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One of the three greatest inventions by man kind. One of the three greatest inventions in the history of human kind....that greatly contributed to insomnia. Here they are..
1. Thomas Alva Edison invented the light bulb.
2. Microsoft (or who ever who sold it to them) invented the Kinect and Harmonix made Dance Central game for it.
3. Harmonix (once again) invented Pro Guitar for rockband 3.
Mustang Pro guitar is good. I mean really good. I mean really really good.
To start this review with.. I'm a beginning guitar player. I'm was studying the 4th stage of a 6 stage lesson DVD set (Metal Method by Doug Marks: he is great BTW) when I got the Mustang Pro guitar. Anyway long story short; I'm not a good guitar player at all.
*Can it teach you to play real guitar? Hex yeah!!
**Does the Mustang pro guitar simulate a real guitar? IMHO better!!
*First I did the first two of the training sessions with Mustang Pro. And then I picked up a real guitar while my wife tried the same training sessions with the Mustang Pro. On the real guitar I was able to easily play the same in the electric guitar with the practice I got from the mustang Pro. AND it sounds awesome sound coming out through the guitar amp when it blends with the sound track of the game. 'Hey, that sounds v-e-r-y good' were my wife's exact words.
**I have read comments about people talking about the guitar feeling light to; strings are same thickness to; buttons being the same thickness to; there is no correlation between buttons and the strings you strum. In my experience - none of this is the case. I cannot feel the thickness of the strings with the pick anyway (duh.) What I am learning from this is the skill to approximate the distance between the strings without looking. With practice able to do this better and better. Same goes for the buttons. My finger beginning to remember where they need to move to press for each note. This is a skill I can take directly to the real guitar. The buttons work very well, interestingly even for slides.
So why did I say in someway the pro guitar is better than a real guitar... There is something more satisfying about picking these strings with the pick than picking real metal strings. I threw out the picks that came with it and got Dunlop standard thickness Nylon picks. When picking the strings with those picks the strings almost feel like these strings are rubber not plastic. It's a good feeling .. u'll know what I mean once you get one yourself [UPDATE A DAY LATER: I had only played single notes and power chords when I wrote this. Later I played major chords and the strings get pretty loud when doing that. No big deal though.] As far as the construction of the guitar goes it's sturdy enough and you forget about the guitar once you get immersed in the game. Maybe wish the body was bigger like a real guitar so I could rest the elbow of the strumming arm on it when sitting down.
The reason learning with this is better than learning with an actual guitar is... you ALAWAYS have a backing track and a cool note highway showing where to play.
I can write this review into pages but I would cut it short.. because I myself dislike reading long reviews.
-If you want to learn guitar - buy this.
-If you want to teach your kids guitar - buy them this.
-If you don't have the time, patience or interest to learn - don't buy this
I did notice one thing...in most of the trainings it tells you where which finger to put on which fret. On two trainings it did not tell me where how to move down the frets . For example it was wanting me to play 5th, 7th and 8th frets and to play the 5th string with my index finger. Suddenly it wants me to play the 9th fret but does not tell me which finger to use. So I'm confused whether to move my hand all the way down and play with the index or stretch my pinky to play the 9th fret (this was a base line by the way. ) I wish there was an option where I could watch a video of a hand playing that piece if I wanted to . That's about all I can nit pick about. I would figure this out or ask somebody who knows... so no big deal.
TEN stars. Harmonix, come here so I can give you a kiss. | video-games_xbox |
This is $100 Worth in One Collection, Do Not Miss It. This is easily the BEST collection of Xbox Live Arcade games that has become available on disc. Even at the original price of $40, paying for each of the 8 titles separetly would cost $100 on the Xbox marketplace (as of November, 2012) (and includeing the Rocketmen DLC). But currently you should be able to buy this for $30 new, and about $15-$20 used. Which means if you're thinking about buying one of the currently-priced games at $15 (either Bionic Comando: Rearmed 2, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, or Flock) then you might as well consider buying this collection. The other five games in the collection are still priced at $10 on the marketplace, so even if only two hold your interest right now, you're still better off getting the collection. Even if Capcom had a huge blowout sale at 50% off, all these games would still cost you $50.
Each of the 8 games is the same version you'd find digitally on the Xbox marketplace, all the features, achievments, and multiplayer support is exactly the same, and players using this disc collection can easily play with those that bought the original digital versions. Plus you'll always have a physical copy of the game, even if Capcom desides to discontinue and remove any of these games in the future. Of course, you still need the disc in order to play anything.
The High-Profile Games:
Bionic Commando: Rearmed 2 -- (currently still 1200 points on marketplace) The well-recieved sequal to the original digital remake of the classic NES title. This second game is unhindered by needing to be designed by the constraints of the original, and is favored amoung the fans, plus it adds 2-player coop through the whole campaign.
Super Street Fighter 2: Turbo HD Remix -- (1200 points) A faithfully reproduced HD version of one of the best fighting games around, and its online net code offers some of the smoothest online play for a series that is renowned and requires split-second timing.
Final Fight: Double Impact -- (800 points) Is actually two arcade ports in one, the original Final Fight and another Capcom action game, Magic Sword. Not only do we finally get the definative arcade port of Final Fight, both games have a number of visual options and settings. You can play the original version, add a bluring effect to smoth out some of the edges, add scanlines, and you can taper the edges of the screen like a real arcade cabinet (or combine some effects).
Flock -- (1200 points) It's kinda a strech to call this a "high-profile" game, but it is the only other game that still retails for $15, and I've NEVER seen it on sale since its release. You basically heard sheep in the game, but its rather fun and addictive, and there's a good amount of content to keep you busy. If you were always curious about this game, but never thought it was worth the $15, then this collection is the BEST way to experience it.
AND THE REST?:
Super Puzzle Fighter Turbo HD Remix -- (800 points) is certainly worth checking out. It has fun, simple yet addictive gameplay the has graced the series for years.
Wolf of the Battlefield -- (800 points) is actually a direct sequal to the original Commando arcade series. Its the third in the series, and it tries to modernize the Commando-style action. Its not a horrible game, but its not a highlight of the package.
The rest of the games are enjoyable, but are mostly there to round out the collection. Rocketmen: Axis of Evil (800 points) can be a lot of fun, and you also get the DLC pack (worth 400 points) with it, so at least you get a good amount of content. 1942 (800 points) is a simple HD interpretation of the original acrcade classic. | video-games_xbox |
Yeah, pretty sweet. I'm not at all what you would call a metal gear fan. Substance is all i've played, but I still find it really enjoyable. Here's my critique: (SPOILER)
The game play here is pretty enjoyable, although it is so frequently cut off by numerous twists in the interminably complicated plot. Doing things like hiding behind corners and jumping out with your M4 to blow apart an unsuspecting guard, or coming up behind a soldier and snapping his neck, is pretty fun, I have to admit. It may be short, but this game is very sweet.
In terms of the plot itself, I have little complaints. I actually enjoyed it-a lot. The real-world references tied in with the fantasy of the game itself made the plot very surreal and enjoyable. The concepts that are presented in the plot itself are mind boggling and very entertaining. The final statement that this game makes is a profound one that society needs to keep in mind- We don't exist just to procreate and continue our species. We exist to pass down our desires, dreams, history and culture as well. Thats what makes us human. And we shouldn't let anything-including the swell of political correctness that in many ways hinders our freedom of thought-get in the way of that. That message is beautifully stated at the conclusion of the game's long, dramatic plot. I also enjoyed the characters a great deal. Snake is that perfect blend of a hard-edged, jaded warrior and a level headed human being that you don't find in many stories. Raiden doesn't impress me at all- he's not a convincing soldier to the least and he clearly isn't a smart individual (half his codec conversations include him going hmm? What are you talking about? the what now? etc...) The ninja was really an enticing character (I have never played mgs1 so this is the first time I've been introduced to him) and calling him deepthroat when his identity was secret was very clever I thought.
However, I do have some gripes with the plot. There are a lot of sequences in the cutscenes and codec conversations where the dialogue... I don't know, doesn't quite fit. That is to say, it's not how normal people talk. Also, there are various instances where the characters crack what Hideo Kojima thinks is a joke (when raiden is learning about the nodes and says "did you say nerd?!), which turns out to be just stupid. Maybe I just don't understand Japanese humor, I dunno. Also, there are a lot of places where the story gets a little unreal. For instance, when Revolver Ocelot kills all of the ak-47 weilding soldiers in the hold of the tanker using only his six shooter, or when Solidus kills the three metal gear using only his submachine gun, when you've been trying the whole time to kill them with missiles. Also, the whole bit about Fortune really being lady luck...was a little goofy. Oh well. I actually enjoyed some of that a little bit. It's what made the plot what it is. If it were true to life, it'd be boring.
Also, I'll be the first to admit that at times (just like this review), the story gets really drawn out. For instance, when E.E. dies and Otacan decides to recap his entire life story. Maybe her death was more tragic that I thought, but still. Let's cut to the chase. Also, there were a lot of places where there were long, drawn out sequences describing something that you could easily have figured out for yourself. Either HIdeo thought we needed our hands held throughout this whole game, or he's just trying to be dramatic. Either way, it gets boring.
Ah yes, one more complaint: METAL GEAR SOLID THREE LOOKS INCREDIBLE BUT IS ONLY FOR PS2! | video-games_xbox |
Disappointing Advanced Warfare 2. Decent Multiplayer, but only Decent. "Fine" but extremely disappointing. The campaign leaves a lot to be desired, but we all know we haven't had a good Call of Duty Campaign since Modern Warfare 1 and 2.
Let's go ahead and jump right to what everyone wants to know. Online multi-player. How is it?
Imagine taking League of Legends, Titanfall, and Advanced Warfare, and throwing them all together. That's what this is? They introduce what's called "Specialists" and you have to choose one of them, then you choose your class. At the loading screen it shows you all the specialists of your team and the other team, sort of like the heroes/champions from league of legends. Each specialist has one special ability that is usable 2-4 times throughout a match, based on time and how well you're doing with kills/scoring. Much like a titan. Things like, gravity daggers, exploding crossbow, burst of energy, grenade launcher. Etc.
At the end of every round the "Winners Circle" is shown, showing the top 3 players from the winning team, and the number one player has unlockable "taunts" where they say something super lame like "One shot, one kill. They never saw it coming." or "Go back to bootcamp!" and it is just an extra annoying tid-bit that wastes more time before getting back to the lobby for the next round. Not to mention it agitates me more that I have to listen to some stupid taunt from the guy who kicked my trash.
Then there's my personal least favorite part of all. Boosters. Yes. You've got boosters. They're not exo-suit kind of things they just... are. Human enhancement etc. But you have a very limited jetpack boost (extremely similar height as a double jump in advanced warfare) and then you have a sliding boost to propel you forward in a prone position. These are the two most effective ways for evading enemies. And it's really. really. annoying. You have someone in your sights and start shooting and all the sudden they propel themselves 20 feet forward on the ground. Imagine dolphin diving in black ops 1 with rocket boosters on your feet. Or they take off through the air and shoot you down. All-in-all I think this is the absolute worst addition (as I thought the exo-suits were in Advanced Warfare) in this game. HOWEVER there isn't a crazy motion blur effect on all edges of the screen as there was in Advanced Warfare so that's a welcome improvement.
While the boosters are limited, it's not too bad as your feet stay on the ground quite a bit, but the boosters refill quite quickly, so you have plenty of juice to jump around, slide around, and all around go wherever you want. Except... not everywhere you want. You still can only go where you could normally go on your feet, or.. sortof. For instance, if there's a rock formation with a few trees on top creating two paths, you can't boost over the rock and get to the other side of the path, even though your character is clearly high enough.. just some invisible wall stops you.
The launch day has not been without it's bugs. Several times I've been searching for a game and it just stops searching. Completely. Nothing's happening. It's just sitting there. NOT searching. I have to back out and search again to find something. (Yes my NAT type is Open) Drops in games. Glitching (not the ability by the specialist called glitching, but actual glitching) of getting stuck on a wall etc. And talking about the pre-order bonus mixup Activision has found themselves in is a whole other story.
Long-story-short. My copy will be going on Ebay tomorrow for some 12 year old kids mom to buy him at the same price I bought it for, while maybe I'll pick it up in a couple months for quite a bit cheaper. This advanced warfare 2 is not at all what I wanted in the next Call of Duty game, and while the game is "Fine" overall, it certainly isn't "Good" or by any means "Great" I think Black ops 2 was GREAT, as well as the first two modern warfares, and I thought black ops 1 was decent, and Advanced Warfare was rubbish. Of course the sales will be through the roof and Activision and Treyarch will consider this game a complete success, but me, as well as I assume many other players out there like me, long for the days of Call of Duty 2, 4, MW2, and Black Ops 2. Call of Duty needs to keep our feet on the ground, moving at a normal pace. No boosters, no exo-suits, no sliding, flying, or wall-running.
If you're a die-hard Call of Duty fan you'll most likely have a "fine" time maybe even a "good" time but this won't keep you and your friends up for hours playing into wee-hours of the morning watching kill-cams and having a blast. You'll move on to something else soon. | video-games_xbox |
I bought an XBOX for this game. I steadfastly refused to purchase an XBOX when they came out. I am not a huge fan of Microsoft products, and the XBOX didn't really have any games that I wanted to play anyway.
However, when Sega pulled out of the hardware market, the up and coming Toe Jam & Earl 3 game that had been slated to come out on the Dreamcast -- was suddenly in limbo. When the game developers announced they would be releasing TJ&E3 on the XBOX, as an EXCLUSIVE title, a lot of long time Sega fans went into hysterical convulsions -- including me.
I dragged my feet for a long time on this issue, but the bottom line was I wanted this game, and I needed an XBOX to play it (and I didn't want to rent the system or the game) -- so I went out and bought both the game and the system on the same night.
I got the XBOX bundled with two games (GT Racing and Jet Set Future -- neither one of which I care for), and the new S-controllers. And popped in the game. All I can say is ...
***WOW!!***
[Let us pause for a moment of silence to appreciate that "wow"]
The game is wonderful! It is almost EXACTLY like the first game in almost every detail, except it is bigger, better, and beautiful!
The graphics are stunning, the controls are crisp and responsive, and the game play is out of this world (pun intended). I won't bore you with the storyline because I am sure you already know the story line from the Editorial Review, and past history.
I cannot say enough good things about this game. New earthlings to play with, along with most of our favorites -- devils, tourists, shopping cart lady, lawn mower man, cupid, crazy mortar chickens, insane dentist, etc.
Then to add a REALLY neat aspect to the game, the developers gave the characters the ability to fight the earthlings without presents (it was a real drag in the first game to have to run from earthlings if you ran out of presents) -- by using what Lamont the Funkapotamus calls "Funk Fu." Which is a silly title for a martial art based on being funky. You can progress in belt rank all the way up to black belt -- and if you outrank or equal an earthling in Funk Fu, then you can use your Funk Fu attacks to convert them to the ways of Funk! If the earthling outranks you, then you need presents or other special techniques to convert them, but it can still be done.
The only complaint I have about this game is that once you reach the rank of black belt (and the title of FunkLord) then all the points you earn after that point don't count towards anything. The points cap out at 125,000. Which then gives you zero incentive to convert any more earthlings after that point. But I suppose the developers were trying to create the frantic pacing of the last few levels in the first game where you just popped in, grabbed what you needed then hightailed it to the elevator!
If I could give this game 10 stars I would! | video-games_xbox |
Is this game where game developers go to die. I've been playing the NHL games on XBOX since NHL 09, and I have to say that this is by far the worst of the bunch. While shooting the puck and some of the skating seems to be pretty good, I can't really think of much else that is good about this game. So here is the bad--the AI seems to not know basic hockey plays, such as not passing the puck to an opposing player camped out in front of your goal. Soft passes seem to regularly go through another players legs. Hitting, when done properly, sends a player potentially flying through the air or tumbling end over end on the ice. Even what appears to be an attempt at some sort of rag-doll player graphics doesn't hold up to snuff as I have seen players get hit and go from their skates, to their shoulder (seriously... nothing else touch the ice besides the shoulder), to the top of their head at which point they bounced... back onto their skates.
The new General Manager brain seems to not know how to build a team, or keep one together for that matter. In the course of one off season playing Be A Pro for the Chicago Blackhawks, the AI GM chose not to resign or trade away the following players: Marian Hossa (traded for a 7th round pick), Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Micheal Frolik, Corey Crawford (traded for a 30 year old defenceman rated 60), Duncan Keith, and David Bolland. That is practically the entire team!
Even skating seems to have taken a step backwards. I get that they are trying to predict a bit more of what you are trying to do, but the game has been reduced to skating in circles. Whoever takes the smaller circle gets to the puck first. Hockey is much more about starting and stopping than it is about cornering and taking needlessly wide circles to turn. Face offs almost immediately turn into, what looks like, a youth hockey game with every player flocking to the puck. AI players just seem to be completely unaware that there are other players on the ice.
The graphics, while pretty, seem to have taken a step back in terms of overall quality. There are plenty of odd jumps where a player or stick is fluttering. And I think that may be the most analogous bug to the overall quality. While things appear to be new and better, and are probably conceptually better, the game just lacks finish. It lacks the touches that allow the game to suspend my disbelief about the fact that I am playing a video game. EA Sports has been pushing realism more and more into their games. This, however, just seems like the framework for a decent game was handed over to a team of interns who went on to complete their assigned tasks in backward ways that and experienced developer would never do. Perhaps, due to the actual NHL lockout, EA sports just didn't care about this game. | video-games_xbox |
Seems very hard to use well. Not as good as standard 360 controller. This is a review based on first impressions playing with the game Midnight Club Los Angeles, a mostly-unrealistic free range driving game.
It installed easily, it works, it seems fairly responsive itself, I think, but our experience, playing this game anyway, was pretty bad:
We turned down the sensitivity setting the game provides, but even so, it was very difficult to drive with, even compared to using the standard 360 controller, which is pretty clumsy with this game but is much easier than using this "Wireless Speed Wheel". The problem we had was that it was almost impossible to control the game in the ways it requires - i.e., to drive mostly straight with control of where you are going, to make routine turns, and to race or maneuver aggressively. It seems very hard to get fine responsive small control, and the response to turns seemed to be very laggy, so it would oversteer left and trying to correct it would make it oversteer right, snaking wildly back and forth, as if the effect of turning the control was either delayed, or slowly turning the virtual car's wheel position instead of allowing it to be yanked quickly.
I don't know how much of that experience could theoretically be different in other games programmed differently. As someone who has done game UI programming, I can imagine it might be possible to code a game so that it would be much more playable with this controller, but this game certainly wasn't. I.e., I think the hardware may be sensitive and responsive enough, but the game may just not be programmed in a way that works with it well, at all. So there might be some game(s) that would work well with it.
Also, for the game in question, X is "nitrous boost", and although the Speed Wheel has an X button, for some reason it was not making nitrous work in the game. Kind of weird.
As another reviewer wrote, playing with this controller made us want to go back to using the standard controller, which worked far better with our game of interest. | video-games_xbox |
Viva Pinata IS lots of fun. <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Viva-Piata-Trouble-in-Paradise/dp/B0019MRKNI/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Viva Piata: Trouble in Paradise</a> is a game where you create your own garden to attract different types of wild pinatas to come visit and then live. The idea is to get as many different kinds as you can and then keep everyone happy - kind of like a family Thanksgiving without all the tears.
Once the pinatas come to your garden (after you've done enough to entice them into it), it will change from wild (black and white) to it's normal, colorful self. If you get 2 pinatas of the same kind, there's a really good chance you'll get to see "the romance dance". It's an innocent little dance inside the pinata home where the 2 pinatas do a silly dance and fall in love.
You'll meet different characters who will either help you along the way or try to mess up your garden. It's up to you to decide where you want to go with your garden. After your pinatas get enough "candiosity" you can send them off to a party for children to enjoy.
But watch out for the SOUR pinatas! Those are dark red pinatas with bad attitudes who come into your garden and cause trouble! There are ways to make the sours turn good, or you can just keep whacking them with the shovel until they go away.
The really good thing about Viva Pinata is that it comes on so many different platforms (the basic game). You can get it for your pc, Xbox, etc. The sequel, "Trouble in Paradise" is not on the pc platform yet (we got ours for XBox). This game is "the one" our 8 year old son has been begging to get for years. I know, right? A boy not wanting a "shoot 'em up" game. He likes the challenge of getting the different pinatas into his garden, expanding it and then keeping the bad things out. It's a real "thinking" game for him.
If your child can read and play independently from you, then give this game a shot. (or if you want to sit and play it with your younger child, then it's an innocent diversion that you will both enjoy) When you get stuck, there are tons of wiki pages out there to answer questions and help you move your garden from small and bare to big and beautiful. | video-games_xbox |
It's so bad, it hurts. Cars are my passion. In fact, I have my X-Box installed in my car. I've been waiting for a supreme racing game for the X-Box since it came out. Everything else was all pretty typical, graphics aside. So when I heard the hype about Sega GT 2002 rivaling GT3 for the PS2, I actually believed it since nothing else comes close. Upon first play I was IMMEDIATELY turned off. After the opening video, which is actually cool, the menus and music are hidious, like it was designed 15 years ago. My major gripe is this: NO DAMAGE!!! There's ONLY Damage in the Career Mode and even then, it's monitored by a power meter, like in Street Fighter or MK. Your actual car doesn't get a scratch on it, even if you plow straight into a wall, and it doesn't drive any differently either, unless you blow a major engine part, which happens from wear and tear, not crashing. The cars are supposed to be customizable but I'd hardly call it that. You buy upgrades for various area's of a car (i.e. Engine, Brakes, Suspension & Handling) but you can't REALLY customize the car, no increasing the cam profile or altering the Air/Fuel ratio or anything remotely similar to a realistic experience, just some very minor tuning. They give you hardly any stats either (only displacement, hp, torque, and drivetrain). I mean, how hard is it to type in car stats? That's just lazy. The cars all drive somewhat similar but you do kinda get a sense that they're different (maybe it'd be better with a steering wheel) but it could certainly have been better. One of the most annoying features of the game are the replays. There's no option of seeing a replay or not, they just force you after every race, even races you quit before finishing. To quit the replay you have to hit FIVE buttons. (Start, Down, Down, A, A)
This game is tremendously disappointing, and there are more things wrong than right.
Can somebody make an honestly good racing sim for the X-Box PLEASE??? | video-games_xbox |
Definitely Better Than Gamesite Reviews Say It Is. When I first heard about this game I was excited. An action game that takes place during the height of the Roman Empire, and it's being released on next-gen hardware. The I started to read the impression/ previews from IGN, Gamespot, etc and they were less than flattering. Too much quick time, boring combat and overall shallow gameplay were common compliants. Well I can tell you that I took a chance and still bought the game and I am happy I did. While this game is not a killer app, it is a solid game that gives us a taste of what the next generation might be able to accomplish visually.
First off I do want to start with the graphics, not because I am a person who believes graphics make a game because it certainly does not (e.g Hotline Miami), but they can definitely help bring the game to life even more and immerse you further in the gameplay. That is extactly what the excellent graphics in this game do. You really feel like you are either watching Gladiator, or a really good Histroy Channel type dramatization. Everything runs so crisply and fluidly that you feel like your Xbox One was worth $550. You have minor hiccups (muddy textures every once and a while) but they certainly do not impact the visual flair of the game. Quiet simply this is the best looking current next gen game.
Now the gameplay. I will admit that Ryse will not make your head hurt thinking about ways in which to approach a set piece, but it really is not as shallow as the gamesites would have you believe. You have 3 moves at your disposal: slash, shield bash/guard break and sword deflection/defense. Every skirmish I entered was entertaining enough that I never felt bored, or disappointment. The reason being that your moves are animated nicely and the combat is fluid. Your man does not feel clunkly or stuck. Also let's face it; a great game like Diablo may be deeper than Ryse but in terms of the combat is it really that different? You hack and slash everything you face, or use the similar magic powers on every enemey. Point being is that while the game is not revolutionary from this stand point it is above average and it uses a old school combat formula well. The animated executions, another highly critized part of the game, have 2 main functions: to allow you to elimate an enemy without having to worry about getting hit from behind, and to show off how attractive the game looks and animates. I have been playing since launch and I have not gotten tired of seeing repeat executions, as the gamesites have lamented. It just looks so darn good and there is something statisfying knowing that you have the option to dramatically slay every opponent you face. Finally the quicktime events serve as an extra bonus so that if you match the inputs you obtain a higher score. What people don't seem to understand is that the execution is the reward for winning the fight against the enemy. No one complained about a similar system for Splinter Cell on the 360. Again, it works well within the context of the game and it looks great. Just enjoy!
So this has been a long winded review, but I wanted to be as explicit as possible so that people understand what this game does well from the point of view of a paying player. To wrap it up I will speak about the story and multiplayer. Not much to really writer about on both, though. The story is better than average by video game standards. It is not totally cheesy like most big budget games, but it will not make you think you are watching a well made movie either. Good enough, and it does have some interesting parts that keep you going. The Co-op is fun, and I think the best thing about it is fighting in the Colosseum. It gives you the feeling that you are fighting at an important venue, not just another game level. If you know someone who would enjoy hack and slash action as much as you, then you will have a good time.
4 Stars:
Great graphics
Fun, easy to pick up gameplay
Awesome environments/scenary
A Roman action game, not something you see a lot of.
Bottom Line: Worth a go, gives you that next gen feeling. | video-games_xbox |
Garbage Product for FPS games. I purchased this product hoping to bring some PC gaming class skill to the noob Xbox 360 gamers. Unfortunately, the XFPS absolutely failed my expectations in every way. Now, reflecting logically on how the device functions, I realize that PC gaming quality functionality can never be achieved unless it is intended by the game developer. As an amateur game programmer I should have known that before I bought the device. The reason for this, is when you are coding input recognition into a game that is using analog sticks (like the Xbox 360 controller), you update your input based on joystick position which has a very limited range of motion. So, you set a maximum increment speed based on how far the joystick is pushed in a direction. For example, you could set the camera yaw (left/right turning) value to 0.75 radians per second. This means that no matter how fast you move a mouse it is still restricted to 0.75 radians per second. With games that are actually made for mouse and keyboard, input is handled a little differently. When using the mouse to look around, the game requests the absolute(sometimes relative) position of the mouse and then moves your characters reticule to that location. This means that your look speed depends on how fast the mouse moves, instead of being restricted to a specific speed. The XFPS is not some magical device that can change how the game is programmed. All it does is trick the Xbox 360 into believing that a mouse and keyboard are in fact one Xbox 360 controller and then it delegates analog and button input data to the mouse and keyboard.
Anyway, anyone looking to use this for FPS games, don't. For all you Halo fans (like myself) just deal with the 360 controller and hope that Halo: Reach is eventually released on PC. The only function the XFPS might have is for anyone looking to play RTS games (such as Halo Wars) on the 360. | video-games_xbox |
BLACK. picked up this game yesterday from my local gamestop. I was very apprehensive making the purchase knowing from early reviews that the game was very short and the review on gamespot made me very worried that the game would not be worth a purchase. Never the less i really wanted this game. So i went home and popped black into my x-box. As the menu screen appeared i couldn't help but sigh when i saw no multiplayer option. So i started single player on normal difficulty. So this is my take on Black.
The opening cutscene, which by the way is a live action cutscene, shows the main character of the game Keller in chains and being grilled by some gov. guy. The plot in Black isn't very involving and the live action cutscenes aren't impressive in the least. So my first impression of the game wasn't an expecially good one. The first thing you'll notice about BLACK as how great the graphics are. The lighting effects and explosions are spectacular. Steadily the game picked up and got better with each level. I wasn't very impressed with the first couple of levels in black. Your stuck using the AK-47 for the first two levels and though there was a good amount to blow up the environments aren't as destructible as i would have hoped. But around the third level is were Black really gets good. You start getting to use the different weapons in the game and i found the majority of them to be very cool. The missions in Black are simple basically you go around shooting terrorists and collecting info. There are a lot of side objectives like finding secret documents and such but none of it's actually required. The action is intense and a hell of a lot of fun. This is another one of Black's strong points. The firefights are loud and intense. The a.i isn't terrible but they don't tend to do much beyond shooting at you and hiding behind combustible objects. The game makes up for some of the a.i's shortcoming by throwing **** load of enemies at you so you'll always have your hands full. There are also friendly soldiers that
occasionally accompany you. They shoot at the enemy a lot but
unfortunately they don't hit very much. Basically all they are good for as drawing enemy fire. But that won't matter because you should have enough firepower to handle everything yourself because you get a generous amount of ammo from fallen enemies and it is very likely that there will never be a point in the game were your running low on bullets. Enemies also will drop plenty of health kits to keep you going. The weapons in the game look good, sound good, and most of the games 13 weapons are a blast to use. But there are some weapons you simply won't bother to use because you can stick with your basic machine gun and be better off. Some of the explosive weapons in the game really kick ***! The level designs are solid and generally there are ****load of things to blow up. You'll be sending a lot of terrorists flying in every direction thanks to the conveniently placed explosives and rag-doll physics are top notch. Some environments are more destructible than others and some are not as destructible as you would like. Some of the better level designs allow for Matrix Style destruction. The music in the game is actually pretty good but believe or not their is a custom-soundtrack feature in the the x-box versian of black. I was very surprised and delighted that i could listen to my own music in game. As far as i know there never has been a FPS with custom soundtracks,
unfortunately most fps's have multiplayer which this game lacks. This blacks largest flaw besides the short campaign. I don't understand how the **** this game can not be multiplayer. Criterion claimed they were going balls out on single player, which granted kicks *** and offers ok replay value. But a six hour campaign that's really going all out! We can only hope that their are future installments of black that include multiplayer and hopefully a longer campaign. Though it isn't likely i hope that maybe jsut maybe Criterion could release an expension to black on the current systems that includes multiplayer and an extended campaign. It is a longshot but there is always hope.
Overall is a great FPS that is lot of fun while it lasts. I wouldn't recomend buying this game obviosly because of the short length but i don't regret purchasing BLACK because it is lot fun time and time again but i know it won't last forever. If you do anything you must rent BLACK and experiance the hollywood stlye action.
I would give BLACK solid B. | video-games_xbox |
Best Halo game to date. I've played all the Halo games including Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo Reach, Halo ODST, and Halo Wars.
In my opinion, I would rank the games from best to worst as Halo, Halo Reach, Halo 3, Halo 2, Halo ODST, then Halo Wars.
I've played through the game at least a dozen times over the years. While it doesn't have some of the perks of the older games such as dual-wielding weapons, it still holds its value. A lot more people are going to realize just how good this game is when they get the 10 year anniversary remake on the 360 coming in November 2011.
The battles between aliens and humans has long been done before, but never to this bliss. The story is believable, the characters seem real, and it all comes together nicely.
Gameplay: this is my favorite part of the game. Though the story is a close 2nd. You basically jump right into combat after a few warm-up lessons. You shoot your way through your ship and try and make it to the escape pods in the first level. You face the covenant forces that include grunts, elites, jackals, and hunters. You can carry two weapons and up to 8 grenades. This is a first person shooter while in combat mode. You can shoot your weapon and throw a grenade at the same time. Your weapons include pistols, rapid fires, shotguns, snipers, grenade and rocket launchers, and you can also pick up the covenant's weapons including the plasma rifle, needler, sniper, etc. Every weapon can be used as a blunt instrument. The marine grenades are traditional bounce and explode while the covenant grenades you pick up are plasma and stick to the target. You get lots of vehicles to use in the game including a jeep, tank, enemies hover craft and ship. You eventually have to fight a new alien race called the flood. There are many levels that take place on your ship, the ring world (Halo), and the enemies ship. The gameplay is long but you never get the repetitive feeling.
Story: You are space marines from earth and are fighting a war against the covenant who seek to use what they think is a powerful weapon that can win them the war. They have chased you through the galaxy and you end up on a strange ring world called Halo. The covenant seeks to unlock the power of Halo and you pursue and try to stop them. You have an AI hottie with you called Cortana (voiced by the talented Jen Taylor) that helps you throughout the game, along with other marines that survived the assault on your ship.
Multiplayer: The game allows you to play through the campaign with 2 players. With the game's difficulty setting, it is a blast to have 2 players and go through the hardest difficulty. You can have one of you hold back while the other one goes in guns blazing until he dies and responds back to you. Then switch off. While there is no online multiplayer maps, you can system link 4 consoles and play up to a 16 player battle. I did get to try this with a group of friends and it was a fun experience. There are multiple modes for battles and while it is fun to battle it out with friends, I still prefer the campaign mode.
This game definitely made me a fan of the Xbox. See my review of Halo 2. | video-games_xbox |
The answer for adult gamers looking for a mature and well thought out story. Next gen (or current gen I guess I should call it now) does not seem to have many good RPG's. There are three at the moment Elder Scrolls Online which is not out yet and which is an mmorpg *sigh*. Dragon Age Inquisition which many people liked but I felt was poorly written and aimed at an audience of early teenagers and then there is The Witcher three...
Before I go on I should stress that this is not a game for kids. The violence alone is enough to be a deal breaker but I know many parents will think their kid can handle it. However can they handle *spoiler ahead* a man who flies off in a drunken rage beating his wife and causing her to miscarry only to have the fetus come back as a type of monster bent on vengeance against the father who did not give it a proper burial? Try explaining that to your ten year old. *end spoiler*
The graphics are nicely done and the controls are much better than The Witcher two. Fighting is fluid and when you lose you never feel it was because the controls failed you. The world is huge with many side quests that are also fairly well thought out and do not feel like fetch quests *cough* Inquisition. Though if you want to you can still go hunting for items to forge into weapons and armor and of course you will need to brew potions but most of the items needed to make them can be purchased in shops. Best of all it is a stand alone story driven game. No online mulitplayer which means they put all their effort into making a great single player game with a great story. Multiplayer is nice but single player story driven games are becoming fewer these days.
Lastly I would have given it five stars if not for some issues on the Xbox One. Sometimes textures don't load fast leading to glaring pop up, the game sometimes glitches when it loads resulting in longer load times and once it crashed on me. The issues are not bad enough to be a deal breaker though and they don't happen constantly. All in all if you are looking for a an RPG with a well written mature story line set in a "believable" fantasy world try The Witcher three. By believable I mean that if the world we lived in were instead a fantasy world it would probably be a lot like The Witcher series. No one is all good or all bad but a little of both. Trying to do the right thing sometimes leads to unforeseen consequences, people fight among themselves in times when they really should band together and people you thought were total asses turn out to have at least a small heart buried in their chests. If you are looking to buy a new game you won't go wrong with The Witcher three. | video-games_xbox |
Fatally flawed, shamefully weak offering. I wanted so very much to like this game... and but for a couple of flaws it would be the amazing game that the fanboys have proclaimed it. But those flaws are show stoppers.
The ongoing feud with Microsoft over control of online play has kept EA from supporting XBOX Live with any of it's titles and the lack of online head to head is unforgivable. The lack of system link is baffling and no support for 480p HDTV shows a lack of respect for XBOX gamers.
