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Just what I wanted......and then some. Download the new program from codejunkies.com, it has support for newer hard drives and stuff. The program they give you on the minidisc is outdated. Best price on Amazon, normal msrp $50.
The plastic is a little on the cheap side and my xbox 360 hard drive didn't exactly fit in. I took a razor and shaved off the tab in the back that the xbhd hooks onto since it never really fit anyhow. Now it just slides down and into the dock.
The software is somewhat easy to use. I am sure you can do a lot more than what is says you can. It is somewhat temperamental. If you click on a certain folder it might freeze the program but you can just restart it. It should work fine for what you should be using it for.
As you might have guessed, you will be saving these backups/images on your computers hard drive.
This will allow you to make full backups of your xbox 360 hard drive (20, 60, 120 gig)as an image file. You can select a partial image file which is just the essential kernal data so xbox will recognize and format it, or a full hard Drive backup (make sure you have the space on your pc's hard drive) It's good to do this in case anything gets screwed up. You can restore this image to your original xbhd but NOT another hard drive.
If you purchase another xbhd you CANNOT copy your previous hard drive image to the new one. You can, however, transfer all of your game saves to the new xbhd.
With the software you can also select certain files to back up. You can backup your entire profile folder (which houses all of your gamesaves) or certain folders of certain gamesaves if you want. I have a 120 gig xbhd 50% full and my full profile folder was about 2 gigs in size.
This product will also allow you to save and use other people gamesaves (that you download)on your xbox 360 hard drive(xbhd). I don't know why on earth you would want to do this though.
My friend played gta4 b4 he joined xbox live. He has to log into his non-xbox live profile to play the game. I am going to use this to move his gta4 gamesaves from his non-live profile to his Live profile, this way he just has one account.
After this long winded review, I am actually thinking about getting the 512 meg memory stick to do this work. It would be easier. I could just leave the stick in the 360 the whole time and never have to move anything. Having a couple saves per game is ok with me.
This product works great, and if you're into transferring and using other peoples gamesaves and backing up your entire 360 hard drive, then this is for you. | video-games_xbox |
Finally! A game that requires teamwork. When I first put Battlefield Bad Company 2 into my Xbox, I wasn't too excited. I had been a huge Call of Duty fan for years, and figured I would be playing just another camp it out kind of game, full of silly killstreaks, people running off at the mouth between lobbies and guns with no recoil.
My first night playing, I was not impressed. The game felt choppy and unpolished to me, not to mention that I had no idea what I was doing. This was my first Battlefield game ever, and it took some getting used to. I decided to give it one more try, as many of my friends were playing it and loved it. I don't know what clicked on the second night, but I fell in love with this game.
The game is a little unpolished, but the way it plays makes you almost forget about it. There are four kits/classes available, and each must work together to do well. Using your class abilities properly can actually net you more experience points then running around and killing everything in sight. This really helps promote teamwork. I'll go into those classes just a little bit:
Assault - This kit is your main guy to take out infantry. He uses automatic rifles, mostly. Most of them have undermount rifle grenades, which can be upgraded lated to smoke grenades or an undermount shotgun. If using a gun that doesn't have an undermount, your Assault will be able to equip C4, which is fantastic for blowing up buildings or vehicles. Assaults can also throw out ammo packs, which net you points everytime someone refills their ammo off of your pack.
Medic - This isn't some wimpy little guy hanging in the back waiting for the cry of "Medic!" to cross the battlefield. Medics are equipped with light machine guns; most of which having 200 or more rounds per clip. This class excels at laying covering fire. Aside from that, Medics can throw out health packs that gain you a ton of points as it heals your team. Didn't get the health pack out quick enough? No problem! Medics unlock defibulators, which can revive your fallen teammate and get him back into the action. The big downside? Medics can do absolutly nothing against enemy vehicles, aside from emptying LMG clips into a helicoptor.
Engineer - If it can explode, then Engineers belong by it. This kit comes equipped with RPGs (with other rocket launchers unlocked later on) and silenced sub machineguns. They do well in close quarters combat, but excel in vehicles. Engineers are the primary defense against enemy vehicles, but they can also use their handy power drill to fix friendly vehicles, which nets you an astounding amount of points. Aside from rockets, they can also unlock anti-tank mines, which always makes for a nice surprise to the enemy.
Recon - The "sniper" of BFBC2. This kit is much more than just a sniper though. Since BFBC2 lets you choose to spawn on one of your squadmates, a good Recon can get behind enemy lines, wait for his squad to spawn on him, then launch a surprise assualt from behind the enemy. Aside from this, they get motion sensors, that light up any enemy going near them. If someone on your team kills an enemy that was spotted by your sense, you get points for it. Still not fun enough? How about C4 to take out pesky vehicles? If you don't want to get that close to the action, then you will also unlock the ability to call in mortar strikes, which is sure to take out any enemy tank caught in the barrage.
All in all, this is the best first person shooter I've ever played. Every class is well balanced with the next, but leans on support from the other (like an eternal game of Paper, Rock, Scissors). The hit detection is amazing. Destructable enviorments can completely change the layout of the battlefield everytime you play it. The only downside is that unpolished feel. For example, sometimes there may be a 6 inch tall rock that you get stuck on, and have to navigate around. Another downside is that late at night your 12v12 matches may end up 2v2. This can get really boring as the maps are huge. Those two things are the only reason I didn't give this game a 5 star rating; however it's well worth the purchase.
Note: Buy new, not used. BFBC2 has a VIP code that can only be used once. This code enables you to get map packs, weapons and other downloadable content for free. If you buy used and someone already used the code, then you will have to purchase the code seperately if you want those items. In the end it's cheaper to buy new. | video-games_xbox |
Very good wireless adapter for the price. The Trendnet TEW-647GA is easy to setup, but difficult to perfect. Like other reviewers here, when I first received this gaming adapter I put the CD in the computer and followed the instructions. I installed the unit manually instead of using Wifi protected setup. It was working well, but the wireless connection kept dropping when not in use. The quick, temporary fix for this problem was to unplug the adapter, wait 5 seconds or more, and then plug it back in. I found that I had to do this on a daily basis to keep the unit in good working condition. I read the reviews here and in other websites, which mentioned that updating the firmware to the latest version would fix the problem. However, entering 192.168.10.110 to access the gaming adapter's web utility did not work for me either. I managed to update the firmware by entering the actual IP address assigned to this unit by the router. I did this by hooking up the gaming adapter to a laptop that was wirelessly connected to my network. Then, I inserted the installation CD, clicked configure. The IP address assigned by the router appeared. I entered this IP address into my browser, along with the password I used during the original installation. On the adapter configuration page, I clicked update firmware and pointed to the .bin file I downloaded from the Trendnet Website. The Firmware appeared to be correctly installed (screen showed 100%), however I did not get a confirmation. I hooked it up to my Slingbox (the main purpose for using the adapter), but it did not work. I discovered that it started working after I held the reset button for at least 15 seconds. This came after I unplugged the unit from the Slingbox, and then just plugged it into an electrical outlet. I re-checked the firmware by inserting the CD to find out the IP address using the method mentioned before and it showed the latest firmware was installed ! Now the unit is not dropping the wireless connection as frequently as before. In a nutshell, you need to find out the IP address, update the firmware, and then hold the reset button for at least 15 seconds for the adapter to work well. | video-games_xbox |
For fans of WOD and Gauntlet alike. My XBox is used to rent games. I have yet to buy any. I have a decent sized collection of PS 2 and GameCube games. The XBox has been a dust collector for a while.
This weekend I decided to do some renting to see if there is anything of value for the system yet, and thankfully there is. I know I could get blasted by Halo fans for not acknowledging it as the "best game ever" but Eternal Darkness has my vote for that, and Halo is a first person shooter that will be out done by Metroid Prime shortly. Usually I don't like First Person Shooters anyway. After many months Hunter: The Reckoning has made my purchase worthwhile. It's not a lot on story, but the pen and paper RPG can be like this as well. Unlike its sister World of Darkness games Vampire, and Mage, Hunter features a lot more of the "Hack and slash" gore fest than other World of Darkness games. The Pen and paper version still has a lot of room for character development and depth, something that the video game does not. What that game does offer is breathtaking visuals that are almost, but not quite, as good as GameCube's Resident Evil, fast paced Gauntlet like action, and a multiplayer game that beast out Gauntlet on many levels. Although it could be argued that the game more resembles Gauntlet than the pen and paper game that it is based on, but this is not a bad thing. A modern day Gauntlet is a beautiful thing, both graphically and game play wise. My only complaint is that the boss battles are too difficult to handle with just one or two players. It's only when you have all four that the bosses are doable, and even then they're difficult.
Hunter is a sigh of relief for me. This one game has given me hope for this otherwise disappointing console. Perhaps XBox will have other World of Darkness based games that will be more story focused. Its not that the story is bad, just thin. It's still a great game though. It's worth it to get an XBox for Hunter alone. | video-games_xbox |
Fallout 3 - Enjoyable and Immersive RPG/FPS Hybrid. I had never played Fallout, Fallout 2, or Oblivion coming into Fallout 3. When I popped in the disc for the first time, I had no latent expectations, but neither did I have an awareness of the context in which Fallout 3 was developed. However, Fallout 3 holds up very well as a stand-alone game. I have logged around 100 hours exploring the entire world.
Pros: Excellent graphics and artwork - Large, immersive world - RPG-style character development without being punishing
Cons: Occasional tearing and freezing - Main questline unsatisfying - Player cannot alter the world enough
Plotline: It's 2277, 200 years after D.C. was destroyed by nuclear blasts. Most of pre-war popular culture that survived was from the 1940s and 1950s. You grow up in an underground Vault with your father. The people inside were protected from the blast, and even to this day "no one ever enters, no one ever leaves". Well, until your father mysteriously disappears one day. You leave the Vault, as well, to find him.
Gameplay: First-person shooter crossed with role-playing elements. You're able to pause the game and line up shots at enemies, which hit or miss via a random number generator. You'll be more likely to hit, and also cause more damage, by increasing your stats. After the introduction, the game is largely a sandbox. You can continue on the main questline at your leisure, or forget about your father entirely.
Detailed Pros: The graphics are top notch. The world is textured and rendered very nicely, and the overall style of the graphics and art fit the world. This is a driving force behind the immersive quality of Fallout 3. When the world looks so realistic and beautiful (in a barren, deserted way), it's easy for the player to suspend disbelief and really feel like he's in a post-apocalyptic D.C. Entertaining characters, towns, and radio stations all add to this. On top of this, the world is huge. If you just play and poke around, there's easily 100+ hours of gameplay here. However, that time commitment is not required; you can experience the heart of Fallout 3 in about 20 hours. In fact, the experience is the strongest in the first third of the game. You come out of the Vault with virtually nothing. Combat acquires an atmosphere of desperation when you are always running out of bullets and supplies. It's a shame that this is lost once your character is max level and very wealthy.
There is RPG-style character development, but Bethesda sidesteps a lot of the problems associated with that. The system is excellently explained, and although the system rewards you for having high stats, you are not punished harshly for mismanaging them. For example, to get into a room, you might need to have Lockpicking 50, Science 75, or just go find a hidden key to unlock the door. In addition, there's no repetitive grinding at the end of the game to get levels.
Detailed Cons: There is a lot of talk about the first big moral choice your character has to make: activate a nuclear bomb in the middle of a town, obliterating it, or disarm the bomb permanently and save the town. However, this is the only big moral choice you'll have to make that significantly alters the game and even it is a bit disappointing. If you don't blow up the town, it becomes your home. If you do blow it up, a hotel in another region becomes your home. Both are functionally identical, and nothing really chains off of your choice in an interesting way. Since this is a single-player game, there was room for gameplay-altering choices, but these were largely left out.
The main questline is disappointing, compared to the depth and quality of the rest of the game. It's fairly short, the pacing is bad, and a plot hole in the ending left me angry on my first playthrough (to avoid spoilers I won't say more). A side note: I had occasional tearing on the screen, and freezing requiring a reboot. Each of these happened about once every 15 hours of gameplay.
M for Mature: If you're buying it for a kid, be aware: Fallout 3 earned its rating. Your character can use drugs to get temporary stat boosts, and will probably become addicted to them. Getting clean just involves paying a doctor some money to cleanse your system. When fighting enemies, there is quite a bit of blood and gore. A shotgun to the face will send eyeballs and pieces of the skull flying in slow-motion.
Summary: Fallout 3 is an excellent hybrid FPS/RPG in a sandbox environment. It gets the important stuff right: gameplay, graphics, immersion, writing. There are a few minor flaws and at times, it feels like Bethesda played it safe where they could have innovated more. However, in the end, you'll overlook these flaws as the game draws you into its world. Fallout 3 is a dark-horse contender for Game of the Year, and definitely worth your time to play. | video-games_xbox |
Old but gold. I've owned the game since a couple of months after it's initial release.
I have one character in the game, and really don't feel like I need to have any more than that. FF11 was my first MMORPG.
I'll keep this simple;
1) The game is old, so the graphics are sub-standard. Expect that.
2) The world is huge, but don't expect to be able to wander just anywhere until you've done some serious level grinding.
3) Don't expect to be able to use teamspeak. A USB keyboard is really all that's needed however. I'll chat on the 360 network over the headset with a friend while playing but I used the keyboard for communication with everyone else.
4) Like any good MMO, you're going to find that somehow, a Functionally Retarded Window Licker (FRWL) got their hands on a controller and someone set them loose on the world of Vana'Diel, figuring they couldn't do much damage.
They were wrong.
Thankfully the FRWL's are few and far between and have lead to some absolutely hilarious Blogs and forums. (Google "[GM] Dave" Trust me. You'll laugh.)
This is actually a game where autistic downs syndrome kids make better gaming buddies than some "mentally healthy" adults that play the game.
5) MPK's (Monster-Player Kills) are a thing of the past. So don't even try. Unless you're a FRWL in which case go ahead and try, and I'll laugh as a football team of goblins jam frying pans in your sensitive places.
6) The game does have a story line, but it does not really pick up until you hit higher levels. If you party up with FRWLs, don't expect to see those levels anytime with in your first year of playing.
7) Partying up with other players is pretty much REQUIRED in this game. The lucky and the paitent could potentially solo up to about level 15, and I've even seen 20 (Blue Mage), but if you want to go higher than that you'd best expect tons of partying. This is where you will encounter the majority of your FRWLs.
8) Yes, you can actually purchase money online for in the game. Sorry, it'll only take you so far. Yeah you may be able to BUY the best armor in the game from the most expensive seller in the auction house, it's just too bad that you're too low a level, the wrong job class, and the wrong species to use it. Besides that, Square-Enix doesn't sanction it and will ban anyone they can prove purchaced Gil (the world's currency) online. As you go higher in level money stops becoming so much of a problem anyway, especially once you've learned a craft or two and can actually create ingredients to craft armor and weapons and other items. Then you can be like the other FRWLs and jack the prices up through the roof.
9) It's not WoW. If you want something like WoW, I suggest buying and playing WoW. Seriously. WoW players don't like FF11 FRWLs that login into WoW and complain about how it's "not as good as FF11." Same goes for FF11 players. So do the FF11 players a favor and don't become a WoW-FRWL.
10) T4k3 Ur m4d-l337 $k1llz, |\|' g0 |-|0m3. 1f U 7alK l1k3 7h15, n0 1 l1k3z U 4nyVV4y. U R 4 L337 FRWL.
11) No there are no roleplaying servers where you are Trogdar the soul compiler, the seventh son of Jor-El, savior of the land of Mos Eisly and slayer of the 143 fisted gerbil of doom.
All that stuff aside, I like the game. Far from the best game for 360, but I think the fees are reasonable for the moment. You get what you pay for after all. ($9.99 a month for Phantasy Star Universe...and it plays like a $9.99 game.)
Thus far the best MMORPG for the 360 console FF11 definately stands alone. Now if only we could get Microsoft to bring in WoW, Lineage 2, Star Wars Galaxies, etc... HINT! HIIINNNTTT!!!! | video-games_xbox |
Hmm, I'm not a snowboarder. Alright, I got this game because I really needed something different. I've driven for thousands of miles, head-shot millions of people, boosted countless cars... I needed a change.
I like Stoked. It definitely gave me a change of pace. The graphics are good and more importantly, they're thorough - your guy gets covered with snow when he wipes out, or when it's snowing hard. He shakes his head when he wipes out - it's creative and realistic. Supposedly the weather is dynamic - I've seen it be cloudy, then turn sunny. Every once in a while it snows, but not too often. I haven't seen a lot of options for customizing, but I hear that improves as time goes on.
The mountains are HUGE, but tend to be somewhat sparse. You feel like you ski forever with nothing to jump from. The problem is I'm trying to look for obvious jumps, when many point-grabbing activities in Stoked aren't readily obvious. You gotta get a little more creative. The option is there, but for a rookie, I'm just not used to it yet.
The biggest problem I have with Stoked is that I've never snowboarded in my life. The tricks all have titles, and I've never heard of them before. The manual or in-game "bible" helps a little bit, but simple terms like "switch" mean nothing to me. I have no idea what it's asking me to do. I go online to try to find help, and find other players getting laughed at because they don't know what the terms mean. That's bull. I could talk circles around these people when it comes to automotive terminology - can't we just be nice and answer the questions?
I too found the first few hours to be boring - and challenging - as I learned the basics, both trick-wise and terminology-wise. I've read that the game opens up after your first 66 fame points, which I just earned. So we'll see what happens.
If you're a snowboarder, you'll probably like this game. If it's as Greek to you as it is to me, you might have trouble getting into it. | video-games_xbox |
Not the Bioshock we asked for. ...but still pretty friggin' good.
Ah, here we are, in the oh - so famliar 'dissapointing sequel' section of the Amazon bin. But I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that BioShock 2 doesn't belong here. It should be plucked out, dusted off and placed on a shelf next to other really successfull shooters. No - the story doesn't live up the standards set by the original, not even close. But if you can get past that (and it ain't easy, granted) you could argue that the gameplay and level design we've got here is even BETTER than it's predecessor.
Let's splice a bit more, shall we?
The story for Bioshock was pure Sci-fi genius and the game was Sci-fi/horror excellence. The rules of the world were pretty well layed out - how Adam works, where it comes from, how the little sisters were raised and... harveseted, where the big-daddies come from. Part of the point of playing the game was unfolding this deep, rich, layered story and delving into the minutiea of the world. Hell, discovering the fates of people we meet only through voice recordings was as rewarding as surviving any one level or fighting any given enemy. Gameplay was solid and fun, but it's not what we remember most vividly. Shooting and throwing lightning was used as much as a story-telling element as anything else.
BioShock 2 does not live up to this standard, not even a little. But in doing so, it sets it's own. Our new antagonist, Sophia Lamb, is no Andrew Ryan - she's not as interesting or as scary and her madness is not as palpable or overwhelming. In fact, her control over the 'splicers' feels a little far-fetched. But it she was a logical choice (the antithesis to Andrew Ryan in every way) and we need some sort of antagonist to drive us along. This Sinclair joker is no Atlas - his voice acting is noticably weaker as are his motivations for helping you - but we need him to fill us in on just what the hell is going on and to help us jump from one bit to the next. The story elements push the limits of the science fiction to the point where it doesn't make sense anymore or starts to feel like silly fantasy instead. Like, wait, we take control of a little Sister for while? How does that work? Some nonsense about Adam containing memories? Where does that come from? But there's a shift that's happened. The gameplay is no longer used to further a story, instead a story is used to set up some awesome new gameplay. The non-sense about the Big Sisters is secondary to the fact that you're fighting some new, awesome and challenging enemy. And the Big Sisters are pretty awesome, with some devastating attacks and pretty intimidating sound design. The silly story elements about Adam containing memories (all of a sudden) is used to set up some fun and cinematic gameplay later on that I won't spoil for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. In fact, the final levels of the game are pretty taught and interesting - gone is any sort of obligatory fetch quest of fight with some silly, giant monster. The final jaunts play out in a smart, captivating way. In fact, it's arguably much better than the sort of tacked on final fight in the original. Again, the story elements and characters were secondary to creating some fun, fast-paced gameplay.
And fast-paced it is. Realism has been curved and everything happens quick. Duel-wielding plasmisd and weapons sometimes feels silly, like your character has four arms all of a sudden - but it works. It's fun, it's exciting, it's ultimately rewarding. The new weapons are effective and satisfying to play around with and make the game feel unique to the original. Enemies are faster, lighter, and more numerous. We lose a lot of the horror elements but we gain a ton of adventure. In fact, where the original is Sci-fi/Horror, this new Bioshock is Action-Adventure/Sci-fi. It's different, but it works.
The point is this: Bioshock 2 only fails if you were wanting it to be Bioshock... which is not an unreasonable request - it is a damn sequel. But if you are able to step back and appreciate it for what it is (and I encourage you to try) what you're left with is a solid, imaginative shooter with some excellent atomosphere, solid voice acting and a servicable story. It's a different world for a different audience, but it works. It works damn well.
Just, like, call it 'Underwater Adventure Game' or something, and you'll be all right! | video-games_xbox |
Adult Style Platformer. Conker looks like a cute little forest creature - but this game is DEFINITELY mature with its violence, sexual innuendo and swearing.
The basic game is the N64 version of Conker with updated graphics, and then you get a "pseudo live" version with robots, plus the XBox Live version where you can take your mayhem online.
The game fools you at first. It looks like a cute Banjo Kazooie type of game with fluffy squirrels, flowing waterfalls and hapy music. You begin to imagine that you can play this with the little kids and have fun for hours.
Then you get into the game. The main story - a remake of the N64 "Conker's Bad Fur Day" has all its built in nastiness and fun. It's a game adults can enjoy for hours and hours.
The graphics are rather impressive, in their cartoony way. If it's raining out, the raindrops cascade down the monitor screen. The HUD is easy to read iwthout interfering with your shots. The maps provide a cartoony visual interest while being fun to play in.
The sounds are pretty straightforward for a platformer. In fact, when you're doing multiplayer type capture-the-flag sorts of games, they bleep out some of the swears so you're being shielded from some of the nasiness.
You have to give these guys some credit. With the graphics and sound work, they could easily have made a simple kid-friendly game that families would have bought up and played. We could have had yet another standard platforming game with "furry creature" and including a multiplayer aspect to it. However, these developers aimed for something different. They created a platformer that was directly aimed towards adults. They created a multiplayer world that involved furry rodents. So this isn't the normal audience for platformers - and it isn't the normal way that combat-oriented multiplayer guys want to play either. Still, the game is fun and it draws both groups in.
I'm always very much for games that help to stretch the boundaries, and this game is definitely one of those. Again - not for kids - but it can be great fun for adults who are willing to give it a try. | video-games_xbox |
Depth and Destruction With A Couple Hiccups. You should know before diving into Battlefield titles that they are primarily focused on the online multiplayer component of the game. Once you get over the fact that the single-player campaign is obviously something put there to help you pass some time with an 'okay' story if you want to shoot some CPU players, etc. you should really dive full-force into the online functions of this game.
One of the major issues that plagued this game early on is the fact that they have had server issues (who doesn't in the first week of a major release?). Also, there are some bad graphical glitches when looking across large expanses of land and textures. This is something that will most likely be able to be fixed with a patch in the future (something DICE has always done a good job of doing, albeit after a long while with typically huge download 1-2GB).
The matchmaking is still a bit clunky which is annoying considering they push this game to be team-oriented. Why must it be so hard to join a game on the same team as my friends?
With those negatives covered there are a ton of things that this game does far better than most shooters and that is in recoil, sound and gameplay.
This game will train you to be more tactical and develop a respect for the recoil and loading time of weapons.
As well, you will start to learn the nuances of this game the more you play it. Don't expect to pick it up and be a pro if you have never played Battlefield before. There will be a lot of gamers that put this game aside because they aren't piling up 32 kills every round. That isn't what Conquest/Rush Mode(s) are about and once you figure out that your team is more important than your KDr you will notice that the game will come to you more naturally. That said, you will also notice that your KDr will improve with that knowledge and understanding.
Buy this game with the expectations that you will have to earn your leveling, guns and respect. | video-games_xbox |
Fun game, although eerily similar to Forza3. I am a Forza fan and I have been anxious for the last 2 weeks waiting for this game. I think I probably over hyped the game to myself.
It is a good game. The car's are good, the physics are good, the changes to the career mode are good. The additions of different types of races, "fun race" modes (such as bowling and the car games they do online), rivals and autovista add a really nice touch to the game.
The AI difficulty changes are interesting to say the least. It makes for a much more bumpy race experience. You almost feel like you have to play bumper cars to navigate corners as it can be difficult to pass AI cars on the straights. I realize this is how "real" racing is. In real racing circuits you don't see all the competitors just blowing each other out on the straights (as you could do fairly easy in Forza 3) Races are won in the corners and Forza 4 really accentuates that fact, it just takes getting some used to.
Some commentors have mentioned a "rubber band" effect, where AI cars seem to catch up unnaturally quickly on the straights. I can say that I have experienced this as well. But, when I have experienced it, usually I was driving a higher class car such as an STI against a similar class car that had significantly more horsepower. I would expect a 550HP Camaro to catch up to my STI on very very long straights if given the opportunity. The STI is a powerful car in its own regard, but mine has a 200hp deficit to some of the competitors that should surely show on long straight aways.
But all of these additions really just strike me as a bunch of minor additions trying to create a major update and I'm not sure they succeed for me. Forza 4 seems like a evolution from Forza 3. I could call it Forza 3.5 and feel perfectly fine. To me Forza 3 was a giant leap from Forza 2, and I think I was expecting a similar giant leap to Forza 4.
I gave it 4 stars, as the game mode additions are nice and it is a really polished, fun game. | video-games_xbox |
AC3 Review. The overall experience of Assassin's Creed 3 is solid and great as previous installments, so I'll "review" how some aspects of the campaign affect this experiencie either in a positive or negative way.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is good, it didn't have an extreme change compared to previous games. Some control layouts here and there. The only thing that affected in a negative way the gameplay were the graphics: I mean, they look great, but they're many, I say a lot of visual glitches. Some things appear and dissapear in a blink of an eye, the GPS is not always accurate when trying to show enemies (sometimes it shows enemies that you don't see on screen and viceversa).
Discovering the map is a pain in the neck. After reaching all viewpoints of a zone, they don't unlock all areas in the map, so you have go to that areas so the fog gets clear. I don't understand Ubisoft stand here, I think they wanted to make it more realistic, but if they want to do that, then they should remove the Leap Of Faith or make you die after a being shot.
These kind of things, though minor, are annoying because of they're repetitive.
Combat:
In my opinion the combat is half-baked. It is clumpsy and slow. Ubisoft didn't take the solid and fluid combat gameplay from AC Brotherhood or Revelations, no, they changed completely. Countering an attack make Connor block the move, thus stopping the scene for a second, then you attack or do something else. In ACB and ACR once you countered an attack, Ezio inmmediately attacks the enemy and you can chain multiple killstreak with ease, making the combat fun and rewarding. Here not, killstreaks are a little harder to achieve.
Grabbing an enemy was removed from hand to hand combat.
Something kind of off-topic. When you play with Desmond, his fighting style matches that of Connor, which is innacurate, because his abilities are the ones from Ezio, it is even stated in the opening sequence by Desmond father, William.
Desmond even uses a combat knife, which he magically makes appear/dissapear out of nowhere. :S
I think Ubisoft went the easy path here.
Music:
As always, the music is flawless. Lorne Balfe did a great job here.
Story:
Nothing to say here. AC is distinguished by its storytelling, historic references and more. It is damn good.
In general AC3 is a great game which you enjoy. If you are a fan you won't be dissapointed, if you are new you'll be satisfied. | video-games_xbox |
Franchise is getting worse. I, like many, finally gave in and bought this game only because I was bored with my very limited and old selection of games. I got it fairly cheap used and figured it couldn't hurt. Well the reviews were spot on for this game. MW2 was WAY better of a game; wish I still had it, I'd much rather be playing that than this. Apparently a large amount of Infinity Ward employees left the company after being sick of Activision's terrible control over making a game, and with that loss brought on a bunch of new employees to continue the job. Well, apparently they took the easy route and pretty much left the game as cookie cutter as possible (as usual, so that's expected) but they did a TERRIBLE job of creating maps. These maps have AWFUL designs, where instead of having a couple choke points that everyone gravitates towards, every corner is a choke point where you wind up getting shot in the back 80% of the time. Instead of having one or two choices in direction of where to go, nearly every corner you come to has about 3 directions you can go, creating an increased chance of running into bullets immediately as you make your choice. Of course, this is only exasperated by the ABSOLUTELY HORRENDOUS respawning algorithm which literally will spawn you directly 5 feet behind an enemy character, and not even as a once in a blue moon thing. And the last issue is the lag compensation brought on by Activision being cheap as hell not wanting to maintain their own servers, so instead they make someone in the game the "host" and then "compensating" for potential lag by tweaking everyone's delay to the game, resulting in 75% of head-to-head encounters showing you getting the jump on the other guy but ending with you dying confused wondering how you got killed when the enemy didn't shoot one round at you.
So, if you really want to continue with this franchise, just be warned, Infinity Ward's games have always been mine and probably the majority of players' favorites, but this has absolutely been the most frustrating game released yet. And it's disgusting too because Activision, in lieu of revenue and profits, knows people will continue to buy their "broken" products, simply because of the series it belongs to, so instead of fixing these issue they will save their time and money and we will all continue to be their puppets, strung along like dolls following into the darkness...
So be warned. My suggestion, if you can find it used for under $30-$35, why not; you'll save yourself money and regret, AND Activision will never see a penny of it. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS GAME BRAND NEW!!! | video-games_xbox |
Don't buy if you only play campaigns. I don't do multiplayer, I beat campaign on a couple of difficulty levels. For me Halo 4 was huge disappointment and signaled end of a great franchise.
Pros:
- Graphics is amazing.
- It's Halo
- Power ups like Jet Pack are nifty.
- (this might be pros for some) Cortana appears pretty much naked all the time
Cons:
- Campaign is super-short, less then half of the original Halo less than 5 hours of game play. That's what mattered to me most. Halo was long. Halo 2 and 3 felt as if they lasted forever.
- Campaign is very boring and repetitive. Clearing similar rooms 5 time in a row is not my concept of fun gameplay, and that's what happened with this game. Always linear, and large arenas are not replacement for non-linear city blocks like in ODST. I played this game once on normal and I cannot force myself to play it again on harder level, it's just not interesting. I still enjoy playing the original Halo about once a year though.
- New enemies are nothing interesting, and their weapons are very similar to human ones, just look differently.
- I experiences several audio glitches. Once sound completely disappeared, I had to quit the game. The other time the same sound started repeating like crazy, I also had to quit/start the game.
- Grunts sound pretty weird and mechanical. It was fun to have them talk funny human voices. That is now gone.
- Halo theme music is gone. Probably, Bungie took the copyright along with them when they spun off. Instead some middle-eastern tune plays, but it is not nearly as epic as the original.
- They introduced some magical/fantasy stuff into that game. If I want to play fantasy, I play WoW, this is sci-fi game, I don't need to see magic powers here.
- I always found annoying that last level of many Halo games, where you need to drive like hell to avoid dying. In previous games it was always the last level and you could happily not beat it on replay of the campaign. Well, this game has 2 of those driving/flying levels, one - in the middle the other - in the end.
- While Cortana is naked, she is somehow mis-shaped, something is weird about her. I'd rather not see her shapes in so much detail.
I did not pay a full price for this game, but I still think I overpaid. Maybe if you like multiplayer it might be worth your money, but if you only pay campaign, this is a rip-off. I realize, with every new release of Halo it is harder to surprise players, but I'm offended that release something as short and boring and expect ppl to pay $60 because has name Halo. | video-games_xbox |
Doesn't work for me, regardless of placement or TV stand (even with the NEW one, the Zoom doesn't work. *Update* I just got a <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Fulton-Espresso-Corner-Media-Stand/dp/B002WRI4HU/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Fulton Espresso Corner Media Stand</a> last night, assembled it, and decided to try moving my Kinect to the edge of it with the Zoom attached to see if it would fix the issue my Kinect kept reporting about it being "unable to see the floor"... Nothing. Even after getting a new TV stand and placing the Kinect with Zoom RIGHT at the edge of it, it made no difference. So, for me, that was the last possible thing I could've tried to get the Zoom to work for me, and it still doesn't.
I've already initiated my return of the Zoom to Amazon. Nyko's Zoom does NOT work for me.
* ~ *
Okay, so, like most everyone else out there that had preordered the Zoom, I couldn't wait to receive mine. It's simple to set up: cut tape tabs on box. Remove Zoom-containing green box inside of protective, informative product sleeve. Remove instruction guide & insert. Remove Zoom from casing & plastic bag. Remove antistatic film from Zoom. Slide Zoom... wait, turn on Xbox, go to Kinect settings, adjust tilt of Kinect. Turn Xbox off. NOW tilt Zoom over Kinect camera/lenses. Turn Xbox on. Grab calibration card. Stand 4' from Kinect. Calibrate Kinect. Yay! It worked! Choose game. Start game. Wait, what the Hell?!? Why the Hell does it look like I'm halfway sunk into the floor?!? Crap for crap! Ugh!
*Sigh*. Fiddle with TV mount on which Kinect is seated. Remove Kinect from TV mount. Separate plastic frame piece from stand. Use Dremel & flex shaft to cut away plastic from front of frame against which Kinect is bumping when Kinect tries to find the floor in normal game calibration. Reassemble stand & replace Kinect into stand. Put back on top of TV. What?!? What the Hell do you MEAN the Kinect STILL can't see the floor?!?...
THIS was my Zoom experience, and it only got worse. And no, before you start asking, I'm not a total and complete idiot, technologically speaking or otherwise. I simply found that the Zoom shortened "distance" enough that the Kinect now couldn't see the floor, because, now that the camera's "view" was perpetually zoomed in, the floor was blocked by the edge/lip of my entertainment center, REGARDLESS of whether I placed the Kinect below my TV, or in the mount that I have attached to the top of my TV. Neither position made any difference. And I found that placing my Kinect (with the Zoom attached) below my TV, on the edge of my entertainment center, only served to move the Kinect's focal point further down. My Kinect focused on my knees as the center of the screen when placed below the TV, so adjusting positioning with the Zoom attached didn't help at all.
After trying everything that I could think of for an hour and a half, I gave up on trying to "tweak" it. SUPER disappointing, because I was just CERTAIN that the Nyko Zoom was going to fix ALL of my limited apartment space issues with the Kinect. Thankfully, the only game that I'd played pre-Zoom that seemed truly affected by the distance was/is Your Shape: Fitness Evolved. That was the game that, with the Zoom in place, now showed me as halfway submerged in the floor... Interesting, but not fun for workout purposes.
Long story short, if you happen to have your Kinect mounted to the top of your TV via one of those clips, and you want to use the Zoom, you'll need to ensure that your TV is flush with the front edge of your entertainment center/TV stand. I have a stand upon a stand, and my TV is set further back from the edge of my entertainment center in order to ensure the safety of the equipment beneath it. Therefore, in my case, the Zoom doesn't work.
