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Not working at all plus is and scam. I buy this product because I wanna to save a few bucks, however I spend a lot of money because I pay for a scam, every scam is too expensive, I could use the HDD but start freezen my nephew Xbox every 5 min, I start searching for info on how to fix it. I live in Florida my nephew lives in South America, so returning the product is not very practical, well I start looking for a solution to the problem, someone here post that the problems have been fix it after a quick format, I tried formatting the HDD using Xbox Slim Console, nothing should happen, wrong is not working at all, I open the enclosure, notice it says WD Scorpio Blue, the Model number is WD3200BEVT-66ZESTO, so I went to WD web site look up the serial in many different countries, China, Thailand, United States, Venezuela, every were, but the serial is invalid, doesn't exist, I hook the hard Drive to my CPU, the computer recognize the hard Drive as seagate, obviously to me, this is a forgery, they are making pirate (imitation) WD HDD, please even if it works, is gonna fail, is a seagate HDD working with a Western Digital sticker on it. Please do not buy, is a scam. Stay away I'm gonna try to return this, it may be too late, because I tested late. But is not to late for you, don't buy it.
6/14/2014
Ok I have to say I make a mistake saying is Seagate HDD, went you do the XBOX 360 compatibility firmware you actually change the serial number of the hard drive and the brand, that's the reason my computer read it Seagate, however it is true I don't find the model anywhere the model of the drive says WD3200BEVT-66ZESTO, I could not find it, and the serial number is also unable to find, don't exist, so I still believe is some kind of forgery, I bought and use hard drive for the same price and ran all the test, I ran the firmware compatibily for Xbox 360 and is working find for now. So the advice if buy a new hard drive, you will know you buying something new.
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Western-Digital-500-GB-AV-25-SATA-3-Gb-s-5400-32-MB-Cache-Bulk-OEM-AV-Hard-Drive-WD5000BUDT/dp/B003AJZT18/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Western Digital 500 GB AV-25 SATA 3 Gb/s 5400 32 MB Cache Bulk/OEM AV Hard Drive- WD5000BUDT</a>
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Western-Digital-320GB-Scorpio-Blue-SATAII-5400RPM-2-5IN-8MB-Bulk-OEM-Hard-Drive-WD3200BEVT/dp/B0011U65F2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Western Digital 320GB Scorpio Blue SATAII 5400RPM 2.5IN 8MB Bulk/OEM Hard Drive WD3200BEVT</a> | video-games_xbox |
Wipeout delivers a good, full body workout and healthy laughs. <div id="video-block-R3V8JJ3X8CRQY" class="a-section a-spacing-small a-spacing-top-mini video-block"></div><input type="hidden" name="" value="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/B1HiYeIWB6S.mp4" class="video-url"><input type="hidden" name="" value="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61AMXQ-eV3S.png" class="video-slate-img-url"> If there ever was a TV show produced for 7- and 8-year old boys, ABC's crazy obstacle course game show, Wipeout, is it. Co-host John Henson need only exclaim "Big Balls" and my two sons are on the floor giggling to exhaustion.
We purchased the Xbox 360 Kinect last Christmas specifically because we wanted our family to get off the couch and play more full body, motion control games. We got great workouts with <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Sonic-Free-Riders/dp/B002I0HEI6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Sonic Free Riders</a> and <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Kinect-Sports/dp/B002I0JBVY/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Kinect Sports</a> but we were never entertained and laughed as much as we do playing <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Wipeout-In-the-Zone/dp/B004T7PWZ8/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Wipeout In the Zone</a>.
The game features more than 50 obstacles, including the iconic Big Balls and Smack Wall Sweeper. Co-hosts John Anderson and Jill Wagner join Henson to complete a realistic audio experience. They are in fine form will all the crisp verbal jabs and double-entendres you come to expect from the TV show.
The game provides both two-person and four-person multiplayer support, so the entire family can play together. You can hurl objects at your opponent as they weave through the obstacle course. And you can capture the wipeouts with replays (although your patience with this will depend on whether you were the person wiping out).
Rating: Five stars.
BTW: Please forgive the video quality. Our youngest son, Kou, is running through the Wipeout course. I was using my Flip video and didn't take into account the glare off the TV and the sunlight coming through the window. The room is set up for the best Kinect tracking not for my video reviews. Anyway, the picture quality improves as the video progresses. | video-games_xbox |
It really works, if you apply yourself. I just received this about 3 weeks ago and am very pleased with it and would have given it 5 stars if it were not for a couple of things.
1. It would be much better if they would provide more details on setting it up and why they have you doing some of the things they do. Such as the riff repeater, which is very handy once you get it setup to your playing level and then you can make changes to it as you improve.
2. They should rate the songs in the menu for your playing level, beginner thru expert so a beginner doesn't pick one that is so hard they might get discouraged. (Such as Santana's, Smooth)
However once you get past that and you keep practicing regularly, you will see improvement and that will encourage you to keep going. Something as little as being able to play a simple riff will make a big difference in your confidence level. I would however suggest getting a chord chart and keeping that in front of you as you learn so you'll learn what chords you are playing. That's one of the details they leave out, which I only assume is to keep from making it too overwhelming for a beginner.
I do think the 60 day challenge is probably very accurate since after only a couple weeks I am doing much better than I thought I would. Just don't expect to be playing like Clapton, Beck, Trucks, Bonamassa or White after 2 months but you might be able to play 16 Saltines if you practice enough.
It comes with a good selection of songs and you can buy more on UPLAY at $2.99 a piece which I figure is pretty fair. I suppose they have issues with licensing agreements from certain artists because out of the artists I mentioned above the only one I saw was Jack White (which comes with it). The one band missing that I would have expected to see was ACDC which is a bit of a disappointment because I would imagine those are pretty easy to learn.
Overall, totally worth it and for someone almost 60 I've found you can teach an old dog new tricks. | video-games_xbox |
Pretty good game, that is not at all what the year long ad campaign made it out to be. Don't listen to all the one star reviews--even the ones that actually complain about the game and not other nonsense. At worst this game could be considered a 3 star game by some, and surely no lower than a 2 by others.
In the defense of the utter disappointment around however, I should point out this game is NOT what it has made itself out to be. Let me address these issues and some other negative issues right off the bat.
"A Parkour-influenced game where you need to move to stay alive!"
No. No it is not. You climb a BIT more fluidly than Call of Duty (COD), you have infinite sprint, and you have a pretty handy slide button (Crysis fans rejoice!). That's it. This game is not about climbing over rooftops and taking down opponents mid-hurdle. I can think of one level where it was near-essential to do a bit of climbing--every other level can be traversed normally. There are considerably fewer hidey-holes than in COD actually.
"NEVER stop moving! Move more than you shoot."
An offshoot of the previous misconception. GETTING to the objectives takes a whole lot of running, especially when respawning from the level's halfway point (extremely aggravating, but this makes Medics extremely important in every mission!). But once you get to virtually any objective, you either need someone on your team performing a timed sequence, you need to prevent the other team from doing so. This results in a more King-of-the-Hill styled atmosphere. This is not a bad thing, and it's interesting how an area you secured for 5 minutes can suddenly be turned around on you--but it makes the mentioned advertisement just flat out wrong. You will get the vast majority of your kills and stay alive longer by "camping", albeit a bit more keeping on your toes than just laying in prone as seen in COD.
"You choose which side wins. YOU dictate the story."
Oh? Thanks. Now make me care. It was swell of the developers to give a minor identity to each side, so it's not just "Good guys and Bad guys" or a historically national equivalent (Americans and Germans/Soviets/etc). It worked. And both factions are visibly distinguishable--this isn't Red vs Blue (or Beige vs Silver, Crysis).
But the story is WEAK. You know that preview video you saw about the story? That IS the story. Add in a about 5 minor plot points (with slight variation for the other faction's perspective), complete with an utterly forgettable cut scene. You will not care about any of the characters. The most enjoyable character is yourself, who plays no part in the story other than being there. At the end of every mission, you see your avatar doing his thing, and you the viewer goes "Hey there's that guy again! He must be pretty good. They should give him a bigger role..."
The main campaign (about 7 fairly difficult levels, each faction) ends and allows you to play 2 "What If?" missions--basically, for example, you play a level designed for the Resistance campaign, but this time from the Security's perspective. Yes, all those one star reviews that claimed the campaign is identical on either side were actually wrong. Just not very. "What if the Resistance leader didn't escape?" isn't exactly "What if Spider-Man kept the symbiote?" or "What if Cloud died at the end of disc one?". It's more like "What if Spider-Man kept wearing the black clothes?" or "What if Cloud had to actively climb down and achieve a pretty similar result?"
There is no story here. Only a basic plot, and enjoyably distinguishable factions. You will not be immersed in this world, but you will notice it.
--Gameplay--
The single player campaign is short but sweet, and very repayable since it is also basically a multiplayer level (you can also do Freeplay multiplayer which does not follow the campaign). Movement is just as smooth as the likes of COD of Left4Dead2.
Teamwork is essential here. You don't have to worry about the game turning into someone's "Watch how many kills I can get", your kill count isn't as widely celebrated here even if they manage it. You need to work together, you need every class' buffs and resupplies, you need every class to complete specific missions. You can switch class at any command post, but half the time its best to stick with one you're most comfortable with. (To people who complained that their guns were weak compared to enemy--YOU'RE NOT USING THE BUFFS! The engineer damage buff practically doubles your firepower. Likely you aren't using health and armor buffs either. This game is DESIGNED around give and take and staying together. Play a different game if that's not something you'd like)
Remember what I said about camping? Well, it's NOT COD-styled camping. It's a team effort holding a position and covering each other. Anyone staying in one waiting for people to walk by so they can one-shot is in for a sour surprise. SOME points are easier for a specific faction to camp than the other, which is aggravating, but there are usually ways around it. The cheapest I've seen is certain Mounted Machine Gun Nests, but a coordinated strike or a quick individual can take them out.
Teamwork is the name of the game, but no where near to the extent of L4D2. At best, it's a longer-paced L4D2 Versus mode.
My biggest complaint is about the guns though. They aren't separated into identifiable classes; and even though there a decent number, the true variety is lacking. Haters say what you will about COD, no other game has finely tuned idiosyncrasies into a weapon's appearance, handling, and performance as that franchise. Even if half of them are throw-away....
Also, there is no tutorial mode! The tutorial videos are probably the best I've seen in any game--just pay close attention, and be prepared to lose anyway! You're thrown right into a full blown mission off the bat, which is probably where many poor reviews came from. Picking up the pace of the game and how to coordinate and buff each other takes a few tries. Additionally, many buffs, perks, and deployables aren't unlockable until level 5 and higher (this happens quickly though! Even if you lose, you gain XP).
Now, if you may allow this fanboy to praise COD once more, there is no limit the "perks" you can use. Universal perks can ALL be unlocked. Only after you enter a class do you delve into advantages and disadvantages, but these class perks can ALSO all be unlocked. If you're an engineer, you're the same as any other engineer out there, only worse if you haven't unlocked yet. DO NOT play with people who are higher level than you, it is too unfair. COD does a much better job at spreading around perk advantages and disadvantages, even Pro perks and high level people.
Note: There is also the ability to change your characters "body type". Medium (normal looking, performs how you would expect and FPS avatar to), Heavy (insanely large looking, very slow, supposedly takes more damage but not a whole lot, and can carry heavier weapons), and Light (very skinny looking, faster, jumps higher, dies INSTANTLY). Once you pick your body type, that's IT until the end of the level, no changing at command posts. While this makes some sense as it is your BODY and not equipment, it doesn't exactly make sense that your in-game character is going through weight variations every other level in the campaign, nor that you can respawn for that matter! Once in a blue moon you may say "I wish I had Light..." or something, but these moments are hard to predict and do NOT pay off. If anyone can tell me otherwise, please do so. After experimenting, I stayed in Medium 100% of the game. It's not worth sacrificing all that for an entire match.
Additional gripes: You can't choose which class to respawn in. You spawn right by a command post, but it'd be nice to shave those seconds off. In the same vein, while laying bleeding on the ground, you can't reload! I'll accept not firing, but when a medic revives you, and both of your clips are on empty, that 1.5 second of reloading will just get you killed again. I find myself waiting to revive myself, or revive and running.
So. Even though I'm a big fan of COD, I found this game to be a great change of pace. I don't think it will go down in history, I don't think I'll play it AS much as my other favorites, but it's thoroughly enjoyable in spite of it's drawbacks (and the fact it is a different game than it claimed to be). Were I more jaded I'd say the game is a 3.5, but too many people have crapped over this rather fun experience. What it does, it does very well. Maybe it's a stepping stone in the team-centric FPS, but it's one I'll gladly hop along. | video-games_xbox |
The worst of both worlds. When I first heard that Criterion was taking over the Need for Speed series, I was thrilled. I love the Burnout games and had played every single Need for Speed game since the very first release. I was sure that the Need for Speed franchise could bring in the smooth realistic handling and car upgrades while the Burnout series would add in the spectacular crashes.
Well what had really happened was the the handling of the cars stayed floaty and arcadish beyond all reason with all cars feeling and sounding very much the same and the crashes from burnout are few and far between due to how the mechanics of crashing a car were implemented.
First, you cannot ram your opponents off the road like you could in burnout. So as a speeder you can ram cops but that's it. Worse yet cars now have a health bar, so in a bizzare fashion it is possible to ram a car in the rear over and over until the HP is exhausted and the car flips for no reason. Annoyingly enough this is what you often have to resort to because PITing a car is exceptionally hard due to how arcadish the cars feel. Ramming a car perfectly in the rear wheel and pushing it simply causes is to slide into a light drift instead of losing traction like it's supposed to. Being able to PIT cars is something that worked great in the original NFS, hell it even works every single GTA game and even in APB with all of it's physics issues. No piting a car in NFS though - no, here you have to use the road blocks etc. To me personally, the road blocks, spike strips etc actually distract from the thrill of driving - well had there been one in the first place anyway. Oh and before I forget, spike strips, road blocks etc, are nerfed to uselessness compared to most wanted. In most wanted hiting spike strips meant game over, here it means you spin out - whoop dee doo.
I am having a very tough time continuing to play the game, there is just no thrill to the chase or the escape, no desire to get new cars as they all feel the same and no storyline to advance so...why play? | video-games_xbox |
Xbox one trouble. Overall we've been frustrated by the xbox one. The original Xbox and Xbox 360 had decent console hardware designs with real buttons that gave user feedback when pressed. The xbox one has no tactile buttons and little to no user feedback when ejecting a disk, connecting a controller wirelessly, or using the power button.
The problems first started with the controllers that would not stay "connected" to the console after a normal soft shutdown. This means the controllers won't soft start the console or connect when soft starting from the front of the console. Only by hard rebooting the console would the controllers be able to connect. This happened for both the controller supplied with the console as well as an additional controller purchased separately. After twittering with tech support, I was instructed to perform a controller update and an obscure link from the Xbox.com site was sent to me. Followed the instructions,but the problems persisted. Contacted Xbox support again and was asked if I had removed the batteries while the controllers were updating over the USB cable. Of course that detail was not in the instructions. After trying the third time to update the controllers it seemed to improve the connection issue.
A few weeks later, when starting a game from the local DVD drive, an Xbox Live update blocked my ability to start the game. In fact all local games were blocked by the Xbox Live update despite the fact we don't use Xbox Live. So, after the forced update, I was asked to re-enter my gamer tag password. Of course, none of my passwords worked and the account is now locked. I contacted Xbox support over twitter again and was told to log into xbox.com with the email account associated with the gamer tag. When logged in with the email address shown as associated with the locked gamer tag, it shows my xbox360 gamer tag and not the one that's locked. After twittering to xbox support, this time I was told to contact Xbox phone support. During my called with Xbox support, the call agent was incredulous that I was having these problems and that someone would want to use their Xbox offline without having to log into the Live account. Of course, in the process of "helping" me unlock my account, he hung up on me in the middle of our conversation. That was after a minimum 15 minute wait in the first place.
I tried to return the Xbox one, but it's past the return date through amazon.
So, thinking I'm now stuck with an overpriced doorstop, I used my Xbox 360 account to access the games we've already purchased for the Xbox one, but of course any progress associated with the other gamer tag is lost.
Using the other gamertag worked for a little while, but now the controllers are disconnecting, or rather disassociating, after the console is started with a dialog box that states "gamer tag is no longer associated with controller 1". Clearly the Xbox one is not ready for prime time.
Funny, my Xbox 360 is a better machine than the Xbox one. | video-games_xbox |
Too Much. OK, so I purchased this game thinking I was going to love it. I'm a huge Devil May Cry Fan. Actually DMC games are about the only games I play-through multiple times. Everything else I beat once and I'm done. I figured Bayonetta was DMC taken to the next level. It got great reviews, and the demo was one of the best I've ever played. But in the end, I just can't say that I enjoyed this game very much at all. By the second half of the game, it just felt like a chore to get through. Technically, I'll be honest and say that this is not a bad game at all. The problem I had with this game is that it just tried to give me way WAY too much. It gave me way more than I'd ever need. Bayonetta's philosophy is bigger, more insane, more over-the-top, more ridiculous, more absurd, more more more! There is a lot to be said for subtlety, and Bayonetta has none.
For me, there were just too many gargantuan bosses. I found the battles against her fellow witch Jeanne, and the more normal sized enemies to be much more interesting. These types of battles really let you explore the fighting mechanics of the game. When you fight some impossibly large boss, all of that pretty much goes out the window.
I really liked how, in this game you actually move up towards the heavens. I thought that was a pretty cool path to put the player on, since in most games you are moving into the underworld. And I was very curious as to where this would all lead. Were they going to pit me against God himself? Seeing as how ridiculous this game was, it seemed as though that might actually be a possibility. But for some reason beyond my understanding, the game all of a sudden drops you into an art-deco, Bioshock-type metropolis. That sucked, because I was enjoying moving further and further into the heavens.
Another thing I hated was when the game forced you to play games that you did not sign-up for- like riding on a motorcycle for what seemed like an eternity- that was hands-down the absolute low point of the game for me.
Anyway Bayonetta is not bad game technically, and apparently a lot of people loved it, but it was simply not my taste. I would have enjoyed it much more if it didn't try to do so much. I wanted the game to put me in more situations where the basic fighting mechanics were allowed to shine. I didn't need all of the over-dramatic bells and whistles. | video-games_xbox |
Forza 2 with Lipstick. If you are new to Forza I recommend basically reading the other reviews here or at gaming sites as for the most part they have it right. It is a good racing game/SIM with very good physics. Turn 10 might get the concept (and be able to make it work in a game) of grip better than any developer.
If you are thinking of buying Forza 3 for the single-player and never plan to go online you will likely be happy with your purchase as the game is much like Forza 2 with better graphics, tracks and cars.
If you are thinking of buying Forza 3 for the online experience I HIGHLY recommend you do some more research (check out MP threads at [...]) as you will see that Turn 10 basically removed a core functionality of Forza 2 multi-player and replaced it with a Halo-style matchmaking system. By this I mean that Turn 10 has taken away the ability for you to go online and set criteria for a type of race you want to find. At this point, all you can do is pick a basic type of race and car class (even though the game is launched they STILL don't have all the classes available) and race with strangers with track and laps chosen for you. The other option is to create a private room and race with friends who also have Forza 3. In theory this may be all well and good but let's just say that many of the people that you run into in a Halo matchmaking game is not someone you want to play a SIM racing game with. There are already TONS of stories of people playing just to crash others and all the fun things Halo games are known for. I think I even heard someone ask their mom for chocolate milk.
What is most bothersome to me as a past fan of the Forza series is that this change to a core component of the game was removed yet not mentioned in any of the marketing of the game. Shame on Turn 10 for this. In addition, there are multiple instances at Turn 10's site where those that are supposed to "manage" the community are refusing to answer the questions about this part of multi-player being removed and then making snide comments to what are actual customers. Bad form. As of last night the classes that were promised to be added (Class F-B) are still not there. The support of this game has been pretty bad.
The game is impressive but the more I play it the more it really does just seem like Forza 2 with lipstick and a major part of the multi-player taken away. The actions by those in charge of helping the community have definitely affected who will and will not get my $ in the future. | video-games_xbox |
Simpsons License wears off too soon. I rented this one and I'm glad I did. You might enjoy a rental, as well. If you absolutely love The Simpsons (like me) and think there's no way you wouldn't enjoy anything Simpsons related (come on, you've got the first season on DVD, don't you?), you will still be disappointed. If you aren't convinced, I still say rent it, just so you are sure.
It is not as horrible as Simpsons Wrestling. This game is at least playable. Still, it never feels like you are driving a car, however, or any of the other vehicles you supposedly drive. It's more like you are just pivoting an arrow on its axis and pushing a button to move forward and backward. No I'm not expecting a sim experience like Project Gotham, but at least a driving experience, like Crazy Taxi.
After you unlock a few levels, you'll get bored. It becomes even more repetitive than Crazy Taxi ever did. The most ardent Simpsons fanatic might insist on unlocking the relatively large cast of characters, and who doesn't want to drive Homer as Mr. Plow?
But the fun wears off. In a short time, you'll have heard all the banter of every character and gotten over the fun of driving around a very sparsely detailed Springfield. Not that all the Springfield landmakrs aren't there, they just look terrible. Once you've played Halo, you expect a little more than buildings that are nearly flat shaded boxes. I hear this looks better on Xbox than PS2, but that's not saying much.
I think the development team also made a major mistake trying to make the Simpsons a 3D world. It looks funny. Your Simpsons heroes don't look right. If you have the First Season DVD you've heard (in the commentary) that the show producers realized early that the 2D side perspective of faces were so much more expressive than the other views they tried in that first season. A similar view holds for this game. The Simpsons Road Rage would have looked beautiful if done in the style of Cel Damage. Cel Damage's engine does 3D but it looks flat, like you are watching a cartoon. It is absolutely stunning in that perspective (gameplay problems in that title aside). The Simpsons Road Rage would have benefitted greatly just by using a similar engine and graphical feel.
When you finish a level you'll be irritated that they couldn't have the real Krusty voice give you your rating. Instead, you get a horrible imitation. You'll also wonder why you have to view a loading screen (on the Xbox no less!) to go from the game to your summary screen. Crazy Taxi on the Dreamcast didn't even do this!
You'll also realize that the key to unlocking items has nothing to do with your ability to play the game. You just play long enough and you'll eventually unlock it all. But it won't matter if you get better at the game.
This is a game unworthy of the Xbox. However, the Simpsons tie-in is not too bad. I would suggest renting it for a week and getting your fill of Simpsons laughs. Hence the two stars. | video-games_xbox |
Hauntingly familiar. This is strange... no, I mean REALLY strange.
If you look up Dead or Alive 4's review here on Amazon and check out "My Inner Goth Girl"'s review of it, then lay that on top with another reviewer's here by "Ulysses", you actually have everything you need to know about Dead or Alive 5.
I thought this was strange because I've never, I hate to admit, NEVER played Dead or Alive 4 but after playing quite a bit of Dead or Alive 5 then checking to see if anything was significantly different... I almost feel ripped off because there almost isn't anything "new" about Dead or Alive 5 except that it must be a reboot more than a true to form successor; which would've been safer for them to just call it Dead or Alive: Rematch or something.
As far as I can tell, the introduction of Akira, Sarah, this Tae Kwan Doe guy named Rig and I guess Mila are the only new additions to the roster since 4... and that's not even a huge stretch of characters to be added considering two of them aren't DoA canon (but I guess when they did DoA4 and had Master Chief as a playable character added in along with Kokoro, that's different, so who am I to judge?) But really? After nearly 6 years of hibernation and you only give up TWO true character and two other cameos? You might as well have thrown Kage in because EVERYONE LOVES NINJAS.
I presume Mila is added in because of the explosive fandom surrounding MMA having since come up in past, recent years with UFC and Rig added in because... ... well it's been 6 years, and I guess adding ANOTHER character who has amnesia is totally okay (Remember when Hayate was Ein...?)
As far as DOA goes, unless you're a diehard fan then you'd be siding with that special place in your heart for DOA to get this game... for everyone else? Rent it and find out, and that pains me to say that, because I LOVE and have loved DOA for as far back as I can remember and when I found out by pure serendipity that DOA5 was coming out, I felt an obligation to jump on board even with as little knowledge as I knew about it, which I kind of regret now...
You don't need me touting off all the things about gameplay, graphics, game mechanics and all the sort because if you've played DOA4 then you've already played DOA5. Or you can read all the other reviews about how great the graphics are, how solid the gameplay is, and it is, if you're playing against another human player and not the CPU which has an innate, merciless ability to exploit the use of air juggles and pull off insanely high count combos in a single try. I've seen it happen, whereas there are moves that can be powerful as all hell and take off a HUGE chunk of health in a calculated act, the CPU on the other hand, at will, will punt you into the air and pound out 10-13 hit combos which will leave you, if you're lucky, with about 1/12th of your life left to try and fend for yourself. I am not kidding, this has happened multiple times to me. Either I'm the unluckiest guy on the planet or the CPU has some serious god powers I can only wish to master one day.
Don't even get me started on the ridiculously unfair rubber banding that happens; where somewhere down the line where you get into this awesome groove of beating the CPU opponent up, in almost any of the modes, it doesn't matter, there will be some miraculous point of cognition for the CPU to somehow tap into some serious chi and Bruce Lee his way to victory. Again, I've seen this happen, where even where there is just a SLIVER of health and for whatever reason, the CPU has suddenly become one with the matrix and is easily dodging, countering, blocking and parrying every move I make until I'm defeated. To which point I'm literally jaw on the floor awestruck by the immaculate perfection the CPU had just come back with a vengeance in the last stretches of the fight, where I'm basically thinking aloud, "NO WAY!!!!"
Tomonobu Itagaki games are known notoriously for their challenging emphasis... this isn't even challenging, just painfully masochistic at certain points, not all, but most. Considering that Tomonobu Itagaki, the creator of DOA, has since left Team Ninja and this is the first DOA game without his involvement? This says something about what was really trying to be achieved...
So again, I'm left in a weird place about where I want to be and what I think about DOA5. In a biased sense of the game, I want to love it as much as I did with DoA3 or Ultimate (Ultimate probably being magnum opus for the series by far, so far). However I'm confused as all can be because I'm still trying to figure out what the heck happened.
In the end I just have gripes more than I do accolades, because everyone who knows DOA knows what its accolades are but this review kind of points out more of the flaws, kinks, imperfections and just flat out curiosities of the game. This isn't me trying to put the game down, on the contrary, I AM TRYING TO WARN YOU.
For example:
STORY MODE, as in the past was to let you play the characters, any of them, from beginning to end in their own, well... story... and how they kind of match up against other characters till you get to the inevitable boss. In the past, there was Tengu or Alpha-152, but in here? No... Story Mode IS A FULL FLEDGED STORY MODE. Now you might ask, "How is that bad?" First off, you don't get to choose your characters, rather, you unlock them systematically and only get to play them for about 3-4 matches at a time, all the while, Story Mode acts more like a prolonged tutorial with ingame missions needing accomplished of said tutorials (i.e., Press Punch three times to achieve a 3-strike combo, MISSION: land 3 3-hit combos!) And this happens throughout THE ENTIRE story mode. That's right, the ENTIRE story mode is nothing but a dressed up tutorial mode with curious cut scenes, very bad dialogue, and an excruciatingly annoying Zack, who might have been more palatable to listen to if he were voiced acted by Chris Tucker. In short, Story Mode IS a story mode... just a really long, played out, loading screen infested hodgepodge that even when you finish it, you still have no idea what the hell just happened. I mean I sorta take that back, but still getting to the end was very surreal.
Here's another curiosity about Story Mode, almost every character is conveyed and playable except the characters you unlock: Genfu, Akira, Sarah... but then they excluded ONE character all together who is actually in the roster, and is someone you fight against, but you never get to play her story, AT ALL: Christie. The new girl int the game, Mila, is playable in Story but not Christie? Why?
ARCADE MODE, is quite typical and what you might expect... except for the end. What's so different? Well you go through the mode as expected; you fight through a series of characters to get to the end where there will be the inevitable boss fight but... there's no boss. Yes, you read that right, NO BOSS. No Tengu, no Alpha-152, no one... you just go through... I think it's 8? 10 fights? Then that's it. You're done.
SURVIVAL MODE, is probably the most oddball mode of all because it's SURVIVAL. Yet here's the kicker, at every certain difficulty level, there's a certain amount of opponents you fight through before Survival Mode is OVER. Say what? And ENDING to Survival? Shouldn't you fight as many opponents as you can possibly fight against until you're knocked out? Yeah, that happens... but you can also fight off 10 guys on the easiest difficulty, and the mode is over. Then on the next difficulty, 20, then on the next 30-- case and point, THERE'S AN END to Survival mode, which acts more like an extended Arcade Mode! I couldn't believe it till I saw it with my own eyes and I thought "Wait... you can BEAT, SURVIVAL MODE?!" Whereas in past games like DOA3, Survival Mode was pretty much infinite... in here, not the case, at all.
Even as I write these things down I'm trying to figure out more and more what was actually intended of DOA5 and what good it's supposed to be as a successor.
It's Story Mode didn't truly convey every character but only gave you bits and pieces, but even those bits and pieces were hollow, meaningless and not quite as polished as they should've been. And you didn't get to play as Christie while EVERYONE ELSE was, and has to be, played!
Survival Mode is actually Arcade Mode+ and Arcade Mode doesn't even have a boss fight at the end... neither did Story Mode, in the pure definition of what would be calculated as a boss fight, THERE IS NO BOSS in DoA5, just... everyone.
Now I could extend this review so much further and start to nitpick at every single one of the characters, such as voice acting or behavior and... well everything else but if you know and love DOA and you play this, you'll already know who and what everyone is all about, but in DOA5? I didn't really get that... Jann Lee didn't feel as truly Jann Lee as he should have been. Zack is REALLY annoying now, painfully so, with only a few moments you can smirk lively about and everyone just seems to squeeze into their mediocre roles... except maybe Rig and Bass, who probably showed the most liveliness as characters throughout all of DOA5, as per Story Mode.
As for everything else?
If you intend on playing this for Multiplayer, then by all means enjoy the newly added characters (ONLY FOUR) but that's a small chunk of change to follow up with considering if you have DOA4, you're probably still better off with that than DOA5, and that is a dreadful shame to admit to, I mean it.
I don't HATE DOA5 if that's what everyone or anyone has taken away from this review, I'm just telling y'all everything with what I've taken away from Dead or Alive 5 as a first hand experience, and after several days of tinkering around with the game until it does something to remind me how flawed of an experience it is as opposed to previous titles in its past which are far more superior, fulfilling, and entertaining.
There's always Dead or Alive 6 to look forward to, I suppose... but maybe we won't see THAT for another 6 years, and I hope I'm dreadfully wrong about that, and that it doesn't come as mediocre as this title has.
Dead or Alive is still, to me, an amazing franchise. It's just now, for whatever reason, hasn't shown much growth, depth or improvement since 4, and seems alot more detached since 3/Ultimate.
The game still looks great, still plays great, has all the virtual jiggly physics, mind boggling interactive stages and danger zones... but so did 4 and most of its predecessors.
So what do you really walk away with when it comes to this game? Nothing you haven't already seen... nothing quite so bad, but nothing quite so good, just a curious inbetween with a whole lot of explaining left undone.
Team Ninja? What have you done to your beloved DOA?
Because this fan is still trying to figure that out... | video-games_xbox |
The XBOX's first First Person Shooter/RPG/Stealth game. I was very sceptical about this game when it was first released because I know how games-from-movies tend to turn out (matrix, being the best example...). I really wasn't even going to consider renting this game, simply because it was a game based on a movie, and I've had too many bad experiences. Little did I know this little gem is managing to slip under the radar unnoticed as one of the better XBOX games made yet!
So, what makes Chronicles of Riddick so great?
No other game on XBOX (including Halo, mind you) pulls off such a great setting through graphics/story/mood. You're Riddick, the baddest of bad criminals in the universe, and as such, you're sent to the baddest of bad triple maximum security prisons in the universe. The game opens up with one of its many brilliant cut scenes. You're strapped into a ship, on your way to Butcher Bay. You talk/taunt the merc who picked you up, and then you fall asleep. As you're sleeping, you dream of arriving at Butcher Bay, waiting outside with two other prisoners and the merc. The merc turns his back on you for just a second, which costs him his life as you snap his neck. As soon as you snap his neck, shooting from the prison begins and you have no choice but to flee underground through a hole as the other prisoners get shot. You go through Butcher Bay a very little, learning how to sneak around, snap necks, lean around corners, fist fight, and counter-attack. I'll get to all of those things later, but the point is, it's not until you wake up from your dream that you realize it was a dream, and the game has not really begun yet; that was just a tutorial! I'm not going to ruin too much of the story, but let me tell you...No other game makes you feel so immersed into a story/character. The entire game is about you surviving/escaping prison. Along the way you meet fellow prisoners, corrupt guards, and some other characters, each which has a request of the great Riddick. You start out in a single maximum security prison, then you advance to double max, and finally triple max. To be sent to a higher level of security, you have to get noticed, whether it's by dealing drugs, fighting in the arena, or angering certain higher-ups, you get it done. It's very open ended, and you'll soon realize there's no way you'll get everything done your first time through. The prison itself is done incredibly well, with hundreds (maybe thousands) of different ventilation systems riddled throughout it, which serve as your means of getting around unnoticed most of the time. The prison is VERY oppressing, as it should be; there is no relief from it, so don't expect one. You're the worst criminal ever to live, so you shouldn't be expecting fun and games while in prison (although it's a very fun game)!
Ok, so let me break it down for you:
1. Story/Immersion (9.5/10). -.5 because there are some things still left unanswered that are also not answered in the movie. Maybe they're answered in the animated movie that was just released, I have yet to see it and find out. Again, being Riddick is more empowering than killing wave after wave of covenant. It's done so well, that I can't even begin to try to describe it.
2. Graphics (9.5/10). This game is BEAUTIFUL. Absolutely beautiful. I read that they employed a new technology that takes anti-aliasing to an extreme, meaning no jagged edges around Riddick's watermelon-sized biceps. Smooth is good! -.5 because for some reason your shadow really animates your motions well, but looks blocky to me...
3. Sound (10/10). The voice acting in this game DOESN'T suck. The guards sound duly upset when you start attacking them (shouting four letter words that start with F, for instance). Riddick sounds as bad (by bad I of course mean good) as he should. Everything is very polished.
4. First Person Shooter elements (10/10). If you've ever played or heard of the game Breakdown, you know that the "true" first person element (where you have arms, and are a person, not just a floating camera) was not done very well. Riddick is similar, but done EXCELLENTLY. Not only are blasting your enemies fun when you manage to nab a gun (which is not often, because the guns are DNA encoded, meaning you can't use them), but for 90% of the game you have to rely on your fists and shivs (knives). There are combos (yes, combos!) you can pull off with melee combat, and turns out to be great fun.