The real killer though is the unoptimized port from the PS2 development design. All the eye candy and graphic panache is totaly negated when you corner and the frame rate stutters to a 5 FPS halt. The same problem killed the GameCube version of NFS2 Hot Pursuit. With a fast, twitchy control and physics engine a smooth, regular frame rate is a must and it's lack totally ruins the experience.
I had hoped it was only on a few tracks such as the starting Olympic square, but the frame rate problems pop up virtually everywhere except the ultra small Drift track.
The driving engine is neither arcade fun and easy nor a simulation ala Gran Turismo or Sega GT 2002. It falls into a kind of nether region inhabited only by the strange Auto Modellista. Neither fish nor fowl nor good red meat it fails to satisfy on either plane being too twitchy to be simple and fun like Burnout 2 or have the detail and feel of Sega GT.
The game design drips with quality and style in every other area. The people at Rock Star San Diego who made Midnight Club 2 have to be shaking their gourds in awe of this design. EA brought in a Hollywood cinematographer to help get the 'feel of Speed' into the game and they did that perfectly with a whole arsenal of field of view changes, motion blurs, and camera shaking. The effect is truly impressive and certainly groundbreaking. And it is totally wasted when the frame rate jerks and shakes it until it coughes up blood and dies. A sad, sad waste. I hope other developer take the good ideas here and put them to use.
I hope that the PS2 version at least runs smoothly enough to live up to the potential of this title. I am afraid to even rent the GameCube version. If the programmers on the XBOX conversion team couldn't manage making a 733mhz x086 machine run it smoothly one can't imagine the same muppets doing any better on the relatively slower Nintendo hardware.
For truly excellent racing try the nearly perfect Project Gotham Racing 2 instead. The folks at EA must have liked the PGR Kudo points idea since they saw fit to copy it and call it Style points. PGR2 supports Live! and runs at a silky smooth frame rate ALWAYS in HDTV resolution. If you are on a budget try the sleeper Ford Racing 2. For less than half what NFSU costs you will be very pleasantly surprised by the depth and quality.
So many great ideas and so much fabulous art and animation... but the RACING kills the fun for me. If you find more pleasure in NFSU than I did more power to you my friend. My copy is going to eBay. | video-games_xbox |
One of my favorite RPGs of all time. The Good: Amazing music, visuals, story, and characters, Japanese voice overs!, not too hard, not too easy, unique battle system
The Bad: Battles can get a bit tedious, some parts of the game are labyrinthine and confusing
I don't know how else to put this, but Eternal Sonata is probably one of the best (if not THE best) RPG's of this generation (yes next-gen is now this gen it's been almost four years now c'mon). The best part about Eternal Sonata are the graphics, story, music, and unique battle system.
To make this as easy as possible to understand I'll start with the story. ES does something different that I've never seen in a game before and that's fuse a fictitious story with something that's non fiction. ES is about the famous pianist Chopin from the early 1800's; ES follows the life of Chopin during when he was struck with tuberculosis, left Warsaw, Poland due to the war with Austria at the time. While the real Chopin is sick in bed you enter into his mind, and into the world which he created while trying to recover. Chopin is now Frederic and you run into several unique and lovable characters while trying to defeat the evil Count Waltz. Forte Castle (where Waltz lies) is supposed to represent Austria and Chopin wants to go back and defeat the evil leader so he can go home. The reason why Chopin runs into these colorful characters is because they all have separate reasons to see the Count (I won't explain why due to spoilers). After you beat each chapter stills of Europe will play as well as a piece of Chopin's music and pieces of his life will be told. Everything flows and ties in perfectly and it makes it one of my favorite RPG stories of all time.
Now I'm going to go right into the battle system with this being the meat of the game. ES doesn't have a random battle system (THANK GOD!) since I think we're finally beyond that. Every enemy you see is in real time and you can avoid them if you want (like in numerous other RPGs). Instead of having magic, ability points, and some sort of super attack ES does away with all that. You have a battle counter which lets you decide what you need to do, after this runs out your action counter (about 5 seconds) counts down when you start moving and you use the A button to attack with your main weapon. Magic or Special Abilities or whatever you want to call them are on your Y button and use can use these as many times as you want throughout your turn. So, if you attack until you're turn is just about up then hit the Y button you can do some devastating damage. Of course you have items that heal, poison, revive KOs and there are tons of them, but there's nothing special about these that you haven't seen before. When it comes to guarding you have a "CHANCE" button (B) and if you hit the button when it appears on screen you will block the enemies attack greatly reducing the damage by about 90%. Sometimes the button will stay longer than other times, but it's all about timing and this helps keep the action up.
When you get your party leveled up battle rules change from losing time on your counters to being able to chain special attacks, to moving faster in battle. Every time you hit an enemy you "queue" up power and then when you use your special attack it's that many time more powerful. Every character gets two abilities: Light, and dark. On the battlefield you'll see shadows and light areas; when you are in a dark area you'll use a dark attack; and when you are in a light area you'll use a light attack. This is really great and can help keep things mixed up. Watch out though some enemies transform into stronger monsters when they are in the dark.
The level design in this game can vary sometimes since some of the game has labyrinthine dungeons that require a FAQ to even remotely understand how to navigate. A lot of these are partly due to puzzles that require a lot of backtracking that get really get under your skin.
Now that the battle system is out of the way let's talk production values.
Eternal Sonata uses some outstanding music, especially when Chopin's pieces are used. The graphics are just absolutely gorgeous with bright colorful palettes, and unique architecture I've never seen in a game before. Eternal Sonata is also one of the JRPG's that also include Japanese voice acting and I highly HIGHLY recommend this over the American voice actors. Just turn the English subtitles on and you're good to go since the Japanese voice actors fit the characters better and is just superb. The game is easier than most JRPG's, but maybe this is a good thing. Everyone wants a stupidly hard RPG that takes over 100 hours to beat and that's not always necessary.
Eternal Sonata will take you 20-30 hours to beat depending on your play style and even has a "game finished" save so you can go back from the beginning at whatever level you finished. It's sad to know Eternal Sonata got great reviews, but had poor sales so I hope you pick this up and experience of the best RPG's of all time. | video-games_xbox |
Arc System Works Game Mechanics. The game plays a lot like an anime fighter plays. Well, I guess that's because it is an anime fighter haha.
If your a fan of the fighting games from Arc System Works (ASW), then you'll feel the game mechanics takes a lot from several of their past games such as Guilty Gear and BlazBlue. The game makes it easy for casuals with the easy 'mash A' combo system, but has room for true fighting gamers out there with pokes, juggles, cancels, and etc.
The game isn't that unbalanced, but that's in the perspective that I haven't got into the high level playing field with this game. At least the game doesn't have such a lame comeback factor (I'm talking to you Ultimate MvC 3).
Each character has their own set of unique fighting styles, plus each character having their own Persona adds-on to them being more original. No character feels like a clone of another in this game...unless you consider Labrys and Shadow Labrys (though their Personas are different.) I guess the only issue about the characters are that it just feels like such a small roster. It's not bad considering everybody is unique, but after playing several other current gen fighting games, I'm left wanting more just staring at the character select screen.
The story mode feels like Guilty Gear, where you have to go through every character one at a time to get the full picture. Each character has their own side to the story, and while going through the mode, you'll notice that there is quite a bit more story than you going through battles. After playing the main Persona games (1-4), this game feels a little inferior telling the story because the games tell the story in a direct manner. Chapters go on as you progress. This game requires a fresh start in perspective because you go through one character at a time. It worked with Blazblue and Guilty Gear...but I guess just not with Persona (deeply opinionated).
Online is okay. Occasionally I'd get a put up with an opponent where the match would just lag like crazy, other times, it works perfectly fine. If anything, I'd say that it feels just like how any fighter plays out with online features (unless it's King of Fighters...that was just bad).
So in conclusion, this game is pretty fun. I had a blast (still am) with the game as a fighting game. It's a great add to the genre, and can't wait for the sequel. | video-games_xbox |
Pretty good, but not great. I only picked up Bioware's Star Wars-based RPG "Knights of the Old Republic" recently, a few years after its release, soon after I finished Bioware's more recent game "Jade Empire". As soon as I started playing KOTOR, I was thinking "Jeez, it's just a turn-based Jade Empire". The games are indeed quite similar, from the choice of "good" or "evil" paths which affect your character's moral rating, to accumulating a diverse group of companions (only one or two of whom you can have with you at one time), to a surprising late-game plot twist. Both games contain standard adventure-style RPG fare: you explore a variety of environments and cities, converse with many NPCs by choosing from different conversation options, complete quests which earn you experience points, and work your way up to killing the Big Boss at the end.
The combat in KOTOR is turn-based, which means you can pause at any time to issue new orders to your characters, and then unpause to watch the fight unfold in seemingly-real-time. I was a bit disappointed in the melee implementation -- if you're giving up the excitement of real-time combat, the turn-based fighting should have lots of tactical depth. I would pause to take the occasional healing potion or use the a buff if the opponent was tough, but aside from casting spells (i.e. using Jedi powers, in this setting) there's not much to do but watch your guys fight. Similarly, I expect a role-playing game to have a rich set of items and equipment, requiring painful trade-off decisions at times, but KOTOR didn't impress me in this regard. Once your character becomes a Jedi early in the game there is no reason to switch from your light saber(s), and the buffed goodies in the shops were too expensive for a most of the game, and then weren't worthwhile upgrades by the time I was able to afford them. Overall KOTOR felt simplified, which was probably the intent of the developers in order to reach a large audience, but left me a bit disappointed.
Half the reason to get this game is because it's set in the Star Wars universe, and it does try to present a Star-Wars-y look and feel. I thought the characters and animations looked great -- the Wookies, droids, uniformed Sith and green aliens were all reminiscent of the movies, and the blaster and light saber animations were excellent. The sound was also top-notch -- the clash and whoosh of sabers was just right. I liked the voice acting too -- every NPC spoke, often in alien tongues, which sounded pretty good although it didn't take long before the alien language sound bites started to recycle. My only complaint about the setting was with the background environments -- the cities had a curvy futuristic design but still looked pretty generic, and there were no ways to interact with the environment besides opening doors and crates.
On the plus side, KOTOR includes an optional blackjack-esque card game called Pazaak which you can play against NPCs to try and win money, which I enjoyed as a break from the regular game. On the minus side, occasionally when flying between planets you're forced into a mini-game where you have to shoot down TIE fighters from your ship's gun turret, which should be exciting but isn't.
Although I've mostly just complained about "Knights of the Old Republic", I still had no doubt while playing that I would take the time to complete it, and I'm considering playing again on the harder level to see if it improves with more challenge (and to try the dark side jedi powers). The story is pretty good, there are lots of side quests and occasions to talk to your companions, and the middle of the game is very non-linear: you can hop to different planets doing different things -- there are even a few multi-planet quests. Despite being underwhelmed by things like the combat implementation, there were times when the game achieved that "epic" feel for me, and what could be more important in a Star Wars RPG than that? | video-games_xbox |
Very well rounded game. I liked the first Crysis, but of course back in the day you needed a computer that could launch the space shuttle just to play it on medium settings. Well once i got a rig that was strong enough to play it, i thought this is pretty awesome, though the first is EXTREMELY tough by comparison. Some reviewers have said this one is to easy. I wouldn't go that far, but it's just more accurate and to lock onto enemies is just executed better than the first two games. Crysis two left something to be desired, (maybe because of the concrete jungle atmosphere) instead of a real one. But fun none the less. Also the storyline is much more compelling than one and two, and more movie like. Although the basis of the game has not changed, you still get maximum armor, strength, invisibility and better still a new bow. The bow is a lot of fun to use, and i think i prefer it actually over conventional weapons. I love the arrows that give enemies and electrical shock death, very gratifying. The atmosphere is great, and the mixture of jungle with condemned delabidated building gives it a dark new feel. I admit to liking the bright lush great jungle in the first game, but many games now have taken that same route. Most of this game takes place in the darkness. So there isn't much to say, it's just above good so i would give it 3 1/2 stars, but we don't get that option here. Though it isn't what i'd call "great" because it still doesn't break any new ground, unlike say a game like dishonored.
But if you loved the first two or even thought they were just ok, you may like this one even better. It is easier and actually shorter by just a few hours, nothing major. The multiplayer is enh, good, but i'm not much of an online guy. I like engrossing myself in a game in private. More intense that way. By the way the mechanics and AI are much better in this than previous games. And there are no Koreans yelling at you with annoying accents (no offense). I want to try this on my gaming rig and max it out in a few months or so, when the price drops for pc. I think i will even enjoy it more then. But as of now i really enjoyed setting back on the couch and taking in the atmosphere while shooting aliens and various bad guys with my bow. I felt like a robotic rambo. So that's what i dug about the game alot. And the fact that the difficulty is just right, among other small details. So enjoy, it may not break any new ground, but it's beautiful and it's another Crysis game. So thumbs up. ;o) | video-games_xbox |
FanBoy Says 3 Stars Mainly Because He's a FanBoy. I really want to like this game. I've read a bunch of other reviews after I stopped playing a bunch. (Sorry, Good Old Games had a sale on all the D&D stuff!)
The main points in favor:
1. Wow graphics! This game is just fantastic to look at!
2. Wow graphics! I love the environments, etc!
3. Most of the characters: I love FF characters for the most part. Yes, even Selphie won my heart over in the end. So I actually like most of the people. I did get nearly sick of Hope and Lightning just about the time they got better. I do love Sazh and Vanille, I love their whole story together.
4. Some of the story and world environments. Some of these places were REALLY cool! After I figured it out, it was pretty neat!
The bad points: (sigh)
1. Come on Seriously!! I have to read THAT MUCH in the other stuff to figure this game's plot out?! I don't mind reading, I have tons of books (see my reviews on backpacks for confirmation), but for serious?! Now it is neat after you get it, but it would have been nicer to get there quicker.
2. The battle system is ver... *znoooze* oh, I'm done? Okay, next battle.. so I...*sno... ZOMG MY FACE WHY IS MY FACE MELTING WHY OH WHY DID THE WORLD END IN 5 SECONDS CRY CRY!* The system itself is pretty boring. I still have to say the system in 10 was one of the best. The CTB was great. I could figure out what to do on my time, rather than sitting around sleeping. And if I played it right, it made some very interesting combos. With 10-2, I got the job changing, which was pretty fun. But here, I get all the pleasure of drawing magic, which none of the pay off of Mad Rush. It's like 9 but worse. I figure they made the battles too fast, no one could kick fast enough, so they made the other 2 auto pilot like in 12. I don't mind fast battles, but give me just a second to figure out and input something! Otherwise I just hit X every 5 seconds and change jobs to fit.
2a. The change in battle difficulty mentioned above deserves it's own section. Going from crap monsters to the bosses, or just some random hard crap monsters was stupid. I don't mind a challenge, but some of them are just insane. I hate grinding until the open world part of the games. I just got to the open part of the games and I'm grinding on the cheapest crap monsters because the mid grade ones just light me up. I know there are "cheap" fights to win for uber "xp" but I sort of enjoy grinding at times. Sigh, oh well 5,249,049 boars it is.
3. No actual open world part. I don't get an actual airship, nor do I get an actual world map. I miss those. Or towns. Changes of pace were nice. I enjoyed the Golden Saucer place until I found out I couldn't really do anything there. As Dak'kon would say, "Balance in all things."
Things I think people are giving the game WAY too much grief about:
1. Look, the story is very convoluted, but come on, read a little bit. Sure, it is a tad too much to get the whole thing. But there is some good foreshadowing that explains a bunch.
2. The fighting isn't THAT terrible. It just isn't that fun either.
3. The "open world" of previous games was just an illusion. I don't mind a linear game as long as I get an awesome pay off of super open awesomeness later. This has none of that.
About the sequels:
1. I'll probably wait until they all are bargin bin games. I waiting this long for the 13, might as well for them too.
2. Sure it's a money grab, but whatever. I think 10-2 was awesome fun.
3. I hope that things go well for 15, because 11 and 14 are MMOs. | video-games_xbox |
Fantastic Value on a Great System that's Never Looked Better. I have been very hesitant to take the leap and purchase a next-gen system for myself, and when this was announced, I knew it was time. I got mine early this afternoon, and wanted to share my thoughts, and will break up my review into several categories below.
--Whats Included: This bundle contains the White XBOX One console, White Controller, power supply, HDMI cable (which is very high quality), a Standard Online Chat Headset, a 14 Day Trial of XBOX Live Gold, and finally, the waivers for Sunset Overdrive (a card containing the download code for the "Day Zero" edition of the game, including bonus content). So for $400, you are getting a really great deal. The special edition console alone is worth the price of admission, and the inclusion of Sunset Overdrive truly is awesome, which currently has an 86 on Metacritic for those of you concerned about game reviews.
--Aesthetics: First and foremost, the console is gorgeous, and is hands down the highlight of the bundle. The two-toned glossy and matte white finish, in addition to black accent pieces, make this a very aesthetically pleasing addition to any home theater. Everyone who came into our dorm today, (yes, dorm, I'm a college student in Madison,) complimented its looks. Dust shows on the glossy side, but not nearly as much as it does on the black system (we have a standard XBOX One in our living, and have had it for several months). Additionally, finger prints are much harder to see than on the standard black console. The white controller features black accents looks very nice as well, and since the controller is primarily matte white, again, finger prints and smudges are no longer an issue. Otherwise, the controller is exactly the same as the standard XBOX One controller, and that is definitely a good thing. In my opinion, this is an excellent controller in terms of build quality, comfort, and performance.
--Performance: The XBOX one is a blast to use. The dashboard interface takes a little bit of time to learn, but once you do, you can truly appreciate how powerful and advanced it is. Being able to multitask, and pick things up right where you left off, is brilliant and incredibly intuitive. This machine runs absolutely silently. I don't know if its just my system, but my new white XBOX One is much quieter than the standard One we have in our living room. Once you get the games installed, the load times are minute, and navigation is a breeze.
--Sunset Overdrive: This game is a blast. I have played all of Insomniac's games leading up to this, (Spyro franchise, Ratchet and Clank franchise, Resistance franchise), and they're first XBOX release hits with a bang. This fun game feels a lot like a grown-up and mature take on the Ratchet formula. Its fast paced, frantic and fun, and it looks absolutely stunning. I have only spent a handful of hours with the game, so I don't feel like I should put up a review of it because I obviously haven't finished it yet, but I would encourage you to look up the video reviews on IGN or GameSpot if you'd like some more information. And really, its some serious fun.
If your on the market for a new console, I would definitely recommend this bundle. At least look into it and see what you think. The $400 price tag, and upcoming price cut to $350 make this bundle a steal. The console is gorgeous and performs great, the controller is excellent, headset performance is pretty good considering it was free, and Sunset Overdrive is a blast to play. I hope this review helps, and if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me.
Thank you for reading, and have a great day.
-Zander | video-games_xbox |
A good game, but only if playing conditions are absolutely perfect. I'll start off by saying that I'm a fan of Jillian Michaels. Her straightforward, non-nonsense style has helped millions of people through her videos and her work on The Biggest Loser.
I wish I could say I was a fan of the people who developed her video games. Back in 2009, Majesco released Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum for the Wii. Over 600,000 of us bought a copy. I'd say over 599,000 of us were disappointed. The game was clunky, had a terrible user interface, and committed the cardinal sin of motion games--it didn't detect motion. The 2010 and 2011 versions weren't much better.
Now that the Jillian brand is making a new start on the Xbox, I made a conscious effort to forget the past and approach this game with fresh eyes. The game does has some aspects that are terrific and even innovative. But I also saw some of the same old habits coming up.
The first thing I noticed when I started up the game is that you need room. A LOT of room. While other games like Kinect Sports and Dance Central can still work (if not optimally) when you're 7-8 feet from the TV, Jillian Michaels is completely unusable unless you have a minimum of 10 feet, plus a very clear view of the floor and plenty of room from side to side. I spent 20 minutes moving furniture around until I could get it to work to some degree. It would have been nice if they gave an option for people with limited space to skip certain exercises or do them on the "honor" system.
You're greeted by Jillian and you "wave" to begin. You're then taught how to navigate the menus. The use of the Kinect to navigate the menus is not one of the better implementations I've seen; they chose not to use a cursor, which meant some awkwardness in getting to some menu options. There were plenty of times when I was waving my arms around trying to get the system to even acknowledge that I wanted to select something. Thankfully, they give the option of using the Xbox controller to navigate, which I did happily.
In the next part, they "scan" you. This part is actually pretty cool--they take your video image and essentially turn you into an animated version of yourself, which will be used throughout the game instead of just a silhouette or a cartoon avatar. I first saw this technology with the game Kung Fu Live on the PS3 (coming soon to the Kinect as Kung Fu High Impact), and I loved it.
Next, you choose whether to play as a Guest or to sign in to your Xbox Live account. You start out by recording your personal details, including your sex, age, height, and weight. As soon as you enter your weight your BMI is calculated automatically.
You then get to the main menu, where you hear a jungle beat playing and a "Tomb Raider" look and feel. The menu options are simple: Fitness Training, Fitness Adventure, Stats, and Options.
Under Fitness Training, you have two options; Single Exercise and Circuits.
Single Exercises are the building blocks for the whole game. Under this menu option you can scroll to view each of the 67 individual exercises that you'll do during the game. Most of them are pretty familiar calisthenics moves such as crunches, push-ups, jumping jacks, lunges, squats, and so on. It also includes signature "Jillian" moves like "Hindu push ups" and "squat jacks". As you scroll through each exercise (which definitely requires the Xbox controller to maintain sanity), you'll see a small animation of Jillian doing the moves. When you select an exercise, you have the option of beginner (10 reps), intermediate (20 reps) or expert (30 rep) levels.
After that, you'll see a large animated image of Jillian in the middle of the screen, who will show you a quick 5-second demo (which in many cases is quite useless as one rep itself can take 3-4 seconds). Then you jump right into doing your reps. As you do the reps, you'll see your animated image on in the lower corner. I really like this, as it lets you compare your exact form and technique to Jillian's.
The Kinect will try to detect your moves; if it thinks you're doing them right you'll glow green, if it thinks you're not doing them right it'll glow red, and if it thinks you could be doing them better you'll glow yellow.
Sounds great, but practically speaking, I found that at least 25% of the time I was getting reds and yellows when I shouldn't have (with a LOT of moving of furniture, repositioning of the Kinect sensor, and natural lighting I was finally able to reduce this to 10%). There were cases where I'm sure I was doing the exercise correctly, but the system insisted I wasn't. And forget about any exercises that involved the floor, like crunches or push-ups--the Kinect would often completely fail on those, and in some cases completely lose track of me. Even after a lot of trial and error I couldn't get those to work consistently. To sum up the game's use of Kinect motion detection, when it worked it was fantastic, but when it didn't work it was terribly aggravating.
Workouts in this mode can last anywhere from 10 seconds to a minute, depending on the exercise and the number of reps you do. As such, this section of the game is not a "workout" per se, but more a way to learn each individual move. Another unintended use of this section is to try to figure out the idiosyncrasies of the system--if you're doing a move correctly for a particular exercise but the system insists you aren't, in this section you can try to figure out why through trial and error.
The second option, Circuit Training, basically takes a string of individual exercises and puts them in a routine. There are a number of pre-set routines, including:
Total Body Training Easy
Total Body Training Medium
Strength
Cardio Craze
Burner
Cardio Shred
Reflexes
Fat Burner
Best of
Power
In addition, there are empty slots where you can create your own routines by stringing together up to 12 different Individual Exercises at 10, 20, or 30 reps each.
For each circuit, you can preview the exercises in the circuit, do a warm-up (which basically consists of lower impact Individual Exercises like stretches), or jump right into the circuit. I do like how they split up warm-ups from the routine--many exercise games will force you to do the warm-ups every time. Although some of the warm-ups are a little suspect (my first warm-up was "jumping jacks", which I'm not sure most trainers would think is a great idea if I haven't even stretched yet).
I tried the "Best Of" circuit and was totally wiped out after 33 minutes, in a very good way. The exercises were definitely intense. But there were admittedly a few annoyances. First, the system wasn't picking up all my moves, and in some cases it lost track of my body altogether, forcing me to "wave" to get it to recognize me again. Second, there was absolutely no indication of how long the circuit was nor what percentage of it I had left to go--so by 2/3 of the way in I was cursing at Jillian telling her to stop already.
At the end of the circuit, you'll see a summary of the exercises you did, calories burned, time, and "accuracy". In another usability snafu, the font size is so tiny you need a magnifying glass to see it.
The other main section of the game is "Fitness Adventure". The obvious inspiration for this part of the game was Tomb Raider, where you have a first-person view of running along a path. The graphics are actually pretty good, with a lot of detail of the lush jungle setting.
To start your run through the jungle, you run in place, a nice touch. You can reach your hands up and to the sides to collect green "bonus medallions" which will reduce your overall time (accidentally collecting red medallions will increase your time). There wasn't any visual indicator that I successfully grabbed the medallions, but you'll hear an audio "bling" when you do.
As the game progresses, you'll hit different obstacles where you'll employ "Individual Exercises" to get through. For example, to pass a series of giant pipes that's lying on the road you need to do "Squat Jumps" to jump over the pipes. You'll see Jillian's animated image to the left and yours to the right of the bottom of the screen so you can match her moves.
Cute idea, but this is where the spotty motion detection really hurts. While spotty motion detection is an annoyance while doing the circuit exercises, here if the system cannot pick up your moves you're completely stuck. I suppose this helped me get more of a workout--I ended up doing about 10 squat thrusts before the system decided I'd done one it approved of. But of course, the game is a lot more fun when it works right (with enough trial and error I was able to pass most levels, but that took a lot more work on my part than it should have).
There are 58 levels to get through; when you select them you'll see the specific "Individual Exercises" that you perform in each of them. There's not really a story to follow or anything, it's basically the same as the circuit mode with each exercise tied to a different activity in the jungle.
I should say that your mileage may vary. I live in an apartment, so my limited lighting and space may have had an impact. (On the other hand, I am able to play other Kinect games perfectly). Bottom line, I'd recommend renting a copy or borrowing it from a friend first to make sure it works in your environment before forking over $30-40 for it.
To sum up, the game has some fantastic and easy-to-follow workouts that are among the most intense for any system. Fans of Jillian will appreciate her voice narration and her techniques. And there are certain features which are truly innovative, such as the way your animated image is displayed.
But in many ways, they carried over far too many bad habits from the Wii versions--poor user interface design, spotty motion detection, and a contrived "adventure" mode. I am still waiting for someone to create a "real" adventure exercise games where you engage in more natural things like real hand-to-hand combat and real obstacle courses instead of these artificial "do 10 reps of this exercise to proceed" games. I was hoping this would be it, but it's not.
Bottom line, it's a good game if you can get your motion detection to work, or if you appreciate Jillian's style so much you're willing to put up with it not working. I literally have gone back and forth as to how to rate this game. Bottom line, if your motion detection doesn't work, it's a 2; if it's spotty, it's a 3, and if it works perfectly it's a 4. In my case, I'd definitely put it between a 3 and a 3.5, and this is after three straight days of doing all the adjustments I tried to make it work.
But a word of advice to Majesco and Jillian Michaels: next time TEST your software, taking in mind that hundreds of thousands of your users may not have the idyllic conditions of your test lab. And once and for all, please hire someone with some shred of user interface design skills. | video-games_xbox |
Countless Hours of Fun. 1st I have to admit i have never played any of the other tiger woods series games and have nothing to compare it too or be dissappointed from. But it saddens that so many have not been able to enjoy such a great game.
At first when i installed and started playing i was dissappointed with the mouse swing so switched to 3 click, 3 click was also dissappointingly difficult for me, after a few hrs did i relize you can also change to two click as well, at that tym of change to two click the game was much much more enjoyable. With custom games, i play with freinds, to single player mode pga tour, and Team tour, this game is great! And when those cources got old that came with the game, i did a search for tiger woods 2007 cources and found a nice free site containing hundreds of more cources. Althoe it took a few hrs to learn to install the cources and library's it was well worth my time.
Gameplay wise i find myself playing hrs in on out to build my players Attributes and get to the Legendary Tiger woods so i may win the game.
At first the game was challinging, with no attibutes, but after weeks i found that the AI was not getting much more challenging but when playing a custom game,i can change the AI difficult level to expert "which didn't make much difference" but when i change the Golfer AI's Ability's then did i notice a respectable challenge when i was at high levels. Other wise the AI golfer will be pretty stupid.
As far as stabilty of the game, i have played on three different Pc's all running XP/XP pro. On my girlfreinds 1.1GHZ Processor 128MB Ati video I had not one problem until i intalled additional cources then all cources of the game became nearly unplayable, until i uninstalled the custom cources, then all was OK Agian. When playing on 3.2 and 3.6 Ghz Processor with a 128MB and a 512MB video, i had Not one single problem even as i installed as many as 10 additional custom cources so far, it still plays great. All graphics cards i have used had the latest drivers and appeared in the readme file as a supported video card. Here is a list of the supported graphics cards according to the readme file on the disk. O BTW,I don't think this game supports any operarting systems other than windows XP, athoe i have played on windows 2000 pro/xp/xp pro without any trouble..
Supported 3D Hardware Accelerated video cards include:
- ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500- ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 9600
- ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 9700- ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 9800
- ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 (Laptop)- ATI Radeon 8500- ATI Radeon 9000
- ATI Radeon 9100 IGP- ATI Radeon 9200 AGP- ATI Radeon 9250
- ATI Radeon 9500- ATI Radeon 9550- ATI Radeon 9600- ATI Radeon 9700
- ATI Radeon 9800- ATI Radeon X300- ATI Radeon X600- ATI Radeon X700
- ATI Radeon X800- ATI Radeon X850- ATI Radeon x1300- ATI Radeon x1600
- ATI Radeon x1800- ATI Radeon x1900- NVIDIA GeForce 7950
- NVIDIA GeForce 7900- NVIDIA GeForce 7800- NVIDIA GeForce 7600
- NVIDIA GeForce 7300- NVIDIA GeForce 6200- NVIDIA GeForce 6600
- NVIDIA GeForce 6800- NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200- NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500
- NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600- NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700- NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800
- NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900- NVIDIA GeForce FX 5950
- NVIDIA GeForce PCX 5300- NVIDIA GeForce PCX 5900- NVIDIA GeForce3*****
- NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti200*****- NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti4200 with AGP8X
- NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti4600- NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti4800 SE
- S3 Unichrome (MSI)- S3 Unichrome- S3 DeltaChrome- S3 GammaChrome
- S3 ChromeS27 | video-games_xbox |
Different from previous halo games, but still fun. I have played Halo from the very beginning, and it is my favorite game franchise. Halo diehards may find that this game takes some getting used to, but in the end it is a great gaming experience. First some things I didn't like:
-This game is much more fast-paced than other Halo games. Unlimited sprint and thruster packs, combined with smaller multiplayer maps mean that you are constantly running into enemy players.
-It is much easier to kill and die in this game than previous games. Time to kill with most weapons is around one second, much faster than other games. Combine this with a very short radar radius and you end up with very "twitchy" gameplay, where two players run into each other unexpectedly and the first person to get a shot off usually gets the kill (similar to Call of Duty).
-Aiming feels different from other Halo games for some reason. You have to go into "advanced controller settings" and adjust the dead zones and aim acceleration in order to get back the correct Halo feel. I have no idea why this was altered.
-No split-screen! I couldn't believe that only one person could play per xbox. Most players fell in love with Halo playing 4 player split-screen, at LAN parties, and I think 343 made a big mistake taking that away. They chose graphics over gameplay, and I think that was the wrong choice.
These changes from the usual halo gameplay initially left me unhappy with the game. I felt that 343 studios had lost the "strategic" gameplay that made halo so much fun. (the fact that no one plays with their microphone on anymore is a testament to this) I felt like the weak shields and powerful weapons took away the skill gap between players, and the game developers just made aiming more difficult to compensate for it. After playing for a few weeks however, and fixing the controller settings, I started to really enjoy the game. Below are some things I think 343 studios did right:
-The new Warzone game type: 12 vs 12 players on HUGE maps is a lot of fun!
-Hundreds of weapon variants add complexity to the multiplayer "sandbox"
-BEAUTIFUL graphics. Wow.
-The new "clamber" ability lets you climb onto ledges, and adds verticality to multiplayer levels.
Overall I think this iteration is better than Halo 4, but it has also lost part of what made Halo such a popular franchise. For the next game I would love to see an increased "time to kill," and the return of split screen gaming so you can have your friends over for a Halo party. | video-games_xbox |
An amazing game, just horrible on Xbox360. When you see several reviews that glorify a game to no end you can be wary if they are telling the truth or not. You can only tell if a review is being truthful if it overviews the game and tells about its flaws.
I am on the same position as many other reviewers for this game has said about the glitches and bugs this game is plagued with. To manage to get any progress in a game you occasionally have to save and that risks the game screen to freeze and start flickering, or just go dark altogether. Also after prolonged play the game will start to fail loading unit textures, so eventually all your units can just turn into bland moving Grey blocks.
Several contacts to Aspyr media about the game ended with no success, and it seems that Aspyr has no intentions of patching the bugs in this game... so just don't buy it. If you have a good gaming computer that has moderately good graphics, plenty of processing power, and RAM you should get this game for PC because it will make your life a whole lot better.
I'm also one of the people that played Total Annihilation quite often and this game is a great modern reincarnation of it. You can still see the same style, can make hordes of units, make cannons that fire great distances, and giant experimental units. I enjoyed this game too much that I often deal with the Xbox360 bugs just to play it. Now since I have a better gaming PC I plan on getting it for PC. This game isn't crazy hard to learn and my advice would be to play a skirmish game against an easy AI and figure out how the game goes yourself and you'll learn to love it.
So.. long story short... This game is very fun and entertaining... just sucks for the Xbox 360. Get this game for PC instead if your PC can handle it. I have played many RTS games ranging from the command and conquers, starcraft, warcraft, age of empires, empire earth. I feel Supreme Commander is really in a league of its own, it does share some qualities with other RTS games, but you just won't find another game just like it. | video-games_xbox |
Not quite right for my giant head. I ordered these hoping to use them for a few things: listening to music, chatting on Skype, and online multiplayer on my PS3. I loved the pictures and they looked just as cool out here at home - love the blue glow, just love it.
But the first thing I found when I got them out of the box was they just don't fit my head very well. I guess I should have anticipated that. I have a 63 cm head, glabella to inion - that's 99th percentile: "quite large," for those of you who don't go around measuring your heads using neurosurgical landmarks. In other words, classy hat companies don't make fedoras that fit me out of the box, and I need to use a special kind of bike helmet called a "Kinghead."