Great as it may be for others, Nyko's Zoom just might not work for everyone out there. Case in point: me. *Sigh*. Bummer. | video-games_xbox |
Poor design, even poorer functionality. I was hoping that a media remote would come out since the day I bought the Xbox One, but not this remote. At first the simplicity of the design seems kind of nice, that is until you notice that it is in sacrifice of many key/basic functions. First off the controller user IR which is ridiculous for a media remote in 2014, but I knew ahead of time and figured I could deal with it. My Xbox was set up to control my television (Vizio 65") before I had the remote and worked fine turning the tv on and off with the system and controlling volume levels. After I started using the media remote with the tv I noticed it would freeze the tv app to the point that the only way I could get it to work again was to turn off the instant on feature on the Xbox and turn off the function where the Xbox turns on the tv when the console is powered on as well as going through the process to clear the systems cache. So, two key features of the Xbox have already been eliminated to accommodate the media remote..awesome. Then when the remote does "work" it only responds to about 3-4 button presses of the volume control out of every 20. A media remote for an all-in-one system like the Xbox One should be an all-in-one remote but it isn't even close. I still have to power on and off my tv with the tv remote, and adjust the volume with it when the Xbox media remote refuses to function. I also need to grab my cable box remote to power it on and off as well as to pull up my DVR list or to record something on my DVR. I was just considering exchanging my Xbox One Media remote in hopes that some of the finicky features were just because I was an early adopter, but the day I went online to setup the return I saw that Microsoft put out a beta of the Xbox One Smartglass app that does everything this media remote does and everything the media remote doesn't. It controls the tv volume, controls the OneGuide, the DVR on my cable box, even switches apps more seamlessly and functions flawlessly...basically it is the Xbox One Media remote I always wanted and it is FREE. I recommend anybody interested in this media remote go to the Google Play Store, Windows Phone Market or Apple App Store and try the new Xbox One Smartglass App. It is 100% better than the physical media remote. If your device doesn't support Smartglass then maybe get this remote....or wait for an updated version of it. I'm sending mine back as a return not an exchange. | video-games_xbox |
This game is too good for a king to even come withing an inch of it. Well, when I first saw this game, I was a little skeptical. And I wasn't the one playing it-I was watching my friend play it. So then he handed me the controller, and I started to play it. After that, the rest is history. I became obssessed. The graphics makes every other game for the 360 look like dog crap. Yes, there is a lot of cussing and a lot of blood, but it's something to get used to. The revving of the chainsaw, the sound of a headshot-this game is perfect. The story line is a little odd, but it sums it all up in Gears of War 2 (HOLY CRAP! I STILL HAVE TO WAIT OVER 2 MONTHS!) The weapons are unique, and fun to use...but nothing is as fun as using the sniper rifle. The online on this game-I played it for 26 hours! I only stopped to use the bathroom or to eat...I didn't sleep. It is awesome. The intensity of this game is simply mind blowing (and in this game, mind blowing can become a reality!) Gears of War 2- I have some high expectations. I hope it's as good as the 1st one (if not better...)...as it says in the Gears of War 2 gameinformer: "Sequels are a tricky business." How true is that? Except with Halo 2, they reached the level and went higher...then they got lower with Halo 3 (that game sucks.) Halo 2 is WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY better than Halo 3'll ever be! If you own a 360 and you don't have Gears of War in your library, you are simply a sick person who doesn't have great taste in games. This game is AWESOME in graphics, gameplay, sound....everything. I never thought it was possible, but this game is actually a perfect game. MUST BUY GAMES FOR THE 360: Gears of War, (In the future) Gears of War 2, Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, BioShock, RockBand, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, The Orange Box, Assassin's Creed, Halo 2, (In the future) Halo Wars, Viva Pinata (IT IS NOT A BABY GAME), Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation. Games you shouldn't buy and/or shouldn't have in your library: No sports games (that includes football, baseball, basketball, hockey, racing...NOTHING) Lego Star Wars games (just rent them...because thats what they are-renters) Dark Sector (another renter...not that impressive) Viva Pinata Party Animals (boring) Dead Rising (stupid, gross...) Oh! You should also have in your library Lost Odyssey...it's really fun and has 4 discs!
Well, that concludes my review. Gears of War is a must have, must buy...it's just a big MUST!!!!! BUY IT! | video-games_xbox |
Flatout flatout sucks. Don't buy this game because you will forever wonder why you did so. This is the worst racing game I have ever played. The bonus games are crap and are all the same thing. If this was even a decent game there would be a reason to play the bonus games. But, there's not. Sure you get money, but with the best car in the game fully upgraded (why did I waste my time) you can't tell a difference in the race from a crap car. All the upgrades do is take your money and waste your time.
The actual racing is just as bad. Sometimes when you hit a cone you will keep right on going and even get extra in your boost gauge. Other times I have gone flying off the track because of a single cone. I don't know why and at this point I really don't care.
The races beyond the very first ones are way too difficult. It is more luck than skill. In other words, there is almost no way to get first and you will only get in the top 3 if the other players take themselves out. Computer cars beat the best and fully upgraded car off the line and can turn corners in about half the time without losing speed. All you can do is watch them drive away.
Oh and one last thing, the shortcuts suck. They are not shortcuts and usually end up taking longer because it is like threading a needle and with the handling being so bad. If you even stray a little from the exact route, you will be out of bounds and have to reset. If you hit anything, even going very slow, you will be thrown from your car and lose time. If you do manage to do it right you might still come out behind where you were. I have only found 3 races out of 75, or whatever it is, that actually have a shortcut that is worth taking. And by worth taking I mean doesn't lose you time and doesn't gain it either. Talk about a crap game. Please consider not buying this game.
Bottom line: NOT FUN and really really NOT WORTH YOUR MONEY (even to rent). Don't borrow it either, it's a waste of time.
Pro: The rag doll physics are amusing for the first hour or less. | video-games_xbox |
Bladestorm a very pleasant surprise. I like this game. Most of the games that I play are of the PC strategy type, i.e. Civilization, Total War etc. I also like RPG's like Morrowind and Oblivion. I see this game as sort of a hybrid of the two types. Bladestorm feels more "light hearted" and just fun. It's totally open ended. You don't have to create units and build castles etc. you just use what's already there.
I was very pleased to find that you can go into options and change camera view to inverse. I think the graphics are excellent. It's really rich and beautiful on a wide screen HDTV.
The voice acting and music is pretty rediculous, but doesn't detract too much from the gameplay.
What this game has, that really makes it different is the "first person" relation to what's going on on the battlefield. You can't get that "bird's eye view" that you get in Total War. You see the battlefield the way a participant would. There's till plenty of opportunity to employ tactics,i.e. keeping archers back and on higher ground if possible, charging with cavalry in open fields etc.
Another interesting thing is the fact that you can't just "button mash" in battle. Each type of unit has it's abilities, each taking a certain amount of time to regenerate. Using abilities well in combination can be very devistating. You have to wait for the "power" to regenerate before you use it again. The same is true for defensive manuevers, i.e. raising shields. You can raise shields for a certain amount of time, until the power runs out. Then you have to wait for the power to come back again.
The AI is kind of a "mixed bag." The good thing is that they don't just stand around waiting for you to attack. They will attack you. The bad thing, is that both the enemy and your allies don't have much finesse in how they attack. They just charge in with no regard for coordination etc. Sometimes it's not very pretty.
The most important thing to learn in this game is where you are in the battlefield. You need to establish your sense of direction. The map shows arrows indicating which directions the armies are advancing. That's a "sure bet" for how your character might proceed. You can't control every group of units right away. You can only control the ones that are available to be controlled and that you have "books" for. As you realize successes, you gain skills and "books" which will give you access to more types of units.
There's a sense of accomplishment when you take an enemy base or complete a contract. You can purchase armour, weapons, recruits etc. with your earnings. There's an over-all sense of direction in that you work on increasing your fame, skills and wealth.
I think it's a good game. | video-games_xbox |
Disappointing. I used to love Final Fantasy. I played 1-6, and loved them all. Final Fantasy 3/6 is one of my favorite games of all time. But personally, for 7 and beyond, I kind of fell off the boat. I never really liked the transition to 3d, especially because it heralded the introduction of the hour-long cutscene. I got very tired of watching movies instead of playing games, and I never really got back on board from these experiences. Hard-up for a good JRPG, I decided I'd try my best to give 13 a go. Square/Enix has had a while to refine the formula, so maybe things would be different.
The good:
-The graphics are shiny. I won't quite agree with people claiming this is the best-looking game ever, but it's a good-looking game. The game employs a now-common trick where you see much more graphically rich character models while adventuring or in cutscenes, then much lower-quality models in the actual battles. Since I only care about the battles, I see pretty standard graphics for a current game.
-Sazh has a chocobo in his afro. It's pretty cute / funny.
The bad:
-Er, everything else.
This game is only as challenging as you want it to be. In battle, you shift between Paradigms, which are basically scripts for the characters. Everything happens so fast that direct control should only be used for micromanagement, so the majority of the time you're just shifting paradigms and watching the results play out (which does not make me happy). Theoretically, you could just use a healing Paradigm all the time and only attack while you're buffed out, to win every battle with little or no challenge. The game tries to balance this by having a reward system that basically gives you more XP for finishing battles faster. However, if you max out your ratings all the time, you will often hit arbitrary level caps which are set throughout the game and are only released as you progress in the story. So really, there's a lot of room to play things conservative, which really defeats the purpose of the ratings system, and you can get really lazy on the ratings if you're going to grind and do side-quests. Speaking of which...
Yes, this is Final Fantasy on rails. There is no world map, there basically aren't any towns, and because your levels will max out at various points there's not that much motivation to finish off sidequests. Except that they made gil(money) a little more rare to encourage you to put up with the bother if you want to assemble the best items. The illusion of choice is just so transparent. You only ever have one place to go, and everything else along the way is only there for completionists. Instead of crawling towns to find a store, there's one floating box you'll find appearing throughout every level that's a magical save point / store / options menu rolled into one. They might as well have just had autosaving checkpoints and let you purchase items at any time.
So basically, you have to make your own fun. You can shift paradigms, you can manually control characters, you can grind all the sidequests... and you'll have hit the current level cap ten hours ago and just built up a wealth of XP that will mean you have the exact same problem even faster on the next chapter.
And the story? For all the millions of dollars spent on animation and voice acting, there's really nothing there. Yes, technically, there's an incredibly complicated backstory and tons of development- everyone in the game rambles on for thirty minutes at a time in cutscenes, so plenty gets said. However, since there's no world map, you never have to worry about where you're going next. Since you're often going to be at max level, there's no need to worry about who you're fighting. Since all you're really doing is going from point A to point B in the meantime, with no real choices to make other how much you feel like grinding, there's no reason to worry about why you're fighting. Cutscenes for me boiled down to waiting for Sazh's Chocobo appear, which didn't happen nearly often enough to balance out all the rambling.
So overall, it's just a very mediocre game weighed down by overly long cutscenes. It's pretty, but it's shallow. There's tens of hours of gameplay to be had, but you never really have any reason to care about any of it. Except the baby chocobo. And then only because it's cute.
The puzzling:
-Orange and blue. There's been a trend in marketing in recent years where it's been discovered that the colors orange and blue have the most visual contrast, and therefore the most impact on viewers. Go ahead and try to find a single minute in this game where the colors orange and blue aren't onscreen together- I dare you. | video-games_xbox |
Resident Evil 4 vs. 5. Having never played any of the Resident Evil games prior to the fourth installment on the PS2, I can't say how this game measures up the other games. That said, I found it a worthy sequel to it's immediate predecessor. For anyone who played Resi 4 and loved it (like myself), I will tell you how this game measures up.
1) Graphics - Improved. As expected, this game makes fantastic use of the 360's (PS3's) graphic abilities to deliver a gorgeous looking game. That said, you can definitely see a similarity between this game and it's predecessor. Despite the improved textures, it has the same feel to it as the last one. In fact, I suspect that Capcom used the same engine to make both games. Something about the camera and movement style just seems very reminiscent of 4.
2) Environments - Cool, but less memorable and genre appropriate than 4's. This game takes place somewhere in West Africa. And while some of the environments are very cool, and they're all gorgeous, most of them don't really feed into the horror aspect of the game. First of all, more than half of the game takes place in broad daylight, which really detracts from the horror of fighting zombies. Most of the environments are more open than the ones in 4. In fact, the entire atmosphere of the game feels a lot less isolated than the dark, ominous, Spanish village from Resident Evil 4. There also felt like there was a greater sense of continuity between levels in 4. There were levels by a dark swampy lake, in a rustic Spanish village, and in a med-evil castle; but they all felt like they were part of the same world. Some levels in this game really feel out of place. For example, two levels in the game take place in these ancient underground Mayan-looking ruins. Apart from the fact that there are no ancient ruins anywhere in Africa, these levels had a completely different feel to them than the rest of the game. Picture going through a modern African village, a diamond mine, a tribal camp by a lake, and then winding up in an Indiana Jones-esque cave.
3) Partner System - Resident Evil 5 introduces the partner system. Your partner Sheva, an attractive light-skinned African woman, can be controlled by either AI or a second player through XBOX live or split screen, and adds another fun dimension to the game. Sheva, as well as being nice to look at, is a very useful companion with a surprisingly intuitive AI. Unlike Ashley, the useless idiot-girl who follows you around for part of Resi 4, Sheva can actually pull her own weight, and occasionally even save your ass. You can only give her very basic commands like "Cover Me", "Attack", and "Pick Up This Item", but she's still useful. It would have been nice if they had given you the ability to prioritize which weapons she uses, but I suppose that would have been asking a bit much. The partner mechanic is used in various ways which I won't spoil for you except to say it's cool. That said, having someone with you at all times (even if they are automated), really does detract from the horror of the game.
4) Inventory System - They scrapped the briefcase inventory Leon used in Resi 4 and replaced it with a pocket system you access in real time. Chris and Sheva each have a 3x3 square to arrange items into. This means each person can only carry nine items. This adds a degree of realism (if such a term is applicable to a game about zombies) and difficulty to the game. Accessing your inventory in real time means that you have to rearrange your inventory on the fly. This can really get you into trouble as you have to go fumble through your inventory to whip out that grenade just in time to save yourself a beheading by a chainsaw-wielding lunatic. Having limited space also means making tough decisions about what weapons and items each person should carry. Only having enough room for a rifle means giving Sheva the spare rounds, forcing you to trade with her when you need to reload. Don't have enough room for a Magnum and a Grenade Launcher? Give one to Sheva and swap out as the situation demands. This forces you to to remember who is carrying what and make preparations in between fights. The extra difficulty introduced by the new inventory system is offset slightly by the new merchant system. They enigmatic, trenchcoat-wearing, blue-torch hauling, hobo merchant from Resi 4 is gone; so you no longer have to find him every time you need a weapon upgrade or a first aid spray. Instead, you can make purchases any time you find a checkpoint, which are fairly often.
5) Weapons - Better, shiner, and more plentiful. The weapons in this game are awesome. There are a greater variety of weapons to choose from overall, and the game still provides you with several different options based on your combat style. Like to carefully aim between each shot? There's still a powerful, slow, handgun like the old red9. Like to throw away bullets like candy? There's a gun for you too.
6) Enemies - Very similar. The enemies in this game are known as the Majini. They are Africans infected with a different version of the Las Plagas parasite from Resident Evil 4. As such they behave much the same way as the ganados from the previous game. In fact, some of the enemies are so alike that I think Capcom just recycled the same sprites from Resi 4 and re-skinned them as Africans. Remember that big fat guy with the beret and the Gatling gun? Guess what? He's back, and despite being black now, he still looks and acts almost exactly the same. Shame on you Capcom, you lazy bastards. Change the skin tone and add angry Spanish screaming, and a lot of the enemies are identical. That isn't to say there aren't some cool new additions, like the mutated tribal Africans that have grown ten feet tall, the mutated experiment goat monsters that crawl up the walls, or the hideous mantis things that can impale you with their scythe arms. There are also some really kick-ass boss battles in this game.
7) Plot - Dumb and predictable. But then so was Resi 4's. The characters are somewhat likable, in a laughably formulaic and stereotypical way. Chris is the classic action hero; stoic and collected and brave and dumb and nowhere near as scared as he should be. Sheva the trusty sidekick, always there to lend a helping hand and the occasional useless comment. Wesker is the obligatory villain with a god complex, a douchy haircut, and an trenchcoat he stole from Morpheus. Bottom line, the plot is stupid, but you really don't play this game for the plot. I guess I should point out here that this franchise really has no right to call itself "survival horror" anymore. What few frighting aspects there were to Resi 4 are completely gone now. It's a straight up action game. A very cool action game, but an action game nonetheless.
8) Mercenaries - Finally, the most awesome mini-game ever is back and better than ever. The joy of zombie genocide is just as fun as ever. And there are even more characters, stages, and weapons to play with than in the previous game. You can even play the game with a partner online or splitscreen, which is just retarded fun. If you play this on 360, I highly recommend supplying your own tunes while you play with the custom soundtrack feature. There's nothing more fun than slaughtering the undead horde while your favorite rock band or gangster rapper supplies the aggression.
Summary: A worthy sequel to Resident Evil 4 that ditches the horror elements in favor of slick, gorgeous, violence. Utilizes effective partner and inventory systems to create a fun and challenging experience. If you liked Resident Evil 4, you will like Resident Evil 5. | video-games_xbox |
Great shooter with depth and detail. Just recently I purchased the Xbox 360 and was looking for a few really good games. I purchased the Bioshock PC version for my home computer but the game played very slow and the performance was lacking, just to have it somewhat decent I had to lower the resolution. This was a disappointment because I was very interested in the story line.
When I saw that the reviews for the Xbox 360 version were very good, I made the purchase and found it was indeed a great game. For people new to Bioshock the game is a first person shooter style game with added details such as power ups you find and weapon modifications. You can choose your path on the power ups called plasmids, which gives you a chance to play different styles. If you prefer to play with the stealth style, go for the electric bolt and increased wrench power. If you like hacking, then go for the hacking increase. This really gives the game more playability after you finish it to try another solution or method. The game is close to the older PC game, System Shock where you play in a similar area in space instead of under the sea.
The game has a great feel, the levels are done very well, including all of the details, especially the music. Most of the levels are art deco styled, with a great selection of music playing from the correct era of 1920~1950's. Each level is also in somewhat disarray, with boxes, trashcans, corpses that you can search for money, food, etc. The characters are also done well, many of them are mutated and disfigured but still hold on to a bit of humanity.
As for game play there's many choices how to defeat the people or splicers as they are called. You can use your power ups or simply shoot them, the power up method is the fastest and should get you used to fighting when the Big Daddies come around. The game does not appear to be a creepy or scary as Resident Evil, Silent Hill or FEAR. There were very few "jump out at you" parts and most of the time you could hear the characters well before you saw them. This was a good point as it prepares you and allows you to choose the method you will use.
Overall I really enjoyed this game, felt it was worth the amount they are asking. The story line was actually decent for a video game, graphics are well done and the game play worked well. It's rare to find a first person shooter with much if any depth and this was a nice change. I took about 25 hours to complete the game which I felt was good, a more experienced player would have completed this much faster.
Something else that I really like about this game is the helpful quest arrow to show you the direction you should be heading. Also the "hints" that will show you were to go if you get stuck. Even for a causal gamer as myself I didn't feel like any part I was stuck or lost.
My only complaint about the game was the ending. Personally I think it's on par with other video game endings but just felt really short to the very interesting story line. Hope they come out with a Bioshock 2 soon. | video-games_xbox |
This is the Madden we deserve. My interest in Madden has waned considerably over the years. Gone are the days when I'd stand in line at my neighborhood video game store for the midnight release and play till it was time to go to work, wired on Red Bulls and Mountain Dew. Granted, I still buy it every year, become enamored with the new bells and whistles for a bit, and then quickly lose interest once I realized that the legacy issues that have plagued the franchise still rears its ugly head. Madden 16 addressed one of these issues with the DB/WR interactions and it was a welcomed addition, but it still wasn't enough.
This year, I'm happy to say that Madden NFL 17 is leaps and bounds better than any iteration of the franchise EVER. I subscribed to EA Access on Xbox One which allowed me to play the game 5 days early before release. The three biggest pet peeves I had regarding past versions of Madden were thankfully addressed in this game: A.) DB/WR interactions. Yes, they were implemented in last years game, but in Madden 17, they are on steroids. In Madden 16, receivers would be able to fight for the ball by pressing the "aggressive catch" button which would lead to some spectacular looking possessions. However, it almost became an exploit as even average rated receivers were able to pull them off with abandon. In Madden 17, the success of these catches are now tied to player ratings so no longer will you see a Wes Welker sky a jump ball like Randy Moss. Defensive backs are also given tools to counter these type of catches with a "play the receiver" and "swat" the ball buttons. The result are incredibly life-like animations with a sprinkle of strategy and a pinch of risk/reward that make the game very fun.
B.) Special teams. Kicking and punting in past Maddens were pretty vanilla and downright easy. I can't even remember a game when I missed a field goal. This year, field goals and punts are pulled off with a series of three button presses. One to start the kick, one to adjust the kicking power and one to adjust the kicking accuracy. It sounds incredibly rudimentary and simple, but the windows to pull off power and accuracy are small and more often than not, I would find myself missing extra points and chip shots. You can also use the left thumb stick to control the direction of the kick, however, it gives you a general overview of where the ball should hit and it disappears after a few seconds. As a result, the kicking game is a lot more challenging this year which is mighty refreshing. The return game is also given a boost with a "break the tackle" button once engaged with a defensive player. By pressing a varied button that appears on the screen (the AI mixes it up every time which makes it less of an exploit), I can attempt to shed a tackle and go for a bigger gain. You've got to be quick about it or it goes away in an instant.
C.) Presentation. Commentary has been give a huge face lift this year. Gone are Nantz and Simmons who are replaced this year with Brandon Gaudin and Charles Davis. These two have outstanding chemistry in the booth. They'll delve into backstories of certain players and recall a past game that holds relevance to the one you're playing now. I could not recall a gap in the commentary as these two were constantly talking about the game, the players, the stats, and each other (like where to eat after the game), etc. My favorite moment so far with these two was during a game in which I was playing as the Texans against the Ravens. Gaudin told a story about how a preseason game was halted in Baltimore so that the players could watch Michael Phelps (a native) compete in the Olympics. The amazing thing was that this really happened in a preseason game LAST WEEK. It turns out that Madden 17 will be implementing commentary updates throughout the season so that it's fresh and relevant to the current NFL season. Awesome. Stat overlays are abundant and they always display relevant information without being intrusive. Replays now show correct angles to the play and a new "Pylon Camera" focuses on touchdowns at the one yard line. I also love the side line shots of the coaches during the game as they convey every emotion from rage, frustration, and unbridled joy that can unfold on a Sunday.
By and large, Madden 17 is an incredible game and finally, FINALLY after three tries, resembles a game that looks and feels truly next gen. This is a day one purchase for me.
EDIT: I've only dabbled in Play Now games and have yet to touch Franchise, MUT, Draft Champions and any other modes that were available. The two minor negatives I can say about this game so far is that QB completions are a tad too high on All-Pro difficulty and a lack of injuries even with the slider at 60. | video-games_xbox |
MadWorld 2 but without red blood. I recently bought Anarchy Reigns after putting off a purchase for a few months due to the brutal reviews that were generated courtesy of this title. Here's my take.
Graphics-
The graphics in Anarchy reigns is somewhat of a mixed bag. On one hand, you have fantastic looking character models that are beefy looking and highly detailed. On the other hand, there's the cutscenes which looks a bit under par. For example, in the game's opening cutscene, the actual scene is pretty grainy and while the characters look accurate, you'd swear from the opener alone that this game would look below average. (which isn't the case)
The other problems would be technical issues such as instances of texture pop-in. This doesn't occur often; but often enough to be a slight annoyance.
Now, onto the good parts.
The explosions look really good, the character models look great, and when you hit an enemy with an uppercut that lifts him into the air, you can feel the impact. Also, the enemy types are varied and detailed which usually isn't the case with games like this.
I was pleasantly surprised with the graphics, but for God's sake, why is the blood blue in this game? Even it's predecessor Madworld has red blood and gore. This game definitely lacks in the gore department.
Score- 8/10
Sound-
I wasn't too crazy about the music, which is really vulgar hip hop inspired tunes. (Not because it's hip hop either. The songs are just not tasteful IMO) The sound effects are good. Hit someone really hard actually sounds like it has loads of impact, blowing something up sounds like the good ol' arcade days, but the voice acting is a bit on the mixed side. The game's protagonist, Jack, curses an awful lot. You'll hear the F-bomb ever so often even when he fights.
Score- 8/10
Gameplay-
Anarchy Reigns is similar to MadWorld for the Wii, only it offers more melee moves, but is lacking in the object interaction department. For example, in MadWorld, you could toss a garbage can over an enemy's head, stick a pole through his head while the garbage can's still stuck on his head, set him on fire and then toss him in a trash compactor which would result in a combo kill and loads of points. Anarchy reigns features little of what made madworld a hit on the Wii. You still have the ability to toss objects (or even cars and buses) at enemies, but gone are the really innovative kills that swamped Madworld. Instead, and in it's place, are different interactions such as QTE kills, the new Rage finishers, and there are vehicles, aircraft, guns and weapons to use. Just don't expect the same robust engine Madworld had.
One thing that really improved would be the melee. There are a good amount of moves at your disposal. You can melee, use a killer weapon, perform air combos, pull off multiple finishers, there are a good amount of slams and suplexes and the fighting system is much better. The other good thing about anarchy reigns would be the enemies. No longer will you be forced to run through a crowd of enemies that are brain dead or just wait for you to hit them and getting killed is quite easy being that certain enemies such as mutants or enemies with flamethrowers alongside environmental hazards can occur at any time. For example, you can have a huge fight going on and all of a sudden there's a giant vehicle with rolling spikes that could kill you instantly unless you escape it. Other times, aircrafts will bomb the entire area. There are also enemies such as Mutants in which you'll need your rage mode to defeat. (unless you intend on fighting them for 5-10 minutes) The fights with mutants are tough; but that's just a taste of the first stage.
Anarchy Reigns borrows the stage selection found in MadWorld, only this time there isn't a time limit on grinding for points. In fact, you can fight in the game at any time you want for as long as you want, even if you're not partaking in the game's two mission types; which is free mission and Main mission.
Free missions give you objectives such as fighting a specific amount of enemies with a time limit or they can also be an escort mission. The main missions progress the story and is where you'll unlock characters and fight bosses.
You're also given a choice in the beginning of the game whether you want to pick "black side or white side". In short, the campaign is loaded with action with two different campaigns resulting in two different stories and different characters to play with.
The game's story isn't really it's strong point. On one hand, in the game's opening, the protagonist, Jack Cayman is in a bar where a group of russians come in and one hits him in the stomach...and then the campaign begins. During the first stage, there's little if anything at all that hints or at least builds on the story. Instead, you'll meet a bunch of characters that you'll befriend or fight...and the story will somewhat pick up where it left off.
But being that the gameplay is centered around mindless violence and geysers of blue blood, I doubt there's a reason to care about it's story. The gameplay more than makes up for the lack of story.
There are other modes of play besides the campaign which fall into multiplayer, co-op, training, versus etc.
The multiplayer actually has an offline bot battle mode that's fun, but the online multiplayer is just meh. I tried it but there weren't too many people on it.
In the end, Anarchy reigns reminds me of PowerStone for the Sega Dreamcast (ironically, this game is made by Sega) with it's arena style battling. (that's somewhat Sandbox like. There is free roaming)
I'd highly recommend this game for the price it's going for now. The graphics are good, the gameplay is frantic, the campaign is somewhat lengthy and once you're done with campaign, there are plenty of modes to choose for replayability. | video-games_xbox |
Boring and Unimaginative. Finally got this on a rental and have had my fill after about 2 hours...
First, I realize that people walked and drove a bit slower back in the 40's, but did the game have to be THAT realistic?
Second, as mentioned by many others, the game quickly gets repetitive. Walk around, look at clues, walk around some more... Everything happens at such a snails-pace that it becomes tediously boring. (May not have helped that I just took a break from playing Saints Row: The Third...) Plus the interviews are hard to pin down unless of course you've had training in interpretive acting, linguistics and psychology...
...but even that doesn't help. On the 3rd-or-so case of the game, I personally had a reasonable suspicion as to what happened, and got a witness to prove it. But when I asked the next question, the main character accused the witness of something else after he had already given away the answer. In the end I got 1 of 4 questions right, even though I had already solved it!
So what does it make me do? (And maybe it would have made me do it anyways...) another staple Rockstar mission: "Follow the bad guy at a 'safe' distance to see where he's heading..." For the love of GOD can we STOP USING THAT MISSION?!?! It is one of the most frustrating, overused, and unimaginative chores ever given in a video game.
Frankly I think they bit off more than they could chew with this one. The production value is remarkable: I'm really impressed with the "notebook" and the way you can store and revisit information. Even when you pause during an interrogation, you can read all the previous dialogue on a piece of paper that looks like courtroom stenography. Impressive stuff...
But they ruined it with flat-out dull game play, apparently broken dialogue trees, and too much attention to detail... ...in the wrong areas. So I gave it an overall 2-stars, taking into consideration the decent graphics and believable environments.
Eject disc, stick back in the padded envelope, and away she goes... | video-games_xbox |
Is "The Darkness" a ray of light for gamers. With game developers needing to make a good million dollars to turn a profit these days, it becomes riskier and riskier to break away from the typical FPS mold. "The Darkness" tries to break the same repetitive mold in its own innovative and unique way. Does being unique pay off for this sadistic FPS?
Graphics- 7/10. It has been quite a while since "The Darkness" was released, and it really shows. What some thought were the best console graphics yet, looked very bland after only a few short months. The texture work is still pretty good, lighting is used incredibly well, and those two aspects of the game are still top of the line for the XBox 360. However, particle effects are laughable, the game fails miserably at some of the character models, and "The Darklings" you gain as a special power don't look very polished at all. In addition, matching words to lips in the cut-scenes is pathetic. The characters barely open their mouths, and it truly does look just like what you might see from the original XBox. The graphics got great reviews when the game was released, but with games like BioShock, Call of Duty 4, and GTA 4 out now, these graphics just couldn't stand the test of time, and if you are looking to buy this game because the other reviews mention how great the graphics are, don't bother. The graphics shouldn't stop you from buying the game, but you sure would be disappointed if you thought you were getting something great out of them.
Sound- 8/10. Sound throughout the main storyline is superb. For every heart pounding moment, the game has intense heavy metal to match. Bullets sound realistic, and the darklings sound very nice as well. The voice overs are incredibly well done, with Jackie being always interesting to listen to- but I have to say my favorite voice over is the berserker power you get. It's a little demon that helps you out, and if you shoot it responds with, "I'm telling mommy"! All of the other characters are also well done, especially Jenny who is Jackie's girlfriend, and is obviously played by a talented voice actress.
There is a big problem with the sound, however. During the multiplayer, the same heavy metal that plays in the story plays constantly, only twice as loud. I can't hear other player's footsteps at all, and it is the same track of heavy metal over and over and over again.
Fighting System- 8/10. This is where the game tries to be innovative. Instead of just throwing in the same, typical, uninspired set of weapons, it gives you the same, typical, uninspired weapons AND a pair of cool snakes attached to your shoulders. The guns you use are pretty much the norm- a rifle, a SMG, a shotgun, and a pistol. The game also tries to implement some kind of half-hearted lock-on system, but it fails miserably. It might randomly lock on to an enemy, when you clearly are pointing at another enemy, or just not lock on at all. You get the point about the normal weapons, but the real fun is in The Darkness curse you get. You can slither through tight spaces to attack enemies, spawn darklings, which will show you how to get out of an area or just help you out in general, or just go nuts with the Creeping Dark (One of the snakes attached to you) attacking everyone you see- kind of. The hub of the story is in the subway, where you have to travel from place to place to progress the story, but you cannot attack people with the darkling or your normal weapons. Also, the darklings only have one attack, and it can get really, really old using that as many times as you will have to. You level up your powers by eating the hearts of your victims, and it is definitely as bloody as it should be. Rather than give you a ton of new powers though, the game just makes the ones you have better. This gets a ton of bonus points in my eyes, for trying something new besides just the basic weapons. It can be fun attacking people with the darklings, and really, it's the only fun thing about the fighting system.
Game play (minus the fighting system)- 6/10. 6/10 is generous in my mind. There is a total lack of cover system here. I mean you can do the basic crouch, but for a game that only requires a few hits for death, you think that they could do a little bit better. Besides that, it can be frustrating using up all of your ammo trying to shoot out the lights in the streets. Your darklings are not as effective when they are in the presence of light, so you have to shoot out the lights on the streets before going on rampages with your demon powers. Even when you do have all the lights shot out, the darkness powers are very difficult to control. At times, they seem to slither in random directions despite your repeated attempts to retract them back to you. If you don't have a flat surface around you, it is definitely a steep learning curve to use them. Also, you can only move at one speed in the game- slow. It can be very annoying trying to get past an enemy to cover while you are walking. It doesn't make any sense to me, and is a HUGE turn off.
Controls- 6/10. The game uses the basic controls you might expect. RT is shoot your weapon, Y is jump, A is action, and B is reload. It is clear how complicated it must have been for the designers trying to find a way to implement the darkness powers easily into the controls, and they found a way. RB and LB both control the darkness, and LB with X allows you to use your creeping dark option. With such a complicated fighting system, you have to call the controls some what of a success, even though no matter how much you tweak the sensitivity, the controls always feel a little loose.
Multiplayer- 5/10. Typical, uninspired multiplayer. You get the basic Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Survivor games. You can customize the games a fair amount including Time Limits, One Hit Kills, and Randomize Weapons, but all of these should be expected in the game. The map pack you get is VERY boring. Basically, it is a series of hallways that you barely notice while you look for enemies. Sorry guys, not as good as Halo. Of course, the game implements the darkness powers into the multiplayer in the form of "shape shifting", meaning that you can turn from a human to a darkling at will in certain games, but again, darklings can be very hard to control and humans are just plain boring to play. Most of the time, you respawn in the same area, so the enemy can just stand and wait for you to re-spawn, and then take you out with one shot, usually. Of course, all of this is totally irrelevant if there is no one to play. I've been online where there are only a few groups of people playing, and at times, I haven't been able to get a match at all. The multiplayer was just thrown-in to add a little more replay value to the game. Well, it doesn't add much.
Story- 9/10. Based on a series of comics and graphics novels, the story just oozes cool. You play as Jackie Estacado, who was a hitman for a crime family, but on Jackie's 21st birthday a powerful force known as "The Darkness" awakens within you. The crime family's "Don" whom you are a hitman for is not happy with the fact you have disagreed with the way he does business, and he has a hit put out on you. With your newly inherited powers, you have to take out your former family. The story has abundant interesting and intense moments, and always keeps moving forward with many different plot changes. You get to play through Manhattan, Chinatown, and even Hell, where your curse originated. The game also tries to be somewhat of a free roaming game with other areas to visit inside New York, but none of them are really worth the effort. In addition, the game throws in random side quests throughout New York, but again, none of them are worth your time or effort. The story is always slick, even in the loading screens where Jackie tells a story about his life, friends, and former family. The reason I was so pleased with the story is the fact that it just keeps moving along. Some games just try to drag out levels for much longer than necessary, but with The Darkness you will always feel like you are doing something new. If you are a fan of the comics or not, you will probably enjoy the story quite a bit. Though it is not super long (I found it to be about 10 hours), it packs quite a punch, and you will be left wanting more.
Much can be said about The Darkness. You might call it innovative, ambitious, sloppy, or a Mafioso mess. Moreover, while it may be all of the above, The Darkness definitely brings something new to the table, and if you are tired of the same old FPS, you will really enjoy this game. I give it an 8.3/10. | video-games_xbox |
A review from someone who actually finished the game. Borderlands is an open world sci-fi setting role-playing shooter. If you're a co-op player like me, this is the pinnacle of co-op gaming. If you found playing Fallout 3 a lonely experience, Borderlands is the cure.
You can choose from four archetypes: Roland the Soldier, Mordecai the Hunter, Lilith the Siren, and Brick the Berserker. I played Mordecai and my brother played Brick. The archetypes have skill trees reminiscent of D20 Modern's talent trees. Up to five points can be spent on each level of the tree, which in turn branches access to more powerful skills. In this way skills build on each other and characters become highly customizable.
The cell-shaded graphics are reminiscent of Crackdown. This allows some fun introductory sequences when villains get their own close-ups. Unfortunately, Borderlands doesn't make enough use of these interesting personalities. Combining boss battles in open world environments allows for some less-than-heroic battles - twice we sniped a boss to death.
The planet of Pandora is largely a Wild West setting with a sci-fi sheen. I'm a sucker for pets, so I really enjoyed Moredcai's killer bird Bloodwing. My brother, who enjoys being the tank, had a blast punching people to death as Brick.
