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Think Outside the Box and Fall in Love. How many puzzle/dating sims have you played? None? Maybe one. If you are willing to take a chance on something different, and fresh, you will be rewarded. Catherine is hot!
Let's get the easy things out of the way. The game looks great with anime-looking visuals, and has a fitting soundtrack (slow, and low key in the bar, and classical music during the puzzle sequences. BUT WHO CARES. THIS IS A GAME NOT A MOVIE! Well, here are the best parts about Catherine:
The puzzles: the puzzles in Catherine are very fun and very challenging. What you have to do is move blocks to create platforms that let you scale a tower and reach the exit. If you don't know what you're doing you can box yourself in or put yourself into an impossible situation. Don't worry, through, you can always undo (up to a certain number of moves). Each puzzle has a time limit as well so you can't slack off. Difficulty scales well and the later levels add different blocks that have unique properties (some blocks break after you walk on them twice). Playing on the higher difficulty will give you another layer of challenge and there are VERY challenging levels you unlock after a playthrough with good scores on each level. Can these puzzles be frustrating at times? Yes, this isn't a game for babies. But boy, is it satisfying to complete the hard ones.
The story: This game has a great story and it is for a mature crowd. You play as Vincent, a young man who has been in a relationship with Catherine for a couple years. Things are getting more serious and now she want to get married. You kind of freak out and accidentally cheat on her (you'll learn more). Anyway, you hang out at the bar with friends who try to help you out with advice while juggling two relationships (one with Catherine, and the other with Katherine). The characters feel real and you can understand their dilemmas. The story just gets better, and is very funny at points. There are multiple endings depending on what you do as well.
Now for some of the not so good...The camera angles DONT go all the way around during the puzzle sequences. This means that if you go behind a block you can't see Vincent. Not only that, but they REVERSE the controls. Eventually you get used to it and can deal but I didn't feel it added to the puzzle element and just served to be a temporary annoyance. Lastly, some boss battles are really cheap where things can hit you from off screen (but these are rare points in the game).
I waited for the price drop to buy this at $30 and it was well worth it. I highly recommend it, because you will not see anything like it. The puzzles are fun and the story really sticks with you. Give it a shot, guys, and girls! | video-games_xbox |
Great Game, Well Made Entry In The Series. I've played this game a number of hours now and I can honestly say this is a pretty awesome Resident Evil game. The types of areas including dark alleys, halls, and mysterious fortresses are here.
Whether it is good or bad the game seems to be more action oriented, although it depends what difficulty you play it on. I started off with the hardest difficulty to get a feel what it is like. This is the mode where the game becomes truly "survival horror" as the zombies and monsters are more numerous and require more bullets. I found myself quickly scrambling for hiding areas and vantage points when surrounded by the enemy. Gets adrenaline pumping like before though of course not how it was with the good old RE1 or RE2. But it is not the game's fault. I grew up as a gamer and became desensitized to much horror and violence in games so we cannot really expect same old style thrills.
The game has a decent coop mode for playing with friends and that can really help with high difficulty settings because when your partner is AI you pretty much play on your own because they only cause damage to zombies sometimes, and when they do, it is lower damage than yours. Still my CPU partner managed to finish some zombies.
The one thing about this game that I'd have changed is I would have first made it more paced like RE5, or 3DS RE Revelations. Those games have your character run slower than here. In this one your character can run and sprint faster than you'd like sometimes when there may be zombies just around the corner, and there are many moments like this. Also I would have adjusted the game to maybe have less detailed in graphics but to be more stable as far as frame rate. For example if you played Resident Evil 5 and then Resident Evil 6 you'd have noticed RE5 is smoother, and RE6 is slightly less smooth. Feels like 30 or 32 frames in RE5 and 30-27 frames here.
Also pretty cool feature are random encounters with NPCs which are mostly there to create drama and have little actual effect on you. The scenes are frequently cheesy and over acted, but that is how it was with RE games before. Usually they are not plot related but rather observations by main characters
So overall I think Resident Evil 6 deserves about 4 out of 5 stars because you get pretty consistent and relevant gameplay that is easy to be engrossed in and enjoy. Sometimes you'll be surprised by quick time events (which you simply love or hate), and more darkness throughout the game. Unusual settings where RE franchise didn't go before. Old familiar characters to be played as. Stats and skills to be gained to have your skills upgraded.
Overall it is very nice with some fine running not done well. I recommend this as a BUY. I have an important piece of advice for you if you are undecided whether to get Resident Evil 6, if you are looking for honest opinions look for those reviews with "amazon verified purchase" label next to them. Many of the 1 star reviews are left by trolls who have a vendetta against publisher Capcom and go from site to site leaving zero score reviews. | video-games_xbox |
Great in every aspect. Bioshock has a great plot that will submerge you into the corrupt and deviated world of the underwater city called Rapture. Near the begining of the game you will have to make a decision that will trascend into one of the three possible endings that you will get.
The game belongs to the first person shooter genre with at twist of role playing. You will be the character which means that you only see the hand carrying a weapon or just the hand. When you look down, you don't see the feet, so you are also a ghost. Nahh just kidding but you really don't see the feet.
The twist of Role playing is because you have a plasmid (we'll address that in a moment)and weapon's menu. When you access any of this menus, the game pauses and you have all the time in the world to select the best plasmid or weapon for the task at hand. There will be moments when the action takes place in slow motion because you are fighting one or several enemies while you switch between plasmids and weapons that cause the action to stop and resume.
You will get weapons like: pistol, machine gun, crossbow, grenade launcher, chemical thrower (liquid nitrogen and napalm). Like the chemical thrower, each weapon has different types of rounds.
A plasmid is a genetic modification that you can purchase or adquire during the game. With the plasmids you can freeze enemies, throw flames, launch bee swarms from the insides of your hands, throw and pull objects with telekinetic powers, etc. The plasmids have a meter called EVE which represents the number of these huge injections that are the fuel for the plasmids special abilities.
You can improve the majority of plasmids by getting ADAM which is the game currency that you will need to buy the improvements in vending machines. You can get the ADAM, most of the time, when you take it away from little sisters.
Little sisters are little like their name and they are also mutated girls. So they are little mutated girls that go around carrying huge hypo injections. Sounds easy huh? like taking candy from a baby when you have all sorts of weapos and plasmids. Actually to get the ADAM from the little sisters, you have to kill the Big Daddies which are the sub-bosses on every level. They are like the guy that appears in the cover of the game and the bodyguards of the little sisters. Most of them range from a bit tough to very difficult to kill.
You will also have to confront splicers which are the men and women from Rapture. They also have the plasmid abilities that defines them in different types of splicers that are weak against multiple attacks of weapons and plasmids.
There are some mini games to hack cameras, safes, bots, etc. You also have tonics that affect the performance and actions of the character.
Besides all of that, you have the war between the head of the mob and the creator of Rapture. Along the game you will hear the confessions or thoughts of the people in Rapture that will help you decide which side you'll be in unless you are just playing to beat the game and don't care about the plot.
This is a bit of the essence of Bioshock. Besides that, the graphics are awesome and the sound transports you to Rapture if you can enjoy it with a home theater. For me it falls under the category of a "must buy". | video-games_xbox |
Partially objective review. Good game. I have some gripes, but some are subjective. You may or may not agree.
CONS
1) [...] There are too many little distracting blips, shapes and colors on the screen. Some serve absolutely no purpose whatsoever; some served a purpose at one time (enemy vehicles) but don't anymore (empty enemy vehicles) yet they remain onscreen and are distracting.
2) too many command options and options in general. There are too many things you need to do, buttons to press to get something done. I forgot which button to press half the time or pressed the wrong button. Not completely intuitive. The tutorial level would help IF there were not so much of this.
3) friendly AI (your squad) is dumb. Previous GR games had your squad killing most of the enemies 5 seconds before you even knew they were there. Now they are often painfully dumb and all of them end up getting shot 10 seconds into any mission. You'll be patching them up OFTEN. I ended up often not sending them anywhere because I knew they would just get shot.
4) GRAB COVER. This is a new feature of many of these next-gen games (such as Gears of War). Go up to a wall in this game, you get glued to it. I get what they're trying to do here, but it's difficult for me to get used to. You get glued to a wall in inopportune close-combat moments, can't move freely fast enough and end up getting killed.
5) No "Save Anywhere" ability. This is a major gripe, because you'll be repeating the same damn thing over and over and over again, and perhaps not because YOU did anything wrong - maybe your stupid teammate did or a VIP stood out in the open waiting to get shot.
6) Grenades. Awful. They suck. This is actually a downgrade from all other Ghost Recon and Clancy games IMO. There is little control (uses a color system) over the exact distance the grenade will be thrown and it needs to be very close to an enemy to do damage. Ubisoft (and other games) uses an intuitive grenade system for Splinter Cell, why can't they do it here?
1&2 criticisms above are basically that the game is "too busy" - and this is coming from a seasoned veteran of Ghost Recon and Clancy titles in general (played 'em all for xbox). But that may be the point of the "advanced" part of the title, so the criticism may not be valid for you. 4) Again, I don't like GRAB COVER, you might. I especially don't like AUTO-GRAB COVER (used in this game). Give me a choice to do it or not.
PROS
1) solid next gen effort
2) appreciate the variety of items/vehicles. Tanks, UAVs, helicopters, and you can control them all. They took away things like lazing targets, but that's okay.
3) I like the helicopter gunner missions. Feels like I'm in Full Metal Jacket.
4) even though i find the HUD distracting and busy, there are some genuine upgrades over past GR and Clancy franchise titles... | video-games_xbox |
Outshines GTAIV. Tweet: Outshines GTAIV with it's gorgeous and free-flowing environments, simply stunning!
Recommendation: BUY @ $60 (full price)
Pros:
. As usual with Rockstar, Story and characters are second to none, shocking ending
. A living breathing world that pulls you in, very immersive
. Top notch voice acting
. Lots to do, you could be 15-20 hours in and still have something you haven't done yet
. Improved gameplay mechanics over GTA
. Mini-Games are very entertaining, played Poker for at least an hour or two
Cons:
. Even though avoided it the first 20-25 hours, fast travel is too many clicks away
. Needs a quicker quick save
. Some quirky controls such as dead eye or dueling, needs work
. Upgrade/reward system is lacking, not enough incentives
. CO-OP poorly implemented, boring
. Needs story related DLC
A few words:
With little to no expectations, I was completely blown away with what Red Dead Redemption had to offer especially that its predecessors were average at best. Rockstar took its latest GTA engine and added a slew of new features that provided much more variety and less repetition that typically plagues open world gaming.
What really helped was the western environment and natural setting compared to the gray dull congested urban context that Liberty City offers. No more running into lampposts, cars or pedestrians but just riding your horse into the sunset while enjoying the view rather than escaping obstacles, simply outstanding!
Mini games were very entertaining, I even bought the Pirates of the Carribean's Dice boardgame after enjoying Liar's Dice in game. The poker game is arguably better implemented than Xbox Live Arcade's Texas Hold'em dedicated poker game. It's hard not to appreciate every detail that the world offers, the horses, the wildlife, from plains to canyons to mountains, even gathering flowers was entertaining!
Game of the year as of July, I suspect it might make I till December at the top especially if Rockstar adds story related DLC. Absolute must-buy as far as I am concerned!
Note: My main focus was the single player and CO-OP, not a big fan of competitive multiplayer especially for open world games. | video-games_xbox |
Ninja Frustration...err i mean Gaiden II. Ninja Gaiden II is not even close to the same calibur of gaming that Ninja Gaiden and all it's iterations were ie. Black/Sigma.
While the graphics were good, the character design was the most cliche I have ever seen. Was it really neccesary to have a female heroine that looked AND dressed exactly how Rachel was? Team Ninja couldn't at least had made her a brunette? The monster designs also were very very forgettable, everything looked like it was thrown together by a committee or people who decided to take every action game cliche and run with it to the moon. I never played Ninja Gaiden for the story but this was on the brink of just utter idiocracy. It looked like 6 back to back episodes of a campy monster T.V. show with the most unimaginable villians I have ever seen. An english accent long haired bat winged lightning demon? A 4 armed werewolf? A fire dragon? Was this the best elemental fiends that a group of people who made part 1 could muster? Maybe they should of took a cue from Final Fantasy 4.
Now putting all that aside let me get into the gameplay. While it's full of a very ample share of gratuitous violence, the difficulty is just absurd. Instead of throwing difficult enemies at you at certain intervals like the first Ninja Gaiden, it comes up with a health recharge system as an excuse to throw countless, and I mean countless waves of enemies who hit you offscreen, take an obscene amount of energy, and are lightning fast..even the ones you think would be slow, are lightning fast. The sheer amount of waves and cheap shots would be enough to rip your hair out.
And lastly i want to touch on the Boss Fights. In Ninja Gaiden there were some excellent boss fights, most requiring a very hefty degree of timing and strategy. Alma was a very unforgiving fight at first but turned out to be an epic one once you got it down. This game has no strategy on boss fights whatsoever. You spam buttons and hope...no Pray that you can kill the boss before he kills you. Make no mistake, 90% of the time he/she will kill you. It it just so frustrating to fight the same boss 20 times in a row to find out there is literally no pattern..he will kill you in a different way every time. It's mash buttons and pray you catch him open a few times to kill him. It is just so sub par compared to boss fights from other action games. Heck even compared to the first Ninja Gaiden. I think i have swore anbd threw my controller into the wall more times playing this than any games i have ever played combined.
If you like sadistic torture than maybe you might enjoy Ninja Gaiden II. If you want to have fun and not be stressed out by a game than i suggest you stay away.
The only reason this game even gets 3 stars is for the actual graphics, kill moves, some bright spot moments here and there, and mostly because i had such high expectations for it. The creator of the game had a bad taste in his mouth from Tecmo, and this game was his last before he ultimately sued them and believe me it shows. This game is nowhere up to par with his previous game. | video-games_xbox |
Excellent-But I have One Major Problem With It. I have been playing the "hitman" games since the original PC versions, and once I switched my gaming to consoles, have played "contracts" on PS2, and now "Blood Money" on the 360. This game is a great evolution of the series, keeping a lot of the good points (you have the choice of completing the level how you wish) fixing some of the problems, (interface and inventory use), and giving us all new levels to explore and do killing on. I have only ONE complaint, which I will get to in a bit.
I know this might sound bad, but I really love killing games. They provide a great stress relief, from those days that are just so tough to get through, But be assured, I don't go roaming with my real pistol or get in my real car and try to mow people down, etc. My (fun) violence is on the TV screen only :0)
With that said, my favorite part of the hitman games is still present, i.e. the ability to choose how to complete the "contract." There are multiple ways to accomplish each kill. You can carefully sneak around for hours in real time, hiding from gaurds, slipping into where the target is when he/she is alone, poisoning a drink, strangling from behind, or, just shoot them in the face and run like hell. It's all up to you--what I usually do is sneak through the level first, to see where everyone is, then, once it's finished, play through a second time killing everybody in sight, for the "mass murderer" label, hehe. But you have to be careful, "run and gun" in the wrong spot and you WILL be killed, and one thing that gets old is the slow motion dying scene, but oh, well.
As far as a minor complaint, the "newspaper" at the end of levels is cool, but agraviting to a point; it shows what you supposedly did on the mission such as "Tycoon killed at compound; police looking for leads," etc. One thing I don't like is the paper is repetitive, including publishing things that didn't happen, for example on every mission it says something like "and 3 people were shot in the head, making authorities concerned about the viciousness of the attack," but on one level i did absoluste stealth, ONLY killed the mark, did not harm anyone else, and didn't fire a shot! Oy! So who shot those three people in the head?
Next, the only big complaint I have this time around is the save system. The way it works is, you are able to have in game saves (except for the most difficult level), for example on "normal" i think you can have six saves, anywhere you choose, BUT, the saves are in MEMORY, not to disc, so if you quit before the level is finished the saves are lost and you have to play the level from the start again. Argggghhhh! If the level is finished, it's added to the main menu to give you the choice of playing it again, and your game auto save continues from that point. I miss the way it worked in "silent assasin" where, the saves were to disc, and you could return to them whenever you wished. But, oh well.....
In short I would recommend this game. If you have played hitman before you will really like it, if you are new to the series, it's probably the best one to start with. | video-games_xbox |
An amazing collection of Genesis games. I'm going to go over each game, and give my opinions of each game
Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle: 3/10
Not that fun, kind of frustrating!
Alien Storm: 4/10
Mah, this game is a mediocure beat em up, all right but nothing special, at least it's better then the next game.
Altered Beast: 1/10
This game is really terrible! Unplayable and frustrating, i'm surprised people like this game. Seriously this game is truely terrible/
Beyond Oasis: 7/10
A pretty fun Zelda clone, not the best but it's still pretty fun.
Bonanza Bros: 4/10
Another game that was orginally a arcade game i think, i'm saying that because it feels like a game that was really ment to quarter crunch. Below Avarage.
Columns: 5/10
It's a Tetris clone, mah...
Comix Zone: 5/10
This game would be a classic...... IF IT WEREN'T SO UNBELIVABLELY DIFFICULT! YOU GET 1 LIFE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME!
Decap Attack starring Chuck D. Head: 8/10
A true classic, you play a mummy who shoots his head at werewolves and ducks. A real clasic, though it is quite hard.
Dr. Robotnik's MBM: 9/10
Now this is a clasic Tetris clone, this is part of the Puyo Puyo series of games.
Dynamite Headdy: 6/10
This is a very strange little game, it's pretty good, not great but just pretty good.
Ecco the Dolphin 4/10
I used to play this as a kid, guess what? It hasn't aged well at all. Interesting concept though.
Ecco II: The Tides of Time 5/10
Slightly Better than the first, the music is pretty good.
E-SWAT 5/10
It's like Shinobi, but you play some wannabe Robo-Cop. It's all right, but it gets frustrating quick.
Fatal Labyrinth 1/10
Not fun, this is one of those Roulge type games, but unlike Toejam & Earl it's not fun. Fighting monsters is a real pain. I Don't reccomend playing it.
Flicky 5/10
Avarage arcade sort of game. It's all right, but it pretty insanely hard pretty quick.
Gain Ground 4/10
I used to see this game at a video rental store as a kid, never rented it. But i was always cureious about. Turns out it's nothing special. It's sort of slow paced and sorta weird. Not very good.
Golden Axe I 4/10
I don't get the love for this game. It's super cheap and frustrating! Seriously what's the point of having a mount if you can barely ride the thing because the monster keep knocking you off!
Golden Axe II 5/10
Slightly better then the first game, but not by much!
Golden Axe III 8/10
The best of the Golden Axe games, but it's not up to snuff with the Streets of Rage games.
Kid Chameleon 7/10
A pretty good Marioesqe platformer with some pretty interesting game idea's. A pretty good platformer, plus it's got tons of levels.
Phantasy Star II 4/10
A sci-fi themed Final Fantasy kind of RPG. Too bad it's feels sluggish and clunky. It has some pretty arcahic game play. I'm not a big fan of it.
Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom 4/10
This game had some interesting idea's, but it's not all that great to be honest.
Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium 10/10
OH YAH! Now this one is the classic Genesis RPG! It aged much better then the first 3 games.
Ristar 6/10
Pretty good game, though i find it a little confusing.
Shining in the Darkness 4/10
A dungeon Crawler, and a fairly all right game. Too bad it gets confusing unless you mapped were you are going otherwise you will get so lost and killed!
Shining Force 6/10
Pretty good, though it's not as great it's sequal
Shining Force 2 9/10
Much improved from the first, but REALLY REALLY hard!
Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master 7/10
Pretty good, controls are a little off.
Sonic 3D Blast 7/10
It's not as bad as some people make it out, the 3D effects are not up to modern standerds, and the controls are a little off. But still it's pretty fun
Sonic and Knuckles 8/10
Much like Sonic 3, but much harder and longer.
Sonic Spinball 4/10
UGH! I used to play this alot when i was a kid, it's not really bad though i do find it below avarage.
Sonic the Hedgehog 7/10
Pretty fun, level design is not up to stuff. Some levels are a little overly frustrating. Classic music
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 10/10
Now this game is a really classic, it improves everything from the first game. This game also introduced us to Tails.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 6/10
Pretty good, but UGH!!! That second half of the Carnival Zone! Ok, but i don't really care for the music.
Streets of Rage 8/10
Classic beat-em up fun, not as good as the TMNT games, but it's still loads of fun.
Streets of Rage 2 9/10
A much better version of the first game, reminds me a little bit like Final Fight,
Streets of Rage 3 9/10
Much like the second game, it's a bit harder. Really fun.
Super Thunder Blade 4/10
Reminds me of After Burner, not very good... It's an early Genesis game so what do you expect.
Vectorman 6/10
Sorta fun, but vastly overrated
Vectorman 2 5/10
It's just an avarage platformer, nothing special. | video-games_xbox |
Campaign is lacking. Multiplayer is near-perfaction. This game, in short, is amazing. Its community, not so much.
Gameplay: While not surpassing Halo: CE in every way, Halo 3 is leaps and bounds above Halo 2's gameplay. There are a few new enemies, and they have much better (and more unique) AI. If you see an army of grunts commanded by one elite, and kill the elite, the cowardly grunts might run away screaming or even decide that since they are going to die anyway, they'll light up a grenade and run at you kamikaze style. There are little to no puzzle aspects in the single player campaign and not a whole lot of strategy, but the whole thing is somewhat entertaining, if a bit cliche. Personally one of my favorite parts of this game is how creative you can be in it, taking screenshots or videos from any angle using the incredibly done Theater system. Competitive players can even review their play this way, seeing what they did right and wrong. Halo 3's single player really just doesn't bring anything new.
The multiplayer however, that is another story. I played this religiously (with my mic off and muted due to the annoying community) for about a year and got competitive in MLG. Well, actually that's Major League Goosing, not Major League Gaming. I basically drove the mongoose around getting humiliating kills on the other team. The mongoose is essentially a very small quad, and getting splattered by it is considered to be embarrassing, for those who don't know. I became very active in the community and actually recieved a rare armor called "Recon" for this reason. Bungie was by far one of the best developers at the time, and participated greatly with its community, with weekly updates, screenshot and video spotlights, giveaways, and more. However, they left Halo to 343 Industries who is not supporting Halo 3 anymore.
Graphics: The graphics are nothing compared to Halo: Reach or most PC games, but they aren't cringe-inducing either. I was impressed at some things in particular; using a glitch to get out of one of the levels, I found that the background scenery of their levels is not 2D like most games, but is fully 3D. There are also some amazing easter eggs in some such places.
New Content: Multiplayer-wise, this game has an absolutely insane amount of new content. Multiple new vehicles, MANY new maps, most of which were great, although there were a few hated ones such as Cold Storage and Epitaph. Some of the big-team battle maps were masterpieces. Standoff and Valhalla in particular. There are several new weapons as well.
Overall: I gave this 4 out of 5 simply because it is overshadowed by some other games now. At the time this was released and being supported by a company, it was a much better experience.
Advice: Don't expect to do well in multiplayer if you are new to this game. People make second accounts just to play against lower levels. It's stupid but people do it, and it will ruin your experience. You will need experience in shooters to play this online. | video-games_xbox |
The Collection For The Box. Anyone who grew up in the late 80s or 90s with an NES will remember Mega Man, no questions asked. He's the fella that packed a punch; behind his cute face and bright blue helmet lurked a vast pool of powerful skills. His Mega Buster did well in battle, but he really soared as he acquired the weapons of his fallen enemies, and used them to more easily conquer other foes. Mega Man is the robot creation of one Dr. Light, a kindly scientist who once created robots for completing tasks that humans didn't wish to do. When the mad Dr. Wily began to become jealous of Dr. Light's work, he was known to create batches of robots - usually eight at a time! - and set them off to take over the world. When this crazy doctor started to do this, Dr. Light countered by creating the beloved Mega Man. This Anniversary collection chronicles eight separate waves of Dr. Wily's minions in their complete, original glory, just as they were so many years ago. The first six games were exclusive to the Nintendo Entertainment System, while Mega Man 7 debuted on the Super Nintendo and Mega Man 8 was exclusive to the PlayStation. It is interesting to note just how good each of these games has held up over the years - the graphics of all were quite impressive for their time and look good today still, especially the latter two entries; the music in a number of the games is downright excellent, and the gameplay is perfectly classic. Jumping into a game, for those of you not familiar with the process, leads to a a selection screen. Although this varies from game to game, most featured eight robot heads with names such as Cut Man, Guts Man, Heat Man, Top Man, Snake Man, and Bubble Man. Picking a level launches that robot's level, which must be traversed successfully before finishing off the robot that rules over that area. Those of you who have played Mega Man games will also recall a nifty secret: certain weapons work on certain bosses far better than other ones. The Mega Man games are in general rather difficult, but by playing the levels in the proper order, they become a whole lot easier.
Capcom did take the liberty of implementing a few helpful features for gamers who will undoubtedly have trouble, given the difficulty level of most games released today. They've added convenient weapon-switching with the left- and right-triggers, instead of a constant need to pause the game to change weapons. There have been maps created for each level; a nice novelty, despite their apparent lack of real necessity, as they are quite vague. Most importantly is the addition of a "Turbo"-esque button, which fires off three consecutive shots as opposed to one. Or if the game is still too challenging, players can up the number of their lives. What is nice, though, is that all of these features can be completely ignored if the player chooses - the games will still be just as tough as you remember. In addition to the main eight games, which are emulated exactly to a T, there are two bonus games that most Americans probably haven't played, and are actually arcade-style fighting games where you fight off various characters from the games. Other bonuses include producer interviews, an episode of an Nt Warrior, remixed tunes, concept art, and a bonus video As if playing through the games weren't fun enough, you actually get things for doing it! The graphics in the games are definitely on par with others available at the time. The NES games are colorful and sport distinctive characters, creative locales, and quite simply feel very solid. The Super Nintendo game looks awsome, with details that the NES could only dream of producing, and the PlayStation title looks even better, with really fantastic animation. They all look good in their own way, however, as the art is more than up to tuff and very original. The sound found here is easily one of the best things about these games, though. While most tracks are at least somewhat catchy or fun, some of these tracks have reached nearly classical status over the years, with some bands doing their own renditions of whole game soundtracks. My personal favorite is Mega Man 3's, but perhaps that's because it was the first one I played the others, no doubt, carry cool tunes. The music isn't quite as impressive in the latter two entries - perhaps that's the trade-off for good graphics - but they do feature voiceovers, which are only questionably good, but at least humorous. Hearing "I'm Clown Man!" at the start of a level isn't exactly immersive, but it certainly is funny.
What we've got in the end is one fantastic awsome classic collection. Mega Man 1-8 are all good in their own right, some of them maybe even masterpieces, and always a good time. They're easily an important aspect of gaming history, and this collection more than does the games justice, not just for the young crowd but for those with fond memories, as well. Bring on a Mega Man X Collection, Capcom! | video-games_xbox |
Play on extreme difficulty for a great tactical experience. This game is really nothing new, but it does what it does very well. Like many games that have come before it, GRW drops you into enemy territory as a commando who, along with a small team of other commandos, is tasked with shutting down the drug cartel (or crime syndicate, or military force, etc.). The standard mechanics apply. Use binoculars to spot enemies, tag them, and kill them (or track them). You can order your teammates to kill tagged enemies, as with many other games of this nature. You have a drone that you can use to fly over enemy areas to spot enemies or resources, tag enemies, and order executions. All these things work very well and it just feels right.
Like other open-world shooters of this nature, you can fast travel between locations, commandeer vehicles to drive, jump off things with parachutes, etc. You have tons of side missions and faction quests, along with main story missions and bosses. There is a good variety of things to do, but the side missions do start to blend together.
The bullet drop is fun, as you really have to pay attention when shooting over great distances. I have only played on extreme difficulty, so I don't know if the bullet drop is in the lower difficulties or not. The extreme difficulty makes the game considerably more difficult, as enemies are much smarter, more aware, and do much more damage. This forces you to play in a very tactical manner, as you cannot rush into ANY location at ANY time, or you will be killed immediately. This is, in my opinion, the only way to play the game.
The graphics are very nice, and the visuals compete nicely with the best games on the Xbox One. The textures are not as good as PCs, and you don't have the option for ultra-widescreen displays, but that is to be expected with all console games.
I would give this a strong recommendation for anyone who likes tactical shooters.
4.5 out of 5 stars | video-games_xbox |
One of my favorite Xbox 360 games. Period. This game is just plain fun to play. They made some significant improvements over the original AC game- the maps are much more detailed and easy to use, switching weapons is simple and intuitive, and the open- world aspect grants a lot of flexibility in how you want to play the game. For those who go for 100% synch, the ease of using the DNA menu to revisit memories is great, and you also have easy access to guild challenges and the Truth puzzles. The story itself is engaging, the main character, Ezio, is very likable, and there is a lot of variety in the gameplay. Puzzles, races, assassination contracts, guild assignments and challenges... A lot to like in this game. Many of the details of the game are just done very well. A good example is the horses- the way they move and turn feels realistic- would the game be worse if the horses looked clunky? Probably not. But the attention to detail with something as mundane as the horses is indicative of just how well the graphics of the game look and feel.
No lie, I used a few YouTube videos to solve tough assassination approaches, one of the tombs, and a couple truth puzzles. So for those who like really challenging gameplay, that is here too (and for those of us who really aren't gonna spend more than a half hour trying to figure out how to approach target X without getting detected, YouTube has several video walkthrough options, so only fiddle with it as long as u are still enjoying the attempt!)
AC2 also has good replay value- there are so many missions and contracts and challenges and puzzles that the game was still fun on replay less than a year after I played it the first time. This game is fun in much the same way as Prince of Persia the Forgotten Sands is fun- but AC2 takes it to another level (PoP is a bit one-dimensional, still an awesome game, but not as much going on for sure). | video-games_xbox |
Most games are decently done but we do not like this Trivial Pursuit game at all. This had the potential to be really good, or really bad. But I think it fell more or less in the middle.
Let's start with the good - Scrabble and Monopoly work well, although Monopoly can be a bit frustrating because you can't enable very many options - i.e. you can't turn on "no auction" at the same time as getting money from free parking. It's just one alternate rule at a time, which is a bit annoying. But the gameplay itself is alright. They let you skip some of the animations, but not all, especially if you're playing the computer, in which case you have to watch more of the animation.
But the graphics look good, and it's pretty true to the original games, and can take quite a while. They also have a quicker gameplay version, and an option to play until you hit a specified amount of money.
The next favorite in our house is Scrabble, which again is pretty much spot on. No annoying animations here, and again there are a few options for game style. We like playing the normal full game, until tiles are gone or everyone passes a few times. Our first game we were down to just a couple tiles left in our tray and the computer tray before we all had to pass.
Risk we only touched a little bit as nobody here is a Risk player. But it seemed about what we expected, looked good, and made things a bit more unique with the animations and the different view than a normal static board.
The disappointment though was Trivial Pursuit. Not at all played like the normal game, but instead everyone answers the same questions and it's strictly a point based game - 2000 points you get your first wedge, etc... There are variations then, sometimes one person at a time gets to answer the same question, so whoever gets to go first has the best chance to get the most points, since score is based on how close to "right" the answers were. We had issues here, that was the point where consistently player 2, using their own controller, were unable to answer because the left stick was completely inop for those stages. It may be something they fix in an update (all four games already had updates required back on 11/7/2015 that we applied) but even if they do, it's just not at all fun or anything like the real trivial pursuit.