These headphones have the large Lexan top strap, and then a smaller vinyl strap designed to fit snugly over the top of your head using stretchy cords to keep it snug. Unfortunately, stretched all the way out, the smaller strap just barely fits - I can hold the earphones where they belong just fine with my hands, and they feel great, but when I let go, the elastic takes over and they ride up about an inch, taking my ears and glasses along with them. They can still be used that way, after I put my glasses back where they belong; but they're not comfortable. Here's an example - I unboxed them tonight (great experience, by the way; they're boxed beautifully) and I was going to go log on to HAWX 3 or something. But frankly I didn't want to wear these for the 15 minutes it'd take to get online and playing, because I didn't want a headache.
I did try them briefly with Skype, as well as with some music. The mic is beautifully engineered, stays just where you put it, gets great sound, eliminates noise. The sound of the phones themselves is to die for - very good immersive clean stereo, and both processing modes are good. The mic light makes it easy to know what signal processing you've got on. And the separate chat/line volume is a nice touch.
As far as music goes, they were good, not great. They are great when they are wired to the source. There is some dynamic range compression, as a prior reviewer noted, and it is clearly a wireless compression artifact, which is too bad, because seriously, how much are we worried about wasting bandwidth here? It's about like 56k mp3, which is what Sirius XM radio uses for music, and about what your "cordless phone" uses for voice; so that's not too terrible, but if you are someone who notices that kind of loss of audio quality, you'll notice it with the Afterglows.
As far as the connection technology goes, I am not impressed. I knew there would be a USB dongle; I didn't realize the box would also contain a myriad of cords that you have to splice into your source device's audio setup. Dude, all those wires are behind my entertainment center. I do *not* want to have to get back there and unplug stuff every time I want to stop using this on my laptop and start using it on my TV. Or my PS3. Or my receiver, which not incidentally, lacks USB. And I'd have to get back there each time I wanted to change sources. Seriously? I own an expensive receiver to manage my sources; couldn't you have figured out a way to make this work with it, or at least use a standard modality that most devices use? *cough* Bluetooth? Bueller? *cough*
Finally, there are headphones out these days that use two speakers per ear so you don't lose 5.1 surround information. I occasionally play shooters and if you are going to compete at the highest level you need the audio information that surround sound is giving you. These headphones drop that info; to be fair, the Afterglows are nowhere near the price point of the cheapest surround headphones.
OK, let me sum this up: 1) Disappointed because they don't fit my large noggin. 2) Look cool. 3) Would recommend it to anyone for dedicated use for 1 source. 4) Too much trouble to use with multiple sources. 5) Decent sound, great mic design. 6) No surround.
I feel bad, because these are obviously someone's labor of love, but they just didn't get it done for me. 2 stars. | video-games_xbox |
Good and not so good. UPDATE: The game has seen a few additions since I wrote this review, and the Drivatars got a decent update to them. I race on the Unbeatable level and routinely get third or second (the car in first is nothing short of a driving god it seems), and the AIs aren't so willing to smash their cars as much. Some races have been updated to last longer (S class races on Road Atlanta are 4 laps now I believe, which is nice) and Nurburgring Nordschliefe really pleased me. I do not care for the GP Circuit (Hockenheimring was far better). My hope now is that Turn 10 has plenty of time to add more cars while Horizon 2 is popular. I will still gladly wait for the sixth installment.
I have waited for quite some time to post this review, mostly so I could solidify my opinion of the game. Overall, I believe it is a solid installment to the Forza series. However, it certainly is not the best.
PROS:
Visual: This game is absolutely gorgeous. The game opens up in Prague with you at the wheel of the Mclaren P1. Simply a fantastic intro to the game. My only complaint would be the thumbnails of the cars in the garage view.
Sound: Again, amazing. With the surround sound I play on, I love hearing the cars passing me or getting passed, and the chopper overhead. The engines, from the Subaru WRX to the Lamborghini Aventador, are phenomenal. This is where I get a lot of enjoyment from the game.
Controls: The way the car reacts to the controls is just wow. Even the old muscle cars of the 70's will bite you if you are too aggressive with the gas pedal. The game really helps you to feel as if you are learning the car and all of it's quirks, good and bad. Developing a sense of pushing slower cars to their limits, and limiting super cars so that you can remain in control has been nothing short of pleasurable. Each car has an attitude, and I love learning each one.
DLC: The cars added, along with making them free to the people who bought them, have added a lot of much needed diversity to the game. While I do not need or want the Ford Van, most of the other cars will probably be used at some point. Road America makes a return and it is a beautifully done track that is just as fun as before. Long Beach is an interesting course as well, but only fun if you are in the mood for bumper cars.
Which brings up my next point.
CONS:
Drivatars: I tried cloud racing with EA's Real Racing 3, and it was awful. Drivers all over the place, and you start in the back and have to fight the crowd of cars ramming each other and you in order to try and catch the person in 1st, who has nothing but open road in front of him. Lo-and-behold, Forza 5's Drivatars are no different. You start in *almost* dead last, and have to fight your way through the first lap just to have some breathing space. If you aren't in fourth or fifth at this point and the cars ahead of you are not visible, you may as well settle for your place in silver. Yes, the drivers do make real mistakes, and sometimes it is beneficial. These mistakes are nowhere near as costly for them as it can be for you, however. The AIs do not seem to be bound by the same "speed limiting zones" that keeps you from cutting major corners in the game. AIs also are somehow able to keep up considerable amounts of speed most of the time. The drivatars are extremely flawed, in my opinion, and make the game far morre frustrating than it needs to be. These frustrations tie in to my next point as well:
Laps: All of these races take about 5 minutes. Maybe 6 minutes. If I had a nickel for every time I said "If I had just one more lap, I could have made gold" I could have bought another Xbox One. 2 laps for almost all of the races, but no more than 3. I think 3 laps should be a minimum, and even more for the races featuring GT and LMP cars. 2 laps just does not cut it for me.
Forzavista: I was extremely disappointed to find out that the Forzavista was no longer voiced by TopGear, and also made very generic. Generic in the sense that if you select a brand of car, you will hear about the brand, not the car. This is where it also begins to show that Forza 5 was rushed. Each car has unique points of interest that you can select. In Forza 4, these were specific details regarding the design of the car, and how it functioned in regards to performance. In Forza 5, all you get is the video segment with no voice, however the video looks as if it is supposed to be complementary to the comments that should have been there.
Content: The number of tracks available is, quite frankly, pathetic. It was nice to see some new additions to the roster, but missing Suzuka, Tsukuba, Nurburgring, and Camino Viejo among others was also disappointing. Again, this seems to hint at a very rushed project.
Leveling/Progression: This basically does not exist in this game whatsoever. There is no linear progression like the prior games, and leveling up takes a fixed amount of XP for a fixed amount of credits. No more bonus cars gifted to you to aid your racing progression. Another disappointing aspect.
Race Types: The lack of endurance races in this game is also something I am missing. I like setting aside an hour or two to challenge myself on a track. It also helps me really learn a track. The multi-class races and championship series races are also races I miss.
Overall, I have mixed feelings about the game. It is a lot of fun to drive these cars, and they sound and look amazing. But the flaws drag down the experience overall. From Forza 4 to Forza 5, it feels like a step back. Beautiful graphics and well orchestrated sounds only go so far to make the experience. The game is worth playing, but I do not feel as if the replay value is very high. The only time I really play this game is when I am racing my buddies. The drivatars make single play on Unbeatable just too frustrating to enjoy. | video-games_xbox |
They weren't kidding, this game IS scary. Some games scare you by surprise (Resident Evil), others by what you can't see (Silent Hill), some games play with your mind (Eternal Darkness) and some games scare you by the fact that its based on a true story...
I know a lot of people don't believe in ghosts, but I have had the misfortune of living in a haunted house twice in my life. My experiences were not pleasant by any means, and so for the first time in my life there's a game that not only scares me, but makes me entirely uncomfortable to the point where I cannot play this game alone. It's not as gory as other games in the genre, but it plays of off my fear of ghosts as being a very real phenomenon very well. It's creepy, its spooky, and many of the ghosts in this game do not go down easily, thus presenting a greater challenge than other Survival Horror games, as its not a simple matter of shooting the ghost before it gets to you, or bashing the fiend to death with a lead pipe... these things are as fast as they are creepy looking, and worse yet... its based on a true story.
Graphically, although enhanced over the PS 2 version this game does not take advantage of the Xbox, as it should have. It does not look good on my Widescreen TV as images look somewhat stretched. Most Xbox games I have make the conversion pretty smoothly, including Taco's Dead or Alive 3,and Extreme Beach Volleyball. Worse yet, although the poly-counts are high, and look really good in some ways the lack of detail in the fingers (and the lack of fingernails) is annoying. Particularly since the character faces look so good. The biggest problem is that some of the in game graphics are grainy, and there is this odd effect that causes some colors to smear and blend poorly, as well as pixilation in some textures. This game looks like a port, and is nowhere near as polished as other horror games ported to Xbox (Silent Hill 2). Despite some enhancements this game could have been improved more in many areas. Never the less leave it to my Widescreen TV to bring out flaws that would most likely not be noticeable on a regular TV.
Sound effects and music in this game are a part of what make this game so terrifying. Creepy, and intense the sound effects deserve a perfect score except... the voice acting in this game is simply ghastly. The voice-overs range from mediocre to poor, which is sadly typical of this genre. Never the less none of the flaws interfere with the truly terrifying experience, or the appeal intrigue of this true story. Just trust me, and don't play this game alone. Even with the lights on its still ultra scary. | video-games_xbox |
Lara is back in one of the best XBox One titles of 2015. Rise of the Tomb Raider might very well be one of the best XBox One titles of 2015. I have enjoyed playing this game immensely and there are several good reasons why. This game follows in the footsteps of it's excellent predecessor, 2013's Tomb Raider but might be superior in some ways to that title. I have played this game for about 12 hours already and it's hard to put down. Let me highlight some of the best points of this game.
Graphics: This might arguably be one of the most visually enticing games for the XBox One. The graphics are stunning and bring alive the various worlds that Lara must traverse and inhabit. Attention to detail to Lara herself is very good, although close-ups of her face can look wooden at times. We see Lara adjust her ponytail after a swim, the steam from her breath in cold climates, rubbing her hands together to get warmth and facial expressions that reflect her emotions draw us into her character. The actress who voices her in this game, does an excellent job also. I can't say enough about the graphics in this game. 5 out of 5
Storyline: I really enjoyed the storyline in this game and prefer not to give too much away. I think the scope of the story is enough to draw us in and I liked the various characters that inhabit Lara's world, both good and bad. 4.5 out of 5
Length of the game: This is a fairly expansive story with side missions and challenges that you can complete and will keep you playing for many hours. I think the length is perfect if you really want to explore everything this game has to offer. 5 out of 5
Gameplay and controls: I personally found this game fairly easy to pick up in terms of using the controls to maneuver Lara in her world and to access and use her various weapons. The user interface to see her resources and weapons is fairly straightforward and the map layouts are fairly well done. 4 out of 5 stars
Overall it's hard to find fault with this excellent title. If you are a Lara fan or just starting out with the Tomb Raider series, you cannot go wrong with this excellent addition to the ongoing saga of our favorite intrepid female explorer, Lara Croft. Those who have been a fan of the series since it's inception in 1996, I think will find this to be one of the better games in the Lara saga and those who are new to Tomb Raider will find it to be an excellent start to entering the world of one of the most iconic video game explorers of all time. As good as the last game in the series was in 2013 simply called "Tomb Raider", this title I think improves on that one and will set the bar high for the next Tomb Raider game.
Overall rating: 5 out of 5 | video-games_xbox |
Couldn't get much better. First of all let me say that I am an avid fan and player of all the games in the Doom series. I was extatic to hear that Doom 3 was finally coming out for Xbox and I am happy to say that I was not let down.
-Graphics: 9/10
The graphics are perfect. ID and Activision did an outstanding job on bringing this game to the Xbox system. Details in the levels are not lost from the switch and it is just as creepy of a game as it is on the computer. The movement is very smooth and it is also very fluid and natural when you are walking or looking around. There has only been a couple of times when the game slowed down a little bit, but nothing worth marking the game down for.
-Gameplay: 10/10
Gameplay is extremely fun and easy. The controls are very natural and if you don't like them you can always change them around. One of the really cool and realistic features is that the base is very dark and you need to use your flashlight often to find your way around. You can only carry your flashlight or a gun so it makes for hightened action and suspense when you light up a room only to find that there is a ton of zombies in there. This feature is not annoying like you may think. Switching between the flashlight and/or other weapons is very quick so you don't have to worry about not being able to shoot in time. As I'm sure you've heard about this game, it's scary. This is very true. Everywhere you go you never know what will happen next. Sometimes while walking, something will just fall or make a noise to make you jump. Other times that noise is coming from someone behind you.
-Sound: 10/10
Sounds and music are fantastic. I would highly recommend that you purchase the Advanced A/V Pack for your Xbox and hook it up to some 5.1 surround sound speakers to feel the full effect. Even in the menu screens the sounds are so creepy.
-Extras: 10/10
Finally a few words about the Collector's Edition. Spend the $10 extra and get it, it's worth it. Along with the really cool metal tin case, you get the FULL versions of both Ultimate Doom AND Doom II. They have also been redone so that they can be played multiplayer style. In addition the Collector's Edition also gives you some other things like behind the scenes and concept art.
--OVERALL: 9.7--
-Quick Overview
PROS:
-Good unfolding story
-Great graphics
-Easy controls
-Fun and very scary gameplay
-Great music and sound (with some classic Doom sound effects thrown in)
-Realistic
-Two extra classic Doom games included
CONS:
-Very few and far between, but can get slow and glitchy
-PDA can be a little bit annoying to use expecially when having to look for lock combinations | video-games_xbox |
So glad its not Ghosts. Digital Deluxe version purchased through the Microsoft Store (not through amazon).
I've read through quite a few of these reviews and it looks like most (not all) of the negative reviews were written by CoD haters who've never played, the game, have no intention of playing of the game, and are upset that someone could find enjoyment in a game they pre-decided they weren't going to like.
Which bothers me. Black Ops 3 is a great game. I enjoy it more than Advanced Warfare (which I am a fan of), way more than Ghosts (a game I really hated), and I find it more playable than Halo 5 (I'm a huge Halo story line fan, not so much of the multiplayer).
The storyline isn't as good as the original Black Ops storyline, but is better than the Black Ops 2 (or at least it has been so far, I haven't finished the entire story line) and I would put it on par with the Modern Warfare story telling. Zombies is by far the best of the bunch (more challenging, be ready, its not easy fighting the hordes of undead to the point that winning it as a single player is well beyond someone of my average skill set).
I like the graphics. I like the multiplayer. I even like the idea of the specialists classes (though I will often treat their perks as nice to have rather than critical to my success). The weapons seem well balanced (I can hear the Gorgon haters gnashing their teeth right now and thinking I'm wrong). The TTK is fast enough that I don't feel the need to play hardcore, which is good because currently the hardcore game type selection is very limited.
The game isn't perfect, hence the four stars rather than five, and suffers from some weird bugs and connection issues that I wouldn't expect in a released game. Simple things like joining a game in progress and finding out you are out numbered 8 to 4 (should be 6v6), matches that disappear from your theater, or splitting up your party amongst the two teams (the point of playing with friends is to play with friends, not against them). There's also the random hangs, freezes, and sudden spikes of lag (randomly teleporting people). All of these I suspect will get better as the updates roll out.
Playability things irritate me that I suspect will never change:
Quick scoping. Holy balls, I hate quick scopers. But they are apart of the game now, and while I'd hoped they'd get rid of them like they did the n00b-tubers, they didn't.
The screen navigation isn't very intuitive, and I find myself having to hunt things down. I get there are only so many buttons you can use, but having some features not available from a menu bothers me.
The uselessness of the black market (which I suspect is going to turn into a pay to play/micro transaction). You are earning in game currency to buy random cosmetic improvements. So far I have upgraded and really cool camouflage for weapons I'll never use.
Playability things that irritate me and I suspect will get fixed:
Flash bangs, concussion grenades last way too long. If you find yourself in a lobby with someone throwing these puppies, your class really needs to have tac mask, otherwise you are pulling the trigger and hoping your random spray gets the guy.
UAV/Counter UAV times: While not as short as they were in the beta, these still don't last long enough given how easy they are too shoot down (even without a rocket an assault rifle will bring these down pretty quickly).
Lobby balancing: This might be an issue of so many groups and parties playing out there, but so far the match making is really uneven. I'll have games where I go 35-4 and other games where I go 4 and 20. The swing is crazy.
For all of my irritations with the game, they are minor compared with everything else in the game and I fully expect to be playing this for the next year. Well, at least once I'm done with Fallout 4. | video-games_xbox |
Utterly Horrible. I knew coming in that this game wasn't going to be the Madden of old. Since getting the deal with the NFL EA Sports has cut corners and produced shotty work. But I really wanted to play football on my fairly new Xbox 360 so I went ahead and traded in NBA Live 06 for 9.99 to purchase this game.
When I started the game things seems to be excellent. Beautiful stadiums filled with fans that at most times are full 3D rendered. Then the gameplay started. I experience horrid slowdown when picking plays. After it shows the players it lags horribly and feels like its going to quit. It think they tried to put too much on the screen.
Then the sound. The announcing I think is horrible. It sounds like hes speaking over a tin can and a piece of string. And you hear the same things over and over again. He counts down the yards starting at the 30. Only one announcer makes it bland also. And you would think Madden would announce on his own game.
Then while playing my friend the first time I played, the game FROZE at halftime. I was so angry that I spent money on this garbage I was ready to package it back up and go to EBgames and demand a refund. Or maybe call EA Sports and tell them how horrible their game is. What does it take to get a game that plays without major issues like this.
Despite the freezing, the gameplay is bad also. RB can run 80 yards without even a touch, quarterbacks that can't run like delhomme can bust out a 30 yard run, and tackling is near on impossible unless you are right on top of the guy and even then a little juke and you bounce off them. Mostly the fun factor is lost when I cant even stop them. Games are 40-32 or 55-45. That doesnt seem very realistic to me. When I play a sports game, I want the whole package. I want to feel like its a real game on TV and I'm controlling my favorite team to victory. You don't get this here because the announcer is not realistic, the scores, the tackles, etc.
My suggestion, if you don't mind slowdown, freezes, and bad overall gameplay, then pick this up. But if you require better gameplay for $60 protest this game and make sure to tell EA your displeasure. This has to stop. I cant even play a football game because its Madden or Madden. | video-games_xbox |
Greatness perfected, but nothing fresh. I was little disappointed that MW3 played it safe an stayed within the orignal formula. This was good and bad.
For example, everyone loves pizza, but you can only eat it so many times before you get tired of it. I for one am
a loyal CoD fan. I keep asking myself year after year "Why do I keep buying this game?!". But the answer is simple:
The game is fun. CoD has failed to dissapoint me yet. Unfortunetly if they don't bring something new to the table soon
thinsg may start to stale out.
As for the game. its Enjoyable. Mainly the multiplayer. but I will go into more detail.
Single Player (campaign) -
Shortest of them all, in my opinion. 5 hours. But ive never enjoyed CoD for they're linear predictable story telling.
Although it is still a great story, they could've done more. It' the basic run-n-gun campaign. No real strategy involved.
I enjoyed it though. Lots of action, never a dull momment. Could care less for the Characters. Not enough reason or emphasis.
Multiplayer (online) -
This is what its all about. You either love or you hate it. I personally love fps's and Mw3 is right at the top. I've seen alot
of people comparing BF3 to Mw3 but I feel they are two totally different games swimming in the same genre. Bf3 is a huge open world
fps, Mw3 is more fast paced, medium fps. Both have pro n cons so get over it fan boys. Mw3 is basically Mw2 with a tune up in
my opinion, but well worth the $$$ if you're a fan. Guns are practically the same, some new looks, different names, but same concept.
New kill streak options, (assault, support, specialist) great additions to balance out things. More perks would've been nice. Mw3 in gerneral
is a great expansion, but still a great game overall. Its basically what Mw2 should've been.
There is also the spec ops mode we love. same ole concept, new maps n missions
Survival is awesome. CoD version of gears horde mode. Fun in its own way. Be nice if you could have a bigger party though. Or like a CoD version of
gears beast mode haha.
Overall - 8/10
I love Call of duty, and forever will buy there games. But I pray for the love of God that they would introduce some new concepts and game mechanics. If you
loved Mw2, you'll love mw3. If you hate CoD games then don't bother. Great game, not perfect, great. | video-games_xbox |
A masterpiece. Simply put, this game is a masterpiece. I won't go into as much depth as other reviewers, since much of this information is already out there if people want to read it. The game is an improvement in almost every way over the last installment in the series. The combat, as some have noted, is more shooter-like. I personally find the shooting in this game to be much more satisfying than that in the original. That said, I played as the soldier class in both the first and second games, so I don't have a lot of experience using the biotic powers. As some reviews have noted, there are side missions that you can do for each of the people on your team to gain their loyalty. I found these missions to be very enjoyable, and thought that they really fleshed out the characters. All of the party members, while being somewhat stereotypical at times, are all very well thought out and developed characters.
Many of the tedious aspects of the first game are fixed or completely removed in this game. The tedious inventory management from the first game is entirely absent. Instead of having to sort through lists of different weapons and armor, there are only a few kinds of each weapon, and you upgrade the ones you have to make them more effective (more damage, higher clip capacity, etc). This is not entirely a positive, though; the downside to this is you never get the kind of 'loot lust' that makes many RPGs so appealing. You are not constantly finding more and better weapons and armor. That said, you do occasionally find new weapons, and it is fun to get them. The game also smartly automatically equips any new weapons you find immediately. The newly added heavy weapons are also very satisfying and fun to use, particularly my favorite, the particle beam rifle. The game limits the amount of ammo you have for these weapons, probably in an bid to keep them from ruining game balance. There is generally enough ammo for these so that you have some when you need it for particularly tough enemies.
Some people have complained about the new pared down nature of the power upgrades. Instead of having a lot of powers to chose from when you level up, there is a much smaller, more focused list of powers to chose from. This did not bother me, and I thought that the powers they chose to include were well thought out and all of them were useful. I can understand that some people would be disappointed that there were fewer powers to chose from, however. The RPG elements of the game have been toned down somewhat.
One thing I feel that the game does really well is making you feel like a bada**. *MINOR SPOILER FOR FIRST GAME* In the first game you took down an extremely powerful foe, and as such you are a pretty tough dude (or lady). I think the game does an extremely good job of making you feel like you are tough and can handle yourself. Many of the NPCs in the game know that you saved the galaxy in the first game, and as such, I think it is appropriate that you are a capable fighter. I would have been disappointed if I had been weak at the start of this game. That said, I played in the normal difficulty, and I am certain that on the higher difficulty levels the game is much harder, as it should be.
Graphically, the game is fantastic. The film grain effect from the first game is still here, and gives the game a great look. More importantly, the horrible texture pop in from the first game is almost entirely absent.
The Mako from the first game is gone. Now when you need to go down to a planet surface to do a mission, you just fly down in a landing craft. You don't control this craft, which is perhaps a little disappointing, but it is a vast improvement on driving the horrible controlling Mako around same-looking planets searching for the good parts.
Resource gathering is also radically changed from the first game. There are basically five resources, four minerals and credits. You gain credits from completing missions, and also find them in the environments. These credits are used to buy items from the various stored located on 'civilized' planets. While you also find the minerals in the environments, the main way to gather minerals is from scanning planets. This involves moving a cursor over the planet surface from orbit, and launching probes to gather the resources when they are found. This is probably the most tedious part of the game, and I can understand that some people do not like it, although I did not mind it myself. The minerals are necessary for purchasing your various upgrades, so you do need them. As a tip, if you are going to be doing scanning, purchase the scanner upgrade immediately; it makes the process somewhat faster, although it is still a bit slow.
The conversation mechanic form the first game is carried over intact. You can que up responses in advance, making the conversation flow in an extremely natural manner. A new twist on this is the addition of interrupts. Sometimes when in a conversation you will get the option to interrupt the conversation with a paragon or renegade response by pulling the indicated trigger. For example, when a certain character was holding out information on me, I pulled the indicated renegade interrupt, at which point my character pulled a pistol and pointed it at the NPCs head, causing him to immediately give me the information I wanted. These interrupts are a great addition to the game. i really enjoyed them a lot, and could only rarely resist using them when they popped up.
Overall, this is a fantastic game. In my opinion, it is one of the best games on the system. If you liked the first game, you will most likely love this game too. I cannot recommend it highly enough. | video-games_xbox |
Great little media remote. <div id="video-block-R3FVQ6K0CXXZA5" class="a-section a-spacing-small a-spacing-top-mini video-block"></div><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/E1a8DXrwghS.mp4" class="video-url"><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/11mT5gVuMwS.png" class="video-slate-img-url"> Kinect on the Xbox One is... imperfect, at best. Voice controls, when they work, are just awesome. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. While Microsoft has slowly been improving Kinect support, it just doesn't always work.
And when voice commands don't work, you get frustrated. You pick up the controller but now have to wait for it to turn on. So what are your other options?
Besides throwing your Kinect out the window in anger, you could get the Xbox One Media Remote. It's a tiny little remote control that works specifically with Kinect to make your media playback experience a lot better.
The remote itself is pretty simple. You've got all your major buttons for navigation as well as video playback. One thing to note is that the remote itself is not intended to replace a controller. You won't find any of the ABYX buttons anywhere on this remote.
Setup is also simple, you just plop in the included AAA batteries and point it at your Xbox. It's that simple. Something to note: This will require the Kinect (or an IR sensor plugged into the Xbox) to work. Any TV controls also require your Kinect, such as the volume controls.
Once you've got it powered on, the remote allows you to navigate using the circular D-Pad, select with the inner circle, and perform your typical remote control tasks. Assuming your TV is setup with the Kinect, you can change the volume with this remote as well as change the channel on your cable box. If you aren't in your cable box, the channel up / down buttons can be used to navigate through pages on the dashboard or in the store.
My favorite feature of the remote is the OneGuide button. This allows you to access the OneGuide button from anywhere, meaning you can pull up TV listings with the click of a button - rather than screaming at your TV. Once there, you can select the channel you want to watch and the Xbox immediately pops open the TV app and changes your cable box to that channel. Simple!
Finally, the remote has an auto-lighting feature which automatically lights up the remote any time you pick it up. This really helps you find buttons in the dark and removes the need for a glow-in-the-dark button some remotes tend to have. It's a really cool feature and I'm surprised it's not mentioned a lot elsewhere.
SCORING
DESIGN - 5/5
The Media Remote feels great in the hand and is big enough that you (hopefully) won't lose it, yet small enough to not take up a ton of space. The soft-touch finish also makes it comfortable to hold and handle. The buttons are easy to access and are a breeze to use. The auto-lighting when you move the remote is also a simple, yet really cool feature.
FUNCTIONALITY - 5/5
The remote itself is fantastic. Everything is incredibly responsive and quick when navigating with the remote. It eliminates the need to pick up a controller when the Kinect doesn't work without the need to connect to the console. Setup is simple and easy and amounts to putting two AAA batteries into the compartment and pointing it at your Kinect.
OVERALL - 5/5
The Xbox One Media Remote seems like it should have been a pack in - at least in the Day One edition systems. The Kinect is great, and I really hope it gets better. However, it's not exactly a perfect product in its current state. Because of that, something like the media remote is almost necessary - unless you enjoy waiting for controllers to turn on.
It does it's job very well. For those complaining that it lacks the ABYX buttons, it is called a media remote for a reason. Most, if not all, of the media functionality on the Xbox One can be accomplished with ease using this remote. It's a great little product for a pretty decent price - it would have just been nice to see it as a pack in for early adopters! | video-games_xbox |
Customer Support. This is a review solely on their customer support. Original review has been bumped from one star to four stars, read on as to why:
I received one of these as a gift a couple months ago. As others have said, the screen is nice and big and crisp looking, and the speakers are plenty loud. If you're looking for a portable gaming setup that looks and sounds good, this is the one to get. Let me state, in advance, that I really love this product and it works fantastically for all that I need it to. There is not a single superior portable setup out there. In fact, I like this product so much that when my first one broke, I went out and bought a second one. That said, let's begin.
After having taken the case (my first one) on a trip with me, I opened it up at home to discover a glaring crack on the right side of the screen. There was no visible surface marring, but something had indented the screen so much that it was unusable. Upon further inspection it was revealed to me that my xbox controller had somehow pressed into the screen, despite having been secured in the miniature slip case bag that was included with the case and expressly designed for holding these accessories. It's possible that the big shifted around during transport, but seeing as how it was packed the exact way they instructed both in the manual and on their website, this seemed unlikely. Perhaps the accessory bags on either side of the console would be more secure had they been designed with straps to hold them down just like the console.
I contacted customer support and informed them that I was unsure if this was covered under the warranty, but that regardless I was willing to pay a nominal fee to have the screen replaced. After all, the rest of the unit was fine; the case, the speakers, the accessories. Why throw away a perfectly good unit?
Evidently, their customer support disagrees with my philosophy on not wasting components. I received this response:
"From: Russ Dermody <XXXX@XXXX>
Date: 07/05/2013 12:36 PM (GMT-05:00)
To: "<XXXX@XXXX>" <XXXX@XXXX>
Subject: Re: Halo Vanguard Repair
I am sorry to hear that!
Unfortunately broken screens are not covered under any sort of warranty as they are typically the result of a negative interaction with the product.
At this time we do not offer a repair service for our Vanguard Units.
I can, however, offer you a brand new Unit for $225.
I would just ask that you send your broken unit to me, at my cost. I would send you a shipping label via email, and you would take it and your broken unit to UPS to ship it to me at my cost.
Once I see that the unit is shipped, I would give you a promo code that would allow you to purchase your unit at the discounted price.
Let me know if this interests you!"
First off, how is it that a product that's one of their best-selling that's been out half a year already doesn't have a repair service? A product that unlike their others has not one, but two variants, a Halo version and a non-Halo version? And second, while I understand that the screen isn't covered under the warranty, I said I'd be willing to pay. By this point, I'd purchased the replacement unit already but thought, "hey, this product is so great, it'd be fantastic to have a second one to give to a friend as a gift. My buddy with his Halo Reach edition xbox would LOVE one of these". So I told them that I'd already replaced the unit, and that I'd just rather not have one sitting around with a broken screen that's useless. Their response?
From: Russ Dermody <XXXX@XXXX> [Add to Address Book]
To: XXXX@XXXX
Subject: Re: Halo Vanguard Repair
Date: Jul 8, 2013 12:23 PM
"In that case, feel free to throw the case away!"
Now admittedly this offended me, and thus I posted a one star review here. That said, less than 24 hours after my initial review, I got this response:
From: Russ Dermody <XXXX@XXXX> [Add to Address Book]
To: Case <XXXX@XXXX>
Subject: Re: Halo Vanguard Repair
Date: Jul 9, 2013 12:49 PM
Casey,
I noticed your Amazon review. Please let me clarify why our policies are the way they are.
Both the Sentry and the Vanguard are manufactured in two separate parts. The molded case, and the screen/speaker module.
Due to the compact nature of the screen/speaker module, performing a repair on it is practically impossible. It would take many many man hours to take apart the unit, carefully extract the LED display, and the re-sauder all of the connections to it.
The repair would be akin to a TV manufacturer offering a repair service on a LED tv that has speakers in it. No TV manufacturers (that I know of) offer a repair service for their LED Televisions.
I hope that clears up the issue of why we do not offer a repair service.
Second, as far as asking you to throw away the unit.
Typically, I have my customers send me back all broken units so I can send them back to my manufacturer to be recycled. I actually require my customers to do this, if they want to purchase a discounted unit because they broken theirs. I pay for the shipping each and every time.
In your case, you had already bought a new unit! I figured that I didn't want to make you go through the hassle of lugging it to UPS just so I could have it back, hence the encouragement to throw it away.
If you are still willing, please do send it back! I can send you a shipping label that would allow you to do it free of charge, and my company would certainly benefit from it! My reasoning for not asking you to, was to save you the hassle.
I hope that this has cleared up some of the misunderstandings between us.
Please feel free to email back with any and all comments, questions, or concerns.
Regards,
Russ Dermody
Frankly, while I'm still not thrilled with that solution, it's hard to complain about the feedback being that prompt, and the fact that the guy bothered to explain the situation rather than just saying "sorry, that's not in our policy" was a worthy response. Props to them for caring about customer feedback. The product is well worth it, just be certain if you break the screen to send it back to them rather than purchasing a brand new unit right away as I did. | video-games_xbox |
A good addition to the fall lineup. My initial reaction to Assassin's Creed: it's definitely a mixed bag, but with far more good than bad. The game is incredible in and of itself: unique gameplay, a compelling story, and beautiful graphics are just a few of the most striking elements, all of which present themselved from the very beginning.
The unique gameplay is part of both the bad and the good. It's tough to get the hang of, because in some cases it seems rather counterintuitive. Because it's so different from any other game, there really is no foundation for learning the scheme, which makes for a rather sharp learning curve. More than once, I've found myself saying, "I want to do this...does that involve the head or the off hand?...and do I need to lock on first?" And by the time I've figured it all out, a Templar has run me through. But I'm getting the hang of it, and as I do, it gets more and more enjoyable. The game defintely requires patience, though; every time you get even remotely suspected, the game slows to a crawl until you've managed to become anonymous again. This is certainly no
hack and slash game, and that, too, is taking a little getting used to; even it's predecessors, the Prince of Persia games, allowed for a little button mashing. But this, too, I think I can get the hang of.
The game twists and turns from the very beginning. From the time I first heard of the game until the time I put it in my Xbox 360, whenever someone asked me what the game was about, I would always respond, "Well, I think..." I never really, truly understood what the game was about, and now, having played for just over 2 hours, not much has changed: I know what has happened and I know where I am now, but have no idea where I'm headed. And I like it that way. The story is complex enough to be engrossing, but not so bad that I'm confused (at least, not yet). And that's all I'll say about the story, both because I don't want to give away any spoilers and because I don't want to look like a fool when any guesses I may make are proven wrong!
And the graphics...in my humble opinion, there is little to complain about here. Watching Altair move through the cities and landscapes is a joy; watching him dive off a tower and seeing his shadow hurtle in tandem is bliss. The NPCs, the guards, and Altair himself are all beautifully rendered. In short, this is above and beyond how a next generation game should look. It raises the bar in many respects. While it may not be the absolute prettiest game ever (I think I may still give that title to Oblivion), I'm still more than pleased to watch it.
So in the end, was it worth the money? Yes. A hundred times yes. I'm enjoying it immensely, even if I'm still in the learning stages. I've heard great things about the ending, and I'm looking forward to it - although perhaps not as much as scaling every building I possibly can to find all the flags, which I'm sure will take me at least weeks. Definitely, do yourself a favor and check out the game ASAP. | video-games_xbox |
You don't need to be an Aerospace Engineer to play this game. ...But it helps. You really don't need to have taken a course in orbital mechanics to understand this game or know what the Lagrange position 3 is in order to storm a space station located at L3. You don't have to have a broad understanding of the cosmos to enjoy this game, but there is so much depth to be enjoyed by those who do.