What makes Borderlands so much fun is how effortlessly it combines the various aspects of open world game play, first person shooters, and role-playing games. There aren't really merchants to speak of, just vending machines, but that makes sense in a dangerous environment like Pandora. There are vehicles, but you aren't required to drive them. The weapons are the usual variety of elemental type + fire rate + damage + shield penetration, but like Fallout each has an amusing manufacturer that helps distinguish them from each other.
Borderlands perfected monster difficulty; spawned opponents are always a match for your characters. Quests are shared across the co-op feature of up to four players, and there are plenty of side quests to keep players busy for awhile.
The story has a lot of promise: Our four mercenaries land on Pandora to find the Vault, a cache of alien weapons technology that only opens every 200 years. The planet itself is in a post-gold rush phase, having stripped the planet of all valuable resources. With summer heralding the return of Pandora's predators and little incentive to colonize, the corporations set all prisoners free. A combination of convicts, bloodthirsty animals, and rival mercenaries keep things interesting.
That should be the end of the review, right? Five stars, everyone go back to your consoles. How could you screw something up that's this good?
SPOILER VAULT: Throughout the various quests a mysterious woman appears to provide guidance as to how to find the Vault. In a game that's all about leveling, greed, and power we were rubbing our hands together wondering what awesome weapons we would find there. But we found nothing. Why? Because there's nothing in the vault but a cheap Lovecraftian knockoff.
Borderlands should be a five star game. There were no less than six writers working on this setting, but it's clear Gearbox put most of its resources into coding the world. Instead, Borderlands trips at the finish line by turning an entire game built around power leveling into some philosophical battle against creatures from beyond. The boss isn't even a challenge. There's a quick cut to a sequel that wasn't actually explored until the fourth DLC, but robot ninjas do not make up for a lame ending. | video-games_xbox |
Mediocre, shallow, uninspiring. Resident Evil 5 is a third person shooter with a sprinkling of horror added to it to be able to use the Resident Evil name. The game takes place in Africa where a pair of protagonists are attempting to stop some kind of sinister scheme that involves turning people into ultra-violent zombie-like creatures. You'll battle a few different kinds of enemies using a wide variety of mostly the same feeling guns. You'll also battle awkward controls, a limiting inventory, a crappy checkpoint/save system, and boredom. Lastly, you'll run into too many "boss" fights that are exercises in repetition and frustration. The entire game is a battle, but not in the sense that many are probably expecting.
Resident Evil 5 takes some of the elements of horror-survival such as: crappy inventory management and awkward controls, and integrates them with nearly endless ammo supply (conveniently dropped by most bad guys) and a weapon upgrade system. Sounds like a weird combination, and it is.
Early on the game feels sort of horror-y as you don't really know what is happening, your weapons are weak, and the environments are claustrophobic. As the game progresses you'll quickly realize that the variety in enemies is not that great and that you can upgrade your weapons, fairly rapidly, to substantial levels. Yes, you do feel horror when dealing with certain enemies -- because some are ridiculously tough (like the dogs or the lickers) and can be a pain to contend with as your controls are not overly conducive to coping with anything near and not directly in front of you.
Later on in the game it becomes a really poorly designed third person shooter with an irritatingly lame attempt at a cover system. Nothing like zombie soldiers with guns. Lame. I won't even get started on the absurdly monotonous "quicktime" button mashing sequences. Who thought this garbage was good, and why is there so much of it in this game? Those sequences remind me of Jericho... and that was probably the worst game I've ever played on the 360.
As the game progresses you will gain access to a wide variety of weapons. If you have been upgrading you won't see much point in switching over to a new weapon which is not upgraded. Most of the guns feel basically the same, with minor differences. Grenades are kind of a hassle, the proximity mines are cool if you don't mind lots of running around, the grenade launcher isn't bad (but strangely flies really slowly), but mostly it all feels the same. I found no reason to switch to a "new" version of a weapon I currently had because my upgraded one wailed on the new version.
The inventory system is quirky, and clunky. I couldn't find a way to remove ammo from a weapon (if you want to empty one to switch to another) and I couldn't find a way to split up stacked items. Let's say you have five grenades, and you want to split them between you and Sheva (who doesn't seem to use them, anyhow) -- you can't. You can only move five at a time. Same thing with ammo.
Some maps are interesting and seem to have a lot of space to move around, and others are dull and very rail like. At first I was wooed by the shanty towns of Africa, but once you get indoors the maps just kind of fall flat. The factory maps are just plain irritating -- I won't ruin it for you, I'll let you experience those gems for yourself.
The story itself is very trite and generic. The plot "twists" are so cliche that they don't even surprise you. The cinematics (acting, and animations) are something that you have to suffer through -- perhaps that is why they call it a horror game. I dread when I have to watch a cut scene and groan at the stale lines and over the top delivery.
All in all, I'd say that this game is a dud. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good. It was just kind of... ehh... I say this being a fan of the originals, but also judging the game based on its own merits. With the exception of certain characters and little bits and pieces, this is hardly a Resident Evil game. It could have been named something else, with the characters named something else, and nobody would have thought it was related at all. Normally if a game is good I feel compelled to play it through like some ravenous cookie monster tearing into a box of cookies... not so with this. I can barely suppress the apathy long enough to play through until the next stage so I can actually save my progress.
Another unfortunate flop in a lengthening series of lackluster $59.99 games. | video-games_xbox |
Brutal celebration of Rallying that will exhilarate simulation fans. Review is based on using a TX Racing Wheel*
The nose of my Impreza dives forward under heavy braking, and for a moment I feel as if Im going to fall out the front windshield. A quick tug on the emergency brake, and the rear end whips around with total precision. As I haven't upgraded Subarus 2001 WRC entry to the maximum level yet, kamikaze corner entries are the only chance I have at maintaining my spot on the podium. For a moment, Im able to glance up at a photographer atop a natural perch above the corner apex. I stare directly into his camera lens before re-focusing my eyes on the exit of the corner. My plastic steering wheel murmurs in my hands, mimicking early 2000s power steering as I shift up through third, fourth, and eventually fifth gear. A German flag hangs above a group of spectators surrounding a camp fire, and my ride omits a harsh scraping sound while I whiz past them at triple the roads legal speed limit.
Bottoming out at is something Ive come to expect at least three times on this stage. And unlike Wales, where every spectator brought out their rain coats and massive winter jackets, Germany has given blessed the pack of virtual WRC fans with beautiful t-shirt weather.
Among the crowd, I can pick out lawn chairs, security marshalls, and even a drone flying above the track, possibly capturing footage for an upcoming Red Bull or Monster Energy advert. The next hairpin is equally intense, and I can make out the material of the caution tape the hay bales have been wrapped up in. Pushing even harder through the final sector, both the car and my steering wheel become light over crests, and Im forced to pray there isn't a blind corner over the next hill. The car simply wouldnt be able to handle it.
Maximum attack. Only a second off the French guy in first place. In any other rally sim, Id have a comfortable lead with this kind of pace. Not here. Codemasters wants me to earn this one.
The game stutters ever so slightly. Thank god Im on a straight section of road where my inputs wouldnt be affected. The co-driver, for whatever reason, is calling out turns far too early, despite stellar navigational calls on the previous stage. Human error, or something that needs to be patched? No time to think about that, an extremely technical left/right section is my best chance of making up time. The first apex, I can count the individual blades of grass my car is about to flatten. The second, I can almost reach out and touch the stones preventing me from cutting the track. Back under power, its becoming increasingly clear I won't pull off a victory in Germany, but the final few hairpins and rhythm sections are still just as satisfying to nail. Dancing over the hills and sucked to the ground when the suspension compresses in the lowest point of a valley, there is no guesswork needed to pilot a car in DiRT Rally.
Unifying next-generation graphics with a physics model completely re-built from the ground up, DiRT Rally allows you to comprehend how mere mortals can participate in sixteen World Rally Championship events each year. The stunning visuals tug your eyes in every direction, while your hands are able to make pin-point accurate wheel inputs shuddering under power, throttle control becomes instinctual with how your steering wheel is behaving while firmly in your grasp. The longer stages drag you into a trance; the fourth, fifth, and sixth minute sucking you into a state of hyper-focus where braking points and E-Brake slides are executed with cold and calculated precision. Rarely does a racing simulator do this good of a job at conveying what its like to drive a world class race car from the comfort of your own home.
If you haven't figured it out by now, DiRT Rally is wild when its firing on all cylinders.
But sometimes, the engine is down on power. It doesnt happen every time you boot up the game, but occasionally, you're reminded that this was a side project made on a fairly tight budget. DiRT Rally is pretty close to being one of the best racing simulators ever made, but this brush with perfection makes even the slightest annoyances become major grievances. With the raw racing being leaps and bounds ahead of, well anything else Rallywise on the market, you begin to wish that the rest of the game was polished to the same extent.
While 2004s Richard Burns Rally was crowned as the almighty king of rally simulators almost immediately after launch, I was lead to believed with the larger budget DiRT would turn out an even better title. Migrating to the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 in 2007, the team slowly distanced itself from the Colin McRae namesake and instead launched an all encompassing off-road racing franchise by the name of DiRT. The modding community surrounding Richard Burns Rally continued to expand and extend the games lifespan among WRC enthusiasts which I am (Rally is the only sport I care about I never liked football, basketball, soccer or even nascar), There are three iterations of the DiRT series, with point-to-point rally racing taking a back seat to one of many different off road racing disciplines (Which I didn't enjoy at all). I longed for a return to the roots of the Colin McRae games, While putting up with the extreme sports-laden entries in the meantime, Then Codemasters released a demolition derby spin-off named DiRT Showdown.
Budget cuts, downsizing, and a few consecutive years of poor Formula One titles made me lose hope because of direction Codemasters had been taking with the studio itself.
In 2016, DiRT Rally was released. There was no real announcement, not much marketing, and no foreshadowing aside from a strange ATI Catalyst Control Center profile uploaded in the weeks prior, which most dismissed as an alternative configuration for the upcoming DiRT 3 Complete Edition. We literally woke up one day and found out Codemasters built a hardcore rally simulation for us, and we could buy it a few months away from the Xboxone and PS4 release announcement.
I assure you if you are a hardcore racer that you're making a good decision buying this game. Youre going to have a lot of fun with it. But as I said above, its so close to perfection, the little things start to bother you just a little bit more than they normally would in any other racing sim.
To inflate the track count to ridiculous numbers that in no way represent the variety you're actually receiving, the two main stages in each environment are chopped up into segments, and the count is multiplied yet again by the use of both forward and reverse layouts. Talented sim racers will make a beeline straight for the longest version of each stage, and as they become comfortable with their preferred car of choice, its entirely possible for an experienced driver to complete every stage available in a combined total of less than an hour. As Career Mode, as well as the online events make very liberal use of the fragmented tracks, its not uncommon to race the exact same stage section upwards of four times over the course of a single sitting.
The stages themselves are meticulously modeled after real-world WRC stops instead of interpretations of pre-existing locations, with the highlights being the actual Col de Turini and Sweet Lamb layouts. Out of boredom a few weeks ago I had been watching a WRC Year in Review video on YouTube, and during on-board footage from the opening round at Monte Carlo, I was able to recognize entire sections of the infamous mountain descent, as the stage in DiRT Rally was a near 1:1 recreation. This attention to detail explains why the actual track count is such a small number, The developers build a track the length of the Nordschleife twelve times over, but even the most precise recreation of a stage cant hide the fact that you can see everything the game has to offer in an hour.
While not as empty as the track selection, DiRT Rallys car roster also suffers from some very noticeable gaps. As the relevant history of the World Rally Championship dates back only to the 1970s, the list of iconic cars who have participated in the prestigious championship is extremely short compared to the likes of Touring Car racing or Formula One. While Grand Prix teams roll out an entirely new car model at the beginning of each season, some WRC teams continue to use the same exact car model for multiple seasons in a row, and as a WRC fan its much easier to develop a loyalty to a specific manufacturer when a certain car has seen action for five or six years at a time before moving onto a new evolution.
Every 1980s Group B monster is available to drive, but Tommi Mkinens various dominant Mitsubishi Lancers of the late 1990s are nowhere to be found, save for one amateur-level Lancer Evo X. Also Sebastien Loebs World Championship 2011 Citroen DS3 is notably absent. The Lancia Delta HF Integrale, Colin McRaes 1995 Subaru Impreza, and the Ford Escort Cosworth combine to form the 1990s Group A class, but the Toyota Celica adorning the cover of 90s arcade racer Sega Rally is also absent. In a rather strange move, as if the developers themselves are aware that there are notable gaps in the car selection the 2001 Subaru Impreza and 1999 Ford Focus are awkwardly in a class alongside the 2007 Citroen C4.
Yet, what is available in DiRT Rally is modeled with such precision, and each car behaves so drastically different from the one before it, that its entirely possible to fall in love with one car and only one car for the complete duration of your time with DiRT Rally. There very well may be people who own this game and never drive anything other than the 1980s BMW M3 E30, and I cant blame them. The subtle nuances of each car are recreated so well, youll quickly find one that becomes yours, and it will be a challenge to let it go.
Its just a shame that, with such a convincing physics model conveying what makes each iconic rally car featured in DiRT Rally so special and unique, not every piece of WRC history has received the DiRT Rally treatment.
And no better is the shortcoming displayed in the games two off-shoot modes, Hillclimb and Rallycross. As a nod to the Pikes Peak Hill Climb featured in the original DiRT title, they have re-built the legendary Colorado point-to-point event in DiRT Rally, sadly the modes inclusion feels like a complete afterthought. Featuring just three cars from the late 1980s and one track, with no functionality to allow the other 35+ cars onto the prestigious Rocky Mountain time trial, after a few runs up the mountain, there is no real incentive to return.
Rallycross has not fared much better. The developers went out of their way to include the Monster Energy World RallyCross series in DiRT Rally, but one can see all the discipline has to offer in roughly ten minutes of driving. Though the team have managed to acquire almost the entire grid of WorldRX drivers spread among six different car models, by default the game only includes three circuits located in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Norway. Like the point-to-point stages in the main bulk of the game, the RallyCross track count is padded by Amateur and Clubman variants, some of which are so utterly pointless you wonder why they included them in the first place.
Offline, the developers attempted to tie the entire game together with a Career Mode, but in execution of driving the same twelve stages over and over again with slightly harder opponents turns the game into a tedious grind. Starting you off in a 1960s front wheel drive land yacht, having allowed you to freely progress throughout the various classes of cars granted youve acquired the funding to purchase them. As you win a championship on each difficulty, the length of the season increases, as does the level of opponents, until you're receiving enormous payouts against Master Class AI drivers regardless of your finishing position.
Rewarding players who stick with the same car over multiple championships through engine, turbo, weight reduction, and braking upgrades, players also have the option of spending a portion of their winnings on hiring various team members to remain competitive during the more difficult championships. The inside game of maintaining a full roster of crew members to ensure your car can be adequately repaired in-between each stage is a pretty cool extra layer of depth to an otherwise routine championship campaign.
Two separate Career Modes are also available for both Hill Climb and RallyCross events, though the small track selection offered for both disciplines makes it next to impossible to recommend for anyone to spend time grinding through the same three tracks over and over again, just for a slight increase in difficulty.
Those wanting human competition will be pleased to know that DiRT Rally offers a Online League option using in game functionality. The RaceNet DiRT Rally league creator, allows users to participate in events whenever. Every single event went off without a hitch while adhering to the scheduled start time, and there wasn't an error that crippled the event online when I played in roms. Those online wanting a competitive racing sim. This is exactly what you're looking for, and it works as smoothly at least for me,
Despite comprehensive online options, the act of physically racing against other cars on the track has been restricted to online RallyCross events. Whereas previous DiRT games allowed more drivers to all participate on the same rally stage, launching in five second intervals, DiRT Rally does not let you compete against other drivers on the same stage. I miss the challenge of being on a killer run, only to discover a way to get around the car in front of me, sadly that doesnt exist in DiRT Rally.
A few technical hiccups do plague DiRT Rally from time to time, sometimes drastically affecting the gameplay. The games co-driver is downright brilliant when hes calling out pacenotes in sync with your driving, but his accuracy varies between each individual stage. Running two Finland stages back to back, my co-driver performed phenomenally during a short sprint stage, yet he was ridiculously ahead of schedule on the 12 kilometer behemoth (I keep the game true to it's rally form by not using Miles Per Hour despite my living in the United States), to the point where some of the turns he called out didn't appear for a good ten or twelve seconds. At speeds eclipsing 190 kph, you cant have this, and its frustrating that the quality of the co-driver varies on every single stage in the game.
DiRT Rally also ships with some of the most brutal cockpit cameras Ive ever seen in a modern racing sim. Allowing users to select from both a traditional cockpit view, and a Daytona USA-like dash view, the two cameras are woefully inadequate to me most others will probably not so nitpicky.
Occasionally the game dips to a slower framerate for two or three seconds. As the dip in framerate directly begins to affect my wheel inputs I figured to include it here. It rarely happens.
To round out the list of my small personal grievances I've still rated the game five stars which says a lot. Oddly there is a lack of a modern rock/electronic soundtrack. For three DiRT titles in a row, there was a list of 40+ alternative rock & electronica tracks. I didn't think Id miss the sounds of bands like Templeton Pek until they were replaced by upbeat elevator music. DiRT Rally is a good looking game( see attached pictures).
While I can easily point out things that could have been done better, features that should have been expanded upon, or cars that should have been included, DiRT Rally is easily worth the asking price. The sim obviously isn't for everyone, and may be a bit too punishing for the inexperienced drivers among us, Simulation lovers must give it a shot I can say with certainty you will enjoy every minute spent driving in DiRT Rally. Shortcomings and incoherent ramblings over minor grievances aside, DiRT Rally might just be the best rally game of 2016.
TL;DR
Five star worthy rally sim just like Richard Burns Rally A must buy! | video-games_xbox |
Top Shelf Quality. Moving from a gamepad to a fightstick is a very big deal. Most of the 'top tier' players in the fighting game community all use a stick, and although I'm not aiming to reach the top by any means, I figured with some money lying about (and my birthday on the horizon), I should treat myself with a product like this.
First off, you should really commit to learning to use a stick. This thing is not cheap, and you don't want to buy something of this price without being absolutely sure you'll invest time into adjusting. If you have a friend who has an arcade fightstick like this or similar enough, try it out. Chances are that you've been on a joypad for a while now, so be prepared to lose a lot.
Once you go fightstick, you don't go back. The buttons are very sensitive (in a good way), and having a bigger joystick allows for more fluid motion input for your attacks.
Practice, practice, practice! Know that you will lose a lot when you begin. Be prepared to learn everything from the get go.
Anyway, onto the product itself. I enjoyed the packaging of this item. It comes in a window display and the box itself is sturdy and is plastered with SF x TK characters.
The actual stick itself has a great heft to it, so if you play with the stick sitting in your lap or on a table, it'll stay down. The buttons and stick are of Sanwa quality, which is top of the line. There's a turbo button, and the home button of course, as well as a lock feature that prevents it from being turned on by accident in the middle of battle. The wire that connects to your PS3 is quite lengthy, which is nice if you've got a larger TV and therefore need to sit back a bit further. Also, there's a compartment at the top of the unit to stow it away for travel.
Above all, I highly recommend this stick. It's clearly well made and might be a collectors item at some point!
Remember, only go for this stick if you're really willing to learn how to use it, which will require quite some time for adjustment! Good luck and have fun! | video-games_xbox |
Ignore the 1 star reviews. I've been playing Battlefield since Bad Company. And with each game I have felt like the series is just getting better, until Battlefield 3 hit. It was a lot of fun, but the destruction seemed to be gone, and the recon class was nearly pointless. Now Battlefield 4 is upon us, and it is a titan to behold.
Graphics: 4/5
Seriously not sure what everyone is complaining about on this part of the game. It looks amazing, more organic than Battlefield 3 did. It has a few glitches here and there, but this has not impeded my gameplay at all. The water rolls and moves in a realistic way, buildings look incredible, individual players look amazing. Ran into a small problem with the knifing in a game, where it would jump a bit, however this could be attributed to lag as that games was the lagiest match I've ever been in.
Gameplay: 4/5
Seriously can't figure out why the join party option and the class changing options are gone from the main screen, otherwise it is absolutely amazing. Snipers can dope their scopes for certain ranges (200,300,400,500, 1000 meters). This is a HUGE upgrade, less guessing as to bullet drop. Not sure of a range on your target, look at a flag near them, set your scope to that distance, and boom easy hits. There are more options for your classes too. Want a sniper rifle with a bipod, scope, and rangefinder, well guess what it's possible. Want a gun with a scope on top, and iron sights on the side? Again it's possible. The weapon customization has skyrocketed in this game. Classes are much easier to set up as well. Each class has their own primary weapon type (Assualt=Assault Rifle Engineer=PDW Support=LMG Recon=Sniper Rifle), and every class has the ability to use Carbines, DMR's, and Shotguns. And instead of unlocking them in a certain order, you unlock the as you use them, like the carbines more than your sniper, well continued use of your carbine will only unlock carbines, your sniper rifles won't be unlocked, saving you time on each weapon set. There is literally too much to list on the amount of customization you can do. Controls are different in this game, but they feel more natural once you get used to them, and are set up more like real life for Helicopters and Jets.
Sound: 5/5
Absolutely spot on in sound quality. I have not yet experienced the sound loss when in a helicopter. I threw on my Turtle Beach Headset and cranked the volume all the way up and it sound exactly like I was at the shooting range. Bullets snap as they go buy your head, tanks can be heard from far off corners of the map, helicopters can be heard tearing off overhead, building creak and moan before they fall. Just perfect sound quality.
I have not experienced any server issues thus far. Every time I try to join a game, I'm in in seconds. Not problem with the server browser either, look for what I want and I get it. I'm not trying to sound like a fanboy, but this game just keeps getting better every time I turn it on. I had a serious issue with deciding between this and COD Ghosts, because both look so good this year, and I may even end up with both. I'm here to give my opinion of the game, and I have. Go rent it and see if you have the issues the 1 star reviews are giving, but as for me I haven't. See you on the Battlefield Soldier! | video-games_xbox |
Microsoft Has Terrible Customer Service. On the My Registered Devices page I see the following line in regard to my eligible device, Console repairs are available at no charge through the standard warranty expiration date of Feb 12, 2014. This device is eligible for an Extended Service Plan. Also, at the bottom of the same page, I see Buy ESP Offer Expires in 23 Days.
According to the policy listed on Microsofts website [...], Xbox 360 console owners that are within their original warranty period are eligible for an Extended Warranty. This is evidenced under Step 2: Purchase the Microsoft Extended Services Plan. The following is the excerpt previously mentioned, For a console or Kinect sensor to be eligible for an extended service plan, it must currently be under the standard warranty period.
I am within my original warranty period and am even listed as eligible. I was not able to buy the service online, so I called Microsoft support on 1/20/2014 and the phone representative refused to sell this extended warranty to me, stating that their policy was changed and I only had 45 days after purchase to buy the extended warranty. Once this change was made, I became instantly ineligible for this plan. If you follow the links on support.mircosoft.com for "warranties and repair" a 45 day limit is not mentioned anywhere in regard to Xbox 360 systems, only Xbox One. When I spoke to support over the phone, they would not even tell me when this policy changed for existing Xbox 360 owners. The phone support people said that it may have been changed in November of some year, but they were not sure.
Microsoft has retroactively made many consoles ineligible for Extended Warranties. As of 1/20/2014, if you purchased/registered your system before 12/6/2013 (45 days ago) and have not purchased an extended warranty, you can no longer purchase an extended warranty from Microsoft. Before this change, you had until your original warranty ended and were usually notified when your opportunity to buy was running out. The fact that Microsoft did not just say the change would only affect people who bought their consoles from the date of the change on is very dishonest in my opinion.
Why harm existing customers? Would it really hurt Microsoft to help their customers in this case? | video-games_xbox |
AWSOME. Termintator 3: Rise of the Machines is AWSOME!!!
it's one of the best first person shooter games out there. loads of new weapons like ray guns, and rocket launchers, and once you enter the real movie area, you have the actual guns they used in the movie!!!
game play is awsome, and very easy to learn. there is also an automatic aim, which makes it even better. you switch to 3rd person fight mode on about 5 occassions, and you even fight the TX inside the vetenarians office! that whole part is AWSOME! it looks so real, and it also ties in some lose ends.
for example, it shows how the terminator knew where exactly to go to find kate brewster. there is even footage of the assassination of the great John Connor!!!
awsome game. i know it's gotten a bad rap so far, 2 1/2 stars, but trust me, the game is AWSOME!!!
now, the only problem is, and this is why i gave it 4 stars, is that it's just to short. it's got something like 22 levels, and about 15 minutes of actual movie footage and computer gameplay footage, but it feels to short. the levels are very detailed and you get to see the ruins of Los Angeles in the future. the sky looks awsome, and you get to shoot down tanks and hunter killers in the air. but again, the game is to short. i played on easy, and passed the game in under 5 hours, and that was by playing on and off!
that is the only real beef i have with it. that and the fact that they don't have multiplayer action, like in Halo or Medal of Honor, so you can play against eachother.
game also has special features, pictures from the movie, and has a demo of terminator 3: redemption.
review: gameplay is AWSOME. it's everything a first person shooter gamer wants. the fighting mode is awsome, you can pick up stuff, and throw the TX all around the place. you even get to trash the bathrooms like in the movie. scenery is awsome, especially the views in brewster's work place.
awsome game, and by the way, watch out for the mini-hunter killers. they are pesky!!!
now, in the words of Arnold: FANTASTIC | video-games_xbox |
Nice try, but not cutting edge,and not fine tuned. This game is OK. It's not terrible. It's got a good story and a lot of content. I'm not saying there aren't a lot of positives in this game, but that you can read about them in any number of reviews in any game magazine or website. So I'll just name some of the negative that annoyed me. I am mostly comparing this game to TES:Oblivion, since to date, that RPG is king of the mountain so to speak.
First, after playing Oblivion for more than 300 hours, I've become accustomed to a large amount of interactivity and openness. In Oblivion, you could go in every building talk to every person, pick up any object, eat food, rob stores, etc. You could do just about anything you could imagine. In mass effect, it's very closed and directed. 90% of the people you see, you can not even say hi to. There aren't many buildings you can go in, even in the Citadel. The main city(Imperial City) in Oblivion had about 60 differnt shops and building you could go inside. And in each one you could go into different rooms, move chairs around, steal things if the owner wasn't looking, even read books on the shelves. In the Mass Effect main city(Citadel) there are about 10 places you can go inside. No object can be moved or interacted with. Even when "Viewing computer screens" you don't actually do it. It just says you viewed a screen and give you some XP. It all feels like unalterable scenery.
The Mako is terrible. The controls are clunky and not like any other vehicle in any other game, like the Warthog in Halo for instance. Also, the guns don't always shoot where the reticle says you're aiming. So even if you're aiming at an enemy, plan on more than a few of your shots being way off. Seems like a glaring programming error to me.
And the big claim of "A whole galaxy to explore". Not really. You can travel to a bunch of differnt systems, but can only look at most of the planets on your map. The planets you can land on are all the same. You get dropped in your Mako into a large rectangle area. You care confined to this area. And every plant is some variation on a barren mountainous landscape. No desert planets, no jungle planets, no water planes. Just mountains. Sometimes grey mountain, sometimes orange. But always mountains. You are given 3-5 points of interest. You drive to one, scan the crashed probe. Drive to another, pick up a lost artifact, travel to the last one, go inside a bunker and kill some bad guys. Leave the planet, repeat about 30 times, roll credits. No traveling in between differnt cities learning stories and helping people. No real economics either. You find so much weapons and mods in the same crates on every planets, you never have to buy anything. And you can fine about 30,000 credits worth of loot on every planet. So all you gotta do is sell it. Prices are fixed. In Oblivion, there was a whole haggling mini-game to try to sell stuff at higher prices or buy lower. You could sell stolen good at secret pawn shops, or even buy at one shop and sell at another for a profit. Not so in Mass Effect. Every shop is the same, all prices are the same, and all of the items are just minor variations on the same thing. In my clunky hard-to-navigate inventory I have 50 mods that are all variations of "Increase armor 20". Or "Increase damage 15%". In Oblivion there were swords that set people on fire, arrows that paralyzed them, cloaks that made you invisible or able to see at night. Boots that made you faster or able to walk on water. Rings that allowed you to breath under water, or help you cast more magic. Gloves that increased you ability to carry heavy objects, or necklaces that helped you control minds.
Oh yeah, and either savegame every 5 minutes, or plan on redoing hours of gameplay every time you get killed. There are no checkpoints and autosave.
Also, depending on what kind of character you pick, certain things are always off limits to you. I picked Vanguard, so I will never be able to use an Assault Rifle or Sniper Rifle effectively. That's ok. But I would like to be able to unequip those weapons. I am forced to carry around weapons I can never really use. Sure I can pull them out and wildly spray bullets, but since you remained untrained, it's pointless. You should be able to unequip items ao you don't have to see them on your back. And wy would a soldier not be able to learn how to use different stuff? In Oblivion, you picked your class, and it made you naturaully better at certain things. But you always had the option of training yourself to go beyond those limits. And if you didn't want to learn how to use a bow, you didn't have to carry a bow. In Mass Effect, you HAVE to carry a pistol, shotgun, sniper rifle, and assault rifle on your back at all times, and depending on what class you pick, you never get to use some of them. They're just there.
There's also no real character appearance moding. You can make your character's face in the beginning. You can't change their body at all, and there are no clothes or anything like that. Only the same kind of armor you always wear. You can pick black or gray amour, sometimes camouflage. But you can't take the armor off and wear normal clothes. In Oblivion you could change your boots, shirt, pants, gloves, hat/helmet, necklaces, rings, etc all independently. You could wear armor, dress cloths, skirts, peasant clothes, cloaks, even your underwear. You could match and mismatch everything. Wear a dress and a nice necklace that was charmed to make you more likable when talking to a city's king. Need to go into the wilderness and fight, change into some heavy armor charmed to make you resistant to sword attacks. Or if you prefer magic, a cloak that makes you swift and hard to see and some rings that increase your fire spells. In Mass Effect you got armor, better armor, and even better armor. You got guns, and some more guns. Want to be quick and stealthy? Too bad. Want to blend in the with civilians by wearing normal clothes? Too bad. Want to set yourself on fire wearing nothing but your underwear and a ring that keeps you safe from being on fire and run through the city like a madman(you can do this in Oblivion)? Too bad. The key to a good RPG is how free you are to test the limits of what you can and can't do. And in Mass Effect, there's a lot you can't do.
Mass Effect is an OK game. It would be an amazing game if this were 2004. But it's almost 2008. We've seen games like Oblivion with a playable area that's 16 miles across and take literally half an hour to cross manually, with trees, plants, rabbits, rivers, deer, mountains, plains, marshes, lakes, cities, villages, people, roaming bandits, knights, ghosts, caves, ruins..and ALL of it is completely interactive and playable. If playing Oblivion was like living life, Mass Effect is like watching that life on TV. It just doesn't have the same depth and interactivity. I never got the feeling that I was unlimited in Mass Effect. Oblivion was like that the whole time.
I just don't understand why a company like Bioware, seeing the example Oblivion set a year ago, made a game with years out-of-date game play. | video-games_xbox |
A historic foray into the world of terrible controllers. If there's one thing you can count on Razer to do right, it's produce a slick box. "Razer is marking a historic foray into the world of console gaming," crows RazerDude's quote on the slick box, in the space where you'd expect a celebrity endorsement. And I should say that it feels and looks quite nice, so long as you don't flex it. Feel in the hand, however, isn't enough to win the endorsements. A controller should be durable enough to stand up to gentle use.
Mine didn't come feeling completely wonderful out of the box - the Onza represented a couple undesirable firsts for me, for coming out of the box (bought at a local store, so it was only shipped once) with a small plastic piece rattling around inside, a left trigger that tended to catch on something and seize up, and a strange rubber-band-like snap whenever I push the left thumbstick up (which is still there). I've never had a controller work like that out of the box, and I've used some odd and obscure ones over the years. The joke's on me for having put up with such quality at the beginning, but since it's probably two years on now, Razer can have another laugh at my expense - they don't expect it to last, either.
Now, finally, the shoulder triggers are both giving up. Marston (the hero from Red Dead Redemption) can't seem to draw or keep a bead on enemies and I often have to hold the left thumbstick somewhat less than fully in to keep him from repeatedly drawing and putting away a weapon. Then the right shoulder button started going too - firearms shooting off by themselves or the map view creeping into a zoom by itself. If I'm really lucky, the left shoulder button will seize up entirely, just like it used to when I bought this.
It's amazing that the shoulder buttons would start to flake out after only two years of very gentle intermittent use - I didn't even have a 360 when I bought the controller and I haven't even used that 360 regularly until very recently, which amounts to no more than five hours in a day.
I don't know enough about the underlying engineering issues to say definitely whether the type are all lemons. The first 360 controller I bought, also a third-party make, was much sturdier-feeling, but the cord started to go and it would lose connectivity - but its shoulder buttons don't rattle in the case when you shake the controller and everything would still work if not for that cord; it also had a harder life being regularly transported in a bag as well. It's hard to shake the feeling that the Onza is too flimsy to stand up to the rigors of even regular gaming.
I like the light feel of the triggers (if they are working properly - it's hard to tell because the right trigger is quite stiff and catching on something in the last bit of its travel, while the left trigger doesn't catch on anything) compared to that other third-party controller's triggers, but if that comes at the expense of being able to use the Onza for a reasonably long period then I can't endorse it. The bottom line is that the Onza promised premium (or "professional") features at a price 5/6ths that of the mainstream product, and while you might say that it delivers if you can get a working example, I don't have any confidence that it's durable. As usual for Razer this seems self-inflicted; there's no obvious reason why the lesser price should entail flimsy construction, unless they are using a lower grade of plastic than their competitors to make up the price difference, which I don't believe. | video-games_xbox |
Recommended. Arrived when it was supposed to, everything worked out of the box. I purchased Rocksmith and Bandfuse a day apart. I received this one first and it was greatly received!! I have not really played my instruments regularly for months, sure I fiddle around and play a couple riffs, but since I have not had anyone close around to jam with, I decided to give this a shot.
I am pretty much all self taught, I own a fender and ibanez bass as well as an electric and acoustic guitar. I have never been too much of a guitar player but I love playing it, bass on the other hand... Well, I can hold my own and then some. I choose to challenge myself a bit and played thunderkiss '65 with guitar first. The scrolling notes were a bit confusing at first, but once I got the hang of it, I was cruising along. Really easy actually... at first... as I soon found out, the game was testing me.
I played for a few hours using the riff repeater and other 'rocksmith suggestions', and progressed to around 48% on the song(up from 27% score for my initial run through). I decided I wanted to grab my bass and see what the game thought of my bass skills. I choose a fairly easy song, but one I had not actually played before, Def Leppard's Pour some sugar... On the initial run through I scored 94%.. I immediately ran it again, knowing I had miss-hit a couple notes and scored 99.6%. After patting myself on the back for not losing my touch with my beloved bass, I had to give my fingers a rest and called it a night.
I read reviews of the game and saw that people had issues with latency when using HDMI 2 problems there for me.. I ONLY had HDMI connectors for my xbox and already had audio issues with my stupid sony bravia TV (THAT is another review). I immediately began looking into how to deal with the issue before the game arrived. I had a pair of older computer speakers that were usb powered, I plugged those into my xbox and turned the tv volume down and have never experienced one issue with audio.
My only complaint about the game as of yet(but not a big enough deal to take away a star) is the tuner in game. When you tune the guitar and you bring a string into tune, the game literally gives you 2-3 seconds before it declares the string in tune. If you are still(as I was) in the process of tuning it, it can be frustrating and I over/under-tuned the string. Like any decent musician, I can hear when my guitar is out of tune and the tuner just didn't care. My first run through was horrible against the in-tune background audio track. I used my tuner and it was fine. On my bass, it was the opposite of the guitar, the meter would read -12 on my A-string and +11 on my G-string. I tried tuning it and could hear the pitch of the note changing, but the value on the screen didn't budge. I gave up and tuned my bass with my tuner and it checked out fine when I started playing again. Like I said, not a deal breaker, just use your own tuner.
