to be the same amount of damage in normal mode. I think they just added extra damage to weapons. Even though I was a couple of hours into the game and died, I wasn't even upset because I hadn't felt that excited or felt that awesome for taking on Death Stroke and not even losing half my health.
**UPDATE 12/2/13**
I just want to make it clear that there are still major issues going on with the game especially with Xbox. My rating is staying above average because I have completed the game without major issues and had a blast. There are still corrupt save issues which is making the Xbox community afraid of playing the game. Multiplayer does not work since matchmaking is broken.
Even though I haven't had a corrupt save, it is keeping me from trying "I am the night" mode again until we get a patch. Even though it may not happen to me I just want to be safe. On the developers forums they are still working on patching the game. So far the other consoles have received 2 patches while Xbox has only received 1. Since Xbox is the only one with corrupt saves it definitely has more issues than the other platforms.
Changing back to 4/5 stars since Xbox is clearly having the worst problems with this game and afraid to play my game due to a possible corrupt file. It made me upset for other players since the developers said there is no way to recover a corrupt file and to start over *sigh*. I would recommend waiting on playing the game until that patch hits, which should be sometime this week. Even though most of the minor freezing issues are fixed, the major problems are still out there.
**UPDATE 12/13/13**
The update that we have been waiting on forever has finally hit today. Many glitches are fixed and corrupted saves should be fixed now. Back to 5 stars now since the game is running as it should be. Thanks for following my journey through the updates. Please excuse me while I go play now :)
**UPDATE 3/20/14**
Just wanted to give you guys a heads up that I already pre-ordered Arkham Knight and will be reviewing that for Xbox One shortly after it comes out. I will provide a link if everything works out or look for it under that title when it comes out. Thanks for following.
**UPDATE 6/18/15**
Wow I can't believe I have had Arkham Knight pre-ordered over a year now. Those delays have been killing me. I will be providing a link to my new review shortly after the game comes out. I will post the link at the top of this review.
**UPDATE 6/23/15**
My review for Arkham Knight is up. http://www.amazon.com/review/R1ROO06Q4Q5FQF/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00IQCRKW0&channel=detail-glance&nodeID=468642&store=videogames | video-games_xbox |
Skyrim meets *.zombiegame, in Fiji. Zombie games have a typical mechanic to them that you can expect in any title featuring the opposition of the undead; they're easily killed, their deaths are often gruesome, and their numbers are many. Enter Dead Island, a first-person combat/role playing zombie adventure. While not straying too far (if at all) of this formula, Dead Island brings more a-typical yet important aspects to a zombie killing adventure. Most notably the setting you are placed in, a holiday resort on an island resembling the beautiful atmosphere of a south-Pacific Pan-Asian getaway. A stark contrast to your frightful foe you'd usually find in a more urban environment. The game takes on a classic focus on melee, with a fist-person twist. The melee system right off the bat (no pun intended) feels a little clunky, but you get used to aiming at certain limbs to get certain results. I also just found out, after three months of owning this game, that you can set your controls to use the analog sticks to control your melee attacks even further! This is awesome in the sense that I'm not just pulling the trigger and hoping for the best, but now I choose "Do I want to uppercut this guy, or swing back & forth really fast? Do I want to come down hard with my baseball bat at this Infected running toward me, or quickly switch to me machete and try to lop its head clean off?" These are now the choices I'm presented with, and has made the game much more fun.
Dead Island is not without its flaws, like almost any title, but these are such minuscule complaints to me they're almost not worth going into. Mostly I would say the inventory system is a little too clunky for my taste, and for a game that places a lot of importance on inventory like any good RPG. The side quests can get a little tiresome as there are many of them to do. One more small annoyance to me that Dead Island does as other games before it have done as well: leveling the bad guys' strength on a curve. As YOU level up, so does your opposition. Weapons are based around these levels, so that Level 8 Butcher Knife you got excited about equipping when you actually reached Level 8? Well, now you're at Level 20, and so are the zombies, even at the beginning area, and that Level 8 Butcher Knife doesn't do half the damage your Level 19 Broomstick does. Yeah, that's how it works for some reason.
Other than those minor complaints, it seems like Deep Silver have ironed out the bugs early players experienced, and have themselves one hell of a fun game. On a final note, you can tell right from the start that Dead Island is heavily geared toward co-op. While you can (and I have up until recently) play a single-player campaign, I highly recommend playing online with a friend. It's a much more rewarding experience. | video-games_xbox |
Amazing. Guitar Hero 3 (GH3) is the fourth iteration in this series of games despite it being labeled the third, though for most people the 80s edition that was the actual third game was a bit of a footnote since it only came out on PS2 and had very little in it that differed from Guitar Hero 2 other than the songs.
GH3 continues with the same basic formula as the previous games which will keep fans of the series happy, but at the same time adds some welcome new features. One of the best additions is that of online play so that you can now do co-op, face-off, pro face-off and battle mode with a friend over the Live network.
The battle mode is a change up from the normal face-off modes in that instead of gaining star power you acquire attacks from playing certain sequences of notes. Then when you turn the guitar up as if you were going to use star power it instead launches an attack at your opponent. The attacks vary in their nastiness and while I was skeptical of this new aspect of the game it's actually a nice twist for those more competitive players.
Another addition is the co-op career mode, but unfortunately you can't play this mode online which means you'll have to get a friend over with their guitar to experience this mode.
Speaking of the guitar the new wireless Gibson Les Paul style guitar controller is a welcome change from the original 360 GH2 controller. Overall it just feels a lot more solid, especially the whammy bar. Not being wired makes a big difference in terms of convenience. There are GH3 bundles out there with the original GH2 controller in them and I would recommend passing on those in favor of the wireless bundle.
The career mode remains mostly the same as in the previous games. There are now little animated vignettes between each set that don't add much to the overall experience, but certainly are a welcome change from the old bus driving across the country scenes in the previous games. The other addition to career mode is that at the end of certain sets you have to enter battle mode with another guitarist. By now most people know that Tom Morello and Slash are the two real guitarists who you battle against in the game. Both contributed original guitar compositions for their battle sections and can be unlocked as avatars in the game.
The playing experience itself is much the same, though it seems the game is even more forgiving in the timing of when you play notes than even GH2 was and hammer-ons and pull-offs are also very easy to do. For experienced players this will obviously make the game easier in some respects, but at the same time the note structure has been mixed up a bit and the later songs are pretty challenging on Hard and Expert.
While the multiplayer aspect adds a lot more playability to the game at the same time the core of the experience remains the songs and for this game there are even more original songs than before and the song list is pretty great.
Overall GH3 rocks the house in much the same way as the previous games, but with the addition of some new features it doesn't feel like more of the same. Multiplayer adds a new aspect that should give the game a lot more life overall between those times when you get your friends over to the house | video-games_xbox |
What The Xbox One Should Have Been. I got mine at Gamestop a couple days ago. I practically had to hunt the thing down because of how well it sold but it was WORTH IT. As someone who's had a PS4 and the Xbox One (before they decided to go matte finish) I feel compelled, COMPELLED I TELL YOU, to write this review and give my honest opinion as to why this get 5 STARS.
The Hardware - Outside and In
- First of all, what I immediately felt better about placing this where my old, fat Xbox One use to be was the size difference. Microsoft isn't lying when it says it's much smaller. Even holding the Xbox One S during the set-up process, it felt rather compact in comparison and in a good way. The matte feels better than the glossy ever did and the Xbox One S has more sharp edges with its design that, as funny as this might sound, also feel good. It looks better too. On the right, the Xbox One S has this golfball-like design due to the vents and it doesn't look bad either. You might find it funny especially since I said it's "golfball-like" but its not ugly nonetheless, or at least I think so. I was also happy they got rid of the touch-sense buttons with physical ones with press. Sometimes, by accident, I'd eject the game disk or turn off the Xbox completely. Nothing beats the feel of actually pressing a button as well as it's "safety" I guess you could say. I moved all of the stuff I had stored in my 2TB External Hard-Drive to the internal, as 2TB is perfect for what I need to have all my games installed and still have space left to be comfortably flexible with. I haven't even used 50% of the space yet. If you have A LOT OF GAMES like I do and 1TB requires you to be picky, I promise you this much space will serve you well. Now, what makes this upgrade interesting is there actually is a difference in the power of the inner hardware. HOWEVER, it's not like you're going to see a dramatic difference. You may see that difference once games like Gears of War 4 take advantage of the HDR and small power boost for more stable FPS but that's because the game is being utilized for it. However, some games have shown a small difference in performance such as somewhat better frame-rate support or faster load times or even faster rendering speeds. Keep in mind I say SOME GAMES. I did notice this myself, as I saw that in Mirror's Edge Catalyst, the buildings further in the distance rendered faster and better at times which was nice. Also, keep in mind that the HDR feature also requires a 4KTV that supports HDR 10 but it's not necessary to enjoy the games, as you will still enjoy the small performance boost from games that are utilized for the hardware. If you have a 4KTV, you have much more incentive to get this, or if you're like me and you want to finally make the jump to 4K. Also, allow me to say that this Xbox is quiet as a fox. Never does it "rev its engines" as one may say or sound like a fighter jet about to take off. The USB port has also been moved to the front of the console rather than sticking on the side which is a small but lovely change. It...kinda needed to be at the front.
The New Controller - Small Things That Make A Difference
The Xbox One S controller has small differences that...well...do what the title states. The textured grip on the back feels wonderful, although it felt funny at first because I wasn't use to it. The bumper buttons also felt different when I pressed them, almost as if the clicks were softer if that makes any sense. The controller also has Bluetooth which means it's MUCH EASIER to connect to laptops/desktop PCs so you don't need an adapter. THIS IS WONDERFUL, as I had many problems connecting my controller to my PC before and the Bluetooth makes it infinitely easier (at least for me). I also feel like the ABXY buttons are raised a little more. Enough to notice but not dramatical although I could be wrong about that so take it with a grain of salt. (I may have just noticed how the buttons were like on the controller :P) The Xbox button at the top is also more flat than something that sticks out of the controller. This wasn't much of a problem but I actually thought it felt better. I liked the more "flat" feeling of it as I pressed it or just moved my thumb across it.
Summary - A Lovely and Needed Change BUT....
"Wait, you gave this 5 stars. Why the 'BUT' part?" Allow me to tell you. While this is honestly how the Xbox One should have been at launch, it's not exactly 100% necessary unless A: You have a 4KTV to benefit from its 4K Video Playback (Applies to stuff like Netflix) B: Don't have an Xbox One yet OR C: You just hate the fat Xbox One's design so much you just NEED something that looks better. I am making the jump to 4K content and I REALLY wanted something that was smaller and looked better. I tolerated the fat Xbox One with its design and I'm happy I got this Xbox One S. I also want to enjoy the HDR features for video and gaming eventually, once more games are designed to take advantage of the extra UMPH the Xbox One S has. The amount of the internal storage space was also a must for me, as I wanted to have everything on the hard drive and not externally. (I'm kinda picky that way) While the Xbox One S is wonderful in just about every way, it's not 100% necessary unless..well...A, B or C. If you have a 4KTV, want to make the jump to 4K content like me...or just really hate the design of the fat Xbox One, I HIGHLY SUGGEST you get this. You won't regret it. Like me, I catch myself looking at my Xbox One S and sometimes feeling it from time to time because I love its new design so much. It not only looks good but actually feels good too. That says something. | video-games_xbox |
Will play for Years. I find the game to be completely exceptional. As long as you do not play it longer than a couple hours a day this game will last you months with just its current missions/strikes/raids. Trust me, if you're leery about buying it rent it and get to the Moon (about six hours of gameplay the first time, considerably less on your second play through and you know how everything works). If you like Halo you'll enjoy this game, its a mix of Borderlands/Halo/Call of Duty and in my opinion one of the best FPS I've played in years. Try it then buy it.
However, if you go into this expecting to get the best gear, best loot in the first day you're going to be disappointed, this game is meant to be played over a long casual amount of time [except for Raids, they take a considerable amount of preparation and special gear to accomplish].
My advice for people playing this for the first time, play by yourself on Normal difficulty until you get through the Moon.
Hard modifiers are meant for Fire Teams, meaning enemies have more health which means you'll have to unload into a boss for 15 minutes before he drops. Don't torture yourself, play on normal if you're by yourself. This game is meant to be enjoyed and that additional EXP that comes with the Harder difficulty does not amount to much when you're not having fun. Have fun with the game and don't burn yourself out and this game will last for years in your library.
Cons:
Crucible PVP, at first the idea of taking in your own gear into multiplayer versus sounded awesome, then after playing it myself with several classes there are some noticeable things; certain classes will always perform better in the Crucible just because of their Supercharge ability which lets them potentially kill everything in the room. Now at first glance that sounds awesome, I WANT TO BE THAT CLASS! I hear people screaming right now.
Now think about it once you get a group solely of that class in Crucible to go up against, instantly your team is at a disadvantage especially if you're a low level player with some Common gear. I.E. you will most likely have to unload two clips of your Auto rifle into a Lv. 21+ until you actually take him down.
'Well then level up and come back to the crucible when you're that level', I hear you say. However the problem with that is some people only play games like this just for the multiplayer versus aspect, look at Battlefield, COD, Halo for those examples.
So in short and I know this "review" is all over the place and doesn't really have a cohesive thought behind it, if you're going to play this game just for the Crucible, you might either absolutely love it or hate it immediately. Play this game for all of its facets and you'll enjoy it. Try eating the whole cake with an entire keg of beer and you'll throw it up and never play it again.
Enjoy it, have fun with it and don't get burnt out on it, and maybe one day you too will become Legend. | video-games_xbox |
Engrossing. RPG's are my favourite genre. I enjoy a little mindless zombie blasting ever now and then, but most often I am into a game for the story. This being the case, Dragon Age: Origins is a gift from god.
With DA:O, BioWare has yet again proven their strength in storytelling and characterization. I have not played the Baldur's Gate series but, in comparison with BioWare titles I have played, this is spectacular. After Mass Effect, I honestly didn't think I could be more engrossed in a story. Dragon Age proved me wrong. While lacking some of the technical prowess Mass Effect displayed (notably the voiced conversation system and the graphics), DA:O hits a surprising emotional level, surpassing what I believed possible in a game. Decisions in Dragon Age often forced me to take a pause and really consider what I wanted to do, because there was no clear right answer. Many of the choices involve some level of sacrifice, forcing the player to balance the disadvantages and advantages of each option.
BioWare took the complex, interesting characters that fans have come to expect and ramped them up to a new level in this game. Though I've completed the game, I still find myself pondering Morrigan and who she really was. The characters are developed and challenging.
People who buy this should be aware that this is not Oblivion. While they are both Fantasy RPGs, the resemblance ends there. DAO is much more tactical,decision and plot driven. This game is not a fantasy hack and slash sandbox (no hate towards either genre but they are very different.) The world is vast but there is always a clear goal you are striving for (as Morrigan often reminds you.) Some of the controls can be clumsy at times, particularly if one wants to control a mage - selecting spells can turn into quite a spinning marathon. The AI is a little weak; Even with the implementation of tactics, party members often do really stupid things. None of these weaknesses should deter someone who hungers for a compelling story that will stay with him or her for some time after completion. I found myself, immediately after the last credit rolled, wanting to play again. | video-games_xbox |
Unprecedented Complexity, Deepness, and Game-Play Satisfaction. In just my humble opinion as a gamer geek for almost 30 years, this is the single most enjoyable and fulfilling video game I have ever played. I have other good XBOX 360 games, but have collected 1" of dust since the first second I slid Oblivian's disk into the XBOX 360. Just from a RPG perspective, this title completely embarrasses every Japanese turn-based RPG out there. I just finished FF XXII on the PS2 and it was a quality epic production in it's own right, but pales in comparison. The concepts in the game aren't new if you played Elder Scrolls III, but ED IV-Oblivion builds on the ES III engine with massive improvements in most game attributes.
Pros:
Gorgeous next-gen graphics. One of the best looking titles on XBOX 360 and easily the best looking RPG on any console system.
Amazing musical score, environmental & ambient sounds.
Second-to-none voice acting and an unprecedented amount of it.
HUGE environments dwarfing Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas
Unprecedented complex and deep character development and leveling
Hundred and hundreds of missions, and we are talking quality here, not just quantity. Each mission is complex with multiple optional solutions, takes time to complete with multilevel/multi-step involvement. It is deeply satisfying when you have completed any mission.
SAVE THE GAME AT ANY TIME IN ANY PLACE - even during combat!
Cons (Unfortunatelty, there a few and they are worth mentioning:
Load times are tragically long - something that has not improved over ES III.
There are times when the game will permanently freeze the XBOX 360 system requiring a reboot - another issue that was not fixed from ES III.
I am not sure you can call this a con, but the official strategy guide and online help is necessary to understand and enjoy all of the complexities of the game. Though mission assistance is not required, understanding all functionalities, as well as environmental and character attributes is amplified with reference material. | video-games_xbox |
Lovable, but not Trustworthy. UPDATE, 8/23/2016:
The bottom line: an excellent re-release that we now know skipped beta testing, and it shows. Thus far, most bugs appear to be fixed, and my most recent sessions just have strange behavior, like Brutes clipping walls (which makes them briefly invulnerable) and weapons fire occasionally clipping through walls and floors. There were a lot of really bad bugs that would do things like reset your progress and last week I suddenly received a flood of achievements that I'd earned a long time ago..
This is also the only game I've ever owned that waits until you're about 20 minutes into a play session to black the screen and tell you there's an update--and not leave you any option but to apply it and lose your progress. The fact that this happened more than once just boggles my mind.
I love Halo dearly, but the slew of updates may have put the game in a "fix one thing, break something else" mode, so while for now things seem to be working as they should, I'm still not yet confident that it will stay that way. The sad part is, the Halo Channel might have been an excellent add-on to help while away the downtime, but that's still tremendously buggy (and probably low on the priority list).
The full review:
The Master Chief collection has had a lot of effort put into it: the graphic overhaul of Halo 2 is amazing, the touchups lent to Halo: Combat Evolved (which you can play regular or Anniversary style) are marvelous, and quite frankly Halo 4 looked so good for the Xbox 360 that it's just nice to see that one ported along with the rest so you can play it on new hardware. It's a shame that Halo 3 didn't get a facelift because it does look dated alongside its companions, but the gameplay is still just as much fun as you remember. I've played the entire series many a time in the past, including on PC, and thus far the biggest flaw I've found in the Master Chief Collection's single-player campaign has been hard to really nail down: the difficulty. Playing CE on Normal, there's a point in the game where it suddenly becomes as difficult as Legendary, and stays that way to the end. Playing 2 on Normal seems too easy: it's as if something has been a bit unbalanced. Thankfully Halo 3 and 4 seem to be about the same. Halo 2 had major save game issues that would have you repeating large sections of the game, but for now that appears to be working and it looks downright gorgeous.
Interesting side-note: my playthrough of Halo CE Anniversary skipped the entire chapter called "The Library"...but that level is still in there, and I can play it at any time...and I even had the campaign marked as completed despite that level being removed from the main storyline.
We also have a lot of extras here: the Halo Channel will let you watch episodes of the new live-action TV series. It lets you view all of the cinematics that were added into Anniversary (and now Halo 2) plus the ones in 3 and 4, including the added terminals that run clips about the backstory....when it works. Sometimes it goes to a black screen, sometimes it crashes and drops you back to the pause screen, and sometimes it fails to recognize you and won't let you log in...so it's good that you can always just launch the Halo Channel app from the dashboard if that's what you want to do--hopefully the in-game interaction will be fixed one day.
Multiplayer has been gummed up with matchmaking problems. Or long delays. Or bugs. Or dropped matches. It appears that all problems are fixed (though it can be slow to get things going at times), but it is definitely fun again and the Halo 2 remastered maps are quite beautiful.
If you want a good single-player experience, you'll probably be pretty happy buying The Master Chief Collection now. There's a lot to offer and despite some eccentricities, it is an enjoyable return to these classic games.
If you're looking for Halo Multiplayer, I found it to be tons of fun and it does appear to be working, "for now". With luck both Multiplayer and Co-op campaign will still remind us of the good old days--or show someone new to Halo why the series has the massive following that it does.
Questions? Comments? Please do let me know using the Comment section below! | video-games_xbox |
Super Street Fighter Stick Pros vs Cons. I am decent beginner to average Super Street Fighter player (meaning my RYU & Chun Lee are a "B" ranking, but I don't have a ton of player points yet as I have not played it for too long & have only had the stick for 3 weeks) & bought the stick to avoid the Haduken cramps & try to get my rank up from Lower B rank I seem to b stuck in.. The PROS of the stick are obvious..... 1st off repetitive moves are less stressful on the thumbs, The buttons are solid & seem to function with authentic arcade integrity being full Sanwa (buttons return to normal position without a lag & stick feels quality made like your holding a mini arcade in your lap)).. The artwork is pretty yet not over the top & the compartment for the Nice length USB port is cool because the Stick looks nice with it tucked away neatly when not playing.. The turbo works well for what it does, but I have not yet found the need to utilize it,this could perhaps be because in 3 weeks I am still not entirely comfortable with the stick,although I see improvement from me wanting to throw it out of the window when I was losing to inferior fighters simply from not yet having a full feel for the button layout! lol).. Moves become easier once you become accustomed to the sensitivity & execution of the stick itself.. & that brings me to the cons..
CONS.... 1st off, if you have little experience with arcade sticks, you will without a doubt struggle to pull of things from simple haduken type moves to ultras bc of how different the use of the D pad is from the stick(I mean yes the stick feels quality made, but the simple ultras like down forward down forward 3kick or punch become difficult at first because you will more than likely be inputting down forward, down down at first.. You really have to pay attention to your execution until you get used to it) .. I cant speak to the Square vs Octagon or circle gate, but I can tell you that your first few days will test your patience as you relearn to play a game you may have been on the way to mastering. The artwork while aesthetically pleasing is probably done a little on the cheap with a simple clear plastic frame screwed over painted cardboard, probably not a big deal as the stick itself feels solid, but for the price I have seen better quality art on the cover of sticks. Overall I think its a great stick and the price is coming down especially through amazon used.. the question is whether or not its worth it for you, if you're a casual gamer that may not use it that often and has fun with the D pad, don't buy it you will be frustrated and waste money, but if your addicted and want to master a new vintage way to play and have the patience to practice go for it.. | video-games_xbox |
Why did they have to change hands??? Bad move. Well I was so excited when I heard that Buffy was getting yet another chance to kick some demon butt in the famous Sunnydale lot, and to my surprise FAITH my favorite Slayer of all time was to be in it. So I of course got the game like the first day it was out and I played it and well here are the Pro/Cons to the game and trust me there is more Con's then Pro's right now.
Con's
1. The camera is HORRIBLE. Very jerky and dizzy at times. It doesn't go around 360 like the other one.
2. The controls are tricky. In the first game you could use the whole joy stick, in this one it's very strick in that it's up or down and side to side, no slightly up to the left side, nope you just go straight up. So that is highly annoying because you get cornered very fast (and can't use the camera to use it to swing around fast enough as well).
3. Well I do miss the inventory screen, very much. I mean I learned how to use the quick screen in the first game, but I think it was WRONG to take it out. Trust me once I beat the game I'm writing a LONG, LONG list of problems this had compared to the first one.