5. RPG elements (10/10). Immersive as heck. Great story, great characters, great quests. There's a bunch of missions you get (which I assure you you won't finish all of your first time around). If you pay attention, you notice that you advance your character in a much more subtle way than stats like in traditional RPG's. Very cool.
6. Stealth elements (11/10). No, that isn't a typo. You MUST rely on stealth to get through this game. Skulking in the shadows has never been so fun. Maybe it's because you're actually afraid of being seen by a guard with a shotgun when you have nothing but your fists. Or maybe it's because you really like the sound of guards' necks snapping in two when you get up behind them. Or maybe it's because you like counter-attacking a guard with a gun (which involves getting up right next to him, turning his gun around on himwhen he goes to shoot you, and blowing his head off). Very very fun.
Replayability (8/10). You have a few incentives to go through again...You can go through again to get the last few extras you missed the first time. Or maybe you wanna see more story, so you want to do more of the quests that I guarantee you'll miss. No LIVE capabilities, but still...I will be playing it over because it's the best thing out on XBOX right now...
So if you haven't noticed yet, I'm telling you you should get this game. If you like a great story, excellent gameplay, superb graphics, and unprecedented character immersion, then obviously this game is for you! | video-games_xbox |
Not perfect, but a good place to start. "Sniper Ghost Warrior" has been getting some bad reviews. One reason is because people are comparing this game to COD, MW2, and other top notch games. This is a $40 game not a $60 game, so you can't expect the exact same quality, design, and gameplay as other titles. I don't think this game was designed to compete with COD, MW2, and other top games just as a Ford Festiva was not designed to compete with a Lamborghini. That said, for the price, this is a pretty good game.
The sniping aspect is some of the best on the market that I have played. The perfect headshot bullet trajectory is pretty top notch. The other thing I really liked was the spotter mission, and in my opinion, there should be more missions where you are playing the spotter instead of the few running and gunning missions that are in the place of sniping.
The AI apparently has superhuman abilities in being able to see, target, and kill you if you are seen or HEARD thus the game awards you for sneaking around quite slowly just like a sniper progresses in real life. In my mind this is a good thing as it forces you not to run around and shoot constantly like other games. I found myself dying a lot my first time through, and mostly it was because I was moving around a little too quickly. I know in the beginning of the tutorial, you are told that based on your position; standing, crouching, or crawling, the bad guys can see you easier and HEAR a big difference with your approach, so I guess I was sneaking too loudly. The other solution I found was that if someone does spot you, if you kill that particular guy, the others won't keep shooting, as long as they didn't see you as well. There were many situations where I knew what guy saw me, killed him, backed off, let the visiblity meter die down, was able to kill the other guys that were shooting at me moments before, and continue on.
There are a few problems:
Problem one. As other reviewers have pointed out and discussed, the graphics aren't the greatest.
Problem two. An open ended game is supposed to allow freedom of movement across the entire map, and with Sniper Ghost Warrior, there are invisible walls that do not allow you to proceed in a way that you can clearly see leads to the next checkpoint. Also, there are no situations that I encountered where you can hit enemies from a very long way off. There are situations you can see a long way off, but most situations can be cleared at less than 300 yards. In fact some are as close as 100 yards before you get spotted by enemies.
Problem three. I have fallen in holes I can't get out of or I have gotten stuck underneath structures and fences that I can't get out or off of, so I had to start over from the last checkpoint.
Problem four. The length of the game is way too short in campaign mode. It would be nice to have at least a 20 hour gameplay. A side game of sniping targets, moving and stationary, at a range would be a nice way to practice with various wind and elevation changes. The simple tutorial in the beginning that lasts about 90 seconds is fine to get started with the targeting assistance reticle, but having the chance to practice outside of combat would alleviate playing the game on lower difficulty levels to start.
Finally, this is my first $40 game and I am happy with it! It's a nice sniping game! Even though there are some faults, the good parts of the game outweigh the bad. If I had paid $60 for the game I would be upset. I have played many games that I have paid $60 for and have had more complaints about them than I do this game.
As I said in the title, this game is a good foundation to build upon for a new all sniping game in the future. If you like sniping, buy the game! | video-games_xbox |
Tick, Tick, ...fizzle ...pop ...sputter. There's a very short list of games I've pre-ordered and a very short list of games I've straight up returned (only two on each). Mercenaries 2 appears on both of those lists.
I went out of my way to get Mercenaries 2 for the same reason 9 out of 10 people did... the freaking commercial! Right? Come on, pretend that song wasn't in your head for days. Pretend you didn't love it! Oh, and Mercenaries 1 was groundbreaking and inovative and brilliant. But mostly it was that SONG!!!
Mercenaries 1 kicked all sorts of ass: even and heavy tone, awesome vehicles and vehicle control, a wide open map, edgy story-line (you can literally kill North Korean soldiers with no reprecusions. Infact, it's encouraged; you get a bounty on their vehicles. Edgy stuff, man). All I wanted was more of the same. And what did you give me, Pandemic, huh? What did you give me?!
Nonsense, fluff story line (you're not murder for hire any-more, now it's revenge! Now it's PERSONAL!), broken gameplay (pop-in is so flawed it makes sniping absolutely useless: if you can see them, they can see you, and there's a LOT more of them than you) and the constant, inane, repetitive chatter by EVERY CHARACTER! What happened to the stark, drab, engaging and intimidating bombed out Korean DMZ? Now i'm in a damn Sandal's resort! But you know what did it? You know what finally made me grab my keys, my receipt and truck on down to GameTown to give it back and demand the money be transfered to a reserve of Fable 2 instead? I'm talking with the pirates in the game (modern pirates! Awesome! Edgy!) but, before I can work with them I have to... what? Eliminate their enemies? Steal oil or drugs? Car bomb some dignitaries? No, no, none of that, i just have to...
Beat them in a boat race.
A BOAT RACE!? Are you kidding me? Why? Why are we racing boats with each other? What's next, dance off? Rap battle? What? Why bother?
How about "help me and I'll pay you", "help me and I'll get rid of your enemies", "help me or I'll level your outpost with ordinance from SPACE!"? How about litterally ANYTHING else? In one quest I've gone from lawless warmonger to Sonic the freaking Hedgehog. It was like they were buying rejected GTA San Andreas quests from Rockstar to meet a deadline on a game they forgot they were making. Unreal, man, unreal.
But... it's not like there's no fun to be had here. There's some good ol'fashioned run'n'gun. And if the only think you liked about the 1st Mercenaries was blowing stuff up (and that is a COMPLETELY valid reason to like that game: who spent half-an-hour placing luxury cars on a bridge before carpet bombing the whole structure just because it was awesome? This guy, that's who...) then you may get a good time out of the sequel. Things explode pretty well, bad guys shoot at you with many different types of weapons. Did I mention ordinance from SPACE?!
That said, if you liked the 1st Mercenaries for any other reason, any other reason at all (tone, characters, gameplay, etc.) you're only going to be dissapointed here.
Oh no they didn't... except, yeah, they did. | video-games_xbox |
Mine arrived looking fine, but after the mandatory internet set-up (hate that . Avoid this version of the XBox.
Mine arrived looking fine, but after the mandatory internet set-up (hate that bulls***!) that takes 20 lousy minutes I attempted to load my forza 6 disc - it took, but didn't recognize anything in the drive. Tried a BluRay, then a DVD - no luck. Game/BR drive was DOA "new". So I had to get return authorization, pay shipping myself upfront on the return, and took it to the post. Now waiting on the refund....
Bought the GearsOfWar edition XB1 from a local retailer and have had no problems in the first week.
As for the XB1 experience in general - it has certainly advanced well beyond the 360s abilities' graphics are fantastic, controller is improved, although the standard hdd should be much larger these days.
But be wary dads and ADD-ers - there is no instant gratification or easy set-up on Xmas day here...A huge bummer is that as soon as you turn it on it REQUIRES itself to be on the internet, and then without asking proceeds to download a huge update, reboot and install - so 15 minutes later you're ready to setup your mandatory e-mail account that has nonsensical logic for choosing an account name, of all things. It took about 10 tries to enter one the system found acceptable. Idiotic...
The online 'dependence' of this system (and many of today's electronics in general) is a serious flaw: I expect and paid for a system to do it's thing without any outside assistance; as any game system should. Any online involvement should be strictly voluntary and optional. They also really should have spent more time on the logic of having so many icons and categories with no central flowmap/overview; the 'Spins' section, in particular, is a clusterphuck of bad design that looks like a community college project.
All I want is a system to do it's thing with little to no fuss. Otherwise I'd just buy a PC and have far, far more games to choose from - and even better graphics and power. But this thing took more time to setup than my last two PCs did, for sure. And only really has a game or three I even want to buy. It is a travesty, for example, that there is no new EA SKATE game, and we are left with the woefully outdated Tony Hawk series. And it doesn't play previous Xbox titles - a dumb move, Microsloth.
....Oh the things one will put up with just to play Forza 6 !!! | video-games_xbox |
Bond. James Bond. I'll be darned, this really DID make me feel like James Bond! I found it a couple of months ago on sale and have always liked the Bond games so I gave it a whirl, but truth be told I wasn't expecting much. The games after Goldeneye were really good, I had fun with them, but they couldn't touch Goldeneye. Well it's been a very long time and there STILL isn't a game that can touch Goldeneye, but this is the absolute best effort since. Boy did I have fun with this game. It's like playing a movie. The graphics are superb but some of the design choices are just odd...like a previous reviewer pointed out: exploding cannisters in a library?. However they are some of the best looking exploding cannisters in a library you are likely to see :-) The fighting handles awesomely and the gun play is beast. The games does falter a little about halfway in when you realize that though good looking and exciting to play, the environments and objectives feel a bit too repetitive, even for a shooter. There were a few times when glitches forced reloads for me too, falling through the floor a few times and a couple of other times where my character would just walk into a wall no matter which way I steered him and just stay there. These issues didn't happen often though and were easily cleared with one reload, so at least they weren't game stoppers.
Single Player is the cream of this game in my opinion but the multiplayer is sharp enough to keep me playing it for a while. Its standard multiplayer fare but it's done very well. This game could have benefited HUGELY with some local co-op, I still have friends whom I've enjoyed all nighter co-op sessions on the couch with since our teen years, I would have loved to go through the campaign or even some extra co-op only missions with them.
Overall this game rocks pretty hard. Despite a few quibbles and it not being up to par with Goldeneye (but lets be fair, what Bond game HAS? That is one tall order.) this is the best Bond game since. If you like the Bond games at all you are gonna LOVE this. | video-games_xbox |
WHOA! A Real Blast From The Past. In Lost Odyssey (LO) you start out as a man named Kaim Argonar, Kaim is very special in that he is an immortal who has lived for 1000 years, unfortunately for Kaim he has amnesia. Through a series of events Kaim meet other immortals who have also lost their memories, it's through the help of these immortals, as well as some mortals that Kaim goes on a quest to regain his memories as well as the memories of the other immortals and ultimately save the world he has come to live in for 1000 years. All throughout your quest the main story of LO is supplemented with 'Dream Sequences' What these are is basically Kaim remembering things that have happened to him over the years. The dreams were very well written and I actually enjoyed reading them, but that's all you did was read, there were no cut scenes depicting these dreams (which would have been awesome) or anything else done with the dreams to make them more interesting. However some dreams were emotionally moving and most of them actually showed you the pain of living for 1000 years....
And herein the problem lies, the dreams are actually better than the main story of the game, now don't get me wrong, the story in LO is good, but that's all it ever is, it never does anything to become great. And the dreams in LO are GREAT, if only they would have done more with them I could quit gaming knowing I had played the perfect JRPG. Anyways moving on, gameplay in LO is old school, its straight from the 90's. That's right I'm talking turn based battles, LO does little to try and change up this 20+ year old formula and for the most part I didn't mind, people who have played any Final Fantasy before 11+ will feel right at home, battles are all random and at first it was refreshing to see this come back in an RPG however by the time I was on the fourth (and final) disc of LO I was so freaking sick of random encounters I stopped fully exploring dungeons, random encounters were fun in the 90's, heck they were still fun in 2001 but fast forward to 2010 and now there just plain boring and completely unnecessary. I will say it again though that the random encounters started grating on my nerves on the 4th disc/ 30 hours into the game, by this time I was antsy to finish the game and that could explain my temporary hatred for random encounters :p.
However after all is said and done LO is easily the best RPG available on the 360, the ending scenes of the game are great, dare I say even better than the dreams? It closes up all the loop holes and even has a very surprising plot twist (not to spoil anything but there is a certain member on your team who becomes the unlikely hero of the game.)
Overall this is a must buy for anyone looking for a good RPG for the 360 | video-games_xbox |
A great bonding moment to enjoy. Oh, at long last...something OTHER than the Wii that provides fun for my daughter and myself at the same time.
Just a little background: my daughter and I shared adventures on Super Mario Galaxy and then Super Mario Galaxy 2. Both games have resulted in excellent bonding moments. Now, however, as she nears her 9th birthday, her gaming capabilities have increased. She's a Mario Kart master and doesn't necessarily need my skills to complete a Super Mario Galaxy level.
Thankfully, Skylander's Spyro Adventure has entered to fill that void. With starting characters Spyro, Gill Grunt, and Trigger Happy along with a wireless portal, the father/daughter team has returned to deal out punishment to our latest enemy...Kaos. And a child-humor filled enemy at that.
So what's with the portal? The characters? Is it hard to bring together? Not at all. There's a wireless USB fob that connects the Portal to the Xbox. The characters themselves can be swapped in and out at will so that each player can control their own creature. This can actually be done within a level so that a door requiring a certain Elemental creature to unlock can be swapped at will...or replace an injured character in the heat of battle. Each character represents one of 8 "Elements" out there. With Spyro, Gill Grunt, and Trigger Happy, you start off with the elements of Magic, Water, and Tech, respectively. Other elements include Earth, Undead, Fire, Air, and Life. Each character has strengths/weaknesses and although some characters may seem stronger, I would venture to say that the game would be difficult to complete solo past Chapter 15. The game encourages co-op mode to the fullest and your mission is to collect "Eternal Sources" to prevent Kaos acheiving ultimate domination. It combines platforming and increasingly complex lock puzzles along with simplistic real-time RPG fighting with a variety of enemies. Just when I think that there aren't any more variants to defeat, the next level coughs up several more. The replayability is also high. Each character in Skylanders possesses the capability of leveling up to Level 10 (along with all bonuses that come along with it) along with an upgrade system that consists of your characters collecting treasure to purchase potent power upgrades. Once you've upgraded your character to a certain level, you will invariably choose one of 2 tree paths to master your character with. To top it all off, most levels have 1-2 Soul Gems which grants a very powerful upgrade to a specific character in the game for a high treasure price. My daughter and I have been playing since Christmas and have only achieved Level 10 on 2 of our characters with full upgrades. We plan to do them all!!!
Here's the best part. Your best friend has the game but has an PS3, a Wii, etc.? Ah, no problem. Your CHARACTERS are interchangable AND keep all of their STATISTICS. So your fully leveled character might be your best friend's new...best friend. :) The cross-platform capability of the characters is one of the strongest features in my opinion. Better still, you can also sync your portal to your PC (yes, it's compatible - I've made it work) and you can actually do some mini-games with your characters on the web! The web site is still in Beta mode, but it's fun to try it out.
People have accused Activision for Skylanders being a cash grab. Well, of course it is...and unabashedly so. Any "collectible game" is inherently this way; either you buy into it or not. The main story in Skylanders CAN be completed with just the 3 characters that come with Starter pack. However, if you're inclined, you can unlock all of the areas (you would need 5 more Elemental characters to do this - minimum of 8 overall), perform all the challenges (all of the characters to do this), and experience the idiosynchracies and humor inherent with the remaining 29 characters if you so choose; to date, there are still 9 that have yet to be released which include: Double Trouble (Magic), Warnado (Air), Lightning Rod (Air), Zook (Life), Camo (Life), Cynder (Undead), Sunburn (Fire), Slam Bam (Water), and Wham Shell (Water). There are also 2 Adventure packs out there that expand the game further: Pirate Seas and Darklight Crypt. There are 2 more Adventure packs that have yet to be released: Empire Of Ice and Dragon's Peak.
My daughter and I are firmly in the latter camp of wanting to experience the full game. We have all but the last 9 characters in our possession (Whirlwind was a Target exclusive, Drill Sergeant was a Wal-Mart/Sam's Club exclusive, Terrafin is currently available only with Pirate Seas, Ghost Roaster is currently available only with Darklight Crypt, and Ignitor is only included in the 3DS package which we also got as a future birthday gift). It is currently unknown when the last 9 will be released or if this still "exclusive" nonsense will be dropped - I presume that this was created in order to level the retailing playing field. That said, the game guide for this game does state that Sunburn will be released with Dragon's Peak and that Slam Bam will be released with Empire of Ice. With the mayhem of Christmas over, let's hope that Activision will be more indiscriminate with their releases and better supplied. Right now, the research it took to find out how to get all of the characters has been frustrating and I'm not sure who amongst parents/children are likely to be more impatient with the diversity of "exclusivity." There are even "Legendary" packs out there or characters like Dark Spyro in the 3DS pack, but these are alternate versions of the same characters albeit with different physical appearances and base stats...we won't likely take it that far. We just want the core 32 characters.
If you don't have it already, I highly recommend it. It's a fantastically fun, addicting game and it's a great bonding moment too.
If you have any questions, please post a comment and I'll be happy to answer them. | video-games_xbox |
Great but with Gripes. I'm a huge fan of the Dead Space series, so I was eagerly anticipating this release. For the most part, the game is very good. It's also very reminiscent of the first two games in style and tone with a feel for John Carpenter's "The Thing" thrown into the mmix. What I DID NOT like about Dead Space 3 had mostly to do with the new bench/weapon construction system. I found the construction of new weapons to be nothing but tedious and unnecessary and really not explained well at all. For the most part I fiddled around with it, groaned that they felt they had to "fix" something that wasn't broken and used the old stand by guns that I loved from the first two games and mostly ignored it. This new weapon construction business did NOTHING for me but irritate. I miss the old way where you could upgrade in an intuitive manner and know when your weapons were at their absolute peak. Playing the game this way just feels tacked on and takes away from the experience rather than adding to it. I've got necromorphs to kill why would I want to spend my time jerking around fiddling with weapon construction? My second gripe was why only two weapons? The first two games allowed you to hold four weapons at a time. In DS3 you can only have two. What if you run into a boss and all you've got is a shotgun and a ripper-Two weapons not necessarily suited for fighting these bosses. You can't go back to the bench and you're stuck with limited choices. Why was the ability to carry four weapons so terrible they had to remove that feature? It just makes the game a little less fun and more aggravating. I played the game back to back the second time using new game plus. The first time was very aggravating with just a ridiculous amount of necropmorphs and variations there of absolutely onslaughting you all at once to the point of ridiculousness. Several times I asked myself "are they freakin' kidding me?" Needless to say, being able to carry over your powered up weapons into a new game made the second play through MUCH more enjoyable. My suggestion if you want to save some headache is to play thegame without doing any of the side missions, when you finish, play a new game with new game plus to take on the side missions during your campaign. It's much less frustrating being a little more powerful. Over all, Dead Space 3 is a great game, but I hate it that they felt they had to change the formula for no good reason. If something isn't broken don't fix it. (And it definitely wasn't broken) It just doesn't make sense to me making changes that simply just detract from the game. Dead Space 3 is still better than most of the games out there, but compared to the first two, it's easily my least favorite of the series. Please, for Dead Space 4, bring back the nodes and easy to understand weapon upgrades. No more pointless bench weapon construction please. Oh, and give us back those other two gun slots. The tracking robots are stupid and pointless. | video-games_xbox |
Good system, but not there yet. I wanted the One to be 5-stars and below are the reasons why it falls short. Most of these can be corrected with system updates, but not all.
Minus two stars for the following:
- Price vs. minor improvement over 360. I have some buyer's remorse over the very minor improvements, graphics-wise over the previous generation. We all know we'll see jumps later, but the cost will come down later as well. The cost-benefit of being an early adopter just doesn't quite balance out.
- Kinect under-delivering. I feel stupid yelling at the XBox in order to be heard over the movie or game playing. Voice recognition needs to either work 95%+ of the time or forget it. Having to repeat myself and second-guess whether I used the right command defeats the purpose.
- Requirement to put in the disc for games. It's really disappointing that Microsoft didn't implement a system of verifying ownership of a disc and not requiring at every play. Every game is installed to the hard drive and yet you have to get up and walk over to switch games. The only way around this is to purchase the games and have them tied forever to your XBox account. Or build-in a 10-disc changer, LOL. This functionality need not come at the expense of being able to resell, loan or give away games.
- Lack of built in over the air tuner and basic cable tuner. MS promotes this as the hub of the entertainment center, but leaves out a tuner!? If you don't have cable, you basically cannot use a large portion of the XBox's functionality, which is the TV / gaming multitasking.
- XBox Music isn't fully integrated, especially surprising given the entertainment center hub aspirations.
- The App / Game store layout and design is likewise a jumbled mess. Sometimes you have to return to the Home screen and reenter the app store in order to get back to other viewing options.
- Lack of user reviews of games and no transparency on star ratings. I might actually use Xbox video if it had integrated reviews from either a Rottentomatoes type site, IMDB or even film critics. I also have about zero trust for the stars since I can't see whether someone is playing games with a bunch of false reviews. The Metacritic score, Amazon stars or really any source would be better than nothing. [This is no different from every other console, but again this is not a hub if I still need to have an iPad in front of me to make buying decisions.]
- Power consumption. The "Xbox On" command requires you to waste about 15-20 Watts of electricity at all times vs. 3 watts if you turn that off. It is really pathetic compared to any modern laptop's standby mode.
- Form factor. The Kinect sensor is the part that bugs me. It's kind of huge and bulky and there's no discrete way to integrate into really any entertainment setup. I don't mind the giant console itself or it's weight (haven't moved it since setting up).
- Controller form factor. This is a positive and negative. The battery cover and design is worse than the 360. A light drop of the controller and they're liable to pop out and the cover off. Never had this problem on the 360. It never bothered me that the 360 controller's battery stuck out. I loved the way they popped / snapped into place. There is also no charge dock equivalent for the One.
- Controller functionality. It dropped the functionality of showing player 1 / 2 / etc. MS has really eliminated the concept of numbered players entirely and instead speak of a controller being "linked to" a particular Xbox Live account. Which is an ok but flawed concept and utterly useless when you just want to know which on screen character or car goes with which controller after setting them down with a bunch of friends playing.
- Headset. Why the specialized connection? I have not seen a single decent argument or explanation for the decision to block people from just plugging in a standard headset. Wasn't Sony the one who always use specialized connectors?
- Xbox Live. I think there's an over-reliance on the individual accounts that comes at the detriment to social and quick games. Basically, it's just getting harder and harder to have a group of friends over to pass around controllers and play a game together. The Xbox tries so hard to identify each player and who has which controller. We just want to play and don't care or want Xbox trying to track it all. This was particularly an issue in Forza, where my guests couldn't race using some of my special unlocked cars because they had to have their own Live account or use a guest account. That's insane and a negative here, because Microsoft had such a hand in this game and it was linked with the console launch so closely.
- Live Gold Cost. I've pretty much always been a paying Gold customer, but resent the added cost after spending $500 on the console just so I can watch Netflix, and play multiplayer, etc. MS could have at least thrown in 6-12 months for free for early adopters. It also puts owners at Microsoft's mercy if they want to raise prices even more (already indirect price rise as the discounted passes are increasingly difficult to find).
- Screen and menu layout. From other reviews, it's supposedly better than the PS4, but I dislike the layout more and more with use. There are a lot of closely-spaced boxes that look jumbled and messy. It's an improvement over the 360 for the most part and almost a neutral issue for me, except for high expectations leaving me somewhat disappointed.
- Kinect auto-login. This was almost a positive, until I thought back to the 360. With the One, even if there is only one user it will not simply auto-login that user. You either get identified by the Kinect sensor (based on facial recognition) or you login in though a settings menu with the controller. Taking away the auto login option is a step backwards, even though the facial recognition is kinda cool and works 80% of the time (the other 20% I have to stand up and/or move around a bit).
***
Positives:
- For me the number one driver for the purchase apart from the promise of graphical performance is the menu and overall system responsiveness. The 360 has been feeling so incredibly sluggish for so long.
- Integrated hard drive and saves. We have finally left the era of "save disks" and having to manage the 360's 4gb internal storage, optional hard drive and optional two thumb drives. That was just a crazy mess and it's amazing how long it has taken. It would be good to know how much room was left on the One's hard drive, but I assume the functionality will come before I start to run out of room. I will revolt if the XBox just starts deciding on its own what to uninstall to make room for a new game.
- Controller. The force feedback on the triggers and internal vibration are much improved. It's pretty cool in Forza to have the "gas pedal" register vibration during wheel spin.
***
Other notes:
I've read some of the comparisons to the PS4 and about its superiority in certain categories, but the bottom line is early adopters always pay a premium. The mix of pros and cons is different for the two systems, but the momentum towards the PS4 will swing back at some point. Microsoft made some costly political and PR missteps which is still haunting them and has, in my opinion, unfairly tainted gamers away from the One.
Reasons to go XBox:
* If you like the Kinect and the related games, get an XBox, the PS4 has such a disadvantage in that area it will likely never be an equal.
* Halo. An obvious one, but if you like Halo you have to go XBox.
PS4:
* Bang for the buck, however, PS4 is 20% cheaper and that $100 will buy you 1.5 games or so or an extra controller plus change. If money is tight and you can't live with last generation tech, go PS4.
* Live outside the US. Half joking here, but PS4 is just dominating Europe and Asia right now. Don't know why (apart from Asia) and don't know if this will level out.
False distinction:
* Graphical power. While many will vehemently disagree and back it up with frame rate discussions, etc., the bottom line is there will always be games that look better on one system than another but this will be so minor you it will never impact your overall enjoyment of the system. The one exception would be if you like to pause your games and spend a few hours counting pixels -- but then you should just buy a high end computer and 30" ultra HD monitor.
If you still question the graphics, go to your local game store and look at both consoles playing the same game. This will be hard to do because of the demo setups, but if you can see a difference that matters to you then go with it. Keep in mind that next month's or year's games may look better on the other console. Hypothetical performance is not a guaranteed predictor.
***
Bottom line is wait until the second version of these consoles or the first price drop if you're unsure or have concerns. It will be a long time before you see a reduction in the number of top titles for the older consoles.
My local game store sells used games for the One for only $5 off the new price. | video-games_xbox |
Competitive for the Better. Alright everybody knows what Call of Duty is really about and that is multiplayer. It is Treyarch's bread and butter and it makes people keep coming back for more. Yes there is zombies and campaign but multiplayer caters to most CoD fans out there so this review will be multiplayer biased. I can say that zombies are fun based on experience but I cannot say the same for the campaign for those interested.
There is a new pick ten system which allows people to build a class catering to their play style. Personally I like this new approach as it allow me to play the way I want without certain in game limits. There is also a new mode called league play which puts players of equal ability next to each other. I really liked this because I would consistently get chopper gunners and high skill steaks in older games and as fun as that sounds to people it got old really fast. I have been on the receiving end of high skill streaks too and understand that is just as good a reason to quit the game. Now by playing people of similar skill it is a challenge to win and there is a reward to keep playing the game! Additionally people who don't play as often will be placed with similar skill so there will be less frustration!
People complain a lot about hit markers and lag but that is not been a problem for me. I've seen the youtube videos and it is often an excuse for bad play. The lag is minimal in this game, if there is lag it boots the host and gets a better connection. I play with best connection on all the time, which may be the solution to the lag issue. Also realize the Cod series has been out for a while and some people are seasoned vets so I recommend league play for new players as they will get matched with other new players looking to learn the ropes of the game.
Treyarch has embraced the competitive community in this game more than ever. I like this mostly because the competitive community is likely to support the game till the end of its run. I feel as though it is unjust to ignore the competitive community when casual gamers will have likely have moved on 3 months into release. Realize too the result of competitive gaming is a more balanced and clean playing game for everyone.
Even if competitive isn't your fancy there is plenty to keep the casual gamer interested for quite a long time. 2/4 map packs have been released and zombies has been beefed up quite a bit since world at war. There is so much more to unlock and customize this time around. Say what you want about the series, but nothing still beats going into a lobby with your friends (virtual or not) and wreaking havoc on the enemy. No other FPS does that better than Call of duty black ops 2 does today.
Overall, campaign is a flop, but the zombies and multiplayer is the by far the best in the franchise. | video-games_xbox |
It's fun but can be frustrating. I've read through dozens of 1 star reviews where people claim the game is the exact same as MW2 or just average, to me, that sounds like it deserves at least 2 stars, seeing as average is upper midrange. It also sounds like a lot of people are using the review to vent anger from getting pwned online. /rant
Campaign:
Anyways, the mission/storymode was kind of boring. I didn't really feel like I was doing anything. I'm about 100% positive there is unlimited respawn for enemies, therefor if you don't push forward, you're not going to get through the mission. Not to mention I don't feel like I'm helping my allies, or doing anything other than wasting bullets when I hold down an area and try to clear a path. Basically, the entire campaign felt like a slow-mo breach. I was also disappointed they didn't bring back a looooong range sniping mission from at least 500-1000 yards, with bullet drop, windage, and all the good stuff. Instead it's like a 200 yard laser shot. Furthermore, I like sniping my way through some parts of the campaign. I'm going out on a limb here, but there are probably 2 or 3 sniper rifles that you can find in the whole campaign, and they're not really usable due to the close quarters. This game also has an issue with registering mission completions on Veteran. I've went through the same series of missions to get the achievement and never got it, this made me very mad because of how frustrating the campaign is on vetran. Just to sum it up, I really didn't like the campaign.
Spec Ops/Survival Mode:
Spec Ops missions are more fun than the campaign honestly. Some of the longer ones, I wish had a checkpoint because I hate dying right at the end of it. Additionally, you can receive a lot of Spec Ops/Survival Mode XP in the Spec Ops missions to unlock more weapons in Survival Mode.
Survival Mode is a lot of fun when the internet is down or if you want to warm up with weapons before getting them in the multiplayer. The weapons behave the same and have many similar upgrades that you can get in multiplayer, and where it's a "you're gonna eventually die" kinda mode, it gets challenging yet remains fun. This is probably my favorite offline mode in the game, but you can link up online and play with others.
Multiplayer:
I've always had a love/hate relationship with CoD. When I'm getting destroyed I hate it and I look for every excuse for why I'm doing bad, and when I'm doing good I feel like a champ.
Briefly, I'll go over the good points:
-Extremely fast paced
-You won't spend much time away from the action
-Intense gameplay
-Killstreaks aren't as overkill
-New types of killstreaks (support package where deaths don't end killstreak, assault (just like MW2), and specialist (attain more perks and proficiencies)
-Tons of new options for weapons
-Fun new gametypes like infected and drop zone
Bad Points:
-Spawning absolutely sucks, you can go on a rampage heading in one direction, if you pause briefly, one of the people you just killed will spawn behind you and know exactly where you are. This can help you if you were aware they were coming and hurt you a lot if you didn't expect it
-I love grenades, usually got about 20-30% of my kills from them in MW2, they have been nerfed now and have a very small kill range
-Still no matchmaking, so you're gonna be in a lobby with some 15-20 prestigers and some noobies.
-Maps aren't open enough for sniping, most people with a sniper rifle are going to be quickscoping, which can get annoying
-Shotguns are too overpowered and underpowered at the same time
-Still an issue with lag and being killed around corners
-It seems to take many less bullets to kill in this game than previous versions. Most of the time a very quick burst of 2-3 shots will kill most people. (consider 600-1000 RPM, most of your deaths are going to happen before you know you're being shot)
-The knifing in MW2 was absurd and ridiculous. The knife in MW3 is almost worthless, because the bullets do more damage, you're going to be shot and killed before you can even click the knife. Most of the time you can reload and open fire before you can get into knifing range.
You might be saying, "Whoa, you have more bad points than good, why do you like this game"... well, they introduced a new leveling system per gun and your overall level which makes the game much more addictive. They have improved the way the gun's XP is as well. In MW2, to get a thermal sight, you had to get 40 kills with a silencer, and the 40 bullet penetration kills for extended mags etc. In MW3, all you have to do is get kills with the gun you're using to level it up (0-31 levels) unlocking proficiencies such as Kick (reduced kick), Focus (reduced flinch when hit), 2 attachments, Damage, range etc. On top of unlocking proficiencies to make your gun work better, you also unlock the attachments, different reticles, and camo patterns. Adding this gives you another thing to work for adding a huge replay value. The normal leveling up and prestiging is pretty similar and still very fun. | video-games_xbox |
Better than ever. Black Arrow has the same great graphics, sound effects, and controls as the original Rainbow Six 3. What makes it different is the overall polish of the gameplay. It seems more advanced, in that it relies more on your skill and leadership to get through the campaigns than in the original. I find myself making more strategic decisions before I engage the enemy in terms of weapons choice, cover, and squad placement, in addition to all the on-the-fly tactical stuff that made the original RS3 so much fun.
Maybe it's the improved enemy A.I. that forces the player to be that much better in order to survive. The terrorists are tougher and smarter this time around with lots of shooting from behind cover, zig zagging, ducking, and even waiting for you to reload before rushing you. In Black Arrow there's little chance of running in and hoping to outgun them before they get you - and sending in your squad to do the dirty work for you just means you end up with a smaller squad, or many times no squad at all. Going in alone is also tough as you need your team to cover your blind spots and provide fire support against those enemies that rush in from from different directions. I'm not sure if the squad A.I. has been improved, since it was pretty good in the original RS3 - that and the fact that they'll occasionally still walk right in front of your muzzle when you're firing at the enemy, making for a quick friendly-fire head shot.
The evolution of RS3 is also found in the level design, which is less straight forward with more out-of-the-way side doors into rooms that allow you to flank the enemy. Also, the lighting in Black Arrow is done in a way where it's not always obvious when and where to use night vision or IR. It's better this way, because instead of having pitch black sections that are tailor made, it's up to you to call on your own experience and feel your way through each area to see what works best in that particular situation.
There are lots of weapons again (G36C,M4,M16A2,UMP) - the different characteristics of each weapon is one of the things I like most about the Rainbow series. It's not just the animations and sound effects, but the weapons actually FEEL different from one another - that's an incredible achievement for a video game and adds to the authenticity in a unique way.
The combat in Black Arrow is great. You've got some seriously violent street fights with enemy snipers up high, guys with assault rifles rushing you and a bunch more firing from behind cover and running in from side alleys, all the while RPG's are screaming past you from different directions - and not to mention your squad yelling in your ear "Enemy fire!" and "I'm hit, I'm hit!" This is some of the most realistic combat in any XBOX game, giving you an intense taste of the panic, confusion, and `fog' of war. There's the all-out ferocious firefights and then there are also parts of the game that are equally intense but in a different way - where you have to be very mindful of what's in your sights - discerning between terrorists and hostages in a split second before you get shot or you shoot the wrong person. These are the cool, calm, and collected professional special ops missions that put a different kind of pressure on you - to be fast and accurate but also careful and smart. Both are great and the fact that they mix them up is a nice change of pace.
