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Xbox One Bundle Comparison. There are now several Xbox One bundles to choose from over the holidays, so to help you make a decision, here is a comparison with holiday price drops:
Xbox One, no Kinect: $349
- Barebones, nothing extra, not a great deal, don't get this one.
Xbox One with Kinect: $449
- Same as above, but includes Kinect. No other bonuses, don't get this bundle.
Xbox One Assassin's Creed Bundle, no Kinect: $349
- This includes both Assassin's Creed black flag (digital version), which is playable immediately after download, and Assassin's Creed Unity, which you can pre-download, but it is not playable until release date, which is still 1-2 weeks away. As you can see, this is the same price as the barebones XBO, but includes 2 free games, making it a pretty sweet deal if you don't care about the Kinect.
Xbox One Assassin's Creed Bundle, with Kinect: $449
- Same as other AC bundle above, but also includes Kinect. It also includes a free Kinect game: Dance Central Spotlight. The Kinect sells separately alone for $149 MSRP, so this is an *extremely* good bundle. The standard MSRP prices would put this value at $399 console + $149 Kinect + $30 AC Black Flag + $60 AC Unity + $20 Dance Central Spotlight = about $650 total. Even if you believe the separate prices are kind of inflated, or they go down further over time, still a great deal.
Xbox One Sunset Overdrive Bundle: $349
- This bundle does not include a Kinect, but includes the new Sunset Overdrive game for the same price as the barebones bundle. But what makes this one stand out is that both the console and controller are white, which is pretty cool. Color preferences are subjective, so you'll need to look at it and decide if this bundle is right for you, or if Sunset Overdrive is the type of game you'll like. It is currently the only way to get a white XBO. If you really want the Kinect, you'll have to buy it separately for $149, which makes the deal less awesome. But if you don't care about Kinect and like the look of white, this is a great choice.
Xbox One Call of Duty Advanced Warfare Bundle: $449
- This bundle is priced the same as the normal Kinect bundle, but this one does not actually include the Kinect. Instead, that $100 premium gets you Call of Duty Advanced Warfare (digital version, not physical), a custom Call of Duty themed console and controller design, and a 1TB hard drive. This is the only way to currently get a 1TB hard drive, which to me is the biggest selling point of all. But again, if you want the Kinect, you'll have to buy it separately for $149 which makes it not as great of a deal. But that 1TB is great, and with how large full games are, will quickly become necessary. I'm hoping 1TB becomes a standard hard drive size very soon for this console, but for now, you'll have to get this bundle to get that extra space (or get a separate external drive).
Note that the included Sunset Overdrive game is digital only, there is no physical game disc included. It is also a very huge file, so plan on either starting the download before bed, or waiting patiently for a few hours for it to download and install.
After the last few system updates, the Xbox One has become an even better gaming/media device that I am still using and enjoying just about every day. So pick the bundle that works best for you and you won't be disappointed! | video-games_xbox |
Has the Same Name as the First Dragon Age Game, But None of the Fun. I was very disappointed with this game. I was expecting changes from the first game yes... But Bioware seemed to think taking everything that was fun from the first game, and throwing it out the window was a good idea. Do yourself a favor, and buy the expansion Awakening if you are looking for a true sequel to the orginal game.
Whoever gave the go ahead for this game to be sold should lose their job. Now don't get me wrong this game has some improvements from Origins(I use this term losely) the actual combat is much improved in my opinion(the actual battle mechanic not the way waves of enemies seem to pop out of nowhere to attack you this was annoying), but the lack of any type of effort to advance the story of Dragon Age or build upon the success of the first game seems to have been only a secondary priority for Bioware this time around.(Raking in the cash from a game sharing the same name as the succesful Dragon Age:Origins seemed to be the first) Sad to say....
Hopefully Bioware will take to heart all of the bad publicity, and reviews this game got when it launched, and is still getting almost a year from release. Hopefully they will try to figure out how they can get this franchise back on track before it is too late. Origins was one of my most favorite games of all time, and I still have a play through every now and then (between other major games releases) just to experience the excellent story and gameplay. Dragon Age 2 was traded in the same day I finally forced myself to finish playing it and beat it.
One more thing...for the love of all that is holy Bioware please, please, please hire more than one or two people to develop and skin environments. I swear to anyone who is reading this review. This game literally only has about a dozen different settings(locations) for the whole game. The game engine just keeps shoveling new encounters into the same old dungeons and areas. This reeks of lazyness on Biowares part. What was your budget for environment development 20 dollars? I could have designed, developed, and skinned more locations by myself than the whole development team at Bioware seemed to manage during the whole game's development. (I wish I was lieing) | video-games_xbox |
Perfect for chatting and playing MMOs, RPGs from the couch. I don't own an Xbox One and have been using this chatpad with my PC. Overall I'm digging it quite a bit. I mainly use this thing when I'm playing PC games from my couch in Steam's Big Picture Mode. There are a surprising many uses for this thing, and I'm discovering more and more the longer I use it. It's an absolute joy for playing Final Fantasy XIV because I can do pretty much anything I want without ever having to reach for a keyboard, and it's greatly reduced the number of modifiers I need to press down in order to do things, and of course there's the ease at which you can type messages and commands.
Another example where this thing has shined is modded Skyrim. With many mods, there are additional keys on the keyboard that perform certain functions. For example, in "Realistic Needs," pressing the N key displays your character's hunger and tiredness levels, and in "immersive HUD," pressing a hotkey will hide the compass to give you a clear, unobstructed view of the game world. Normally mapping those to a controller would be a huge pain that would involve Xpadder, but with the Chatpad I have it all at my fingertips. I was even able to play Elite Dangerous with no problems when I had this thing hooked up. And of course, many RPGs such as Fallout 4 and Skyrim require a keyboard for text input since there's no on-screen keyboard even when using a controller, and the chatpad bypasses that problem completely. Even a game like GTAV benefited by giving me a lot of shortcut keys that normally weren't available for a pad.
There's also the simple joy of being able to send Steam messages from my couch without needing a keyboard. It really reminds me of how much we lost in the transition away from physical QWERTY keyboards on our phones to these messy touch screen interfaces that we're all stuck with now. There's something immensely satisfying about the click that each key makes, and the way the buttons are brightly illuminated with white LEDs allowing for easy typing in a dark room. Actually typing on the pad may take a little getting used to at first, but if you remember the texting phones of the old days it should come back to you very quickly.
One thing you should know about this controller, which I wish I'd seen in other reviews, is that if you have headphones plugged straight into the chatpad, it can be very uncomfortable to hold while leaning back into a couch because the cord sticks out so much, and you are likely to end up damaging something if you stress it too much. If you are going to use the headset jack on this pad, a right-angle jack adapter like the one I've linked to is pretty much essential. It makes the experience infinitely more comfortable, and it's less likely to damage your cable or jack. <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Valley-3-5mm-Female-to-3-5mm-Male-TRRS-4-Pole-Right-Angle-Gold-Stereo-Headphone-and-Microphone-or-Video-Cable-Adapter-Black/dp/B00AX8XIDK/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Valley 3.5mm Female to 3.5mm Male TRRS (4 Pole) Right Angle Gold Stereo Headphone and Microphone or Video Cable Adapter - Black</a>
There's also a headset included, but honestly I haven't tested it at all. It looks and feels like a pretty run-of-the-mill cheap console chat headset. I have no idea if it works with a Dualshock 4 because I haven't tested it, and I'd rather use my good stereo headset when I'm gaming anyway. The chatpad has built in volume keys though, which I have grown to love quite a lot.
I'd say this chatpad is arguably the best reason to consider buying an Xbox One controller for your PC rather than using a Dualshock 4 or Xbox 360 pad. Microsoft never bothered releasing Windows drivers for the Xbox 360 chatpad, much to the dismay of many PC gamers, but the Xbone version is the exact kind of plug-and-play solution that I've always wanted for adding a keyboard (and by extension, more buttons) to my PC gaming controller. Playing Final Fantasy XIV from the couch while chatting with friends over Vent with no catches or caveats is a true joy that must be experienced to truly appreciate. | video-games_xbox |
Oh ... my ... god ... easily Game of the Year. If I could give Bioshock more than five stars, I would.
This is one of those rare games that is THE reason to buy an Xbox 360 if you haven't already. Halo did that for the first gen. Xbox ... now Bioshock comes along for the 360.
Like other reviewers here, I've played virtually every FPS out there and Bioshock is at least one, if that not THE, best I've played.
The story is great, the characters (especially the Big Daddies) look amazing and the environments are breath-taking. Much like when I play Half-Life 2, I kept thinking to myself as I walked around Rapture, "It would've been cool to see this place before it went to hell."
I LOVE games like this that totally absorb you and keep you wanting to play (I'm addicted, much to the chagrin of my wife). About half of the way through this game, I couldn't wait to start it over again so I could experience everything again.
The pluses: The idea of plasmids and tonics is insane ... love the fact that the conventional weapons are just that, conventional and not energy weapons ... the Art Deco look of Rapture ... damn. Oh wait, and you get to become a Big Daddy?!? Nice!
Only one true minus ... no multi-player. Would have been incredible to suit up against other people in these environments. But, I guess that's why this game is so good because the developers focused solely on the single-player. Here's hoping a multi-player add-on is coming.
OK, maybe two minuses ... I haven't played in the most difficult setting, but in the default setting, it's almost too easy. Maybe I've played too many FPSs, but this wasn't that difficult once I got the hang of the controls. Will take another spin thru in the hardest setting and see how that is.
Until I played Bioshock, I thought Halo was the game by which all other FPS were going to be measured. Now, I'm not so sure ...
I'm ready for Dreamland, Mr. Bubbles! | video-games_xbox |
No better than before. There are no new features except they switched franchise with connected careers, and have infinity engine. These are not necessarily good though. I would like it if there was a post game show and halftime show like NFL 2k5 but does not seem like they will ever get it. I hate that there is no soundtrack, what the hel*. I have to listen to boring music the whole time, it's so annoying. Especially during off-season of my connected careers, I am going to lose my mind. The online like always is kind of slow and it is glitchy. The way the players move is better but the tackling is so stupid. Someone gets tackled and they fly 10 yards. Other times people are falling over there teammates messing up the whole play. I must say I like the passing more but it isn't much different. The madden moments are free so that's a good thing. Last time what were they thinking making us pay for stupid stuff like that. The best part of madden is the new rosters, just like it is every year after 2005. The online connected carrers is a stupid idea. Who wants to control their team that seriously. "Hey mom I need to find a computer to fix my Madden team". No, that doesn't happen, we don't care that much. Everything else is the same or worse than Madden 12. I wish they would just listen to what the fans say because we are the ones buying it. If they want to know what we want, it is NFL 2k5/Madden 2005 mixed together with an awesome soundtrack, better graphics,and better gameplay. They got everything perfect in 2005, why change anything? I cannot say I hate this game because I play it like everyday. I buy every madden and play it for a few months until a new game I like comes out. Madden 13 is not worth getting if you do not have money to spend, otherwise, go ahead and get it if you like Madden in general. It might be best to spend your money on a better game, like GTA or COD, or Battlefield, or something that is actual going to be really good. | video-games_xbox |
The greatest Dieselpunk movie I ever played. I'll be hammering out a more in-depth review on my website eventually. Here's a quick and dirty review for Amazon.
The simple fact is that I love all things Dieselpunk. Love the Indiana Jones movies, love Sky Captain, love The Rocketeer... and so on. I also love alternate history stories. "Wolfenstein: The New Order" is the best of all those worlds and more. It has nods to gothic horror, Frankenstein brought into this era via another mad scientist, romance and occasional sex.
Theres an incredible amount of detail in this video game thats so close to an animated film from Pixar as were going to get at this point, Im not talking about the phenomenal cut-scenes but the actual game play.
Many of the environments are thoroughly flushed out and real to the extent that there are many ways to get lost and distracted by following specific paths that might have Easter Eggs or items youll need later on, or maybe not. Its easy to get side tracked and literally get lost in this world.
Cant say enough about the actual character development in this game that happens in the cut scenes, there were times when I actually misted up at some of the deaths. There are a couple of poignant scene when the main character faces decisions that he made in the past and when he experiences slight aspects of life that reminds us what hes fighting for and against.
Yes, its a violent video game and there are some violent and graphic scenes where genuinely bad things happen to both good and bad guys. Ive seen some really horrible things in real life and I don't a weak stomach but there were times that I thought that this specific scene were too over-the-top. This is a product of intense imagination and Im not afraid to say that some of the people responsible have really sick and twisted minds. But in a good way.
If there is any down side to this game, its the fact that there isn't any freeplay modes like there is in Call Of Duty, I cant just pick a map (nor download new ones) and go on a killing rampage or just explore. If there are any freeplay modes in W:TNO I haven't found them yet.
Ive finished the game a couple of times and I have to admit that Im left wanting more. I cant wait for the prequel that will be released shortly and hope we get to see B.J. Blazkowicz drag us along in other places in the world that we haven't seen. If the makers of this game read this, I hope the next game brings us to fight along the resistance in North America, Africa, and/or Asia. We want to know what happened to The United States, Russia and Japan in this time line! What happened to the other parts of the world after 1946?
Cant say enough good things about this game, if you're a retro its a must have. | video-games_xbox |
Repetitive but tolerable. I played through the game basically at the insistence of my room-mate, who claimed it was one of his favorite games, and that he has beaten it more than five times. He also couldn't get any of his other friends to play it anymore, it being a rather old game which was released in 2012. Nearly every time he and I both shared some free time, he would be pestering me to play this game. So, desirous of something which we could enjoy in common, I agreed.
I have to say I didn't really enjoy the game all that much. One nickname for the game on the Internet is Snorederblands 2, and thats because of the games essential Diablo with guns gameplay: that is to say, endless waves of repetitive enemies which drop incrementally more effective loot that you can use to power up your character. Sounds awesome in theory, but in practice you get tired of facing the same five or six groups of enemies for 40 hours rather quickly.
A lot of the thrill of such a game comes from its incremental rewards: finding a neat piece of loot when you kill a difficult boss or open an obscure chest. However, Gearbox (the creators of Borderlands) introduced a system in Borderlands 2 that completely circumvented the need to find loot. They added a Golden Chest in the middle of the main city that you could open for rare and powerful items more powerful than anything you would find in an initial playthrough. To open this chest you need Golden Keys which are acquired by entering codes from social media into a special dialog box buried in the Extras menu. The problem is, Gearbox left a lot of the codes active for the life of the game, and they have long since been collected on various websites for anyone to use. Combine that with my room-mates almost weekly notifications that new codes were available, and I opened the Golden Chest 5 - 10 times with every level that I gained, and I think I still have over 150 keys left. It totally removed the incremental reward system from the game, which was sort of a bummer.
The dialogue and humor of the game is often frequently mentioned as a strong point, and while I found it amusing, it never really clicked with me to the point where I found it hilarious. It seemed to verge almost completely on Internet humor with death and mayhem and memes. Human life is a cheap trifling thing in a game like Borderlands. But, I guess thats true for all video games.
I was playing as the melee-centric character Krieg the Psycho, and once I got his ultimate Mania tree power the ability to grow twice in size and deal out twice as much melee damage I started to have a lot more fun. I stacked a bunch of other bonuses with my various skills and items so at the end I think I had something like 600% melee damage, when raging. I was doing 100 - 105K in melee strikes by the end of the game, probably nothing compared to a level capped character, but it seemed like a lot to me, at level 36. Combined with the 50% damage reduction I got while raging, I was basically an unstoppable maelstrom of death as long as I found a good place to retreat to once it wore off.
My room-mate played as Maya the Siren character, who specializes in healing and/or crowd control. Unlike myself, who stuck with one build through the whole game, he shifted around his skill points as the situation demanded, or as whim struck him. He is a far more skilled gamer than I am, regularly getting 2.0 K/D in Call of Duty matches, so his effectiveness with a sniper rifle was very useful. He also eventually got the ultimate skill, a battle res that could instantly revive me from death, which was useful when I could charge into a situation a little over my head.
All-in-all Id give Borderlands 2 a hesitant thumbs up, and a rating of three stars out of five. I enjoyed my time with it, but due to its repetitive nature I could really only stomach it in segments of an hour to two hours of play. | video-games_xbox |
The Best Game Last Year (That no one played. Let me start by saying I love old school games. I've owned my nes for twenty plus years and I enjoyed the original Bionic commando and thought the remake by Grin was an awesome. I bought this game relatively cheap and at first I really hated it. The swinging was awkward and frusterating but I kept on playing and before I knew it I was swinging around like a pro.
The main problem here is that the learning curve is really steep and I would miss a swing and fall to my death. I want to compare this to a recent spider-man game but unlike those games where you fly around on your webs latching on to invisble things in the sky, this game requires skill. You really have to carefully plan your jumps and master the controls or this game will straight up rape you. But there in lies the beauty of the game, it really is rewarding once you get the hang of it, pun totally intended. After some practice, the controls feel very natural and the game slowly introduces more and more abilities which become indespensable towards the end of the game. Before I knew it, I was slinging cars at giant robots and travelling all over with my swings.
The gunplay is well done and for this style of game, they give you tons of different weapons. You have the pistol, a sniper rifle, a submachine gun, a powerful grenade launcher, and a really sweet rocket launcher that homes in on flying enemies. All this really adds a level of strategy to the game as you can only carry three at a time and each has it's distinct usage. Another cool thing is that the achievments are tied into powering up your character which is awesome and I'm really surprised other developers don't do this as it rewards you for trying new things.
The graphics are really nice despite the fact that Rad spencer, the main character looks kinda ridiculous with
dreadlocks. The cities are well rendered and the park and garden section of the game is really a sight to behold. The storm effects and background nuances are all really well done. My favorite part is the music which deftly switches between the original music of the nes game to full blown action movie orchestra. Seriously, the music really makes a solid impact and all the nods to the original are awesome.
The only real issue I have with this game is that the environments appear to be really vast and open but the game goes out of it's way by putting radiation barriers that limit where you can go. This wouldn't be too bad except that if you land in a bad spot, the game will kill you for crossing the boundary which really sucks. Landing in water is also really deadly but honestly all of the environmental hazards make sense in a way. You have a heavy metal arm so you sink, the cities are bombed out, so therefore, you have radiation but it all feels like an excuse.
I have to say that I really loved this game despite the rocky start and I'm glad I stuck with it. The game is pretty long although I would have liked more boss battles because the ones you do get are pretty sweet. The enemy variety is a little lacking too. All these complaints are really minor and don't hurt the overall enjoyment. It's a shame more people didn't give this game a chance, it sold really poorly and Grin, the developer that made this went out of buisness. I'm really sad that there most likely won't be a sequel and I hope it doesn't stop capcom from producing more games like this, after all, a new reworked Strider or Captain Commando game would be the best thing ever. In closing, Buy this game and show your support for the old school and really there isn't any excuse, you can get this game on the cheap and it's well worth your gaming dollars. | video-games_xbox |
Retarded monkeys could have made a better game. I realize that with only a little more than a month before the 2008 version comes out, this review is coming a little late, but I just had to throw in my two cents (which is what this game should have cost).
When this game came out last July I was so excited to get it, that I went to Target at 9:00 in the morning the day it came out,something I've never done for any game. Disappointing, is a major understatement for this game. Yes the graphics are great, but it takes more than great graphics to make a great game. Realism is something that was completely ignored in this game. The designers clearly showed that they had either forgotten how football was played, or had never even seen a game.
Here is a list of some of the aspects of gameplay, or lack thereof:
1. The thing that annoyed and angered me most about the play of this game is the artificial intelligence, if it can be called intelligent. The players in the game make ridiculously impossible plays on a regular basis. I can't even count how many times I have seen a cornerback cover 15 yards in three steps from a dead stop to either knock a ball away or intercept it. Or seeing a defensive lineman jump four feet in the air to knock a ball down. Or seeing a running back get hit by four people simultaneously and somehow stay on his feet and run for a touchdown. Or numerous other oversights I won't mention.
2. Penalties. Anyone who has ever seen a football game knows that it is nearly impossible to get through a game without at least three or four penalties, more often than not penalties can get into double digits. In this game I have gone entire SEASONS without double digit penalties. And the penalties that are called are completely stupid. Pass interference is the penalty that I have the biggest problem with. Pass interference is called so inconsistently it's laughable. I have been called for pass interference for knocking a ball out of a player's hands after he caught it, but not had it called when I have been surrounded all sides and had everything done to me short of being knocked down as the ball goes by. It eventually got so bad, that I just turned pass interference off. But numerous other penalties are never even called. I have played 10 seasons in the game and never once was there a facemask penalty, illegal formation, illegal substitution, and I can count on one hand the number of times a holding penalty has been called.
3. Weather is something that is another problem, specifically wind. Wind has no effect whatsoever on the ball. On kickoffs the ball goes just as far when it is kicked against or with a 30 mph wind as it does in calm conditions. Though compared to reasons 1 & 2 this is really only a slight annoyance.
4. One thing that I do like about the game is that it is finally possible to block kicks and punts, as well as return kickoffs and punts for touchdowns. Anyone who played previous games knows that it was nearly impossible to do any of these.
To sum up, this is an unbelievably weak game. I've learned a lesson about buying games right as they come out, before knowing how good or bad it is. Hopefully the designers of the newest version have read the reviews about this game and made up for their mistakes, or maybe they've been fired and replaced by people who actually know football. All we can do is wait and see, and pray. | video-games_xbox |
Great racing game with a wealth of content. As I've said in the past, I'm by no means a core racing fan (Mario Cart counts right?), I've played the occasional Forza and Gran Turismo game in the past but traditional circuit racers have never really caught my attention long term. I'd been hearing good things about this game for a while and I certainly had my doubts, but after playing the recent demo on XBL (which was excellent by the way) I readily admit this is a dang fun game! It helps that the game is beautifully rendered with lots of pretty colors and expansive vistas, as well the sounds and visuals are all top notch. There's also a pretty good selection of in-game music to pick from.
Racing along cliff sides or tearing through a vineyard is good clean fun; personally, the best feature for me is finding short cuts or new ways to navigate the existing maps. Not being limited to just the road is an excellent change of pace. Making a daring cut through rough terrain is a risky move in some instances, but most often you'll be thrust full force into unfamiliar terrain. For those looking for a more hardcore racing experience you'll be happy to note there are a mass of options to tweak not just the settings and difficulties but also the way is which the car drives (very expansive with many options - too complicated for me). At a glance the game can be tuned to be very sim-like and I don't think most motor heads will be disappointed. Admittedly I'm pretty terrible at the game but the softer difficulties are still very fun albeit with a strong arcade feel once the difficulties are tuned way down (which isn't necessarily a bad thing).
There's a wealth of micro events and challenges to keep you entertained and a variety of non-standard races (i.e. racing hot air balloons and jets - somehow it works and is awesome). There's also just open world free-roam and exploration, not to mention a wealth of multiplayer options and join-in features. Honestly for $60 this game offers a good deal of content.
It's like the Skyrim of cars. Obviously not for people who hate racing games, duh! | video-games_xbox |
Better gameplay , less depth than the previous game. To start with the game looks awesome , the level design is much improved in terms of the environments looking real and not just copy and paste room after room. The Heroes powers look great and I have more of a feeling of power than in xmen legends games were more based around melee attack and you just happened to have super powers. The Game itself has a pretty decent story but if you play it twice you will realize there is not a whole lot of difference if you play pro or anti reg. There is less content than in previous games , each character has four powers and that is it. Each one only has two costumes, that is it. That being said the costumes you do get are well rendered and your powers are also more well developed in terms of visualization per the character you are using. As for the DLC not being available , it is a let down they did away with it as I would really like to use Juggernaut, Magneto , Cyclops..Etc but at the same time I found myself running out of game to use all the characters already at my disposal anyways. Opposed to in the first game where I would try half the people and be like that's lame and never use them again and pretty much stick to the same four and maybe rotate in a few new guys now and again. I really really enjoyed being pretty much every single character in this game. Even the ones who I really don't care for or know as much about like Luke Cage , Iron Fist , Penance and Songbird. They were all fun to use and came in handy expecially Iron Fist with his healing power. If you like the other games you will probably like this one too. I liked the first Marvel UA better as a whole , but there are alot of things about this game that are better. If they made a third game I would undoubtedly buy it based on the strength of this game and it's merits alone not just because I am a fan of the series. | video-games_xbox |
An unbiased postitive review. This is a COD game. Just like every other call of duty, this game is right at home with the physics engine and style of gameplay. If you are expecting Aliens vs Predator or XCOM or something drastically different, you have to remember what game your playing and who is making it. If you want realism, go play battlefield. If you want ultra futuristic battles with crazy gadgets, go play crysis or james bond or something. However, if you want a very fun and refined skill and strategy based team-work oriented fast paced shooter, you have found your match. I think treyarch used the "if it's not broken, don't fix it" kind of ideology. You can sit here and criticize their lack of innovation, but IF they did attempt to try to change it too drastically, they would most likely have gotten far more criticism, people saying they "ruined COD by changing it too much" etc, which is a bit of a catch 22. Damned if they do, damned if they don't. So they stuck to the recipe that made COD successful and improved upon it. And most of us know whether or not we like or don't like the call of duty style of gameplay long before we bought this game, due to the previous titles. So if you are criticizing, first WHY did you buy another COD game, and what the heck were you expecting?
So here is a review from someone who enjoys the call of duty style of gameplay, when done right.
First of all, this game is undeniably fun. More fun than any COD played in a long time. From the killstreaks, to the maps, to the guns, and everything in between, I've had more fun on this COD than any since COD-4, and that says a lot. It keeps similar aspects to the first black ops (IE more hit counters and dolphin dives) however drastically improves on it. I thought the first black ops was cartoonish and childish and stupid, and this game has heavily matured and taken the good aspects from black ops and combined it with the map styles of a infinity wards games, best of both worlds!
The map design is good, plenty of open spaces connected to corridors which reminds me a lot of the maps on COD4. I am now reaching about 30,000 kills with a KD of 2.50, so i think ive gotten plenty enough taste of what it has to offer. Plenty of diversity, funny gimmicks, and placement of obstructive objects was well thought out. Symmetry is important, and I think treyarch took effort into making maps not one sided.
The guns are great for the most part, and the ones that were initially overpowered have been nerfed accordingly (thanks treyarch!) and they make a good effort to keep the game balanced, fair, and free of modders (thank god!)
Here's to my favorite addition to the COD franchise: League play! OMG, did they get this right. Anybody who has played SC2 think of that kind of ranking style. Also similar to Halo 3 and Reach Arena. You get 5 placement matches to get placed in a division, and then from there on out you gain or lose points based on wins, and if you win enough times without losing very much, you will get placed in a higher division (assuming you weren't already in the highest one.) and will get demoted if you lose enough matches. Perfect! This keeps everyone in the game trying for the actual objective, rather than head glitching key spots in pubs all game long to get only kills. COD was in dire need of this, as I too am guilty of not going for the objective in public games due to bad teammates not knowing how to spawn control/map control. Also, this keeps everyone competitive and now you can actually show off a rank that actually MEANS something. No longer do you stare at a 10th prestige and wonder if he's actually good or not, view his player card and see that he sucks and just plays a lot. You actually NEED to be good to make it to platinum or masters, and you need to be consistently good to keep your rank. Team work is critical!