All in all, best purchase I have made on a video game in ages. It completely renewed my hibernating musical interests! | video-games_xbox |
Where did all the cowboys go. Let's face it, American cowboys have gotten far less attention then their Japanese samurai counter-part, it seems like every month we get some new hack 'n slash title full of sweaty samurai. But perhaps the most reasonable explanation to all that could very well be that western games stink. The only bright spots that come to mind are Lucas Art's Outlaws and Konami's Sunset Riders. So attempting at all cost to bring the cowboy back into the picture, perennial controversial-spurring-favorites Rockstar Games have planted for us in the gaming soil Red Dead Revolver.
o discuss Red Dead Revolver without bringing up an issue of just how much explicit graphical nature this game has would be almost unheard, especially taken from the game company that gave us Manhunt and Gran Theft Auto. Much to my surprise, this game didn't really have anything that was over-the-top, it was all kept to a minimum.
You start the game as Red, the lone gunman whose pa' was killed when he was just a young 'un. Much like Conan the Barbarian revenge upon your father's grave is the primary focus for igniting the plot. Think Conan, just not as many governors and well, more sheriffs. The games story mode doesn't play anything similar to Gran Theft Auto, so cancel out any assumption that you'll be robbing people of their wagons and horses to cruise around town--instead the levels are condensed to linear and very tight surroundings. In addition to playing as Red, about 1/4 of the way to finishing the games many levels you'll take control of an additional character, who plays just the same.
Regardless of which character you play as, Red Dead Revolver is a standard action game dressed in a cowboy costume. You manuever around the playing field taking cover from enemy fire, thanks in large part to the backgrounds this isn't much of a problem. What did annoy me was how unresponsive the controls were--Rockstar took a gamble by creating a control scheme too different than everyone elses. The finished results are unpleasent; by moving around with one analog and aiming your gun with the other poses a seroius problem when faced with numerous enemies. Also the inability to quickly change the camera freely led me on many occassions to die without ever knowing who was the culprit responsible for my death. There is a brief moment when you are allowed to use more firepower then usual. This mode is called 'Dead Eye', when you have accumulated the points for "bullet time" you can press a button and slow down the camera in a Matrix fashion. Doing so allows you to chain six seperate hit points on the enemies body, after that you can send them straight to the ground. My conclusion on this is, the ability itself sure is useful but a little more creativity would've been nicer. Then at final praise, comes the dualing action the game offers which happens at scripted times of the game. It attempts to simulate a classic gun duel, and to some degree succeeds in authenticating this as a western game. You pull back the analog stick to grab your gun, push it forward to point it at the bad guys, and then giving you a short amount of time to try aiming for the sweet spots before all hell breaks loose. It's a novel concept, but the fact that you can't actually decide when to use it turns it into nothing more than a flashy gimmick.
If I were to choose a version I would go with the Xbox edition, merely based on visuals. The game is a little more polished and the resolution is a few pixels higher, but in the end both PS2 and Xbox versions of Red Dead Revolver suffer from low frame-rates and glitchy looking character models. Character models that a first grader can make out of wooden blocks and construction paper. And some levels really do heighten the amount of suspense higher than what is really offered, take the train stage for example. The music is decent, there are those same tunes that flavored Kill Bill Vol. 2 so well. Too bad the voice acting has to go and screw things up, when I say it's bad I mean its' really BAD. The writing is also poorly done, I understand this is only a game but with so many standards furthering the crossing of movie and game dynamics, cheesy voice acting just doesn't cut it. With a little more freedom to whatever you want to do, better graphics and a more understandable controls--Red Dead Revolver could've been a top choice action game. As it is given to us, it will sell and obtain some acclaim thanks to Rockstars Games' incompetent marketing moves but listen to me, it isn't what the hype makes it out to be. | video-games_xbox |
It would be 4 stars if it was sold as Multiplayer only. I have long maintained that videogames these days should be split into two different versions, the multiplayer and the singleplayer as different products so you can buy exactly what you want and don't have to pay more for an experience you don't want. Battlefield 4 is one of those games. I'll only be covering the mutiplayer as the singleplayer I can summarize like this: It has very dry characters, the story isn't particularly gripping, you have a lot of fancy looking setpiece destruction, and you don't have to kill only Russians anymore. Now you have Chinese! You also get a new weapon by finishing each campaign level so that is the only reason I would really recommend going through it aside from achievements.
- Battlefield definitely delivers on combined arms combat. As a game with a lot of room to move around on the battlefield, there are plenty of ways to get from A to B while killing people along the way. The vehicles feel very responsive (sometimes too much so) and move with some heft.
- Very in depth unlock system. There are many things to unlock in this game and they are no longer linked to your overall combat level. The unlocks are split into a couple different categories. One is for your class, the other is for your weapon types. Each level independent from one another. If you want to get new assault rifles, using assault rifles will soon award you with a new one. If you want more engineer unlocks, using the engineer (regardless of what weapon you use) will net you points for more unlocks. These unlocks are staggered fairly well and allow you to get something new every few matches once you set to work.
- Battlepacks. Every few combat levels, you will be awarded a battlepack which will open and give you random attachments or camo for your weapon or uniform. Most of these items are only available through battlepacks and not able to gain them through leveling. You will also never get two of the same item. I put this separately because the mechanic is more of a loot system than an unlock system. You will get one of these battlepacks every 3 or so combat levels you gain and these packs vary in quality. They range from bronze, silver, gold, premium(for premium members only) and weapon specific. Once you max out a weapon level and gain all of its leveling attachments, any additional score will go towards battlepacks that have attachments just for that weapon. I feel this gives a healthy amount of re-playability and change to the game.
- Maps and Scale. All the maps have a breathtaking amount of detail. Some are more well designed than others and even this varies between modes, but the sheer scale and design are something I rarely see elsewhere. Some maps are not meant for some modes, but since a good deal of them seem to work well regardless of the game mode chosen I won't take anything away. They can range from an old cold war tank factory that has been overgrown and reclaimed by the local foliage to an aircraft carrier that has been split in half and you are fighting on what remains of the sinking ship.
- Level Destruction. This game basically delivers what they promised with Battlefield 3. Lots of crazy destruction. While it isn't as complete as say, Bad Company 2, it is leaps ahead of Battlefield 3. Hopefully with more experience with the Frostbite Engine and the new power of a next gen console, we will see more total level destruction.
Multiplayer Cons
- Connection issues. Right now Battlefield 4 is rife with connection issues. I have been disconnected from games and I cannot tell if it is because of a hotfix that kicked me from my game or if the game itself has frozen. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that the game leaves you no real way to restart or refresh it to reconnect. Since the Xbone can update a game without restarting it, this problem might be solved with disabling your xbox from automatically updating while you are playing. This shouldn't have to be done this way.
- Lag. As I am sure that many others have said there has been a certain amount of lag. Sometimes there is sputtering and sometimes its things like sniper rounds not landing or getting shot well after you moved out of the line of fire. With dedicated servers, this shouldn't be happening. I haven't experienced this a whole lot, but it is there enough that it deserves a mention.
- You have very little options when it comes to customizing the controls. If you are used to some of your other controls in other console battlefield games, this one doesn't seem to want you to change much or back to what you are used to. There is little variety about how you can change your controls and after a lot of trial and error I still cant find a good setup that feels perfect for me. The addition of the "battlelog" button on the controller where the "spot" controls used to be was another unwelcome change.
-You can only customize your loadout in game, in a practice mode, or on your PC with battlelog. There are no more in game menus that let you customize your loadout from the main menu. Why this was not included is mindboggling. I think it just has more to do with DICE and EA's push for more battlelog integration.
-There is s*** that you look like you should be able to jump over or through but can't. This is probably the worst offender I have found in this game. I hate shooting out a window only to find that I cannot in fact climb through the window or have trouble jumping over the obstacle. This very jarringly breaks immersion and with how some debris is on the ground, I have gotten killed by other while trying to navigate objects that I shouldn't have an issue pressing "A" to get over.
- If you are new, you are going to have a really rough first few matches. The game does a poor job integrating you into it. You will get matchmade into a game where you as a level 1, will often go against players that are in the 30s to 60s. Maybe even higher. There should be a separate pool for new players who want to get acclimated to the game where you will fight other people until maybe level 10 when you have enough upgrades to stand on your own without feeling constantly outgunned.
- There are really no classes until you level them. Almost all of the basic tools you will need to function as your desired class are surprisingly absent until you but substantial time into leveling your class. I have never been healed, revived, or given ammo by another player in an online game simply because to a majority of these players, the basic tools are unavailable to them until their class is almost finished leveling.
Conclusion
All in all, Its a pretty good game. The multiplayer is solid and while it has its fair share of issues, it has the potential to come into is own the same way Battlefield 3 did. Hopefully some of the issues get remedied, and it will result in a better experience for everyone, but the singleplayer is still pretty bad. | video-games_xbox |
Game with potential. I've had the game pretty much since launch, and I have been putting in at least a couple hours per day. I'm nearing level 30, so I think I can fairly review this game at this point.
I will start by saying that I believe the excessive amounts of hype and coverage building up to this game, and the success of the beta are ultimately why people are blasting it how they are. The beta was very promising. It successfully built upon the initial hype. I honestly had very little interest in the game(thinking it was gonna be a Halo clone) until I played the Beta. It gave a satisfying look at what the full game had to offer.... The problem is, once the full game was released, many people discovered that the Beta was pretty much ALL the game had. I don't mean that the game is exactly the beta, I just mean that the format and mission types, are almost exactly what you saw in the beta, except different enemy types and different locations.
As of now(October 2014), the locations are Earth, Moon, Venus, and Mars. Each location is basically one large open area. Each has the same format: a few of Story missions, one patrol mission(basically go around and kill things until you're bored), and a strike mission(basically an extended, slightly more difficult Story mission) or 2. The world is essentially the same no matter which mission type you pick, your ghost just directs you to different objectives and you eventually get to "No Respawn Zones" which separate you from other players in the world(minus your fireteam). In these zones are where your boss battles are. Boss battles are essential all the same. Usually a larger version of an Elite enemy except with a massive amount of HP, and easier enemies that continually respawn until the boss is defeated. Also, on Venus, there is a Raid mission, which is a ridiculous frustratingly difficult mission that allows you to have a fireteam of 6(other missions only allow up to 3).
The story can be completed probably within a week of casual playing. The game was designed, however, with replay value in mind. So you can fly through the Story missions and complete the game, but your gear and weapons will be garbage. The idea is to complete side "bounties" which grant you bonus XP and in-game currency that will allow you to purchase higher level gear. The problem is, that these bounties require you to replay the same missions over and over and over and over again. This may not be an issue for some, but many people take issue with the fact that there is a lack of variety in a game that demands you to replay missions so many times.
There are many other issues people have such as how at higher levels you are obligated to equip armor with higher amount of "light", meaning that you really don't have much say in your loadout, you pretty much are obligated to equip some unsightly gear and not use ones that you may actually like simply because the "light" rating is 1 or 2 higher than yours. Also, there is a Borderlands style loot system. But again, at higher levels, the loot drops are lackluster.
Also the Crucible (PvP) system is pretty fun, but there aren't many maps. And also, the balance isn't great(ZERO MATCHMAKING, you just get throw into a random group of players). If you're lower level, you pretty much will want to avoid it because it's completely unfair going against people who have unlocked a ton of class abilities and exotic weapons, when you are stuck with nothing and basic entry level weapons. No matter how quick your reactions are or how good your aim, you will still get torn apart just from the abilities of bonuses of advanced gear. Once you get over level 20(and you're adjusted to the pace of Halo style deathmatches), PVP is more balanced.
All in all, this game is great for playing with friends. In my opinion, if you're playing alone, you will get really really bored. Playing with a group of friends is a blast. The Crucible is fun as well, but I get tired of replaying the same few maps over and over. I prefer having my 3 person Fireteam and playing co-op. We have loads of fun blasting away hordes of enemies and defeating a major boss at the end of a Strike feels like a major victory(especially since they take so long to beat). If more content isn't added soon, however, I probably won't play for much longer. Even with friends, playing the same levels a countless amount of times with no goal besides the small hope of getting better gear is not much to keep a large fan base interested when there is not much in terms of variety of content. | video-games_xbox |
Sturdy, Quality shell and Looks nice. Received this today and immediately installed it on my 9 year old son's controller. It connected easily enough, and I had no problems removing the back handle grips to get to the screws - I suggest a credit card, or if you have a guitar pick lying around, those work very nicely.
Upon opening the package, I noticed right away a few smudges where the carbon fiber design didn't transfer cleanly. Two right in the middle of the controller, and one around the thumbstick. This is something that bothered me enough to want to send it back, however as I purchased this for my son, I figured he wouldn't notice or care, which he didn't. The smudge isn't huge by any means, and I understand that sometimes the hydro dipping process can be troublesome and messy, what I don't understand is how the company let this item be sold to a customer. I would have never let this item be purchased at full price - if anything, I would have sold it as-is at a discount, or repurposed the shell for a less complicated single-color design to be applied.
After installing the new front shell and holding the controller in my hand, I noticed the left side of the shell did not sit flush with the rest of the controller, as it was before - comfortable and smooth. While the controller is held normally in hand, the seam in the shell is immediately obvious. Again, as I purchased this for my son, I looked past this and kept it as is. I tried taking a picture of the seam to include with this review, however upon inspection of the picture, no offset could be discerned. For this reason, I returned the original 3 star review to a 4 star review on account of me being picky.
Im still a little bummed about the defect in the design transfer, however I realize that a pattern such as this is a lot easier to muck up with the uniformity of the carbon fiber pattern and decided more than one star off is harsh. I've since been shopping around the additional designs provided by this seller and plan on purchasing a few more shells for the rest of my controllers. Hopefully these designs are a bit cleaner.
P.S. My son absolutely loves the new shell! | video-games_xbox |
Great Multi-Player Game. What do you get when you combine four resurrected heroes, an epic quest and support for up to four players? A great game!
The basic premise of Heroes is that a great threat has returned to the land - a threat that had been previously dispatched by four great heroes. Fortunately, due to the magic of reincarnation, the four heroes have been brought back to try to do it again. Unfortunately, for whatever reason (they don't really go into this) they are only a shadow of their former selves and must reclaim their glory in the tradition dungeons & dragons style: by gaining experience from exploring, solving puzzles and (of course) killing monsters. There's another twist in this game though: each character has an ancestral weapon that will grow in strength as the hero finds "Soul Shards" that cause it too to regain its former glory.
The game is well thought out and will take most about ten to fifteen hours to finish. It combines a variety of monsters and challenges in a variety of interesting scenes ranging from Castle Bale (which becomes the central nexus of the game) to the elemental planes. The monsters are interesting as well including fire elementals, undead and many types.
The movies and animations, while not photo-realistic, are pretty good. The UI is one of the best I've seen for this type of game. Especially well done is the interface for special moves and spells, the ability to map them to controller buttons and even change them quickly.
The game has a few small drawbacks, in multi-player mode you are required to stay on the same screen-view as your co-players. This can cause players to get stuck in an area, and force the others to backtrack to let him or her out.
Overall, Heroes is a great game. It is an especially good pick for groups of gamers wanting to go through a quest together (1-4 players supported, local only - no xbox live support). | video-games_xbox |
A step up in the series, but mistakes were made in areas they shouldn't have been. In the world of gaming, the Driving/Racing Genre seems to have always had a hard time trying to take the pole position in the video game market. When a game called <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Burnout/dp/B00005RCPR/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Burnout</a> was released back in 2001, it seemed to follow the same route as most Driving/Racing games that came before it. However, it was the slow motion replay's of each crash which realistically deformed the cars was what brought the game to the attention of the public.
From then on Criterion's Burnout game series would continue on with new features being implemented in each game (along with a different set of cars) from the Crash Gameplay in <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Burnout-2-Point-of-Impact-Developer-s-Cut/dp/B00008RUYR/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Burnout 2: Point of Impact (Developer's Cut)</a> to the Takedown/Road Rage in <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Burnout-3-Takedown/dp/B0002IQC8Y/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Burnout 3 Takedown</a> and <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Burnout-Revenge/dp/B0009WPZMW/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Burnout Revenge</a>.
Burnout Paradise is the newest addition to the burnout family of games, but does it stand out on it's own, or does it fail to burn some rubber on the pavement?
Story
The story of Paradise pretty much straight forward and to the point. The narrator (aka DJ Atomika) helps you as you explore every nook and cranny of Paradise City as well as offer you some advice, but after a while he becomes pretty annoying. Thankfully though as you progress through the game, the narrator plays a less important role.
7.5/10
Design
Unlike its predecessors, Paradise uses the Sandbox design for Never-ending Gameplay which makes Paradise perfect for online gaming. This works great for those of us who have grown tired of the menu screens. As well as using the Sandbox, users can also choose any offline event at any time by going to any of the 120 traffic light intersections and taping the brake and accelerator simultaneously. This feature does away the load screen that fans have dreaded in previous Burnout games.
Although some of the events are ones that are trademarks of the series, Paradise adds 2 new events to the fray which make the game even more challenging to the player. I also like the fact that they did away with the Bronze/Silver/Gold method and replaced it with the License Upgrade system which you have to win every event in first place in order to upgrade your license. What's also nice is the way you get each of the 80 cars by not only winning events in order to "shut them down" in sandbox mode, but also by winning the burning routes which allow you to win a more beefed up version of your car in the event you win each burning route.
Also new is the Road Rules feature which in offline mode, the player can "Rule" each road in Paradise City via by time, or by Showtime.
Showtime is the newly remodeled version of Crash that you can start at any time by clicking the Right and Left Tab buttons simultaneously on your controller. Showtime seems more of a step backward than more of a step forward for the Burnout Series. The whole process of showtime seems more of comical than the entertaining that Crash Mode originally brought us. Shame on you Criterion!! You should know better than to try to fix something that wasn't broken in the first place.
9.5/10
Gameplay
The Gameplay of Paradise is by far excellent. The controls of the game make it very easy for any player (whether a first time novice or a hardcore veteran) to use. Of course this game was made for online multiplayer, with online challenges and "mugshots" (you must have the XBL Vision to use this feature) for each online takedown. That, along with the all the smashes and billboards as well as the 50 offline/online achievements, you can be playing this game with your friends over and over again and never get bored.
10/10
Graphics & Sound
Paradise has some of the best damage graphics than any other Driving/Racing game that's currently out on the market (even better than Gran Turismo Prologue . . .). The way the game slowly shows your car being crumpled in a head on collision with another car or a solid object makes each crash more entertaining to watch.
As for sound, along with tires screeching, horns blowing etc. Each car has it's own unique engine sound. From the roar of the American looking muscle cars, to the high-pitched reeving of a formula one racer. Of course what game isn't complete without a soundtrack. Ever since Takedown, the Burnout series has incorporated an excellent soundtrack with each new game incorporating bands like Yellowcard, Jimmy Eat World, etc. Paradise is no exception with not only incorporating the Original soundtracks from the first two Burnout games, but also adding artists Seether, Airbourne, Guns N' Roses (as soon as I heard Paradise was announced, their song Paradise City came immediately to my mind), and many more. The only Gripe I have about the soundtrack is this:
WHY IN THE HELL DID THEY FRICKIN PUT AVRIL LAVIGNE'S SONG GIRLFRIEND ON THE SOUNDTRACK???
Thankfully I can have that stupid song taken off the playlist thanks to the EA Trax system. Well played EA/Criterion . . . well played.
9.75/10
Overall
Burnout Paradise is without a doubt the best Driving/Racing game this series has to offer so far despite the loss of Crash Mode. With XBL updates and more DLC in the works (which also includes new locations within Paradise City and new cars ), Burnout Paradise will truly make it's mark in the Burnout Series. Criterion sure knows how to make a Driving/Racing game. | video-games_xbox |
Lockups, confusing setup & lazy level design. I've been a big fan of all the Lego games, so my son & I were excited to pick up this one when it first came out. After playing it to about 85% completion, I have to say that overall this one is a pretty big letdown.
The format of the previous games has been pretty much the same - there's an overall hub that serves as the central area for the game. From there, levels are grouped together by story (about 5-6 levels for each movie/storyline). Each level contains a variety of hidden areas and secrets that can be accessed as the player opens new characters in the game, adding to the level's replay value.
That philosophy seems to have been rethought for this game, and not for the better. Instead of one hub, there are 6 - one for each of the 1st three movies, and three for Crystal Skull. The hub is a giant area where you can locate new characters and vehicles, and access the story and bonus levels. The hubs are fairly involved, and are set up the same way the levels were in the previous games (obtaining a new character lets you use their new ability to access a new part of the hub). The hubs are pretty well designed. My one complaint is that almost every new character remains in the area where you first purchased them, so remembering where to find the one you need can be difficult. Also, some of them are in very far-flung locations, so it can literally take about 5 minutes of just walking/driving the entire way across the hub to find the character with a wrench (for example), and then going all the way back across the hub to the entrance of the level that you need him for. I don't know who came up with that, but it's a TERRIBLE idea and a boring chore.
The levels themselves have been simplified WAY down. There are no secrets, there are no hidden areas, there is no reason to play any of them through more than once. Only the most rudimentary thought seems to have gone into each one. Gameplay is still the same as it ever was, and it's enjoyable, but the level design leaves a LOT to be desired. Generally, an entire bonus level will consist of one puzzle - for example, use the shovel to dig up a spear, throw the spear into the hole and use it to climb up to a ledge. Hit a switch with the whip and you're done!
The story levels too are much shorter than the levels in previous games. As an example, anyone who has played the first Lego Indiana Jones game will probably remember the mountain level from Raiders of the Lost Ark. That level begins in Marion's bar where you have to defeat a boss while the bar burns down, then moves into the mountain passes, then to a mountain temple, and finally to an army outpost. The equivalent level in this newest installment has players beating a boss in Marion's bar and THAT'S IT! That is the whole level. Each story level can be completed in roughly 5 minutes, and has no replay value at all - no secret areas to discover or any reason to come back to it again.
My final issue with this game is that it freezes on a fairly consistent basis - we've had it lock up about 15 times now, in all different areas, though the Raiders hub tends to get it the most. From poking around on forums, this seems to be a fairly common complaint.
If you're a fan of the Lego games, it's worth playing this one - it's still fun, even if it is a bit lacking in comparison to previous ones. However, I am keeping my fingers crossed that they do not retain this format for the Lego Harry Potter game coming out next year. | video-games_xbox |
Simply awsome for the price. I don't leave reviews really. But since this product exceeded my expectations for the price I bought it at. I figured i would leave a review. 29.99 isn't a bad deal on 7.1 surround sound headphones. Especially when they aren't turtle beaches. The deal becomes even better when you get to actually use these bad boys. Recently purchasing MGS5 for pc I thought I would get a headset for some good ol immersion. Luckily I came across Sentey.
Now while the sound is amazing. The fit leaves something left to be desired. As stated in previous reviews. If your head isn't "big enough". These might fit a bit loose. I have that problem somewhat. But im not going to complain about it since I can adjust them as needed.
Testing the mic out with audacity. It seems that the output volume isn't all that loud. Using the mic boosting feature in win 7 or even the vibros program that comes with the mic, helps some. But the mix boost does give a noticeable amount of background noise. Now again this was with audacity. It could be the same when using something like team speak or game vox. Im sure some would have taken a star off because of that alone. But i figure after some tinkering. It can be set to where one likes/tolerates it.
If you are going to use the cd that comes with thr VIBROS program on it. Its definitely worth it. You can select different listening profiles. From Rock to Jazz and even customize your own. I like the Jazz setting with a bit more base personally. You can even alter your voice as well. Something to play around with if you're into that sort of thing.
All in all, if my current set breaks. I would purchase another headset.
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Update 11/4/2015
Writing this update to warn people of the pretty bad wire kinking they may experience. When i first purchased the headsets everything went great. Until one day i just noticed a ridiculous kink in the cord. Now i have wrapped the cord around anything to AVOID the kinking to start with. But low and behold. Horrible kinking. I`ll just make due until i purchase another headset that actually has a braided cable as this one does not. I don't know why they even have that in the product description. | video-games_xbox |
These guys r drunk. I just wanted to add another review of ms's gaming console as there are a couple of reviewers who don't have a clue about it. I have had PS2 since it came out. I was reluctant at first to get Xbox as I am not too kind of MS. I did. The console simply leapfrogs PS2 by far; not coincidentally Sony is desesperately seeking to develop PS3 in order to keep up.
Xbox is simply a superior console, but PS2 had an enormous software library and game developers signed on for years in advance, which made me think twice about espending on a console with no software for it.
A couple of games changed that. Games like Splinter Cell 1&2; Star Wars KOTR and HALO saw the light on Xbox land exclusively or years before they got ported to PS2. Now look at gamespot's 100 top game list; it is beign dominated by Xbox titles from top to bottom. I have played the marority of these titles, and the reviews are right on their money.
When Xbox came out, people concetrated on polygons/sec and hard drive advantages. But Xbox realy shine on other issues: Xbox live make games like Halo and Rally Sport Challenge 2 worth playing over and over again.
Another two of my favorite features come in the form of Video and Audio. I have seen xboxes hooked to 50 inch HDTV plasma tvs and their owners have no idea of the console's most favorable topics: the ability to display 16:9 content with 480p or higher resolution.
Another funny scene is an Xbox console in the middle of a home theater setup, but set up to sound directly from the TV's speakers. Now why would someone want to do that? The majority of owners do not know that Xbox is perhaps one of the best sources of EDTV content today but also of digital sound. You see, Xbox was designed to play Dolby digital sound not only from the cutout scenes (aka PS2), but also during the actual gameplay. Don't trust me? Try and play the Suffering with a 5.1 surround sound setup and you will get my drift. These features, however, have to be setup from the dashboard (start up the console with no games in the DVD Rom to access.)
Since I got Xbox I would only look for games under their umbrella, I just think they are superior in every way possible. Don't get me wrong, PS2 is a fine console with a fine library of games (specially in the Sports department) but if available on both platforms, Xbox would be my choice by far. | video-games_xbox |
I'm going to write this review quickly because I want to get back to playing FIFA 12 asap. I am a lifelong soccer/football fan and player, both in reality and in the video game world. Topping FIFA 11 was not going to be an easy task, but it seems FIFA 12 has beaten its predecessor with flying colors.
The graphics, sound effects, and control are all top notch and are an improvement over FIFA 11 overall, so there is no reason to spend much time talking about them.
What is significant are the new changes to FIFA 12, and how they have affected the gameplay. The most noticeable two are the 1) Tactical defending and 2) Player impact engine.
I will explain both briefly to give newcomers an idea of what to expect.
1) Tactical Defending: Arguably the biggest and most significant change is the new defending system. No longer can you hold down A and B and watch as your defense swarms the hapless attacker automatically
In FIFA 12, you have to position properly and time your tackles well (as in reality) in order to gain possession of the ball. Mis-timed or poor tackles will often result in the attacker blowing past you or a foul and/or booking.
I MUST WARN YOU, that this can be VERY FRUSTRATING at times when you are learning the new system as it is not very forgiving. For those of you intimidated by this there is an option to revert to the old system called "Legacy" (Identical to FIFA 11's system). But I HIGHLY recommend you take the time and effort to master the new defensive system, because it is highly realistic, extremely rewarding when you do that perfect tackle, and required if you want to master online play.
2) Player impact engine: No more ghost players going through each other, players collide with each other when in the same physical space (shocking I know!). This can also result in injuries, some which are horrific and others which are just plain hilarious as your players fly around like ragdolls.
The system isn't perfect and I've heard of a few bugs about it, but I haven't encountered any yet so I can't confirm. It is a welcome change though and, for the most part, adds to the realism of the game.
OVERALL: 9.5/10
This is by far the best soccer/football game out there, and even if you're not a big fan of the sport, chances are that you will enjoy this immensely fun and well designed game. Just about everything has been improved, and the extras (such as support your club) are just icing on the cake.
Now if you'll excuse me, writing this review has already taken enough of my precious FIFA 12 playtime! | video-games_xbox |
much improved, but programs may be too advanced for some. What do I mean by too advanced??? too many squats and lunges (primarily in Cardio Boxing, which is my favorite). I've played around with YSF 2012 for a few hours, and I must say it's a big improvement, but sometimes I think Ubisoft is slow. The formula for the first YSF was very good, and this one is better, but the main issues were still not addressed. For instance, if I'd like to have a long cardio boxing workout without squatting, I have only 2 choices. I either have to choose the beginner class over and over, or choose the advanced course and get only half the credit for only punching. As someone who was really into bodybuilding, I know that squats and lunges (legs in general) are the hardest group of muscles to work out. At least, there could be a system incorporated in which you can get credit for a partial squat, but there isn't. This will turn a lot of elderly people off, and people who aren't in shape. I wish Ubisoft would catch on, and realize that some people will never advance to the level of performing lunges and squats.
Overall, it's a lot better than the first installment, and I mean A LOT better in regards to fun and moving from one menu to the next. The biggest improvement is definitely in the Wallbreaker and Stack 'Em Up activities. It's a worthy purchase, but I still believe there needs to be more of a fun factor which is missing, but was present in <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Walk-It-Out/dp/B002CZ7P04/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Walk It Out</a> or <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Fight-Lights-Out/dp/B002I0J8KS/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Fight: Lights Out</a>. Working out by yourself in front of a TV should be EXCITINGLY fun, and I think this workout is more fun than its predecessor, but still isn't a blockbuster must have. (Believe me, Walk it Out, The Fight Lights Out,the biking in Wii Sports Resort, and even the previous Ubisoft title <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Gold-s-Gym-Cardio-Workout/dp/B001KX504C/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Gold's Gym Cardio Workout</a> had me hooked for months.)
Overall, for the right price, it's a worthy purchase. | video-games_xbox |
Amazing Upgrade from the 360, All-in-one entertainment Box, Cannot Swap Internal Drive. Amazing upgrade from the 360. New interface, better graphics, great selection of games. Does much more than gaming as well. You can stream all sorts of media to the console, as well as from a DLNA server on your local network! +2 stars
I like buying games that have a high replay value digitally so there are no discs to worry about. The downside to this is you cannot lend digital games to a friend or resale them later. However, you can bring installed digital games on a USB 3 drive to another console, sign in to live, and play them without any extra downloads. You can still do this without bringing a drive, but your friend would have to download/install the full game from the store first. +1 star
The Kinect is worth it (low selection of titles currently; expect more robust Kinect titles later) and this bundle includes the two recent AC games from the digital store, however for watching movies in a dark room, the lights on the Kinect are quite distracting and I disable the Kinect completely before watching movies. +1 star
My main complaint is the lack of usable hard drive space and the inability to change the internal drive without voiding warranty. You get ~365GB of usable space from the internal 500GB drive. The PS4 supports any 2.5" drive and is user replaceable and can easily be outfitted with a 2TB drive. You can use external USB 3 storage with Xbox One, however when traveling, it's just one more thing to carry. On the networking side, gigabit Ethernet is included, however the wireless is only rated at N speed. No support for AC/gigabit wireless which is sad because the console relies so heavily on Xbox Live services. -1 star
Bottom line: Amazing console and with each software update there will be more features added. If you plan to have a large game library, I suggest picking up USB 3 external storage because the internal storage disappears faster than you can say "Xbox On". | video-games_xbox |
WARNING! THIS GAME WILL SELF DESTRUCT IN 3...2...1. It really pains me to rate with 2 stars a successor of the classic RED ALERT series. But EA made sure to ruin this franchise as well. Buy this today and in a few months encounter this:
YOUR GAME HAS EXPIRED. THANK YOU. NOW PAY AGAIN.
Similar to all major EA releases since June (<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/MASS-EFFECT/dp/B00140P9BA/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">MASS EFFECT</a>,<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/SPORE/dp/B000FKBCX4/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">SPORE</a>,<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/DEAD-SPACE/dp/B0019C4MU2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">DEAD SPACE</a> &<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/CRYSIS-WARHEAD/dp/B001ATHKVC/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">CRYSIS-WARHEAD</a>) RED ALERT 3 harbors the most malignant version of SecuROM (7.xx) that is also crippled by Limited Installations (3 or 5 it makes no difference, it is still a RENTAL!). And to no avail mind you: all these games received ZERO protection from their draconian DRM scheme when it came to preventing their piracy!
Exactly like Spore, for which the customer backlash was heard around the world, EA is trying to force this DRM scheme down its customers' throats than do the reasonable thing: listen to them.
Since piracy will always be a factor to consider and everyone has the right to protect his investment, a form of DRM will also always exist. But, at the same time, this gives no one a free hand in entrapping and exploiting their own customers. Or using piracy as a thin pretext to slip snoopware into our computers!
- Revoking our rights as the Administrators of our own computer by creating irremovable folders or registry entries or subroutines that run masked is unacceptable!
- Bundling a snooping, auto-updating and in-secret-contact-with-the-mothership utility that retains backdoor access to our computers is unacceptable!!
- Trying to force legitimate gamers to pay again and again for the same game by Limiting its Installations is UNACCEPTABLE!!
I am sure that, in the end, the best and more effective DRM method will prove to be very simple: reasonable pricing. Who would place his computer in danger of Trojans, Worms or slow Viruses for $20? And since even more people would buy the game, everyone should be happy. But fighting piracy was never what EA is aiming for.
Let's be honest: datavoring SecuROM subroutines and Limited Installations have NOTHING TO DO WITH FIGHTING PIRACY. They aim at making us pay for the same game AGAIN & AGAIN and preventing us from ever reselling our copies.
EA, you had me as a customer for years. I even gave your products more than fair reviews. Unless someone cleans house over there and you start listening to your customers, you cannot count on any more of my money. | video-games_xbox |
Great Update to the Series... Except some of the Playlist. There is little info out there about the game (compared to the spam ads of Dance Central, the original) I figured I should add some info. I was a bit skepticle with the lack of news on this game. But I loved the original so I bought it, and definitely don't regret the decision.
To begin with, if you liked Dance Central you are going to still like Dance Central 2. Its pretty much the same game with a different song list (plus the old list if you pay the $5 to import it), and a lot of new and updated features.
The Menu:
Similar to the last game, the opening sequence and menus set the vibe for a fun interactive game. The Menu is easier to navigate, and the menu for purchasing new songs now allows you to see more than one song at a time. The song list menu also shows a demonstration of the dance if you wait on a song enough, which is helpful for deciding the skill level required to perform it.
The Song List: (I'll include it at the bottom, because it isn't posted anywhere else.)
While it's expansive, its hard to say I really like it. The list is very hit or miss. It tries to hit all demographics between 80's, 90's, and today's top 40 music. As well as random tech to mix things up. The problem is I find myself loving half the songs, and being annoyed (or feel uncomfortable dancing to) some of the others ex. "Venus." So if you plan buy the game definitely definitely look the list over, or import the old songs so you can use the new features on the songs you love.
The Crew Challenge:
I think this is definitely a step in the right direction. Instead of having specific challenges on the setlist, it is it's own feature on the main menu. Obviously this game would be a bit weird to have a true story mode, but without some kind of story a lot of gamers would have no reason to replay the songs after getting the achievements. In crew challenge mode you meet the characters by dancing 9 songs to join their crew. Until you meet the last new crew member. Didn't add too much to the game, but overall it gave the game something more than a party or fitness aspect.
Break It Down:
I am so glad they fixed it! While break it down can be useful, it was boring trying to go through each dance move until you got to the one you really needed. Plus if you passed it once you had to go through the song again to get back. Before and after a song, you are able to choose whether you want to learn the whole song, or focus on specific moves, which makes it a lot easier to perfect the moves you actually need help with. You also have the option to record video of you dancing and have it play next to the character to see where you may be having trouble. Voice Commands have also been added to help navigation of a song in break it down mode, so you don't have to hold your arm out for 45 seconds as you fail a dance move.
Fitness Mode:
I've met people who used the first game religiously for exercise, and it definitely gets people active so I can see why. The biggest addition are pre-made setlists for every part of a work out, whether it be a warm up or a cool down. I feel like this is a nice feature, and they did a decent job at matching songs to build or slowly drop your heart rate. They've also added new features to help track calories you burn outside of Perform It Mode which is convenient if you want it to track all the calories you have lost in other modes.