What I dislike about Black Arrow is what I disliked about the first RS3 - not much. Except for the bodies of the dead terrorists disappearing when you turn away (kills the realism) these games are pretty much perfect. RS3 Black Arrow is a lot of fun and a really exceptional FPS. | video-games_xbox |
Good Single Player Great Multiplayer. I was pretty happy with the Single Player campaign and I thought it was a improvement over the 1st. The graphics are top notch and the gameplay is really good. The little details in guns and when you fire the barrel gets red or just the amount of textures in the background. Every thing in this game just feels a lot bigger. I was kind of disappointed by only I think two missions took place above ground and the rest was below. I like the open feeling of the outdoor environments over the not so much open feeling of the underground settings though they are still pretty open. I did like the way when you fire your weapon it feels more controlled than having shots going everywhere when you aim. I for some reason didn't like that in the 1st game along with blind firing. Everything graphically is very nicely done and the sound design is great. I think everyone should play just to see the good job that was done on the environments. Single player took me about 10 hours I think and I enjoyed just about all of it. It felt nice to be back in playing Gears of War universe and I think thats why most people like this one.
Multiplayer is where this game takes off from co op to horde mode there is something to keep the fans there. Seemed to me that when they made multiplayer they intended it to be for the core Gears of War gamers who will be there playing long after people have stopped. Horde mode was far by my favorite as long as you can find people to watch your back. I do wish it didn't take about 3 to 5 minutes to find a game but thats o.k. though it can be annoying.
The games single player did feel more like an expansion pack than a direct sequel to me. The reason I gave this game four stars is that though it has great features it just wasn't enough to result in me buying it. I rented it simply b/c I had a choice of games to get with my budget and this game I found just didn't warrant a buy since the games I bought were better in my mind (not to say that it got 4 star b/c of my budget just didn't like it above others). Its hard to recommend games since our opinions vary so my advice is love or hate just give it a try and you might be surprised and buy it which is how I judge games on whether or not it would result in a buy. | video-games_xbox |
Excellent Addition for Some Peace of Mind. My husband has been talking about getting a fan for the Xbox1 for some time. We luckily have not had any problems but we have had some close calls with the fans being on the top of the unit. Also, it sits on a shelf and is in our den area which for some reason is the room where the air flow in our house lacks ~ the central air in there is not what it is in the rest of the house. Well PA has been in a ridiculously long heat wave ~ when I saw this I figured it couldn't hurt to add some cooling to help the system which gets A LOT of play time now that it is summer.
The unit itself appears to be made fine. Nothing concerned me or looked to be problematic. It is, of course, plastic but heavy enough I have confidence it will be fine. The seams were tight - nothing coming apart or "soft" seamed. Once on this won't be getting bumped or moved so the plastic housing seems sufficient for what it does.
It is EXTREMELY easy to set up. You remove the dust cover from the side of the Xbox (This even comes with a little tool to help which I took a picture of). The unit snaps in. It is a VERY TIGHT snap on. We thought maybe we were doing something wrong momentarily, but it is just a tight snap on. All of a sudden, pop - it's on! The directions that come with the unit are easy to follow - thankfully they are so simple because some of the English gets entertaining!
This does plug into the USB that is existing on your Xbox but you actually GAIN a USB port because this one has two! Which is a nice little plus! The directions do say to NOT to charge your controller while running the fan. This isn't an issue for us because we don't use the console to charge. You can turn the fan off or to high or low with just a little switch so it's easy enough to turn off if you need to charge.
Our unit is extremely quiet. I saw in another review they had some trouble with noise. We run ours on high and you can not even tell it's on until you walk over near the unit. It is spinning nicely and the xbox actually feels cooler since we have been using it. It may be because ours is on a shelf (only open in the front and back) and in a corner of the room. Or that this is the busiest room in our house and anything close to quiet is a fleeting dream. This is NOT the relax room so noises blend right in.
So far this has been a great fit for us ~ it's working great and just an added piece of mind to keep an overworked and very expensive system cool. At 19.99 (the price at the time of this review) this is an easy and inexpensive insurance policy for us ~ we have had some close calls with kitties who like to sleep on the warm top, blocking the fans or the boy who takes the game out of the case, sets the case on the top also blocking the fans while he becomes far too attentive to his game to realize he's left the case cooking the system. This is a nice little back up when mom isn't around policing the system fans on top - this will cool from the side! Just feels like a smart purchase at $19.99. Hopefully it keeps working as well as it is! If there are any problems or if we have any kind of premature breakdown I will update the review, but as of now it is a great addition for some peace of mind!
I can't speak for anyone else, but I take my reviews seriously ~ I hope I have given some information that that has helped you out! I received this product at a discount for my honest and accurate review but I am not obligated to leave a positive review, nor do I receive any incentives or monetary compensation to do so. My goal is to help buyers understand aspects of an item I would like to know before purchase. I am not affiliated with any company and am a normal consumer just like you. I pick items to review that I would normally want to purchase. (I don't do reviews for things I would already deem to be junk). I would never write a review for a product that is anything but my personal opinion and I have already purchased the product, nothing changes for me based on my review, but hopefully the time I put into writing can help someone out. Hope I was able to help ~ and please don't hesitate to ask me a question about any of the products I've reviewed; I am happy to help if I can! | video-games_xbox |
which breaks easily. I am now on my third headset and . I will never understand why Microsoft made the choice to eliminate the standard headphone jack in the xbox one controllers, in favor of a proprietary connector. Granted they have since seen the error and released an adapter and a new controller that has a standard jack. However, I already own four controllers and do not want to replace them in order to get one that has a jack.
As for the alternatives, they have issues. When in game/party chat you can tell if someone is using a headset connected to one of these other options as it will either produce echo or a ring within the party that everyone but the user producing it can hear.
Finally, I could live with the proprietary connection, if the product provided was a quality product. This product is poorly made with the thinnest possible wire, which breaks easily. I am now on my third headset and have done nothing with them that was abnormal. Infact I did purchase one of the adapters, which comes with a dongle to connect a standard 2.5mm headset, that dongle made with the same wire as the headset also failed. leaving me without a headset again. I suspect that dongle was responsible for much of the in party noise.
Many would argue that I should get turtle beach headset. Those users are not enjoying the true sound capabilities of games mastered in 5.1 and 7.1. Even "Surround" headphones cannot compare with a true surround system. A 2.5cm speaker cannot compete with a 15" 1000watt subwoofer for producing base. And even a few micro drivers baked into a head set cannot truly emmulate surround sound. I use a 7.1 setup with Pioneer Elite Amp and Klipsch Reference speakers. Why would I want to give that up to listen through a pair of headphones that mess with the audio balance in favor of amplifying footsteps instead of providing a well rounded audio experience? Haters gonna hate, but they don't know what they are missing.
So here I am stuck giving MS money for a poorly built product with no recourse. | video-games_xbox |
Great gaming system with loads of other stuff, too. Really happy with this system so far. It is super smooth and fast, the UI has no lag at all. The voice commands we've tried out so far work pretty well. It's not 100% but close enough that it's enjoyable to use. Hopefully more improvements will come with updates. One very cool thing is how amazingly fast it is to resume a game you have paused and in the background...it is very nearly instant.
Setting it up very simple. Just plug in your HDMI, power, and the Kinect. Connect to your network with built-in wireless or wired Ethernet, your choice. Be sure to change the display settings output from Auto to HDMI so you can choose the proper audio output type.
Once you're in setting up your profile and whatnot is super-simple.
I can see why games are installed to the hard drive. It reduces load times and makes switching between games/apps possible.
Kinect works very well most of the time, really enjoyed playing some of the Preseason edition of Kinect Sport Rivals - much more accurate and fun than the previous Kinect.
Forza looks absolutely amazing on this thing, truly cinematic. Ryse also looks amazing, but lacks some in the gameplay department.
My son played the new Skylanders on the One a little bit and it looks much improved on here compared to the 360 version. The graphics are great, and the gameplay improvements are very welcome!
One game we absolutely love is Zoo Tycoon. I played the old PC version years ago and expected this to kinda suck on a console, but it is done very well and is very entertaining with nice visuals and audio.
The updated controller is a great evolution of the 360's awesome controller. The little tweaks made are great, especially the dpad. It's also so nice to know that when batteries get low I can just pop in my fully charged AAs and put the dead ones on the charger...and keep playing. No waiting for the controller to charge up so I can play.
I am really looking forward to future titles such as Halo, Fable, and Titanfall.
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Update 11-23-13...
Got a chance to use Skype with my sister. It is so nice. Audio and video quality are quite good, but the neatest thing is how the camera adjusts the view size and amount of zoom depending on the number of people it detects. When my son came into the view of the Kinect it automatically adjusted so he was in the video. When he left it zoomed back in on me. Too cool.
We also took advantage of the big W's sale on One games and got Assassin's Creed, Just Dance 2014, and FIFA 2014. FIFA looks pretty nice, but not as much a jump graphically as other titles. Same with Just Dance, though it's impossible not to notice the improved Kinect accuracy. Assassin's Creed is quite impressive in the graphically, the ocean and ships looks spectacular. AC is also quite fun to play.
Also got around to adding my son's Live account, which is a child account of mine. It is so nice to have the One just recognize users and sign them in automatically. The child controls work well and are very, very easy to set up.
One giant improvement with Kinect is that it understands my seven year old son's voice commands almost as well as when I use them. The Kinect on Xbox 360 never did work very well for him (or most other children I know).
Liking this system more and more by the hour!
*************************************
Update 11-25-13...
I am really impressed. We played Just Dance 2014 last night with four people and it was so much fun. The expanded ability of the Kinect is really nice, I can only imagine what it will be like once developers have more time to understand how best to use it.
The voice control continues to impress, as well. I know it seems like a stupid thing, but I can't express how nice it is to be to turn on/off the machine and control it with just your voice. It really does enhance the experience for us.
Demos are also starting to show up on the store now - we downloaded the demo for the NBA game from EA.
I've gotten to play Ryse a little more, and it's gameplay has grown on me. It's simple, but it is really quite a bit of fun, and the graphics still make you say, "wow!". This truly shows off the amazing graphics horsepower this machine has, no denying that.
My only two complaints at this point are, one, that you need Gold Live to use apps like Netflix, which is just stupid - I can understand needing Gold for multiplayer, but not just for using the machine for one of the things it is designed for, media consumption. The second is that there is no DLNA support like the Xbox 360 has...I still need to use that in order to stream stuff from TVersity - hoping that will be added back in for one of the upcoming system updates.
An update is coming that will add external storage, which will be very welcome.
-------------------------------------------
Update December 10, 2013
Have gotten around to using some of the other features of the console, so thought I'd update this...
I had pretty much completely forgotten that the One is also a Blu-ray player. It supports BD Live, which I never use, but it's there. It supports resuming a Blu-ray where you left off, which is nice, as some standalone Blu-ray players don't even do that.
The Blu-ray app is pretty basic, but it works just fine and we've watched several movies on it now without any issues. 3D Blu-ray support is coming at some point in an update.
Have also used YouTube, Netflix, and some of the other apps, and have had a great experience. Watching other people play on Twitch is fun, it will be nice to have the One support broadcasting to Twitch when that's available in early 2014. I'm really hoping that Crunchyroll comes to the One, as it's on the 360. | video-games_xbox |
Should You Buy It??? - Helpful Tips on How to Choose. I'll be honest with you guys, I really agonized over buying this bundle. I already had an old Xbox 360 elite and another backup unit to boot - so really I didn't NEED it. But when it comes to being an Xbox & Star Wars fan - it's not about reason, it's about WANT!!! So what did I do? I bought it, albeit I had tremendous buyers remorse the second I got it until I finally hooked it up (and transferred the data from my old HD to the new one). From the moment I powered up the system - I was 100% glad I got it.
Here's why I'm glad I got it.
1) The unit looks awesome, and it is a Star Wars fan's dream come true. The R2D2 exterior is well crafted and looks/feels very nice.
2) I love how the Xbox makes those beeping/booping/squealing R2 sounds when you open/close the tray and power on/off the system. The only drawback is you have to physically press the buttons, you won't get the sounds if you use a remote or the controller.
3) The gold C3P0 controller is GREAT! It has a nice finish, great feel, the D-pad is nice and it just really makes you feel special for buying the bundle.
4) The white kinect is nice, and it is the only one of its kind (so far), with everything else being black. It's a minor thing, but it does make you feel better about paying for the bundle. As for performance, mine was fine out of the box though as with all Kinects you do get the occasional and annoying "player input lost" messages that kind of interrupt the action.
Now should you buy it?
Well here's who I think should get it.
1) Die hard Star Wars fans who need a new Xbox or just have money to burn
2) Someone (like me) who had an old Elite clunker and want to upgrade to the new 360 design before the 720 (allegedly) comes out at the end of 2013. At least if you buy this now you'll still get at least a year and a half with it, assuming R2's circuits don't get fried by the Jawas.
3) Someone who doesn't have a Kinect and needs an excuse to get one by buying a cool, limited edition bundle
4) Someone who needs a 320 GB hard drive and wants a cool Star Wars motif to boot
So who should NOT buy this?
1) Don't buy it if you're tight on cash, and especially if you already have an Xbox - that would be just foolish, and you'll just end up being bantha fodder down the road if you're in debt. This bundle is cool, but it's not "I'm willing to go broke for it" cool.
2) Don't buy it because you think it's a cool way to play Star Wars Kinect. It's not. (I'll explain more later)
3) Don't buy it if you think this performance is superior to any other 360. It's not.
**Important Note**
4) Don't buy this if you only have a 5.0 GHZ N connection in your home - not unless you have a spare Microsoft Xbox 360 wireless adapter hanging around. The reason?
The Xbox included in this bundle only works on a 2.4 GHZ connection. For people like me who have a dual band router, I assigned the 2.4 GHZ to my G connection (for my G-only devices) and the 5 GHZ to my N connection (to take advantage of the high speed for my other useful gadgets like the new iPad, etc).
FORTUNATELY for me, I was able to unplug my old wireless adapter on my old Xbox and plug it into my new Xbox thru the USB port (thankfully there are 3 ports on this new Xbox too), and voila I was able to pick up my wireless 5.0 N connection again (it wasn't able to do it beforehand). So just keep this in mind, if your wireless connection is only 5.0 GHZ N band at home, you'll need to have the extra adapter around to take full advantage of the higher speed.
I don't think this should affect a lot of people, but just keep this in mind when you are upgrading or buying it for the first time.
As for the extras ... well
1) It looks like Star Wars, but on your Xbox - yay!
2) You get 2 games!
3) You get a poster of R2 & C3P0 (eeh)
4) Kinect Adventures is fun, and a nice demo of what the Kinect can do, but other games do it better.
As for Star Wars Kinect (which is also included)
- This game is fun, initially
- You feel kind of cool when you are training and realizing you can whip out a lightsaber and kill stuff ... until you realize ... a lot of the duels are done in a rock/paper/scissors way. Meaning, when you "duel" you get in a screen where you have to time your blocks, then you get a narrow window of time to attack your opponent. That is REALLY lame.
- It's fun to use force powers with your other hand, while you slash with one hand, but after awhile all the slashing gets a bit repetitive and a lot of times I just ended up using my force powers for most enemies by flinging them around. It saves me the trouble of slashing the 1000th stupid droid with my tired arms.
- The driving/flying missions/controls are okay, but it's nothing we haven't seen before.
- The dance mini game is okay, but the rancor rampage thing is fun. It's basically the old Midway RAMPAGE game, but with a kinect.
- The duel mode stinks, for the reason I listed above.
- BUT you DO get an extra C3P0 thing for the dance mini game!
So is it worth buying the bundle just for this game? Hell no! But I'm sure most people are buying it because of the eye candy, and for that I gotta say it is really worth it. The unit looks special, I love the beeping R2 sounds and most importantly, it's a great upgrade for people who love Star Wars and Xbox at the same time. You just feel happy looking at it when it's in your living room or den or man cave.
Just keep in mind the Star Wars game itself isn't that great. | video-games_xbox |
The best for last. I'm a huge FPS fan but I've been disappointed as of late with the growing emphasis on multiplayer modes and lack of good solo-campaigns. 'Far Cry 3' is a breath of fresh air in today's shooter market: an FPS focused on delivering a memorable single-player experience with an open-world to explore and an RPG-like sense of player progression. It's a terrific game and probably the best I've played all year.
The story of 'Far Cry 3' puts you in the role of Jason Brody, an over-privileged yuppie who, along with his two brothers and group of friends has been captured by pirates on the tropical islands of Rook. After escaping, Jason is rescued by the native Rakyats who teach him how to survive the island and save his friends. The story is cliche to a point and Jason and his friends aren't exactly the most likeable video game characters. But it's in how 'Far Cry 3' progresses, pushing Jason through crazy scenarios and watching him change from timid rich-kid to full-blooded killer that makes the narrative so compelling. That the voice-acting is so uncomfortably believable (especially Michael Mando's performance as lead-pirate Vaas) just makes the experience all the more memorable.
The gameplay in 'Far Cry 3' is fairly straight-forward FPS fare with a few unique additions. Jason's not a fighter at first and a lot of his abilities are unlocked by earning experience points through combat and completing mission-objectives. Along with leveling up there's a crafting system that allows you to make weapon holsters (to hold more guns and items) by hunting down specific plants and animals. Mix in Radio towers that unlock weapons, strongholds to take over (for money and XP) and you have a sense of player-progression sorely missing in a lot of today's FPS games.
While the writing and gameplay is tops it's really the open-world 'Far Cry 3' presents that makes you want to keep playing. Missions play out in a fairly linear manner, asking you to get from point A to point B (and kill, burn, recover intel etc) but Rook Island is filled with all kinds of unique locations for you to explore and activities to take part in. That you can get attacked randomly by animals as well as other humans just adds to the game's unpredictable nature and makes the world feel like a living, breathing place. I've spent more time just driving around 'Far Cry 3' and taking in the sights than actually playing through the story!
Everything in 'Far Cry 3' seems to fall into place but it does have a few rough areas. There's a lot of impressive sounds in the game but so much of it seems muffled, especially with character voices. Even with my Turtle Beach X12 Headset character's voices seem drowned out making subtitles an almost necessity (which runs the risk of losing player-immersion). The controls can also be imprecise when trying to skin animals, pick-up weapons and loot bodies for items; You use the same button for all of these actions and it can take several tries before finding the right button-prompt.
Calling 'Far Cry 3' the best video game of 2012 is not easy praise, especially stacked against the likes of 'Halo 4', 'Borderlands 2' and 'Dishonored'. Obviously it's not perfect and could've taken some time to smooth out the imprecise controls and muffled sounds. But when it comes to quality, exploration and player-progression no other game I played this year comes close to matching the experience in 'Far Cry 3'. A must-play, especially for single-player FPS fans! | video-games_xbox |
Made me stop playing Halo2 online. For all you parents out there, DO NOT BUY THIS FOR YOUR KIDS! For the love of God, DO NOT!
Anyhoo, I've been on the Halo bandwagon for a long time now, many other games just never seemed to keep my attention and become boring or nostalgic after a short time. I decided to give this game a try after I viewed the 'Mad World' trailer. I went and picked it up on opening day hoping it would deliver on the hype. It did, I threw the game in and honestly, it has not left the 360 since. The detail is quite spectacular on a HD TV. I didn't think a third-person shooter could be this exciting to play. Diving all around, evading the enemy, flanking the enemy, and killing the enemy are all superbly done. What pulled me in first is the story, It grabs you and does not let go and if your diligent about pressing the cinematography (Y) button, it really does feel like your playing a movie. It's been a long time since a video game got my heart pumping out of my chest, it literally felt like it was going to explode as I ran for my life from the first berserker.
Pros: (Other than the obvious graphics and sound)
Easy to learn, hard to master.
The fact there is no center aim when your not zoomed in makes it that more life like. Your kinda guessing in close quarter combat
Every gun can zoom!
Tactical thinking - Critical thinking - Not just a 'Run and Gun' mentality.
STICKY GRENADES! yes! and you have to run up and stick it and then jump away before you both blow up, very brutal.
Chainsawing enemies in half and actually watching the body split in two while still making out some internal body parts is a plus.
Fun multiplayer matches, one life, makes coordinating tactics with others a must.
Cooperative online game play - two can play the story mode over the web.
Health meter is invisibly placed in the center of the screen and becomes red when your hit and the redder it gets, the deader you are.
Cons:
Since A is the only button to use, unintentional things do happen.
Jumping off of ledges is glitchy, hoped to be fixed with an update.
Online multiplayer matchmaking can be quite confusing at first to use, (This is why EVERY game out there should adopt Halo's matchmaking style) but once your in an ongoing match, (Which lasts for hours) It's all-good.
Overall It's become one of my favorite xbox games to play. And please DO NOT BUY THIS FOR YOUR KIDS. MATURE MEANS MATURE! GERMANY BANNED IT! SERIOULSY! | video-games_xbox |
Hopefully not the Final Fantasy, but Definitely Not a Perfect Fantasy. I'm a longtime fan of the series, and I have massively enjoyed what I've played from this game. But it's got flaws, and some of them are glaring. Let's split this up.
The Good
The open-world feel of the first 8 chapters is very Witcher or Dragon-Age. The hunts are fun. The music is good, especially if you're an FF fan (They allow you to play old MP3s of former Final Fantasy games during your quests). The collectibles (fishing, cooking dishes, etc) are pretty good too. Some of the best dialogue of any FF I've played is in this game between the 4 main guys, especially when they're exploring a dungeon. Summons are cool, even though they're random (and with the requirements for seeing them, only 2 of them really show up often). Driving around and riding chocobos is a blast. Combat is engaging and fun. The best parts of this game are when you're not actively doing the story. I've missed other good bits, but there is plenty of 'good' to make this game worth playing.
The Bad
The 'bad' elements are things I think could have been better but weren't. Most of the side quests are repetitious fetch-questy, go get these frogs or find these dog tags, or take a picture of this or that. The hunts are fun, but so far the only really interesting hunt is the behemoth hunt that was included in the demo. There are a lot of buggy things (i.e. mounting your chocobo or picking up mining/food stuff without jumping up and down 20 times). The most fun parts of the game are when the party also has a girl along (Iris, Aranea). These moments are unfortunately short-lived.
The Ugly
So, for me, Final Fantasy is all about plot and characters. Let's face it, this game has little of either. If you don't watch the Kingsglaive movie and the Brotherhood anime before playing, you will be lost. There is little to no intro, and the game assumes you know what went on. And that doesn't really improve as the game goes on. Character development is poor too. With so much focus on the open world and combat mechanics, character development is mostly left to the imagination. Luna and Noct are supposed to be getting married, we should feel romance/love there, but we really don't. By the end of chapter 7, you are almost rooting for another girl in the story. The major villains of the first half of the game (except for one) are all cast aside and made obsolete with little fanfare and little explanation somewhere around chapter 13. The plot twists with your party members are played down and mostly meaningless. And the ending is (well, controversial. Some like it, some don't. I didn't, I'd rather see them put an alternate ending in at some point.)
This game has an identity crisis too. It starts out very slow and dull, a broken-down car that you have to push down a highway for a little too long. However, by chapter 3 it hits its stride. The first 6-8 chapters are reminiscent of Witcher... main quests are fun, with the open world exploration and hunts being even better. Chapter 9 is maybe the high point of the game, with the most important scenes. Then it gets dull. Chapter 10 is a forced-walk slog through a mine. Chapters 11 and 12 are just train scenes, which you'll be begging to get through quickly. "Walk around the train until it reaches the platform". again. yay.
And Chapter 13 is just plain rough. It's like a bad cross between Assassin's Creed and Resident Evil. Big warehouse, forced walking/stealth, long hallways, all alone, with jump scares and zombie-like enemies, all with a creepy narrator talking to you over an intercom telling you how "weak and helpless" you are the whole time. Just slayed an Iron giant. weak and helpless. yep. And chapter 14 is just plain incomplete. In fact, everything after Chapter 9 feels like a hack. You can see where they made major cuts to get this game out the door in time for Christmas.
All in all, it's definitely worth playing, but it strays from the Final Fantasy brand pretty hard in some areas. I think if they'd taken another year to develop this game before releasing it, it could have been 50 times better. As it stands, this is what we have, so the review is of the game as-is. | video-games_xbox |
Product not as described. OVERVIEW:
Pros:
Quality material
Can reapply without damaging product or leaving sticky residue
Does not form air bubbles
Cons:
Images look sun faded
Product does not come in "safe pack"
No instructions
FULL REVIEW:
I really struggled with whether to give this two stars or three. If I could, I would have given 2.5 stars. I absolutely love the design. Also, the product material quality is great. It feels solid and durable. It sticks really well to the controller/console/Kinect, but at the same time will come off fairly easily to allow for reapplication in case it is not aligned correctly. I had to try a couple times to get it just right, and yet it still sticks great. Absolutely no problems with air bubbles forming either.
However, there are two major reasons for reducing the rating. The biggest and most important is the quality of the image. It is extremely faded, like as if it were left in the sun for months. I included several pictures in this review. One shows the controller and my overwatch case next to it in order to show that I have not altered the photo to make it appear faded. This took off one star. The second problem was the product packing. One of the images on the product page shows a so called "safe pack" where the product comes in a box to protect the decals from wrinkling. As can be seen in one of the photos in this review, the decals came in a brown envelope with a sticker saying "do not bend." This does absolutely no good, especially when it is placed in another brown envelope that has no warning of its own. This was of course then shoved into the mailbox, completely wrinkling and crumpling the brown envelope. The fact that the company deceivingly shows a "safe pack" but then does not protect it like that takes off two stars. One minor complaint is that there were no instructions. I had to use the image on the product page to apply the decals. | video-games_xbox |
Same ol' same ol'...for better and worse. Call of Duty is about as popular as franchises get in the gaming world but while this installment would be great for new players, veterans of the franchise may be left wanting more.
I've never been too fond of CoD single player campaigns because of the non-stop enemy spawning. I'm the kind of player that likes to clear then advance and this game makes that nearly impossible. But that's ok. Throw the story out the window because it's really garbage and only serves to set up the different levels, which is fine. Lack of major boss fights is fine, too. After all, this game, like Battlefield, is all about MULTIPLAYER.
There's a couple different flavors for this. You can do split screen co-op with a friend (the survival missions are a lot of fun and add a lot of replay value) or you can venture off into the multiplayer world on your own and fight players from all over the globe. This is nothing new for the franchise, which becomes a recurring theme.
Not a whole lot has changed with this franchise and this game feels like a map pack expansion because there was so little added. When franchises work, this isn't such a bad thing. Some franchises have tried to reinvent the wheel when it wasn't necessary and hurt their game in the process. The Call of Duty series has seen little innovation lately (it was a great original title), perhaps because there was no need to change what worked. But in a sea of shooter games where developers collect the best bits of other games and put them in their own, Call of Duty is rather dated. Some fans of the series won't mind because Call of Duty is a lot like pizza in that it's rarely a bad experience. But after awhile of ordering the same pizza year in and year out, some players may be looking for alternatives. Some of those players have gone to Battlefield 3 where the combat is much more varied. Still others don't want vehicular combat and want to keep it simple.
So this game is what you'd come to expect from Call of Duty. I suppose the question is: when the next Call of Duty comes out next year, will much have changed from this current game? If the answer is no, it could be a bad omen for the franchise as the competition increases around it. If the answer is yes, then the good times continue for the developers as they can continue printing money with how well this franchise sells. | video-games_xbox |
The A Team...The 'A' stands for 'Average. I just recently bought this game, and I must say, I'm a bit dissappointed. Dont get me wrong, this is an entertaining game if you want to kill some time, or want to try out some early Xbox 360 games. But it is in no way played with an "A Team" mentality that was portrayed when it first came out years ago. So to put it in so many words, this game is simply, unfinished.
When I first heard about this game and its concept, I was extremely excited believe it or not. For I am a sucker for WWII games and a huge fan of the first "Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction" game. And this game was being advertised and hyped as a mix of the two, what could be better?! But when I played it, I was stunned to find out that this game was a linear, mission-by-mission game, with below average graphics...and on a 360 no less.
Now I'm not one to criticize a game on graphics, but when "The Outfit", an Xbox 360 game, has worse graphics than "Mercenaries" for PS2, I'm bound to be a bit confused. Especially watching the in-game cut-scenes and seeing the character models plitting at the seams, literally. But the voice talents provided by Ron Perlman and Robert Patrick was an entertaining touch.
Now the gameplay isn't bad, but it isn't good either. Like I stated before, very linear. Altho some strategy is implemented well when you use your destruction icons and tactics. But I just felt this game could really make you feel like you were raising hell while you free roam in an open WWII environment. In the mean time, you're going from capturing one command point to the next, wishing you could do more.
So in the end, this game played and was presented below my expectations. But that doesn't mean to say that you should avoid it. If you have some extra money, and you'd like an entertaining rental or used game pick up, feel free to put this game on your list to consider. | video-games_xbox |
Fantastic game, as usual for DS with some unnecessary flaws. Unlike many critics as well as other reviewers I appreciate the new direction the developers have taken with the game having it take place mainly on a frozen planet with snowstorms and sometimes even whiteouts. A successful game series doesn't just repeat itself and after the fantastisc DS1 as well as the somehow suboptimal DS2 the planetary location is a logical progression. Spacewalks are present in the first third of the game which takes place around a derelict flotilla in the planet's orbit and are more beautiful and awe-inspiring than ever. Also, the extreme darkness of DS2, in which oftentimes at least I couldn't not make out where I was or what was going one is absent this time. I never got why darkness would produce horror or terror anyway, it mainly obscured the graphics of DS2 and made further progress uneccessarily difficult.
The game is nicely paced and offers not as much over-the-top action as some reviewers point out, and even DS1 had many overkill moments which also didn't hurt the game. The distribution of enemies is both fairer and more diverse than in DS2, and the new weapon crafting system is a nice addition. On the pro side there are the most beautiful graphics I have ever seen in a game and, for the first time in the DS series, a proper soundtrack mainly attributable to the fact that aside from Jason Graves' dull and atonal cacophony another composer was brought in: James Hannigan. His contributions suit the game much better and I can only hope that his involvement will continue in future entries of the series.
On the negative side I absolutely hate the new autosave feature which takes all the control out of your hands, sometimes saving every five minutes and then not for more than an hour. The game contains around ten optional missions through which no saving occurs, so you have to bring lots of time before starting such a mission because you have to finish it in oder to have your progress saved. Why the developers chose to both disemancipate the player like that as well as chopping the game up in a regular mission plot with optional missions is also very questionable in my opinion. Furthermore, the core game itself is designed to be played either alone or with a CO-OP friend, which puts some restictions on the game design which the predecessors didn't have to adhere to. Also, anticipating to play this game in 10 years or so with no one around to join in and certainly no servers anymore many story moments will be lost from a certain point onwoard, which is another unnecessary flaw deeply rooted in (not only this) game's core design.
In a nutshell, the game offers great atmosphere, setting, graphics and sound but has questionable core design choices and sometimes tends to take liberties away from the player, in that being a typical EA brand game. Also, it is more than twice as long as DS1, which is too long in my opinion. A substantial amount of its length is created via the sometimes very repetitive optional missions, which shouldn't have been expanded to this amount of gameplay time, I believe. Furthermore, the extreme DLC fixation with so many suits and weapons only available as downloads I also constantly feel like I am missing something. Personally I buy games for the long run and would like to enjoy them as a complete experience many years down the road. The current development in the industry however runs completely contrary to that, creating DLCs, downloads and forcing CO-OP on the gaming community, rendering the complete experience later on almost certainly impossible. A sad development only to appeal to fire-and-forget gamers and the greedy game company executives themselves, but certainly not to the creative forces of games or the most loyal core gamers. DS3 sadly is absolutely no exception to that development.
After plying the DS series since 2008 and now having finished this installment I can only hope that after the catastrophe that was Resident Evil 6 Capcom either catches up to the quality DS offers or take whatever pride there is left and finally cancel the RE series for good. As a fan of survival horror I absolutely prefer to get my fix from DS and especially this great game which I can only recommend to anyone interested in the subject. | video-games_xbox |
I'd give this game away, but I don't hate anyone that much. It's really quite sad because in general I loved this series, but I hate, hate, HATE this game. More frustrating than fun, it's a game that pretends to hold your hand through the first 5 hours of the game, shuttling you down a corridor without a lot of freedom to explore. Yet in spite of this, there are things the game stubbornly refuses to tell you how to do, such as how to complete certain quests (one of the NPCs in the game suggests that I just keep doing what I've been doing in over to complete it.) In another example, I had to go on-line to find out how to access the Armory in the main character's homestead, as nothing in the gameplay or in game manual told me where it was. Many of the quests involve running around trying not to get shot, or running around on a horse giving orders and trying not to get shot. Want to go for a walk in the wilderness? Get ready to deal with annoying Quicktime events! You see, you can't go anywhere without getting attacked by some random bit of wildlife and when you get attacked you have to mash certain buttons as they appear on screen. It's not fun. I hate QTE's, they're a gaming fad that should have gone away by now and at the very least you should have been able to turn it off in the options.
They've also taken away some of the gameplay freedom you had in the previous games. The first Assassin's Creed, for all its flaws, at least gave you the freedom to interact with the NPCs how you wanted. It was fun, in a GTA sort of way, to push an NPC into a market stall or start a fight with one and watch the chaos that created. Unbelievably, you can't do that in AC3. So in short, there's a lot of stuff to do in the game, but not all of it is fun. And as other readers have pointed out, the game is a buggy mess.
I'd give this game away to a friend just to get it out of my house and never see it again, but I really don't hate anyone that much. | video-games_xbox |
Though demanding and challenging, this is the best racer on the market, period. The most fun I've had in a racer in years.
Anyone can play F1 2011; fewer will invest the kind of time and patience is takes to master. This game is not for the faint of heart -- if you're looking for a casual, arcade-like racer, look elsewhere. F1 is technical (to a degree), challenging and will, unflinchingly, punish you for mistakes. It requires focus, consistency and strategy.
What makes F1 unique compared to other racers? Quite a bit actually. Realistic factors that come into play:
1. Tire management - When your team puts on new tires, they are "cold" and therefore not as grippy. It takes a lap or so to get them warm.
2. Dynamic tracks - temprature of the track itself gets warmer as the weekend goes on by virtue of use. Watch laptimes go down as the weekend wears on. Race line forms as the sessions go on, leaving rubber marbles on the rest of the track, which be slippery.
3. Fuel Mix can be changed on the fly, which will allow you to go faster, but burn fuel quicker.
4. Weather! Amazing dynamic weather system that can change as the race goes on. Should you come in for wet tires, or try and keep it on the track and wait for it to subside? These decisions have to be made in wet races.
5. DRS and KERS features, which are real-world technologies that allow speed boosts for brief moments or certain parts of the track.
6. Pit stop strategies include deciding what tires to start on, when to pit, how many times to pit, etc.
7. Random failures. While rare, it's possible to blow your engine, or for your KERS/DRS to fail. F1 is a team sport and reliability is just an important as the driver's ability.