Risk seems alright, Monopoly and Scrabble work well, but if you want to get this for Trivial Pursuit, you'll be disappointed. | video-games_xbox |
Overall, A Fun Game. BioWare is nothing if not masterful in using consumer feedback to improve their games. In ME2 we are treated to beautiful graphics, smart and immersive voice acting, and a storyline that fills the gap between ME1 and ME3.
At a glance: BioWare streamlined some of the tedious tasks that plagued ME1 gameplay, such as driving the Mako all over every planet you land on. Even moving around the ship is a pleasure. Many people will cheer for the uncluttered inventory system. Each level and quest has its own unique structure, so no more clones of generic bases and landscapes.
Still, the game has some drawbacks. The storyline is a little obscure at times. A few scenes feel downright `forced'. The lack of multiple chapters also creates the impression of the game being much shorter than ME1.* There are far fewer weapons this time around, and money is a commodity that one must cultivate and utilize wisely -- there is a finite amount, and more upgrades than you can afford.
One of the aspects of the game I really enjoyed was being able to import saved characters from ME1. In ME, imported characters are far more than a higher level and pre-set skill sets; dozens of decisions you made in ME1 appear in ME2, with impacts that range from small (overhearing a news report) to major (providing additional quests). BioWare has confirmed that some decisions you made in ME1 will also turn up in ME3, with at least one will have a huge impact on the end-game.
If you enjoyed ME1, or you want to jump into the ME universe with a game that is as pretty as they (currently) come, than ME2 will be a great buy for you.
*I am a completionist and take my time, but even so I passed the game in just a few days -- not even a week. I think ME2 was a great game and very enjoyable, but I was hoping for `more'. Maybe the DLC will provide additional hours of game play, but personally I grow weary of buying a game only to depend on paying for more content to make it feel substantial enough. If not for the length, I would give this 5 stars. | video-games_xbox |
So soon. Fable may have taken years to create, but the results are problematic...
I cleared Fable in about four days of moderate playing. I wasn't trying to clear the game quickly - I was just going along with the ebb and flow. You could slow things down by taking time to hand out chocolates, roses, and wedding rings to the in-game ladies in hopes of sparking a marriage, but my real-life wife would probably consider that cheating if she walked in on me. You can also try to build up enough cash to buy a residence to house your lovers, but I chose to buy armor and weapon upgrades instead. Call me old fashioned...
The game is very restrictive as to where you can and can't go. There is a mini-map for every area you enter. You can only follow the paths allowed on the map. Every time you enter a new area, the map and graphics must load. Travel is made easier through porting, but the limited pathing just left me feeling claustrophobic.
Graphics were good, but the controls were tiresome. You will hit the buttons in succession enough times while fighting to bring a burning sensation to your fingers. If you've ever questioned whether the pain in your hands and wrists was the beginning of carpal tunnel, this game will not help with your possible medical condition and should be avoided.
One other thing... If you've played RPG's and went totally warrior, this game requires a little more variety. The last battle requires some distance fighting (magic or arrows). I focused on hack and slash gameplay and when it came to the final fight I was a little out of my element. I gained a new respect for those skirt-wearing rangers; the power of a bow is lethal. If you enjoy playing a mage, there is a variety of magic spells to choose from as well. Of course, most will play some form of hybrid.
Overall, the game was just too quick. The real-time hack and slash combat system did not really fit the "RPG" style. The game did have some Zelda qualities to it, but I'm predicting a platinum hit in no time... | video-games_xbox |
Slow, Steady Spiral into Insanity. If you're a fan of horror stories, then you know that one of the founders of this genre was HP Lovecraft and his Cthulhu stories. Lovecraft was born in 1890 in Rhode Island, and his Cthulhu storyline was based in a seacoast town of Massachusetts of the 1920s. Lovecraft's own father went insane when Lovecraft was 3, and Lovecraft himself had a nervous breakdown in high school. His stories were developed from his own severe nightmares.
This game title has been in development for many years, so the graphics in the end product aren't necessarily cutting edge, especially for the XBox platform. It's important to just accept this up front. The load times are also exceedingly long. Strangely, when we played this on our XBox 360 (in backwards compatability mode of course) the loading screens were super long - but the individual messages that would cycle through would not stay on the screen long enough to read. It was an odd combination.
I found it best not to think of Call of Cthulhu as a traditional horror game like Doom or Half-Life. This game isn't about constant action and harassment. It is much more like a steady epic that unfolds over time. It's not about in-your-face blood and guts, although there is plenty of both. It is more of a psychological gnawing away at you. It's a game that you need to set aside a long weekend, a bottle of wine and turn on the answering machine for. It's immersive.
So how does it play out. You are Jack Walters, a detective called in to help with a cult that has holed up in a gothic house in Massachusetts. Strangely, you have no gun. You and a few cops approach the house, and the cultists shoot your cop pals down. You try to pick up one of the downed cop's guns and the system says "Ewwww a dead body". Hmmmm. You go in and find that the cult is obsessed with you for some reason, and find a few dead cultists. You spot a trap door in one room - and when you open the trap door, you mysteriously can't walk around the room any more - your feet are now unable to step over the tiny ledge that lines the hallway. You go down, and see .... things go dark.
Fast forward to six years later. Now you're a PI, suffering from amnesia from that horrific event. You are sent into a small town to track down a missing "lad". The town is typical New England - dark, dreary, grey, with people who speak in monosyllables. I live here, I know this type of town ;) You're now ferrying items to get clues, doing sneak-avoidance to get into areas, and solving puzzles. You don't even get a weapon for about the first third of the game.
There are interesting twists because of the "going insane" aspect of this story. If you spend too much time in a scary area, your vision goes blurry and you have other issues. You can't always trust what you see. You have to plow through trying to do the best you can, as quickly as you can.
There is a group of horror players who will probably find this game "too slow". Players who are hooked on the constant action of Halo etc. probably won't do well with the long loads and exploring sequences. On the other hand, I really recommend that they stick with this. Fast adrenaline can be a shallow thrill. A slow-building insanity can really get to you.
If I have complaints about the game, it stems from some of my commentary earlier. The game elicits laughter when obviously it wasn't meant to. It seems that 99% of the doors you encounter are mysteriously glued shut. The dialogue is repetitive and sometimes inane. You're being shot at but can't pick up a gun?
That being said, every game has its dumb idiosyncracies. The guy in Grand Theft Auto could take down hordes of drug dealers but would drown in 1" of water. You just have to accept these things as part of the game environment.
I definitely recommend this game for adventure gamers who can handle the mature rating. If you're more of a shoot-em-up, at least rent the game to see if you can get into the flow of things. You might find that you really can enjoy something that has a slower pace. | video-games_xbox |
Fun, frustrating, and lacking graphics. So, I picked up this game on a lightning deal for $15. My brother said he liked it so I figured it would be worth at least that much.
I have not yet played single player mode, so this review is solely based on the multiplayer online. I hope to update this in the future.
The first thing I noticed is the graphics. I have a full 1080p 46" Sony LCD TV. I only have my xbox connected by component cables (I have the older model that does not have an HDMI port) All that being said, I thought the games graphics were lacking. Compared to all the other games I have been playing (Call of Duty Black Ops, Bulletstorm) they just do not seem clear. I found it put a lot of strain on my eyes.
For online gameplay, you can only choose from 3 classes to choose from. However, when you start, you have the most basic of each kit. The sniper kit starts out with a red dot. So, you better earn your stars quick if you want to start sniping. There is no kill cam so it is a bit easier to snipe.
I did also enjoy the "kill streak" awards. It is based off points and not kills which rewards more challenging kills (headshots, knife kills, multikills). They also give you a choice. When you get a kill streak you can choose either an offensive attack such as a missile or mortar strike or something defensive such as ammo or stronger shots i believe. (I never really used those ones.)
Another disappointment was their choice of spawn locations. In every map (which are not terribly big) there are 2 spawn places at each end of the map. This made it very easy to spawn camp and even got frustrating at times. The only time you would change spawn points is if the a team significantly over runs the other spawn and even then you just trade with the other team. This makes some maps frustrating because most people will post up sniping and just pick you off as you spawn. Since there is not kill cam, even if you manage to escape the first shot or two, you will most likely still get hit before you find the hiding sniper. | video-games_xbox |
Not for solo play. Gorgeous visuals. Blows everything else out of the water
Arcade handling, this isn't a racing SIM like Forza or Gran Turismo. Sillier, but still fun
Huge open world, although not as large as Most Wanted.
Play as a Cop or Racer, easily switch between.
Complete mission criteria to advance levels and buy new cars
Use points earned by finishing races, taking out racers, etc to purchase "tech" that's offensive or defensive, like mines, shockwaves, EMP's (roadblocks and spike strips for cops too)
Challenge any "racer" (or CPU racer) with a single button press.
Start events with a single button press without a loading screen.
Loads of fun with friends playing as a mixture of Cops or Racers
Two issues
1) If you're the only one you know who has this game, you won't have a ton of fun. Gets boring fast if you're by yourself.
Very interactive social type game, as you drive, speedwall kicks in, tells you who has the fastest time through a given stretch of road, and you can beat it. But if all your friends don't have it, kinda falls flat.
2) As you race, knock out other cars, complete missions, etc, your heat level rises, similar to the 2006 Most Wanted xbox 360 launch game. The higher your level, the higher your multiplier, which means you'll get more points for tasks at a higher level, than a lower level. But it rises REALLY fast, and the cops are brutal. If they shut you down, you lose ALL the points you've accumulated. So you race for 20 minutes, then high tail it to a safe house to bank your points and lose your heat. Huge pain in the ass. If you've been on the streets for at least 15 minutes, it's like you're in a 5 star GTA pursuit. Even when your car is fully upgraded it pales in comparison to the amount of damage the cops can take, and you're constantly on the look out for a drive through repair station, and trying to hightail it to your safehouse. The balance is totally skewed and it becomes unplayable after 20-30 minutes. This is an arcade racer, not Dark Souls | video-games_xbox |
because you wanted it. i wouldve given this game 5 stars except for the many many demons and the crazy hard bosses.i had in excess of 200 heal potions and was going through them like an alcoholic through jack daniels.it was highly unecessary for the bosses to be that hard to beat.
i liked this one better than the original,dragon age origins.its also a bio ware game.bio ware never disappoints me.in case you didn't know,they are responsible for knights of the old republic 1 and 2 and the mass effect games.all of these are very high on my list of all time great games.this is my 14th favorite game ever.
there were no child deaths like in part 1.so that was definately a good thing.there were still a lot of demons.whats with all these demons in video games anyway?did someone sell thier soul to have sucessful games or what?
there are some knockers briefly in this one.i just thought you might like to know that.while im at it,i will name the other games that have those in them too.gta:vice city and gta;san andreas don't show the nipples but they don't leave very much to the imagination either.mass effect 1 and 2 both have some but they are on aliens.not that makes them any less cool.also,at the beginning of assassins creed 2,enzio's girl friend gets her puppies out.and on,undead nightmare,a zombie chicks cone comes out but its attached to a festering mockery of life zombie.there are also a lot of them in la noire.but don't get your hopes up.they are all attached to dead murder victims.well,there are some nude paintings on a wall in la noire and assassins creed 2.but the only game ive played that shows it all,upstairs and down is red dead redemption.somethings wrong with that.aliens?dead chicks?zombies?how about a regular old bleach blonde bulimic?
i really like cgi-headlights! so thats why i paid tribute one the finer female qualities and thier involvement in the video games we all love.
its like some video game idea guy was like"you know,thats a really good game idea! but you know what would make it even better?full frontal nudity!"and then everyone else was like "wow that was staring us right in the face and we totaly missed it!"[pun intended].now whoever that horny science geek was is like a visionary in the world of double d video games.give that man a medal! and a girl friend for petes sake.
the team that helps you is far better than the first one too.i played about 40 hours by the end so there is a lot of content compared to a lot of games.i really had a lot of fun playing this game.there are still dragons to fight which is cool since for decades there were tons of rpg's with no dragon battles in them.
bio ware is my favorite video game maker so i always love whatever they do.someone described the 2 dragon age games as a mid evil version of knights of the old republic.id say its somewhat that but more of a witch hunt on blood mages.i definately would recomend this game. | video-games_xbox |
Exactly what the series needed, and a GREAT point to get started if new to the series. Skylanders, and any of the "toys to life" series games, have gotten a reputation as a money sink with sometimes nominal returns for what you were buying. Disney Infinity and Skylanders Trap Team were exceptionally brutal. It makes sense to be hesitent with the latest entry. But Vicarious Visions came through and came through big.
Normally to complete a skylanders game and access all the bonus areas during missions you need to go find another 5-9 figures depending on the entry. This one you only need two (a sea vehicle and a sky vehicle). These also aren't even necessary and in some levels there are two different paths: one for the sea/sky vehicle once you procure it, one to be done on foot or with the provided land vehicle. So you are adding completely new ways to get through levels with the addition of the vehicles and not just some simple side area/game like most other TTL (toys to life) games.
Adventure packs and Battle packs provided decent extra content in the first couple of entries but still seemed to leave something to be desired. Here, for just a few more dollars then what you would pay for the figures inside, the Sea Racing pack (and eventually the Sky and Land) includes a pair of race tracks, 4 challanges, 4 new racers when the challanges are completed, a racing "circuit" like in the Mario Cart games, special missions, as well as all the standard content for the figures themselves. It was to the point where I'm actually SHOCKED how far the money is being stretched. It's to the point the content is about as good as any DLC you might get for other video games, with the added caveat that the figures will be usable in later entries in the series.
Many of the overpowered and underwhelming charaters from Trap Team have been rebalanced with both damage and utility (stuns, KBs, etc) to where you won't feel like you bought the "wrong guy" on this one. So feel free to pull some of the characters that have been collecting dust off the shelf and throw them into your team (I tend to pull one character from each element at a time and use them when they are in a prefered zone). They may very well surprise you.
For those who are thinking "Why buy any of the new characters outside of the racing packs" there is still stuff for the completionists. While the most bang for your buck in found in grabbing the minimal needed figures, there is extra tidbits and missions for every style of collector. When entering the town, there is a special mission area that will ask for a vehicle of a particular element. These missions are very much not needed for the completion of the game, but reward those who purchased a vehicle of each element. For those who grab every new character including the repurposed older characters, you will be treated to assignements which require those characters to take out bad guys with certain moves, complete certain levels (for a second time if already completed) or any number of special assignments. And for every Supercharger combo, there is a challange similar to the old Heroic missions in the first two games (sans the individual bonus, but of course you get Portal Master rank which helps everyone.)
Speaking of portal master rank, it is possible to get the max rank without purchasing ANY other items for the game, but as you would assume, it is just alot more monotanous as you would be redoing the same mission over and over to gain "star dust" (I think that's what it was called) . Again, this is set up to let people who don't want to spend too much cash on it have a manageable and rewarding experience, but you get good returns for your money spent on additional figures, in particular the racing packs.
Soul Gems, Hats, Upgrades, Legendary Treasures are NO LONGER in a set location. Instead, an item of that magnitude is in those set locations. What you get is random. You may get one of the 20 Soul Gems. you may get one of the 200+ hats. You may just get a skystones card for the mini-game (which is also much improved). While this may sound like a pain to some, this is a major improvement. As you get new characters, playing the old content then yields new rewards. The game is reinvigorated everytime you go get a new figure. Between new rewards, special assignements, supercharger challanges, and a new playstyle and levels to gain, this game does right by letting you really appreciate any new characters you have, or any old characters that you want to pull out and have some more fun with.
There are a few minor glitches (sometimes soundbytes get stuck) and the the game did freeze on me once. I imagine a patch will be coming out at some point to fix these issues. The other complaint I have is a few characters didn't make the art transition that well (older terrafin figs for one). They look out of place like they are from Spyro's Adventure and got lost and wound up in this game. Somewhat forgivable considering the plethra of figures they had to bring in, but at the same time, hopefully they learned their lesson and pump the breaks on newer characters coming into the series much in the way they did with this one. It's too much of a back log. I also feel the swappers are gonna get fused at some point and will stop working if switch around.
I highly recommend this game to everyone even if you've never touched Skylanders and are an adult. This is going to be the new gold standard of what TTL games should be, not layered cost money grabs or super expensive minecraft experiences. This game yields almost as much bang for your buck as some of the more expansive RPG games (Dragon Age, Witcher, Assassin's Creed etc) with the bonus of being able to take that money spent forward with you into later entries. There is no need to talk yourself out of this one. | video-games_xbox |
Very underappreciated game. This is a great game for anyone about 6 and up who has decent coordination. I am not a basketball player and my skills are terrible. I do play and coach a lot of soccer, and my kids (7 year old boy and 11 year old girl) play a lot of soccer and are very good. But my wife, who played basketball insists that my kids play at least one season of basketball every winter (the other season is dedicated to indoor soccer).
It has been painful at times for me to watch my kids go from being either the best or one of the best on a soccer field to being one of the weaker players at basketball. They simply haven't had much interest in practicing basketball (even during basketball season my kids tend to play soccer with me on days they don't have basketball practice).
However, being the fair minded parent that I am, I pointed this game out to my wife and suggested we get it for the kinect. We got the Nike+ workout game for christmas and my kids have actually enjoyed it. She was skeptical at first (concerns included: (1)you'll break the TV; (2) it will be too hard for them; (3) there's no way it would actually teach them anything useful), but eventually I won her over and we got this game a week ago.
After one week, my kids love the game and their skills have increased dramatically. The first few songs they were lucky to get one star and the ball rolled around on the floor quite a bit. They both felt that it was slightly easier than guitar hero for them to learn. We limit their "screen time" to 1 hour a day, and they've both chosen to use all of their screen time playing baller beats for the last week. They are now consistently getting 5 stars on easy songs and 4 stars on medium songs. For my boy, he's gone from a kid who had great speed and coordination, but couldn't dribble if his life depended on it, to a kid who can use either hand and is now one of the better players on his team. The shock on the other kids faces when he dribbled it between his legs was fun to see. My daughter has made similar improvements. After seeing the transformation in my son from one game to the next, the coach of my son's team asked if his son could come over to practice basketball with us. After seeing his son's improvements just playing for about an hour, he's going to buy an XBOX and this game.
There are three modes (Rookie, Pro, and Baller) which determine the number and variety of moves a player has to do. There are also three levels of song (Easy, Medium, Difficult) that increase the pace of dribbling and the frequency of the moves. A six year old with basic dribbling skill can do the Rookie level, Easy Songs. The coach (in his 30s) who is a pretty good ball player got an average score on the Pro Level, Medium song. It would take a serious baller to get a good score on the Baller level, Difficult songs. So basically about any age, any skill level can do and have fun with this game. Especially for those who are just starting out, there will be a dramatic increase in skills.
We haven't broken anything (yet), loose balls tend to roll to the side. We put a few pillows in front of the TV stand to keep them from knocking it too hard. But the ball has only even hit the pillow one time. | video-games_xbox |
Jet Grind Radio was better, but still excellent. Twice has Sega's unique "Jet Set Radio" franchise compelled me to buy a new game console. First, I got a Dreamcast just so I could play Jet Grind Radio, and was very satisfied. Recently, I bought an Xbox just so I could play Jet Set Radio Future, and was pretty satisfied.
Jet Grind Radio was awesome because it was a video game where you have to spray graffitti, and run from the cops. How cool is that!? JSRF has graffitti and cops, but some things have changed. In JGR, when you had to spray a large graffitti, you would have to stop, and follow some commands on the screen with the joystick. I really liked this, because it was simulating spraypainting something! This was dropped for JSRF, which disappoints me. Also, in JGR the cops chased you while you were trying to tag stuff, which added some, but not too much, strategy. In JSRF, you are free to stroll around and tag stuff most of the time. When the cops arrive, an area is fenced off, and you have to defeat all of the cops. Once the cops are defeated, you are free to stroll around and tag stuff again. You will quickly find that tagging stuff is a chore in JSRF, rather than the exciting challenge it was in JGR.
The way I compare JSRF to JGR might be interpreted as me not liking JSRF. This is not true! Comparing JSRF to JGR is simply like comparing gold to diamond-encrusted platinum with a uranium core, a rocket engine stapped to the back, and a CD changer in the side!!
But what I don't like about either game is the plot. In both, it's a lame and corny anti-corporate fallacy that will make you wish your character could quit being a punk and get a real job. Halfway through, the bad guys change from the cops to assassins hired by the richest businessman in the city. Blech! They should have it start out as the cops, then later have the military come in. I loved in both games when they came at you with tanks, helicopters, and jets. They should have taken that idea and ran with it. Also, in JGR the police captain had awesome style, with 5 o' clock shadow a hairdo requiring industrial strength hairspray. In JSRF, the police captain [stinks]! He sounds [weird] and looks like David Bowie!
Hopefully Sega fixes these problems for the next Jet Set Radio game, if they make one. If they keep the current formula, that's alright, because this is an excellent game. It doesn't get too hard, but the story is way too epic. Buy it, and when "Professor K" appears on the screen, do yourself a favor and take a bathroom break.
Also, if you do not own Jet Grind Radio, buy it now! | video-games_xbox |
Bethesda Makes an Amazing Sandbox Game, But a Bad RPG. So i've played about 15 hours of the game and here are my thoughts (I am a huge bethesda fan, so take this as you like)
(Edit: I've now played 60+ hours and my review still fits. I have found more role-playing options, but it is still lacking here)
There is a lot to love and a bit to dislike (NOT hate) about this game. I think the one or zero star ratings are garbage, however I do totally understand some people giving it a three, depending on what kind of game you were hoping for.
RPG: If you are hoping for an awesome RPG or a fallout like fallout 1, 2, and New Vegas you WILL NOT LIKE THIS GAME. Period. The lack of good RPG elements is one of the things I'm very disappointed in. Dialogue is dumbed-down to a Mass Effect dialogue wheel. Further, your character talks via cutscenes that totally ruins immersion. They really, really dropped the ball here. Quests have also been dumbed down, kinda like how they were in skyrim (compared to morrowind and oblivion), and there seems to be very little chance of doing anything but shooting your way out of tough situations. Few instances of negotiations. This is the reason I cannot give it 5 stars.
World: If you like sandbox games where you can wander for hours aimlessly, forgetting what the heck quest you were on to begin with, YOU WILL LOVE THIS GAME. Bethesda knocks it out of the park here; I've spent my fifteen hours playing trying to get to the main city, but I keep getting side-tracked by settlements, abandoned whatevers, and other little surprises along the way. It's awesome. So awesome.
Bugs. I really haven't found any, and the ones I have found are by no means game-breaking. Really, if anything, they are funny. Like Dogmeat floating in the air when I used the elevator. Sometimes conversations are silent.
Graphics: Beginning of the game they look super plastic and I didn't like them, but this is before all he..uh, heck, breaks loose. After leaving the vault, the graphics, since everything isn't shiny and new, look great. The detail in this game is insane. You can read every little sign's details, metal has intricate rust and paint chips. Trees, shrubs, vines, etc are very realistic. I'm super impressed. However, the people still look really off. They are very shiny. However, their expressions while talking are very good.
NPCs: The ones in the beginning are just to be ignored. They are filler to get you through to the core game. Once in the wasteland, things get a lot better. The group of people I met are well acted and have great animation to their faces and bodies. However, the retain this plastic feel from the beginning of the game.
AI: Not so good. You know how in Mass Effect you'd direct someone somewhere and they'd kinda go wacky? That's kinda how it is with dogmeat so far. I tell him to go do X, and he just kinda does what he wants. Hmm, maybe dogmeat was suppose to be a cat? However, the enemy AI is good. They hear you and seek you out. Very much like the other fallouts.
Crafting: I've never crafted in fallout, there was no real reason, and it always seemed clunky. NO MORE. The crafting system is AMAZING and one of the things I was really pleasantly surprised about. You collect trash from the wasteland and it gets salvaged for parts/materials and you modify your guns, armor, homes etc with it. Now instead of ignoring those teddy bears and empty cola bottles, you collect them so you can make thermal armor and scopes. I've become a hoarder. To me this is the best immersion factor in-game.
Combat: Another thing bethesda improved upon. The guns feel and handle nicely, and if you are good at FPS, you will have fun and not need VATS. I'm enjoying my modded 10mm a lot right now.
VATS: I normally hate VATS b/c you shouldn't be able to pause in-game to take a shot. Well, bethesda must have heard me, b/c now instead of pausing, it just slows the game down, so you can still take damage.
Skill Tree: I understand that people don't like this, but really, it's the same darn thing as you had before. the only difference is, you don't work your way up to them, you can pick which one you want at any time, so long as you have the SPECIAL points invested in it. And since you can level each of these perks (they start with three to five blank stars that you can put more points in as you increase level), I don't see what the fuss is about. If anything, it's better,, b/c now you can make a lot of different characters even with the same SPECIAL points. Kinda reminds me of Diablo 2 that way. You know, that is what it is like, it's almost like the Diablo 2 skill tree.
So far I am really enjoying the game. This is an excellent sandbox game, but a terrible roleplaying one. I'm glad I got it day one, no regrets. I see myself playing this for hundreds of hours | video-games_xbox |
THE MASTER CHIEF TRY'S TO MASTER TOO MUCH. SAVE YOUR GREENBACKS AND DON'T WASTE'EM ON THIS ONE FOLKS! This has probably got to be one of the most over hyped console games in recent game history. Now over hyping a product isn't necessarily a bad thing. But when the product doesn't live up to the hype it's enough to drive a gamer mad! Halo 2 should've been a lot more challenging and developed as a game title. The claims by anonymous sources at the games manufacturer promised a game that was going to be akin to, "an ambulance racing down the street with sirens blazing on fire being chased by ninja's. And oh yeah, the ninja's are all on fire too". Well when I played the game all the way through I didn't see any ambulances or ninja's on fire. But I recon if they were on fire it was due to the hit man from Microsoft trying to wack'em out before they could get to a game columnist to sell their inside story.
So let's look at the newest improvements in Halo 2. Yes, its graphics are far superior to the first Halo. There's a scene in the game where the Master Chief is standing in what appears to be the totally wasted promenade of an orbital defensive platform then from the massive window of the promenade you witness the destruction of a neighboring platform. Absolutely awesome and breath taking! You'll find the visuals throughout the game are all amazing. Game play is also significantly improved in that the Master Chief is beefier, and now double wields two weapons simultaneously. The Earth - man-made weapons are still weak when compared to the Covenant weaponry. The exception would be the new assault rife that replaces the standard issue assault rifle the Master Chief wielded in the first Halo.
Another nice touch is that you can play a significant portion of the game as the Covenant. Though most gamers were hyped in the games release trailers to believe they'd get another opportunity to savor stickin' it to the Covenant, this element of the game's appeal gets diluted and watered down by the conflicting Covenant storyline. One minute you're a Covenant Elite, kickin' the stardust out of some rogue Covenant faction, `the Heretics'. The next you're the Master Chief laying the smack down on every Covenant bad guy you can get a cross hair on. I found myself imagining what it would be like to go dear hunting only to swap my body midway through the hunt with the deer. Seem conflicted? I thought so...
So what do I have to say that's nice about Halo 2? Well for starters this release is XBox Live enabled! But that was no big surprise - the pc version of the game was playable online. Halo 2 also demonstrates many improvements, namely playability and the games improved graphics engine. The deepening of the storyline of the Covenants unending quest to destroy Earth is a good step in the right direction and could very well have given way to an excellent spin-off to the Halo series. I'd love a Covenant only - [...] kicking adventure - but for the entire game! Instead all these things were packed so densely into just one title release that it's next to impossible to get a real passion one way or another for this latest release in the Halo series. Yes, Halo 2 addicts and fans alike there will most definitely be a sequel. How long will we have to wait for it is anyone guess but I'll tell you this... While I didn't stand in line with the throngs of Halo 2 fans on release day waiting for a copy, I certainly and most definitely won't even consider doing so or even tying up five bucks to reserve a copy of Halo 3.
And while I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't finished the game yet, while I won't call Halo 2 a rip-off I can sum the game up with a few blunt choice words...
VERY ... VERY ... DISAPPOINTING. | video-games_xbox |
brilliant. When Halo came out, I found it hard to believe that any game would come close to Halo's greatness in the near future. Well that game just arrived in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell.
It is very easy for me to say that this is one of the BEST games on XBOX and perhaps even one of the greatest games of all time.
In Splinter Cell, you assume the role of Sam Fisher an experienced Special Agent called back to duty to undertake a new mission. I have not been playing it that long, so I do not know that much of the story line.
The graphics in this game are nothing short of amazing. The game seems to utilize XBOX's power in every aspect of the environment. For example when you are creeping behind a bullet ridden wooden fence, you can actually see the light coming through each hole. Also when you walk through curtains, the curtains will move as you actually walked through them! The lights also cast shadows on your enemies and you can sometimes see their shadow coming before you actually see them.
The sound is also amazing. Walking through bushes will give off a crunching/rustling sound, while walking on wooden steps and floors will produce a sound of the wood creaking beneath your feet. The background music is good as well, but it subtle enough to wear you won't even notice it because you are so into the game.
While the graphics and sound are two very good parts of the game, the best part of the game in my opinion is the game play. Sam Fisher has many cool abilities, like the split jump, in which he can jump up between two narrow walls and throw his legs out allowing him to stand on the two walls. Another ability is that he can back against a wall and peak around the corner to see approaching enemies. He also can use zip lines and scale walls. Unlike other games, the game stresses stealth and covertness. Sure you can run around and kill every enemy you encounter, but you will probably get more enjoyment and perhaps even survive longer by sneaking around, sneaking behind enemies and grabbing them before they can make a sound. While grabbing them, you can also interrogate them for useful information. The key is to crouch while moving and avoid light and the view of the cameras whenever possible. You can even shoot out some cameras and lights to conceal your presence. This game requires thinking to move on to other levels, so if you are into shoot-em-up type action, then this may not be for you. This game reminds me of Deus Ex for the PC which was another good game. After playing Deus Ex, I never thought I would find another game of this type that would be better...I just have.
One thing and the only thing I don't like about the game is the save point system. You have to complete a certain amount of tasks and goals before the game offers you the option to save. If you die before you get to that point, then you have to start over from your last save point. This results in you having to replay a lot of things over again.
Other than that, I guess I can say the only bad thing I can say about this game, is that I spend way too much time playing it. I did not get to bed until 2:30am playing this game. This is a spectacular game, and a must have for anyone who likes covert mission based games. | video-games_xbox |
Achievement Unlocked. As I write this review, I have just finished my final achievement in the game, and let me say this: it was worth every minute spent.
Dead Rising is THE quintessential zombie game. You are Frank West, a freelance photojournalist who's looking for his next big story. And that story just happens to take place in the confined (and zombie-infested)space of Willamette Mall. After a rather long fly-by over town that introduces you to the mechanics of your camera, a helicopter convienently drops you off on the roof of the mall, (where one of the main protagonists ominously greets you with the proclamation 'This, my friend, is hell') and there your 72 hour journey begins.