Although, one thing they do need to improve upon is making you search for people of your own division. Sadly not enough people play league to make games search fast enough, so thats why they decided against it. I play in masters rank 20 with a team and we more often than not run into irons and bronzes, which is a bad experience for both of us. We don't get any fun competition and they get screaming mad after losing badly. This needs to be improved.
Here comes the worst criticism to this game: zombies. I never really played zombies much or liked it much in last titles, but I did play it from time to time and it was fun at times. However this is the worst effort ive seen yet. I feel like they must have spent so much time making the multiplayer experience awesome that they forgot to make an enriched zombie experience. I thought this was the whole draw to treyarch games? They only have two bland boring maps, both of which are cramped to small spaces. The overall feel is the same but heavily downsized this time: no more expanding your territory to large areas. TranZit kind of alleviates that but it still isn't nearly as fun as BLOPS and WaW, and even then i didn't really like it then either. I feel bad for the big zombie players, they must be so dissapointed. This and a couple other small things too small to mention bring this game down to four stars, however the multiplayer is great!
If you are looking for a great fun multiplayer sandbox game with awesome new competitive aspects look no further. However, if your more of the zombie and chill type, I think you will likely be dissappointed. To each their own.
Conclusion: This game rocks for ME. That may not apply to everybody, as everybody is different. I wanted a great fun competitive COD with a new skill based mode and good symetrical and balanced map design with good weapons with fairly good balance, and that is what I got. It reminds me of COD4 in a lot of ways, and that is a GOOD thing! Coupled with a few more hit counters to increase the skill needed for gun battles, (no more one burst m16), this game ALMOST outdues my favorite, COD4, but not quite. The maps are great but not perfect, and leave you wishing for a little more. Zombies is terrible. Everything else is a plus and a well thought out and great rebirth to a dying franchise, I am now back to playing COD again after avoiding since BLOPS 1. Well done, treyarch. Never thought I'd be saying that. | video-games_xbox |
Awesome experience for those who aren't bored with the series - 4.5/5. After about 7 or 8 hours into the game I can say this is my 3rd favorite AC game after AC2 and Brotherhood(Unity is the last on my list just to put things into perspective). The setting is amazing and best of all, it's just fun to play unlike Unity. Syndicate doesn't really offer anything ground breaking but we do see the return of character development which has been lacking since Ezio(I know, Ed Kenway was well developed too but nothing like these two characters) and all the facets of the series that have been subpar the past few offerings, like stealth, have been improved dramatically.
I have two complaints, while the graphics at times are staggering and up to next-gen standards, they are not consistent and other times look pretty awful, especially non-priority visuals like the ground at any distance turns into a textureless, undetailed greyness. These things are necessary due to the shear scope of games like this but you're not supposed to notice those graphical downgrades, luckily the skyline of London never suffers visually. Also the combat is pretty atrocious in my opinion. They went halfway to the Arkham/Shadows Of Mordor combat style with the button mashing attack, dodge, stun but without all the special moves which is what keeps that system fresh and fun. Ever since AC3 I have wished they would just go back to the earlier combat style with chain executions and make it a little more challenging but that's not going to happen at this point. Luckily you can go through this game mostly stealth like a real assassin(maybe this is what they were trying to push the player towards) and keep the combat to a minimum. This game is a blast despite my two complaints! All the side missions and activities are fun and they are incorporated/flow well with the environment. Unlike Black Flag there is just the right amount of content without being overwhelming(probably a good 30-40 hours of content here).
If you are not tired of Assassins Creed yet, this is the best offering since those Ezio games and I would definitely recommend it! | video-games_xbox |
Rocksmith 2014. First of all I'm not an expert guitar player, My husband plays the bass and knows a few song on guitar. I got this primarily for our 7 year old son to use. He's been playing guitar and taking lessons for about 8 months so I was really curious to see how he would do with it. If you're considering buying this for a younger kid it's going to helpful to have someone to help out that knows something about music and the guitar.
Overall this has been a really fun and helpful tool for our son. Here are a few thoughts on our experience.
HARDWARE SET UP:
We had to use the adapter to connect the audio directly to a set of external speakers. This is required to avoid a delay in playing the strings and the sounds coming from the TV. This wasn't a huge deal but it kind of a pain to do every time you want to play. My 7 year old is not able to do this on his own so it requires me to hook it up and redo the cables every time he plays. Also if you don't already have external speakers you'll need to get some for this to be usable, there delay is very noticeable and irritating.
GAME SET UP:
This part was really simple. The introduction asks a few questions about how you want to play, tunes your guitar and gets you oriented with the on screen interface. My son is able to do this on his own and picked it up pretty quick with some first time help from me. It works a lot like guitar hero but with a real guitar it's much more realistic.
PLAYING A SONG:
So far we are still in the beginner mode but it's really helping him learn to play. You can slow the songs down to fit your ability and then speed them back up as you get better. There's a pretty good selection of music to pick from. Our sons guitar teacher has been really impressed with his progress since he started using this game so that's great to see!
PLAYING GAMES:
There are a number of games on here too that use the guitar as the interface. Our son loves playing them. They probably do an OK job of teaching basic motions but in the end I kind of wish they weren't on here because he prefers them over the actual instructional songs.
Again, we're pretty happy with this whole system. I'm giving it 4 stars because of the audio set up and cabling required to use it EVERY TIME. If you're willing to take the time want something more realistic than Guitar Hero to teach yourself or someone else to play the guitar this can be really helpful. | video-games_xbox |
The Best Batman Experience. Batman Arkham Asylum is one of the best video games out there and is perhaps the best batman experience. What makes BAA such an amazing game is how simple it is to pick up and play. The controls are simple and the fighting system is engaging. I used to play a lot of video games when I was a young kid, but as I'm older, i don't want to play a game that takes forever to figure out where to go or figure out the control scheme. The best games out there are the ones that are simple to play and navigate. What makes BAA stand out is the high level of production values that contribute immensely to the Batman experience. The graphics and music take BAA to a whole new level of gaming excitement. The music is incredibly orchestrated and makes the gameplay experience that much more engaging. Plus, the iconic voices of MARK HAMMIL and KEVIN CONROY from the Animated Series make their entrance into Arkham. What also makes BAA such an amazing Batman experience is the level of detail put into the Batman characters as well as the gadgets and locales. The Batmobile, the batcave, Arkham, etc. is beautifully detailed. The reason why I like BAA better than other Batman expereiences because it is a TRUER Batman experience. Instead of the gravelly, pretentious voice of Christian Bale, you get the smooth natural sound of Kevin Conroy. Plus in BAA, you get to experience Batman as a martial artist. The experience of taking out 15 criminals and 2 juiced up monsters in one room is just an awesome bad ass experience that you don't get any where else. In the Dark Knight, you get limited and awkward fight scenes. Not only are the production values and control schemes excellent, but the level design is amazing as well. BAA incorporates a great mixture of fighting and stealth that does not feel contrived. The Stealth aspects of the BAA also surpass those of the Metal Gear Solid Franchise which is amazing in its own right. BAA makes the stealth aspect suspenseful, rewarding, and most importantly fun, whereas in other games it can be frustrating and cumbersome. Another great aspect of BAA is that the story is great, especially for a video game. ALthough the video game industry has provided for some great experiences, not many video games are able to convey a story that rivals that of movies and tv shows. Luckily, Paul DIni from Batman the Animated Series penns the script which is cool, and full of twists. Overall, BAA is one of the best video games and defintely the best comic book video game. | video-games_xbox |
Too Human Good vs. Bad. The Good
*Really cool looking fighting. Weapon trails, sliding and aerial combat are visually spectacular. Switching back and forth from melee to guns is easy. You can plow through hordes of foes like the Norse bad-a$$ God you are.
*The campaign is only 10-15 hours, so it's easy to go back and play again. 5 different character classes offer unique playing styles and appearance.
*The ability to hop out of the mission and go back to Aesir HQ whenever you want makes the game easy to pick up and put down if you don't have a lot of time, without losing progress on your mission.
*Character appearance. Baldur is not only fierce and grim, but he's a snappy dresser. The large variety of highly customizable armor and weapons allows you to thoroughly tailor your hero's look.
*Cinematics are impressive and frequent.
The Bad
*Dialogue. I think Dennis Dyack had his angry teenage son write the script. It's mostly awful.
Some sample dialogue: [...]
*The NORN , World-tree computer world side quest is an interesting concept, but it's boring,boring, boring in execution. This game is an action RPG and all you do in this part of the game (which can be hours long) is walk around and collect loot. There should be things to kill in here. I wanted to gouge my eyes out. Luckily you don't have to do this part, you can skip it if you don't care about loot. Sadly I care about loot so I wandered through the whole thing, hoping at some point it would get better.
*Dying is teh suckz. By the end of the game you want to strangle the Valkyrie and break her glowing metal wings off.
*Boss battles. There are only 5 of them and they are basically boring. Mostly it consists of you running away or hiding, and shooting them from a distance, which takes a really long time. They should have made shorter, more frequent, more compelling boss battles.
*Controls are intuitive..................after about 6 hours of gameplay.
*The camera is definitely the most difficult boss fight in the game, you battle it throughout the whole game.
*It feels like the game is really designed for coop play, not single player, as there is really only one character class balanced enough to play through single player without lots of dying and frustration. | video-games_xbox |
Best driving game available on any console to date. Sound
The surround sound system at home really shows off how good of a job Turn10 did with this release. Engines sound realistic and accurate - everything from big V8s to high-revving inline-4s sound amazing especially at the extremes of the engine spectrum. Muscle cars like the Shelby GT500 sound burly and fat and old-school high revving motors like the 71' Skyline GT-R scream and bark with every gear shift. Backfiring sounds are in check and really make certain cars feel heavily modified. After tweaking an old GT-R I really heard the modifications right away. Gear shifts made a significantly louder punch noise, followed by the increased rev limiter and backfiring while downshifting. Tires squeal and squelch like I've never heard. When cars understeer you can literally hear the tires rolling over the sidewall like in real life. Simply amazing. 5/5
Physics
The physics engine is again improved to the point where every car feels completely different. I personally race a moderately modified Mazdaspeed 3 on the weekends, so I decided to do a little test. I started off stock, drove the car around Laguna Seca, and then proceeded to make the modifications I've done to my car in real life in the game. Low and behold the car responded significantly more accurate, throttle-off oversteer became present from the rear sway bar replacement, tires gripped better, and the car came to life. The changes made in-game represented very similar results as they did in real life. Driving a Ferrari 458 Italia literally brought a grin to my face. This game does such a great job reproducing the handling of these vehicles that cars both slow and fast are a true blast to drive. You can really enjoy cars that are bone-stock for what they are. The Ferrari F355, Integra Type-R, BMW M3, Subaru Impreza WRX STi, Mazda RX-7, amongst many others that I've driven in real life represent themselves well and have competitions that cater to the cars specifically.
Graphics
Not much to say here, they're very good. This is the first attempt from the franchise to really beat up on Gran Turismo, and I think they've succeeded. The cars and tracks are very accurate and feel alive. Looking at replays has never been more enjoyable. 5/5
Overall
This game hits all the right spots for a racer of any skill level. My best friend is a casual gamer and I tend to think of myself as pretty good. I drive without assists and he drives a milder setting, and we wanted to hop on the Nurburgring to fool around. Expecting to have a short 8 minute race we ended up doing over 4 laps around the ring while we were neck and neck. The game's driving experience is simply a showcase of motorsports goodness. 5/5
I give this game a "BUY IT NOW" rating. | video-games_xbox |
Giant Let Down. <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Dragon-Age-2/dp/B0047TG2R0/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Dragon Age 2</a>
I'm not sure what is going on with the game industry this year. It seems as though they cannot produce anything better for their sequels. Dragon Age II is no exception.
Primary complaints of the game, in order:
Bugs in game play prevented me from being able to complete the game at the end after putting in 50ish hours. This was the worst of the bugs, but there were many others.
No attachment to the characters. Unlike in Dragon Age: Origins, the characters are almost all two dimensional and it is very hard to sympathize with any of them. Dragon Age: Origins had an amazing character arch for each of the various characters you encountered in the game and it is one of the reasons fans fell in love with the new franchise. Unfortunately there are maybe two memorable characters in this release.
Underdeveloped plot. Unlike in Dragon Age: Origins, the main character is not exposed to any major plot motivation for a majority of the game. When the game does develop a plot (Templar/Apostate conflict) it is stiff and forced. The ultimate culmination is a caricature of the conflict.
Items are never noteworthy and there is little motivation to seek them out.
Enemies spawn out of nowhere, so you never know when there is going to be a combat. Except that there is always combat. Few times in the game did I ever feel a motivation for the enemies to be attacking. In Dragon Age: Origins you fought mostly blight enemies and there was a good motivation for that. In this game you kill thousands of people within the city. It makes you question why there's a guard at all. You kill mages and templar alike without repercussion.
The voice acting is inferior to the last game. Whoever did the casting should be fired. Only the Dwarf and Elf Mage have distinct talent whereas the complete cast of the last game was stellar.
Maps were reused over and over again and felt cheap. In the last game the environments seemed attached well to their surroundings. This city feels like a big lego stack of pre-packaged walls and you quickly get tired of repeating battles in the same environment.
The writing isn't clever, for the most part, and it doesn't feel inspired. There is nothing epic about the plot or dialogue of this game.
The story didn't feel, ever, like you could alter the story arch in any way, while in Origins there were numerous places where your decisions had a great impact.
The importation of a previous completed game of Origins did not have any major effect on the game.
You cannot talk to your party members on the fly, as in the last game. In this game you need to go to their hangout in the city to talk to them.
The dialogue tree is mostly a three way split, which gets predictable and tiresome fast: nice, snarky, and tough.
The Qunari redesign was interesting, so that was a plus. Exploration of their race in this game was one of the nice features.
Part of playing sequels to games is exploring new talents, skills and magical spells. This game did add many new skills and talents, but mostly recycled the spells from the last game (while eliminating many spells from the last game too).
Learning new skills and specializations was well handled in Origins. Here there's no such connection which is a major oversight.
Combat feels like a button masher. And please, Bioware, develop a game where the players, if they want, can grind out levels that make them superior to their enemies. Some of us really enjoy dominating our enemies, not having them level up with you. I think this is one of the major failures of the RPG industry (Bioware, Bethesda, etc).
Chests, like the last game, aren't worth opening. You go to a lot of trouble to get someone in the party that can open one and it's got junk in it.
Speaking of junk, you'll pick up many useless items which go directly into your junk tab and do nothing and are worth next to nothing. It is a major waste of time to even pick them up.
You cannot upgrade your allies armor to any set you wish. I have no idea why Bioware took this freedom from the players. I suspect it was so they didn't have to design armor sets for each individual to wear. It's a shame and further handicaps the value of the item system in this game.
I expect more from the company that made Neverwinter Nights. It seems that the famous writing and developing of the company missed the boat here badly. I will not be purchasing Dragon Age 3, but borrowing it or renting it. This franchise is dead. | video-games_xbox |
Left 4 Dead. I bought this game due to the many positive reviews and the Game of the Year satus it earned. I enjoy shooters and thought this would be one hell of a game. But for me this game was not that great. I honestly do not understand what all the hype is about. The first thing that got me was that there is little to no story... Each level is independent and has nothing connecting it to the others. Each level is the same, but with different environments. Seriously how hard would it have been to connect these 4 stories into one and there actually be a goal for what you are doing? Maybe fight through all 4 levels, then get rescued? That wold have made more sense to me than being rescued in each level. I read somewhere that this game was made for mainly multiplayer. Really? Then why even add a single player campaign? I don't get the recent trend of game companies building games around MP anyway. Not everyone wants or even has access to online MP. I enjoy a good single player campaign where I can take my time and do things at my pace, which you can do here but theres no point in doing so. Speaking of the MP side of this game I don't have any friends that are online that have this game. And everytime I got into a MP game I was swiftly kicked out, didn't even get a chance to get a shot in... What fun is that?
On the plus side this game was somewhat fun, for not having much of a main storyline. It was pretty cool fighting hordes and blowing up vomiting Zombies. I just wish there was more to it. All good games have a good story behind them. The impression I got from this was to venture wildy into the streets and shoot whatever that moves, for no purpose, other than to survive. Like I said before the 4 stories levels should have tied in somwhere and the game should have had a proper ending. Then it would have earned a 5 star game of the year rating, in my opinion. With that said it is doubtful that I will be playing L4D2. | video-games_xbox |
Leaves a lot to be desired. I don't want to be the naysayer here, especially when a game does really well. By all accounts, Alan Wake has received generally positive reviews. But I found it to be really lacking in the end. It never took its unique premise to its fullest potential, leaving you on a flat note with a bad taste in your mouth. Spoiler alert, the enemy? Darkness. I'm sorry, I am, as I wanted to love this game and only found it to be a colossal disappointment. It was way too short, far too easy, and in the end, the story line never delivered a satisfactory kick. I never felt any compassion for Wake or any of the other characters, with the Anderson Brothers becoming a step too ridiculous early on and the quasi-Pesci Barry Wheeler being annoying from the start. The conflict is likewise unclear. So this dark, malevolent embodiment of evil is caused by... a chick drowning? I know that's sad and all, but it's not like she ever bore any ill will. We never knew Barbara Jagger long or deeply enough to care about why or how she could come back. Graphically, the game was decent. It's light contrast was very eerie and well done, but it's mouthing never matched up with the voices; a minor detail, yes, but it wears on you after awhile and can ruin the illusion the game casts.
It's not to say this was a truly awful piece of garbage game. My expectation was something like Deliverance meets The Shining. Having recently forayed into the world of Stephen King myself, I was optimistic the game would have all the Kingsian horror elements, right down to the ineffable and the absurd. Instead, I waded through a ten hour stretch of podunk hinterlands, never sure where I was in the plot or where I was going. if you love horror, the kind that makes your eyes wide, spine tingle, and soul shiver, this game probably won't pose much of a challenge. It achieves some distinct moments of creepiness, but in the end, it tries too much to be like a Stephen King novel. When the game realizes it isn't, it's fallen somewhere between a half-good game and half-decent novel. Which is to say, some indefinable "dark place" where it'll be safely secluded from any of us who'd like a little less writer drama and a little more of a horror game's challenge. | video-games_xbox |
Review from a Dad. I bought this bundle because it has the best value. If you are buying it for your kids, there some things to consider.
1) None of the games are ready to play immediately. You have to wait until the physical disc downloads content onto the hard drive (which can take quite some time). Also, this doesn't mean that you won't need the discs to play those games. The physical disc is still required to play those games.
2) You will need internet access AND Xbox Live to download "Ori and the Blind Forest." I bought my bundle directly through Microsoft and it only came with a 2-day trial pass code. Amazon claims that it provides you with a 14-day trial pass code. (I don't know if that is true.) No headset is included.
3) Don't expect the console to be as "user-friendly" as the original Xbox, or Wii U. I am not saying that I favor those consoles over the Xbox One. When I started up the Xbox One, it needed updates. When I popped in the game discs, it needed to download content before I could start playing. It took about 30-minutes before I could play a game with my son. There are more buttons on the controller so it was intimating at first.
4) I like how you can customize what content can be played. This is a great feature for parents to limit the type of games that can be played, websites that can be viewed, movies that can be played. In my opinion, the user interface is not that user-friendly. You will have to be patient.
5) There are a lot of free games to download directly from the Xbox store. I got Disney's Frozen Snowball (might not be the actual name) and I like it. The 1 TB storage can get used up quickly. The operating system reserves 200 to 300 GB of storage. Gears of War: Ultimate Edition takes up 44.4 GB. Ori claims to take up 8 GB. Rare Replay takes up at least 20 GB.
6) I have never used Xbox Live and don't like the idea of playing games with other people that I don't know online. However, the perks of Xbox Live is something to consider. I bought a year membership (don't pay the $60/year, do a Froogle search one will pop up for less than $40) and tried out Gears of War co-op and it was AMAZING (I didn't use a headset so the other online players might have been cursing at me). There are grade-A titles that are available for free downloading just for having an Xbox Live membership.
Originally, I thought the Xbox One can't play Blu-ray disc. I was wrong. It supports it, but you will need internet access initially to download the support app. 3D Blu-ray is also supported. I don't own an Xbox 360, but knowing that backwards compatibility for some games is supported was a selling point for me over the PS4. Also, the Xbox One is compatible with a variety of universal remotes. The Xbox One does NOT support Bluetooth. | video-games_xbox |
Best Halo yet. Six months ago I was convinced that NOBODY could possibly take the incredible work of Bungie and maintain their level of quality and refinement. I had no intention of buying Halo 4. But over the past couple of months 343 would keep putting out videos that kept me intrigued. I decided to give in to the hype and I am absolutely blown away by what I am seeing on my 60" screen...
* The game feels like Halo, but it also feels new - not sure if that is helpful, but they managed to keep the core while pushing the story and gameplay forward
* The graphics are superb, but the sound is absolutely the best of any game I have every played. The gun sounds "punch" your speakers pretty hard and all the affects really grab your attention
* A lot of diversity and progression has been added to the multiplayer aspect of the game. I am less of a "run and gun" type player so I appreciate some of the game modes where the goal is to capture buildings (Dominion) or control space (King of the Hill). It adds a layer of strategy that allows us mediocre gamers to play a key role
* Spartan Ops is fun! With three other friends you can play these "bite-sized" missions and continue the story beyond the campaign. I believe we will continue to get new missions every week so my friends and I have new content to play together every weekend!
Complaints
* In the campaign, I kept running out of ammo and was forced to switch weapons constantly. Sometimes trying new weapons was a lot of fun, but other times it was a drag using the plasma gun over and over and over...
* In mutliplayer when I watch my Death Cam to see how I was killed, it seems like they don't always hit me and I still died. Its like there is some sort of an accuracy issue with the game. Either the Death Cam is wrong, or I am getting killed by bullets that are not hitting me. Either way it needs to be fixed
Overall, I am still surprised that anyone can take a big franchise like Halo over and somehow manage to not only keep the "magic" but actually make it feel like the next step. I have no regrets buying Halo 4! | video-games_xbox |
Not for serious fighter fans. Marvel vs capcom 3 could have been really good. I was incredibly excited for it after having played MVC2 for years. What we got is unbalanced to the point of crap. I know Marvel Vs Capcom 2 was unbalanced but most people didn't play cheaply due to being in the same room with you. MVC3 however is junk when it comes to this. Not only is the sentinal way way way to strong but magneto and dark pheonix are as well. Its not fun to play a game when you are forced to play with characters you don't want to just so you can have a chance to combat these players online. I love fighting games. Everything from Dead or alive 4 to my favorite Super Street Fighter 4. So im not some "noob" just whining.
another issue i took with this game is the character roster. Dont get me wrong it has some quality people in it but it also lacks a ton of characters and has some that will live you scratching your head as to their inclusion. MVC2 had 56 characters and MVC3 has 32 or 36. I bought this game day one aware of the roster. But once you start playing it, you see how bad it is. Every character plays with the same quarter turn moves and honestly don't feel much different from each other. This could also be due to the awful control scheme.
The control scheme in this game is terrible unless you have never played a fighting game and don't want to learn. you have three buttons for light medium and heavy attacks and a 4th for popping people into the air to begin air combos. This is awful. it limits the move sets and instead of having light and heavy versions of an attack like MVC2, you just have a different attack for each strength level. I get that they want this game to be accesible to the masses but cmon. By making it so simple they have taken away from the hardcore audience and promoted the idea that you shouldnt have to learn to play a game but instead it should be simple for you. I have poured hundreds of hours into SSF4 and have gotten a ton better at from that. MVC3 is a game that requires nothing in the department of practice. This game will not be on the pro circuit in 3 years. It is shallow and dumb. Now don't get me wrong, i love marvel and capcom and thats a huge selling point for me and the only reason i haven't sold the game yet but don't pick this up thinking its a serious fighter. If you want a real fighting game, play Super Street Fight 4. | video-games_xbox |
A Very Misunderstood, But Frustrating Game. An Honest Read And Review. Spoiler-Free. This game has gotten so much hate since its release. Then, the game was ported to the PS3 with no major changes except the developers made the game not as insanely hard as it was on the X360 version.. Anyway, I played the game for the first time a couple days ago and beat it yesterday. The story is about a AIB stealth team is sent into a city to rid the city of Vampires, but are known as Nightwalkers. The city is infested with Nightwalkers and you are trying to neutralize them and take out the Prime Walkers. There are only 4 teammates. You are one of them known as John Lloyd and is the most experienced out of the group when it comes to nightwalkers. And that's all I will say So far, I have a mixed opinion about the game, but here are the pros and the cons. I listed 12 Pros and 12 Cons.
Pros:
-Ultimate stealth experience.
-Very challenging and rewarding.
-Characters are interesting.
-Nice rain effects.
-The dialogue can relieve some of the tension in the game.
-The map radar is accurate and helps point you in the right direction.
-The concept and idea of a stealth game with vampires is original.
-It's the first game of its kind.
-Story is decent.
-Very Lengthy Single-Player campaign.
-When you complete the campaign, you will feel very accomplished.
-Repay value is high.
Cons:
-Requires a lot of patience.
-Very frustrating at times when you keep getting killed cheaply
-The voice acting is acceptable, but at times is in need of improvement
-Boss fights are pathetically easy, but not creative at all.
-Controls are annoying and clunky.
-Graphics are not terrible, but not very good either.
-Two hits and your dead; One hit by a vampire knocks you down, then one more hit kills you instantly.
-Insane difficulty even at Normal difficulty setting.
-Nobody plays online.
-Weapon selection is very limited.
-Every gun is almost useless except the Shotgun and Sniper Rifle.
-Your team does almost nothing to help you.
So, that's it. I say buy the game for no more than $20 and yes it is worth that. But, beware. You will get very frustrated so be very patient with the game. If you look past the gameplay, an enjoyable game is there. Give it a chance and don't listen to all of the negative reviews. I give this game 3 stars since it is a mixed bag, but it's grown on me and I've learned to enjoy it. | video-games_xbox |
Great headset with one caveat. This is one cool looking headset! Setup on my PS3 was painless and quick, just as it should be. But when a friend tried to hook them up to his Xbox 360 we couldn't get them to work.
When playing MW3, this is my headset of choice. Sound is very good and the mic provides clear communication. Although not true surround sound the sound effects while gaming are very good and if chatting with friends conversations are clear and easy to understand.
The caveat I have is this. I was hoping to use them as an all-around headset for gaming as well as music. Gaming=great, music=not so good. Despite changing settings on my <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Yamaha-RX-V773WA-7-2-Channel-Network-AV-Receiver-with-wireless-adapter/dp/B007JF85SS/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Yamaha RX-V773WA 7.2-Channel Network AV Receiver with wireless adapter</a> to reduce the bass response, all music I listed to through the Afterglow set had booming, unpleasant base. While great for gaming with explosions and shots, they just don't cut it for plain old music listening. I'm pretty sure the booming base isn't the fault of the Yamaha receiver which provides excellent sound both through the speakers and through other headsets.
I was pleasantly surprised when I found I could listen to my headset all over the house. My gaming room is downstairs in my finished basement rather than on the main floor but I still get good reception from any point in my house, upstairs or down.
Another use I've found for them is with my computer when using <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Dragon-NaturallySpeaking-Premium-12-English/dp/B008NP76FQ/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 12, English</a>. The inexpensive headset included with the software is woefully inadequate and the Afterglow headset came to the rescue. Now I have fewer mistakes since the computer can hear my voice more clearly with the Afterglow headset.