Mass Effect was a bit nostalgic for me. It reminded me that long long ago when I was a kid I wanted to be an astronaut and explore distant planets. This game lets you do that.
This is a great way for shooter fans to be introduced to role playing games. I've always been turned off by RPG's because of turn based fighting. It's so boring and unrealistic. "Ok I'll hit you once and stand back and wait for you to strike me." When this game was first announced everyone hyped Knights of the Old Republic, also made by Bioware. Since Mass Effect looked so awesome I had to check out KotOR. It was an excellent game with an excellent plot, however at the very beginning I was so disappointed when I turned the first corner and the game paused for me to queue up my attacks. Mass Effect solves that problem. Third person over the shoulder shooting is what the Next Gen is all about.
Don't be fooled though. At its core this is still more of an RPG than a shooter, which means lots of dialogue. Unlike older RPG's where you have to read through lines and lines of dialogue, the dialogue in Mass Effect plays out like a movie. My only complaint is that you can't pause the game during a conversation. If another character is talking and your phone rings all you can do is mute your TV and miss what is being said.
Edit: Actually you can pause your game during a conversation. Hit the big silver and green button in the middle of your controller and the dialog freezes. This brings up the dashboard blade. Just be careful not to hit Y.
Mass Effect isn't really an RPG and it's really not a shooter. It isn't defined by any one genre of video games. The best way to describe it is an interactive sci-fi movie.
If you're still unsure about dropping your hard earned cash on this game after reading all of the positive reviews and seeing all of the awards Mass Effect has won, then check out KotOR. You can now get it for a fraction of the price it was originally released for, and it's backwards compatible with Xbox 360. If you do check out KotOR, then do yourself a favor and play the game to completion. You will NOT be disappointed. | video-games_xbox |
Great Bundle Overall. There are many people talking about this bundle, saying that it's not worth it because the console has no special design. That's not a big deal at all. You have to look at the overall value you get with this bundle. The console itself has the Jasper chipset built-in, the hard drive is the largest available (250GB) with a custom Final Fantasy XIII engraving, there are two controllers (always safe to have a back-up), and the game itself is fantastic. I do feel that it would have been nice if they could have replaced the second controller with either HD or HDMI cables, but the value you get with this bundle is still worth it.
I was previously on a 20GB Pro pack from when those were the best available and this bundle was the upgrade I needed. The hard drive difference is the best upgrade yet. I am now able to install Final Fantasy XIII (along with a large amount of other games) onto my hard drive so that my console will perform better and at cooler temperatures. I'm sure people would think this bundle would be sweet if the console was designed, but once again, it's no big deal. No matter what color or design you put on it, in the end it will still be an Xbox360. I also believe that Microsoft decided to not design the console because of problems relating to repairs. The repair process for a special designed Xbox360 takes longer than ones without a design. For example, if you have the special edition Modern Warfare 2 console, you will actually have to wait for you console to be fixed rather than get it quickly replaced.
If you have a high interest in Final Fantasy and need to upgrade (or getting an Xbox360 for the first time), go ahead and get this bundle you won't regret it. If you're on a 120GB Elite than you should either sell it and get this bundle (if you want it bad) or just stick with it. The bundle is great for people still on an Arcade or 20GB Pro console from years back.
Pros
+Great value
+Jasper chipset
+Large hard drive (250GB + special engraving)
+High rated game included
Cons
-No HD cables
KEY FACTS (things for gamers to notice):
>Headset included is in black (while console and controllers are white)
>For the last time - THE CHIPSET IS JASPER
>About 6GB of memory is reserved for the console, giving you 244GB (still a lot) | video-games_xbox |
Same as RB1, but still good. I had high expectations for this game, thinking that Harmonix would have learned from the first and improved. After playing the first song I was very disappointed to see that the gameplay is almost identical to RB1. I had hoped for some smoother guitar mechanics, because I believe that the Guitar Hero guitar blows this away, however it is exactly the same as the first, it is still hard to do things such as hammer ons, solos I can easily play in Guitar Hero I fail on this game. It's like you are required to hit the notes too exact and if you are a millisecond off it won't register. Also I hate that there is no sound or anything to tell you when you miss a note. I could be shredding away on a solo thinking I was right on, but in fact slightly missing all of the notes and failing the song.
The drums I think have improved, I found the songs to be a little more manageable. I just hate that there is such a huge gap between difficulties. Some songs I will fail almost instantly on hard, then on medium I am able to get over 90%
The song list is very impressive, and I was pleased to see that the beginning songs are a little harder than RB1. It was also kind of cool that all of my downloaded songs automatically appeared on the song list.
All of the game modes from RB1 return, and are almost the same as on RB1. They took out solo mode and added it into tour mode which is cool if you are playing both by yourself and with friends. I have never been a fan of tour mode though, I am forced to play the same songs over again. Then I get fans which supposedly mark your progress, and cash to buy new outfits. I don't know about most people but I liked it when I beat a song I was rewarded with a new song to play, and not forced to play that same song and 3 others I've already played 5 times, then get some new songs.
There is a new mode called battle of the bands which is kinda like a high score challenge for certain songs, and there is a challenge mode which both seemed kind of pointless. Also there is a drum trainer, I tried and thought it would help to play the songs better, but it really didn't help anything. And NO it does not teach you to play real drums, I teach real drums and all my students tell me they can play rockband on expert, but it is very different. I had also heard that I would be able to play along with songs from my hard drive. I was very disappointed to find that all it does is lets you free drum, and you turn on the music from the x-box menu. The music is not integrated into the game at all, you are just playing over the song that is not in any way connected to rock band
Overall I think that this game should have been called Rock Band 1.5 because it does not at all feel like a new game. There is almost no improvements, and the only thing you are really paying for is the new songs. I will most likely be selling this game after I beat it, to get money for Guitar Hero World Tour which looks much more promising. | video-games_xbox |
Good story, controls need improvement. The gameplay on Silent Hill 2 has some truly creepy moments. Not necessarily scary in a shock value type of way, but unsettling. It sets the mood quite well. The upsides of the game are the mood and a reasonably fun plot to sift your way through. No reason to go through it all here. Lots of walkthroughs are online already. Individual people are well rendered and monsters are wonderfully disturbing in their appearance and behavior. Puzzles vary well in difficulty depending on the level, but none are so hard that you'll pull your hair out or give up.
There are a few downsides, though. Although the graphics are relatively well done, the non-working sections of the game, such as furniture, building fronts, etc., seem too 2-dimensional. The game is quite linear, forcing you to go down certain roads, do things in a certain order. While this is sometimes necessary to this type of game, it's quite pronounced in SH2. My main problem with this game is the controller. It feels like it was lifted straight from an arcade stick arrangement. James is a real pain in the backside to move around efficiently using just one stick and the occasional button. The game takes no advantage of the Xbox controller's full capabilities. I must be a bit spoiled by Halo, which has a superb controller setup. Konami should be taking notes. One last thing that is truly annoying is the view angle that keep shifting at random (and usually quite inopportune) moments. Just a constant view of what James is looking at would be preferable to the existing arrangement. The left trigger, which is supposed to shift to this view, only works some of the time. Most of the rest of the time, you're watching James, not the creepy scenery... and the creepy scenery IS worth watching.
Overall, if you can overcome a low-grade controller setup and not a lot of flexibility, the game does provide a lot of player enjoyment and I would recommend it, though not for young children. | video-games_xbox |
Ode to the Undead. Despite many flaws and problems I have with this game, Dead Rising is overall very fun and a must have for any Xbox 360 owner who, like myself, prides themselves on maintaining the essential video game library. I rarely purchase games new and I wait to hear what critics and gamers have to say about a game before plunking down $50 or $60. Call me cheap, but for that kind of money, the game better rock. The only games for Xbox and Xbox 360 that I bought without waiting for reviews are Halo 2, GTA Vice City, Oblivion, and Gears of War. I waited a while before I decided to buy Dead Rising. I spent less than $30 on the game with delivery and I feel that the game is well worth it. I definitely would have been disappointed if the game was $59. Anyway, enough about how cheap I am, here's my review of the game...
I've only played through two or three of the main "cases" of the game and have "restarted" several times. The best part of the game is definitely trying to kill as many zombies as you can without being harmed. I can't wait to unlock "survival mode". The story seems pretty good, but the dialog is a little lacking, i.e. "Zombies, huh? Had feeling you'd show up!" Now I get the feeling that Zombies might show up all the time but, I rarely think this out loud.
The weapons in this game are plentiful and many are powerful (lawn mowers, benches, lead pipes) and some are just silly (soda cans). There are definitely repeat zombies which kind of sucks (they couldn't find a way to vary 53,000 enemies a little better? The fact that some dialog appears as text during the game and not cutscenes is also kinda whack. There are several save points, but only one save slot. However, you can choose to save to the hard drive or another alternate save such as a memory chip. I really hope to finish this game (including most of the achievements) and find out how these zombies came to be. | video-games_xbox |
Disappointing. I'm going to offer a dissenting opinion here and say that Grand Theft Auto (or at least this version of it for the Xbox) is not quite as wonderful as some of its fans would have you believe. I picked up the Double Pack after hearing friends who had PS2's rave about these games for years. I also read a few reviews that said even though the graphics may be a little out of date, the gameplay remained very compelling. Well, GTA may have been groundbreaking in its day, but I was less than impressed after making several attemps to wade into these two games. The graphics, even though they may have been updated a little more for the Xbox, are bad. Distractingly bad. The cars look okay, but the buildings in the distance (when you can see them) remind me of the background of a Sega Genesis game. I am not kidding. You'll see the same three or four characters repeated over and over again on the street, saying the same things. The way the people move is also very cartoonish and off-putting. The control scheme is frustratingly awkward as well. Whoever translated them over from the PS2 controller to the Xbox's did a horrible job. The combat system is poorly designed, and the way in which you target and fire guns leaves much to be desired. Finally, within my first fifteen or twenty minutes of playing the game I noticed two glaring bugs, the first of which was a loss of sound and the second a slowing down of the framerate to a glacial pace. Both of these occurred in Vice City, for what it's worth. If you're an Xbox owner and have not played GTA before, I would recommend just renting these games to see if they're for you instead of just buying them on the basis of word of mouth. The dialogue in the game is pretty funny and driving around the city is fun, but the missions are fairly repetitious and get to be more of a chore than anything else. Ultimately I found the booklets that came with each game more entertaining than the game itself. | video-games_xbox |
Highly Underrated . I feel so very sorry for this game. Why? Because this is a great game, people just don't know about it. Even I didn't know about it until I played 60 min demo through Playstation Network (also available on 360). In demo they allow you to play through a whole "dungeon" (a huge level). Once I played it, I liked it so much that I had to play the whole game. Now that I have finished the game once, here is what I think about it.
Pros.
CREATIVELY DESIGNED WORLD: The thing that I liked the most about this game is it consists of 6 huge "dungeons" (huge stages like in Zelda games) connected with by a even bigger open world. Each of these dungeons is very creatively designed with plenty of puzzles (don't worry not boring ones). They can very from greenery filled open fields, destroyed towns, beautiful swamps, gothic towers, magma caves, deserts and more. Such variety in stages really encourages you to explore more and move forward in the game so you can unlock more stages. Just loved it.
TONS OF WEAPONS: You start out with just a sword, but then you can purchase, find and unlock A LOT MORE short, mid and long rage weapons as you progress in the game (such as deadly scythe, gauntlet, revolver etc.). Furthermore, anything you see lying on the ground can also be used as weapon (Cars, pipe etc.). Also, certain weapons such as shuriken can target multiple enemies and objects. Their creative use is a MUST to progress through the game. All of these weapons can be leveled up and customized (by use or purchase) which adds a great RPG element to this game.
INTRIGUING GADGETS: Other than weapons you will also obtain variety of gadgets in this game. Some of these gadgets are horn, grapple chain and a HORSE (YES THERE IS HORSE RIDE IN THIS GAME). There are some cooler gadgets that are unlocked toward end. Really don't want to spoil it for you, but if you want a hint look at the title of this review. Creative use of gadget is required to progress through the game.
INTIMIDATING BOSSES: Each dungeon has a mini bosses and when you get through the whole dungeon, you are presented with very imaginatively designed MAJOR BOSS. Let me tell you one thing. These bosses are no push over. Beating them takes combination of skills and creative thinking. I personally enjoyed battle with each of them (almost all of them, except one).
DIVERSITY IN ENEMIES: A lot of heck and slash these days have the same looking enemies from the beginning to the end. Fortunately, this game offers variety of different enemies. When I speak diversity, I am not taking about size, shape and color, but also strategy required to beat them. If you just go around button mashing, you won't go anywhere. A lot of these enemies require you to dodge, block and perform certain stunts (for example light your shuriken with fire and then hit them with it) to critically hit them.
FANTASY NOVEL LIKE STORY: While all may not enjoy it, this game has a deep, unique and suspenseful novel like story. You have angles, demons, guardians and what not. I would describe more, but don't want to spoil it for you.
AWESOME VOICE ACTING: While the central character is a bit dry (for a reason), all the others have done wonderful job (especially a character that is your colleague). I don't know the particular names, but some Hollywood grade actors are doing voice acting, so you won't be disappointed in this area.
CONS:
FEELS LOW BUDGET AT POINTS: While the most of the game looks gorgeous because it is competing with games such as God of War 3, at points it will feel cheap. However, don't get me wrong, for most part it will amaze you.
DIAPPOINTED BY FINAL BOSS: While all the other bosses are SPECTACULAR, the final boss was somewhat disappointing. I truly can't tell you much without spoiling.
GOOD STUFF IN THE END: I am talking about gadgets. Some of the best gadgets are given to you in the very end. I truly wish I could have had them earlier.
CONCLUSION:
Contrary to minor cons, this game has a lot to offer as it takes the best games out of popular games such as Zelda, Devil May Cry, God of War and Portal (YES PORTAL). I totally thought it was worth the price so at very least you should at least give it a try. | video-games_xbox |
Great Look. When I first purchased the case, I thought it would be very difficult to put together, but have a very nice look afterwards. I was partially right, but also had other large issues. One issue I found to be very annoying was the wireless adapter. I literally had to break one of the two prongs in order to put the adapter on.
A large concern is that for the newer models of the Xbox 360, you might not be able to use your clear DVD cover. I put the case together correctly, but due to the odd positioning of the unit I was unable to play DVDs at all. My DVD drive was not specified when following the tutorial. I had to take my console apart to put the OEM DVD housing back on the DVD drive and put the case back together again.
By far the largest, most annoying issue, was the incompatibility with a hard drive. If you put the grey panels back on the sides, you will not be able to use your HDD. Even after breaking a few more of the plastic prongs on the sides, the HDD still refused to be read. I then had to take the console apart again to look for a problem such as a plug that was pulled out. I plugged the HDD in while the case was off, and the HDD was read just fine. I put the case back together again and put the HDD back in and once again, it refused to be read. I had to totally remove the side panel in order for it to be read again. This works fine, except that my HDD is not secured.
Past these issues, the product looks great. The lights give off a nice luster and you can see everything in the case. I have never taken an Xbox 360 apart before and it was fairly easy to take apart. The only real issue I had were certain pieces not working, such as the clear DVD cover.
Would I buy this case again? Probably not. Was it worth the trouble this time? I think so.
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Update: 19 May 2012
After a few months of using this case and buying other mods, I have discovered that there are ways to actually get the case to snap together correctly. I still can't use my HDD with the panels, but I was able to get the case apart and back together again much easier than the first time. I think the reason I had so much trouble with it is because I had never taken a 360 apart before then. I installed a Talismoon Whisper Fan and it fit perfectly with the case. If you have ever taken a 360 apart, you shouldn't find it too difficult to install. | video-games_xbox |
The long awaited sequel delivers. The Good: Amazing story, memorable characters, subtle details really stand out, superb graphics, fun online play
The Bad: Crappy car handling, minor control issues, online lags more than it should, nothing earth shattering but perfected
I remember playing GTA III when it first came out. I didn't have a PS2 yet and I went over to a friend's house and played it for hours every single day. While we mostly just messed around it was something I never played before and was just so addictive. Thankfully GTA IV goes back to it's roots and brings us to good ol' Liberty City. You play as none other than Niko Bellic who is a Russian immigrant who came to LC with his cousin Roman to start a new life. The game's main attractions are it's story for once. GTA IV has a superb story that makes you want to keep playing. Gone are the lukewarm stories from previous GTAs where only the main character is the main attraction with just OK side characters. In previous GTAs you never really got a good feeling of the employers due to the lack built up story. You were just in and out of the short cut scenes only knowing what to really do. This kind of was solved in San Andreas, but even then only a select few were really fleshed out. In IV you feel every character in the game and there are tons of plot twists and it really keeps the game fresh through every single mission.
On another note, the graphics are amazing. While not Assassin's Creed or BioShock amazing they're really good. It's mainly the subtle details though such as people now put their blinkers on, cars are damaged in real time now with realistic physics so half broken fenders and bumpers sway as you turn the car, the paint can get scraped up, crowd AI is more efficient (yet not by much), better enemy AI (still not by much), further draw distance, everything has high-res textures, bump mapping and the whole next-gen works. There are a few things that they stripped away such as the whole working out system, swimming underwater (you can still swim though!), and territories. There are other subtle details such as the internet you can now use. It's a virtual made up internet, but it's still as funny as hell and has a dating system (yes it's still here) implemented on the dating website. You can get emails for side missions from employers as well. You can now take taxis around the city and either watch them drive your skip it if you want. This really helps a lot if you are tired of driving everywhere. There is also a new route system where the game will plot the safest and most legal course to your destination. Red is a target, blue is a friendly, green is a waypoint you made on your map, and yellow is an objective. This is probably one of the better additions because it keeps your from getting lost during time sensitive missions.
Another thing is the revamped wanted system. You now have flashing "zones" for every star. The more stars the bigger the circle will get on your radar that you have to escape. Cops are now showed as flashing blue and red blips and copters are now flashing X's. While we're talking about characters again the voice acting is amazing. I really felt like I was watching bits of a movie every time there was a cut scene. The characters are really fleshed out here every...single...one. You'll remember every character in the 60+ hour game and that's a really hard thing to achieve. Rockstar really went the extra 20 miles with this game and you can just feel it.
The game is huge as well, while not as huge as San Andreas it's about as big as GTA III yet it's also big as in taller as well. You can fly planes, and copters again in here and while it's a lot easier than San Andreas it's still not very fun. Speaking of controls they are more refined this time and the auto aim is a lot better yet there's still that stupid camera! Switching targets is NOT very easy. You have to press the right stick EXACTLY left or right or you won't switch targets. Whenever you do lock on Niko always aims for the wrong persons and ends with cheap deaths and what have you. The cars are also a big pain because they just don't feel right. They all feel really heavy and they slide way too much no matter what car you use. You try to put the brakes on and your car will slide and slide and you'll miss your turn, and the same goes for the handbrake. You hit it and your car spins out a few times no matter how good you are with the handling. I found this very annoying with the driving missions because it would lead to cheap and frustrating failures.
Apart from all this the game as 16 player Xbox LIVE support. You have tons of game modes from deathmatch, to cops and robbers. In cops and robbers it's pretty self explanatory. You all get in a car and try to kill each other. This is also very fun yet annoying because the game can lag a lot especially with people who have crappy connections. It also may take awhile to start a game due to everyone wanting 16 players and they just won't start the game. Aside from the minor issues GTA IV is probably game of the year worthy, but it doesn't do anything as ground breaking as GTA III did. It just perfects it 100% this time and gives us what we've always wanted. The perfect GTA game. | video-games_xbox |
Won't dethrone the leaders anytime soon, but still a solid dance game with some nice innovations. The first question to ask is--with Dance Central 2 being the best "technical dance instruction" game out there and Just Dance 3 being the best "dance party game" out there, is there really room for a third dance game? Maximum Games seems to think so.
I admit, I had very low expectations for this game. First, a $20 price point at launch usually means the kiss of death for a game; after years of buying Wii shovelware I look very suspiciously on games that are priced this low. But then I noticed the developer was Lightning Fish games based out of the UK. They've developed games such as NewU Fitness First (an excellent workout game for the Wii which unfortunately was marketed very poorly by Ubisoft here in the US), Get Fit with Mel B (an excellent workout game for the PS3), and the upcoming Adidas MiCoach. So, I figured I'd keep an open mind.
When you start out the game you're greeted by Mel B (better known to some of us as Scary Spice), who'll be your host throughout the game. It's the real her, not a cartoon recreation of her. She'll start asking you how many dancers you have. You can choose 1, 2, or 3-8. Then you choose "Normal" mode where you can play one song at a time, or "Survival" mode, where you keep playing song after song until you get too tired you can't go any longer (the system will decide by keeping track of your performance level for you).
You can have Mel choose a song for you, or you can choose one yourself. You can choose to dance to the entire song or to a short version of about 2-3 minutes.
The track list was surprisingly strong, especially for a $20 game. The songs include the following (difficulty level is listed after each song). As with many other Kinect games, navigating the interface can get annoying, but it's passable.
Party Classics:
- Maroon 5- This Love - 1 of 5
- Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive - 2 of 5
- Pixie Lott - Boys and Girls - 2 of 5
- Rose Royce - Carwas) - 3 of 5
- Chumbawamba - Tubthumping - 4 of 5
Pop:
- Pixie Lott - Mama Do - 1 of 5
- The Spice Girls - Wannabe - 2 of 5
- Mika - Love Today - 2 of 5
- Just Jack - Starz in their Eyes - 3 of 5
- Fergie - Quando Quando Quando - 3 of 5
- Holly Valance - Kiss Kiss - 3 of 5
- Lady Gaga - Poker Face - 5 of 5
Club:
- CeCe Peniston - Finally - 1 of 5
- Yolanda Be Cool and DCup - We No Speak Americano - 1 of 5
- Sarah Vaughan - Peter Gunn Remix - 2 of 5
- Fatboy Slim - The Rockafeller Skank - 3 of 5
- Kelly Rowland feat. Davig Guetta - Commander - 5 of 5
- Mousse T. and Suzie - All Nite Long (D.I.S.C.O.) - 5 of 5
80s:
- OMD - Enola Gay - 1 of 5
- Culture Club - Karma Chameleon - 2 of 5
- Cameo - Word Up! - 3 of 5
- Spandau Ballet - Gold - 3 of 5
Latin:
- Pauling Rubino - Y Yo Sigo Aqui - 2 of 5
- Noelia - Candela - 2 of 5
Urban:
- 50 Cent - In Da Club - 2 of 5
- A.R. Rahman and the Pussycat Dolls feat. Nicole Scherzinger - Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny) - 4 of 5
- Pussycat Dolls - Don't Cha - 4 of 5
- Rihanna - Disturbia - 4 of 5
After you choose a song, the first thing you're asked to do is to take a picture of your face and input your name, which will be used to identify you throughout the game.
Then, you see the image of a dance floor with four dancers, and you as the fifth dancer. One thing I really liked about Let's Dance, that neither Dance Central nor Just Dance have, is that it uses your actual video image, not a silhouetted image nor a cartoon avatar (this is something I loved about Kung Fu High Impact as well). So you'll literally be dancing along with four other dancers as if you're in a girl band (I gave myself the name Chubby Spice).
The song will start and the dancers will all start dancing (you have to follow the lead dancer standing in front). As with all the other dancing games your goal is to mirror her moves exactly. The choreography is not bad at all, it's along the lines of what you'll see on music videos of boy bands and girl bands where five dancers are dancing together.
As with the other dancing games, there are also icons that represent different moves. The icons don't really help you at first, but as you play each song a few times you'll learn what series of moves goes with which icon. The more accurately you perform each series of moves, the higher your score will be for that portion of the song.
One thing I wasn't crazy about at first was that there was just too much going on. There are lights flashing and constantly moving animations and general confusion in the background that at the beginning really distracted me from following the dancer's moves.
But I have to admit, once I got used to that it was very, very cool to see my own image on screen, without the feeling of disconnectedness of Just Dance nor the lag of Dance Central. During the few times I matched the on-screen dancers' motions perfectly it was really a fun feeling, probably the closest I'll ever come to dancing with a girl band (let's hope anyway).
The one question I always try to find out when playing these dance games is--how good is the motion detection. The way I test it out is, I'll choose a song and try my hardest to match the moves. Then, I'll play the song again and just do jumping jacks through the whole song. On "I Will Survive", I got a score of 19127 (a B) doing the real moves and 10071 (an F) doing the jumping jacks. So it's safe to say the motion control accuracy and scoring are pretty good.
I wish the game had the ability to take and share videos, but you can't. The only thing it does is take three "snapshots" through the game, and Mel B will comment on how well you matched the other dancers during those three moments. It would also have been nice to have the ability to play online, but perhaps the bandwidth needs of transmitting a real video image between two Xboxes would be too much.
Of course, the obvious question is--how does this compare with Just Dance 3 and Dance Central 2? I'd say that Just Dance is still the king for "fun", and Dance Central is still the king of "authentic and accurate dance moves". But Let's Dance is a game that's much, much more original, responsive, and fun than I was expecting, with a great track list, decent motion controls, and presentation that's closer to "virtual reality" than any title before it. At only $20, I'd say it's worth trying out. | video-games_xbox |
No Association Mode. I really want to give this 2 1/2 stars, because I don't like it, but I'm still playing it.
This whole game feels rushed. Editing rosters is a pain, I have to upload and download every single time I want to make a change, and good lord don't choose the wrong option, because you'll either have to sit through a 120 second cut screen before you can back out of the game mode, or just restart your XB1.
The most frustrating is that I got my XB1 for my birthday, and promptly gave my 360 to my nephew before I got 2k14 up and going. Now I want my 360 back just so I can play the older console's version of the game. I had my rosters right, and most importantly, I had almost completed my second season in the association mode, a game mode that DOESN'T EVEN EXIST in the XB1 import. I have to play a gimmicky rip-off version of the association in MyGM. I don't mind the rip-off in game purchases. I can get over the crappy menus and layout of this game. I can't get over the fact that my old 360 on it's crappy disk with its limited storage and dated graphics has a more robust playing option than this shiny new console and it's crappy quick-to-the-market version of the flagship NBA console game. Good lord it is frustrating.
Now, on to the good (yes there is some). The game looks amazing. They probably tried to do too much with the lame in game interviews, but it does show promise. Just maybe if the Thunder are down 17 at the half, ask a more pertinent question than the cookie cutter crap about does Russell Westbrook feel like he can drive by his guy.
The gameplay is awesome. The computer starts out unbelievably good in my experience, I've seen them go the first quarter shooting above 90%, but it seems to even back out over the course of the game, and it keeps it competitive, even against overmatched teams.
One thing that does bother me to no end is the stupid technical foul for bad language. I have a 4 and a 2 year old, and multiple time the Kinect misunderstood whatever it was they were saying as something else and called a tech on me. Then I politely told me kids to go to their room and taught the Kinect what real foul language is.
Long review short: The game plays and looks great, but bottom line is 2KSports released a less than full game and charged a full price, and that isn't cool with me. If you are playing on an older console's version right now, hold off on upgrading and wait until 2k15 comes out and see if they fixed these issues then. | video-games_xbox |
Best part of this game is the commercial. I have yet to play multiplayer due to the fact that I am currently deployed, so I am only reviewing the campaign mode.
I purchased BF4 30OCT and was pretty excited to get my hands on it. BF3 was a great game. Very solid for a game using a brand new gaming engine(Frostbite). BF3 had some bugs, which was to be expected and were easy to work around. So with the release of BF4, I expected EA to have worked out the bugs and glitches. I was completely wrong. I counted five separate times that I had to complete restate a level due to glitches. The most memorable was when I was running through an open door and hit an invisible wall. This invisible wall teleported me across the room and glued me to the wall. I was able to run in place and jump but could not break free of the wall. Another notable glitch, which forced me to have to state a new game, was in the China Sea level (level 3). Basics of the level: get off the sinking aircraft carrier. To do this you have to take one of the Chinese assault boats and then race back to your ship. As you get close to your ship a helicopter appears and attacks. Well this helo dove at me and then straight into the water. Then it proceeded to attack from below. At this point there was nothing I could do, because as it dove into the water, the game did an auto-save. I could list more glitches, but it would take me longer to list them than it did to finish the game. (Like that segway into another problem with the game?)
This game is unbelievable short. I only have a couple hours a night that I am free to play games. It took me roughly 8hrs, on hard difficulty, to complete BF4. So if you don't play online I would advise you not to purchase this title. BF3, on hard, was a nightmare to beat. If 2 or 3 bullets hit you, you were dead. In BF4, I took direct fire from a tank's 50cal machine gun as well as it's main barrel and did not die. Remember this was the hardest difficulty. I can't wait to see how utterly stupid easy difficulty will be.
As for the story... I have no idea what it's about. Story goes as follows: Chinese attack, you run into an undercover American Spec Ops, pickup some important Chinese guy(no idea why he's important), get captured and end up in the Russian Gulags (if you don't know what that is, you should stop playing video games and read a little history), escape from Gulags, now Russians attack you, blow up a dam to destroy Russian SAM site, fall from the top of dam as it falls apart (WTH? how do you survive that?) then apparently Russians morph into Chinese, end up back on the American aircraft carrier, mystery Chinese guy steps out and talks to attacking Chinese, Chinese assault teams turn back and go home, Chinese war ship continues attack, take speed boat out to destroy Chinese warship, bomb doesn't go off, sacrifice one of two remaining team members... GAME OVER. I would say that that is the story in a nut shell, but then I would be a liar. That is the entire story.
When taking cover and firing, be prepared to shoot the hell out of your cover... even when you rest your weapon on top of a wall for support. Don't try to shoot between trees, because there is invisible Kevlar netting that will catch your round. So to kill the enemy you must stand out in the open. Also watch out for the grenade snipers. They can hit you at 150yrds with a grenade. Doesn't matter if you are inside a building. That thing is coming through the window and will hit you.
EA obviously spent all their time working on new multiplayer games. They should have just built this game as multiplayer only. If you are thinking about purchasing BF4 I would advise removing it from your cart and purchasing something else. | video-games_xbox |
I did my best to see it through. I stood by and patiently waited for the game to "mature" after it was launched. I kept playing the game while everyone else around me, including my friends, constantly talked about the short, underdeveloped, and lackluster plot. I told myself, it will flesh itself it out over time. Give the developer some time. Slowly, I ground out my gear....days weeks, months went by. All the while watching other players and myself get completely random pieces of kit, often not even for my class....but I held out trusting Bungie would fix it in the near future with patches....more time went by, underdeveloped, poorly balanced/implemented "world event's" went by...such as the Iron Banner, and Queen's Wrath....which only to helped me further realize how poorly designed underdeveloped this game was at launch.
I have come to these conclusions.
1. This game punishes you if you don't play every weekend and participate in the events/strikes, you'll miss out on significant events, special vendors, and other things if you can't make your schedule fit the
game's schedule.
2. Everything is tied to you "light" level/ gear...IMHO this is a completely broken system...which seemingly gets reset with each
update/expansion
3. As mentioned in my second point, most of the progress you make will be wiped out/reset when each new expansion comes out, therefore if you don't buy the expansion.....why bother playing? unless you like being
treated like a second class gamer for not having the expansion...
I had such high hopes, and honestly I may have over-set my own expectations. I did my best to see it through, but its clear to me know that this was a half baked game, with no real endgame at the moment. It's a very pretty and polished shooter with great mechanics, but ultimately, it the same thing ...over and over again..and again. I am glad there are those of us who enjoy this game, and cheers to them, but for me its been to frustrating to enjoy playing anymore. | video-games_xbox |
it's good, but it doesn't meet all its expectations. When you pick this game up expecting an epic tale of unimaginable proportions that provides everything it was supposed to, all you can expect is to be let down. For one, the game is far too short. Playing through all the quests and getting all the secrets takes you a couple days, and that's even if you take your time. Secondly, the level up system is bland. From what I had heard, I expected it to be more like real life, where the more you do something, the better you get. Instead, we get these lame experience orbs that we have to collect and sell to get level ups. Thirdly, the environments in the game, though definitely easy on the eyes, don't change at all! I was promised to see seasonal and weather changes! Also, I expected more character customization. It's boring knowing that if you go evil, this is EXACTLY how you'll look, or if you're good that you'll turn out EXACTLY like this. I wanted something more to the effect of "If you're evil like THIS, you end up like THAT, but if you're evil like THAT, you end up like THIS." Overall, this game is an entertaining hack 'n' slash that'll steal a couple days from your life, but nothing more. Sometimes I wonder, if, had the people who made Morrowind (which is similar to Fable, except that the area you get to explore is probably [no exagerrations] ten times the size of what you get to see in Fable, there's more character customization, and a better level up system. Also, however unimportant it may be to anyone else, Morrowind also has different weather conditions for the different regions)teamed up with Peter Molyneux and his crew, if this game would've turned out to be the masterpiece it should've been. This game is good, but I would recommend renting it before you're sure you want to give away fifty bucks for something worth two days (Morrowind was also substantially longer, having 80+ hours of gameplay). | video-games_xbox |
READ before purchasing. Not sure where to begin. I feel I am rather thorough when I buy things, reading as much as I can, so that I make an educated choice. Bottom line, I would not recommend this stick to anyone, except for those that understood fully what they were getting with this purchase.
First off, the L2 and R2 buttons do not work, period. There are mods you can get for older stick, including autodetect, and the L2 and R2 buttons work perfectly. Not on this stick, which is dumbfounding. A brand new device, supposedly designed for the Xbox One, and two buttons do not work in any mode, including the root Xbox One menus.
This brings up point number 2, out of well over 100 games I have for the Xbox One, this stick is literally recognized by 1. Yes, one single game that I own is capable of using this stick, and that game is Killer Instinct, which also happens to be a game I simply don't play, as there are too many great fighting games on my PS4. This stick will not even move around the game menus of any other game, Xbox One native, or backwards compatible.
Point number 3, was just mentioned at the end of point #2, and that is the inability to use this stick with any of the backwards compatible titles. Not just the great fighting games released on last gen, but also the old school arcade gamessuch as Pac-man, Galaga, side scrolling sh'mups, etc.. These games are a huge reason for my buying a $200 stick for my console, even though I already have some fantastic sticks from the previous generation.
So, sadly, this stick was a complete and utter disappointment, one that has been returned. From what I understand the stick also works with MKX, but I have that on the PS4, and that system allows last gen sticks to be used. The stick itself is well made, and feels great, so if it is acceptible to you, to use it in only a couple of games, and also not get functionality from all of the buttonsthen by all means buy the stick. Just know going in what you are getting for your money, because had I known this going in I would not have wasted my time making the purchade in the first place.
Edited 06\11\16
OK, well, I have found a fully functioning solution for this problem. There is an add-on mod board, called the Brook Universal Fighting board, which is essentially an auto detecting pcb, that replaces the stock pcb of any fight stick you may have for the Pc, PS3/4, and Xbox One/360, and makes it compatible with all 5 of the systems I just listed. It also auto detects which system you plug it into, so no need to push buttons or switches to make it work.