And that's where the genius that is Dead Rising begins. From here on out YOU have total control over how you want Frank to spend his next three days. You can follow the Cases that appear (there are 8 of them spanning the three days) and unlock the main storyline and the truth behind the zombie outbreak. OR you can spend the three days rescuing survivors and fighting some of the games 11 PsychoPaths (which are arguably more terrifying and creepy than the zombies themselves). Or you can simply spend your time killing zombies and leveling up, ad nauseum. And for some of the game's 50 achievements, youi'll be doing all three more than once. That's the beauty of a sandbox game; there's nothing linear telling you what you have to do next. For 72 hours, everything's up to you.
Of course, the game is not without its flaws. There is only one save file per game, (which other people seem to have an issue with but frankly worked just fine for me). My biggest issue with the game was the survivor AI. Some of the people I was trying to rescue were just downright STUPID. Escorting one or two wasn't bad; the crippling came when herding large groups of people (you can escort a maximum of 8 people at any given time). Some of the survivors actually died because they were either too busy fighting each other rather than the zombies trying to eat them, or else they were dumb enough to just run straight through the middle of a zombie horde.
Still, the game is an amazing gem to own. Two modes open up upon completion of the game: Overtime Mode and Infinite Mode. Overtime Mode grants you an extra 24 hours to reveal the truth behind the outbreak. Beating this unlocks the true core of Dead Rising: Infinite Mode. Infinite Mode is zombie survival at its finest. This mode is all about endurance. Food no longer respawns in the mall, everyone is out to kill you (including the survivors), your health continually degenerates and the save function has been disabled. It's just you, what meager supplies you can gather, and your wits against a mall full of zombies and psychopaths.
There are a total of 50 Achievements worth 1000 Gamer Points, everything from trying on all the clothes in the mall to killing all the psychopaths to eating every different type of food you come across. But the crowning achievement to get is, by far, the Zombie Genocider. If you manage to kill 53,694 zombies (the exact population of Willamette, coincidentally) you can access to the uber-powerful Mega Buster Cannon. That's right. Now you too can blow away zombies with MegaMan's classic arm cannon! It's these kinds of nods from Capcom that makes playing Dead Rising over and over so much fun.
All in all this is a must own for any 360 owner. If you are comtemplating buying this game I would say go for it. If you are a fan of horror games (and zombies!) you won't be disappointed. | video-games_xbox |
Seriously Awesome piece of hardware. While I am by no means a competitive or Pro gamer, I have played with an awful lot of controllers and fighting sticks in my time. I currently have an X-Arcade Tankstick connected to a PC for emulated games, an Ascii Arcade Joystick for my Dreamcast, the Wii Fighting Stick and now this product, the Hori Real Arcade Pro EX-SE. It's among the best and best built joysticks I've ever had.
First thing to note is that to its credit, the joystick's base weighs roughly the same as my car - it's really, really really heavy! It is not going to wiggle around on your lap and mess up your game; it's not going anywhere, no matter how wildly you're clicking the joystick and mashing the buttons. The stick and buttons, similarly, are clearly made of heavy, professional, Real Arcade parts. The plastic parts feel thick and strong, the joystick has a good weight to it.
I would report that though the PC detects the stick, you have to go through a fairly convoluted process to get the joystick to work for any games on a computer(it keeps thinking the joystick is an analog stick, I guess?). I hopped around on the net and found some blogs that tell you how to mess with the settings and get it to work, but for the time being right out of the box, it's not a PC joystick. It's an Xbox 360 joystick, and a great one at that, and possibly a PC joystick if you're willing to spend some effort getting it to work.
I use mine for some obvious games and some not so obvious ones on the 360: Street Fighter IV, Marvel vs Capcom 2, Tekken 6, Castle Crashers, Golden Axe, Root Beer Tapper, Soulcaster (a great retro indie game), R-Type Dimensions and Rush 'n Attack. I enjoy it particularly on SFIV and Castle Crashers, it seems to enhance those games a particular amount for some reason.
In all, well worth it, a great product. And a small happy note as well - I idiotically squished the tip of the USB connector under the foot of a couch and ruined it, and Hori was absolutely awesome about getting me a replacement part. Huge thumbs up on this stick and on Hori as a company! | video-games_xbox |
PERFECT GAME. :) ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. I just beat this game a couple of hours ago, and I got to tell you it was EXCELLENT. I really do not get where people get those bad reviews. All it really takes is PATIENCE people. PATIENCE. This game is perfect and it deserves a five star and DESERVES to be noticed more. Im really disappointed that this game is not noticed much! Okay, well Im going to list down the reasons why poeple think this is a horrible game.
One thing I am going to mention the most complaints about is the ENDING. I keep reading "cliffhanger" or "not completed" :
PEOPLE WATCH AFTER THE CREDIT. As I said in the Intro, BE PATIENT and get through the CREDITS please. If you do not know this, obviously, you have not played much JRPG games because MOST,not all,is completed after the credits. NO NEED FOR SEQUEL. ITS PERFECT the WAY it is.
Second complaint that I kept seeing was the battle system which was a real life based system (hit or miss): I read that some people don't even bother to go on with the game because they complain about the battle system from the beginning. But you know what? You can't be perfect on the first time you try. It takes TIME to get things PERFECT and GET used to. Overtime, it does not come as a burden once you go on with the game. The first few minutes of the game CAN be frustrating and scary, but if you can go through that the game is awesome.
Third Complaint that I hear is the bad lipsynching: yes I see that all of the time and it is also obvious. Personally, it did not bother me as much. At first, I noticed but hey I learned to deal with it.
Fourth Complaint was the extra characters: I actually liked the extra credit. Makes the game more fun and adds more "meat" into the story.
So anyways, that is my opinion of the game and probably true because all the bad reviews I read are little minor things that people lack patience for. So if you are going to play this game. Take my advice ^^
Overall
Story was perfect,music was awesome, and the romance was adorable. :) (Won't be completed until after the credits.)
Absolutely no FLAWS.
Well that is my review. If you disagree but thats fine. I just think this game should not be hated because of minor little things. KEY: PATIENCE. ESPECIALLY AFTER The CREDITS. (yes we know its long, but not THAT long). | video-games_xbox |
Fun and interesting, but loses steam toward the end. Having never played the first Assassin's Creed, I came into this game with no expectations. Fortunately enough, I was pleasantly surprised, for the most part. The story takes place both in the near future and in 15th Century Italy, as Desmond Hume attempts to uncover a global conspiracy involving the long feuding Assassins and Templars by reliving the memories of his ancestor, Ezio Auditore. Ezio, who witnesses his father and brothers murdered at the hands of the Templars, takes up the hood of the Assassin in his attempts to enact revenge. Although the conspiracy aspect of the story is interesting (augmented by thought provoking puzzles hidden throughout the game world), the details of what was happening in Ezio's timeline confused me at times, as my basic understanding of the events was that I had to go somewhere and kill someone. Nonetheless, it's a fun ride. Ezio's very likable, as is his inventor sidekick, Leonardo Da Vinci. The story loses its steam eventually, however, as the missions begin to grow repetitive toward the end. I was enjoying the story, particularly the whole conspiracy vibe, until the big final revelation, which was surprising in the most unsatisfying, disappointing way possible.
As far as graphics go, AC II is absolutely stunning, not only in sheer technical power but also in presentation and aesthetic. When I was in the game's early areas, my sister, who had been to Italy several times, would watch me play and say "Oh, wow, that looks just like Florence." Clearly, the developers went the extra mile in their acute attention to detail.
Over the course of the game, Ezio acquires new skills and weapons that allow players to adjust their play styles accordingly if they so wish. There are knives, swords, hidden wrist blades, poison tipped daggers and even a rudimentary pistol, all allowing the player to fight however he wishes. It's nice to have so many choices, particularly when the combat can grow dull at times with never-ending counters and blocks. The gameplay is quite enjoyable, as is the easy to pick-up free-running controls. This is definitely a must-play. | video-games_xbox |
A MUST PLAY. The reason people voted BB a 10 is because they are excited. They have every right to be. 505 Games and NM has introduced us to a new and exciting football game with an amazing amount of promise. WOW!! BB is getting a lot of attention....very very nice. Keep spreading the word!
I gave BB a 8.
As we all know and can agree on, there's a lot of issues with this game. I mean A LOT! What we're gonna do is put all of those issues in a box. Then write on the side of the box, "Things the good ol patch Doctor can fix." All of the issues are very very minor. Forget about those things for now and focus on things that can not be patched.
Balls.
EA has been making their version of football for over twenty years. For whatever reason, Madden is King of video game football. With that being said, you must have a great set to have the nerve to compete against them. For me that speaks volumes and NM deserves way more respect then what we've been giving them.
Concept.
Concept is a very important aspect of a game. Concept can't be patched. If you have bad concept, you have to wait until next time. This is where BB shines. Backbreaker sports a very very exciting and unique way of playing football. It's very different from Madden, 2K, or any other football game you've ever played. There is a steep learning curve. But with an open mind and some patience, you'll be OK.
The game is played in a total 3D third person view (over the shoulder at the QB). It's kinda hard to explain...just one of those things that you have experience for yourself. Once you get the hang of playing, it's CRAZY MAD fun!!
Game play.
Backbreaker's game play is second to none!!! This is the BEST football gaming experience EVER!!!!!! EVER!!!!!! SO MUCH FUN!!!!! Imagine your at the LOS calling the plays. You're scanning the field checking out the defense. You make your 1st read and then 2nd and 3rd reads. Snap the ball, drop back in the pocket....you check read 1 and it's cover. Then you see read 2 open and you turn and hit em for a 12 yard game. That's how the game feels when your playing it. It feels like your in the middle of the action.
Running the ball is completely sick!!! It really feels like your in the back field following your blockers. Defense?? CRAZINESS!!!! It's a rewarding feeling to user on defense in BB. It really feels like you're shooting the edge or A Gap. Getting a user pick is awesome too. Especially if you controlled the player the entire time without switching. Big hits and QB sacks...it's just CRAZINESS!!!! BB is definitely a MUST to play. Play and get over the learning curve, and I promise you'll have an amazing time!
Thanks for reading. | video-games_xbox |
Apocalyptic Goodness. Darksiders is an apocalyptic adventure that hacks, slashes, puzzles, and entertains.
Story: 9/10
In Darksiders, you play as War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who must battle the forces of Heaven and Hell to restore balance to the universe. The story and dialogue are both well written and well acted. The cinematics are nicely rendered.
Gameplay: 8/10
War kills bad guys with a sword, a scythe, a gun, a glaive, a massive gauntlet, bombs, light posts, cars, and magic spells. Button Mashers can get by with mashing and holding the X button, while action gamers can string some decent combos together by switching weapons mid-combo (Y button) and learning the special moves (by incorporating RB). The collision detection and auto-targeting for War are very generous. When War swings his sword, he swings it in really wide arcs, which helps keep enemies at bay while you're pummeling a guy so you won't get cheap shotted from guys offscreen as much as Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden. It's fairly satisfying to take out waves of enemies in the game.
Darksiders features some epic boss battles against gigantic demons from hell and almighty angels from heaven. The boss fights are all fairly well done and typically employ some action by the user to expose a boss's weak points.
As you kill enemies, they release souls. There are three types. Green restores health, Yellow restores mana, and Blue is used as currency to upgrade weapons, spells, buy new moves, and items. Darksiders also rewards you for exploration. There are many hidden chests throughout the levels that you can reach through Zelda Style puzzle mechanics.
Levels: 8/10
The levels are well thought out and incorporate puzzle mechanics. The world is composed of a series of connected landscapes which are put together to form a world. Darksiders also features fast travel through magic portals. The variety in the levels are impressive, from post apocalyptic cities, to angelic towers, to lush valleys. There are some rather large rewards for exploration, too.
Puzzles: 8/10
Darksiders relies on box pushing, time slowing, object breaking, and portal using mechanics. Many of these were taken from God of War. Late in the game you get a portal gun and a weighted cube for some really complex puzzles. At first, I was annoyed and was thinking, "I didn't buy a hack and slash game to go through an hour of puzzles." But the puzzles were so much fun, they actually won me over.
Graphics: 6/10
The graphics looked like they were inspired by World of Warcraft. They are a bit on the cartoony side, which end up hurting the epic feel of the game. At times, it was hard to believe that this was the same game system that runs Call of Duty, Bayonetta, and Red Dead Redemption.
Sound: 9/10
The soundtrack is epic, the sound effects are LOUD, and the voice acting is outstanding!
Replay Value: 4/10
The game is linear and are three difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, and Apocalyptic. That's pretty much it. If you play a lot of action games, you can play on the Apocalyptic Difficulty. It's not that bad. The game is about 16-20 hours long depending on how much you want to explore the environment. It's pretty long for an action game, but the game is a linear story driven adventure without a multiplayer mode. There really isn't any reason to replay it once you've finished it.
Maturity: The game is rated M, and features fantasy violence. There are decapitations and dismemberment on cartoony monsters and that's about it. If you watch anime, you can handle this.
Overall: 8/10
Darksiders is a fun blend of action, boss battles, exploration, and puzzle solving. It does all of these things well, but no particular part of the game feels great. The World of Warcraft Art Style prevents this game from being truly epic and instead the game feels like you're using your imagination and playing with McFarlane Action Figures (if people ever took them out of the boxes.)
At this point, the game is about thirty bucks.
Buy it if you want a fairly easy hack and slash adventure.
Buy it if you liked Dante's Inferno, Devil May Cry, or God of War.
Buy it if you love the art style of World of Warcraft.
Rent it if you have about 16-20 hours to finish the game.
Avoid it if you are a graphics snob.
Avoid it if you hate puzzle mechanics.
If you like this game, check out Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, Dante's Inferno, or God of War. | video-games_xbox |
Does not stop the ROD on these older models. *Updated 08-28-2012*
While I no longer have an Xbox 360, I bought this item when at the time I owned one the Xbox 360 Elite Models. I wanted the 120 GB HDD (which was and still is pretty good for a 360 if you are only using it for gaming). I also wanted the Black Console; later on I would get one of the Halo Reach slim models. I never owned the slim model long enough to attest to its durability.
However, back when I bought my Xbox 360 in December 2008 the ROD (Ring of Death/Red Rings around the power button meaning your console was dead - hence the name) was supposed to have been a non issue with the Xbox 360 Elite. I did a lot of reading online about how to keep the Xbox cooler and hopefully avoid the dreaded ROD. While there was and still is much debate about whether or not you should even use a Cooler for these older models, the one thing I found was that if you do - use a self powered unit. Do not use a unit that draws the power from your console, but a cooler that has its own power source....such as this one for example.
So I thought this would be great, and it seemed as if it was for a while....the cooler did allow the Xbox to run cooler and it seemed to run quieter and more smoothly as well.
However, a little over a year and a half later I did get the ROD anyways. I was lucky enough that I bought my Xbox within a time period that allowed for a free repair or replacement - my console was repaired.
The older styles of the Xbox 360 will all get the ROD, typically in about 2 years though it can be longer or much sooner. I would not recommend buying ANY type of cooler for your Xbox 360 if you have any model other than the slim. I don't know much about the newer model, but it is supposed to be designed so it does not need a cooler anyways.
I would that if you own one of these older 360 models, or plan to buy one.....just make sure that you place it someplace that allows for more airflow than you need. You cannot have too much open space around your Xbox 360!
An open TV stand would be fine, just do not put anything else on the shelf your console is on.
Having said all that, I don't think this cooler will harm your console in any way - it just won't do anything in any to protect it either. You are just buying a stand with some cool green lights on it, nothing more! I will say the cooler is of good quality, it's not a bad product - its just the product does not do anything to extend the life of your Xbox......which is why you would buy it to start with right?
You could also take the fans out of the cooler and use them for a custom laptop cooler or something else which may require such fans. The unit is of good quality, it just did not seem to do anything for me other than give me some cool green lights to glance at while playing the Xbox at night.
I may or may not get another Xbox in the future, it is a great console and Xbox Live Gold is a great service that is well worth it - so I am NOT a PS3 Fan boy/Xbox 360 hater!
I am only saying that in general I have been disappointed with the lack of explanation from Microsoft on not just the reliability of all Xbox models; but also the lack of information for their vision on what the Xbox will be in the years to come as far as dependability is concerned.
***(This portion written 09/22/2012.) I wanted to make a slight addition to the review after having learned some things about the Xbox 360 recently from someone who swears by the Xbox 360 as the preferred choice in a Gaming Console. The way the Xbox 360 is designed it can be bad for the console to have it standing up vertically. The best way to use an Xbox 360 console is to lay it down horizontally - do not stand it up! Also with the newer Xbox 360 models (which should also be placed vertically) there is no need for any additional cooling device as the newer models have two fans. If you do own one of the older models, a fan that attaches to the rear of the console would be the preferred cooling method. The Xbox will run just fine if placed vertically - for a while though the Ring Of Death is a going to happen sooner or later.*** | video-games_xbox |
Halo 1.5 or Halo Reloaded, which is better. Very good game, BUT...
Doesn't live up to the hype. (I don't particularly care about live or multiplayer, but I hear that is better.) Single player is WAY too short, and I have no interest in the 'Arbitor'. Didn't buy a box with him on the cover, did I?!!?!? I want the squads of Marines and I (as MC) to kill, destroy, maime, and wipe out the bad guys and maybe have a few twists and turns in the story line. Instead, I have a visualy superior, yet more claustrophobic "re-skin" of the first one played from THE WRONG SIDE.
I think the fake, yet somehow feasable weaponry in the first along with the personality of the Marines (not being "help me", but rather "eat lead!"), and Cortana made it work. Add the most beautiful music and open spaces and it was 100%.
This one removes that grand scope of what was Halo, and turned it into another uninspired sequel. (Halo Reloaded) The new weapons look plastic and very fake. There are no new "Flood-like" surprises; When the first one has the Flood come out for the first time it was amazing! Who? What? The whole premise was turned upside down. H2 just rehashes the same from the other side.
A good game, but NOT better than the 1st, NOT better (in my opinion) than MOH: Frontline. Again, in my opinion, BloodRayne 2 is how a sequel SHOULD be (Better than the first!). I feel tremendously let down by MS and Bungie for letting this WEAK game out of the stable.
I only hope H3 doesn't have me playing as the Flood. Expand the story, and don't play every concievable angle within the existing framework of the first story.
If you were hyped by the trailer, then get prepared to be dissapointed. Those weren't cut scenes in between amazing levels. They were filler moments between tow hallways. (Can you tell I'm bitter on this? :-) )
Wait to buy it used, as I am sure MANY will be up for sale as soon as they are finnished (about 8-10 hours!)
Still in shock they added a YEAR to only come up with this.
Much like GTA, it's just more of the same. Master Chief and the Temple of Doom... | video-games_xbox |
A so-so collection of games. I'm old enough to remember when most of these games came out, so I was excited to see how well they ported over to x-box.
THE GOOD:
This collection has a number of great classics such as street fighter II, 1942, Final Fight, and ghosts and goblins. It also includes variations of those classics which were also released (1943, SFII Hyper edition, and Ghouls and Ghosts). Besides these games - which really can be called classics - the collection includes some other games which were fun, but nothing special - Mercs, Commando, Trojan, and Gunsmoke for example. These were games worth playing, but easily forgetable. This collection also has an option to clean up the graphics and sounds on some of the games, so you can play the original in a slightly tweaked version. Of course, you can play with the original game version if you're a purist. There is also an option to read a brief snippit of history for each game.
THE BAD
For the most part, what you see is what you get. With next gen-counsels coming out soon; these games look more and more obsolete. The only beef I had with the porting was with Street Fighter. The game load times is ridiculously long for a game that's almost 15 years old now. The controls also feel sluggish unresponsive, not at all like the original controls for SFII.
THE UGLY
This collection contains "classics" that no one in America remembers. "Son Son", a side-scrolling shooter that came out in the early eighties is just one example. It also contains such throw-aways as Vulgus, Pirate Ship Higaru, and Exed Exes. These games lacked any innovation and were better off forgotten.
For $20 or so, this game is a fun distraction from the otherwise stagnant video game market. The games are fun to pick up and play for a few minutes, but they are all beatable or boring after twenty minutes or so. If you're hankerin' for some old school video games, this is a pretty good package. If you're too young to remember any of these - you probably won't like the collection. | video-games_xbox |
Great online team gameplay. ChromeHounds is the first Mech related adventure for the XBox 360. A little bit combat, a little bit strategy, this provides quick, easy missions and then involving online gameplay.
If you've seen mech games before, you know the basic idea. Big, plodding robots with legs, tracks or wheels. Lots of weapons and armor to plunk onto the mech in lego-like fashion. Enemies and buildings to blow up, while staying alive.
Where other mech games go for arcadey non-reality, ChromeHounds tries to keep things real. Your mechs don't zip along at 100 miles an hour. They stomp with realistic weight and speed, leaving behind footprints and track marks. The detail on their glistening metal body is quite impressive. With the incredibly huge amount of customization available for your mech, you can spend hours honing the exact perfect mech for your gameplay style, and really care about its survival.
The world you inhabit didn't get this same level of loving detail. The missions are all very short and really don't need a plot. You are blowing things up while trying not to be blown up yourself. The environments you stomp through are almost an afterthought. Don't look for waving fields of grain or purple mountains majesty here.
As in many modern combat games, the basic mission tree is really all just a training mission for the *real* challenge - facing other human beings. You want to replay the local missions several times, tuning your mech movement skills and your weapon / armor combination to get ready for the team based online gameplay. That is where the real fun and skill-testing begins. Can you coordinate your efforts with your friends to ward off attacks from other skilled players from around the world? You can't just run and blast away - that technique will get you killed quickly. You have to know your mech's limitations and advantages, and then plan joint attacks to achieve that victory. It really is a fun combination of hand-eye coordination and tactical intelligent planning.
Well recommended for people who have online gameplay and enjoy that level of thought. For someone just wanting an arcadey fly-fast-and-blow-things-up-locally, you might want to rent this first to see if the realistic mech functioning will keep you happy. | video-games_xbox |
Not just the best comic book game ever made. First things first, forget the demo. It's bad and doesn't even come close to conveying the feel of this game, in-fact it's misleading. Do not even play it if you haven't already. Just buy this game, it deserves a spot in your collection, trust me.
This game is dark and gritty, similar to BioShock, a tone which is set at the beginning of the game. A cutscene shows Batman en route to deliver the Joker back to the Asylum. Upon arrival, the cutscene ends and you control a perturbed Batman as he simply walks alongside the Joker, who is strapped into an upright gurney and towed into the depths of Arkham by the asylum's guards. This walking alongside him is probably a good five minutes, all the while the Joker heckles you and the guards. Finally, the Joker manages to break free just before he's put into lockdown and gets away, sealing Batman inside--his elaborate plan just beginning to unfold. Arkham Asylum, with loose papers, broken wheelchairs, and dead bodies throughout every corridor, exudes a similar feeling to that of Rapture of BioShock; this place is scary, it's a mental institution that houses the most dangerous people in the world, and they run amuck while the craziest of them controls everything.
The voice acting is perhaps the best I've heard in a videogame; Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) is hauntingly brilliant as this incarnation of the Joker, equally as good or better than his animated series protrayal, while Kevin Conroy and Arleen Sorkin continue to be THE voices of Batman and Harley Quinn, respectively. It's more than notable that even the voice acting of the guards is spot-on and you may hear familiar voices if you've played Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic or seen Ratatouille.
The story so far (i'm only 3-4 hours in) is surprisingly pretty unpredictable and could easily be translated into of one the better Batman graphic novels. I refuse to spoil any plot points, as you should enjoy them for yourself but I will say the boss fights are cool, particularly the run-ins with Scarecrow. Note that if you are Batman fan, as in one who reads the comic books, there will be a lot here for you. Interview tapes, as they're called, are recordings of therapy sessions with a doctor of the asylum and an inmate. From what I can tell, it appears that each of the famous super-criminals (joker, harley, killer croc, etc.) all have 5 interview tapes each strewn about the several buildings that make up Arkham Asylum. This brings me to the Riddler challenges, which sometimes include the finding of and collecting interview tapes. These challenges are a more fun re-imagining of the challenges you'll find in games like the Spiderman series, Prototype, Infamous, etc. There are 240 of them, and although some are just the flinging of your batarangs at wind-up chattering teeth, which can occasionally be found lying on the floor, or finding hidden trophies, some are riddles, which are rewarding for you yourself when you manage to solve them, but also, like all of Riddler's challenges, award valuable experience.
Finally, this game has the best combat system I've ever played in a video game. I've enjoyed all types, but at this point button-mashing combat systems have become so very trite to me. At first glance, Arkham Asylum's combat system might sound like it's a button-masher, as X button is attack, Y is counter, B is stun, and A is used to flip over enemies, while other moves include the simultaneous pressing of X and B, A and X, or RT and Y. However, in truth, the combat has so much more depth. Rocksteady has dubbed the system FreeFlow; your goal is to attack a group of enemies, sometimes as many as a dozen at once, using one continuous and fluid combo of punches and kicks and flips all the while dodging and countering the thugs' persistent attempts at hitting you, often with pipes or knives or stun batons. Every move has to be calculated quickly and on the fly, but with the occasional slow-motion hit to help you keep your bearings. This can be quite a challenge, but it's so much fun. I can burn away hours easily just fighting in challenge mode, another mode of gameplay apart from story mode. During story mode these large run-ins are not rare per-se but they aren't frequent either. The other combat mechanic involves hiding above the rafters and one-by-one incapacitating an oft-large number of gun-toting foes. Swinging from the rafters and using detective vision, which allows you to see enemies through walls and other obstructions, as well as detect heart rates and therefore deduce emotional response, and watching chaos ensue as everyone runs around, shooting at random things, close to tears, REALLY makes you feel like Batman. Doing this well, which entails being quick and silent, is so much fun.
I have but two qualms about the entire game: the fact that it's too tempting to just leave detective vision on all the time, which is akin to reading a beautifully colored comic book in black and white, and the fact that enemies apparently do not have peripheral vision.
All in all, this game is as close to perfect as games get, with extraordinary attention to detail and brilliant and fun gameplay, and is a must own for everyone over the age of 13.
P.S. I've never written a review before, for anything. so any tips or criticisms are welcome | video-games_xbox |
Don't forget to Wipe....out. First of all I want you the reader to know that i like the show "Wipeout", it's similiar to MXC which i love, so i'm not a wipeout hater. This game however is a pile of dook, let me tell you why. The whole idea of kinect is to make the player feel immersed in the game, YOU are the controller etc. I played this game with a 7 year and he was getting so frustrated with the delayed unresponsive controls. At first i thought he was having a tough time because he was a youngster, but then i tried and immediately understood his frustration, the controls and delay are unacceptable. There is a good one second delay between your movements and the character actually moving onscreen. Now, in a game where your timing is crucial, this is a HUGE problem. You have to jump a good second before your obstacle to enjoy any success.
My other major gripe with this game, the controls, really bring my piss to a boil. Kinect is supposed to track your movements and make you feel like your that little cartoon character. So when im physically running along and i suddenly physically stop, why does the game character keep moving forward? Oh i remember, because i didn't put my hand out like im directing traffic to get my little avatar to stop.... I mean i could maybe learn to deal with a one second delay, but when i have to motion to the camera with my hands to stop my legs onscreen i have to draw the line. It totally takes you out of the experience, you remember you are playing a crappy TV tie-in game. Why did they make it this way? Did they think it would be fun to learn all the different ways they want you to move? Why didn't they just code it to track your actual movements, that seems logical to me. Anyway, im getting "In the Zone" and sending this one back to Amazon for a trade-in to try and cut my losses before more time passes and this turd loses more value. GO WIPEOUT!!! | video-games_xbox |
A delightfully twisted, fun, and challenging adventure awaits. I originally found out about this game through my girlfriend, who's big into the Alice in Wonderland theme. I had seen screenshots and she had read online that it had some similarities to Zelda games, but other than that, I had no idea what to expect with this game. I was pleasantly surprised how good this game turned out to be.
Graphics:
Just amazing. Wonderland has never looked better and never looked so twisted... The game environments vary from a seemingly peaceful greenery, to dingy factories with steampunk-ish devices and artwork, castles made of playing cards, and each level has a very distinct look and feel. In fact Alice wears a completely different outfit for each level depending on the theme of the area. The cut scenes consist of regular game animation and crazy 2-D paper cutout Monty-Python-esque art that must be scene to believed and adds to the freakiness of this game.
Gameplay:
Madness Returns is a typical platformer where you jump, kill enemies, find items and hidden treasures, and solve puzzles. Throughout the game, you find Alice's memories scattered about that reveal clues to the story as well as unlock other surprises in the game. And there are Radula Rooms where Alice either has to solve a puzzle or survive an onslaught of monsters in order to 'paint the roses red' to increase her overall vitality. Enemies drop extra roses for health or monster teeth which can be cashed in for weapon upgrades. In addition to the regular 3-D action, certain levels in the game switch to a 2-D perspective where you play a sort of twisted "Super Mario Bros." game where Alice goes inside a painting, collecting peaches and avoiding obstacles and pitfalls. Another 2-d sqeuence involves Alice becoming a doll head and rolling her way through a puzzle like environment of cannons and rotating platforms. Tons of variety to be found here. There are only about 6 levels, but each one is HUGE and there's an expansive world at each turn.
Controls:
Alice has a LOT of moves at her disposal, and as you progress through the game, you will unlock new skills and pick up new weapons to use. Alice can double jump and glide in the air which makes a lot of the tough jumps in the game more forgiving, though you will fall in this game A LOT. Wonderland is fraught with a wide variety of enemies ranging from the weak but sneaky Bolterfly to the zombie-like Card Guards, to the towering Colossal Ruin. Each enemy has a certain weak point, and some enemies have more than one way of being defeated. Some enemies require certain timing to hit, others require certain weapons or even combinations of weapons, and some just require unconventional techniques to defeat. During combat, the enemies are smart, and for the most part mere button mashing to try to defeat them will get you killed quickly. Combat requires a bit of strategy, but it is still smooth and fast paced and fun! In addition to some other skills you will unlock, Alice gains the "Shrinking Sense" ability which not only shrinks Alice down to size to avoid enemies and fit in small places, it also reveals hints, hidden platforms, and secret entrances which she normally cannot see. Overall, Alice has a lot of moves at her disposal, and it can take some getting used to fighting and moving the camera when you need it at first, but it all becomes really smooth once you get the hang of it. Alice also has a "roll" maneuver that dodges attacks and makes her temporarily invincible. Mastering this is key to living longer!
Sound:
The soundtrack provides a creepy backdrop for the entire game. The music changes appropriately when combat is near or when there is a boss fight. I do have to admit on some levels, I had to turn it down just because it makes it easier to hear the hidden pig snouts that are scattered about to unlock treasures and secret areas. The monsters all have their own distinct growls and groans. Also, each monster has a signature attack sound that can help keep you alive in tense moments. The weapon sounds are awesome too. For the cut scenes, the voice acting is superb. Alice is one badass chick that doesn't let any of the characters mess with her. If you've got young ones around, beware as there is a bit of profane language that is used at times.
Story:
Creepy and twisted. Alice escapes from an asylum and gets pulled into Wonderland and finds out that the place is quickly decaying and she must find out who or what is behind it. In between levels, you play parts of the story as the regular "present-world" Alice character where you can only move and talk to people. These little mini-scenes provide a break from the action and help advance the story along, as well blur the line between what's real and what's fantasy. I won't reveal any spoilers, but the story is twisted and has some major jaw-dropping moments.