5. To many buttons for combo's and highly frustrating. They really don't give you a chance to figure out moves and spells in my opinion. They talk to you while fighting how to do it, and that is annoying.
6. SAVES!! Who ever the freaking genuies was to NOT have hardly any in the game needs to be in my eyes SHOT and never allowed to play again. I was playing Faith and the game got stuck at the end guy so GUESS what I had to start all over again. UGH. Plus the Boss who you face at the end of this takes FAR to long to beat. I mean he should be an end guy it's so stupid. There are engery balls you have to blast, three of them I sat there counting that i hit one of them 50 times and it still wasn't down and this is ONLY ONE. That is way to much time to spend in my opinion.
The list can go on and on and on and on, the only good part is that you get some multi-player action going on and well... um... the other games as well seem very cool. But other wise this isn't any where near the league that it was before and if I could demand my money back I would give it up it back. Even if Faith is in it. | video-games_xbox |
An Amazing Western RPG. I rarely write reviews for video games, but I felt the need to stand up for this game and bump its average rating up. Dragon Age: Origins (DA:O) is an incredible traditional Western Role Playing Game (WRPG). In the spirit of Bioware/Black Isle's classic WRPGs, there are lots of tactics, customization, dialogue choices, and a great story to boot. Here are my thoughts piece by piece.
Graphics:
I can't believe people are seriously complaining about the graphics in this game. They aren't perfect, but they are still of the quality of this generation of consoles. Also, there are very few frame rate "hiccups" and glitches when compared to games like Mass Effect and Fallout 3 (though I did love both of those games). For such a huge game, they would need multiple discs to make the graphics better.
Sound:
The music is superb and epic. You feel as if you are playing a Lord of the Rings Movie. The voice acting is also better than most games. I'd say its on par with Mass Effect and WAY better than in Oblivion.
Gameplay:
This is a turn-based RPG that has a similar pause and play mechanic to Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, or Planescape:Torment. With that said, if you want to play on a difficulty level higher than casual (the easy difficulty), be ready to plan ahead on tactics, and pause a lot in combat to queue up special moves, potions and spells. I found myself bumping back to Casual on occasions where I just wanted to kick back and dungeon crawl. This is a great game, just don't think you can get away with not thinking in combat. This isn't like a JRPG where you can have your fighter fight and black mage cast fire repeatedly until the enemies die. This also isn't a hack n' slash where you can button mash to victory. Also, this added complexity of combat makes you think twice before recklessly running into any situation. You have to plan ahead, and sometimes come up with a solution to a situation which either avoids combat, or reduces the severity of it. Thats how it is in pen and paper RPGs, thats how it was in the classic WRPGs, and thats how it is in DA:O.
Story/Role-Playing:
The story is fantastic. The characters are all interesting, their vastly different personalities play off each other, and your decisions you make effect how your party members think of you. Some actions will please certain party members, and upset others. There are no good/evil meters, however, and sometimes you will be forced to make decisions where there is no perfect outcome. This makes you feel more involved in the already spectacular story.
Over-All, I have very few complaints about this game. The only wish I had was that they let you zoom out to tactical view in the Xbox 360 version. Sometimes combat gets a bit hectic and it would be nice if there was an easier way to position your party members like you can in the PC version.
Great game. | video-games_xbox |
Really great entry level wheel. Ok, so this review is really just my initial impressions. I may revise up or down later.
First, some background: I have been looking at wheel options for driving games and, specifically, Forza Horizon 2 for a little while now, and I'm definitely intrigued by the much more expensive options.
I'm not opposed to spending a lot on a good gaming accessory once I know it's something I'll enjoy. As a frame of reference, after realizing how much more I was drumming in Rock Band, as opposed to playing any other instruments (and having replaced the stock drum kit once already), I purchased the ION drum kit.
But while interested in a wheel, I just wasn't sure I'd really be overly "wowed" by it. I've always been content driving with the standard controllers.
Having said that, while $100 certainly isn't trivial, it seemed like a good entry-level price point to me for this type of accessory.
And going in, I knew I wasn't going to get exactly the same level of performance out of the wheel, but I felt it would at least let me know whether I cared enough about playing the game with it to justify upgrading at some point.
So....
Out of the box:
Ridiculously easy to set up. Clamped it to a table, plugged it in. The Xbox One and Forza immediately recognized it and I was *almost* good to go. That *almost,* however, is my first major gripe about this controller. I have a passkey set up on my account and it requires the joystick/thumpad to enter. The steering wheel tries to be clever and disguise the thumbpad as an "engine start" button. The result makes it difficult to use and next to useless. I had a number of failed passkey attempts before I had to fire up the normal controller to enter it.
I'd honestly prefer to forgo the clever aesthetics for a more user-friendly pad.
Playing the game:
It definitely does add a cool, visceral feeling to the game to be able to press on the gas pedal and control the vehicle with a steering wheel.
It also takes much more getting used to. Where I have trained myself to feather the gas/brake as necessary over years of standard controller-based driving, I found it was VERY easy to be too heavy with the gas with this controller. Much spinning out was to be had initially.
Other than one gripe with the wheel, I found it to be very responsive. Although that gripe is a bit troublesome. Almost immediately I found that the wheel has a small, but significant "dead" spot at center. This makes subtle steering corrections extremely difficult. Trying to avoid an oncoming car to score some "near miss" points? Good luck. Whereas the thumb controller reacts pretty much instantly, with this wheel I often found myself either not moving the car left/right at all, or over-steering whenever I wanted to make a minor correction.
The best way I can describe it is how some older cars have somewhat mushy steering.
It's a quirk I have to get used to and I can't emphasize enough that I didn't really expect perfect performance out of a product that is, essentially, entry level. I'm assuming the mushy steering is just the nature of the bungee resistance system and I would expect the more expensive motor driven wheels to NOT have this dead spot sensation.
At the risk of this review coming off as negative, that isn't how I intend it. The goofy control of the thumbpad and the small dead spot in the steering really are the only two complaints I have so far. And even so, I found the wheel tremendously fun to use and it really does add a new dimension to the game.
For a casual fan of driving games, or someone who, like me, isn't sure they'll really get anything out of a steering wheel accessory, I think this is a fantastic product and I'm not disappointed. | video-games_xbox |
This PES will be release in november lol. Let me give you two tips that will make you enjoy this game
First: you can now play your own music while playing PES from a usb on your xbox 360!! yeah you just create a folder with the name WEPES2014 put your music in there and vuala! you have your own soundtrack (contact me if you need help)
Second: try to play the game with different settings and try to find which one is best for you. Im talking about setting a new camera , setting the assit bar lower or higher playing with manual shooting or basic shooting or even advance anyways play some games and try to find the correct setting and trust when you've found it the game will play such much better PES gives you some may options.
Now the good about the game:
-The good is that we bought the game in xbox because the PS3 version is unplayable I heard.
-So far no cheats or disconnection online some lag just like any other games
-no super teams on week one on MLO
-graphics are okay nothing out of the world
-when you learn to use the right stick the game becomes more much fun try it and take the game training mode
-a lot of content on the game will keep you busy for the year
Now the Bad
-I understand that not that many people have time to put their music on the game and the game only comes with 5 or 6 songs
-no summer transfers bale is not in real madrid yet
-only 100 players have real faces for now
-no major update on offline game modes only the fact that you can change teams and coach a national team in master league
-become a legend is boring in my opinion not many camera settings and no cinematic i don't know there is something missing
here
-lastly commentary at least in spanish makes the games boring the worst ever, sound effects are not the best
Hope for the future
if you are not sure if you want to buy this game let me tell you wait until november when the DLC is released
this DLC will have all the summer transfers
it will bring more than 1000 real faces to players and it will improve gameplay and online probably because shooting needs improving and players with low stats just take too long to respond
so there you have it a good game but its incomplete I will have to wait until november to give a score for now its a 7/10 because the games is still fun | video-games_xbox |
Pretty boring game, no variation in characters. The game has a few characters to choose from, each has different abilities such as magic, warrior, assassin type ... However, it seems no difference of who you chose. Besides the fighting style or type of weapon uses, there is no specialty about the character type. For example, Celine is supposed to be a magic type. What magic? She does not have any, but fights with a melee weapon like anyone else, except she is slow and weak.
You can learn new abilities by take on certain quests (obtain at rest point - when you go to sleep). The quests are usually kill X number of certain enemies. However, the developer is so cheesy and allows you to take on two quests at a time. That means you have to constantly return to the same area you had already clear multiple times to kill the right kind of enemies. Then when you take the next quest only to find out that you to have to return to the same area again, but this time kill different kind of enemies in which you had already done multiple time. This kind of quests can become very bored and repetitive. Why not allow to take on 10 quests at time? So that, there is no need to repeat same area again and again. I fall asleep while playing this game.
Weapon modification is a joke. When you found a weapon has better stat in damage but less magic, thinking that you can combine with your current weapon (same type with better magic and less damage) to create a powerful one, only to find out that you need 100X more than total gold you have. Well, now you just waste the money on the new one and can't even use it. The game has autosave when you exit the store, so you cannot reload and try again.
In general, I don't mind that the game is linear and not so much a story line, or hack-n-slash, but common, don't be a cheapskates and force me to do same thing over and over again. That is pretty boring. | video-games_xbox |
Avoid if at all possible. You will save $ and Frustration. Had product for nearly a year. Bought 4G model and added HDD and Kinect later. As a gaming console it is fine. That's not the issue. My problems: Product failed once after about 3 months, where memory corrupted repeatedly. After long waits for support the resolution was to send out for repair (US Repair center is in southern Mexico). Took just over 2 weeks. My big issue is Xbox Live. It's bad enough you have to pay a monthly fee just to access your Netflix account that is free on every other device. My two sons suddenly couldn't log in after an MS security "enhancement" (proofs). Tried resolving using Xbox Live web site but no luck. Called support, was told I would receive a callback in 9-15 minutes. I received the callback, only to have to wait on hold for an additional 10 minutes! Support tech was decent, but had to go through a long convoluted approach for each sons account (reset password on web site, set password on console, then set up "proofs" verification. The icing on the cake was where as a parent I had to approve sons ability to set up "proofs". It's not like it is optional, it is required now to do anything with the Xbox. To prove I was a parent I had to enter my credit card number, receiving a $.50 charge on my card, that a portion of which "goes to charity". I had to do this several times, because even thought transaction was approved the web site has an error. "What browser you using?" asked the tech. Good old MS Internet Explorer I told him. After 3 hours, several 50 cent charges on my card and then waiting 3 additional hours because the account got locked because "proofs" had sent too many codes to my email for verification (not my fault) the accounts are working. I have never been an MS basher, but between what I've seen and heard of Windows 8, this recent Xbox experience, and what I've heard of XboxOne I think they are in a tailspin.
My Xbox Live account is paid up through December. Might have to check out that new PS4 by then! | video-games_xbox |
Great graphics; punishing game structure. Picked up this now rather ancient title out of the bargain bin for $2. Had seen that it had gotten fairly high praise online ages ago, and had been curious ever since.
Now that I've finally played it, I can only call it disappointing. Fortunately I spent practically nothing on it.
The graphics still look decent for an older game. The weather effects are nice and the cities look decent. The vehicles are okay, with somewhat underwhelming interiors. The in-car view was a pleasant surprise, but the removal of the hud gauges when in that camera view were an unpleasant surprise. Driving without knowing what gear you are in is hugely annoying if you are a manual shifter like me.
The tracks are rather boring. It's nothing but city streets lined with armco barriers and an abundance of spectators. Yes, they are modeled on real locales, but it all feels rather shallow. The immersion is not there. Why would thousands of people want half of their city blocked off for a bunch of small amateurish driving events?
The biggest issues I have with the game are structure based which makes it frustrating to play, especially in career mode. It's not that the events are too challenging (barring the Star Points events), it's that the game sets you up for failure by forcing you to stick with the same car you initially chose throughout a multi-event championship. Choose the wrong car to suit the event? You'd better make that determination before the end of the first race (& exit out to the menu if necessary), or you are done for in that championship. You can't immediately restart or come back and retry races you've finished, and if you fail badly in the first one, you might as well write off the rest. Of course, the game still forces you to play through all of the subsequent races even though you have no chance of winning the championship.
Another issue is that there is too much gimmick and not enough pure racing. The actual racing events themselves are fun, but feel small with only 3 AI competitors. The rest of the events are time trials, cone races, and the previously mentioned events where you have to perform stupid tricks like drifts and what-not during the allotted time to earn enough Star Points (the latter events were so utterly difficult that they made me give up on the game).
The motorcycles were dumb additions. They are easy pickins' in a race since you can just knock the driver off the bike (which is why no one in their right mind would mix cars and motorcycles in the same race). I never actually tried to ride the bikes, so I can't comment on that.
Now, it may not be fair to compare an old game like this to Forza titles such as Forza 4 and Forza Horizon (my two favorite racing games for the time being). That said, the issues I had with PGR 4 would have been a problem for me even back in 2007. I had Forza 2, and while I ditched it eventually for the far-superior Forza 3, it still was a way better pure racer than PGR 4. I also recently picked up Test Drive: Unlimited (from the same bargain bin), and while also dated, it's a heck of a lot more fun than PGR 4. | video-games_xbox |
Defined by what is missing. Defined by what's missing! This review is mainly for players who are experienced with the Xbox 360 versions of Forza. Others have commented on the positives and some of the obvious negatives, this review dives into details which you should know about before you buy.
I bought the Forza Motorsport version of the Xbox One with an FM6 code bundled into the deal. I also bought the Logitech G920 wheel. I have a history of obsession with all the prior Forza games, 1, 2, 3 and 4, having bought three copies of each, one for each of my consoles in a triple screen setup.
Removing "good stuff" is a tradition in Forza.
Forza 2 dropped the beloved Fujimi Kaido mountain track from Forza 1.
Forza 3 dropped "System Link", which allowed multiple players to compete on a LAN without requiring an Internet connection and Xbox Live subscription.
Forza 4 dropped local leaderboards which allowed us to keep a history of our prior lap times.
Forza 5 was so rushed it dropped most tracks including the Nordschleife initially and a whole bunch of stuff, so it can be safely regarded as "FM6 Prologue", and its content failures might as well be ignored.
Now to what's missing, or plain silly, with Forza 6 (compared with Forza 4 and earlier Forzas). This is not anything like a complete list, it's just the stuff which I find annoying.
1. Multi-screen support, which was provided in Forzas 1 through 4. When FM6 is demoed at trade shows, they set up three monitors, but the retail version doesn't support any form of multi screen.
2. The option to hold previous and best lap times on-screen continuously rather than just for ten seconds. It's gone before it can be read on many tracks, making it very difficult to work on skill improvement.
3. A real time indication of a "dirty lap" in career races. You have no idea if you're taking an "illegal" path until you look at your "best lap time" after the race is over. Of course, if it's "dirty", you have no idea of what you did wrong.
4. Decent HUD element contrast. My workaround is to "paint" my hood black and race in "hood view".
5. Ability to store more than ten replay saves. Yes, it's limited to 10 even on a 1TB Xbox One! You can't even save one replay for every track, let alone one for each track variant. I had hundreds of replays in FM4. Over a thousand in GT6. Ten is a joke.
6. FM6 needs an option to hide cosmetic damage, since the AI drivers are stupidly brutal and by the end of the first lap, the cars look like something out of a Mad Max, post apocalyptic suicide derby in photos and replays.
7. The in-game camera has been reduced from a max of 8.3 megapixels to a max of 2.1 megapixels.
8. Fujimi Kaido has been removed (again).
9. Mugello is gone.
10. So is Suzuka.
11. And Maple Valley has disappeared.
12. There is no longer an ability to create video files from replays.
Some silly things:-
1. The time of day for many tracks has been set to very early morning, so you're dealing with sun glare. Since the sun never moves as it does in Forza Horizon or GT5 and GT6, you're stuck with it.
2. Many replay cameras point directly into the sun
3. They have added distracting low flying kamikaze helicopters
4. "Mods". These are like magic potions which make your car better when applied, while not incrementing the Performance Index. They also don't tell you this, but, quite rightly, a car with a "mod" can never get a clean lap.
5. The "Help" system is a token effort, and can safely be ignored. Unless you enjoy feelings of frustration. | video-games_xbox |
not that bad. sonic the hedgehog is a ok game some of the time. the game deserves 3.5 stars, but i can't give it that, so i gave it 4 stars, VERY FORGIVING.
the gliches arn't as bad as people say they are for the 360, but for the PS3, they are. and the load times are no fun at all. the control and camera is frustrating at times as well. sonic is TOOOOO slow for those "blistering next gen speeds" i keep hearing about. overall, this is a "rent it first" kind of game. i personally think it's decent, probally cause i'm a hard core sonic fan, but this is still undeniablely the worst 3D sonic game ever made! NOT including sonic 3D blast. here's the list...
The Good
good graphics, the CGI cut scenes are AMAZING, sometimes
The music isn't thet bad
The moch speed stages are fun, with the exception of Crisis City
A FEW good levels
The Bad
Horrible Controls, sonic how could you be running around in circles at a time lik this?
God awful camera.
bad targeting system for silver.
Slowdown every where.
glitches, "How did i just fall through the floor? Is Peter Griffin around?"
bad story, "uh... time travel? Honey! Get me my chaos emeralds!"
bad voice acting.
bad level design.
all characters including sonic are slow.
no camera option.
too dificult.
stupid town missions, "WHO IS THE CAPTAIN" any one?
boring town missions, "YO! find my dog."
boring town in general, no color.
some graphic flaws, drown without a splash, fall through the sand and more.
people in town are basically lifless, most just say "hey" or "hun" or when robots are attacking, even "HUUUUNNNN".
supid towns-people names, "good day Middle Aged Woman."
word to lip motion are way off, a lip reader who can hear would throw his education into qustion.
bad scrip.
load times, "can you do this?" loading "do it like this" loading, "you do the town mission", loading, "your results", loading, "back in the town".
boring town music, any one want to listen to my accordian?
A stupid love story of a big blue hedgehog and a human princess, Amy better call CHEATERS, BEASTIALITY i tell ya!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
theme song over used a bit.
too many hedgehogs,sonic, shadow, silver (how an original name), Mepholis, if he even counts.
stupid level names, "mom, can we go to WAVE OCEAN for vacation?"
the worst physics engine ever.
the game's just not that fun with these problems | video-games_xbox |
Like the X41 But Better. I've used a pair of the Turtle Beach X41's, which are the predecessors to this headset.
I'll go over some of the differences.
- 'Transmitter' size. The X41 has a larger vertical transmitter that can hold your headphones on it, unfortunately due to it's size cannot easily fit into home theater cabinets. The X42 more compact horizontal receiver is better in my opinion. However I don't like the blue lights, prefer the red ones of the X42. The X41 offers right/left RCA jacks for input, while the X42 is just a 3.5mm jack. It also allows for line-in volume, while the X42 does not.
- Headset. These are almost identical. The X41's are white, these are black. The cord hooking to the controller is almost identical, just slightly more rounded on the X42. The underside of the head band is now mesh instead of a leatherette material. People seem to be complaining that the X42's are cheaper. Close inspect shows that it's nearly identical. I also weighed them both with the same type of batteries. Both came out to 9 3/4. Outside of colors, and some small screen printed indicators, these are the same headphone physically.
- Headset Sound. Sound quality is identical as far as I can tell. Used one ear from both, and sound imperceptible. Since I moved to wired ethernet the X41's have not had much interference, but the X42's have now been solid as well, and I expect that they will shine where the X41's left me in a crumpled mess when my wife kicked on the wifi.
- Surround options. New in the X42 are a series of 'sound space' options. Kind of annoying to select, as there are about 6 of them, and just one button. You have to hit the button and then watch for how many times the surround light blinks, then look it up in the manual and see what it is. Nice to be able to adjust this, instead of just having a set in stone one.
- Misc/Other. The X42's have a sound that plays when you turn them on/off, this is very nice instead of having to look at the light like one the X41's.
The only major issue I had with the X42's was trying to get them paired. Tried over and over using the instructions in the manual and it didn't work. So I looked it up online. Turns out they are different. You need to put the transmitter in pairing mode (with the headset off), takes about 5-6 seconds holding the pair button on the side. Then you turn on the headset, holding the button till after the on beep, waiting for the two fast beeps. This will pair them, other way just put them in some weird mode for me.
Overall these are an incremental improvement on the X41's. You get a better receiver (in my opinion), better surround options, much improved transmitter technology (i.e. not losing signal because of wifi/microwave/etc), and I think they look better in black. You may be able to get the X41's cheaper, and if you don't mind the receiver and don't use much wifi, might as well go with those. But if you want no interference, go with these. | video-games_xbox |
Best 360 game ive played yet. It seems that all of the negative reviews that have been posted here have 1 of 2 things in common. They either A.) were expecting a survival horror game (which doesnt make sense if you played RE4, or B.) they did not like the fact that you cant run and shoot. Well in response to these let me say, this game took what RE4 did and improved upon it. It may not be a survival horror ala the original RE games, but it is one of, if not THE, best action game ive played on 360. No , you can not run and shoot, but by doing this, it creates a sense of urgency and tension that is constantly there. It makes you stay on the edge of your seat. This is only enhanced by the fact that now when accessing your inventory, the action does not pause, keeping the tension high.
I admit, the controls might take some getting used to if you never played RE4, but once you have them you won't be able to put this game down. The graphics are amazing, the sound is equally impressive when played on a good set up.
There are only 2 draw back from this game that I can think of. The first is that Sheva, your partner, can sometimes get in the way, or consume ammo too quickly. This can be annoying at times, but it never hinders the gameplay. The second is that when playing co-op on the same TV, the screen set up is very odd, as it does not utilize the full screen, this effect is very odd and annoying at first. you do get past it, but it is still annoying none the less.
I can not emphasize enough how good this game is when played 2 player. It is so much fun to run into hordes of zombies with a friend and start blasting heads. The action is even more intense when you can see zombies sneaking up behind your partner and you shoot them just in time. this game was meant to be played this way, single player is still amazing, but multiplayer is so much fun.
Other than a few minor flaws, I cant really fault this game. It has plenty of things to do even once youve beaten it, you can replay with all guns and ammo, and weapon upgrades, and there is a mercinaries mode that is unlocked once you beat it as well. I have to say, this is probably the best game I have yet to play on the 360 (although i still haven't played gears 2).
In short, its well worth the money, all you have to do is be ready to play an action game, and not a survival horror, or a typical shooter. | video-games_xbox |
Not a great game, but if you are starving for RPG's, you may as well play it. I had just finished playing 'Okami' (which is a fabulous game for PS2 or Wii) when I started playing Eternal Sonata. So, that might be part of my biased disappointment toward Eternal Sonata.
The first thing I noticed about Eternal Sonata is that it felt "OLD", even as a brand new game, and it seems like a game that was designed 5-10 years ago. The color is vivid in the game, but the gameplay itself lacks a modern feel. The characters at times move 2-dimensional directions and rarely have control over the full span of the screen, a similar feel to an old Nintendo game.
A lot of the design seems very lazy. Maybe half of the story scenes do cut to animated film of the characters talking with voices, but the other half of the time, they simply stand in front of something that might pace back and forth on screenwith text displaying on screen. Their mouths don't move, and it's just silly text-based narration. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why some parts are animated, and some are just boring text boxes that you escape by being forced to press 'A' over and over and over.