OK, final remarks. Great for gaming, great for use with Dragon, not so great with music. Hey, nothing to really complain about since they are designed as a gaming headset. Buy them, you'll be happy. | video-games_xbox |
Well, wasn't expecting much better. Honestly, I believe the reason I am upset about this game is a reason many people are upset. Everyone thought this game would be the savior to XBOX wrestling games. I thought this game would be the best wrestling game I have ever played in my life. But as I think back, why did I think this? A new company took over the rights to the game and attempted their first pro wrestling game. I think the reason why this game receives many bad reviews is that many people had too much hype on this game.
Don't get me wrong, if you are a true diehard wrestling fan, you will enjoy this game. The graphics are amazing, probably the best on any WWE game yet. The career mode is outstanding (although I quit playing the game after the month of December in the mode), the voiceovers are great, although your star's voice can become a little annoying at times. Another plus is the ability to add custom soundtracks as your created superstar's entrance theme. That might not be a big deal to some folks, but to me, it is. I know what your thinking "After all you've just said, what more do we need?" Well folks, there is a quite a bit more required in a good wrestling game.
For starters, the horrific loading times can drive even the calmest person crazy. For an XBOX game, this is probably the worst loading time I've ever witnessed on any game. Also, the aftermatch transition, from the end of the match to the occurrences after the match are just plain terrible. The game begins to slow to a snail's moving point which just looks absolutely terrible. But, that aspect can be overcome unlike the other ones you can do nothing about. Also, the limited amount of superstars hurts the long term playability. Now, it has all the popular superstars, but seems to leave out the X-factors in the business. I realize they can't put every wrestler on the WWE roster in there, but they needed more for this to be successful.
I know that Studio Gigante did the best job they could with the resources they had. But to be quite honest, it just wasn't good enough to live up to the unbelievable hype that was put on this game (Me included). Even though this game didn't live up the expectations of many, it is still a building block for the future games. I do think they are going in the right direction, and I guess you have to fail to succeed sometimes, and this is an example of that hopefully. I just hope in the next installment of this game, the bugs will be fixed. If they are not, then we could have another failed WWE attempt at an XBOX game.
If you love the WWE, you will enjoy this game to an extent. If you are thinking of getting this game and wanting it to be absolutely great, you are quite wrong. | video-games_xbox |
A limitless slow burn. It's hard to try and sell anyone on this game for a few reason
It's not a full blown action zombie title (If you want that type of game try Dead Rising 3, Zombie Driver HD, and Dying Light)
Microsoft and Undead Labs would like to con gamers into thinking it's a GTA Style titles it's really not
That doesn't mean it's a terrible game....It's a zombie apocalypse simulator with RPG elements
The biggest problem with the game is it's a PC title that really has no business being on a console
And i'm a console gamer always has been..... This game feels like a PC game
The Game play is good except you are always battling against a cheap AI.... You can have a level capped character and out of the blue the character will die usually unfairly you lose all respect from survivors and that capped character
The game is always stacked against you The interface is also super convoluted
This is one of those games where you are tasks to spin a lot of plates at once
between getting supplies, building your home base, rescuing survivors , going back to home base to monitor tension between characters and trying to solve problems before there's a conflict it's a major balancing act
There are heavy duty weapons you can find but, some weight you down and if you are weight down your movement is slow
Like i said there's a lot of sim elements in this game!
A major problem once you get the hang of everything you'll be doing good out of nowhere you'll get jumped and eaten by a horde of the undead! and you lose all the xp you earned with that character The game play is never fare and balanced
That's something not enough people talk about
The controls: The controls are not terrible but, they have major flaws
It'll take at least 25+ minutes to get use to how to play the game
The controls are very dated (they feel like Playstation One controls
The Graphics: It's a very flawed port of the 360 version the game still looks cheap and ugly the draw distance is the only thing improved
the game from the release has many odd bugs, glitches
The Audio is a massive upgrade now you can decode the audio in DTS 5.1 (which is a massive difference in terms of audio you hear a lot more and it draws you in)
The Biggest difference between the 360 version and the XBOne version is HQ Audio, better draw distance and more gaming achievements, along with the two expansions (DLC)
Is it worth owning a second time depends if you loved the game on the 360 yeah there's plenty of time to sink into this game and it's enjoyable and fun at times. snatch it up when it's on sale for $20.00 or less 9/10
my Microsoft gamer tag Duckman 1979 | video-games_xbox |
Great adventure and comedic fun overall - Not so great 2 player interface or depth perception. I purchased this game for my husband as a Christmas gift, not really expecting to play it with him. But since I have, I feel I should share my opinion on the 2 player interface issues and overall depth perception hiccups.
The game is meant to cover all 3 Lord of the Rings novels - so be prepared to play out every inch of the game if all achievements/missions/awards are desired. As with many other games, you will have to beat it entirely in order to go back and then play again some areas of the game in order to garner special goodies. None of this really bothers me, however, the constantly changing storyline in 2 player can start to cause problems.
1st: The only 2 visibility options of playing are Vertical or Diagonal (no Horizontal option). The Diagonal can be very annoying in that if one player roams too far from the vision of the other's screen - you can't see them at all. If you wander too close to the other player's area of play - the screens combine to one visual aspect for the both of you. The moment you move away - they split again. In battle scenes - this can get very dizzying.
2nd: With 2 players in battle scenes and sometimes certain aerial views - the aspect is now very far away, and you can barely see your players. The depth perception in these moments is horrible, so it is very difficult to know how close to an object you are in times of jumping/striking at things. This can make play irritating and no longer fun.
3rd: When the story-lines split (like in the book) one player will be part of the fellowship ie. Sam & Frodo - while the other player will be ie. Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas. This can be fun and also problematic. If you want to both play the same storyline, no problem - you press "Y"/bumper and switch to whatever character you want to be at that time in the story. However if you accidentally drop out to change storylines - it will reverse the players screens (meaning you were playing on the right side, now you are on the left). It did this several times during our game play, and there is no way to keep it from doing that - we checked. Also, that switching on characters via "Y"/bumper button can also be very sensitive - meaning if you mean to jump on a horse by quickly pressing "Y" but hold down a fraction of a second too long, it will assign you to the next player on the "player choice" wheel - and before you know it you are now switching to the Frodo/Sam storyline or vice versa. This also happened more times than we cared to admit. This could be blamed on beginners girl-player error.......... but my husband is an XBox 360 vet, and he had this issue often too!
4th: Lastly, the depth perception in both 2 player and single player are erratic and inconsistent in this game. Other than the "too far away" 2D vision in fight scenes, there are issues up close an personal. They mostly consist of jumping and rope climbing areas. You can toggle the aspect of your screen only so far - before sometimes you cannot get a good visual on where you need to jump to or grab onto. You have to hope the depth perception is correct, and often times it is impossible to tell. This makes certain simple tasks no longer fun and very irritating.
By reading the above issues - one might assume I had miserable game play. Quite the contrary. Although these issues existed and were consistent - they did not happen all the time. I have fun playing the game overall, and enjoy the comedic moments and Lego version of the story. I just hope Lego hears about the above interface issues and completes the circle on otherwise a great product. | video-games_xbox |
Far Cry 2 Is Awesome. When I started to play Far Cry 2 I didn't know what to expect. I heard so many different stories and rumors about this game. Some people said this game was good and some said this game was bad. Well I found out this game is really, really good.
The first thing I noticed playing Far Cry 2 is how huge of a gaming world this game has got. I can't think of another game out there that has got as huge of a gaming world as Far Cry 2. At the beginning of the game you are in the back seat of a vehicle being driven around by someone and you get a chance just to look at the surrounding scenery. The surrounding countryside is very beautiful but at the same side you see signs of war everywhere. You are put into a war torn African country ripped apart by a civil war fought between two large rebel groups. While I'm traveling in the vehicle down a dirt road, I noticed refugees running past me trying to get out of this country. Along the dirt road there are checkpoints everywhere manned by different rebel groups. At one checkpoint we got stopped by rebel soldiers and my driver had to promised to bring back beer for them if they would allow us to proceed past the checkpoint. I couldn't believe it. You can actually use bribery in this game. I noticed there was a small plane flying above me and I found out that rich people with money are paying pilots to fly them out of the country. When I saw all this stuff I thought to myself that probably happens in real life in war torn zones around the world.
I have never been to Africa but I'm sure this is as close as you can get to the real thing. There is a lot of detail put into this game. For instance I noticed little things like leaves blowing off trees and plants swaying around. There are birds flying overhead and constant sounds of wildlife. I notice insects flying around all the time. I came to a railroad siding next to a building and notice a lot of detail put into the rail cars and the railroad track. There were crates and boxes inside some box cars and trash laying around the railroad track. I was very impressed by the amount of detail.
The AI in this game is very good. Rebel soldiers react to how you react. For example, I went into a large town and the town was already occupied by rebel soldiers. Well in this large town there was a truce between the two rival rebel groups where there was no fighting allowed in this town. So I was able to walk around throughout the town without being stopped by any rebel soldiers. I could actually walk right up to the rebel soldiers without being shot at. Everything was peaceful and quiet. But the minute I pull out my weapon and start shooting at one of the rebel soldier's, all hell broke loose. Rebel soldiers started shooting at me and some ran behind cover and some try to outflank me. I was fighting for dear life. I decided to get out of town because there were too many rebel soldiers to fight. Well I ran out of town and the rebel soldiers came right behind me. I had to hurry and think of way to slow down the rebel soldiers before they caught up to me. Well in this game you can slow down people that are chasing you by setting fires. So what I did was I went to a large grassy area and set the grass on fire. Pretty soon a large fire broke out and the rebel soldiers stopped chasing me because they couldn't get past the flames. I was able to get away. I was thinking to myself "How cool is that"?
In this game you can choose the battles you want to fight and you can fight your battles anyway you want. You can choose to fight during the day or you can choose to fight at night. Or if want you can avoid fighting all together by just sneaking around. In this game it's all up to you on how you want to approach your objectives. I would highly recommend for you to go out and buy this game. There is a lot of replay value in this one. | video-games_xbox |
Bloodborne's Battle Mechanics Combined with Battlefield's Scale Equal One Big Mess. Conceptually, this game has an interesting premise: due to a rupture in the space-time continuum we have three popular warring classes fighting each other on the same continent consisting of knights, vikings, and samurais oh mai! For Honor then tries to blend the complex combat style of Bloodborne with the epic battle scale of Battlefield and what we get is a hot mess of rock, paper, scissors combat descending into who gangs up on who contest. Combine gameplay that nearly makes the game annoying with the fact that the game is DRM and is always required to be online and you get a game that is not worth it for any casual gamer.
Now, that's not to say For Honor doesn't have a single-player campaign to try and stand up on it's own. The single player campaign consists of a three-part mini-series following several characters from each faction revolving around a revolution led by a character that admired Bri of Tarth from Game of Thrones way too much and adopted the same callsign as the Angel of Death in the Greek translation of the Bible. This would make for an interesting story except we don't get to be with the characters long enough to care and you never see their faces so, for all we know, they're Jango Fett clones and this is some weird battle scenario in the Star Wars world of Camino.
I only got mostly into the viking campaign before I got bored of carrying the entire army that couldn't march in a straight line if you paid them in mead. Like the Ramirez meme in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, you feel a sense of doing everything while your people sit back, pull up the lawn furniture, and watch. Even Ryse: Son of Rome, a game that came out years earlier, had AI teammates that helped out on occasion.
After single player I attempted the multiplayer campaign and, unless you communicate well with your team to stick together, you're gonna get ganged up on real fast, cheap swept off a tall ledge and insta-killed. I'm not a fan of multiplayer anyway so the was the final straw that made me turn the game off and put Ghost Recon: Wildlands back in.
All in All, For Honor was Ubisoft attempting something new but not quite nailing down the details... the main menu had a nice cello number though. | video-games_xbox |
Do NOT buy these headphones. **FINAL UPDATE. ***UPDATE 1/2: Company responded said that I would have to ship the headsets to China, pay for shipping and they when they receive it I would get my money back. So I called Amazon, they processed my return payment and send me a return label to send it back to them. Once I let the company know this they actually sent me a sadface in the email and got upset that I would send it back to amazon. This was a few days ago at this point, since then I have been asked to change my review to at least 3 stars multiple times. Even though I explained the product doesn't work as intended I cant do that, they are still trying to guilt me into upping my review saying we wouldn't send you a bad product. We'll you did, twice. My review will stay at 1 star. DO NOT BUY THIS HEADSET unless you want a massive headache and possibly an electrocuted ear.
***UPDATE 12/21: Emailed the company asking for a refund, all of a sudden no response in 4 days. They emailed me asking if I received the headset and at one point asked that I change my review to 3 stars as it "Helps everyone" Changed it back to 1 star. Don't buy this headset, I will be contacting amazon to try to get a refund. Was happy with the customer service up until this point, now I'm just being ignored.
***UPDATE 12/17: Received the replacement headset a few days ago, finally had a chance to sit down yesterday and try it out. The headset has the same problems I listed before, making it basically useless. However, after about 10-15 minutes of use my right ear was electrocuted and the headset shut off. At this point I wasn't going to try it anymore. I have asked the company for a refund and still don't recommend anyone by this headset. I will leave 2 stars as the customer service has been helpful thus far. I will update again when I get a response.
***UPDATE 12/4: Have changed my rating to two stars as the company has contacted me and has sent out a replacement. Once I receive it and have a chance to try it out I will update my review again. estimated delivery is next Friday the 12th.***
These are absolutely disappointing. Whenever I push the mute button, then un-mute myself my voice becomes robotic and muffled. Soon after it will start buzzing through the mic rendering the mic completely useless. It will also randomly shut off at times or make a loud pop right in my ears. Worst purchase I have ever made on amazon. Would like to add that I would have contacted the company to return them but no contact information is left on the box or the booklet that accompanies the headphones. Seems they know they would have a few issues.
An absolute garbage product, very annoyed. | video-games_xbox |
Failout 4: Like chewing glass when you get hungry. The quality keeps dragging you back in. First off, let me list all the things the game does right:
Stunning visuals : Gorgeous lighting and textures. Beautiful colors. It looks generations ahead of Fallout 3. The world feels alive. The animations are fluid, and breathe life into characters that only exist digitally. It's like they're sitting in the room with you. The Voice acting is solid and funny. It's a big, interesting world to explore.
Now for all the problems:
There's lots of lag. The framerate often doesn't stay stable during combat.
Extremely Difficult: Even on the easiest difficulty, the game is handing me my butt.
There's no easier difficulty setting than very easy? If I'm not capable of completing a quest, why is the game sending me on the quest?
Health Regeneration: It doesn't exist. You must manually heal yourself by first collecting and then consuming food or med kits. Over and over and over and over again. Feel like I spend half the darn game in my inventory picking items to it. To exacerbate this, many food sources are contaminated with radiation. Think you can open you pip boy and quickly eat a few things to get back to full health? Wrong. You've got to manage the amount of radiation that gets into your body, or else you're dead.
Being forced to consume food to heal is completely non-sensical. Shot with 10 bullets? Eat some rat meat. That'll take care of it.
Other stupidities, like drinking dirty water to heal, something you would never do in real life unless you were thirsting, happens in this game. It robs the player of the right to make meaningful choices that make sense in your quest to survive in the wasteland.
The game plays like this : Combat encounter, almost die, Open inventory, find the right items to eat, combat encounter. Rinse and repeat 50 million times.
Rather than having to treat injuries realistically with medical supplies, you drink some dirty water.
How does this system immerse you in the game? You guessed it, not at all.
I'd prefer some kind of far cry removing bullets with pliers and bandaging wounds... that's intense. That's survival.
Companion AI: The dog constantly gets stuck or lost. You'd think crap like that wouldn't exist on next generation hardware. Guess they used the cpu on the graphics.
The dog cannot die. Rather it gets 'downed' if it takes too much damage, and must be revived with rare and valuable medical shots.
What is the point of protecting your partner if It cannot be killed? I mean who cares? They can never die no matter what choices you make.
They were just too lazy to design the game around companions that could possibly die. Guess it looked too difficult to make.
What is the point of making me manually revive my dog at the cost of valuable resources, at the end of every fight? Over and over and over again.
Just feels like some kind of stupid videogame.
There's no consequences from your adventure, just and endless amount of boring inventory management.
And, you can't have more than one companion follow you at once. I wanted to take the robot and the dog with me, but you're forced to choose between them for no reason. Just doesn't feel fun or next gen to me. I would have gladly sacrificed graphical fidelity to have both with me on my adventure. The robot could have been a 2d sprite following me around for all I care.
Quest system : Fetch Quest Hell.
Go here, go there. Go here go there. People sending you around on your own to do slave work. I'd rather wash dishes or pick cotton.
Character customization: A nightmare.
You have to choose where to put the few attribute points the game gives you, which means you're completely out of luck when you want to do something your character is incapable of doing.
The game strips you of abilties, making you suffer the wasteland ill equipped to handle what the game throws at you. Energy to sprint, accuracy in vats, chance to dodge attacks, amount of inventory you can carry, how much health you have, your ability to use computers, stealth, your ability to customize weapons, ability to persuade characters with dialogue options etc etc etc is all tied to different attributes which you cannot afford.
So you're sent into the wasteland half baked, and forced to live with the consequences of not having the right skills you need when the time arises that you need them.
My inventory is constantly full, I am forced to drop items on the ground and leave them behind because I can barely carry anything, which means I can't make money off selling them.
I am so tired of managing my inventory, dropping items of little value and high weight. You have to manage each item one at a time, examining it to see if it's worth keeping to sell later.
This system is absolutely garbage.
How do you know what the value of your items are? You've been in a vault your entire life and know nothing about this society. Comically you know what everything is worth, just like you know what everything weighs. Is this supposed to draw you into the game? It's stupid.
Why can't I just have unlimited inventory? why do I have to drop all my attribute points into the ability to carry items?
My character can barely sprint. She gets tired after running for 5 seconds.
Forced to manually loot everything: The game doesn't tell you where valuable items are, you must manually check EVERYTHING to see if it has something of value, and the game doesn't tell you what things are worth and what they weigh UNTIL AFTER you add it to your inventory.
So you've got to try and memorize what stuff is light and valuable. What? What kind of spread sheet bs is this?
Why can't it just tell me upfront?
Endless Looting Everything: There is so much friggin' looting in this game it will drive you out of your mind, and you MUST loot everything because you need the supplies if you want to survive. it's boring work.
You cannot progress in the game unless you loot hundreds of thousands of items.
And the loot system makes no sense. You kill a guy who is shooting you with a gun and you expect to find a weapon and tons of ammo on his corpse and you don't. Instead, you find 5 bullets. Unbelievable. where'd the gun he was shooting at me with go?
Unfinished Game : so there's this guy tending to his vegetable garden, and while right in front of him, I steal some of his precious food, and he doesn't react. Nothing happens. Nothing.
I can loot his entire garden without him responding.
VATS: Press the Win Button.
So the game forces you to use the VATS system :
VATS : See euphemism for aimbot. The game automatically aims for you.
Wait.... what? A shooter where every single gun has auto aim? LoL, but if you want to use vats, you need to invest your attribute points for the amount of vats you can use, and the accuracy of your shots.
So the whole fricken game plays itself.
But wait, it gets worse.
The game is the Extremely Difficult without using the vats system, because the vats system slows time to a standstill.
But YOU CANNOT USE SLOW MOTION FOR FIGHTS UNLESS YOU USE VATS AUTOAIM.
So your'e at an extreme disadvantage if you're aiming manually, like every gamer should be.
VATS would be fun if it were this kind of thing that proc'd every once in a while during really difficult fights, but the game wants you to use VATS for every single battle in the game.
It's almost unplayable without it, dying over and over and over again without VATS slow motion and auto aim.
Why the hell make a shooter where you are FORCED to use autoaim for every battle?
Couldn't there be some way to survive aiming by yourself? You know, PLAYING THE GAME?
Traversing the wasteland :
You cannot fast travel to areas you have no been to before, which means you spend a huge chunk of time walking on foot without the ability to sprint. Unlimited sprint would have gone a long way here, especially considering you have no horse to ride or car to drive.
Your telling me my robot survived the nuclear holocaust and 200 years without dying and yet none of the cars work? There's no horses alive? You can't tell me that BS. They'd breed those animals like crazy, they'd be worth a fortune in this world.
Walking and walking and walking and walking and walking.
The graphics can only do so much to alleviate this boredom. Walking around for hours on end has never been fun in any videogame - ever, and it's the same for F4.
Why can't eating and drinking just be part of survival? Something you do once every 24 hours, eat a big meal? Then it would make sense to collect pure food and water to keep your character alive.
Eating to heal just feels stupid. Like the developer just wants to waste as much of my time as possible.
And what's worse, is that it makes watching your radiation intake feel stupid. Finding clean food should have been an important part of survival, not a hellishly boring mini game every time you get injured.
The whole game feels broken.
Dialogue and Choices :
Like Mass Effect and to a lesser extend the Witcher, you must guess what your character is going to say, because the game doesn't tell you. It gives you a *hint of what they might say, but you must commit to your choice before you see exactly what they're going to express.
This isn't exciting, it's stupid. Managing relationships with survivors in the dangerous wasteland is IMPORTANT. You need to know exactly what you're going to say to someone BEFORE YOU SAY IT. Like in real life. You careful choose how you interact with others. But in F4, you just take a guess at what you might say, as though it DOESNT MATTER. As though how you interact with people DOES NOT MATTER.
An RPG where you have to guess what your character is going to say before you CHOOSE what they are going to say.
You see the dilemma.
One cannot simultaneously choose what their character says, and guess what their character says, at the same time. They're mutually exclusive concepts.
I can't verbalize how stupid this is. I can't articulate just how wrong this system is.
Makes the hole game feel pointless.
Build your own city: You need to collect supplies before you can build, but you need room in your inventory to collect supplies. See the dilemma?
There's no room in my backpack for the supplies I need to build my town.
What would have been fun, was if players you help and rescue join your team, and they automatically work together to build a dynamically, procedurally created city together, with each character adding what they see fit to the world. One guy likes building high buildings, another like growing crops, etc.
Loading screens : it's a beautiful open world, but you must sit and watch loading screens to enter and exit buildings that have things in them. It makes the game feel like, well, a game.
These consoles should be more powerful than they are. Loading screens were playstation 1 era, not X1 PS4 era. Just deadens the world that you can't seamlessly interact with it.
Schizophrenic Difficulty : The game is usually either too easy or too hard. Some areas you encounter are simply suicide, and you learn this by dying over and over again before you give up and walk in a different direction next time your save game loads.
Like bashing your head against a brick wall over and over again.
Other times you'll easily defeat everyone.
And what's worse is that there's no explanation for why this happens. It just does.
At random, the game will beat the crap out of you, with no explanation as to why.
The game thinks it's so important that it wants to you to learn everything by miserable trial and error, and come back to the hard spots once you've leveled up.
It's stupid.
I can't hack into computers or pick locks because I don't have enough skill or perks to do so.
I Don't have enough lock picks.
The game wants me to memorize where all the important stuff I can't access now is, and come back to it later when I can.
I mean, so you just have to GUESS how soon you can come back them, because it doesn't tell you.
Must more wandering and loading screens for you to dig through.
The amount of backtracking that's going to be generated by this flawed game design is going to drive players out of their minds.
F4 feels like a massive waste of time. There's so much crap in the way of the fun that I can't recommend it to anyone.
It saddens me that there's idiots out there who would drop 60 bucks on this punishment.
Doesn't matter how great the graphics look. The 'gameplay' sucks.
The game feels so fake and stupid that I'm afraid of the amount of effort that would be required to see the fun parts of the gameplay and the story.
Why can't you dual wield pistols to make them useful for close range combat? You know, good for fending off ghouls who try to eat you alive? I keep finding these pistols and have nothing to do with them.
Getting shot at by enemies you can't see or find : Sometimes it is hard / impossible to find enemies who are shooting at you. The AI will bullseye you right through bushes and trees. Vertical combat encounters are especially heinous. enemies above you hiding on rooftops will shoot the crap out of you, and there really hard to manually spot and then hit thereafter... Unless you're using VATS. You are absolutely forced to use VATS to instantly find these enemies, because they're nearly impossible to spot with the naked eye.
But, unless you have attribute points in vats, you're going to miss your shot.
But since I refuse to use vats altogether, I must suffer through multiple trail and error deaths as I find all the enemies myself.
Why is there no way to spot target shooting you through bushes and rooftops other than vats?
Also : VATS makes shooting difficult enemies easy when it shouldn't. Fast moving smaller enemies like roaches and rats get killed every time with one hit at close range, even with no attribute points into vats. These enemies are really hard to manually shoot, but the autoaim gets them every time. Yet another reason VATS breaks the game.
If the game's problems are a result of 'realism', then why does time stop completely when looking at your pip boy?
The game is this god awful collection unfun mechanics because of the game's quest for 'realism' i guess...
Why doesn't your pip boy require power? It runs without any energy source. It's just impossible to believe in the game's version of reality. Discrepancy after discrepancy.
Why don't bullets weigh anything, but guns do?
You're struggling to make sure you never run out of ammunition, which means you have to carry every type of weapon you have with you.
And you definitely need weapons for every possible range as well. So you're saddled with all this weight in your inventory.
Like somebody baked a cake with glass in the dough.
Are you gabe newell?
How bad do you want that cake?
In all seriousness, why are players being punished with these broken games?
All you can really say is, "at least they finished the graphics"
If fallout 4 was designed to scare you with how bad a society after nuclear war might be, then it succeeded.
What's really scary is how little work it would take to fix all of these problems. Just patch the game Betheseda.
You did Skyrim mostly right, why can't you do this right?
F4 is realistic in all the ways that suck, a game in all the ways that are boring, and Like work in every way except that it will yield you no paycheck. | video-games_xbox |
Immersion lackluster. Just a little background here...with nearly 5,000 trophies under my belt, I've been playing games since 1981 through the Atari 2600, Atari 800 XL, Commodore 64, 286 PCs, all the way up to the current generation of consoles and PCs.
The advances in gaming have been truly amazing.
And that's what's heartbreaking for me to review a game like Ghost Recon. From the onset, I'm immediately told that I'm in hostile territory, with the local military attach scoffing at my 4-person's squad ability to get the job done since he feels that hundreds are necessary.
With that in mind, I hope into a vehicle with apprehension...and begin driving.
From minute 1, I have trouble with the game. As I take a bad turn, several civilians react with fear with the exact animation simultaneously. The handling of the vehicle feels like I'm driving on an ice skating rink with butter coated Teflon skates; it's truly awful and makes Grand Theft Auto feel like a tautly executed alternative to Forza/Gran Turismo in comparison. The truly crowning achievement, however, came when I decided to ditch my truck on the side of the road. I initially cringe when I come up over a dip and see foliage with branches as thick as my arm, thinking, "Ooops, that's it...I'm going to crash"...ONLY TO FIND MYSELF PASSING THROUGH SAID-BRANCHES WITH THE BRANCH PASSING THROUGH MY VEHICLE.
The lack of immersion was complete at this point. As I take out the first checkpoint to rendezvous with my first "squealer", I came across livestock with plastic-looking textures and I began to find other graphical anomalies and environmentals that don't quite react to the fact that I'm there.
For giggles, I threw a grenade in a random location. Rather than panicked fire or explosive reactions from the local bad guys, I'm greeted with, "What was that?" Really? A grenade went off..."what was that?!?"