Challenge:
This game is HARD. Your first time going through it, you will fall a LOT, and you will die A LOT trying to figure out how to defeat an enemy or get past an obstacle. But Alice has one of the most beautiful character death animations where she explodes into a flock of butterflies and then reassembles from this same flock. The game is VERY forgiving
when it comes to falling as you lose no health and you will usually start exactly at the same point where you fell.
There are a few points in the game, however, where you must have good timing to make a jump and you have to start back aways if you fall, but like I said, for the most part, the game is really forgiving with this. The only problem is if you compeltely run out of health you start at the beginning of the area. This can be really disconcerting if you enter an area with a boss fight and have very little health. If you die, you will start at the same area with the same low health.
Replay Value:
Lots of hidden stuff. Finding all the memories and peppered snouts and radula rooms is not an easy task as there is no map, and you only get an indication on what chapter/area the items that you missed are, but you have no idea where they are. Outside of that, there's not much replay value once you complete the game. I will warn you that the DLC extra weapons and dresses pack will make the game super easy. So, I recommend this, beat the game normally, then download and install the DLC Weapons and dresses pack and get revenge for all the misery the enemies put you through!
Overall, I can't say enough good things about this game. The attention to detail with graphics, story, gameplay, and sound is just incredible! Well worth a purchase or at least a rental if you're really on the fence about getting it.
Also, some versions of the game include a bonus of the original Alice game that came out on the PC years ago. It's definitely a bit date with graphics and controls, but is still a nice free bonus. | video-games_xbox |
Boooooooo. Well, this game did improve a couple things from the first game. Such as the smoke bombs, double hidden blades, and the ability to hire groups to assist you. Other than that, the game is crap. They added a lot more stuff to this game, but none of which is useful or even fun. A lot of missions you do will pretty much require you do it only one way. There are horse race missions...unfortunately the horse controls are still just as clunky as the first one. You will repeatedly jump onto guards when you're just trying to get off a building (real helpful feature *sarcasm*). You get your own town that you can upgrade to get more money...but the only thing you spend money on in the game is weapons, in which, if you never spend money to upgrade your town, you'll have all the money you need to get the weapons you want. Some of those stupid puzzles you do are broken, such as trying to turn the rings to form a picture...but no matter what you do, some rings will turn together and never allow you to complete the picture. I hate the characters. You can literally assassinate 5 guys in a row before you start combat with whoever is left. The maps are busy, so it's hard to tell what's where.
This game also introduced the ability to blend in with crowds to stay hidden from guards. Unfortunately, this feature is broken, and I couldn't even do the introduction mission using that ability. You're suppose to follow the head prostitute around the block by blending in with the crowd and be undetected by the numerous guards. But every single time I tried, the crowd would ALWAYS stray away from her, in which I would either fail by being lead too far away, or I would try to make my way back to her and be caught by a guard. The only way I found to do this mission was to stay close to her while using the rooftops. Really, I tried again and again to do this mission the way they wanted me to, but apparently it is just based off of sheer luck if any crowds manage to go the same direction as her throughout the mission.
I'm sure I missed some stuff, but that's enough of the complaints. The first game concentrated on its strong suits and made you play minimally on its bad parts. Assassin's Creed II does just the opposite. I tried and tried, but the boredom and frustration from this game prevented me from finishing it. Again, almost everything added to the game was useless and stupid. | video-games_xbox |
Review comparing to a PS4. I bought my PS4 back in January, 2015. However my friends decided to go with an Xbox One instead. Just until recently I finally got an Xbox One just so I could play with them.
- Xbox's menu system is baffling and down right confusing with so many advertisements. While the ps4 is much more straight forward.
- Controllers: Both are pretty comfortable to hold and have a 3.5mm jack. HOWEVER the Xbox you are able to put in any head phones to play the sound of whatever it is you're playing which I think is super neat. Although the ps4 has a 3.mm jack, it does not with the same way. Now the downside to the Xbox is that the controller is SUPER LOUD. Especially the D-pad. That thing has the most obnoxious clicking sound. Also these controllers require AA batteries while the Ps4 has a rechargeable controller.
- Build of the consoles: The Xbox is almost double the size and weight of the ps4. This thing isn't a brick. It's a freaking cinder block.
-Ps4 actually outputs it's games to 1080p while the Xbox most of the time runs 720p when playing games.
- Honestly the exclusive games for the Xbox haven't been that great.
-Both visited internally can record gameplay. HOWEVER Xbox can only record 5 minutes while Ps4 records an entire 15 minutes. The Ps4 NEVER ONCE FAILED me in recording gameplay. However the Xbox, just some measly 5 minutes has FAILED me SEVERAL DOZEN times. I mean straight up either didn't record or only about 30 seconds. Awful. Just awful.
- Now I am loving that Xbox is being backwards compatibility to a lot of Xbox 360 games. My previous console was a 360 so it's nice that I don't have to drag out the old console to play them. Now they only have a handful of games that are compatible but it's still growing with more to come.
The bundle of games that came with this console are ok. I really enjoy playing gears of war again since I played it back on the 360. Rare replay... Some of it is good. Others are really just not fun. Honestly I'll probably never bother with it again. Also it came in disc form? Like the console decided it had to download separate games as separate applications, so I have 15+ old games cluttering my games tab. Yet in order to play a small game I gotta take out the my other game just to play it, even though it was downloaded.
Over all the console and bundle are alright. But really, honest to god, the Ps4 just has wayyyy better specs and features. Plus it does what the Xbox does with mostly the same games besides exclusives (besides backwards compatibility). But so far the ps4 has the better ones: Bloodborne, Uncharted and best of all The Last of Us. | video-games_xbox |
Sometimes you need to go back to go forward. There's no question that Battlefield and COD have been consistently at the top of the FPS genre for the past decade or so. Having played practically every title in both long running franchises, I found myself becoming less and less excited as each subsequent title moved further and further from the WWII settings that brought both franchises so much success. After learning that COD's newest entry was to be set in space, I thought that maybe it was time to move on...that is until I heard that Battlefield was not only going back to the 20th century, but going to a time period that video games have seemingly ignored, WWI.
This game does more to honor and respect it's setting than any other war simulator I've ever played. As soon as you turn the game on you are forced into a introductory single player "mission." This intro is confusing at first as it is set up to be unbeatable. As soon as your soldier dies, you take over the body of another soldier maybe 100 feet from the one you were just controlling. The graphics, sound, and sheer mayhem are like nothing I've ever seen on a modern FPS and set the stage for the rest of the game.
Like most shooters, the game must be appreciated for its single player and multiplayer experiences. Here are some of my reactions:
Campaign: EA and Dice finally figured out how to make a compelling and engaging campaign by essentially thinking outside the box. Rather than follow one story line and one group of characters, BF1 has 5 mini-campaigns, which they call "War Stories." Each War Story has between 2-4 missions, with numerous challenges and objectives set within each. For a game set against a war that spanned the globe, this was a brilliant way to give the player "a little bit of everything." It also acts as a showcase of everything the player can do in multiplayer. One war story has you playing as the driver of a tank unit, the other as an ace pilot, and another as a horse-riding Arabian assassin. This kind of campaign design may not have the long character driven story arcs that COD has done with varying degrees of success, but the mini-stories still have enough interesting characters and plots that keep you engaged and entertained.
Multiplayer: Like most shooters, the real value of the game is in the multiplayer. I've broken it down into several components which, I think, are vital to the success of any modern shooter.
Audio/Visual: 10/5...ok, 5/5. The graphics are hands down the best I've seen for a multiplayer game of this size. Aside the sheer realism of each and every map, the destructible environments make for a downright immersive experience unparalleled in modern FPS's. The sound is also top-notch and even more immersive when played with high-quality headphones.
Fun-factor (5/5): Basically, how fun is the game. Very. The four basic classes (not to mention the elite and vehicle classes) are well designed so that neither offers a clear advantage over the other (depending on which game mode you are playing) but offer enough enjoyment for players of every play style. Whether you like lone-wolf style long range sniping (scout), run and gun/tank-busting/killing machines (assault), or balanced objective based team player styles (medic and support) you will find the game a blast to play through.
Game Modes (5/5): The game has the game modes you'd come to expect in a FPS (team deathmatch, domination/conquest, rush/bomb-setting) as well as a surprisingly fun, albeit odd, new type called War Pigeons. But the real glory of the multiplayer comes in the brand new Operations game mode. These large-scale (40 or 64 players) "matches" act more like multiplayer campaigns than your standard MP matchups. There are 4 operations to choose from each with 2-3 rounds per operation. Depending on which side you are assigned, you will be either defending or attacking an interactive battlefront that will change as the attacking team gains more and more ground. These epic operations can last 60 minutes or more and offer everything the game has to offer.
Longevity (4/5): This is the one area that I would rate as less than perfect. Like most FPS's, the game has a plethora of unlocks and achievements to give players something to strive for. There are a recycled list of medals that reward XP for completion of specific tasks and a long list of codex achievements that basically do the same. In addition to your general player rank, players will also level up each class allowing them to unlock better weapons and gadgets for that specific class. The problem is that unlocks only occur at level 1, level 2 and level 10. The large level gap between levels 2 and 10 give little incentive to keep "grinding away."
Overall, I would rate the game a 4.75/5. While the unlock/reward system seems somewhat underwhelming when compared to other modern day FPS's, every other single aspect of the game has created a new measuring stick for all other games to follow. And I hope they will. | video-games_xbox |
Glad I rented this vs buying it. Ever see a movie trailer and think to yourself "maybe I'll wait until it comes out on DVD and rent it rather than paying to see it in the theater"? Well, after playing this game, I feel safe in saying that this one is one that I wish I had missed.
First the good, the graphics are really nice and the characters seem pretty solid as well. The fact that you can kill a dinosaur easier with a knife than you can an automatic weapon, while strange, is kind of cool. OK, that's about it for the good...
I'll skip the minor bad and go straight for the really bad so save space.
The game starts off safe enough, new guy appears on a military spaceship bound for some planet, looking for a "rouge leader". Suddenly, missle attack and the ship is going down. After crashing landing on the planet, only Turok and one other soldier is alive, at least at this point. You are on a planet with dinos and bad guys running around. Everything seems to go down hill from here. Now I like a challenge in a game, I have been through GRAW2, Assassins's Creed, Devil May Cry 4, and all 3 Halos. I like figuring out how to clear an area or how to get the best tactical advantage to advance in the game. However, after playing this game I started to use it for a frisbee. The battles in some cases have no clear ending, you clear the area, start to advance and a whole new group of guys come storming in. After the 3rd or 4th wave and several hundred rounds, if you are lucky enough to be alive, you MIGHT be able to advance if some guy wasn't hiding the whole time and blows up a barrel near you and takes you out. The check points are spaced so far apart that if you are being careful and taking slow movements so as to stay in hiding, it possible to start at a point, play for nearly an hour, get popped by someone you never even saw coming and go right back to the same starting point. Frustration SHOULD be part of the experience in a shooter like this, I agree, but at some point the frustration should be accompanied with catching a break, like putting more check points in the environment. The aiming on this game is really terrible. You have to try to bump the stick back and forth to get dead on the target while he and three of his friends are all shooting you. You know you are getting in trouble when things start going fuzzy and you have a hard time seeing. This is your health guage. A bar, or dial, a beep or something would be better. When you are fighting off the 3rd or 4th wave of soldiers to come into an area and you have already picked up all the spare ammo and you are doing your best to finish the area, your vision blurring a bit isn't a real clear indication of how much more you can take before you die.
In a nutshell, if you are despirate for something to add to your gamerang or gamefly que, this one might be ok, but I wouldn't recommend spending the $60 they are asking for it. Give it a couple weeks, I am sure you'll find plenty of these in the used game stores... assuming that people don't toss the whole thing in the trash to prevent the embarrassment that they purchased it in the first place. | video-games_xbox |
Game = A...Collector's Edition = B. To keep the game review short, I will just say that it is not only the best superhero-type game made, but it's a great game in its own right. There is a great mixture of stealth, fighting, action, puzzle solving, collecting, as well as a solid story and great characters. If you are even a little bit of a batfan, do yourself a favor and play the game. As far as 2009 goes, it's definitely in my top 5.
GAME: 5/5
Since I'm a bigger than normal batfan, I opted for the Collector's Edition and while I don't regret my decision, I would have a hard time recommending it to anyone else. For starters, the packaging it comes in is huge. I have a big collection and I had to put the packaging way off to the side, which is a shame, since it's a neat box, but it is about 20 DVDs long.
PACKAGING: 3/5
Inside the box, you get the game, a DVD, a new challenge level DLC, an artbook/journal thing, and also a "life size" model of the in-game batarang. I already covered the game, so next is the DVD. Making-of DVDs are hit or miss with me, and this one was solid, but not amazing. I will probably never watch all of it, nor pick it up to watch again. If you're really into this kind of thing you may have a higher view of it, but I thought it was standard fare.
BONUS DVD: 3/5
There is a download code for a single challenge room, which is actually a really neat level. Sadly, it's only the one level, and there is only the one challenge to go with it. I was hoping for a series of challenges on the level, especially since it's so neat...But alas. Still, it's something that would probably cost a few bucks if you downloaded it straight from Xbox Live / PSN...
EXTRA LEVEL: 4/5
Probably my favorite piece after the game itself was the journal/artbook. It's a leather bound journal filled with info on Gotham heroes and villains, most of which is found in the game, but it's still pretty interesting to leaf through. I thoroughly enjoyed the art style of all the characters, so having something to look at in my hands was more pleasing than looking at it on my TV screen. It's a nice touch, and fits into the game so well.
ARTBOOK: 5/5
Lastly, the model batarang. Reading about this thing I thought it was going to be awesome. I was kind of expecting it to be detachable from the stand, not be totally molded to it...Not that I wanted to throw it around or anything, but it would have been more appealing to actually hold. Also, it has been sanded down to look "used", I guess. I thought I had a defective one, like it had been really abused before being packed up until I read online reviews about it. This was the piece I was most excited about, and the quality just isn't there. It's an OK display piece, but fans like me likely want more than that. Considering this is also the piece that made the case enormous, it's kind of an extra kick in the teeth.
BATARANG: 2.5/5
Overall, buy the game and enjoy the hell out of it. If you really REALLY need collector's editions, it's not the worst one around, but the price is a bit off-putting. The value of the extras simply doesn't justify the extra $20-30. | video-games_xbox |
The game sound is amazing just like everyone else seems to agree with. There are a lot of negative reviews out there regarding these recently released headsets, but I just got them and they are exactly what I expected.
The game sound is amazing just like everyone else seems to agree with, so I'll address the mic. All of my friends could hear me clearly and I did not sound distant or far away as I have seen others complain about. It is possible that the mic issue has been fixed or the mic problems were only for a few headsets people purchased, but my mic works fine.
I have only had these one day, so if anything changes with the mic, I'll update my post.
My previous headset for the past 6 years were the Turtle Beach X4's. They are not compatible in any manner with the Xbox One, so I was forced to purchase a new headset. I did try to use the Microsoft chat adapter with my Turtle Beach PX3's, but the results were horrible and that is why I bought the Astro A50's.
I gave this rating 4 stars for three reasons. 1) They are pricey 2) The balance between game/chat is a bit cumbersome and 3) Mic monitoring is not very loud. Previously when I used the Turtle Beach X4's, I could independently adjust game/chat volume and I could appropriately hear my voice so i didn't talk too loud.
My game/chat mixing issue appears to be universal though. Whether you buy this headset, or any other headset, or buy the chat adapter, you now only have the option to adjust the balance between game/chat and then separately adjust the overall volume. That being said, with the Astro A50 Xbox One edition, I was able to easily find a setting where game/chat sounded great and I am completely happy with the resulting sound.
As far as mic monitoring goes, I can't hear myself talk, so I think I am talking louder than I want to. This is also partially due to the fact that these headsets drown out sound so well, that when I talk, I can barely hear myself.
Lastly, since some may be concerned about this, the headsets are very comfortable. A bit on the heavy side, but I will get used to that. Also, I have had no issues with interference of any kind, which is a huge improvement over my Infrared Turtle Beach X4's, which had constant static from my Plasma TV.
Since there are so few and some hard to find surround sound headsets for the Xbox One, these are a must have for anyone into gaming. Also, in case anyone is wondering, I did not perform any firmware updates to this 2nd generation headset as it should come with the most current firmware updates. | video-games_xbox |
I've Played A Lot Worse, But. I played the first Fallout on the PC (there wasn't any other play to play it). It was a game with an alarming vision of the future and a dark sense of humor. Like other games built with that engine it played on an extended canvas with a complex plot that featured both linear and freeform components. It wasn't my favorite game at the time, but there was enough challenge and originality to it that one could thoroughly enjoy it.
This new version, while it takes place in the same universe as the original, is a different game - really tuned to a different purpose. The original was a classic action/adventure game, with considerable emphasis on the adventure. Brotherhood of Steel is also an action/adventure game, but with far more emphasis on action. The plot - what there is of it - is linear. You are one of the Brotherhood of Steel, trying to join your fellow defenders of the good. Somehow, this plot gets sidetracked, though, and you wind up in a classic dungeon drilldown to an ultimate boss.
The puzzles are a bit on the simple side, and few of the fights require exhorbitant amounts of thinking. Get strong enough, get armor and a weapon, then kill, kill, kill. Despite the game's rating of mature (mostly due to language) it is really less gruesome than many games rated lower.
Even so, the game is enjoyable. Brash characters with a lot of attitude make a difference from the standard fare, and the graphics and animation are good (if a bit repetitious). There is about 24 total hours of play time and three different characters to play. Since I've seen games lasting 6 hours that are less interesting and just as expensive I'm not sure I can even complain about the value.
So it's not quite like the old Fallout, a bit simpleminded, better than mediocre but not incredible. In this day of inflated release prices, I can't really say if it is overpriced or not. If you are not in a hurry then wait for the price to drop a bit. I had fun playing it and I'm sure most others will have the same experience. | video-games_xbox |
A great game hobbled by bad decisions by Microsoft. So I want to give this a 5 star review. And the game absolutely deserves the 5 stars. It's a great refinement of an already great game series. The new guitar solos add an element that makes the game less about trying to get a perfect score and more about having fun. The music selection, as usual, is a nice mix of both old and new. I've discovered many bands and songs over the past iterations and this one is no different.
But the elephant in the room here is Microsoft. I purchased an Xbox One specifically because I owned an Xbox 360 and the songs that I purchased in RB1/RB2/RB3/Lego RB would carry over. I had assumed that it would be as simple as navigating to a menu somewhere in the store and saying "Download All", but that is definitely not the case.
For whatever reason, Microsoft (and from the sounds of it, Sony as well -- though I've not done anything with the PS3/PS4) has decided that having a Download All button isn't something that is needed. So instead you have to navigate through the store interface for each individual song. This involves clicking on the item, looking at if it has a price or not, and then downloading it if you can. For a product that only has a handful of DLC, this is a manageable scenario. But Rock Band has over a 1000 songs in the back catalog. This takes *forever*.
Alternatively, you can use the in game store, but again due to limitations set in place by Microsoft, Harmonix cannot offer you a single place where you can just look at everything you own and download from there. It is at least easier to navigate this way, but again takes *forever* to scrub through a 1000+ songs just to find the ones you own.
Making this worse is that Harmonix is continually adding more content. So you might scrub through the library and then have to do it again a few days later.
Adding to the pain, Microsoft managed to make the Xbox One completely incompatible with wireless controllers from the Xbox 360. What could've been a few bucks at most of added cost to the Xbox One has now become a standalone adapter that Mad Catz offers for $25.
Even more ridiculous is that Xbox 360 wired controllers, which connect over USB, don't work with the Xbox One, which also has USB ports. So for now, most of the Rock Band instruments that I have are unusable. Harmonix has mentioned that they would like to eventually support the older controllers, but this feels like this falls squarely on Microsoft. Xbox 360 wired controllers/instruments shouldn't be that big of a deal to support on the Xbox One.
I'm still hopeful that Harmonix and Microsoft will resolve these issues over time. Harmonix has been super responsive on updating old songs and making sure they are available under RB4, even stuff that was removed from the store. If anyone has shown that they care about their fans, it's Harmonix.
- Not a Harmonix Employee | video-games_xbox |
Awful unplayable Multiplayer. Let me start by saying I've been a fan of the CoD series for years and I still think CoD4:MW was one of the best games of all time. I've owned and played CoD4, World at War, MW2, MW3, Ghosts and now Black Ops 3.
I play CoD for the online multiplayer. Black Ops 3 on Xbox One is a complete miss for me and I'm having major buyers remorse. Let me explain why.
First off, I can almost never get a game where my ping is acceptable. Despite having a 75Mbps fiber connection, Black Ops 3 has constant and debilitating lag spikes. Every few seconds my game lags with the ping hitting 200+ms and frequently red lining at 400ms. Because of this I can barely play the game. When I encounter enemies, they nearly always kill me, I'm not fast enough because they have a solid jump on me. Whereas on my screen I just slightly see their arm then die suddenly, the kill cam would show them seeing my full body and having plenty of time to line up the shot. I've actually gone back to playing Ghosts because it's so bad. I have zero latency issues with anything else or any other Xbox game. It's definitely an issues with the game.
I'm not a fan of the futuristic approach. The fake futuristic guns pale in comparison to the actual real world modeled weapons from the previous CoD games. I'm also not a fan of the power ups. The Exo-suit boost abilities are ok. They toned it down from Advanced Warfare and I was surprised that I do like it.
The single player campaign is disconnected and failed to hold my interested. After showing you different abilities in the training missions they abruptly take them all away from you and make you unlock them back.
I was never a big fan of the zombies game type and therefore never play it.
Overall, I found BO3 to be a big disappointment and have major buyers remorse. I prefer to play Ghosts although the number of players on the servers is constantly dropping. Also, I'm so sick of the Season Pass BS and the fact that Activison wants you to shell out another $50 for some eventual DLC. I used to be excited for new DLC but the model the industry follows today of "release a half broken game and ask people to pre-pay for future unannounced DLC, then fix most but not all of the issues as you roll out the DLC, and finally never ever lower the cost of any of the DLC, despite how old it may be" annoys me to no end and I refuse to pay into it. | video-games_xbox |
No autonomy, horrible single-player. I stopped playing games that force you into a single roll, or a single course of action in the mid 1990's. I hated being shoe-horned into a game designer's idea of fun. This game contains nothing BUT those type of scenarios.
I bought the Hardened Edition on the suggestion from a friend to buy the game; specifically, we considered it a way to play together while we both live on different sides of the U.S.; however, given the game play, I could have been happier to continue using Skype, it's a much more fun "game".
THE HARDENED EDITION
I love the bracelet, it's functional... well, as long as it is actual paracord. I'll wear it and will see if the cord starts deteriating quickly or not. Other than the bracelet, nothing else is worth the higher price. I could have bought the regular game and a year's subscription for less than the price I paid for this version.
The box is huge and contains absolutely nothing to fill up the space. The bracelet is contained in a cheap plastic/velvet holder in it's own huge box. And then the game is in a light metal case that includes the 25 digit code for your 4 map DLCs & subscription and the game itself.
There is absolutely nothing whatsoever that would entice me to buy this again; I do not recommend the Hardened Edition to anybody. Create your own para50 bracelet, buy the DLC annual subscription and the regular COD: Ghosts for less than this trype.
SINGLE-PLAYER GAME PLAY
This is absolutely awful. I understand that COD has historically been a directed game; however, Ghosts takes it to the extreme. I do NOT want to play that stupid dog. Period. I cannot, and this is absolute, do anything other than play that damn mutt when the game wants me to do so.
The first 20 minutes are an excersice in idiocy. What were the developers thinking!?! So, as Logan I get to run after my brother, or die. There is no "objective" and nothing else to do but follow. The player has no impact on the storyline, at all. This should have been just a movie; however, for some insane reason, the developers thought their customers would have fun trying to run for 5 minutes or so through houses, buses, bombings, etc.
After that, the view shifts to "15 minutes earlier" and the player gets to control an astronaut who has no impact on the story. If the player chooses not to protect the lady astronaut, the scenario is restarted. The player either does what the developers want or the scenario restarts. Period. And, furthermore, the astronaut dies.
Moving past the boring opening sequence, the player is forced to use one tool and one tool only to complete a mission. I cannot choose to finish an objective using the tools with which I feel more comfortable; instead, the player must use the "remote sniper" otherwise, the scenario restarts, for example.
Overall, the single-player campaign is horrible. If you do not like to play, or cannot play, online, this game is not for you. I have not played the online map packs, I should be playing some next week, so I may come back on to re-evaluate this; however, I would give this a 1.5 stars rather than two, but I am not able to leave that so two stars it is. | video-games_xbox |
A great look into the game's past. The Good: Much improved graphics, fighting system is still intact, new modes, online play
The Bad: Fighting system is floaty and archaic, visuals now look like wooden blocks, more of an educational piece on the series than something you can play for long periods of time
Dead or Alive wasn't exactly cutting edge for its time back on the original PlayStation, but the game made enough of an impact due to its sex appeal with its female fighters. Dead or Alive is so basic in fact, that I can't really recommend this game as something to really get into and master, but more or something to have in a Dead or Alive collection. The combat system is all about holds, counters, and throws rather than fast paced crazy action like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter. It was a slower paced 3D fighter that was competing with the likes of Tobal, Virtua Fighter, Tekken, and various other 3D fighters of the time.
The story is pretty ridiculous and non-existent at this point outside of what's in the manual and character profiles, so I'll spare you the torture. The game actually plays quite well even today with the baseline of the Dead or Alive fighting system we know today. There're several punch and kick moves along with the counter hold button and throw button. The game feels a bit floaty due to the old engine and physics, but it works. There's a bit of charm to an old fighter like this. The game also features some of the first interactive stages with "danger zones" around the arena that do extra damage if knocked into.
The game received kind of an HD Remaster for the Xbox. The visuals are cleaned up with new textures and less blocky character models. What we get is an overly smooth almost wooden block look to everything, but it still looks miles better than the original game on PlayStation. This version also adds breasts physics, as if that's needed for something this ancient, as well as a, flew of new modes and online play. Even with all these modes, I can't see myself playing for more than 30 minutes at a time because the newer DoA games just make this one feel so stiff and archaic.
With that said, DoA 1 Ultimate feels like a nice bonus with DoA 2 Ultimate which is the far superior game. If you never played the original game you're not missing much, but it's nice to dabble in if you're a hardcore fan. | video-games_xbox |
Good tactics, bad strategy. I got the original X-COM: UFO Defense when I was 12 years old. It was a game that was so rich, challenging, and downright fun that I played it for years. Many other now-classic games came and went during my adolescence (including StarCraft, Half-Life, and Final Fantasy VII), but I probably logged more hours playing X-COM than any other game.
These days, I play very few games. But I felt like I had to experience XCOM: Enemy Unknown, a spiritually faithful remake of the original. Nostalgia is a powerful thing, and the new game perfectly captures the core elements that made the UFO Defense so exhilarating. Each mission is a bold gambit. Succeed, and you'll recover desperately needed alien artifacts. Fail, and you'll lose the veteran soldiers you've so painstakingly nurtured. There's palpable suspense as you wait to see what will emerge around the next corner. Sectoids? Floaters? Not... please, not Mutons!
Of course, game development has changed a lot in the nearly 2 decades since the original came out. Most of that is to the good: There's a streamlined interface that's flexible yet intuitive, as opposed to the smorgasbord of on-screen buttons in the original. The "Iron Man" mode lets you feel truly invested in your campaign, rather than facing the constant temptation to restore your last save every time you hit a setback. The enemy AI is excellent. Other aspects of modern games, like the constant chattering of your advisors and the superfluous cutscenes, are minor annoyances.
I have just one big complaint about Enemy Unknown, and that's with the base management aspect. Even if you attempt and succeed at every available mission, you'll lose the game within a few months of game time if you don't launch enough satellites to keep nations from panicking. And launching satellites requires you to not only build those satellites, but to build uplinks. Building uplinks, in turn, requires you to build workshops, power generators, and access lifts, which you have to dig to make room for. Each step of the satellite pipeline takes days of game time to get into place, so you have to plan ahead very carefully. But there's no creativity to it; it's just an optimization problem that you have to solve in order to keep playing the fun parts of the game. | video-games_xbox |
Holy Smokes This Game is Overrated. First off, I want to go on record as not being a Halo or Half Life 2 fan-boy. I am more of an action and RPG fan, if anything. Please keep that in mind before sending me any nasty-gram replies.
I fail to understand the overstated hype that COD4 has generated from video game critics and players alike. From either single player or multiplayer perspectives, Half Life 2, Halo 3 and Bioshock are far superior.
Here are the pros and cons:
Pros:
Graphics - No doubt this game looks great, though not as good as Bioshock
Sound - Great sound effects and voice-acting, again though, not as good as any of the shooters I have already mentioned
Cons and there are many:
Gameplay - tight shooting controls, but what is up with the enemies that re-spawn in perpetuity until you cross some invisible line on the map? For a game that sells itself on realism, that is quite hokey. The fact that you have to hold down one of the joysticks to run faster is quite clumsy. I liked the "semi-snap" to enemy function, but it just doesn't beat the mega-tight controls in Half-Life 2 (as well as the other games in the Orange Box).
Weapons - Though the guns look and sound great, the aforementioned shooters' weapons are better. Yes, those games have the creative advantage of fictional weapons, but this reviewer appreciates playing a video game more for the fantastical elements as opposed to realism. Even if we just compare the more "realistic" weapons, the main machine gun in Half Life 2, especially in Episode 2, trumps any of COD4's machine guns. It just feels incredible to weild that puppy from a video game perspective.
Multiplayer - Maybe it's just me and the fact that I am old, but I really do appreciate the wonderful simplicity that Halo 3 offers in the ease of understanding that I have to shoot the guy on the screen who's color is opposite of my team's. I could never figure out who the heck the enemy was in COD4 until I was "pwned" as the kids like to say. The enemy's uniform was the same color as my teams'. Yes, that's more realistic, but who the heck wants that in a video game (apparently everyone but me)?
There you have it. I just can not recommend this game. If you are looking for great shooters on XBOX 360, there are three of them out there that are top notch: Orange Box (The Half Life 2 series), Halo 3 (durrr), and Bioshock. | video-games_xbox |
Welcome to the world of Jade. Jade Empire - Circa 2005
GOOD:
- Good/Tight controls
- Nicely balanced gameplay (some might think it's to easy just go to the difficulty setting and crank up the difficulty)
- Lots of different and interesting fighting styles to earn and choose from
- An original story with some twists and turns for you to discover (by talking to people). The story also has multiple endings (either good or bad outcome)
- Variety of different locals to travel to (all done in nice detail)
- Action RPG with lots of story (told through character dialogue) and real-time action
BAD:
- Not a traditional RPG or a traditional beat-em-up (like Final Fight), so it might upset people looking for more of either
- Slightly liner gameplay
- Dialogue trees might be to long for some that want more of an action game
- Some complain of long loading times, but Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic and fable had loading times just as long
IF IT FITS YOUR TASTE:
- Has mythical/medieval Chinese theme
- Action RPG with real time fighting (like in Fable), no turn based fighting (like in final Fantasy X) and no "partial" turn based fighting (like in Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic)
- Light RPG elements, think of this as an RPG for people who like RPG's but hate tracking statistics and complex weapon/armor upgrading. Great for people who like action/adventure games (like Onimusha) but want a lot more story
- Lot's of story and dialogue if you ever played Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic one or two you'll know what I mean.