BUT, and this is a big BUT, this board takes care of all of the complaints I listed in the first part of this review. It also works with every backwards compatible game I have tried it on, on the Xbox one, which is huge for me. There is also a daughter board made by Jasen's Customs, called the EZ, that in conjunction with the Brook, allows you to add the Brook to either the Hori RAP 4 Premium VLX, as well as the Mad Cats TE2, without cutting any wires, allowing you to restore your stick to stock, very easily, if you wish. I have not installed one in my TE2, yet, but have in my VLX, and it is literally flawless, working perfectly with everything I have thrown at it. I would suggest you purchase a ps4 stick of your choice, to pair with the Brook, as the Brook includes touchpad compatibility, and most of the newer ps4 sticks include the touchpad. The Xbox one version does not. But, if you have a previous gen stick, that you have built perfect to your tastes, the Brook will now make your stick compatible with latest gen systems.
If you read the first half of my review, you will know my complaints centered strictly on the functionality of this stick, but that I was very clear in saying the quality of the stick itself was fantastic. Well, the Brook board resolves all of the functionality complaints that I made, every one of them. | video-games_xbox |
A Franchise Mode Review. Disclaimer: I am writing this review as a former player of Head Coach '09 and a fan of franchise football over control of individual players. It is absolutely essential that you read Josh Looman's post on EA.com about this game's franchise mode: [...]. You won't find any of this explained in the game or in the Prima player's guide. Even this post is incomplete in so far as it doesn't explain how to use some of the new features (like scouting).
General Observations:
Madden 12 is an improvement over Madden 10's franchise mode. I haven't played Madden 11. Most of the features that made Head Coach so enjoyable are here, plus a few others that Head Coach lacked. But it is still clear that franchise mode, despite Josh Looman's involvement, still plays second fiddle in the Madden franchise. Looman did Head Coach '09 and did a very good job. He also does a very good job here but as he says in the above-linked post, in Head Coach '09 his team "created the most in-depth career mode game ever."
Commentary:
I agree with other reviewers. The commentary is Madden 12 is terrible. You might as well turn it off and put on some music. You hear completely ridiculous things unrelated to the play on the field. For example, I am winning a game as the Panthers 40-10 with under a minute to go, the ball in my possession inside the opponent's red zone. Cam Newton kneels to run out the clock. The commentary which follows is that my quarterback feels the need to take the ball himself and looks rattled. Another incredibly stupid remark: that Cam Newton and Sanzenbacher have been playing together for years - both are rookies.
The words sound disjointed - it's a terrible job and EA should be ashamed of themselves.
What adds insult to injury is that you will hear the entire repertoire each game. Be prepared to hear Chris Collinsworth tell you several times a game how he would not want to face a defensive lineman because they're "big and nasty" or how much he hates return specialists who dance around and try to be playmakers.
And listening to your coordinators, which was interesting at times in Head Coach, is not a realistic option here. I don't know where they found the voice talent but they shouldn't have bothered. Sure, the guy explains the play but with a voice that has made millions of high school students fall asleep in their chairs.
Starting a Franchise:
This is a bit of a disappointment. Rather than opening with a screen showing your franchise you are presented with the first pre-season game. To get to another menu so that you can see what you have, you have to hit "Y" and choose from the options there. Worse yet, if you back out of your menu ("B") you don't actually return to the main menu but go back to the screen inviting you to start your next game, forcing you to press "Y" to start all over again. I'd rather have a better organized menu - the clipboard in Head Coach '09 was one of that game's best features.
Playing Games as a Head Coach:
Fortunately, you can do this. My preferred method is to let my coordinators call my plays as in the NFL. My goal is to put together a team and then watch them play. I may reserve important decisions to myself, as a real head coach does, such as when to go for it on fourth down, when to call a time out in a crucial situation, etc, but I'd as soon watch the play than micromanage the players on the field.
It is essential that you at the start of each game go to Settings -> Game Options -> Coach Mode and set Coach Mode to "On." This will cause your QB to throw the ball if you do nothing after snapping the ball. Otherwise, he will stand there and get sacked. The change must be made at the start of each game, unfortunately.
AI/Difficulty Level:
You must set difficulty to at least "All Pro" if you hope to have competitive games. This will set both Player and CPU skill at 50. Pro gives your team too much of an advantage - DeAngelo Williams pounded out 348 yards (an NFL record) on just 31 carries at Pro level and my backup HB ran for over 400 yards at the Easy level in a pre-season game. In Head Coach, 50/50 made things competitive for the most part. Yu have to watch for your coordinator wanting to kick field goals at well outside your kicker's range. It won't even show you an option for punt so you have to look at the complete list of plays to find special teams and then punt. I have found myself a couple of times trying for impossible because I wasn't paying enough attention.
How it's better than Head Coach '09:
* Graphics. This is the most obvious improvement since Head Coach '09 wasn't even up to snuff relative to Madden '09.
* Current players including 2012 draft. With Head Coach '09 you are stuck with the '08 draft class and then fantasy draft classes after that. You can only play so many careers with the same players.
* If they screw up ratings (as they often do) you can edit them.
* Draft classes in Madden 12 have randomized names so when you play a new career you won't know which players to automatically latch onto.
* You can squib kick in Madden 12. I could never understand how they failed to include this option in Head Coach '09. There are times a squib kick is essential (when you want to run out the clock to keep Tom Brady off the field at the end of the game with a narrow lead).
* You can also angle your punts toward the sidelines. In Head Coach `09, punters almost never do this and when they do they do it at the worst possible moment, when you are deep in your own territory and they kick it out of bounds for a 17 yard punt. I generally dislike having to do my own kicking but it's worth it for these improvements alone.
* I have also yet to see a QB suddenly throw the ball at the ceiling, which I have seen happen in Head Coach '09.
How it's Worse than Head Coach:
* The RPG element of being the head coach is missing since you are not creating a head coach to represent you as your "character"; they say the coach's ability affects the team in small ways but it's not the same and it's not like you can replace yourself as coach in Madden 12. All you can do is switch teams.
* You have less control over your team. Example: If your special teams unit sucks, there is very little you can do about it other than generally improving the overall quality of our players because you can't look forward to replacing you special teams coordinator at season's end
* All general managers are equal
* There is no approval rating for your performance and no risk of being fired, which removes some of the uncertainty that made Head Coach so compelling. Nothing like being under the gun
The Draft:
Here is where Madden 12 falls flat. Somehow, they have managed to suck all the fun out of the NFL Draft, a quite enjoyable experience in Head Coach 09. There is no ready reference to the draft order, no mock draft to reference and no way to tell what another team's needs (and likely draft strategy) might be. The scouting system is so terrible that you next to nothing about the players in the draft and have to draft blind. Granted, Head Coach 09 might have given you too much information but Madden 12 gives you nowhere near enough and is unrealistic besides, forcing you to scout individuals during pro-days instead of all the players participating in that pro day.
One Noticeable Glitch:
At least, I assume it was not meant to be a feature when a defender intercepted my pass and began to return it, a cone of slowness forming around him as if out of D&D. Each of my players, in turn, as they tried to catch the defender, were slowed to near immobility. The defender wasn't moving any faster than they were but nobody could even approach him.
Statistics:
There is a noticeable difference between the statistics accrued by the AI teams as compared to your team: give up any idea of having a leading tackler. In 15+ seasons I have yet to see anyone come close. This was a problem in Head Coach 09 as well since there are actually several types of football game going on here: the computer simming AI games, you playing your game or super-simming your game. You won't get the same type of statistics.
Running QBs:
AI owned QBs will run - quite a bit - but the same QB if on your team will NOT. If you want Cam Newton to run then you will have to make him run because he won't do it on his own if he is on your team - nor will any other QB even if that QB is fast, identified as a scrambler and your offense set to scramble rather than sit in the pocket. Unless you have good hand-eye coordination, a scrambling QB won't benefit a player at all. It was frustrating to play a season a the Panthers and have Newton run for 0 yards in 16 games for me and then play a game against the Panthers and watch Newton scramble for 150 yards.
Official Player's Guide:
This isn't terribly useful for playing franchise mode in Madden 12, not that it's not a very nice book made out of decent paper and with good graphics. The problem is that very little of the book is dedicated to the franchise mode (4 pages out of 256, plus a partial page at the beginning of the guide). Most of it is about controlling individual players. You will find that people like Ramses Barden, WR is very valuable in Madden 12. This is true if you control him yourself and have good hand-eye coordination. But in franchise mode, the Giants are probably right to release him before the season, as they did in my league. I did pick him up to try it out but though he has Jump 95 and he's 6'6" if he just stands there and doesn't try to catch the ball (which seems to be the case) none of that matters. The Team Strategy section (pages 88 to 215) is useful but not necessary. Again, it is tailored towards players who control individual players on the field, not franchise mode. | video-games_xbox |
Top Shelf. I have few, if any, complaints about this product. To be sure, it exceeded my expectations. The "fit" is quite frankly, perfect - I'll say more about the "finish" at the end of this review. Easy to install and well worth the money if you want to get a better grip or just protect your controller. My principle issue was that I have a frosted glass coffee table in the home theater and putting down and picking up the controller hundreds of times really took its toll on my first two controllers - the glass acts like fine sandpaper, but I'm not interested in parting with the table. [Just like The Dude's infamous rug, "It really ties the room together."] I bought a brand new wired controller for online FPS play and want to keep it in top condition - wired is better, good people, wired is better. This controller sleeve will protect the controller well and it has been a real joy to get a better grip. Frankly, I didn't feel like I needed a better grip and sweaty hands have never been an issue for me, but I happen to like the soft texture. [It does seem to attract the occasional cat hair, so be warned, but it wipes off easily with a wet cloth.] For some people, the soft texture may disagree, but for others I imagine it is either a welcome feature or something they will get used to and learn to love. Now, I did have to trim a couple of extra bits of silicone where the seam is with a small pair of toenail clippers and a toenail scissors, but that's not something I believe makes the product worthy of a down grade. There is nothing about those extra bits of silicone that would qualify the product as defective or even poorly made and I stand firm on that assertion. The silicone is some tough stuff really - tougher than it looks or feels. There is a seam that you can feel a bit more than that of a controller sans the silicone skin. The seam took some getting used to, only because is a bit foreign at first, but it's not a deal breaker and frankly I'd be willing to bet you won't find a better silicone skin for your controller than HDE. | video-games_xbox |
The Amazing XSATA. I don't usually review anything but Video Games, but this accessory is so helpful that I just had to.
The Datel XSATA is really user friendly. Unbox it, snap it into place, connect the hard drive, run the software. Boom! Now you have full access to your files. Drag and drop, copy delete, thats all you need to do. No messy geek jargon or anything that would hinder your experience.
I was a HARDCORE XBOX gamer. Half the reason I bought a 360 was so I could have more fun with my XBOX games what with the HD graphics and the wireless controller. It would be a shame to restart on those games from the beginning. But, with the XSATA and any third party XBOX memory card transfer kit, you can easily get your XBOX game saves to your 360. This was so relieving, cause I can tell you there is no way I could beat Halo or Halo 2 on legendary all over again. Thank you XSATA!
This device also looks gorgeous on the 360. It barely sticks out of the console, only about a centimeter, and its smooth look and texture really fit with the console. Also, the blue light it emits looks incredible in a dark room and if you watch it, you can see it glow and dim slightly, perfectly complimenting my grunt fragging on Halo 3.
Like many people, I have accidentally erased something from my hard drive. Catch this: I was going to a Halo party, and was trying to get my save on to my memory card. Instead of hitting move, I hit delete! I was freaking out, until I remembered I had backed up my hard drive onto my computer about a week before. Five minutes later I was driving to the party with my Halo 3 save.
Overall this is a great product. It retails for $60 in most places, but I would say its worth about $70. If you want to be a real 360 gamer, this product is a must have.
Ease of use: 5/5
Price: 4/5
Look: 5/5
Recovering your save after an untimely deletion: Priceless
Their are some things that money cant buy, for the XSATA, Theirs Mastercard. | video-games_xbox |
Avoid this. I was in the market for a multi-player game to play with my 6 year old, we enjoy the series, so this seemed like a good idea. We previously enjoyed Pokmon Rumble Blast/ the 3 Skylanders games together and we invested 30+ hours in Rumble and 100+ hours in Skylanders. I wanted to try something new.
I purchased this on a whim on launch(15th) and didn't read any reviews as there weren't any. I was going off of a few previews that I had read which seemed positive. I should have waited for a review...at 45 Euros(PSN download), I feel cheated. This game is as bare-bones as it gets and not worth that much in any way imaginable. If it had been a 5 buck iPhone game, I would be able to live with the disappointment, but this is a full priced game and I expected to get a good deal of play out of it together with my boy.
I don't have much to add to An Interested Readers 1 star review(amazon.co.uk) in terms of gameplay myself.
My son sets the bar on games directed at a younger audience in our home, as I would never have purchased this for myself. So when he says it's boring after 45 mins of play and asks if we can play something else, that kind of sums it up for me from his point of view. We gave it a second shot later in the day which lasted 30 mins.
Ok, so after I got over the disappointment that my son didn't like it, I sat down and played the thing up until level 22 on my own. It was a grind of the worst sort. Boring sums it up pretty well. My son had that down after 45mins and I was just kidding myself otherwise. Save your time for something more worthwhile, this is not only not worth your hard earned cash, but also not your precious time.
I admire those actually liking this and sticking up for it. If only I was so open minded.
Imagination? Fine, but if I have to invest massive amounts of imagination into this to make it fun, then I should not have to pay full price. I'm not willing to put up with this game and grin through it just because the series is so good. The times that games of this calibre were acceptable are just too far in the past to justify the amount being charged. There are just far too many better games out there for the same price.
Next time I watch the show, I'll probably see this lack luster game in my mind and feel cheated once again. Such a shame. | video-games_xbox |
Ah...Retro...Brilliant. I will firstly mention - that unlike most of the countless narrow minded attempts at reviewing this game that I have recently read (by so-called professionals), my rating will be one aimed at the hardcore 2D fighting game connoisseur and NOT one aimed at the modern day `give me amazing 3D graphics or I'm not interested' gamer! AND, it will be about the GAME, and not an attempt to impress the viewer with cryptic metaphors and useless pulp.
Games like these are specifically aimed at those who have an appreciation for traditional artwork in games, and characterisation - something that most will agree SNK are the grand masters of.
GAMEPLAY
Awesome - depending on how much investment of time you put in you will get a lot out of this game. There are many elements to the gameplay that make it timelessly fun. You can dash, duck, retreat, and obviously block, to name a few of the core tactical defensive elements - and these really lay the foundations for some speedy epic gameplay, for which the controls a very responsive.
In terms of defence, there is nothing quite like the moments where you and your opponent each exchange blows, each defending one another's blows one after the other until an opening is left, this almost becomes a full blown sword fight at times! And the beauty of it is that unlike your average non-weapon based 2D fighters, you sustain no damage when blocking with weapons (unless you are disarmed), this makes for some very exciting moments which can draw the length of the bout out, giving it an amazingly challenging intensity. In the case that you are disarmed you may get relentlessly slashed at with only your arms to defend you which will cause blood loss and some small damage. The option menu allows you to increase the amount of successful bouts to I think FIVE a piece if I remember correctly - which is great if you like an epic lengthy battle.
This game's fun element pays off the most if you wait for the right moments to strike your opponent, instead of button mashing your way through. And to be honest you are not likely to be successful button mashing as the computer A.I. is very good most of the time. The A.I. is at a perfect balance for the most part - the computer is equally defensive as it is offensive - almost as if you are battling a human controlled opponent, a big plus. Much of the time you will have to study your opponents tactics in order to find openings for the best attack timing (this is something that many reviewers interpret as a severe imbalance because they were not prepared to learn their opponent's strengths and weaknesses, and have another shot)
Knock out's are nice with a slow motion effect kicking in as the looser gets sliced or smashed - this is particularly nice when you manage to KO your opponent with Genjuro's grab and stab style move, where you get to hear your opponents innards burst within them as Genjuro lifts them off the ground while he runs them through 2 times in a row with his razor sharp Katana blade. Nice.
It's a shame that SNK Playmore didn't release the `Special' version of Samurai Shodown V for PS2/XBOX which has the death moves, but it's understandable that with it being the final NEO GEO AES/MVS release that they wanted to keep it exclusive. This game still has enough to it to be worth your time despite it only being the standard release though - don't be swayed.
GRAPHICS/PRESENTATION
Good - and again I remind you that I aim this review at hardcore 2D fighting game connoisseurs and budding enthusiasts alike.
The sprite animation is not particularly consistent, but there is worse out there. It makes the grade at least. There are certain animations that are very fluid indeed leaving you with a satisfied `arcade reminiscent' feeling. Characters all have their own distinct stances and personalities - the animation conveys these very well and it gives the game a very interesting look. I personally find that having the colour/brightness settings on my TV lower than typical helps as it gives the graphics a less cartoony look and more of a washed out look which helps give the game the darker more brooding atmosphere that it lacks slightly compared with earlier games in the series. Because the characters may be stylised caricatures, but they are apparently loosely based on real people way back in history who had motives as dark as those conveyed in the game.
The zooming in and out effect is used with fluidity - just as it was in the arcade. Backdrops are pretty good - not the best I have seen by any means, but they are colourful and set the scene nicely. What's nice about the backdrops is they extend beyond the top of the screen with separate layers for horizon detail which is nice to see as you get pummelled up into the sky by your opponent or vice-versa.
SOUND/MUSIC
Very nice - You get `chings' and `changs' of colliding metal weapons, slicing flesh sounds, monotone spurting blood sounds - all very effective - and best if you have your console linked up to a hi-fi system so you can really feel the bass impact of the body blows or when a body hits the deck. The battle cries are brilliant for the most part - each character has more of these than you would find in your typical 2D fighter which keeps it interesting. Some of the characters have some repetitive battle cries which can become a little irritating, but hey, this just gives you an incentive to decimate them a whole lot faster! - A little annoying but you just overlook it because for the most part battle grunts and such are modest and realistic. It tends to be the quirkier characters that are a little more flamboyant in this department.
Music is good - some good variation - some stages are up-tempo and energetic while others are more sombre or melancholy, but all done with the distinct traditional Japanese instruments which sets the scene just right, and at times create almost a ghostly atmosphere - excellent.
IN A NUTSHELL
Basically if you're like me and LOVE the oldskool 2D fighters for their unique feel and have been deprived of a decent Samurai Shodown game because you didn't have the money or the right console or whatever the case may be - BUY THIS. As long as you expect a strictly oldskool affair and don't build yourself up into thinking its trying to be something more than what it's actually aiming to be, it's money well spent. | video-games_xbox |
Great sequel to KOTOR 1 but falls short of its glory. If you played the first Knights of the Old Republic game, then you know what you are getting in this one. Different story and some new locations and new enemies.
Graphics: As good as the first game and decent for an Xbox title.
Sound: Average for a star wars game.
Story: The Sith Lords are back for revenge. It takes place 5 years later from the first game, and it has some cameo appearances from some of the characters in the first game. The Sith have all but wiped out the Jedi. You start off without a light saber and force powers. You served in the Mandalorian wars under Revan and ordered the weapon called the mass shadow generator to be fired. The deaths from the weapon created a wound in the force and your connection was severed along with the Jedi council exiling you from the order. You have to find all the components to build a light saber and re-establish your connection to the force. You are trying to hunt down the Sith Lords and those who serve them. They are trying to wipe the Jedi from the Galaxy. You travel to areas such as Korriban, Telos, and Dantooine from the first game, and visit new areas such as Onderon and its Jungle moon Dxun, Nar Shaddaa, Malachor V, and space ships such as orbiting yacht, Peragus, and the starships Harbinger and Ravager.
Gameplay: RPG type of gameplay as the first KOTR game. Kind of takes a while to get the components to build a light saber but there are shortcuts you can take. Once you do, you will level up in the force and they have a few new force powers from the first game. Your base is the same space ship from the first game, the Ebon Hawk. Lots of support characters in the game like the first one, some returning from the first game such as T3-M4, Mandalore (formerly Canderous Ordo), MK-47 (if you collect his parts) all with a back story. Some characters you have to choose who joins your party based on your alignment such as Hanhar the wookie if you are dark side or Mira if you are light side. These support characters fight alongside of you and you can take control of them to use their special abilities. The difference in the characters in this game, is you can gain or lose influence of them. It seems you can never keep them all happy. Some want you to be bad and some want you to be good. You can fight with melee weapons (vibro blades, light sabers) and ranged weapons (blasters, rifles, etc). Each character levels up in the game with experience points. You take on all sorts of bad guys including mercenaries, Sith troops, Jedi turned Dark Side, general Vaklu, and eventually the Sith Lords (Darth Nihilus "Lord of Hunger",Darth Sion "Lord of Pain", and Darth Traya "Lord of Betrayal"). There are some unique levels in this game and you even visit some of the previous levels from the first game.
Replay: Worth playing through twice maybe, one for light side and one for dark side.
Conclusion: The controls are good. The story is good but somewhat lacking. The only gripe I have on this one is there is no different ending in the game if you play light side or dark side, so kind of disappointing in that aspect. Still a great game and if you like the first one, you should like this one. | video-games_xbox |
Not a good choice for families. The console is obviously fantastic and the graphics incredible. Once you bring it home, though expect hours of frustration. I consider myself a tech savvy person and have spent 15 years being an IT manager, so for me to deem this utterly frustrating should carry some weight. On top of that, I have been a big Microsoft fan, even hanging on to my Windows Phone until the last possible moment, having only recently given up on that. Here are my biggest issues with the Xbox:
1. Once plugged in, expect long delays for updates. We purchased an additional game with the console and had to wait an hour to play it while a download took place. This was in addition to updates for the console, updates for the controller, and the long, drawn out process of setting up the machine (power save mode selection, microsoft account, etc).
2. The TV pass through features are useless without the Kinect. Basically, you can simply burn twice as much electricity by watching your TV through the Xbox if you use Cable (I did not test it with OTA signal, but apparently you need a Hauppauge adapter to make that work). When you do use the pass through, the picture gets choppy somewhat regularly.
3. You can't actually play it unless you have a Microsoft Account. On top of that, adding children is a nightmare. They have to have an email address (my 4 year old does not, obviously), there is a long drawn out verification process which any half witted kid can circumvent with their parent's email address and a credit card, and then MS charges you $0.50 to "verify" you are an adult. As of this post, I have been attempting to add my 8 year old for about 90 minutes and it still is not working. Expect numerous "Sorry, we can;t do that right now" error messages when you attempt to do all this.
4. By my estimation, and based on the numerous legal waivers, it would appear Microsoft is also circumventing federal laws about collecting data on children under 13. But again, if you don't sign all this stuff, you have a very expensive paperweight.
In summary, if you are looking for a simple and fun gaming system, this isn't it. It is complicated, frustrating, and not at all for children and families that respect their time and privacy. | video-games_xbox |
343i delivers, despite any skepticism. Having been a long-time Halo player and fan, purchasing this new installment of the game was a must. Not only has it been a few years since we've seen the Master Chief in action, but it's the debut game for the new Halo developer, 343 Industries. While many members of Bungie's original Halo team still work as a part of 343, it has been interesting to see the franchise transition into a new atmosphere, with team members that had never been a part of the Halo universe contributing.
The campaign starts the player out in the same predicament as the original Halo--Master Chief is on a ship heading towards an impending doom, and have to fight your way out to discover the big surprise the remainder of the campaign has in store for you. Throughout the campaign, there are plenty of homages to previous Halo games, whether they be similar musical motifs or level structure. 343 has made sure the player feels like they are playing the same Halo they are familiar with and have always known.
The plot of the game brings the Chief to a forerunner planet and introduces the characters to a new race of enemies. This new race included the typical grunt-like creatures at the bottom of the ranks, all the way up to new "elite" members that introduced gameplay mechanics never seen before in Halo enemy AI (such as teleportation, regeneration, etc.). 343 does a fantastic job in transitioning the player into this new environment with never-before-seen enemies, primarily by mixing and scattering the traditional Covenant enemies throughout the game as well.
As this is the beginning of a new trilogy, the plot brings a level of new questions to the table, while only answering a few along the way. Leaving the details aside, one will notice when playing through that 343 takes a step in the direction of giving the player a more personal view of Master Chief: the plot reveals more information regarding his backstory, and how his role plays within the entire universe (which becomes a major plot point). The dynamic between Chief and Cortana is also built upon, and presents some emotional elements within the plot, never before experiencing in previous Halo games.
The new plot, levels, and characters, mixed together with the various difficulties (with the notoriously difficult legendary setting) create a truly unique game, and a must-have for anyone invested in the Halo universe.
The only thing missing from the campaign experience is the musical talent of previous Halo composer Marty O'Donnell. While the music still maintains a familiar Halo feel, new motifs are introduced and old ones trashed as 343 attempts to differentiate the new trilogy from the old. The music doesn't quite match that found in the original trilogy, but it should not be overlooked, either. The new soundtrack introduces a new, movie-esque soundscape, accentuating the epic impact of some of the game's levels and cutscenes.
Along with a new singleplayer experience comes a new multiplayer experience. While game types such as Slayer, Swat, and Snipers are still available to play, 343 has thrown in some new ones as well. The in-match scoring system has also changed, awarding the player points for accomplishing certain actions (kills, assists, etc.), rather than scoring based on kills alone.
New maps were released with the game, with confirmation of more map packs to follow soon. Some of the new maps are completely new, and some are remakes of older maps from previous Halo games. Unfortunately, as was an issue with previous Halo games, players usually end up on the same map for every game type, due to the voting mechanism introduced in Halo: Reach. Whereas the system previously chose the maps for the players, they are now given three choices, and those in the lobby are allowed to choose which they prefer (majority wins). While most players tend to flock towards the better maps, it becomes disappointing for those who favor unpopular maps.
The release of a new ranking system sometime next year will help the online experience, as the only current ranking system is experience-based and does not prove any indication of still. While the behind-the-scenes mechanics of Xbox Live has no trouble sorting players based on their skill, a visual indicate and level system will only add to the games favor, for both casual and competitive players alike.
New to Halo 4 is Spartan Ops, a campaign and co-op mission-based strategy gametype where players can continue the story via installments released regularly from 343 Industries. This mode essentially replaced Firefight from the previous games, as it allows players to team up against hordes of enemy AI. While each episode is accompanied by its own cutscene, the primary objective for each chapter usually follows the same formula--find the objective, clear the area of enemies, or defend certain obstacles. Unlike the campaign mode, players, playing either by themselves or with another player, have the ability to infinitely respawn throughout the level, rather than respawning back to the last checkpoint before death. While this takes away from the valor of completing some of the tougher levels, it also takes away some of the frustration brought on by playing some of the more difficult levels on legendary, which have become notoriously hard.
Overall, Halo 4 has done well in keeping up with the hype preceding it, but 343 will need to continue to improve if they intend to lengthen its lifespan as newer, better shooters enter the market. The expected ranking system restructure next year will help, along with 343's intended weekly release of Spartan Ops episodes.
Halo 4 has set the bar high for the rest of the trilogy, and it is any indication of how the remaining games will pan out, players should be nothing less than excited. | video-games_xbox |
Rock Band Fender Wooden Guitar Instructions to Kill the CLICK. I bought two of these when they went on sale, and now own four of them. They are filled with some seriously strong components.
Over time I've used the standard Gh guitars, and liked neither the clicking, nor the size and buttons. I switched to the RB pack-in and killed it off within two months, all the while feeling the strum-bar get sloppy and the whammy bar do the same as time went on. I then picked up the Mad Catz wired P Bass, (The wireless wasn't out yet). It lasted for 3 months, and then I went to a wireless P Bass which lasted 4 months. Following that I bought the Wooden Fenders and have had them for over two years now with no signs of wear even now. There's still no trace of a problem with the strum bar, the whammy bar, or the fret buttons. They hold up remarkably well and are drop dead gorgeous.
The build quality is superb and the fit and finish is better than a lot of real guitars I've seen. The fret buttons, whammy bar, tilt sensor, and other parts are all excellent and work the way I'd hoped so many other controllers I've tried over the years would. If there's a problem playing the game it's your fault and not the fault of these controllers. An all around excellent product.
An added bonus is since I'm already used to using a full size and weight controller, it made the transition to the Pro-Strat easier.
These are expensive controllers if you don't pick them up on sale. But if you get them at the right price, they're a much better bargain than anything plastic out there. And both finishes are as beautiful as a high end guitar and gleam like a mirror. They also include a Fender labeled strap in the box, as well as a set of Duracell batteries and an adapter for the stomp-box, and one for the headset. These pack-ins are in an unmarked box in the package so don't throw it away by mistake!
Buy one of these beauties and you won't regret it.
As a side note, if you don't like controllers with clicky strum switches the clicking can be eliminated easily and for less than $8.00. I have posted a vid on YT on what you need and how to do it. Check the comments to find it.
The newest versions of these have a fairly heavy feeling strumbar return spring when they are brand new, but the spring will ease off after around 3-5 hours of play. After that initial break-in period the spring tension will be lighter and will stay very consistent, and it won't loose tension like most other controllers do over time. | video-games_xbox |
Endwar shows realistic approach to battlefield command. Having played endwar for 3 days I present my thoughts of the game. For the true Clancy fans out there endwar's single player campaign is a sort of culmination of the various organizations and characteres of the series, especially the games. The appearance of Third Echellon (splinter cell) and General Mitchell (Ghost Recon) show that the creaters at ubisoft have tried to bring the various IP's together as something continuous. I haven't completed story mode yet but the ideas surrounding Russia's interferance in world international relations and the character interactions that go with is are an interesting comentary on world events and national psyche, I look forward to completeing the game several times.
Multiplayer is at real jewel of battlefield tracking. A similar system to endwars theatre of war mode was implemented in chromehounds but endwar is much more advanced. The unit upgrades are all logical from a military viewpoint as well. Every day of IRL time translates to about a week in the interactive war. The amount of wins against losses is tallied at the end of each day and territories are won or lost in that fasion. As the territories are won the battle lines shift and new battlefields are opened. In the first day of fighting the Russian forces dominated by securing territories in both America and eastern europe. Day 2 has shown a stalemate on the european front and nearly total domination of the Americans by both the Europeans and the Russians. Day 3 the Americans finally started winning battles but it was only enough t hold current ground against the russians although they did win back one teritory from Europe. At the same time the Europeans fought a small victory into Russian teritory near Siberia. Today is day 4 and I intend to do dome fighting when I get home from school.
The battle mechanic is very different from most other RTS games in that the camera is fixed to your units imediate area (although you can pan, zoom, and move about some). The idea behind this is that a battlefield commander IRL dosent have the ability to look at everything at once like in command and conquer, information flows from line officers up the COC to the battle commanders so it makes more sence to see only what your troops see. There is a way to get that overhead view though, deploy a command vehicle and you gain accses to BFT.
The other main difference is the voice command menu that I belive has revolutionized the way RTS is fought, While it is not on par with your typical starcraft powergamer the voice command system makes commands more efficient and much faster than other RTS, particularly on console. The only thing you cant do with voice command is deploy some unit specific special abilities like landmines and snipers.
Some of the achievments can be difficult to get because they rely on specific battlefield conditions. Combat Chain Master, Blitz, Call of Booty, Napoleon, True Patriot, Turning Point, Air Defense, Do or Die, and War is Heck are the really hard ones. The other achievments focus on quantity based (10 rescue chopper kills) or difficulty based (complete WW3 on hardcore) tasks.
Overall I think Endwar is a great game and is an awesome way to learn strategic thought and multitasking. | video-games_xbox |
Rocksmith rocks. I've been a Rocksmith enthusiast for about 2 months and absolutely love it. I've played acoustic guitar for 3 years and electric guitar for a little over a year, learning mainly from online guitar-instruction sites, but it was feeling pretty stale. Rocksmith has generated new enthusiasm for playing and an appreciation of genres of music that were unfamiliar to me.
I use my own electric guitar as the game controller. If you don't have already have one, you can obtain one (a Fender Squier, which is a nice beginner guitar) bundled with Rocksmith. Rocksmith lets you begin playing at any level, even assuming that you have never held a guitar before.
As you play recommended songs, Rocksmith evaluates your performance and gradually increases the difficulty of your future attempts. If you're already a good player, you'll advance rapidly. As you progress through the songs, you are introduced to various techniques such as hammer-ons and pulloffs, slides, bends, and palm mutes. There are also opportunities, in addition to playing songs, to practice techniques in challenges and games.
As good teachers know, "Only CORRECT practice makes perfect." Rocksmith uses this principle and only lets you score points and advance if you play correctly. It provides onscreen feedback while you're playing to let you know what you're doing right or wrong. It was difficult for me at first to concentrate on playing correct notes and also read the feedback cues, but it got easier with time.
It's fun to play along with a variety of performers and learn how different techniques are used in the context of real music. Also, because the band keeps playing even if you botch a note, a chord or a phrase, you learn how to recover and jump right back in. After you achieve "event level" on a few songs, you have an opportunity to perform them in an event. As you improve, new songs and event venues are open to you.
To learn to read music or guitar tabs, to understand chord theory, and to master fretting and strumming/picking techniques, it is still important to use other resources such as online instruction. But to have lots of fun while you're learning, Rocksmith is a great addition to your arsenal. | video-games_xbox |
The XBOX Masterpiece. This game is the number one game out for any system so far. And I'm not X-Box biased either. I have a gamecube and a ps2 as well. Not only is the story in this game enticing and engrossing, it actually is thought out, unlike most games coming out now. To the people who "played" this game and said the graphics looked like those for a ps1, I want to see which ps1 game you're playing because I have never seen graphic capabilities such as Halo on any other game system (PC not included). The best part of playing this game is not playing the story alone, but rather going head to head with your friends or playing co-op and shooting the elites in the front while your friend sneaks around and melees them in the back. The multi-player of this game is the best you will ever have with any game. I have had this game since it came out and I still love battling it out with my friends. The weapons are well-modeled, as are the characters. Some of the single player maps are repeated, but you get over that after a minute when you enter the heat of the battle. Also, this game is not just blast straight in guns blaring. At some parts you sneak past large groups of enemies, bypassing them completely.
I urge anyone who owns an Xbox or who is considering one that Halo is definitely enough to buy the box...(The PC version requires a very good computer to have the half the frame rate of the Xbox version.)
The controls of this game are just perfect. They require a learning time of about five minutes and you'll look like a pro.
Another fun thing about the multi-player is the fact that you can change the amount of damage it takes to die. When playing free-for-all, one grenade and you're blasting off to the ceiling. In a Team Slayer like game, it takes multiple grenades to die. This challenges those gamers who like the one-hit kills to try something different.
If you purchase this game, you will not forget the experiences and memories that you have. | video-games_xbox |
A great, fun addition to your workout regimen. Your average athletic video game will always be better suited to those of us that really would rather relax on the couch than bench press it. At least, I know that to be the case for me. But I have to say that, in this case, I really do feel that "Your Shape; Fitness Evolved 2012" really gives you a good workout and lots of exercise options for the retail price.