While Codemasters did not do much in terms of upgrading the overall scope of 2011 (career mode is solid, but still feels incomplete), they did polish up the multiplayer, graphics and overall gameplay. The cars have more weight than 2010, where you can almost feel the Gs as you glide around corners trying to keep it on the track.
The biggest new addition is an online co-op championship mode, where you and a friend can team up online and race for the constructor's title. Very fun to compete with one another, but still be working towards a common goal. The head to head multiplayer is also fun and the most popular modes are the 3 lap races. But you can do full Grand Prix's if you so choose.
Graphically, this game is beautiful. Perfect? No. But how much detail does one need flying down a straight at 200+ MPH? The key here is gameplay and F1 2011 is buttery smooth. Players may initially be surprised at how fast the cars are, but to do well is balancing speed with angles. Understanding an apex goes a long way to keeping good lap times.
The sound is excellent. The scream of the engines are very accurate and you can hear the wind as you scream down a long straight. Periodic updates from your engineer are a nice touch, albeit a little canned at times.
While most will focus on multiplayer, the games Career Mode is strong for offline play. Start with one of 4-5 teams, then work towards improving the car as the season goes on. Compete against your teammate for "first driver" status, which allows you to dictate upgrade paths. Earn XP for meeting objectives, which raises your reputation and marketability for better offers. Answer questions from the press that dictate how happy you are with you car, your team and season status.
My only problem with the game is that I still feel the Career Mode could be expanded. I'd love to have an option to build teams and control all aspects of team management; from hiring a lead engineer, to sponsorships, to reseach and development. Would also be cool to hire/fire pit crew, or increase their skill as the seasons go, just like the car itself.
It would also be nice to see perks for players who use less/no assists. For example, the fewer assists you use, the more XP you earn. As it stands now, there is no in-game benefit for playing on harder difficulties. This should be fixed in 2012 and more XP is a fine solution.
Overall, a brilliant and fun racer but again, requires the "three Ps"; Practice, patience and precision.
Stick with those things and you will be ready to rise and compete! | video-games_xbox |
Clunky gameplay, unrefined game, rent it. This review may sound a bit cynical, but if you look at all of my reviews on Amazon, this is the only one that I ranked low. There's a reason for this and please do not rate this review as "not helpful" because I wanted to voice the truth, which will save buyers money.
I wanted to like this game. I really did. The idea of a stealth action / RPG game is one that is very exciting to me. I had been following this game, along with Splinter Cell Conviction and Alan Wake, for a couple of years. I just read the previous reviews here and though I respect their views, I think it's a great disservice to the consumers, and more importantly, the gamers by giving the game near-perfect scores. This isn't to say the game is bad. It's actually quite good, if you can manage to look past its imperfections. It's just that, there are too many imperfections.
I played both big RPG titles by Obsidian- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 and Neverwinter Nights 2. Both of these were sequels to games that had already created a foundation of game mechanics; Obsidian did not have to create its own. For Alpha Protocol though, they created a game from the ground up. Apparently, this isn't something they're very good at.
The game's greatest strength is its RPG system. The conversation can be controlled with preset routes- you can choose to be agressive, passive, or assertive. This power of choice makes it feel as if you're controlling the direction of the game. The customization system is well thought-out as one would expect from Obsidian. The story is sub-par, I didn't feel as if it was engrossing in anyway.
The game felt familiar but the actual gameplay is where things go downhill. There is a cover to cover system but they made it more complicated than it should be- it uses the A button to "attach" to cover, but this same button is used for running. They could have smooth out this out by applying the same style as Gears of War, which lets players to run to cover. In Alpha Protocol, you can try running to cover but you would need to let go of the A button first when you get to the location, or else you'd just be running into it, as if the character is running nonstop into a wall. Once you load the game, you have a sense of what's to come- stiff animations and outdated graphics. The walking animation makes the protagonist look like a robot. It isn't any better when he crouches. The combat further drag the game down. On hard mode, the enemies are easily killed in melee combat. The gunfight encounters are very glitchy and the enemies' A.I.'s were so dumb that there wasn't any real challenge. In my playthrough, enemies shot the walls, glitched by not moving, and waited in a location to be picked off. Playing the first level left a bitter taste in my mouth that I was hoping would go away as I got deeper into the game. The game becomes more accessible every level, but sadly, that taste never left even after the game's end.
Visit game reviewing sites such as Gamespot, IGN, or Kotaku to see how they ranked the game. I normally do not agree with these sites when they give low ratings, but they got this game's rating dead on. This game is rent-worthy, Gamefly-worthy, borrow-from-friend-worthy, but do not shell out money for the retail cost.
I am pretty sad this game didn't turn out as I was hoping. It had so much potential under the experienced hands of Obsidian... | video-games_xbox |
Could be better. Pros:
1) Small, cool and quiet. Only uses about half the power compared to the original 360. I can't hear it above my PC or air purifier if I have either running. If I'm using external speakers I only hear the console during very quiet moments such as loading screens or pause menus.
2) The design. It's been brought inline with the Xbox One and although some people seem to not like the "boxy" design for me it fits in with the rest of my set up - my TV, audio receiver, speakers, DirecTV box, bluray player - they are all "boxy" and black so this console fits in well.
3) Integrated wireless. Don't have to worry about running ethernet to the console or buying a separate wireless receiver.
4) Physical power and eject buttons. I prefer the tactile feedback of these buttons to the capacitive touch buttons of previous 360 versions.
5) The price of aged technology. I managed to pick up the console on sale during the holiday bundle. The bundle came with 2 games (Halo 4 and Tomb Raider) and I added 2 games (Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 and GTA V) and only paid $240. For someone hadn't owned a console from this generation until now being able to pick up most games for less than $30 is a very nice perk.
Cons:
1) It's 2013 and this console *still* doesn't come with an HDMI cable.
2) HDD is only 250gb. HDD is still only 5400 rpm. Microsoft missed an opportunity to add some "quality of life" upgrades to the console.
3) "simplified" i/o panel. Some options from previous versions of the console are missing which might impact the usage of certain peripherals, particularly 3rd party headsets.
4)The included headset is cheap cheap cheap. Flimsy, cheap materials, low-quality audio.
5)Basically every online function of the console (whether from online gameplay or apps like Netflix) seems to require an additional cost in the form of an Xbox Live Gold membership. I was aware of this going in so it doesn't bother me but it's not a fact which is clearly communicated in the product description. | video-games_xbox |
A Worthy Sequel. Gears of War 2 is exactly what you'd expect in a sequel to the best selling and well received, Gears of War. G2 is bigger, better and offers a slew of new options over the first.
Many gamers will instantly gravitate toward how the game looks - and Gears 2 doesn't disappoint. While graphically very similar to the first, the environments in Gears 2 span a more diverse setting. Everything from Locust caverns to snowy forests and to the last human bastion - the city of Jacinto. Graphics retain their gritty, yet somehow polished look - something that Unreal Engine 3 can render beautifully.
Gamers familiar with the original Gears game will be right at home with the gameplay. A few minor tweaks have been made, but largely the cover system remains intact. I was pleased to discover that AI controlled characters - mainly Cole & Baird are a bit more useful in G2 and can actually be handy in a firefight. Both now retain the ability to revive an injured player.
The story picks up almost immediately after the first games conclusion. I highly recommend anyone who is considering purchasing G2 to play the original game and get caught up with the story. For a shooter I would consider the story of Gears to be excellent. I've read a lot of reviews with players citing a certain "corniness" to the story. That might be true in certain cut-scenes but overall the story remains great and adds to the experience. All told my first run through the game took about 12-13 hours.
New weapons to the game include utterly devastating heavy weapons - The Mortar and The Mulcher. The mortar is an indirect fire weapon that will carve a swath of destruction through entire swarms of enemies. While the Mulcher is a flesh rendering chain gun that'll take down legions in it's own right. Both are a bit slow to fire and reload but once they do watch out! G2 features other new weapons though none quite as cool as the heavy weapons, though they're still fun to use.
One of my favorite new features is 'Horde Mode'. Essentially it's multi-player maps that feature a constant wave of ever increasing amounts of enemies assaulting the player and up to 4 friends. It's an absolute blast to play and might distract players from finishing the campaign.
All told I am obviously extremely pleased with Gears of War 2. I highly recommend this game to fans of the original or shooter fans in general. | video-games_xbox |
Very nice game with only one drawback. I bought and played this game about two years ago, and frankly, I was not expecting much, recalling some very mediocre magazine reviews from when it was released. But because it was priced so low, I decided to try it, since I am a stealth game fanatic, with the "Thief" games being my favorites. That said, I enjoyed this game very much, in spite of it playing nothing like "Thief". The one very big drawback to me was that "Velvet Assassin" is a very linear game, constraining you to a fairly narrow path all the way through. There are some areas that allow more freedom, and those areas were refreshing, but there were too few of them.
In spite of that negative however, I very much enjoyed playing "Velvet Assassin", and I finished it in about a week of playing every night. While not a super-long game, it was far from being a short game. It was actually what I would call "just the right length". The story, while nothing special, was actually quite good, and managed to hold my interest the entire way through. And although the game was linear, and your options usually somewhat limited, it played well enough that I really didn't mind any of that. The sneaking was fun, as were the kills I had to do when my sneaking attempts failed. I did have a lot of trial-and-error instances while playing, and though they could be frustrating, replaying the same sections multiple times didn't bother me as much as in most other games. Checkpoint saves are used, and for the most part (there were exceptions) I had no problem with their spacing, even though I'd far prefer a save anywhere system.
The graphics were surprisingly beautiful for a game this old. Well, it isn't really that old, but in PC game-time, graphics improve greatly each year, so I got a lot more than I expected from this game in the graphics department. The environments were nicely varied, with each area beautiful in a different way than the last. I don't finish many games these days (though I still buy a lot of them), but I had no problem finishing this one. In fact, each day when I came home from work, I actually looked forward to continuing this one. If I recall correctly, I believe it took me around 25 hours to finish "Velvet Assassin". And when it ended, I was satisfied with its length. I didn't feel like the game had been padded in order to make it longer. It was actually quite nicely paced.
So if you're in the mood to take the role of a female assassin in beautifully-rendered WW2 settings, I can easily recommend this game if you can overlook its linearity and checkpoint saves. The game was very stable, and never crashed during my playthrough. My system at the time I played this: Windows 7, Core i7 870 with 8 gigs ram, and a 1 gig GeForce GTX 460 video card. I should also mention that I purchased this game from Amazon's download system, and it came with no DRM or activation whatsoever. I know that many games purchased this way come with Amazon's activation wrapper, but this one didn't. I got the entire game with no strings attached. For those of you that prefer Steam, I believe (but cannot verify as I don't own that version) that the retail box version does use Steam. If you have any interest in the WW2 settings, or stealth-kill gameplay, I do not believe you will be disappointed, especially at the current bargain price. | video-games_xbox |
Amazing gameplay and graphics. While Soul Caliber II is great on all platforms, the special character and controller layout really make the XBox version the best of the bunch.
"Soul Caliber II", for the Gamecube, Xbox, and Playstation 2, is a weapon-based fighting game. It is the sequel to Soul Caliber for the Sega Dreamcast. It has beautiful graphics, a comprehensive storyline, and some great moves.
The basic story of the game is that there is this evil sword, called Soul Edge. Many want the sword for its great power. It is said to be, in fact, the most powerful sword in the world. However, most people don't know that it is evil, and so many pursue it. The current wielder of it is a mysterious black-armored knight named Nightmare. He was once a bandit, leader of a group called Der Schwarzwind (The Black Wind). He found Soul Edge, but gradually it took over his body. In the last game, Soul Edge was shattered by its opposite, the spirit sword Soul Caliber. However, the broken fragments of the sword have shown up in many places. Some seek to destroy the pieces to prevent the sword from regaining its evil power. Some want it to use to destroy their enemies. Some want it for the power it brings. However, everybody wants it, and most have no quarrel with destroying everyone in their way to get it.
There is a huge selection of characters, with six secret characters adding to the lineup. They vary from a Japanese swordsman to a village mystic to a female ninja demon hunter to a diabolical golem to an undead tomb guardian. There are also a great variety of stages, including a windmill in a mountainous village, an abandoned yet well-preserved Japanese castle, and a lakeside garden. Most of these places have at least one place where a fighter can be knocked out of the ring (except for the cage matches), so knocking someone out or tossing them out is a vital strategy for winning.
The modes of play that you can do include arcade mode, in which you fight several random enemies and one character-based enemy in order to accomplish your character's goal, Weapon Master Mode, in which you can earn gold to buy extra weapons, costumes, and artwork, to various time attack modes and "see how long you can survive" modes. Besides the normal modes, you can also get "Extra" modes, which allow you to use the weapons you buy in Weapon Master mode. The weapons can give that little boost needed for victory. Most weapons have a pro and a con, like a staff that has good offense and recovers health, but has poor defense. The higher the cost of the weapon, the better it is. Some weapons have no flaws, like the katana Masamune, which has good offense and defense, with no downside.
The in-combat gameplay is good. There are a number of actions, like Guard Impacts (which reverse or trip an enemy's attack), to prevent button mashing. This game is responsible for the most fulfilling fighting round in any fighting game I've ever played. My character was Mitsurugi, the Japanese swordsman, and my opponent was Raphael, the fencer. In most games, the victor would basically be whoever bashed most first. However, in this game, I actually had to think about it. There was thrusting, parrying, slashing, and basically everything that makes a game seem realistic and not just a "bash, mash, smash" game. The other moves that can be done range from ninja teleportation to awesome throws.
The main reason to buy certain console versions of this game is the "guest character" on each one: Link for the Gamecube, Spawn for the Xbox, and Tekken's Heihachi (who uses, well, gloves as his weapon). Also in the game is a character not seen in the video arcade games: Necrid, a special character designed by Spawn's owner, Todd McFarlane (which is why Spawn is the Xbox's guest character and why McFarlane toys manufactures the action figures).
As for being "kid-friendly", there is no blood, as hits make strange glowing/electrical red spots (but not cuts or slashes). There is some minor swearing (from characters that don't take losing well) and there is some "female character bounciness" and skimpy costumes, though each character has at least two costumes, and the alternate costumes on the skimpy characters are usually less bouncy and revealing.
This is a very good, fun, and attention-holding fighting game, with only a few clipping errors (objects accidentally going through other objects). It gets a 10/10. | video-games_xbox |
Massively Frustrating. Mass Effect has one of the better stories in video game history. That gets it four stars. I would watch this as movie for sure.
However the game has 4 major problems.
1. The gameplay ruins the experience. It may have been the class that I was, infiltrator, but the battles were frustrating and quiet frankly I did not know how be effect due to the clunky controls. The cover system sucks and never works quiet the way you had hoped. I am sure you heard about the horror of the Mako so I will spare describing that further.
2. As other people mentioned all the worlds are the same outside the main story and even those are lame. This game could be so interesting we could visit great galactic cities and homeworlds of various races and investigate to get to the bottom on Sarens plot and side quest could have been much more interesting and gripping. Basically, the Mass Effect universe is one dimensional, barren planets. Specifically rocky barren planets. And on the main worlds its basically driving the mako on paths carved out of the sides of the mountains, feels like we seen this a million times before. Want to explore a rich interesting galaxy? You got the wrong game.
3. I just finished GTA4 and I realized something, when I was playing it I was not constantly reminded I playing a video game. I was invested in the experience and and there weren't those little bugs that remind you you are in a game. Mass Effect reminds you your in a video game constantly; every building looks the same, the formula of combat and cutscenes is utterly predictable, there are areas that you cannot walk to and you aren't sure why. And this leads to the biggest culpurate of #3 LOADING...
I just wonder why rockstar can render an entire rich city without constantly loading while Bioware in Mass Effect cannot manage to load a level that is usually much smaller and much less rich. There attempts to cover up the loading with elevator rides is just annoying and makes you want to stop playing the game down all the more.
4. Technical issues, if you read reviews for Mass Effect you've heard this before but it is bad and at time almost unplayable. You are in the middle of a battle and you drop frames like crazy, end up facing the floor or something and promptly get killed by some geth. I feel like I am trying to play Half-Life 2 on a Pentium II or something. But oh yea Mass Effect was an Xbox exclusive I just don't understand how it could be this bad.
I spend hours trying to love this game. I wanted to. I loved the story. I loved the potential of what the Mass Effect world could be, and I kept waiting for its realization. In the end we get a great story and great graphics wrapped around a game that otherwise feels like it belongs on previous Gen console. Okay, well maybe we will get better luck in ME2. | video-games_xbox |
best bang for your gaming buck. i bought these to replace my Turtle Beach X12, which was an excellent headseat at the $50 price point. the only issue i had with the X12's was the WIRES. between all the wires that had to be hooked up behind the console, and the 30 foot wire running to the headset, it was just a big wiry pain in the rear. i felt like i was constantly moving wires out of my way to play.
i upgraded to these X42's and couldn't be happier.
Pros:
1.ease of use. one small toslink digital optical cable from the back of your xbox to the receiver. plug the receiver's USB connector into your console for power. turn on your headset. play games. it really is THAT easy. no wires getting in your way.
2. EXCELLENT sound quality. no hissing. no popping. just crystal clear game sounds.
3. configuration options. headset has 4 different equalizer settings for treble/bass. adjust to your liking, quickly, at the press of a button. the receiver also has 6 different surround sound presets, to adjust the direction the sound hits your ears.
4. chat boost. this feature is probably one of the best. no more fiddling with the chat volume when your game gets loud. just adjust the chat volume to your desired level. then turn up the game volume to your desired level. the headset will automatically raise the volume of your chat when the game volume gets loud, so you can still hear your buds.
5. mic monitor so you can hear yourself talking. if you've ever tried to talk with regular earphones on and had people tell you to stop yelling, this solves the problem. no more hearing yourself in muffled wierdness.
6. price. compared to other wireless headsets that cost upwards of $250, this one is a steal at $125.
Cons:
1. the ear cup on the X42 is ROUND, as opposed to the X12 which was more of an OVAL shape. this probably isn't a problem for people with smaller ears, but for bucket-heads like me, i can feel the top of my ear rubbing against the ear cup. not uncomfortable, just annoying.
all in all, a 5-star product. buy with confidence! | video-games_xbox |
Wishing it was better. Since this is about as close to a 2-player co-op (a la Baldur's Gate) as the 360 has, I gave it a whirl. I should never have made the comparison.
There are 3 major problems with Sacred 2:
1) It wants (desperately) to be World of Warcraft. From the layout of the menus to the pace and animation of characters running, the WoW influence permeates everything. Which would be fine except for...
2) The complete lack of epicness. My seraphim spent her first 6 levels taking worms to a guy across town so he can fish, tracking down a child's lost teddy bear, and retrieving a map for a guy too lazy to walk across town to get it himself. Those are all real "quests". Somehow just not the epic life I envisioned for my hero, nor the one promised by the cool trailers. While WoW gets away with this by making the quests entertaining or funny, Sacred 2 lacks that fun factor.
3) It's a PC game port. While that shouldn't be an impossible feat, it seems to be for most game publishers. Not having played Sacred 2 on the PC, I will give it the benefit of the doubt that the awkward controls and nav scheme are the result of the 12-button console controller and not just an inherent design flaw. On the 360, at least, it certainly makes the game less that polished.
As has been mentioned several times, there is no pause. I also felt like something of a sociopath walking between towns and shooting everybody and anything I came across (because if I don't, they mob up and attack me). Really? I need to kill every non-quest giving person I come across? And I'm on the GOOD campaign. Clearly Sacred 2 could have used some refinement.
All that being said, it is the only local co-op game of its type for the 360. The graphics are decent, so despite the quirks, if you're just itching to play an rpg with a friend over, this'll have to do. Just please don't mistake a recommendation due to lack of competition as a recommend based on the game's own merits; I just can't bring myself to the latter. | video-games_xbox |
The *must have* game for Xbox Live enthusiasts. I have completed the single-player mode of Midtown Madness 3, unlocked all vehicles and play MM3 online at least 3 hours per day (yes you read that correctly). I am an avid Xbox and PS2 console player as well as an Xbox Live devotee.
Midtown Madness isn't your normal racing game. In fact, the series has become famous for its "fly by the seat of your pants" method of getting the job done no matter what the route, damage or life threatening moves you need to accomplish. The single player mode includes careers you can progress through in Paris and Washington DC from delivering pizzas to full on police pursuits. You can also select "cruise" mode and speed around the two cities looking for special paintjobs to unlock for each vehicle. But online mode is where this game really shines.
You do not need to unlock any vehicles to use them for online play, but paintjobs can be unlocked to use online and two secret, undocumented super cars are available if you have the patience to get them. In addition, the game offers numerous unique and interesting vehicles that can be downloaded free-of-charge, via Xbox Live. Once online, you can choose a standard checkpoint race, or a number of different variations of "tag" where you're it and must tag others, or the other way around. My favorite mode is where one player starts off as a cop in a patrol car, and must collide into other players turning them into cops as well. The winner is the last man standing, who usually finds an entire fleet of patrol cars chasing him/her across the city at breakneck speeds. The best part of this type of challenge is anyone can pick up the controller and understand "you've just gotta run from the cops." I've sold this game to friends and family that have tried it once at my house.
Midtown Madness 3 is the most exciting and interesting "non-serious" racing game available. The single player mode offers a variety of fun and interesting challenges, while online play ensures that you never have the same challenge twice. This game is a "must have" title for anyone who has an Xbox Live gamertag. | video-games_xbox |
Not as Immersive as Skyrim, but Almost as Fun. It was still another few months until Fallout 4 came out, and this was on sale as part of Prime Day, so, since they dropped the required subscription model, I decided to grab it.
TESO plays a lot like a mix of Skyrim and Morrowind. I say this because in Morrowind, the damage you did was not based at all on where you hit an enemy; you essentially just swung your weapons (or fired your arrow) in the enemy's general direction and you did the damage you did. This returns in TESO, so my habit of actually aiming an arrow at an opponent's head is completely worthless; as long as I am pointed somewhat at them, the arrow will visibly arc through the air to hit.
The quests are the same sort you normally find in a TES game (kill this creature, kill that creature, bring me this item), but with the addition of other people trying to do the same thing. This has pluses and minuses. The pluses are that you can end up getting help with a particularly tough enemy from other people doing the same quest (or camping the spawn point). The minuses are that the other players are a constant reminder that you are playing a game; seeing "RuDeTuRd124" running around the screen in front of you makes it impossible to become properly immersed in the world.
The game's graphics are acceptable. The environment can be downright pretty at times, and, lets face it, Bethesda open world games have never been known for their especially realistic NPCs.
Be prepared for the usual Xbox Live complement of rude, homophobic, racist twelve year olds populating the towns and villages. The towns look like the exact sort you expect from Oblivion or Skyrim, save that they are populated by lunatics dancing on top of vendor stands, and leaping down staircases on horseback. Sheogorath's influence is clearly greater than the game's story indicates.
The game does allow you to block individual players' voices so that you do not need to turn chat off, but you have to bring up their playercard to do that, and I have frequently found that the gamer cards of the worst offenders (the child freestyle rapping with generous usage of various obscenities, for example) are unavailable at this time.
Don't let my complaining about lack of immersion chase you off though. There is some real fun to be had in this game, and it sounds like it is only going to get better when they add new features (the lack of a home to display my trophies in is probably the thing I miss most at this point), and were I a more social person, I would likely enjoy it even more. | video-games_xbox |
Great headset after you learn the ins and outs. Turtle Beach COD Ghosts "Phantom" is a decent addition to your gaming if you are looking for a high-end gaming headset with many options. Out of the box, there might be a learning curve about how to set it up. It is wireless, yes, but it does require some knowledge about what cables go where from console to the transmitter.
Another thing I would like to mention is that while it does a great job delivering a 360 sound to you(if somebody shoots on your right, you will hear it louder from one speaker than the other,) this might not be an advantage to those who cannot hear well from one ear or even deaf from one of the ears. There is no way to turn this feature off either.
There are many controls on this headset --- too many actually for my taste. There is an option that can make my voice sound like a monster or some sort of alien or what I prefer, a normal human being. While I can see why others could find this option amusing, there is no way for me to "test" this feature where I can hear it before trying it. Also if I accidentally hit it during any given moment, I will have to press the button several times before it goes back to normal. There are also buttons and controls for sound, bluetooth sound, mute switch, bluetooth switch, mode switch, presets, mic controls and a power button. If you can memorize where all of these switches are while playing the game, my hats off to ya! For me, there are way too many things to memorize. I am probably too old school, but just give me simple controls -- I wish there was a way to turn most of these options off and just allow me to control chat and game volume without much confusion.
The battery for this headset is internal and can last for dozen of hours and if you are caught in a situation that the battery is running out(the voice actor will be sure to let you know,) you can connect the headset to the console and charge while playing. Other than that, there are no wires to worry about. There is no hiss of any kind that I have experienced which I noticed with some inferior headsets that can put you to sleep, so this is a big plus!
The mic boom CAN be detached. So the good news is that you can use it with other devices and remove the mic boom. The bad news is of course you can lose it and those things can be pricey to replace. The mic boom traps the sound well and will not relay too many unnecessary sounds to your chatting party amd I'll tell ya, it is very annoying to play with some people who have police sirens or barking dogs in the background, but with these, it won't happen too often, if ever.
The cups are very comfy and isolate the environmental sounds around you, so you can hear the game and only the game, so if anyone in your family needs help or if its an emergency, you won't know :-/
Turtle Beach COD Phantom is a great headset if you are looking for myriad of options, clear sound, comfort and wireless freedom. If you have the patience, the funds and are a serious gamer, then this is a headset for you. | video-games_xbox |
got carried away. This thing is a dinosaur from an almost bygone era of when single player games were still king, co-op was novel yet welcome and the market wasn't over-saturated with CRAP (or did it START the rather downward era we live in today?)...and yet I took the chance to re-buy this bulletproof monstrosity to reaffirm that it was in fact my favorite console growing up despite in maybe even BECAUSE of the console's many flaws. Half of my would be 'top ten' games were included in the original Xbox's library, and I'm so happy to be revisiting them all once again in an age of disappointment on the PS4, XBOX One and Switch. By no means am I calling the Xbox the best console out there nor am I saying it has the best library...but both are my favorite in each category. The used one I ordered feels like its got weight to get rid of in dust alone, the disc tray is sticky and sometimes doesn't open and the thing kicks up a bigger racket than I remember from the fan probably overheating...but it works and works well! I probably got lucky, but I'm happy that I got one that worked in the end. I mean how could you not love playing Star Wars Battlefront 1 and 2, KotOR 1 and 2, Fable and Halo 1 and 2 among many others all over again? Think about it...I'm having more fun with a game I've played a hundred times already than I am anything brand-spanking new? Sure, give it time and the XBOX One marketplace will have all the golden oldies or will be patched to support your old Original discs, but why wait or even buy that overpriced XBOX One or One S just for that chance? Anyway...I typed this while sick and after a Friday the 13th marathon on Halloween so I may have gotten carried away...but I love this damn console. I only really give it one less star than it probably deserves cuz it has a controller pictured and whether it said so or not (which I didn't read to be fair) it did not actually come with one and I had to buy one off a friend. But still, get this damn dinosaur egg and a controller and you'll have yourself a fine Jurassic Park in no time~ | video-games_xbox |
Bungie Does It Again - Halo: Reach the best Halo experience yet. By now most gamers know whether or not they love or hate Halo. Very few people sit on the fence when it comes to this franchise. Reach isn't going to change any minds. With Halo: Reach, the bottom line is simple: If you love Halo, you WILL love this game, a LOT, and if you hate Halo, it won't convert you into a fan.
But if you're one of the few still on the fence?
Reach provides what might be the best Halo experience to date. For multi-player especially it's as robust an experience as you'll find on a console.
So yes, fence-sitter, this might be the time to finally give Halo a try.
First, the looks. The game looks great. Bungie updated the <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Halo-3/dp/B000FRU0NU/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Halo 3</a> engine, allowing it to pump more polygons at any given moment. Halo has never been about eye-candy in the way some games are, but rather about using the graphics engine to create big, epic experiences for the player. That's present in spades here. Battles in this game can be HUGE, with dozens of characters on screen at once. If you thought some of the big firefights in Halo 3 were intense, wait until you get a load of these.
And in Reach, you'll be fighting alongside a squad. That twist alone makes Reach a new Halo experience. You'll be pushing through a dramatic conflict to save the planet of Reach - those who have read <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Halo-The-Fall-of-Reach/dp/0765328321/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Halo: The Fall of Reach</a> know what that means - and the battle is a big one. Arguably bigger than the Earth invasion of the core trilogy.
This squad isn't just made up of nameless, faceless drones shouting slogans and dying in droves. As they did with <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Halo-3-ODST/dp/B001HWB68K/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Halo 3: ODST</a>, Bungie put a lot of effort into fleshing out these characters. You know who these people are. What they want. What makes them tick. You care for them. It's arguably the strongest writing in a Halo game to date.
It's got to be, too, because the story is one of the franchise's most powerful. Without spoiling too much, let's just say this is Halo's "The Empire Strikes Back."
Everything else is as you'd expect. Loads of new weapons. (Love the needler rifle). Vehicles. An epic campaign that throws a million obstacles at you. (Outer space combat for the win!). Enemies that are smarter than ever before. (The Elites are deadly and genuinely scary.) Plus new gadgets in the form of armor abilities like cloaking, etc., which you can use over and over after they've recharged. (These add a nice layer of strategy.) It's a blast.
Yep, when it comes to the campaign, Halo: Reach shines.
The multi-player is just as good. Maybe better. As always, matchmaking is easy as pie, and the available game modes are many. Customization is a cinch. Maps are varied and generally well-balanced. Those who played the beta know the action is faster than previous Halo games, but also more forgiving at times. Reach incorporates a kind of ranking/level advancement system not unlike those we've seen in other recent shooters. You get a constant stream of rewards for your play, from bits of armor to weapons and more. These carrots are likely to keep people playing.
As in the past, expect Bungie to keep tweaking online play, adding maps, features, and content for many months to come. That's the exciting thing about their approach. Reach won't be a game you play, put down, and forget. They'll keep pumping life into it for a while yet. That means good value for your gaming dollars.
The bottom line is simple: If you don't like Halo, this won't win you over.
But Halo fans NEED to have this game. It's outstanding in every way. | video-games_xbox |
How could this Happen. I had never thought I would see a game that was more grossly disappointing then "Duke Nuke'em Forever". Well one came out. And it had to be an even more iconic franchise, indeed it was the franchise that cemented the idea of what military science fiction should look and sound like. More horrible is the thought that "Aliens" is thee biggest influance of pass and current titles from other movies to book and video games; Doom, Halo, StarCraft even Dead Space all take inspiration from that second film.
Waking up on release day I first checked IGN to see what they had to say about Aliens: Colonial Marines. A rating of 4. Bad. That was their official review.
But never the less IGN is known to have impossible high standards and most people seem to disagree with; plus one should never speak ill of any product without testing it yourself.
Oh Dear god IGN was Right. It's a horrible game. This is why there is Gamefly.
Despite touting special sound effects from the movies, James Horner's music and voice talent by both Michael Biehn and Lance Henriksen this game STILL fell several miles short. The graphics would be good if this was an Original Xbox game, there are next to no particle effects and the sound is muted. The music isn't as loud as it should be and seriously lacks that driving percussion that fallowed the latter half of the second Alien film, there is no satisfying "thud" as bullets smack into things or a meaty crunch as exoskeletons break apart like Dungeness crab legs, absolutely everything is half assed here, so much that the 2010 version of Aliens Vs Predator is massively superior game.
The plot is this, you rescue Hicks. That's really it in a nut shell, turns out Hicks wasn't in his cryo-chamber when the other ones where jettison because Wayland Yutani PMC had boarded the ship and took him hostage. You go find him, disrupt Wayland operations, kill a lot of Xenos and PMCs, that's it. | video-games_xbox |
So many positives, thank you EA Sports. If it weren't for the Fight Night franchise, boxing games would be dead, not unlike the sport itself.
Good
- The Total Punch Control and defensive controls make you feel like you are a real fighter. Your evolution in mastering the controls is not unlike a boxer one day mastering the rhythm of the game itself.
- REPLAYABILITY IS SUPER HIGH.
- The look of the game is awesome. It is possible to forget it's just a game.
- Excellent list of pro boxers to face.
- WOW best describes the new "story" type mode with a classic rivalary being established between your boxer and the villian character.
- One Punch KO's. I like them. Thy happen in real boxing, and so they happen in this game. Sometimes to you, sometimes by you, but usually if you are KO'd with a single punch you are asking for it. For example: Your attributes may be very high so you stay inside too long against an opponent that you overpower. If you stay in too long, and he has decent punching power, he will eventually land one that will drop you. Punishment for not working the ring.
Bad
- Story mode has some challenges that are truly challenging and frustrating...so if you are like me and just enjoy the standard boxing match set-up, the story mode will present you with a different way of playing you may or may not enjoy.
- No hard drive = no replays. Actually, the game seems totally different if you are still one of the people with the old Arcade Xbox 360. Different speed or something.
- Something about the training between fights has never set right with me. It often seems like a waste of time between bouts. It is most definately repetitive.
- The XP points to grow your skills seem too scarce. They don't let you develope your skills fast enough. Be smart where you apply your points.
- Accepting a Promotional Event or Sparring Invinte from the Champ can mean you are not rested for your upcoming fight. They strangly insert the event on the week before the fight (randomly scheduled it seems) which means if you go to the event you will start the fight with 50% or lower stamina. Confusing why this was added to the game.
I'll be playing this game for months. No worry about wasting your money here. | video-games_xbox |
Great sound, but cheap construction and flawed design ruins it. Let me start off by saying I haven't owned many headsets. I had a couple of cheap ones that I got for doing voice chat while gaming (integral while raiding with my guild) but my boyfriend bought me this headset for Christmas last year. They sound great. I'm not exactly an audiophile or anything, but seriously, it's the best sounding headset I've owned to date. The construction, however, is not very sturdy. I don't know if it was just a design oversight or trying to cut some corners with the actual materials used in the construction, but the adjustable part of the headband is made of very flimsy plastic. Three months in, it started to crack. At first I thought maybe I had used them too often or was too hard on them (I am an avid gamer, playing for hours a day most days), or maybe I had just gotten a defective set. I worked in the warranty business so I know that sometimes you just get a bad product. Luckily, Turtle Beach's RMA process is fairly painless and I had them back within a week and a half.
The problem is that this happened again two months later, then again two months after that. I've now replaced them a total of three times within the one year warranty period, and they've just cracked again so I'm looking at a fourth replacement. I sent another ticket today for the exact same problem, and every time I've had to send them back I treat them more and more gingerly. These things never leave my desk, they don't get dropped, and they don't even get disconnected and hooked up to other devices. I don't have money to be throwing around buying new electronics, so I'm very careful with my belongings. I'm really disappointed because this was a gift and I do really like the sound quality. I've even tried doing makeshift repairs to them a couple of times to avoid having to send them back, but it leaves them lopsided and uncomfortable if they're even wearable.