Gaining levels can be tedious. The battles are the same from beginning to end. This is another reason it feels old; each battle, your characters and the enemies stand in the same place every time. The battles are also turn-based. The only thing that changes from battle to battle is which side of the screen you'll be standing on and whether you or the enemy will have your back to the other, and also which characters you'll fighting with increased difficulty. Same with the battles with the bosses. The whole thing is turn-based and the same each time.
The story itself is laughable at best. It meanders and a lot of it doesn't make sense... nor is it engrossing. In fact it's downright stupid and pointless most of the time. The ending was almost the worst and nonsensical RPG ending ever, so look forward to that. The unfinished feel carries all the way to the very end after "45 MINUTES!" of ending and the credits rolling, when the game just goes to a frozen black screen, which you have reset the console just to even get back to the title screen.
As for achievements... about 1/4 to 1/3 of them can be achieved on the first runthrough (maybe 20-30 hours). To get all achievements, you must go through the game twice. You don't get to keep any of your hard-earned levels nor most of the items you acquired for the second runthough. You get to keep things called "scores" and something called "party levels", which assists you do to more damage in battles, but with more effort.
In the second runthrough, the enemies are more difficult, although the gameplay is identical and with very few new things to do or see. So, if it wasn't fun the first time... it'll be harder, and no more fun the second time, either.
One aside that may not bother everyone, but most of the battles are fighting animals who moan, groan, and wail when you're beating them with your weapons. After a while, it just kind of felt cruel.
Finally, there is no world map. Many times I wish I knew where I was relative to other places, but no such luck. If you forget which area you are in, you just have to run to the edges of each area until you find what you're looking for.
I would recommend this game only if you have time to spare and love RPGs. It's not the best title you can get your hands on, but it's fine if you like the genre. I tended to focus on negative aspects of the game, but there game itself is nice to look at, and some of the areas to explore can be interesting. Just don't expect perfection, because nothing about this game is perfect in any way. | video-games_xbox |
Successfully captures essence of previous games but with some minor complaints. First off it is not essential to play the previous Max Payne games to understand the plot in this game. Essentially you are Max Payne a troubled ex-cop that has problems with alcohol and pain pill addictions. Max Payne meets a new "partner" Passos and travels to Brazil to do some work and to get out of New Jersey. Artistically the game looks and sounds great and some of the missions capture the essence of the dark/gritty atmospheres that were in the previous games. The game uses the same R.A.G.E. engine that is in Grand Theft Auto and L.A. Noire so when you are playing there is some slight resemblance to these titles. When you enter "Bullet Time" you can view the bullets flying past you and it looks/sounds amazing.
In terms of game-play the game can be really difficult at times as Rockstar will throw lots of enemies at you at times. You will die a lot if you are playing on harder difficulties and I found myself dying a good bit on the normal difficulty with free-aim enabled. Enemies take a lot of bullets when they are wearing protective gear so ammo is a high priority when you play. There are enough collectibles and clues in the game to keep you interested and to provide insights on the plot and some of them are really well hidden.
The only complaints I had:
1) When you have all the auto-aim features turned off I found myself fighting the aiming system the majority of the time. This wouldn't be so much of an issue if the aiming reticule was a little larger. Where the little tiny dot is on the screen is where your bullet is going to go. So half the time I'm like squinting at the screen to try to shoot some NPC in the head. Overall I just felt like I was fighting the aim to put the dot to where I wanted it.
2) Guns with laser aiming attachments were a pain to use. The laser light projects out of the front of the gun and Rockstar takes away the standard aiming reticule that is used with every other weapon. The laser light goes in weird directions when you shoot so I hated every time I got one of these weapons in the later portions of the game.
3) Glitches. I encountered two glitches during the game. Chapter 12 I was shooting an automatic rifle and the game glitched where the machine gun sounds looped endlessly. I had to restart the game to eliminate it altogether as exiting to the main menu did not fix it. I also encountered a glitch where I was unable to activate a door panel to open a door so I had to restart one segment.
4) Plot is kind of weak in certain points. Chapter 11 in particular made no sense to me.
5) Some segments the game forces you to continue instead of exploring everything at your leisure. I wanted to explore areas but if you didn't go through a door to advance the game would say you failed.
Despite these negatives the positives of the game are greatly superior. Now that the game is below $10 in most markets I would highly suggest Max Payne 3 for a single-player experience. You will have plenty of enemies to shoot through, gorgeous environments to experience, and lots of slow-motion to keep you entertained. | video-games_xbox |
Totally Awesome Headset. This is the third set of gaming headphones I've owned and it is by far my favorite.
First of all, they are awesome headphones in general. Comfortable, excellent sound, high-quality feeling. There are 2 cord attachments in the box in addition to the usual game connection setup - one to use the headset with a phone and one to use it with an iPod or similar, so they are not just gaming headphones.
Normally Im not the toaster oven type (lousy toaster and lousy oven, but you get both!), but I used these as regular audio headphones for a 7 hour flight and loved them the whole way. The ear cups are super comfortable and don't make my ears sweat. I've also used the headset a few times for phone calls, something I would never have expected, and they worked great.
As for gaming, great there too. The sound is excellent and controls work well with some tweaking (in other words, once you realize you shouldn't turn the mic gain up all the way). The connections work roughly the same as every gaming headset, though the cable lengths are a little more generous. The main power+audio cable also had a nice velcro strip which is handy for tying up extra length.
Im not a professional audio engineer or anything like that, I always feel a little goofy saying that headphones sound great and the other reviewers complain about the lows or the high end or something. Im just going to say they sound excellent to me and I'm not hard of hearing.
The only complaint I have is the layout of the control module - like every one of these headsets I've owned, its kind of poorly thought out. There are 5 - five! - different control knobs. Bass, Trebel, Mic Gain, Chat Volume, Game Volume. Its too much, you plug the headphones in, the volume is too high and you're trying to figure out which one to turn while your ears get blasted - the volume control knob in no way stands out from the others; it is just another knob lost in the jungle of controls. Worse yet, with all those knobs arranged along the edge, when you grip the control module to disable your game mic, for example, you will accidentally adjust several of them. It drives me a little nuts - but every game headset is designed this way, does no one actually play-test these things?
This is a flaw that every gaming headset has, so I debated if I should subtract a star and decided not to - this headset is just too awesome. Not perfect, but definitely awesome. | video-games_xbox |
I Prefer the Fake. My daughter and I wanted to buy this thing when it came out. We spent countless hours at GameStop just looking at it in its box, hoping that somehow we would magically have the money to buy it if we wanted it bad enough. We were not in a position financially to purchase the controller when it was in stores. I assumed it was no longer available, because the GameStop guy said so. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that amazon still had them in stock, even more so when I saw that it was half off. I didn't think anything Rock Band related could ever make me regret spending money. Turns out I was wrong. Even at half off, I feel this was a giant waste of money. I'm glad I didn't pay full price. My daughter and I both play real guitar. She plays it quite well. Me, not so much since all of the nerve damage to my fret hand, so I really enjoy at least being able to pretend. This thing doesn't even come close to being fun. The fact that the "strings" are all the same thickness really makes it difficult to play as one would a real guitar. I mean, it's like the took the worst features of the fake plastic controllers and a real guitar and combined them. I have gold starred just about everything on guitar and bass, so I don't lack skill as far as gameplay goes. My daughter can play most of the songs on real guitar AND has gold starred them with the good old fake plastic guitar. She actually did worse than me with this thing. I will continue to use it, see if maybe it just takes time, but it really is a disappointment. Also, having to purchase the pro "add ons" with music I've already purchased is really irritating. This includes "rb3" versions of songs that I bought believing the pro feature would be included. Seeing as I've already purchased and downloaded more than half of the additional content and all of the imports, this did not sit too well with me or my bank account. Overall this thing is frustrating and disappointing. I liked it better when it was still on its way to me at half price. Save your money. This thing is a joke. Now the mystery of why they stopped making RockBand games has been solved.
Pros: Lighter than my Logitech, so if the strap falls, my foot won't be broken
From afar, it might almost look like you're holding a real guitar, to a blind person, thus making you look "cool"
You can get some new achievements previously unavailable to you because you were smart enough to not waste money on
this thing
Cons: Buttons are far harder to use than guitar strings
Strumming the right "string" proves difficult for anyone used to real guitar strings
Even at half price the price is still a major negative | video-games_xbox |
A worthy end to a consistantly good series. I must admit that whenever I buy a sequel to a game I loved I always do so with a bit of apprehension, especially if I was rather fond of the game that came before it. Developers, especially Bioware, like to change things between games to keep players on their feet. Sometimes that change is minor sometimes the changes are fairly big. Dragon Age: Inquisition (DAI) does a bit of both. I will say that Bioware has sent off this story arc in a worthy manor. I was certainly impressed after I got used to the changes and some distracting graphic problems.
By now everyone is used to Bioware changing the level-up system. DAI is no exception. Overall I liked the changes. Probably the biggest change is that the class one picks determines where the attribute points are placed rather than the players choosing themselves. While this may annoy some people I liked having one less step. As one would expect the game features a wide range of abilities; some are useful and some aren't. There are a lot of passive abilities that improve the players attributes such as strength and dexterity; again the attributes that one can level up depends on what class the player picks.
The other big thing that changed was the combat and the difficulty. Overall I'd say the combat is more like Dragon Age 2 than Origins but not quite. Instead of pressing A or X or one of those buttons to attack the RT button is used to attack. One can also hold down RT to continuously attack which is a nice addition as some of the fights are rather long. This brings me to the difficulty. DAI is certainly the hardest of the Dragon Age games. Early in the game even fighting a bear can be a challenge never mind a group of soldiers. As your character grows more powerful the game gets easier. I actually liked the higher difficulty as it added an air of intensity to the fights as it is quite possible that your whole party may die. That being said, save often.
The graphics and sound on the XBOX 360 are not really a selling point for the game. The game certainly is not the prettiest game I've ever seen but it really isn't a big deal as the rest of the game is fine and good graphics do not make a game good. The thing that is a big deal is that conversations can be interrupted which is really disappointing and distracting. It was really irritating to be having conversations, especially at important parts in the game, and have the conversation freeze and to have to skip over part of the conversation.
Dragon Age 2 was rightly criticized for having minimal variety in it's locations. It got a bit boring to be fighting through the same cave over and over again. Thankfully, this problem is gone in DAI. The game features 10 main areas where most of the game is spent as well as a bunch of small areas for main and side quests. The 10 main areas are very distinct and are, for the most part, fun to explore which is nice as the areas are rather large and one can expect to spend several hours at least on each area. For example, I spent about 20 hours on The Hinterlands.
One of the strongest things about a Bioware game is the story and it's characters. The story for DAI is a pretty run of the mill fantasy story which means the world is going to end and you have to save it. In other words, the plot is more like Dragon Age: Origins than the more personal Dragon Age 2. While having a clichd story can be a big problem for an RPG, DAI makes it work. The main story is just one of several things going on in the world. Of course there is the Mage/Templar conflict to worry about, the Grey Wardens have problems and the Tevinter Imperium is also thrown into the mix. Not to mention the various character and map related side quests. In other words there is a lot to do in this game. Choices made by previous heroes help shape the world one is playing in but don't seen overbearing which is a plus. One smaller thing I really liked about this is that the developers make the player wait for things. When you first start the game you are not the Inquisitor and your stronghold is an insignificant town. I liked the feeling of growing my Inquisition and finally being rewarded with a proper fortress and the title was more rewarding then if I had all of those things to begin with.
Bioware is always strong on the character front and DAI is no exception. The party and your advisors are a collection of interesting characters, including some familiar faces. I liked having characters from previous games return as it provided some more continuity that choices about who rules Ferelden can't do. The new faces are fun to get to know as well. The developers encourage the player to use all of the party members by giving them quests. Of course one doesn't have to take that party member but it is fun and gets all the members some play time. One thing I admire about Bioware is how they can get me to like characters that I don't like initially. In Dragon Age 2 I didn't like Aveline until I did her rather funny quest involing Guardsman Donic. When I first met Cassandra at the beginning of DAI I thought I wouldn't like her all that much. Then I found she has a quest that is very funny and did a great job of humanizing her and I started to like her a lot more. I loved seeing Veric and Cullen return as I was rather fond on both characters in the last two games. It was good to see how Cullen grew as a character throughout the series.
One thing I wish Bioware had done in regards to characters was to say what happened to my party members from the previous games. I really would have liked to know what happened to Zeverin, Isabella and the others. Maybe I missed a codex that explained all that or maybe using the Dragon's Keep would have had cameos but if not I would count that against this game.
Overall, I was certainly impressed by DAI. The game had all the elements that make Bioware a great video game developer. Good story and great characters. True there are graphic and some sound problems but they don't often detract from the game. DAI, admirably, manages to feel like a Dragon Age game but it doesn't play the same way game after game. This is not a series that remains fairly static every entry. For good or ill the game is different then it's predecessors. For fans of the series it is worth playing. However this is not a game that one can spend an hour or two and get a good feel for the game. The game is deliberate and takes its time building it's story and characters and requires an investment of time to get a good feel for the game. | video-games_xbox |
Best RB Game Yet. Alright, so the music game genre has been played out for some time now, however every time you're get together with friends and somebody starts playing RB, the tendency for it to turn into a sesh is always existent. You end up playing for an hour or more and it always ends up being good fun. RB3 has a good song selection off the disc, and a humongous catalog of dlc. There is a ton of options in this game from customization of characters to song customization and plenty of ways to jam from guitar to keyboard to vocals, which have all been made better since the beginning of the franchise. I don't have the real guitar setup or the other peripherals to make a judgement on how well that part of the game is on helping you "play for real" but knowing it's there tells me they tried to pack in as much as they could to let you be a part of your favorite musical experiences. Graphics are very appealing and the animations are also pretty awesome, and have definitely been taken up a notch from the previous games. Even the online features work well and if you are a fanatic, you could definitely be playing this for a while. My only gripe is that for 20 bucks, you basically can only download 10 songs. It seems like a lot to me because you can go through them fast, and there really isn't anything added to the game other than achievements that may be tied to them or parts that may include being able to "play for real." To put it in simpler terms, I paid 18 bucks for the game itself, and have already spend 40 bucks on dlc. Its nice because they are songs that I chose, but like I said, you can go through them really quickly and end up wanting more. Some of the dlc band packs also usually have a song or even two that are not great and it kinda forces you to buy songs separately which ends up costing you more. Other than the rather expensive dlc, the game is solid and if you cant have fun with this game then you really need to loosen up. | video-games_xbox |
Great Game with a few problems. TDU2 is one of my favorite games on X-BOX. I've waited a very long time for it to come out, because I got bored of the previous game, TDU.
There are two beautiful and detailed islands (Hawaii, Ibiza). Including Beaches, Mansions you can buy, waterfalls, blue oceans, jungles, and a big crater in Hawaii about 5 Miles wide. In Hawaii, the map is extremely detailed. Depicting the rainbow tower in Honolulu, Peral Harbor, and mt. Tantalus. In Hawaii there is a small island on the South East part of the map. It can not be entered unless you have an X-BOX LIVE gold membership to play in the TDU2 casino, which is on that small island. You frequently see container ships sailing across the water slowly, and B-747 airliner jets flying over the islands. Some areas are differant. Hawaii 2 is populated with cities and airports. While Hawaii 3 is quite remote with mountains and jungles.
The cars are lovely. More than 40 car brands in the game and 140+ cars. It seems though as if all the cars have the same handling. Regardless of the driving difficulty, you can't tell the differance between the handling of a Zonda or an H3.
I would say that some of the challenges are very difficult and require practice before meeting the standards of the challenges. In some races, you are only allowed 2 or 3 minutes to drive 6 miles downhill. It is a bit of a challenge but is not impossible. Some vehicles can be unlocked if you complete missions or challenges. For example, to find 10 wrecks on Hawaii 3. When you do, you unlock a unique car at the used car dealer.
You can get cosmetic surgery for your avatar, change the hair style, and improve his/her sex appeal, popularity, and class.
Lets move on to the Pros and Cons.
Pros:
-Beautiful islands with great detail
-Detailed car interriors
-Player can have cosmetic surgery to improve looks.
-Sports for Avatar are great
-Sports for vehicles are great
-The game is never "Finnished"
Cons:
-Many glitches throughout the game
-Bad graphics
-Poor voice acting
-Difficult for starters
Overall, Great game! Go ahead and buy it before the sale ends! | video-games_xbox |
Update on: These didn't work FOR MY SPECIFIC APPLICATION. Got these to use as midi triggers for Toontracks EZdrummer on my Mac. I had read a lot of articles on how they could be easily configured with some tweaking to work in my software so this is why I tried using them for this purpose, however it was far from easy and I quit trying.
Update on 22 June 2013. So I've gotten a lot of negative feedback on my review of this product. OK, it was at the time the cheapest way to try to play actual drums in my music software (Toontracks EZdrummer) instead of using a piano keyboard. I had read a lot of articles on how it could be easily configured with some tweaking to work in my software so this is why I tried using them for this purpose, however it was far from easy and I quit trying.
So, for ME it was a bad experience, based on what I had read about the EASE OF USE ON MY MAC USING THIS IN AN ALTERNATE WAY. I can only rate it on my personal experience. It is obvious that for those of you playing rock band on your XBox these are fantastic, great for you. These reviews are to help people to decide on buying a particular product for whatever reason they may have. This original review was intended to help people who may have wanted to use them for the same purpose as me. If you are an Xbox person, playing rock band, this should not enter into your decision process, but be an interesting tidbit of info for the future or to help your friends who may want to try this.
My kids have rock band, and it is a blast to play. They have the original drum kit. After use by some of their more aggressive friends, the bass drum stopped working
It is disheartening that some people use the internet to say things to people they would never say in person. I am a nice person and if I told you this story in person most of you would probably sympathize and say, "Oh well you tried, but it didn't work, no biggie".
BTW, I still have them and if you want to buy them for rock band make me an offer, I have 2 sets. | video-games_xbox |
A Great Remake With a Few Small Flaws. Let me begin this review by stating that I am a huge Halo fan. I own encyclopedias, books, all of the games, and even magnets. When I first heard of the decision to remake Combat Evolved for Xbox 360 with modern graphics and import the multiplayer maps into Reach, I shrieked with glee. CE is one of the greatest video games ever made, and I am proud to report that - for the most part - this is even better.
The campaign, in terms of story and gameplay, is as stunning as it was ten years ago. The epic space odyssey of Master Chief and the UNSC stands the test of time and is fluid and well written even by Star Wars/Star Trek standards. The major selling point is, of course, the completely redone graphics, and let me tell you, they are absolutely gorgeous. Environments seem real, characters move fluidly, and effects are seen everywhere. The ability to switch between classic and new graphics simply by pressing the Back button is a nice touch, though you cannot do this during cutscenes, which is a bit of a letdown. Otherwise, this feature is awesome. The campaign is almost exactly the way it was 10 years ago. Few changes have been made, none of which effect the gameplay or narrative (small things like a new hidden terminal here and there). It seems as if the campaign was lifted from CE and simply made shiny - not that i'm complaining.
Multiplayer is a bit disappointing. Only a handful of the classic maps from CE have been included in this package, all of which use Reach's servers and gameplay/graphics. Favorites such as Blood Gulch have been implemented, though it would have been nice to see all of the maps remade for Reach in a similar fashion to the campaign. I understand this is a discount game, and at $30 the price is certainly comforting, but I would have been more than happy to pay the full $60 if it meant recieving the entire CE package remade for modern times.
Overall, CE Anniversary is a great HD remake that any Halo player should own. Despite a few issues and the disappoiting multiplayer, this is a must own. | video-games_xbox |
Not Horror, But AMAZING game. Alright, in order to best summarize this game, I should probably break it down to serve the game some justice...
Graphics: 10/10
Absolutely amazing, whether in broad daylight fighting the Executioner (a giant axe-weilding zombie),or in pitch darkness using a lantern to see the zombie hordes, the graphics are just beautiful, living up to both the PS3's and the Xbox 360's standards.
Artificial Intelligence (AI): 9/10
Let's kickoff with Sheva, your partner along the journey. She is definetly a god-send to RE5, but can have her problems.
Pros:
+ She is never far behind you
+ She gives you ammo that she doesn't need based off the weapons in your inventory
+ She heals you when the game senses you have low health (provided she has a herb, the main way of healing)
+ Has an "Attack" mode, where she runs recklessly around killing zombies.
Has a "Cover" mode, where you meet a more caution-oriented sheva, conserving valuable ammo.
Cons:
- Rarely aims for the head, and is quick to waste valuable ammo
- Is quick to use up herbs, even if your above 70% health
- Is slow to help you when grappled by a zombie, even if she's right there
- Dont assume she's got your back... chances are, she doesn't.
- Specific to the "Caves" level, she seems hesitant with the lantern
Next, is the zombies; boy do we wish Sheva had this kind of intelligence. Frankly, I would be searching hard for bad things to say about the enemy AI, other than they are slow to react when you are near, but sometimes this is actually PROGRAMMED!!! For example, the harder the difficulty, the less preparation time the zombie carrying a chainsaw above his head will take when near you before cutting you in half. The RE5 team programmed an IN-GAME difficulty switch, depending on how your doing with your enemies. For example, if your doing really well on Amateur (the easiest difficulty), but maybe a little less than average on Normal, you could actually end up with the same difficulty, thus always providing a challenge.
Gameplay: 9/10
The controls are similar to RE4, with a few minor improvements. At first they ae hard to grasp, and a new player to Resident Evil will struggle with the first couple levels. My only concern, in addition to the complexity of the controls, your character lacks the ability to walk and shoot. Although it adds to tention, it just feels cheap, and I feel ripped off as a gamer. As for enemy spawns, I have no complaints. Everything runs smoothly, zombies aren't appearing out of thin air (although it'll feel like it) like we've seen in Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon. Lastly, lets talk about the zombies reation to bullets. Obviosly, they don't like to be shot at and wll respond in rage once they recover from the wound. Interestingly as well, they also have animations and actions depending on where you shoot them. Say i were to shoot a zombie in his weapon heand. He will drop the weapon and grip his hand in agony. Sometimes a shot to a body part will allow chris and sheva to use a context sensitive move, conserving ammo and dealing massive damage. The only reason I marked this off one is because of the controls.
Replay Value: 10/10
There are many great games with impressive single player and multi-player, but lack replay value. Fortunately, RE5 is not one of those games. With additional mission modes, costumes, Acheivements/Trophy's, unlockable weapons, and countless bonus features, this is a game worth owning. If I use too many more words, I'll kill the effect, so I'll just leave it at that!
Story: 8/10
This story starts off just like all other horror games... WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON!?!? I won't spoil it, but the story is best around the mid-game, when your still left guessing, but aren't completely uninformed. Unfortunately, towards the end of the game, you've already guessed who's in the mysterious mask, who's the main problem, and how it's going to end. My other problem is the final boss. I must have killed him on 4 different occasions, and HE'S STILL COMING BACK!!! Overall, the story was intense, but predictable.
So Is It A Horror?
It seemed to me that CAPCOM's idea of horror is throwing together a whole bunch of blood, gore, and zombies. If your opinion of a survival horror matches this, then have a jolly old time changing underwear, but for me, with the exception of a couple select chapters, was unpreturbed. And in order to satiate my horror needs, bought Left 4 Dead. So is it scary? Thats for you to decide.