I bought my Xbox 360 with Kinect this summer with the intention of using it as a hands-free exercise tool. I've got a Wii already, and, while I DO still enjoy exercising/dancing around on a few games with it, I've really enjoyed using my Xbox and Kinect to give me a thorough, fun workout. <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Dance-Central-with-240-Microsoft-Points/dp/B004I5EE46/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Dance Central with 240 Microsoft Points</a> and <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Dance-Central-2/dp/B0050SYYEK/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Dance Central 2</a> are great, fun ways to get your body moving, but there's no dedicated, clearly defined move that's clearly identified as targeting specific muscles in any dance game that I've encountered, much as we all know that they'll get you moving and sweating while still having fun and toning muscle.
With YSFE 2012, there's a wide range of exercises to choose from, from runs through different venues in New York City that really ARE pretty accurately gauged as far as exertion and effort are concerned, to true cardio and strength training exercises (in small doses, which is perfect to build on if you're in for a nice, long, thorough workout), and right on to dance routines that'll satisfy those dance game cravings, while giving you a cultural experience via the dance style and country that it originates from, along with the appropriate music (I, personally, can't get enough of the Bollywood dance routines).
The tracking in this game seems much better to me than what the original "Your Shape: Fitness Evolved" delivered, and considering that I'm struggling with the same space issues as many other Kinect users out there (and the Zoom's ineffectiveness helped nothing), I'm sure that most users will get lots of enjoyment from the software tweaking that seems to have been applied here (what I'm saying is, if your living room isn't the size of a castle dining hall, no worries with this game, thankfully)!!!
I was SO excited to receive this game, open it up, and try it out, and thankfully, it didn't disappoint! I don't think you can go wrong here! Another great, active game to add to your collection, and work in to your regular workout! | video-games_xbox |
Sheer perfection, GOTY of the year 2004. My best friend is a Halo lover. When I learned of this game I was not that interested until I read some reviews and saw videos of what you could do in the game, not to mention the graphics.
For quite a while my best friend and I got into a crazy dispute inbetween which game is better. I enjoy Halo but Half-Life 2 just overpowers it so much. On the P.C. I think the only thing that could beat it is Half-Life 3 once it comes out, and that is what my friend says about Halo 2 (the only thing that will beat it is Halo 3). Now, Half-Life 2 on the P.C. doesn't take an entirely high tech computer, in fact you can have a graphic card with Direct X7 for this game on the P.C.
If you own the P.C. version I'm sure you have been told before there is no reason to buy it on Xbox, which is true. The game is a port of the P.C. version and you will probably find nothing new in the Xbox version caompared to the P.C. version. If you have an incredibly high P.C. don't waste your money on the Xbox version because a P.C. with at least an ATI Radeon X800 video card, 2.4ghz processor, 512mb ram, I'm pretty sure can run the game at max, I'm not sure I don't own the P.C. versoin.
Okay, now for the game itself. This game does NOT have a multiplayer componant, so if you are only in the game for the multiplayer side of things YOU WON'T find any. If you are complaining you will understand why this game has no multiplayer componant by the end of this review. Half-Life the original game was released by Valve, a game company, in the year of 1999 and went on to be the computer game of that year. Six years later, SIX years Valve worked on a sequel, and released it in 2004. The game is my favorite game of all time for now. The game won nine GOTY (Game of the Year) awards in 2004, which included Game of the Year (it beat Halo 2), P.C. game of the year, Outstanding innovation in Computer Gaming, Outstanding Achievemant in Animation, Outstanding Achievmant in Art Direction, Outstanding Character Performance - Male, Outstanding Achievmant in Game Play Engineering, Outstanding Achievmant in Visual Engineering, and First Person Action Game of the Year. So it won nine GOTY awards, but it nominated in eleven.
Since Half-Life 2 is such a story driven game I will begin at the storyline. If you have not played Half-Life 1 the storyline may not make much sense, which makes the game even better because you get to puzzle your past storyline with the world you are currently in. Not even I have yet understood everything about what happened in the first Half-Life game and I probably never will. But to give you some sense of what is happening is that you play as a character named Gordan Freeman who, several years ago was transfered over to a science research facility called Black Mesa. From what I know Gordan accidentally unleashed alien races upon the earth. I will not say anymore to ruin the storyline because the less you know the better it is, I ruined quite a bit of the storyline for myself becuase I found out too much about the game.
Now for characters. Characters in the game are incredibly realistic. I have been told before that Valve created into the characters faces what they called "muscles". In the game the characters obviously do not have real muscles but if you look at the movement of the characters jaws, they actually move, escpecially during the opening scene. Besides the complexity of the characters realistic looking "muscles" the characters have excellant voices that could not have anyone else doing their voices better. The characters will actually be more immeresed into the game rather than your average F.P.S. In areas where there is only dialoge, which are enjoyable, you might notice that if someone is talking to you they will be looking directly at you. If you go behind them while they are talking to you, they will turn around instead of just stand there talking to thin air. If there is something passing by a character like a friend, their eyes will actually follow the person walking by, which always amazes me.
Gameplay- Probably every review of this game you find will most likely have it's largest section on the gameplay of Half-Life 2, and for good reason. There is a single element that truly makes writing about the gameplay worthwhile: Physics. Most games that you play will have something known as Ragdoll Physics, this is where if you are to find a dead enemy nearby they will move around according to their enviroment. For example, if you were to walk over a dead body in a game with Ragdoll Physics the body will most likely start rolling. These are physics found in games like Republic Commando, and Far Cry. Half-Life 2 is built in with a unique physics engine made by Valve called Havok Physics. Havok Pysics is one of the best versions of the physic engines abailable on the gaming market. Every object in the game has different weights, and when you strike, shoot, move, or whack those objects they actually feel real and look real. The explosions made with this physics engine are so amazing and when you shoot explosive barrels you can see red shattered pieces fly in different directions looking like the explosion came from the inside, which it did. You will find most of the physics interactible through one of the best weapons in first person shooters today: The Gravity Gun. This weapon has the Law of Physics built right into it, pretty much everyting is your weapon, and I think you could figure it out from there. More of the gameplay would be including your fameous hazard suit which can provide you with shielding if you charge it. The suit will also allow you to breath underwater for a time being, it comes equipped with a rechargeable flashlight, and a cool sprint feature which recharges too. Gamespy said in the P.C. review of Half-Life 2 that throughout the game you are introduced with new weapons one by one, and whenever you get a new weapon you are put in situations that you will need that weapon so you can learn which enemies you should shoot with which weapons, where to use the weapons, and how to use them tactically which is a very good way to show you how to use the weapons of this game. There are eleven weapons in this game which may seem small but with the Gravity Gun you do not need any more. And I do not think that you could come up with any more weapons that you would want.
A.I.- Half-Life has pretty tough A.I. and they really know how to flank and throw grenades. The grenades will draw you into areas that you will be shot up and killed or the grenades will kill you, so the combat is pretty intense. You can hear the Combine (enemies) talking to each other through radios in their helmets as they plan to attack you. Overall the combine are the largest example of A.I. in Half-Life 2, other enemies aren't as smart because they are more animalistic rather than human.
Sound- For every weapon, every voice, every explosion, every splash of water, every alarm, every organic noise you hear in this game WILL be good. Water sounds are what you will find in most games just because they are all pretty much the same. When you hear strange creatures getting shot and their legs break or blood splatters from them it sounds like it should. Gun shots could not be wanted in any other way, I already mentioned voices. Ign's video review of the P.C. version of this game says that you cannot really say anything bad about this game, that goes for the sound too.
Where next, oh music- The game has great music, it has this strange feeling to it, but it fits that is all I can really say.
Some reviews say that this game has bad framerate (Gamespot), but I will say that it only occurs when there is large amounts of physics taking place and if you say that so and so has better framerate than Half-Life 2 I simply ask you, "Does that game have the Havok Physics Engine?" And if it does, okay, Half-Life 2 is still better.
I said earlier that you will find out why there is no multiplayer componant of Half-Life 2 available, which is true it is because it is hard enough to get such a great game as Half-Life 2 on the Xbox alone with it's complex physics engine. If you want Half-Life 2 in a multiplayer apect, I would not blame you, with the gravity gun, that has to be fun. But there is a game made from Valve on the Xbox made specifically for multiplayer called Counter-Strike, it is modern warfare from what I know with M-16s and alike, but from what I have heard it is incredibly fun, go ahead and buy that one if you want it is from the same company but just to know it will not look as good becuase Counter-Strike is a pretty old game I think. The game is supposed to be filled with crazy multiplayer combat, but I have not played it so I will leave it at that.
I saved one of the largest parts of the game for last: Graphics. Valve has created a masterpiece when it comes to the graphics of this game. Six years really allowed them to go as far as they could when it comes to their graphics, this IS the best looking Xbox game out there. Compared to the P.C. graphics with a ATI Radeon X800 video card it will not look that good, and on the xbox there is some minor details that could not be brought up to what they should look like, but they are details that you will not be paying that much attention to. If you played a game where the graphics are impressive but still not that great, walked up to a wall you can see the flaws and the fakeness of the graphics. When you walk out a good twenty feet the wall will then look realistic. In Half-Life 2, the flaws are still there but you only need to be about ten feet away instead of twenty.
I wish I could keep on going, and I probably can but I have spent at LEAST an hour typing this review to just say that this game is one of the best games out there and is most likely the best first person shooter on the xbox and probably always will be. If you see a game with the words Valve on the front in a box outlined in white lines, expect perfection, unless it is counter strike, those games are more based on the multiplayer side of things rater than all the aspects of a normal game.
My closing statement is that Half-Life 2 is a game of sheer perfection, it is the best xbox single player game available: BUY THIS GAME! It is worth it. | video-games_xbox |
Not for me. I am a game snob, I found this game to be torture and tedious.
Update 7-20-2014
Must get kids games:
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Cloudy-with-a-Chance-of-Meatballs-Xbox-360/dp/B00242KDA4/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - Xbox 360</a> (3-6 year old, 2 player, easy and fun)
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Toy-Story-3-The-Video-Game-Playstation-3/dp/B0038MUCPK/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Toy Story 3 The Video Game - Playstation 3</a> (3-9 year old+, 2 player, FPS for kids)
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Rio-Xbox-360/dp/B004NB1C54/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Rio - Xbox 360</a> (3-9 year old+, 4 player, 30+ Party games for kids)
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Lego-Batman/dp/B000ZKBJY6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Lego Batman</a> (3-7 year old+, 2 player, puzzler, 3rd person shooter)
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Disney-Universe-Xbox-360/dp/B0051875OU/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Disney Universe - Xbox 360</a> (4-10 year olds, 4 player, fast action w/mini games, pure arcade play)
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Rayman-Origins-Xbox-360/dp/B0050SYAQ2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Rayman Origins - Xbox 360</a> (4-9 year old, 4 player, arcade side scroll er)
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/LEGO-Batman-2-DC-Super-Heroes-Xbox-360/dp/B006ZPAYGE/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes - Xbox 360</a> (4-9 year old+, 2 player, huge world, action-adventure, younger kids need older player)
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/LEGO-Pirates-of-the-Caribbean-Xbox-360/dp/B003O6E7O2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean - Xbox 360</a> (4-12 year olds, 2 player, nice variety of puzzle-gameplay, younger kids need older player)
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/LEGO-Star-Wars-III-The-Clone-Wars-Xbox-360/dp/B0037UCTCW/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">LEGO Star Wars III The Clone Wars - Xbox 360</a> (5-9 year old+, 2 player, RTS game for kids)
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Lego-Marvel-Super-Heroes/dp/B00B98HF1O/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Lego: Marvel Super Heroes</a> (5-14 year olds, 2 player, younger players need to play with older player to navigate world, gameplay fan-tastic, low puzzles)
LEGO Lord of the Rings - Xbox 360 (6-14 year olds, 2 player, my son at 5 struggles but can play with heavy guidance from me, fun game, dad approved, low puzzles)
Minecraft - Xbox 360 (6-17 year olds, 2 player (can be large multiplayer) creative gameplay)
Rest of Lego games are all worth playing, if it wasn't for lego games XBOX would be a vast wasteland for kids under age 8. :) | video-games_xbox |
Jack Bauer and Solid Snake having passionate sex. Produces this game.
Really, Sam Fisher is your angry American Alpha male who's angry about something that happened to his daughter. There are secret agencies, blah blah. The plot is complex and this is the first splinter cell game I've played so I have no idea what's going on.
The gameplay is interesting to say the least. It is a lot, like I said in the title, like the metal gear games. In-fact, it's a better metal gear game than the last metal gear game which was terrible. There's nots of sneaking around, climbing up pipes, under stuff and around stuff.
One nice feature is that flashbacks are shown in the game world for a really neat effect. It's like there's a projector projecting a video of the flashback on the environment itself. Very nice.
This game is meant for the bloodthirsty. Sam Fisher is a brutal and merciless killer much like all 15 year old males are when they realize that the girl that they've been fantasizing about really doesn't care about them but instead is going for the football player dude who is bigger and stronger than they ever will be and whose father is connected. That is when you realize that dating is about money and power.
So, uh, Sam Fisher is mad. And so you get interactive sequences where he tortures and murders people. I'm up to the point where he beats up a woman, but I'm stuck because I keep on getting detected and then a bunch of enemies come at me.
Speaking of enemies, they're not very smart. Sam is wearing these like brown leather shoes with like two inch soles and some how he can like creep by guys from inches away just so long as their back is turned. I can't do that with bare feet. Also, when they detect Sam, they tend to run at him by the nearest possible route: ie through the door where 5 other of their comrades have already died. And it's kind of funny when I go on sabotage missions and then end up having to slaughter dozens of people at the base because I'm terrible at stealth, and then plant a little pack of C4 on a helicopter so that when the enemy flies the bird up, ignoring the dozens of corpses littered around the base, he'll get blown up when I activate the c4.
Oh, and the dude moves like a monkey. In-fact, he's better than a monkey. Like, monkeys are good at climbing trees and vines and stuff, but Sam Fisher is better. He's quicker, more silent, and he never ever gets tired even when hanging upside down on a pipe or hanging on a window ledge. For Sam Fisher, climbing up a tree is like a walk to the mailbox.
ON to a few technical issues, this game has some weird controls. Like, you hold a trigger to stay in cover. You hold another trigger to shoot. However, you cannot hold both triggers to shoot. You have to let go of the left trigger. Then he'll get up and shoot.
And his aim will be like 3 feet to the left. So if you're behind cover, what you need to do is let go of the cover trigger and then aim. Then Sam will stand up and shoot the guy where you aimed.
It is very weird and I am not sure if they did it on purpose or not. It makes shooting less smooth, which I"m okay with since I try to stealth the entire way.
Lastly, this game on the PC has terrible controls. THey're terrible because they do not work. I had to edit some .ini file to get the buttons on the controller to work like they should. And there's no remapping buttons so the only way to get a controller working on the pc is to hack some .ini file. | video-games_xbox |
You'll get your money's worth. This game is probably one of the best games that they have created for the XBox 360...and anyone who tells you the opposite of that...gave up on it within the first 5 minutes of playing it. The reason most people don't understand this game is because it doesn't work like every other game out there. (There are tons of "cookie-cutter" games that work exactly the same, and have a tried-and-true formula, and if anything deviates from the norm, it's automatically labeled as "too hard.")
For one, your character must be "leveled-up" in order to be any good. You can choose to go through the game, kill a number zombies, hide out in the safe room until the last day, complete the game, and then start over at a much higher level than before. The game rewards you by playing it multiple times by making you faster, stronger, and having loads more fighting abilities. After a certain number of achievements, you unlock secret weapons and gear as well, which makes the game even that more easier to finish, and unlock even more achievements. It's a cycle that you do over and again, but the game does NOT get boring, because you have so many choices to make, and several alternate endings to take.
The game does have its detractors. First off, it is not first person shooter. It's a third person shooter. This makes pistols fairly worthless, and rifles and sub-machine guns only slightly above. But, a zombie game is supposed to be about blood and gore, so melee weapons are better anyway. (Once you get Adam's chainsaws in the game, you're not going to want any other weapon, believe me!) Also, I did not understand the save system at all when I was first playing the game. You have to "relieve yourself" to save the game. If you don't go to the bathroom frequently, you'll find that when your character dies, you end up with a lot of progress in the game completely vanishing. This can be very frustrating, especially if you are escorting 4 or 5 survivors, or have made several trips to pick up certain magazines or weapons.
So the key to this game is to realize that it is DIFFERENT. Which, as far as I am concerned is good. By making the user actually take the game booklet out of the case and READ it (let's face it, no one ever has to do that anymore), the game creators set it apart from everything else out there.
To get the most from this game, you DO have to have a widescreen HDTV. Otherwise, you won't be able to read all the captions, hints, and directions. (Most people have these now, as opposed to when the game first debuted.) I very much recommend picking up a copy of this game if you are a true gamer, who likes games that can be extremely difficult to master, but gets a sense of accomplishment when each achievement is finally knocked off. | video-games_xbox |
A Game That Lacked An Identity. Fuzion Frenzy is...in many ways...fun! There are close to 50 games, a bunch of characters, and lots of things to try. Unfortunantly, the games have no real purpose, no real rules, and each uses such different controls...its hard to get into a flow. Here's what I thought of Microsoft's Fuzion Frenzy:
1) The Gameplay: Well, there are dozens of games to try, and u can play with up to 4 players. The graphics are pretty good and the game is pretty fun. The problem? The gameplay is repetitive, the controls stink, and it seems like a game that tried to be 3 or 4 different games and in fact doesn't seem in any way it's own.
You start out by picking a game type. Multiplayer, single player, tournament, arcade, etc... In Arcade for example, u can pick any game and play it over and over again...or pick another game. You can do this with as many players as u want.
Once u pick a game type, and how many people are playing, you pick a character. The problem begins here. The players seem to be different through color and gender, not through persounallity. Each person just seems to be either a green guy or a pink girl. They hardly ever talk, have no persounality or grudges or talents, and seem to just be there. This was a major problem, as I never found anyone to be my "favorite." It's not like Mario Party, where each character is different and fun to try. Here, everyone seems to be the same...and they are. Another problem is no one seems to have a face. Just eyes, a nose, a mouth. They don't react, smile, talk. No mustaches, long hair. Each person is so similar, u won't care who u pick. That's a MAJOR problem.
The games, thankfully, are for the most part, fun. There's 45 mini-games to try, each pretty fun. There are games where you hop in Vehicles and do things. For example, try not to hit each others tail, or knock the other off the sumo court (it continues to shrink, and you try to push the other 3 people's ball-shaped vehichles off...like SUMO). You have games where u collect the most valuables, kill the most bugs, etc... When u win a mini-game, in a tournament, u get points. 1st gets the most, followed by second, third, fourth, etc... You add up points through about 10 mini-games. The winner gets bragging rights. Unfortunantly, 45 mini-games isn't that much to choose from, the characters aren't that interesting. In the end, it gets very dull. And not all of the games are good.
Some are just boring and seem to be impossible, and can take 15-20 minutes just to understand. That's no fun (especially at a sleepover or party (where this game is aimed at)). The controls aren't very good, and with just 45 mini-games, all of them needed to be. Not the case here, and may have killed this game's gameplay.
2) Graphics: Decent, but nothing the PS2 or GC couldn't handle. The water looks decent and plain, the characters have no real special affects. The envirements are vibrant and colorful, but nothing great. This was a launch game by Microsoft, where they boasted the best graphics in the world...yet these graphics were nothing new. They get the job done, but don't in ANY way save the game. The graphics were good...but any console now a' days can do good. What we want is GREAT!
3) Options: Several. You can play all types of games in all types of modes, create how long your game is, how hard, etc...very good. There are a lot of characters, a lot of games, and a lot of different things to try. There are a lot of options...but it didn't save the game.
Overall, if u have NO multiplayer games, u might want to pick this up (especially for it's price). It is fun, it is pretty unique, but it needs a LOT of improvent. I enjoyed playing it, it did have a lot of cool stuff, but it wasn't anything I'd brag about to my friends. This is a good game that the whole family (girls...boys at any age), and if u find a good deal, u might want to pick it up.
Just don't expect Mario Party here. It's a good game, with decent graphics, but gets pretty old fairly quickly.
Hope this helped,
Thx! | video-games_xbox |
A Poorly-Executed Shooter (1.5/5. Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (ORC) had a lot of potential, as a single and multiplayer experience. Sadly, it fell short and was disappointing.
What did I like? I actually thought the class system was decent. Using experience from the levels you complete (you do earn experience and rank up in single-player/offline, as well), you can purchase several abilities and guns. For example, as the Vector, you can purchase stealth skills like camouflage, and upgrade to extend the time it can be active for. It has some decent environments worth visiting, especially for Resident Evil fans. If you're looking to play multiplayer, the online community was still active as of 7/29/12, so it has some replay value. It has some cool unlockables, though, like concept art.
What did I dislike? First, the shooting mechanics were sloppy and loose; it takes a while to get used to it and it's still uncomfortable after that. Next, the graphics were also bad. A lot of the objects laying around were shiny and I often couldn't tell if it was a pick-up or not. The environments were okay. The zombies were also decent, until you see 5 of the same exact model coming after you. Also, I'm not sure what the patch was supposed to fix, but the AI was still bad. My allies would often stand in dangers way, like literally walking and standing in fire. The story was all over the place and I didn't like it, especially the ending; there is a point where you have to make an important decision and after you make it, the game instantly tosses you into a battle without explaining what happens; I'm not sure if my game was glitched, but it felt like a cutscene could've helped out a bit. Also, I thought the voice acting was bad, especially Claire towards the end.
Overall, I do not recommend RE: ORC, unless you're a hardcore fan of Resident Evil, and even then you should be cautious. I paid $10 for my copy and recommend you wait for anything less than $20. I've bought worse for $10, but I've also bought a lot better.
*round up my 1.5 score to a 2. | video-games_xbox |
Elite Bundle Still Susceptible to Red Ring of Death. Less than an hour. That's how long I got to use my new XBox 360 Elite (Value Bundle) before it shut itself off. Sure enough, I had been hit by the Red Ring of Death.
Like many out there, I was clinging to the hope that this new Elite bundle would contain new hardware that would fix the problem that so many have had with their XBox 360s. So I waited and I finally bought the Elite bundle when it became available.
I had suspicions as soon as I opened the box. The box itself had two seals (one sticker laid on top of another one just like it), which I found odd, particularly because some employees of game retailers have reported that instead of new packages, they just received a roll of stickers and game cases to stick inside of existing Elite packages. It is speculation on my part, but appears to have been a real possibility here. Also, although the outside box was relatively unscathed, the green plastic case that holds the two games was crushed. There were green shards of plastic in the box. (Note that the console and everything else looked to be in good condition, so I can only conclude that they actually put the case in the box damaged.)
The Elite itself did not feel that warm to the touch when it shut itself down and flashed the RROD, and after an hour, I'd be shocked if it was a heat issue. Calls to Microsoft support led to a repair/exchange authorization (confused as to what they're actually going to do here...) and a promise that it'll take 5 weeks before I have a working system again. I would return it to Amazon, but fear I'll probably just get more of a bad batch, so would rather make Microsoft "fix it right." My system manufacture date was 7-20-07, so it would appear they're still putting boxes together with faulty components.
It was fun while playing it, but $900/hr is not a very good rate of return on entertainment value. Buyer beware... and/or be very patient.
UPDATE: 11/28/2007
After initially deciding to pursue this through Microsoft, I decided that 4-5 weeks was way too long to get a working system, so I pursued an exchange with Amazon. (The process was very simple and they had a replacement to me in about 5 business days before I had sent the other one back, all at no cost to me.)
The replacement system has been working well. I should mention that it has the same manufacture date (7/20/07) and has obviously been repackaged with the two new games. There was no damage to the game case or the box this time. The system has worked fine through some multi-hour gaming sessions, but I'm still apprehensive about the system's longevity. If this had been the first system I received, I'm sure I would be enjoying it with no reservations.
On a side note, I received a box to ship my dead XBox 360 back to Microsoft for repair on the same day I received my replacement. I had cancelled the repair order the next day, but they sent the box anyway. It took over a week for the return shipping box just to get to my house -- imagine how long it would have taken if I'd sent it in for repair! Hope this system lasts as it's an absolute blast to play and I don't want to experience the full repair cycle. | video-games_xbox |
The Thinking Gamer's Halo. After burning out on Halo deathmatch and hankering for some good action to get the gaming juices flowing, I finally bought this game a couple weeks ago. The result? I am seriously addicted, and find myself creeping out of bed after the wife is asleep to just try one more mission!
I pretty much missed the whole tactical shooter phenomenon on the PC. I had gotten bored with endless varieties of Quake and tournament deathmatch and more or less gave up on the genre in favor of strategy games that take more thought and planning. So it's been a pleasant surprise to see how far a shooter can be taken and how a game like Ghost Recon is more of a military simulator than anything else.
I wanted a game that has both a compelling single-player mode as well as deathmatch capabilities. Ghost Recon delivers on both. The single player game is great for the ability to select and customize the six soldiers that comprise your squad. You only directly control one at a time, but can guide the actions of the others through a command interface that sets movement waypoints as well as aggressiveness, and you can take control of any soldier at any time. In playing against others you control a squad of three. The command interface and squad set-up interfaces take a bit of getting used to, but I had it down pat after a couple sessions.
The gameplay is great and full of suspense and anticipation. You usually need to proceed through the map very carefully, keeping a low stance to evade detection while constantly scanning the terrain for your enemies. Unlike Halo, in which your targetting reticle lights up when it scans over an opponent, you may be unsure at times over what you're really aiming at: an enemy soldier or just a tree? Also, forget about taking insane amounts of damage or finding a "health pack" to fix your wounds. A couple shots will kill your soldiers, and if they get wounded, they limp around for the rest of the mission. If they die, you lose that character forever and have to train a newbie for your next mission.
The game is great at creating a sort of spooky atmosphere. You are plunked down in a strange area with a map but no idea where your enemies are. The blowing wind makes trees sway and rustle, adding random movement that keeps you constantly on your toes. When gunfire has erupted from aside or behind me, I have literally jumped in my seat. One drawback is the total lack of interactivity with the environment. You cannot pickup objects, even weapons or ammo from your own dead. You cannot even open or close doors.
I have seen lots of complaints about graphics and while they are not stellar, as in Splinter Cell, they are good enough to convey a sense of realism. There are also complaints that the AI is too dumb to rely on to guide your other squad members. My biggest gripe with the AI is that it is sometimes TOO effective. Often my soldiers have taken out the enemy without me ever seeing where they bad guy was. I wish there was some sort of notification after which you could instruct your unit to fire at will or something. The bad guy AI is generally decent, with them running for cover, etc. In one scenario, I watched a dude drop to the ground, then crawl around the other side of a car, then re-emerge to try to shoot at me.
The only other main complaint I have is that the deathmatch option only supports two people playing on one Xbox, as opposed to the four allowed by Halo. And I understand if you do a system link, it is only one person per box. Unfortunately I am living outside the US and don't have access to Xbox Live, but everything I have read says this game rocks when playing multiplayer online.
It short, Ghost Recon has a few shortcomings, but the outstanding gameplay simply overrides all of that. This is one of the best game purchases I have made -- up there with Halo and Max Payne. I am a new convert to tactical shooters, and will definitely keep my eye on further Tom Clancy-tagged games and those from the wizzes at Ubi Soft. | video-games_xbox |
MMO + Racing = Grind and Frustration. You know, I can admire the goal that Test Drive Unlimited set out to achieve. I really can. And they do some good work toward that goal. But the sad fact of the matter is that I'm about halfway through the game progression, and it's entirely probably that I may never start the game up again.
To start, for those who don't know, the game itself is basically a standard racer, with the twist in this case being that it takes place on a pretty accurate virtual reproduction of the island of Oahu. The basic idea is the same - you win races, earn money, buy cars, houses, etc. However, the entire game takes place in a sort of real-time online world that you inhabit with a number of other selected members of the Live community that happen to be online at the time.
The concept itself is pretty interesting, as it basically combines the features of a racing game with the format of an MMO. Kind of cool, right? Well, sort of. When you're just driving around the island, remarking at how nice everything looks, or playing the races that you stand a chance at (which is not all of them), it's quite enjoyable. The island is beautifully rendered, and while the car you drive is utterly immune to damage (one of those silly things that car companies tend to suggest and tend to be one of the hassles most frequently left out of games of the type), they do at least manage to look good in their base states.
Unfortunately, all this good stuff, and there is a lot of it, doesn't really help much for the parts of the game which are bad. For one thing, while the island itself is well designed, the challenges and their locations are not. It's not only very possible that you will stumble uninformed into a challenge that you cannot possibly hope to complete, I can virtually guarantee that it will happen. You have to search the giant island high and low to find all the dealerships and mechanics to get your equipment tuned to the point that you can win at some of these events you locate, and even after that, they're still fairly challenging. Challenging isn't bad, but the fact that these challenges are essentially arbitrary "you lose" events when you encounter them certainly is.
The basic theory for games is that you should always be able to complete whatever challenges the game provides you with. The fact that this is simply not the case here is a pretty good proof that the game suffers from some serious and fundamental design issues.
That's certainly the biggest problem, but not the only one by a long shot. Just as a short list, the human models are worse than creepy and horrible, the music gets old pretty fast, and the game will singlehandedly destroy your Recent Contacts list for Live if you play it online as it arbitrarily dumps people you don't even really play with into it. These bugs and insufficiencies taken by themselves would be minor, but as a whole, it drags the whole title down.
I'll confess - I'm not a racing game type of guy. They frustrate and annoy me to no end. This game is no exception. It's enjoyable enough, and driving around the island is incredible fun for a while, but in the long run, I can't really recommend this to anybody but the hard core fan at anything less than a bargain price. It's a great start, and hopefully future games (like the next Burnout, for instance) will make good use of it. For now, it's an inspired, but ultimately disappointing effort. Worth a twenty dollar purchase at bargain price, but I don't think I'd personally pay any more. | video-games_xbox |
Set The Way For Future FPS Game. In late 2006,Gears Of Wars is released for the XBOX 360 but actually was supposed to be released 6 months earlier then its release date of November 2006. Gears revolutionizes the FPS shooter games with its killer cover system and more but actually its the best thing that happened to the FPS games since Half-Life or Halo. Gears was Microsoft`s console seller during the holiday period of 2006,a game with such a reputation better be awesome,and that`s precisely what Gears Of Wars is.
You play as Marcus Fenix,an inmate once left to die. Now you must save the world from hordes of Locusts,monsters that attack everything in sight and kill every one of them and that is what you will do troughout the game. The Locusts need to be killed but there are much more serious ennemies such as the powerfull Beserker,and of course no great game is complete without a massive epic battle with the final boss,in this case General RAAM.
Gears introduces a new cover system that is highly effective and appreciated. That gives you the chance the shoot the ennemy from many angles and when you are covered simply press the A button to move to the other side of the doorway. The reload technique is also pretty effective,and the best of all is killing the ennemy with the chainsaw that is located under a specific gun,just great guitly pleasure.
GOW is actually worth playing all the way trought,it ain`t that long however about 8 hours to finnish,depending on how good you are. Its a great story mode and those 8 hours were some of the greatest moments of my gaming life and it was well worth,it really used your brain to figure what to do to get to the next part of the game and develop techniques against the ennemies.
Everyone I know who played Gears were blowned away by the game and all still talk about it,its a console seller game and one that will be remembered for years and consoles to come. A few games are going to be remembered from the XBOX 360,and im happy to say Gears Of War will be one them and high on the list! It is already influential,and its influence can be seen in games like "Bioshock" who is really good by the way.
Online is good and pretty fun,there a few good types of games to choose from and its entertaining. Multiplayer on the other hand is awfull. Its just a matter of who kills who first,and its in rounds so the player who has the most rounds won,wins. I skip it and go for the story mode or online,you can also do the story mode in co-op wich is really nice. Gears takes the mutiplayer experience to great highs with its online multplayer.
There is no point in hidding it,Gears was made and plays as if it was a movie,the cinematics are amazing and can compared to a movie. Even the characters could be movie characters,Marcus Fenix and the other have voices and characteristics that could fit very well into a movie. I actually like the feeling that its a movie,and there is even a possibility that GOW WILL be a movie latter on. The ending of the game leaves room for a sequel,a sequel we can only hope will as good as the first wich is not an easy task to complete.
The game`s graphics are probably the best seen on the XBOX 360 to this point,for anyone who didn`t think it didn`t the graphical edge over the other consoles,take at look at this on a HD-TV with HDMI.Anyway,that ain`t really point,its just that Gears has incredible graphics all the way and everything is extremely well detailed from monsters to rocks. I never imagined graphics being this good before GOW was released,the graphics really are that good!
Overral,Gears Of Wars is one the most satisfying and fun game I played in my life. If you are mature enough,like FPS,this game is for you! The highest rating it can get is not enough,highly recommended,5 stars. | video-games_xbox |
A big improvement. This game is a big improvement over the previous UFC games released for the 360/PS3; but I question why UFC 3 wasn't UFC 2 undisputed.
The game features a huge roster, more weight classes, more fighting moves, smarter AI, a better career mode, a more polished look and tons of unlockables as well as the all-new Pride Mode.
Here's my review-
Graphics-
The graphics are a bit more polished while the game itself features the same engine from UFC Undisputed 2009. While this isn't a bad thing, why not just update the entire game model appearance altogether?
Sadly, THQ shoveled the same looking game to us and polished it a bit more. The frame rate is smoother, the fighters sport newer clothing, but one of the best updates to the game's graphical engine would be the cuts and bruises now actually look like actual cuts and bruises. Whenever you get a mouse around the eye or if your head's split open, it really shows. When fighters bleed, they tend to bleed more frequently. However, after a round ends and they're back in the ring, they look a bit dolled up and the cuts seems to not be as significant no matter how bad they were. This is not always the case being that you can really make your fighter look nasty looking with severe swelling and cuts.
Another update would be the camera, which seems a little better in my honest opinion. In addition to all the obvious improvements, the collision detection is much better in comparison to the the last UFC Undisputed game. (which I'm not a fan of)
The Pride fighters roster looks pretty good and I loved the Pride arenas.
With that said, my biggest gripe about this game is probably the replay. When you pound an opponents head brutally or submit them, the replay doesn't show any of this at all. It's the same slow replay that's been force fed the past two games which could show major improvement. The game still does look quite nice.
Sound-
I liked the commentary a lot better in this game than the last two. It seems much better paced and not so clunky. While Undisputed 1 and 2 had issues with commentary halting prematurely or just too much talking, the commentary in UFC 3 feels more natural. The sound effects aren't good and still sounds too "light and fluffy", but the music is pretty good.
Gameplay-
Here's where the game shines.