GAME ITS MOST ASSOCATED TOO:
- Fable
- Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
- This special version has a bonus disc with a new playable character, weapon and a making of the game video (made by G4's show Icons)
- After you beat the game and during the credits, you get some really funny dialogue from the game's main story characters | video-games_xbox |
Not as good as the previous Halo games. (Played Halo and been a fan since 2001. I've been playing Halo since I was 11 back in 2001 have had every halo game for the Xbox and Xbox 360. I RECOMMEND HALO 3,ODST, REACH , and NOT 4. Bungie who was lead on all the Halo games up until the last one leaving this one "Halo 4" being the first where Bungie didn't run the show and all the things were done by 343 so alot has changed and is very miss leading. Personally I thought this was really talked up to be something its not. Multiplayer is a CALL OF DUTY RIP OFF!!!!!!! Breakkdown below:
--Graphics are mind blowing, detail to people, aliens, and robot things are like no other. The sounds are very different nothing sounds how it should in fact some of the rifles on multiplayer actually make me mute the TV from time to time because the sound is just annoying. Sound is very poor and often off key but the graphics and visual effects are just outta this world.
-- The campaign or story mode is the same nothing new for the pasted ten years. Basically if it moves shoot it and that alone sums up the whole game. If you never played a Halo game you probably won't understand what is going on. At one time you made peace with the enemies and now you wake up 4 years later and things have changed and they hate you again. The developers of the game never explain why..... The story is really short and isn't very well explained. The actors or voice overs are different and characters traits were changed which is a huge turnoff when you followed something for years and someone suddenly changes it.
-- Multiplayer is a poor futuristic copy of Call of Duty style play. First for whatever stupid reason they make you install a disk 2 before you can even play the game, the disc should be with every copy though. They have "load outs" or "custom classes" which you can change up and make different weapon combo types to start out with. You have a choice between 3 or 4 primary weapons, 3 or 4 side weapons, and 3 different grenades, not much of a selection at all. There are also perks like invisibility and some weird useless shield thing, these "perks" used to be part of every game and could walk around and have them. The weapons on maps are very limited to what they used to be. The walking movements are very slow and stiff and combat is not as fun and fast pace like it used to be in the previous Halo games online multiplayer. Also game play is very glitchy and not what Halo was all about before.
--Spartan Ops is a mini side mission stuff that have relations to the campaign or story line using you're own personalized Spartan. So far I have found these to be quite fun and there are alot of them so it will keep you busy for awhile. They also add more every other week or so. This was not in any other Halo games but is a great addition.
As a Halo fan since 2001 when the franchise first hit shelves I am not very pleased with this game. I was overly excited for nothing and they made the game look better in trailers than it actually was. Right now there are alot of better games like this out so I really wouldn't rush on it. | video-games_xbox |
This Is A Hard But Rewarding Game. When I first got this game I was very excited. The game looked very promising with the Car of Tommorrow and the addition of the Toyota. When I popped it in my system though the experience was totally different then I expected. This is a very difficult game to play. You oversteer just a little bit and your going to wreck. You hit too many cars you get black flagged. I was getting very frusturated and was about to return it back the day I bought it. I'm happy I decided not to though. After about 3 days of playing it I started to get the hang of the game. The driving system makes you learn how to become a good player and once you start finishing in the top 10 it feels like you acomplished something. This is a racing simulator and shouldn't be confused with the other arcade Nascar games. The graphics in my opinion look very decent between the shadows and how the sun reflects off the car. It's all solid. As for the sound it's about on par with all the older Nascar titles so don't be expecting too much from this department. There is no multiplayer mode unless you go online which kind of sucks. The bright side though is there is a solid list of racers in the game. In the truck series there's about 10 real life drivers such as Johhny Benson and in the Busch/National Series there's about 30 guys and in the Nextel series they have about 45 real life drivers which is more than there previous titles. Some notable drivers are missing though such as Carl Edwards due to some licenseing agreements. Overall this is a good game but it isn't meant for someone who wants to pop in the game and start winning races. It takes time and patients but it pays off in the end. Once I finally got the hang of the game I started having a blast. If I reviewed this game the day it came out it probably would have been a 1 or 2 star game like most of the people are saying but now I believe it deserves a solid 4 stars for achieving a sense of realism such as in the damage department, flags, and the handling of the car itself. If you want a very realistic game of racing I suggest you pick this up otherwise if you want a more arcade racing title stick to the older Nascar titles such as last years Nascar 07. | video-games_xbox |
Very impressive. I've played all the soccer games. I have played nearly every video soccer game since the 1980s and I have to say that honestly, this is the most enjoyable through and through that I have played. The graphics are stunning and the game is very smooth to play.
Comparing it to other mainstays FIFA 07 and Winning Eleven, I have been frustrated with Winning Eleven in that I find it VERY unrealistic when it comes to human players shooting the ball at goal. Nearly every shot against higher AI levels is blocked by defenders -- they form an impenetrable wall. I have watched hundreds of real-life soccer games, and undoubtedly only a small, small percentage of shots are blocked by fullbacks. FIFA 07 was more fun in that regard but as other reviewers have noted, the collisions are queer in that game. A computer player runs into you and you fly five to ten feet back like you ran into a brick wall.
In this game, I have played through three entire Champions League tournaments, winning two against Professional difficulty and I'm currently level 4 in Ultimate Team mode. And after all that, I feel this game is bar none the best soccer game I've ever played. You don't run into brick walls when you hit players, every single shot is not blocked by diving fullbacks. The graphics are out of this world. Building your team by collecting cards is quite fun. Sending through balls, players making runs, fatigue, injuries, they're all very realistic in my opinion. The only caveat I would add is that FIFA 07 has more variety to offer in terms of types of matches. Here you only play Champions League games (which I personally love!!)but in FIFA 07 you play through domestic leagues, cups, and UEFA or Champions League tournaments, if you qualify. I plan on returning to FIFA 07 as a sister to this game so I can play in a domestic league, I enjoy the rivalries and such, especially in the Premier League.
The only pity is that all of that is not included in this game, so I don't have to go back and forth between games. I applaud EA Sports Canada team for an imaginative, smooth, beautiful and very fun game. If they never make another soccer game like this, I'm just glad to own this bit of video soccer perfection. | video-games_xbox |
College Student Review of the Xbox One. This special white Xbox edition is appealing on the eyes and adds more of an aesthetic value over the original Xbox One. For gamers, Xbox is one of the leaders and constantly fights Sony over the top spot review-wise over which console is better. There is a mass variety of games available for this console with the majority being suited towards the "hardcore" gamers. Regardless of what game you prefer though, the Xbox One supports many styles of games, such as sports games, hardcore games, or laid back arcade-style games. With this specific bundle comes the Halo: Master Chief Collection which is a hardcore game, so if you are looking for a game for a younger kid, I would look into a different product due to the graphic content such as language, blood, and gore that is in most hardcore-type of games. One other thing to note is that the game play is smooth and more realistic than its past predecessors and is among the best in terms of picture quality along with PC and Sony's PS4. Also, if there is ever an issue that someone comes upon, Microsoft will create an update to help fix the problem. From personal experience, I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience with the Xbox One. I am a person who enjoys shooters, role-playing games, and other party-type games. Another added feature that I appreciated was the internet functionality, such as online multiplayer, digital downloads, and video streaming such as Netflix. With that being said, I should also mention that I am currently a college student and tend to pass my free time by watching movies with friends as well, so having Netflix was a big plus to having an Xbox One as well. Overall, the Xbox One is a good overall choice for someone who is interested in gaming for fun or competitively. It is also intended more for people who are of teen-age or older due to the graphical content in most games that are released on this console. | video-games_xbox |
Mario Kart meets Fuzion Frenzy. This is a good title for families who play together, or younger children with siblings. If you can get beyond the cutesy cover, the game is actually fun for all ages (I'm 32), but is perhaps a bit too simple to hold the attention of more sophisticated gamers for long.
The premise is that you control a living pinata who wants to 'entertain' at a party (why you'd want to be whacked open and broken I don't know!). In order to see which pinata gets to go, they hold races and party games to see who has the most 'candiosity'. After each event, you earn candy based on your performance, and after all the events, the winner gets sent to the party and wins the game.
First, you do a very Mario-Kart-like race, which seems to award no points, but this is the most important type of event you'll see. After each race, you play a series of short (1 minute?) challenges, and you'll earn bonus points for how well you did in the previous race. Since you get the race bonus for each mini-game, the races mean a lot more than the individual events.
Many of the events require rapid button mashing, and sadly, those tend to be the most fun ones. Others require more timing finesse and accuracy, while others involve careful positioning of your character and usually bumping other players out of the way. Those can lead to a 'pick on the winner' game, which does keep the overall score fairly close.
The game is best played with 2-4 players, the more the merrier. It's perfectly playable 1 player, but the computer competition offers very little challenge overall, and there is no difficulty adjustment. On the other hand, a few games seem to have a completely unbeatable computer but perhaps I haven't learned the secret to beating those yet. It doesn't really matter because as long as you win the races (I always do), you can come in last for most of the events and still win.
If you enjoy games like Mario Kart, Muppet Party Cruise, Shrek Swamp Party, or Fuzion Frenzy, you'll know what you're getting into here. | video-games_xbox |
First Person Shooter's Ultimate Show. The game will grab you, pull you in, and make you feel the tension that movies like The Rock or Armageddon have; the only difference is that you are the main character in this movie that is called HALO.
The graphics are great, which is expected out of one of the flagship games that Microsoft published, but what is truly impressive is the game play.
The variety of things that your character is allowed to do is vast. From your first stint with the WartHog (a new age Humvee that is virtually indestructible), to piloting one of the highflying enemy Banshees, you will understand the amount of detail as well as the flexibility that the developers at Bungie have instilled into this game. When you aren't up for the rush-in-and-frag-anything-that-moves mode, you are allowed to do so.
One of the unique features that HALO offers is the ability to become a sniper. Unlike other first person shooter games where the enemies do not play by the rules while you are sniping, the enemy AI takes into account coverage, distance, and although I am not for sure on this I believe noise. The sniper rifle comes with a variable powered scope (only 2 actual variables, 2 and 10), which allows you to zoom in and see the beady little eyes of the alien puke before you launch a slug into its head.
The storyline mode has made super leaps in engrossing the player into the game. It is by far the best first person shooter storyline that I have every played. It brings you in through an assortment of challenges and pulls you in by means of beautifully done supporting characters. The end is climatic and when you finish your heart should be pounding.
The multiplayer mode looks very interesting. I have played it only once, but what I have seen has made me want to play more. They offer around 10-15 standard death-match, team play, and other assorted types of multiplayer action. What I find truly wonderful is the ability to custom design your multiplayer game rules. You can add vehicles; specify weapons, and an assortment of different variables.
If you own an XBOX buy this game, if you don't buy an XBOX and then buy this game. One last note, I want to address a review that I read telling parents not to buy this or an XBOX because of the graphic violence. HALO has been given an M For Mature (Content suitable for ages 17 or older), parents have been warned, and if they purchase the game they should not allow their children to go running around the neighborhood while toting Deer Hunting rifles pretending that they are reenacting HALO, and then blame Microsoft and Bungie. | video-games_xbox |
Great design, built for both kids and adults. Let me start by saying that I'm a 39yo married gamer. I'm also a huge Marvel fan and enjoyed the lego Marvel game so this buy was a no brainer. I took Nick Fury as my free character and he arrived in the same shipping box as the starter set. while these starter sets start on the expensive side I have to say that this one was worth it, even more so with the free character. Keep an eye open in the near future for B1G1 on the figures, they run those deals pretty often.
ok on to the game.
The graphics and story are impressive. It will really keep a kids interest and is fun for an adult player as well. If you want a fun game to play with your young ones this is the way to go. they will also be introducing new characters over time so replay value is high. Each character has it's own unique abilities which leaves you with many different ways to solve puzzles. I like the format over skylanders which forces you to buy specific characters to access locked areas. Here they start you off with a solid team to play the game with while leaving the option to buy more figures open to your leisure. When you do purchase additional play sets, you also expand the game. The figures are well made but what really makes them stand out is the liberties they took reinventing the character models. Venom is by far my favorite design. I cant wait to see how they expand the game down the line, this is just the beginning and its an awesome start
I've seen some questions posted so I'm expanding my review. The Toy Box feature can be used by kids pretty easily. If they play Minecraft then this should be a cake walk. You can build, modify, and trade game worlds in the toybox so the game is truly never ending. The other thing is about the discs that add powers, outfits, vehicles, and so on. you get two in the starter pack and purchase additional packs of two random discs for about $5.00. The kids love these things and there are many local retail stores that have disc trading events where you can trade off your doubles. This is a great way for kids to interact and for you as a parent to spend time with them. Keep your eyes open as well as the disc packs are often on sale for b1g1. Even though this game is compared to skylanders, I think Marvel Infinity 2.0 is more accessible, interactive, and cheaper for parents.
Another side note, the mini discs can get misplaced rather easily but there are cases that are sold for them. If you want to do it on the cheap I recommend a 3 ring binder with baseball card sleeves. total cost under $5.00 and it will give you more then enough room for your entire collection.
feel free to ask any questions. | video-games_xbox |
Perfect substitute for Scufs. I wanted a cheaper sub for Scuf controllers, and these are great! Typically, if you're looking for something like this, then you're more than just the casual gamer, so spending $20 extra dollars on a more sophisticated controller is perfectly reasonable, but $60 more? That's too much, even with fancy designs on it. That's why I love my Razer, it's got six extra programmable buttons, and all buttons on the controller (even default Xbox ones) can be reprogrammed to anything you want on the fly, which is unbelievable, and there are 3 program profiles so you can switch to between games or situations. I actually use all of the extra buttons, especially the bottom rear ones, and the small one above the right trigger, which is programmed to that one. It makes shooting semi-auto weapons like snipers or single fire rifles and just about every other kind of gun so much better since it is a clickable button, not a pressure trigger. I never use my A button or right trigger at all anymore because the new programmed buttons are so much more convenient. It does take getting used to when you first use it, but so it's not as bad as picking up a playstation controller for the first time. Contrary to other users, I actually use ALL the extra buttons. The top ones are Select (so I don't have to move my thumb to check scoreboard, info screens, or views on CoD, GTA, or any other game) and right trigger for easier shooting, and the bottom buttons are all face buttons (A X, Y B), so neither thumb ever moves from the sticks. The menu was very simple and easy to understand for me, but a simple read of the manual was probably why.
The only con I can think of is the back buttons are constantly getting pressed as they are very sensitive! So placing the controller on my knee or not on a flat surface has led to many accidentally skipped cutscenes and accidental unwanted moves, so that can get really annoying to the point where I will switch to an unused save profile on the controller to avoid this problem.
Overall, idk why anyone in their right mind would pay 120 bucks for a Scuf when they can have a controller with way more features as the Razer for only $80, unless you want to support a professional team or something. I recommend this controller to everyone, not a singly doubt or second thought has ever crossed my mind about buying this controller! | video-games_xbox |
But when the first Forza Horizon game came out I fell in love. Forza Horizon 3 turns everything up to 11 . I've always been a fan of racing games, and especially Forza. But when the first Forza Horizon game came out I fell in love. Forza Horizon 3 turns everything up to 11 and is the best Forza game ever made. I simply can't stop playing it or recommending it to racing fans.
Forza Horizon 3 is full of fun and unique challenges that are all so varied it's difficult to become bored. There are still the standard and championship races, with new and crazier showcase events (racing against a blimp is just one example). But what really sets it apart is the added layer of customization. When setting up a race the player has the chance to change what style cars race, even making every car one specific insane model (3-wheeled Reliant Supervan anyone?) and setting day/night & weather cycles. Championship customization includes deciding which races take place and how many, meaning you can create incredibly long, challenging championships.
The best part of the game is the location though. Horizon 3 covers rain forests, grassy plains, a sprawling city, and gorgeous sandy beaches. Anytime I was tired of one location, I just drove to the other side of the map and raced there instead. On top of all that the game is beautifully rendered, and detailed beyond belief. I stop driving every couple minutes just to take in the scenery and marvel at the vistas.
My complaints are minor, and barely worth mentioning. Championships often repeat tracks that I've already raced, which isn't a huge deal but gets tiresome. This is a much more personal issue, but I felt like there were far too many races in the construction area of the game. I knew those tracks like the back of my hand, and it lost it's appeal. Meanwhile, I wish there'd been twice as many races on the beaches. Sand, plus water, plus mud (if it's raining) makes for some tense, exciting races that I want more of. These are all small things, and don't mean much. This is a five-star game and it deserves your attention. | video-games_xbox |
This game excels at fun. Something many developers have forgotten. I bought this title, because it was a budget price, and looked like it might offer some fun for a few days. It's given me that and more! I've played this more than any other game on my 360 so far. First, let me qualify that this is not a "top tier" game in graphics or realistic physics. It's really not ground breaking in those respects. They do however serve the material well. The entire game has a delightful B grade movie feel. If you've ever enjoyed movies with giant ants, robots, UFO's, and Giant Godzilla like monsters, you'll instantly get the appeal of this game. The ants and spiders teem and swarm over buildings. The giant robots have a 70's comic book aesthetic. They plod along with a perfectly believable gait for their size. Reminding me of the slow but inevitable advance of the AT-AT's in Empire Strikes Back. They are definitely my favorite enemy, as they satisfyingly recoil with each well placed rocket or sniper shot to the head. It's also great fun to watch an onrushing swarm of bugs get broken by your grenade launcher, sending a couple of Mack truck sized ants into the air. Good times!
This game does not have an online component, but I don't think that is a detractor. Most new FPS games are focusing online and leaving less material for single player games, and less and less on console multiplayer support. In exchange, you get 50+ levels with different missions and enemies, and a selection of 5 different difficulties. The harder level you play the better the weapons you receive! I'm only now starting to play on Hard and some of the weapons are becoming VERY satisfying.
The levels are usually simple. Objective? Kill everything or destroy an objective. Simple. No running around looking for that last enemy (they're all on your radar), no looking desperately for that one power up or switch to flip. You are also free to run anywhere, and the levels are huge. You aren't canned into a set path like most FPS singleplayer. The buildings are fully destructible. One rocket or grenade and they believably crumble ala Independence Day. The only things I don't like, are that you get knocked down in some attacks making it impossible to maneuver, and that the vehicles are almost impossible to pilot effectively. The mech and tank could have been much more satisfying than they were. If you chose to use them, they make better gun emplacements. Shoot with them as long as they last, then fight on foot.
If you are a hardcore 12 year old twitch monkey, or a FPS elitist, you might not like this game. If you'd just enjoy a game you can put in for 15-30 mins of mindless shoot'em up you can play with a friend, this might be the game for you! Mine was $20 new. It is a steal and a pleasant surprise, especially for that price. | video-games_xbox |
Great investment for a cordless gaming headset! Great for Xbox One and a rescue for a PS4 gamer. [Please forgive the dust! These have been used for a few months now and where I live dust is in everything. I wiped them down and before I could finish taking pictures there was more dust. It's worse in the ones with the flash. I tried to pick the set of photos with the least amount!]
I can tell you the original headsets that come with the XB1 are crap. They had a short life in my house with moderate usage on both Xbox Ones - mostly Battlefield 4 playing with party chat. It took them about 4 months to stop working on the mic side and another 1 month to have bad sound. That forced us to save up and invest in a headset. With our 260s we have Turtle Beach X12s so for us Turtle Beach was the logical choice for our purchase this time. I did take a look at a few other headsets at a similar price range (Between $100 and $250) but the others either lacked function or they did not have the crisp sound and voice I was looking for. I settled on these because of the price range, the features, the lack of cords, and my loyalty to Turtle Beach as a customer for 10 years. Background: I have played video games since the age of 4 starting on the NES and playing through most all consoles from Atari to present including on my personal custom built modest gaming PC. I play a wide range of games including rpgs, mmorpgs, fps, moba, puzzlers, platformers, retro, sim, fitness, and kids stuffs when I am able to. My other half has played most of his life and is much more of a hard core gamer than I since he doesn't have limitations. Through our years of experience gaming and ownership of different headsets played on different consoles I feel comfortable reviewing this headset which I didn't purchase on Amazon but instead at a local Best Buy store (two headsets). I also have extensive experience with hardware on the beta side and I'm very familiar with the bugs and issues that these headsets can have (read further for the reason behind the star loss).
For the two Xbox Ones in the house Turtle Beach 420X's are great for the most part. They are wireless and have a little usb stick that plugs in the back with a blinky green light that is bright as hell since the one in the room is not inside any shelves but sits on a table. At night it can be annoying but a square of electrical tape over the green light can fix that real quick. I have had issues with the headset making a garbled tech noise and then there is no sound. Either no game sound and no party or in game squad chat or there will be game sounds and no party or squad chatter. I have unplugged and turned them off and then replugged them in as well as green screened the Xbox One to a full reboot with no successes. It has happened with both headsets but only to me which is not strange - if hardware has a rare bug I will likely be the one to find it. It is likely a sync problem between the headset and the usb receiver. Other than that they are a standup headset for the price.
Great sound, great room noise cancellation, crisp voice, and separate volumes for game and voice chat. They do drown out the noise outside the headset well so be aware that anything less than shouting in your face is going to go unnoticed. One handy feature is that any noise picked up by the boom will quietly repeat in the headset like an echo. I thought it would be annoying but actually found it handy when chatting or having other people in the house trying to talk while I had the headset on. The downside - if you have loud housemates or dogs then you might be muted by party or squad members while gaming! I would say move no more than 50ft from the usb receiver before the headset ceases to sync. The headset remains on but the sound goes silent and nothing you say will be broadcast until you are back in range. The sound adjustment buttons take getting used to but if you are an avid Turtle Beach user they are simple and straight foreward. The battery life is great and they charge fast with the cord they come with (which is short) and meant to plug into the Xbox One. Experience though proves that the Xbox One's ports are not even slow chargers and I don't recommend relying on them for anything but firmware updates for controllers or charging a controller while not in use. I personally use a 15ft quick charge microusb for my tablet for my headset and it works well plugged into a wall wart while I play with no interruption to sound or quality. Turtle Beach warns against that though and I suggest not doing it as it can damage your headset if you get the wrong cord. The headset also comes with a cord to plug it into a mobile device and I have used it on my tablet and phone and it works well just a bit bulky for anything but house lounging. We have a TiVo Roamio Plus with a mini attached to the other Xbox One and the headsets do very well. I can mute the TV and have sound through the headset. Buddha would like me to use that more when it is like 1am and I am watching Orphan Black but I have the boobs and he doesn't therefore no argument! With two of the exact same model there has been no cross interferance and I have walked to within 10ft of the other console/receiver and not had any disconnect, feedback, or streaming from that stick. My headset has stayed synced with my console and its own receiver. I count these as budget headsets (yes, even though they are about $150 USD) and they are worth the pricetag. Are they 500X's, nope, but they are definitely more than functional and have taken a gentile beating.
My rating reflects the fact that this headset meets the description but because of the frequent bouts of silence and errors it lost a star. When I no longer have the issue for a couple of months I may upgrade this rating. Regardless (since I am the only one among my group of friends who have purchased this headset who has experienced the random issue) I absolutely recommend them and love that they are cordless. | video-games_xbox |
As close to perfect as a game can get. Before I played Mass Effect, I had no idea what type of game it was. As I loved Bioshock due to its Karma system, a friend of mine recommended me Mass Effect and now that I have played through Mass Effect 2, boy am I glad that I was recommended this game. So what is so special about Mass Effect.....
CHOICES/KARMA SYSTEM: In this game, you will have to make so many at many different levels and each choice you make will give you positive, negative or neutral karma and will have MAJOR impact on the game's story, missions and gameplay experience. You can be a paragon of justice or a renegade who gets the job done with whatever means necessary. Best part, you don't have to be either good or evil throughout the game, should you choose you can make both positive and negative karmic choices throughout the game. A lot of these choices will be made by simply having conversion with plethora of people in the game; however, you will also make choices by your action and type of character you choose.
MAKING YOUR OWN CHARACTER: In Mass Effect, you can be male or female of any ethnicity or color. In a lot of games you are stuck playing a character that you may not like. Not in this game. In this game, you can be any type of character you want to be. Furthermore, you can also choose class of your liking for your character. For example if you love different types of weapons, you can be a soldier. If you like sci-fi psychological powers, you can be biotic. You are a hacker, then you can be tech. And again, what you become will have great impact on your gameplay experience.
CREATE YOUR OWN TEAM: Along with your main character, you can also controller two other characters. Again, you can choose who those two characters can be. You can have a good looking female soldier, a tech specialist quarian, a violent krogan, a tactical turian, a biotic asari or a cyborg. Again who you have on your team will greatly affect how much you get out of your mission and outcome of your mission.
WEAPONS AND POWERS: As mention in above section, yourself and your allies can be from various classes and each weapon, armor and power you can use is upgradable. Throughout the game you will come across plenty of variety of weapons and armors (depending on how much you explore), each with their unique advantages.
OPEN WORLD GAMEPLAY: In this game, you have plenty of galaxies to explore. You can travel from galaxy to galaxy, landing on different planets as you wish. Plenty of missions and exploration. Just loved it.
VEHICLES: You have a vehicle for different planet exploration. So along with third person shooter gameplay, you also have access to this vehicles to search different planets for resources and blow your enemies into bits.
GREAT RPG EXPERIENCE: Leveling up can become addicting, especially since you have control over what particular traits you want your character or allies to have improved.
AMAZING STORY: It is possible to get side tracked by side missions, but the main story is freaking awesome and somewhat suspenseful.
GREAT REPLAYABILITY: The game was about 50-60hr long the first time around for me. If you play as paragon, you would want to play it again to experience the story as a renegade and vice versa. Especially if you decide to go after the achievements, you will be playing this game over and over again.
As for cons, the game does have some glitches and combat doesn't feel as smooth as I would like, but that will not bother you as this game has so much fun to offer you. If you like RPG, star wars and shooters, this is the game for you. | video-games_xbox |
Great Football Video Game. When I first heard about this game and that you could play football legends I was ecstatic. Finally a football video game that actually has the great football legends and with their actual names, numbers and faces. With special skills and stats for each one. It seems to me the makers of this game must be Dallas Cowboy fans because I was able to fill my roster with all time Cowboy greats. Such as Roger Staubach, Emmit Smith, Drew Pearson, Ed Too Tall Jones, Moose Johnston, Alvin Harper, Harvey Martin, Ken Norton Jr., Charlie Waters, Leon Lett, and even an ex-Cowboy Kicker Murray. There is also Randy White, Troy Aikman, Cliff Harris, Billy Joe Dupree, and Bob Lilly.
Problems: The field goal kicking and kick offs are all screwed up, even if you do everything perfectly it is still impossible to make anything more than a 15 yard field goal and it is very difficult to get a decent kickoff!
Make sure you save the game in your profile! It will not save your progress automatically.
The game gets progressively harder as you move forwards into the season. This is to be expected, except it is so hard that it is next to impossible to beat certain teams taking the fun out of the game,. More on this later....
The game has special moves and abilities for each player that you have to use controller configurations to make happen. However, the moves are not in the manual and they are very trying to use even if you do know them.
Solutions to problems: One thing that keeps happening in the game is you will get called for penalties every time you do anything great or if it will cinch the game. So I turned the penalties off. I also turned the injuries off because my star players kept getting injured and taken out of the season. Which then makes playing the game pointless. Another thing is there are so many plays and formations it's impossible to really learn the plays of the game with the clock running on you so turning the penalties off will enable you to take your time and choose plays.
Turning off the penalties and injuries was the only way I could get through the game. Even on rookie mode, which is difficult enough.
All in all this is one of the best video game football games ever made. Maybe even the best. It is not Madden and more challenging. The play control is very good and the announcers are somewhat funny and interesting. Although they repeat themselves a lot just like in the Madden games. The music is cool. The theme song of the game is Rush's Tom Sawyer, which fits somehow...
The graphics are from 2006, but they are pretty good for the time.
You can customize your team, city and stadium. I created the "Dallas Law" with silver and blue colors. I picked the Laws star as my logo. It is a little bit of a pain to use the color editing, but not impossible. You have to fiddle with it a lot to get everything right, but you can eventually.
My players were as follows:
Roger Staubach QB (Gold Player)
Emmit Smith RB (Gold Player)
Moose Johnston FB (Silver Player)
Drew Pearson (Silver), Alvin Harper (Bronze), Rocket Ismail (Bronze) WR's
Ed Too Tall Jones,(Silver) Ken Norton Jr. (Bronze) Charlie Waters (Bronze), Harvey Martin(Silver), Leon Lett (Bronze) (Defense)
I got all ex-Cowboys as my Gold, Silver, and Bronze players so I was happy about that.
You only get two gold players, and only so many silver and bronze players, so choose carefully, or not.
I'm also working on a Joe Montana as QB Team and John Elway as QB team.
I hope this helps, I doubt anyone will probably ever read this but if you do enjoy the game. Hope they make more like it in the future. Thank you. | video-games_xbox |
BTTF the game finally arrives on Microsoft's consoles. I've been waiting to play this game for along time and it finally arrives today
for the Xbox 360 & The XBOne
If you love the Back to the Future Films..... This games is a must have/play
The only thing i know about it it's a unofficial follow up to part III co-written by Bob Gale
I've stayed clear of all the info on this game for years Cause I was hoping to be able to play it on home console one day
and the day has finally arrived..... It looks awesome from the screen shots I've seen of it
Update 10-13-2015
I would've loved to express my thoughts on this title but, my copy came today broken in the case!
My luck is horrid...... guess I'll have to wait a little longer........
Update 10-19-15
After putting 2 hours into this title I'm torn
Let's all be honest Talltale Games put out broken unpolished titles all the time
This the 30th Anniversary of Back to the Future is no exception to that
It should've been tested much better before it was released to the public
There are bugs in the game (audio will drop out, some items will not be on screen)
I handed a character a document the character was holding a invisible doc. in his hands for a little while then the document magically appear in his hands
I played this 10-18-2015 there should've been a patch by now....
Graphics: are a mixed bag I'm surprised the people behind this game did the art style
It looks strange and very hard to get use to
It has a cartoon look to it but, it's off they should've copied the BTTF Animated cartoons look imo (But, I'm old and lame)
sometime it has this strange Disney look to it other times it don't
the look overall never stays leveled sometime i think I'm playing a game on the Game Cube
Other times it looks really crisp and you know it's back to the future!
Controls: The controls are meh
the biggest problem with the controls is wrestling with the fixed camera
If you love the original Resident Evil and Silent Hill titles you'll be at home with it the fixed camera is a nightmare
It doesn't break the game but, it's your biggest enemy by far!
Sound:
the sound and all v/o actors are the strongest thing so far
getting a number of the original cast members to do this was a massive effort
whoever does the v/o as Marty McFly did a decent job (he mimics Michael J. Fox close to flawlessly but, there are a few hiccups you'll catch) Nothing major
Thomas F. Wilson does most of the heavy lifting doing a laundry list of Tannen's
the v/o actor who did George McFly was way off (how they couldn't get Crispin Glover I'll never understand)
you also get the iconic Score (which adds a lot to the feel of the game)
One thing i realized Telltale Games is the Zack Snyder of game developers
they never put out any original IP's they grab onto licenses that already have a massive fan base and build games based on there property
and nobody questions them or at least calls them out for this?