In conclusion, with grea graphics and gameplay, this game deserves to be honored with 5 stars, and re-defines action games (in a good way). But if your looking for a horror, and your not easily scared, game like Silent Hill, Left 4 Dead, and Dead Space might be the ones for you. | video-games_xbox |
Pretty fun game. Okay, I must admit that I made the mistake of seeing the movie first. In retrospect of how they had the movie tie in with the video game, I simply don't get it. Okay okay, let me explain. BloodRayne the video game is hugely better than the movie, so those movie goers who saw that first, don't let they shirk you from playing this game. That being said, I was very pleasantly surprised at how fun this game was to play!
Naturally you're playing as BloodRayne and she's more than just your average vampiric character. She's what they call a Dhampir, half human, half vampire. Naturally her character concept is incredibly alluring. Anyway the game starts with a video sequence of her being watched by the Brimstone society and her essentially getting recruited. Now this is all taking place a little before World War II era. Which obviously doesn't mesh with the movie, because in the movie she got involved with Brimstone in the Middle Ages, how you screw that one up is beyond me? Anyway, the game starts you off in Louisiana hunting down some anomalies. This is basically a training level so you can get used to using BloodRayne and your mentor Mynce is there to help you out. After you complete this section of the game your real mission begins, but five years has passed. The Nazis, on their rise to power, made a group called the Gegengheist Gruppe (Anti-Ghost Group) or GGG and Rayne's mission is to essentially bring this group to their knees. You get a list of targets to assassinate and you are sent through a large amount of harrowing missions!
I should forewarn any parents of how violent this game is, sorry just a good thing to throw out in a review. You do dismember limbs and heads from enemies. I was even surprised at all the harsh language in the script. To be honest the swearing seemed out of place and forced, so it had a fairly goofy quality, but that's from an adult perspective. So parents might want to know about these specifics because the target audience for this game is most certainly not young children, you've been forewarned.
I thought this was going to be a fairly quick game originally and I was pleasantly surprised it took me a lot more than six hours to beat, which is kind of what I was expecting. Unfortunately the story and missions get a little monotonous towards the end, because basically you have to assassinate the people on your target list. The only variation is the location you're in. Some of the areas are hard to navigate and you can get lost kind of easily because the way through isn't very obvious all the time. The worst part was jumping up to a certain level in the middle section of the game. Basically you had to jump upon a series of small ledges to a very high location in order to get out, which was a horrible area to play, but I will admit it was very different.
In terms of game controls, it does take some getting used to. Rayne can jump really high, which is a boon when you want to get somewhere tough! However, sometimes this can prove detrimental when you want to land someplace very specific, in flight she is sort of hard to control and you don't get much say. Rayne also has the ability to walk on something as thin as power lines (which is necessary in the Louisiana chapter). Like I mentioned above it's a boon, but it's not always easy to land on those power lines. Other than this general movement controls are fine and smooth. The camera can be rotated, which is a must for any newer game as far as I'm concerned!
In terms of combat this game can handle itself pretty well. I was surprised at the assortment of weapons I could choose from. Naturally Rayne has her arm blades (my preferred weapon in this game), but she can also pick up guns and you can use stuff ranging from pistols to rocket launchers. I wasn't expecting this, but I thought it was awesome. So if you have an enemy standing in water and you don't want to cross or get close you can shoot them from a distance. Rayne also executes automatic combos, which I suppose takes away from some of the challenging factor a game like this could use (however, I think it's challenging enough as is). However, your bloodlust can rise, in which case Rayne goes into a sort of berserker mode and she's nigh unstoppable! As you go further in the game she also levels up a bit and her attacks become stronger, but you have no control over that so it's not like a role playing game by any stretch of the imagination. I also like the way they handled the health/damage issue. If you get damaged all you need to do is suck some enemy's blood and your health meter will go up.
Added into this game is a whole series of different cheats you can enter to either help beat the game or make interesting things happen. Like you can get god mode or you can get one that adds extra dismemberment. I don't really like the way they made the interface for the cheat code section because it's fairly cumbersome to use and if you turn one on then have to stop playing the game, when you start your game up the next day you need to re-input all the cheat codes.
Ultimately I thought this game was a lot of fun. I have to take off a star because after a while the Nazi story-line, regardless of how interesting, does get rather mundane. I think the writers should've made a series of missions of the length of the Louisiana game, but with slightly different objectives each time. Rather than having a short introductory section with Louisiana and then having an incredibly lengthy assassin mission with the same objectives/concepts for the rest of the game. I think this would have split the game up a bit more and gave it a less monotonous feel. The writers did try to break it up fairly well, especially when you ended up going to the castle stronghold, that part was actually really fun, but again, the mission objectives were the same as the prior level. The game is definitely challenging and I will admit I had to turn on god mode a few times to get through certain sections because I simply couldn't find my way out! If you can beat this game with ease not on god mode, you are a better gamer than I and I salute you. | video-games_xbox |
L.A. Noire is a game that has eclipsed most movies today. Personal thoughts:
It's immersive and really makes you feel like you're detective Phelps instead of someone playing a video game. As you start out it becomes clear that Cole Phelps is a wartime hero who's trying to work his way up through the ranks of the police department. You will do this by completing 21 cases and making a notorious name for yourself in the process. L.A. Noire is as much like watching a movie as it is playing a video game.
Expectations:
Do not expect any heart pounding FPS game-play where it's your personal mission to save the world from mass extinction using a pistol and rubber bullets to quite the body count. And do not compare it to any of the other rock* games either as L.A. Noire is much more story oriented than the usual mayhem you create in those other sandbox titles. Though the game is open world it becomes much more linear when you begin a case. Also, please remember that Cole Phelps is a police officer, he's not going to go around shooting everyone he sees. If that's something you want then you should look else where as it's not in this game.
Cases:
The cases vary greatly as you traverse around the city. You will follow a killers taunting letters, chase down a few guys to shake them down for answers and closing the books before night fall. In one of the more action packed cases the excitement never seems to slow down. It starts off like any normal day with you investigating a scene until it turns into a car chase, followed by an alley way shoot out, then another shoot out. By the end of it almost everyone involved is dead and the only suspect you have left is last man alive. As I have pointed out it's clear every case is different, but the way in which you solve them (questioning, clues, foot work) is all the same.
1-10 (1 being worst and 10 the best)
Overall: 9 - This is the best game I have played all year. I would recommend it to anyone who likes Noir films, or movies in general. The acting is superb and nothing feels over the top and fake. It plays just like an instant classic should by doing almost everything right which overshadows the wrongs.
Fun Factor: 8 - The gameplay is nothing new and it feels just like GTAIV in that aspect. What's different is the immersion the game creates as no other rock* published / developed game has.
Graphics: 9 - 1940'S L.A. was rendered in this game with 90% accuracy. The world Team Bondi have created is truly large, beautiful and life like. The icing on the cake is of course the amazing capture technology used on all the actors faces.
Longevity/Replay Value: 8 - There doesn't seem to be much reason to playthrough the game a second time, yet that doesn't even matter. With already 24 hours logged I still have loads to do, and with the addition of DLC this game could take you anywhere from 30-40 hours to complete.
Audio: 9 - Great sound, voice acting, everything just sounds great.
Online Play: 0 - There is no multiplayer. Some people may like this, others may not. | video-games_xbox |
Great controller, great console, great multitasking. There are a lot of things to love about this new console. The interface is second to none, along with the voice controls. The new controller is great as well. The feedback you get from the triggers in a game like Forza 5 really take the game to the next level.
Pros:
1. Almost feels like a software update to the Xbox 360. For the most part it's easy to navigate the UI because it feels similar to what you're used to using if you owned a 360.
2. New controller is (somehow) a step up from the 360 controller. Perfect in the hands, the rumble in the triggers, and the new feel to the thumbsticks are all great upgrades to the old.
3. Kinect 2.0 is great as well. The voice recognition is spot on, you just have to know what to say. I found myself getting frustrated only to find I was just saying the wrong thing. I'm sure later on down the line they'll fix some of the glitches, but for the most part the Kinect is great. Can't say much for the gestures or anything since I haven't used them, but it's pretty dang fun to walk into your living room, say "Xbox On" and watch everything turn on. Next level of American laziness is upon us.
4. The box it self is big, bigger than I expected. I actually like this though. it doesn't need to look like a work of art for me, it just needs to function. Sure it may look like an old VHS player, but I don't mind it as much as some other people do. Large vent areas let the thing stay nice and cool. Unit is whisper quiet. Plus, smart move keeping the power brick. Won't pump all that heat into the console itself so both units can stay cool.
Cons:
1. I use a pass-through with a sony sound bar and so far I'm not sure how to have that actually turn my TV on, so for now it just turns the soundbar on. Something that could be fixed later on so it's not a huge issue.
2. Voice commands are pretty specific so you have to know what to say. Other than that nothing wrong with voice at all.
3. The looks can be off-putting to some people.
4. More expensive unless amazon comped you for all the trouble with the Nov20th preorders.
Glad I got a unit that didn't have any drive issues so, so far I'd declare this a pretty good console. Any issues or perks I'll keep the review updated. | video-games_xbox |
Impressed so far. So I bought these at Best Buy this week since they were on sale and I was looking for a good pair of Wireless Headphones. This set of headphones from PDP/Afterglow is actually a recent release and new design (steel reinforced headband, among other changes) which is why I bought them after reading bad reviews about some of their previous wireless headsets.
These headphones are actually Universal across PC, XBOX, PS3, Wii, and Wii-U (Unsure about the PS4). Out of the box they worked perfectly on my gaming PC. Just plug in the USB key change a couple settings in the control panel and I was ready to frag some friends. If you want the ability to separate Chat Speech from Game Sounds, you need to plug the 3.5mm jack into the headset port of your computer and leave the default sound output to your sound card. Then change the settings in your chat program (Teamspeak, Ventrillo, or in-game setting if there is an option) to output the Chat to the Prismatic Headset. This will give you the ability to tune Chat vs Game sounds in your PC.
On the PS3, unusual things happen. Setup the connections like the instructions dictated, but I was unable to use the microphone to chat. I could hear others chat, hear the game sounds, and adjust the levels for each as needed. However, in the Accessory Settings > Audio Device Settings > Input Device Settings, my Afterglow headset did not appear as an option. After troubleshooting and reading on the Internet, it seems that the PS3 does not recognize USB microphones on some USB ports. So swap around your USB devices on your PS3 until you get the option to use the Prismatic Headset as an Input Device (thank you to the Forums at TurtleBeach for this information). After that, everything worked perfectly. Brother said that I was coming through crystal clear on both PC and PS3 and I could hear everything wonderfully too.
I am impressed by this set of headphones. PDP's insert shows that you can upgrade these headphones by buying their Optical Input Transmitter/Charging Tower, but I have been unable to find anyone selling it outside of the $200 5.1 Prismatic Bundle. So in the future I may upgrade these. I definitely wouldn't mind getting the carrying case for them as well. Now the only question is: How will they hold up in the long run? | video-games_xbox |
So close to a perfect game for me. First let me say I love this game. I recommend it to anyone who likes period piece action games, with a bit of puzzle solving. And the game is VAST. Well worth the money.
That said there are a few minor issues I had with the game that if remedied, would have made it the perfect game for me.
1) I had just played the first Assassins Creed, and found it lacking. It was repetetive and frankly boring. Although I liked the graphics in the first game more. They just seemed less cartoony, a bit more dirty and realistic. My complaint pertaining to the switch from the first game to the second, however.....KEEP THE CONTROLS THE WAY THEY WERE!!! I spend the ENTIRE course of playing the second game trying to exit the map the way I did the first game. Changing the controls were pointless. Its a minor quibble, but annoying.
2) Get rid of the feathers. People complained about the flags in the first game and rightly so, as collecting them gave you.....NOTHING. And although theres a reward for collecting feathers (spoiler!) in this game, its a weapon I never used during the course of storyline gameplay, and then a cape that is useless as, from what I understand, doesnt protect you at all. Also, the map has the locations of the treasures. Why not the feathers?
3) When Ezio becomes flirtatious with the interactive female characters during the story, I think to myself....here we go...a love interest. This is an adult game, nothing wrong with that.....it doesnt have to be God Of War graphic, but SOMETHING would add a dimension to the game. Except NOTHING ever happens. I counted no less than four major female characters in the game I assumed soemthing was going to happen with, and it never does. Not only does it NOT, but a few of them play a large role, flirt with him, and then DISAPPEAR.
4) The money situation in the game is awkward. You have little to nothing at the beginning, waste your time searching for treasure so you have enough for armor and weaponry, then when you get it all.....you become overly flush with nothing to do with it. I have over 300000 francs at the end of the game. Pointless. Time the monetary returns to coincide with the game more.
5) Some of the gameplay aspect flutters out at the second half of the game. At the beginning im climbing MASSIVE church towers for viewpoints, and at the end its a generic barn or small building. Seems lazy.
6) At one point in the game you are taught (by on of the females who flirt-disappears) how to leap up while climbing. Very useful. Except when you are trying to climb a building in a hurry. Suddenly what you had done before so quickly becomes an exercise in patience as you clumsily climb up the side of a building.....not to mention that the button to leap is the same one as the button to drop. Very awkward.
And lastly, the online downloadable content. Lazy. Filled with bugs. Out of context, unimportant. Not worth the money. There were entire conversations with no audio (thank god for subtitles).
With all that it may seem that I hate this game, which is untrue. Just wanted to vent a bit, since it was so close to a great game for me. And since (spoiler) at the end of the game they make it clear theres another one coming.....hopefully someones listening up there. | video-games_xbox |
Only slightly mediocre. Black Ops 2 was a game meant to be a landmark for future COD generations, introducing many new ideas and things to the game. However, their "masterful plan" didn't live up to be what it was told in many aspects. Generally, I'd like to keep this review unbiased, but this is solely based on responses to the game from me and the people I have played with (friends, strangers, etc.).
CAMPAIGN: The campaign is usually, if not always NOT the main feature of the COD games. It, like many other COD titles, is generic and more confusing in comparison to other titles. Although the storyline is in many ways lacking, the actual campaign gameplay is pretty decent. One additional perk to the campaign, however, is that the game allows you to customize your class before each mission at your will. All in all, the campaign is pretty average.
MULTIPLAYER: Multiplayer is the heart and soul of COD games, and is what gamers believe is the best part of COD, which in many aspects, is true. However, Black Ops 2 seems to have failed to satisfy the community fully as many say, and most would agree, that in its current state it is a "broken" game. Here's why:
Servers: The servers of Black Ops 2 are probably the WORST servers of any COD out. There is a Host Migration in just about every game, which can be annoying, and sometimes there are extreme lag spikes, but only only occasionally. Lastly, users with slow connections should be wary that if your connection does not meet the standards of the server-you may not be able to even get into a game. As in it will literally tell you there are zero games available to you.
Guns, Classes, and Maps: The guns in the game are pretty much scaled to all other games, like MW3. However, sniper rifles AND shotguns tend to be almost always one shot kills with incredible range and accuracy, although there are many times where your gun may completely fail you, which is never good. But the other guns seem to be pretty good so far.
As for the classes, they are relatively easy to figure out, as the slot gives you ten "points" to use at your will to create the ideal class of choice, which is always nice to have something original and rather helpful in COD.
And the maps, well, they could be better, but they aren't bad. As a warning, there are MANY camping spots within the game, and even MORE spots for "headglitching" (going behind an object and shooting someone while only your head is showing, making it extremely difficult for the other person to shoot you). Together, these balance each other out in a sort of good way.
Miscellaneous: Two things I absolutely MUST mention to people: Spawns and Abusers. Let's start with the easier one to explain.
Spawns are probably the WORST in COD history. I warn you right now, if you're someone who can become angry or stressed easily-beware. The spawns flip very frequently and on occasion it will spawn you or someone else AT RANDOM. Pretty self explanatory, I would say, so lets move on.
Abusers categorize many subjects. They are:
-spawn campers
-boosters
-modders
-hackers
-dynamics (not purposely bad all the time)
Spawn campers are those who purposely trap you to an area where you repeatedly spawn and die from the same person/people.
Boosters are people who get other people to get killed by them in order for them to achieve in game challenges, levels, etc.
Modders are those with modded controllers; those who have controllers that can alter the gameplay to their advantage (rapid fire, dropshot, etc.)
Hackers are the worst player to even be in a lobby with. They use hacks such as aimbots (auto-aimers), wall hacks (x-ray vision), and many others to unjustly kill you. They can also hack into your Xbox 360, your profile, your classes-everything. They should, as soon as they are discovered, be REPORTED IMMEDIATELY.
Dynamics are people who have very inconsistent connections in the game. They may not realize it, or may not be able to control it, but it does happen. However, there are also the people with controllable lag, also known as Lag Switchers, who momentarily activate lag within a server. They may also be considered hackers in a different light.
Because all of these people listed belonged to prior titles, they "migrated" to Black Ops 2 and are much more frequent in the new game.
ZOMBIES: Zombies have been working out very well within Black Ops 2, especially when with a full party of friends. It is a good way to meet new people as well, when paired up with randoms in a lobby. No major complaints are arisen with Zombies, and if anything is what compensates for lots of the games flaws.
All in all, the game is missing many components, but is an alright game at best. However, hopefully future patches (if they ever show) fix up the game soon. And again all of these statements have been told from the perspectives of myself and other affiliates that I know/met. Thanks for reading. | video-games_xbox |
Already 49.99 at launch? That should tell you something. It's garbage. I can't believe what EA has done to destroy this beloved franchise. First off, know that Criterion Burnout and Hot Pursuit devs) They did not make this game. Made by an entity called Ghost. In a nutshell, this game is complete garbage. Oh Criterion, you are missed already... You're better of sticking in a 10 year old NFS game then play this. Read on.
I could barely get through this hour of play time. I will not use the 10 hour trial up. First issue, almost everything in this game is recycled from NFS Rivals and I wasn't a big fan of that one either but hey if the gameplay is great? Give it a chance right? But no, like others have mentioned, this is nothing but a copy and paste of Rivals. Yea EA being EA! The B actors they hired are absolutely detestable and you're forced to listen to their tripe and these cut scenes are so bad I want cringe. You will get sick. Grab the barf bags. There's more videos of atrocious cut scenes than you are actually driving the car. Can we leave videos to youtube and not for video games? Even worse, you can't skip it. The fast and furious rendition attempts to come into play and you'll laugh listening to these idiots, but the worst part, (nope, you can't skip it).
Anyway, when you finally get to drive after constantly being interrupted, the driving finally comes into play. At first glance, I have to say, it's probaby the prettiest night time driving I've ever seen. The cars are purty, very well detailed, and nice cosmetical damage. But...
The good stops there. The driving itself is borderline bad. When you click 10 times to remove the distracting text that CONSTANTLY POPS UP IN THE MIDDLE OF YOUR DRIVING CAUSING YOU TO CRASH, YOU CAN FINALLY ATTEMPT TO DRIVE. So how does it drive? Well, Bad. The drifting? Um, I'll say this, "what drifting?" There is no drifting that I could see or pull out, I felt completely out of control of my ride. I've felt better handling on Rad Racer for the NES. And of course, no surprise. No Dash view hurts too, I love seeing the old dashboard in the old NFS games, none of that here. The game is apparently online online ONLY and I of course was having server issues geting into a game too. Network lag was HORRIBLE and I kept glitching out back to the beginning of a race. I got booted out of a mission right in the middle of the game, and I just had to wait to go back. Okay, I'm done. Thanks for the beta demo and calling it a complete game.
Good job EA, way to destroy another franchise. Thank God I didn't buy. | video-games_xbox |
Not bad, could be better. Well the game definitely has some good points to it, but the plethora of game-breaking glitches can ruin it for anyone.
Combat is fun in this game. I like the targeting and subtargeting with guns and crossbows. It's fun to shoot weapons out of an enemy's hand and the ability to decapitate someone with a blunderbuss is cool. I like the addition of gender as a choice at character creation. Interactions with random NPCs is improved, but still not too real. Pretty much everyone, male and female say the same thing to you based on how they perceive you.
I like the addition of a Corrupt vs Pure slider in addition to the Good vs Evil, but I do NOT like that it's heavily influenced by your diet. The game was clearly designed by some vegetarian morons who think that meat is evil so if you eat meat, you'll automatically be fat and corrupt, Cheese will make you fat too, but not necessarily corrupt. ANY beverage besides water will make you fat. Seriously, what do the designers think? Everyone who doesn't subsist solely on celery, carrots, and water is fat and corrupt?
Aside from that the story is pretty linear and and you spend a lot of time gathering allies who sit and wait for you instead of joining you throughout the game.
The gamebreaking glitches are annoying and apparently will never be fixed. Lionhead studios does not support the game, directing you to Microsoft support. Microsoft support doesn't support the game either basically telling you "Tough luck" if you email them about problems with the game. The game breaking glitch that forced me to start from the beginning again was originally reported on the Fable 2 forums back in 2008 and it is now 2011 with no fix. Since you can not have multiple saves and the game autosaves, these glitches will ruin your experience if you are unfortunate enough to have one.
Overall, it's still a pretty fun game, I could just do without the game-breaking glitches and stupid vegan agenda being forced on me. | video-games_xbox |
Great Step Forward. Sleeping Dogs is first and foremost a solid addition to any adult gamers library. Let me emphasize that word again ADULT. The game is not shy about making sexual references, drug usage, violence et al are all the main staples of the game. For the sake of brevity I'll list some items that I enjoyed about the game as well as a few minor gripes which I believe prevent the game form obtaining a perfect rating.
Graphically the game is arguably among the best I have seen on this generation of counsoles. The cut scences are incredibally lifelike and the voice acting is nearly flawless. At times you feel like you are watching a real movie.
Perhaps one of the biggest positives about this game is the story telling, Sleeping Dogs in my opinion has a sophisticated and refreshing storyline which weaves all of the characters together in away that few video games do (or even attempt to do). Because the game features such an elaborate story line, I can forgive some of the areas in which the game falls short. Even after playing the game for only a couple of hours it was quite obvious to me that the game programmers/developers/writers etc put A LOT of effort and energy into this game.
The total gaming area is incredibly lifelike, Sleeping Dogs does an incredible job in making you feel like you are playing in a real breathing living city with its own identity and unique culture. There are however some shortcomings, firstly the gaming area is a bit limited, in comparison to other sandbox games. Secondly I felt somewhat confined as to what I could actually do from within the city, for example you'll notice that your character Wei, is somewhat limited in terms of accessing buildings or otherwise interacting with the his environment when exploring the city. It was somewhat of a bummer noticing buildings that you could tell the programmers put a lot of effort in including only for it to be covered with this cheap looking "wall paper" on the exterior that is a half hearted attempt at simulating that although there are people in this building Wei will not be among them. You may see a restaurant/bar that you'd like to go in and find it to be inaccessible, and you are forced to buy a chicken stick from a food vendor on the street. Although these complaints probably may seem knitpicky these experiences sapped the realism from the game at least for me.
The mainstory line missions are incredibly fun I throughouly enjoyed playing them, but at times the game ushers you along which goes against the sandbox concept of games in the first place. All of a sudden after completing a main mission for example you'll find yourself from being in a crappy apartment to a nice townhouse in the downtown area with no explaination... Or maybe you'll chase down a guy to the pier because he stole your money, and then all of a sudden the game will make a cut scene to the guy fleeing by boat. Next thing you know you are in a boat. There are several other examples of this happening in the game which is annoying and again makes you feel like you are being hurried along.