Two Player:
I haven't tried it yet (not enough room in my room :P), but I'll update as soon as I try it. The interface for it looks efficient, allowing for a second player to join right in at anytime If the kinect can effectively watch both people, I am sure it is amazing. I can't wait to try dance battles now that you don't have to sit through the song twice. My friends no longer will need to dance in the background or take turns.
Unlockables:
I was hoping for a few more venues, characters, and outfits. There are very few extras. Luckily none of these unlockables really affect gameplay, other than personal preference, so the addition or subraction of them doesn't really matter in the enjoyment of the game.
New Characters:
They no longer have Eliot, Oblio, Dare, or McCoy, instead they added counterparts to the other old characters to form dance teams. They added seven new characters: Glitch, L'il T, and Bodie, *spoiler* Jaryn, Kerith, Cyph -56, and cyph-78 *spoiler*. Glitch is kind of my problem character, because his shorter limbs make it harder to tell arm movements, similar to the robot in the last game. Other than that characters again don't matter other than their stereotype catch phrases.
Voice Commands:
Originally I really didn't like this concept, but after failing songs in the last game (because you have to hold your arm out 45 seconds) I can see why this was added. Voice Commands make it fast and easy to pause in the middle of a routine, or change how break it down mode is helping you. This is a very nice and useful addition. Unfortunately, if you are quick to skip instruction screens, you will miss the directions to use them. So I didn't know the commands or all of the features voice command could regulate (If you skipped it, check the instruction manual).
Pros:
Updated Menus - make it easier to jump into the game and get new content from the marketplace
Less annoying characters - (sorry Dare and McCoy)
2 players at the same time
Extensive playlist (by this I mean a lot of songs, especially if you import the old ones)
Fitness Mode - new features and playlists that combine well to make an effective work out.
Break It Down
Voice Commands
Cons:
The Playlist - while there are some good choices, most of the songs are really hit or miss (why have you still not added Thriller!!!)
Paying $5 to upload the old songs - plus you need the code from the manual from your first game to do this
Instructions hard to find for voice commands if you aren't looking at the manual (I did trial by error and figured it out)
Overall:
This game is a lot of fun with friends, especially allowing for two players at once. Its a better version of the last game, with a different set list. Between all the updated features and the ability to import old songs, this has become my new favorite kinect game (over the original). My one qualm is the set list... I feel like they spread the variety too thin, leading to a bunch of unwanted songs that I have to beat to get 5 stars on everything and beat the crew challenges. This goes for the DLC bundles which do the same thing, each one has one song I like and the rest I don't care for.
One final remark is that this game does take a couple songs before you are used to watching the player and the flash cards, but once you figure it out its by far the best kinect game on the market.
Comparing Just Dance 3 to Dance Central 2:
Just Dance 3 is fun if you want a mindless party game that takes little effort to succeed at (watch youtube videos of people standing in place and doing better than those actually trying). Dance Central is a lot of fun, but takes some time to get used to. Plus, in the end only one teaches you real dance moves (I'll give you two guesses).
Song List:
Sandstorm - Darude
Mai Ai Hee (Dragostea Din Tea) - O-Zone
Reach - Atlantic Connection And Armanni Reign
Real Love - Mary J. Blige
Venus - Bananarama
Bulletproof - La Roux
Turn Me On - Kevin Lyttle
Last Night - P. Diddy feat. Keyshia Cole
The Humpty Dance - Digital Underground
Impacto (Remix) - Daddy Yankee feat. Fergie
This Is How We Do It - Montell Jordan
The Breaks - Kurtis Blow
Hot Stuff - Donna Summer
Body to Body - Electric Valentine
Fire Burning - Sean Kingston
You're A Jerk - New Boyz
Oops (Oh My) - Tweet feat. Missy Elliot
Right Thurr - Chingy
Rude Boy - Rihanna
Nothin' On You - B.O.B feat. Bruno Mars
Club Can't Handle Me - Flo Rida feat. David Guetta
I Like It - Enrique Iglesias feat. Pitbull
Massive Attack - Nikki Minaj feat. Sean Garrett
My Prerogative - Bobby Brown
Grenade - Bruno Mars
I Wish For You - Exile
Meddle - Little Boots
Goodies - Ciara
Born This Way - Lady Gaga
Whip My Hair - Willow Smith
Conceited (There's Something About Remy) - Remy Ma
What Is Love? - Haddaway
Like A G6 - Far East Movement
Yeah! - Usher feat. Lil' Jon & Ludacris
Bad Romance - Lady Gaga
DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love - Usher feat. Pitbull
Run (Natural Disaster) - Gnarls Barkley
Baby Got Back (Mix Mix) - Sir Mix-A-Lot
Technologic - Daft Punk
Somebody To Love - Justin Bieber
Satellite - Lena
Get Ur Freak On - Missy Elliot
Toxic - As made famous by Britney Spears
Sexy Chick - David Guetta feat. Akon
(If anyone debating on the game has more specific questions, I would be happy to update this review) | video-games_xbox |
FANTA-freakin-TASTIC!!! BUY THIS GAME. Star Wars at its best!
Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) is the best RPG you will find on your Xbox, PLUS it probaly is one of the best games around on the Microsoft Console.
Story: 10 out of 10.
Absolutely awesome. KOTOR is well scripted, has great plot twists and gives you the possibility of roaming both sides of the power in the best way any Star Wars game ever did. Forget Jedi Knights, if you liked that game, you will LOVE this game.
Furthermore, KOTOR is the best thing that happened to the Star Wars franchise since "The Empire Strikes Back." In my humble opinion, this game would have been a great movie and is BY FAR a better movie than the last two we have seen at the theatre.
Graphics: 10 out of 10.
Yo-hoo, go along in this awesome graphics bonanza. The Star Wars universe is wonderfully recreated in many of its aspects. Cities are wonderful to visit and explore, character skins and movements are close to perfection. Jedi powers are rendered in the best way ever, giving you the uttermost feeling of wielding the force in all its forms and ways.
Sound: 10 out of 10.
Compelling soundtrack is well blended into your actions, passing from mellow to upbeat themes as the action gets more frenetic. Sound FX are incredibly well done.
GamePlay: 10 out of 10.
Behold, this is an RPG. So it's not a first person shooter or a beat'em up. Combat has been a sort of an issue for fans of the latest Star Wars games (such as Academy). The Bioware Combat system is however the BEST I have ever seen on an RPG. You get all possibilities of deciding your tactics, but there still is the action flavour to what is going on.
Other Cool Things:
1)You get a bunch of NPCs (non playing characters) who will tag along, All have their own background and powers. Furthermore, you can talk to them whenever you want, ask suggestions, info or opinions. Plus, they will be actively part of the story and sometimes you will see them chat or discuss with each other. VERY REALISTIC.
2) Character creation is well done, decently customizable. Plus, the game uses the basic rules of Dungeons & Dragons for attributes and power building, so any old time RPG fan will get in gear quite easily.
3) One of the NPCs that will follow you is a psicotic war version of C3PO. It curses and hates everything, plus he considers you a "meatbag." It's the funniest thing ever.
4) You get to travel around the galaxy in a retro style Millennium Falcon callled the Ebon Hawk. The ship is so well done you will think you're in a movie.
I'd go on, but there are WAY TOO MANY COOL THINGS TO THIS GAME.
Bottom line:
Folk, this game is Fanta-freakin-tastic. This is a MUST BUY for anybody. | video-games_xbox |
Destiny a foiled attempt. I've been with bungie since their myth days, but with this release I just have to call it how it is. Destiny is a mess of game. One need look no further then the first few missions with the line "I could tell you" spoken by the lore master of the game. All the elements for a rich engaging story are set, but the execution is just terrible. I don't know if the all the fault lies with bungie, but certenly their attempt to move away from being a cash cow for Microsoft has landed them in a very similar situation with Activision. The story is told in quick 2 minute long conversations about some abstract war, that we are barely given time to understand, which we do not. Not even the grimoire, that you have to log onto with bungie.net, gives a very good description of the events, which could have made the this rich universe matter more to the player. Next presentation has center stage in this triple A title. The engine that bungie has designed for the game is simply beautiful, with lush colors and amazing texture. On PS4 and Xbox One destiny really shines as game, because of the next gwn systems prossenig power. Even on the eve of the PS3 and Xbos 360s retirement the game is breath taking. Thirdly the gameplay. The game play is spot on, there are very issues with it and for the most part it works as well as it looks. You've got your basic classes and abilities, tank, mage and marksman, and while they do differ a lot n terms of abilities, they can be played almost the same way. Mission structure is highly repetitive being blast your in and kill the boss, or its kill until you have enough objective items to continue. Also item ungrading is a grinding hassel that can take upwards of five hours of random loot drops and tediously long strike and raid missions. Multiplayer is eaxctly what one would expect of the modern FPS, and for the most part its very well rounded when your characters have surpassed level 20, because there is as of yet a skill level system that match's players with similar level players. Multiplayer for all intents and purposes is what keeps destiny from becoming a less the average game. However the most infuriating issue with destiny is the dlc locked on the game disic. There have been so many confirmed reports of maps that are planned for future dlc locked into the base game. This one fact is the final nail in the destiny coffin for me. The seasonpass which runs for 35 dollars, is just to much of and asking price for content that should already be unlocked for people who shelled out the $50-60 for a have done game, and even then this content should now be available to fans for free, and any money should be refunded to those who have paided for the season pass. It is this type of business plan is what is suffocating the gaming matkets , and keeping people from loving console based gaming. Overall destiny is a game with amazing potential that was squandered, because publishing companies want to treat it as a cash cow rather than a work of art. Now, is there hope for the future? I'd like hope so. From the failure of destiny I pray that bungie is given more artistic control for the destiny franchise, and that Activision learns to treat the gaming industry with respect and learn from the mistakes of companies like Capcom and EA. | video-games_xbox |
I Am Loving the HD Upgrades. I will openly admit that many of my favorite games are from past console generations. That's why I consider this HD remake trend to be the most exciting development in all of gaming right now. Beyond Good and Evil, Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil: Code Veronica...have loved replaying all of them. Now they have plans for Silent Hill and many others. Its like videogame nirvana. Its great for publishers as they get to make more money on a game that is already made, simply by doing a few upgrades. More importantly, its great for gamers as it gives fans of the games the ability to play the games again, with an HD upgrade. Of course, it also gives gamers that have never played the games a chance to experience them firsthand. Its just a win, win, win scenario all the way around...at least in my book.
That brings me to Metal Gear Solid HD, which in my opinion is the best HD remake's done so far. Personally I purchased this for MGS 2 & 3. Peace Walker is just a bonus as I really didn't have much interest in playing it and have only had a few short sessions with it thus far. It is important to note, as others have already done, that Peace Walker was originally a PSP game so if you go in expecting a top notch HD experience on the same level of MGS2 or MGS3....well, your going to come out the other end disappointed. For what it was, the developers did a very good job bringing it to the 360 and PS3.
Basically this package is exactly what it says it is, an HD upgrade of these games. The old style controls are still intact, which I am sure many people were hoping would be updated as well. I think controls should remain the same as changing the controls is changing the game itself and that isn't what the HD remakes should be about. Do you think the tension would be the same in Resident Evil: Code Veronica if it had an updated control system? Not a chance. HD remakes should be about preserving the games as much as they should be about updating them to HD standards. Thankfully that is exactly what we get with this package. In all honesty, I think MGS is one of the most polarizing games ever to hit store shelves. People either love them or hate them and this release isn't going to change any minds. The people that love these games will love this package and the people that hate these games....well, they will still hate them.
As for how they look, I certainly wasn't disappointed. Personally I think that MGS3 benefited the most from this upgrade but that isn't saying that MGS2 looks bad. Quite the contrary actually as it looks great. Its just that MGS3's environments are better suited to the upgrade. MGS2's environments were small and confined compared to MGS3. In regards to the updated graphics I would rate MGS2 a 7/10 and MGS3 a 9/10. Again, I really haven't played Peace Walker enough to really say much about it, just that it looks good given that it was originally a PSP game.
Bottom line - If your a MGS fan then you should absolutely pick this package up and re-experiences these titles. If you dislike the MGS series then skip it. This release certainly isn't going to change your opinion. For those new to the series, there really isn't anything else out there like MGS. You simply have to play it to understand what the fuss is all about. Hideo Kojima is a master storyteller. Things may get quirky from time to time and they might even be a bit difficult to follow from time to time but that's Hideo Kojima. Overall, MGS's stories/characters are some of the more interesting stories/characters to ever grace a videogame console and ironically some aspects of these stories have more relevance today than they did back when they were originally released. There is a reason that this series is one of the most successful in history.
As for the developers - Keep the HD remakes coming!!
5 Stars | video-games_xbox |
Works exactly as advertised. The Xbox One is a system that is advertised as being able to be the central point of home entertainment. It does that handily. The games I have for mine (Lego Super Heroes, Assassins Creed 4 and Ryse) are fun. Ryse, by the way, has incredible looking graphics (Although repetitive gameplay... but that is a different review).
The TV integration is exactly what is advertised. It works to control TV quite well. I do understand that some people in Europe have had problems, but since I am not in Europe I can't speak to that.
The speech control is smooth, the facial recognition is pretty much flawless and the movement tracking for games like Xbox Fitness works very well.
Basically, I thin it comes down to this : Both the Xbox One and PS4 work as advertised. There don't seem to be a lot of gotchas in them. Look at what each promises and go with the one whose promises most closely align with what you want. For me, that is the Xbox One simply because I enjoy the Kinect and the exercise titles. For others that might be the PS4.
I think that the Xbox one definitely delivers on the entertainment aspects of this generation. It integrates voice, TV, Streaming, Games and apps in a unified way that is unprecedented. It works and it works well. It's fast and it has the power to be useful for many years.
It's a little more pricey but both systems are pricey so if that is a concern hold off for a few months on both systems and grab them when they hit the used and new market. And when it comes to games... wait for the second generation of them to show up before making that decision (The first gen is always a combination of older games and games that are basically demos of the system). Project Spark looks to be rather revolutionary and it will be an Xbox exclusive for example.
If I were asked which one you should buy, I'd say the Xbox One. It's so well done that I can't find a reason to complain. Make up your own mind though. | video-games_xbox |
The game has a lot of problems. First of all I bought this to LEARN guitar as I live in a very rural area, I played it consistently for two weeks for a total of 100-110 hours then shelved it and here is why.
I just couldn't get it to click for me and there was some audio lag which caused me to miss notes and I tested this with riff repeater. I found the on-screen display very confusing and I would have preferred it if you were given a better way to learn your fretboard than an arcade game that only functions correctly with a dedicated sound system attached to it and even after that it still was a pain.
I'd get lost midways through songs and would know the strings/chords but would hit the wrong fret causing me to constantly fail. Maybe guitar just isn't for me but after about 5 ENTIRE DAYS worth of hours something should have stuck but it didn't. I know guys that took maybe 20 hours of lessons and were able to at least play a decent riff afterwards, I spent over 4 times as long but got nowhere.
The difficulty also ramps up IMMEDIATELY after you master a part of a song causing you to subsequently fail it do to it throwing more chords/techniques at you that you don't know, overall the visual display just scared the hell out of me.
I would see dozens of things on screen coming towards me while I tried to look back and forth between the screen and my guitar I just couldn't cut it. I'm the kind of guy that owns guns and is capable of taking them apart, cleaning them, and reloading used brass, machining metal, welding, along with building my own computers and I'm incapable of learning an instrument that a 16yr old dropout stoner can learn the basics of with relative ease.
I saw many Youtube videos before purchasing this product and while 2/3rds of people seemed to take something from playing the game for even half the time I did others would improve very minimally or not at all, it seems I am in the latter group. | video-games_xbox |
How Far Batman has Fallen. To get it out of the way, this is not a bad game. It is a decent game that is only more flawed when compared to it's superior predecessors.
Origins was made by a different game studio and is meant to be a prequel to the other Arkham games. Origins is about the mobster Black Mask offering a $50 million hit for Batman. The premise is simple, and the story picks up really well in the second half.
Unfortunately, it just doesn't measure up. There's a lack of detail and history to Gotham without Paul Dini's writing, who filled Arkham City with fun little trivia and notes about buildings and points in history. He also clearly understood the villains and their motivations; Origins paints a number of them as having altruistic intentions but that doesn't mesh with who they become later much less who comic fans know them as. Would you expect someone like the Riddler as having heroic qualities? Neither did I. Maybe in some other Origins sequels they could close the gap and help it make more sense.
As I said the story in Origins is solid but that's really all it has going for it. There are no improvements to the combat system, no new gadgets (or interesting ones at least), solving crimes in detective mode has become redundant (just hold the buttons long enough and the game solves it for you), and the riddles have become frustratingly simple. I used to solve the riddles as a break from all the fighting as a way of working my "mind" instead of my thumbs but now the hardest thing about solving them is just finding them (which can be somewhat hard due to the large level designs). Once you're in the same location they're either overly simple or just out in the open. Seriously, at least 10% of the Riddler objects are just sitting out in the open to be picked up. Lame. The rest of the gameplay is mostly identical to the other Arkham games, particularly the boss fights. Only the Deathstroke and the first Bane fight are really challenging, and Deathstroke more a test of repetition and perseverance than skill.
If you are one of those people that hated hunting for Riddler trophies or solving the puzzles and just wanted to beat on endless groups of thugs, this is for you. For everyone else it is a decent Batman game that is the lowest point in a trilogy. Buyer beware the $60 price. | video-games_xbox |
Don't even waste your money. If you loved the first Buffy the Vampire Slayer game offered only on the XBox, then stick with that and don't waste your time playing Chaos Bleeds. I always thought the sequel to a game was supposed to surpass it in every aspect? Nonetheless, you do get the chance to play as Xander, Willow, Spike, Faith and Sid the Dummy...but that doesnt make up for the way that the controler handles and the bad angles that this game offers. The way the game was set up before was much more user friendly. If you were getting low on energy (health), all you had to do was pause the game and go to your inventory, drink an elixer and go back to fighting; not in chaos bleeds, in this game while your getting your azz beat by 3 vampires, you are having to scroll through your inventory of weapons to find a medipak and use it quick before you turn to dust yourself. And you can only carry 5 medipaks at a time, you could carry 9 elixers in the previous buffy game. Also the control handling is so slugish, you start trying to hit a vamp, one show up behind you, don't waste your time trying to turn around to hit him, youll end up going in a different direction swinging at nothing but air and the vamps are now behind, still kicking the crap out of you. If you enter an area and there are 3 vamps there to fight, you won't know it by their energy bar showing up at the top of the screen like the previous buffy game, you get to find out there in the area when they appear out of nowhere and jack slap you a good one. Faith and Buffy fight the exact same way. Spike is somewhat slow but seems to be the strongest, Xander... although his arena is the hardest, i just don't seem him staking 50 vamps and living, and Willow character doesnt have the option to kick, all she can do is slap a vamp away from her and PRAY she is holding a stake or has enough magic to toast them with fireballs, or shes dead meat too. Also in the previous buffy game, as you went through the game, buffy had the chance to boost her slayer power and health giving her the chance to last longer in the game, not in chaos bleeds, what little energy you start off with, thats all you get.... so try not to block those vampire punches with your face.... or you can just hang it up. After playing this game for almost 3 months, i have yet to beat it. It took me almost 3 weeks just to clear Spikes stage. All in all, its a horrible excuse for a game and i wouldnt bother.... youd be better of playing Legend of Zelda on the regular Nintendo. | video-games_xbox |
A Lot More + A Lot Less = The Same Old. I love the Assassins Creed Series, and have been a fan from day one. One of things that's always been a pleasant surprise to me is how much I love playing these games even though they are essentially the exact same thing... over and over and over again.
1.) If you are a huge fan of the series and have loved the previous entries, and have gotten them as soon as they come out - then same deal here.
2.) If you've never played one of these before, but are interested in changing that - this is not the one to start with. You will have no idea what's going on, and there are better ones to play. Start with AC2
3.) If you generally like the AC series and have played some of them but aren't sure about this one, and maybe want to get a better idea of if this is worth your hard earned shekels - then the following is for you:
The thing with this one - that makes it the weakest entry in the series (in my opinion) is that for the first time, I really felt the repetition. Even though the gameplay and the general progression of the games has remained untouched throughout the previous 3 games - this is the first time I kind of felt like I was just going through the motions.
As always the graphics are beautiful, the story is good (although the constant "unraveling" is starting to get a bit old), and exploring the new environment is always a blast. The combat mechanic is the same (which is great - although it feels sluggish at times). That being said there are some things in this new sequel that I could have totally lived without, and I think really take away from the game as a whole.
- Bomb crafting:
This is now a huge part of the game - and one that I do not care for at all. It was great to find treasure in the previous games but the bomb materials now make up like 90% of the treasure boxes. So you end up with tons of crap you don't need and can't carry any more of. Also - the bombs are pretty much useless, and add nothing to gameplay...so there's that. If you think spending a large amount of your time making bombs that you don't need is awesome...then prepare to be amazed.
- Goodbye Horses?
Uh. They've got horses out the whazoo in Venice (a water locked city famous for having rivers that serve as streets) but none in Istanbul? Yeah....not having horses on tap is a bit of a let down and makes getting around annoying at times.
- Button Switches:
The controls have been modified slightly and I personally don't like the new layouts. Eagle vision is now moved to the left-stick-press and only seems to work when you are standing dead still and really press that sucker. And now you need to use it more than ever so I am not sure I get that one. Also the weapons wheel has been broken up with some inventory on the left stick and some on the right...which I find kinda annoying and more than a little confusing sometimes.
- Zip Lines:
I actually like this as a method of getting around - you can use zip lines and this new hookblade you get to quickly traverse the city from the rooftops...but I have no idea why they are placed the way they are, and they're never placed anywhere useful. Even if you do find one that's "going your way" it only takes you like a block and half so it's not really helping all that much any old way.
All that being said I still enjoy playing this game. I mean at the end of the day it's still a quality product and for a game in it's 4th iteration - that's pretty good :) I will say that if I hadn't gotten this and never played it - I wouldn't be missing a whole lot either. | video-games_xbox |
so much more than a clone. Saints Row is one of the best games on the 360. I have spent almost as much time in this game as oblivion. the comparisons to GTA are inevitable when it comes to saints row, but i don't feel like they're ripping them off. they took the good ideas and moved them to the next level. to hold a lack of originality against this game would be completely insane. you might as well cast out every FPS for the last 10 years. now THOSE games are clones.
Graphics - some pop up occurs when you're driving fast, but other than that Saints Row has a smooth framerate with nice textures and lighting effects. not the best looking game on the box, but it deffinitely doesnt look out of place.
Gameplay - WAY better than any GTA ive played. ive grown so tired of that nearly broken auto-targeting of GTA. Saints Row decided to go in an fps direction. the game plays almost exactly like an fps with the aiming reticle in the center of the screen and all that but in a 3rd person view. all the cars handle well. everything in this game works very well.
Story - meh... its decent, but the characters don't have that same draw as many gta characters and the stories surrounding them. there is a major plot twist toward the end, but you'll have to play through it to find out. basically there's 3 gangs, one ruling each part of the city, and its up to you and the Third Street Saints to clean up the town.
Sound - GREAT soundtrack. classical, 80's hair metal, techno, rap, rock, and a little pop punk all thrown in the mix. its also really cool how your character has an MP3 player you can store songs on you buy in the in-game music store. its kind of pointless b/c if you want to listen to music the whole time you play you could just use whatever you have saved on the system.
there's so much to do between missions other than killing hundreds of pedestrians. side missions include: saving ho's from mean pimps, driving one around while she does business in the back, racing, demolition derby, causing mass chaos, stealing certain cars and delivering them, kill certain people from a hit list, and others i cant remember right now.
theres tons of stores to visit as well. Clothing stores have hats, shoes, belts, pants, shirts, coats, ect. you can get tattoos and the tattoo parlors. you can get piercings and bling at the jewelry shops. of course you can buy guns and such at the gun stores. theres liquer stores scattered through the city (you can get weed there too!). theres a few barber shops and plastic surgery centers. theres a couple car dealerships around too.
another thing that needs to be mentioned is the character customization. you can choose from black, white, hispanic, or asian to start things off, and from there you adjust everything from their weight to the distance between their eyes and the style of hair.
i was disappointed in the lack of aircraft. thats my only complaint about the entire game, and a very minor one.
if you like the open world genre at all, and you haven't played Saints Row yet, you need to right now. | video-games_xbox |
Could have easily done better. This is a decent game but suffers in a few key areas. First is story, second is endgame leveling, third is the multiplayer.
The story: I'll start with what I like. The soundtrack is amazing. Marty did not disappoint and creates a solid atmosphere with the game. The graphics are very pleasing as well. The skyboxes are good, distant scenery is good and I really like how they did Venus. The gunplay and movement in the game are done well. You frequently have to traverse long distances but you always have a speeder bike thing to zoom you around. My favorite part in this game is when Im fighting a challenging level tooth and nail, clawing progress forward inch by inch. For those who liked Dark Souls it was a similar experience.
However, the narrative and gameplay was lacking. At the end of most levels is the same formula where you hack some objective and fend off 3 waves of enemies you previous fought to get to the objective. All the bosses are just bullet sponges that you drill for 10 minutes after wiping up the couple waves of enemies that spawn with the boss. Like I said, the gunplay is nice, but I guts drowned out in how repetitive things get. The narrative SEVERELY lacks in this game. They really go out of their way to keep you in the dark about what is actually going on. The campaign is short and final boss unsatisfying. They say this is because of their "10 year plan" well I ask when that is going to actually start. I feel like to story didn't progress at all from before I bought the game to when I finished the campaign. You do something, but they don't fully tell you want that something actually was for you don't feel accomplished
Endgame Problems: 3 letters, RNG. All loot is random and the best way to get it is massacring low level enemies for hours on end. The game doesnt properly reward you for challenging yourself. The Raid, Vault of Glass, is fun and probably the best thing in the game, BUT, the game doesnt have good in game team building and getting to the point of doing the raid is a long, no fun grind
Multiplayer: The multiplayer is catered towards the casual gamer. Most kills are instakill and there is only one primary weapon worth using. Every player is rewarded with a super move which is pretty much an "I win" button. Best of all, loot rewards at the end are random. You could go 30-0 and carried you team to victory but the game will give you nothing and the teammate who went 2 kills 15 deaths a legendary weapon. This happens on a constant basis and can discourage trying to do well
I expected more from bungie, especially with all the hype around this game. It may get better with DLC, but maybe not. If you have a lot of friends to play this game with I would say get it. Solo players I would say to avoid it. If you hate grinding then avoid this game. I still enjoy the game but its flaws are apparent and I expected more | video-games_xbox |
frustrating bosses almost destroy an amazing experience. From the time you start a new game on Dead Rising, you see the cinematic camera angles and great voice acting, you know they put some time into this one. the game controls like any third person action game. the left stick is for character movement, and the right controls your camera. i just wish jumping and attacks weren't so sluggish. im not sure if its supposed to be realistic or what, but its annoying when you're being surrounded by hourdes of zombies, only to take to long to knock them back, resulting in being eaten alive. everything is very solid and controls well other than that. as you explore the mall, so many things can be used as a weapon, its unreal. i have used anything from sledge hammers and lawn mowers to shotguns and soccer balls to a shopping cart and a pair of hedge clippers. every character you encounter has a unique and relatively memorable personality. you can find countless hours of fun just exploring the mall and hacking away at the undead, especially because you gain experiance which causes you to level up RPG style similar to Crackdown. and believe me, to finish this game, most of you will need to start over a few times and build up your level before farther in the story (your stats carry over to a new game) The photography section adds some more variety to the game, given the countless things to take pictures of, which also adds to your level building. This game was designed for multiple playthroughs (i have started a new game 4 times now without ever finishing the story) its near impossible, if not completely impossible, to do everything in this game in one playthrough.
but while all this is great fun, this game can be very frustrating at the same time. trying to help navigate survivors to the safety areas can be a pain as they are quite stupid. they tend to stand there and try to fight off zombies instead of running with you're character as you call out. which to me is frustration due to some bad game design and stupid AI, and not extremely difficult gameplay. The bosses, on the other hand, are some of the most annoying and unforgiving things ive ever seen in a game. you thought the bosses in Devil May Cry 3 were tough? you haven't seen anything yet. don't get me wrong, this game is really fun, its a game everyone should experience, but its deffinitely no walk in the park. | video-games_xbox |
An amazing game that suffers from being 'too clean. I'll start off by telling you that this is an amazing JRPG. The combat system and characters are phenomenal, and keep you immersed in the game at all times, changing it up just enough along the way to help keep you both interested and invested. Easily one of the best buys for the Xbox 360.
But, here's the problem: This game is clearly for kids.
Is this that much of an issue? It wouldn't be, if it didn't take away from the game so much. This game could've easily been one of the greatest JRPG's of all time, but it decided to have an obnoxiously clean outlook. Here's my list of flaws with this game that just... Drag it down: (No Spoilers, Don't Worry)
-When a character dies(yes, many do) they vanish, no death scenes given, no showing the body for emotional effect. This includes enemies and bosses, even the Final Boss!!! Only one character in the game has a death scene, and it's prolonged to the point of it being annoying. No blood is shown as well, so the scene is just completely worthless.
-There is a distinct lack of romantic involvement between some of the characters who, in the end, somehow have deep affection for one another. But where was this during the game?! There were 0 signs leading up to it!
-The final twist at the end is quite lame, and just leaves the fate of the world ambiguous. The ending is surprisingly not uplifting for a game that has constantly been bringing my spirits up!
To avoid being a debbie-downer, I'll put the positives of the game below:
+Great characters, great development for said characters
+Battle system is very unique that becomes increasingly harder but more efficient as you level.
+Artwork is fantastic.
+Voice work for both Japanese and English are great.
All in all, if you don't mind big flaws in the story and writing, this game is quite amazing, and I would definitely recommend. | video-games_xbox |
Gorgeous, but still a rental. Bioshock 2 follows Subject Delta, a prototype of the Big Daddies, awakened in Rapture ten years after the war, to find it recreated by Dr. Sophia Lamb, who is trying to create a Utopia, and who kidnapped Delta's Little Sister Eleanor. The story manages to avoid several cookie-cutter plot twists nicely, and there are quite a few points that fleshed out in the background to make the plot almost as good as the first incarnation.
Graphics are as to be expected, though the introduction of the undersea areas is a nice addition. The enemies could have been better detailed, and show little improvement. Audio is similarly spot on, though underdeveloped, but containing a few gems that'll definitely make you smile.
Gameplay has probably the weirdest set of problems. You can not revisit earlier levels, for no apparent reason apart from a particular stage, forcing you to scour every level rather than explore at your leisure. Despite being a Big Daddy, you don't seem to possess the same abilities, and the other Daddies have attacks that're appealing and would be very useful.
Another bizarre point that has been worse from the first volume is the gathering of Adam, the magic goo of the game. Despite being a supposedly balanced good/evil setup, there is zero reason to go evil. Not only do you get the feel good points, but you wind up earning more for doing the right thing, making the evil path not only so warped that you feel like you should turn yourself into the police, but you're also handicapping yourself later in the game. The new interaction of the Little Sisters is well inserted, and stops just short of being grinding, though protecting yourself from every angle of ambush is at times incredibly frustrating.
Despite being fantastic, this is still only worth a rent, unless you're a fan of the MP, otherwise this is a title that can easily be completed in 2-3 days. Good, solid story, gameplay with a few kinks ironed out, and a setting that you still love carried over well, this is definitely worth it, but sadly not worth buying. | video-games_xbox |
Dragon Age 2 is a decent addition. I can really only say it is about as good as Awakening, but not Origins. I have beaten the game now, although I wrote this review after 8 hours of play, I still agree with just about everything I wrote. So the game hasn't picked up or "gotten better". I have dropped the score to 3 stars.
Story: This is the first failure in my book. The story seems to lack cohesion. Where the first story was steady and true, you had a purpose and followed that purpose, and each of your companions were met in turn, this story is just a mess. You meander around picking up quest after quest and companion after companion, who follow you for no particular reason whatsoever other than "I owe you one" . For example, one of them becomes a captain of the guard, but still remains your companion, as if that even makes sense, like she/he could make week long expositions while having a steady job.
Gameplay: For the most part, the gameplay remains relatively unchanged. The commands, giving commands, and the abilities all feel and run the same. It's faster pace, with you swinging you sword or casting spells wickedly fast, but other than that, it is surprisingly familiar. The enemies are weaker, but they throw more of them at you at once. This leads to another one of my problems with it. They have your enemies hidden until you run into them. You can't scout out and see your enemies ahead of you; Instead, they simply pop up in front of you. You then proceed to fight waves and waves of enemies that magical appear all around you. They literally jump from the sky and land, as if every attack was a carefully planned execution from the rooftops.
Menu and levels: The new menu is mostly a slicker less gritty version of the old one. It isn't better or worst. The "level up" options are almost the same, except that you can now see more clearly how each change of your stats effects you. Rather than having all the ability placed on one page, they are now scattered by section and "gridded" so that in order to learn some abilities you need to learn others. In the end, it is just a fancy and less efficient way to display the same thing with the same abilities. I preferred to be able to read my options and see all criteria on one page, so in my opinion, this is less enjoyable. The new dialogue wheel, taken from the concepts of Mass Effect, is something I hate greatly. More often than not, the few word summary they give you does not accurately represent what your character says, so you end up saying things you didn't intend to, and there is no way to predict when and how much the text deviates from the words spoken.
Maps are reused shamelessly. Not only do you need to repeatedly go through the same areas over and over again (at least once per act), but they also reuse the same maps as different areas. You end up with a large elaborate map for a mansion or cave, then each different mansions or cave with certain doors passable and other doors locked, thus allowing you to travel through a unique path... but you are really just repeating the same map over and over again, but might be going through it backwards, or having these two doors blocked instead of these two. This hits the score the hardest of anything in my mind. They shameless reuse the same maps over and over again for different environments. Origin did do this, but not nearly to this extent. Within 8 hours of play, I had repeated a single map 3 times for 3 different areas. That is very inexcusable.
Other Changes from origins: Other changes include the dog now being a "summon" rather than a character that actual takes up a form slot(I believe this is an addon), which I prefer. You can no longer speak to your companions except in their own "location", so no having conversations when you are out and about, even in a city. The companions no longer have traditional armor, but wear an unique upgradable single armor piece, you are the only one that needs all the pieces of armor. Also crafting, including runes and herbs, is now done at shops unique to that purpose rather than by individuals...
Overall: So all in all, the game hasn't impressed me so far. The lackluster introduction of each of the companions is put together so sloppily that it is discouraging at best. The story has no real direction. Nonetheless, the game is still fun, offers a faster past version of the combat system you may have learned to love, and there are some things they have gotten right. It's still a game worth looking at, but you might consider waiting for a price drop.
I know it sounds pretty bleak from my diagnosis of the game, but everything else about the game is classic Dragon Age, and if you like that, and can dismiss every thing I mentioned as not a problem or inconsequential, then you know this is the game for you. | video-games_xbox |
huge waste of my money and a big disappointment for the whole family. When <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Sesame-Street-Once-Upon-A-Monster/dp/B004OCK9KG/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Sesame Street: Once Upon A Monster</a> wasn't in stock, my son chose this game instead. He is three and a half. We love playing video games together, but his hands aren't ready for teh XBOX controller. We play Dance Central and Kinect Star Wars. However, we had grown frustrated with <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Kinect-Star-Wars/dp/B002I0HCNI/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Kinect Star Wars</a> as it didn't do a good job of detecting my son. He had to keep signing in again, and it was a two-step sign in process (step forward plus raise your hand). We had played a demo of Once Upon a Monster where the game easily detected new players and all you had to do was wave. But I had read excellent reviews of the playability of this game on Amazon, so we went ahead with the purchase of Kinect Rush.
My first criticism is the LONG setup process. A kid can't just jump into the action - they first have to choose their gender, their color, and get scanned in (a painful process!). Repeat for the next player! We got stuck in this area and my son learned a few new vocabulary words. I could have done it on my own (and did), but convincing him to do it himself (Kinect gets confused when parents jump in to help the kids get their hands in position) was mind-bogglingly difficult.