The worst part is that the warranty is up at the beginning of 2014, and I'll no longer be able to send them back for replacement. I'm expecting them to break again within about two months of the warranty expiration, and at that point I guess I'll just have to suc it up and replace them. It costs around $12 every time I have to send them back for replacement because the RMA that Turtle Beach sends you doesn't cover the postage. I'm glad that customer support has been kind and the process has been painless, but replacing the same product four times over the course of a year is nothing short of ridiculous. The $10 Logitech headset that I got six years ago is still in one piece, so the fact that this one has now broken 4 times is beyond me.
After having used it for ten months now, I have to say that I wouldn't recommend this product. | video-games_xbox |
Amazing sound quality and comfort out of the box. Best when paired with TB DSS2. At a Glance
Pros:
Great stereo sound quality, especially better than Turtle Beach x11s (without DSS)
Tighter fitting ear cups keep the noise in
Does not bear down on the top of your head since the sides clamp a little to your head
Rubberized grip on the volume and chat controls. Allows easy and slight adjustments.
Cons:
Needs an adapter to connect to the Turtle Beach DSS2
2.5mm audio jack instead of the more common 3.5mm (hence the adapter)
It was pricier than Turtle Beach x11s or x12s (I snagged when they were $39.99)
In Detail
I have always been a Sennheiser fan, but when these were first released at $150 I said no way. I had already purchased my TB x11s and had been satisfied with their quality and performance. The DSS2 was also a bonus to the Turtle Beach set, and it allowed amazingly accurate sound location and I thought things could not get any better. I could hear every foot step and bullet fly by my head, and when I was bored of games I could blast music with the deepest of bass and clarity.
Yet, I found myself watching the price on the Sennheiser x320s for over a year. I finally gave in and purchased them, this is my experience.
Out of the package you find the same amount of cables associated with ANY WIRED headset. There is the main cable attached to the USB for power, and the audio input cables (standard red and white cables, but in this case they output in the 2.5mm jack) that feed into the main line at some point. There is the mic cable that connects to the inline volume control. The Turtle Beach x11s have the exact same cables, only they are 3.5mm jacks.
Set up was easy, and with a few wire wraps all the mess and tangle was controlled. With the standard setup to the xbox, I was blown away with the sound quality. All the steps, doors, bullets, ambient noises, tank shells, rumbles and grumbles you could imagine were heard with crystal clarity. I couldn't belief the stock setup sounded so nice without the digital surround sound I had before.
Better yet, I could hardly feel I was wearing headphones at all. The slight cling of the ear cups allows the weight to be dispersed from the top. The ears close in around your ears, but they do no make you feel trapped. It is almost like a seal of soft foam around your ears. This helps shut out unwanted noises from real life.
When I switched the bass boost on (built into the volume control) I was further amazed as it was actual "bass" and not the distorted vibration that would occur with my x11s at times. The actual wheels to control the volume and chat levels are very nice. They have a slight rubberized grip to them that allows you to easily adjust them. The x11s were sometimes hard to maneuver.
To make sure I wasn't just crazy, I set up my x11s without the DSS, and needless to say, it was a pitiful experience. Though you could hear all the same noises, it just was not as clean sounding. The noise seemed to escape away out of the headset rather then surrounding my ears in the audio of the game.
But this got me thinking. What if I combined the best of both worlds! With a simple 2.5mm male to 3.5mm female adapter, and a 3.5mm male to male cable (you could just do a 2.5mm male to 3.5mm male adapter) I was able to sync the Sennheiser x320s to the Turtle Beach DSS2.
This allowed me to have the digital surround sound experience through the much better performing headset. The sound quality is beyond my experience. Every single noise is amplified to perfection. With the cups trapping the noise in, I feel much more emerged in the action of the game (Battlefield 3.)
And furthermore, since the headphones cancel outside noises, I can easily shut out the Real Housewives my fiance watches. Before with the x11s, those crazy ladies would still get through to me, even with the volume on the headset cranked up.
I have posted pictures regarding the setup I am using.
If you want a brand you trust for sound quality in headsets, buy the Sennheiser x320s. Even if you do no have the TB DSS2, this is great set of headsets.
*Update 5/16/2014:
Over time, I realized the microphone was not always working. As some have said, it has a high threshold of sound before it will start to pick up your voice; essentially meaning you needed to talk loudly (but, in my case, I bought the headphones to game in an apartment with thin walls). I contacted Senn. support and was told I didn't have things set up correctly...which was not the case. Overall, the sound is great, but the microphone is lacking. | video-games_xbox |
Poor excuse for a game. There's a reason this was released in advance of stronger games. As a fan of the old Battlefront, I'm nothing but insulted by this piece of s*** game. I waited for this game to be released, and preordered. Unfortunately, I played directly into EA's hands; there is virtually nothing about this that is at all similar to the old games. Here are my pros and cons:
Cons:
-It is ALL centered around multiplayer. Unfortunately, the servers have been down for almost a week. I haven't been able to connect to an EA server since the first few days after I received it. So, even if I wanted to play multiplayer to broaden the loadout I can use in the 4 singleplayer missions, I can't.
-Not at all similar to old Battlefront. There is no campaign mode. I suppose there's an instant action mode in the form of 4 missions (Hoth, Sullust, Endor, Tatooine), and 4 survival modes. But basically there are only 8 maps if you're playing singleplayer.
-The training missions are great, but they don't train you for anything. There are no singleplayer missions where you need to fly an X-wing, snow speeder, or drive an AT-ST. There might be on multiplayer, but good luck connecting to the servers
-Unrealistic gameplay. Somehow, I'm carrying infinite ammo and secondary weapons. But if I throw a grenade (a thermal detonator) I have to wait about 15 seconds to throw another?
-Your enemies are able to choose soldier classes, but you aren't. Once you've picked a loadout, you're stuck with it until you're done with the mission (except on survival). Each game starts mostly with regular soldiers, but as the mission progresses, the other team gets specialized players: heavies with rapid-fire weapons, jetpack troopers, snipers, and demolitions. You'll kick ass in the first half of the game, only to lose to an army of enemy specials. Also, your squad has maybe 4-5 guys. The enemy squad has double digit strength by the end of the mission.
Pros:
-Graphics look good
Basically, this is an incomplete game. I'm sure they'll charge for for additional features and maps that should've come with the original game. I 100% regret purchasing this, and I wish EA had never obtained the rights to this franchise. This game, in it's disc form, is worth about $15. | video-games_xbox |
Great Controller. Logitech's Xbox Cordless Precision Controller is a must get for anyone tired of all the cords. I have all three consoles and after a while I got tired of having to wrap all the cords up, tripping on them, etc. I also eventually picked up the Logitech Controller for the PS2 and the WaveBird for the GameCube, fully getting rid of all the cords. In my opinion, the Logitech Xbox Precision Cordless is not as good as either the Logitech PS2 or the WaveBird, but it is also not bad by any means.
To begin with, the controllers design is nice and fits well and is comfortable in both hands. The feel is a mix between a PS2 controller and an Xbox controller. All the buttons work properly and are pretty much in the same vicinity as the other Xbox controllers, but it does take a short time to adapt to. As for the batteries, I have yet to have any problems with them. In fact, I am impressed by how long the batteries have last. I have played through Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II twice and my brother has also played through it twice (Approximately. 100 hours of game play between us both). I have also played Madden and Halo 2 for quite sometime on it and I have yet to change the batteries once and I have had the controller since December! I was suspect at first with how long the batteries were going to last, but their longevity surpassed my expectations.
Even with great battery life and a good feel it does have a few flaws, minor, but flaws. The first thing I don't like about the controller is the little box that comes with it. The PS2 and GameCube equivalents have nice little boxes; the Xbox one is a bit bigger. I mean it is not a major concern, but it just takes up some space in an area where I don't have much to give. Secondly, I have noticed that it has a few problems in several games. They are not major problems and it only seems to be in the menus of a game. For example, I have to hit buttons twice or push the axis twice when I am cycling through the menus in Madden. I also had the same problem in ESPN College Hoops 2k5. But I didn't have any problems with the controller in KOTOR II, which has more menus and choices then any game ever. So perhaps it is just those games. Finally, my last thing is not really a flaw. The price of this controller is roughly $10 dollars more then both the WaveBird and Logitech PS2 Controller.
Overall, this is a great product by a company that I personally have never had a bad product from. This is my third wireless Logitech controller (Xbox, PS2 & PC) and I have had no major problems with any of them. If you are looking to go wireless with your Xbox, I really wouldn't hesitate. And if you are like me and have destroyed controllers in the past, do not fear too much. It can take a decent beating, but it does lose its signal if you shake it enough, so do play with caution and remember to throw a pillow rather than your $50 dollar wireless controller. Without the wires it can go rather far, so play safe. | video-games_xbox |
Awe inspiring. Spoiler warning.
Assassin's Creed I was perhaps one of the best games I have ever played. The only problem was the fact that it got so repetitive that it took me over a month to complete. Assassin's Creed II, took me five days. The repetitiveness of the first game is virtually eliminated in ACII. True, you have to scale many viewpoints to get an accurate view of the city, but they've been considerably reduced in number when compared to the first game per city section. Whereas you had to scale about 9 to 11 viewpoints in ACI to complete your picture of the poor, merchant, and rich districts of Acre, Damascus, and Jerusalem per district, in ACII you only have to scale 5 or 6, however there are more districts.
The methods of combat and assassination have also been greatly improved. The first game gave you four weapons: a sword, a dagger, a hidden blade, and throwing knives. Therefore you had only a few methods of assassination: you could sneak up behind somebody and stab them with your hidden blade, jump off of a rooftop and do the same thing, storm into battle with one of your swords, or toss a throwing knife at somebody. In ACII, the possibilities are endless. At one point, I had to dispatch a group of four guards who were guarding an item I needed. So I simply walked up to them and threw down a smoke bomb! I quietly dispatched each of them with two hidden blades, walked into the building, grabbed the item, and left without ever being detected by the guards. Later on after having dispatched a heavily armored brute, I grabbed his pike and proceeded to whup the behinds of the foolish gang of Guards who brought swords to the battle. At one point I abandoned my weapons entirely and just stole my opponent's axe right out of his hands and killed him with it. Then I shot a guy with a gun.
The economic system is a huge highlight and accents the wide variety of killing you are allowed. Blacksmiths will sell you and repair armor, which will provide extra health bars, sell you ammunition, and supply you with a variety of weapons from swords to axes, giving you the ability to use virtually any weapon you'd like against an enemy without having to seek out and find the guard who is keeping it. In addition, you no longer have to wait to heal. Doctors will supply you with medicine that you can use to heal yourself whenever you want, including mid-fight. Death is virtually impossible, unless Ezio jumps off a tall building and doesn't land in a "magical" haystack or water. Even then, you can latch onto a ledge with the literal press of a button and save yourself from certain death.
The story flowed more as well. In ACI the main problem everybody had was the investigations. After tediously climbing every viewpoint, you had to find and deal with a small variety of missions: pickpocketing, timed assassinations, flag gathering, eavesdropping, and the like. After a while this got so boring that the only highlight of the game was assassinating the main target: the list of nine names. In ACII that is gone. Every mission you complete leads to another. You don't have to complete five exclusive missions to complete the main one. After saving a group of thieves from around the city, you use them to storm your assassination target's place of residence. You save a stranded nobel who grants you passage to Venice. After discarding a gang of archers, your allies take their place and allow you to assassinate a main target and get away without having to enter a huge battle with all of his guards. And killing the Pope? That's only one small piece that leads you to the biggest secret in man-kind. And no, it's not the body of Mary Magdeline. Only then do you complete the search for the glyphs spread out all over Italy and discover "The Truth," which changes everything you thought you knew after completing the main story of the game.
I found only two problems with the game. The first was the poison mechanic of the hidden blade. I could never get it to work. I don't know if this was a flaw in the game or my own incompetence, but there it was. The second problem I had was the control system. It seemed far more difficult than the first (not to learn to use, but to operate in general). Ezio would often run up a building when I wanted him to run down the street, or leap off a building to his death when I wanted him to climb up. Fortunately the game was so fun that the problematic control system was easily overlooked. It wasn't bad enough to take away from the overall gameplay. And he could swim, which was o' so fortunate.
All in all, I give it a 4.8 out of five, minus .1 for the control system and minus .1 for the useless poison. | video-games_xbox |
awesome game system from a ps4 fan. I was a complete sony/ps4 guy. I decided to buy this for a few reasons. 1: I had a 360 and before it broke I really loved gears of war on it. I can't wait for the remake and 4 to come out. 2: I am a big madden/fifa/nhl guy. I usually wait until the games are on sale for $20-30 before I buy them. With EA access, I have all three of them and battlefield 4 for the price of $30. So far they have put every game on there once they have gotten a little stale. I am patient enough to wait for the new games to get on there so I have massive savings just on the sports games. 3. Sling tv. Playstation does not have this option. This may sound like a dumb reason but switching to a non cable option of netflix/hulu/sling tv and having it on one box is great. Now for the few cons I have experienced. This may be personal preference, but I prefer the UI of the ps4 to this. It is much easier to find stuff. Also, a big negative for me is the option of non-rechargeable batteries, and looking into the recommended microsoft solution, charge $25 for a recharging kit. I have been spoiled having this included. I also like the controllers of the ps4, but again, this is personal preference. I don't know why, but I feel the xbone controllers are bigger than the 360. One last con that is a big personal preference is I think sony has better exclusives, but it depends on your taste. I love metal gear solid (no longer exclusive, but was in the past), god of war, uncharted, last of us, ratched and clank, order 1886, etc. When I owned a 360, I primarily played madden, call of duty, gears of war, and halo, with not much else I was interested in. One last thing that most people probably think is dumb is I prefer the trophy system to the achievement system, but this is also why I love the xbox. Any multiplat games that I don't care about going for the platinum trophy, or there too difficult to go for platinum, I will just get on xbox one, because I could care less about the achievements. Overall, I am very happy with my purchase. Got this bundle with arkham knight, 3 month xbox live, and an extra controller for $350. Selling a lot of the extras made this purchase in the $250 range, which I think is perfect. I really have enjoyed my xbox one, and would recommend one to anyone. | video-games_xbox |
One trick pony, clunky interface, unpolished, falls short. Red Faction: Guerrilla is an open world type third person shooter-sorta. I hate to do what everyone else does, but: It's GTA III (not even IV) with much less character, more explosions, and a severe lack of gameplay mechanic polish. You play Mason, a guy gone rogue due to the oppressive EDF who have a stranglehold on Mars and its people. You come from a mining background, and so you spend lots of your time with mining related equipment wreaking (very repetitive and lackluster) havoc on, basically, carbon copy enemy installations that are heavily defended, including magical teleporters that allow enemies to spawn anywhere near you, especially right behind you where you were just looking.
The spawning engine is uneven and often over-zealous: You'll wipe out two or three guys within sight, and two seconds later there are five or more on foot, where there were none prior. No, they didn't drive up and get out -- that happens, as well, on top of the teleporting magical sniper sharpshooter baddies. Which brings me to another point: The enemy are very hardy. Run them over with a big truck full bore? Unless you hit DEAD on, they get right back up as if nothing happened. Hit them with a rocket, right in the eye? Sometimes they just ragdoll away, get up, and charge forth. The turret gunners are brutal and can draw a bead like it is nobody's business.
Now, I'll hear some babble from the peanut gallery: It's a guerrilla tactic game, sir! You are supposed to use stealth and hit and run tactics, SIR! Jesus, don't you know what guerrilla means?! Yeah, right. The enemy has eagle eyes, and if you drop one (quietly) and there happens to be one near by, NOT EVEN WITHIN EYESIGHT, suddenly the entire installation is aware. The game generally devolves into you running away like crazy trying to duck an onslaught of fire. You'll eventually find a vehicle, if you survive, then you get to flee until the little indicator says GREEN. GREEN means happy.
The driving mechanics. Ugh. You hop a little bump in your buggy, and when you land all the glass blows out, you lose speed, and heaven forbid you aren't perfectly straight -- you'll begin to wildly careen. Since there is a lot of driving to and fro, hither and tither, yonder and near this can be an annoyance. Many missions require precision driving, especially later on, to beat the idiotic time clock imposed on many missions. QUICK, STEAL THIS VERY SLOW VEHICLE, AND YOU HAVE INEXPLICABLY TWO MINUTES TO GET BACK TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PLANET.
The mission variety is good, if your definition of variety is: the same three components arranged differently. Go to place, get mission. Drive to another place where you either shoot something, drive something, or blow something up. Rinse, dry, repeat, repeat. The main story missions have a slightly deeper level of character, but mostly they are the exact same thing as the side missions, only with a non-generic narrative. If you are lucky, a cut scene.
The weapons/ammo situation is also out of whack with the intended designs of the game. You need copious amounts of ammo to get anything done -- and yet you carry, in all reality, a very limited supply. So you have to run to these idiotic magic stockpile boxes -- painted with the symbol of your faction, naturally -- and re-up. Depending on your popularity with the brainless people of Mars, you get more or less ammo -- but never all that much. Ultimately, you have to chip away at some goals -- hit, run back to safe house, run back to site, hit, repeat. You will spend a lot of time driving, which, honestly, is a chore.
Overall, the game has its upsides, but they are heavily out-weighed by the clunky interface, poor gameplay polish, and generally silly decisions the developers made. It is the technical issues that detract heavily from what could be a decent game -- and the icing on the cake is that, for all of its "innovative destruction capability" and its interesting setting of Mars, it really is rather bland and uninspiring.
A gimmick of collapsing buildings is not enough to float a technically inferior game. | video-games_xbox |
Far from perfect, but beats Madden 2k4 hands-down. Okay, everyone else has covered the major points...
1. More realistic players
2. Madden too easy to do interceptions and strips/fumbles
3. Madden too focused on being an NFL League Owner simulation and has forgotten how to be a truly fun and engrossing football playing game
I am fairly new to football games on the console. I used to play the Madden series on Sega and then PC until this year's XBox arrived. I rented both and did a 5-day comparison a-la-Pepsi Challenge style...here are some things that a non-hardcore newcomer noticed...
1. I like it that ESPN commentators remembered much more about what I had done in the past and commented on it. I went for it on 4th down and failed, and then went for it again next possession. They actually commented on the prior failure and wondered if I would pull it off this time. Very cool, not canned robotic Maddenisms over and over that are so generic and random.
2. The whole halftime with Chris Berman was AWESOME in terms of how much of the stats and plays he recapped seamlessly. Chris must have spent a LOT of time in a recording studio for this one, because it is very detailed and impressive.
3. The Crib thing didn't impress me, especially since, again, my main focus is just playing football games, not all the peripheral distractions.
4. First person blew me away. It really snapped me back into the days when ***I*** played the first time I lined up in my old position and looked around before the snap. Truly awesome. It may have been "done" before, but never like this. My ***ONLY*** gripe would be that the pass/handoff transition gets slow and weird, but I don't know how you'd do any better...
5. The camera shots of the crowd at major plays/calls is fun, but I'm sure will get as old as Maddenisms.
6. The cheerleaders are way better on ESPN, not that it matters much (how hard up do you have to be to get off on electronic cheerleaders?)
7. I preferred Madden's music while in menus (yes, I know you can download your own and select some in the Crib), but I ***LOVE*** how ESPN plays some music via the stadium PA while you're in the huddle sometimes and it stops as you get ready to snap like in real life.
8. The coach animations (talking on the sideline to 2 other players, etc) are a bit cheesy and don't impress. More distraction than enhancement of the game. You wanna impress me, show John Gruden throwing a true temper-tantrum when his players get a dumb penalty or show the Bill Cower exploding angry when his QB throws a dumb pick.
9. Madden has more historical teams. Those are neat now and then, but most people play the current teams anyway.
10. I like that I've heard that ESPN updates the team rosters if you're connected Live. That's VERY slick and would seem very simple for Madden to do, but they don't. I wonder if it deleted Keyshawn "Blabbermouth Baby" Johnson from the roster of the Bucs? LOL
Bottom line: ESPN is way more FUN for a true FOOTBALL PLAYER than Madden. Madden is a much more detailed coach/owner wannabe League Simulation engine. I say select the game based on what you want to do. For me, I sit down to a console game for some simpler, fun entertainment either solo or with some buds come over for a Wednesday night game or two. | video-games_xbox |
Old is New, just as tough. There's an old adage regarding hype that states, essentially, the more you hear about something before you actually see it, the more disappointing it will turn out to be when you do. The end result of this is that even a very good end product can feel flat, so ridiculously high were the expectations.
I'm not sure why sometimes this applies and sometimes it doesn't. When Panzer Dragoon Orta was announced for the Xbox, I remember a massive cheer of joy coming from both the hardcore gamers and mainstream fans alike. When it was finally released, I was shocked and a little dismayed to read reviews that were more along the lines of "Mmm, it's pretty good" than the unchecked gushing that had accompanied previous coverage of the game. What confused me even more was that, when I picked it up, it turned out to be even better than I had hoped for, both as a massive fan of the Panzer series and just as a fan of action games in general. What gives?
My guess is people had already projected all their own personal expectations on the game, so much so that there was no way it was going to make everyone happy. Had people been given a more clear-cut picture of just what to expect, I think opinions may have untangled themselves a bit more. At the least, there'd be a lot less used copies of the game for sale a week after its release.
So, when the extremely-hyped Ninja Gaiden was released, I was all set to view the game in an unadulterated light. I'd set aside a Sunday and gone back to play the original NES title through to completion (not easy!) and bone up on my Ninja Gaiden history. In short, I wanted to know what I'd be getting into with this game. Would it be the modern-day equivalent of the innovative original, as Team Ninja's head Tomonobu Itagaki was loudly promising? Would it turn out to be a pretty-but-shallow cash-in on a beloved franchise? Somewhere in between, maybe? I felt prepared to make an accurate judgment on what was supposedly going to be a landmark title, so I headed out on its release date and picked it up.
After finishing the game a week later, I've come to the conclusion that this is one of the best action games I've ever played in my life. Period.
I'm going to basically eschew any discussion on game mechanics or basics regarding the game itself, because those are readily available all over the place for this title. A good summary; the graphics will knock you flat, the music isn't irritating, the voice acting is fine, the game controls like a dream, and yeah, the camera can be a pain until you get used to it. A zoom-out feature would have been nice. It's also not going to win any plot awards, so don't expect to become particularly attached to the characters.
When all is said and done, unless you're a fan of honest-to-God, straight up Action titles, then this game isn't going to do it for you. It doesn't matter if you were a fan of the original - I've already read one review on a high profile website sniffing about how the game style was too different the NES version, which the reviewer claimed to have been very good at - you've got to be a willing fan of action games right now, in the modern day, playing by modern day rules. More importantly, you've got to be willing to prove it if you want any enjoyment from this game beyond the menu screen. If you can't get over the fact that there's a third dimension in your Ninja Gaiden, however well implemented, then save yourself the cash and just play the original. There's nothing wrong with that.
This game isn't geared towards the mass market any more than Panzer Dragoon was, and if anything it makes far fewer concessions in terms of the commitment it requires from the player in order to enjoy it. Ninja Gaiden is difficult, make no mistake, but not in the "I have to memorize this level to get through it easily" sense (a la Contra on the PS2). Had that been the case, then perseverance is a simple matter of trial-and-error, and eventually, anyone could finish the game if they were patient enough.
Not here. Simply stated, you can't get through the levels easily, regardless of foreknowledge of enemy placement or anything like that. This is a game that expects the player to be able to keep up with the solid but rapid learning curve, and if they can't, the game will gleefully slap them around - usually really hard - until they either "get it" or toss the controller through the screen. In Ninja Gaiden, there isn't what is usually referred to as a "suck factor", that is, the game doesn't get any easier depending on how many times the player has died attempting a certain stage.
Provided you see all of this as a good thing, then welcome to the best action title in many years. Ninja Gaiden is one of the few games that can genuinely challenge a player without seeming frustrating. If you're stuck somewhere, it's almost always a matter of either taking a different approach, or learning to become better in order to get past. The game is hardly ever "cheap", and the few times that it is, it's a purposeful swipe at the player, as if to say "Yeah, we'll throw three boss battles in a row at you with no save point. If you want to save, start trekking back to the beginning of the level. We'll wait here. Wuss." You can't help but grin at that.
In addition, the entire Ninja Gaiden NES trilogy is on the disk as a bonus...But expect to work for them. Like everything else here, it's something to strive for, not something they give you.
Isn't it better that way? | video-games_xbox |
Excellent All-Around Online Gaming & Entertainment Machine. I was a loyal fan of the original Xbox. I loved Halo, Xbox Live - everything. I got the Xbox 360 on launch day in November. I have not had any problems with it aside from the occasional freeze-up. (Keeping it cool and well-ventilated - try keeping it on its side, but don't move it while playing! - can help prevent that. Also, newer 360s actually run slightly cooler and more smoothly.) I have not been bothered by the noise, either. (And, similarly, newer 360s have slightly quieter disk drives.)
One of the greatest things about the 360 is the underlying OS. On the original Xbox, you couldn't do much on the dashboard - you could pretty much just change settings and play any music that you had ripped to the hard drive. But ripping was slow, and I never bothered aside from one or two CDs.
With the 360, even without any disc in at all, you have...
- All your music streamed from your PC (with very cool visualizations, too)
- Downloaded game & movie trailers
- Game demos, some for games that aren't even out yet
- Xbox Live Arcade games - quick, fun, few or no loading times; arcade classics and new games
Also, all notifications and messaging are system-wide. So whether you're listening to music, watching a DVD, or playing a game, you can keep in touch with your friends with messages and one-on-one private chat channels.
You can use any music from your PC, on the 360's hard drive, or on a plugged-in MP3 player like the iPod to listen to while you play. And with the 360, gaming sessions aren't restricted by what's in the disc drive. Here's what an average session for me might look like. (Keep in mind, all of this is without even moving from your comfy chair.)
1) Turn on the 360; play a bit of whatever's in the drive
2) Load a personal playlist that you have stored on your computer or 360
3) Go to the Dashboard; start downloading a new game demo
4) While it's downloading, play a few Arcade games. My custom playlist continues to play.
5) I'm alerted that the download is done; I go to play it.
6) Done for the day, I turn off the 360.
One thing that deserves a little more attention is Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA). No, you don't get huge epics like Oblivion (a great game, by the way) that take dozens or hundreds of hours to complete. But with games like Geometry Wars (a personal favorite) that are largely high-score based, there's always a higher score to get. I've played GeoWars for hour and hours - as much time as some full retail games, but it costs only about $5 instead of $50 or more. The Arcade is a great place for gaming giants and small independent developers alike to put unique games that appeal to a wide audience.
Of course, depending on your setup, your experience will be different. Obviously you need a TV; you need speakers. You need some sort of storage device for game saves; I recommend the hard drive. Next most important, in my opinion, is that you have broadband internet. (And that makes the hard drive all the more important: for downloads.)
Despite what Amazon.com's comparison chart indicates, the basic Xbox Live service (Xbox Live Silver) is free. That lets you download videos, demos, and arcade games, as well as have a friends list and keep in touch. You DO have to pay if you want to play and compete online (Xbox Live Gold), but that's only one facet of the Xbox Live experience. (Also, there are occasionally times - maybe a weekend - when it's free to play online.)
As for having an HDTV: I don't, and the games still look great. Sure, they look better on an HDTV, but it's definitely not necessary; not by a long shot.
Miscellaneous:
The Xbox Guide is what makes the pervasive OS and interface work so well. You know the big green Xbox logo in the middle of the controller? Press it at any time, and the Guide comes up, letting you select music to play, check on your friends, sent and receive messages, switch profiles, etc. at any time.
The controller is great. Nice and light, but not featherweight. Wired is good, wireless is better, though I highly recommend the Play & Charge kit. (When your controller's batteries are running low, plug it in and it'll charge while you keep playing.)
I'm not sure whether the media remote control is still shipping with the 360, but I have it and I love it. Is it worth buying separately? If you're going to be using this to play music and DVDs and such, yes. It's not necessary, but when I'm playing my music in a game it's nice to be able to pause/stop/skip/etc. without pausing the game and opening the Guide.
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Cons of the 360? There are some. Some people are bothered by the drive noise or occasional crashes, but I know several people with a 360 and it's rarely an issue. Also, if you do have an real issue, Xbox support is supposedly very responsive and will ship you a new console ASAP. I've occasionally had questions about my Live account or whether this or that wireless solution will work, and if you go to the support page on Xbox.com you can get in an online chat with a support representative within minutes. (There's also, of course, email and phone support, but I haven't had a need to use it.)
Aside from that, the early game lineup had a lot of semi-rushed ports, some of which showed little or no improvement over the last generation. But we're now getting into the second generation of games, and they look & play great. Keep this in mind: when the PS3 and Wii launch, developers will have already had a year to get used to making the most of the 360's hardware.
Sony says the PS3 has the most raw power, and in many ways it does. It has the Blu-Ray drive was high capacity and all that. But Sony is betting a lot on Blu-Ray, and that may be a mistake. It's new, expensive, largely untested, and hard to justify when DVD works so well; it's competing with HD-DVD, like Betamax vs. VHS all over again. (Guess who lost *that*? Sony's Betamax.)
The 360 is a very powerful machine without the PS3's outrageous price, and it's far more capable that the Wii. It has a tested & proven online service. It lets you fulfill every entertainment need in one sitting. It has a number of great games available now and plenty of blockbusters (Gears of War, Forza 2, Mass Effect, Halo 3) in the pipeline. Highly recommended. | video-games_xbox |
For those of you who just want to play the single player qualifying campaign READ THIS. I'm not a FIFA Junkie and generally only buy soccer games when the World Cup comes around because I am bigger fan of the international play than the league play, hence I have bought the World Cup version every time it has been released since 2002. Obviously the big draw for me is playing a team through the qualification process and seeing how far I can go in the Cup Unfortunately EA sports has butchered this mode which should have been the bread and butter of this game. The campaign mode always starts in 2010 so even if you are playing a country from Europe, who's qualifying games don't start until 2012, you will need to watch the game sim through every month of 2010, 2011 and half of 2012. This takes a long time as there are a ton of friendlies and training sessions that will make the simulator stop even if you tell it to proceed to the first qualifying game. This means just getting to the first important match will take you 10-15 minutes of B.S. You will have about 6-8 friendlies during the years before the tourney starts. You can sim over them but if your team loses those games they get into bad form (this will happen if you play as a mid range or weaker team i.e. USA, Greece, Bosnia, or worse) which means by time you get to the actual qualifying your teams ability will be diminished due to these losses. Also, once you reach qualifying you have a bunch for friendless left to play in between matches.
To sum it up EA Sports took a 10 game qualifying campaign (euro) and made it into a 20 game process (10 of which are friendlies which only affect your teams form making them not worth the time playing but annoying if you lose the simulated match because it makes your team worse) and added 10-12 training sessions which again can be simulated over but they still slow down working your way through the calendar. Why they didn't put in a option to skip all this extra fluff that very few people will like I don't know.
If your looking to play the single player campaign mode I don't think its worth the 60 bucks. Keep your money and wait until this things price drops after the tourney. the format in 2010 was way better and will bring you more joy even if the rosters are outdated. For game play or online performance I cant comment because I haven't played enough due to wading though seemingly endless numbers of simulations.
Also for reorganizing the qualifying groups there is only a random group option which means you could have a group of all the micro states in he same group or you have to make the changes manually, there is no longer an option to shuffle your groups while maintaining the teams seeds. | video-games_xbox |
Passable, but could have been a lot better. Let me say that HAWX gives a great first impression. There are a lot of good ideas at work in HAWX, and you can tell the developer tried to make an innovative arcade fighter sim. Unfortunately, those innovations are implemented so poorly that you almost wish they hadn't bothered.
The game claims to have more than fifty licensed planes you can unlock. This is true. What it doesn't tell you is that about a quarter of these are Dassault Mirage variants, and while the Mirage is undoubtedly fine plane, it's not so awesome that unlocking another one feels like much of an achievement. And speaking of unlocking, the XP system is designed around multiplayer even though it is used for the campaign. If you don't have XBOX Live, have fun accumulating the 1.4 million or so points needed to reach Level 40 at ~600 points per mission.
Plane handling is okay but not great. An A-10 handles an awful lot like an F-22, and in general you won't notice a whole lot of difference from one plane to another. Some go 2000km/hr and others just go 1500, but nothing seems to willingly go slower than that unless assistance is off (more about that shortly). Not the end of the world, I suppose, but it does take some of the luster out of "50 iconic in-game planes" when you realize they all handle the same.
The "Assistance Off" mode is a great idea in theory. The game pulls back to a long distance view, airspeed and altitude/attitude indicators are disabled, and your plane gets a significant maneuverability boost at the cost of a much higher chance of stalling. It sounds good, but aircraft have HUDs for a reason: knowing how fast you're going helps you avoid a stall, knowing how far you are off the ground is helpful during a stall, and knowing where your aircraft is pointing helps you recover from a stall. In short, you get more maneuverability at the cost of being able to use it effectively. Thanks, HAWX.
Still, even with all this HAWX isn't a bad game, and even if you just play the singleplayer campaign there's a lot of fun to be had. It seems ideal for an impulse purchase once it hits the discount bin if you're into multiplayer. If you're just looking for the singleplayer campaign, consider renting it instead. | video-games_xbox |
Good choice for gaming Trek fans. I think this game is better than most reviews would have you believe. I am a Trek fan, and I applaud the choice to use the original series' "Mirror, Mirror" episode as a basis for the game. Contrary to some really negative reviews I've read online, such as Gamespot's, I think the presentation and graphics are very good. The entire game has a Trek feel, the music is very good, and each mission has a name that is very much in keeping with the series' tone ("Fire & Ice", "Tyranny of Numbers", etc.) I thought it was great when the M5 unit (from the original episode "The Ultimate Computer") showed up in an early mission. If you are a Trek fan wondering if that type of detail is present in this game, the answer is "yes". Now I am not very good at space-shooting games, and I bought this in spite of that fact because it's Star Trek. And I am managing to get through the missions, although I'm on Easy mode. The one serious flaw, and I agree with the rest of the gaming universe on this point, is the lack of in-mission saves or checkpoints. Longer missions can take 20-30 minutes to complete, and if you miss just one of the objectives or your ship gets destroyed at the last second, you've got to replay the mission again from the beginning. This is quite frustrating and it's inexplicable, from a design standpoint. I think this one facet of the game design is going to turn a lot of people off, and it probably fuels most of the bad reviews the game is getting. But while the game is challenging enough for me, someone who's an old hand at Rogue Squadron-type games will probably have a much easier time of it. There is no multiplayer and no Xbox Live component, so the game has to stand on its single-player experience only. I think the ideal player is a Star Trek fan who's been looking for a good action game based on the license. Aside from the original STV: Elite Force, it's been slim pickings in recent years. And this will probably be the last new Trek game for a while..so pick it up and enjoy. (To the reviewer who is waiting for some cheat codes: I used my Xbox Action Replay to download a saved game that has all levels and ships available. I'm still playing the missions strictly in order, but getting through "Tyranny of Numbers" was MUCH easier with the Klingon Bird of Prey. Hey, it's only a game.) | video-games_xbox |
Hulk MASH buttons. Pros:
- button mashing as well as well thoughout button combo mashing is just as effective (easy to pick up and put down)
- you feel compelled to play it twice to experience the entire storyline from both sides as well as unlock all the alternate costumes
- 23 playerable characters + more I'm sure on the way through downloable content
- if you're a fan of the Civil War Marvel storyline, you'll love this
- great fun with 4 players
- graphically a great improvement from it's previous incarnation
Cons:
- sometimes the camera angle will be against you
- you must play it through twice to unlock every alternate costume (once anti-reg, and one pro-reg)
- there's only 23 playable characters, downloable content will probably cost some extra $
- If you're not a fan of the Marvel Universe, you may not enjoy this as much as the next button mashing game
- no bad in single player more, but unless you can team up with friends in multiplayer, it loses it's replayability after you beat the 1st time through
- If you're looking for an entirely new experience from it's previous incarnations or similar games, don't expect too much other than better graphics and a more well developed storyline.