The game can be somewhat repatitive (particularly in the sidequests), for example in the cop missions, I painstakingly took the time to do all of narco missions and expected a big payout or a major Promotion SOMETHING ANYTHING...but the chick on the phone is just like "Great Job Wei we couldn't have done this without you".....Ummm are you freaking kidding me what was the point of all of this??? Throw this experience in with some bland street racing attempts or driving a mini car through the streets to calibrate a bug a few times etc and you get the impression that these were simply filler activities that the programmers threw in the game to prevent complaints about the game being too short.
Sleeping Dogs attempts to be original in emphasizing martial arts as your primary combat tool as opposed to firearms. I think this is a brilliant concept, all of the environmental attacks are extremly rewarding. For example I threw a guy through a fish take and then blugeoned the next lackey to death with one of the fish I picked up flopping around from the floor. HILARIOUS and FUN at the same time. With that being said however the fighting controls are not as fluid as you would want them to be, at best I would describe the controls as being a bit clunky that take a bit getting used to.
Conclusion
If you play the game long enough you are sure to experience some of the blemishes that I mentioned or you may discover some that I didn't list but all in all I found the game to be incredibly fun. I'm eagerly anticipating a sequel(s) to this game because if this is a sign of things to come I can't wait to see what's on the horizon. | video-games_xbox |
Incredibly Nonsensical. Frontlines is, without a doubt, one of the most frustratingly bad games I've seen for the XBOX 360. Most of the problems stem from lackluster level design and a complete lack of logic in the game world.
For example, vehicles have a tendency to appear from nowhere at designated spawn points. They are not moved airlifted into position, they just "pop" into existence. I cannot remember the last time I was as frustrated with a game as when one of these suddenly appeared and crushed me beneath it.
Characters in this game tend to absorb ridiculous numbers of bullets before being killed... even rounds from .50 cal sniper rifles which would normally cut a human being in half. It's unrealistic, frustrating, and slows the gameplay to a crawl. And when you are killed, the game gives you a finite number of extra lives with which to keep going and complete the mission. There are no in-game saves.
And yes, you read that right. We are in 2008 and there is still a game anachronistic enough to count your extra lives. This is a convention that went extinct with Wolfenstein 3D!
Vehicle controls are awful. Tank control is not entirely bad, except that a real-world M1A2 could out-perform your allegedly futuristic vehicles. The jeep controls are completely baffling, because you will always drive in the direction your turret is facing. The tanks don't suffer this handicap. Why the vehicles needed such different control schemes is beyond me.
Friendly AI is completely useless. After playing the entire single player campaign I can only recall a single instance of my allied troops killing an enemy soldier. Although you usually have half a dozen troops around you, trust me, you'll be the one doing all the work. I noticed more than one occasion in which my men seemed to magically teleport into enemy lines ahead of me. On the other hand, there were several major battles in which my supporting soldiers completely vanished, leaving me alone against dozens of enemies. (Not that they would have helped)
Level storytelling is nonexistent. In each level you are pitted against 50-100 enemy soldiers coming at you from every direction. They run around apparently at random, and have no sense of higher organization (such as squads). There is no problem-solving to be done and no deeper story beyond killing everything you see. After playing the virtuoso "Orange Box," this was a major letdown.
The cut scenes are skillfully animated, but I couldn't stand to watch them. Almost every character is a swaggering, testosterone-laden body builder attempting to look as comically macho as possible. I am convinced that anyone who watches these scenes will actually be dumber for having seen them.
There is one saving grace to "Frontlines." It is pretty to look at. Unfortunately, it takes more than that to impress me. | video-games_xbox |
Great headset...when it works. Now with true wireless chat solution. I originally bought this headset in November of 2014 and had to return them due to the volume getting stuck at various levels and being unable to adjust game and chat volume when this occurred. The headset would remain stuck like this until it's battery was completely drained and then charged again (headset has no hard reset button). The headset battery indicator light would also not light up orange to indicate it was charging. I never knew if my headset would be charged and ready or even properly functioning.
I purchased this same headset again in August 2015. Mostly because of how great they sound and because there were so few high end Xbox one headsets at the time. This headset has been performing great. I have had no issues with charging or volume locking. Chat quality with the included chat cable is not good. I originally used the cable with adapter from my xbox one chat adapter kit. Using this cable with adapter and plugging directly into my controller's 3.5 jack solved the chat problem. However, this makes all the audio (chat and game audio) come from the controller. With this setup I am not sure you are even getting surround sound. Sounds like just stereo. I now use my PC for a much better solution.
True wireless chat solution: I now have my wireless mixamp usb power cable plugged directly into my PC. This allows you to use the new Windows 10 Xbox one app to create a party and chat with NO cables attached to your controller! This has been so great. Now my headset is truly wireless (even when chatting) and I am still getting game audio via optical cable attached to my Xbox one retaining the surround sound.
Overall, this headset is pretty great when it's working. The sound quality and comfort are amazing. Chat quality with included cable may still be an issue. There are solutions for this now, but require additional cables or a specific setup to get working. I really like this headset but I am hesitant to recommend due to my first one not functioning correctly. If you got the money and are not concerned with the chat issue, then these are probably worth a try. | video-games_xbox |
Fun but rent. This game is a lot of fun but I thought the writing was a little lazy. You blast your way through 30 guys with AK-47s, attack dogs, molotov- and machete-wielding nutjobs, vehicle mounted machine guns, and collapsing buildings to have that mohawked nutter jump out of a corner and stab you. Seriously? You're such a natural at murder and mayhem that you can kill hundreds of armed pirates only to be continually left for dead by the same maladjusted clich of a character? Evidently, the quasi-mystical instincts of the Rakyat don't extend to watching those corners. It's reminiscent of Bioshock -- you play through a ton of the game, you're on your way to finally take out Andrew Ryan and you get side-tracked by another flunky? "You have to deal with me first before you can go take care of the final guy." D'oh! I can only almost kill someone or have so many run-ins with the same guy, over and over, without satisfaction before I lose interest and put the game down for a while. Far Cry 3 broke that limit half way through. I have to jump through even more hoops before I can kill Vaas? Ugh, I'll pick it up again and do it later.
The trippy dreamscapes, acid trips, and spirit journey sequences are entertaining the first few times. After that, they get a little repetitious. I just want to get on with it already. I wish there were a "Skip sequence" button.
It is a lot of fun at first and the setting is absolutely stunning. The game mechanics handle well, the weapons are satisfying to use, ammo is plentiful if you like to put a lot of rounds out there. Melee felt a little clunky to me.
I got into this game really quickly only to put it down though. Nowadays, I think the best barometer for an awesome game is one that you can't put down until you're done and that wasn't Far Cry 3 for me.
I'd recommend renting the game, or waiting for the price to go down, but I can't recommend buying it at full retail. I definitely regret dropping $60 on it. I'd be a lot happier if I'd only paid $40. | video-games_xbox |
A little disappointed. To me a great game must have two things, excellent game play and story. Therefore, I am a huge fan of Ace Combat 5: the Unsung War. It is not surprising that I have huge expectations for Ace combat 6. However, I am a little disappointed.
Game play: 4/5
The game play is pretty good in fact. The major difference in AC6 is, the missions are significantly longer. You can and sometimes need to return to base for reload and repair, but you can not change plane (It might be just me but I found this very annoying. Some levels have good mix of air combat and ground support. Why not just let me change plane while I am at the base?) It has checkpoint as well so you do not need to start all over again. You also get a sense of overseeing a huge battlefield since you might need to support several air and ground operations simultaneously. Sometimes the amounts of ground targets are so overwhelming that it becomes very repetitive. Flying into a cloud of enemy jets on the other hand feels very exciting. ADMM is unbelievable.
Story: 2/5
I can see what the game is trying to do: telling a war from different points of view: a mother, a daughter, tank crews, enemy's aces, etc. However, none of them directly tides to you, as the pilot that lead the way of counter strike. Still, this can be fantastic if pieces are done correctly. However, the characters are so under developed that I totally can not immerse into the story.
Look at ace combat 5. It is a story about you and your squadron. I like my wing man Kei Nagase's toughness and love of peace. I like motormouth Chopper. I like Grimm's humbleness and respects towards me as a captain. I like captain Bartlett as a respectful teacher who gives me his old nick name 'Kid'. I like 'Pops' as a very supportive mechanic. Even the enemy aces, the 8492 squadron, are done correctly. They kidnap president Harling under my nose. Attack civilians and put you on internal investigation. Set traps and kill my friend Chopper. 'Back stabbing' again on my way home after attacking a fortress. Get in my way every time I am in a hurry. I really want to melt them with a nuke if it is available in the game. This is a team and enemies you need to get excited.
Music: 2/5
I understand the missions are longer in AC6 so it needs to be softer and mellow. But I can not believe how unmemorable they are. If you play a section of the music I would wonder whether it is actually from the game. Again look at AC5, the song 'the unsung war' is just unbeatable. Paired with the story you are saving the world for real. Other music in AC5 are very good as well.
Overall: 3/5
AC6 is worth playing but really can not compared to AC5. I heard that assault horizon is not stellar either. I really hope the next Ace Combat can surpass AC5. | video-games_xbox |
Could have been great. I tried really hard to like this game, really I did. If you play this game multi-player with some friends, you can have a good amount of fun, provided they are all of the patient sort that don't need to shoot things every 5 seconds. However, this game suffers from major problems that really make it an "almost", rather than a great game:
1. The enemy is very hard to see because of the low resolution at distance. You will be engaging 95% of enemies at 100 meters or further. The "always low" lighting does nothing to help.
2. The friendly AI is dumb. During rescue missions, guys get stuck on things, etc. Awesomeness does not ensue.
3. Glitches. There is a fuel depot mission where you can walk through walls. Sounds cool right, but the enemy can see you and shoot you through these walls/buildings. Unacceptable.
4. Airstrikes: unless I am missing something, you cannot call for an airstrike that has any chance of hitting a moving target (APC/Tank). This kind of hurts.
5. Equipment: you cannot choose your load-out. Also, the equipment you pick up from the enemy is, more often than not, better than yours. This is, well, dumb.
6. "Mission Failed". You are 2 minutes from winning, and all the sudden, you lose! What did you do wrong? Mostly, you don't get to know.
7. Multi-player: You cannot kick squad members. Your friends cannot join mid-mission. If you get lagged out, you cannot re-join the mission.
8. You cannot interrupt the "reloading" animation with something important, like, hitting the dirt.
9. Switching between primary and secondary weapons is confusing. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it goes to the grenade (which does not have a button).
10. Enemy gunships are frequently around harassing you. You never have a SAM (except for one mission where that is part of the mission).
Now for what I like:
1. Realism is great. I like the realistic damage, the explosions, the mortar strikes. It's all real looking stuff.
2. Squad control commands (although complicated) are extensive and allow for precise control of your dummy squad members.
3. Weapons: The weapons are very realistic and have proper recoil and reload times.
4. Medic: The way injuries work makes it easy to die (e.g. realistic), but still allows for some healing to keep the game fun.
5. Terrain: The use of terrain (changes in altitude, trees, rocks, etc) is excellent.
6. Missions: The missions are pretty well laid out, and really fun (when there is no glitching and you don't die 40 times).
There is a sequel to this title coming out in a few months, which I hope will address some of these issues. | video-games_xbox |
Not the game I was prommised - returned. This game is nothing like what I was promised. I bought this game mostly because I was told that I could play halo 2 and 3 exactly as they were. The only difference would be an update in graphics. This however was sadly a huge lie. Also I was promised the ability to create custom play lists, also a lie. The game comes with pre made play lists but there is no possibility to create your own. Also there is no ability to play say "big team battle halo 2" You can play a halo 2 play list or a big team battle play list that includes all 4 games there are no deeper options. Also nearly all of the customizable feature from halo 3 are gone. You can choose Spartan or elite, and you can pick a base armor and 2 colors but the original allowed for armor, helmet and 3 colors. Halo 2 anniversary mp has very few maps and most of them aren't even the popular ones. To top it all off the "multi kill" voice has been changed entirely constantly spamming "protect your flag" every couple of seconds that someone has your flag. Single player is completely whacked out as well. First all the controls have to manually be set to play like their originals or you will be playing with the halo 4 control scheme on all games. Not a deal breaker but there are much deeper issues. The enemy AI is much different than it used to be. Elites rarely care to find cover instead preferring to charge at you guns blazing. This is especially true if your shields are low. Load areas that used to be fixed and allow you to bypass enemies have been changed. And even the physics of the game just seem a bit off. All in all this was a huge disappointment. If all I cared about was single player I might be able to look passed the issues but the huge deal was the revival of halo 2 and 3 mp and in my mind they botched it. This game was made for the Halo 4 crowd not the old school fans. | video-games_xbox |
Exceeded already high expectations. I had never played any of the previous Crysis games, as I don't have a gaming PC, but I had heard a lot about those games, in particular the graphics. My expectations were for a pretty game, which would hopefully be fun. What I got is a game that is amazing looking and that I'm enjoying playing more than probably any game since I put in the original Gears of War.
1. Graphics. The level of detail on individual objects, combined with the draw distance and just sheer awesomeness that is frequently on the screen at any given time blows anything up to this point on 360 out of the water. All that in a frequently vibrant world of near future, devestated Manhattan. Take that both Gears of War and Halo. Also, the environment reacts. Wood barriers splinter when hit with gunfire for example.
2. Sound/score. It has been previously mentioned but it bears repeating. The score is fantastic. Sometimes it feels like Predator (I wish I could remember everything that comes to mind), but throughout the score is the equal to any great action movie you have ever seen and is always appropriate to what environment you are in/what is happening on screen. As far as the sound effects, this is one I can't comment on because I have them cranked way down due to having an infant son.
I do also enjoy the voice acting, it's not the best ever but it's good, with lots of ambient dialogue from other characters in the story.
3. Story. Speaking of story. I had heard that Richard Morgan, author of Altered Carbon, penned the story which didn't get me too excited, but I have generally enjoyed the story so far. You are a silent protagonist, much like the original Halo, but in the context of the game it makes since. You are a grunt who is in way over his head from the beginning. The dialogue is pretty well written and the twists and turns make sense and are interesting. It's a bit like Halo: Reach where you go here to do that, but what you just did doesn't matter and you still then go on to the next thing to get that, and so on, but as far as fps games go it is paced well and sets up the action well.
4. Gameplay. Again, Crysis 2 shines in this department. I feel like I am still learning how to effectively use the suit in the game, despite being pretty far into it, but it is absolute blast, no exaggeration, when you pull off cool moves/kills that would be just about impossible in any other fps. It also simultaneously lets you feel like a bad mofo without diminishing the challenge from the enemies you face.
I have seen the AI being praised and being trashed by critics, and I get that aspect. They flank well and are aggressive in a way that adds to the challenge but,inexplicably, I will occasionally casually walk up behind enemies walking into walls who are aware of my presence but not taking cover, attacking, etc, and dispatch them point blank. That's maybe one enemy out of ten encounters, but it happens frequently enough to notice. Overall, the AI is much better than what are often referred to as corridor shooters like Call of Duty, where guys either stay in the same exact spot or run heeadlong at you, but not as good as Halo, which has the best AI in the business.
Also, level design is amazing and contributes to that feeling that you are the Predator, and can make the enemies your *******, cloaking or using the cover and going Rambo style.
5. Final word. Without reinvinting the fps genre, Crysis 2 is a significant step forward. It looks amazing and sounds amazing. More important, it plays amazing and is an especially fresh take for console gamers. I feel like I'm just scratching the surface and I've played both singleplayer and multiplayer for hours. It does have the occasional rough edge, but imo that's from craming such an amazing experience onto consoles that are no longer state-of-the-art. All in all, BUY THIS GAME, especially if you are into scifi and fps games. For me this is a 9.5/10 game. | video-games_xbox |
FUN very FUN. I am not a major league gamer and I may very well be the worst online racer ever! But that doesn't stop me from trying new things. I used to be great at Gran Turisimo (sp?) on Playstation (not 2 but 1). The next racing game I tried was Burnout but I didn't have the internet. I was pretty good. But when I got my 360 and got online with the same game. I was ALWAYS in last place. Then Burnout Paradise came out and now I had to drive around a city. I like arrows and directions and a track, not free open space. I like arcarde, blowing stuff up and dodging things, taking shortcuts! This all come in BLUR. I bought split/second first because I didn't like the beta of BLUR, and that game is okay compared to BLUR. I got BLUR yesterday and became addicted. I haven't been addicted to a racing game since Burnout Takedown on PS2. I love the style of the game. It feels very sleek and the cars look amazing. The career mode I never really do because I always lose, but even with my horrible driving I came in first on some races. The games is so fluid in motion and easy to play that even when I came in last, I didn't mind pressing retry. The career seems like it will get more difficult, pitting you again 20 CPU drivers. But I was glad to see my ranking for career didn't really seem to effect my ranking online. I started out a rank 1 and ending in rank 4 in one hour (even when I lost I got points!). The one person talking was very nice and it seems less skill driving then good timimg and hopefully some good aiming. I don't know how to drift for anything on this game, just can't do it! But I still came in 1st once. I will stop rambling on and give some pros and cons.
Pros
1. Fluid motion
2. Powerups (all of them) are fun and usefull
3. No great skill needed
4. Style is top notch
5. Great looking cars
6. You can customize powerups (damage and such)
7. You rank online is seperate from career
8. Fun enough to press retry if you fail
9. Haven't tried this yet but - Local multiplayers!
Cons
1. Hard as...to drift!
2. Too much down time to reset your car if turned around
3. This really isn't a con but (Hard to dodge the missle like fireball coming at your from behind!!!!!!) | video-games_xbox |
Look Ma, I'm a B-movie zombie killer superstar. One thing that I try to do whenever a new game is coming out is generally try to avoid any articles, gameplay footage and press before a game's release since inevitably I'll read too much into it and be disappointed. Instead, it's better to walk into a game, movie or CD fresh and free of preconceptions and just let the game does what it does rather than what you want it to do and that's what Left 4 Dead did for me. While Portal is one of my favorite games ever, I have to say I'm only a marginal fan of the Half-Life series so I figured "well, brand new Xbox 360, 2 years worth of games to try out, why not start with a new one?" and so we have this incredibly fun shooter that has an incredibly satisfying whole though strangely, nitpick-worthy parts.
Story: No real "story" here, just 4 scenarios themed as a B-movie event with 4 survivors: Zoey, a college student and horror movie lover, Bill, a war veteran, Louis, a desk worker for an IT company and Francis, a tattoo-sporting biker. The 4 have to make it through various locales such as an airport, the countryside or a hospital as they battle wave upon wave (upon wave) of zombies.
Graphics: Like Epic Games and their Unreal Engine, Valve continually uses the Source Engine which has received improvements with each game they use with it and one thing they changed was lighting which has been considerably updated since Half-Life 2's Ravenwood level and now the moodiness, the flashlight and atmosphere has been refined to really make you feel you're in a spooky B-movie. Another is the crowd and when you see more than 2 dozen incoming zombies running at you, that "oh........****" feeling creeps in.
Sound/Music: The music of course is appropriately moody and creepy and meant to create an almost atonal ambience similar to Resident Evil games and it works quite well though in order to hear Live chatter, I had to turn it down (I use headphones) but I like its use. Voice acting is sort of a weird mixed bag in that the characters are voiced very well and I never despised that one character for bad lines however those lines will be repeated quite frequently and "Reloading!" or "Cover me while I heal" will pop up on more than one time.
Gameplay: While you can play single player with competent though not altogether useful AI players, it's best to go on Xbox Live or system link/split screen and play that way since it's incredibly fun and while the scenarios aren't plentiful in choices, I found it fun to just go through the levels anyway. There's not a whole lot here to learn with your D-pad providing various item uses with Up (flashlight), Right (med pack with LT to heal teammate, RT to heal yourself), Down (Pain pills) and Left (grenades which are either Pipe Bombs that beep which zombies flock to or molotov cocktails to create some flamage). Weapons come from pistols that have unlimited ammo with a second pistol being able to be found and for bigger firepower we have Shotgun, Assault Rifles and Sniper. Located within each scenario are Safe Rooms which upon closed provide a checkpoint as well as ammo and weapon replenishing and also revive dead teammates.
Now since it is zombies, you're thinking it's just going to be those 28 Weeks Later-esque zombies that strictly run right? Nope, we have different classes from boomers (big fat guys that vomit goo on you which makes zombie flock to you specifically), smokers which can latch onto you with a looooong tongue and incapacitate you unless you're saved by a teammate, hunters who act like jumping cats that pounce on you from afar to the big burly Tanks. The creepy ones coming from Witches; what sounds like a crying girl turns out to be a one-hit kill beast for anyone who disturbs her so it's best to avoid her unless you want one of the achievements. Versus mode allows you to play as the survivors or the zombies and let's just say smashing through stuff as a tank is bad*** incarnate. The one fault in the Versus mode is that while playing as the undead is fun, your bullet-taking capacity is abysmal and many times you'll be dead before you even get to have fun and have to wait 20 seconds to respawn. I understand at least wanting to give survivors a chance to win but come on, that's just silly.
Not wanting to have 4 repeated scenarios with the same encounter each time, Valve brought in the "Director" which essentially acts as a zombie button where it sends enemies to you depending on your progress so whereas on one scenario, I had to stop an invading horde from behind, in a subsequent playthrough they were nowhere to be found. And while it is fun to constantly be on your toes, the level design itself is pretty much set in place and what would've made it fun is if the level itself changed in each playthrough such as a cave-in prompting another way around or an explosion blocking an exit but that's not here so Left 4 Dead is insanely fun when you don't think about the small details.
If you can get the game as a deal, go for it since it's one of the more enjoyable surprises on the 360 so far. But for a full 70 buck purchase, it feels like the amount of stuff to do would be a factor if it wasn't for the fun that outweights it but however you get it, play it. | video-games_xbox |
I liked Skylanders simply for its simple yet addicting platforming. I am going to start this review saying I have played all of the Skylanders games except for Superchargers which I skipped since I didn't want a game based on racing. I liked Skylanders simply for its simple yet addicting platforming. So when Imaginators was announced I was thrilled it went back to the same tried and true platformer it is.
If you have played Skylanders before, expect about the same. There is an increase in mini games, which I personally added a more fun lighthearted break up to the similar story we have all seen before.
The Imaginators is a great but not crucial part to the series. I personally love character creation and fell in love with creating my character. the only down side of the creation is that the class you picked is locked to the crystal, you CANNOT reset the class. Beware buying crystals....they are missing the foil from the bottom so you can use the crystals in box.....Throughout the game you unlock armor sets that both are cosmetic and have some boosts not unlike how hats were throughout the game series. Now, micro transactions ARE available in game via your respective store. but you do NOT need to buy them in order to complete the game or boost your character. you get a ton of loot boxes in game that unlock a multitude of items. do not ignore the mini games, they do give you these loot boxes as well. I will reference a previous review saying Imaginators are weak and useless without the gear. That is not the case. Some classes are harder to get used to than others, and i think that is the difficulty factor that can lead to people thinking they are useless and underpowered. even without gear my magic bird ninja wiped the board with enemies. Within an hour of playing the game I was getting epic and ultimate gear which provide some decent boosts to the characters as well.