Yep, sure enough, I checked my calendar and it's 2017, yet certain items in the game simply don't respond to my presence nor does the AI feel convincing.
The game's story is interesting enough (albeit with shades of Clear and Present Danger, after a fashion) and the opening cutscenes are BEAUTIFUL, but the game has a severe disconnect for me. I was really hoping for something that had more of a stealth/smart approach to clandestine military operations rather than the Call of Duty, aw-gee-whiz-it's-a-movie style of run-and-gun. It feels sloppily made and I simply don't feel like "I'm there."
This is sad, because there's a good formula here. It was poorly executed. | video-games_xbox |
Not As Good As It Could Have Been. I bought this game the day it came out. Being a huge Matrix fan, and an avid gamer, I thought that I would enjoy the game immensely (I'm also a huge fan of Shiny Entertainment - I loved Earthworm Jim and Wild 9's). Sadly, while the game IS fun, I wish they had delayed it to make it perfect. As it is now, it's only slightly above average.
As you undoubtedly know from every other review, the game shows the events of Matrix: Reloaded through the eyes of two characters: Niobe (Jada Pinkett-Smith) and Ghost (Anthony Wong). You see things from different perspectives, and see how storylines from the movies are tied into each other (Also, it ties the Animatrix storyline "Final Flight of the Osiris" into the movie, which I thought pretty cool). The game contains tons of FMV that you can't get anywhere else, so Matrix fans pretty much don't have an excuse to not get this game. For the rest of you, I'd read the rest of this before you make your purchase.
The game has many good things going for it, but Shiny always has some huge "but" to destroy any good notions you had. The character models are gorgeous, but the textures boring and the levels sometimes downright ugly. The fighting engine is magnificent, but the enemy AI either stupid or bug ridden (ie, SWAT members walking into walls, facing away from you while you pulverize their pals, etc.). The levels inventive and huge, but save points pop up too often, and many of the sections between saves consist of (not exagerrating at all) running literally 20 feet, seeing an in-game cutscene, running 10 feet, seeing an FMV, then save point. That's it. That's not fair to the gamer. I like to earn my saves if it's going to be a "save point" system. Plus, sometimes the levels consist of "run here, kill the guards, and enter the door." It could've been so much better, had just a little bit more time been put into it.
Also, the game has some of the worst driving levels I've ever seen. You can only be one character or the other, so you either drive (Niobe) or shoot at people chasing you (Ghost). And, no matter who you are, your buddy is a moron. You actually have to hold down a button to get Ghost to shoot at cops, or the twins, when you're Niobe, and you have to pray the AI Niobe doesn't run into every single obstacle in your path when you play as Ghost. I think they were decent, but it could've been much better... and God, the city streets are ugly as hell. Midnight Club 2 and Grand Theft Auto have shown that the city can have personality. The driving graphics are inexcusable.
However bad that sounds, the main component of the game is the third-person (think Splinter Cell) type adventure, and it's actually done quite well. However, the whole time I was playing this, I couldn't help but think, "Why couldn't they let the camera be controlled by the gamer? Why do they wish to punish us?" Splinter Cell's control scheme could've been used, and it wouldn't have affected anything (they barely use the right analog stick at all), and it would've basically eliminated all of those nasty camera issues that this game has. Nothing is worse than fighting 6 guys, then having the camera swing 180 degrees around, then trying to figure out which way you were headed. This should have been addressed early in the stages of the game design. It's almost as bad as Nintendo not having any different control schemes for Metroid:Prime. Talk about aggravation.
Also, I won't discuss the "pseudo-flying" level which finishes the game, because it is the worst level I've ever had the displeasure of playing. The Squiddys are so poorly shown, it looks like cheap "green-screen" effects from the early 80's.
All in all, this game disappointed me. I love the Matrix, and I liked the Matrix: Reloaded. I like Shiny Entertainment, and I think that this could've been one of the greatest gaming achievements in recent history. I wish that Shiny had held back the game until Revolutions comes out, and ironed out all the bugs, changed the ... control scheme, fixed some textures, and thought out the obvious stupid stuff this game seems to fixate on (constantly reincarnating enemies in a closed Post Office, etc.) and this could've been the greatest game of 2003.
I'm still upset. | video-games_xbox |
Best for Last. This might sound biaesed but i'am a halo fan. Before you go off and grab the pitch forkes hear me out. I had my doubt about Halo 3 after the dissiapointment of Halo 2. I was one of those people who early on said that Halo 3 was going to stink and that it was goig to fail etc. But boy was I wrong! I don't want to make this as huge review but i'll do my best
The story follows super solider John aka Master Chief aka Spartan 117. When you left off at Halo 2 Chief was on an forerunner ship headed to earth on his conquest to rid the galaxy of a hostile alien race known as the covinent and now he want to continue his crusade and save his trusty AI sidekick Cortana from the zombie like Flood. Basically this game ties up the Halo story in one of the best story telling in a game period, only Mass Effect and Assasins Creed can hold their own compared to Halo 3. The voice acting is some of the best ever recored and will never stop amazing you.
The game play is very similar but tweaked none the less to the other halo games and first-person shooters. You have your share of futuristic weapons and human lead shooters none the less. The game play is similar yet changes over the levels, in one level you are in a warthog(jeep) almost the entire time and in another you are blasting away alien ships with a tank, to keeping your sniper rile handy and battle rifle busy in another.
No matter what you hear Halo 3 is a stunner. The water and light effect are astounding and the character animations are increible. The AI of the enemy is one of the best parts, they are relentless and brutal expecially when you bump up the difficulty. The frendly AI is almost brain dead but they get by. The forge, a map maker to your own imagination, is great to do what you wish with any multyplayer map.
The XBOXLIVE is by far one of the best aspects, there is so much to do. I don't want to go into details other wise this review will be 10 pages long, it is the best online play ever created and is only matched by Call of Duty 4 but I think Halo 3 wins over all, the connectivity is better and less lag rather than COD4 which has amazing onlineplay but lackes better internet connectivity.
Over all Halo 3 is incredible. Any fan to Halo or SCiFI shooter will love halo 3. Don't listen to one to three star reviewers and forrum bashers who say that Halo 3 is not a good game. Those people obvioulsy over estimated one the best games of the new melenium. | video-games_xbox |
Big Shoes to Fill. Mass Effect 3 had big shoes to fills and I find it did fairly well. This game had to wrap up the epic battle against the Reapers and bring closure to the man or woman you called Shepard.
Bioware has come quite a ways from the first Mass Effect (ME) game. If you were upset by the RPG elements watered down in ME2, than you will like the recent change. There are more weapons to choose from and customization is back. Not at the level of ME, but enough to keep it interesting. The controller mechanics have been improved to include better stealth movements, horizontal movements, and the new combat roll. Shepard moves are more graceful, but there is still a minor issue with execution. One button on the controller determines when Shepard rolls, find cover, runs, etc. This action button can get frustrating at times. An example is when you want to open a door, but end up rolling instead. This is a minor issue in game play.
AI combatants are more aggressive and can be more challenging. Remaining in the same location during a firefight can be a poor choice, because the enemies will now attempt to flank you. They do a pretty good job of it. Bioware does an excellent job adding in new enemies to keep the fire fights interesting.
The first problem I encountered with the game was that I was unable to import the physical features of my Shepard. I never had a problem importing them into ME2, but I am hoping Bioware will have this fixed soon. Other than this issue, I did not experience any corrupt file data or glitches. Loading speeds were faster than ME2 (I downloaded both ME3 discs to the HD).
Bioware continues to keep the storyline flowing, and throughout your adventure, you see many of your past choices from ME1 and ME2 unfold. There are a few new faces, but the majority of the time is spent with individuals you rescued or were former teammates. Visually, ME3 is decent- but not much better than ME2. I didn't mind. Your goal in this game is to collect allies and resources to fight the Reapers.
Galactic Readiness, Total Military Strength, and Effective Military Strength are new components to prepare for the final battler. Galactic Readiness starts at 50% and remains that way if you do not participate in the multiplayer (I did not in my playthrough). For the most part you are paying attention to the Effective Military Strength (a green bar on the screen). I completed the majority of the side missions and planet scanning (planet scanning is simplified even further) to fill the bar up. A new twist is that in certain solar systems, Reapers are nearby and will be alerted by your activity. This will force you to change your tactics.
I am very disappointed in the final 10 minutes. At first I was just in disbelief and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It didn't take long for me to be angry and I went online to see if I was the only one. It was comforting to see so many other players upset about it.
It is not because of the potential bleak endings. These endings make no sense. The more you think about the final 10 minutes, the more you have more questions. It is like someone that knows nothing about the Mass Effect universe was responsible for the ending. It's just pathetic.
I refuse to rate this game solely on the ending. Up to the last ten minutes, I was playing the best game I have ever played. The improvements were amazing and I was fully engaged in the storyline. 5 out of 5 stars- Bioware created something amazing and breathtaking. However, the ending leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I will bite my tongue and rate this game on its overall merits. The poor ending will knock it off 1 star and I will overlook the fact that I could not import my facial features for any of my 4 Shepards. 4 out of 5
Edit: I was so flustered by the ending, I didn't even bother commenting on the Collector's edition.
The tin case holding both discs is nice with an illustration of a male and female Shepard. The teeth holding the discs in place are too large and it makes it extremely difficult to remove. Pushing the center button down does little to move the teeth holding the discs. I needed to push down on all three teeth to wedge the discs out. I eventually stored the discs in another case since you will be flipping between discs a few times. I believe I swapped discs 3 or 4 times.
There are four codes in the sleave of the tin case. One code for downloading the Normandy avatar, one code for add-ons, another for the New character/mission and the last code for the 2-day free Xbox live trial.
In order to get the soundtrack, you must get on the Origin website. I had trouble finding it, so I would googling it.
I would advise not looking at the illustration book until you played the game. There are spoilers inside.
I don't know what to make of the robotic dog. It stays in the loading bay area and your interactions are minimal. | video-games_xbox |
Can't say enough good things about this. Let me start by saying that this almost cannot be called a game. Even though this runs through an X-BOX or whatever system you use it on, it really is more of a program or a learning tool than a game.
There are a few playability issues with it. The interface is slow and clumsy, and you can expect to do a whole lot of waiting in-between songs. There isn't any quick play option or party mode, and unless you feel like scrolling through all the songs to find one you want to play, wait, play, then repeat, you have to pick them one at a time. The filters for this process are useless, so song selection is a nuisance.
That said, if you are serious about learning to play guitar or bass, this is the way to go. This program will get you from zero to 60 in no time flat. While there is no replacement for one-on-one lessons, this program has many features to hone your skills.
The arcade is off the chains. Some are boring as hell, like ducks, but once you unlock the more advanced games, that is where this little deal really starts to explode in value. The Scale Runner game and the Dawn of the Chorded game (to hone scales and chords, obviously and respectively) are worth the cost of this program alone! The scale runner game has pretty much every type of scale in every key imaginable, and you can practice them all!
I've owned guitars for years, but every time I picked one up to try to learn, I sounded so bad I couldn't stand to play. I never could afford true lessons, so I just sort of tried bits of riffs here and there, then lamented my suckiness. Once I got this program, I got through all the embarrassing novice noise, as I call it, and love playing now. Granted, I still can't do some of the faster stuff in this game. Also granted, the EQ sound and tone out of the game isn't the greatest, but you can learn a song, then hook up your real gear and play it that way.
I can nearly get through the scales in Muse's "Plug In Baby", can chord through Bowie's "Space Oddity" pretty well, can play Silversun Pickups' "Panic Switch" by memory, and can jam through pretty much any modern song, like the STP, Nirvana, Queens of the Stone Age, Interpol...that stuff is all pretty easy.
The classic rock songs are either very easy or very hard. Generally, the ones with advanced arpeggios are a bit tougher, like your Tom Pettys and some with those screaming 70's solos are tough (Freebird, Sweet Home Alabama, even More Than a Feeling has some really tough spots, though the chorded sections aren't too bad). The jazz songs are pretty tough (I was surprised how difficult the Marvin Gaye song was). The metal songs (Lamb of God, Megadeth) are way freaking hard, but even those you get better at with practice. In all, you really get a good mix of easy songs with tough songs and a wide array of techniques between them, great skill-honing games, and I'm loving the bass add-on! (note: you can play the bass add-on with a regular electric guitar if you don't have a bass, though you can pick up a good cheap bass for $150 or so)
The only other downside is I've spent a huge amount of money buying extra songs. HUGE! Thats part of why it takes me so long to scroll through them....there are just so many. I've purchased something like 40 or 50 or so extra songs off the XBOX interface...and they aren't cheap either! They are something like $2.50 or something like that per song, so I've spent over $200 on this program between songs, the initial game, and the bass add-on.
That said, there are probably only a handful of songs that I ended up despising and wanted to sell back. Not bad considering how many I bought, and it was spread out. So It was worth the investment. Even songs that I didn't particurly like or even despised before I got this, they are even fun to play. Oddly enough, this experience has altered my taste in music a little bit. I still love Black Metal, but I'm digging a lot of other stuff now too!
I've spent the last 9 months playing this thing hardcore. I got past the "I'm terrible" stage, the "fingers hurt" stage, the "I can only play x-hours because my hand is cramping" stage, and even the "I can't play for ten hours straight because my back hurts" stage (yes, I've played this thing for over ten consecutive hours!) In that nine months, I've gone from worse than novice to decent amateur, and I can play about 20 or so songs from memory now, and can easily say I'm not crap anymore.
If you are serious about learning guitar and/or bass and are up for an incredible challenge...get this program! Again, just the chord and scale games alone are worth the initial price. One last note...once I got this, I pretty much stopped playing everything...guitar controller games, fallout, skyrim, Symphony of the Night...everything. I almost feel like I'm wasting time if I have my XBOX on and this program isn't in it!
Cheerio! | video-games_xbox |
Buy it now. Summary: the product is great, works as expected, and WILL OPERATE UP TO 4 CONTROLLERS.
Look past my auction site tip of the hat and have this shipped to you right now. I am a recent convert to PC gaming; my 360 and P$3 are slowly fading away. As my steamy pile of games increases I found myself wanting more and more to be able to use a trigger button as opposed to an awkward reach of the finger on the keyboard.
After looking at a few different sellers of similar products I chose this one. Other listings seem to be knock off copies. I was willing to pay for the real deal. As other reviewers have pointed out, this product seems to be genuine M$. If it is a knock off, it is a first rate clone. There was a lack of proper retail packaging, BUT the product was secured in a proper electronics bag, inside bubble wrap with a software disc and literature; all appearing to be genuine and finally shrink wrapped. That's it; no clam shell or UPC. No big deal.
As other reviewers have recommend, I did NOT utilize the included install disc, but instead did a search for basically the item description to locate the most recent software/driver. There are updates that were made to the driver/software since the release of the disc.
INSTRUCTIONS:
1) Search for and install the official M$ driver/software available from their website.
2) Plug the hardware into your PC's USB port.
3) The device should be recognized.
4) UNPLUG ANY 360 that might be in range. Previously synced controllers will turn it on.
5) Push the button on the receiver.
6) Push the little button on the top of the controller (near the charger plug). .
7) The devices will sync.
The little software HUD style display (when running) will show you if a controller is connected; in the same style of the 360. Cool. No problems so far with games, the bigger titles didn't even need adjustments to control input settings.
By the way the device WILL work with up to four controllers. This makes the value proposition much better in my opinion.
The listing pictures make it seem like it is the size of a common corded computer mouse. It is about half that size. What are you waiting for, stop reading this and buy it. | video-games_xbox |
Looks nice, but D-pad is crooked and doesn't work properly. Very nice looking controller for sure. However, I received mine with a crooked D-pad and a left trigger with a minor sticking issue. The D-pad buttons are unresponsive at least 50% of the time as a result. To make them work I need to press them very hard and at a strange angle to compensate for the crooked position of the D-pad. With a price tag of $90+ (more then double the cost of a standard controller) I expected better quality.
Update - I received a replacement controller with more issues than the original one. The D-pad was once again crooked, though it appeared to function properly. The right bumper was sticky and therefore occasionally unresponsive like the D-pad from the first controller. The bottom piece (where the microphone plugs in) was sticking out from the controller, not flush as it's supposed to be, clearly not installed properly. Both of the white thumb sticks were worn and dirty and appeared to have been used. The sheet of paper with instructions on how to program the controller was missing in the replacement box as well. So, even if the controller worked, I'd have no idea how to turn the mod functions on or off or cycle through the settings. That likely would have caused some problems. In addition, I was required to pay the shipping cost to return the item the first time and I am clearly going to have to pay it a second time. Paying 3 separate shipping costs for one item is pretty stupid. I requested that I be reimbursed for the shipping costs, but they simply ignored me and offered no reply. There was also no communication from them in regards to shipping the replacement. No tracking information, no email saying it had been shipped, etc. Just, no communication at all beyond the initial email with the return instructions. All in all, they seemed to care very little about me as a customer, their customer service, and their product.
Perhaps I am just unlucky, but I would caution everyone away from this product. It's not worth the hassle and it will likely arrive damaged/non-functional. The price tag is simply too high for such a lack of quality. Definitely not impressed. | video-games_xbox |
MAJOR Improvement. Condemned 2: Bloodshot brings back everything I loved about the first game, and improves on what I wasn't ecstatic about. Fans of the first version will applaud the updated fighting system here. Not only can you pummel your opponents with uppercuts, hooks, and one-two combos, but you can creatively finish them off with objects in the environment once they fall to their knees (smashing their heads into a nearby T.V. set, for example).
The forensic aspect of the game has been improved as well. In "Criminal Origins", collecting evidence was essentially a no-brainer. You just walked up to a scene, pressed a few buttons, and the game did the rest. This time around, the developers have made investigations more puzzling. The player is now required to analyze a scene with his/her own eyes and answer questions on it based on the details he/she sees. In addition to this, the player now has to choose the right tool for the scene (as opposed to "Criminal Origins" where the right tool was produced automatically). This adds a much more immersive aspect to investagting, and its something that I, personally, am very excited about. I like to use my brains once in a while when playing a video game.
Perhaps the coolest, and cleverest, addition to the game is the upgrade system. In "Criminal Origins", if a player was tenacious enough to earn a gold badge from a mission, he/she was rewarded with nothing more than some artwork or a video to watch from the bonus menu. In "Bloodshot", players are rewarded with upgrades to their character that will help them progress through the game (finishing the first mission with a silver badge, for example, will earn you some brass knuckles for your left fist that stay there permanently.) This type of reward system is ingenious, and it increases the replay value of the game immensely. In fact, many players will be reluctant to continue the game until they've beaten all of the missions with gold badges! I could be wrong about how this works, though. It may be that you are given these upgrades automatically -- I haven't been back through the levels to find out. Let me know if I'm wrong about this.
Finally, "Condemned 2" wins my affections most simply by being scarier than the first. The first game was tense and creepy, and got truly frightening in the final levels. But most of the time, I felt as if I was just kicking the mess out of drunks, addicts, and crazies. Here, the game takes a darker turn almost immediately. The crazies are still here, but some really creepy supernatural enemies are introduced early-on as well (skinny, fast, tar-like creatures that can be killed quite easily, but can destroy you pretty quickly if not dealt with right away.) It's these kinds of imaginative, bizarre enemies that make a great horror game, and Condemned 2 is definitely more of a survival-HORROR game than the first.
The only reason I did not give the game five-stars overall is because the graphics, while they look great, could have been tweaked a little more before the product was released. There are times when the framerate skips or stalls -- just for a moment -- and, even though its not enough to ruin the whole experience, it does jerk the player out of his immersion with the game. I don't like to be reminded that I'm only playing a game if I'm super-absorbed in what's happening in the game.
And Condemned 2 is definitely the kind of game that I want to stay super-absorbed in. | video-games_xbox |
Be careful who you buy it from. Let me first say that my product works flawlessly. It automatically downloaded the drivers when first plugged in (I'm on Windows 7)and has perfectly connected 3 Xbox 360 controllers simultaneously, without any perceivable input lag. That said, be aware before buying that many of the sellers on amazon do not sell the authentic Microsoft receiver. If you specifically want the genuine receiver from Microsoft I know that EA Electronics Inc. sells the real product, as that is where I bought mine. I don't know about the authenticity of the product from other sellers though. If you are not particular about legitimacy of your wireless receiver judging from other reviews you'll probably be alright. Just about all the reviews of the "knock off" receivers do say that the product works without issue. Anyway, if you buy from another dealer and you want to know if what you have is a real Microsoft product, match what you have to the pictures posted by FatManTech and Adrian G. The device should be black and say Microsoft on the front (NOT XBOX 360). If you are wondering how I could know that the devices fitting this description are the authentic ones, continue reading, if not you can just move on about your business. Microsoft does not sell JUST the receivers anymore, however, they do sell a wireless controller for windows which is essentially an Xbox 360 controller and a wireless receiver. For that information you can check the Microsoft Hardware site. If you then look up on youtube an unboxing of said controller for windows, you'll see a wireless receiver identical to the ones in the aforementioned pictures. These devices, unlike all the others, actually say "Microsoft" on them, which is another indicator of their legitimacy, seeing as how Microsoft can, and very likely would, stomp the life out of anyone producing merchandise under Microsoft's name, without expressed legal consent. So honestly I'm not entirely certain how these wireless receivers are being sold separately, but they are.
Anyway, I hope this was helpful. | video-games_xbox |
Forget the tech issues, the game itself is seriously flawed. First off, I have to say that most people who played this game complained about the glitches. I have noticed none. No glitches, no bugs. The framerate is bad, true - think playing an MMORPG in a crowded city on a modem connection. Well, I HAVE done that before, so the framerate didn't bother me.
It's the game itself that makes me wish I held on to that $50. You can upgrade your firearms the more you use them. This sounds like a Good thing. If you like a weapon a lot, you can just keep using it to make it more effective. Unfortunately, you quickly realize that there's a little thing called Ammunition, and it barely appears enough in the levels to let you USE the gun, let alone let you blaze around with the leveled-up firearm of your choosing.
However, you won't be using your guns much once you get your Psychic Powers stolen directly from Psi-Ops - erm, I mean, once you get your legendary, mystical powers that all humans possess. With these powers, the "leveling-up" concept is much more effective. Use a power a lot, and it levels up. The End. Some of the powers are seriously taken directly from Psi-Ops, though. Except in that game, you could pick up anything you like. In Advent Rising, you can only pick up whatever the game developers want you to pick up.
Still, the game has its moments. Jump around a lot, and your jumps get more evasive. Soon, diving to the side brings the world into slow-motion, granting you the ability to throw enemies and shoot grenades, all in one graceful leap. It looks pretty, and it's fun. The vehicle parts are also enjoyable. The "flick targeting" - flick the analog stick towards an enemy to target it - can get a little frustrating as the analog stick you're flicking also targets the camera. Sometimes, you'll be trying to target a certain enemy, but it insists on targeting the big object the enemy is standing by. Or it will remain locked onto a target that's behind you, when all you really want to do is see what's in FRONT of you. But overall, it works.
The music is just incredible...the one part of the game that really lived up to all the excitement I'd built up after years of waiting for its release.
However, the story is really what disappoints me. The movies are so DISCONNECTED from the main game it's absolutely ridiculous, and pulls you out of any shaky atmosphere the music and graceful jumps managed to provide. I'll just give you an example. You're running across a field. There's a group of aliens at your back. Suddenly, you notice a jeep sitting out in the open, all alone. You run up to it, thinking you can jump in, turn around, go back to the aliens...but Lo and Behold, once you get within ten feet of the jeep, the screen blackens, a cutscene starts, and suddenly there's about ten soldiers standing around the jeep, chatting, while your main characters walks up to them. I swear the soldiers weren't there before. So instead of relaxing and enjoying a cutscene, you're jarred from the "game" reality and enter "cutscene" reality. In "game" reality, you're standing in a dusty desert, with sand drifing in the wind. In "cutscene" reality, you're standing in a grassy field, the grass leaning and rippling in the wind. It's just jarring, lazy, and it gets me angry.
The game attempts to give you chances to make Decisions that affect the story. The way it's implemented would indeed have been novel and well-done, if your Xbox was actually an NES and the year was 1987. As it is, the decisions have no emotional involvement, and most of them are resolved ten minutes later. There is one pretty heavy decision that occurs early in the game. Well, not as heavy as it COULD have been (you don't know how drastic the consequences will be when you make it), but it's still a nice touch. However, I Choose Wrong, and as a result I was stuck with with a shallow, poorly-written character for hours afterward. My lesson: No matter what your instincts tell you, sometimes you have to leave the girl behind.
All in all, Advent Rising is disappointing and not worth your $50. The gameplay is all right, but I've seen better (much, much better). The story is blah. Unless you're an extreme sci-fi fan who experiences intense pleasure at the thought of aliens and spaceships, then this game just isn't worth your time. | video-games_xbox |
An enthusiastic, blind-following Resident Evil fan, no more. This is probably one of the best Left for Dead games. What? It's a Resident Evil game? No kidding? Well then...
First, and foremost, it's tough not giving this title at least three stars, but, not wanting to play the game (after only three hours of game play) compels the score (I also looked at other reviews to see if it would get better - not so much). So...
This game has upset me so much, I am at a loss for words - two specific words. Gerbstible and tarkingblark. This game is a steaming pile of tarkingblark, that came out of Capcom's gerbstible!
But, let me start, like Tarantino, too far before you probably care to listen: Resident Evil was the first game I had the pleasure to own and play for the original PlayStation. Being a huge Romero style zombie fan, and my first Survival Horror experience, it was like mana from heaven, or from a Ether potion won in a battle near the castle of Baron. I've followed the series through dramatic changes, the slow decline of engaging content from the first to the third, to the introduction of full 3D in the fourth and fifth, yet at the loss of zombies. While disappointing, I rolled with the punches as it kept what made the original so successful - being a great, if not the greatest, survival horror game. With Resident Evil 6 I expected a "Resident Evil" style game, so much so I pre-purchased it, and didn't bother with the demo. I was looking forward to similar game play as the series had always offered. It did not deliver. Instead of a survival horror what was made was a twitch-action first person, stage based shooter.
I was excited to see that they brought back zombies, that is until they started shooting and leaping at me! They are more like apathetic, lazy mercenaries. You know, union mercs. There has always been an argument between running zombies, such as in Left for Dead, versus those that shamble, as in Resident Evil - err - pre-this one. Now, well, should they shoot, dodge your aim, run, jump, spit, play chess, and perform appendectomies? OK, so I am just guessing at the last two, anyone get to the last stage yet?
Survival now is simply how often you kick zombies, versus shoot them. There really is no concept of conservation - no saving bullets. YOU WILL RUN OUT OF THEM. In previous REs, the player had been rewarded for accuracy, and planning ahead. In this game, even the concept of the quintessential "single head shot kill" has been removed - one shot takes off HALF the head, the other the rest. Wha!?
The graphics, well, they are pretty fantastic. And the controls are VERY nice! They added this leap backwards thing, where you jump onto your back, can aim and shoot, while able to roll left and right, slowly slide backwards, or quickly leap to your feet, as well as having a very nice cover system. Unfortunately, you will never get to use them as this game is more a game of endurance than strategy or accuracy. Constant taking damage, dying, and retrying. I fired more bullets in the first stage of Leon's story than I had ever done in any single entire play through of a previous Resident Evil. There is no longer the "double tap" moments I loved - you can't preemptively put down a seemingly destroyed zombie laying on the ground or in a chair. They lie there, immobile, until the game WANTS you to engage them - no incentive to think or plan ahead. So often a zombie I NEW would jump up and grab me, HAD TO. No way around it.