Over all I enjoyed it a log, I was glued to my seat for about a week playing it. Going back to find hidden bonuses and power ups in the simulator mode which allows you to redo missions much like the xmen's danger room. The cast of characters certainly makes it a lot more fun, and team bonuses depending on which character combinations you pick reward you for having say all women on your team or all xmen etc.
It looks like the left plenty of room for downloadable content in the future, be that more playable characters, more alternate costumes, and/or additional mission packs. I'd recommend you play this with friends. Multiplayer games are always more rewarding when played together. If you're not a big Marvel comic book fan you may not get as much entertainment value out of this, but if you are and a True Believer, you'll certainly appreciate the all the game has to offer and maybe more. | video-games_xbox |
Operation owe so close. Operation Flashpoint 2 Review
Overview
I am going to be really frank on my opinion of this game, it is complete and utter garbage. Now I tried giving the game a second chance, I did, and at first I was like, hmm well maybe this isn't so bad and then boom, this is garbage.
Now it wasn't the realism that made me not like the game, in fact that part I loved. It was the unrealism that killed this one and made it utter crap. You play as ether 2nd lieutenant Hidaigo (IE the good missions) and Sergeant Hunter (IE the utter garbage missions). The Hidaigo is more spec ops missions and Hunter is more front line missions. The difference is that with Hidaigo you can get some enjoyment out of the game and the later missions for Hunter all of the games issues compound to make a literally unenjoyable experience. Now I love video games so I get some enjoyment from this just because it is a video game but if you are not like me then I doubt you will find any enjoyment from this.
Some of the issues that this game has in the unrealistic department are, to begin with the fact that you can't shoot for crap and you're a marine. Now I don't know the exact details on how good they can shoot but I am pretty sure that they put bullets on tangos (enemies) like flies on stank. Instead you get to play as a guy that can't shoot for crap and you would swear just got out of boot camp. In the attempt to make it look realistic the developers created a nightmare with this where you could aim steadily, empty your clip, and still not have killed the guy let alone hit him (I in fact did have this happen to me at a distance which I should have been able to kill him instantly.
Another issue are the enemies health, which unlike the way you have it where one bullet equals potential death, they can take round after round in typical video game health. Issue with this it isn't realistic. I counted how many rounds it took to take a guy down, nine, nine rounds single fire to kill a guy. Now I am not a soldier so I can only assume here, but I am pretty sure after the 5 bullet your arse would be on the ground but not that guy.
A newer and later issue I found in the game is random explosions. Gone is the need for a rockets smoke trail and now replaced by unrealistic death. As my brother watched a rocket went right pass my humvee a complete miss by a foot and then the humvee exploded. I am not kidding on that ether, and worse your rockets don't hit crap for crap. They will veer off and smack the ground instead of their intended targets. Yours are also slow as all crap as revealed to me when I was trying to take out an attack helicopter in one mission which I didn't succeed at as my rockets were to slow and the helicopter could just move out of the way like the rockets were nothing. You can't kill the helicopter pilot with gun fire ether (something that would be realistic) by shooting into the cockpit nor can you shoot the helicopter down with bullets ether (damaging parts not just bang, bang, boom).
Worst of all is the AI which is only slightly above Halo AI (for those that don't know the marines in halo are butt freaking stupid). They can't do a freaking thing right, which kills your ability to effectively flank or do anything worthwhile. They don't duck when they need to, they don't follow you over a simple barricade (specifically happened), and they will stand occasionally when you are downed right in front of you and not heal you after you have told them to do so. Basically they are about useless except for the fact they can shoot enemies.
Now the story while interesting will not have you wanting to fight. It is about oil, which is made abundantly clear. Sure you are also attempting to prevent a major war between Russia and China but when you think about it, your actions are only going to make the Chinese hate the US and just worsen matters.
Like: Some of the realistic aspects, early missions are enjoyable and fun
Dislike: Dumb AI, Unrealistic aspects of the game, Plot isn't making me actually want to fight, Enemy rockets, the forceful rush of some missions.
Gameplay
Okay for game play think Ghost Recon on Hard and then crap it up. You go about completing objectives from any of the 11 missions as you unlock them, the latter of which are completely awful. You do this as if you are Ghosts (from ghost recon) and in a poor attempt at making you feel like part of a bigger movement often times you will fight with others who if are killed (which happens easily) you loose. These others often times will not wait to advance until after you clear the anti tank units, but instead rush right ahead and get themselves killed and your mission is scrapped and you have to do the whole thing over again or from a check point.
Now when you are fighting you have a nice 25 kilometer island to explo... no wait scratch that. You have a long arse way to walk during missions which only take place is small parts of the island and often time will just be rushed into failure. Open worldness might have saved this game, as it would have added fun. Avoid that ambush, stalk around a road block and hit it from the rear after careful planning and great execution, the possibilities would be endless and would have thrown it much fun.
You command a 3 man team, sort of. The AI is so bad that it doesn't really work for crap. While you can use the commands to some extent, the AI of your men completely hamper any attempt at a strategy.
If you get injured you will start to bleed out or that is what it is supposed to be, instead you have a little red circle begin depleting at a decent rate until you are dead. You use field dressing to stop this bleed out and do the same for you men. This consists of holding a button and waiting for a circle to fill. What would have been nice to see would have been something like the health system from MGS3 (Metal Gear Solid 3). That would have added some dimension to the game.
Graphics
Graphics are on a decent level. The island does actually look pretty good. Not up close where the graphics fail miserably as they are your usual cookie cutter trees, and grass and bushes, but as a whole they look pretty good.
Vehicles look good, and people do as well. Not much really to say in for graphics in this game, it doesn't do anything that will wow you but at the same time it doesn't do much that is bad ether. Average is the word to use for the games graphics.
Presentation
Well the story will not inspire you to fight, the manual is not half bad but I have seen better, and the game itself only meets half way. The menus are pretty good, you can view your equipment (not change it), you can get a full briefing on why your are about to go and do whatever the mission requires and view the map of the area in which you will be carrying out the operation. All in all, not bad but not a highlight ether.
Value
If you want to play this game I would go used or discounted. It is not worth 60 dollars and will bring much frustration. Instead pick it up at around 30 dollars or Rent it.
Fun Level: 2/5
Closing Statement
The game didn't disappoint me because I didn't have an opinion on how good or bad it was going to be but in the end the game proved that it was more bad than good. Maybe a few patches down the line this game can redeem itself but as for now this game is garbage. The frustration level from just crap in the game is too high for the enemies don't have to follow the restrictions you do. They can take more bullets, they can aim better, and their rockets magically kill you. On top of that in an attempt to increase tension they try rushing the player with an urgency by making convoys move up, helicopter arriving in a few minutes, ext. Yet in the end this does not improve game play and ultimately takes away from the enjoyment factor they player is seeking and when you have so far to walk, to throw in time restrictions is a bad idea.
Final Verdict -1/-5 (1 to 5 is a rating of how good the game is, -1 through -5 is a rating of how bad)
I can't in all honesty recommend this game. If you must play it, rent it.
Parental Warning
The game contains blood, violence, weapons, and scenes of war. Parental discretion is advised for this title.
Check out this review and more at [...] | video-games_xbox |
Great promise, horrible execution. When you hear "multiplayer RPG with zombies", if you have any interest in either RPGs or zombie games, your first reaction would be "sign me up!" It's what I thought when I got Dead Island for Christmas. Zombies, modded weapons, sandbox-style play, a Diablo-like skill tree ... even for someone who doesn't do a lot of online gaming, it seemed like a great idea. What could possibly go wrong with it?
To put it bluntly, everything. The map is nearly useless: neither areas nor buildings are marked, detail is poor, quest locations are usually but not always highlighted, and worst of all, parts of the map are randomly inaccessible for no reason at all, which renders most of the features useless. Sure, you can mark a single location as your target (and you'll need to, often), but if you can't move the cursor onto your target, you have to settle for marking some random spot along your path, moving some ways past your mark, opening the map again, and seeing if you can now access the area of the map you wanted in the first place. (I'm not talking about grayed-out areas, the places you haven't visited. I mean places you've visited already. The cursor simply stops at a certain point and won't move any further.)
You'll have to mark places often because the pathing algorithm is terrible. Sometimes it'll lead you to where you want to go, but frequently it won't show up at all - which makes no sense, because you can mark your destination (if the map lets you) and get the exact path you should have got from the quest itself. Other times, the path will lead you straight up a mountain or through a locked gate or an unscalable wall ... at times, it'll even take you in the exact opposite of the direction you really need to go.
There's no way to save your game: a relic of 1990s gaming. Instead, the game autosaves at certain changes in location and after completing parts of each main quest or side quest. You won't lose a lot of progress if you die or quit, but you'll be restarted at some semi-random point if you die - sometimes closer than you were to your goal, sometimes farther away - and occasionally in the middle of whatever just killed you. If it's a difficult section to escape, too bad: you can't back up and try a different approach because you have one save per game. Because of that, if something happens to your saved game, all your progress is lost. (Or maybe it isn't. At one point, my level-43 Xian just disappeared, with no explanation. I put about 5 hours into a new one, and then a few days later, the old one was back.)
There are limited slots in your inventory; that coupled with item wear is a good way to make you think about what items to carry. At one point in the story, you have a companion who'll carry items for you. She'll wait at a safe place, and you can meet up with her and give her items to store or take back ones you already gave her ... unless, that is, your inventory is already full. In that case, the item she gives you might simply disappear with no way to recover it. Was it a unique item? Too bad! It's gone. (What makes this worse is that the bug was fixed in a patch for the PC; the 360 version was patched as well, but this bug wasn't fixed.)
Even little things are off. In addition to standard achievements, there are challenges, some of which are the same as achievements. You can track your progress on both from the pause menu ... except that when you pause the game, the background doesn't change, so if you pause the game with a lot of white sand in view, you won't be able to read the white text for the challenges or achievements.
One of the challenges involves "analog" attacks: instead of pressing buttons, you use the analog stick to swing your weapon. (Also a relic of games past: EA can tell you all about this fad.) It seems like a nice way to do things, but it's horribly clumsy. You can only swing your weapon to match compass points - in this case, straight up or down and straight left or right - but the effort involved will make it much harder to target enemies and complete combos. In addition, the same stick is also used for aiming, so to target a body part, you have to move the stick to aim, squeeze the right trigger, move the stick again to swing, and hope that the zombie in your sights didn't move during all that.
There are a lot of things about this game that are done well - the story is actually kind of interesting, the challenge system scales pretty well and has nice bonuses with it, death is never really final, and the game-plus mode makes it much easier to go back and complete collections - but it's hard to recommend this as anything more than a dollar-store purchase. Rewarding a company for publishing such a slipshod product, patching it poorly, and releasing DLC for it rather than fixing the other giant bugs just sends the wrong message. Save your money for a game like Skyrim. | video-games_xbox |
Crappy, bug-ridden game. Wow, was this game rushed out the door or what?? It's got more bugs in it than a $20 an hour motel room. I can't get past the 2nd level - "Shore Leave". I've sniped all the bad guys and the mission flat-out refuses to end. What the hell?? I consulted a few walkthroughs just to see if maybe I was missing something and this seems to be a common occurence. Seems a lot of people confuse, misunderstand or just plain don't read the user complaints and instead they advise to take "bullet drop" into account. I've taken bullet drop into account, there are no enemies to shoot at, they're all dead, the mission just won't end! I also found several other bug complaints by other people thruought the game, but I have yet to experience them since I can't even get past the second stinking level. I loved the previous game "Medal of Honor" and found that I preferred it over the arcade-ish Call of Duty Games and I was really looking forward to this sequel. What a disappointment. You'd think they would have patched a game stopping bug like this by now, I guess EA has our money and they don't care? It also suffers from what I call TFD (tiny fonts of death) which seems have become something of a trend in newer games.
Update 6/28/13 - Finally got thru that stupid sniping level. The only workaround I was able to find in various gaming forums was to just keep trying until it works, and finally, magically, it worked. I know you're thinking "why did you go back and play the game if you hate it so much?" Well I paid good money for this stupid game and by God I'm going to finish it even if it kills me, or at the very least raises my blood pressure a few points. So I kept trying over and over and over again, playing that last portion of "Shore Leave" from the last check point and it finally just worked, only to find out the next item in store for me was.... a keep-up-with-the-bad-guy car chase driving level. So out of the frying pan and into the fire!! At least they were generous with the checkpoints and I was able to get thru it fairly painlessly. After that I finally got back to the "shooter" parts of this first person shooter, then an on-rails turret shooter segment in a boat, after which I had to drive the boat myself... sigh... then a cinematic which paused a few times before completely freezing up. This is going to be a tough road to hoe, I can see it. I'll be putting this game up for sale or trading it in as soon as I finish, if doesn't kill me first. Of course I'll have to deal with the guilt of playing a part in the pain and suffering of some other poor gamer by selling it, but I can't in good consience let this thing occupy space on my shelf after I'm done with it. | video-games_xbox |
No hesitation... THE must have for Xbox. Halo takes the xbox graphics to the max. I bet you already have heard that it's the best game ever made. That's because it is.
The story is good, which helps the whole game to be more enjoyable. It takes place in the future, and the human race has spread to more planets. But, they face an enemy, an alien kind. They call them the covenant. In order to protect the human race, they made cyborgs. All of them were destroyed... except you.
You rage through ten exciting levels, each one just as good as the next. What makes Halo fun is that the creators didn't create it to be a stress-over game, where each level cresendos in difficulty. No, they made it just plain enjoyable. All the levels pretty much even out.
Halo is a first person shooter. You see through the eyes of the player that you are... not behind them. Using 2 joysticks is hard at first, but the first level helps ease you into using them. Their is a variety of human weapons and alien weapons you can use. There are also multiple vehicles that you fly/drive in parts of the game: The banshee (alien flier... 1 seat), Ghost (Alien hover vehicle... 1 seat), Warthog (Human jeep-like vehicle... 3 seats (gunner, passanger, driver)), and the Scorpion (Human tank... 5 seats (Driver/gunner, and 4 side passanger seats)). The enemies are awsome, which makes the game more exciting. There are a variety of aliens, and later in the game you will encounter a second enemy...
Now, you may think, just 10 levels? I myself beat the whole game in 2 days. But, that was on easy. I moved it up to normal and played the whole thing again. More challenging, but almost just as fun. There are 4 difficulty settings: Easy, Normal, Heroic, and Legendary. Halo is able to maintain it's excitement, even after playing it over and over. Another awsome addition is how you can play the whole entire single-player with a friend in cooperation mode, or co-op mode. Playing in co-op mode makes replaying levels just as fun.
There is also Multiplayer mode. This is where you and 3 other friends battle in different areas. All the weapons are availible, and if you go to edit gametype, you can add all of the vehicles, excluding the banshee. You can play teams, regular (first to 15 kills), capture the flag, and about 20 other types, all different. AN AWESOME PARTY GAME.
All in all, I bought the xbox for the game Halo. Highly recommend. Best game i've ever played. | video-games_xbox |
A Lighthearted Version of Fallout. I'd like to preface this review with the fact that I'm only 1/3rd of the way through the game. However, my experience with it thus far combined with discussions I've had with other gamers makes me feel that my assessment of Borderlands is accurate enough for me to write this review.
As the title of this review would suggest, if you have played Fallout 3, this game is basically the same thing with a more "comic-book" feel and a little more direct humor (as opposed to Fallout's understated, often tongue-in-cheek jokes). The atmosphere and the core of the two games are one in a same... A lone hero (or villain) out in the wastes, preforming various tasks and trying to survive. As a fan of Fallout 3, I was a bit skeptical when I first heard about Borderlands, but after several hours of gameplay, I'm having a surprising amount of fun with it.
In Borderlands the menus are often just as clunky as they are in Fallout. Often times it's difficult to navigate them efficiently and access even basic information. For example to scroll over descriptions of missions you need to use the left and right triggers instead of the D-Pad or Sticks (Who on earth thought that was a good idea during development??) Comparing weapons with one another also can be mildly confusing - each time you compare one gun with another you are shown a green up arrow or a red down arrow indicating that the compared weapons are better or worse then one another based on three criteria (reload time, accuracy and power). More then once while playing I found myself asking... "Ok are these arrows giving me stats in relation to the two guns I'm comparing, or are they in relation to the gun I currently have equipped?"
One place where the two games differ is in the leveling of enemies along with the player. In Fallout, some enemies will always be more difficult to beat then others, but defeating them is at least within the realm of possibility as the game is programed to adjust AI difficulty as you gain more levels. In Borderlands, this is not the case... there are some enemies you are simply better staying away from while you are relatively low in the totem pole. You will not beat these guys, and the AI is not adjusted to even make it feasible to *maybe* beat them. You will be destroyed plain and simple. This can be somewhat discouraging at times...
However aside from those little annoyances I do find myself itching to get back to Pandora (the planet Borderlands takes place on) as soon as I can. I don't think this game will ever win "Game of the Year" or be nominated for any kind of special awards, but it is a lot of fun and a good break from the often harsh realities of Fallout's "Capital Wastes".
Overall, three stars.
Suggestions: Buy it when it goes on sale and you won't be disappointed! | video-games_xbox |
Unlike anything I've Ever Played. Before I write my review, I should note I am fairly new to the Prince of Persia series. I own Sands of Time for the original Xbox, but to be honest I did not get very far in it.
This game delivers on four fronts: graphics, game play, audio, and story - something I consider pretty rare.
Prince of Persia delivers beautiful graphics - screenshots do not do them justice, they look even better in motion. Not only is the scenery breathtaking but the animations are (almost always -- I will talk about that in the game play section) smooth and fluid.
The orchestral music score is epic. When I listen, sometimes I get a fantasy vibe, sometimes an Arabian feeling, all of which complements the game world perfectly. I hope Ubisoft releases a soundtrack. The whole game is also fully voiced. The same voice actor from Uncharted: Drake's Fortune plays the Prince. He fits the role perfectly. Him and Elika exchange witty comments, to sharing each other's back-story. Without saying much, the excellent voice work of the Prince and Elika makes the evolution of their relationship over the game very compelling and real.
The game play is very fluid. The acrobatic maneuvers that you can string together look wonderful as you traverse the terrain. There are times when the Prince just won't jump the way you want, and that is frustrating, but the system works brilliantly most of the time. An interesting mechanic in this game is Elika - instead of dying from a deadly fall, she will always pull you back up to the last stable ground. For a game where you can fall in numerous ways, the developers made it so you're back in the action literally seconds after a fatal mistake. In battle, the game shines. You create combos with melee, gauntlet (grabbing), Elika, or acrobatic attacks that you string together. There's also a bit of strategy involved with positioning yourself and enemies, guarding, and specific enemy states that require specific attacks.
Because the game could have involved a few more game play mechanics and unique objectives, I took off one star. It's nothing to condemn a game for, as all games share some level of repetitiveness, but I would love to see a little more variety in the objectives and platforming.
The amazing graphics, beautiful music, and exciting game play are all wrapped in a great story line. Because the plot unravels as you play, I won't say much, but I was not expecting such an interesting back-story and truly mesmerizing climax/ending. SEMI-SPOILER: The ending strongly suggests Ubi is planning a second installment in the new Prince of Persia series. I, for one, can't wait! | video-games_xbox |
It's Been Awhile, Harder to Tell Now. November 2001 Microsoft's alien unit the Xbox is released alongside a select group of launch titles. If asked now a good majority of those games wouldn't be recognized outside of small circles. Rapid fire questioning; why are the controllers so big, four ports is that really needed? What sort of games are out for the xbox? Do they even have a Mario like mascot? All these questions sound a lot like a fit summary of what Bungie's 'Halo: Combat Evolved' could be of use for. Halo: Combat Evolved was an advanced first person shooter that dispensed more pleasure per moment than bullet through barrel. Halo Anniversary is essentially the original overhauled to the Xbox 360's specs with enhanced graphics, some extra features, and bonus content that will have you popping Halo Reach again.
From the moment I was able to move around and assume the role of the Master Chief, an imortalized hero of intrigue (guy always wears a helmet) and quick wit, the Halo universe expanded and I was now just as much a part of it as the marines who unsurredly dodge flames aboard a militant space ship. If that didn't cue you in, Halo takes place a few hundred years in the future, humanity has begun to colonize away from earth. Humans have come in contact with hostile alien specieis collectively known as the covenant. Weaponry is still of familiar basis, vehicles too.
Master Chief is a top tier soldier who has all access to any and everything the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) has to offer. Whether that be an assualt riffle, magnum, shotgun, sniper rifle, rocket launcher or dibs on a vehicle it's your choice. The previously mentioned covenant have a unique array of weapons that are destructive to 'shield' technology, where as human weapons are best against flesh. Unlike most shooters, each gun serves a purpose. Choose wisely as you can only carry two weapons and a mess of grenades, which seems common now, but was a real game changer back in the day.
A game can be chalk full of features can still be a let down, reality is most toppings lead to bloat. Combat Evolved wasn't mere technical trickery then and Anniversary further highlights those feats now, keeping refinement to a bare minimal (most of which is just aesthetic). Which is why the I spent so much time discussing the original, this is the beloved Halo: Combat Evolved of 2001. This is the game that so many gathered around at lan partys. This is the game that two buddies would take the time to play from begining to end over and over. Start up the campaign and hit the back button...look what we have here... the original graphics (tapping it again reverts it to new specs). Play with confidence they didn't just keep the opening musical monk chant to make you think this is it, though the audio has been remastered too. You can opt out in favor of the original soundtrack though, just look through the menus.
A lot of confusion has been stirred as of late, to make it clear: campaign gameplay is identical, from the spacey jumps to the gun reticules. Even with the engine tweaks ( by Saber3D) you will be able to spot the classic needler melee animation, ghost jump off the wraith, and glitch behind the map '343 Guilty Spark' just with the option of sleeker more colorful graphics. The multiplayer segment is all Halo Reach's department, from the new firefight map to the six iconic map remakes more on that later. People will argue "why pay for an exact remake?", where as another camp will argue "you call this a remake? It's nothingl ike the original, all I wanted was the EXACT game with better graphics!". Can't please both crowds so they say, Microsoft and Saberactive sure did give it a good try though.
Some of the new features are not the most brilliant, 3D is nice, kinect users are treated with privies akin to no more than a thought out instructional booklet (seems a bit extreme). Introduced in Halo 2 'Skulls' return and are tucked away, one per level. Skulls can be toggled for further gameplay configuration upon discovery. Different skull different option. Some make the game harder by reducing ammo intake, others add comical explosions and shifts in dialogue.
If the new graphics don't merit a second play through, perhaps terminals will if you were a fan of the original. Much like skulls, terminals are hidden, as far as I know there is one per level and further bonds player to story. The second half of the game suffered from back tracking, Anniversary's graphics attend to this fatigue by further seperation (weather/lighting). The levels weren't bad, a second serving could've been passed as the first offerings had much to marvel over.
One of the draw backs with the retouched graphics is that you may get slightly caught up on objects that for whatever reason don't transition, most often these include small rocks and tree roots. The AI has held up very well over the years, if a troop isn't combat alert chances are they will poke fun at that with comic relief. Seeing the marines move the same as yester year under a new looking glass is also comical in its own right. Covenant grapple to cover and evade explosions in the finest way a game of this age can handle. Still not familiar with the covenant? A quick glance will expose which ones are the leaders, which are the fodder and which ones to keep an eye out for, much like Reach.
Art wise this Halo has the most saturated palet, where as the first was a bit more dry and authentic. Take advantage of the great dynamic, switch between new and old. Covenant, as mentioned above, now are scaled to Reachs caste. Ever see a lowly grunt up the ranks to adorn a leader like status? It's still a grunt, and you will shoot it down with ease. Elites go from intimidating to more ferocious as the headware they adorn expands. Flood are spooktastic, shuffling limbs, green drips, incomprehensible growls, they stir horror into the mix.
The six multiplayer maps are all remakes and look stunning, ratio wise they are not pinpoint to the originals, in fact one of two pc ported maps Timberland renamed 'Ridgeline' has been scaled back. For what it's worth, Reach's gameplay is a blast on these maps. In my books Reach had great gameplay elements but lackluster maps. Anniversary not only contributes awesome maps, it also enables a modified roaster of gametypes more in synch with Combat Evolved's damage tables and speed, exposing Reach's felxibility and depth (good news as Halo 4 will be taping into a modified engine variant). For each tributary map there is a faintly modified newer edition. All maps can be altered via 'forge 2.0', a map editor not a map maker!
At the end of the day this game was released at the asking price of 40$. If you can make do without the bonus skull activation code available to those who purchased the game new, a used copy could probably be had for dirt cheap. For people who argue 'value' look at it you get: the full Halo:CE campaign with co-op which is sorta hidden, set preference to local in the menu if you wish to play offline splitscreen. A slew of multiplayer maps for Reach, additional firefight map, forge still intact, new multiplayer hoppers, skulls, achievements even extra multiplayer ones, remastered audio and the newly introduced terminals.
Lastly heres a list of the multiplayer maps:
Beaver Creek: Battle Canyon
Hang 'Em High: High Noon
Damnation: Penance
Timberland: Rideline * Halo PC map
Prisoner: Solitary
Headlong/ Breakneck *Halo 2 map
Insatallation 04 * New firefight map | video-games_xbox |
Good but the title is misleading. This product is meant to be used on PC. I tried to transfer data from my old Xbox hard drive to the new one using an Xbox 360 slim. I did not receive any pop-up message when I connected the transfer cable. Thus, I had no way of transferring data to my new hard drive. Just to be sure, I went to the xbox storage menu (system). The transfer cable showed up as a usb (no id or text beside it, just a picture of a grey usb). The only way to get it to work was to configure the device as a compatible xbox 360 usb using the "Configure Now" option. DON'T DO THIS, IT WILL FORMAT YOUR HARD DRIVE LEAVING YOU WITH AN UNDETECTABLE HARD DRIVE. THE HARD DRIVE WILL NO LONGER WORK AS AN OFFICIAL XBOX 360 HARD DRIVE. IT WILL ONLY BE DETECTED THROUGH THE USE OF THIS TRANSFER CABLE. THIS WILL ONLY GIVE YOU UP TO 32GB OF STORAGE WHEN YOU COULD HAVE UP TO 320GB INSTEAD. Although this device isn't meant to be used as a transfer cable on an xbox 360, you can use this cable to connect internal laptop hard drives (2.5 inch drives)externally. Basically, you can use an old internal hard drive as an external portable hard drive. Just format your old drive and it will show up like any other external WD HDD. Overall, this product will not transfer data between hard drives on your xbox. But the product is good at completing other tasks. There might be a way to transfer data between hard drives using a third party program like Xplorer 360 (its free). You will need a specific Xplorer 360 application for your hard drive. There is an Xplorer 360 320gb version along with 20gb, 60gb, 120gb, and 250gb versions. I would need Xplorer360 320GB edition for my 320GB (not an official microsoft product) hard drive. I haven't tried this method but I believe it could work. Its too late for me to try this method because I already used the "Configure Now" option on my 320GB hard drive. After formating my useless drive on my PC using the transfer cable, my 320GB drive is just another internal/external drive that can't be used on an xbox. Btw, I tried HDDHACKR. Its not compatible with my Samsung/Seagate hard drive because HDDHACKR only supports WD HDDs (mostly Scorpio versions). After a few hours of browsing and searching, I couldn't find a solution to fix my hard drive. There isn't a safe and effective way of hacking a Samsung/Seagate hard drive to work on an xbox 360/xbox 360 slim. I know i went off topic but I just wanted to warn you and let you know about what problems you might have encountered. Sorry for the long review, I hope I helped or prevented something... :) | video-games_xbox |
Honest review of Homefront: The Revolution (have now completed it. EDIT 05/31/16
I have now completed the game and wanted to give my final take on it. I've decided to change my initial 4 star review to a 3 star rating, an 'it's okay' - because that's precisely what the game is, just okay.
Overall it took me just over 18 hours to finish the game, including taking over all strongholds and all but one strikepoint (will talk about this later), finding most of the radios scattered around the different zones, doing all the other necessary requirements for the Hearts and Minds meter (saving citizens, destroying generators, killing snipers, blowing up trucks) and completing just over 10 jobs.
The ending was fairly disappointing, and to be honest I was expecting a lot more - it kinda falls a little flat after all the build up before it. It's pretty scripted at the end and almost feels like you're playing Call of Duty, which is not what I wanted with this game. There's no real villain in the story, unless you count the Mayor. The KPA are all faceless and I felt like the game would have benefited with a more 'evil' KPA villain, one with a face and an agenda. The story itself is pretty dull.
The main reason why I'm giving this a lower score than before is for 2 reasons. One is that the missions are all pretty bland. I know I mentioned before that I liked the game having a grounded feel with no over the top massive set-pieces, but they could have done with some more excitement and spectacle. There isn't one memorable or original mission in this game. It just plodded along with almost predictable scenarios and a lot of 'run to point A and do kill/destroy/protect this' . It would have helped if the character you played as actually talked so he could be someone you could invest in, and it would have made the game and the cut-scenes more interesting. The fact that he doesn't say a word when everyone else talks to and around him is not only stupid, but it makes him feel almost like a dumb pawn who just does what he's told to, even though if it wasn't for your character there would be no uprising. The other reason are the bugs and glitches I came across in the game. I know (or at least hope) that they will be patched out, but boy did I come across a lot! Enemies appearing and disappearing right in front of you, enemies not seeing when you're right in front of them (yet at times they could see me behind a wall), civilians and resistance fighters floating in mid-air, the phone glitching and appearing small when you go to use it, gun attachments you're removing not actually being 'removed', so they're just there floating on the screen... and that's just off the top of my head. But the biggest one (and most irritating) is not being able to complete a particular strike point because the enemies aren't appearing. Apparently this has been happening for quite a few people too, and there's nothing that can be done to fix it. You have to kill 5 KPA in an abandoned apartment, but they're not there for you to do that. So I was left with one uncompleted strikepoint, and the only one I needed to get an achievement. It wouldn't be so bad if I could come back and do it later when it is hopefully fixed via a patch, but towards the end of the game there's a point of no return.
Oh, and one more thing to add! It is INCREDIBLY annoying that every time the game auto saves the screen freezes for a few seconds. The fact that this happens every time and on a constant basis is very frustrating, especially when it happens during a firefight. Quite a few times I had enemies shooting at me only for the game to freeze so it could save.
I've tried the multiplayer, but the loading times before each game are too long which can make it tedious, and when the host leaves it take you back to the lobby and restarts the game - which happened to me quite a few times. Very annoying. It seems alright otherwise, though nothing exciting.
As other reviews have mentioned, it is flawed. But it's also pretty ambitious, especially considering the troubles the game has gone through with multiple developers and publishers and being made by a small team. In fact it's a wonder that the game even made it to market. But like I mention below, it really needed a few more months of polish to at least iron out the bugs and glitches to make the game better on a technical level. I enjoyed the game quite a bit, and certainly at the start of the game I was having fun with it (minus the bugs). But by about midway through the game I realised that it was doing nothing special, and was actually becoming quite repetitive. It doesn't take a lot for a game I like to hook me and keep me addicted to playing it, but not once did Homefront do that. If it wasn't for the setting I don't think I would have played it to the end, but even then the world got a little boring after the fourth or so zone.
If I needed to sum up what I think of the game, put it this way - I don't ever return games, especially open world games, as I like to come back to them every now and then. But with Homefront: The Revolution, I'm actually going to return it. Admittingly the price I'll be getting back for it swayed me to do so as it's still new, but the fact that I can't explore the open world after finishing it and that I actually don't really want to even if I could (because there's nothing to do) means I'm happy not to play it again. The game does nothing brilliantly, it's all just okay. And that's pretty much how I feel about the game. I'd say wait until the game inevitably drops in price, or rent it and see what you think first. I paid $48 for this with prime when it came out, but I certainly wouldn't pay the full price of $60 for it.
The one thing I will miss is that the game comes with 2 playable levels of Timesplitters 2, which is arguably one of my all-time favorite games. Once you find it at an arcade machine hidden in the last restricted zone, it's added to the main menu where you can play it at any time. This was an awesome easter egg and makes me wish they would do a HD remake of it. But the fact that it's the thing I'll miss the most kinda says it all.
Day one review
I don't tend to write reviews for anything on here, but with Homefront: The Revolution I thought I would because it garnered a lot of criticism and negative opinions before it was even released. This seemed to be mainly towards the Beta which a lot of people played (I myself didn't). People were put off by a number of reasons, including bad graphics, poor animation, glitches, dumb A.I and unresponsive controls. As it was a Beta I immediately knew that it would be improved for the final game, but others didn't seem to share the same opinion because the Beta only came out a few months before the game's release. Now, I for one have always been interested in the game since it was announced and took no interest in other peoples opinions of the Beta. I even had it pre-ordered for a while in the hope of the final product being good, BUT when I read the reviews that finally started coming in earlier today I was saddened to see the low scores it was receiving and thought maybe it wasn't good after all. After playing it for a few hours now, and judging it from what I've seen so far at least, I'm happy to say it's nowhere near as bad as some reviews make it out to be. Just don't expect a game which feels like a polished AAA blockbuster.
Before I start, I just want to say that I'm not going to write about what the game is about, how the story is or what you do, as I'm sure another review will explain it all. I just wanted to let people know how the game is on a technical level and how I feel about it after playing it for a few hours. So far I've played what's essentially the 'tutorial', which is the introduction to the Resistance, the first mission they give you and some free roam stuff afterwards.
First off, anyone who says it looks like a last generation game or worse is quite simply blind. It runs on CryEngine, and we all know how good looking the Crysis games are! I wouldn't say Homefront has better graphics than any of the Crysis games, and I don't feel like the team at Dambuster Studios have utilized the CryEngine to it's full potential on the Xbox One (there are better looking games on the console), but it's still a good looking game with some great textures, lighting and rain effects. It's also very atmospheric and the world in Homefront seems believable and almost real because of it. Character models are very good too, although the lip syncing seems off occasionally.