Once we were in the game together, I couldn't run. He could run around, but I got stuck in place, moving my arms & legs and going nowhere. Pretty soon I gave up, especially since the game had forgotten who I was and stuck me in the same "default" boy outfit my son was wearing (way to confuse us). He finally found his way into "Incredibles" land, and my character popped in too, where we promptly got stuck and frustrated by the puzzle. You see, if only one person of the two can understand how to do the puzzle, unlike other Kinect games designed for kids, you get stuck because you have to wait for the other person to grasp it. And, since moving around the screen was so difficult (more difficult than I've seen in any other Kinect game with absolutely NO guidance), we didn't get far. To top it off, an annoying little girl kept telling us we were taking too long.
What I did eventually is go upstairs to rant to my spouse about this. However, my son called me down to play with him, at which point we shut the game off, and downloaded Once Upon a Monster. We also wished we could return the game desperately, especially after finding out Amazon is selling it for half the price we paid for it. (If you are going to buy this poorly-made game, buy it here on Amazon.)
It makes me so angry when people make a game for young children that is difficult to play or control. Kinect games especially should make it easy for new players to join in without a hassle. If a game developer can't figure out how to build things in the Kinect interface, then they should stick to the Joystick! I can't believe game testers didn't come across these issues, and it would have been good to test the game on your target audience.
If even the adults are throwing up their hands and leaving the room (both experienced gamers who have played a number of other Kinect games and have been playing on consoles since the Atari 2600), then how is a kid supposed to figure it out? I am so disappointed that this product got to use Pixar's good name. | video-games_xbox |
Remember, Agent: 'Skills for kills. I really went back and forth on this game, and had a lot of trouble deciding whether this game deserved three or four stars. As I thought about it more, I felt that even though I had a lot of fun playing it, this is just not a four star game. Allow me to elaborate...
A common joke is that the first game in this series would have completely tanked if the Halo 3 beta code had not been shipped out in this game (and maybe they are right). I just thought the game looked like a lot of fun, so I bought it, Halo 3 aside. The original was not heavy on plot, and, like this second game, a lot of the "missions" feel grinding and repetitive. However, the first game made that grind a lot easier to bear in a number of small ways, all of which have been completely left out of this incarnation. I'm getting a little tired of developers 'fixing' sequels until they're broken.
>>Plot:<<
So let's talk about the plot, although this will be a short topic. Crackdown 2 has even less plot than the first one, which is hard to do. Now, my entire review won't just be a comparison of the second to the first, but I think for people who didn't play the first game, it is necessary to make a comparison to the first games' plot. So...in the first Crackdown, your goal is to fully eliminate three gangs that have taken over Pacific City. Reclaim it, area by area, one step at a time. You start with rank and file gangsters, and work your way up the gang hierarchy until you finally are able to go after the gang leader in their stronghold. There were personal dossiers on all the important players within that gang, how this effected that, how it would improve your chances of success if you took out every single one of the under-bosses before going after the heavy hitters.
Incidentally, this tiny feature was something I REALLY liked in the original. For those who didn't play it, every time you went after an important gang member, your "Chances of Success" would be displayed. So if you were going after an under-boss and you had already taken out the four lieutenants working under him, your odds of success would be displayed accordingly, a much higher percentage than if you had only taken out one -- or none! So occasionally if you accidentally stumbled into the stronghold of a more senior leader and you saw "Chance of Success: 12.2%," I can't speak for anyone else, but I personally thought 'Sweet, this should be a real challenge then!' Of course if I kept dying, I would just give it up for a while. It was a tiny thing, but it added a bit of tension that is needed when you're playing a character with superhuman abilities.
Now as I stated before, this second game has even less plot than the barely plot of the first one. But let's face it, Crackdown is not really meant to be a story-based game. The fun comes from being able to leap fifty feet from one rooftop to the next, pick up a streetlight pole and bash your enemies, chain together explosions to cause some massive destruction, kick enemies off of rooftops, shoot out a tire on a fast moving car and watch as it slides -- and then flips over...it's an action game, completely. And like a good action movie, there doesn't have to be a whole lot of plot or character development to have fun. And so it is the case of this game. So why do I give a non-story-based game three stars if I am not taking the story into account? Let me explain...
The story is that ten years have passed since the events of the first game, the original agency tower was bombed, a virus leaked out of one of the three gangs' labs, and infected parts of the population (cue 'Freaks'). To go along with this, a new gang has essentially taken over the city. Your objective, your one objective (seriously, in the game there is only one objective [with numerous sub-objectives leading up to it]) is to rid the city of the Freak infestation. You do this by powering up energy sources in groups of three that shoot some sort of magical beams of blue light, and where the three points meet, then underneath that is a Freak lair, where you have to go and defend a beacon that is dropped via helicopter until it powers up, at which point it eliminates all the Freaks in the area. You defend the area by murdering every Freak that attacks the beacon as it is charging. Couldn't the helicopter just let the beacon power up first, and THEN drop it down into the lair? I mean then there would be no need to show a beam of light shooting up out of the beacon to meet the points of light above it...Apparently the beams of light know to shoot straight down to power the beacon remotely...or something. I don't understand...but I don't think the writers and developers really did either. So whatever just go with it. Yeah just don't ask them any specific questions though, ok.
There are no plot twists, no secrets are revealed, you just do this. You activate 27 energy things, and detonate 9 beacons across the entire city. Along with that, you can also reclaim 25 (?) tactical locations from the gang inhabiting the city (basically they become strongholds or safe havens after you reclaim them where you can switch your weapon, grenade, and vehicle load-out). Talk about a drag. The same thing 25 times. As soon as you start the battles, about thirty enemies immediately spawn all around you, some of which have grenade or homing rocket launchers. You better run or jump out of there and take cover fast, because otherwise you're going to get pounded and will not be able to return fire. It's a bit of overkill, but I suppose they couldn't make it too easy or it would just be boring. Either way it does end up getting boring. But I guess it could have been worse, there could have been like a hundred of these tactical locations though. ALTHOUGH, then there are Freak Breaches, places where your beacons have damaged the ground and Freaks are pouring out. Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't the beacons sole purpose to eradicate the Freak presence in that area? So please tell me how Freaks are going to pouring out of the ground at or very near a beacon epicenter. Honestly, do they think we're stupid? Basically it is the exact same thing as taking back the tactical locations. Kill a lot of them until no more come out. Boooooooooring. And that is the whole game. I don't say that's basically the whole game, it is the entire game, plot-wise. Obviously there are still things like rooftop races and road races, and agility orbs to collect. But that is the extent of the plot. Also, the beacon detonations are the only thing driving the plot. The Tactical locations and the Breaches are secondary objectives, and are not necessary at all to complete the story, which is extremely short. What lengthens the game is the desire to upgrade your character's abilities, and this, like the first game, is the real fun.
The ending of the game is another gripe. So...the game ends, I won't spoil anything. And it leaves it open for...downloadable content? Or a third installment ($$$). But the way they did it is dumb. Basically they end the game where you cannot continue playing after you complete the game. You can just go back and reload your last save game after you beat it. But far from making me look forward to a Crackdown 3, I really feel like it's just a cop-out. Plot is a rare commodity in these games, so why not continue the story? God knows it could have use a change of direction...but whatever, we'll see where the downloadable content takes us, if anywhere.
>>Graphics:<<
I have read a number of reviews already about Crackdown 2 having lame graphics...but I don't really understand this. The graphics look nearly identical to the original, which is intentional. I would have been upset if the game started to try to take itself seriously and NOT have used cell shading. The game has its own style, and it's one of the reasons I like this franchise overall, because it is original in that way. I know I might be in the minority here, but honestly, can't people stop whining about graphics? Those games you loved to play ten years ago? Horrible graphics, compared to where they are today. Honestly people need to get over having things look nice. Avatar looks amazing too, but I hated it because everything in it was so one-dimensional. So basically what I'm saying is that a game should be judged by what is under the hood, with one caveat: Obviously there are games that boast amazing visuals, or where it would actually be expected of the game, and where this is the case, it can be judged likewise. But Crackdown 2? If what you're looking for is epic visuals or gritty textures, then I'm afraid you have missed the point entirely about what Crackdown 2 is aiming for.
>>Gameplay:<<
I had a very love/hate relationship with the gameplay in Crackdown 2. It seems like they made it more complex and accomplished even less than the original. I have read numerous other reviews detailing how awful the targeting system is in this game...but for the most part, it's a relatively small annoyance (But don't get me wrong, there are parts when it will really frustrate you. When I went to lock on to one of the ten enemies all firing around me, why did I lock on to an agency (Those are your allies) cruiser way off in the distance? To add on to that, when you are battling a horde of 'Freaks,' (Zombie-like enemies that try to overwhelm you with sheer numbers), I think it would have been better, when you go to lock on to one of them specifically when there are fifty all rushing you, to have it lock on to the one that is the most dangerous to you. I don't know, it makes sense to me. Kinda pointless otherwise.
I had a few issues with clipping and with seeing some npc's start to descend a flight of stairs and then fall straight through them (though I had no problems with that myself, so I don't really hold that against the game, it's just worth mentioning). I did, however, have some problems with on-again off-again grappling when I would try to jump to a ledge. In certain locations (few, but still irritating), I would jump to a ledge, hang there, then try jumping to another ledge, and if I missed, I would try to catch the ledge I had jumped from, but my character would not grab it. Then when I would try to jump to it again, he wouldn't grab it. When I came back at other times though, it was fine...so...I don't know, doesn't make sense to me.
>>The Silver Lining:<<
I should talk now about what the game does right, or, to rephrase, what the developers didn't change from the original. The agility orbs. There are 500 once again, and once again, they are fun to track down. Crackdown 2 also has implemented a twist on this, called Renegade Orbs. There orbs will streak away from you, dive, rise, turn sharply -- as you try to catch them. At first I thought it was irritating, but there is a sense of accomplishment when you do mange to catch one as it slows down to change direction. It just requires some patience and a little luck. They do the same thing with the driving skill. There are Renegade driving orbs as well. 30 of each kind.
The weapons are pretty cool, though one frustration they didn't eliminate (go figure) from the first game is that you will have to equip and carry any new found weapons back to a tactical location so that you can use it in the future. It would be nice if you just unlocked them as you leveled up the weapons skill. But whatever, minor gripe. And it just occurred to me that they also did away with pistols in the game altogether, though obviously since I am just now noticing this (after playing through the entire game without noticing it), it isn't anything you will really miss. The weapons are essentially the same as the first game, but with different names. I would have liked to see an introduction of melee weapons though. Since you can pick up environment objects and swing them, it would have been cool to be offered a sword or a baseball bat or something actually designed to be used as a melee weapon (as opposed to picking up a car and smashing it repeatedly into enemies' faces!). Some vehicles also have weapons on them now. The Agency Buggy has a gatling gun, as do some Cell (gang) cars, as well as a rocket launcher variety. The Agency supercar also still has the 'Scoop' ability (You can drive under other vehicles and it scoops them out of your way without interrupting your driving).
>>Conclusion:<<
My final advice is not to expect too much. I think a number of people did, and then were let down. This game should be played for fun. The over-the-top-everything in this game has to be the ends in itself, and not the means to the end of the story, because there isn't much of one. I still think that this game is extremely fun and addicting, even taken with all of the flaws it has. This game can provide you with hours of fun if you don't try to force it to be any more than it is. | video-games_xbox |
Average Game with MANY flaws. Medal of Honor: War-fighter was a big letdown! I was expecting an improvement from the 2010 reboot (which was also ok). So this review is easier for you to read, I'll divide this into sections.
Controls: The controls are much more smooth then they were for MoH(2010). The main issue is that the peek-and-lean is very broken. If you try to peek and lean it might work... or your guy can have a seizure. The control layout is very similar to Call of Duty controls. Therefore if your a CoD player, it won't be anything new.
Graphics: NOTE! I did download the HD content (similar to what Battlefield 3 has) so this is a review based off of the HD content. The Cut-scenes are nice and crisp. Similar to Battlefield 3 cut-scene graphics. The game, however, is very dark. There is a lot of gray and black and nothing is too appealing. The guns are also very dark, so there is nothing special there. When you put on the NoDs (Night Vision Goggles) the screen is a bright green with dark marks on the top and bottom of the screen, with a VERY bright light coming out of your gun. This tends to be VERY annoying. Thank goodness you only use it twice. The game back claims to have a micro-destruction environment, but I did not see anything to what Battlefield 3 had. The only thing that breaks really, is wood. Overall it's not very nice.
Gameplay: My major complaint is the AI. IT'S TERRIBLE! I played through the whole campaign on Hard difficulty and the AI is just annoying! The triggers for the AI is in the worst places. For example, there is one mission where you are breaching and enemy camp. you have to go inside a house to complete the objective. I died at least 9 times just trying to do this. You can't wait for them either, you have to step in the exact spot that they want you to in order for them to be triggered. Therefore when you enter the house it's clear. I waited for the AI knowing that they would come out once I stepped forward. Nothing happened. The only way for me to get past this level was to step into an open area so that 3 guys with shotguns could rush me. It seemed impossible. Luckily I realized there was a little room next to me where I could flank these guys, but guess what? The wall is basically not even there. The guys can shoot right through it. IT WAS SO ANNOYING! The only way to beat the part was to walk forward, and run like crazy. The other main issue was the guns. They are all either really good and boring, or have an amazing amount of kick. When a SMG has more kick then a sniper, that's messed up! The nice thing though that was added to the game, is that you can take ammo from your teammates when ever you feel like it, which I really like. Another issue is that you can not keep enemy weapons, if you switch weapons, then you throw down the gun you picked up. Overall gameplay was OK
Story: There is about none what so ever. All I was able to figure out was that once you killed one guy, you move to kill another. It was like "Oh crap he just shot our teammate, guess we will have to go have 1/4 of the game deal with us trying to kill this guy." There is also this confusing little story between a guy and his divorced wife. They keep meeting each other for their kid. The whole thing doesn't make sense. There is only one good part story wise and thats the ending, but I can't ruin that so I will keep my mouth shut. The campaign probably took me about 5-6 hours. It's pretty short. There is also 3 missions that last under a minute. Yeah you read that right, under a freaking minute.
Overall, if your looking for a good story, this is not your game.
Multi-Player: Finally we get to the part you wanted to read. Well sorry to dissapoint but this multi-player is bad. The set-up of the games finding is confusing and very aggravating. The represent your country thing seemed cool, but it makes no sense. Creating your own class is non-existent. You have to level up your gun, and even when you do, the unlocks are lacking. Instead of unlocking guns, you unlock a unit. The guns are bad in multi-player. The recoil is terrible! It is also really easy to die! The game developers tried to copy battlefield 3 AGAIN where you can choose to spawn on your team-mate, but thats like Halo's campaign spawning, if they are not out of combat then your are going to either wait, or spawn in your base at the end of the map. Once again the graphics are very dark and not exciting. The match making does something similar to what World at War does, where you have to have the DLC or your kicked out of a game AFTER you waited for it to load. Thankfully there is only one DLC, and it comes in the Limited edition WARFIGHTER pack (also with BattleField 4 beta). Overall, they just tried to copy Battlefield and Call Of Duty, and it is pretty bad.
Final Thoughts: I would buy this game for at MOST $20. Make sure you get a new copy so you have an online pass, and also make sure that you get the limited edition one where it comes with the DLC (got mine for $19.99 at GameStop).
I give this game a 3/5 | video-games_xbox |
Will you save the jedi or destroy them. I love this game! Super amazing RPG! Here is my review for Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2 The Sith Lords. If you played the 1st game you will understand some of my refferences to past characters, if not I will still explain it anyways. I will also be makeing tons of refferences to the 1st game because I can explain how it's better or worst than the first game, So please enjoy my review! :)
Plot (minor spoilers only) Set 5 years after the 1st game ends and 4000 years before the Phantom Menace, Now the sith are ruled by no one. They are all in chaos, everyone is still recovering from the final battle of the 1st game. You are a (jedi guardian or sentinel or a councoler because you can choose what kind of jedi you are from the start) who is on the Ebon Hawk from the 1st game drifting in space after a massive attack. In the prologue (if you wish to choose to play) you control T3M4 (who also returns from the 1st game) an astromech droid like R2D2 cept he is flat headded instead of round. You fix up the ship and heal your made up character then take the ship to the mineing planet of Peragus II. When you get to the planet you are in the med bay getting healed. When you start playing you find out that you, a scoundral and a old jedi master are the only ones alive on the whole planet. You find out that sith attacked the planet along with some other evil dooers and a sith lord. After you get off the planet you can start your adventure of destorying the sith and the sith lord who is trying to kill you and try to reunite the jedi or go full dark side and kill everyone and everything in your path.
Characters: (down below)
Main Character: You are known as the Exiled because the jedi kicked out of the order, why? You will need to play to find out. Anyways you can be a boy or a girl its an RPG so it lets you choose. At the begining you can choose to be a Jedi Guardian (aka the blue light jedi) who is a soilder who does more hand to hand or lightsaber to lightsaber combat. Or a Jedi Sentinel (aka the yellow lightsaber jedi) who relies on skill's and is a mediate between full combat and force useing combat. Or last you could be a Jedi Consular (the green saber jedi) who focus more on force powers to fight when in combat rather than fighting hand to hand combat. Because of the RPG of this game with interactions in the game you can choose to be either light side or dark side. Depending on how you play being either good or bad, the story can chage due to your side indiactor.
Kreia: is your jedi master. She is the 1st character you meet outside of the prologue. She is blind (litterly her eyes are all silver because she is blind. She is sorta a cranky jedi at times because when you become her student she wants to learn her way, to make everything and everyone you see as a tool for your advantage, that even means if stepping on your friends and them hateing you gets you further in life then take all advantage. She is jedi consular so she focus's more on force power fight but she can still fight with a light saber even tho she is blind. Because she is your jedi teacher she is pretty much the Bastila Shan of the 2nd game. Except in this game she really does teach you right from wrong because for example if you make a choice in the game she doesn't like or one she does like then she will break in mid conversation to either praise or scould you for you choice. Once this happens if she is your 3 man party if you continue to make the wrong soical choice of her liking she lose influcense in you and some questions will be harder for her to answer. (Influence will be explained later on down below) . Side chatting with her is fun at times because if you play your cards right you can increase your force points and your influences. Also she teaches you more force powers and so much more.
Atton Rand: is a smuggler who has kind of at attitude problems at times. He is a shooter so he can fight with blasters better. He was once a republic soilder then turned side to the sith then quit the sith to do this own thing, so he is the lone wolf to say the least. Side chatting with him you can lean his past if you have his influence high enough. If you do you can train him to be a jedi so you can have another jedi in your party to fight with you. He takes over the place of Carth Onasi from the 1st game. He is the pilot of the Ebon Hawk. His own special in the game is his feeling which I mean is that when he says the famous line "I've got a bad feeling about this" this means there is going to be some action/fighting up ahead so he is like a mini sensor for trouble.
T3M4: he is the astromech droid who returns from the 1st game. In this sequal game he is seriously upgraded in everyway, the programmers put in subtitles so you can understand every beep and boop he says unlike the 1st game where its litterly just says "beep boop" for every answer he has. Side chatting with him has also improved as well, you can talk to find out about what happened and sometimes he will make refferences from the 1st game. If you can get the influences high enough and if you have the repair skill to repair him enough he will show holograms of either Bastila or Carth talking about the Main Character in the 1st game and what happened after the final battle of the first game. T3 is really good at computers, repair, security and everything else that has to due with the intellegence skill. His special skill is being a work bench which means if he is in your party and you talk to him you can use him to upgrade all your weapons and armor that you have collected over the game. He can also make security spikes but won't after you have more than 10.
Bao-Dur: he is a technician who can repair all types of droids, he is accompanied by his tiny robot companion Remote who is a tiny floating orb who can repair droids if he is in your party with another droid present. Side talking with him is sort of boring, once you meet him you can pretty much go threw all of the dialouge choices very quickly. If you get his influence high enough he will ask you to train him in the way of the force to become a jedi guardian. Most of the time I left him alone because 99% of the time he is irrelevant as a playing character.
Go-To: pronouced go toe. He is a droid who is run by a man called Go-To. He is a crime lord who is trying to save the republic with the help of the exile (aka YOU) . Being a droid companion his special abilities are a self clokeing device which mean he can go invisable if he chooses, and he has a special droid attack which in only present of enemy droids will make them turn on eachother and have them fight eachother so you can save your time and energy. Side chatting with him is intresting to say the least, if you get your influences high enough you can find out about his past and how he became a crime lord and all. If you finnish certin planet missions he will give you 2000 credits per planet for either stablizing them or destablizing them.
HK-47: returning from the 1st game. He is the 2004 character of the year because of his personality, his use of insults of anyone who is not his current master, and his all around psychness. He is an assassin droid who when you first meet in the game he is broken and you must repair him. Once you do you can have all of his wickedness around you. Side chatting with him is fun, you can talk about destroying stuff and how to make enemies suffer. If you get influences high enough you can talk to him about his past where he makes refferences to Bastila and or Carth. Also in influence talking he can tell you on how to defeat jedi better with tactics that you wouldn't normally use to think of.
Mandalore: returning from the 1st game also. In the 1st game he went by the name Canderous Ordo who is a rough and tough Mandalorian. He is good at shooting or hand to hand combat. After the final battle in the 1st game he goes his seprate ways to reunite his clan. When you get him in your party he is really good at fighting. His special ability is haveing 4 seprate implants to make fighting better. He has regeneration so he can gain more health back quickly. A health booster so he has more health before hand. A strength booster to make him stronger in hand to hand combat and last he has a dexterity booster which can give his shooting ability a boost. Side chatting his him is alright. He doesn't have any special influence you need to worry about, everything comes out in normal conversation.
Visas Marr: She is a Miriluka which mean she is blind from birth but can see threw the force. Because she is force sensitive she is a jedi. Her planet is Katarr which was destroyed by her master Darth Nihilus. She is first met when she tries to kill you but defeating her causes her lightsaber to break and then she swears her loyalty to you. Her special skills are stealth so she can sneek around well. Along with her jedi powers she is a deicent fighter but I wouldn't put her in the front lines for a perfect offense. Side chatting with her will reveal that if your influences with her are high enough she can teach you force sight which mean you can see how she see. Her force sight ability has the power to show you the inner esscence of people, which mean you can be talking to people and if you use this power they could turn blue for lightside, red for darkside, or gray for netural and droids are 100% netural even if they have a good or evil tinge to them they show as netural.
Mira: She is a bounty hunter. You can only get her in your party if you are good aka blue side aka lightside at the end of one of the levels. If you are good and she joins you, she will be of great help. Her special ability is when she is leader of the 3 person party she can walk threw landmines and NOT set them off. She is the only one who can use her special wrist rocket launcher which can fire rockets and grnades. She is better at shooting then hand to hand combat. Side chatting with her can reavel her past and if influences are high enough she can be trained to be a jedi. Then when she can hold a lightsaber it is easier for her to fight hand to hand than with a blaster because she can use force powers as well.
Hanharr: He is a bounty hunter wookie. Same planet as Mira but you need to choose darkside to get him. He is a rage-a-holic wookie when in rage mode increases his strength so high he is an unstoppable hand to hand combat machine. His special abilty is wookie rage it is the base form of wookie frenzy and wookie fury, over all idea is that his strength goes up by alot for 60 seconds and he is able to kick major ass with it. Side chatting with him is fun. You can learn about his past and how he became a bounty hunter. There is a glitch which sometimes does NOT work but if it does it can increase his intellegence to over 200 making him the smartest person in the game but this glitch sometimes fails so try at your own risk!
Mical aka Disciple: he can only be in your party if you have choosen female main character from the start. He is a historian and scienctist. He is a shooter when you first meet him but you can make him a hand to hand fighter. His special ability is a walking medical station, when you talk to him you can make any medicen you need if you have the skill and ingreaditents. Side chatting with him can reveal he is force sensative and you can train him to be a jedi. Then he can have the ability to meditate with you. He can also heal you for free in chat because he double's as a medic of the team.
Handmaiden aka the last handmaiden: she can only be in your party if you choose male main character from the start. She is an Echani fighter, so she is great at hand to hand combat. In the guide book it calls her the perfect body guard. Her special ability is echani fighting which can give her a stronger hand to hand combat sense. Side chatting with her is fun, she can train you in the art of echani fighting so you can be stronger at hand to hand combat as well. If you influence her enough and win enough sparing matches you can train her to be a jedi guardien so she can even better at fighting with a lightsaber and all.
now we move on to attributes, skills and leveling and Influenceing.
Strength: this tells how physcially strong you are, the higher it is the strong you hand to hand combat is while fighting with a sword or lightsaber.
Dexterity: this tells how fast your reflexs are, the higher they are the more you can dodge and it corrasonds with blasters and shooting battles because you can shoot more accurately and faster with a higher DEX
Constitution: is how much health you have, the higher this one is determins how much health you have. Also it makes your character harder to poison or other non physical attacks to harm your character. Also the higher constitution is says what level implant you can have, it starts from a basic level 12 CON implant to the highest of a level 18 CON implant.
Wisdom: determins how much force points you have to spend in battle or other force powers you may use. The higher this is the more you are able to resist force attacks from enemies.
Intelligence: determins how smart you character is, the higher this is will give you skill points so you can have a higher skill to use the game. Sometimes this gives you additional dialogue options when talking to other characters.
Charisma: yes it does increase you speech skill but over all it effect your force powers. The higher charisma is the harder your force powers can hit an oppoent. Also if you use an oppositie force power for instace say you are a dark jedi trying to use a lightside power, the cost per use will be less with a higher charisma.
Skills:
Computers: this tells how well you can work on a computer, the higher this is the less spikes you need to hack into a computer. In work bench you can create Lightsaber power cells and some lens with this. You can also make some armor and weapons upgrades with this skill too.
Repair: this is for reparing, the higher this is the less parts you need to fix something in the game, this includes droids that might be hurt in your party if you try to repair them your self. In work bench you can make emitters and some armor and weapons upgrads too
Persuade: is how well you can talk to others in the game, the higher this is the more likely you can talk a better reward out of people or get out of a sticky situation.
Security: this determins how well you can pick a lock. The higher it is the less spikes you need to pick a lock. This skill in work bench can be used to make lightsaber, armor and weapons upgrades.
Awareness: how well you can look around. Spoting people who are lieing to you in conversation or seeing hidden objects for the taking. This skill can be used in work bench for lightsaber, armor and weapons upgrades.
Treat Injury: this skill is self explanitory, the higher it is the less med packs you need to heal your self. Also in work bench you can make some armor upgrades but this skill works best in med lab where you can make tons of medical items you would ever need.
Demolition: how well you work on explosives. Landmines can be disabled and taken with a high enough skill, also this can be used in work bench for armor, weapons and lightsaber upgrades. Also it can be used in med lab to make landmines and grnades for your use in battle.
Leveling: In the sequal the level capping has been upgrade from 20 to 50. Most of the time you won't ever get up to level 50 unless you use the level glitch. But now you have a longer chance to be a jedi because in Kotor 1, you could only become a jedi when you reached the 3rd world/level of the game, by then you are either a level 8 or 10 character, then you would only have 10 to 12 levels to master being a jedi. But when you start the game from the start you are a jedi already with force abilities so you can start doing force powers from level 1.
Influenceing: In the game some speech checks are going to need influence, This is only for the characters in your party. It starts off as netural, but it can go either influence gained or loss, If you gain more it makes each character in your party easier to talk to, same goes for loss of influence. But sometimes in side chatting with certin characters if you don't have enough influence you cant progross on with the conversation. Its NOT important to the main story line but sometimes having a high influence with other party members you can learn new abilities you couldn't befor, or learn something secret about the characters past or learn new fighting tactics that you will never learn unless you have high enough influence.
Now its time to talk about armor and weapons and upgrades and force powers and other misc things in the game.
Armor: is split into light, medium and heavy. The heavier the armor the better the protection is. In the game there is 78 different types of armor including jedi robes. So you will have tons of choices if you are able find, buy or get the armors. Some armors restric jedi force powers but the robes do NOT so robes rock!
Armor upgrades: are so very much improved over the fist Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic. For a quick recap in the 1st game there were only 2 upgrades but you could NOT choose what you wanted to upgrade it was predetired what your armor would get upgraded. In KOTOR 2 here you can choose what you want to upgrade and how you upgrade. If you want more defense you can have that. If you want an upgrade with a health regerator you can now. There is over 60 choices between armor upgrades, if you have the skill to make them in work bench you can use them. 60 upgrades to mix and match as you choose compared to the 1st game of 2 with no choice in how you upgrade it.
Blasters: in this game there are 66 different blaster pistols and riffles to choose from. In the 1st game there was only 25, so here in KOTOR 2 you are litterly getting doubled and them some of blaster pistols and riffles choices to choose from.
Blaster Upgrades: Once again KOTOR 2 is a vast upgrade, in here you get 45 blaster upgrade choices you can make to mix and match how you want. In the 1st game you had 4 different parts to upgrade but you could not choose how you were to upgrade it, the upgrades came predetermined for you. Now in this game there are only 3 parts to upgrade, sure one less part to upgrade but now you get 45 choices and you can choose how and what you upgrade, more power? sure, more accuracy? yup you can do that. Plus in the 1st game you could only upgrade only 7 blasters out of the 25 in Kotor 1. Now in Kotor 2 you can upgrade pretty much all 66 blasters you come across.
Melee weapons: The non lightsabers, in Kotor 2 there are 25 blades you can fight with. Its the same amount in Kotor 1 but where the differences lie are in the upgrades.
Melee upgrades: In Kotor 1 you could only upgrade 6 blades with 3 choices of upgrades that are once again predetermined for you, In Kotor 2 you can mix and match your upgrades on how you want them to be.
Lightsabers: They have the same as Kotor 1 but upgrading is where the differences are.
Lightsaber upgrades: all lightsabers can be upgraded but in Kotor 1 you could only change the color of the blade and have 2 power crystals. Now in Kotor 2 you can change the color of the blade, have 2 power crystals and now you have have a power cell for more damage, a lens to focus the sabers power more and have an emitter for better protection, to which you can mix and match upgrades as you choose.
Lightsaber fighting forms: in the 1st kotor you could only fight one style, one vs many enemies. Now in Kotor 2 you can choose and learn up to all 7 forms, from fighting one vs many, to one on one, to one vs one with an lightsaber, to one vs blasters and more.
Force Powers: you have the same base force powers as Kotor 1 cept now they added more, higher levels. New powers, like revive which is if you are the last one standing in your party and you use this power it brings your party back from the dead to keep on fighting. Or if you remember from the 1st game, Bastila had Battle meditiation which can make your allies stronger in battle and weaken your enemies, now in Kotor 2 you can use that power and more than Kotor 1 never ever had. You can even learn some people from other jedi's in speech talking.
Implants: you can do more with implants now, instead of useing a fleat power to get them you now need consitution, but if you have a level 18 consitution you have all the implants. In Kotor 1 you only had a few types, In Kotor 2 you have many levels, from 12, 14, 16, and 18. Level 18 has the best, improving your main attributes and others, as well skills and other usefull techinquies you can use
Random Loot Generator: it depends on how high your level is. The higher your level is the more high level stuff you can find on people. Sure sometimes it sucks and sometimes its good, it all depends on how high your levels are.
Time to talk about the pro's and con's of it all.
Story Pro: to me it is more expanded than in Kotor 1 because you can go to more planets, do more things, have a cooler story line. New and old returning characters from the 1st game but they expanded it more in this game.
Story Con: YES this game is cut. Im not going to sit here and tell you that everything is included because its not, the developers who made this game cut it quickly because they wanted to get this game for the holiday season. Some parts of speech are cut off you can tell that some characters in your party like Bao-Dur had more to say but didn't so they cut some of his speech out. Some other parts in the game were cut but if you are playing this for the very first time ever, you can NOT tell anything was cut at all. I certinally could not untill I saw that online alot of people were saying there were some things taken out from the game.
Character over all: The party characters you travel with have upgraded in speach and talking, you can talk so much more and use them all in your party more in the game. I like what they did with their characters. Also that every human companion and Bao-Dur who is Zabrack can all be trained to be a jedi if they are not a jedi already. Who doesn't want more jedi's? In Kotor 1 out of all 9 character beside your character you only had 2 to 3 jedi's to choose from. Now in this game out of the 12 characters you have cept for Mandalore, the droids and if you went dark side hanharr the wookie, everyone in your whole party can be trained to be a jedi and fight with lightsabers and force powers. Vast improvement from the 1st game
Items and Upgradeing pros: this has been the biggest thing I knowticed in the whole game. From playing the 1st game then going straight to this game I can feel how much I can mix, match and choose up upgrades I want with what armor and weapons I want.
Item Cons: As I said before that some stuff was cut from the game, some of the small armor and robes and only 2 lightsabers were cut from the items here.
Over all: I like this game way more than the 1st in pretty much everyway possible, even with the cuts the developers had in this game it is honestly so much better than Kotor 1, But that is just my and only my oppion here. I hope you enjoy this game!! | video-games_xbox |
A resounding "EH. This game is nothing special. Its a mediocre RPG, which does nothing to stand out in an overcrowded room full of RPGs.
Ok, thats not entirely true. It does stand out in a few ways.
First, your main character may be the DUMBEST and most mentally inept main character ever. As I sat through the dialouge listening to his comments and questions, I couldn't help but wonder how he remembered to breath without someone stapling a note to his forehead reminding him to do so. His competence and observation skills can be accurately compared to a blind drunken monkey with ADHD.
Second, the VOICE ACTING. UGH. Now, the combat voice overs are just fine, as the characters yell out their various elements, attacks, or thank one another for blocking damage for them. However the voice acting for scenes and dialouge is EXCRUCIATING! Everything sounds so painfully forced. The dialouge itself is pretty aweful in that it repeats itself OVER AND OVER! For example, the game may tell you your next goal is inside that cave 30 ft away, as your camera focuses in on it. And by tell you, I mean bombard you with disasterous voice acting untill your willing to do whatever they ask if only they'll make the pain stop. Its clear where you need to go, but after walking over to it, the game will stop and play a nearly identical scene, complete with horrid voice acting, telling you that now you actually need to go INSIDE the cave. INSIDE the cave? What an idea! And here I was planning to LOITER AROUND OUTSIDE IT FOR 3 HOURS. Although, based on the dialouge thats about all your main character is smart enough to do on his own anyway, so its probably a good thing he has a slew of self-proclaimed tour guides following him around.
The combat system, while actually somewhat fun at first, is TERRIBLY unbalanced. Most of the time, battles about as evenly matched as a rabid lion in the ring with a one legged chicken. In normal fights, and about half the boss battles, your party is the rabid lion. In the other 50% of boss fights, however, you become the chicken, as the boss mercilessly and horribly violates your party before you get your first turn. And you cant resurect your party members mid-fight either. The game TRICKS you into THINKING you can, but this is a misconception. Any attempts to resurect a party member in any fight that they could concievably die during, will simply result in them being almost INSTANTLY re-ganked before they can even get a turn. This creates a vicious cycle of resurecting on your turn and your character dying on the enemies turn untill eventually you run out of VP and EP (vitality and ether/magic).
Worse still, is the grid movement system. Its as if at the begining of every fight, your enemy draws a line in the dirt and tells you, your not allowed to cross it, and your character being too mind-numbingly stupid to protest, just blindly follows this rule. Essentially the battle area looks more like a dodgeball court then a warzone, as you hurl attacks across the center line at your opponents on the other side. Did I mention your main characters good attacks are all short range, meaning both he and the target have to be standing next to the center line? And that nearly every enemy in the game after the first 30 mins or so, refuses to do anything except stand in the very back on their side of the court and hurl long range attacks at you?
How about the "rock paper scissors" sounding element system? See, in this game water beats fire, but then again fire also beats water. And every opposing element works this way, so as soon as you realize this, it suddenly stops being about strategy and starts becoming about whos rock is bigger.