The inventory system is pretty horrible, possibly the worst yet for the RE series. But this has very little baring on this review - I would have dealt with it, and still have loved it if it was a true survival horror.
They have many different kinds of zombies now - a screamer who causes you damage when they scream, and makes you grab your ears, becoming vulnerable, a huge fat one that takes an amazing amount of bullets to take down (who only seems to show up in cramped quarters where you can't help but get constantly pummeled), a large strong brute-like one that requires being hit in a specific spot to kill quicker, a spitting zombie, a zombie merc who has a machine gun, so many more - if you told me this was a sequel to Left for Dead, I would be less surprised. And all of these (plus more) even in just the first stage, constantly.
The stages are entirely linear - you will NEVER back track. Grab it or loose it. It's clear - progress - clear, repeat.
A survival horror game is really a strategy game. And when a game changes genres, as I believe Resident Evil 6 has, so dramatically, especially such a long running series, you have the right to feel let down, as I do now.
As another review pointed out, if they had called this Raccoon City 2, I would not be at all disappointed in this product. I would have never purchased it, as I really don't like action shooters, or maybe I'd waited for more reviews, tried the demo, or, simply, put less faith into this product.
This review was difficult to write - my keyboard is wireless and needs charging, oh, and I was so mixed in that the game probably is a great -something-, just not a great addition to the series. Resident Evil 6 will be the first game in a decade that I will sell. It might be the last Resident Evil game I play. It will definitely be to me a cautionary tale in expectations, and the negative value of pre-orders. Thank you Capcom for the many great years, but we've obviously grown apart, and in two different directions - you decided to appeal to a new, very different audience, I decided, hey, I should read more. A final note, I'm in the gaming industry, and RE was a pretty big factor in that career choice. So if my disappointment seems exaggerated, to me it's not. I've had this fear that the gaming industry is heading down the path of quantity over quality, placating to the masses over creating true, inspiring, artistic content. Game developers, and video games, are truly my favorite art form (suck on that Dali). Like an art form, such as music, when an artist changes their style to something entirely different, for example, imagine Sting becoming a rapper, or U2 operatic, or perhaps Lady Gaga becoming talented, well, it's natural that new audiences may come, but definitely, those that stuck with them when they were standing so close to you, or not finding what they are looking for, or, uhh, what ever Lady Gaga sings about, well, they will harbor resentment, and get their gerbstibless out of the tarkingblark. And that's the W0rd. | video-games_xbox |
Greatest Headset I've Owned. So to start off, reading all of these reviews, bashing this headset left and right, they are all a bit ridiculous. I love these. They are super comfortable, the sound is great, and they are very sturdy feeling. They came beautifully packaged and the setup was very easy. Let's start with the cons so we can end on a good note.
Cons
- Run on controller battery. Now for me, I have the energizer rechargeable dock for my controllers, so not burning through batteries is not a problem I have, but it could be for you.
- You must download the update for both the console and the controllers. Once again, not an issue I have, but if you play offline only, you may have issues, but honestly, if you have an Xbox One, an HD TV, and a premium headset, you should probably have it connected to the internet.
- This one is small but can get a bit annoying, the headset is not completely wireless. They have no wires to the xbox but there is one chord that goes to the controller. I personally don't really care that there is a wire since it'll work better than any bluetooth but it's a bit long.
- Lastly, you can't hear yourself talk. The former headset I had was the X11's and I liked being able to hear myself because then you could tell if it's working properly and how loud you are talking. Hopefully this will be fixed in a future update.
Now for the Pros
- They are very comfortable, there should be no problem playing for hours no on end.
- The sound is pretty good, I still have to mess with the settings to get the best setup.
- The game and chat volume can easily be changed to your preferences on the chatpad.
- The Xbox One headset adapter is included, which means if you have another headset that you enjoy, you can now use them in the console without buying another adapter.
- The packaging was amazing. It was like opening a gift on Christmas. Just wow. Also, good instructions for how to set up if new to the headset field.
- The wire to the controller is a breakaway so if anyone/you knocks the controller down, your headphones will stay safely on your head.
If anyone has any audio setups (as in on the Xbox One Home -> Settings -> Audio Settings) that work for them, please comment so I can try them out.
Thanks
Colin F | video-games_xbox |
Fun, while it lasts. [...]
If you're familiar with open-world games, then much of what you already expect is utilized in Prototype. However, the way Radical Entertainment has crafted the game allows it to take detours we haven't seen; making it the anomalous figure of the open world-genre.
Prototype is unsurprisingly your typical clich action story, but if you're playing Prototype for the story, then you've come to the wrong place. For what it's worth, the story centralizes itself around New York City and a man named Alex Mercer. A standard amnesiac, Alex happens to be infected with a virus that has transformed his entire body into a living weapon. Not at all pleased, Alex has made it his personal goal to find out who's responsible and pay them back in brutal fashion.
While it's largely derivative, Prototype tricks you into thinking there's much more to the story by implementing something called the Web of Intrigue. The Web contains the memories or mini-cut-scenes Alex has once he consumes someone who has been directly involved in the viral infection. These people are scattered throughout the city and even appear during missions. The system does add a little more depth to the shallow story, but you'll find that once the difficulty amps up towards the end that it's just not worth the effort. The targets are often killed by random fire or are unexpectedly killed by collateral damage you've caused while approaching them. They'll respawn after a period of time, but it really doesn't matter in the end as you're playing for the pure violence, not the story.
For a game that has a ludicrous amount going on, it's a complete wonder how the frame-rate is so smooth. Granted, Prototype isn't the best looking game out there, but for what it does it delivers visuals that are pleasing enough and that especially goes for the city. Traversing the cityscape is simply one of the best parts of Prototype. Bolting up the sides of skyscrapers and leaping off the precipice never tires and makes for an exhilarating way of transportation. But what do you expect from a man who can shift his arm into one massive blade?
Prototype separates itself from the rest by the extreme, over-the top gore typically not found in the open-world genre. Never have there been more dismembered limbs, headless bodies, and tidal waves of blood running freely through a digital city. Alex has five different mutations he can shift his arms to such as claws and a massive whip. Every mutation is awesome and all have their strengths and weaknesses. Of course, killing is the main focus of this game and it's met with an emphasis on repeatability. Whenever you kill someone, hijack a helicopter, roll over a grandmother, you receive Evolution Points (EP), Radical's equivalent to experience points. These points are usually given to you in bulk and thankfully so as there's a tremendous amount of upgrades to purchase. At any given moment you can access the menu screen and spend your EP to further augment Alex's lethal arsenal. The sheer amount of upgrades alone will have you completing missions or just mindlessly murdering so you can witness the destruction your new found abilities commit. It also helps that practically every move is ridiculously cool and leaves behind a certain satisfaction that can be hard to find nowadays.
On the other hand, there are so many abilities that some will find it tough to utilize them all. That or they'll just stick with a few moves that get the job done and are actually able to be pulled off amidst the action. Some of Alex's moves are redundant and/or are placed so strangely on the controller that they just aren't viable in combat. For instance, in order to shoot towards the target in a cannonball you must depress the square and circle buttons (X and B for the 360). It's not possible to contort your hand into some type of creature to do that. Couple that with the fact that it's easier to simply karate kick for equivalent damage and you have a completely useless move. There are other abilities that fall along the same lines, but thankfully there's a variety that masks the ones that don't work well.
As fun as Prototype is, the game suffers from some serious flaws that otherwise hinder an exceptional game experience. Throughout the game the infection in the city will steadily grow, which also means the military presence increases to combat it. The problem with this is that by the time you reach the latter portion of the game, it's not fun to run around and cleave people in two anymore. Whenever you attempt to do so, there's a tank waiting for you or a legion of soldiers waiting to call in strike support. It's understandable that Radical wanted to make the game a bit more challenging as the infection spread, but it's ridiculous when you're continuously knocked down by constant streams of rockets and tank fire. The game is easy yes, but by eliminating the gratifying overpowered nature of your powers it also eliminates the number one reason why Prototype is a fun game.
While Prototype is relatively short (10-12 hours), it's some of the most free-form fun you can find presently. Unfortunately the powerhouse military, monotonous side missions, and lackluster story really prevent this title from being anything more than a weekend rental. | video-games_xbox |
Beautiful Game, Crash-tastic network code. DO NOT BUY on XBOne. DO NO BUY.
Fun game, but Microsoft/Bungie's network code just STINKS. Game is lovely, fun, and has just so much much potential for awesome. I bought the Xbox One console specifically to play this game. After nearly 250 hours of playtime, I think I know the game pretty well.
That said, the online multiplayer experience suffers from continuous, rolling network outages that drop you at the most screamingly frustrating times. One-way audio, Kick-to-Orbit drops, partial audio for half the game group who can't hear the other half of the game party, etc., and the many,many,many silly names for error codes that all translate to "sorry, we know you WANT to play. But you can't get, and can't STAY connected to our servers." There's no hiding from the network problems: the single-player campaign mode requires being online, so it's ALL Multiplayer- there's no hiding from the bugs.
Bungie seems to have a strange anti-player approach in this game: they're spending immense amounts of effort nerfing good weapons, blocking player exploits, and fooling around with irrelevancies, while continuing, patch after patch, to fail to address their fundamental inability to keep the network up.
The problems all give error codes like "wombat" and "marionberry" that all lead to error messages that Bungie wants to believe are fixable by making users re-configure their networks. Sorry, Bungie, it's not me: it's you. I work for a major network vendor, and went all counter-hack on it with sniffers one weekend, trying to figure it out. It's NOT my network setup: it's Bungie/Xbox Live's faulty cloud.
Do NOT buy - not worth the money, not worth the continuous, ongoing frustration on XBox One.
If you want to play this game, run, don't walk to Sony and get a PS4, and play it there. The experience on PS4 is MUCH better, and you can skip the blasted 3-minute long cutscenes on PS4. On Xbox, you have to watch the cutscenes every. dang. time. you play a mission.
Beautiful game crushed by simple inability to scale well. | video-games_xbox |
Epic Game and Leaps and Bounds over DA2. This game is amazing. If comparing it to Dragon Age 2, it is leaps and bounds above it, and it is very clear that Bioware listened to fans' feedback about being annoyed about the limited areas to explore, repetition of caves, etc.
First, the sheer magnitude and scope of quests and areas to explore is massive. Not quite open world, but there are several (7-9) major areas to completely explore at will, and hundreds of side quests. In fact, as I started completing quests in the Hinterlands (the first area), it took so long that I was shocked that the game went beyond that area to several more. Each area is unique and the art/graphics are impressive. I think it took me over 70 hours of play to finish the game, but I didn't complete every side quest (some are tedious and I didn't have the patience for them). Most people online have reported about 80-90 hours of gameplay before finishing.
Combat is decent; I have no complaints. I'm not one who wants to control my AI characters, and they did fine on their own. Thankfully DA: Inquisition has the AI characters drinking health potions on their own without you having to intervene this time!!!! Quite an improvement over DA2 where you had to step in and feed them health potions mid-combat.
As in DA2, you will have several moral decisions to make, each with varying effects on your party members (and indeed, even party members who aren't physically present!). I personally loved this, but confess I checked walkthroughs a few times to see what the consequences would be, given my interest in maintaining my romance with one of the characters. Speaking of which, Bioware does a great job of developing romance in this game that is much more fleshed out. For some folks who just like hack-and-slash without romance, this won't matter, but personally I find the fleshed out stories and pursuing a romance partner so much more intriguing than just completing quests. My character was a female elf pursuing Sera, another elf, and it was quite a challenge to get on her good side as an elf. Even so, with time, the dialogue options with Sera expanded and there were several cutscenes where Sera had some... opinions about the quests we had just completed. I haven't played through again to see what the other romances look like, but if they are as well-developed, you will not be disappointed. Without spoiling anything, if you choose a partner, let's just say that he/she is there at some important moments. In addition, the inclusion of a trans character (a non-playable character who works for Iron Bull) and a few gay characters (not only bisexual, as we saw in DA2), was a great move. The DA series is ahead of the others in terms of inclusiveness for LGBT visibility.
The plot is excellent, and I love that they still allow you to skip dialogue in most scenes as it can get pretty lengthy. However, you have to pay some attention since you have to choose how to respond and I tried to make decisions based on the facts. In the end, I felt very satisfied with the ending and how things resolved. It is hard to close a game that takes 70-80 hours of gameplay, and some games rush it and close the game rather abruptly. I felt like DA: Inquisition did a nice job of giving attention to things.
Now to the criticisms.
CONS:
-Loading screens - MUCH improved over DA2; less loading screens overall, but if traveling between large areas or back to Skyhold, etc., you had to wait a bit. Due to the sheer size of the game, I'm okay with that.
-A little buggy/glitchy - once had a game-crashing freeze at one point that corrupted the save file. Luckily I keep 2-3 recent saves at any given moment, so it wasn't that big of a deal. Just make sure you keep 2+ save files at once and you won't have problems. I also had to use the walkthrough due to a few game glitches (one in particular required me to go back to an earlier save, one was a confusing glitch that led me to the wrong place and I thought I was completely stuck). This happened during a few Fade-specific requests. I could not progress in one quest due to a cutscene not triggering. Once I read the walkthrough and did it over, it was fine. A little disappointing to have to backtrack a bit, but nothing terrible.
-Due to the magnitude of the game, finding things, even in your "home base" of Skyhold (after Haven), can be a pain at first and take some time. Skyhold is a massive castle with several rooms, but once I learned the layout, it was easier.
-Sometimes it isn't clear which area to go to next, as several areas open up at once and you have several simultaneous quests. At one point, I was way over level for an area because I had waited too long to explore it, and didn't get any experience from defeating foes. This only happened in one area. I would say look up areas and level equivalents online, as a few people have written which areas correspond with which levels. It wasn't a major issue for me, just something that I noticed. However, it is a good thing to be over level in Fade-specific quests! The combat can be challenging if you are only in the range that they suggest.
-There is quite a learning curve for all the ins and outs of the game. Things like modifying armor aren't very intuitive and took me a long time to figure out, but by the time it makes sense, that is the time that you actually need to upgrade your gear, so it works out.
- I would like to see more options for female Inquisitors to have multiple options in terms of romancing other female characters. The gay elf Sera was a great addition to the series, but being able to choose between a few main same-sex party members to woo would be better, in my opinion. Same for the male characters. However, given that each character is complex and has their own backstory in the game, I can see that they kept a limited number of party members overall, so options for choosing who to romance are limited (however, you can still romance a few non-playable characters in DA: Inquisition, but Im' not sure if the romance is as involved). In DA2, they tried to address this by making most characters bisexual and keeping the romances limited to a few flirty comments and a PG-13 bedroom scene, but I prefer having some gay/lesbian representation in there too, so this is still an improvement over DA2 given that the romances are much more nuanced and deep.
-You can't easily assess how your party members feel about you. There's no bar like there was in DA2 showing you whether closer to friend or rival. You can only guess based on dialogue and seeing how each party member reacts to your moral decisions (approval, great approval, slight approval, slight disapproval, great disapproval). When you're trying to romance a character, not knowing can be a pain! Some characters almost never approved of what I did, but if you are hoping to romance a certain character, reading up online about what they prefer decisionwise can be very helpful. In short, be patient with the romances because they develop slowly and over time after completing quests and traveling.
Other than these minor issues, this game provided many hours of interesting quests, romance options, and a rich plot. I think Bioware finally found the recipe for continued success in creating this game. While it's pretty expensive, I found it used and saved a ton of money. | video-games_xbox |
Decent Football...but just too boring. Madden did a Great job in finally presenting us an Awesome (but not perfect) football game in Madden 09...and they followed well in those footsteps with Madden 2010, a Basic Football Game as it is in Real Life. but with recycled and bland modes and features, theres not much NEW about the game at all. as Simple and Realistic a football game as it is...its just so...boring...
the good: the graphics are very realistic, players and stadiums scream Realism and the game is just Candy for the eyes, period. the 360 graphics are a little softer on the eyes...while the ps3's are Sharper..but both have amazing graphics. i havnt run across many GLITCHES in my time of play on the 360 (ps3 is another story). overall, this is simple and basic Football, Madden style..a nice...simple...throw and catch...football game =/
the bad: ..therein lies the problem. the game is just too boring :l the slow speed of the game in general puts me to Sleep...and theres nothing ABOUT the game that really PULLS ME INTO IT and makes me WANT to play it. Madden is NOTORIOUS for having such Boring presentation so it doesnt suprise me. not to mention the lack of new modes. youv got Franchise...which they should just call Head Coach 09. if you played that game, thats basically what the franchise mode is..and that MIGHT hold you over for a few days. theres Superstar mode...which is interesting...but since 06, they havnt really done anything NEW to that mode at all. there is NOTHING ELSE TO DO but practice and play games in Superstar mode...thats it...thats all. they could have done ALOT with the Superstar mode and made it SPECTACULAR...and even promoted that mode as maddens Main Attraction...because it has the potential to be something Phenomenal..but i guess recycling is good for the environment :) also, some of the tackling physics are Horrible. 1 man pushing 3 guys in pro tak moments, smaller players COMPLETELY TRUCKING THROUGH 340lb linemen, defenders "shifting" by ball carriers right Infront of them and O-Linemen Not Blocking, just to name a few. if a RB is running down the sideline and i position my man to Bump Him Out...i shouldnt SLIDE OFF OF HIM AND FALL TO THE GROUND :l he should just be Bumped Out. thats called REALLL FOOTBALLL. and there are WAYYY TOO MANYYY "Slip and Slide" missed tackle moments...where u just gracefully slide off of the runner like he has Chicken Grease on his jersey. it was enough to annoy me when i saw it happen to 3 of my men in a row on 1 play. thats when i put the controller down.
end of the day, this is basic x and o, A and B football. nothing new...nothing really exciting...and Gameplay Wise, a step Back from 09. i personally say stick to 09, which has a dramatically Better and More Exciting gaming engine...and is the best Madden since 99/2000. or get NFL2K5 :) <- iv got 3 copies of that game...because it is the BEST. watch me get 30 thumbs down for that comment alone :p ONLY BUY THIS GAME if you really think you will enjoy it ONLINE. this game is NOT going to hold u a WEEK on single player modes alone. atleast online, you can have a Blast laughing at your opponent when you shed 7 of his defenders and take it in for 6...
iLL . | video-games_xbox |
Beautiful - but broken. Max Payne 3 is close to being an astounding game. Unfortunately, a succession of rough edges and poorly implemented controls rob the game of joy or fluidity. The end result is a mostly frustrating experience which will leave fans of the series feeling cheated, and puzzled as to how Rockstar could get so close and then miss by a mile.
Graphics are beautiful. Production values are high. The story is good enough. The failure here is in the least forgivable area - the game play. And the chief flaw is in a badly thought out control system.
Aiming in Max Payne 3 is problematic. The view provided by the third person camera is often clunky, with vital parts of the action out of frame or obscured by Max's body. The aiming reticule is a tiny white dot which is often invisible . Whereas in earlier games the player used bullet time to perform amazing multiple target kills, here you will find yourself using it just to overcome Max's clunky inability to aim at anything.
The fact that aiming is poor is a big problem in a game where you now have to make precise head shots on every target. Unlike earlier games, villains now are made of super-steel and only a couple of shots in the noggin bring them down. This gets tedious fast.
Aiming is made even worse if you stupidly pick up a weapon with a laser sight on it. Your nearly invisible reticule is them replaced with a bouncing red line which makes precision aim impossible. This is so bad you will find yourself throwing away sun machine guns with laser sights in order to use a reliable pistol. Even more tedious.
The developers are clearly aware of this problem so have added new auto aiming features to try to compensate. These auto aiming features rob you of a sense of control and frankly often still aren't a good enough replacement for the necessary level of control needed.
Swapping weapons, which in earlier games was possible with a single key press, now requires multiple key presses and accessing a menu mid. Doing this mid fire fight is clunky and frustrating, making it difficult to move and shoot at the same time. This burns the fluidity out of the fight.
Perhaps most weird is the choice to replace bullet time in the game play with a new system of taking cover . This makes Max Payne in to a generic third person shooter and robs the distinctiveness of the franchise.
Add to this some odd decisions to remove cool features from earlier games (e.g. Flashy speed reload during bullet time) and the inexcusable presence of long cut scenes you cannot skip (totally inexcusable) and overall; I can only conclude this Max Payne game was made by a design team that either hadn't played or didn't like the earlier games
This isn't a terrible game - but it isn't fun. | video-games_xbox |
One of the best action games on X-Box peeople have never seen. Three decades ago a little movie was made in a cabin about one man's survival against his demonically posessed friends. Then there was a sequil and a third movie where he went back in time. This game branches off in a tangeant between Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness. Half the focus of the movies were horror, the other half was enjoyable comedy that was sometimes cartoonish, and full of one liners from actor Bruce Campbell.
Bruce is back for the roll, but don't worry, you don't need to see any of the movies to know that you are Ash, a man with a chainsaw for a right hand that carries a "boomstick" shotgun to kick some demon tail. The game gives you a quick tutorial on your easy to understand controls. Hold the R trigger to atutomatically lock onto a target enemy, and press the X button to shoot it. Press the B button for the chainsaw. Its really simple. White button to switch guns, black button to switch between arm gadgets (chainsaw, flame thrower, hook shot). A to jump. Its very easy and very enjoyable combat.
The story isn't all that important, but basically a book called the Necromonicon has been stolen by Ash's psychiatric doctor that intends to do evil things with it. He also kidnaps Bruce's beautiful laywer (the princess to rescue). Basically, the plot has been done before, so has the game.
The game itself seems very much like a 3D Castlevania. As Ash, you will break boxes for health (instead of candles), find secret unlockables (like behind the scenes videos), secret health upgrades, get new weapons, new abilities like the ability to go berserk, all while facing undead enemies and posessed people. There is a nice puzzle element to the game too that will have you using your smarts to figure out things.
It has a very nice flow to it and there is a good dynamic with Ash's sidekick Sam that he finds along the way. Sam (voiced by Ted Rami) is an undead little person, and because of this, he dies in several hilarious ways only to respawn. Ash can boot him flying, Ash can posess him for a change of pace and a different dynamic (along with some cool music), but most importantly the two will banter back and forth. This is where the game shines, the comedy both of these two ooze between the two of them and even alone.
Many might critisize the game for using Sam to pad play time of the game. Such as Ash will posess Sam, who will then crawl through an area only he can get to, battle enemies, solve a puzzle, flip a switch, then Ash will have to go into the area to do something else. Ash will then need to defend Sam as they go back to a previous area. Even though there is plenty of that, it never seems tedious or monotonous, because Sam and Ash play completely different.
In all, this is a really enjoyable game! Plenty of secret unlockables, differing gameplay, puzzles, great quirky comedy, and some very fun combat that includes some brutal fatalities. Rent this game, buy this game, you will find something to love about it. | video-games_xbox |
An Almost Unbelievable Experience. From the moment you turn this game on you are swept into a reality that is all to similiar to what is going on in today's world. The storyline is something you have probably heard before on the news. Out of control regimes in the MidEast and potential anarchy in the old Soviet Union. The two factors make for a very intense game. I don't even know if game is an appropriate title for something so realistic. Your mission is to stop a rogue government from getting their hands on nuclear weapons. Obviously a big challenge for anyone.
If you have played previous Call of Duty games you know the quality that goes into the gameplay. Never overly to difficult for a first timer. Much of the combat is very similiar to previous COD games. The objectives are always short enough to keep the player involved. What sets this Call of Duty game apart from it's previous incarnations is the amount of realism that has gone into it. The graphics and sound are so real that you could almost think your watching a movie....Actually more real than a movie. The only thing that may be lacking in this games single player missions is the lack of co-op play and the overall shortness of the game. Most will have it completed under six hours. Of course you can always give it a try and a more difficult setting.
The online multiplayer is amazing. To say the least I didn't expect it to be this intense. From the moment you start an online challenge you are thrusted into battle. The game seems to keep the online working in such a way that it seems incredibly realistic. What I also enjoy about the online is that it allows you to rank up rather quickly but you must have enough skill to be an asset on the battlefield. Online there are numerous different missions that keep the game extremely fun and fresh. Although you won't have access to these challenges until you prove your abilities. What also keeps it fresh is the ability to gear your soldier differently as you advance thru the online. This game will definatley have people playing for many, many months.
If you enjoy shooter games and most importantly like realistic war sims then this game is for you. The graphics are amazing, the environments almost look too real, and the sound sets this game apart from others that have flooded the field. If you ever wanted to have an idea of many of the challenges that today's soldiers have to deal with then you need Call of Duty 4. This may possibly be the game of the year. | video-games_xbox |
Great addition, but needed more polish. Assassins Creed 3 manages to live up to the hype of its runup, provided you are willing to overlook a bit too much cutscening, way too labyrinthian tutorials, and a large portion of graphical glitches. While I applaud the attempt of Ubi to push the envelope, their flagship title probably isn't where they want to do the first breakout of the "new and improved" Anvil engine.
Graphics (5-10/10): Graphics of the environments are simply stunning. Water flows like water on the sea, clouds and landscapes are pristine and crsip, and fog flows naturally and blocks just the right amount of vision. Trees and buildings feel natural and organic, and nothing is left feeling out of place.
People graphics are... very unsettling. The eyes especially always look like polished stones because of a persistent reflective effect. Clothes and weapons go through objects and people rag doll way too much when killed. Stutters from officers are the worst, with partolling officials getting trapped on railings, shimmying like they are doing the ants in the pants dance, or sinking into the floor but somehow spinning like tops to stare directly at you.
The cutscenes are fantastic, but its almost that they're too detailed. The new engine is great, but leaving it at 60% of capability would've removed a large portion of the problems but still allowed for improvements.
Characters (2-10/10): The characters can make or break a story. Alitair was distant but just involved enough that you felt something for the character. Ezio was entertaining, funny, well developed, and flowed organically from one game to the next, plot hole leaps forward in time be damned.
Desmond is like a pair of dress pants you don't like. You wear them when you have to, and they're annoying, but they do serve a purpose and you can have a quite enjoyable experience in them provided its brief. In other words, perfect. Desmond's story draws to a well deserved and entertaining close, but thankfully he's not the central character.
Haytham Kenway therefore is like slipping into a pair of your favorite jeans: broken in, comfortable, and wearable anywhere. He's erudite, cultured, polite, and willing to rip your heart out through your back after finishing his High Tea.
Connor Kenway... Connor Kenway... ... one must pause long and hard before putting words to this creation. Connor is not something that can be easily shoved into a pants based metaphor. He's frustrating, incredibly naive, stupid and brilliantly intelligent, and willing to put his money with his mouth is. All of his positive and negative aspects sum up to almost zero. He's never truly likable, but never annoyed you enough to make him a legitimate detraction. The fact that they've already leapt to a new ancestor is proof that Ubi at least picked up on that.
Audio (7/10): Audio continues to be top notch. However, while it was great that they got a dozen Mohawk to voice characters, after ten minutes, it was unnecessary in the extreme.
Gameplay (8/10): Improvements abound here, but for one place: the 6 hour "tutorial." Did you know you can choke out a guard instead of kill them if you are empty handed? I didn't, and the game never told you, or that you had a horse summoning whistle, and left you plodding throuh 4-foot deep snow.