The frame rate seems to suffer at times, and it doesn't feel as smooth as it should be, but I'm sure some later updates and patches will help it reach it's 30fps target. I wouldn't say it's particularly jarring (especially after just playing Just Cause 3, where the frame rate slogged like mad at times!) but compared to other shooters on the market it could be better. What does annoy me though is that the screen freezes for a few seconds every time it saves. This seems to happen fairly regularly and is quite a nuisance. I've come across no bugs so far, other than a few clipping of characters where they almost walk through each other, and the characters hand going through a door as he opens it.
The controls feel great and shooting is responsive, and they're not 'floaty' as some comments I've read have said. Controlling the bike is fun and easy. I've yet to have any problems with how the game handles. The sound is great too, with good voice acting, sound effects and music - although I have noticed characters repeat themselves a lot when you walk past them or if they're waiting for you, which breaks the immersion somewhat.
I've yet to experience a full on firefight with the KPA to judge the A.I fully, but so far I've yet to see a reason to call the A.I 'dumb'. And the same goes for the animation, everything seems fine so far.
One thing that does bug me is that the character you play as, Ethan Brady, is a silent protagonist. This is just my personal opinion, but I feel like it breaks the immersion when you have characters talking to you and your character doesn't respond, even when they ask questions. It just seems a bit silly to me, but so far the writers have managed to get away with this without it seeming too bad. Whilst I'm not going to explain the story, so far it seems to be written well with good writing and dialogue. I was worried some of the dialogue or characters might come off as cheesy or stereotypical, but as of yet none of that is the case.
Overall, I'm really enjoying the game so far. As I've read somewhere before, it does feel almost like Far Cry with the open world and the outposts (or strike points, as they're called) you have to take over. One thing to mention is that the world isn't fully open, but separated into several locations. So expect a loading screen every time you want to get to a different zone. The reason why I was so interested in this game beforehand was because of the gritty and almost dark story and setting it has. I liked that it was set in one city, which has been taken over and almost destroyed and turned to rubble, and it's your objective to stand up to the KPA and take back the city. It feels grounded and almost real, if you can get past the fact that the USA has been invaded by North Korea. I didn't want none of the futuristic nonsense that the Call of Duty games have, no big explosions and massive set-pieces with over-the-top story telling and characters, where you feel like a superhuman who is unstoppable. I like that in Homefront you're the underdog, the weaker of the two sides. I enjoy that you have to scrounge around for ammo and loot, and to strike from the shadows before hiding again. If you feel the same way then I think you'll have a lot of fun with this game. So far I am!
Hopefully my review helps if you're on the fence about buying the game. If you're still unsure, then maybe I'd recommend waiting a while until the game has been patched more or if the price goes down. I certainly wouldn't be put off by the reviews if the game interests you a lot though.
I'll be sure to update my review when I've played the game more!
Thanks for reading :)
UPDATE 5/18/16
I've now played a couple more of the story missions and have completely taken over the first Red Zone, and I am now in Earlston Yellow Zone. My thoughts on the game are still the same, but I have a few things to add. The world itself is great, with good attention to detail and lots of buildings and alleyways to explore and hide in. I still think the game is rough around the edges, more so now than before as I've come across a few glitches. One was after taking over a stronghold when you take back control of your character (after a little 'cutscene', shall we say), I spawned in a different location and was completely stuck. Thankfully you can fast travel, otherwise I would have had to reset the game. The second was when I got off the bike - it fell on me and killed me. I admit it did make me laugh, but if that happened whilst in a mission I would have been irritated. I really like how the game makes you feel like part of a resistance and not just a one man army. Resistance fighters are almost always around to help you in a fight, and radio chatter every now and then helps to immerse you in this 'revolution'. After experiencing a lot of fire fights now, I have come to the conclusion that the A.I isn't great. They'll surround you and kill you quite easily if you're not careful, but they're not very smart. I've noticed the A.I resistance fighters are the same too, and they love to get in your way a lot - such as blocking doors and walking in front of you as you're shooting. I consider myself a decent gamer, but I have died quite a few times now so I imagine it's not uncommon for that to happen. Health packs don't seem to last very long and the game doesn't give you a good warning that your health is low. The screen doesn't flash red when you're dying, which has sort of become custom to console FPS. I get that the developers want you to feel underpowered and weak compared to the KPA, but I just wish the game managed that a little better. Though there are upgrades (gear) that you purchase that might help health-wise. Thankfully loading times after you die are very short, and you just respawn at the nearest safehouse.
Overall I'm still having fun with Homefront: The Revolution, but I feel like it could have done with a couple more months of polish to iron out these bugs and smooth over the gameplay. After playing a game for a while, I usually always find a hook which keeps me playing and gets me addicted. Open world games like Far Cry: Primal and Just Cause 3 hooked me with their activities and settlements to destroy/take over in the game world, but Homefront: The Revolution hasn't. The missions I've played so far haven't been anything special either.
I still stand by my 4 star review, as the game feels different compared to a lot of other FPS' I've played on the Xbox One, and I really like the concept and setting of the game. I'd give it 3 stars if it wasn't for that, as otherwise it's technical mishaps and overall lack of polish stop it from being a stand out shooter and a great game. | video-games_xbox |
Not for the Unreal types. Ghost Recon, as has been mentioned in reviews here before, is not for the run-and-gun players out there. While you may use some strategy with those games, it is absolutely necessary to strategize in Ghost Recon simply for survival.
First, the single player campaign. And "campaign" is really the only word to describe it. You begin your mission in the republic of Georgia. The story is very gripping because you realize that something like this could actually happen. So you are instantly engrossed in the game. You progress thru a number of missions (roughly 15). Something that sets this game apart from the Rainbow Six games is the character-building process. As someone returns from battle, they get an additional skill point to spend on one of four skills: leadership, weapons, endurance, or stealth. This makes it even more imperative that you not lose a soldier, because if you have used that one soldier on all of your missions, and they have all of your skill points, losing them makes the remainder of the game very rough. Another very good reason for playing the campaign (other than just because it's so engrossing and fun) is to unlock weapons, game types, and maps for the multiplayer action.
Xbox Live is where Ghost Recon really shines. I really enjoyed the single player campaign, and in fact still go back to it, if only to unlock more items. But to play on a network with other people, communicating by voice, is simply incredible. To work together to formulate and then carry out a plan is mind-blowing compared to other games out there today. I played Counter Strike for a while, but there were too many people who wanted to work alone and not in a team environment. But with the voice communication now, it's so amazing! I really can't emphasize enough how great this functionality is. You can plan your strategy, alert your teammates to the presence of the enemy, etc. The possibilities are truly endless.
The only reason I didn't give this a 5-star rating is because of some issues with Live play. There are some people out there who should not be hosting because of their connection speeds. But once you find some good hosts, you simply add them to your Friends list and look for them to be online. Once you have a nice Friends list built up, the game becomes even more fun because you play with the same group a lot, becoming familiar with one another's strategies, etc. | video-games_xbox |
What do people expect. A successful shooter franchise has made 7 titles with small improvements along the way, instead of major changes, and they have done it again with their 8th release.
The makers of Call of Duty know that if you add too much, you narrow your audience, and narrowing your audience means less players which means less revenue. Battlefield 3 is the closest thing to the line of, "too much stuff in a game", while maintaining a certain level of accessibility. However, BF3 has a significantly low accessibility level, meaning it is harder to just pick it up and start shooting players. And people who compare MW3 to BF3 simply don't understand that they are completely different games with completely different aims. You want large levels with vehicles and a more realistic approach to weapons switching and movement? Play BF3. You want smaller levels with more action and more weapons and customization? Play MW3. These major differences make MW3 a much more accessible game. But neither of those realities make one game better than the other.
Why am I talking about BF3 in a MW3 review? Because people think that BF3 is the future of shooter titles. People expect new titles to always deliver something completely new and fresh (which if we are honest, BF3 did not add that much either), but with video games that is not always possible and isn't always smart. You can't recreate a reliable game engine every time you make a game. Look at the most successful titles in shooter history. Quake, Unreal Tournament, Call of Duty, and Halo. All of these games kept the basics the same and tweaked and added other cool stuff. Why? Because if you attract a fan base with a game, you don't want to lose that fan base with your next release by changing every single thing about the game so the few nay-sayers feel like they got a completely new and fresh release. When I buy a new Call of Duty title, it feels like home, it is familiar, but with new gadgets and strategies to try. Part of the frustration of buying games like Brink and Homefront is that everything is different, even the controls, so you spend the first week just getting used to the layout and overall "feel" of the game. Not to mention you run the risk of wasting your time if the game is not your cup of tea. If I bought MW3 and everything was changed and it was barely recognizable as a Call of Duty release, I would be extremely frustrated and would want my money back. Almost every successful piece of technology in the industry does this. Groundbreaking new product, like the iPhone, everyone loves it and sings its praises. Then, with each new iPhone, minor but cool and exciting changes are made. Call of Duty is no different, and they are smart to ignore the few ignorant people who want to get their minds blown with every release.
Imagine if every time you played the sport you enjoyed that you expected new and exciting additions to the game. Basketball with just one ball? WEAK, we play with 5 balls at a time! If you think of shooters along these lines, you will probably enjoy yourself a lot more, and stop feeling like game companies are "ripping you off". MW3 is a solid release, and it is lots of fun. Everyone that is complaining are like people who expected the new Indiana Jones movie to be an Oscar winning movie, instead of just another fun Indiana Jones movie. If you set your expectations in the stratosphere, hardly anything will ever satisfy you.
PROS:
- Weapons look and sound great
- New kill streaks are lots of fun
- Maps are packed with lots of action (1 or 2 get campy, but play an objective game mode and that goes away)
- Singleplayer has a great flow and more opportunities for creative flanks (less "on rails" feel)
CONS:
- Not enough hardcore game modes (these always get added later)
- Initially the ELITE stuff did not work right, all of it seems to be functioning fine now
- Matchmaking is still touch and go, kind of irritating since this is the 8th COD
Overall this is another great game. I haven't even touched SPEC OPS and SURVIVAL MODE yet, but I've been told they are a blast. | video-games_xbox |
Game of the Year, Hands Down. I had never played a Western style video game and was really curious to see how it would be done. Realizing that this was made by the people who make the Grand Theft Auto series only raised my curiosity and sealed the deal.
GAMEPLAY (10/10): Having played the GTA games, I was pleased to find that the gameplay in Red Dead quite familiar, yet not without a few clever innovations. Players of GTA will likely appreciate the easy to use navigation via the minimap/GPS. The third person perspective will also feel quite familiar. While this may turn some players off, I've always thought that Rockstar Games have pulled off the 3rd person shooters remarkably well. Get used to it and you'll be glad you did.
STORYLINE (8/10): The storyline, while perhaps a bit too simple (ex-criminal is required to hunt down his former gang members in order to be reunited with his family), is perfectly justified by its length, amount of fun and unique quests, and most of all by the characters.
CHARACTERS(11/10): Honestly, the characters in this game alone make it worth your time. I've always felt that the characters in the GTA games were always interesting and 3-Dimensional except, ironically, for the main character, who has always seemed a bit too neutral about everything in an attempt to give the player more control over the character's decisions. In RDR, however, they seemed to have managed to give your character (John Marston) plenty of personality to keep him interesting while still giving the player control over most of his choices. And while the story may force you into some less than ideal decisions, your sympathy for John Marston remains intact. Virtually every other character in the game is memorable and they all keep the cinematic cut-scenes more interesting than in any game I've ever played. No exaggeration. I cannot overemphasize the quality of this game's characters. I honestly became so attached to a couple of them that I replayed parts of the game just so that I could interact with them some more and re-watch their cut-scenes. If you're like me, when the game is finished, you will literally miss some of these characters as if you actually knew them. I know that sounds pretty lame and nerdy, but I'm just sayin'.
GOTY EDITION (10/10): Being the Game of the Year Edition, you get 2 discs: the main storyline on one and the zombie Expansion Pack "Undead Nightmare" and multiplayer on the second. To my surprise, Undead Nightmare was not just a zombie attack game mode, but a fully loaded bonus storyline involving practically all of the main characters from the original! It merits a review of its own, but sufficed to say, its awesome. | video-games_xbox |
Excellent family console + get it today on the lightning deal. I've been an Xbox 360 owner for year and it's been a really great console. This S model is their more recent iteration and it is incredibly quiet and reliable (this is an important point, because the models at the beginning of the Xbox 360's lifespan were notorious for terrible failure rates...Microsoft has learned their lesson). I won't waste your time listing all the great 360 games you can pick up, but I will say that the 3 included with this holiday bundle are decent. Forza Horizon is the best of the bunch and if you're a fan of arcadey (i.e. not simulation) racing games, I think you'll love it. Kinect Adventures is a collection of minigames that basically show you the type of fun things that you can do with your Kinect sensor. Kinect Sports I don't own but from what I hear it's similar to Kinect Adventures, but the minigames are sports-themed instead. Kinect Sports is probably the weakest game of the 3. That said, I have friends that have been interested in getting a 360 and Kinect and I've been advising them to pick up a model that includes the larger hard drive (versus the less expensive model that just has 4GB of storage...that 250GB of storage on this model DOES come in handy). Today would be the perfect day for anybody in their situation to pick one up, because the price for this bundle is great!
One word of warning: if you have plans to play multiplayer games online or use services like Netflix on the 360, Microsoft puts those things behind a subscription service ($60/year for Xbox Live Gold, which gives you multiplayer, access to apps like Netflix, and also a number of free games in their "Games for Gold" initiative. You can find deals on the subscriptions if you search for them so you rarely pay $60, but it's still something to be aware of).
And one more thing: If you have kids, I'd highly recommend buying the downloadable game Kinect Party. My 4 and 2 year old LOVE playing that game, and it's very inexpensive. | video-games_xbox |
NFS Series needs a swift boot in the behind. I'll start off with a little background. I have been playing NFS games since NFS 3: Hot Pursuit. From there I played Porsche Unleased, Carbon, Most Wanted, Pro Street, and NFS: HP2. I love the series... at least I thought I did... but I can't tell you the last one I enjoyed after Porsche Unleased. This game was bringing back all the right memories when I saw HP in the title.
I will say that the fact that there's a single use online code with the game should be known to those of you who plan to resell the game. Resale value will be devalued by at LEAST $10 because of that. More because the game just isn't worth the new price. That has no bearing on this review because I completely understand the reasoning for it and while I don't support it, I can't knock it either.
Back to the game, there are goods and bads;
Goods-
-Graphics are beautiful
-Car selection is great
-Unlock system is a lot of fun (frequent new cars and levels based on XP online and single player)
Bads-
-Driving physics are terrible. You HAVE to initiate a full on drift to get around turns or slow down to a snails pace. Meanwhile, AI can corner MUCH faster. You can't pull a pit maneuver on anyone because hitting another car just shoots sparks and that's about it. For high performance cars, they drive like dumptrucks. It brings the fun level down to a low level when you get a more difficult car to drive.
-AI ranges ALL over the place. When you are doing the events that require you to chase down a single car, any time you get close, they pull a quick 180 and start flying the other way. I have gotten gold in a couple of these events, but it requires luck over skill. In races you will be going max speed, but because of handicap, the AI will catch up to you with slower cars at an extremely quick pace.
-Camera angles suck. It's a low angle, which is fine, except that at high speeds, AI can blast throw your police blocks and you can't see well enough to recognize where the hole is, so more often then not, you'll blast into the block yourself. I FINALLY recognized this one and this is the reason I hit the wall so often or go out of control. When you touch the stick in the slightest amount to turn left or right, the camera turns a little bit, like it was helping you look around a turn. The trouble I have with it is that it makes my mind want to correct it and straighten the car back out by turning the opposite direction, so I essentially make myself go out of control when I was just trying to go straight. This typically leads me to large time penalties on the cop missions where you have to do a solo timed race.
-Maps are annoying. Some shortcuts that are shown on the map are blocked in the real game courtesy of colorful semi-transparent arrows. This can cause you to sometimes attempt to go towards them just to see they're blocked and lose speed. Also, you can't go off the road because of walls and barriers everywhere. Some roads are just too narrow and traffic packed to get through unscathed.
-Inability to turn off police lights, while they look awesome, can make it hard to drive on dark courses or in tunnels. I wish you could turn them off and turn them on to move traffic, which seems to continue driving instead of following traffic laws and getting out of the way of emergency vehicles.
Overall, the game just has so many annoying things that could be corrected. This title feels more like a rushed release than the nicely polished and smooth game we were promised in all of the photos and videos. Still a fun title, but would recommend buying it at the 30-35 range (new) and 20 range (used - thanks to the necessary $10 code to play online). Car selection is good, but there are SO many things that could have been done to improve this game. Seems like another case of a high budget game that did not do proper testing. | video-games_xbox |
Still Fun, But. As a fan of Dead Rising since the first game, the idea of a version of Dead Rising 2 with the original hero, freelance photojournalist Frank West (he's covered wars, y'kno- *shot*) was very enticing. But after finishing Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, I feel like it just wasn't a good fit for Frank.
The game is mostly a rehashed version of DR2, with some new psychopaths, survivors, and weapons. Obviously, the dialog is slightly different with a new lead character, but without spoiling too much, the storyline doesn't really diverge until near the end. Then, it gets a lot more interesting.
Ultimately, though, Frank just doesn't really fit as well into this story as Chuck Greene did. This version of Frank doesn't feel like the real thing from Dead Rising 1 or Case West, which is odd since Off the Record and Case West have the same writer. His reactions are less believable, and he spews far too many (grudgingly amusing) one-liners for my taste. He still has the same great voice actor, Terence J. Rotolo, but fans who buy this game just for Frank may be in for a bit of a letdown.
Frank's camera returns as another method of earning experience points and Achievements, but to be honest, I often forgot that it was there. Using it is still fun, though, and the interface has been jazzed up a little since DR1. The sidequest where you can photograph special PP stickers hidden all over the city remains an obscure annoyance.
With that out of the way, Off the Record improves a lot on the DR formula, without changing it. You no longer have to choose missions from a realtime menu, there are checkpoints, and grappling with the series' notoriously annoying transceiver isn't an issue since Frank receives a hands-free headset right off the bat.
The other main addition is Infinity Mode, where you can cast off the chains of the story mode and annoying survivors for special challenges scattered around Fortune City. Unfortunately, my initial taste of Infinity Mode was bitter, because my level was too low to complete challenges. Coming back to it after completing the story mode is more enjoyable, however. The challenges are a fun and occasionally bawdy (like "Stiff Back", where - oh, I'll let you find out) way of testing your zombie slaughtering skills. It does drag a bit between challenges where you have to kill a fixed number of zombies to unlock the next one.
After waiting four years for Dead Rising to come out of its sequel limbo, I thought that I couldn't get enough of the series, but after Off the Record, I think that Capcom Vancouver should perhaps let the world wait a spell before unleashing the zombie horde yet again, and make Dead Rising 3 something really special. | video-games_xbox |
Huge disappointment. With all the hype of Madden 2012 being different from previous years, including all new features and improved gameplay, I thought that Madden 12 was finally going to bring something new to the table and be a great game. Boy was I wrong; while there are definitely some improvements in game mechanics and franchise mode, there are several huge flaws that completely turned me off to the game. First of all, the commentary is never anything special, but Madden 2012 brings "horrible commentary" to all new levels. Gus Johnson and Chris Collinsworth sound absolutely terrible, the patchwork editing done by the sound team had me wondering if they just said "Screw it, everyone's buying Madden anyway, we have no competition." There is very hollow sounding excitement where there shouldn't be any (ex: a 4 yard run) and no excitement when excitement is due. I also enjoyed having Chris Collinsworth go on long three paragraph speeches about Tony Romo's accuracy being under appreciated, only to have him repeat it not just the following week, but the following play. Seriously? I though it might be a glitch or maybe I was unlucky, but nope, it happened several times. Let me re=iterate that the commentary is the worst I have ever heard in any video game.
Now to gameplay: The developers said that they had taken out "Madden suction" or vacuuming; where a defender is sucked into a block unnaturally as part of their whole new collision engine. Unfortunately this simply isn't the case as once again, you will have a defender tracking down the ball carrier, only to have him be sucked into a block from a guy 3 yards behind him. I almost got a sense that the game rewarded foolish brainless play as time and time again I witnessed the ball being completed into blanket double coverage with glitchy animation.
Still I was on the fence and I love football, and I was thinking to myself, ehhh maybe I've just been unlucky, a lot of work went into making this game and maybe I just haven't appreciated it yet. Unfortunately once I gave it another shot, I witnessed a key play in a game where a receiver ran a 20 yard post route, the ball was thrown to him, and it was batted away. But wait, the ball was then marked at that spot (no he didn't catch the ball after it was batted down, it wasn't anywhere near him). I was not allowed to challenge the play and it was so ridiculous I almost laughed. Almost. At that point I decided that Madden was way over hyped and was actually pretty terrible. Maybe one day 2k will come back and continue to make better football games then Madden, but until that day, I think I'm going to stay away. | video-games_xbox |
Good, has lasted 3 years of daily use. After owning this headset for almost 3 years, I have to review it. I used this on Xbox for the first year, and on PC for the next 2.
Pros:
This headset fits my smaller head nicely, and the comfort has never been an issue. The sound isn't exactly audiophile quality, but it's a gaming headset. However the audio bass boost or treble boost options work really well. The volume controls on the rear of the headset are almost perfect, however they suffer from that too quiet to too loud step that other volume controls suffer from. The mic is nice, and it never sounded absolutely atrocious, and served its purpose. The headband size controls tend to never stay, and slowly slide out, however I have to re-adjust it only once a week (it slides down by 1 or 2 notches) the matte black looks just as new as it did on the earcups, but the headband is a different story. The selection of inputs is good, and allows you to use this headset with RCA, 3.5mm, and optical (spdif). To use the mic on PC, you have to use separate cables, but I never used it. The battery life is great, lasting 8 hours of not a lot of use, and around 5-6 hours of heavy use. I've had to replace the batteries 3 times, and had trouble figuring out where the batteries were each time. The charging stand looks fine and worked well, but lately I've had to weigh down one side of the headset in order for it to charge. It's not permanent, I can fix it, but I'm lazy. Wireless range is good, I can go and make myself a snack while listening to my friends. It's great and there's only ever been one small bit of interference. The side button for muting works really well and is very useful. Also, the mic muting when put upright, or when the button is pressed, also works well. As for the buttons on the tower, there's 3 dual function buttons. They work well and I have no complaints. One changes the equalizer and turns on/off the Dolby surround, the middle one is the tower power button and the pairing, and the third one turns on and off comms mode and changes input (from left to right). The charging is easy, just set the headset on top of the tower. That's it, and there ya go the headset's charging. The battery light shows red when it's charging and green when it's done. The batteries are 2 triple A batteries, which aren't hard to find.
Cons:
The surround sound. It makes any game or movie sound like your in a warehouse, and it's impossible to hear positional audio. I'd rather get the stereo one because I keep it off all the time. (I should try the surround drivers that you have to download, as well as their "synapse" software) The headband has worn out so much, and looks really bad. It took 3 years for that to happen, so no real complaints there. The headset jack, however, I did break. That was due to some nerd rage, and the jack that plugs into the headset snapped off inside. Didn't matter to me because I switched to pc, and I have a standalone mic. For traveling, considering the large tower and cables, it's a pain. Also, the headset itself is a bit bulky and looks kinda funny. After a while, the plastic that holds in the optical audio cable on the tower sort of broke, and it seems to be rather low quality.
Overall thoughts:
I like the headset, and it works for a solid days worth of gaming, but I your doing a longer marathon I recommended that you have a back up headset or earbuds, so you don't get caught in the middle of a match without any communication and sound. Overall, it's served me well and it's a good investment considering how long this thing has lasted. A good purchase of you can find it on sale, and a testament to Razer's claim of quality. | video-games_xbox |
Lost and Alone. KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC II takes place about five years after KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC ended. Lord Revan has disappeared. The Jedi were wiped out in the war that followed and the Sith seem firmly in control of much of the galaxy. The game begins with your character, known as The Exile, sitting half-naked in a prison cell aboard an apparent mining station. There are dead people all around and most of the robots have seemed to go insane. The Exile has no lightsaber, but does have Force powers. As the game progresses, you learn more about The Exile from rather frequent cut-scenes. The ultimate choice lies between choosing to return to the Jedi or to fully embrace the path of the Sith. The path isn't exactly as clear as it was in the original KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC. People give advice, but commit actions that are in opposition to what they advised. Some characters appear to be allies, when in reality they are enemies hoping for your characters downfall.
There are also some of the same characters from the first game. Some of these pop up as additions to your party, while others are part of the storyline and appear mainly in cut-scenes. The Ebon Hawk is also back and is the ship that your character uses to get around the galaxy in.
The workbench can be used not just to upgrade items, but to make new armor and weapons as well. An additional lab station has been added, too, that allows for the creation of medical devices and explosives. These stations can be located on just about every location.
Pazaak has gotten more interesting with the addition of a few new cards and a first play rotation. The racing games have also been improved, but I didn't spend too much time on those. I was more interested in the storyline of the game.
The fighting seemed to be much easier than in the original KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC, especially towards the end of the story. This could be because the game seems to autosave more often, allowing progression to happen faster. Overall, enemies seem to die easily and without doing much damage. The one exception I found was in the Jungle Tomb on Dxun. I don't know why, but I found the Sith Masters there to be particular difficult to defeat.
A component to the storyline that I really enjoyed, was having your character be able to teach and train other characters in either the ways of the Force. It was pretty neat to be able to have a small army of Jedi going into some of the final confrontations.
However, despite some of the improvements, KOTOR II is disappointing. After having played through KOTOR, I had a huge sense of accomplishment. It felt as though I had gone on a long journey and saved (or later when I played as a Sith, overtaken) the galaxy. There was even a cool scene celebrating the victory. KOTOR II doesn't have any of that. The ending of the game is terrible and leaves more questions unanswered than I had when I first started playing the game. But, it's not just in the ending. There are several times throughout the game that elements seem to end rather abruptly. That's not to say that playing the game isn't fun, because it is. There are times when the game is exciting, but overall KOTOR II just isn't as engaging as the original. Looking back at the gaming experience, it is as though the developers just rushed through the game to get it completed on time.
If you haven't played the original KOTOR, I recommend playing that first before playing KOTOR II. KOTOR II is fun to play, especially if you're a Star Wars fan, but it'll make more sense having played KOTOR first. | video-games_xbox |
A Great RPG Adventure. Some Hints Added. Jade Empire is a third person RPG has an immersive storyline and lots of interesting sidequests .If you take the time to read all the diologue from as many charachters as you can find and also do as many or all the sidequests ,its about a 15-20 hour game. I finished the game in about 4 days. But you could easily stretch out the game into 3 weeks or more. There's about 5 different types of fighting styles that your player can use and upgrade that are grouped into different catagories. There's Martial Style which is a unarmed fighting. There's Weapon style with swords ,axes,spears,etc. There's Magic syle. There's Support style ,example, slow enemy or paralize. And finally there's Transformation style. Also Most Ghosts or Spirit enemies are immune to swords,spears,axes or weapon styles. Demons are immune to support styles and some martial styles. You realy have to experiment to see which enemies are immune to particular styles. The fighting system is very easy ,its free form you can lock on and switch targets by pressing left or right trigger ,or free target by pressing both triggers at same time. You can perform whats called harmonic combos by starting with certain styles & ending with another style. The charachters target ring will turn yellow when you have started one. Although its possible never having to use a harmonic combo .I beat the game never doing one. I loved the White Demon Martial style its good for taking out ghosts spirits,I wasn't a big fan of Legendary strike it didn't seem as strong for some reason and I had it maxed out. There's tons of choices to make as far as fighting styles go in this game. You get to upgrade your fighter as you progress in the game. The choices you make you will either choose Open Palm (good) or Closed Fist (evil). To get Closed fist points you do have make evil type choices. Sometimes they will try to trick you into thinking that it isn't evil or a bad choice. The dam for example by destroying the dam controls you continue the towns suffering and make it a continued haven for drunk sailors and harlots,thats what the merchant wants ,he sells wine. But by fixing the dam you heal a town thats already been suffering for awhile already,by renewing there shipping abilities and access to food(fish).But first do all sidequests and xtras before fixing or breaking the dam, you'll greatly need to. You have alot of different power up abilities,that you can obtain by reading scrolls or searching containers for them,or buy the upgrades from different merchants,or you get certain fighting styles by either doing open palmed(good) or closed fist(evil) choice from certain teachers. Its not too hard of a game with the right fighting styles you can be deadly. The fighting system is pretty smooth free form ,you can sidestep,jump over the enemy hit em in the back , & block most attacks,pretty much free form do anything thers's no real restrictions. After defeating certain demons you then can Transform into there image & there fighting style and kill your enemies. The Jade Golem or Red Minister are very powerful transformation styles ,but you don't get either until later in the game,definatly save some upgrade points for one of those styles. The graphics are pretty good in this game nice details and they get better as you go. I think there are three different endings ,I saw 2 of them just remember to save before the important decisions & battles. Before you start the game you can choose what character you wanna be either Strong Style,Magic Style,Fast Style, or Balanced style. You gain followers as you progress in the game that can either fight with you or be a support where they won't fight ,but they will replenish your Health,Chi,& Focus while you are in battle. You can have only one charachter with at a time,but you can switch them out at any time. Some negatives about this game are the load times while doing quests,especialy in the Imperial City there are lots of load screens when you go to different parts of the city it can get a little annoying. Also when you talk to anybody the talking animation isn't that great or interesting ,like other reviewers stated I also found myself quickly reading the text & not looking at the 'talking heads'. But for the most part definatly one of the better RPG'S out. If you like KOTOR part 1 , Morrowind or Fable. Definatly try this game out. Here's some good strong powerful style choices for an Open palmed(good) player. Martial style: (White Dragon) Weapon style: (Crimson Tears) Magic style: (Stone Immortal stronger with open palm player) Transformation style: (Red Minister almost unbeatable or Jade Golem very very powerful and looks great) Support Style: (Paralyzing Palm or Spirit Thief).These are just some of my favs styles,some people will be better or worse with different styles because there gameplay style might be different than mine. To get the Crimson Tears (advanced dual sabers) Talk to KHANA in the Imperial City Arena ,after you talk to everybody in the arena,you must tell her of the plans they want (you) to poison her,but tell her you will not poison her and you will fight her Honorably in the Imperial Arena,she then will train you in the advanced version of the dual sabers called Crimson Tears after you defeat her in the Imperial Arena Bronze Division. Its a deadly dual sword that is very powerful maxed out. Also save as many weapon upgrades as you can because you get a limited amount you can only max about 4 total. Concentrate on upgrading White Demon & Crimson Tears, & Either Red Minister or Jade Golem . Those will help in the tougher boss battles. The Support styles aren't even needed ,there helpful but not neccessary. To defeat the Emperor switch to a different style then he's using. Example if he's using a weapon ,say a sword,then you switch to unarmed (Martial style).etc. Because he's immune to whatever style he is equipped with and he will quickly change his attack to match your style, he will then be immune,so you change your style attack again. Good Luck. | video-games_xbox |
Blood Bore. First off I need to state that I play ALOT of Games Workshop games, including owning and playing the table top Blood Bowl. I know I wasn't going to expect Madden or the fast pace even of a "Dawn of War" during the Blitz mode of this game. Unfortunately, I find this game somewhat lacking and slow...yes readers, even slower than a tabletop game of Blood Bowl. I get the turn based mode, which is very true to the tabletop version, but even then it seems to chug slowly uphill in comparison.
Pros: - True to the tabletop in the "classic" mode in terms of rules
- 8 teams to choose from (this is good and bad...good for the diversity, bad because the tabletop has 15 teams)
Cons: - The game seems somewhat slow
- Graphics are Xbox quality, NOT 360
- "Tutorial" mode is a complete joke and basically useless, could've been better thought out
- The commentators SUCK, as in the worst I've heard in ANY game...I pretty much tune them out...at times I forget there even are any, that's how innane and worthless they are
- There are constant grammatical and spelling errors...SERIOUSLY! Did they not edit this???
- Since the tutorial is so pathetic it's easy to get lost early on...the learning curve is pretty bad. If you have the tabletop version, the rules are actually the same...reading this will go farther than just the manual. (e.g. Ok, so fouling can get a player kicked off the field...the manual says it can, not why, while the tabletop guide says why and how)
- Each turn has a time limit...when I pressed the XBOX GUIDE button to pause the game, i noticed the clock in the background still ticking down! Really??? Yes, there is a pause button, but by going to the GUIDE, it should automatically pause like any other game.
- You can't change team colors. Yes, I know, this isn't Madden, but some more team customization would've been nice, since the tabletop allows you to design a team from scratch. I'm surprised some of this element didn't carry over.
So, overall, if you're a tabletop fan with no one to play with, this is a way to play on your own or online, albeit with issues. I really did want to like this game and was excited, but I honestly feel let down, even at the $49 pricetag.
***UPDATE***
Since I first wrote this review, I've TRIED to play on multiplayer. I say try, because literally trying several times a day for nearly 2 weeks straight, I've found only ONE other person online to play against. Reading his gamertag profile on 360, he was from New Zealand! Now, I ASSUME it's because of his connection, but the game lagged TERRIBLY. I have yet to play someone in the US or Canada to see if it'll happen again. It literally took 15 minutes just to play out one turn, so choppy that I just quit. Other reviewers have complained of the multiplayer, and being based on a tabletop game, poor multiplayer just makes an already bad game worse! | video-games_xbox |
Excellent Interactive Guitar Learning Tool. This is a wonderful way to learn guitar. I took lessons when I was a teenager, but never really got anywhere with it. My guitar sat unused in the corner of my bedroom for half a lifetime, until a couple years ago I decided to give it another shot. I had heard of the Rocksmith series and thought it was a stroke of genius. Nearly anybody that has played Guitar Hero, or watched somebody who was really good at it has thought "why not just learn to play a real guitar?" That's what we have here, and it's very well done.
This is more an interactive training tool than a game, exactly, but the "game" elements give practicing a hook that really helps motivate you. People love scoring points. You could practice a song for hours and get better but in your mind, it might feel like you've done nothing an seem like a waste of time, but watching how your score goes up gives you a tangible, objective measure of your improvement.
But you aren't just thrown into a song and expected to know what to do, the game has traditional "lessons" built in to help teach you concepts, and then tests you with actual play. Most importantly, and impressively, the game dynamically adjusts its difficulty. This is the coolest feature by far. While in most games you have your choice of "Easy, Normal, Hard," in this game, each segment of a song is basically assigned it's own difficulty level. When you first play a song, you might only need to hit one note at a time, which is great for a beginner because just doing that and keeping up the pace can be difficult. If you do well enough, the next time it might add a second note, and if you again play it competently it will from then on have you play a full chord. This means that the game gets harder naturally as you get better, but it will still hold your hand on very difficult spots you don't have a handle on. It's spectacular, and so well executed that any other faults the game may have seem inconsequential.