Like all skylanders games there are various difficulty levels, and areas locked behind sensi's which may lead you to purchase more sensei's if you are a completionist. if you are not I think you will be satisfied with what Imaginators brings to the table. Its a nice twist to the old system that provides some hours of amusement for those addicted to creating characters.
So in the end, it's the same Skylanders we have all come to know and love. Yes you can buy all the crystals and figures and adventure packs. Do you need to, to enjoy the game? No. Just playing with the starter pack for about six hours yesterday was a blast while I wait for my sensei's to come in today. Definitely a good time, especially if you are familiar with previous installments of the game. So give it a shot! | video-games_xbox |
Best reason so far to own an Xbox 360. This is definitely the best game released thus far for the Xbox 360, and one of the best FPS games available. It is really strong in a lot of areas. Graphics are very solid (as one would hope, being in a next-gen system) through-out, and although they may not totally blow you away at first, you will definitely notice how much better they are when you switch back to a PS2 or XBox game. However, playing this game on an HD-TV really shows how much better textures can look on the 360. The game also has a fantastic frame-rate throughout the one-player campaign as well. Probably the best example of how "next-gen" the game is comes from the level design. More than any other console game I've played, this game really makes you feel like you're in the middle of a war. Friends and foes fight all around you, charging, using smoke grenades, calling out movements, sometimes getting blown apart all around you. Some levels will find you holding down a building or other location against waves of enemy troops which number in the hundreds. This sense of scale, of being immersed in an actual war, really is what makes the game.
I was also very, very pleased with the controls, which make or break a console game for me (for example, Call of Duty 2: Big Red One is not nearly enjoyable because its controls are not nearly as responsive or as well mapped to the controller). Its very easy to get into the game and feel like you are able to do exactly what you want, when you want - a definite necessity for a great FPS.
The only area this game disappoints in is the multi-player, which has become a buggy, lag-filled mess. The occasional game that doesn't fall apart due to lag and players dropping out can be fantastic. There are a lot of varied games to play and the levels for multi-player are great. If the rumored patch ever comes out, then this game will start to eat up a lot of my time again.
I definitely recommend Call of Duty 2 to anyone with an Xbox 360. | video-games_xbox |
WoW! Intense Addictive FPS - Escapism at $20. Bought this based upon reviews on Amazon and thought what the hell $20. Yes, it seems to be brainless shoot-em up in the mode of Serious Sam somewhat which I'm a fan of but damn is this thing addictive. It starts out sort of Starship Troopers corny and seems damn is this easy but damn does it build level by level. The intensity of the Hardest/Inferno levels are amazing and the vibrations on the controller so extreme the controller is about to pop out of my hands.
As others have noted this doesn't pretend to be an RPG beauty combat game but you best use some strategy as the game progresses the intensity levels are extreme. In some levels the difference between Hardest and Inferno are quite dramatic. Also, the destructibility of the surroundings is amazing while you battle and the scope and vastness of enemies are. Oh well, if you need safe escapism for a cheap $20 this is the ticket IMO.
I finished Halo3 on Legendary several times but this is a totally different creature again in the mode of the Serious Sam series IMO. Fun as hell in it's own way. I've bought so many games that sucked it's wonderful when you come across sleepers you've never heard of before.
As a follow-up --- Completed at 100% levels three times and 100% weapons (171) and no second controller cheating.
TIPS ---
Do your harvesting of stamina on Level 52 "Inferno" at "normal" which is easy but the quickest way to farm stamina - follow-up TIP if you don't do second controller cheating.
Farm this level without destroying either overhead ship in part two of the level once you have a high level of stamina and higher grade weapons as I accidentally discovered that you about triple the armor drops and so much health drops you can't be destroyed (on NORMAL Difficulty) - you can farm stamina in a few hours that would take you a week to do with the other levels. However, don't try this tactic on Hardest or Inferno Top skill levels as there is no way to survive the onslaught - use normal to harvest Armor for stamina and remember there are a finite number of drops so pick-up everything you can since it can eventually limit the number of armor drops. I completed this level on Inferno using the rotation of XEXR Turret and the Top Rocket Launcher and a ton of drop and rolls and seeking health while turrets repeatedly reload - it seemed next to impossible since you cannot be close to the UFO's and need the EDF Laser rifles to help destroy the onslaught of the second part of the level or your SOL. There are 53 levels btw at 5 levels of difficulty.
Easily the most fun for $20 ever --- I've been playing so long that it's amazing the details and areas to explore and different ways to win or lose. Climb up certain buildings staircases to the rooftop to snipe from a distance or go crimson level or sweeping and fight from the under the mountain road tunnel instead of the beach or hillsides - it takes awhile to defeat this way but it makes some seemingly impossible levels as doable surviving strategy. I went weeks until I noticed the Tunnel and started using it as a retreat/refresh battle area.
Most posted walkthroughs are useless on Inferno difficulty level though - You can throw the Walkthrough rec's out the window at Hardest and Inferno Level - it becomes more of a chess match strategy and a lot of luck and stamina at times and huge timing since you'll be sapped and cannot see any health drops and it's almost as if the AI cheats from time to time. Some levels just seem impossible at Inferno and I have no desire to redo once complete like the underground segments and don't go back after once finished. Personally I find them creepy even though I've beaten them several times because you have to.
The vehicles are the worst part of the game except for the airbike for quick retreats and planting of turrets and getaways but they get destroyed extremely easy. Chopper is interesting but nearly impossible to effectively aim and destroy anything and they all get destroyed within seconds of any contact so you'll avoid them if you want to survive at the harder levels.
Anyone that fails to play this game through in Inferno difficulty just try and complete level 43 Spearhead - without harvesting the Top weapons you are toast since spawning never stops while your fighting the spawned and must work your way over to the spider hidden nest and defending and use of EDF Troopers is paramount in this level as they can save your butt while working your way to destroy the spider nest.
Learning to drop and roll doubles speed of motion and one of the few survival methods against spidery webs which even drain stamina after killing the spider - spiders can cheat and send webs through cavern walls at times or through a bridge underneath you or over a hillside or boulder out of firing range.
Use Airbike to leave weapons and retreat Level 23 is a favorite to use this bike throughout. The forward Spider Nest is one of the most important nests to destroy as the spiders are the most deadly - here's a tip and I wish I had a map I could post.
First Jump in that Airbike quick and go forward and jump out and immediately attack the black ant nest and place turrets to defend spiders and drop and roll to the forward to the next spider nest to drop one turret and fire at the nest until it explodes - DO NOT ATTACK anything forward at this point (four more nests). Refresh weapons and get back to airbike and go to the rear street so if any EDF survived follow and then go down a few streets where you can look to the other end and see the Red Ants nest. Bike forward within a block so you don't trigger the reds and leave turrets and then hop back on the bike and retreat all the way back and use rocket launchers or sniper rifles to take out the reds and trigger the turrets to defend all that get released and by the time they get back to where your at you'll refresh al weapons and work with EDF to get rid off them before attacking another nest.
NEXT it's imperative to take out the Spider nest -- If you go to the far rear end street and travel to the end of it and turn left go forward until you see a building with a brick base and turn left at that street and it will lead you into a playground area - go through the playground to where the overpass is and hop off the airbike and look beyond through the buildings toward where the tallest bldg was/is and you see part of the spider nest - do not go forward through the bldgs or you'll trigger them and everything else - instead plant turrets around you as a defense and use a sniper or rocket launcher between those buildings and take out the spider nests and when you see it blast upwards get on the airbike to escape to an opposite end and let turrets refresh. I usually take out the red spider nest near it first from the end of that road since the onslaught of four nests with the spiders can be damn hard to survive. When you get advanced weapons it's fun strategically taking out certain areas by going up skyscrapers to the rooftops to take nests out and then escape on the airbike - the airbike can be used like this on a few other areas - IMO the tank and the chopper are next to useless. Most missiles become useless from a distant since the homing where you aims shuts off after four seconds and they go willy nilly until you get the final one which can be awesome to use from atop a skyscraper at the rear to clear out buildings and then the spider nest at the far end before you get killed and use the airbike to escape.
Common Rule in about every level with multiple nests or UFO's - Never challenge more than one at a time since you can and usually will triger all of them.
Surrounded Level on Inferno --- Use Lysander Z if you have it and XEXR turret - take out the ship at the far right which is the Spider and rotate left using sniper and as you exhaust your 8 shots move forward and drop a triangle of turrets to semi protect the EDF and yourself and then let sniper recharge and start roatation going left and as the turrets are running out starting running to your right via drop and roll since the ships the the right are gone nothing is dropping in that region - let the turret refresh while doing this and the EDF follow you and protecting you until you can set one turret at a time and then start taking out one ship at a time until you have one left and fight them off and harvest armour rotating turret and the sniper rifle and you'll get pretty good with the sniper rifle on this level to the point you could keep battling that one ship since it seems it cannot drop more than 4-5 enemy at a time and they become easy to cleanup but once harvest is done take out the ship since there aren't enough drops to waste your time after this but this strategy works perfectly on the most difficult level where it can seem impossible just randomly shooting.
Level 40 is great for harvesting weapons - setup up defenseive turrets and then fight with EDF in the ravine and they can survive even at Inferno with turrets and assault weapons as long as you don't place them behind EDF as they destroy your EDF. Great Weapons to harvest until you need the top weapons which I got on Level 51 and 52.
Level 43 can be a PITA. At Inferno Level if you have the Lysander Z - Attack first black spider nest forward dropping a turret for defense in that zone and then retreat to the right side hills where there on no enemies and let the EDF fight the onslaught and as you get to the hillsides and start taking out the nests of the black and then red ants and drop turrets to protect you if EDF gets destroyed since the entire onslaught will be after you then as you retreat over the hills toward the beachside it gives you time to refresh turrets and then you can take out at least one of the Robots and the second if you have time but keep retreating to that beachside and use the entire beach as a defense area and if a robot has survived take him out as it's tough to survive them plus the spiders - keep dropping and rolling right across beach until you reach the underground tunnel taking out spiders with turrets and your sniper rifle and work your way inside the tunnel where you can recharge all turrets and sniper rifle and walk to the other end to the ravine - be careful here since the spiders can send webs through the bridge from an area you can't shoot and suck you dry of stamina pronto - I drop as fast as I can and drop a turret layout triangle quickly and drop and roll in view of the nest and use the sniper rifle to take it out and once the nest is gone it's a matter of turrets and sniper work of what's left always dropping and rolling and watching the radar - if you stand still and the web hits it can be tough to get away - spiders have sneaky AI where they can position themselves in areas you may not be able to shoot and you can drain of stamina even after killing them.
Fight Level 51 Convergence retreating to the rear and dropping turrets defensively and attack one ship at a time and then fight off its drops with turrets and the robots that release also. Like Surprise Level -- Don't rush into battle here. Patiently take out segments so as to not trigger multiple attacks or it's SOL time at Inferno difficulty.
Take out the Spider UFO first to the front Right - it'll take them longer to reach where you are and provide more chance to survive. Strategically take out one set at a time and all their drops since if they release their cargo in multiples forget about it man on the hardest and Inferno level. The EDF will help defend but won't last long on this level. Before attacking any UFO double check ammo and make sure you are full on both accounts and the turrets are your defense items and about the only way to use two weapons at a time.
SURPRISE Level on Inferno Skill --- OK when starting do not think in terms of shooting anyone for the first few minutes - visually think of the map and your goal is to get to the diagonal opposite of where you are and boy it takes a long time to get their - drop and roll to left as far as you can go and then take that street forward to it's very end and let the EDF fight these guys. That far diagonal end becomes you defense fight zone and it's importance on Inferno Level is the triggering that Monster Size Robot with Lasers - it can be next to impossible to survive on Inferno once he's triggered yet when you start your battle from that end and he gets triggered he follows a pattern where he turns forward left and then walks to the diagonal other end where his lasers rarely touch and drain you and it gives you more time to refresh turrets since he's dropping enemies from further away also. If you get sucked into fighting with the EDF and stay to that right forward side you'll find yourself cussing up a storm on Inferno level. As you destroy that UFOs 2-3 drops of spiders and ships then you can take on the overhead ships from a distance with a sniper or rocket launcher and it becomes easy. On easier levels this can be done many ways but IMO this is the best solution on Inferno and Hardest to beat this. On easier levels one may be able to work a quicker way but on Inferno it's next to impossible to make your way going forward over the nests - much like real combat often fighting while retreating and strategically is far smarter than trying to be John Wayne - it's one of the ways to survive Inferno Levels as head on rarely works.
MARCH --- Inferno Level Double XEXR Turrets strategically placed to defend the EDFs while you retreat and watch the radar and refresh turrets while three zones send spiders. There is an airbike that can used for quick retreat to refresh turrets if needed - not much time to harvest here since everything is a spider.
WRATH --- All Levels but especially Inferno/Hardest. Learn the onslaught types and if you can make it to the final wave try and make sure your far forward diagonal end and when that third wave released view straight down that street (east) and it's imperative that you have a rocket launcher and take these spiders out first from that long distance since they will hide behind other enemies your fighting and throw their webs and you may not be able to hit them and they drain you quick - spiders first is a rule.
The AI is amazing on Inferno and can get you really ticked --- the spiders will attach to things under you or even the kings will hide from your weapons. Spiders always go first in this game or else you will. The EDF forces are Starship Trooper Corny and Stupid though they come in handy as a sacrifice when needed. Once you master the game it then becomes a challenge using EDF and helping they survive and they can help you defeat somewhat impossible areas if used properly - Inferno Level especially on the second part with their Laser rifles if your back with them - If your to forward they cannot help much.
Final Level --- Two Lysander Z's have worked for me each time but still not easy for sure - at times it's impossible to even see the target but constant drop and roll away from the onslaught is about the only way and peeking at the opening and making sure you have ammo refreshed when it does - stand still and your SOL.
These will be the superstar weapons that lead to 100% and the Genocide Weapon
ZEXR Launcher (Turrets enable dual weapons but one must drop and roll to time long reloads and avoid being killed)
ZEXR-GUN (MVP Weapon for many levels - Use two sets for the "MARCH" level of Inferno)
Stingray MF Rocket Launcher
MEX Emerald is quite Fun until Inferno Levels
Lysander Z Sniper (Use two and rotate on level 53 Starship for quicker damage and have high stamina to get 100%) Perhaps the most difficult weapon to harvest - I've gotten it on Inferno Level and Convergence Levels
AF99St AF100 Assault Weapons
Prominence M2 Missle Launcher
Stampede XM Grenade Launcher
All Levels gets you the Genocide weapon which is like carrying a hand held NUKE and often will kill you if you aren't aiming at a distance but damn it's amazing except for the fact it does nothing to the Nests or the UFO's for whatever reason. You'll find yourself using perhaps only 10% of the weapons as 90% of them are useless once you get to the hardest and Inferno level.
Enjoy! | video-games_xbox |
Over Hyped and Dumbed Down. Like many reviewers I bought my xbox360 with Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon as the main reasons for the purchase. I've played all the previous Splinter Cell games, on the PC and Xbox, several times and love them start to finish. However I found Double Agent to be quite a let down.
Graphically the game is well done, looks very smooth and sharp on a 1080 HDTV. Also excellent is the sound quality of the game, especially when playing on a home theater receiver with surround sound.
New in this version is an ability to crack safes which is very nicely implemented and intuitive. Sam also has several nice new take down moves, but they seem pointless due to changes in the scoring system which penalizes you for any contact with the guards and prefers you just study the movement pattern of the AI Bots and time your movements through them. Sam can now hide in lockers and use the door bash against opponents, again if you're willing to take the scoring penalty. Also new is the use of a decision tree which effect the final outcome of the game depending on the moral delemma choices you make. This feature is well integrated with the overall story. Sam will also have to do several daylight missions over the typically night time sneaking in shadows missions that add a bit of variety.
Many of the aspects of the typical Splinter Cell game play have been changed and/or dumbed down, persumably to make the game available to a wider audience. Scoring in the levels has changed in that you now take penalties for knocking out guards or shooting lights. The security hacking and lock picking are virtually eliminated via an "unlockable" reward which goes beyond explaination. If newbies can't figure these features out add a training level for the newbies over dumbing it down for players that have enjoyed this series from the beginning!
There are several "mini games" in levels that are utterly pointless, for example Sam leaps from an aircraft for a parachute jump and you the player have to figure out how to open his parachute and then cut it away before a cutscene kicks in? Why bother with something so simple when a game like Mission Impossible Operation Surma did a spectacular parachute jump level where you actually have to control the dive as well as your parachute over just pressing a button to release your parachute?
Too many levels are timed and require you to do some busy work mini game, just to kill some of your time allotment, before you go off to real objectives, presumably to add some fake feeling of tension since the objectives are overly simple.
Multiplayer has been changed as well. There is no Chaos Theory style co-op play in Double Agent which came as a huge disappoinment. They return to an updated version of Spy vs Merc similar to what was included in Pandora Tomorrow.
Overall Splinter Cell Double Agent didn't live up to my expectations and is a step down from the previous versions. It's still a worthwhile game but if you're an experienced Splinter Cell junkie like myself you're likely to be disappointed with this installment. | video-games_xbox |
Loses a star for bad multiplayer. Gears of War 2
If it ain't broke don't fix it....GoW 2 is out and so far I am very very excited.
The game starts off with about as much bang as a sci fi action movie should and takes you thru the paces. It picks up where the first one leaves off and has a bit more of a fleshed out storyline. And if you have been paying attention with some of the reviews, the story actually does make you feel more of a dire urgency to play this thru and save Sera
The new characters are cool and I got a bit attached to one and when it was their time it was a "Awww dang ..." kind of moment...on the other hand there was the return of a few characters that really made me feel that this game was done some justice.
Quite frankly, there wasn't too too much added into the game, but there are few standouts.
- If you thought the 1st one looked good, then this one surpasses that one....some spots do experience a bit of a drop in framerate but you will be so busy killing the Hordes, you may not have time to notice.
- A few new weapons are in the game, I won't spoil it too much or say beyond what you may already know...but I will say that the mortar attack is really of the chainz.
- The Brumak....nuff said
- The cover system is not as bad as the first one but sometimes can be a bit funky in some spots
_ Newer vehicle modes gives this game more variety also
A few lowlights
- right now, MP playing is still a bit laggy and glitchy...hopefully this will be patched pretty soon
- Dialogue is still cheesy at best
One thing I did enjoy about the multiplayer is for one....there are 5 downloadable maps right off the bat. The practice mode is cool too....you can even set up a room with yourself and some bots so you can try to suck much less against the pros. The new modea rae a blast such as Annex almost a throwback to BF 1942 and then there is Horde mode....when it works...
But between this and Call of Duty 5....you will have your hands full
scale of 1 to 5 - 4 (until they get the MP patched!) | video-games_xbox |
TitanFall: You don't Need a Next Gen Console to Get a First Class Gaming Experience. I know alot of you next genwunners are techies who are pretty unaware of what actually goes into games. 1080p is the new Blast processing. Right now Im going to say Titanfall's less "next gen"(bloody stupid buzzword) than say... Mario Kart 8. Which looks like Boxart CGI and runs at a clean clip of 60fps. (Titanfall dips because combat gets absolutely crazy in this game) You got 12 soldiers and 12 titans running amok all over the god damn place after all.
If I had to describe Titanfall I'd say its Call of Duty 4 with Mechs. Its really evolves the FPS genre by bringing a package that takes previously touched upon concepts in shooters and ties them all together in a nice well implemented package that is incredibly involving and fun. The game is so satisfying from a basic mechanics point of view. Its designed quite soundly. Graphically I'd say the game has some really impressive texture work, its really pretty makes everything look very distinct. I hope to see some updates later like a DLC single player mode,( Like a challenge fest) or destructible environments ( say on the Xbone, making use of its beefier CPU) to really add to the overall feel of the world and game, although I think that'll hurt the framerate even more. Probably why its sort of light on the graphical effects when it comes to explosions, but the texture work is damn good so you don't even care XD.
But Im going to say this, if there is one thing that TitanFall excels at, its speed. This game is really momentum based. You can move incredibly fast in this game, and that ups the ante and dynamic of gunplay a lot in this game. The dynamics of outsmarting your opponent and controlling the field are entirely different.
At one point or another I'd love to see an update where they add some destructible environments that you could jump off of and launch yourself into a Titan where you proceed to wreck the field left and right.
At the end of the day, if you're a Call of Duty fan, you're going to absolutely adore this game.
Which is perfect for the Xbox One. And your PC. And your Xbox 360.
If you like a different flavor to your shooters and something on less epic proportion, I recommend Steel Diver,or Deus Ex. Or Spec Ops:The Line :P
Moral of the Story: The funnest next gen game on the PSbore/Xbone, is not next gen at all. Be wise with your dollars! Buy good software!! Consoles are for games! Not Warfare. Or graphics. PC's do that much better. Its great building a rig and putting it in a living room. I can play Dota 2 right there! Or Mid-Budget indie games with a controller! But PC's are open platforms! So my games won't always support controllers! Drivers can be annoying but hey, tweaking is the joy of owning a PC. Lol. I think the SteamBox will be interesting because it makes the open source platforms slightly more standardized.
When it comes to consoles you gotta do two things well, creating amazing gameplay experiences that are fun to watch and even more fun to play, to explore in, from their mechanics to their world. Games like Bayonetta 2, Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, Xenoblade Chronicles, Shin Megami Tensei. Those games. So focus on that. Leave everything else to the rabble. Because at the end of the day Titanfall is worth a hell of a lot more than Killzone Shadowfall will ever be.
I played TitanFall on a PC with Minimum settings(for Kicks) prior to this review. The Xbox One version looks "slightly better" than a 360 game I hear.
As for the game. Im just going to say that TitanFall is a very strong and solid core foundation for something more. Its the bones with the muscle. But it needs a lot more meat and flesh to truly become something stellar. Treat it like you would World of Warcraft before it got expansion pack upon expansion pack upon expansion pack. | video-games_xbox |
Not what it could be. As a fan of the original, I thought KOTOR 2 would be a good investment. I figured I would want to go back and play it as a scout instead of a soldier, evil instead of good, etc. I no longer have dreams of such grandeur.
KOTOR 2 has some major issues beyond the extreme let down of the ending(if it can be called an ending). The frame rate does drop to nothing MANY upon MANY times. The gameplay freezes. Several times I would be at the end of a major battle, the screen would cut away as if to go to a cinematic, and no cinematic would emerge. The screen would remain black, but I could still enter commands and hear the lightsabre slashing away at something that was killed. At those points I had to hope I had saved the game recently, and then had to restart the x-box owing to the fact that the game would not continue on. This would be followed by the exact same occurance when I tried to get past the exact same spot. Only by a stroke of luck was I actually able to continue on after an average of six or seven restarts.
The next point of dis-interest would be the horrible AI of the companions. Entering commands for them, then switching back to the main character to continue the battle, did not usually help as it should. Instead, the companions would normally just stand there and do nothing to kill the enemies. It may have been an easier game to play in solo mode because of the lack of intelligence of whoever programmed the companions.
Do not be fooled by what you have been told. While being able to influence your companions alignment may sound fun and exciting, it is pointless. It does not have any effect on the story line, or how they act in battle.