AC1's tutorial was seven minutes, all in the Animus. Having one mission explain one new command at a time was a ghastly experience, and it still didn't cover everything that was critical.
The naval portion has to be seen to be believed. I could play a whole game like that and be content. Between bording actions and cannon warfare, its like watching a naval war movie.
New side missions are well placed and a nice addition rather than being a crucial waste of time, ala Codex pages. They help and they're useful, but the game won't screech to a halt so you can go collect them all.
Story (10/10): If you see some of the twists coming, you are probably psychic. Not much more can be said without spoilers.
Overall (8/10): Packaging and unbelievable glitches are the only spots where this game stutters. Suspension of disbelief is great, but when you ride on a horse with a musket sticking through it, it's kind of like being on a plane during takeoff that sucks in a flock of ducks. They're all small things, but you can't ignore how much bumpier the ride suddenly becomes. A few patches and this'll quickly crawl up to 9-10 range. By the time they make the War of 1812 installment for Connor, they'll have the system nailed down.
Update: The Tyranny of King Washington DLC (5/10): The alternate history DLC was very poorly thought out. The first episode is on an entirely new map, an almost nuclear winter New York, and follows a surprisingly bland and boring plot, where Washington is corrupted by the Apple of Eden. New abilities are shoe horned in pretty hard and are absolutely necessary to proceed through the plot, which is a pretty bad thing, as you're supposed to be able to get through on your wit and guile rather than your "spirit power."
The future episodes appear to hold more promise, but so far, I'm unimpressed. I've already purchased the season pass, so hopefully this will improve.
In addition, MP content continues to be added. Not just player purchased items, if you have money that you absolutely have to flush-I mean spend, but cutscenes and "glitched" cutscenes, which can be pretty entertaining. A seroius Gold star for actually adding content rather than just another ten billion prestige levels. | video-games_xbox |
Xbox, Microsoft's new media center. Please note this review is going to focus on the media center / entertainment aspects of the Xbox rather than the gaming experience.
I never really got this to play games, I got this as an addition to my home automation setup which includes smart lights and a certain Amazon products which insists on calling itself Alexa :P
Pros:
The Xbox one is great as your all in one media device. Because it is not tied to any one single service, it can steam just about any major service out there including but not limited to: Amazon Video, NetFlix, Hulu Plus, HBO Go...ect. The real magic come in because of the HDMI input which was intended by Microsoft as a way to connect your Cable box. However it can be used to connect your PC which combined with Microsoft's Media Center almost makes this the "One" media solution.
Add the Microsoft Kinect this Xbox give you Voice control, even for your connected HDMI devices / Media Center PC which is great! I was able to pair the Xbox with my WMC remote using remote code N1272. I have my Xbox setup so when I say the magic "Xbox on" command, it auto-magically turns on my Projector and Sound System. Now I can use my media center almost completely by voice!
Microsoft announced the ability to connect a TV turner to this and will be adding DVR. However, you can get both those features by connecting your Microsoft PC with WMC now! Connecting your PC to the Xbox one also give the Xbox a better web experience.
The user interface is pretty good, nice and clean and fairly intuitive. I do wish they had some extras like an equalizer but it not the end of the world.
Cons:
While you can use the Xbox to control one guide channel changing, it will not work with other aspects of a connect PC. Steaming on Windows 10 from the Xbox is nice...but a bit of a novelty at this point as you can only steam the video, no mouse or keyboard controls...yet
Overall, if you are like me and this is the first blue-ray paying device you have ever owned and wanted something more than a cheep player. This is a nice upgrade. Add a great deal to home automation and heck, I guess it could play some games to, but only if you really wanted it to. | video-games_xbox |
Few issues. This product was really exciting to get because I was a huge turtle beach fan when i got a pair of x11s for christmas then after a year and a half the headphones just started to wear down. So I ordered these because I wanted to get a pair of headphones that is wireless and easy to use. These are my thoughts.
The positives:
- The headphones were really easy to pair up.
-The microphone was very easy to bend, which my old pair x11s were a little tough to adjust.
-The feature when you turn up the game volume, so does the chat volume and when you lowered it, it performs the same way which was awesome
-It turns off automatically if no noise is coming through the headphones which conserved on battery life.
Now for the negatives:
-The headband was very hard to adjust, I know I have a big head which is why I thought they changed this since my last headphones did the same thing
-The frequency was atrocious, every time I try to move my wifi systems, modems, and other base stations, it wasn't fixing. So all I had was this constant buzzing noise. However it did mask out when I watch movies or games, but if I moved from my chair which was closer to the base station it would be fine, if I was on my couch, it would have this huge buzzing.
-The battery life is terrible. I go through at least 5 to 6 hours of gameplay a day, anything a little more than 8 hours. it was time to change batteries, it also had a really annoying sound when it indicates that the battery is low.
-The mesh on the cups get pretty heated up and when I rested the headphones around my neck I could feel hot sweat, but this is normal for any gamer. Also it was a little stiff and would not break down, my friend had Razor Chimaera 5.1 that was descent enough to kind of mold around the ears and head, since I have a big head.
-It would also do this breakaway in connection for at least 10 seconds, which if your playing Battlefield 3, this can get pretty annoying especially when you depend on your surroundings for enemies and whatnot.
-For chat, when you have the chat cable connected to the controller and the other end to the headphones, DON'T TOUCH THEM! If you do they do this really obnoxious crackle noise that is not only annoying to your friends who yell at you. Even if you adjust yourself on the couch or chair, it will mess up your mic and do the annoying crackles.
-Another thing on the chat, randomly, (it might only be me), it would do a loud obnoxious ringing noise that you yourself cannot hear but your friends in the party can hear this obnoxious ringing. Then they yell you. Terrible.
My overall review is, if you are in for a long gaming session then this might be for you, however not to discourage, if you are in need for a good priced pair of wireless gaming headphones, then go ahead and order these headphones. The quality is still very good. So I give this 2 stars out of 5. | video-games_xbox |
Titanfail. This is probably one of the worst games I've ever played for $60. As a standalone multiplayer game, it's worth maybe $15-$20 as an Xbox Arcade digital download. Though, it's not exactly $60 in my case. It was $249 because I bought the collector's edition. Suffice it to say that the CE-included humongous lighted statue and book combination are both far and away more impressive (and well worth the money) than the actual game. Let's begin with what's wrong.
Repetitive
Okay, okay. What game isn't repetitive? But, literally level after level after level is the same thing over and over and over. Other than the map changing, you're literally doing the same thing on each new level. There's no questing, no level ups, no strategy, no cover, no secrets, nothing to find.. I mean there is nothing. You're running around on a multiplayer map trying to avoid being constantly shot dead by the IMC (other live players). Titanfall is merely a death match wrapped around a weak semblence of a 'campaign' story.
So, the gist is that you either play as the Soldiers (blue) or IMC (red). The sole point is to win the level or be defeated. After one of the two outcomes, you get to the evacuation ship or you don't. You get points for being evacuated or you don't. The only and sole point is to run around killing anything you can find that is not someone on your team... and avoid being killed.
HUD
The HUD on this game just plain sucks. Unless you're close enough to actually be killed by another player, you can't tell if the player running around in the field is an enemy or a friendly. By the time you can get close enough to find out, your character is already being shot dead.
Controls
The movement is way way overly sensitive. Even on the least sensitive, you can literally spin in place with barely a tiny press of the stick. It's way way too sensitive even on the least sensitive threshold. So unrealistic.
Titans
About 2 minutes into each level, you can call for a Titan and it will fall from the sky. You can enter it and start your battle with your mech for as long as it survives (which is usually not longer than about 1-2 minutes). You then have to wait for another one to become ready (randomly between 60 seconds and never).
By the time you get your titan, all of the other players on the level are now in their titans. So, the playing field is leveled, kind of. Meaning, you can't exactly run around squashing other players by stomping on them. So, the point in being in a titan is really pointless by the time you actually get it.
Oh, and the animation to get into the Titan takes AGES to finish. It's like watching paint dry each time you enter a Titan.
Yes, the Titan armor is a clever gimmick. When playing the Titan portion of tutorial, I got the impression that you'd actually be able to use all of the clever things included. Like, jumping out of your Titan, opening doors and then calling your Titan through the doorway to get back into it. Nope. No need for that feature. At least, not in the first 5 level ups. I'm guessing if that's to become useful, it must be in a much later level. I have no intention in waiting through this poor excuse for an expensive game to get to a level where I can actually find out. I really don't have that much interest. If this game is actually about Titans, then let us use them more than not. There are far too many multiplayer ground combat simulators already. We don't need another. If you're going to offer us the use of a Titan mech, then offer the use of it to us all of the time.
Fun? No way
Every level starts and ends the same. The only thing different is the map. Everyone gets their titan at the same time. No fun to be had in that. Basically, every level ends up a free for all death match scenario with a really weak story premise behind it just to get the level going.
Worse, you can be playing the first level of the so-called 'Campaign' mode, but the game selects people who are level 42 and pairs them with people who are level 2. There's no fun in that either. If you're going to design a game where levels are important, then you should pair up people are within no more than 3-4 levels higher or lower than one another. Sorry, but this is single the biggest fail of Titanfail. When you design a multiplayer based game, you don't pair up players who are orders of magnitudes levels higher. That just doesn't work.
Definitely not enough Titan mech time. These things are far too fragile and explode when someone sneezes.
Overall
This game offers absolutely no single player campaign play. This is strictly a multiplayer game. Worse, this game is a weak multiplayer game wrapped in a pseudo-campaign mode that offers just enough of a premise to set itself up as a death match multiplayer game. Worse, there's nothing to do other than running around shooting everyone and everything in sight. There's no strategy, no questing, no dossiers, no audio files, no nothing to pick up around the level. Yes, it is eye candy, but that's it. If you really like just doing nothing but mindless death match and leveling up, there's nothing to see here.
So far on the Xbone, there has been no bigger fail than Titanfail... unless you count Ryse. | video-games_xbox |
Great game; (This and NBA 2k11 are my favorite sports games of the year. EAMMA is very good game with realistic fighting mechanics. It's a very fluid virtual representation of the sport that is, on one hand, very accessible but at the same time deceptively deep. Career mode is fun and informative. The game's roster is also good, highlighting many fighting styles that you will have to overcome in different ways. Aoki is a grappling beast, attempting submissions from any position. Fedor is Fedor. Wrestlers will try to grind you. Brawlers will try to knock your head off. You'll really have to master all the nuances of virtual fighting to become great at this game. The expanded rulesets are also a lot of fun to play with as well, and will affect how a match unfolds. Decisions are hard to come by when playing Vale Tudo rules, because after twenty minutes of non-stop fighting somebody is getting finished. Getting rocked in Japan usually signals the end of the match, because soccer kicks are especially effective. Little touches like this show how much love the programers have for the sport. Many UFC fans have been put off by the roster's lack of UFC fighters. FIGHTERSHARE plays a big factor in mitigating this. FIGHTERSHARE is an online library of create-a-fighters made by the EAMMA community. Users have created everyone from boxers to movie stars to historical figures to, of course, UFC fighters. With feature like PHOTO GAMEFACE, likenesses of these fighters ranges from poor to astounding, but it isn't to hard to find a good representation of your favorite fighter. Lastly, multiplayer is extremely fun. Playing this game with a friend is the way to go. I wish I could tell you about the Online mode but I mostly play local. I hear Online is very good though. Overall, this is definitely worth a purchase, especially at the reduced prices that I've been seeing this game being sold at. | video-games_xbox |
Good, but not modded HRAP good. Excellent customer service though. I have to admit, Madcatz has come one hell of a long way. They did a great job with the rockband instruments and the "tournament edition" and "S-Series" fight sticks are really nice right out of the box. The Sanwa sticks they use are great, but I don't know what kind of gate they're using on these as I can't say I've ever taken an S-Series apart, but I have one of the tournament edition sticks they released when Soulcalibur 4 came out and it had a really awful tiny octagonal gate that actually snapped on me during an online match. Not a very good feature on a $249.99 stick...I called Madcatz and they did offer to repair it and pay shipping both ways, but I wanted a better gate on it as it was my primary stick at the time, so they actually told me to overnight whatever gate I wanted and submit a receipt for reimbursal. The gate itself was like $14USD plus $21USD for overnight shipping from Japan...this was shortly before parts for sticks became readily available on US sites and in some of the higher end game shops around Baltimore.
I finally managed to get my hands on a brand new HRAP about six months later, they were ridiculously rare around that time and again when SFIV came out. I ordered a set of concave flush mount Sanwa buttons in purple and charcoal grey and a top end Sanwa stick along with it, tried it stock for a week and enjoyed it, then took the ninety minutes to mod it out and fell in love. A friend of mine swore the S series was much better than the Hori and loaned me his for a couple of weeks to compare them...anyone who's ever modded a stick or is very serious about their controllers knows it's impossible to know your preference until you put some time in on a stick and learn the feel of it, and I did fall in love with the S Series, just not as far in love as with my Hori. Part of it might be the fact that I'm a little older (35) and have terrible arthritis in my hands from the time I spent in the Army firing the early .50 cal semiauto sniper rifles as well as other high caliber precision marksman long guns, and I honestly think having the concave buttons makes things easier on my hands. Either way you can't go wrong and I can honestly say this is a damned good stick. | video-games_xbox |
Improved animations but lackluster mechanics. I've purchased and played the last three years of MLB 2K Baseball, and, for what it's worth, this itteration is an improvement. I've especially enjoyed playing the My Player mode, but this year's version is hamstrung, to say the least. My major complaint with gameplay is in the controls--baserunning especially. If your runner is on first and you jump early, you can still use the left trigger to return to first. However, if you are on second and you jump early the game doesn't let you return. And often times, there is a noticeable delay or even non response to base running commands. Overall, baserunning is a chore regardless of what mode you play in. But when playing the My Player mode, it's especially tedious when you have to sit through dozens of pitches to earn a few measly points toward baserunning categories--even more annoying when the commands don't respond as anticipated.
Batting can still give you a minor pause after a sharp hit, which was a claimed fix. And the computer AI consistantly holds the ball or makes obvious errors with balls in play.
I do like the tendencies with pitching they have included this year. And many of the player animations do seem more fluid than in previous years. The graphics aren't perfect, and you will still see alot of character sliding and glitching, but it does sound and look better than it has.
I like building and running the stats in this game which continue to draw me in. There is an artificial feel to the management of players on the roster which the living rosters can enhance, but I would like to see a better correlation between player stats and ratings since it seems that the computer will more often categorize, assign and even comment on players based on ratings and not their on-field stats. This is especially annoying when a sub-par rated player is batting in the mid-.300s and subsequently stuffed in AAA where a mid- to higher average rated player batting in the low-.200s is consistently playing on the big league club.
Improvements aside, the game is still a lot of fun when battling through the season in franchise or my player modes. | video-games_xbox |
Has a lot of potential. First, I am a big Spider-Man fan, so I am biased. Now I think the game has a lot of really good things in it. For a lot of the game you play in the open world of New York city. The sandbox part of the game is what is good about it. The game has a lot of things you can do as side missions but the boss battles against the robots in the open city are the best part of the game. If the whole game was like this it would be a five star game. Unfortunately it has a lot of corridor type missions which are just not that great. They are more of a stealth type gameplay which is just not Spider-Man not to mention the bugginess of this stuff. As a fan of Spider-Man I really liked collecting and reading the comics that are put together as an Easter egg hunt for the pages throughout the city. If you can get past the bugs and the corridor missions this game has a lot to offer. As a fan of the comics I still cannot get over the way they create the villains. This is a new take on the Spider-Man story and I don't like it but since this game is actually a sequel to the movie instead of an homage to the original Spider-Man series it can't be helped. The fighting in the game is good. It is one of the best parts of the game and I have to thank the new Batman games for this great piece of IP. I love the way Batman fights in the new games and the Spider-Man version of this is great. It is a very fluid combat system that takes advantage of Spider-Man and his powers. It has a progressive unlock system that allows you to create more and better combos. Overall this game feels like a hastily thrown together Prototype clone. It suffers from what all movie games suffer from, marketing based around the hype of a movie instead of trying to actually make a good product. If WB could get a hold of the IP and actually make an open world game based on the original comic series I think you would have an excellent game and this game really shows what could be possible. I think the game is worth a play through and now that the price is dropping it is a good time to pick up a decent game. | video-games_xbox |
Huge disappontment. Until MW2 I had never played an online first person shooter (FPS) game. Once I did, I was instantly hooked. When Black Ops came out I initially was slightly disappointed due to the differences from MW2 but only after a few hours of game play I became a huge fan. Then came MW3.... Since I loved the previous two releases I had high expectations for MW3. Once I received the pre-order from Amazon I immediately began playing the multi-player. From there it took only a few moments before I realized all the flaws.
For starters, the maps cater to campers with numerous corers and hiding spots. I understand that campers are a core part of their customer base but to so blatantly make the maps to primarily focus on that type of game play alienates all of the other types of game play. All the maps are the same where they are different levels where you need to walk up and down hill and trails. There is not one map that is completely flat. The flow of the game is really slow. It's really difficult to quantify but you basically feel as if you're running in mud and it slows down the action. The other major complaint I have is it really is just as if these are map packs for MW2 and I got bored of them after less than one day of playing time.
To be fair, it's not all bad. The graphics are amazing. It's almost to the point where it looks more like a movie than a game. However I believe it may be the great graphics that slow down the game play since this is a 5+ year old systems (time for the Xbox 720?). The new feature which allows you to upgrade your gun was a great idea. Now the more you play a specific gun you get to add a perk to that gun like reduced recoil, multiple attachments, among others. I love the new game "Kill Confirm" where you get full credit for the kill only if you pick up the dog tag of a killed foe.
For the select few who still enjoy the campaign, this was the first COD game where I didn't at least start playing the campaign before multi-player. While I am getting more experience in FPS, I'm still only slightly better than average. Being that as it is I was able to complete the campaign in a little over an hour, only died a few times at the veteran level. The campaign was fun but quick and really had a strange storyline.
There's good and bad but since it was so highly anticipated with then having 2 years to work on it, I really expected more. It really is too much of the same as before with the differences (like new perks) missing the mark.
So I stopped playing MW3 by mid-December and have been playing Black Ops ever since. If you really want to buy this do yourself a favor and rent it first. | video-games_xbox |
Unbounded is just that! Fun with no bounds. I've been a Ridge Racer fan ever since the N64 days, the drifting in my opinion has always made this racing series stand-out above the competition. The mechanics of this game is BY FAR my favorite of all-time! That's right, I said it...ALL-TIME! Let's get into why...First off, it requires some skill and some focus...the drifting will take a lot of practice, but once you have it down you'll never look back...IT'S PURE FUN without ever having to hit the brake! Second off, it never gets boring...The single-player campaign on here keeps things interesting by switching up the types of races in each "city" you have to "dominate"...There's about 10 races per city with different modes: Domination Race (where chaos by breaking through walls and ramming your opponents will win you boost/points), Shindo Race (your typical old-school type of Ridge Racer race), Frag Attack (ram as many cops in a certain amount of time as you can), Time Attack (finish an intensely thought-out race course of obstacles and jumps as quick as you can), and Drift Attack (my least favorite of the bunch, frustrating at times to fully dominate at "3-stars", but challenging nonetheless).
I unfortunately somehow missed this release originally, but discovered it this month. Apparently they shut down their multiplayer servers in February 2015 so I missed out on "dominating the world" where you can face online opponents around the globe. I heard the multiplayer had its flaws, but I imagine it was still a blast...wish I could have witnessed!
Also, WHY NO 2-PLAYER split-screen!? This game would have been even more of a gem if I was able to play with a roommate or friend (and ram the heck out of them of course!) I feel like that was missed-opportunity that should be addressed in the next release!
TO THE RIDGE RACER / NAMCO DEVELOPERS: Keep at it! Looking forward to another game here on the next-generation consoles! Definitely make one for PS4 that's just like this one, but better! Improve on a few minor things: two-player split-screen, better multiplayer, a wider variety of cars (too many of them felt and looked the same in this game...maybe have a way to customize more than just the paint job, tune the car, etc), more diverse tracks (although the layouts certainly changed from city to city, a lot of the scenery felt the same...I get that the game takes places in an urban city environment, but some change-up would be nice...let's race on an open-desert, or a beach, or on the edge of a cliff! Would be awesome if we as players could build our own tracks with turns, ramps/jumps, destroy objects...Make it more open-world! Lastly, I'd love to see more of this "fragging" and "destroying" in the next game...it was great fun and a great start, but expand on it...instead of just boosting into things, maybe have a way to shoot at opponents or objects...There's way more opportunity there! I felt like I was using the gas and drift buttons and that was it...which simple is great, but there's a handful of other buttons you can add some serious other features too! Also, it took me awhile to get use to the new drift key location...on N64 all you had to do was let off the gas trigger to drift. The new method definitely made it more challenging, but I would love to see a way to maybe toggle the controls on the next release to whichever way a player prefers. | video-games_xbox |
Halo 2 is merely an extention of the first. Halo 2 is an excellent game, there's no doubt in that. The core of the game still remains the same as the original, making it almost impossible to take a step backwards. The thing to think about here is how have the changes and improvements affected this game over its predecessor.
For campaign mode the story is not quite as captivating as the original. In addition you need to have it on Heroic for any type of challenge. And, as many other reviews have said, the game is simply much shorter than the previous (the cut scenes graphically were a little dissapointing too). However, the game is really entertaining. The maps are much more detailed, there's more variance in the layout between checkpoints. They did a pretty good job in making the layout not as repetitive. Plus the scenery is pretty interactive and makes you do a lot more cool stuff to accomplish a mission.
Weapons as well have changed a lot. They have increased the types of weapons, as well as improving ones that used to suck (the needler) and taking away some power from the pistol. The much talked about dual weilding is defiantly a nice advantage. It takes a little getting used to know how to use it best and the best combinations of weapons. Although people have complained about the fact you can't throw grenades while using it, it's more realistic (you do only have two hands). So they've made it a powerful tool, but they didn't want it to be unstoppable. Basically it seems like they've leveled the playing field more and although you may be disappointed because something isn't as dominate as before or than you thought it would be, ultimately it's for the better.
Same thing goes for vehicles: you have more to choose from, with different advantages, but they also made each a little more vulnerable and less unstoppable (the rocket launcher lock helps tremendously from the last game).
The multiplayer part of course is amazing. Looking past some minor faults (not all maps are good, the energy sword is too dominate here, etc.) this part really makes the game a cut above anything else.
The limited edition version here only really provides an extra DVD with the making of (which is interesting but not really necessary... you could easily have a friend tell you the stuff on there that's worth knowing). Besides that and the metal case, it's the same. It's really up to you weather $10-15 bucks difference is that big of a deal for you, cause it's not that big of a difference.
Bottom line: Halo 2 is a great game. It's definitely a lot of fun and very enjoyable. It's a little disappointing because the original Halo was such a huge difference from anything out there and I think everyone was expecting Halo 2 to do the same. Unfortunately, it didn't make any drastic leaps that leave you stunned, but maybe (besides living up to the hype) it didn't really need to be. What it did do was make a lot of tweaks, to try and improve on something that was already incredible. You have to praise Bungie for trying their best to please everyone. In the end the hype may have been too much, but don't let it deter you from enjoying this great game. | video-games_xbox |
Best 2007 had to Offer. The next generation first person shooter "Call of Duty 4" is worth the price.
CoD4's Multiplayer has everything Halo3 was missing. As you gain experience from completing objectives or just stomping enemy players a large variety of customizations open for you to grab new gear and cater to your play style: Assault rifles with upgraded impact damage making it easy to take out enemies through walls, Shotguns with stabilizing grips, Sniper rifles with custom scopes, light machine guns with custom camo, gold plated sub machine guns, grenade and pistol upgrades, and the ability to ease drop on enemy conversations are just a few of the things you have to look forward to. Your Score card keeps track of game-play stats for you and your friends and is easy to access for those who love to brag;)
The Next Generation graphics and physics are top notch. Pull the pin on a grenade bounce it off the wall and out the window of a second story window, so that it lands on and blows up the car your enemy is hiding behind. Watch the bullets come flying through the walls and floor as you discover sheet metal, drywall, wood and other light materials make better concealments than cover. Put on a ghillie suit and outsmart your opponents or take them down from the comfort of long range and tall grass.
This game is full of action, and enough of it to out weigh the very few downsides. You can call in an air strike with surgical precision, but you can't fly the plane. The fact is you can't drive or pilot vehicles in this game. There are interactions with vehicles seamless enough to think that the tank's driver has a personal vendetta with your hiding spot, or that the helicopter pilot heard what you said about his girlfriend, but really not being able to drive or pilot is an after thought and doesn't decrease the games playability or its re-playability. Also the single player campaign is short as others have mentioned, but worth every minute. And if your playing on the games hardest difficulty expect to be overwhelmed to the point of hilarity. | video-games_xbox |
Such an worthwhile purchase. I've been searching around for one of these since release, and haven't been able to find one. I'm so glad that I put in the effort and got one for myself, because it's really night and day with Street Fighter 4. It does have a bit of a learning curve, especially if you are used to using the Xbox Controller, but I have to say pulling off some of those challenge mode trials were near impossible without this.
I spent several hours trying to get some of the hard and even the later normal challenges done on the controller with no luck. Within about 10 minutes of using the controller I had already passed maybe half of the challenges I wasn't even close to completing before.
The button response is awesome, it's so crisp. My only gripe is I'm not a fan of the ball top joysticks, I like the bat, but that's just personal preference. Another thing, is the ball on top rotates rather loosely, so sometimes you think your joystick is somewhere it's not. However, I consider all that a part of getting used to something new, (and 100 times better). I haven't tried the fightpad, or the standard fightstick yet, but I can honestly say, that this is one controller I wouldn't miss if you really want to be able to fully enjoy Street Fighter 4.
Sizewise? It's huge, and it does NOT move at all. I was really jammin on the controller, and it didn't move from it's spot on the table once. It has a nice weight to it, not too heavy, but it doesn't feel like a tiny paperweight. The art is really nice, the buttons and joystick are top notch quality, (suprising considering its from Mad Catz), and the turbo function is really easy to program. I'm also more of a fan of the concave buttons, not the convex. (I like them to dip in, not bow out), but these have a really great feel. I understand these are top quality parts, but I can't help but feel like after pushing the jab button enough times it's going to stop working so well, so at some point down the road I'm going to get some nice(er) buttons, with the battop joystick.
I was a bit torn between this and the HRAP, and one of the things this has, that I don't believe the Hori has, is the fact you can switch between modes for the joystick. Whether you want it to act like the Left Stick, Right Stick or Dpad, that means you can use it for well... any game you want, without worry that it's not going to be compatible because you aren't controller the right directional pad.
Overall though 5/5, totally worth the money. Get it, got it, good. | video-games_xbox |
To be blunt, this game is simply phenomenal. Ah, the realm of Star Wars... Filled with so many good - and bad *cough hayden christensen cough* things. And to not name Knights of the Old Republic amongst the good should be punishable by law. To be blunt, this is game is simply phenomenal.