If the games ran smooth with no bugs or problems there would be no negativity towards them but, that's there tell....
It's still a steal at $19.99 plus it has new Bonus exclusives new to this 30th Anniversary release
I'm sure i'll enjoy it The story is the strongest part the horrible fixed camera with so/so controls can be forgiven 9/10
I guess Telltale Games don't believe in quality control none of there titles can ever run smoothly
I'm shocked Telltale hasn't tried to broker a deal for a Quantum Leap game
that series still has a massive fan base and let's be honest the ending of the series was a downer with no real closer | video-games_xbox |
Legit. Ok for real though, I waited so long to buy this thing just hoping it would price drop but gave in about 4 months ago. So I'll start by saying that I'm the type of person who takes really good care of my stuff. Like I don't even drop my phone or anything because I am so OCD about my stuff, but it pays off because this controller is amazingly high quality and the people saying the controller is breaking, you're doing something wrong. It's not just a normal controller, and it goes right back in its case when I'm done playing, unlike all the old controllers on the shelf. Installed a plug and play rechargeable battery immediately so you're not having to take the back off constantly. Also, you can't have hulk hands when you play or this probably isn't for you. Just because of how sensitive everything is. It comes with 3 sets of joysticks, each a different length and the middle one is dome shaped, which I think is the best all around, I like the swappable DPADs and the fact you can take the paddles off any way you'd like, even though they never come off. The hairpin triggers are legit, but when playing a game that has right trigger as shoot, but also as drive when in a vehicle, you will notice a major decrease in your speed lol. Also, whoever decided it was a good idea to not only let you save multiple profiles, but add a switch for 2 built into the controller!? Freaking genius. All the swappable parts and extra little bits all added to the controller may sound kind of silly, but I actually swap out and use different configurations depending on what type of game I'm playing. Oh yea and it comes with a cable so thick you could probably stand on it like a tight rope. But the greatest thing of all by far, is having the ability to jump and reload and change weapons all while never taking my thumbs off the sticks. Sure, you can use bumper jumper to jump and aim, but the advantage is real. Literally my one gripe about this controller is that once you start figuring out your best set up and using those paddles, you will never use another controller again. It's so nice that it made the original Xbox one controller feel like a McDonald's toy now, and that's pretty sad. I eventually picked up one of those silicone sleeves for it, and that helps protect the controller a little more as well as prevent sweat, cause I mean this thing is really expensive. Worth every dollar and probably even more. This is all 100% my own personal opinion, no one paid me or discounted me anything, in fact I didn't even buy it on Amazon, but had to leave my 2 cents because it is that good. This controller will change your life lol. The bottom line is, it's a Lamborghini of a controller, and you should probably not just toss it around like your others. This is why we can't have nice things people. (I painted the DPADs and paddles) | video-games_xbox |
Subdue and Penetrate. "Subdue and penetrate"--Motto of the New Zealand All-Blacks Rugby Team.
I was only passingly familiar with Rugby when I got my hands on Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge, but I had played a lot of sports games so I thought I would give it a try. I was happily surprised by the addictive gameplay, intuitive controls, and just plain fun that Rugby Challenge offers. If you don't know much about Rugby, imagine the violent unholy lovechild of a marriage between football and soccer. It's football without the armor. It's soccer with full-speed tackling. It's pretty awesome.
If you are familiar with xbox sports games, you will probably be able to skip the tutorials and dive right in. However, if you are not familiar with Rugby there is a lot to be gleaned from the tutorial levels. The tutorials are broken into basic, intermediate, advanced, and professional tiers, each with about 6-8 skills. These skills range from moving the ball down the field to rather complicated manuevers like rucks, scrums, and onside tossing. Unfamiliar with the basics of Rugby? The tutorials are also very useful for giving you a decent vocabulary and solid grasp for the mechanics of the game.
There are several game modes: single game, career, and multiplayer.
The single game allows you to select 2 teams and play as one of them against an AI opponent. Many rugby teams from around the world are assigned a score (100 point scale). I can't speak to the completeness of the offering, but I did find a lot of teams to choose between. I found this mode particularly useful to transition between tutorial and career because I could select a fairly robust team for myself (Crimson) and lesser team for the AI (Praetoria) and have a little wiggle room to try out what I learned in the tutorial. This wiggle room is not present in career on "normal"--it is a very challenging game.
The career mode starts you out as nobody and lets you rise to the ranks of superstar, if you're good. You'll need quick reflexes to beat a fairly smart AI. Theere are a few times when you want to shout at your AI teamates to get into a better position, or catch the ball, but for the most part friendly AI works well. There are no scripted "plays" or selcted offensive/defensive moves to assign to your team. Rugby involves a lot of tackling and short kicks to move the ball down field. As you earn money through your successes, you can unlock photos and features through an in-game shop.
Multiplayer works well. Finding a match was not a problem. Rugby Challenge should be well received in Europe (where Rugby is more popular), so I would think there will be a robust long-term community that builds up around this game.
I am not one to play a game with clunky or confusing controls (there are way too many great games out there): Rugby Challenge offers intuitive controls that let a newbie have fun immediately and at the same times gives players a deep experience that will challenge veterans for many hours of play.
The graphics are solid. I would say they are maybe not quite as glamorous as the latest Madden, but they are great looking locations, detailed stadiums, detailed players, neat presentation works well.
SUMMARY:
Whether you are new to Rugby or grew up playing it, Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge offers something to all fans of sports games. I rate this game 5-stars for "Fun" (very addicting, well paced game play). Overall I gave the game 4 stars because Rugby Challenge does lack some of the precise polish of major sports games. Additionally the lack of plays to call can also make coordinating your team a bit frustrating. | video-games_xbox |
Become a Kung Fu Legend. Kung Fu Panda the game follows the story of the movie fairly well, but it does deviate here and there, and the actors from the movie did not voice the characters, but the stand ins do just fine. The game is a brawler, and though it promised we get to play as the furious five, the game barely gives them any screen time save for a few quick time events (press/mash the right buttons to advance kind of deal). Though Shifu (the kung fu master midget) is playable for a few segments, the vast majority of the game is played as Po. The Xbox 360 Version features graphics that got a face lift compared to the PS2 version, and are much more crisp. Aside from the aforementioned graphics, and some minor cosmetic menu changes and some extra level segments, the games are the same.
After the tutorial level, Po starts his journey with a meager arsenal of attacks, merely slapping his enemies. As the game progresses, we see Po's skills increase in combo size and move sets, so we get to see Po's progression as a Kung Fu master and it is a nice touch. The levels are linear, and feature a few mandatory objectives, but also house optional quests and hidden objects that can give bonuses to the player if found. Coins litter levels, dropped by defeated enemies, broken objects, or just laying around for the taking. It is in your best interest to collect as many as possible, as they can be spent on upgrades.
Upgrades can really tip the odds in Po's favor, and are even retained when backtracking to already completed levels. Also hidden are Rare Coins. These are usually hidden well, so keep your eyes peeled. There is a counter of Rare coins collected in the level select menu, so you know how many you've missed and can go back for them. Rare Coins unlock extras, such as behind the scenes stuff and multiplayer add ons like new characters and new games. Speaking of multiplayer, it's pretty good for what it is. Up to four players can play at once, and either beat each other's brains out or play mini games.
Po does have a pretty sweet arsenal of moves, including fast and strong attacks, an uppercut that lets him juggle his enemies, a ground slamming belly flop, and the ability to roll up in a ball. Rolling can damage enemies and let Po reach places that are otherwise inaccessible. Like any good Beat 'em up, weapons are also available. Po can pick up a staff to increase his damage for a while, but the weapon breaks quickly, so use them for emergencies only.
All in all, the game works well for what it is. It plays well, the controls are tight and responsive, and there is incentive to collect coins and even backtrack to get the coins you missed. A few nitpicks are that the audio can get annoying, like hearing Po yell things such as "Whoa!" every time he jumps. Given that some areas require you to jump a lot, that gets annoying after a while. Aside from that, and the lack of the promised playing as the Furious Five, the game is fun and can be enjoyed alone or with friends. Check it out, it's a steal for the price. | video-games_xbox |
Catherine/Katherine...The Love of My Life. FYI: I purchased the Alternate cover version of the game but decided posting my review again here might be more useful to those looking into maybe buying this game.
As I am writing this review I am at about 5-6 hours of gameplay and past the 3rd stage. So almost halfway through, this review is to give those considering buying this game a sense of what it is like.
There are 3 difficulty modes: Easy, Normal, and Hard. I am playing through on Normal because the puzzles can be frustrating at times and I have died on Normal many times already.
The puzzle gameplay is the main focus of game when you are in the Nightmare stages which you have to push and pull blocks arranging them in a way so you can climb higher and get through to progress the love triangle between Vincent the main character we are in control of, Katherine his longtime girlfriend, and Catherine the mysterious blonde who works her way into Vincent's life. Each puzzle has a time limit which is imposed by either the lowest line of blocks falling off one after the other or a Boss that chases the player as they climb higher, although a Boss is only on the final level of each Stage.
After each Nightmare stage is completed you wake up to progress the story in the real world through text messages, conversations with your friends, and spending your nights drinking in the bar called Stray Sheep.
So far each Nightmare stage has two levels and a final level, each stage and level has had varying obstacles and traps to stop you from progressing and frustrate you as you try to solve each puzzle. But along with this frustration I always feel great satisfaction when I find the correct route and narrowly escape death. After beating a level you end up on in an area with other "sheep" who also have to climb to survive like Vincent, here they will give you tips on climbing and you can purchase different items to help you in the puzzles although you can only carry you item and picking a new item up replaces your current item.
In Stray Sheep there is a mini-puzzle game called Rapunzel which mirrors the game of Catherine except the character in that game is saving Rapunzel by climbing blocks to reach her long hair. In this mini game though you have a limited number of moves you can make, but you don't have blocks falling from under you and you don't have a time limit either.
Overall this game is for those seeking an actual challenge from a game and don't want to just be along for the ride while the game basically plays itself. I have played Portal and ilomilo, both of which are great puzzle games, but this game might be above those in terms of great story telling combined with great animation and incredible and difficult gameplay.
On a side note the alternate artwork looks great and I liked it more than the normal artwork cover shown online, my pre-order came with a bonus sound disc with songs from the game and a 20-page artbook which both are great, the music in the game is perfect for the nightmare tone using orchestral music like Chopin and Beethoven. | video-games_xbox |
A fantastic, and terrifying journey. This game is fantastic. When I bought this, I was not sure what to expect. It could have easily gone either way, being a horror game.
This game did not meet my expectations- it exceeded them. The environment you are thrown into is dark, terrifying, and puts you in this constant state of paranoia that a Necromorph will pop out and come for you. It is the first game I have ever played that actually makes you feel uncomfortable going into open spaces, or areas that are quiet. Even when in areas that are safe, you never feel truly safe.
Graphically, this game is gorgeous, the details are very articulated, and grungy. Fully lighted areas are as rare as a safe haven to rest. There are even some parts that really are genuinely pretty, like the view of space, whenever you get the option.
Gameplay-wise the game is amazing. The Necromorphs are constantly changing. Just when you think you have it down on how to combat them, new ones with new strengths and weaknesses pop up, keeping you in a constant state of adapting, so that you an survive. There will be stretches where you will be low on ammo and health and will need to be clever to defeat your foes and stay alive. Sometimes running is the only thing you can do to keep your head on your shoulders, until you can stock up on ammo, and replenish your health. A lot of enemies in this game move fast and can appear anywhere. Sometimes they'll just drop down from an open vent you did not notice, or pop out of an enclosure that you would not think they could possibly be in. The weapons selection is varied and each one has it's own perk, and drawback. You can't realistically have every kind of weapon at your disposal as it gets costly keeping them all stocked, and you have prioritize what you should buy: medpacks, upgrades for other weapons and your suit, etc. I just pick two weapons that I prefer and stick to keeping them stocked with ammo and upgrades.
The story concept while not entirely unique is told well, and made to feel fresh, so you're not 100% sure what to expect, which is a good thing, in a world where content is constantly recycled. The main character, Isaac Clarke, does not talk, or express any kind of character traits. He basically plays like Samus, or Link; the personality is pretty much left up to your imagination. There is no multiple choice, and the game and story are pretty linear, so there is no room to make any kind of Skyrim-esque choices that would effect the gameplay, or story. The side characters are overall interesting. The antagonists are creepy, or foreboding, and your allies are actually genuinely likable. Like you actually develop an attachment to them overtime. One issue you will suffer is, you will never be positive of whom you can trust in this game- even your own allies will leave you wondering if you can fully trust them and their motives. This game just generally keeps you constantly on edge, but in an enjoyable way. It can get hectic, and render you panic-stricken at times, but fighting the enemies is satisfying, and the rush you get when fighting them, and beating them down keeps you addicted and seeking more. There were even a few points, where I took delight in trolling my enemies. :P
The story compels you to keep going, even at times, when you genuinely would not like to (trust me, there are moments that you really do not wish to go forward in the game, because you know that nothing but more horrors await you).
If you are looking for a great horror game with a scifi element implemented, then buy this game. You will not regret it. | video-games_xbox |
Incredible game...best Star Wars game ever. There have been a myriad of Star Wars titles over the years. Most of them have been flight simulations that, while decent, get stale very quickly. Knights of the Old Republic changes everything. Not only is this one of the best Role Playing Games in a long while, it is quite possibly the best Star Wars game period.
You start out by choosing your character class. Depending on the class you pick, you will have a certain amount of hit points, number of skills, and unique abilities when you level up through the game. For example, the soldier class will yield a stronger character with more hit points, but a scout character will start you out with points in abilities like computer hacking and repair, and you will level quicker and possibly gain more 'feats' (special abilities) per level, but ultimately be much weaker in hit points.
The game itself is somewhat typical of an RPG. Talk to NPC's and get quests. There is a main mission throughout the entire game but there is a vast number of side mission for you to complete. Combat is real-time, though it is a form of turn-based real time in that you will input a command and wait for your action to be performed, but the action will never stop. When you finally gain the use of force powers, combat will be taken to a whole new level of fun and challenge. Chances of hitting are based off 'D&D' rules with rolls of dice. It is computed randomly, and there is good chance of scoring a hit, but at the same time there is every bit as much good of a chance you will miss.
There are some mini-games, such as a card game called Pazaak, which is basically a modified game of Blackjack. Other games include Swoop Racing, quite similar to the Pod Racing popularized in Episode I and its respective games. There are also brief stints where you must face ships in combat in outerspace. It is basically a shooting gallery, and is very easy. The core gameplay revolves around the RPG game.
The story is very intriguing. There are many characters who will join your group as the game progresses. Some are optional, some you might just pass by, and some you might inadvertantly kill before they join you if you aren't too careful! The characters all have their own little stories and even sidequests that will open up as you talk to them more and more. Some of the characters, like Canderous Ordo, a grizzled Mandalorian veteran, add a distinct personality to the game. There are also shocking and surprising twists towards the end of the game that will completley blow your mind, and it keeps the game exciting. The ability to lean toward the dark side or light side of the force is a fun little aspect of the game as well, and it does have a direct effect on the game's storyline and outcome. As a fun bonus, as you lean more towards the Dark Side, your skin will become ghostly white and veiny, ala Emperor Palpatine from the movies. You will also get more vicious, with evil and manipulative responses for conversations. You earn Dark Side or Light Side points by making decisions and triggering events in the game. You must be careful...if you lean toward the dark side you will inevitably bar yourself from more of the game's features and easter eggs...but being evil is so much more fun.
Some of your characters will also interact with each other. For example, having two characters with similar backgrounds in your group for extended periods of time may yield a conversation between the two of them. Often times the conversations could be heated and negative, other times the characters will get along quite well and be very friendly. It is little bits like that which make the game a blast to play. Talking to NPC's can get very boring, however. Since many aliens don't speak English(Basic, for SW fans and game terms), they repeat the same gibberish over and over and over. And it also takes them about 30 seconds just to say 'Thanks and goodbye' since they talk so slowly and mutter so much gibberish. I often found myself speed-reading through the text and skipping along since I had no desire to listen an alien spout 'jibba wubba flubba bobo' 7 times in a row.
Despite the game's pros, it is not without its faults. For starters, it is extremely glitchy. Many times the game would momentarily freeze, and then start up again while in the pause menu. Other times during combat the character would suddenly warp to another part of the area, leaving your other teammates to fend for themselves, often times unsuccessfully. Sometimes you will freeze during combat, unable to move or execute commands (from a glitch, not from a gameplay status). Sometimes, characters will die in the middle of a conversation, ending the game. How or why that happens I don't know, but it is particularly annoying to be in the middle of an involved conversation, and then mysteriously drop dead for no reason. Other glitches include your teammates wandering off, leaving you to fend for yourself, most of the time unsuccessfully. They will either become stuck on a corner or will just not participate in the fight, making them useless. This game easily could've spent another month, maybe even 2 months, in development. I'm surprised it was released with so many obvious and detrimental glitches.
The game gets extraordinarily hard at the end. While it is to be expected, since it is the end of the game, there are some parts where it is just too overwhelming. This adds easily another 5-15 hours in the game, dying and restarting. Thankfully, you can save anywhere, at anytime. And saves are unlimited. This makes for an excellent gameplay experience.
I highly recommend this game to any Star Wars fan. Even non-Star Wars fans may be intrigued by the game's sheer excellence. Despite its problems, SW:KotOR stands out as possibly one of the best games i've played, and definitely one of the best games on the X-Box. | video-games_xbox |
What were they thinking. I wasn't sure what to expect from this game but it came with the system for free so I decided to try it out.
First the good. The battle system is actually kind of fun. There are some decent bosses and enemies that require some different strategies to take care of. There are some decent customization options for your characters. That's pretty much it for the good.
The bad - Where to start? Well, let's start at the beginning. The opening scene is just awful and as soon as this game starts you will dislike the main characters immensely. Really... the landshark... just stop game. Every character in this game (aside from maybe Kluke) is just down right awful. Shu is annoying (He'll let you know many times throughout the course of the game that "he won't give up".), as is Jiro (who is my new personal favorite word to call someone who fails at being a hero since he fails hardcore in this game while trying to save Kluke.). Then they introduce Marumaro later on... and made me want to kill myself. This thing is my least favorite character of any game ever made. I don't just dislike him, I hate him. Not only is he just a bad overall character, but it sounds like they got a 4 year old to do his voice acting. This wouldn't be horrible in of itself but he talks a lot and every line he says he screams annoyingly loud. You can't choose to mute him as he randomly pops in during conversations with his screeching. It got to the point where I would yell at the screen anytime he would talk because he is that obnoxious. I wish they had given me the ability in this game to go through his village that you visit and slaughter every last one of his people. What doesn't make any sense though, is that the other characters actually like this freak, which makes me dislike them all the more. I feel bad later on for Kluke when Shu and Jiro try to woo her. It must be pretty awful knowing these are the only two losers that want you. Zola isn't too bad but then you find out she enjoys hanging out with Marumaro and you dislike her too. Then there's the bad guy Nene and his stupid pet. They're both pretty awful as is his terrible plan.
Story - I'd describe it but then I'd be giving out spoilers as most of it is the terribly designed plot of the main bad guy. It's pretty awful, let's leave it at that.
Music - There's nothing really good or bad about the music. There is one interesting part though. The first time you fight a boss battle and you hear the music start playing, you'll be like, "what the heck is this". This plays for every boss battle along the way with the exception of maybe 3 or so. You will remember this song for the rest of your life. The first time or two you hear it, it might annoy you. Once you hit the third or fourth time you'll actually find it catchy. Link included if you want to listen to it. [...]
Battle animations - This is a huge annoyance. I don't know when RPGs decided that I enjoy watching my characters or the enemies take 20 seconds to do something but I really hate it. This isn't every enemy in this game but there are a few. The worst offenders are some fire creatures (don't remember what they're called)around the mid-point. They take about 20 seconds+ to do their attack. I ran into a group of 3 or 4 of them and they got the first strike. I literally sat there for almost 2 minutes watching them dance around prior to their attacks before I finally got to do something. This one regular battle took me more then 5 minutes to finish.
Searching through town - This gets it's own topic because it's vastly annoying. Almost every object in this game can be searched in towns or dungeons to attempt to find treasure (money, exp, a stat boost item) which you'll find often. The problem is that every time you search something, the game does a 3-5 second animation of your character searching through the object. This wouldn't be a huge problem but there are well over a thousand things you can search throughout the game. The worst is when there's nothing in the object and you still have to watch the search animation and then it just says "nothing" when it's done. Why would you do this? Why make such a huge time wasting animation? It'll often take you around a minute to clear a small room. You don't have to do any of this if you don't want to but later on there is a character you talk to who gives you decent rewards based on the number of "nothing" objects you've searched. If you've been searching throughout the game, this will be a very high number.
Difficulty - The game is relatively easy. I didn't die once throughout the course of the main game. You will also get a huge number of random items throughout the course of the game that you will never find a time to actually use.
Overall - I finished the game, but it's a chore to do so more often then it is fun. There are way better RPGs out there with way better characters, story, game play and difficulty. Don't bother with this. | video-games_xbox |
Fun Game. This is my first review for any game, but seeing how this has hardly any so far I will give it a go.
First off, this isn't grand theft auto. It isn't as deep story wise and the variety of pedestrians and vehicles is lacking. That doesn't stop it from being very fun and addicting.
Story: You are a mercenary in Venezuela trying to hunt down the guy who shot you in the a**. The way you do this is by making friends with various factions to get more info. The dialogue is very funny in my opinion.
Gameplay: This is where the fun part is! Nearly everything (well I haven't found anything so far that isn't) is destructible! The physics when blowing up buildings and vehicles is pretty amazing. Anyhow, the majority of the gameplay is doing missions for the various factions. For example....Drive a truck load of rum from point A to point B. The missions are all pretty much go here from here, but they are entertaining nonetheless. The story missions are pretty good too. The repetativeness starts when taking out high value targets or having to do the repeatable (i.e level 1 rum running, level 2...etc...) missions. They are fun, but it doesn't keep me glued like the story missions.
Graphics/Sound: These are very nice! The explosions NEVER get old. I love seeing the C-130 fly over head to drop a daisy cutter on unsuspecting guerrillas! The sound is very immersive and great in 5.1 surround.
Replay Value: 7 out of 10 Pretty much grinding out faction points to make money gets old after a while. The only thing that makes this fun besides doing missions is wreaking havoc downtown with bombing runs and artillery strikes!
Quick Rundown:
Pros:
-Explosions!!!!!
-Variety of weaponry and vehicles
-Storyline missions and doing faction repeatables the first time.
-Smart and funny dialogue
-Easy to master controls
-Very hard to die (con also)
-Others I can't think of...lol
-Better than Just Cause
-Great Graphics and Environments
Cons:
-Faction repeatables lack variety other than shortening time to complete.
-Lack of pedestrians or vehicles other than faction owned.
-Hard to die
-Where are the flyable airplanes? (only 61% done so I can't say they aren't there)
-Where are the parachutes? (the only + that Just Cause has over this) | video-games_xbox |
Life Begins at 170? Not In My Opinion. PGR 3 is a game that will not overwhelm you in terms of features. There are only 80 cars and many of them are widely unknown. That said, the graphics are definitely next gen. Shading and light are magnificently combined with sharp, crisp lines and an overall very realistic game. In fact, if you look in the mirrors of the cars you can actually see the real background going past. With five distinct camera viewpoints one will definitely suit you. Physics are sort of realistic, but seem rather simple; most likely based on weight and power. Something that impressed me was the engine sounds; they were considerably different from car to car, but still need some work on the V8 vehicles. You start out with 85,000 credits and have the choice of some ten to fifteen cars at first.
It is clearly an arcade style game and I hate to compare it to the Gran Turismo series, but to me it is a standard which pretty much every other racing game is held to. It falls well short. A kudos system is still used as was in the first and second PGR, which is a thing that when you do powerslides and other crazy driving you get kudos points which I'm not really sure what they do. The only thing I can gather is some of the races involve getting a large amount of kudos in order to finish. I think that is ludicrous-it is a racing game not tokyo street drift. There is an online mode where you can watch other people race or race them yourself. I do not subscribe to xbox live, but I imagine this adds another valuable dimension to the game. In the solo career mode you start with a couple of cities and different challenges are afforded to you-speed camera, cone challenge, street race. There are five game difficulties: hardcore, hard, medium, easy, beginner. For each successive difficulty you gain more credits for completing the challenges.
What I have a problem with is the fact that a car that costs 50,000 credits drives faster and manuvers better than the 300,000 credit Ferrari. The second thing I see wrong with the game is the actual cars. Makers of PGR3 only put cars on the game that have a top speed of 170 mph. That is good and all but you feel kind of like basically Ferrari and Lamborghini are using the game as an advertisement. I would say 25% or more of all the cars on the game are just these. Of course they are amazing race cars but I want to see some more cars that I have heard of. There are plenty of amazing cars electronically limited which I'm sure could easily top out and 170 mph or better. Maybe it is just because I'm used to simulation games where you have fifty car makers are able to customize everything from the air filter to the muffler for more power. What was done most poorly on PGR3 was the illusion of speed, everything seems slower than it should. In the end the game is fun but falls short of what I expected. What I would do to improve the game is add more car makers, better known cars and at least the ability to upgrade the engine. Overall I would give it a 7 out of 10. | video-games_xbox |
To Chat or Not To Chat. This headet is much improved from the Xbox 360 all around but could still be better.
Xbox One was originally not supposed to include a headset. With all the backlash they recevied the recinded this option and included this headset. Since the decision was so late I was expecting a cheaper headset but what we got was an improved headset from the Xbox 360 but still not where you would expect to be to go along with a $500 system. I expected a wireless headset at least, but this is what you have.
That being said, the two major changes with this headset are the connector and the headset wire are both welcome changes.
Connector: A lot of people are upset that they got rid of the standard headset jack and replaced it with a propreitary connector instead. This doesn't both me as much since I don't have a wireless headset yet but there is an adapter coming. The quality can be seen in the connector and it stays in a lot easier then the old standard headset jack. I am hope that they propreitary conector to give us high quality sound in the future. Time will tell. At least its not the worst part of the Xbox One controller (RB/LB buttons, I'm talking about you).
Headset Wire: Wow, when I first saw the wire for the headset I that it was a black rubberband that is wrapped around the headset wire. That is exactly what it looks like too. It is lot better quality wire then the 360 version and it is a lot longer too. Almost too long though. I am not sure how long some people arms or necks are but the length seems a little excessive.
Over all sounds and quality: Not the best headset ever made, but it does the job and it does it pretty good. As with the last one I wish you could make it a little louder and hear sound from the game and not just chat. Not bad for the price and a big improvement from the last system.
If you need a headset this is really your only choice for now. The real question is: To Chat or Not To Chat? | video-games_xbox |
Game is hamstrung by limited battlefields and lack of solid throttle control. Air Conflicts: Vietnam is a game that in the right hands would be an incredible addition to the gamer's collection - especially those who enjoy flight combat games. This game suffers from two major problems, though:
1. The limited size of the battlefields. This is apparent in both the Campaign mode, which is a linear story mode, and the more relaxed Scenario mode, where you get to choose the type and number of aircraft you wish to battle against. There's very little room, it seems, to manuever on the field before you reach the edge of the battle area and have to turn around. And I found myself constantly turning around every few seconds just to avoid leaving the field. Such field constraints are not new in video games of this type, of course, but it seems like in other games I played the constraints were more generous. Not here, though.
2. There's really no such thing as solid throttle control in this game. You can hit the afterburners to speed up, and you can hit the brakes to slow down, but that's it that I was able to see. Careful if you hit the brakes too long, because the aircraft will stall, and I have yet to recover from a stall in this game.
To the developer's credit, there is a large selection of period aircraft available in this game. Players start with the F-100 Super Sabre and the F-105 Thunderchief, two American aircraft that saw extensive service in Vietnam, but other aircraft can be earned along the way, including the F-4 Phantom and the B-52 Stratofortress. Helicopers are available too. The developers did get the look of the aircraft I saw in the game correct, so in that regard the realism is spot on. And they also added a feature I've not seen in a game like this before, an accuracy setting for your air-to-air missiles. Choosing Vietnam-era accuracy will probably cause as much frustration as the actual pilots experienced then, but you can also choose to have missiles that are dead-on virtually every time.
Even billed as being an arcade-type shoot-em-up, this game fails to hit its mark. I can appreciate what the developers were trying to accomplish here, but the issues really hamstring this game. | video-games_xbox |
Far Cry 2 is essentially quite boring. The Good: Beautiful graphics, lots of weapons and upgrades, large game world, buddy system works well, exciting multiplayer
The Bad: Empty world, boring driving, not much in vehicle variety, story is uninteresting, unintuitive level editor, just plain boring
OK Far Cry was in the day was a great technical feat and that's pretty much it. Far Cry had a lot of AI problems with enemies being able to see you miles away, you needed a monster computer to run it, it had almost no story, and was pretty repetitive. Unfortunately, Far Cry 2 follows all these trends again, but with better graphics, a setting in Africa, an even more confusing story, a super confusing level editor, and the same bland boring huge open world. Now I'm not saying Far Cry 2 is bad I'm just saying it needs more filling because there is way to much crust on this one.
The game starts out great with you in the back of a car driving to the guerrilla's headquarters. Once you get through the tutorial you're thrown into the beautiful yet empty world trying to find "The Jackal" who is feeding both rival gangs guns and fuel (APR and UFLL). You can work for either side since you need either or to get to The Jackal. For starters, the game has lots and lots of guns and you can upgrade them by using diamonds (finding diamonds cases and/or completing missions) you can buy the weapons for infinite ammo in your save rooms, you can buy manuals which increase accuracy, reliability, etc. You can also buy equipment that will let you hold more ammo, more health, more stimpaks etc. There's lots here and everything is fairly priced, but you earn diamonds so slowly it takes forever to get enough.
When you're actually shooting the guns feel great, but another problem carried over from the first one is that these guys never die. You'll pump a whole clip in these guys and some times they'll still be standing. Some times your gun will jam and you have to mash X to get it unstuck and if you're really unlucky you're whole gun will break and then you're SOL. Getting the reliability upgrades fixes this and swapping out weapons from fallen foes helps this a lot. Far Cry 2 also has a "buddy system" which are aqcuired by completing missions, and these so called buddies can save you in battle (if you run out of health...think of it as an extra life), they can help make missions easier by offering alternatives. This is a great system and is probably the only great game play idea in Far Cry 2 that isn't boring or doesn't piss you off. When you do get low on health you can pry bullets out of yourself, wrap yourself in bandages, and even poke yourself with magic needles. You can refill these at health boxes in random areas or one of your save houses. You unlock new save houses by killing all guards in the area and bam there you go.