Above and beyond all MAJOR game flaws, the ending is hideous. There is no victorious feeling when you finish this game. I presume the programmers could not be bothered to take the time to create a cinematic that showed the characters jumping for joy over their victory (or demise depending on alignment). Having an ending is a simple request made by gamers, but alas, gamers the world over have been denied this simplistically essential pleasure.
I can only hope this game has faults because of a rushed deadline. Otherwise I have lost all faith in these game makers.
My advice: If you loved the first game, wait for KOTOR 2 to become a platinum hit and get it for twenty bucks instead of the insanely high price it is currently set at. While you should not miss this if you were a fan of the original, don't expect much out of it.
If you aren't much of a KOTOR fan, and you are only considering this game because someone said it was good: run to that persons home, render them unconscious, steal their wallet, and spend their money on a different and better game. | video-games_xbox |
It's not bad, but its not great either. I'm fairly new to gaming and a casual gamer at best, bought an Xbox a few years ago when Halo 3 came out and right or wrong that's kind of my yardstick when it comes to games. It took me forever to even try out the online multiplayer modes mainly because there are too many weird people out there, I usually stick to the campaign only and this is also the center of my review.
I played the game through on normal first and it took me probably a total of 20-25hrs to get through it, which felt slightly shorter than Halo 3 but a little longer than 'Reach'. The gameplay is on par mostly but there are definitely less vehicles involved and for the most part you get to drive them once and than usually you won't see them again for a while. I'd have liked to have more options at different times and more free play in the maps rather then being guided through a maze going from enemy to enemy.
Weapons, there are three main groups of weapons (humans, covenant and the new enemy) rifles and pistoles have very similar functions, handling and destructive powers a few new high energy weapons are introduced and they are neat but you don't get to use them all that often and ammo is hard to come by.
Enemies, Grunts seem a lot harder to kill (which is not necessarily bad), the elites seem a bit underrepresented and I found them easier to kill as well. The new enemy I found easiest to kill, the dogs are harder to kill and can overwhelm with sheer numbers, the flying things can be annoying to kill.
Missions, too little free gameplay and exploring going on. It's always clear where to go and what to do next. I prefer a little more of a challenge, but the other Halo games didn't provide that either (maybe the exception of the first one). Also sometimes you o back o an area where you killed a lot of enemies, but all the weapons are gone. This seems to happen more often then with reach or Halo 3.
Overall theme, a little weak, there should have been more explanation on the rogue forerunner I still have no idea where he comes from and what his purpose was. maybe its explained and ill get it in the second go, but even if that's the case it's kind of hidden and makes you just care less about the whole thing. Also this whole cortina deteriorating story was built up, but I guess never resolved. Also the places where all this was happening where confusing, sometimes you are in a planet, sometimes not, it felt disjointed at times.
It's entertaining although a little predictable at times. It's - I guess - another installment of a successful franchise living off its past glory days. For me that was enough but I can understand that others may feel different... | video-games_xbox |
I Cannot In Good Conscience Recommend This Game. The short synopsis: it's garbage.
More expanded thoughts: I have been a Halo fanatic since the very beginning. I first bought Halo: Combat Evolved along with the original Xbox on release day (November 15, 2001). Along the way, I found great joy in both Halo 2 as well as Halo: Reach, but found Halo 3, ODST, 4, and now 5 to be lackluster and fairly uninspired. ODST at least offered a different take on the game, but the other titles were just incredibly disappointing. So back to Halo 5...
First, the story is terrible. We have beaten the story of Master Chief to death, but I found renewed hope in a new game with new promises. Sadly, they did a worse job (is that possible?) by trying to tell a dual story between two teams of Spartans. Also, there are a few "levels" in the game that last mere minutes (literally 3-5), and yet it counts as a level achievement when you "complete" them. Lame! The combat system throughout the campaign is too much like Call of Duty. In the first 5 minutes of the game, I literally had access to 7+ weapons, all of which were underwhelming in both power and impactfulness. If you remember back to the original, you had 2-3 weapons for the entire first level! Also, I spent way too much time waiting for teammates to revive me, because 343 studios made the design choice to make Spartans weaker (dumb) and to rely on their teammates for support (also dumb). The great thing about Halo was many of the lone wolf style missions. Master Chief doesn't really need anyone... why would he now? And where the heck are the marines?!?
Another major campaign gripe is that you spend 30% of the game as Master Chief and the other 70% as an uninspired newcomer... No one cares! The story was so poor and painful, that I just wanted it to end as quickly as possible.
Multiplayer is where this game was fun for an hour, and yet still so very disappointing. The pace has been dramatically cranked up, not in a good way, and multiplayer battles have resorted to chaotic, clusterf*cks of mindless Spartansrunning around instead of calculated, precise team action. All of the objective modes (Capture the Flag, etc.) tend to either A) end in a stalemate because neither team can execute or B) you get absolutely stomped by a pre-organized team. 343 seems to have tried to cover up many of the games flaws by throwing so many vehicles and weapons at you that you just get too overwhelmed by it all. Also, there is a new, and incredibly unfulfilling micro-transaction system where you buy weapon skins, weapon upgrades, etc. Not a good move. There are over 200 different varieties of armor and yet the game feels emptier than ever (sound familiar, Battlefront?). The new Warzone game mode (massive PvP and PvE game mode combo) had a lot of potential, but the more I play the game, the more I realize that all these special weapons and loadouts and other garbage make it so each player isn't specced equal. Skill has always been the only differentiation in the Halo games, not what unlocks you have access to.
The sound is great in this game, and the visuals are stunning, but again, it's a shiny facade on top of layer after layer of garbage. No thanks. Oh Bungie, I feel you sold off Master Chief's soul when you left the franchise to another company. Fortunately, Halo: Reach is backwards compatible, and I will be spending plenty of time playing that!
I can't recommend this, and the game will be traded in once another Xbox One game is found to take its place. Really, this is a reflection of modern game development and it is pathetic. I want a good, rock-solid game for my money, not a passable piece of trash that they try to fix with (expensive) DLC. Its like they're using their customers to test out their games and don't do any QA before they are released. This is one of many reasons that indie games are starting to take over. The small shops that do a quality job will always be more successful. In the past year Ive been disappointed by Battlefront and now Halo and it likely isn't a coincidence. | video-games_xbox |
Sweet Edition with an Odd Problem. The Resident Evil 5 Limited Edition Xbox 360 console is a sweet system. The Xbox has been the gaming system to have for a while now and the look of this edition is just incredible. It's got everything an Elite console should have and a game that gamers actually like for a system designed for gamers. Its a no-frills system that relies on great games instead of gimicky controllers. 5 Stars!!
With all the being said, the Xbox 360 sucks. The red ring of death has become a legendary problem. I've never encountered a mainstream system that has so many problems functioning. Apparently, the redesigned board is supposed to work better, but since it's relatively new how does anyone know it'll work? For this I subtracted .5 stars.
With the Xbox being a crap system aside which I returned in exchange for this system, I had a peculiar problem (and i'm not the only one). Straight out of the box the gamers game that was packaged with the console didn't work. I recieved "unreadable disc" messages... on a pristine disc. I took it back to the retailer to exchange for a new disc... the new disc is "readable", but as a DVD which tells me to insert it into an Xbox 360 console... I must be the dumbest person on this earth. minus .5 stars for that.
Lastly, after contacting Micro-wemakewindow-soft five times about the problem, and after trying to convince them that I can't clean the bran new disc any more, thier solution is to have me register my console online and send it in for repairs. Problem is, the support site doesn't work and thier solution is to try it again in 24 hours. It's been almost 2 weeks and I still have yet been able to send the system off for repairs. minus 1 star for unintelligent techincal support.
All in all... awesome system! Everything else works perfectly! And no i don't care about the noise... Just be prepared to be let down. | video-games_xbox |
Rockband 2 - Vastly Better than Original. After playing through Rockband 2 with my flatmates for awhile and going through the functionality that has changed since the original I'd have to say this game lives up to the hype.
Songs:
You're able to use any of your downloaded content for Rockband 1 within Rockband 2. It's unfortunate that the base songs from Rockband 1 aren't able to be used given I don't like having to switch disks to hear specific music but given it would be hard to prove I owned the original and didn't just borrow it to get the songs if they had that functionality. As for the included songs... it's a vast selection of music that would appeal to many audiences and you're given 20 free song downloads as part of the purchase so you can expand that library further from your own favorites. I like the music but have to admit, for many of the songs I usually know the artists but never have heard of the songs.
Mutliplayer:
One of the biggest flaws of the original Rockband was that you could not play on XBox Live with your friends in anything besides quickplay. What this meant was that you'd have to coordinate with friends across the states to play one or two songs but never be able to actually sit back and play through the adventure aspect of the series. This has been added in the sequel.
Local Multiplayer / Solo Mode:
Another huge improvement to the game is the ability to play through as a band without needing all members of the band present. So if my flatmate is out of the apartment and I want to advance our band I can start up my solo career as the singer in the band and do a few of the songs. If he's there later I can join with him again with all the progress I made as well. The real benefit to this is that honestly many people, especially when you have friends over, want to play the game but aren't willing to make a band just to setup each scenario of whether anyone wants to play a particular instrument or not. With the system like this anyone can pick up an instrument and join the band without having to worry about this.
In general the game finally has a pretty strong core engine for multiplayer online and locally which vastly improves on the original. Improves to the game could include a stronger avatar customization option for users who would like to put the time into designing their characters, a better library of songs, and the ability to port over music from Rockband 1 given no one likes switching over disks to play certain tracks. Even without these changes though the game is solid. | video-games_xbox |
Best racing game - eh... maybe not. If you've already read this review, there's an update near the end, where the '***' is.
Let's start off with this: I got the first Forza Horizon game as a Christmas gift the year it came out. I didn't understand it, and actually didn't even want it. My older brother had let me play it for a little bit to see if I would like it, and I didn't. It was difficult to control, extremely sensitive, and I had no idea of what I was doing (little did I know that that was just my brother's settings for his gameplay). I crashed countless times. Safe to say I wasn't exactly ecstatic to see that's what he had given me as a gift. Eventually over the following year, I got better and better at the game (at my own settings of medium opponent difficulty with all the other assists off). It wasn't until about 5 months before Forza Horizon 2 came out that I noticed the free content for the first Horizon. I was shocked. After I had fun with the free stuff, I patiently waited and waited for Forza Horizon 2. Then, the day finally came.
Just with the beginning video, I could already tell it was different from the first Horizon game, but so much better. Like the last game, you start off driving the 'mascot' car. As I was driving the 2014 Lamborghini Huracn, I was also looking at the beautiful graphics of the game. From the docks to the Horizon Festival, its just jaw-dropping beauty. Once you get to the festival, they do the next video and then they give you a choice for your starting car! I couldn't decide which one to pick, so I went with the most expensive so that I can buy the other two sooner rather than later. The choice was between the Chevy Camaro, the 1998 Toyota Supra, and the 2011 BMW Z4.
Showcases and barn finds are still in the game, but now with the showcases, you can go up against a train! And the barn finds are not as easy to spot, because they aren't as tall as they are in the first Horizon game, and not necessarily 'on the road'. The first one is up a hill from the road out of about five buildings, and you've got to pull right up close to the doors, or else the cutscene doesn't activate.
Horizon Outposts are now called Destinations. Each become available after completing the previous Championship, done by (obviously) finishing podium in the races. But now, every car is classified by Race Divisions. They are: Classic Performance, Classic Supercars, Cult Classics, DIRT, Hypercars, Performance Cars, Rally, Sports Cars, Street Rivals, and SuperCars. In order to 'master' each Championship, you have to win podium with each Division.
I haven't gotten very far, but even with having an 'older' xbox360, this game is a ton of fun, and worth every penny... if not more!
***UPDATE***
Now that I've had the game for awhile, I've noticed the many similarities between the first and second Horizon. But also how different they are.
First Horizon: It's got a decent storyline with some good graphics, cars, sounds, and things you can do between races. I like the discount signs posted around Colorado, and how, if you smash them all, you get free upgrades and such. That is awesome. The design aspect is pretty good, with the ability to create your own vehicle without getting frustrated with the process.
Second Horizon: It's got almost zero storyline, with decent graphics, cars, sounds, and not much to do between races. The discount signs are barely worth smashing, and some cars in the Autoshow are overpriced, even with the 10% discount you can get later on in the game. Other than a little more free roam, roads to travel, and being able to actually go off-road, there's few good differences between the two games. The designing aspect is almost exactly the same as the first, but if you bought or created vinyl groups in the first Horizon, they can be transferred over.
In all, I guess what I'm saying is my review of the Forza Horizon 2 xbox 360 version went from a 5-star review to a 2-star review, with me recommending to just skip this game and save for an Xbox One and that version of Horizon 2. | video-games_xbox |
So much fun. Well, I am a huge just dancer I have had the first one on the wii and the second one for the wii and both are a lot of fun. I had recently bought Just Dance 3 for the wii on release date and had fun with it, (bought the katy perry edition and loved it) well, kids were bugging for kinect so in October I bought a kinect for them and bought dance central (fun too) and we all decided we wanted to check out Just dance 3 for the kinect. Coming from the wii was a totally new expirence. Now both versions have pro's and cons of course..
The interface on the wii version is much better to get around in, the kinect version NIGHTMARE. At one point I got so aggrivated I just eneded up using the controller to scroll through the songs I wanted.
BUT the kinect version is way more fun because you are not getting a sweaty hand holding a controller and your dancing hands free. FUN!
But I see a little lag with the scoring not sure if it's just me or just used to the wii lol... BUT I like the wii version because the wiimote alerts you when you hit the golden move. The kinect you really don't know unless your really staring at your score lol...
kinect doesn't save your sweat points. Wii does.
Although i noticed a big defference in the two. Kinect you are being scored for both sides, not just the right. I noticed that in songs you are being scored in the kinect that you wouldn't be in the wii and vice versa.
like This is halloween song, you are being scored when your are skipping around in circles, kinect you aren't.
I also don't like the fact we cant use nicknames in the kinect version, we have to use the stupid names like Happy, Jazzy etc... Hubby and I are VERY competitve and we like to know who has the high score lol... But now when we play the kinect we do it all for fun because now he can not manipulate it like he does with the wii lol! All in all very much fun both games are. But if I had to chose which one I would prefer, I would have to say kinect just for the sole reason your not annoyed with holding a remote in your hand and way more fun to jump around and have fun and look like idiots lmao! I def don't regret my purchase as we def got our moneys worth. | video-games_xbox |
A Dream Come True. Wonderful Game! If you are a Star Wars fan, you have to buy this game. DICE did a great job designing the weapons, characters, vehicles, and especially, the maps :D. You are able to fly the X-Wings, Tie Fighters, Millennium Falcon, Slave 1, and other fighters. They are so many modes that you can do in this game. My favorites right now are Walker Assault, Heroes Vs. Villians, and Fighter Squadron. The gameplay is pretty good. There was nothing negative about it. Everything was just right for me. They even display your buttons to use for HAND feature. The hand feature are like grenades, extra weapons, jetpack, and including special perks like Focus Shot, Ion Shot, and other great ones. The ranking system is not that bad at all. It was super easy to reach level 5 in the beta but after finishing up the full version, the ranks got little harder to reach. I like that way because we can enjoy more with Star Wars Battlefront than trying to reach the top rank which was 50 I think. I am not sure there are prestiges in this game like COD. I have a feeling that they are using the same method like Evolve did which was disappointing for me because after reaching level 40, you were basically done with the game. The graphics are just out of this world. I can really feel that I am actually in the Star Wars Universe. My favorite map is Endor. They did a really great job on this particular because of the background noises from Ewoks and other creatures in the woods that makes the atmosphere more realistic. Overall the maps are pretty huge in Walker Assault mode but if you play small matches like Droid run, there will be only small matches with only like 12 players in a lobby. The only things I hated that DICE did not put in are in-game chats because forsure, they didn't want nobody talking trash, I guess. If you want to talk with friends, create a party chat and other thing I hated that there were no space battles. How are we suppose to call this game "Star Wars" if we are not in Space??? I mean DICE will definitely think about putting like clone wars and space battles in new DLCs including new heroes and villains.
Overall, I am super happy to grab the hard copy of this video game. I can't wait for DICE to release the new DLCs. They just announced that new characters will be in the game. Again, grab this game if you are true Star Wars fan and appreciate that DICE brought it back from 2005. We waited for ten years for this happen and I know that they release new Star Wars content like Star Wars Commando and other stuff that is related to Star Wars! | video-games_xbox |
A reason to dust off that Kinect. Let's be honest, for the older audience the Kinect hasn't had any game that can hold your interest for more than 15 minutes, the Kinect has largely been regarded as a gaming accessory for kids, but were starting to see some functionality that an older audience can enjoy as well. This is by no means a defining product that can be held up highly on the Kinect. However, it is a game that proves that the kinect has that untapped potential to reach a larger audience than I ever anticipated. I was originally disappointed when I heard this was a Kinect title. but after putting some good playtime into it I can safely say it works quite well, if I can explain it another way its greatest strength is it's greatest weakness. Learning the controls can take quite a bit of practise, not out of your inability to play the game, but less than great response to your actions can prove frustrating. It can feel like your actions are just not being recognized by the kinect at all as your character paces into danger despite your intentions. Once you feel comfortable with the controls it becomes more manageable. that's where the game shines at it's best. Just as the commercials show you will be mowing down zombies and its quite satisfying with a wide array of weapons, but their is some initial frustration over getting used to the controls.
Now if your a fan of house of the dead(and im not referring to the deplorable and forgettable Overkill) the game has a recognizable tounge and cheek humour that most House of the Dead fans will recognize, a surprising feeling of dejavu from the movies Hostel which seems appropriate. This game is by no means for kids. Violence is typically tolerated in games which is why parents feel appropriate buying COD Black Ops for their kids, but this game has content in excessive gore, torture, violence, language and other areas that this should serve as a warning. But, we can assume you have read the product description and the ESRB's rating, right?
As with most kinect games(maybe even more so) your gonna need that extra play space, I did had to move some furniture to get optimal play space(im 6'2) but even then it was clear that my room was not big enough to adequately use it. playable, yes. but if about 12 feet isn't enough I don't think theirs anything I can do outside of waiting to try the Nyko Zoom product to make it more playable for a bedroom, i'm trying to think of it from a parents perspective as well. sure their are content restrictions on the 360 you can set up. but for the family room this game would certainly be out of place amongst Kinect Adventure and other titles.
The bottom line will be that as long as you have educated yourself on what type of game this is and maybe you have been feeling that the Kinect "isnt for you" (as I did) this game can finally be a reason to actually play the Kinect, outside of what feels like watered down Mario Party mini-game offerings we have been seeing. | video-games_xbox |
Great fighing game with Puzzle Challenges. first off I believe if you do not finish the game you do not have the right to write a review because your first couple of hours of playing will probably get you frustrated and will make you write a negative review.
If you like RPG Games or third Person Fighting Games this game is for you, one thing to consider is that this game is all about puzzle challenges. so if you don't like solving puzzles this game is not for you. or you can get a strategy guide to help you whenever you get stuck. There's a puzzle challenge for about everything. To open a door, reach a switch, Treasure, get rid of obstacles. This is where it can get frustrated because to open one door sometimes you have to do a lot of climbing and exploring and figuring out what to do.
I am happy that I was able to beat the game without a strategy guide or going online. I completed the game in 27 hours. with some side mission completed. it is longer if you decide to complete all side mission and find all collectibles.
The best way to figure out how to complete the puzzle challenges is to observe your environment and look around. Also when you are giving abilities think about how you can use it to solve the puzzles which is a must.
The game has good graphics but after awhile everything seems to look the same.
The controls are easy, Smooth and Responsive.
The loading times in this game are fast. This is a big plus.
The cut-scenes didn't seem that interesting. its similar to other RPG games, Characters face each other and start talking.
My only con is that they should of added an ability to run faster, The Character is already running but doesn't run fast enough.
The Character does not block. only has evading abilities which I don't mind but I don't think its perfect. facing one enemy your able to evade the attacks if timed properly but once there's more than one its difficult to start evading because the direction you want to evade does not seem to go that way or it feels inverted at times.
I don't see the point of having a lot of money if almost every item for sale doesn't seem useful or is less powerful than what you already have, Finding items or weapons is better then the items on sale. I became a millionaire with nothing to spend it on except health. | video-games_xbox |
Good but here is an excellent alternative to your awful situation. Been reading some reviews.... Seems the controller is either a hit or miss most of the time. But I personally hate the xbox 360 controller. I'm a makopad n64 controller guy. And a pc gamer at heart with the makopad and sega saturn being my favorite controllers of all time. Been around quite a few. Xbox 360 controller isn't for me. But the xbox one controller is amazing. Has a nice clicky d-pad as if it were mouse clicks with clicky L and R buttons similar to the sega saturn controller model 2. Microsoft is defiantly not the best company what so ever in both software and hardware. They just make it out to be that way since most users have a pc and most people enjoyed the original xbox because it had pc hardware. But other than that I can't stand microsoft and their constant laws they keep inventing. I do however like this controller. Maybe I'm one of the lucky ones who got a functional controller (yay for me). But it totally is unacceptable for Microsoft to make half working products. Getting a bad egg isn't suppose to be as common as this so I think it is a purposeful design flaw for you to spend more money on another controller. I wouldn't put it past me at all. But I did get a functional controller and it is a very nicely designed controller. A vast improvement over the 360 and feels almost as comfortable as a wii u pro controller both with pros and cons.
The dpad is great and so are all 4 shoulder buttons. The joysticks I have mixed feelings about but I have joystick grips to make up for that. A good controller. I also have the one with the microusb to usb for windows and hate the cable with a passion. To fix this if you do as well is cover the entire wire with insulation tape or electrical tape. Same thing, I also have 2 AA batteries in the back to add to the weight of the controller. Haven't noticed anything electrical to happen yet and does give it a fuller feel. Kinda like that of n64 controller. If a controller was to light you could add a memory pak or a rumble pak with the option of having AAA batteries or not having AAA batteries. Reminds me of mouse weights and adds a personal "feel/advantage".
Other than that it is a good controller. But only if you get a good working one I guess. If you do end up not buying or liking this for the pc I will suggest an alternate route for you.
Buy a Mayflash wii u pro controller for windows and a wii u pro controller. The mayflash device emulates a xbox 360 controller for your wii u pro controller. So that is a strong and well worth it alternative. I personally have 2 wii u pro mayflash devices and 2 wii u pro controllers to use as xbox 360 controllers rather than buying 2 more xbox controller and spending more money. Including 2 usb mayflash N64 ports giving me 4 n64 controller inputs and 1 usb snes giving me 2 snes controller inputs and 1 sega saturn usb giving me again 2 sega saturn controller inputs with a bluetooth so that I can hook up all my wiimotes and nunchucks or ps3 controllers. Quite the complex usb system of variety. But I also have a wii u as well. Again this is just an alternative and it works for the ps3 as well! so if you still have a ps3 you can play CoD or any other ps3 game with a wii u pro controller.!!!!!!
GO MAYFLASH!!!!!!!!! | video-games_xbox |
This game is for a very specific type of person. For any of you looking for a cop game where you're always in a car chase, shootout, or fist fight, don't get this game. Of course you will have the opportunity every now and then for such things. This is a different kind of game. You're not just a cop, you're a detective. You will be called to a crime scene after math. You will have to examine the crime scene for evidence. Then you'll have to talk to witnesses. You must be able to determine if the people you're questioning are lying or telling the truth.