As it should be in any good RPG, KotOR features an insanely good plotline. You'll begin your journey at one of three "professions." Soldier, Scout or Scoundrel - all either male or female. It's up to you as to whether you'd like to customize each aspect of your character or just have the computer create a quick one for you. You're stationed on a Republic Battle cruiser - the Endar Spire. From here, it's up to you to escape your doomed ship and make it off to Taris - the planet you're in orbit around.
Right from the first minutes of the game, you're choosing your side - or path if you will - which will ultimately result in your fate and place in the galaxy. It comes down to you to choose through your actions and dialogue whether you will side with the Republic - or the Sith.
Those who are not very familiar with RPGs (as I've noticed in some of the other reviews) sometimes find the combat style of Knights to their disliking. I myself am a fan of first person shooters like Halo. You'll soon find that Knights in the COMPLETE opposite of Halo when it comes to combat. Combat is turn based and auto- targeting and while you might formulate a picture of a slow tedious time watching the computer aim, fire,miss aim, fire, hit... it's quite the contrary. Utterly unlike Halo, combat doesn't resolve around pumping your opponent with as much lead as fast as possible (which is awesome, don't get me wrong) but around strategy. You main characters and accompanying party members each wield different skills. A Jedi might use a skill like force choke to mercilessly drain the life from an opponent while a soldier might use grenades and the rapid fire skill to take out targets. Trust me, if you're willing to try it and get into the game, combat is far from a con.
On top of the stellar storyline, combat, and the ability to decide how the game's going the end - Knights wields additonal positives. One thing I was impressed about right off the bat - before I even got into the storyline - was the sound and graphics. The voices of each of the main characters are performed by actors who do a great job with tone and rate. The sound of a lightsaber springing to life or a blaster going off are instantly recognizable. On one particular planet, you can hear the breeze blowing across the plains. The music is decent. The most important things is that it doesn't get really annoying after a lot of gameplay time. It changes accordingly during exploring time and time spent in combat. The graphics are impressive. Those displayed during the various movie clips are better than the in-game ones, though the in-game graphics are still satisfactory.
Finally - plus the graphics and sound, Knights features great replayability - something that sometimes hard to find in XBox games. The variation of games you can play are stunning. You might play your first game as the Light Side male soldier while you take a couple side quests because you're still getting the hang of things. Then you may go back and play the game as a Dark Side female scoundrel with a completely differnt set of powers and storyline. You may take a few more side quests - opening up further possibilities. Depending on the side quests you take, game might anywhere from 24 hours to 40 hours.
Overall, I'd go back and shell out $100 dollars for this game. I can't say enough about it - as is obvious by the above.
Hope I've helped give you some insight into one of the best games I've ever played! (BTW, look for the sequel on December) | video-games_xbox |
Change" is not always good. Having been a Madden-loyalist since 93, I always have high hopes for the next iteration. In hindsight, this franchise may have peaked in the mid-2000's though I can only speak for the PS2 versions.
This year's version seems "rushed" which is the edited version of my actual response (half-a**ed attempt).
Menus
The menus, taking a somewhat Microsoft Windows 8 feel, is cluttered, confusing and detrimental to quick play with only a modicum of changes. I can't speak for everyone but I do not need image menus where text menus, telling me exactly what I need, will suffice.
Gameplay
Ok, I get it. Having been a huge Barry Sanders fan and having voted for his cover, I understand the lean towards implementing running game techniques to allow people like me to relive Barry's glory years. Here it comes... But, not every running play is a 3-yard gain; even for the user. The new running tools are appreciated but overdone. Who needs an offensive line, or a well-rated one at that, when I start with a 12-foot hole and can make the backers and secondary look utterly ridiculous with a juke move?
The defense....stick to 4-3 if you're playing at any type of competitive level. I'm a 3-4 guy and stubbornly stick with it and have come to expect giving pass plays over the middle as well as seeing my linebackers getting manhandled by linemen who get to the second level with relative ease. I could cherry-pick my personnel but what fun is that?
Replays/Highlights/Animations/Commentary
Awful. Simply awful. It almost seems like EA took several months off of Madden development hoping to dupe us with repetitive animations, commentary and my personal pet peeve, the horrible camera angles on play highlights. There is nothing like watching that 20-yard fade route TD being replayed seeing only turf and the receivers hand. Or seeing some random camera man's head while they are trying to feature a player walking the sidelines. Or reliving a 50-yard TD run by seeing the last 1/2 second of that play. Ugghhh....whatever, EA.
The commentary is repetitive, game-to-game and even play-to-play sometimes. I am not certain if that annoys me more than hearing that a AI pass-play was completed for a 5-yard gain when I intercepted the ball for a 5-yard run back.
Danielle Bellini's commentary seems hardly relevant at times. Mostly, I tune out or bypass the equally irrelevant half-time animations.
The physics engine seems off. If players turning into rag dolls doesn't bother you, than good for you. I personally think that EA got the physics right in past iterations but is now trying too hard.
On a side note because it's not that important, if you make a player, coach or owner, expect some awful physical malformities to occur like caveman-like forheads, missing eyes etc. Not a big deal to me since I rarely stick around for the mid-play animations.
Summary
Not to forget any stone left unturned, this game will freeze on you. To be certain, I have the Xbox360 version. Be sure to save often. The game will freeze on me 3-of-4 times it is played. This is a huge issue for me and I walk away. With the effort it takes to get to the offline career games, I opt to simply walk away frustrated. I'm sure we will see a patch from EA though that is no guarantee to fix anything.
Overall, I understand the pressure of keeping this franchise on top with new additions/features to keep people coming back. It feels now that it would be like an artist adding stone to a stone block to make his sculpture. It's time to find the features that worked in the past, what works now (even it that answer may be 'nothing') and refine the game rather than dump more useless features that results in less-than-spectacular results in the gameplay and user experience.
I may be speaking for others but what we mostly want is updated rosters, refined gameplay and a feature or two that piques our interest. | video-games_xbox |
Not perfect, but a big improvement for sports games. Remember the Sega Genesis? Remember the first time you got to use Sega's 6-button controller? It was great! A sleek, smaller design that got rid of the bulk and wasted space of the original, while also slimming the buttons down as well as adding a second row of face buttons. It was a tremendous improvement that was very welcome at the time.
Now fast-forward to present day: Microsoft, less than a year after the debut of its wonder-machine, has decided (at the bequest of dissatisfied gamers everywhere) to make the controller originally designed for the overseas Japanese market available in the USA. Enter the "Controller S," a smaller model designed to solve the often cumbersome limitations of the original. And it succeeds, albeit not 100%.
Many people cited the controller as one of the bigger drawbacks to the Microsoft XBox: it was too big, the buttons weren't user-friendly, there was a lot of wasted space (hello, logo!) and people really didn't know what to make of those pesky white & black buttons. The Controller S aims to solve these problems, and does so in most areas. The controller is smaller now, thus decreasing reaction time, the analog sticks are now identical and seemingly a bit tighter with less movement area, the gigantic clear dome logo has been replaced by a smaller button-sized logo, and the Back & Start buttons have been relocated to the left side underneath the left analog.
Obviously the biggest (and best) change is the new "standard" placement of the face buttons. They are now North/South/East/West and also flat and circular, instead of teardrop shaped. This makes finding & utilizing them much easier and intuitive. BUT, we still haven't mentioned the B&W buttons yet, and that's where the design fails yet again. Microsoft acquiesced to the positioning of the main face buttons, and should have just place the Black & White buttons in the same pattern as the C & Z buttons on the old Sega Genesis 6-button controller. But, instead of having them in the awkward yet usable spot of the original XBox controller, they are now recessed and completely below the face buttons. This all but forces the player to use the heel of their thumb to press the B&W buttons, whilst the main portion of the thumb performs the usual face button duty. This isn't impossible, but it's even more awkward and counter-intuitive than the previous awkward & counter-intuitive setup.
No bones about it, the Controller S is the better controller. The new design facilitates faster and more accurate control, which is especially helpful in sports games. I noticed the difference in NCAA 2003 the minute I played using the Controller S. Though others maintain that the slower, more deliberate nature of the original is helpful in games like Halo or Star Wars Starfighter, I tend to disagree but your mileage may vary. So check it out and see how much more precise your gaming experience can be with the superior XBox Controller S. | video-games_xbox |
Another Title Worthy of the Name "Forza. I've enjoyed every Forza Title released on the Xbox 360. With every iteration, Turn 10 seems more and more determined to make more than just a racing game.
With Forza 2 it was online content. With Forza 3, enhanced livery abilities and player accessibility. With Forza 4 it was autovista, storefronts, and clubs...
And now, Forza Horizon. For the first time ever, we - the Forza Diehard - can take our customized cars with their robust upgrades and tear through a city, along a mountain, or through a residential subdivision. And we can still do it with online integration, visual liveries, and player-driven car clubs that have made Forza what it is today.
Forza Horizon is not the racing simulator that Forza is known 4. We've been told all along that it would have "some" Forza physics, but not all. We cannot adjust our spring rates or ride height, we can't adjust our gear ratios or tire pressures. But we can hop into any car we want and quite literally drive it like we stole it.
Forza Horizon takes place in a virtual interpretation of Colorado. Unlike other open-world racing games, the setting is more rural - towns are rare and when encountered, only feature a small handful of city-like "blocks". Roads are VERY wide, and intersections are open and relatively uncluttered. Corners can often be taken much tighter than expected. This is good and bad, as it makes the game a bit less technically challenging, and it takes a few tries on a track before one becomes comfortable with just how close they can cut their corners.
The storyline of Horizon is pretty straightforward, and definitely drives home the idea that you're out here TO race. You are a new participant in the annual Horizon festival, which might not seem unlike the "Race Wars" of the original Fast & Furious movie. Loud music, younger people everywhere, tricked-out cars, lights and fireworks, etc. You compete in events to earn points, points unlock "wristbands" which in turn unlock harder events. As with pretty much any racing game, you'll start off with "entry level cars" - Volkswagons, Mitsubishis, Hondas - and before too long will be driving Bugattis, Lamborghinis, and the star of this title, the 2013 SRT Viper.
There are things both to love and to miss in Forza Horizon. Don't expect any cop chases - police are surprisingly missing from the environment. You can get some significant visual damage, but visual is as far as the damage goes. As mentioned already you won't have technically challenging races through crowded city environments. That isn't to say the terrain itself isn't challenging, as one can often find themselves airborn by getting a bit too relaxed on dirt roads and shoulders. You also won't get to fast-travel to any location as with Test Drive Unlimited or Need For Speed. You can fast-travel to the main hub of the Horizon event - where you can manage your club, buy & customize cars, etc. You can also travel - for a cost - to "outpost" locatios of the Horizon event scattered around the map. Performing PR stunts at these hubs will eventually reduce the fast-travel cost to nothing. These hubs allow you to change cars and purchase performance upgrades. Purchasing cars and painting is reserved for the main hub. It would have been nice to find more things to do at these outposts - even point-to-point races to other outposts would have been nice. They quickly serve as nothing more than a fast-travel spot, though you'll be inclined to get the PR stunts done quickly as the base cost for travel is 10,000 credits.
There is more to do in Forza besides just racing however, and these other events can certainly keep you busy. You might enjoy hunting down signs for the local upgrade garage - smash all 100 of them to receive a 100% discount on parts. You might enjoy setting off speed traps and speed "zones" - measuring average speed across a section of road - and setting hard-to-beat times for your friends to compete against. You also might enjoy chasing down NPC-drivers and challenging them in point-to-point races for extra money.
Or you might enjoy Forza for it's multiplayer content. New in Forza Horizon are "rooms" where you can pick your degree of difficulty before entering. Beginner rooms use default assists and stock vehicles, while harder rooms allow cars with no upgrades and no driving aids. Drivers "level up" by completing events (even if they don't place first), and earn cars or cash with each level via roulette. It would have been nice to see other online drivers zipping around Colorado with you, though - let's face it - many other games have attempted this and failed miserably. Your friends are still with you in spirit however in the single-player story in the form of "Rivals" - you'll be given the option to repeat events you've run in order to beat the times of your friends for extra cash. This can be where the challenge of Horizon really ramps up - suddenly that "lucky corner" that netted you the advancement of a few positions becomes all up to you.
Forza Horizon certainly deserves merit. This isn't just another arcade title of repetitive races - all more or less the same - that quickly collects dust in your collection. It may not survive the 2-year life expectancy of previous Forza titles, but Turn 10 - working closely with Playground Games - has sprinkled their love of the racing genre and their constant ingenuity into an otherwise stale environment. It could be more, for sure, but we've seen far, far less. | video-games_xbox |
Oh no you didn't. ...try and charge me $60 for this game. Thank goodness for rentals, otherwise I would have been upset for buying this. To be fair, I didn't think this game would be that good ever since the first time I heard the commercial with that stupid song. But this isn't about a commercial, this is about the game.
Good:
-Co-op: It's pretty easy to drop in/out of a friends/enemies/complete strangers game. My one complaint is that when you first connect, it seems to take a little longer to load than some other games. However, once you're in, everything plays great.
-Environment: The game world seems pretty expansive from what I've played so far.
-Explosions: There are lots of pretty explosions to be had. Plus, I like how they've done calling in airstrikes and such, where you need to find the pick-ups in world and not just be limited by the amount of cash you have.
Bad:
-Explosions: While there are lots of things you can blow up, it seems like every single building I've destroyed has blown up the same way with the same animation. The sides blow out, and then the roof collapses, and then...destroyed building. There's no halfway destroyed buildings, where a wall is blown through but the roof is still up.
-Graphics: For as much as this game costs new, I'd expect some great graphics. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In the very first cutscene, my character (Chris, the black guy) looked like an ink blot for the first half of the scene. A giant, man-shaped ink blot. When I'm talking to someone, he just stands there in a way that no one would ever stand for long periods of time (where his arm has a 90 degree angle, like sticking someone up at gunpoint at close range). And then he doesn't move...just stands there. Plus, everybody is surrounded by a glow in the cutscenes...there own personal auras if you will.
-Bugs: I'll be honest here and say that I haven't played for a long time so far, so I don't have a giant list of bugs. But in the small time I have played, I've encountered a enough to know that this game should not have been shipped the way it was. At times, it seems like the pickups that you encounter in the world are being swallowed up by the ground. You'll see the icon, but the graphic for what's there will be under the ground. Another one I've seen (which I guess would be along the same lines) is when doing the winch challenges. My friend and I were playing around, and he flew the helicopter as high as possible. Once there, he dropped the package. Fun times...until I go to put the package on top of the shipping containers and the package is stuck under the map. I'd try and winch it, but it just acted like an anchor until I let go. Needless to say, I lost money on that challenge.
-Draw-in: Along with graphics, there is an INSANE amount of draw-in. During those winch challenges, I would be flying the helicopter and be a little over the top of the building and guess what? I couldn't see the shipping containers on the ground. Not until I descended and got closer would they appear. I know if I'm in a helicopter, a giant shipping container would be clear as day on the ground if I'm only 20 ft over top of it. Also, in the world of Mercs 2, you're characters are near sighted. Seeing anything more than maybe 15 feet in front of you is beyond you're control.
Added 9/14/08
-Saving/Loading: This game has an autosave function as well as a manual save function. Pretty standard in most games nowadays. Thing is, there's no load option...anywhere, except to continue from last save. If you somehow mess up and want to try again, you have to quit the game and do the continue option from the main menu. Hopefully you didn't autosave after you manually saved, or your manual save isn't worth anything anymore.
So, there it is. Would I buy this game? Sure, for $20, but not at a $60 price point. Meanwhile, if I want some Mercs action, I'll pop Mercenaries in and play that. | video-games_xbox |
Far Cry 3: A True Masterpiece. I bought this game over a year before I sat down to write this and sat on it for a while, playing other things and missing any opportunity to give it a spin, sometimes unintentionally, most times avoiding it on purpose. I finally got some time to play through it a week or two ago and I was blown away.
If you have yet to play Far Cry 3, make it a point to. This is simply one of the very best first person shooters I've ever played and it's a blast from start to finish. From the very beginning, you'll be transfixed on your screen as the story unfolds. I don't want to say too much, other than things go from good for the main character and his friends to very bad, very quickly. To give away any more would simply be a crime as I believe the reason I enjoyed the game as much as I did was because I knew so little about the game's story and characters, save for Vaas, an insane pirate lord (and the mohawked dude on the game's cover art) who is just one of the many problems you will have thrown in your lap throughout the game's lengthy run time.
There's something I can't quite put my finger on about this game in regards to why it struck such a chord with me. The production on it was obviously a labor of love as nearly everything about the game is pretty impressive. The island you're on is huge for starters and it'll be awhile before you even see the entire thing. It's teeming with various species of wildlife which come into play as you need to hunt and skin them to make better and larger carrying pouches for your weapons and ammo. The graphics and sound are top notch and among the best ever produced on the Xbox 360. One thing about this game that sticks out is that it's very immersive, especially when you take the animations of your character into consideration. Every action you do feels more realistic due to the attention to detail placed here. For example, as you hang glide high over the island, you can look around you and see your arms holding the bar grip, the veins in the crook of your arm bulging. Jump off of it when you get low enough and your character rolls across the ground, your hands, knees and feet visible when appropriate. I'm not sure if I'm conveying it to you properly but basically, it's the same effect you get when you look down at yourself and see your chest, arms and legs below your eyeline. Your character basically becomes you.
There's a lot more I can say about this game but take it from me, a guy who has played hundreds of different games, when I tell you that this is a can't miss title. There's very little I can gripe about but occasionally I did run into some bugs that killed the momentum of the game and there was a feeling of repetitiveness rearing its head from time to time. Far Cry 3 is worth every penny and a game that I'm proud to say that I own. The story is violent, ugly, breath taking and chilling all at once but it's sincerely doubtful that you'll be disappointed by this game and the satisfaction you'll undoubtedly receive the deeper you get into it.
Strongly, strongly recommended. | video-games_xbox |
Like no other Star Wars game in history. Watch out for the spoilers.
Among all the Star Wars games released in numerous formats over the years, even among the many released on the Xbox alone, "Republic Commando" is unique. For once, the Jedi are in the background, and the ever-present Force is hardly ever noticed or referred to at all, and you personally make no use of it. That's because you are not a Force-capable individual, as you are in almost all Star Wars video games. In "Republic Commando", you are just that. An elite soldier, raised straight from the cloning tank to be better than all the rest of the Republic's Grand Army. The earliest stage of the game has you growing up and going through training on Kamino, soon meeting the three other members of your squad and boarding a warship bound for Geonisis, at the beginning of the Clone Wars. You play as squad leader Delta RC-1138, also known as "38" or "Boss". 1262 "Scorch", 1140 "Fixer", and 1207 "Sev" are the soldiers under your command, each with a unique specialty, voice and personality. One, 62, is voiced by Raphael Sbarge. Remember Carth from "Knights of the Old Republic"? Scorch isn't anywhere near the self-pitying whiner he was. Had Carth been the cheery, fond-of-fiery-explosions soldier that Scorch is, KOTOR would have been even better than it already was.
The second stage of the game occurs when the entire Grand Army of the Republic receives its trial by fire at Geonosis. And while some games, like "Battlefront", gave only one mission's consideration to the fighting there, "Republic Commando" has you there, frantically charging towards one objective after the next. You'll be amazed how much you didn't know about Geonosis- how hot, sandy and nasty a place it really is, and what a terrific fight those seemingly weak bugs who inhabit the planet can put up. The standard Battle Droid is still a joke, but Droidekas retain their fearsome fighting ability and the Super Battle Droid gains power it never had before. Droidekas in "Republic Commando" have a fatal flaw I quickly discovered- run up to them and stand as close to their front as possible, and there is not a whole lot they can do as you bonk them until their heads fall off. This certainly detracts from the intimidating factor of the Droideka. The main advantage of the Geonosians is that they can fly and not only annoy but kill you in ways smaller bugs never could imagine. But the Super Battle Droid is not only well-armed, but it towers over all the other droids and will cheerfully crack your helmet if you get too close. The Jedi may be able to knock them over with ease, but even commandos have a tough time of it in this game.
Something you realize through playing "Republic Commando" is how tough a time of it even the specialist soldiers had in the Clone Wars, as well as how much work went into each victory that the Jedi, dramatically slicing and dicing with their flashy lightsabers, then took all the credit for. When finished on Geonosis, is it time for medals, promotions and glory? Not so much. Off you go to several years of war, with the next chapter being the retaking of a derelict Republic Assault Ship. Your fighting to take the ship back from its would-be crew of mercenary lizards- Trandoshans- has some of the most thrilling scenes in the game. It also has the most quiet, since the ship is even with the occupying lizards very silent and empty. I immensely enjoyed repelling the droid capital ship's efforts to invade the hangars, and could have cheered when a combined effort of your clones manning the warship's gun controls and another assault ship, the Arrestor providing fire support, results in the CIS warship being torn apart under the heavy fire.
Next and last of all comes Kashykk, where pursuing General Grievious is the primary objective. You never catch him, and for once he actually seems fairly important from all the fuss that is put up as you chase him around. Your advisor, who appears to be an ordinary clone for the most part, returns you to the planet's surface just after Sev has gone missing. And so ends the game.
Combat and controls in RC is done in a highly unique way. Various locations and items are designated in such a way that you can use them, go to them, or order squadmates to do the same. Blowing a door open is often something that needs doing- you set and detonate many charges throughout the game- but sometimes there is also the option of hacking a nearby computer terminal and simply opening it. Now and then you encounter gun turrets- a downed LAAT/I gunship, a Geonosian cannon, a AT-TE main turret and a Wookie rocket turret I counted- and can use them yourself or have squadmates man them. Also unique is the fact that your melee weapon is a retractable knife mounted in one armored hand, and the primary rifle you use can be modified into a sniper weapon quickly and easily. There is also, I believe, a variety of Trandoshan projectile weapons and a few made by the Wookies. Bacta, the primary means of healing combat injuries in Star Wars, is available at stations conveniently located on walls here and there. If you or a squadmate go down, you can be revived by a hand-held bacta dispenser but full healing must be done at a station. I very much appreciated that if you went down in "Republic Commando", the game did not throw up its hands and declare all to be lost. Of course, if the situation was too much and the rest of your squad went down, all *would* be lost. But because the game gave you another chance, often I was able to salvage a situation where even "Mass Effect" would have gone "**** it.".
It has been five years since "Republic Commando" was released in 2005. But the gritty look and feel, fascinating storyline and well-designed fighting and controls of "Republic Commando" still retain a lot of appeal. Some games you play once and that's it. But with some of the greatest, like this one, you keep going back for more. By the way, "Star Wars: Republic Commando" is a FPS, and I highly recommend it. | video-games_xbox |
EA is pathetic. Let me start off this review by stating that this game was a gift to me so that's why it states I'm not a verified purchase.
I was very excited for this game, I read reviews generally favoring it so I was excited to add this to my other (much better) racing game Forza 5.
The graphics in this game are generally pretty good, in my opinion it looks better than Dead Rising 3, but that's as far as I would go about this, nothing to write home about.
Playing this, I'm aware that this game is meant to be more "arcade" style of a game, and it is very much so, coming off of Forza 5, driving cars in this game is kinda "mushy." This game takes physics and waves goodbye to anything that makes sense, that's not why I'm giving it a bad review, it's actually relatively fun. I used to loooove the Need for Speed games and haven't played one since Most Wanted, so I was pretty excited to play this, that quickly diminished...
The day after my friend got me this game for Christmas I spent about 6-8 hours playing this game playing races over and over racking up points and my "ranking." I would have to say I'm not all that good at console gaming yet because the Xbox One is the first console I've personally owned (came from PC gaming). The cops in this game are a little bit hard to go against and makes the game quite challenging.
Anyway, this morning I booted up the game hoping to sneak in a quick race to level up, the game took about 5 minutes to connect to a server (which I'm still trying to figure out why...), then when I got into both the Command post and my garage a message from EA said my license plate "contained profanities" and all my progress was gone except some of my points to buy things...REALLY EA?? My license plate said "BALLS." When has that ever been a profanity???
Bottom line, pretty OK game, EA sucks, BF4 is a whoooole different caliber of bad too, can't wait for other games that don't have EA's badge on it.
**EDIT 1/5/14**
Wow! Just like that, I give this game another chance, played a bunch and even got further than before and it deletes my progress, AGAIN! For the same reason! My license plate was nothing but a bunch of 0's that it set it to by default, subtracting another star, thanks a lot, EA.
I did, however increase the "fun" review to 3 stars because I do think its somewhat entertaining (when it works..)
Skip this game. | video-games_xbox |
Xbox One Fail. Xbox One, FAIL!
As I unpacked one of the two family Xbox Ones I just purchased, a slight level of frustration ignited within me. I couldn't quite pinpoint why, but maybe it was when I was unpacking this huge brick with a monster thick cable attached ( they call this the Kinect). Or it could have started when I pulled out this other brick which was the power supply box ( even has its own CPU fan!). It could have started when I pulled out this corded 80's operator style headset with some large apparatus connection system at the end. Or perhaps it was this light, cheap looking controller with an old style slide on battery cover and a pair of free Duracell batteries. Nope, I then realized it had to have been when I unpacked the main console which for just one second, was reminded of the unpacking of my very first Beta player. I told myself not to worry, this thing is the next generation of entertainment. Maybe Apple just spoiled me with all it's slim gizmos, gadgets and tablets, I'll just have give this a chance I thought to myself.
So I then proceed to connect the Kinect, cable box, LCD and power brick to the console......."Xbox On!" I screamed. Nothing. Who was I kidding, I'm sure I have to set it up first. So I pressed the magical xbox globe....... and then It happened...... "Not the Microsoft Windows thinking circle"! I then remembered why I ditched Windows' computers for Apple in the first place. It's as if your being hypnotized not to tell time. It just kept going and going and then....bleep!
I went through the set up and after an hour of waiting for an update to load and process on a 50 MBps connection, I was good to go.... I just can't put into words the frustration I felt when I was trying to join friends and just get the thinking circle or the console just freezes up. "Xbox, unsnap!" They yelled. Huh? What does that even mean?
I grew even more frustrated when I realized how much I paid for this "new technology of gaming". I mean, are the graphics even any better? I couldn't tell.
So as I was boxing up the two units to take them back... I couldn't help but think....WWSJD =" What would Steve Jobs do"?.
I really couldn't believe the lack of technology that is the $499 Xbox One. So many questions I had.
Why was it so big? Apple can jam a computer in a cube smaller then the xbox power supple.
Why is the power supply so big and have its own CPU fan that never shuts off?
Why the huge Kinect with its monster cable?
Why the cheap head set? Why the cord?
Why no Bluetooth built into the controller?
Why no internal rechargeable battery in the controller?
If the Kinect is so important, why wasn't it built into the console?
Why was xbox so slow, lack of memory?
Why only 500GB with having to download games. Why even have a disk drive then... or even BluRay for that matter?
If cost was an issue, why not bundle an awesome sleek, slim base model and have customizations to add.
I'm sure cost would have something to do with all this, but so does poor leadership and execution of the next biggest thing in gaming.
Bottom line, I think they got a little rushed to get the new xbox out there which will hurt them in the end. Till they actually put out a superior new gaming console.....I'll stick with my old reliable 360! | video-games_xbox |
Rock on, Rock Band. Here is the story: Rock Band 2 is an update to the Rock Band formula. That doesn't make it any less fun, it just compromises how revolutionary it could be.
The game is based heavily in Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution mechanics, adding the (very fun!) drum peripheral and a consistent way to play bass.