And there are some flaws, but they are minor. Obviously, the song selection gets old after a while. There are new songs you can download but I feel they are too expensive. And... that's about it. This game is nearly perfect and doing what it does, and I can without a doubt say it made me a much better guitar player. | video-games_xbox |
Perhaps the box is talking about a different game. Oh man, where do I begin? Although this game is fun it, in no way, lives up to it's hype or even to it's description on the box. The story is lame and predictable; little boy is destined for glory, family gets slaughtered, boy becomes hero and seeks revenge, etc., etc. If you're looking for a groundbreaking story with twists and turns, you won't find it here. The story is pretty much what you find in every japanese RPG.
My biggest gripe here is the gameplay. While the game is fun as a hack & slash adventure game, the developers hyped it up to be an open ended RPG. Sure you can run around and talk to people but none of the interactions are meaningful. You don't get choices during conversations as you would with a game like Knights of the Old Republic. Instead you can pick Yes or No (and this is with like 5 out of 100 people). "Will you help this trader?", Yes or No. That is it. The combat system is purely hack and slash and there are like 10 spells in the game, half of which are geared toward making you temporarily stronger during melee combat (I think it's impossible to be a pure mage). Being a rogue is pointless and overly difficult. Sneaking around requires you to hold down the left analog while walking (trust me, your thumb WILL slip off and you WILL get caught). Stealing items requires you to access the function through a series of menus, making quick grabs nearly impossible.
Ok, so the story is lame and the RPG elements are lacking, but at least we can roam the world freely, right? Wrong again! The plush environments of Fable have been created for you to "keep off the grass". Every area has a designated path which you must stick to. You may want to walk on the grass but the invisible walls WILL stop you. So no, you cannot freely roam the world. Sure you can walk all of the paths but there isn't much point to it other than finding enemies on the road.
Well, there has to be a good variety of weapons and armor then! Sheesh, wrong again! I beat the game and discovered maybe 5 different types of weapons (Iron, Steel, Obsidian, Master, and some other super material or something) and like 7 different types of armor. Although you will find variety in the types of weapons (axe, hammer, longsword, katana, etc.) I really didn't see much difference when fighting with any of them other than the damage dealt. There was no feel of different fighting styles. Don't expect much variety from the monsters either. There are bandits, wasps, nymps, zombies, minions, and few other things that I can't remember the name of. All together you will probably encounter about 10 different enemy creatures.
Now, I know what you're thinking, this game has to be loaded with puzzles then! Nope, not a single one. The closest you will come to a puzzle is one of the demon doors (talking doors in the game that hold treasure) speaking vaguely on how you can open it. But none of these are very difficult to figure out either (you may have to think about it for 30 seconds or so).
One thing this game does offer up though is a bunch of features that are meaningless to the gameplay. In fact, all of it's widely mentioned aspects have no real affect on the game. Be Good or Evil... meaningless. The story will progress the same no matter which side you choose. People will react to you differently depending on your alignment but they will all still interact with you just the same. The only real effect that this will have is on your appearance. The same goes for haircuts and tattoos. Sure they look cool but they have no real purpose in the game. Certain harcuts and tattoos will make you less attractive (yes, this is an actual attribute in the game) but that will only make it more difficult for you to find a wife. Ahh, a wife, yet another meaningless feature. You can get married and... well, you can get married and continue playing the game on it's linear course. Oh, and the age system is completely bogus as well. I started as a teenager, 10 game days have passed (the game tracks your days within the game) and now I'm 40-years-old. How do you I age 20 years in 10 days? The game could have at least told me that 20 years have passed, but the friggin' thing says 10 days!
All in all, the game is fun, mindless, hack and slash that feels as though it'd be more approriate for a 10-year-old rather than the adult audience that it was geared toward. The game consists of choosing a quest at the hero's guild, killing the monster, going back to the guild, choosing a quest, killing the monster, going back to the guild... you get my point. This will go on for about 10-15 hours (15 hours if you do the side quests) and then you'll be rewarded with your anti-climatic finish. If you want a fun hack and slash adventure to occupy you for the weekend, then the game isn't bad in that aspect. But, if you're looking for an in-depth RPG experience, then I'd stay away from this one. FAR AWAY!
I gaurantee that after playing this game you will think to yourself, "THAT took four years to develop?!" | video-games_xbox |
Gears of War 3 Tritton Headset. Since you can find all of the technical specs here and at the tritton website, I will not include that information in my review. The headset out of the box has a very easy set up. Most headsets that you can buy have a lot of cords and adapters needed for use and sometimes not included. This headset had everything I needed to get it hooked up in about 5 minutes. The sound on the headset is excellent. The volume limit is higher than I will ever use or need. The 3D sound (simulated, not true 7.1) is nice to have. You can tell which direction people and voices are coming from. I've noticed some reviews about the headset having too much bass, I disagree and say that the bass on this headset is mild. The Audio control box is very simple. It has a button for switching modes, power button, and a slide for volume control. If you want to tweak your sound and adjust all the different sound levels yourself, it is not possible with this headset. The selective voice monitoring system is really nice. I could not even tell that my voice was being played through the speakers. One problem I have with this headset is the effects and music of games are louder than the characters voices, but some games have options to adjust it. I often find myself "in the zone" when I use this headset, easy to ignore people that are talking to you. :) Sorry about the unorganized review, but hope it helps a bit.
EDIT: 14 months later: Some bad reviews stated that this headset had good reviews from people using it for a day then giving it good reviews either treat their headset bad or are just overall careless. I have had these over a year now and they still work great! Yes tritton is an off-brand of mad catz that i also find unreliable, but this headset has exceeded my expectations. The tritton brand makes great products. I'd say they are better than turtle beaches. Plenty of my friends have had them and they have broken within months. | video-games_xbox |
Fun at best, frustrating for the most part. I've got lots of mixed feelings for this game. I'll just make it nice and simple with the Pros and Cons.
Pros-
The graphics are done pretty well and I like the atmosphere of it. You actually feel like you might be in a jungle, and not just a scattering of trees, ledges, and bushes. The story could use some work, but it all ends well and doesn't leave much to the imagination (hate those loose-ends that seem to be popping up more often in newer games). The situations are inventive, most of them leave you with lots of options for attack. There's a wide-variety dinosaurs you face as well. The instant-kill knife moves are fun. This game also incorporates stealth and not just sneaking and hoping the enemy doesn't see you from half a mile away and magically notifying EVERYTHING to your exact location at all times. There's no auto-aim, which is good, because you can't get your reticle hung on a distant enemy when you're attempting to kill something that's jumping at your face. The TEK Bow and Arrows. Nuff said there. There's also a FLAMETHROWER!! (major plus to me).
Now for the Cons-
Okay, I have never been so annoyed in my gaming experience as has happened in Turok. I've been playing games for quite a while (got my first Playstation when I was seven and had a NES before that), and some of my worst experiences have happened with this. For instance, the T-Rex and Dilophosaurus's ability to instantly teleport you into their mouthes. The last fight you have with the T-Rex was horrible for me. I recall being almost half way across the area from her and then I turned my head for a second and looked back. I had already died and it was at the loading screen. Another issue is that the AI can be overly intelligent at times. The enemy AI, that is. Your allies are just bullet-sponges and are pretty bad at that. They never take cover. Whereas the enemy AI can pull tactical maneuvers worthy of Napolean's ability. They know exactly where and how to flank you. Then you have the problem of being attacked by dinosaurs and CONSTANTLY being knocked down. Mix that with the enemy soldiers shooting at you and you're probably a goner. Onto the weapons. I was hoping we'd have the cerebral bore and the rocket launcher that shot nukes from the older Turoks. The weapons were very creative and fun to use. Now we have the SMG, a shotgun, your standard 9mm pistol, an RPG, mini-gun, pulse rifle, and a little gun that shoots out "devastating" mines. The most creative thing is the flamethrower and TEK arrows (which were in previous games).
That being said, I think the game is good, but it has MUCH room for improvement. | video-games_xbox |
Its Not 'the' Island, Its 'An' Island. I'm a big Lost fan so I carefully waited for the game to be available at the local Blockbuster and sure enough I was the first renting it.
First Impressions: The title screen is lovely and it led to an anticipation of whats to come. Turning it on however, I was greeted by blocky controls. At first I thought I had freedom to move about the island but turned out I was wrong, everything is set on paths. Your character kind of quirks and jerks around the island stumbling into unmoveable bushs with all his stiffness. Follow this up with 'what just happened' cut scenes and dabble on a self-centering bad camera angle and you have your opener of sorts. Jungles have never been accurately reproduced in games, I was hoping this would be an exception.
Play it Again Sammy: The game blocks it up like episodes of the show, think Matrix: the Game, only with intros and logos. I didn't like the 'previously on Lost' intro showing me what I played just seconds earlier but this works well when you go back to earlier episodes or pick it back up after taking a break. They could have canned the intro while you were playing and it would have been an improvement. Adding the Lost Logo at the mystery point near the beginning and the mystery at closing was a very nice touch but in some instances, out of place. While your running around you pick up loose items and put them in your backpack. You trade these for items you need, torches, oil, handguns. Collect everything you find and you won't have any issues with currency. Eventually this feels like your only collecting fuses and beer. You become the red neck Thomas Edison of the island with a backpack full of brewskies and the knowledge of electricity.
Getting Lost in It: There I am on the beach, this story doesn't follow between 2 and 3, it starts at the beginning. The wreckage scene was not accurately shown, bummer. Tech heads would point out the left wing was gone all together and the still running engine was originally mounted next to the fusalage not out in the open say between the blown engine and the fusalage. Here is where the game play gets really odd. Your first mission is to divert the fuel flow to prevent an explosion. How? Your best guess and stumbling around looking for something that glimmers that you can click on. Oh, its one of those games! You simply walk around and look for something to get shiny. Hmmm. From there on out its being an errand boy. Find your luggage. Another walk around, this time with dummy objects to slow your progress.
Let The Exploration Begin: "Find your camera"...okay now you get to journey off the beach and thank the light, not a moment too soon. Here is where you find another idea they came up with for you to do. Its 'find your waypoints' time in the jungle. Find your waypoint and it will point you to the next waypoint 30 feet away. Some waypoints are hidden, others can be skipped. All together its a romp in the park. Then you find the front nose of the plane. Again, not accurate at all with the film, they put it hanging over a cliff. Why? On board the plane is another puzzle to divert power to the electronically locked compartment. Sayid would be proud. Even after solving the puzzle you can 'steal' the fuses for later use, brillant.
Do The Hokey, Pokey: This is pretty much the giest of the game. Get your mission, get through the ever increasing difficulty of the jungle (way points turn into compass points you have to cross reference, the jungle has Ben's guys shooting at you and finally you have to make your way past a fast pathing Black Smoke...while walking...with Black Rock Dynomite), find your target and return, Rinse Repeat.
Mini Games? There is two instances of a 'run for your life' part thats interesting even with the blockly controls and bad camera angle. The two cave journey parts are interesting as long as you think ahead...Think fumbling around in Shadowgate back in the day with no torches. There is a Swan Station part that was very interesting with you playing with the computer doing things that Locke couldn't find that lends itself to an all inclusive venture of the station and here they really shined with accuracy, my hats off for this part and the equally thrilling Flame Station part.
ShutterBug: There is parts in the game where your clued in on taking a picture. Somethings are hidden and you must find the special path to find these things but there is usually some risk involved. Getting the snapshot is more thrilling then the Game concept art the game rewards you with back at the main menu. However, getting the right shot can be obnoxiously hard at times. I took a picture of a laptop a dozen times from different angles before it accepted the 'win'. Even my wife mentioned something was off with that. They could have really done better with the camera's rewards or even had hidden things for taking scenic shots ala Metal Gear Solid. Still a lot of the hidden item shots is cheeky fun to do.
New stuff! I'm not going to divulge into any of the new things that your adventure on the island will uncover. Up to now its been stuff we all know. There is one instance at the Flame where you go 'oh thats why that happened'. You also eventually get to see more of the Hydra and the Black Rock, no big deal but fun nonetheless. There is finally a 'gap filler' that is presented. This is a nice albiet short lived portion that had me screaming for my wife to check out. Its a wonderful present in the middle of it all making the rental much worth the money. Another piece of the puzzle and something I can finally breathe a sigh of relief on. You'll have to rent it to find out for yourself. Snicker!
Mi Capitane! The main characters presented for you to talk to in your flight. The talking sessions remind me of the blocky Knights of the Old Republic chat scenes, however, your questions have little bearing of consequences. Ask away! The voice acting is superb and most of the characters are believeable, some sound like they have a cold. All together it had my wife fooled into thinking they were the real deal. Mums the word! The character models are excellent but thier motions are very robotic. Its thier hands, they don't move thier hands. Thier face is expressionable and extremely close to the actor they portray but they end up looking like a talking head on a manniquine.
The Hills are Alive! The visuals, even with the exception of inaccuracies of special locales are stunningly beautiful. They put a lot of heart into how it looked. Even the jungle with its waypoint gimmick is something to behold. Sometimes I want to just look at what they done and all the hard work they put into it but they don't lend themselves to giving you said time because of dangers. Its not 'the' island, it 'an' island. The layout for the most part is great and leads itself to adventuring. Hi-res rocks the world!
It All Comes Out in the Wash: I wrapped this rental up in 8 hours. It has very little replay value which is a loss in my mind from all the work they put into it. I would only go back to find the picture opportunities I missed and the few hidden locations I know are still out there. Lost: Via Domus did not leave a bad taste in my mouth but its shortness was dissappointing. This game is worthy of a rental and your time but don't buy it, save your money for the blu-ray versions of the show :) | video-games_xbox |
Can't Win w/ Next Gen. I have loved the Madden series since the PS1 days and have loved every release, with the exception of some of the "NFL Gameday" franchise which I thought competed with the Madden's op the times. However, these last two years with "next gen" have been inexcusable. While I will admit that the graphics blow away the old gen games the game play is terrible. Sadly, for me, the most enjoyable part of Madden has always been playing my best friends, in a living room and this Madden has taken all the fun out of the actual game play. This may have been excusable for the initial XBOX 360 Madden release but not this time around.
First off, once an animation starts with a ball carrier and you want to tackle them, you better cross your fingers. Twice in one game we sat in amazement as we watched our running backs GO THROUGH the defense, literally. I'm not talking about a defensive player's limb, but instead through their actual bodies, chest and all. This ghost like ball carrier feature seems to be especially ridiculous near the goal line where Ronnie Brown has been seen going through the bodies, like Casper, of players. It real demoralizes you when you pick the right play on defense and plug the hole only to see the running back run THROUGH you.
Also, the AI is really bad in this version. This wouldn't be so bad if not for the lack of tackles in this version and ease of passing. When you do actually hit a player (and not go through them) it is way too easy for the offense to shed tackles and then when the player breaks free of the tackle the defense runs after the player at the worst angles and it's nearly impossible to catch a player. Without the vision cone the passing is also really easy, it seems like the field is way too open.
My last MAJOR concern (although not the last concern) is with the play calling. I was really hoping EA would convert it back to the classic button assigned play picking. It was much harder for an opponent to watch what play you were picking (you could hold one of the trigger buttons and pick a play that wasn't even on screen on XBOX) and it was also much easier to pick your plays in a timely fashion. It is also next to impossible to catch a person, sitting on the couch next to you, off guard if you very rarely go for fake punts and want to go for one in the 3rd quarter with a yard to go.
All in all, I would much rather stick with the XBOX versions than go for then next gen '07. After all, you can't merely judge a game by it's back cover. | video-games_xbox |
Fun times. I really like how this version has multi-player bots you can use so I can play with my nephew and we can do team deathmatch and play bigger games, and adjust their skill level without having to invite real people who may be a bit too good and make the game less fun since my nephew is 9. I like the HUD display for multi-player. enemies won't show on the radar unless they fire, but the game will warn of you potential death traps with a skull. This lets you see that an enemy is near without tracking them on the radar. That seems fair. I think this is the same for most COD games.
In campaign mode, I found it a little too easy to play through, but I guess I need to try it on a higher skill level. It seems like you can get to the end no matter what. I think it's because there are alternative outcomes and I didn't end up doing great. The ending was a little weird. You'll see what I mean....
The story is all over the place and extremely far fetched, but what can you expect for a game like this? You can make decisions in the game such as which missions to choose, and in the game you can decide to kill certain people or let them go. It kinda makes me wan to re-play to see what happens if I picked other options. I mean of course you want to kill certain people your first time playing, but the second time around it might be interesting to see what happens if you don't.
Zombie mode is super hard and we never got very far in it. Even at the lowest skill level and picking levels where I know where to buy weapons doesn't get us that far. I guess I'm not the best FPS gamer, but I still wish that it would start off a little easier and get progressively harder. I didn't have problems with survival in modern warfare 3 and that is somewhat similar.. On a good missions, we could survive almost 30 rounds instead of just 6 or so with the zombies.
The weapons are quite versatile in black ops 2. Some of them will slow you down, but I like to pick the big machine guns personally. I'd rather be slow and deadly. Your layout really makes a difference in your overall strategy. Killing enemies, is a little more like real life.. Things like heavy armor don't exist. It only takes a couple shots to take someone down. I wish they were classified a little more so you don't find out what is good through trial and error.
I don't like the RTS strikeforce missions. I never got the hang of it. Fortunately these missions aren't required to have you beat the game, but from what I've read they give you a more positive outcome in the regular missions.. I might go back and try some of these, but the A.I. bots aren't that good.
This game and modern warfare 3 are great overall. If you're looking to play with a friend against each other, I recommend this for deathmatch and team deathmatch, but modern warfare 3's survival mode is a lot of fun if you want to see how far you and a friend can make it. | video-games_xbox |
The Sonic Game I've Been Waiting For. When I was a real little kid, from the early to late '90s, Sonic was the coolest thing in the world to me. I loved everything about him... even being enough of a Sonic nut to have a written a little fan fiction (hey, give me a break... I was a kid!)
Unfortunately, aside from the original games, very few of the installments have managed to draw me in. Sonic Rush Adventure was a lot of fun, but it got buried in a sea of mediocre Sonic games (many of which I admittedly haven't even played). Sonic Unleashed had potential, but everything but the daytime levels was so tedious, it made the game practically unplayable.
Finally, we have Sonic Generations... Sega's love letter to the fans. All of the annoying superfluous characters have been reduced to glorified cameos, there are no ridiculous humans around and Sonic is allowed to do what he does best: Run.
The game is divided into two parts: Classic (young) Sonic levels where you play in the original sidescroller style, and Modern (older) Sonic, which has levels made up of both both sidescrolling and full three dimensional areas. You can switch characters whenever you want, so if you feel like playing the other style, you are always free to do so.
The main story is a good length for a Sonic game... there are more levels than you usually get, and the levels are generally a good length. Plus they are remakes of classic levels, so there is a strong sense of nostalgia that comes with them, if you are a long-time Sonic fan.
The levels are pretty well put together... there aren't too many of the frustrating pit and enemy placements that you get with a lot of Sonic games... there are plenty of areas to run fast, get rings and have an absolute blast doing so.
Other than the main story, there are a lot of little challenges to do, with a variety of different tasks and things to unlock. You can unlock new abilities, old music and artwork... so if you enjoy the game, there's no shortage of things to do!
The game is not without flaws... it falls apart a little at the end with an irritating boss fight with a poor gameplay style, and the presence of the more annoying extra characters.
That being said, I still give the game 5/5, as it is a strong return to form for the series, and brings hope that Sonic can be great again... its controls are more polished, gameplay more fluid, and just all around more fun than I had hoped for.
This is how I want Sonic to be. | video-games_xbox |
The Newest in the line of FPS's to shape the genre. I've logged about 10 hours into the game and absolutely love it. Out of the 10 or so games that I've bought in the last 5 years, 8 have been FPS's, and none have matched the excitement of Titanfall for me. It gets 5 stars for the "can't put it down" factor. The game isn't perfect, but I'll list a few pros and cons:
Pros:
- A New Kind of FPS: TF doesn't reinvent the wheel, but I'd say it's akin to creating rubber tires instead of wood. The fast pace feels right at home to CoD veterans like myself, and the shooting mechanics are standard, but similarities end there.
-Titans: The giant mechs are my favorite part of the game. They make you feel very powerful without actually being overpowered. There is enough variations of titans and weapons to accommodate at least of few different plays styles specifically for the titans themselves (i.e. run n gun, tanking).
-Verticality: The nimbleness of the pilots adds a whole new dimension to the game that I have never seen in a console shooter. Being able to climb up buildings and wallrun to stay off the ground is very exciting, and adds all new strategies as opposed to mostly fixed-level shooters like CoD.
Cons:
-Lack of customization: There aren't a whole lot of ways to set yourself apart, either cosmetically or with weaponry. There are no "classes" of weapons like a traditional FPS, all 10 Pilot weapons are pooled together, with what i would say is 4 or 5 distinct types. Each weapon has 2-3 sights and 2-3 mods you can unlock, but that's it.
-Lack of story: the only FPS campaigns I've played are MW2/3. No single player normally doesn't bother me. But with a new game set in an expansive universe, I would really like to have a story told to feel connected to why I was fighting. A great backstory would really help the game's following, in my opinion, and make it that much more exciting when sequels eventually come (think Halo or Gears of War). | video-games_xbox |
A gamer's game? Hell yes. I'll preface this by cribbing lightly from early professional reviews. Yes, the game borrows concepts from GoW. Yes, there are aspects reminiscent of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Toss in Devil May Cry and Portal while you're at it too.
Does the game suffer from this? Absolutely not.
I believe Darksiders will prove out to stand on its own merits:
Art/color/effects. The Darksiders world is painted vividly. Bloody, scarlet reds. Vivid, electric blues. Hellfire crackles and belches with palpable heat. Death effects are varying and plentiful. The Chaoseater rips through opponents with satisfying degrees of violence and gore. Joe Mad's character designs are top-notch, fresh, and lend strongly to the 'playing a comic book' feel. You'll like it or you won't - but I love it. The angel and demon designs, the shattered, demonically-warped landscape, the weaponry, War's armor - it's just awesome.
Voice acting. Mark Hamill is worth the price of admission. The other voice talents do an able job, but his role really stands out, and he does an impeccable job.
Combat. Button-mashers will find a lot to like. Newcomers will quickly feel at home with the combat setup. Experts won't feel like they're jogging around a dumbed-down rail-fighter. Combos are expressive and fun to achieve, and their resulting effects are satisfyingly brutal.
Story. I won't detail the twists and turns the story takes, but the fact that you're War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, sent back to Earth to figure out who screwed you over, and why, and kill everything standing in the way of that - it doesn't need to be any more cerebral. Revenge and justice are always a solid theme to an action slasher, and the story here doesn't fail.
The soul-currency system is a nice touch. There are many, many items in the destructive environment that will kick out souls that can be traded in as currency for new combat moves, weapon enhancements, health/rage buffs, etc. Some of these items raise an eyebrow (souls confined in a parking meter? ok.), but the gathering process is still fun.
Early boss fights are decent, but these battles really shine with selected increased difficulty.
The puzzles aren't terribly difficult. You're not going to employ any Half-Life 2-type problem-solving to figure them out, but they factor into the overall gameplay logically and seamlessly.
Some players might get hung up in the comparisons to other games in the genre. Others might see similarities or common themes as strengths - building on what gamers like, discarding other elements. My advice - enjoy Darksiders based on what you see, what you hear, and what you beat the holy (and unholy) crap out of in-game. Anticipate at least 17-20 solid hours of gameplay, with plenty to discover on subsequent playthroughs.
Start to finish, this game was a 9/10, and earned a spot on the shelf next to Halo 1-3, Fallout 3, CoD4, and Bioshock. | video-games_xbox |
Pretty visuals, dull gameplay. A nice looking, budget priced maiden effort from The Adventure Company, STILL LIFE is an old school "wander around environments looking for clues and talking to NPC's to solve a mystery" game that takes you all the way back to the days when such games were text-based. Still Life adds a few "CSI"-ish elements to keep everything current.
For such a small title the visuals are often stunning, with pre-rendered backgrounds to match the best examples the video game industry has ever offered. Character modeling is reasonably good, too, and the murder mystery plot isn't so bad either.
The problem? Gameplay. It's all simply way too slow moving. After a promising early scene when you actually get to wander through a very "Se7en"-ishly disgusting-looking crime scene gathering physical evidence (you even spray a wall with Luminol and use a black light to read messages written in blood a couple of times), the whole thing peters out into a s-l-o-w exercise in going from one map to another, asking NPC's questions, solving puzzles to unlock things, and collecting items. In other words, been there done that.
The game is so linear that even the scripted conversations you have with NPC's don't offer you any freedom of choice. Instead of giving you several options of how you can steer the course of a conversation (say, as in Deus Ex Invisible War and others), you are simply offered the choice between clicking the L or R triggers. The L trigger has you conduct a story-specific "nothing but the facts Ma'am" conversation, while the R allows for "off-topic" chat about the weather and things like that. But when all you're doing is clicking the triggers over and over to get to the next scripted line, instead of being allowed a choice of three or four replies your character can give, it makes me wonder why the conversations weren't just cut-scenes. No matter what order you click the triggers, there's never a change to the conversation that affects the game's ultimate outcome.
Speaking of cut-scenes, this is one of those games where all the gameplay is "move your cursor around until it passes over something in the frame and becomes an icon." Conversely, the exciting stuff happens in cut-scenes; when you first see the killer, there's a frantic chase down a darkened street and up a fire escape onto a roof. And you just sit there and watch it. Meh.
Okay, so it's a budget title. But still.
Graphically, I think there is enough impressive work here that I'm interested in seeing what this company does in the future. As a game, even for 20 bucks, it's merely so-so. But there could be some good things to come from these guys. | video-games_xbox |
Works great for traveling to friends, not checked bag on plane friendly though. Surprisingly sturdy bag that will fit the Xbox One, power supply (in it's own zippered pouch), two controllers (if you sort of jam the second one in the elastic pouch), necessary cables, and then the outside pockets will hold games.
The inside of the case has slotted sleeves for discs, but I wouldn't put my game discs in them, I'd just throw the few games in the outer pockets, or carry them in a secondary bag. The case does have some room for a headset to sort of wedge in there as well, nestled around where the controllers will sit, but it'll be rubbing up against your xbox one directly unless you put some sort of material in between them.
That said, the material feels strong enough that I'm not worried it'll fall apart after a few uses, and I'm also not too worried when I toss it in the car, aside from that it's housing my Xbox One. It doesn't have a lot of padding around the bag, but it'll protect it nicely as long as you're not drop kicking it around the house or putting it in with checked luggage on an airplane. As a carryon though? No problem.
Zippers feel good and not cheap, so another thing to keep in mind as the case zips up the two halves (one half being the console itself, the other half controllers, power supply and cables) so nothing will just rip open and potentially break. Two velcro straps secure the xbox one in place on it's side, which is a nice bonus if you're a little clumsy when opening things. The handles have a little velcro foam piece to wrap around each other, another little piece of mind even though the individual handles feel nicely sewn to the bag itself. The bottom of the bag has four rubber pads to rest on the ground, which will help extend the life of the bag so it won't be rubbing up against the ground every time you place it down, saving it from tearing or wearing out.
I only have a limited number of games and two controllers, and I manage to fit 3 xbox one game cases in the outer pocket with an extra usb micro cable, then on the inside I keep two controllers in the elastic pouches (one is larger than the other for some reason, so one is a bit more snug when getting the controller in and out), and then the Xbox One + power supply, an HDMI cable, and I sort of wedge in my headset, a Polk Audio Striker ZX. I've taken it back and forth to friends at least a dozen times and it hardly shows any wear.
As a bonus, it'll definitely fit a PS4 with tons of extra space, and the velcro tabs will secure the PS4 in place since the bag is designed to the specs of the Xbox One. So if you're dual console friendly, so is the bag. | video-games_xbox |
Bungie Second Flagship Franchise. *No Spoilers*
So I bought into the hype of course. I mean there was no way to even escape the heavy promotion (Did they really need to consistently make new articles on flipboard?) even though I barely watch TV or even youtube.
Of course I came in with an open mind and excitement in my heart for a new franchise I will grow to love as I did when I was growing up with the Halo franchise. Perhaps it is the fact that I am a mature adult now that video games aren't as appealing anymore, but I rarely find games I really enjoy playing rather than just have handy to help me take the stress out of my mind, at least for an hour a day.
So the game starts off as a mix up of skyrim and halo, meaning you have a customizable character, yet somewhat limited in what you are able to do as in Halo. In fact, come to think of it, the game feels like a watered down futuristic space Elder Scrolls game with similar visual quality as Xbox360 games.
Of course, I have not played more than a little while of this game, but so far here is the breakdown as I see it.
Graphics 7/10:
Like I said, it looks like a later xbox360 game graphics-wise. Nothing spectacular to amaze at here. Yes, it looks better than the original Halo, but a decade and a half later and we still have these jaggy characters? There have been older games with better looking in-game characters (Skyrim), and to consider this the Next-gen of gaming is kinda foolish.
Controls 9/10:
As I was playing this, it kinda felt like halo control system, so very easy to just pick up and play if you are an xbox user (I got it for the xbox one rather than ps4 because I have xbox live). I only give it a 9/10 because I cant really say that its SUPER FLUID to work with, but its what I am used to regardless.
Storyline 7/10:
No spoilers, but I have to say that as I am going along with this game, it is kinda clear that I am only keeping an interest because, 1) I paid $89.99 for it, 2) I don't play that many games or watch that many movies, so I cant really judge too well on the quality of the storyline, 3) no reason to skip cutscenes since I am slaving through the game for them, 4) gives me time to type this up
Replay-ability/Lasting-appeal 5/10:
Everyone is different, but I do not think I will play this by myself AT ALL anymore especially after I beat the story. As for multi-player, I will not play online without having someone I know join me. Titanfall was super straightforward and honestly not so interesting, but simply having those stupid challenges kinda made me stick it out as I forced myself to go to the next generations. The fighting/shooting style in this game is nowhere near as unique as titanfall, nor as fun
Fun Factor 6/10:
Its just not that fun to me. Even though with titanfall Ill feel frustrated or even cursing from getting killed or whatnot, it is still way more fun. I feel like Im going through this game just to get through the game (although not as bad as Last of Us I regret buying that game)
So anyways, those were my thought and that was my review as I see the game. Like I mentioned previously, I play these games to distract me from the stress of the day, meaning I play before going to bed (like in the time of this review). What I do like doing during my day is studying Spanish. I have found a program that is ACTUALLY USEFUL to use. Its called Story Time Language Learning. I honestly find it much more satisfying as I progress through this program over playing games and beating fictitious bad guys. I found out about this program on the boards on amazon but Im not writing a review of Story Time Language Learning. If you want a little overview of it, Ill quickly break it down on a comment below. | video-games_xbox |
All I can say is...WOW. I am a newcommer to the Fallout universe and have never played either of the first two games. When Fallout 3 came out, I decided to give it a try. All I can say is...WOW!
You character starts out in Vault 101, and after a few segments of game play with your character growing up, the game finally begins when your father mysteriously leaves the vault. Having no choice, the character fallows his/her father's trail.
I was truly impressed with the massive amount of content the game possessed. Although the game (if you follow from beginning to end with no side quests) is about 10 hours, I found myself spending over 65 hours in the Fallout 3 universe. I was amazed at the amount of quests, the choices your character can make, and the number of enemies you face in the game. Every choice your character makes will have an effect on other aspects of the game. When I first played the game, my character found a town full of slavers. After gunning them all down and freeing their helpless captives, I gained increadible Karma and was able to get into other locations in the world much easier due to my reputation.
The enemies are fun to fight to include the deadly Super Mutant, the Raiders, Slavers, and other wasteland inhabitants. The game does not work very well as an FPS, but I found that the VATS combat system more than made up for that. The enemies are smart and very accurate in their shooting. I found myself having to find cover more often than not and waiting until the enemy was reloading before firing back.
Also, the incredible "Perks" your character can aquire each time he/she levels up is amazing. If you want a little hint on which perks are the best to obtain try the following early on:
Level 2: Black Widow/Lady Killer - Makes your character more powerful when fighting the Opposite Sex. It also unlocks unique dialog options when speaking to the opposite sex.
Level 3: Swift Learner - Gain an additional 10% experience.
Level 4: Educated - Gain three more skill points every time your character levels up.
Level 5: Swift Learner - Also gain an additional 10% EXP points
Level 6: Swift Learner - Same as above.
Level 8: Commando - Makes two handed weapons more accurate (Do not waste your time with "Gunslinger" which makes single handed weapons more accurate as single handed weapons become useless later on in the game.)
Level 10: Here and Now - Gain an additional level up.
Level 11: Mysterious Stranger - A MUST HAVE!
Hope these help for new players. I made sure I maxed out my Swift Learner perk early as my experience I gained went up substantially. Instead of gaining 50 EXP for defeating an enemy, I gained 65 EXP! | video-games_xbox |
After 3 months of meh... I'll come back once it's improved and on sale. When I initially got the xbox one, I was excited to have one of the next gen consoles in my possession. After saving up a long and hard $500 it was finally mine. I take it home and download the updates and were good to go. Although the one thing I dislike about these new consoles is that you have to download an update before the thing will even work. So your going to need internet access or this thing is just going to be a paperweight when you get. The console itself is quite big, the size of a VCR. The controllers feels great, but isn't next gen in the batteries department make sure you have 2AA nearby. The UI of the system is pretty much windows 8 console edition. The ability to snap apps side by side was a useful feature. The powerbrick on this thing is ridiculous, it's bigger than the 360 power brick and it makes all these noises if you set your xbox up with standby mode. The kinect is ridiculously oversized too. The kinect is about a foot long and roughly the size of two xbox one powerbricks put together, that's the best comparison i could think of. If you move around a lot and like taking your system with you, the xbox one is so oversized you might have a hard time getting it in your bag, especially with the kinect and powerbrick. And I believe transporting this thing too much might cause it to break faster because it seems very flimsy, if you ask me. Now for the games, I've played a variety of them and have too say I won't miss any of em. Dead Rising 3 would have to have been my favorite, but its nothing like the original dead rising. Just Dance was my favorite kinect game and the kinect was pretty good at tracking your movements. Also another thing that turned me away from xbox was the accessories. I wanted to use my stereo headset with this thing, but just in order to do that you have to buy a headset adapter which is $25 which is ridiculous for an adapter. Also the rechargable battery pack for this thing will run you another $25. Another thing that I didn't like was the fact that you can't earn achievements offline. If you play offline you won't get any kind of notification if you unlock an achievement, which I felt didn't make sense. Xbox is known for achievements and I can't unlock the things offline. And if you do unlock any, they'll magically pop up when you show up online. So if your into achievement hunting this is a big let down. So with all that said, I will be selling my xbox one to my brother who is a microsoft fan and I will be moving on to ps4. I'll update should the xbox one happen to malfunction on him. Save your money, don't spend $500 on this thing, but if you really want one, I'd recommend picking one up on sale and make sure you get the kinect. | video-games_xbox |
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