The roster is huge; and I do mean huge. You also get new weight classes such as Bantamweight and Featherweight which include fighters like Dominic Cruz, Mighty Mouse, Kid Yamamoto, Renan Berao and others.
There's also Pride Mode featuring legends like Mark Hunt, Bob Sapp, Henderson and such. Unfortunately, the Pride roster could've been deeper with more weight classes and fighters but it's the least evolved half of the game. I did like the fact that in Pride Mode you can hear Jenne Hardt aka the Crazy Pride lady announcer and you also get Pride rules and Pride arenas so it really is a separate mode altogether. The options are also updated in both modes.
The control is smooth and responsive, you can even cancel moves mid arm/leg. But the biggest and best feature to this game would be the fact that fights last longer and the AI is much better. The fights aren't so robotic or stiff feeling especially since you're given newer transitional moves, fighting moves and positions. Basically, this boils down to a smoother and more authentic fighting experience being that you're able to ground and pound in different ways or do new takedowns.
The system itself takes a few notes from EA's MMA game that was released although not quite as deep.
Skipping beyond the fighting system, there's the career mode which I actually like a lot more than the previous games as well. You actually get ranked and there's a win/loss system that actually does hinder or help your progress. You can also go up in weight class or lower depending on your weight class. Obviously, if you're a bantamweight, you can't go any lower in this game. In career mode, you'll fight your way through organizations be it pride, ufc, AFA and so on and the difficulty actually depends on what's recommended for you after the short length tutorial which isn't as punishing as the previous games thanks to better control. This career mode actually feels like you can play it any way you want to. Unfortunately, I didn't make a C.A.F so I used a roster fighter, therefore, I wouldn't know how deep the CAF is.
In addition to Career mode, there's also Event mode, Ultimate Fights mode, Pride Mode and XboxLive. The online is this game is not good and with the AI being much better than the previous games, I could care less.
The gameplay is really good, but I do have a few gripes, namely, about the roster itself.
The heavyweight roster seems so bare. Featuring less fighters. The Pride Roster is too small despite unlockables and DLC. I'd of really liked to see a few more heavyweights than the ones featured. The good part is, this game does feature fighters like Melvin Guillard, Alistair Overeem and such who were absent from past UFC games or even DLC.
Overall, I want to give this game 5 stars but a new engine would've been better than just a big update and honestly, everything done in this game could've been done in the second game which would've made this game even better. As far as UFC is concerned right now, this is the best UFC game to date and is definitely worth a buy. | video-games_xbox |
Not Bad. Indycar 2005 definitely has its flaws, but this is one racing game you can't simply start off and win races without a little forethought and planning. Each oval course has it's own individual design differences and you start out test driving your car on the track to find out where you lose speed, oversteer or understeer through the turns, etc. while trying to clock your fastest lap possible. You can go to the "garage" option where you make adjustments to the tire pressure, cambers, springs, front and rear wings, and so on to get the best performance out of your car for that track. Once you are satisfied, you go on to qualify for a starting position, and finally race against other competitors for points in a season.
The learning curve can be a bit steep for someone like myself who doesn't know their way around an indycar, but there is a masterclass mode that covers some of the basics and with practice and patience, adjusting the car becomes easier. Once you get a grasp of what your car can do, you can go on to compete in a series that spans a single season as yourself in a pre-existing team or as one of the available drivers. You can also choose a quick race by selecting a single track. There are difficulty settings that affect the rules of the race and the harder the setting, more rules like damage, pit stops, cautions, and penalties, apply. There are also custom settings that include driver assists to help you get comfortable handling the car. To top it off, you can adjust the number of laps in segments from ten to two hundred.
You spend a lot of time on the track, especially in practice and for many, the repetitive driving on ovals may seem tedious. You really have to like oval racing and indycars to get anything out of this game, so I don't recommend it for the casual player of racing games. For those who are interested in indycars, it's best to rent the game first to see if it meets personal expectations or not before buying it. I own it and prefer to drive manual, without assists and use the driver's view to get the most out of what it lacks in terms of the feel and look of the game, but what I like best is the depth of what you can do with the car setup and race options in season or quick race.
I would like to see this title improved in the way of graphics. The cars do appear to "float" on the track without much ground shadow. Much more can be done to make pit stops seem more like pit stops. Add a few road courses like St. Pete, Infineon, and Walkens Glen, update the driver roster, and I think this game could become quite a hit. | video-games_xbox |
I am a conservative reviewer but this time couldn't find a reason to not to give five star. Every one knows that this is the game where all the production and development team deserves a big pat on their back.
In my review I will talk and focus on -ve reviews given to this game. After reading through all the -ve reviews, here as well as other websites, I have come to conclusion that the such reviewers are pretty amateurs or newbies in the video gaming world. The good thing in reviews is that thanks to release of this game on all platforms now PS fans are not trashing XBOX fans and vice versa and the whole focus is on the game it self instead of console wars. Although I would like to hear if GTAIV performed well on XBOX or PS or equal.
The game is very vast and caries the honor of being the pioneer in roam freely & do whatever virtual world concept, i.e. GTAIII. GTAIV does face a challenge that how much free roaming and flexible this new world is. Definitely GTAIV has provided the best virtual world ever but it sometimes increases the anxiety or enthusiasm for gamer to expect more than the game can offer. For instance a lot of time while playing I have wished that I could go into that building/shop and see whats inside or I could flirt with a hot girl on the street more. But keep in mind the developers are not God that they can provide 100% virtual world.
This game shows clearly that how fast and keen human being is in developing almost another virtual world within this real world. We have created simulations of almost every process involved around modern human being i.e. virtual Stock Exchange, virtual wheather forecast, Second Life etc.. pretty soon you will see a release of Grand Theft Auto where millions of gamers will be simultaneously playing in only one centrally hosted Liberty City just like second life. Currently the limit is 16 under multiplayer and Liberty City shuts down when the person hosting the game closes the game. | video-games_xbox |
THIS is Batman. When you first fire up Batman: Arkham Asylum, you're going to be impressed... and if you're a Batman fan, doubly so. The visuals are stunning, and the game really marks the first time players will feel like they are the Dark Knight Detective, from whichever medium. Indeed, Arkham Asylum draws the best stuff from the comics, the movies AND the animated series for a Batman experience that will satisfy fandom across the spectrum. And for being wrapped up in such a Technicolor Dreamcoat of licensing, a lot of extra time went into Arkham Asylum that normally would not be the case, especially when partially tied to a movie franchise. Nevertheless, even with the extra time and effort afforded, the game falls short of a perfect package.
Even if you haven't played the game, you're probably already familiar with the general premise considering all the trailers, demos and general hoopla that surrounded it long before its launch. The Joker had briefly escaped the asylum, and Batman brings him back into custody only to find that is exactly what the Joker had in mind to spring his trap into motion. Now the whole island is on lockdown, but unfortunately for the hospital staff, a handful of cops, Commissioner Gordon and Batman, the lockdown doesn't include the inmates' cells. The Joker and Harley Quinn are now running the show, and, well... madness ensues. The mere fact that it takes place within the island compound of Arkham Asylum sets the entire game up for a who's who of the Batman rogues gallery. Whoever you don't actually run into, you will experience in plenty of other ways, many of which are fairly creative (Clayface immediately comes to mind). Some of these encounters will thrill you to the core. I remember my girlfriend was watching me play and she actually got frightened by the first time Killer Croc lumbers onto the scene.
There are many such creepy moments in Arkham Asylum, ranging from the slightly disturbing to the downright terrifying. Whether it's the flickering flourescent lamps in the dilapidated corridors of the infirmary, or the soft glow of moonlight smothering the Gotham City skyline from afar, you'll always feel the darkness and asylum walls closing in on you. It's sort of the first time I've felt virtual claustrophobia (is that even possible?)
But where Arkham Asylum really shines is in the gameplay. The hand-to-hand combat engine is quite simply the coolest I've ever seen. It's fast, fluid, easy to learn, hard to master, and loads of fun. You feel and look like Christian Bale in <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Batman-Begins-Blu-ray/dp/B000PC6A3E/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Batman Begins [Blu-ray</a>] when he seamlessly takes out a dozen of Boss Falcone's men at the docks. Batman is not a novice or some street fighter-in-training in search of experience points. In this game, Batman will kick your crazy butt. In fact, unless you're as strong as Bane and Killer Croc, or protected by poison spitting plants, you're most likely going to go down with a mininum of fuss once the Bat's gloved fist penetrates your face. I personally loved this about the game, because let's be practical, very few supervillians let alone minions could ever hope to beat the Dark Knight fist acuffs. That's WHY he's the Dark Knight and WHY he's lived long enough to have twenty plus supervillians hate his armored guts. This point couldn't be emphasized any better than when you face Harley Quinn: she's neutralized with a single takedown!
The other great part of the gameplay is how you are able to utilize Batman's legendary stealth. You will grapple, glide, and hang from the highest perches and darkest shadows, only to snatch up your enemies and dangle them by their toes, literally. This is kept even more interesting with multiple gadgets and upgrades as you progress. Trust me, you haven't lived until you've thrown a batarang across the asylum courtyard and switch the camera to the batarang's P.O.V. only to have it nail some whack job in the head. The game is loaded with little nuances like this if you take the time to play around and explore.
The first half of Arkham Asylum is flawless. The pacing is perfect with just the right mix of action and investigation around every corner. I found myself frothing at the mouth to find the next Riddler trophy, and even more so to gain access to a new area on the island. The cinematics are great, especially those leading up to the showdown with Poison Ivy (who is by far the toughest foe in the game). It's the second half of Arkham Asylum that starts to lose steam, and the pay-offs become less and less. It truly seems as if the developers just ran out of time towards the end. The ongoing battle with Killer Croc is one of the most redundant experiences in recent video game history, the pay-off for completing the Riddler challenges is nearly nonexistent, the final battle with the Joker is absurd, and the game's ending is all of 45 seconds in length. Even the credits are uninspired and use the same six images and music track over and over again for twenty minutes.
And did I mention that you can't go back and view any of the sweet in-game cinematics? That doesn't even make sense for a game like this. One of the main reasons why I pre-ordered it was because of its awesome production value--the fact that Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill and Arleen Sorkin reprise their roles as the definitive voices of Batman, Joker and Harley Quinn, respectively. So I have to keep replaying the game to experience half the reason why I bought it? That's inexcusable and could have been easily fixed with an update patch or some free downloadable content.
Ah, yes... downloadable content. For a game that boasted a good amount of ongoing downloadable content, Batman: Arkham Asylum had exactly two downloads. Are you kidding me? The possibilities for downloadable expansions were endless. How about adding a level or two to the main game as side quests (e.g., <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Resident-Evil-5/dp/B0029ZBZ0I/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Resident Evil 5</a>)? More Riddler challenges perhaps? Maybe have a combat challenge that includes a real fight with Harley or Killer Croc? Hell, maybe be able to play as Harley or Killer Croc in a combat challenge? Extra gadgets? Different batsuits (yes, there is one new armored outfit after you complete the game once, but come on... we're talking about Batman)? A theatre mode that allows us loyal fans to view the damn cut scenes by themselves? Gee, are we worth that much, Warner Brothers?
I digress.
So for what could have been in my top three favorite console games of all-time, Batman: Arkham Asylum instead takes the number five slot in my favorite Xbox 360 games. It's a great game, don't get me wrong, and I highly recommend it if for no other reason than just to finally experience a great Batman video game. There's so much there to like, but dammit, there's so much more they could have given us! It's like tasting a big spoonful of hot fudge sundae, and then your given three scoops of vanilla ice cream. It's good, but where's the hot fudge, nuts and cherry? I guess those will come in the form of the sequel, <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Batman-Arkham-City/dp/B002I0JAVK/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Batman: Arkham City</a> (which I've already pre-ordered). Man, they've got me by the balls... | video-games_xbox |
15 feet through walls + a bunch of electronics, works great. Biggest question with wireless devices is the range. Essentially everything is limited to 30ft (sometimes 33ft), but there can still be varying degrees of performance within that range... its not uncommon to see issues.
I was concerned because my media center/gaming PC is stationed in one room, with the display & audio (TV, AVR, 5.1 audio) in the other room (maybe 15 feet from couch to PC). Both the PC and entertainment center are up against the same wall, just in different rooms, meaning that the PC is *directly* behind the TV and AVR. So there is a wall, plenty of metal, and powered electronics right in the way of this receiver. You would not expect this to work.
So with that in mind.... while this was in route to my apartment, I went and tested some RF stuff I had laying around to get a better idea of what to expect.
1. First I tried my Macbook Pro from work with its Bluetooth mouse (probably not the newer Bluetooth spec). Terrible results, in fact its almost not even a good test because I could barely get it to work 10 feet away in the same room with no objects in the way.... using full batteries.
2. Next I tried my Logitech wireless mouse (non-Bluetooth) with the receiver plugged into my PC. This worked better and was usable anywhere in the same room with no missed clicks, but I only got about 25% hit rate while on my couch in the other room.
Not looking so good for this receiver, I thought.
However, when it arrived I was pleasantly surprised. It works anywhere so I've just tossed it behind my PC and I don't have to worry about it. It's not laggy and no input gets lost, unlike my other RF devices which failed that test pretty hard. Keep in mind this is only about 15 feet distance ... albeit with drastic obstructions.
Final thoughts.... Make sure you're using a good powered USB 2.0 port on your motherboard.... sometimes I wonder if people are having problems because its not getting enough power, or are trying to use USB 3.0. Use a port out the back of your motherboard rather than a front port. | video-games_xbox |
You should buy the Xbox One for many different reasons however the three most important are it is very easy to use. My Experience with the Xbox One
If you are looking for a system but cant decide whether to choose or just need a system to steam your TV. The Xbox one comes with tons of features that will fit any age group or social setting. You should buy the Xbox One for many different reasons however the three most important are it is very easy to use, it inexpensive, and has a large game selection.
Xbox One Design
The Xbox One is not just a games machine it is an all around entertainment system; it's an ingenious and formidable media hub designed to be right in the middle of your home screen. It gives you the option to connect your cable service to your Xbox also allows you to stream music, movie and Skype while your playing it. The Xbox comes with two different amounts of storage, 500GB and 1 TB hard drive. Allowing you to keep your media, gameplay videos and game installations.
Features
There are many different features of this console that will blow you after and bring you back at the same time. For the Fitness inside all of us Xbox give you the Fitness app, where you can use your Kinect to do daily workouts. All though the Xbox doesnt come with the Kinect, you still would be able to have access to this app. For the hardcore gamer the Xbox has a DVR option were you can record your games and edit them anyway you want to do. Once you finish with your video. By using the YouTube app, you can upload your creation for the world to see your skills. After videos are online, you'll have a library of everything you upload for anyone to watch. If you hated dealing with have a cluster of games, the Xbox has given you a solution to that by letting you download your game straight to your console. Thru your game store you will be able to get any game you want. Even though it takes a while for the game to install to your hard drive.
Overall the Xbox one has many benefits for the general public, it can fit the needs of many different backgrounds from the fitness enthusiast to the die hard gamer in all of us. By buying the Xbox one you will be able have an all in one entertainment system. This a product that will change the way you look at game console completely. You should definitely look into getting this for your home or apartment. | video-games_xbox |
Final Fantasy XIV. this game is absolutely amazing. first of all, this is basically a final fantasy game. it was made by the guy who made final fantasy what it is today, the music is done by Nobuo Uematsu, the legendary composer behind final fantasy and the Black Mages, it plays like final fantasy, and the story line is just like something I would expect to come from the makers of the FF series.
This is the only game i have ever played that has actually reduced me to tears. I am an 18 year old male, and this game has made me cry once and tear up 3-4 times already, and i have only been playing for 4 hours. the memories are where the story really gets to me, but the regular game storyline is just as good.
if you have ever played an arpeegee or want to see what arpeegees are like, this is the first game you should try. on second thought, this is the last game you should try because it will make every other RPG pale in comparison.
the fighting is quick, and requires skill, not just lucky button mashing, but it is still easy to get used to quickly.
the cinematics are great. so great, in fact, that when the first cinematic ended and went into a battle, i didn't notice until new things stopped happening on the screen. when the battle was over, the cinematic just kept on going. seamlessly.
one of my pet peeves in games is the poor voice actors for otherwise great games. the few exceptions are the metal gear solid series, the latest final fantasy games (IX, XII), and Lost Odyssey. sometimes the facial expressions seem lacking, but then characters burst out with hilariouls accurate looks that you would expect to come from a motion actor. the dialog goes along with what people in real life might say, but the story still maintains its fantastical charm.
it has been a long time since i have played a 4 disc game (FF IX), so this is a nice nostalgic throwback to when games were like interactive books. it really is worth the 60 bucks I paid for it. don't worry about the case fitting all 4 discs, because i am sure people will try to bash that in later reviews. they all fit fine in the case, and as long as you don't throw it out of a moving car or play frisbee with it, your precious discs will be FINE.
now go buy Lost Odyssey. you won't regret it. | video-games_xbox |
Good Game for Kids and their Parents. One of the few games available for the Xbox One at launch was Zoo Tycoon. I downloaded the demo and it sat on my console for more than a week before I decided to play it while I was home alone with my 2 and 3 olds to see if they would like it. They loved it from the moment I turned it on because of the great graphics and variety of animals and animal interaction.
This game on the Xbox One isn't like your typical 'sim' or 'tycoon' games, it isn't even really like the Zoo Tycoon for PC because you have the ability to walk around as if you were a person in the zoo. (You have the option by pressing Y to zoom up above the zoo so it is more like the typical Tycoon games if you want.) Most of the responsibilities in the game involve make sure the animals are happy, fed, and clean. Throughout the game you face challenges related to these as well as a few others.
When you first start the game, there are a number of tutorials which show you how to play the game and what your responsibilities are in the game. There are a lot of things I like about the game and some things I don't. Over all a great game for younger kids to watch you play since it is so interactive with some of the animals, not too hard to figure out for a little bit older children, and even some challenges to keep my wife playing and enjoying the game herself.
My kids loved being able to walk up to a giraffe or elephant and grab a piece or fruit and feed the animals from your hand. You can even play with the monkeys and they copy what you do. You can use the Kinect here to use your face or hand and arms and the monkeys will copy your movements. You can name everything in the Zoo from each animal to the Zoo itself. It takes money, which the better you zoo the more you make, but you can adopt and sell animals at any point. We tried putting a lion in three giraffes but the game wouldnt let us, too bad, wouldnt have been cool to see what would happen, haha.
The Good:
Free roaming in the zoos
So many way to interact with many different animals
Character able to drive vehicle around zoo (which was kind of fun drifting around corners in themed golf carts)
Easy for children to figure the game play and goals out
Lots of different animals
Good use of Kinect that worked well more often than not
You can have other friends with an Xbox One copy of the game and they can take care of your animals for you.
A few different game modes, like free play where you have as much money as you want to build
The Bad:
Sitting around and waiting for research to be done so you can unlock more animals
Not being able to design the zoo how you want to with the sidewalks, you just place the new exhibit and the paths/sidewalks are made for you, takes some of the fun away.
Menus felt a bit limited
Not enough content/challenges for longtime serious sim fans
I would say for one of the few family friendly games for the Xbox One that doesn't involve throwing birds around or building Legos, its pretty good and definitely worth the $39.99 MSRP. | video-games_xbox |
Frustrating yet WHAT OTHER CHOICE IS THERE. To start, I have been playing Madden since the series started and have been pleased with its progress. That is until it came out on the next-gen systems! Now it seems EA is more concerned with looks and graphics then gameplay. Example - Madden 07 for regular Xbox was GREAT, I still play it. Madden 07 for 360 was a lot more confusing and had a lot more problems.
Now, Madden 08... been waiting months and was hoping not to be dissappointed. Well... EA Sports did it again. They failed on the little things and made BIG changes where tweaks were necessary. The defenses in this game are a little too overwhelming if you ask me! I did a fantasy draft and had a hard time passing the ball from Peyton Manning to Andre Johnson! Something wrong there! These are players with 94+ ratings. I barely got the ball to the receiver!!!
Other big problems:
*FUMBLES FUMBLES AND MORE FUMBLES... have not played one game yet without 3 or 4 fumbles and this is on ALL-PRO!
*Injuries - I like to try a bunch of stuff when I first get the game and was sad to have my star HB hurt in each of the seasons I started in the very first game!! Way too many injuries.
*Where is the accelerated clock?! I don't like to wait 30 seconds after I choose a play to hike the damn ball! But if I don't my players will get tired too fast!!!
*Offensive Line Shifts- the best thing in Madden 07 and its gone!! Can't pick up d-line changes. FANTASTIC! You need Vick to get around the defensive packages thrown at you.
*Superstar Mode- why can I not start Superstar mode in anything but ROOKIE difficulty???? I don't want my Superstar to be a SUPERSTAR that fast!!! He needs to work for it just like in real life!!!
* The "RING" thing takes too much time and just gets annoying watching that screen come up every game! Show it once, that's it!
The only good thing about this game as every year is the graphics are outstanding!!! But I guess that's where EA puts all its money seeing as how they don't have to worry bout any competition out there!
ALL PRO FOOTBALL 2k8 was a joke and its concept pretty much sucked! But besides that there is nothing!!! Hopefully EA doesn't screw up it NFL Street Series as well. It's not realistic but its not supposed to be and you have to admit its fun to play with a bunch of people!!! | video-games_xbox |
leaves me quite surprised with the best cardio, fat-burning exercises available. Zumba Fitness, the entire line, offers a broad range of international dance styles as well as various different tunes, three minutes or longer. Personally, the demo for "Core" urged me into purchasing the disk, but when I saw "Rush", my initial choice of purchase, I had to get it and of course, it hadn't failed me at all, and in fact, leaves me quite surprised with the best cardio, fat-burning exercises available.
With such artificial graphics of the trainers as well as a mini map of the trainee's movements stuck neatly in the bottom left corner, everything in the game is detailed but not eye-fooling or eye-scarring. Often times, these types of cardio games carry such horrible images of the trainer that it hurts just to stare at the screen such as the awfully hollowed thigh gap of that one dancer who obviously has never had one that leaves me quite at discomfort and that one guy with the drawn in six pack, which makes me unsure. Did they purposely choose men like this or did they paint these details over the model body. This isn't distracting, and because all the little avatars around the trainer perform the same action, it deceives you into thinking it truly is a live Zumba practice and that if you were to stop one second, you'd be missing out on all that fat burning, leaning process those other trainees were going through.
Everything about this game is easy to get used to, and is the best fat burning cardio game there is for the XBOX 360 Kinect as arms and legs are both necessary to reach full potential in the final game scoring system. Individually, it makes for a fun and comfortable experience that girls and guys, from the age of 11 and higher can preform.
Must I say, if you do perform these moves perfectly, euphoria will be triggered and all you'll be feeling is that nice burn, usually placed on the outer thighs as well as the butt and triceps. BEST FITNESS GAME EVER FOR FUN AND RESULTS. PERIOD | video-games_xbox |
Fun for what it is... and it is Hazard time. -Why did I buy this?
Okay, This game is a bit dated, but it just seemed to be an over the top tongue-in-cheek poke at the video game industry. The premise is just not-serious and I broke this out immediately on receiving it in the mail. That and I was hopped up on coffee that night. :)
-Capsule:
A fairly straightforward "over the shoulder" 3rd person shooter. A nice variety of wacky enemies. A couple of boss fights that are near perpetual cheap-shots. The gameplay is overall solid, but doesn't require a lot of heavy thought and the levels are linear. What makes this game worth looking at and playing is the humor and writing that makes fun of itself and the game industry in general. Recommended buy at the $15-$20 mark.
-What stood out during the game?
The voice acting, the amusing parodies and references to existing video game characters, the entertaining writing, the handful of just annoying legs of a chapter (mostly boss fights) that seemed to need near-dumb luck to pull off. Good action music score with lots of big hair metal guitar.
-More thoughts:
In the world of Matt Hazard, Matt is a washed up action video game character for the company 'Marathon' and after proving that he has no marketing and business sense, runs the company into the ground. Until 'Marathon' is resurrected by a guy with a lot of cash and the company is renamed 'Marathon Megasoft' Matt is tapped to stage his comeback in the next generation game platforms. But wait, he was scripted to die at the end of level 1. Forever. Why? Stay tuned true believers...
That's the basis of the story right there. A bit wonky if you consider that a video game character managed to make business decisions for a "Real-life" company. This over analysis isn't good for you in Eat Lead... just smile, nod, and let the story keep rolling.
This is honestly the strength of this game. The story. Not that it is epic. It's not. It's that quirky movie story like Ferris Beuller's Day Off where the fourth wall gets broken to possibly make fun of what you're already thinking. "Oh. Great. A tutorial. It's not like I need one of these to tell me how to move around and shoot a gun after 25 years.", grumbles a slightly annoyed Matt at the beginning of the game when you say "Sure, do the tutorial". There are references abound in the form of cliché enemies, and some occasionally amusing parodies of other popular figures. For example, there's "Master Chef" Who is a dumpy-looking short-order style cook who waddles around in some kind of futuristic space armor. Captain Carpenter is a burly blue overalls wearing kind of guy who knows how to fight nasty turtles, and poisonous mushrooms, but can't handle a gun to save his life. Altos Tratus which looks and behaves like your typical Final Fantasy character. One of my favorite moments was with this character before the fight. (Altos)"..." (Matt Paraphrased) "An elipsis? What the is it with you Japanese characters and ellipses? What does that even mean?"
I've talked about the writing and how it's amusing for what it is, but not the game play. In short it's good, but nothing too original is happening here. The game uses a find cover and shoot system. At first I found this annoying, because when I typically play FPS type games I just ram may way through enemies and once the body count is high enough, go exploring the areas I've cleared out. This is not something I can do in Eat Lead. The cycle is pretty much the following. A checkpoint save will occur. You will get to an area or room and you will wind up trapped in that room until everything but you is dead, or deader if you want to be picky about the zombies. To survive, you have to hide behind cover and pick at enemies this way. Sometimes just standing behind cover works pretty well too. Regardless, you just can't stand there and shoot for long. You also have the option to run up and melee attack most enemies (there are exceptions and some can fight back rather well). In some cases it was more effective for me to run up on opponents and slap them around versus shooting them and wasting precious ammunition.
There was some thought put into what your options are regarding the use of cover and for this I am grateful. It's not Time Crisis for crying out loud. The cover aspect is present for a majority of the notably linear format of the game. There are exceptions such as selected fight scenes where you have to hit certain button/stick combinations to put the beat down on an special enemy. There is also a level where you have sniper stations where you have to pick off enemies with said rifle before one of your friends is killed. Neither of these events are plentiful enough to be annoying. There is also a few sections where you have to avoid the lasers of your in-game nemesis 'Sting Sniperscope' These rounds force you to run and find cover, but is thankfully only in a handful of places -- because these are 1-shot kill events, and it can be frustrating at times.
The weapons are pretty varied, but not particularly amazing. If you have ever played "Armed And Dangerous" with its vast collection of wacky weapons, this would have made things a bit more amusing. Sure you get classic 6-shooters, laser pistols, sniper rifles and the like, but none of the guns are stand out awesome. Not a crucial complaint, but worth noting. Also of note is that you can only carry 2 weapons at a time. Since you can't backtrack, sometimes conserving ammo is crucial -- and a little annoying when you're sloppy in a fight.
Enemies are fairly diverse and some are imaginative. The 2D sprite enemies are the standout among them. They run around in the 4-5 frame sequence, shoot at you with their 2D rifle then turn sideways so you can't hurt them. Honestly, the only enemy that made me super frustrated was the boss with tentacles. In the beginning you have to run around and avoid the six tentacles that lash at the ship, and each one has a pretty good reach. Now you have to run around and wait for one to get stuck in the boat so you can shoot it. After the first tentacle is taken out you now have enemies spawn periodically too. This lead to me dying... a lot. fortunately, the checkpoint system is pretty forgiving overall because if I had to fight that first round again after clearing it and then getting killed at stage 2 with the same boss I would have been super unhappy. I died at least 20 times fighting those tentacles. That was annoying.
I can't think of anything meaningful in terms of graphics and sound. They met the requirements in that characters and the environment looked reasonable for the context of the world being presented, and other than the action music having occasional big hair metal guitar riffs in it set the tone adequately as well. I'm not saying the A/V experience was awesome nor was it bad. It did the job and I wasn't seriously annoyed by odd glitches or music that made me need to kill some aspect of the audio experience.
The Achievements on this game (for Xbox360) are in some cases outright gifts. There are a couple of tricky ones too, but you can get a pretty good score just playing through in a competent manner. Some people may be annoyed by the freebie achievements, but at the same time, it's not that big of a deal -- it's not like achievements _do anything_.
-Multiplayer:
In short there is no multiplayer in Eat Lead. You get a 'gift' achievement at the end of the game that pokes fun at this topic. Obviously Xbox Live isn't too useful for this title.
-Difficulty:
I admit it. I played through this game on easy. When you clear the game once, you can backtrack and play any level you want at any difficulty setting. So you can clear it on Easy, then go back and play the last level on medium and hard to 'clear the game' (I assume) at those levels too.
I bumped it to medium and was promptly owned by the game. I managed to slog my way to the final boss fight only to die repeatedly for about an hour and a half. Some of these fights lasted 2 minutes before my death. In short, I died a lot and it makes me sad. No, I didn't clear it either. It was 2am and my wife told me to go to bed. :) This getting stuck was really frustrating. In retrospect, I'll try and bring better guns next time to see if that helps.
-Errors:
There were a handful of times where blasts and enemies hands would pop through a wall or cover. I can only think of 2 or three instances of this happening, and in all but one of them I was able to quickly recover from the problem without dying. In all cases the game never lost its mind and had a hard lockup or freeze. | video-games_xbox |
Good Bundle if You Want The Two Games for Free. This is the Christmas 2008 bundle where 2 games are included for free. So compared to the same-priced box without the 2 games, so if you were going to buy one anyway, there was no reason not to get this bundle. After the holidays the free games disappeared and the console shipped for the same price without the 2 free games. Having this box doesn't imply anything much about the version of the hardward you actually get other than you can expect the hardware manufacture dates to probably be within Januaray 2008 to October 2008 which spans several revisions of varous components, preloaded xbox operating system (which updates when you connect it to the internet anyway), and even among revisions the actual components vary by manufacturing plant. But this box doesn't mean any specific newer or older version within that range because all existing stock in retail stores were updated to this bundle. Microsoft representatives simply went to all stores, opened all the existing boxes, added 2 games, and applied new stickers to convert them to bundles. So you can see how all existing stock can be this bundle. Then there were actual new boxes that shipped with the holiday bundle box art. You can tell the difference by whether there are stickers or not that tell about the 2 new games vs being printed directly on the box.
Don't let the console revisions scare you about older versions. The biggest thing to look for is at least get one with lower power consumption, I think it was the 175 Watt power supply which is in most 2008 versions. I actually much preferred the June 2008 revision over the August/September 2008 revision and choose an older box after buying and returning several. There could very easily be more updated versions by now, but I can only speak of the 2008 versions that I spent a considerable amount of time pouring through when I bought mine. My biggest problem was a high pitched noise that came from the power supply brick. I had to go through several purchases and returns until I finally got one that didn't make a high pitched noise. Some were far better or worse than others. My bottom line is that when not using the xbox, I don't want a constant high pitched noise in the background when doing other things like watching movies on my DVD player. Some people cannot hear electronics noise since the higher range goes as you get older. If you are one of those that can hear if a TV is on without looking when muted, then you'll hear this since it is far louder than the TV noise. After several purchases, I finally found a power brick that didn't make a noise. If you are stuck with one that makes a noise when off, you can put it on a power strip and turn the power off, but that isn't very convenient.
The XBox console makes a bit of noise while running, especially when a game is in the DVD tray and not installed on the hard drive. I highly recommend using the option to install the game to the hard drive and it loads faster and is much more quiet when running. When installed, I don't even notice the noise, but it certainly isn't quiet. Note that some console's DVD drives are noisier than others. But if you just install all games, it make virtually not difference. It also saves wear on the DVD drive which is one of the componentns likely to fail first.
At this point in late 2009 you can probably find several bundles available from the past years and this year. So first figure out how much a plain console costs without a bundle, then see what games you can get for free bundled with it at no additional cost, or maybe slight additional cost as long as it is still a value to get the games included. Then choose which games you want. The 2 games included here are good for children and casual gamers, maybe not hard core gamers. Personally, my wife really likes the lego games and we can play together. Kung Fu panda is more of a solo experience, but I found it entertaining to play through once as a casual gamer.
Beyond considering hardware version & bundles, regarding the console alone, I really like my console. There are plenty of games at reasonable prices that I like. It has never failed me once. But I do feel like they are lacking some quality control due to the number of consoles & purchased and returned due to noise or vibration issues until I settled on my final one which has been great since then. But if you are a hard core Playstation fan, then I wouldn't force an xbox on someone who doesn't want one. I'm sure Playstation is great and am not comparing the two. All I can say is I am very happy with my xbox. | video-games_xbox |
S" is for Superior. First and foremost it's about time Microsoft created a console that has travelers also in mind. I travel with my xbox throughout the US and Canada, and to be frank it's an anchor, heavy, awkward, and fragile. The Xbox One S has the travel and tech savvy gamer in mind. I have read other reviews only boasting its ability to stream 4K and leaving out the real reasons why this is a great console. Let's get to the meat and potatoes so to speak.
1. Yes it is 4K, does this meen anything for players without 4K t.v.'s? Absolutely, because once you do finally upgrade to the 4K you have been looking at since the last Black Friday, you will have a 4K media player and 4K Blu-Ray player ready to go. A 4K Blu-Ray will cost you around $350 and a 4K media player like $100. So in a sense you are already ahead of the game.
2. This unit is 40% smaller, which is a huge decrease in size, allowing you to travel with it without ditching an extra days worth of clothes.
3. Upgraded controller with texture and Bluetooth, allowing you to switch from console to Windows PC without the extra MS controller adapter. Plus it has truly been upgraded, the guts are completely different and it has a 3.5mm audio jack for your headset instead of that goofy mini one you needed yet another adapter for.
4. Internal power supply! Yep, no more hauling that brick around with you that doubles as one of those Amish electric heaters. Additionally the power cord is not some crazy proprietary configuration where if you lost or damaged it you would be out of the game for a week waiting on a replacement.
5. It's faster than the original. You might think that 7.1% is not that impressive but when it comes to gaming, that is a pretty good increase.
6. Solid build! Upon pulling it out of the box the first thing I noticed was it still felt solid and it felt close to the weight of my original Xbox One. I wouldn't have minded if they could cut some weight off it.
7. Vertical positioning! Not all of us have the space to have a VCR equivalent sitting on top of our Sound receiver, not to mention the heat build up is ridiculous. My new Xbox One S came with a vertical stand that allows me to go vertical again and save some much needed real estate. My only complaint would be that the way the stand attaches to the new Xbox seems precarious. I am not sure if I can lock it in better but it's definitely on my things to try list.