And lets not forget the cover system. This is where you can place one character in front of the other, so the character behind suffers less damage from certain area attacks. It sounds great, untill you realize that in every fight where this might actually matter, the opponent COMPLETELY ignores this rule, and rapes both characters in one attack just for being close together. On the other hand, bosses can use this against YOU. Theres even a few bosses that hides in the far corner of their side of the dodgeball court, and place respawning enemies in front, meanwhile hitting your entire party for large damage every turn. Hiding in that far corner means your characters need to cluster together in the front corner of your side JUST so HALF of them can attack, meaning your tightly grouped when those respawning enemies decide to attack with their area moves.
Finally, theres comboing. Comboing is where you decide that one rabid lion isn't enough to thoroughly maul that defenseless chicken, so you call your 3 buddies over for a gang bang. This only really sees use in boss battles, and late game fights. Normal enemies CAN do combos too, but almost never get the chance. However, certain bosses can, and coincidently enough, also seem to delight in tempting you into hurling your xbox controller through the TV screen out of frustration. If you see an enemy begin a combo, you can accurately calculate your odds of survival by pausing the game and fliping a coin. Heads: your whole party dies. Tails: one party member survives long enough for you to make a futile attempt to resurect your teamates before sharing their fate.
Perhaps the only half decent element of the game could be the story itself. While hardly original (main character has a mysterious power, that he must discover more about as he progresses in the game which he will ultimately use to save the world) its not poorly done.
The characters, however, make up for the game almost havign a decent story. In short, your main characters a bumbling idiot, your other 3 permanent members are annoying, and the only decent and likable character in the game leaves your party after the first 15 mins of the game, and never rejoins. Also, and half naked homosexual follows you around for the better part of the game, and your main character cant recognize its one of his fellow students and best friends, because he wears sunglasses, a different color jacket, and changes his accent.
In conclusion, the experience of this game can be simulated by having your spleen removed while simaltaneously hitting your hand with a sledgehammer. If your a masochist with some free time and 20 dollars to spare this game is for you. For all others, do yourself a favor and buy Lost Oddesy instead. | video-games_xbox |
Best experience For TRUE WWE fans. If your not a TRUE wwe fan. When i say true, i mean grew up watching then you will at least like this game a lot and probably love it. I'm only 20 and i've been watching wwe for at least 10 years now. I LOVE this game. I played all the crappy, boring smackdown vs raw games in the past and only played them because i loved the sport(yeah, yeah sports entertainment..) so much. Now i can actually ENJOY the game. The realism is ridicouls the graphics, the gameplay, everything is very realistic. The realism makes it fun, and every match feels very different.
Yes this game is missing a lot of features. BUT i would take quality over quantity any day. Plus this is they're first time being on xbox one so next year most of the features will come back. Couple that with this amazing base and next years game shouldnt dissapoint anyone. But i actually genuenly enjoy playing this game simply because of the realism. When they say "feel it" they mean it.
If your a long time wwe fan buy it
If you used to be a wwe fan strongly consider it (wwe 2k14 got my back into wwe)
If your a new wwe fan strongly consider it
If your not a wwe fan, don't even bother. Cause those are the ones that complain. Wait for next years game.
My score: 8/10. Amazing first try for visual concepts and yuke's first full year working together. Considering they literally built a whole new game from the ground up and added 2k showcase and my career? Speaking of 2k showcase the possibilities are endless for future games. Wwe is built on rivalries. Imagine Kurt angle vs Brock lesnar from 02-03', imagine rock vs goldberg from 03', Hogan vs Triple H from 02'. 2K showcase is genius. I'm working to become a computer programmer so i aspire to work on a team like visual concepts in the future, those guys are no joke. Look at the NBA 2K games they do. They improve every single year. The same will happen with wwe 2K. Look how s***** last years 2K14 was compared to this game.
Fun: 9/5
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Features: 8/10 | video-games_xbox |
A solid but not exceptional option for those that want all audio coming through the phones. Everyone has different needs and priorities when it comes to a pair of gaming headsets. In my case, I wanted something I could use while my wife and the dogs slept that would still allow me to pick up the important/relevant audio elements of the game I was playing (most recently (while using this set) Battlefield 3 multiplayer). Not surprisingly, the audio quality is on the better end of the scale. I expected as much from Sennheiser, and while I wasn't blown away and won't be confusing these with a pair of high end audio-only phones, it was still every bit as good as you would want. But, unfortunately, that's sort of where the strong positives end.
My immediate concerns are about how they connect, how comfortable they are (or aren't), and how the microphone's non-adjustable sensitivity threshold may be causing some communication issues when you're trying to be quiet (and why wear a headset when you're not trying to be quiet?).
The connection issue isn't going to be a problem for those not using HDMI or fiber for their audio. I go straight from the 360 to a Denon receiver with fiber, and then from the receiver to speakers with MIT cables. At no point in the equation (at the 360, on my tv, or even on the Denon do I have easily accessible RCA jacks. The instructions indicate you should just plug it into your tv -- this is terrific if you're using your tv for audio -- I'm not, others don't, so consider that issue and how you'll resolve it before buying these. So that connectivity is an issue for me and will be for some, and with that issue comes a little less convenience in terms of setting them up and breaking them down before, and then after, a gaming session. The same could be said about the wires themselves. Microsoft placed a premium on disconnecting gamers from the hardware, giving them the freedom to move around as they please. With a standard pair of 360 phones you're tethered to the wireless controller (unless you've splurged for the on-ear wireless option), but not the console. With the Sennheiser you're tethered to both, and to something else as well. Jack into the controller, USB into the console, RCA into your TV or perhaps your receiver (as long as that's close enough to the rest -- another issue that confounded me). I want to just say I wish this had been a wireless solution, that if I can send and receive audio through the controller jack with other headsets I should be able to hear -- and I do wish that -- but I can't speak intelligently to why Sennheiser felt it necessary to create this web of connections, there may well be a valid reason. Whether or not that's true doesn't change the fact that it's an issue.
On the mic, the bottom line is that it's just not going to 'believe' that you're talking sometimes. The real world result is that you're not going to be sending a lot of ambient noise to others. When I'm playing BF3 I can, at times, hear every sniffle and huff someone makes on the other end. That's not going to be the case here as the headset does a good job of isolating your voice. In my own experience, however, that means that sometimes the first part of what you say isn't going to go through, and sometimes you may be told they can't hear you at all if you're not speaking with a normal conversational volume -- a level of volume that you may well be trying to avoid if you're playing at night and a certain potentially grouchy someone is being a more responsible person and is trying to sleep just a few feet away.
Finally, comfort -- eh, it's okay -- but just okay. The mic boom rotates up and down but not laterally, nor does it telescope in and out. The top band is sufficiently padded and the phones themselves are not terribly heavy, but you're never going to just forget that you have them on. The ear padding and just the feel of them on your ears is on the better end of acceptable. "Eh" sort of says it. They're fine -- not bad even over an extended gaming session, not great, good enough.
Bottom line? I wouldn't advise someone not to get these headphones. Despite the greater focus on the negatives above, I find these a solid enough option, and the alternatives (those with which I have familiarity, anyway) similarly flawed enough as to not represent a major advantage. If you want both the game audio and the chat audio in your phones, these are a good option with the caveats mentioned above. Just think about where and how you're going to plug them in, and put a towel or blanket over the wires on the floor in case you have dogs that like to move around at night and trip on hazards connected to multiple electronics. >.<
tl;dr -- Good, not great. Wires are bad. Voice sometimes gets cut off. | video-games_xbox |
Agents of...what. A lot of people have mixed feelings on Agents of Mayhem, myself included. Some people might wonder whether or not it is worth your time to check out. In an effort to help out with that, I am going to be discussing Agents of Mayhem in moderate detail NO SPOILERS INCLUDED, so don't worry.
The premise is pretty straightforward - play as an Agent of Mayhem, which opposes Legion. You have different agents with different abilities - three are unlocked from the start - Fortune, Hardtack (or maybe it's Tack) and Hollywood. Hollywood is the most boring and cliche out of the three, and I only used when I didn't have other agents to swap him out with.
While the diversity of powers and agents is nice, it feels unbalanced and as if some of the details are just thrown in to "push the envelope" - like homosexuality or an angry, man-destroying woman (different characters, of course). There is no real purpose behind these defining characteristics of certain agents other than just to "push the envelope" and seem edgy. It comes off feeling cheap and without cause.
Also, the world that the Agents are in, Seoul (South Korea's capital) and the city is very beautiful, but without anything to do outside of tackling missions. You fight a lot of Legion troops, in various places over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over...you get the idea.
While it is fun to use different agents with different play styles to tackle these objectives - and the cartoon opening scene and cut-scenes is a nice nod to many of the action-packed Saturday Morning Cartoons of the 80s - the game gets repetitive after awhile.
And you can't shoot while in cars.
It might not seem that important, but as you are playing as a team of top-secret agents fighting against a super-evil organization of diabolical villains, you'd expect to at least be able to crack a window and fire shots at the bad guys. Nope. No such luck. The cars that are "custom made" by your Mayhem vehicle guru never have guns of any type on them, and the car combat is very bland and boring.
The boss battles, while diverse and requiring you to utilize different agents with different playstyles, also grate on your nerves after awhile, with the bad guys feeling over-powered and your agents constantly feeling underpowered. The gunplay is fun at first but not for long, crude sexual humor is just thrown in for shock factor, and the game is not even worth what I paid for it, $25 for the Deluxe edition during Black Friday sales. Volition fired a lot of people because of the poor sales and are trying to figure out what the hell they did wrong...I think most people could tell them the answer to their questions, but they won't want to hear it because they're too busy pushing a heavy-handed SJW agenda, the same way Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Franchise pushes absolute Atheism and mocks religion.
Rent, but don't buy. | video-games_xbox |
This game should be called "Another Day in the Life of Napoleon Dynamite. DA2 has got to be the biggest let down to gamers in, well, (excepting Fable III) quite a while. Bioware, like Lionhead, forgot that what makes games good aren't only the graphics and user interface, but the story and the plot.
Let's start with why I trusted Bioware. KOTOR, ME, ME2, and DA. ALL of these games were great because they had a great story and great dialog/character interaction. On top of that, there was continuity with Revan, with Shepard, with your previous team, with the world and your role in that world.
Let's start with who I am...I am a 30-something highly educated business professional. I read, farm, golf, and play video games for fun and relaxation. I am an early adapter of tech and a vivid champion of video games in all of my social circles. I have cajoled, encouraged, and supported my friends getting into my favorite games.
My favorite games are KOTOR, KOTORII, ME, ME2, and DA. In 2009, Bioware raised the bar for RPGs. I fell in love with DA from the opening scenes. I was sucked into the game and DA's world. I LOVED the characters (even Oghren [I know, I know]) and the plot/story. DA deserved the game of the year and so much more.
In 2011, Bioware betrayed us. I fixated on DA2 before it was released. On the release day, I ran to the store at lunch and bought the game and the guide book. I finally made it home after an agonizingly long day and put the game in. I was sitting on the edge of my chair when the game started. After the first 30 minutes, I had to ask myself " what is this drivel that I bought today? Where is Dragon Age?" After the first hour, I said "Maybe this will be better in the morning" and out the game down. The next evening after work, I played some more. It didn't get better.
I have found that DA2 is not a continuation of the same story, as much as it is a new story. The true carryover from DA to DA2 is the name and the name alone. Furthermore, none of the carry-over characters are imaged the same as in DA1. On top of that, the voice actors (which have a been a staple in the games that I listed above) have all been changed!
After the opening scene, you settle into hum-drudgerie completing non-main plot relevant tasks over and over again. The game calls the tasks "quests". A quest is what you go on to save a princess, right wrongs, battle ferocious beasts, and save/destroy the world at large. A task ranks right up there with vacuuming or washing the dishes, or doing the laundry. The "quests" are little more than tasks due to their repetative and boring nature. These tasks contain little to no emotional attachment to the characters, yours or otherwise. Nor do the tasks bear a sense of relevance to the players overall attachment to the community at large or progression of a world in danger.
To make the tasks more mundane, the graphics are horrid. Bioware calls the graphics artistic. I call them cheap. Many of the images are angular and poorly rendered. The elves are more caricatures then images of sublime natural beauty. The dwarves look like real world midgets versus a separate proud and noble race. Furthermore, the maps are proof of someone's laziness. The same map is copied over and over again. Sure, the dungeon, cave, wilderness has a different name. Too bad the programmers just copied the same dungeon over with a couple of doors to new rooms for the "new and improved" dungeon.
Next, let's talk about your team and outfitting your team. Of all of the armor/equipment that can be bought/found, none of it (with the exception of the some helmets and jewelry), can be equipped on your team members. They get to "pick" their own stuff. This means that you cannot kit out your team for specific assignments or tactics. Furthermore, there is no common camp where you can outfit your team. Talking about camp, the character stories and interactions while in camp were awesome in DA1. In DA2, there is no camp. The only time you can talk to your team, is in their house when they have something to talk about.
So, let's sum this up. DA2 has no relation (aside from occasional and mostly meaningless references) to DA1. There is NOT a meaningful plot, the characters are flat and you really cannot interact with them, there are lots of benign and mundane tasks, very poor graphics, cut-the-corner maps, and a lot of wasted time.
Basically, this is not an RPG in the most pure sense. For those of us that used to play D&D, we knew that infinite character customizations, equipment mods, great stories, and team comraderie was why we kept coming back together to play more and more. This is what made ME, ME2, KOTOR, and DA great. Bioware forgot that. Whether it was through a lack of resources, or a lack of talent, it does not matter. Bioware failed. I will no longer trust Bioware. Like Lionhead, I will wait to read the reviews. I will listen to the word on the street and I will save my money until I know for sure that the game will be worth it.
I would never wish ill on someone. That said, the project team and writers for DA2 need to be demoted at the least and given an analog D&D book to relearn what playing an RPG is about. Then they need to play the KOTOR and ME franchises followed by DA1 so that they understand the gravity of their error. Finally, Bioware owes the gamer population a sincere apology for foisting this crap of a game on us and destroying all of our joy at being able to play another DA game. Shame on Bioware.
This game should be called "Another Day in the Life of Napoleon Dynamite".
~Very Disappointed | video-games_xbox |
but the seemingly absolutely trivial manufacturing laziness of not lining up the rubber casting with the plastic is basically failing a good part of "you had one job" when it comes . GENERAL THUMBSTICK PSA: Almost every "modern shaped" gamepad (specific examples include xbox one/360/original, Playstation 1-4, and most aftermarket controllers for those consoles) uses thumbsticks which are interchangeable on the connecting end. If you're shopping for thumbsticks (and don't care about staying true to the original shape) feel free to explore shapes for other consoles' controllers.
As for these, the four "nubs" on the rubber face which are supposed to be on the top, bottom, and each side aren't oriented correctly. At first I thought it was a style / copyright choice, because the first one I installed appeared to have the nubs at each corner instead. However, the other six from the two packs I ordered were spun about at random angles. There appears to be a tiny dip at the inside edge where the rubber "cap" meets the thumbstick which I briefly contemplated trying to hook into to turn the caps, but I decided against it in fear of tearing the *slightly* below-grade feeling rubber. I also know factory thumbsticks are shaped so the rubber can't detach and rotate, and am not sure whether or not these are designed the same on the inside.
Overall they're going to do the job and work well for replacements, but the seemingly absolutely trivial manufacturing laziness of not lining up the rubber casting with the plastic is basically failing a good part of "you had one job" when it comes to these sticks. It's enough to knock off two stars, with the last coming from noticibly less-than-factory-grade rubber. You'd think it'd be easy enough to orient the sticks correctly during the molding process without adding to the cost much, if at all. In the future I'll be buying more expensive sticks, perhaps uniform designs like the Xbox One's so even flaws in the symmetry won't be as noticible. | video-games_xbox |
Fun to play, especially in co-op and online. This review is coming from an adult who likes mostly sports and FPS games. My sons also play mostly FPS games online in multiplayer with friends. So with that said, here's my honest opinion.
This is a sci-fi FPS game with a story line in Campaign mode. Halo Reach is a prequel for the previous Halo games, where you are on the planet Reach and discovering that the Covenant has invaded the planet. Your job basically is to eliminate them.
The Covenant characters are basically what they were before, only more intelligent and able to escape or dodge better. Also new is the ability to sprint, and I like having to only push the stick once to 'turn on' sprint, instead of hold it down the whole time. The crouch function on the left stick you must hold down to keep crouched, which is kind of a pain.
Characters are customizable now, with various helmets and other add-ons that you can use to make your character unique. It's much easier to tell who you're playing with/against if they have unique armor.
Sounds are great, and the 6.1 surround is definitely used well. Explosions and other sounds really come from distinct places in the sound field. Music is of course very good as it has been in past versions, and adds to the mood of the game. Cut-scenes are well done and interesting to watch, in cinematic quality.
What I liked most was the splitscreen gameplay. You can play campaigns in co-op mode locally or even online, which is cool and something that <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Call-of-Duty-Modern-Warfare-2/dp/B00269QLI8/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2</a> does not offer. I like to be able to play with/against my sons or friends whether we're together or in different rooms/houses, although together is more fun. :-) Splitscreens are in HD quality and makes it easier to see small details as well.
Overall, I feel that once you get through the campaign mode (play it with friends!) in several hours, then the online multiplayer will keep you entertained for weeks or months beyond. If you've been a Halo fan all along, I don't think you will be disappointed at this latest release. There is enough of the previous versions to make it familiar, with enough new stuff to make it interesting. | video-games_xbox |
This game is NOTregion locked :3. I just bought this game. I bought the NTSC (USA) version and I can play it on my PAL (AUST) xbox so the game is region free! Hope this helps some Aussies or UK people.
The Game:
The game it self is so much fun but on the xbox the aim does feel kind of stiff.
The Songbird:
This is the only difference between the two editions but I definitely feel it's worth it. It's so beautifully made and when put together is a wonderful dominating figure. Also I like the little fire hydrant they added to give a sense of scale :)
DLC:
I wish the soundtrack was actually physical, like they have for AC4. The costumes will be cool but i haven't used them yet. Also haven't used the starting off bonuses as I wanted to leave them for my second play through.
Strongman Figure:
Pretty disappointed in this one actually. There is resin overflow on some edges from when the moulds weren't put together correctly. I have read this else where too :| It actually puts me off buying the boardgame if that's the quality they will produce all the figures at...
Lithograph:
Nice looking but tiny... It's too small to put up anywhere so it's just going to waste in it's packaging with the DLC info pages. :|
Murder of Crows key-chain:
I was so excited to get this! I was actually going to buy a few more separately!! I'm glad I DIDN'T!! Again the quality is poor. The icons on the bottles are little stickers that aren't even stuck on properly. I was very disappointed. I feel if I ever take it out of the box and use it as a key chain it'd break or loose the icons in the first week sadly :(
Artbook:
It's beautiful but it's also quite small. Still it has some lovely images. Not all the images that are included in the separate art book. I think this book should have been for the premium edition and the big one should have been included in the songbird edition considering the extra $70. | video-games_xbox |
Not quite up to expectations. After playing both the Lego Star Wars games and having a really great time with them, I was eagerly awaiting the release of this game. When it came out, I went to the store and rented it to see if it would be worth the money right now, or wait until it drops in price. Sadly, it ended up the latter.
So why will I wait until it's in the bargain bin? It's not the story; this game is filled with the quirky humor I enjoyed in the Star Wars games, plus who can hate a Lego-ized version of one of America's great heroes. It's not the graphics; they are very good, and look better than what I remember from the Star Wars versions. The music/sound are great; the music changes to let you know when you're being (or about to be) attacked, and the character 'vocals' are very funny. Playing co-op is a fun experience (until you start arguing with your wife over which way to go or who picks up what/assembles what things/etc.)
There's two reasons why I will wait: the controls and the level designs. The level designs are well presented, but they seem to drag on and on. Now, I normally wouldn't have a problem with this, because I enjoy playing through games and trying to get 100%. The reason I have a problem with them is because of the controls. The controls just don't seem to be very responsive. On some levels, you have to pick up and through items at your enemies. Not a problem...unless you need to be standing still, nothing else around where you're throwing it, and you're not getting shot at by 2-3 people. And that's IF you can manage to get facing the right way. The first level of Temple of Doom is a good example; I picked up the distraction, went to the guy to throw it at him, and had to run around and find just the right spot where the target would come up. Then I had to stand still or risk the target disappearing. Trying to whip an enemy from far away? Hopefully you hit them and don't whip the air just to the left or right of them. Also, don't get stuck dying in the wrong place, or every time you come back to life you'll just die again until you switch characters.
To be fair, I only played the first three levels of RotLA, the first level of ToD, and the first level of TLC. However, my wife managed to make it through the entire game and had the same complaints as me. This game is an enjoyable experience, and if the controls were better, I would definitely have rated this higher. | video-games_xbox |
Excellent WWII FPS. This is easily one of the best games available for XBox, provided you're already 18 of course, if not stop reading this and instead buy a sports game or something for the Gamecube, since those guys at Nintendo seem to be the only ones really concerned in making games aimed at younger audiences, really. Anyway, in this game you'll find the most realistic WWII experience yet for any console, and playing as a member of the 101st Airborne is simply exciting, the game is just pure realism. That being said, the game can get painfully difficult in the latter levels, even with 4 difficulty levels (3 available, 1 unlockable), though not so much as impossible. Well then, what's this game made of?
The Graphics:
Ah yes, one of the most interesting parts of any game. I won't rate based on a scale, I'll rather point out the main aspects. The way the characters are modeled is scary; their facial animations and body movements are the real deal, with no noticeable blur, pixels or polygons. The scenery is exactly the way you've seen it in say..."Band of Brothers". There's no "pop-up" at all, and the environmental objects are meticulously deatailed, right down to the number of leaves on trees. The only downsides are the sporadical frame rate hiccups.
Sound:
Play this game with Dolby Surround to trully hear the thunderous explosions and rocking gun sounds. These true-to-life sounds enhance the experience by much, and they all are crispy clear and recorded from their real life counterparts, just fire the BAR and you'll see what I mean. This great sound is only marred by a few sound bugs which randomly freeze the sound of a gun firing.
Control:
Just as mentioned in my favorite gaming magazine, the XBox controller is perfect for FPSs, and this is no exception. Moving around is piece of cake, as is issuing orders to your soldiers, and the precision aiming is the best thing that they could've thought of; the enemies' "supression indicator" feature was a clever thing too, it's helpful in knowing when to move, and adds to the realistic experience. Bad spots: later on in the game, when things get heated up, issuing orders can get a bit chaotic. The "situational awareness" mode isn't as useful as it could've been, and a free movement option there would make a big difference.
Topping it all are interesting unlockable extras,which toghether with the above mentioned things, make this game a top choice that's not to be missed by FPS or action game fans, if you don't have it yet, get it immediately, it's an exhilirating experience. | video-games_xbox |
The game that redefined story choices. The Good: The best production values available in games today, superb story, and dialog tree, great RPG/shooting mix up
The Bad: Only one vehicle, very short on BioWare standards
Where should I began? Well let's start with the story. You play (Put first name here) Shepard who is a US Navy Alliance officer and tries to work his/her rank up the galactic ladder. A Turian, named Saren, tries to unleash a supposed extinct alien race that's older than time itself. Can you stop him in time while uncovering the past? With that out of the way let's start with presentation. Mass Effect has some of the best graphics, sound, voice acting, and production values than any game I've ever seen next to Gears of War (courtesy to Microsoft's bank account). The game is packed with tons of extremely detailed textures and models, remarkable never before seen character animations, and BioWare's next-gen dialog engine.
Just like any BioWare game (KotOR, Jade Empire) you decide the fate of the game through your actions with people. You can intimidate them, charm them, or just plain use force. With the dozens of alien races and characters you'll encounter there is limitless possibilities. The game has third person gun play mixed with role-playing elements. You can upgrade your character through an easy to use upgrade menu where you can upgrade tons of stats and attributes. You also have powers that you can use such additionally. Along with you accompanies two other squad members of your choosing and you can give them simple orders. You can hack objects to obtain new weapon upgrades, different types of ammo, and even more armor. There are even a few vehicle sessions as well and this helps mix up game play.
You travel around by using the Mass Effect relay system which can shoot you throughout the galaxy. You can travel to worlds to collect different types of resources, complete side mission and more. Now while all this is wonderful the game does have some major issues. The frame rate can never keep up. It's always skipping and chugging and there's constant texture pop-up as well. There are also random load times every so often. The game is also very short for BioWare standards ending in about 15-20 hours and with all side missions (about a dozen) maybe 25-30. While there is no co-op or online play the game is still fun and is very cinematic and is a wonderful masterpiece. | video-games_xbox |
The best 360 game yet. To think that this game is just a glimpse of how good future Xbox 360 games are going to be makes me very glad I'm an owner.
I read most of the other reviews and most of them hit the nail on the head. Just want to mention quickly however, Ms. Shea, if you haven't discovered it already, you can in fact crouch, both while running ("Roadie running" is done while pressing the 'A' button.) and while behind cover (click the left thumbstick down to alternate between behind-cover standing and crouching.) Ms. Shea is correct in that you really cannot crouch while standing out in the open, but then we all know what happens when you stand still out in the open, right? So how often do you think you'll be doing that?
Also to clarify Mr. Munn's review, the game is a Third Person Shooter, with the camera positioned behind and usually over-the-shoulder of the player's character. The only time you will use a FPS (First Person Shooter) mode is while aiming the "Longshot" Sniper rifle. FPS and TPS are commonly confused, but it can make all the difference when choosing to purchase a game.
Thankfully, the game has an extremely easy learning curve. You get the basics while playing through the Single player story-mode. The story mode plays out very much like the blockbuster action movie, and dispite some reviews, I personally like the dialoge and the voice acting. In fact the game's main character, Marcus Fenix, is given vocal life thanks to the voice talents of John Dimaggio, also know for playing Bender the Robot on TV's own Futurama.
PARENTAL WARNING; THE CHARACTERS ARE SOLDIERS. THEY TALK LIKE SOLDIERS, INCLUDING FOUL LANGUAGE. IF YOUR KIDS HAVE A TENDANCY TO REPEAT PHRASES THEY HEAR ON TV AND VIDEO GAMES, YOU MAY NOT WANT THEM TO PLAY THIS GAME. (UNLESS YOU DON"T MIND THEM USING TERMS THAT COULD PEEL THE PAINT OFF YOUR WALLS.) ALSO MOST PLAYERS ARE OVER 18 YEARS OLD ONLINE. MORE OFTEN THAN NOT THEY WILL NOT BE PLAYING WITH THEIR PEERS BUT PEOPLE MANY YEARS OLDER. CONSIDER WHO THEY MAY BE GETTING EXPOSED TO.
The multiplayer is also fairly innovative. Success in the online multiplayer deathmatches rely heavily on quick tactical thinking, and communication between teammates. With the game mechanics and controls set up so that even the biggest newbie can put down even the most skilled player now and then, tactics and communication become more paramount. The "Lone Wolf" who runs off on his own is often the first to get blown into tiny red pieces. Plus the recent addition of 2 new maps availible on Xbox live (for free, at the moment) increases the enjoyment.
The gore may be a factor for some people. (Which is sad, because it's really well done -as sadistic as that sounds.) People with a really weak stomach, aversion to the sight of blood, or folks who scare easily may want to consider not playing this game. It is violent on a level that makes "Starship Troopers" seem tame. Outside of the gore the graphics are absolutely stunning; there are some scenes that are simply jaw-dropping in both scale and beauty. As an added plus there's no drop off in graphics in multiplayer mode either, the game is still as visually rich as it is in story-mode.
All in all this is easily THE best 360 game I've played yet. It is worth every red cent spent on it.
Please, however, keep in mind that the game also has an ESRB rating of 'M', meaning "mature audiences only" for a reason. I'm not a father yet, but my kids will not even watch me play this game until I deem them mature enough to do so. This game is NOT for children. So unless you let your 13 year old watch "Showgirls" you may want to reconsider letting them play this game.
Don't believe me? Rent it yourself and play through the first chapter of the story mode. Or play five matches in online multiplayer. The first time you get chainsawed into kitty-litter, you'll see what I'm talking about.
And maybe then certain functionally retarded senators can stop blaming video games for violence in kids. | video-games_xbox |
Controversial sequel makes for an entertaining premise and a classic game. This is a hard review to write for someone who hasn't played at least one GTA game in the past. If you don't quite know what to expect, I suggest you YouTube some videos or at least check out the wikipedia page for the game. That said, this game is a definite classic in my collection. It has some elements that I don't like (the fat, hunger, sex appeal, and stamina levels) but they have their use, so they aren't exclusively an appearance role to your character. You have so much freedom in the game, it makes your head spin at times. I can't remember a more in-depth experience in a GTA game like this one..watching for what time your girlfriends are home at, keeping your hunger level down while keeping your fat ratio to a minimum...it's exactly like real life! Which makes me wonder...do we take the lessons that CJ learns and practices throughout the game into real life? And that's where I have a slight problem with the game...
As much as a "rap-video" as this game tries to be, I can't help but feel like I'm supporting a bad stereotype by playing this. It is a bit one-sided and clich to run around with Tec-9's, stealing lowriders, and spending your freetime in the club or in the gym. And the idolization of mob-bosses and pimps is all in here, too. The game doesn't revolutionize in that way at all. I play and enjoy the game for the freedom aspect of controlling a character onscreen the same way I played with action figures in the backyard when I was young. Its so simple and it works, everytime. There's even mini-games to get your mind out of the constant gang-killings and blowing up cop cars. There's nothing like waiting for your girlfriend to get back to her home like a game of GTA pool, IMHO.
Overall, the music is fantastic, the graphics are wonderfully stylistic and refined even on the original Xbox, the controls are hardly clumsy and very responsive, and the experience is a delight. So, cultural-typecasting aside, this is an excellent game that will keep you entertained for weeks while you try to beat it. | video-games_xbox |
Play God with Halo Wars. Play God in Halo Wars
Ensemble Studios accepted the challenge of transitioning the enormously successful Halo franchise from first person shooter (FPS) to real time strategy (RTS) game. In Halo Wars, players no longer assume the identity of Master Chief, Petty Officer of the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) Navy, John-117. Instead, players utilize an omniscient perspective in order to defend Arcadia by playing God.
Set twenty years prior to the original, Halo: Combat Evolved, war is already waging between humans and the Covenant in the year 2531. The Marine forces of the UNSC must engage and defeat the Covenant on the planets of Harvest and Arcadia in order to save the human race. "At this point in time, the Covenant is at its most evil. They are hell-bent on the destruction of humanity," according to the lead writer, Graeme Devine. To stop the threat of extinction, players must evacuate and destroy the planet of Arcadia before the Covenant acquires an artifact of great interest that could spell death for humankind. The fate of the galaxy is in the player's hands.
Reminiscent of StarCraft, players move squadrons of marines around each planet, building bases and killing Covenant ground forces in order to save the day. Unlike StarCraft, Halo Wars has not spent two years working on a game without announcing a release date. Game designers for Halo Wars found the solution for the multiple menus that bog down game play in most omniscient perspective, real time strategy games and presented it to players in record time.
Having units spread across multiple locations can be overwhelming at times, especially when you cannot see them all to defend them. For this, Ensemble created a control scheme that utilizes the multiple buttons on the Xbox 360 controller instead of a series of menus. Pressing the left bumper on the controller allows players to select all available marine units, while the right bumper only selects on-screen units. Units are arranged by category at the bottom of the screen so players can easily select Warthogs, Scorpions, Marines, Hornets or all to use in battle or while constructing a base. There is only one menu and it is for navigating between the different bases that the player builds. Since it is not a complex menu, simply select and click, it doesn't interfere with the flow of the game. Who knew playing God could be so easy?
Of course, there is more to Halo Wars than just the campaign. After spending six to twelve hours playing through the fifteen level campaign, depending upon the level of difficulty and how thoroughly one seeks the skulls, black boxes, and other secondary objectives, there is still co-op campaign, skirmish, and multiplayer to keep one busy.
Playing the co-op campaign with a friend is a great opportunity to seek out additional secondary objectives. The color-coded blue and green elements allow players to discern easily whose bases and troops belong to whom. Communication between players can make the demolition of the Covenant even easier than going it alone. Besides, this game is more fun with a friend.
If one friend is not enough, there are also skirmishes and multiplayer modes to continue honing one's skills building bases and destroying the Covenant. Multiplayer allows up to six players to compete against each other, even taking on the role of the Covenant, a much-awaited opportunity for Halo players. Fourteen different maps for the standard and "deathmatch" skirmish or multiplayer competitions provide exquisite backdrops for the advanced weaponry and mayhem of the galactic future. If your friends simply do not pose much of a challenge, game play can take place with over a million players worldwide. The best Halo Wars player may be almighty, but no one is omnipotent.
What sets Halo Wars apart from other real time strategy games? Ensemble's commitment to incorporating an interesting and detailed narrative to accompany the straightforward game play of Halo Wars helps to set it apart from anything else on the Xbox 360. The graphics are an essential part of making cut scenes interesting for even the narrative-intolerant players. Unfortunately, the beautiful computer-generated imagery does not translate to actual game play because it would bog down the interaction too greatly. It does make the goals of Captain James Cutter and Professor Anders easier to relate to than a singular image and blurb of text that accompanies many games.
If you are tired of subjugating yourself to the whims of an artificial leader, you can take control of multiple forces with Halo Wars and find out what it feels like when power comes easily. Perhaps omniscience and omnipotence go hand in hand.
-0- | video-games_xbox |
Mass Effect - Review. Game: Mass Effect
Genre: Action RPG
If you've ever played Knights of the Old Republic the minute you sit down to play Mass Effect you'll instantly remember the user experience; it's generally the same sort of system with a few improvements on the original.
The general storyline of the game is decent enough and there are plenty of quests to take part in so the casual gamer will enjoy this game but it's nothing spectacular in terms of RPGs.
The gameplay is fairly non-linear; as the user you can choose to put off the main quest as long as you'd like and can visit many of the planets in the galaxy to your hearts content.
Your party consists of you and two others chosen from your crew at any given time but you will only be able to fully control the main character. The other characters respond to general orders, however, and have descent enough AI to help you out from time to time.
As for the RPG aspects of the game, you're given choices of how to respond to dialogs during conversations and depending upon your answer it can push your towards the dark side or the light side... err I mean a renegade or a paragon (very similar to Knights of the Old Republic; same dialog system). Leveling is also very similar where you only need concern yourself with leveling up one character because the others get the experience regardless. This is nice because you don't want to waste time leveling up certain characters but at the same time it trivializes the whole idea of an experience system.
There are some huge flaws which I think this game has (some who play may agree or not here but personally these killed a lot of my enjoyment). The biggest being that while there are tons of side quests and planets to explore... There are barely any enemies on any of the planets. You'll find yourself spending hours in the stupid land rover trying to climb up mountains to get to your destination but never having to fight one living creature most of the time. It's just a huge waste to have a full planet to explore and yet never bumping into any form of life.
The next annoyance is the fact that whenever you want to take an elevator (and the game is loaded with these) you have to spend at least 30 seconds on it each time. Forcing the user to sit and wait to go anywhere. Perhaps this is realistic but it's a trivial and useless thing that just wastes the users time and the developers should have given an easy way to skip these.
That said, you spend a lot of the side quest time driving around or waiting in elevators so it becomes a bit of a hassle and unless you're a completionist you probably will get bored of the lot of them quickly and give up on the side quests altogether.
The main quest, however, is luckily filled with fighting and even the land rover scenes do have a good supply of enemies to fight. The only drawback to the main quest itself is how short it really is. Each main quest area is decent enough but if you remove all the side quests (and the time spent in the elevators) you could finish the game in under a day.
That said, it's worth buying if you're into the Action RPG genre and likely will have some fun with the game. You can always ignore the side quests or complete them over time as needed. | video-games_xbox |
Current and Last Gen Review. I bought this version because I had an Xbox One but wanted to see what the 360 was still capable of. And got the free upgrade for Xbox One. I must say the difference is pretty noticeable, but I wouldn't say mind blowing. It's really impressive to see what an almost 10 year old system can pump out. The graphics look good, and the gameplay is very smooth with minimal lag, (for the most part). Actually some drops in FPS are during scenes indoors, not sure why. So both games play out the same, one with better graphics and a "bit" more stable framerate. It does play a lot like Farcry 3, but IMO the controls are a lot smoother and there are a lot more slick sequences that are a lot more impressive. Fast travel is flawless,, and going from mission to mission is very smooth. Also the game difficulty is nowhere near as ruff as FC3. Also there is a lot more to do and many more free roaming areas to explore, if you just want to mess around. So story wise it's pretty self explanatory, and the main character Pagan Min is quite the sick minded quick whit you really just want to kill. For the sake of doing it!! ha.