The next game play element that is from the first game and was bizarrely stripped down is the vehicles you drive. There are only maybe five in the whole game and those are a Jeep, a car, an assault truck, and a couple of boats. When your vehicle gets banged up and starts smoking you can hop out and repair it to new which is great, but even if the car starts smoking a little bit it runs very slowly...LAME. Now to get to the most annoying part of the game...the constant back tracking. I understand this is an open world game (I love sandbox games don't get me wrong), but Far Cry 2 fails at this. First off the map they give you is horrible since it's a little piece of paper you hold (next to your GPS) and all the dots look like blobs so the legend is useless. You'll travel to a missions on one side of the map finish it then have to navigate all the way back to town. You can't really go off the trails since there are so many mountains, rocks, tress blocking your path unless you run on foot.
Then this is where the meat of annoyance comes in; there's nothing in between all of this driving around! Maybe here and there you'll see an animal, but all you get are the same thugs coming after you in their vehicles from the guard posts plastered all along the trails. That is really ALL there is between driving from mission to mission. The missions are exactly the same, maybe you'll have to save a friend (or shoot him/her), but essentially it's all the same.
The malaria effect was useless and made things even more annoying. Every so often you'll have to take a malaria pill and if you run out you have to go to the ends of the Earth (ok Africa!) to get more or you die. Essentially this makes the game boring and I got a headache every time I played this. Now if you like sandbox games where there is hardly a story, and you just drive around killing random thugs then go ahead have at it. Now this brings me to the level editor which is deep, but there's no tutorial and it is NOT user friendly. Lastly, the only exciting thing is multi player. The best part of Far Cry 2 are the graphics; the game is gorgeous with free flowing grass, everything burns, trees break when under fire, the lighting is beautiful it just all looks so good, but the game play is just not there. Sorry Ubisoft maybe Far Cry 3 will fix all of these issues. | video-games_xbox |
Excellent Gaming Headphones. Well to begin with let me start by saying I had experience with Turtlebeach X3's and Tritton's 360.
Pro: The Astro's are compatible to about every gaming system you can have. xbox360, pc and PS3(with $10 adapter). The Astro's are much more comfortable than my old headphones by a mile. They fit around your ear so they are great for long gaming sessions. It has a fabric lining for the ears which is very comfortable and helps you to often forget you have on headphones. My x3's in particular fell directly on my ear, I wear glasses and so forced me to take them off ever hour and a half or so just from soreness.
The sound however is where they shine the most. Where the X3's and Tritton's were loud these are more natural sounding and clearer. Initially you might think you have left your TV volume up. It's much easier on my ears for that reason. CoD4 (not CoD5) is a great game to judge the surround sound on. They give great directional and distance awareness. If an opponent doesn't have deadsilence you will feel like daredevil and literally know whenever someone is around you.
The Astro's also have the balance thing on the mixamp which allows you to tweak game sound and chat sound. The X'3 had something similar that worked just as well for the 360 but its a great feature to have for my PS3.
Also for those who have a PS3 and play single player games but don't want to listen to in game soundtrack, well there is a solution. The mixamp allows you to hook up your ipod to it so that you get game sound and your music blended in nicely through the same headphones. I wish there was a way to balance this a bit more though.
Con's: A lot of wires. While the headphones nor the mixamp need to be plug into an outlet they none the less have a considerable amount of wires. USB power cable (if your not using the batteries), 4 prong that goes from mixamp to headphones, wire that goes from mixamp to 360 controller (for those who use it with a 360), digital optical cable,
For the PS3 users there are an additional 2 cables. The USB adapter and an extra 3.5mm male to male cable. However the controller itself is wire free.
Also for those who are using this with a 360. You don't have all that much room to work with. The length of the cable that goes from Mixamp to 360 controller isn't nearly as long as the headphone cables themselves so you'll have a max range of 3-4 feet from the mixamp.
Only other con I can think of is the price. It's a bit much and almost cost as much as a next gen system. | video-games_xbox |
The D-Pad's Not The Only Improvement. The D-pad alone has gotten many mixed reactions and I'm here to provide my input and thensome but I'll save that for last. This is because there are other changes that've been made to the controller.
1) I'll start with the most obvious change and that's the aesthetics. The multicolored buttons have now been replaced with neutral colors (black, white and grey). I actually didn't buy this controller immediately because I've grown accustomed to hitting the blue button instead of the X button but I've actually haven't experienced any trouble. I guess it's all in our mind because the transition from multicolored buttons to neutral ones is seemless. The rest of the controller has a silver and black theme. The front and back being silver and the surrounding edges, bumper and trigger buttons and the battery are black. This combination is very visually appealing. On top of that, the Xbox button is now chrome instead of a dull grey. I'm very pleased with the aesthetics of the controller but the finishing touch is what impressed me the most. Instead of going with just plastic, this controller has like a soft grip material that makes it easier to hold on it, especially during intense games.
2) The joysticks are concaved up which means it's domed. When using it, your thumbs are deep enough into it that it's almost impossible for them to slip. This is great for just about every game, especially when things are getting intense and every move counts; you now don't have to worry about making any mistakes (at least only your own).
3) The D-pad is interesting to say the least. The functionallity is essentially the same but it feels different and I think that's what Microsoft was aiming for. What I mean is that you have the option of having the disk (the shape all Xbox controllers have) or the generic d-pad (found on Nintendo and Playstation controllers) by twisting it in either direction. Then the surrounding edges either pop up or down. Now, it does feel different when using a different setting but the functionality is the same between the 2 and that's what some have complained about. I, on the other hand, don't expect a simple twist to be capable of changing both the feel AND the functionality; I just don't see that possible. For what it's worth, I have been pleased with it because it does allow for easy cardinal movement.
4) The price might scare potential buyers away and I understand why. $65 would be a lot for a controller but this isn't just a controller; it's a play and charge kit and $65 is the regular price for any color. So think about it like this, for $65, you can either get this or just any old Xbox play and charge kit. $65 is a bargain especially since Amazon usually has it on sale and if you don't already own a kit. Now, for those who do own a kit or two, I do see why you wouldn't want to pay for an extra part you won't use. If you're one of those people, I would wait until Microsoft offers a stand alone version.
All in all, this is a welcomed upgrade. The look and feel of the controller have improved drastically as well as the joysticks. To me, the d-pad is only a slight improvement from previous iterations but bundle that with everything else I mentioned as well as the play and charge kit, I definitely recommend this. | video-games_xbox |
Needs a lot of improvement. Smash Court Tennis 3 sacrifices realism for arcade-ish style play, and that sucks a lot of fun out of playing. For example, unforced errors in this game are very, very, very rare. You might as well take down the net, because it rarely ever gets in the way. And the game never lets your ball go wide -- except on rare occasions when it wants to. If the game wants you to lose a rally, it will throw in a little trickery to make sure you lose it, such as your ball going wide, or your opponent getting a sudden 35MPH burst of speed to dash across the court. If the game wants you to win a rally, suddenly your opponent plays like a doofus. I imagine the game does this to add suspense, but it only adds frustration when you know it's the game and not you.
The controlling of the player has some major hang-ups. The stick that moves your player toward the ball is the same control that directs where you want to hit the ball. As a result, I guarantee that your player will occasionally run toward the ball, then pivot and run away from it only to watch the ball sail by. On rare occasions while playing, my player will not even raise his racquet to hit the ball. And when I want to move into the smash zone to hit a smash, my player hesitates before dashing, stops short of the zone, then pops a little volley into the other court.
The graphics are acceptable, but they're quite dated -- the players look gangly and misproportioned, the crowd in the cut scenes is just three or four people cut and pasted throughout the stadium seats, but most annoying of all is the repetitiveness of the cut scenes... they never, ever change. The crowd noises add realism to the game play, but after two games, they, like the cut scenes, are nothing but annoying and repetitive. The makers of this game clearly suffer from extreme laziness.
Another problem this game has is that you cannot move through the game features quickly enough. For example, if you fail a training exercise, it's suggests you try again. But you can't just try again. You have to exit your way out of, and enter your way onto, multiple screens and menus just to get back to where you want to be. It literally takes a half-minute to accomplish.
During my last twenty level upgrades, no new skills have been enabled for me to purchase with my stock to add to my parameters. They remain grayed out so that I cannot select them. I have a full stock of twenty units to add to my parameters, but the game stopped allowing me to spend the stock. Is this a glitch? Without being able to spend my stock to increase my parameters, I am unable to increase my abilities, and therefore cannot get any better at my game. How am I supposed to become #1? What incentive do I have to keep playing?
-Tom | video-games_xbox |
It's Like Black Ops Never Existed. Black Ops introduced a lot of new features that most players found to be entertaining and a modern addition to the franchise. Modern Warfare 3 removed nearly all of those fun features and brought you back to MW2 with a few tweaks. You no longer can add custom clan tags ( or emblems) or even create a custom player card (emblem). When playing objective matches, the scoreboard only displays kills, deaths, and assists. Black Ops introduced your Plants, defuses, and other objective based achievements. I can't fathom why they would remove that useful information and reduce every playlist to basically Team Deathmatch.
When you create your classes, in order to change aspects of your gun you must continue to click into subcategories in order to reach the desired field. For instance, if you want to change your scope reticle, you must click on primary guns, gun class, the gun, attachments, scope, then reticle. This is a very time consuming and ridiculous organization method. Again, Black Ops simply displayed each class aspect as it's own category.
All and all, MW3 simply feels like an older game. It doesn't appear as a brand new, polished, addition to the COD franchise. The interface looks recycled, outdated and is frustrating and cumbersome. The multiplayer has it's high moments yet, as many have stated, the maps can be seriously annoying with all of the blind spots and tight corners ( I can't even itch my face without getting shot in the back).
If you are a fan of Black Ops or are planning on picking up Battlefield 3, don't beat yourself up if you don't get this title. ( It will be on the bargain shelf by next year anyways).
/////// An Update After a week of game play: \\\\\\\\
After having considerable time to get use to the game and test all it has to offer, I must say, probably one of the most annoying things about this game is the bunching/ sticking to objects that happens numerously. Unlike any other COD game, I am constantly getting snagged on objects during multiplayer resulting in deaths. Often, I will look down to see what the object is, only to find a slight incline in terrain or a shard of concrete. This has proven to be incredibly frustrating, especially in a crucial split second encounter. Also, bunching with fellow teammates produces similar results. At the start of matches or when running with your team, if you are close to teammates, your player will start shaking and basically become temporarily uncontrollable. Again, this was a non-issue in other COD games and has also resulted in countless frustrating deaths that leave me wanting to go back to Black Ops.
What do you guys think? Anybody else having similar issues? A patch is strongly desired!!! | video-games_xbox |
Big, Big Disappointment. I'm a fan of all the Marvel titles in this format-- the two X-Men Legends games and the first Ultimate Alliance. All were challenging, fun, and let you use your imagination in the ways the characters used their powers. They also took longer than a half-hour to complete.
Ultimate Alliance 2 shares none of those attributes. I was really looking forward to this game, but it's easily the most disappointing I've ever played. I bought it three nights ago. I beat it last night. I kept thinking to myself, "Surely that can't be it?!" Alas...
The game has several fundamental flaws. I was under the impression you could assign some characters to pro-registration and the remainder to anti-registration, and then either watch those teams of your composition slug it out or bounce back and forth between the two teams as the story progresses. Not so. Once you've made your selection, all but two heroes follow you, which is pointless. The two who remain behind stay "Unavailable" for most of the game. Fun!
The animation during much of the interactive portions is laughable. For instance, Gambit looks like he spent a good hour plowing his face into a brick wall. The Thing is all out of proportion, and Storm is too manly. The bigger complaint is in regards to the camera. It should be a no-brainer that the right-hand thumbstick would allow you to zoom in on the action so you can, you know, SEE WHAT'S HAPPENING! But you can't. You're stuck hovering over the action from a distance, where all the characters look like Shrinky-Dinks.
The action of the main gameplay is chaotic. I couldn't tell what was going on most of the time. It seems like every battle consisted of a swarm of enemies, none of whom were distinguishable from the heroes because the camera is SO DAMN FAR AWAY! There's way too much going on at any given time to hold your attention. It also seems like there's a "boss" about, ohhhhh, every thirty seconds. Seriously, all this game is is battling a swarm, then a boss, then a swarm, a boss, then a swarm and a boss.
It will not take savvy players long to realize that the only characters needed are Deadpool, Wolverine, and The Thing. With them, this game is cakewalk.
One new element that should have been cool but wasn't is the Revive bonuses you can earn, by which you can restore a hero's health or resurrect them. Problem is, they're so easy to earn you're practically invincible. Add to that the stupid decision to allow you swap in a new character whenever you want, and you suddenly realize that, hey, as long as I have Deadpool and Wolverine, who heal themselves, I can never die. Challenging!
It must also be said that at least a third of the playable characters are those for whose inclusion exactly nobody was clamoring. Luke Cage and Ms. Marvel again?! Iron Fist? Really? There were a lot of people out their dying to play Iron Fist? And who the hell are Penance and Songbird? Never heard of 'em.
This game is maybe fun for eight year-olds who habitually sit too close to the television set and like anything with bright colors. Everyone else will quickly realize that they have been, sadly, utterly ripped off. | video-games_xbox |
Horrible "Execution" (Pun Intended) of a Good Premise. "Assassin's Creed" is a third-person action adventure set in the Middle East during the outset of the Crusades. You play as Altair, a disgraced assassin attempting to restore his good name within his former guild. There is also a parallel present-day storyline that I won't get into here (spoilers), but it feels unnecessary and drags the game down somewhat.
But that really drags the game down is the gameplay itself. First, the camera alternates between hyperactive and totally fixed, and in neither case is it doing you much good. I found myself constantly (and I mean constantly) correcting it with the right thumbstick. And just wait until you're in the middle of combat and the camera suddenly swings around and gets stuck in a tree - yes, the camera can get stuck in environmental objects - or else is suddenly behind a flag. You get to enjoy the scenery while hearing yourself meet an ugly demise.
Second, the controls themselves are among the worst that I've ever encountered. Ubisoft designed two parallel sets of control - one for gentle motions and another for more forceful ones. You obtain the forceful motions by holding the right trigger. However, most of the game is spent using this set of motions, so you basically hold down that trigger for 3/4 of the time that you're playing. Hand and controller fatigue ensue. Plus, Altair is clumsy to the point of ridiculous. Much of the game is spent parkouring (didn't know that that dated back to the twelfth century!) around differnt locales, but Altair often fails to jump where you want him to, or else slips off of an overhang to his death, or else refuses to jump to safety as guards approach. Again, more frustration that the game's storyline can justify.
Stealth and combat should be the hallmarks of a game like this, right? Of course, but both stumble here. Stealth requires little more than moving slowly; there's not much in the way of figuring out your environment, shadows, etc. in order to get around. Just move slowly and don't physically run into any guards, and you'll be fine. Of course, doing so just prolongs the more boring transportation portions of the game. Combat is basically a series of animations spliced together depending on your button mashing. It doesn't take long before you feel like you're just watching loops of cutscenes rather than participating in something dynamic. I call it "Dragon's Lair" combat - press the right button at the right time, you get a treat; otherwise, you get the sharp end of the other guy's sword.
Ubisoft took an interesting period of history and wasted their own opportunity with this frustrating, buggy mess. I would say that it's worth only a rental, but the problem is that it's also overly long (and not in a good way - very repetitive in terms of missions). So, you'd never be able to finish by the time that it was due back. That said, just avoid it altogether. | video-games_xbox |
Pixar does a great job of making you feel like you're a part of the movie. This is my 8 year old daughter's favorite game! She bought it with her Christmas money and is always begging me to play it. It has so many aspects that make it stand out as a really good game and very few downfalls. The game starts off allowing you to make your own player. It uses the Kinect camera to scan you and make a player with similar features and cloths, this made my daughter feel more involved in the game over a standard avatar, although the players face didn't look all that much like her.
After you make your character the real fun begins. You enter the Pixar park on a "field trip". From here you get to explore the park. There's an area for each of the movies and a child that greets you and goes over what the level entails. When you choose your level there's a quick video prologue that gives you an overview of the mission and goal. Each movie has multiple levels you unlock as you beat them. At the end of level there's another fun video wrapping it all up.
The levels are all different and your child gets to walk, run, swim, slide, climb and row though the level (I'm sure I'm forgetting a few). There are objects you may have to pick up to use or things to jump and grab. Each level is fun, but easy enough for little ones. There's always an arrow showing you where to go, so there's never any confusion. If you get stuck and can't figure out what to do after a few minutes a screen will pop up asking if you want to skip that part of the level. You can run into walls, fall through holes and do anything that in most games you'd lose a life for, but in this game you keep on moving. This really prevents my daughter from getting frustrated. She can play it independently and I feel she gets some pretty good exercise in while playing. Much better than watching TV!
The only downfall of this game I can see is how it describes what action you're supposed to do. The level starts and then a small cartoon character appears showing you what you're supposed to do, like how to move your arms to swim. It does this AFTER you've already started though, so on a few levels my daughter was so focused on getting started, so never really got the action mastered. Like on the Cars level she wasn't able to control the car like she should've been. I would prefer if there was a demonstration before the level and the sensor makes sure the action is preformed correctly before starting the level. On that note, the sensor occasionally doesn't seem as responsive as with some other games. But, it hasn't hindered game play because of the not dying or being penalized aspect. I've noticed her having to jump a few times before it registers occasionally. I still think the game is worth 5 stars though and am very impressed with the price! | video-games_xbox |
Great entertainment system, worth the extra bucks. First ever 1 TB hard drive x box system built. Comes with a matching controller and the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare game down load code, which can be redeemed in the x box store, along with the bonus content and gear for the game. Which also means, Internet is needed, and a must have to fully enjoy the system(explained more later). The controller uses two double A batteries, after a few hours if gaming are done, so I highly recommend the play and charge kit they have, sold separately. The paint job and battle scars are very bad ass. Cool unique sound effects when turn on and off the console and when you eject a disc. 1 TB hard drive definitely a big deal, since upon initial setup, you realize 220gb already used on the operating system and what not, leaving you with 780 gb. Doesn't come with any apps downloaded, so you can see the need for space immediately. One game took about 50 gb, just FYI. A few hiccups during gaming, I.e. game freezing, but the console restated itself and everything was fine. A hard reset, holding the power button for about 10 sec, will fix almost all problems you encounter, just like your pc. User interface is simple and easy to use for the most part. I'm originally a PC gamer so the graphics fall in comparison to any decent custom built rig or laptop. If you're not a PC gamer, you'll be none the wiser. Overall a solid buy for entertainment, you can watch DVDs and blue rays, after downloading an app of course, buy or rent new movies and TV series off of their x box video player/store. You will be offered an x box live gold membership during set up, which is absolutely a must, to get access to the online multiplayer aspect of your game, and the nice discounts on games. So in conclusion, I am happy with my purchase, really steps up the entertainment factor of the room with so many options. Good job Microsoft. | video-games_xbox |
Poignant, artistic, emotional, all at the same time as being relentlessly fun to play. Coming in kind of late to the Bioshock phenomenon, I felt it rather difficult to go in with a mind clear of any preconceived notions or prejudices (we've seen a lot of FPS in the last two generations). When the game released, it was greeted with staggering fanfare and showered with critical applause; ultimately culminating in Game of the Year honors and millions in sales. Naturally then, there was an almost irrepressible sense of expectation that came along with entering Rapture for the very first time. Of course, by the time I popped the game in, the dust had long since settled, and everyone had gone onto other things(okay I was really late to the phenomenon). All said, I am happy to state the obvious: Bioshock, whether you go in with an open mind or no, is an utterly brilliant production on every level.
It is 1960, and you play Jack, a man we know very little about aside the fact that he's just crash landed into the middle of the ocean. Seemingly the only survivor, Jack ascends from the depths and gasps for air. The glow of firey wreckage illuminates his surroundings as he swims forward to the only refuge in sight - an inordinately placed tower. Convenient, hmm? Well, as Jack descends into the underwater city he will come to know as "Rapture", you the player are given a brief glimpse into the ideology that inspired its creation. Yes, Rapture was envisioned as a placed separated from the failed political systems of the outside world. A place free of the moral quandaries created by religions that have apparently held man back from his true potential. Clearly the city of Rapture borrows strongly from fictional works of the past by employing the classical Utopia turned Dystopia archetype. Yes, as soon as you leave the elevator that tours past the beautiful city lights, you are immediately made aware of the failure and decay of this city beneath the surface. Before this, however, you meet a man called Atlas, who rose to prominence as the underground voice of the people. Throughout the game Atlas contacts you via radio frequency and acts as a source of insight into the inner workings of Rapture. But primarily he gives you objectives to complete, promising that if you help him, you will help yourself.
Rapture's creator, Andrew Ryan, brought with him some of the best and brightest of the scientific community. Since there were no ethical or moral qualms to get in the way, scientists were able to advance in their knowledge and employment of "ADAM", stem cells derived from a species of sea slug. ADAM gave Rapture's scientists the ability to alter the human genome and ultimately create what are known as "plasmids" - biophysical enhancements that give their users superhuman abilities. Dr. Bridget Tennenbaum, a key player in the development of plasmid technology, discovered a way to mass produce ADAM by placing the sea slugs in the stomachs of what you will come to know as "Little Sisters." But as Rapture sunk into conflict, the production of ADAM was disrupted, causing devastating shortages. As a result, the populace of Rapture became murderously insane. By the time you come into the picture, the fallout is essentially complete.
As such, Bioshock is what I refer to as an after-the-fact experience. Rarely do you interact with the sane, as they are more or less extinct. As the story unfolds, the player carries with them a distinct sense of emotional weight that is sometimes overwhelming, often harrowing, and always humbling. The gravity of tragedy expressed through the suffering and decay of Rapture's various locales and inhabitants will make you feel like very few games can. The story in Bioshock captures the true essence of humanity at his best and his worst, and even gives you the ability to show where you stand on the moral compass. Will you kill the Little Sisters? Or will you save them from their mental prison and give them a chance to truly live for something?
Beyond that, you will question your perception of reality. Are you really in control of your own actions? Who are your allies, really? Who is working in your interest and who isn't? All of these questions will be answered as you make your way through Rapture. The story is not overly complex (there are three possible endings; two more or less the same as each other) but it does what it sets out to do, and it ends beautifully.
When you strip Bioshock down to its vitals, you will find that it is really a linear first person shooting experience with a very focused objective based gameplay structure. There's not much in the way of "alternate routes" as the environments in the game world are rather small and enclosed. Anyone looking for an RPG experience will be sorely disappointed, as Bioshock offers very little in the way of choice. But there are a number of customization options. Scattered throughout the city are vending machines of various types. These vending machines allow you to purchase new slots and plasmids which you can then swap out and upgrade as you wish. Vending machines also serve as a quick and easy way of purchasing ammo and other weapons such as grenades. You can also invent various items like security hacking tools, which take the work out of hacking machines and robots (but if you wish to manually hack something, you can buy upgrades to improve that skill aswell) Don't be fooled though, "inventing" essentially comes down to the press of a button, as the game automatically combines your collected items and turns them into whatever you requested. Somehow a piece of rope and a hotdog creates a complex security hacking tool...Don't ask me.
As in any first person shooter, Jack also finds new guns, which are also upgradeable. The weapons list seems pretty short on the surface, but once you fully upgrade them, I think you will find you have more than enough to keep your combat experience fresh and rewarding. Especially when balancing their use with the additional employment of plasmids. In fact, this is one aspect of the game that I felt was rather unbalanced. Why in a game that is 8-12 hours long (depending on how you play) do you have this smorgasbord of options laid out in front of you, only to have the game end long before you can fully upgrade (much less fully take advantage of) them? While you will rarely if ever catch me complaining about length in a game, I do take issue with the balance of options versus potential playtime. But I suppose it's better to jam pack a short game, rather than strip it down and give you less options. It is a standout achievement in Bioshock that players are afforded so many options to suit their play style. Maybe you want to combine your shotgun with a plasmid to find the best one-two-punch for each enemy type. For example, Big Daddies (who protect Little Sisters as they harvest scarce ADAM from the dead) are effectively dispatched using a combination of Winter Blast (which freezes them) and electrical buckshot rounds. Alternatively, the Electrobolt power (which sends electricity coursing through the body and temporarily stuns enemies) combined with exploding buckshot renders an equal degree of effectiveness. The arsenal in Bioshock is superior to that of most other games in the genre because it gives you a few upgradeable guns to cycle through and focus on, instead of the hit and miss kitchen sink approach that is so often seen in the genre.
The game is objective based, with Jack visiting different parts of the city searching for components, characters, and various items like key codes and the like. The gameplay is rather straightforward in the sense that you never really get sidetracked by an expanse. In fact, while the focused approach that Bioshock takes is rather fitting considering the keen sense of urgency expressed through the narrative, there really is no such thing as "off the beaten path". It's one of the most hemmed in first person shooters I've played, and that could be perceived as somewhat of a con on the list for anyone who thought this was Deus Ex or an RPG of that ilk. The way I look at it though is that there wouldn't be anyone to talk to because 99.9% of the populace are murderous hobos. Speaking of the murderous hobos, they are dubbed "Splicers", and there are a few kinds. Some crawl on ceilings, throw fire, or use melee weapons and guns. There isn't a lot of variety, and I thought that, beyond some interesting personality, they were pretty generic insane hobo fare, and if it weren't for the Big Daddies and turrets, it'd become rather monotonous having to mow them down around every corner. I actually have a theory that Irrational borrowed directly from Condemned. Maiming and whacking the crap out of insane hobos, shocking them, it all looks and sounds relatively the same. We can only hope that the Insane Hobo Killing Simulator genre lives on. Speaking of the wrench, I found it of rather limited use to be honest with you. Unless you want to play the game stealthily (which wasn't really my bag of tea) you best not bring a wrench into a plasmid/Tommy Gun fight.
Gunplay, ah yes! The staple of the first person shooter to be sure. Well, I'm happy to say that Bioshock nails it. It absolutely nails the feel with unique touches for every weapon, ensuring players a different experience with each weapon (compounded further by upgrades no less!). The game has a strong sense of what it wants to be, and it makes no apologies for its linearity and emphasis on fetch quest activites. Yes, it leads you on a wild goose chase, but it just feels so good collecting all of the items stashed away in various nooks and crannies in the game. You can even take research photos with your camera, allowing you to actually improve your effectiveness against your enemies. Every gameplay mechanic has a well defined purpose, and this serves to create a very tight, cohesive experience as opposed to a bunch of ideas that were never fleshed out. It's sad when a good concept meets the cutting room floor, but even sadder when it's thrown in underdeveloped. Thankfully Irrational never made that mistake in Bioshock. The design flaws are certainly present, but they rarely detract from the overall gameplay experience. All considered, the gameplay in Bioshock is extremely satisfying.
In the visual department, Bioshock dresses to impress. For a game that came out in mid 2007, this still sets the bar for first person shooters on the console. Irrational utilized Epic's Unreal 3 technology to bring Rapture to life. Water plays a large role in the game, and the team spared no expense, hiring both a water artist and a water programmer to make certain that every animation, every reflection, and every environmental interaction looked perfect. The result is probably the best looking water I've seen on any platform ever. Beyond that, the game is packed full of next-gen mapping and lighting effects. And while the game is rather dark atmospherically, it really only serves to bring out the true splendor of Rapture. From the way fire reflects onto nearby objects, to the eerie shadow of a skulking Splicer, most all of the popular graphical tricks are out of the bag.
Rapture has a very ornate, classical decorum. Irrational nailed the Art Deco style of the 1930's, setting Bioshock's universe apart from the lifeless, random corridor, random military structure style environments used in most first person shooters. You really feel as though you are in a real fallen city, a city in turmoil and ruin.
Sound production in games is often brushed over by the gaming community, but in Bioshock, you will want to take in the ghostly ambience. From the haunting echoes of crazed Splicers, to the crackling fires and dripping aqua; the sound design in Bioshock is layered and pinpoint precise. Guns sound awesome, with each surface reacting appropriately to the impact of your bullets. The voice acting is superb, with authentic sounding accents, beautiful inflection, and true to life urgency. Most all of this is filtered through distorted wire recorder sounding radios, so you get a scratchy, static accent layered onto voice work. The game also borrows from the Great American Songbook to add to the already finely crafted atmosphere, with old classics that most anyone who plays the game will recognize and appreciate. There's nothing like walking down a dark, menacing hallway to the sound of "How Much Is that Doggie In The Window" by Patti Page. Funny enough, you can silence any music playing by shooting the radios that are scattered across Rapture. There are even pianos and guitars that you can create music on. All of these little details bring the audio experience into a cohesive whole. There was a time when I didn't appreciate sound in games, but the truth is that sound is just as important as any other facet of a game because we are creatures of sound as much as we are visual. With Bioshock, Irrational has set the audio bar insanely high for their peers. Superb.
Bioshock demonstrates videogames at their most artistic, and shows how capable we are, utilizing the latest technology and the brightest most passionate minds, to touch players and give them an emotional journey worth remembering. From the hopelessness, disorientation, tragedy, anger, and ultimately the strength that it takes to rise above it all and forge new beginnings; Bioshock runs the gamut. Above all things, I hope Bioshock will send a positive message that resonates beyond the television screen. This is mankind at his best, and at his worst. Bioshock's unfailing devotion to quality design at every level has earned it many accolades - and you can add me to the list of fans who eagerly anticipate a followup. | video-games_xbox |
3.5 stars. Let me just say this in the beginning. This isn't Skyrim! The gameplay is completely different. You can't really compare the two in that sense. I haven't played any of the previous Dragon age games so I can't make any comparisons to them.
This is just my first impressions on the game, anything said here can change after investing more time on it. The story telling is really good, in my opinion, it draws you in to playing more and figuring what happened and what will happen next. The world is vast and open but not in the same way as Skyrim. It does have that Fable/Mass effect feel to it because you have different choices with your interactions. Although I have yet to see anything happen as a consequence, but just know I barely even started the main quest. I get busy exploring and doing side quests. I suggest not to rush it to get the best full game experience.
The characters have more personality in comparison to Skyrim. They actually feel like people with their own emotions and thoughts. I can actually get attached to some characters.
Multiplayer wasn't exactly what I expected, I think it could've been better. It's a separate game from the single player mode. Items and characters do not cross over. I was hoping for more of an open world adventure or story mode or co op. But it's more just clearing dungeons to level up and get rewards. It's not as easy as it sounds though but it's still quite fun. You have to unlock other classes by finding armor or crafting I believe.
Font size is really an issue. It's really off putting to do quests that require reading books or notes you find along the way. Even when you adjust the display settings in game it's still very difficult to read.
I know many people complain about not having enough GB to even play the game. People had the same issues with Skyrim and other big games. If you didn't read the game case it does say it requires at least 9GB of space. When I bought the game, I was asked if I had enough space before purchasing it. So be aware that it does take around around 7.2GB(?) for the game and a bit extra for game saves before buying it.
I did notice a few bugs and glitches in the game with voice overs and I had trouble turning in some side quests. I'm not aware of any other issues with the game but I hope this review helps.
I love the game so far don't get me wrong. I'm hoping they'll be able to do something about the font size. | video-games_xbox |
Pinpoint precison vs my older AX 720's. I start this by saying I have a pair of Tritton AX 720's (used for over 3 years now), new Walmart Tritton Stereo set, Turtle Beach X41's (wireless), and T.B. X11's. I like the Turtle Beach products but I feel you are paying for the name, since that's the only name most gamer's ever hear. Great sound (for the most part) and super sensitive mic's (hear way too much sometimes).