8. Robot white! This thing is pretty slick, as in cool looking. I prefer to go with Storm Trooper white without the gloss, but I hate to say it..white is white less dust and fingerprints or microscopic scratches.
9. Reconfigured ports. I didn't see any blue sub 3.0 ports as you see on the side of the original; however I plugged my external 2tb with sub 3.0 into the front port and the speed was outstanding. You still have an extra hdmi for your cable box which is great to plug a fire stick into, and an ir port. My only wish was if they were to add a PC audio output (3.5mm) out so I could plug in my PC speakers since I play on a monitor not a TV.
10. Last but not least the price is competitive! You might think that $399 is rough for a console update, but remember on August 23rd (UPDATED RELEASE DATE) you can pick one up with a smaller 500gb hard drive for $299. Also I refer back to #1 and the fact that you are getting way more bang for your buck.
So to recap I am really impressed with this new Xbox One S, and I have very few items for Xbox to address. I purchased the S simply because I travel with my console and now that I have a nice Win 10 laptop, I can transition between console and PC with ease using the Bluetooth controller and free PC game versions that MS offers now with Xbox game purchases.
I would like to add that Amazon had this Xbox in my hands the day of release, nice job! I would also be interested in giving unbiased reviews of similar products or accessories! | video-games_xbox |
Rockstar's Not So Grand Opus. There's no need to discuss the hype behind this game or its commercial success. We all know it was well received by the public, got great reviews and made Rockstar even richer.
So how does it play? Was it worth the wait? Should it have waited even longer? Maybe and absolutely.
The game does an admirable job of representing what is basically New York and having a sympathetic lead who kills, steals and double-crosses to survive. He doesn't like what he does, wishes he didn't have to do it, but in order to fulfill his objective, he has to do these things. (Note that the vast majority of people he kills, steals from and double-crosses aren't even worthy of being called scum.) The game also forces the player to make some hard choices which have long-lasting consequences. And of course, true to form for a GTA game, there's weapons, explosions, sex, car chases, gun fights and profanities aplenty.
Which leads me to the first of many letdowns for this game. The missions are so repetitive, so tedious, so monotonous, and so boring that it is literally impossible to truly differentiate one mission from the next. A good 50% of the game, probably more involves shooting endless waves of enemies, many of whom pop up in completely illogical places. It is very easy for one enemy to kill you in a matter of seconds after having done so well up to that point.
Which brings me to my next point: Mission failures. The system Rockstar put in place is by far the worst system in any AAA video game, and budget titles would do well to stay far from this as well. If you fail a mission, you must restart the mission entirely. From the beginning. Every single time. It doesn't matter if the mission is a single chase, a single shootout or if there is more than one part to it. (The final mission has five parts to it.) If something goes wrong, you start back at the beginning and you have to redo the entire thing all over again. There are no mid-mission checkpoints. This is completely inexcusable. Operation Flashpoint came out in 2001, so video games have had checkpoints in them for at least seven years now and probably longer than that. Please don't put in a comment about how I forgot about how X game had them in 199X. I am not interested, I am only using that particular game as an example. That's it. End of discussion.
And yet, when you do restart, you still lose EVERYTHING you used in the mission. Why is that? Why should I have to replenish everything I lost on something that didn't actually happen? I can't think of any game that does this, and I probably wouldn't want to play such a game, mainly because I prefer games that are fun. Is having to restock ammo and armor on a mission that didn't actually just happen fun? No. That's downtime, and downtime isn't fun, especially when it's needless downtime. And Rockstar isn't based in someone's garage. This is a very large company with a huge budget, so these amateurish design decisions are even more inexcusable.
Speaking of inexcusable design decisions that were antiquated long, long ago, let's discuss another aspect of gun fights. For some reason, when Niko is being shot at, his default speed, running or walking is the exact same speed as when nothing is going on. SWAT 3 came out almost NINE YEARS AGO, and that game had a dynamic speed change. In other words, if shots were fired, everyone sped up. Not Niko. No, he'll just wander around unless you actually hit the run button. Which also makes him run just as fast as though nothing is going on. Wouldn't someone who is trying to find cover so they don't get shot move faster than if they aren't in danger? If you'd like a more recent example of what Rockstar should have done, take a look at Mass Effect.
The driving mechanics also have a much higher learning curve than what it needs to be, especially with motorcycles and helicopters. Why Rockstar didn't take more time honing the controls and making them easier to pick up is anyone's guess. Same with ladders. I have a friend who will tap the Y button until his thumb is ready to break and even still Niko will not climb the ladder that is right in front of him. This is usually after swimming a ridiculous distance to it since the game doesn't allow the player to just suicide and spawn at the nearest hospital. No instead we have to swim ridiculously long distances. Talk about fun huh?
Which is about the same as can be said for multiplayer. You just walk or drive around the city. There is nothing to do. Nothing. No activities, no places to go, nothing. There are some missions that can be done but if you just want to free roam with a friend in multiplayer, that's ALL you get to do. A drop-in, drop-out co-op in the story mode would've been much, much better.
Oh, yeah, the story. Well what little there is isn't too bad, when the game actually allows you to see it. Most of the time it's too busy bogging you down with those same repetitive missions I talked about earlier where it always goes the exact same way - a deal that shouldn't have any problems where Niko is just there "as insurance" turns into a battle ground with lots and lots of enemies, then just they're all dead, more spawn in the area that was just cleared, then the fight leads to a car/motorcycle chase which leads to a police chase, lather, rinse, repeat. Almost all of the missions have this exact same format. The only things that change are the goons' clothing and the SET of lines Niko yells out as he kills them (not the actual lines themselves.) So don't worry kids, if you heard him say something in a mission, he will say it again! And again....and again....and again.
And lastly, for some reason even though games have been doing this for years, GTA IV still allows objects that obstruct your view of the player to remain opaque. Every other high quality title I have ever seen that operates in 3rd person forces such obstructions to go transparent.
The characters Niko takes missions from and/or befriends are your stock cardboard cutouts but let's face it, no one plays a GTA game for the character study. That's why we have those....um....what're those things called, libraries have them....oh well. Anyway, the dialogue is at times rather humorous, especially when Niko is hanging around Brucie. I think we've all known a Brucie at some point in our lives, so to see Niko indirectly poke fun at these guys is a treat. And as usual, GTA IV satirizes many aspects of society and pop-culture that are just begging for it. Celebrities, radio-talk show hosts, gossip magazines, plenty of entertainment venues and the masses that support them all get the healthy shot of parody that has been coming to them for years.
With a whole lot more polish, mid-mission checkpoints and far less repetition, GTA IV would deserve the accolades and commercial success it has enjoyed as of late. As it stands, however, it is yet another proof that hype, a big name label and commercial success do not always mean a great game. It is a good game, but nothing more. | video-games_xbox |
FANTASTIC BUT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER. I can almost guarantee that if you liked SRTT, you'll like IV too. They brought back many, many characters from earlier Saint's Row games and it was pretty neat to see that.
They also added the idea of "romance", which are short cutscenes between the boss and their homies doing exactly what you's expect. (MILD SPOILER)They're really cute and hilarious to be honest, Shaundi's and Johnny's seemed to be the only ones taken seriously, Johnny's especially was heartwarming. There is absolutely no effect on the plot with these at all, and they don't change no matter how many times you initiate the scenes. That was a little disappointing because one would expect they might put effort into adding more than that because scenes like Matt's don't make any sense the second time around.
The character customization is far superior to any other game out there, in my honest opinion! The ability to play as a female character as an important aspect. The character customization at Image As Designed is fantastic, and it even improved since SRTT. The shops also had a really large amount of items that would satisfy most people. In fact, the character creation is one of the strongest points of the Saint's Row series, especially SRIV. The fact that you can change the breast size and muscularity of your saint for your preference is considerate on the developer's part.
Another important point is the diversity of the characters! The gaming industry has a monumental problem with carbon-copy, universe characters and catering to the same small audience over and over. But Saint's Row is certainly up there. With many strong female characters and homies of various races, even bring in characters who don't fit the typical image of a hypermasculine male character and are treated decently.
The small things like radio stations playing outside the car are great, the city is beautiful, and the side missions in the game are really fun(Hello, superpowers!) and there are a ton of them, and still feel pretty fresh by the time you finish. But, that brings us to the biggest problem of the game. It's obvious that it was originally meant to be a dlc in the beginning. The main quests are few and far between while there is an overabundance of side activities. The developers could have easily added many main quest line missions that fit in just fine with the rest of the story. The game never addresses what the strange floating things at the top of the simulation are. They also never physically sabotage the Zin outside the simulation, which is disappointing. They also never go beyond giving life to the Zin race outside Zinyak's love for poetry which is again, disappointing. Point being, there was a lot more potential than the final game had, with its overly linear, short plot lines. And in the end, that really detracts from the game.
But even with that, I'm still giving it five stars Reason being that I can't deny that I LOVED the game. One might consider four stars simply for the short main missions, but that would by denying the fact that it's an amazing game and great for escapism. Overall, it's a great game, but it falls short of the potential that an alien, futuristic, overcoming-the-odds game it could have been. | video-games_xbox |
Somewhat Disappointing Sequel. It's not that this game is bad. It's not. It's just a solid step down from the last game, Human Revolution, in terms of both quality and length.
This game is quite a bit shorter than Human Revolution. Definitely do the side missions, if you don't you'll zoom through this game really quickly.
There isn't a whole lot of new mechanics introduced from the last game. There are some new enhancements but it plays essentially the same. If you liked the last game, you'll like this one.
The core gameplay is still great, which is why this gets 3 stars. You can play the game via sleath or as an FPS. Lots of different enhancements to go the route you want.
The game overall felt a bit easier than Human Revolution. I think it's mostly because the majority of the boss battles we saw in Human Revolution have been removed.
There's some bugs present throughout the game. Nothing too bad but every so often I'd run into NPCs that were running into place/into walls which would break the immersion. There were also some framerate issues, especially when in certain public areas it can get terrible. I got a couple crashes during my playthrough. But the vast majority of the time it runs fine on the Xbox One though. The graphics however, I was not impressed with on the Xbox One. Didn't look very next gen. I played through Human Revolution on the Wii U, a much weaker system and Mankind Divided on the Xbox One looked about the same. And Human Revolution definitely ran better on the Wii U than Mankind Divided did on the Xbox One.
There isn't as much to explore here as in Human Revolution. Only 1 city instead of 3.
The ending is not that great. Clearly it's setting up for DLC, which is unfortunate. And the alt modes clearly were created to sell DLC. Again, it's sad to see Square Enix nickle and dime-ing its customers.
The introduction of microtransactions is flat out unacceptable and insulting in a $60 AAA game. I had to move my rating down to 3 stars from 4 stars because of them. There's a store in the in game menu that lets you spend real money for extra enhancement points and extra in game money. It's sad to see that dirty part of the games industry make its way into this series. Fortunately this game seems not balanced around forcing you to buy stuff from the store or other pay to win mechanics. The game felt to me like it gave plenty of credits and enhancement points in game. But who knows if the next game will be the same way.
Overall, I'm a bit disappointed considering how amazing Human Revolution was. We're only getting maybe 50-70% of the game we got with Human Revolution. This game feels like they rushed it out, it feels incomplete, it's not finished. And it makes me really sad to see this game franchise beginning to going down the DLC/microtransactions route instead of focusing on providing the consumer with a quality product in the box on day 1. Definitely play Human Revolution 1st if you haven't. My recommendation for Mankind Divided is to wait for them to finish the game. At some point they'll release a game of the year edition/directors cut edition that includes all the DLC on disc. Until then, play something else. | video-games_xbox |
I love this game - I am addicted. I wasn't expecting too much from this game. I personally was not a big fan of Oblivion. I tried to be, but there were aspects of the game that really bothered me such as all the monster leveling up with you. Having said that, I still bought this game hoping it would entertain me. For the first two hours, I really was not impressed. I did not like the character models, the way they moved, and I didn't like the voice acting. But I decided to give it a longer chance because I read someone say it took them an hour to get into it.
I am so happy I did. I love this game. Absolutely love it. I like it much better than Oblivion. I enjoy the combat much more as it feels more hack and slash. I like the fact that certain monsters will kill you with one or two blows. I have 9 1/2 hours logged into this game, and there is so much to do. The horse is difficult until you get used to it, once you do it is no problem. Remember that if you buy it and hate the horse.
For me, this game reminds me of an improved Diablo with the fighting, rapid looting, selling equipment, spells. If you ignore the voice acting which becomes easy to do as the game progresses, you will find yourself immersed in this game wanting to play more, to make your character stronger, and to make your weapons and armor stronger. There are graphical glitches, you definitely should load it onto your harddrive, and there are minor bugs here and there but they do not reduce the amount of fun this game is. As everyone else has stated, map is huge and there are so many side quests to do. Even though the voice acting is poor, the dialog is great and the characters have believable quests for you to do which makes them that much more enjoyable. I have played World of Warcraft, Oblivion, Sacred II, and I like the quests much more on this game than those. These quests actually have a bit of thought into them, instead of just making you "kill that guy because he has wronged me." Instead, you will hear him talk to you and tell you (and I am somewhat telling one of the quests but changing it a bit)"I want you to take care of this guy. By take care of this guy, you know what I mean. The reason I want you to deal with this is because when the Orc war was going on, he offered safe passage to my family in exchange for 500 gold. We paid him. On the day we were supposed to meet him, he disappeared. We knew the route of the passage, so we went. Little did we know he had led us straight into an ambush. It seems that is his way of making money..." and there would be more but you get the picture. It gives you an actual reason to want to do the quest instead of simple two line words that scroll across the screen. Anyhow, great game. I am glad I bought it.
I forgot to mention, so I will just throw it in here. If you like Rockband you may appreciate one part of this game. If you choose to, you can play musical instruments to earn money from people. To play an instrument, you need to buy one and you need to buy the music sheet. Each music sheet is different. To play, you have to use your controller and use both trigger buttons and both bumper buttons. Just like Rockband or Guitar Hero, the notes scroll down the screen and you have to hit the trigger or bumper when it passes the bar. But, it's hard. They scroll so fast. I would compare it to Expert on Rockband. But if you are good you'll enjoy it.
Edit: I am addicted to this game. Been looking for so long for a game to get addicted to and this one has done it. If you have been addicted to a game in the past but just couldn't find one - give this one a shot. | video-games_xbox |
Huge game for racing fans. Midnight Club LA is a very good racing title for Xbox 360. It is an open world racing game in which there are an overwhelming amount of races to take part in. You probably will never run out of things to do in this game, offline or online. The game is a stunner graphically, including some stellar car models and the overall city can be breathtaking. There are several positives to go with some negatives, but if you're a racing fan (esp street/arcade racing fan) then you owe it to yourself to buy this game!
+Positives+
Graphics - As I stated before, the game looks absolutely amazing at times. There is very, very little loading in between races, and during a race you can drive through the entire city with no loading and no frame rate issues. Since this is an open world game there is a bit of drawn in and slow texture loading, but it is very rare and is almost completely removed if you install the game to the hard drive. The interface looks slick (esp the GPS system) and the presentation is pretty well done.
Sound - The car sounds all sound OK at best, and the music (like any game soundtrack) can get repetitive, but it is overall well done. Nothing spectacular though.
Online and Offline modes - several different race types, it is hard to get bored with this game
Customization - From an appearance standpoint, there is an abundance of customization available. Performance wise, not so much.
-Negatives-
Controls/Gameplay - The controls feel a bit loose, so if feels as if you don't have as much control over the car as you should have, even with a very good handling rating. The difficulty could be an issue for more casual players, as the hardest races are brutally unforgiving. As a solution to this, you are never stuck racing only difficult races if you are not up to the challenge.
Car Selection - Over 40 cars may sound like a lot, but not only have all of the cars in the game been used by several other games, it really isn't an impressive list at all. Progression through the game can seem less rewarding as there are not that many cars to purchase/customize.
Can't warp to races - Being an open world game means that you have to drive to a location to where the person who wants to race is, then it gives you the option to race to the starting line. While you can skip this, it would have been nice to be able to select a race from the GPS and warp to the starting line, instead of just setting a marker to drive to. A small annoyance, but it is worth noting.
Overall, I recommend this game to fans of racing games, but no one else. While the game has a lot to do in it, some of it can be frustrating and difficult by today's standards (although I like a challenge). If you are unsure how much you like racing games, rent it, but if you can't get enough street racing, then buy this game! | video-games_xbox |
NHL 13 Locked Out Edition. The strides NHL 13 makes are good, however not perfect.
The Bad:
The first glaring issue is online with the EASHL and drop in games. The frame rate drops significantly and is basically unplayable. This will be day 40 of EASHL-gate and were being told a patch is on its way, but as we know with EA it's not always that simple.
I've also have has some issues with the GM Connected freezing for people in our league, we corrected it by having them leave the league and rejoining.
Some of the physics make me scratch my head. The hits can be over the top and playing on All Star and above is just the CPU checking your guys left and right into the boards. I wish they would tone it down a bit. The commentary is unchanged and the same as its been for some years now.
The Good: I enjoy the new skating engine. No more ballerina skating through defenders and holding on to the puck. The defense and goalies are beefed up this year and it makes you play actual hockey. Dump and chase works for the first time and is great to use with your faster forwards. Online is smooth in versus play which makes GM Connected an addictive game mode especially with friends. It is essentially the offline GM mode from previous years now implemented online. Lastly, the ice pops out at you this year. The game seems more polished in the graphics deparment. Lastly, I don't play the HUT mode or the new NHL moments so I have no insight on them.
I gave it 3 stars which is "it's ok" because I can't enjoy a game where the meat is stripped from the bone due to faulty online code. 4 stars for fun because GM mode is my new addiction. I cant ever wait for us to advance our league and play my games.
I do like this game, however 50% of the reason we buy this game is for the EASHL online. IF and when they fix the frame rate issue I would recommend it to any hockey fan. IF your an offline gamer, order it today. | video-games_xbox |
Genius Concept, Okay Results. Obsidian Entertainment have never had it easy. They sprang from the ashes of the company that created FALLOUT, and they've been living in the shadows ever since. If you look at their track record, every single one of their games have been sequels to some of the most highly-acclaimed RPGs of all time. They always have huge shoes to fill, and the results have always been a mixed bag.
My favorite game is <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Star-Wars-Knights-of-the-Old-Republic/dp/B000067DPM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic</a> for many reasons. It was my first experience with a game where my actions actually mattered, where I could interact with the characters of that world, and where I could actually roleplay. As soon as I finished it, I went out and bought the sequel: <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Star-Wars-Knights-of-the-Old-Republic-II-The-Sith-Lords/dp/B0002B90SA/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords</a>. I really didn't know what I had played. It was a game that was so tedious to play at times, but actually managed to improve on the formula I had thought was perfect. Obsidian hasn't broken that habit; they always progress the state of RPGs in their own way, but that accomplishment is always hidden beneath layers of glitches and faulty gameplay.
ALPHA PROTOCOL really is no different. Though it represents the company's first attempt at making an original I.P. that's entirely their own, they made the mistake of allowing it to be compared to the MASS EFFECT series, games that are known for their quality, gameplay, and story. If you're looking for an experience similar to that of MASS EFFECT, you really won't find it here. But what you will find, oddly enough, is a game that manages to pull off a few tricks that guys at BioWare should really take note of in the future.
The story of ALPHA PROTOCOL is sort of clever when you get right down to it, but it is almost one of the most convoluted I've ever played. You take on the role of Agent Michael Thorton, a man who has just been drafted into a top secret branch of U.S. intelligence called Alpha Protocol. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, requires you to investigate the circumstances of a terrorist act against a passenger airliner. This story will take you to Saudi Arabia, Rome, Taipei, and Moscow, all the while making decisions that will affect how the story unfolds.
Now, this is the really amazing part of the game. Unlike MASS EFFECT, where all your decisions really end up doing is change the ending, the decisions you make in ALPHA PROTOCOL decide how the entire story unfolds. Depending on who you save or kill, how you behave in a mission, who you choose to form alliances with: it all impacts how the story plays out. Sidequests will open and close. Some romance options won't even appear. The way people talk to you will change depending on how you've treated them. Maybe the overall story arc doesn't change very much, but how it unfolds certainly does, and by wide margins.
Though you will have to play as Michael Thorton (there's hardly any customization available, nor is there an option to play as a female agent), the story managed to become very involving the more my choices began to come into play. The times when you interact with the other characters (all of them are very well written and voiced) are the highlights in the game. Heck, it almost blows MASS EFFECT out of the water in that regard, but that still doesn't change the fact that there is still a game that you have to play to get to those parts, and that's, unfortunately, where ALPHA PROTOCOL founders.
To put it bluntly, the gameplay is terrible. It's nothing special in the least bit. It's as if Obsidian was trying to blend GEARS OF WAR, SPLINTER CELL, and MASS EFFECT mechanics into the same game, but they didn't succeed in making any of it work to the point where it's fun. The gunplay is based upon your level, so if you try shooting people with a pistol and you don't have any ranks in it, you can be at point blank range and STILL miss your enemy. I had all of my points into that skill, and by the end of the game most of the enemies were still dodging bullets and brushing off those that actually hit them. You never really feel like you've gotten any more talented than when you started.
Not to mention this is only exacerbated by terrible enemy AI. Guards will take cover and never pop out again, some will always charge you no matter how much damage they're taking, and some will just blow themselves up. Also, every single enemy in this game has grenades on their person (not an exaggeration), so expect to be hit with some of those if you take cover for too long.
Despite being labeled "The Espionage RPG," this game does not really allow you to live out your spy fantasies. Ninety percent of all the missions in this game revolve around shooting guards in different ways. It doesn't matter what your overall objective is; there is no option to smooth talk your way through any of them like James Bond would do, nor can you effectively stealth through them like Sam Fisher would do. You will always be running and gunning, no matter what class you choose. It's like playing the same level over and over again for over ten hours.
The funny thing is, though I can fault this game in so many ways, I would buy a sequel on the first day. The game needs improvement, that's a given, but Obsidian have made an attempt to progress modern RPGs. They've made a game that changes based on your decisions, instead of giving you the illusion of change (ala MASS EFFECT). The characters are great, witty, very likable, and the thought of a proper spy-based RPG is something I never knew I wanted so badly until I had played ALPHA PROTOCOL.
The potential in this series Obsidian have created is astounding. Of course the game didn't sell well - and for good reason; I wouldn't recommend paying full price for this game - but I would hope that Obsidian decides to give the property another shot somewhere down the line. I would only suggest that they watch CASINO ROYALE, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, and THE BOURNE IDENTITY over and over again, get back to the drawing board, and give their fans the Espionage RPG that they'd promised, but only partially delivered. | video-games_xbox |
The Xbox 360 is the global unit. You need not an hdtv. Do not worry. Yes. You've probably heard that many 360's have crashed. But, listen carefully when you hear those issues! The reports clearly state "the xbox 360 i bought from -Large Quote- "LAUNCH" -Large unquote- has broken down after a couple days." Many issues say the same thing. I got my 360 on the second shipment and it works perfectly. The same thing happened with th Ps2s Xboxs and Gamecubes. Evry first shipment gets a downfall. Ps3 is more than likely going to have the same issue. But who knows? Maybe sony will finally notice the mistake every game company is making. The problem was getting all those 360s out at launch, you're bound to look over some things.
And about the HDTV issues. Yes, yes. Everything DOES look better in high definition. BUT, if you've seen games on two different TVs, one being av, and the other HD, you'll see not much of a difference. The games do look better and move a -and i strongly quote- LITTLE faster. But the graphics ultimately just goes into more lighting and reflections detail, but it's not like the games don't already have that. Besides, a while ago, you could see on xbox.com that they meant "that the games will be in high definition graphics on any tv, the 360 will bring high definition to the tv itself. The HDTV just brings out the fullest detial." which is not much of a difference. But that doesn't mean the graphics are the same. No, sir. These graphics are truly next gen- HDTV or not.
And the reason some games for both 360 and xbox don't look that much different is because they had to divide work between the two. The 360 just brought out better detail. They didn't use nearly as much little 360 power they could have.
These games are incredible. The xbox live next gen is even more incredible. NOt to mention you get a new XNOC LIVE MARKETPLACE, where you can buy and download whatever is on the marketplace at the time right out of the box! You no longer have to go to the store to get computer games, or demos! Plus, this has many classic games, like GAUNLET and INVADERS and others that you can now play on XBOX LIVE!
There's more. You can download trailers for new movies like X3 and mission impossible 3! You can also-if you have a pc powered by windows media center edition 2005 xp-watch live and recorded tv in high def from your 360. YOu can share photos, music, camera recorded videos and others from your pc to watch in high def(as i explained you don't need hdtv to watch in high def on the 360). You can watch on demand movies as well. And why would you want to do that when you can do it from your cable box? Because 1. Who doesn't want to bring out the most of any system? 2. It's all done in high-def (hdtv or not). 3. can you share things from computer to cable tv? I think not. 4. It brings the whole electronic expeireince in one box!
SO why does this cost $399.99? Well look above you and re-read it!. You can also stream music from your ipod to 360 and vice versa via ethernet cable, which will always fit in the 360, and it's not expensive. Same thing with the *GASP* PSP. That's right. Microsoft's rival company SONY has a compatibility level with it's 360. Did i mention this plays the best games of all time?
All in all, the 360 is the center home electronic family device(if used properly). So, if you are planning to buy a 360, remember what i stated above. And the price is worth it. I hope this review was helpful.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you use a wireless networking adapter for the 360 to link to a router for your media center pc, make sure the router is G+A router. It doesn't need to be, but it gets pretty laggy and glitchy if it isn't. Ask BestBuy or Wal-Mart if you don't understand. But you don't need to wirelessly adapt it. For the best performance, use an ethernet cable to directly hook it up to your media center pc. | video-games_xbox |
Let's "Jump" for Guitar Hero Van Halen. Back 2 or 3 years ago, when Guitar Hero was just becoming super popular, I thought to myself, you know they should really do a guitar hero: van halen!! But I thought the chances of that were very slim. I was of course wrong. When I first heard about it, I absolutely couldn't wait to get my hands on it. I was excited, but I was even more excited when you could get it for free with Guitar Hero 5!! 2 games in one!! So I did, and got it more than 2 months before the release date, and started rocking out!! Well here's the positives...
+ Extremely Fun!! The first song you play in Career is the incredibly awesome "Panama," and then "Running With The Devil," as an encore, and after those two I was hooked.
+ Track List is Great!! 25 of Van Halen's best songs all collected in one game, and none of them disappoint. And the 3 solo's are very difficult and will take a while even for the Experts to master them.
+ The band doesn't look extremely deformed which is good. They all look at least passable and/or decent.
+ Some replay value. If you want all the achievements, and want to unlock the classic looks of the band. Which is a very nice and different look to see the classic Van Halen band rocking out.
+ David Lee Roth is pretty interactive. He really gets into the music, and makes it seem all the more fun. Especially during "Jump."
+ You can play a song more than once and not get sick of it. I've played at least each Van Halen song twice. Some over 10 times and I still love them!!
+ Crowd is nice to have. The sing along to the lyrics and go crazy when you use star power. In GH5, you could hardly hear them.
Then some little things, which bother me a bit...
+/- No Sammy Hagar. I would like to play, "Why Can't This Be Love," and "Dreams."
+/- No Michael Anthony. Wolfgang, made the whole Base Career look unappealing. Mike's vocals are still there, it's just stupid to have Wolfgang there taking the credit.
+/- Feels rushed, but I shouldn't complain since I got it for free.
+/- The guest acts or okay, not a lot of them seem to fit in, but they're still fun. Just not as fun as the Van Halen songs. And Wolfgang picked most of them, so what do you expect?
And only one negative,
- No interviews or videos, I wish they showed us the band all together and see them making the game.
This game is one fun rockin' game, once you get to appreciate it. All the Van Halen songs are good, but some guest acts could have of been changed. This game deserved better. Not a must own guitar hero, but still good. I'm a huge fan, so there's my exception. Recommended for fans who want more songs to play or Van Halen fans (With Roth). [...] | video-games_xbox |
Best Madden since 2000. +excellent graphics, the uniforms are nicely colored to depict their real life counterparts uniforms, the SHINYNESS of the uniforms is a bitt too much but that doesnt matter.
+excellent overall presentation, period. the menu's are easy to navigate, the team select screen is Very Attractive and everything is candy for the eyes.
+the running game is great, its like real football when the RB pounds it up the middle for a pickup of 5, excellent job...
-half the time i hiked the ball, i was tackled by 3 defensive linemen within a half of a second, it was as if my offensive line was not there at all :l
-there is a glitch where if you throw the ball to a reciever and a defender sticks his hands infront of the ball to intercept it, the ball will GO THROUGH BOTH OF HIS HANDS AND WRISTS and into the hands of the reciever...and iv watched the replay and slowed it down enough to see the ball travel through both of the defenders hands/wrists....terrible. this glitch is actually in NCAA Football 2008 as well...but that glitch is farrr worse than this one.
-some of the players movements are not realistic at all, they run like theyve got something stuck in their butts, very mechanical movement.
-the sideline players and the crowd look terrible...especially for the 360, they could have done better than that...
-as well as the faces of the players, they're very Rock-like and do a poor job of capturing emotion. All-Pro 2k8 did an EXCELLENT job at this...
this was a great rental but because of the ball traveling through hands glitch..and for the fact that im STILL playing NFL2K5 Religiously...and tampering with the idea of purchasing all pro 2k8 now that its only 30 bucks at wal-mart :l this game is an easy skip over. NOT THAT ITS NOT FUN...if youv got two players and you want to get a game going, this game is great for that...but in my opinion all-pro is graphicly and gameplay-wise a better game...as well as nfl2k5...
great looking game though :)
iLL . | video-games_xbox |
A Unique Rip-Off. When Saints Row was originally announced, it wasn't long off the cusp of the highly successful and innovative GTA San Andreas in the last generation of gaming. Many saw this game as a rip-off from that success as they took many elements from San Andreas and applied them to this game. The gang aspect was the most prominent comparison between the two as, in Saints Row you play a mute gangster who joins a group called the 3rd street saints who are a gang located in, you guessed it 3rd Street in the rundown city of stillwater. The 3rd Street Saints are a group in constant conflict between 3 other gangs of stillwater as they battle for control of the city.
The plot itself sees you, again an un named mute character witness a fight between these three gangs. You're unwittingly sucked into this battle and are thankfully saved by saints leader Julius and are brought in to prove yourself worthy of gang membership. Over the course of the game you engage in a number of missions that introduce you to the 3 seperate gangs. They are...
Los Carnales: This gang is lead by Hector Lopez and are quite a ruthless gang of street thugs sporting red gang colours.
Vice Kings: Are a group lead by a ruthless businessman and criminal by the name of Benjamin King. They are the highest profile gang and sport the colour yellow
Westside Rollerz: They are a group of street racers, let by street racing pro Joseph Price and they sport the blue colours.
Upon first glance, the gangs may not seem that intimidating or indeed that big in profile. However, when you get into the game you come to realise the power of each gang especially the Vice Kings lead by the intimidating Benjamin King played by Michael Clarke Duncan. Although it's a video game I found myself being genuinely intimidated by the presence of King and he was easily the best character within the game. Along with your enemy gang leaders, there's also the prominent characters within your own gang to become familiar with. Especially the quite frankly legendary Johnny Gat, who's a man not afraid of a good shoot 'em up. Along with taking over stillwater territory one disctrict of a time, you're also given a hell of a lot of other stuff to do.
The customisation of the game is when this game starts to become unique. Upon the beginning of the game, you're given the opton to create your main character from scratch. This includes morphing all facial features, character size and general body features. Cars are also fully customisable with a plethora of different features for each individual vehicle. This includes colours, bumpers, windows, hoods etc. Which also includes the option to have Nitro for your vehicle to take full advantage of the street racing games. As part of the customisation, you can also purchase cribs at different levels of the game. Unfortunately, in this instalment you can't customise the cribs, but it's brought in in the second game.
Along with customisation, there are a number of other different activities which you can take part in at your leisure. These games allow you to unlock other particular benefits and earn you some extra cash on the side. One of the more fun activities is the Insurance Fraud activity, which sees you throwing yourself in front of cars to get some extra cash. If you're not a fan of participating in the set side missions, you can also choose to hold up, or break into a store. To hold up a store you simply point your gun at the clerk and wait for them to open the safe. To break in, you wait 'till night time, smash your way into the back of a store, crack the safe and steal the goods inside.
The police mechanics aren't great in this game as you find that to avoid the police, you simply have to avoid doing anything wrong for a short period of time and the police meter will run out on you. The interraction with the gang wars is great and easy to use, the shooting system takes away the typically annoying targetting and allows you to free aim, which presents a much better gun fighting experience. One of the biggest drawbacks of the entire game is that there is no flying available. This is mainly due to the relatively new streaming technology employed by the Volition team to put together this game, meaning that to have any ability of flight would slow the game down immensely.
This is a really good game and although the free roam premise can be considered a GTA rip-off, there's no doubting that this is still a unique game in of its own. Just cool all over and something every XBOX360 owner should have in their game collection. | video-games_xbox |
There's nothing casual about it. I have to admit, when I first played this game I didn't care for it. It seemed way too difficult for me. After getting killed three times in a row on the first level I gave up on it. It was Christmas time after all, and I was had other games to play plus my old favorite Oblivion that I keep going back to. (Yes, I must slip Oblivion into every review for an Xbox 360 game) But later, when I heard people talk about how much they enjoyed it and read reviews about it on Amazon I decided to give it another go. I read faqs about how to play better and my skills started to improve. I began to better grasp the concept of cover, when to stay behind it and when to sally forth and kick some alien(?) butt. I started to actually get perfect active reloads.(That flashing bar when you get a perfect reload is quite satisfying. It almost makes up for the fact that half the time when you finally get a chance to shoot something your temporary damage bonus is gone) I persisted through the choke points where I wasn't entirely sure how to proceed.(In a fluid game like this strategy guides only help so much) Even though I died (and got chunked) enough times to fill up a national cemetary I finally beat the game andit was one of the most fulfilling moments of my video game playing days.
Why bore you with my life story(of this game). It's basically a long intro for the theme of this review as stated in the title. This game ain't easy. Although I won't give it the satisfaction of putting it in the all time hall of hard games (Battletoads, ghosts and goblins anyone?) it still is a wake up call to die so many times before you even see your first boss. A game like this isn't some fun diversion you tune onto just before bed. You play this game sitting straight, hands clenching the controller tight. This game requires commitment, this game requires dedication. This game requires you to, I don't know, not suck at shooting games I guess would help. This game is funner with two people playing. Why exactly is it that you can resuscitate your computer allies but they can't heal you? The good thing about this game is that it makes 'health hunting' irrelevant. Instead of a health meter or bar you have an emblem that glows red when you get hit. Your character is pretty slow, he can run but it is kind of wonky and hard to control. All in all this is a good game. It is a bit hardcore, even when it's not, ie casual. But that makes beating it even more worthwhile. | video-games_xbox |
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