I actually enjoy this a little better than Dying Light (which I think could have been released for 360), because graphically this game is just as good (on next gen). So i'm not sure why they didn't just dumb down the last gen versions to 720p and let people who don't have current/next gen consoles enjoy that game as well. This is prettier, less repetitive, and much more versatile. So go ahead and pick it up, now is the perfect time. If you only have 360 it's great (you no longer get the free upgrade however). And if you get it for Xbox One you can't go wrong either. Good game, lots of crafting, weapons, explosions, beautiful (bloody) scenery, and just a LOT of fun to be had overall. Also you can just go hunt wildlife if you want. So if that suits you go ride on a four wheeler and do some hunting. Great game, much better than it's predecessor. | video-games_xbox |
Bioshock 2 Review. I literally played BioShock and BioShock back to back so my experience in Rapture was both fresh in my mind and confusing. In BioShock 2 you are one of the first Big Daddys named Delta. You have awoken from your slumber on a mission to find the little sister that you were paired with. You'll have to go all through Rapture to find her, but you'll have to try to stop the minions of Sophia Lamb, a person who was apparently still running things in Rapture after Atlas and Andrew Ryan met their bitter end. You'll get to utilize the drill as well as a wide variety of weapons, and some very familiar plasmid. You'll also get a chance to interact even more with the little sisters who still hunger for the Adam found in the corpses found throughout the game.
Graphically I have to say I thought BioShock looked good, but the second one looked even better. There was a sort of I've seen this before kind of feel, but at the same time it looked great. The parts where you actually get to go outside and walk the ocean floor also gave us a taste of how much this game could do graphically. The enemy designs really didn't change all that much, but there were a couple of new enemies that you had to get through to survive.
The music was still that 40's-esque music that was haunting and eerie, and yet fit the game perfectly. There was also the ambient noises of the splicers whispering and threatening to keep you on your toes. I do have to say that the voice acting was still top notch for this title.
So the control layout changed ever so slightly. Gone is the ability to accidentally consume eve over and over again as you're trying to hack a security bot. You'll have to open up one of the radial menus with the left or right bumper to refill your eve, unless you want to wait till it runs out and then you'll automatically do it. There was also a change to how you replenished your health, no longer were you using the X button but the right direction on the d-pad.
So you've been re-born, in a sense, in rapture, and find out that there is only one person who can make you feel whole, and ironically its the daughter of the one person that you wish you could avoid at all cost, Sophia Lamb. Sophia Lamb is apparently someone with high ambitions who wanted to make the perfect utopian to create an example for all, but with all the power hungry struggling within all the different groups she was cast out, and then came back after the fall of Atlas and Andrew Ryan. She's the reason why you had to be "re-born". You'll have to fight your way through different sections of Rapture, most of them are areas not seen in the first game. Also apparently everything is connected by an underwater trolley, a piece that wasn't in the first game. You'll once again have the chance to add different plasmids ranging from fire, ice, electricity, swarm, and more. You will also have upgradeable weapons at your disposal (shotguns, speargun, rivet gun, launcher, etc). One thing I do have to say is that once again you'll have a camera to capture your enemies so that you can slowly get upgrades, but this time around its a video camera, and I personally felt that it was a much better fit for what it needed to accomplish. There's so much that I wish I could talk about for this game, but to do so would be giving away key parts to the story. What I can say is that there's going to be at least a couple of twists, you'll be faced with some moral choices (most revolving around little sisters), and you're going to be drawn into this underwater city. This of course will keep you playing for hours.
BioShock 2 continues with a strong story, beautiful graphics, and the depth to draw you in start to finish. Sure there are some small little quirks in the game, especially when it comes to the audio recordings you find throughout the game repeating at weird times, but that's no where enough to keep you from enjoying this game. If you like first person shooters with a little bit of a 1940 twist, and lots of enemies coming out you, you'll like this game. This game gets a 9.3 out of 10. | video-games_xbox |
Another Missed Opportunity At Greatness. You want to own a football game that gives you everything a 2011 video game should be. Great graphics, amazing sound, and tremendous gameplay. Madden 12 has maybe one of those three.
The main focus of any video game should be one thing: Replay value. This game has little. It looks stellar at first from a presentation standpoint, improved graphics and stadium entrances, but once you get to playing the game, it is mediocre at best.
Passing is more difficult than it should be, in a league where even guys like Dan Orlovsky can throw for over 300 yards. The lack of defenders biting on play-action is a joke and takes away a key element of 21st century football. You want to feel like you are playing as Ray Lewis, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Hillis or whomever your favorite player is, but everyone just feels the same. Static and bland. There is no emotion coming from the game, and football is a game of emotion. You have the coaches on the sideline, show them getting emotional and being intense.
The crowd and stadium graphics have been the same for the last six years, how do you not revise that?
The commentary is absolutely horrendous. They should have just gone back to Madden and Summerall with their same ten phrases. EA completely wasted the money they spent on the contracts of Gus Johnson and Cris Collinsworth. They could have been incredible in adding value to the game, instead they make more mistakes than my beloved New York Mets. It is not their fault. There are so many mistakes with the audio, you would think I patched it together instead of a team of paid employees. Embarrassing and inexplicable.
I own a copy of Madden since its debut on the Genesis. Unless, EA makes some radical changes, I will not be buying Madden NFL 13. I'm not alone in that. The lack of competition has killed what should be THE game to play and one of the big reasons you own a HDTV with a HD gaming system.
It is a shame because EA did a great job with FIFA 12 and that game is in my console, my copy of Madden is sadly collecting dust and it should not be during the heart of the NFL season. The only thing I play during the season are the weekly Madden moments. | video-games_xbox |
Ego Draconis: Buy, Rent, or Avoid. Why should you BUY Ego Draconis? If you're a fan of old-style RPGs with lots of quests (many with multiple solutions) and the absolute minimum amount of assistance when it comes to solving quests/puzzles, you'll have a ton of fun. Very early in the game, your character gains the ability to read minds, which provides insight into people's motivations and can alter the outcomes of various quests. And if you like games with a high level of difficulty, run out and buy Ego Draconis immediately! Even on the "Easy" difficulty level, you'll be dying quite a bit. Enemies do NOT level with you, and walking into a fight with enemies even a few levels above yours is guaranteed to end badly for you. The game also has a lot to offer people who enjoy thoroughly exploring every map/dungeon in their games. Ego Draconis offers many rewards to those who take the time to explore every nook and cranny.
Why should you RENT Ego Draconis? Well, how high is your tolerance for bugs and glitches? Because Ego Draconis has quite a few--Larian really should've spent a few more months polishing the game before they released it. I haven't encountered any that were game-breakingly bad, but even minor glitches can get annoying when there's enough of them. There are also a very limited number of areas in the game to travel between, and while the game offers different ways of resolving the quests you take on, there don't seem to be any significant consequences for the decisions you make. Which means that, at least for me, the game doesn't have a lot of replay value.
Why should you AVOID Ego Draconis? The main concept that the game is centered around is that your character can turn into a dragon, and I was pretty excited about that concept--it made the game a must-buy for me. But there are several things about it that I found very disappointing. For one thing, you won't get to turn into a dragon until you've put in a lot of time with the game--it took me just over ten hours to reach that point. Once you can transform, you'll find that your dragon is hemmed in by invisible walls and barriers that limit your freedom of movement. And the game also dictates which enemies you're allowed to attack while you're a dragon. I never experienced the sense of freedom and power that I expected to enjoy while playing as a dragon. To sum up: Ego Draconis is a decent game based on some interesting concepts which could've made it an amazing game...if they had been fully developed. | video-games_xbox |
Slightly better than the last, which means AWESOME. THE GOOD
As might be expected, this game is beautiful! The graphics are magnificent. Presentation is very similar to that in Brotherhood, which is a good thing. They seem to have even improved on little things you never even realized were a bother before. For example, now when you're climbing a wall you can rotate the camera all the way around Ezio and see every bit of the scenery right behind him, instead of only being able to see what's to the left, to the right, directly above or directly below.
Constantinople is huge, and perhaps the most intricate city yet. It's hard to explain, but I really wanted to explore every inch of this map! And I never got the feeling that anything was just "copied and pasted" as I did (if only briefly) with the other games.
The story, as it was in Brotherhood, is interesting but not particularly significant. Still, they did a better job with character development than in the last one and they flesh out both Desmond and Altair's stories a bit.
The missions are a VAST improvement over those in Brotherhood. It should be noted this is coming from someone who found the last game's missions more frustrating than fun, especially when it came to getting 100% completion. It is still challenging and there are frustrating parts, but not near as often as it was in the last game, overall. The "lairs" in particular (though not called "lairs") are more exciting yet somehow not as difficult.
The music is also very nice, much like it was in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. And though the setting isn't quite as colorful (literally or figuratively) as it was in Brotherhood or AC2, it's a nicer environment to roam around in than you might initially think. I especially took note of all the chit-chat and laughter; it seems more believable as well as uplifting, but maybe it's just me.
Now, on to the gameplay! The gun and crossbow now center on their targets even faster than in Brotherhood. There is practically no wait time at all before you can accurately fire. The addition of bombs and the hookblade add considerable enjoyment if not exactly revolutionary.
At first, I didn't like the fact that they changed the controls a bit. Specifically, now Y is your "secondary weapon" button and LS is your Eagle Vision (which is now called "Eagle Sense" for some reason). But, I've come to appreciate the change now that I've gotten used to it. I realized pretty quickly that this only meant I wouldn't have to switch my equipped weapons near as often anymore. While playing Brotherhood, I would sometimes forget I had the gun equipped and ruin the chance at an excellent stealth kill. Not an issue anymore. Though I did wish I could have both my crossbow and hidden blade equipped at once, the gun's lower ammo capacity turned out not to be an issue. Looting guards gives you a fair amount of ammo, and you can always buy more ammo from blacksmiths.
BTW, Eagle Vision/Sense looks much better in this game! You can actually make out the buildings and such that aren't lit up, which makes leaving it on while searching for collectibles and such more of an option.
Recruiting and training assassins is back, but this time they added some stuff to make it a lot more interesting (and more fun). You can assign your assassins to dens in Constantinople and other places around the world, which makes for a lot more gameplay if you're into it. I'll be honest, I wasn't really all that captivated by this mode in Brotherhood but now I'm really enjoying the whole `send them and recruit more' dynamic. As a bonus, while your assassin trainees can die on you (like in Brotherhood) which means you have to go through all the trouble of recruiting and training a replacement, any assassin level 10 or above CAN'T die; so you actually feel like you're training them right, and of course like you can call on them when you actually NEED them instead of just for trivial tasks.
And to top it all off, load times even seem shorter, despite the city feeling/looking about the same size as Rome did in Brotherhood.
THE BAD
As in the last two games, the whole Notoriety/Templar Awareness idea annoys me. I miss the way the first game did it, which was if you lost the group of guards that were trying to kill you, you went back to being anonymous. It felt more free and thus, more fun. Plus, it's not like the Notoriety/Templar Awareness concept makes any sense. How would removing one measly wanted poster from an area, or telling just ONE guy (a messenger, not an official) to stop spreading the word about your crimes be effective in getting all the guards across the city off your tail? What's worse about this one, however, is that you can never fix your notoriety at 0% (by equipping capes, for example) in this one. Fail.
The fight club is still the same god-awful mess it was in Brotherhood. You have to beat up a number of opponents in a very strict time limit to "win the fight", there's no mode in which you can use weapons, and there's no reward whatsoever (save the money you win if you place a good enough bet on yourself, but of course money in this game is easy enough to come by so what's the point).
In the main (single player) game, one of the cities you can assign your assassins to is locked, and the only way to unlock it is to play certain maps in the MULTIPLAYER mode. This was annoying. I don't care about multiplayer, and shouldn't have had to miss out on something in SINGLE player because of it. Granted, it's just a small, inconsequential part of single player, but the icon for the city sticks out and reminds me I don't actually have EVERYTHING, which I could've done without. And a similar annoyance, there's an outfit slot that remains empty until you either buy a special edition version of the game or the Lost Archive DLC. Developers need to stop doing this!
THE UGLY
The armor. The special armor you're supposed to strive to get in this game is ugly (though not as ugly as it was in Brotherhood). I would just once like to acquire some "awesome armor" that is... you know... awesome.
CONCLUSION
As you can see, the good vastly outweighs the bad with this installment. All in all, though I had every predisposition to the contrary when I started the game (I absolutely loved Brotherhood), I would say this one is an improvement, if only slightly. Here's hoping they continue to improve as they have thus far! | video-games_xbox |
The Most Fantastic Console I Have Used. Xbox One is a great console, regardless of what you may hear. Microsoft's monthly system updates keeps it continually fresh and more user-friendly, the game selection is growing exponentially, and the exclusives for Fall of 2014 are tantalizing to say the least. The Kinect has been phenomenal -- this is coming from someone who previously wanted nothing to do with the accessory -- and almost always recognizes my voice on the first try (occasionally, the "Xbox On" command will not work, but not enough to detract from its usefulness. It works 98% of the time for me).
If you are a smartphone user, the Xbox One SmartGlass app is a fantastic peripheral for the system. It enables your phone to be used as a remote, you can make purchases from the Xbox Store while on the go, and you may check your Xbox Live feed at any time. It's really great, and I consider it essential to the ecosystem.
If you are purchasing Xbox One as primarily an entertainment product rather than a gaming product, you will be pleased to know the console offers fantastic voice recognition for channel searching, and instantly switches between channels you say (e.g. "Xbox, go to Comedy Central" will take you there in a split second). Snap-able apps such as Skype can keep the experience fresh, especially for those of you entrenched in Microsoft's ecosystem. If you are a parent looking to keep in touch with your kid while still watching television, it can be very useful.
Other apps include ESPN, MLB, NFL, Netflix, Hulu Plus, Twitch, MLG, and more. As I previously mentioned, you will not be disappointed if you are using this console as your primary entertainment system. This is, of course, before I even mention that it has the ability to control your entire entertainment system. For example, you may configure the console so that when it turns on, it also turns on your cable box and television. Kinect voice commands such as "Xbox, volume up" allow you to turn the volume up or down (or mute) using only your voice -- no need to search for the proper remotes, which is especially convenient if you have as many as I do.
Primarily, I use Xbox One as a gaming console. I have been lucky enough to have owned each and every console since the early 1990s (as well as staying on top of the ever-growing gaming PC market), and I must say that the Xbox One is simply the best console out there for what I am personally looking for. From great games to a wide variety of apps to voice commands, hand gestures, and more, the Xbox One is a powerhouse that will undoubtedly be a staple of my entertainment center for many years to come. | video-games_xbox |
Why would you do this to us, Chris Taylor. If you liked the intricate economy and extreme scale of Supreme Commander and Supreme Commander:Forged Alliance, you probably won't like this game.
Years ago, I heard about Total Annihilation. It was similar to other RTS games, but on an absolutely massive scale. I loved carrying on coordinated assaults of multiple groups of hundreds of units each. It redefined how I looked at all RTS games.
In 2007, I got Supreme Commander expecting more of the same. I couldn't have been more pleased. Incredibly huge maps, beautiful graphics, an unbelievable difference in the size and power of units - everything I could hope for in a large-scale RTS. Some maps were so big, that it could take slower units 10-15 minutes to cross it. Some units took so long to build that it could take an hour for a single low level engineer to complete them. After you completed this massive unit (they were called "Experimentals"), it was always a pleasure to watch it slowly plod across the map and take down hundreds of units and half of the enemy base. Economy and assault required substantial planning and coordination. These were all possible because the game had an excellent interface, and a lot of thought was put into streamlining economy and mobilizing assaults. All of this worked together to provide an extremely rewarding experience. I can say without hesitation that Supreme Commander provided you with the most satisfaction of any RTS when carrying out a successful assault.
Supreme Commander:Forged Alliance was more of the same, but better. They added to the game, optimized and improved it.
Chris Taylor (the creator of these games) had outdone himself each time, so it never even occurred to me that Supreme Commander 2 would be anything less than magnificent. I preordered it without hesitation. The best way to describe the changes from the last game is its been massively "dumbed down". Economic planning is less significant because you must have all of the required resources before you can begin building. Maps are positively tiny compared to the old game. Not nearly as many units to choose from (even if you ignore the lower tech levels in the previous games). Experimentals aren't nearly as powerful or daunting. They only take a couple of minutes to build, and they aren't nearly as satisfying to use. There's less variation in power and size of all units. Almost all of the sense of scale from the old games has been eliminated.
The game feels like it was simplified in every way (graphics, concept, scale, complexity, and multiplayer), so that it could run on the Xbox 360.
Gameplay aside, there are other problems with it - especially for people with poor internet connections. Chris Taylor has always been a proponent of LAN play. Both Supreme Commanders were LAN playable with one copy of the game. His previous RTS, Demigod, was also LAN playable with one copy, and the instruction manual even joked about it. Supreme Commander 2 has no LAN play.
Steam (the digital distribution platform) was, unexpectedly, also a problem. Steam has its problems, but overall, I love it. I use Steam every day. But less than half of the game was actually included on the disk. The disk install was a little over than 2GB, and the "update" was more than the install. I'm sorry, but I don't consider a 2.5GB "update" on the day of release acceptable. I couldn't play it at all on release day. I had to wait till I went to another place with a good internet connection, download it, back it up on a USB drive, and restore the backup on my computer.
Positives
- Excellent game interface - slightly more refined than the previous games
- Glassy smooth graphics on middle of the road hardware.
- Good campaign (so far)
- Not possible to bring your production speed to a halt
Negatives
- Overall lack of large scale
- Substantially fewer units
- Simplistic economy requires more maintenance
- Steam can be a problem for some
- No LAN play
If you haven't played Supreme Commander:Forged Alliance, I would recommend it over Supreme Commander 2. I will not be buying any more Supreme Commander games unless there are some MAJOR changes.
This is a good RTS, but it just doesn't deserve the name "Supreme Commander".
UPDATE 10-7-2010: Against every expectation, 7 months after release, they've addressed at least one of my major complaints about this game - the economy. Now, you can queue up as many units as you like in advance without worrying about having the resources at that moment. From the update description, it seems that it still deducts the full amount immediately upon the start of construction. The old games had a pay-as-it-was-built system. Between, the two, each has its positives and negatives, but this update is a MASSIVE improvement over what the game shipped with.. I'm going to have to play this game again. | video-games_xbox |
Great Game! But WTF is up with the widescreen. I picked this game up on day 1. I was like a lot of other 360 owners and I was getting pretty bored with my collection of games. The first thing that I noticed when I started up my game is that there are two black bars on the top and bottom of my screen. I'm not to the point where I want to buy a HDTV yet so I'm on a 32in Sony Trinitron. A very nice, regular tv. I got past the opening movie and I was expecting to see the black bars disappear but they didn't. After 20 minutes of playing they still hadn't disappeared. So I restarted my 360 and checked my display settings. Yup I had everything setup correctly, so WTF is up with the stupid widescreen perspective? Well after searching on the internet and talking to ubisoft, there isn't anything I can do about it except go spend a grand or two on a HDTV. Some people don't mind the black bars but I friggin HATE them. So I'm buying a dell 2005FPW monitor and hooking the 360 up to that. But it is something to keep in mind since I haven't seen anything else that warns you about this if you have a regular tv. Other than the black bars, I really enjoy the game. It really makes you feel like you're in the middle of the action. One of the surprise explosions almost gave me a heart attack. It was awesome to get that immersed in a game like this.
Oh and just a special note to the moron that reviewed the game and gave it one star stating "bang bang kill a mexican, bang bang kill me...etc..." If you don't like military games then don't bother reviewing the game, you are obviously not going to like it. It wouldn't matter if it was the greatest military game that has ever been created, you still wouldn't like it. I love the bang bang thing. MORON! oh and you suggested chess or reading a book? So an accurate review for those activities would be?... Slide slide Check. Slide slide checkmate. or maybe i want to read a book. flip flip turn the page, flip flip turn the page. You are a complete TOOL! | video-games_xbox |
Buggy, unstable, and just plain boring. There are two reasons every retailer is DEEPLY discounting this game; (1) it's buggy, freezing at the very end of random levels to drop you back into the main menu, requiring you to replay the entire hour-long level again, and (2) it's just plain boring, and not very fun at all. The constant crashing actually wouldn't be half as annoying, but for the 10-15 minute long cut scenes that Rockstar intentionally requires you to sit through. Half the game is cut scenes in between set piece shootouts. It's absolutely linear, there is no choice in how you approach the missions, and every shootout is followed by a long, uninteresting cut scene you cannot skip. You can't skip the cut scenes even after you've beaten the level once and you're replaying it, which is extra-super fun when you are replaying the level only because the game crashed you back to the main menu, yet again. Even ignoring the fact that the game doesn't even really work, Rockstar attempted to be dramatic but missed wide, and Max Payne is just plain boring. I thought about trying to return or exchange it, but it's a waste of time, and I wouldn't want to play it again, even if it worked.
That said, shame on Rockstar for shipping this garbage before it was ready for prime time. This is the only game I have ever crashing like this, straight of out the box, on an Xbox360. The last level I can get to consistently load from the main menu is Chapter 3, and the game even allows you to load directly to the 16th checkpoint, which appears to have occurred after the level is cleared and your character has flown away from the level. You are trapped on a soccer field with no guns, no way to get off, and if you step too far in any direction, you drop into "blue hell." Seriously? They sold this game to customers knowing it ran like this on a simple, common console? Rockstar clearly knew this game was a dog, and slammed it out, hoping the marketing would make up for the game's bugginess. When Rockstar releases GTA V sometime next year (?), you might want to wait a bit before buying to make sure it actually works.
Life lesson, when someone is selling a $60 game for $25, less than six months after it comes out, there's a reason. | video-games_xbox |
A huge step up from the last installment. ... I wasn't really into the last stuntman game that hit the market (Forever ago), it was to my memory, very short and painstakingly frustrating. This game, however, is a total blast! I rented it (Something I do on a regular basis these days and would advise everyone to start doing, games are rarely worth 60 bucks anymore)a couple of nights ago and my roommate and I have played it non-stop since. The real challenge is that so much is going on all around you at once you really have to focus to complete what you would think is a real easy 2 minute scene. You have to hit your marks precisely while gas tankers are flipping in front of you, buildings are collapsing, cops are chasing you, etc.
You work on verious different 'movies' or 'commercials' that are all suspiciously familiar: Dukes of Hazzard, James Bond, Dante's Peak, a 70's cop movie, a Rambo-esque action movie and more.
There is plenty of extras to unlock for the perfectionists out there, and you'll probably find yourself going back over past movies just to nail that tricky scene that you just didn't feel that you gave your all to last time around. Don't be fooled by the one reviewer on here that said it was short! He must have the demo, this game is plenty bigger than most games out nowadays and much much more challenging (I complete Tomb Raider and Splinter Cell, Double agent each in a weekend, which is how long I have owned this now and I'm still not done playing) and certainly a lot more fun.
Cons? I honestly can't think of any. I guess some people may find the difficulty a little inconsistent (Some later missions are easier than previous ones) but that's really neither here nor there. My roommate faired better in missions where timing was more important than showmanship, and I was the opposite, so that's where I think the difficulty can appear a little off.
I'd certainly recommend giving this one a go! Best game I've played in a year or so. | video-games_xbox |
A True GTA Killer. Playing Saints Row 2 makes playing GTA 4 seem like writing a term paper. If you like the GTA-style games, this is a MUST HAVE. The game is loaded to the gills with fun,fun,fun. It has tons of awesome and ridiculous activities to do, a decent-length campaign, and a fun world to roam around in.
Let's compare the side missions of GTA 4 vs SR 2
GTA 4 side missions:
deliver drugs... which means basically driving from A to B to C
find specific cars
kill pigeons? (UGH!)
street race
(I'm sure I'm forgetting some)
Saint's row 2 side missions:
septic avenger: ride in the back of a sewage truck spraying the city down with turd-sludge! This is by far my favorite side mission.
trail blazing: drive a quad runner while wearing a fire suit. There's a countdown- you add seconds by running into pedestrians and vehicles (which makes them EXPLODE!). This is fun but hard.
Jumping out of helicopters! You are supposed to land on a randomly chosen vehicle.
racing
find specific cars
protect a drug dealer (same as saints row 1)
racing
find hidden items
DEMOLITION DERBY
fight club (beat up dudes for prizes)
(I'm sure I'm forgetting some)
Other goodies in SR 2:
customize most vehicles
own boats, helicopters and planes
own monster trucks and semis!
character and posse customization
zombie shooting mini-game
easter eggs
easter eggs
easter eggs
Things that GTA 4 did better:
less glitches
bigger (but more boring) map
bored me
things that are not so awesome about SR 2:
the game freezes once in a while. Not a lot, but when I played, it liked freezing at cutscenes that happened at the end of missions... meaning you had to play it over again (ARGH!). Be sure to save, save, save.
the map isn't all that big. At least it isn't miles of gray, dull, similar buildings.
In summary- SR 2 is a really awesome game. If you like sandbox games, I'd say that this is a MUST HAVE. This game only loses points for the annoying freezing glitch. | video-games_xbox |
MX Vs ATV in name only. DO NOT BUY!!! Something is wrong here and Nordic is hiding info about this game. There is no way the same team that made Alive worked on this game. They might have the Rainbow name but the main guys behind Alive could not have possibly worked on this game. Your bike feels like it had a stroke compared to Alive. Using the right stick to move your body doesnt do much except in the turns. You have no feel as though your wheels are connected to the ground, no feeling of hooking up. There is no scrubbing and you can barely move the bike in the air. Basically you just pre load over all the jumps and to pre load you move the right stick down and then up at the face of jump. The faster you move the right stick down then up the more pre load you get, the slower you do it the less pre load. This is a horrible system for pre load compared to Alive where it mattered how far you move the right stick down over the jumps determined how much pre load you would get, much much more natural. It seems as though the guys who made this game started from scratch on the physics engine. The game is painfully boring and I have never been more upset in purchasing a game in my life. I wanted to buy the game so maybe we would get another MX VS ATV for ps4 and X1 but since there is no way its the same group of guys working on this franchise now nobody should buy this game for that reason. There is absolutely no way the people who made Alive would release this garbage, anybody with any sense would realize the game is boring and terrible right off. If it is some of the same guys on the team then the ones responsible for Alive's physics are not there and they didn't give the tech to Nordic. You cant even get the bike to wheelie by holding back on the right stick and accelerating like it would on Alive. Also the bike does not react to the obstacles and terrain as they did in Alive, in alive the bikes would wheelie all of a sudden in certain situations making you either hold right stick forward or letting off the gas or a combination of both. In Alive you really had to work the right stick to keep the bike under control, with this game you don't have to at all the bikes dead. I thought that they just wanted it different than their last games and I would figure out how to play and get control of the bike but there is nothing there I tried everything. In Alive you need to constantly scrub most of the jumps and each one to different degrees, in this game you need to constantly pre load over all the jumps and if you come close to casing a jump just pre load all the way and you pretty much will make the next jump. Also the full pre load sends you flying way too much and does not feel or look right. Dont be foolish like me and buy this game thinking you might have fun with it. I felt like a zombie playing it for about 2.5 hours unlocking upgrades the gameplay is that boring.
This franchise is dead I will have to get MXGP to fulfill my MX gaming needs. | video-games_xbox |
Why am I still addicted to Madden, after playing this. Sega and ESPN did an excellent job in the area of presentation, graphics, and short term appeal. But what they didn't focus on this time was the area of play-control. In other words, I just felt that the game wasn't too user friendly. Don't get me wrong the game itself and the games flow very smoothly. But 2K5 suffers a little bit when it come to executing plays. In comparison to Madden 04, it came up a little bit short in that area. Madden 04 was much more user friendly and less complicated, playing a game or season Madden just seemed much more fun for me as a fan. 2K5 has some great features such as the Sports Center highlights and the play by play commentators are extremely accurate. However, they could have done away with The Crib feature. I found The Crib to be pointless and remedial. If your playing during the season, don't even bother trying to use the Trading Block, the trading block feature is extremely complicated and I quickly lost my patience. It's difficult to update your rosters on 2K5 too. As a consumer it shouldn't take more than one - two days to be comfortable with the game. And finally what is the point of the Day to Day preparation from Monday until Sunday? This feature ultimately became extremely redundant. Can we just get to the game day? I believe in making games as realistic as possible but come on? Madden seemed to make more sense with improving your players every season via Training Camp. Playing this game really made me appreciate some of other features on Madden such as Playmaker controlling and the Owner Mode (which still can't be touched). I'm not here to bash 2K5 by any means, I just wanted to be honest. Playing 2K5 is a difficult transition for someone who's accustomed to Madden to make. Overall 2K5 is initially appealing due to its realistic graphics, $20 price tag, and presentation. But 2K5 suffers tremendously in play quality, off season moves, and other schematics that aren't necessary at all. I almost went back to return this game after a week of playing it and banging my head against the wall in frustration. But I think what I'll do is continue to wait for Madden 05 and trade this one in to reduce my price. 2K5 is decent, and probably fun for those who aren't pure NFL enthusiasts (casual fans) but I honestly believe that Madden 05 will most likely shatter 2K5 overall, in terms of being a pure fun game. | video-games_xbox |
Just what I was waiting for. Well, I had been waiting for this to come out for several months. And I can honestly say I am not dissapointed, and it fits my needs just fine.
Lets start off with the things I do like about this headset. The look of it is pretty neat, and professional. And it connects to the console with really not too much hastle (once you get used to it, anyways. To clear that up for you, you have to push the sync button on the headset itself, and on the Console to get it all ready to go.)
The sound, to my ears, sounds a bit clearer then the wired headset. The volume seems to be around the same. I was a little worried that it wouldn't be loud enough, because the speaker itself doesn't get totally flush against your Ear. But no worries, it sounds just fine. Also, when muted, it makes a little audible tone every 20 seconds or so just to let you know that it is indeed still muted. It's not loud enough to annoy you though, so nothing to worry about it. It also makes different (different as in, more then one beep in sequence) to let you know when the battery is getting low, and when it's just about to die on you. And when you goto the Xbox 360 guide menu, right next to the Wireless controller battery meter is now a Wireless headset battery meter.
Now, for a few things I don't like. The way you charge it is through (a supplied) AC adaptor. I thought for sure they would do some sort of charging through USB. And about the ear loop (and I don't use Bluetooth headsets so, I'm not used to using things like this), no matter which of of the two different sized ear loops I used, I never can get the feeling that it will not fall off of my Ear if I were to shake my head back and forth. But I should say that it does not hurt my ear whatsoever. It's just a little loose feeling on your Ear.
To sum up my review, I would just like to say again that it does not hurt my Ear. And a few things stopped me from giving it a perfect score of 5 star. First, I find the price to be a bit steep at 60 dollars. And second, the loose feeling on the Ear -- while it doesn't impair it at all in function, does feel odd. Other then that, it's great. Don't be afraid to pick one up. | video-games_xbox |
Best 360 game. I've never played any of the previous ghost recon games so I wasn't sure what to expect. I was extremely satisfied with all the elements of this game. Gameplay is somewhat like full spectrum warrior where you give your squad commands and tell them where to go. And here you have control of the captain's actions. Meaning you can shoot and do things yourself. I had difficulty with the control and command at first, but once you get used to it, you'll be shouting out orders to your squad and sometimes a bradley assault vehicle, while turning the enemy's flank with ease. Or at least trying to. I also noticed that enemy reacts well when they see you or your squad. They will lay down a supressing fire and then seek cover. This is a step up in game play that really seems to simulate a real world situation. But there are certain situtations where the enemy A.I. leaves himself out in the open very prone to fire. All in all a good mix that makes the game fun and challenging.
The graphics in this game are what stand out the most in terms of the next generation. I used to look at cut-scenes from the older systems and wish they would be in-game. It's a reality now. The character models are very well done. The details of Mexico city is also laid out very well. Another thing is the sunlight and how it effects the visuals. Very life like and I must say this is the best looking game to hit the 360.
Multiplayer is pretty well done, although I only played a team deathmatch type game for about a half our. I know there's a two player co-oop mode where you and someone else can square off against bots. I know there are other multiplayer modes, but I have yet to get into them. I'm too busy with the single player campaign. You can change the appearance of your soldier for on-line play. Customizing player looks was a great idea and is just another great part of this game. If you're not into tactical military games then maybe look elsewhere, but if you are then this game is for you. | video-games_xbox |
Back on track. Created as a stand alone expansion for Ghost Recon 2, Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike, is crammed full of high quality content that will surely satisfy fans of Ghost Recon 2, as well as newcomers to the Ghost Recon series.
Game play in SS is essentially identical to that found in Ghost Recon 2. For those who found the changes to GR2 disappointing you may find this better if you have adjusted at all. For those who are new to the Ghost Recon series, Summit Strike is essentially an tactical outdoor military shooter set in the near future. It can be played in either a 3rd or 1st person perspective which is quite a nice option.
The single player campaign guides you through 11 missions based in Kazakhstan. The levels are vast and you can tackle the objectives in any order you choose. This gives the missions an open-endedness that I find very liberating. There's a nice diversity of environments, ranging from snowy mountains to cities to deserts. The weather effects like sandstorms, rain, and falling snow are all very well done. Most of the missions will have you leading a four man squad, but there are a few where you are alone (but are equipped with better weapons and equipment). The campaign can get pretty tough at times, but luckily you can save at any point in the mission. You can also replay single player missions in different modes, including Helo-Hunt, where you must survive against waves of enemy helicopters. Overall the campaign is highly enjoyable and superior to the linear and shallow one that was used in Ghost Recon 2.
Xbox LIVE multiplayer is arguably the best aspect of the game. There are 24 unique and interesting multiplayer modes, and approximately two dozen maps. All the levels from the single player campaign are available as maps in multiplayer, and there are also some fan favorites back from Ghost Recon 2. The maps are diverse and come in all different sizes. There are also various co-op modes, but I haven't tried those yet. The tactical shooter game play works especially well on live. In order to survive online you must have a keen eye, good aim, and be able to proceed with caution and under cover. In team games you have to use communicate and cover each other's back. All of these elements come together to form a fantastic addition to the GR series. | video-games_xbox |
Great for Consoles. I was a little skeptical about getting this game for Xbox 360 at first, because I had only played Diablo 1 and 2 on PC. I was worried the controls and the entire experience might not translate well to consoles, but I checked out a bunch of reviews before I decided to purchase this game for Xbox, and I'm glad I did. Most critics and fans say this version is even better than the PC version currently, because they have revamped and improved a lot of things for this release (compared to the PC version).
For one, it is easier to get good items from chests/quests/monster-slaying because they have removed the Auction House, which was basically just a crappy way for Blizzard to make you pay real-world money for decent armor and equipment. Now the game is actually playable and fun on its own without forcing you to invest extra money in micro-transactions just to be competitive.
Also, because skill mapping and quickslot abilities are somewhat more limited in this game due to the Xbox/PS3 controller, it can be really fun to mess around and play with endless builds and combinations of skillsets for each class. Leveling up feels really rewarding, especially as you progress and gain all your new skills and upgrades. I could literally sit around for hours just toying around with new builds for my character, testing and seeing which skills are strongest and harmonize best together.
I'm sure the graphics are better on the PC version, but everything looked great to me in this version, and honestly, nobody really plays Diablo for the graphics anyway. The gameplay itself is just pure fun! The game is varied and there are tons of quests, mini-dungeons, and side areas for you to explore. With the five very different and distinct classes, you don't run the risk of getting bored anytime soon and there are nearly endless ways to customize your character and playstyle.
All in all, I think Blizzard learned from the things their customers didn't like upon the initial PC release, and they really got it right with this version. Looking forward to the DLC and playing this game for months and months to come! | video-games_xbox |
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