I like Tritton products. I have found them to be very well constucted and designed with excellent comfort and sound. I do like that my 720's were larger and albeit bulkier, but very comfortable for those long gaming sessions, which I do frequently. After finding out that Madcatz bought Tritton, I wasn't sure what would happen to their headsets based on previous experience with MadCatz products. Waited for some reviews to come out before pulling trigger on this purchase. Found mine on sale online for under $150, $30 more than what a new pair of 720's cost but well worth it in my opinion. When my new set arrived, I wasn't pleased at first. This headset uses plastic earcup covers and headband and the ear cups are smaller. I prefer the cloth on my 720's bc they breathe and are much cooler but I guess if you're a germiphobe, you can Clorox wipe these easily. Headset has a feature which is the default that is plays any noise into the mic back through the headset, this is a really annoying feature and will create a buzz/hiss often times. Not sure why they would even waste time or money on this idiotic feature. To disable, use the in-line control located about 2 feet down line from the headset. the new units use a new directional push-button to control volume instead of the old rotating dials (not sure about durability but after getting used to the change, works great so far). Simply push in on the volume control to disable this feature. Headset mute stays the same, large and easy to find slider in middle of control unit. Now to the good and the bad. The command module is powered via USB unlike AC cord in most older units. Plugs into my XBOX and keeps all my cords close.
Unfortunately, my first unit turned out to be a dud. Sound was way off, bass was overly distorted and when wearing headset, everything seemed tinny with an echo-ish sound. My headset just quit producing sound on the third day. Good thing bc I was about to simply return this item for refund. Tried contacting Customer Service the week before July 4th, 2012. Seems Tritton and Mad Catz were still consolidating so no phone service available and I filed an online request. Still didn't hear back after one month, I got livid at this point. Contacted C/S again and got a quick response apologizing for not gettting a response due to their moving offices. Rep said my unit was bad from get-go and emailed me a return label. Shipped unit that day and had a new one in back in no time. WOW! new unit was night and day. Sound is amazing. I can pin-point another players location from half way across the map often times (given minimal air support/gunfire/dead silence etc..) Using Sit Rep Pro in MW3, there is no where you can hide from me hearing you. Seems wierd from a headset I can tell you EXACTLY where someone is on the map but I can easily do this.
As to build/quality/function. This unit has a braided cord. It is heavy but made so that it won't get cut or pinched easy which would affect sound transmission. the in-line control unit is annoying sometimes but I prefer amazing sound and not having to deal with battery issue's and hissing like my X41's. Also, the Headset and the line to the Command box separate at the in-line control unit. This has probably save me from ripping my cord out of my ear cup a ton of times due to my stepping on cord and running to grab a drink or the bathroom between games. The unit does have an ON/OFF switch on the main box but even when holding it after turning on my XBOX, the unit and the headset still remain lit. Flashing skulls on headset at night makes for a nice Nite Lite.
Bottom Line: I am now happy with sound and performance and will continue using Tritton and recommending to friends/family. These are optical units, so you must have an optical input on your TV or a newer XBOX or XBOX cord with plug in. | video-games_xbox |
Awesome game, but it's far from perfect. Alright, I've purchased every version of Halo since it was released on PC back in '03, I've loved each and every one, the story has been great, the gameplay has been superb, and the multiplayer has been hours of fun.
This game does what all the previous installments have done, but not quite as good.
There is nothing wrong with the gameplay, it's virtually the same, all the old weapons and vehicles are there along with new ones, and the way Master Chief moves is the same. The campaign is just a bit too short for my liking, however.
The atmosphere is excellent, the Flood levels are wonderfully creepy, the beautiful soundtrack, the superb voice acting all make for an epic experience.
There is one point in the game where a traumatized Marine mourns the loss of two friends infected by the Flood whom he had to kill was a scene that was, while not important to the story, made that level that much more upsetting. little things like this are an excellent addition.
The graphics are good enough, but it suffers from what most "Next-gen" games do: Bloom effects, too much, too bright. Nothing intolerable.
The multiplayer is fun as always, the new vehicles and game modes (Zombie, finally) make for hours of fun, the only hindrance is also on all Live games: Kids, screeching profanities and trash-talking you in prepubescent tones, put them on mute if you have Live.
Now, my only real quarrel with this game: the story.
The storytelling is excellent and it progresses seamlessly. The ending, not so much. (No spoilers, don't worry)
For those of us who have loved the Harry Potter series for the last however many years were quite upset when JK Rowling decided to slaughter many main characters, it seems Bungie has decided to pull the same stunt.
I won't reveal who dies, I'll just say too many, I'm hoping I'm not the only guy to cry at the end. I honestly can't think of a worse way to end the series, see it for yourself, the extent of the problem can't be seen unless you play through the series.
It is an excellent game, but the ending will no doubt disappoint, multiplayer will continue to entertain. | video-games_xbox |
Interesting level designs. Tron 2.0
It really is sad when developers have such a good idea for a game but the end product falls short of fun and entertaining. I'm sure the fan boys out there are going to chew up my review for this but first, I don't think the movie Tron even made much of an impact at the box office. I think I first saw it in '92. I recently saw the game on the shelves and decided to give it a try.
The graphics of Killer App look really good. Granted the levels each consist of one color in a few different shades. None the less animation is smooth and I never incurred choppy graphics. Design of the levels, characters, weapons and light cycle all feel authentic. The sound is also well done especially with surround sound, but the bass was over done.
The game play was a poor experience. First of all the guns are horribly inaccurate do almost no damage except the sniper rifle. Unloading on your enemies quickly drains your energy level leaving you vulnerable and with only your disc as protection. Health also drains pretty fast. I am a huge fan of first person shooters and Killer App simply felt more like a platform adventure in a shooter engine. The enemies can be at the end of a vast stadium or expansive hallway and can hit you with bullseye accuracy from the first shot they fire. Thats fine, games are more fun when they're more challenging. However, most of the levels, you have to pay extremely close attention to your steps since you can easily fall off a catwalk to your doom; that takes away the tactical use of strafing and its just poor planning. The shooting part of the game makes for a frustrating experience since you WILL be swarmed by enemies with perfect accuracy and you have to juggle your attention between your energy bar, your aiming and your footing plus for the most part tracking down an objective you have no idea where to find and lastly the enemies that are respawning-think Halo legendary difficulty, with almost no ammo and no friends to help you.
Now I'm sure any huge computer dork would love the ability management system in the game. Not only is it poorly explained but its also another factor that holds back any fun in the game, as you have to aquire abilities and power them up. Why should that be so bad? because leveling up abilities DRAINS YOUR ENERGY BAR leaving you with even less precious ammo to use against the waves of deadeye drones trying to air you out. I won't even go into the plot as it doesn't matter.
I suppose the only thing I actually enjoyed in the game was the light cycles. Before you get all excited, there is very limited use of the cycles in the game, in fact almost none. In all Tron 2.0 Killer App is a graphically noble attempt at the FPS genre. The short comings far outweigh its attempt. Heres a quick summary of the experience:
read boring vague menu, more vague menu, kill 5 drones, miss a step and fall to death, retry---and it just loops over and over like that. Of course if you're a huge fan of the movie and enjoy platform games and enjoy "reading" a video game rather than playing it, look for Tron 2.0 in your local game store's bargain bin.
And one last note to the fan boys that love this game, I read an article recently that says the director of "The Princess Diares" will be releasing a new Tron movie-so look for a mediocre movie to go along with the bland game. | video-games_xbox |
Better as an actual animated film. I think alot of us loved last year's SHATTERED DIMENSIONS. Yes, it wasn't an open-world game and the story was pretty silly, but the presentation was top-notch and the variety of the levels made it truly fun. I'm certain that Activison and Beenox identified the two main themes in terms of criticism for SHATTERED DIMENSIONS: the story was weak and most gamers loved Spider-Man 2099 the most. As a character, because of his cool look and futuristic world, he almost works better as a video game character than he ever did as a comic book character. So now we have EDGE OF TIME, which gives us a really great story and 2099 as basically the lead character.
Man, they really overreacted.
The entire game takes place in an office building. Yes, this is a Spider-Man video game in which you never, EVER even see the skyscrapers of New York City. The entire game is really short, about eight hours, and because there are no changes in environment and enemies, you go from the four distinct gameplay styles of SHATTERED DIMENSIONS to what is basically one style here. Amazing and 2099 pretty much play exactly the same in this game because their surroundings are the same, and that's really a shame. The game chooses to not have menus between levels, as you go right from one level to the next seamlessly, which does add a cinematic feel but also highlights the sameness in the levels even more. Each chapter is indistinguishable. The entire game really feels like one huge eight hour level. In fact, I was on Chapter 5 before I realized that I wasn't on the first level anymore! I just figured the environment was going to eventually change. The upgrades seem to have been lessened from the last game as well, and combat just doesn't feel as fun as it did in SHATTERED DIMENSIONS. You don't need to dumb-down what was already a button-masher. What an odd development choice.
You could argue that the difficulty levels and challenges lengthen the replay value, but I, for one, had my fill of the same labs and atriums the first playthrough and have minimal desire to return to them anytime soon.
There are three boss battles in the entire game, and they are very boring. Again, another curious decision by the developers because what made SHATTERED DIMENSIONS so great was that each level was basically a HUGE boss battle, where you fought the boss several different times in different ways. You even got to punch them in first-person.
So, what happened? Well, they got Spider-Man 2099 creator Peter David to write the story, and it's a great one, with a honest-to-goodness twist you actually won't see coming. The game is completely built around the story, and presented in a cinematic style. The production value is through the roof in this game, and the entire opening sequence is one of the BEST I have EVER seen in video games.
But, again, it's VIDEO GAME, not a movie. By sacrificing so much to tell the story, the developers forgot what makes a game great, and it's not the cutscenes, even ones as great-looking and fantastically-acted as the ones in this game.
I'm not a video game troll and find it juvenile and simplistic to just say things like "Activision is evil" or what have you, but I will say that we don't need a new Spider-Man game every single year. This franchise is not, and shouldn't be, Call of Duty. They won alot of goodwill for SHATTERED DIMENSIONS and, I fear, lost alot of it with EDGE OF TIME.
I'd like to take the rest of this review in a little, more personal direction, so apologies for the length. I loved SHATTERED DIMENSIONS alot, probably more than the average person because I love the webhead dearly, and so I actually pre-ordered this game and paid the full $60 for it. I got only more excited when I watched those behind-the-scenes interviews with the voice cast for this game, probably the most effective marketing they did. Those videos were ALMOST false advertising. For example, Josh Keaton and Christopher Daniel Barnes talked about how what you do in one timeline will affect the other timeline, but they made it sound like this was player-controlled. In reality, it is not, as the game's story pre-determines each instance the timeline (read: the level you're currently playing) changes. Laura Vandervort, whom I LOVE from INSTANT STAR and SMALLVILLE, voices Mary Jane, but she's only in the game for about five minutes total, and half the time she's just screaming. Those promotional videos sort of suggested we'd be experiencing this actress' performance as an iconic character for more than just a cameo. Ditto for Katee Sackhoff as Black Cat 2099, who is FANTASTIC, in a performance I would have loved to heard more of. Finally, this game has an embarrassment of voice acting riches, as VAL FREAKIN' KILMER is also not really in the game that much. This is a video game that has three legitimate film actors and didn't utilize their talents nearly enough.
One last thing about the voice acting. Josh Keaton and Christopher Daniel Barnes are great Spider-Men. Depending on who you ask, one of these two gentlemen ARE Spider-Man. They do a fantastic job and have GREAT chemistry here. In fact, the best part about the game is actually their dialogue, as through comic book/video game magic they can talk to each other even though they're in different time periods, so often one of them will pop up in the corner of the screen to advise/trash talk the other one.
However, as a long-time Spider-Man fan, I was absolutely offended by the characterization of these two heroes. First of all, they spend the entire game aggressively sniping at each other, like they actually hate each other, and show very little of the class and playful nature that a real Spider-Man would. Secondly, and most egregiously, Spider-Man 2099 is cast in the lead and Amazing Spider-Man, as in, the ACTUAL Peter Parker, is cast as the selfish, wisecracking fool who doesn't know anything. Miguel is constantly explaining time travel and other comic book science topics to Peter, who acts like an idiot and even sports an unmasked character design that makes him look like a jocky douchebag. Guys, Peter Parker is ALSO a scientist, a damn good one. Some of the best Spider-Man stories deal with Peter's humanity and vulnerability, and his weakness in the face of having to do the right thing, which this story also addresses not just in his possible death but also as revealed in the big plot twist, but in no way should Spider-Man 2099 have been presented as smarter and more capable than Peter. It's ridiculous.
Still with me? If you're a Spider-Man fan, buy it and treat it like an interactive should-have-been animated film. Otherwise, rent it, and pray they take a little longer to make the next game. | video-games_xbox |
Fun game with its quirks. So first off let me say, i have NOT played an NHL hockey game since they went on strike in '99 or 2000 (can't remember exactly which year, sorry). So therefore i cannot judge from the past 12 years of their games.
With that said, this game however is FUN, right now i am playing live the life, where i am the pro. I enjoy it because i only need to focus on MY character, not the whole team, however on that same note, it annoys me because the team will make random passes or clear the puck way too often, when i am open or they could make a break for it. Sometimes i wish i could just take the puck handler and get it down ice for the score, i've lost quite a few games because my guy would be on the bench waiting for his next shift and the other team scores, then i will get on the ice, get something going, only to get called back to the bench in a few seconds and i have to wait again. However the overall of that feature is awesome, winning and losing does matter, but not as much as your person putting up good points (assits or goals) to impress the scouts and move you up to a better team.
I haven't played GM yet, so i can't comment on it. However just playing the games, are a blast. The hard hits, fights, presentation is just awesome!
Now for my negatives and why i gave it 4 out of 5. As much fun as it is, it can be frustrating, since i am back to being new at this game, i am not on the easiest setting, but one step up, i read others have had similar issues, where your team really don't know what they are doing and won't chase the loose puck, in fact i've passed a puck to a team mate, it bouced off an opponent, but still got to him, only to have him turn around as if he was going to the bench or to be on D so the puck just hit the wall and the opponent grabbed it. Really?! Come on EA, real life they WATCH the puck before they just leave the area to see where it goes. Anyhoo, also, on the lower level difficulty, the rubber banding is annoying as crap, i will score 3 to 6 goals in a game, feeling good, once im up by at least 2 or 3, they will immediately score 2 or 3 back to back to catch up. I've had so many shutouts and i suck at those so far, and then they usually win. I was up 6 to 2 one time, 3 period they tied me and won in overtime, seriously? So yeah be prepared for that.
Finally, my biggest gripe and probably don't matter any many, the menus are nice and options are alright, but clunky. I went to EA's music hub, turned off the songs i disliked the most, and would go to my be a pro season. For whatever reason, all the songs play, even the ones i turned off. In the main menu and normal game, its just the songs i want, but in live the life its like they forgot to propogate those settings over there, wouldn't that have been seen in testing? I guess i would of checked it out first, but thats just me.
Anyhoo, overall, besides my minor gripes, its a fun amazing game. Kills time, when you need time killed ;) And feels great to plow into that guy on the wall, hurt him, then start and win a fight against his buddy ;) 5 minutes well worth it lol. | video-games_xbox |
Review of the DLC/Expansion. Here is my review of the ultimate edition Fallout:New Vegas pack. I purchased this game after having played through the regular New Vegas missions, and started the new content with a player that was already about level 30. It was fun to revisit the Fallout world after a year and a few months of not having played the game.
-Honest Hearts
This one was fun. The story is good and as the player you are forced to make some moral decisions about where to go next.
1911's and Tommy Guns! Hell yes! About time.
The maps are really well done, beautiful really.
8 out of 10 stars. It would have been 10 out of 10 but it was a bit on the easy and quick side for a high level player. Once the main campaign missions are done the map gets very peaceful and quiet, which makes going back there for any reason kind of pointless.
The ending prize contains what is probably the best pistol in the game.
-Old World Blues
I was mixed about this one. Some of the quests were fun and compelling, others were not. I did like the plethora of new equipment, and the back story was a good one. Despite being a high level character I got the beatdown quite a few times, so tactics were important.
7 out of 10 stars.
-Lonesome Road
This brings some new elements to the story, and you finally get to meet the 'other' courier that is alluded to in the main New Vegas campaign. The end battle is epic, in fact I never legitimately beat it - a bug of some sort launched the main bad guy up in to the air right when the fighting started on my 8th or 9th attempt to kill him, and he 'kersplatted' when he hit the ground. Fine by me.
Some decent loot in this mission, hours of difficult gameplay, and lots of shooting.
-Dead Money
I played this DLC mission last, which is good, because I absolutely hated it and if I would have played it first it is likely I would have skipped the others.
It's simply just not fun, or compelling, or interesting enough to make the running around in the dark recesses of the town outside the casino, or inside the casino itself, worth it. The most prominant bad guys will literally absorb 20 or so shots before they die, which gets old. I basically had to resort to stirring one or two up and then running away while shooting at them. Boring and tedious.
The final 'boss fight' is a big letdown too. Veteran Fallout 3/NV players will key in to the fact that there are automated turrets to do their bidding, so it's a matter of just switching them on and watching the antagonist die. But, that's not all...then there is a final frustrating run for life from the recesses of the casino. It took me several tries to get it right and at the end I was literally swearing at the screen because I just wanted this awful mission to be over.
4 out of 10 stars. Not even a pile of money made it worth the hours of frustration and boredom. The weapons you take away are weak, the loot is only okay, very skippable.
Gun Runners' Arsenal and Courier's Stash
New weapons, mods, armor, locations, etc. Cool stuff most of it, some of it is just a retread of what was already in the game.
Overall the ultimate edition DLC stuff is worth it. Yes, some bugginess remains but it only comes up infrequently. Bringing new life in to a game I haven't played in a long while makes the purchase a good one in my eyes. | video-games_xbox |
A real let down, missed most of the fun elements of Crash games. A real letdown in most areas. My whole household was thrilled and counting down to this game. We got it on day one, rather than waiting to hear what others thought. Well, remember the fun boxes and the TNT and the figuring out puzzles? There is very little of that in this game. If you loved the old area where Crash takes over that yellow robot suit, you may like this game. In Crash Titans, you highjack (or jack) other huge robot-like creatures, and smash other similar robot-like creatures. That is about it, total, for the whole game. It should have been called Crash Battle Bots. You highjack a bot, smash and battle other robots.
Remember the fun of finding boxes, figuring out how to cross gates taht open and close, hanging from suspended ceilings and spinning just in time to fend off scorpions, all the lighthearted fun colors and scenery? There is about, being very generous, 5% of that in this game. It's great for the first few minutes, then very dark and just battling. There are a few 'surfing' scenes here and there that are similar to the old games, but this is way more like Spyro even in those areas.
My kids played on Normal level. I suggest playing at the most difficult level for SURE if you want to get any fun out of this game. Unless you are totally new to not only Crash Bandicoot but also if you are totally new to games. Then normal is fine. Otherwise, choose the difficult level.
My kids got through the entire game in 3 days. That really sums up this game. $50 for a three day game. Usually, we play Crash as a family, each taking a turn for each level. We spend weeks, honestly even months, sharing the game. I did level one, waited for the kids to get bast the dark battle areas, and never played again. That's just all there is.
Total bummer. I really want my money back. :( Would be fun to battle other family members or friends in the two player mode though. The two person is a little clumsy, but at least it's more fun that way. Not worth $50. Wait til it comes out at $20. At the most. | video-games_xbox |
Loved to play it, sad to see it end so soon. I've read most of the reviews that have been left on this game so far and have decided to put out the points I think are most important on both the pro and the con side of the game.
Pros:
1. This game has fantastic graphics, as I expected for Xbox. I think the graphics add just as much to the enjoyment of playing the game as the actual quests do. I found myself many times using spells and weapons that weren't as effective just because they looked good when I used them.
2. The music is just awesome. The voices are equally good. I find myself listening to the 3 minute intro before starting the game just to hear he music, it's just that good.
3. There is a lot more freedom in this game to do what you want than most RPG's. Everyone around you responds to you based on your looks and reputation, which is only annoying when you're trying to talk to someone who keeps running away from you because you're a little too scary for them.
4. It has a decent storyline, and I liked being able to select when I wanted to start the next mission. That way I was able to run around and do whatever I wanted without worrying about accidentally activating the next mission.
5. I've heard the complaint that there isn't enough armor, but I don't agree. The game focused more on giving you "suits" anyway, not really armor, and each suit had 3 different looks to them (normal, dark, bright) to better fit your personality. The weapons were also well done.
6. When you beat the game you can keep playing, which I like. Sure, there's no real point anymore, but say you haven't broken in to enough homes or married enough people, or maybe your horns aren't quite long enough or your halo isn't bright enough, go back and fix it!
Cons:
1. Okay, my biggest complaint is that the game is just too short. I had a blast playing it, but the end came too soon. I think they really could have made the storyline longer, or added more side quests.
2. I don't like how hard it is to make money. They do a lot of "trading" from one shop to another (you can buy a sack of grain from one store for 40 bucks and sell it to another for 50). I don't like that. I'd rather get my money from killing things like all other RPG's, I'm lazy like that. Personally, I've been resorting to stealing things, which can actually have you lose more money than you make if you can't manage to keep the guards from seeing you and imposing a huge fine.
3. I'm not a fan of the targetting controls...I can't seem to target onto a different enemy very easily. Also, I seem to be really good at targetting friendly characters when I'm trying to target the enemy. There's nothing like losing a quest because you accidentally targetted that poor merchant you're supposed to protect and sliced him to itty-bitty pieces in a flurry of of flamming sword swipes before realizing that the bandit you actually meant to target is standing behind the now decapitated merchant.
4. I think you age too fast and scar too easily. I don't like looking old, and I don't like scars covering up all my nifty tattoos. I have found ways to earn some youth back (donate money to the good god Avo, or sacrifice people to the bad god Skorm), but I haven't had it happen very often, so I'm still 63 years old running around trying to sweep the ladies off their feet.
In the end, I think the pros outweight the cons, and I'll have fun for awhile longer just playing with the freedom the game permits me, even if the story is over. I think my next goal will be finding out how high I can get my fine in a city before I'm either overwhelmed by the guards or kicked out of the city. My current high score is $98,000, but I wasn't really trying very hard. You should have seen the horns I had though, I was proud. | video-games_xbox |
Wonderful Headset. The Turtle Beach Ear Force Stealth 420x Xbox One wireless headset is a perfect compliment for the ultimate gamer. You will be able to play at least 11 hours on a single charge.
This model of Turtle Beach's headsets is the most durable one I have used. I have had two other pairs in the past that lasted a long time, but they eventually wore out on me. I have had this headset kicked against a wall and nothing happened to them. The Stealth 420x also comes with amazing sound quality. There is an option to change the equalizer on the headphones so they can drop more bass or reach the higher treble sounds that you prefer. There are also dials on the side to adjust the game volume and chat volume so you can find that perfect balance of sound to game to.
The Ear Force Stealth 420x also has dual purposes. Not only does this headset work for gaming and chatting with friends online, but it can also be used as a normal pair of headphones. When you purchase this headset, it comes with an auxiliary cord. You can unplug the microphone from the headset and hook up the auxiliary cord to an iPod, or other mp3 player, and listen to your favorite music.
Past headsets have troubled me with ear pain after strenuous hours of gaming. The Stealth 420x model is by far the most comfortable pair I have used. I have not had the ear pain while wearing these. If you are a true gamer, then you know exactly what I am talking about. They also have a slick look to them. They are all black with a Turtle Beach green accent. The black ovals on the side are glossy while the rest of the headset is mainly matte black. The Turtle Beach logos on the sides light up green when the headset is in use, and they light up red when the headset is charging. You can also continue to use the headset while it is charging without hearing the humming or buzzing noise from the charger.
An issue with this headset is that the charging cord that comes with the headset is very short. This makes it hard to play and charge the headset at the same time. The only other problem is that the microphone can only be used on the left side of your face. I was able to buy a longer charging cord for cheap. It is a universal charger so you might have one laying around the house. As far as the microphone being only on the left side goes, you can get used to it if you are a person who prefers the microphone on the right side. I was a right side fan and I got used to it being on the left in about 3 days.
The Turtle Beach Ear Force Stealth 420x headset is the total package. The price is more affordable compared to the high-end brands, even though they have the same functions. I highly recommend the purchase of this headset if you are shopping for a new set. | video-games_xbox |
Best New IP of 2009. After 200 or so hours and probably 1,000's of weapons later , I now need to apply for a Borderlands addiction therapy program.
Borderlands at heart is a grinder game, it has that diablo-ish vibe about it that has a never ending quest of finding chest after chest of different gun types.
Yes the story is all in text form and really barely there , but Borderlands is all about looting , farming, shooting stuff and exploration.
It's in no way a talking heads RPG, all of the NPC are little more than statues, but who cares, there's so many things to kill so many things to see and do it online with 4 people at any time drop in drop out , this game is just short of a masterpiece.
Borderlands is a different enough game to really be in its own category.
Remember those times in Fallout3 when you got tired of talking heads and just wanted to shoot stuff? Well Borderlands is that 100% of the time.
The game does start off a bit on the slow side , while you get settled and level up a bit and the quests and missions are locked in at a difficulty , so if you attempt a mission that says "impossible" you may wanna level up a bit so it will say 'tough' 'normal' or where your a demon killing god 'trivial' difficulty. You have that freedom.
Not strong enough yet? well go level up killing random enemies looting chests and come back when you level is higher, its not like Oblivion or Fallout3 AT ALL , the difficulty is locked in .
Also you can keep everything you have after the credits roll and start a new game again, then enemies are even harder this time around.
Really the best play through is the 2nd play through.
Borderlands should be on the shelf of anyone familiar with hardcore grinders type diablo-ish game with the shooter mechanics of halo and COD in a blender.
The guns are tiered in rarity by the color of the text describing the weapon and you'll forever be on the lookout for the legendary Orange text weapons, which I now have 100% of , by way of farming.
Yes farming and duping is in the game, but its still fun , you don't need to do it , but with 17 million plus guns , its a never ending addiction long after the credits roll.
Of course all the weapons have a rock,paper,scissors like effect , with no real one weapon beast of all. One weapon is better than another against certain enemies and so on so forth.
Liquid fast fun online co-op .
The only downside are there are the rather mundane 'fetch' missions and sometimes you can get into co-op games where the kids in the room want nothing more than to smack you for a duel challenge, luckily you can turn off duels in your options so you don't end up in games with nothing but kids who wanna pown you with their latest duped weapon by way of chest farming.
But if that happened either stay or find another room in about 5 seconds .
Easy cheesy on line co-op flawed just short of perfection , yet perfect in every way if that makes sense?
Borderlands a definite buy for the hardcore grinder fan. | video-games_xbox |
It's not "Revolutionary. Here's a game which attempts to exploit itself as a "revolutionary" sequel to the previous games. It boasts this because istead of using the usual "O" button to initiate a grapple on your opponent, you use the right thumb stick. The "revolutionary" changes in gameplay are basically that, the thumbstick instead of the "O" button.
Every wrestling game is only as marketable as it's story mode is enthralling.
This one has several amusing chapters you can run through, but their appeal can't outshine the level of annoyance one will have to endure when attempting to complete certain tasks. In order to achieve the Royal Rumble trophy and unlock certain locked wrestlers, you must compete in the Royal Rumble match and not the actual Royal Rumble PPV as the World Champion or contender to the World Championship. The Royal Rumble pay per view isn't encountered until very late in the game, so you won't realize this until you've already invested a good days worth of game playing.
As with most XBOX 360 games, this one goes out of it's way to achieve unique forms of irratating stupidity. One case of this is where you would like to quit, and reload a saved game since you are not satisfied with the result of a particular match. If you quit while the game is still playing, it will automatically save your unwanted results. You'll have to then start season mode from the very beginning. The idiots at Microsoft felt that the gamer must have obviously forgotten to save the game, and instead of putting up a notice they decided to just put up an autosave and negate the need for a save button. They could have just set the autosave feature to save right after a match since you'd have to turn the console off completely to escape the consequence.
This game is a terrible example of a sequel. I'd recommend that fans of the series just wait for the next one, where they will hopefully improve upon this already stale concept enough to where it will seem like a real sequel to Raw vs Smackdown 2006. | video-games_xbox |
All the Tatau will be yours. Story:
- Far Cry 3 is an open-world survival first-person shooter with the options for stealth or straightforward combat. Stealth rewards more than the straightforward approach. The story is about a group of college age adults that are vacationing on Rook Island and when they go skydiving, they land in pirate(powered by a drug lord) territory. Everyone gets captured, split up, and held across the vast island. Jason Brody (the protagonist or you) and his brother breakout using your brother's military skills. The drug lord's pirate leader kills your brother and begs you to run (he's crazy, but he's one of my favorite villains) as his pirates chase you into the jungle. Pirates aren't the only thing you have to look out for, the wildlife has pretty much every dangerous exotic animal on it, and they want you dead just as much as the next pirate.
- The story is very immersive and the atmosphere creates actual panic in me (especially during the kill 3 tigers with the bow and arrow mission) as you can't escape danger and running into wild creatures or pirates.
Pros:
- Excellent gameplay and story, it feels like you are playing Call of Duty on live when you are liberating outposts. The story also has it's twists
- Has a variety of types of missions, so you can choose if you want to hunt something, save your friends, race medicine to a friend, etc.
- The leveling system for unlocking combat techniques or passive perks is executed nicely
- This being a Ubisoft game, it takes some ideals from the Assassin's Creed series, such as the enemy alert system (so you know if you have been seen) and the stealth combat.
- The characters are very memorable and realistic (Vaas, the main villain's right hand man, is one of the best villains ever)
- The atmosphere and environment are quite unique.
- The graphics are super realistic, the main characters were modeled after actual people and it's hard to tell the difference. Normally, I don't comment about the graphics unless they are unique in their own way because it's a video game, not a movie. The graphics are seriously out of this world and makes the game a beautifully dangerous place.
Cons:
- It's such a massive game that after a while, it can get rather repetitive(should you find yourself in this predicament, take a break and play a different game for a while and start back up again. The controls are the same as most FPS, so it is easy to pick back up).
- I felt that they could have done more with the upgrading the rucksacks, but I can understand that it is more realistic to have reasonable limit on what you can carry.
- Insane amount of collectibles, don't even bother. (I don't mind collectibles if they are used to progress further in the game, like in Banjo Kazooie. These don't offer anything except for the Lost Letters, for those who wish to learn about the island during WWII, and a measly sum of Gamer Points.)
Other:
- I got 750G on one playthrough on hard. I even bother with the collectible achievements because playing the game was so much more fun. I believe 160G that I didn't get were a part of the Co-Op story which I didn't do.
- The DLC missions don't offer much except for the Monkey See, Monkey Boom missions. You meet an interesting character (he's worth it though).
Buy this game if you:
- Like Call of Duty games.
- Want a truly unique and beautiful experience.
- Enjoy fast paced action.
Don't buy this game if:
- It is over $50 (I doubt it will ever get back up over $50, with this still being sold in retail stores towards the end of Xbox 360, but should it go back up there in 10 years... Buy it, you won't regret it).
I can't really think of a reason why you shouldn't buy it. | video-games_xbox |
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