So here are a few helpful hints for CSI (crime scene investigation)
1. Examine every crime scene thoroughly. This is a MUST! When there is a dead body, look at every body part the game allows you to: the head, both hands, and look in their pockets.
2. Pay attention to the evidence that the cops mark! They're usually marked by mini stands with numbers on them.
3. Pick up everything that can be picked up. Not everything in a crime scene will be relevant (and Cole Phillips will even say as much). But do it anyways! Also, pay attention to the music and the vibrations of your controller. Your controller will vibrate and chimes will play if you pass by a clue, whether its relevant or not.
4. Sometimes it's helpful to return to the crime scene after going someplace else. One of your potential suspects might be trying to tamper with evidence or cover up something.
5. As a last resort, use an intuition point to find all the clues in a crime scene. Key phrase here is LAST RESORT. Those intuition points are very helpful for interrogations.
And now we get to interrogation. Interrogating witnesses/suspects is the trickiest part of the game. You will have 3 options each time someone gives a response: truth, doubt, or lie.
TRUTH/Good Cop: The only time that you should choose "truth" after someone's response is when they give their response in a 100% calm manner. They are not hostile, do not scratch, fidget, and their responses are free of any wishy washy-ness. Also, they never, ever avoid eye contact.* I know this isn't 100% realistic, but that's just how the game is.
*Giving a response in a calm manner without avoiding eye contact doesn't always mean they're telling the truth. In these scenarios, you'll just have to examine your evidence and use logic. Usually in these scenarios it is obvious. It's just a matter of choosing "doubt" or using the right evidence if you choose "lie."
DOUBT/Bad Cop: Use this if you believe that the person is lying and/or withholding information, but you don't have the evidence to back it up.
LIE/Accuse: Use this if you believe that the person is lying AND you have the evidence to back it up.* Remember, when you accuse someone of lying, you need to choose the RIGHT evidence to back it up. Not every piece of evidence will be relevant.
*If you choose lie, you'll have a chance to back out of the accusation. Using "Lie/Accuse" will give you clues within the person's response. Usually when the person says "Can you back that up?" or "where's the proof," it's always a sign that they are lying, but "Lie/Accuse" might not always be the right option.
Every now and then, you will also have to choose between 2 or more suspects to charge for a crime. If you have a hard time choosing, choose the suspect who has the stronger motive and/or a record of crimes. | video-games_xbox |
Has the potential to be fun, but frustration reigns. I had read so much about this game that I was really excited to try it. I've now spent about 4 hrs playing it and am glad I borrowed a copy before I spent $60 to buy it.
The graphics are beautiful and the story is compelling, and the way the Prince can move is unlike anything I've seen before in a game (he can run up and along walls, do amazing death-defying jumps and all kinds of other acrobatic feats - he's quite an agile fellow!). The puzzles are interesting and not too difficult to solve.
Where this game loses points with me is the difficulty level and the scarcity of game saving points.
First of all, the prince's acrobatic feats require a level of precision in your gameplay that can often be difficult to achieve. This means the player could often find him/herself trying to do one particular section over and over again until finally managing to get it right (and sometimes you don't know how you managed it - it seems like it was just a fluke!) It seemed like almost every tiny little section of this game had to be played over and over again until I got it right - leading to frustration and occasional boredom (I want the story to move forward, not to be trying for an hour to get through one room in the palace.)
There's nothing more frustrating than being stuck trying to win a difficult part of the game and not being able to save until after you have finished it - the only alternative being to go back 45 minutes to the last save spot. I gave up on this game in frustration yesterday - I was trying to complete a very difficult battle sequence, which I only got to after repeated attempts to get through a door that was on a time delay with many tricky death traps to get past between the lever that opens the door and the door itself. I could see that after the battle was over I would be able to save. Yet I was really fed up and needed a break - but by turning off the Xbox I lost an hour of very hard-won progress.
I haven't come across a game this unforgiving in ages - even some of the most challenging games I have played (and enjoyed) have allowed me to save at will, or at least offered frequent save spots so that I don't have to repeat a huge section of the game over again if I have to turn off the game to go and attend to Real Life before I can get to the next save spot.
In all, I rate this game disappointing - I had read so many enthusiastic reviews, and was really looking forward to playing it. I *wanted* to play this game which made me keep trying long past the point of utter frustration. I guess I'll go curl up with a good book instead. | video-games_xbox |
Well worth the wait. I'm a self-admitted intermediate/casual level gamer. I like to play games that I like which at my age (nearly 29) is becoming fewer and fewer. Recently I picked up Red Dead and LOVE IT and also Tiger Woods and will get NCAA and Madden. Suffice it to say, outside of sports games, unless it's mature it doesn't really appeal to me for the most part. I used to own the Wii (it's now at my family's house) and the PS3. I recently sold my PS3 after being totally disenchanted with the system. The controller was not to my liking, I did not like the 'triggers' at the end and blu ray, while nice ( and I have a 1080P Sony TV) was not worth the extra cost. Plus, I am moving to reduce my had movie collection and just rent on NetFlix as it's cheaper and easier. So why get this system instead?
1) The Wifi being N level - super fast. Amazing.
2) Smaller, 45 nm Valhalla chip, great heatskink
3) The controller is more of a natural fit
4) Multiplats are usually programmed to this console and ported as most people know. Also multiplats are usually brighter and more vibrant on the 360.
5) Kinect is perfect for family, friends and relationships *smile*
6) XBox Live is FAR superior to PSN
7) Batteries - convenience. I don't have to wait for the controller to charge I can just take out put in and be ready in less than 1 minute.
Any drawbacks?
Well, perhaps a few.
1) The brick - admittedly it's smaller than the previous models of the 360 but it's still there.
2) Very new so we don't know what to expect for reliability down the line. I got it TODAY and was actually the first person to buy it at my local Best Buy - the guy literally just moved the last one onto the floor while I walked in.
3) The Show and Uncharted and Folklore - 3 games I will miss. However, that is all I will miss and ultimately that is not enough since I game about 10-15 hours a week and some of that includes PC.
Other than all of this I love the way this system feels, looks, runs and plays. I know I did the right thing and am happy that it will appeal to hardcore, intermediate, casual, men, women, old, young etc. The 360 is quickly becoming a multiple entertainment system and while the PS3 also has that to a degree... Blu Ray unless you have like a 50 inch tv is really not necessary (slow and only better up close on newer movies, older movies blu rayed are overrated and not ANY different from dvd in all honesty. Anyone who says otherwise is trying to sell you magic beans. Newer ones look great up close from a distance I don't see the value. )
Will I be having a huge gaming library? No, most likely only a handful of games. But from the controller to the wifi speed to the quality of the on-line to the netflix right down to the friendliness and happy feeling I get seeing my avatar dance up when I make a selection... it's well worth the price of admission. PS3 is a quality machine, around 4 / 5. So far I think the 360 250 elite is 4.8 / 5. If any changes occur I will amend this review but as of now I am happy to be gaming on a quality system! | video-games_xbox |
A grand space adventure. Mass Effect 2 has the burden to live up to the excellence that the original Mass Effect introduced to gamers a few years back. Amazing story telling and fantastic graphics are just the tip of the iceberg in this game. If you played through the original Mass Effect, you can import your original character and have the various decisions you made be reflected in the sequel. If you didn't play the original, no matter. The game gives you enough back filled information to get you up to speed as well as letting you create your own unique identity.
The gameplay in Mass Effect 2 feels a bit better streamlined than the original. Combat is more fluid which will appeal to fans of shooter style games like Gears of War or Call of Duty. The use of cover during combat is much improved from the original for example. At the same time, you can almost ignore all that and focus on the special abilities of the various members of your team and really use them to slow the action down if you want. The much maligned inventory system from the first game is nowhere to be seen. In it's place is a system that allows you to focus on upgrading your weapons, armor and ship that will apply to everyone in your team. Instead of slogging through 150+ lines of various inventory items to find that one upgrade you wanted, you research a new tech and it is automatically applied to that weapon or armor. It does simplify things a bit more than some traditional RPG fans will like. But once you get into this game you will appreciate the decision to let you focus on the story and the missions instead of constantly tweaking your gear.
Once again, the game features fully voiced characters, including the main antagonist. For me this gives a great sense of immersion, like you are in control of an epic movie. The voice acting is top notch and the dialogue is well written. I really struggle to find any flaws in this game. If I had to pick one, it would be the planet scanning minigame to acquire the raw materials needed to perform research upgrades. This is technically better than the original's planet wandering in the Mako dropship.. but it can get tedious. It can easily take 5-10 minutes to fully scan a planet for resources which means you are staring at a screen showing a planet along side an oscillating scanner readout looking for spikes showing where resources are hidden. It's not really as bad as that line sounds, but when you factor in that there are dozens of planets and you have to do this if you want to research all the upgrades, you can quickly see how big of a time-sink this could turn into.
In the end, the game comes down to how great the storyline is. How much fun it is to get going on a mission and command a very diverse cast of crewmate. How great the gameplay and controls are. Compared to the controls of Dragon Age Origins, another Bioware RPG, this game is a dream come true. If you enjoy great sci-fi.. you owe it to yourself to experience this game. Just know ahead of time that this is part 2 of a proposed trilogy. So if you haven't played the first, you probably should experience that one before diving in to Mass Effect 2. | video-games_xbox |
Kids break everything. This charging cord GETS THE JOB DONE for our Wii U Gamepad. <div id="video-block-R30A1LDB1MVW8P" class="a-section a-spacing-small a-spacing-top-mini video-block"></div><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/D1UN9xQjcbS.mp4" class="video-url"><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81jEJPx-qvS.png" class="video-slate-img-url"> I've had to buy replacement charging cables for ALL THE THINGS.
You name it, and I've had to hunt down replacement cables. My boys are always breaking something (or their friends come over and they blame shift it onto them). I cannot tell you how many iphone chargers, DS chargers and even laptop chargers I've purchased.
This is the first time I've had to get a Wii U Gamepad charger and so far, so good. It's getting the job done and they're back to playing games! Wooo whooo! Yeah, I know they prolly get too much screen time, but it's summer and the days are LOOOONG. Plus, it has been 95-100 degrees here in Memphis for two weeks and there's no way anyone wants to play outside. Happy kids = Happy Mom
Pros:
1) Plug it in, and it works - the Gamepad gets charged up
2) Safety - good (has short-circuit and overload protection according to their description) PLUS, it's FCC & CE Certified
3) Cable length is good (almost 40" at 100cm)
Cons:
So far, I can't find anything not to like. It charges the gamepad. IF I experience a problem with this cord, I will be updating my review and contacting the seller to test out their customer service. At this point, we've only been using it a few days, but it's working perfectly.
Specs:
Input: 90-264V, 47~63Hz, 0.2A, Output: 5V 1.6A
Overall, I find this to work just fine and I'm pleased with the purchase.
I was very happy to receive this power charging adapter and cable at no cost in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. I'll post pics. :) | video-games_xbox |
Christmas 2012 Letdown. We fired up the Kinect, ran the calibration, and confirmed it worked with Fruit Ninja Kinect. The kids were pleased with waiving their arms in the air to slash fruit, even though they had no idea what they were doing. The menus were impossible for them to navigate. The regular controller did not work with Fruit Ninja. We tried Dance Central, and thankfully you can use the regular control to navigate, because the menus are awfully confusing. The kids had no idea what to do and immediately hated it. The Kinect sensor has trouble recognizing children sized bodies. We tried Kinect Sports and had better results with our 6 year old. He did not immediately hate it, but did not want to play a second round. My 4 year old wanted to play the fishy game, Feeding Frenzy 2. We soldiered on with the Kinect and popped in Kinectimals: Now with Bear. The 6 year was starting to figure out the menus and gesture system, but found the game awfully slow and boring. He abandoned his bear to build with legos. The 4 year was completely confused and demanded to play the fishing game. We played the fishy game.
To put all of this in perspective, Feeding Frenzy 2 is a 5 or 6 year old game that I won in an contest. The kids play it once every 6 months or so. They like the game and really started to enjoy it once their little hands were large enough to hold the Xbox 360 controller. To them, the $110 piece of magical camera equipment called Kinect is something that makes games hard to play. I thought motion gaming would be good fun in the winter when it is too cold to go outside. Everyone says their kids love the Kinect and will dance and play until they are covered in sweat. The commercial make the device look like magic. My kids are bouncing up and down, yelling and screaming, while playing a 5 or 6 year old casual game.
In addition to failing in providing fun, the Kinect is something of a technical failure too. You have to stand at least six feet away from the sensor. For us, this leaves a three foot strip between the couch and the six foot limit. The kids have a natural tendency to move towards the TV screen. Except for Fruit Ninja, all of the games we tried also require the player to stay centered in the Kinect's field of vision. This is fine for my wife and I. After a lifetime of learning to stay in place in our office chairs or in line, staying in one place has become natural. For kids, staying in one place is not natural. As a parent, the entire reason for owning the Kinect is to encourage my kids to move around. The worst failing of the Kinect is detection of my kids' hands. My kids are have entirely normal hands and they move them in an entirely normal way. Yet the Kinect either fails to detect their hands or has the on screen cursor flashly wildly across the screen. The Kinect has been on sale for 2 years and I do not understand how word of mouth has not caught up to how bad the Kinect really is.
The one game that has helped sell the Kinect to my kids more than any other is Kinect Party. This application abrogates but does not overcome the Kinect's shortcomings. For one, you see yourself on the screen. If you are blurry or off-screen, you see it. The small box within which you can use the Kinect is self evident, and therefore not a source of frustration. The activities themselves are also wonderously simplistic. Because my kids see themselves, they know exactly what to do. Even if they do not, they are entertained nonetheless. This review is a review of the hardware, however, and no matter how fun we find Kinect Party, the hardware running the application remains mediocre. Imagine the iPhone if it could only recognize single touches. Games like Angry Birds would still be great, but the hardware would have stunk. Instead, the iPhone hardware was great, it could handle multi-touch, and games like Angry Birds were the proverbial icing on the cake. As fun as we find Kinect Party, we default to the normal controller to run the game selection; both the motion controls and voice command UI are terrible. The Kinect has some great icing, but the cake still tastes awful. | video-games_xbox |
Is it really so super. This game is more than an incremental update to Street Fighter 4. I think it is worth the money, especially for people who never bought the original. After playing it for almost a week I can say that it MOSTLY improves upon it. The fighters are more balanced (Sagat isn't broken anymore!!!), there are a couple new stages that look amazing such as 'Africa', new fighters and 2nd ultras for everyone.
Here are some aspects of the game that I don't like: fei-long still sucks compared to pretty much the entire cast and his second ultra is a very hard to hit counter ultra; the cutscenes in arcade mode are enjoyable the first time through but they are so short they add almost nothing to the background of the characters.
-My biggest complaint is ONLINE. The replay theater sounds cool because you see matches as they happen but its hard to find matches worth watching. You have to look for high grades instead of points (A instead of 70k GP). The videos are categorized based on which games the characters originated from (e.g. watch matches with characters from third strike and alpha). This means, good luck finding Ryu vs Ibuki (manually searching).
-No more player matches where the fights were fought more casually and no points were awarded or lost.
-Ranked matches are actually HARDER to find. The system searches for you (unless you host) and automatically tries to connect you but when the match is found you are frequently unable to join for some reason.
-Endless battle sounds good and can be fun but for short bursts. You fight in a group of 8 people and whoever wins keeps playing while the others wait in line watching and commenting on the match. Great if you keep winning but waiting and watching until you get to try again gets boring.
-Team battle. You finally get to play with your friends instead of beating them up!! BUT waiting for people to join (at least two) can take FOREVER. Also, the matches aren't balanced in matching you with equally skilled people (only in ranked matches).
-Championship mode is GONE!
-Unless the downloadable free tournament mode is better than SF4 championship mode I will not be playing online as much as SF4 at all.
If you already built up a group of fighting game buddies on xbox live its easiest to just play with them instead of others online and you can invite multiple people and fight as a group which is great! Probably the best part about SSF4.
If you bought SF4 you pretty much have to buy this because everyone who had the original left for this upgrade. If you haven't and like fighting games get this! If you aren't in either of these don't bother buying it. | video-games_xbox |
Worth it but has it's problems too. Ok - I'll start out by saying I think this item is totally worth it. I am a drummer in "real life" and I even own a real drumset. This is a huge step up from the plastic pieces of crap they give you with the original rockband. I have not ever had the pleasure of trying the rockband 2 drumset but jumped immediately to this one seeing how flimsey the original design was (I have already gone through 4 drumsets playing rockband alone). Being a real drummer I play everything on either Hard or Expert (with this set I've played about 95% Expert and 5% hard) on drums. That being said for some background I'll now review the product at hand.
As I said this drumkit is totally worth it overall. It's pros outweigh it's cons in my book and the reviews I've read on it are pretty darn accurate. The drumset takes about 45 min to setup and an additional 30 min or so to make minor adjustments while you start to test it. It is a pretty sturdy set and it's "footprint" (how much space it takes up) is considerably more than the rockband set. That's neither a plus nor a minus other than the fact you'll need more room to set it up and play it. I guess a small minus to that effect, though, is that there is no easy way to take the set down or make it smaller for storage. It would take you 30-45 min to take it down into it's pieces and then another 45 min - 90 min to set it up and tweak it to where you want it again - which is highly impractical. Ok - the drumpads are VERY responsive and velocity sensitive - I'm actually pretty impressed there. They are MUCH MUCH quieter than the other drumkits I've tried. However the cymbals make a bit more noise and are almost (still quieter) comparable to the noise given by your drumpads on an original drumkit. Also - the kickpedal is VERY noisy. I don't like the kickpedal because of that fact - it's been VERY reliable and picks up all my bass drum kicks but it's noisy as hell so I switched it out after a couple of songs. Although the drums don't really drop a beat - the cymbals do. I tweaked them quite a bit and got it from about 20% of the notes registering to about 80% now. But still that means 2 of 10 beats I hit at fast speeds are being dropped and to me that's unacceptable. I've tried tweaking almost everything on them, their angle, height, the tightness of the hinges/screws they're on, even my sticks and my grip! On slower beats I can hit about 90-100 but on faster beats it misses more. Because of that and the fact theye're semi-noisy (MUCH noisier than the pads) I find myself using the drumpads far more than the cymbals. I use one for a crash cymbal so it looks cool (real) when I do a big crash at the end of a fill or whatever but the high-hat one I rarely ever use. I use the drumpads for that as they are much much quieter and actually reliable. And when I'm trying to 100% another song on expert that makes a big difference to me. On that note I'll mention that if you're not playing expert or if you don't care that you'll drop a note fairly consistently even though you're playing it, then by all means use the cymbals to your heart's content. They do add to the game and the general look and feel of playing though. Needless to say I will not be ordering the 3rd cymbal unless they come out with a newer more reliable model. Oh - I might also note that the drumpads have better rebound (more like a real drumhead) than any other rockband set I've tried.
Let's see...what else...oh yeah...the drumset is highly "flexible" (customizable) in that you can move the parts and pieces to better fit where you want them and how you play. I have mine setup exactly as my real drumset (spacing is almost exactly the same) which is nice. The drumsticks it came with are pieces of crap though - almost feels like balsa wood and they came with major chips in them. Also the set is not wireless - you do have to plug it in to your xbox like the old set (unlike the rockband 2 set).
Another huge positive - I ordered my set from Amazon and I ended up getting it 4 days earlier than the expected delivery date. It was amazing! It made my weekend (-: (especially due to the fact I chose the free super saver shipping).
ok so to review --
Pros:
- Drums are velocity sensitive and pick up notes VERY well
- Highly customizable to how you want it and where you want your drums, etc
- Sturdy, long-lasting looking design of a real drumkit
- Good rebound-ability on the drumpads
- Shipped super super quickly and free from Amazon
- Awesome, realistic look and feel
Cons:
- Cymbals are noisy and unreliable
- Kick-pedal is VERY noisy
- Drumsticks are extremely lousy
- No easy way to compress it's footprint for storage
- Perhaps a little pricey (I'm fresh out of college) -- but I still think it's worth it.
So that's my 2 cents - probly mostly stuff you've already heard (-: Hope it helps though. | video-games_xbox |
Great, but. I love the Xbox One, however, I can only give it 3 stars for several big reasons.
First, there are not that many games to play with this system. Its been out for over a year now and yet there is a surprisingly low number of games. Luckily, this will change in the near future with the release of Xbox 360 backwards compatibility.
Second, you have to download EVERY game. Doesn't matter if its on a disk or not. This is new for the Xbox systems, and while I completely understand the reasoning behind it, its just something I wasn't aware of when buying. The games have so much content and require so much data that you have to download the games, even if they are on a disk. It sucks when purchasing a new game (again, even if it is a disk) and then having wait for it to download. These downloads are not small either, were talking 60+GB for some. Your 1TB hard-drive isn't actually that big.
Third, the updates!! SO MANY UPDATES. Depending on your power settings, you will be prompted for an update almost every day. This is avoided if you are not on power-saver mode, in that case it just turns itself on in the middle of the night and updates. Found this out the hard way.
The game updates are a bit much too. It seems every time I pop in the Call of Duty disk I get hit with a game update! These are much smaller than your original download, but can still take several minutes depending on your internet speed.
Fourth, with every game I have played so far, at some point, the game just doesn't save your progress and you can lose hours of progress. I don't know if its a loading issue or what, but Halo, Assassins Creed -Black Flag, Call of Duty, and Banjo Kazooie just to name a few, have all at some point had save issues. I still have not found a fix to this. While for most its only happened once or twice, i've completely given up on playing the main story of Call of Duty because the progress has been lost so many times. | video-games_xbox |
Well made but not very fun. This wheel is a very solid product, that's the one shining light about it. The build quality and performance are top notch. This unfortunately is where the good stuff ends. The wheel has feedback which means that it moves back and forth and the steering gets harder or easier depending on what the car is doing but this is a huge downfall to the wheel. You can be going completely straight on a smooth surface but the wheel is chopping back and forth making the car swerve all over the road. If you try to hold it steady it will make the car fishtail and you will crash. The understeer is HORRIBLE on this thing, when you go into a turn you can turn easily or all the way to the stop, either way you are not making the turn, the car just keeps going straight and crashes into the nearest wall! The wheel makes the car nearly impossible to drive, when you turn the rear wheels break loose and you CAN NOT recover from it, the car will go back and forth and eventually just spin out. I can run laps with the controller and have none of these problems at all but when I get on the wheel it all falls apart.
My kids like the wheel and it is fun to play with but if you want to actually put in good lap times or win races forget about it with this wheel. I spend a while trying to learn it and do the best I could but the thing is hopeless, you have almost no car control with it and it gets frustrating when you can drive very well with the controller but then you get on this and you can't make a full lap without spinning and crashing multiple times.
I tried it on Forza 2, Forza 4, PGR4, Nascar 15 and it had the same problem on all of them. Nascar was probably the worst because when going down a straight the wheel would chop back and forth and make you go from one side of the track to the other so you could never set up for your turn properly and when you did go into the turn you could hear the tires screeching and what it was going was turning the front wheels in and just continuing to go straight. You would wear a RF tire in about 2 laps all while hitting the wall in every turn. I give it 3 stars for the great build quality but it is all buy useless in terms of driving with it, very disappointed. | video-games_xbox |
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