Noticeable new features: There are 84 new master recordings, a new mixed bag of clothing available (Thrift Threads), a networked "Battle of the Bands" set of challenges that update regularly, and solo players can either do "challenges" to advance through songs, or play the tour outright. Groups can also do the challenges and the tour. Also, any of the peripherals will work with Guitar Hero: World Tour.
Is it worth it? For new buyers, absolutely pick up Rock Band 2 first. For as low as $10 ($5 to rent Rock band 1 and $5 to import the songs), you can add the full collection of Rock Band 1 songs to Rock Band 2. The new features make the package feel more complete and more inviting to groups of one or two without compromising the party factor. And the song selection is certainly acceptable, while not legendary. (No Ozzy?)
Also, the Downloadable Content selection, I feel, gives more strength to the game than the Guitar Hero Series.
The downs: It's still the same game you played a year ago with Rock Band 1. Peripherals get expensive and addictive: you WILL want that Bass Guitar, especially if you only have one guitar, and the RB2 drum set will have cymbal upgrades; that's just a small bit. There's Guitar Hero World Tour, which might have a better setlist for you. You might want to review the song list in the game to decide if you'll like playing these songs -- if you don't like most of them, you probably won't get into the game.
The fun of Rock Band is having fun by getting the chance to perform like a rock star at any age and ability. If you want to live out rock star dreams on your XBOX, this is the way to go. This is a prime cut. If music/rhythm gameplay isn't your thing, you might be better off renting first. | video-games_xbox |
Extremely Conditional. Lost Planet is a third person shooter spearheaded by Keiji Inafune (creator of the Megaman series) in which manages to place equal emphasis on both on-ground and mecha battle sequences. The setting takes place on an entirely cold driven planet. So cold in fact, that the player is required to gather "Thermal Energy" while in battle to maintain their body at a substantial temperature. You play the role of an amnesiac character by the name of Wayne of whom must unravel the secrets of his past, in the process bringing unity to the land.
The graphics and physics in Lost Planet are easily some of the best seen on a console game by far (rivaling that of Gears of War). In some instances (where the climate is cold as can be) excess snow can be seen accumulating on your character's clothing and track (on the ground) once having entered an opened door area. The particle effects and audio are perfectly done, along with debris physics. There are cases where you can interact with the environment, like say, shooting down a boulder (which will dissipate into rubble) on a mountain or fort to clear from an enemy stronghold. Another instance, is how you're enabled to shoot down a steel rail from a ceiling ontop of the enemy. The smoke effects can come with a price, as at times, it can be hard to maneuver yourself once enshrouded in large amounts. This helps add to the intensity of the battle. Music is also very coherently composed. Mostly orchestral, which helps give the game it's cinematic feel.
The detail in each enemy is simply amazing. Some boss characters are so well detailed and animated that they practically look tangible on the screen. Several enemies can been onscreen at once with rarely a trace of slowdown or a single drop in framerate (and some bosses take up nearly the entire screen).
However, that doesn't go without saying, as there are a few notable issues (nothing breathtaking) in LP. For one, the enemy A.I. is dimwitted for the most part. Snow pirates can easily be mowed down with simple run and gun tactics. It's also discouraging as to how (in some instances) an enemy can be knocked off of a mech, and won't even bother to get back on it. This is especially questionalable when there are several unused vehicles spotted on point, yet the enemy won't even bother to use any of them to their advantage. In other cases, the a.i. comes off too sensible, with the slightest sound setting them off on full alert without scrutiny. All in all, the enemy a.i. is a mixed bag.
Another complaint is it seems as though your character is constantly getting knocked down, then heaving (rinse, repeat). For instance, there was this time in which I was hit by a laser (which sent me sprawling to the ground) only for my character to raise and immediately get blown away by a rocket launcher. This can be frustrating at times. A better wake-up mechanic/command could have helped out to suppress this problem. Especially when you're having a hard time locating your character on screen due to all of the smoke and debris particles surrounding.
Last complaint is the lack of NPCs'. During the very first mission in LP, (the backstory stage) your character Wayne is fighting alongside multiple NPCs. This was a unique trait and feature, and it was rather disappointing to discover that none of this was carried into any of the latter stages in the game (unless you count the online mutiplayer). From that point on, you're all on your own.
With all of that said, Lost Planet is still an exceptional action-shooter. Some critics have panned the game for it's lack of innovation. Who said the game needed to be innovative, much less claimed to be unprecedented? The title does what it promises; deliver an action filled (but rather short, the game can be completed in under ten hours) shooting experience. While LP's not tactical like say, Rainbow Six or Gears of War, it's still a masterful shooter in it's own right, in how it manages to blend the words of third-person shooting and mecha immersively into one.
Lost Planet managed to sell over a million copies just two days after it's release in both the US and Europe. It's fairly safe to say that we'll be seeing more from the franchise on the 360 in the near future. | video-games_xbox |
Amazing series and definitely worth your time (and money. Sort of an interesting "game" to review, given that for its price, especially if you are new to Halo (kind of hard to believe given that I have loved Halo for the last 13 or so years). As for the content you get Halo: CE with both original/remastered graphics, Halo 2 with both original/remastered graphics, and both Halo 3 and Halo 4 in their original graphics. All are in 60 fps at 1080p if your screen supports it. As you play through, the graphics in 1 and 2 are beautiful, as well as 4 (even though techincally the remastered graphics of 2 are now better than 4's, I prefer the graphics in 4 the most) and then there is 3...On a straight play through if you continue through the games, you may find Halo 3 from a graphical stand point to be left behind, given that it has a major drop out as it has not received the HD graphic overhaul the first two have had. Other than that you can play solo/co-op on all missions, and ALL skulls are available for use out of the box. Additionally, terminals are now hidden and available for achievements in all 4 games and skulls are hidden for achievements in the first three games. Guaranteed the nostalgia and butterflies you will re-experience as you go through the iconic moments in the early Halo games will be worth the money alone.
Additionally you will get access to the Halo 5 multiplayer beta from Dec 29-Jan 18th, which I am definitely looking forward to. You also get free access to watch Halo Nightfall, which is still be released progressively. It details the journey of Agent Locke who will be a major hitter and likely playable character in next year's Halo 5: Guardians. It is very well done from the episodes I have watched thus far, a better series in my opinion than Forward unto Dawn was.
Lastly, you get the multiplayer. Despite what many of complained, and complained...and complained about, they are fixing the online play. Since getting the game on Black Friday, I have had only one problem getting into an online match, and that was before the last 3 updates which have majorly improved play. Now I don't have to wait anymore than I do for Halo matches back on the 360. Many of the maps are either true to their original forms in 1-4, or they have been updated and modernized. Its a real throwback getting to play some of the maps, like Lockdown, from Halo 2 any old fan will instantly feel at home in. Currently the only ranked matches are Halo 2, but they are updating every few days.
The controls now, are a major learning curve, at least as I found. I still have a hard time remembering that I can't just sprint in 1-3, lol, often resulting in death. They do have a controller setting, I forget the name off hand, that you can set so that the controls remain the same through all 4 games, which makes it vastly easier, given that until 3 you won't have any useable items like the pop-up shields or grav-lifts, and you won't have armor abilities until you play on 4 (which I believe means you won't use X or left bumper till 3 or 4). Makes for more smooth game transition and only a quick glance at what game you are playing, depending on the play list.
If you are worried, the campaign alone is worth it, but if you are only in it for the multiplayer, it is far to difficult to tell if it will work for you specifically.
Lastly, the game does require 90gb, at least for the digital download version, I'm not sure about the disc version. It took me forever to download the entire game (most of 2 days and based on my download speed, it shouldn't have actually taken more than 1.5 hours...). So be sure you have good internet and time on hand before you play. The multiplayer will also have 4+ updates you will now need before even jumping online, though they might all be combined for first timers now.
See you online! | video-games_xbox |
and the story went where. Was a huge fan of the Assassin's Creed series, but after this installment in the franchise, I probably won't buy another game.
Firstly if you haven't played the game, I recommend that you do so and form your own opinion of the game (maybe rent it?). I also don't play multi player for this series, so this is a review specifically on the single player campaign.
Gameplay: With the new engine that Ubisoft wrote specifically for Assassin's Creed 3, the game play mechanics changed and we're initially very unsettling and awkward. It was a very large shift from the previous games that allowed a player more control over the run, jump and sprint functions as well as control over targeting enemies for ranged weapons. In times during free running through streets, you would begin climbing a wall when you just wanted to sprint to a target because the sprint and climb button are the same. The forest free running through the trees started off as a really fun and interesting feature, but ended up being mostly useless as it is incredibly slow and the areas where you can actually run through the trees are very limited and linear. Also aiming rifles and bows during combat seemed awkward and in the 3rd person the angle of the aiming camera, obscured part of the screen with the back of Connor's head. That being said, the combat was very fun and engaging, with unique counters and finishing moves that we're just fun to play and watch Connor perform.
Story/Plot/Characters: This is where the game really fell short. In the previous Assassin's Creed games, you got to know the main characters very well, from Desmond to Lucy, Altair to Ezio. In Assassin's Creed 3, you are "thrown" into the storyline that really doesn't allow you to relate to the character. In the previous games, you grew with the characters, maturing as they did through the story in skill and attitude, from Altair as a fallen from grace assassin to master of the order, or Ezio as a naive teenager to a master assassin. As Connor you are already given all of the skills that you need to beat the game, and his attitude doesn't change from being angry and impatient from being to end. There's no satisfaction in completing any mission because it walks you through each one with training wheels and baby steps. Controlling Desmond outside of the animus looks like it's an improvement, but with limited missions it seems to be just an after thought. Without any egregious spoilers, the game basically just ends without explaining very much on previous topics that the previous games had made a point to mention and develop. I didn't complete all of the side missions that maybe explain a small amount towards this, but I have no desire to! The ending sucked any enthusiasm I had for playing and buying anymore of the Assassin's Creed games.
Bottom line, if you loved the Assassin's Creed series for its single player story and setting, I wouldn't buy this game for yourself, friends or relatives. | video-games_xbox |
Not a HUGE change, but it never needed to be. The upgrade from the 360 controller to the XB1 controller isn't as significant as the upgrade from the DS3 to the DS4 controller, but it doesn't need to be. So when people say the DS4 is a better improvement than the XB1 controller is, please take that with a grain of salt - because the changes between the 360 and the XB1 controller didn't need to be that drastic.
I had the ultimate pleasure of playing with the Xbox One at E3, and I have also been playing with it in Microsoft Stores around my area. I simply love the controller. The XB1 controller feels even more natural than the 360 controller, and at one point I completely forgot I was using a new controller because of how naturally fitting it was in my hands - a good thing, I must say.
Thank god the d-pad is better now.. in that it's easier to use. I feel like the d-pad is really cheaply built, though.. which makes me sad. The XB1 controller feels lighter than the 360 controller, and it's probably made of materials that weren't as expensive to mass-produce (yes, I'm saying the 360 controller feels a lot more sturdy than the XB1 controller, but that's also just entirely my opinion, as is this whole "review").
The actual analog sticks feel a BIT smaller than the Xbox 360 ones. I don't know if it's true or not - maybe my fingers got fatter these past few months.
At the end of the day, the controller is very, very comfortable to use. There's no "learning curve," no "adjustment period," no change you need to get used to. Pick it up, turn on your Xbox One, and get going. That's the beauty of it. It didn't NEED any revolutionary changes. The changes it did need to make, however, have finally been made!
Enjoy, everyone! :)
EDIT: 12/16/2014
I've become a bit frustrated with the left and right bumpers on the controller. I have big hands, and my fingers almost always rest on TOP of the left and right shoulder buttons. So you can imagine my disappointment when I try pressing them, only to find out I CANNOT press on them from the top. Only being able to click for shoulder buttons from the sides is a huge bummer, and a pretty significant step backwards. I wish this wasn't the case. Docking half a point. 4.5/5 | video-games_xbox |
Gunstringer Review. The Gunstringer is a Kinect game created by Twisted Pixel. In the game you play an outlaw who was double crossed and comes back from the dead to seek vengeance upon those who betrayed him. Well at least that's what the puppet show is about as you are a marionette. You will be controlling your directional movement with your left hand and trying to squeeze off your shots with your six-shooter in your right. Now of course there is a left-handed mode, so at least this company remembered that the world is comprised of individuals of different handedness.
Graphically this game looks good. It's probably one of the best Kinect games I've seen graphic wise. You'll see that most of your enemies have that puppet look to them, or paper cut-out look. You'll also see that there is some interference done from time to time by a human hand (green screened) in. From time to time you'll also get to see the audience which I'm assuming was just filmed in a theater down the street from their office. Now of course your common enemies all look relatively the same per level, but there is definitely variety of different enemies when it comes to different areas. There's also the bosses which all have their own ways of attacking, and they all definitely have unique character models.
The music is your standard spaghetti western type music that doesn't distract from the game. The narration is really hit or miss. Most of the times it tells the story well, but when it drops in for comments in the middle of the level it can sometimes get really old fast.
The controls of the game as described above are your left and right hand. The left will control movement and jumping, the right will control your aim and pulling the trigger by jerking your hand up. There will be times where you'll use both hands to throw punches or when magically you get a second six-shooter and you can just go wild blowing enemies away.
So you are the Gunstringer brought from the dead and out for vengeance. You'll have to get through quite a few enemies to get at members of your old gang, but if you can do that you'll be able to exact some revenge upon them. You'll almost always have your six-shooter at your disposal, but there will also be times where you'll get to use a shotgun, flamethrower, and broadsword for a short amount of time to change up the pace. Within the levels you'll have to keep your left hand limber as you'll have to dodge quite a few things, or attempt to jump over them so as to not take too much damage. At the end of each level you'll be given some money which you can turn around and use to unlock special features within the game. My biggest problem with the game is that the controls weren't as tight as I would have liked them. There were times where the slightest move with your left hand could send your character over to one side of the screen more than you wanted and instead of dodging something you run right into it. There's also the issue of jumping. There will be times in the game where gauging when to start your jump will be difficult and there's a very good chance you'll land on something, causing damage, or fall into something that will cause you to respawn slightly before the jump. There's also the small issue of sometimes your right hand motion not causing your gun to fire. When you're in for the fight of your life you'll want to have that as accurate as possible and having to exaggerate the movement after failing in an attempt can completely throw off how the game will interpret your next move with either hand as your body has probably moved to a different spot in the room, even if only slightly.
Even though there are definitely some control issues this game is very entertaining and fun to play. If you're looking for a Kinect game with a little attitude and that definitely has something a bit different, you're going to want to pick up this game and give it a try. This game gets an 8.0 out of 10. | video-games_xbox |
Love it so far however TV integration with Fios loses some channels and picture quality..slow. First off I own the PS4 and have previously owned PS3 and Xbox 360 and liked them both although I felt Sony had the edge due to Blu Ray quality graphics. I bought this yesterday from Best Buy (bundle packages are cheaper and a better deal) and due to the fact I did not want TV integration 100% of the time I also bought a Rocketfish HDMI Splitter to add the integration only to the Xbox portion, splitting my cable HDMI into two.
Anyone complaining about paying $60 bucks for Gold, get over it, this is going to happen anywhere, PS4 included and this is no big deal to me. So what. I added a 12 month gold with no problem. The Home screen and voice integration on this is pretty cool and Kinect although I hated it before is pretty advanced and picks up voice commands with no issues so far. The problem so far that I have is TV integration with or without the splitter is a mess with Verizon Fios. I removed the splitter because I thought that was causing picture quality decline and losing some HD channels. However it is not the splitter. It was doing the same integrated direct with Xbox. I would also see a slow channel switch and the One Guide would not come up all the time. Plus having to record on DVR from One Guide js a nightmare and is cumbersome compared to the Fios guide. In the end I removed TV integration altogether and looked at it as a nice to have but it needs a lot of work. Nice idea, but a long way to go from Microsoft. Good news is there is a Fios app within the app store to add and you can watch 74 channels from Fios directly from the Home screen. I don't watch TV that much anyway but it was cool to say a channel and have it switch.
As for game play, Dead Rising is pretty good. Had to get used to Xbox controller again but it was no biggie. The graphics are good and comparable to PS4, although I see a slight edge on the PS4 with Call of Duty. I will try out some other games however so far this is a pretty cool system and aside from the 45 minute update when I first started it, it is pretty fast and I see a lot of potential. Maybe they will work out the TV integration later on down the road.
UPDATE: This actually disconfigured the motherboard in my Motorola Verizon Set Top Box for Fios and locked me out of like 10 channels. By trying to run this through Xbox it screwed up my cable and I had to reorder a new set top box and lost like 10 channels. Do not try to use this with Verizon Fios. They are having issues and it is screwing up the cable for a lot of folks. | video-games_xbox |
Cheap Junk. I bought the Turtlebeach X41 headset for my Xbox and while I had a problem with them that required me to return them for another pair the sound reproduction is by far one of the best I have heard and on that I bought a pair of the Z6A for my PC. The difference is chalk and cheese. The installing of them was a breeze and once I had made the adjustments to my PC to allow the surround sound that was where it all went wrong. I had an old pair of the Microsoft Lifechat 3000 and while they were the most uncomfortable things I have had on my head the sound was great. The bass was unbelievable even though they cost me less than $50. When a gun went off in a game it was if they were in the same room as you but after about an hour of game time they hurt my ears due to them being made for small children as they pressed on my ears rather than cover around the outside likes the Turtlebeach headsets. With my experience with my other Turtlebeach headset when I saw these I thought I had to have them as my other ones were the most comfortable headset I own and the sound was the best I had heard. The surround sound was so life like and clear it gave the games a whole new dimension. When I had these on the sound was garbage. I turned the bass right up and instead of a thumping like my others is was pathetic. While the other levels were good (not great like my others) the bass lacked the thump that I got from my Lifechat 3000. While that was a let down so was the quality of the headset. The second time I had them on my head the arm broke without me touching them. If I had a large head I would have expected it but when I looked where it broke there was a weakness due to poor design as there was very little plastic in an area that has the most amount of stress due to it being near the pivot. If you are thinking of getting a headset don't look at these. The only positive part of the experience is I contacted Amazon and I am returning them for a full refund. Amazon is really great and all other experiences I have had have been just as good. If I could have rated these lower I would have. | video-games_xbox |
AMAZING game! (My first review. This game is filled with all sorts of things to do. It should keep you busy for quite some time. I've probably put in 100+ hours into one character, and still am not even close to being 100% done with the game. And the expansions make it even longer, which means even more gameplay (of course, I'm stating the obvious here, but whatever). The main story line, in my opinion, was fantastic. The guilds, I absolutely loved. The expansions, amazing fun. The game itself is just all-around awesome. I was actually more intrigued by this game than I was with Skyrim. So here's my review:
Pros:
-Fantastic game, with countless things to do
-The expansions make the game 5 times as long
-Graphics are good for its age
-Sean Bean as Martin Septim... Who can deny Sean Bean?
-Enemy hardness goes up with your level(the more levels you advance, the harder the enemies get), unlike Skyrim where you have some enemies harder than others, making some areas non-accessible depending on your level.
-"Knights of the Nine" gives you the choice to be a "templar"-like character, which is awesome for medieval-times lovers.
-"Shivering Isles" is an entirely new world, so when you finish up in Cyrodiil, it's off to the Isles!
-Has more of a "magical" feeling than Skyrim does.
-It's only 20 bucks.
Cons:
-The graphics do not match with Skyrim, but graphics do not make a game great.
-No dragons... Poo...
-You will most likely encounter some bugs here and there. But what game doesn't have bugs?
-The magic system is too simple and not very fun, but some actually come to like it.
-The third-person mode isn't all that great.
-Leveling up is too slow.
I've been an Elder Scrolls fan for years, and am very much looking forward to ESO. I've played all of the ES games, and adore them all, but this one is by far my favorite. So if you're looking for a first-time game that would keep you entertained for a while and is very under-priced, Oblivion would be my very first recommendation. Skyrim would come second, of course. Morrowind, I haven't played much of, so I can't say much about that one. Anyways, that's my review. Hope it helps! | video-games_xbox |
I EXPECTED MORE - ESPERABA MAS DEL JUEGO. WELL I'LL WRITE THIS REVIEW IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH BECAUSE A LOT OF HISPANIC HAS TO KNOW ABOUT THIS GAME
IN MY OPINION THE GRAPHICS AND THE MOVING AND THE SCENOGRAPHY I'LL GIVE A 5 STARS, THE CAMPAIGNE IS A VERY GOOD SUTORY BUT SADLY TOO SHORT, THE SPECIAL OPS ARE MADE ONLY FOR PEOPLE THAT EXPENDS A LOT OF TIME ON VIDEOGAMES AND NOT THE AVERAGE PEOPLE LIKE ME AND THE REST OF US, IT'S TOO HARD, THE ONLINE MULTIPLAYER I JUST EXPECTED 10 TIMES MORE AND I AM DISSAPOINTED, TOO MUCH DEBRIS, WRECKES, GOOD PLACES FOR CAMPERS, AND CAMPERS DON'T PLAY TEAMWORK, AND THE REGION LOCALIZATION ONLY ALLOWS YOU TO PLAY WITH PEOPLE OF YOUR REGION, YOU CAN'T PLAY WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD, AND ALWAYS PLAY WITH THE SAME PEOPLE OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND YOU GET BORED, ALWAYS THE LAGG, THE PRESTIGE MODE YOU GOT TO REACH LVL 80 TO ACHIEVE ONE PRESTIGE, BEFORE THERE WERE 10 NOW 15 AND HAT I GIVE THE QUARTER OF A STAR TO THE WEAPONS, ALSO YOU HAVE TO LEVEL 'EM UP TO GET THE FULL ATTACHTMENTS, IT REALLY SUCKS, I WENT TO PLAY BLACK OPS AGAIN, I SOLD IT THE WEEK AFTER I RECIEVE IT, NOT HAPPY 5 STARS OF DISSAPOINTMENT GOOD JOB INFINIY WARD YOU MADE A CRAPPY GAME, YOU USED IN THE CAMPAIGNE A BUILDING EXACTLY THE SAME THAT IS INCLUDED IN CALL OF DUTY 4 THE PIPELINE MAP. A COPY - PASTE
ESPAOL
EN MI OPNINION LOS GRAFICOS, LOS MOVIMIENTOS Y LA ESCENOGRAFIA SON MUY BUENOS 5 ESTRELLAS, LA CAMPAA Y LA HISTORIA MUY BUENA PERO LAMENTABLEMNTE DEMASIADO CORTA, LOS SPECIAL OPS SON PARA FREAKIS QUE PASAN DEMASIADO TIEMPO JUGANDO Y NO PERSONAS NORMALES COMO NOSOTROS, SON DEMASIADO DIFICIL Y T FRUSTRAS, EN EL MODO MULTIPLAYER EN LINEA ESPERABA 10 VECES MAS Y BSTOY DECEPCIONADO. MUCHOS ESCOMBROS, CARROS DESTRUIDOS Y BUENOS LUGARES PARA EL CAMPEO, Y LOS CAMPEROS NO JUEGAN EN EQUIPO, LA LOCALIZACION DE REGION SOLO TE PERMITE JUGAR CON PERSONAS DE TU ZONA, NO PUEDES JUGAR CON GENTE DEL RESTO DEL MUNDO, SIEMPRE JUEGAS CON LAS MISMAS PERSONAS UNA Y OTRA VEZ Y TE ABURRES, EL LAGUEO SIEMPRE PRESENTE, LOS PRESTIGE TIENES QUE LLEGAR AL NIVEL 80 PARA ALCANZARLO, Y ANTES HABIAN 10 PRESTIGE Y AHORA 15 Y LE DOY 1/4 DE ESTRELLA A LAS ARMAS, QUE TAMBIEN TIENES QUE NIVELARLAS PARA SACAR TODOS LOS ATTACHTMENTS, ENSERIO UNA PENA, ME DEVOLVI A JUGAR BLACK OPS, VENDI EL JUEGO SOLO A UNA SEMANA DE JUGARLO, NO QUDE CONTENTO 5 ESTRELLAS DE PESIMO JUEGO, BUEN TRABAJO INFINITY WARD HICIERON UN MAL JUEGO, ADEMAS USARON EL EDIFICIO QUE ESTA N EL MAPA PIPELINE DE CALL OF DUTY 4. UN COPIAR Y PEGAR | video-games_xbox |
Great Spiderman setting brought down by poor controls. Spiderman, like all superheros, has a checkered history with video games. Some have been fantastc, such as Web of Shadows, while others have been downright abysmal. Shattered Dimensions falls somewhere in the middle, with a great story and fantastic art style being let down by gameplay issues that, at least for me, made this experience frustrating and enjoyable in equal measures.
Rather than rehash other reviews that delve into the story, I'll limit myself to saying that this is one of the best Spiderman games in terms of setting and story. I love how they have chosen different time periods, given Spiderman different abilities, and have offered a selection of challenging unlockables that will give the gamer incentive to keep playing. My personal favorite was the Noir levels, where Spiderman must stay in the shadows and use stealth to pick off his enemies. The other levels involve Spiderman webslinging and beating up enemies in a God of War/Devil May Cry style, which looks pretty but is little more than button mashing. Still, there is enough variety in the moves to allow for combos, which build up your score, but even a marginal button-masher can get through most combat situations. The real skill comes into play during boss battles, where you need to learn patterns and time your moves correctly, and especially the latter stages will see you dying a few times. It's challenging but highly addictive.
Graphically, Shattered Dimensions looks fantastic and each time period has a well-detailed and wonderfully realized sense of style. The music is also classic superhero fare and the voice acting is also quite good, more the campy style of the cartoon show as opposed to the more serious tones of the Sam Raimi movies. The dialogue is heavy on the one-liners, which sometimes are quite funny and at other times cringe-worthy, and you will sometimes find the same lines being repeated during longer boss battles. Overall, the game's style and fluid animation provide a visual experience that is sublime, especially for Spiderman fans who want something more nostalgic.
In the title of the review, I mentioned that the game is let down by the controls, and this is where I think the game really needs improvement. The controls seems to be selective about when and where they will work, and to be fair, they work well on the levels where you are webslinging across wide-open areas where little precision is required. It's the indoor locations and cramped spaces where the controls start to show their wrinkles. It is difficult to aim with precision and you'll often find yourself zipping off to a totally different area than you intended, and other times the web doesn't even shoot when you press the RT button. This is compounded by the fact that many areas are multi-leveled and require you to be accurate in order to avoid getting killed or complete objectives like rescuing civilians. Let's just say I spent a lot of time trying to land in one area and not being able to do it.
Another problem with this game is the camera, which is often your worst enemy in tight areas and during frantic combat situations. It works well for the most part, but it goes spastic when you climb a wall, hit a corner, or shoot your web in the opposite direction you are facing. It is disorienting and difficult to control, and it has resulted in me missing objectives and getting killed by enemies. This is especially cumbersome during the Noir levels. There are also quite a few glitches, most of which are forgivable, but a few that will prove frustrating. I got stuck mid-air during a web swing a few times and had to restart from my last checkpoint, which was annoying.
By the sounds of it, you might think that I didn't like this game, which is not the case. It's a good game, but I feel that it could have been an excellent game if only they had taken the time to iron out the bugs in the controls and in the camera. Other reviewers have compared this to Arkham Asylum, which is now the new gold standard in superhero games, so this game might seem like a letdown by comparison. Taken on it's own merits, this is a decent game that Spiderman fans will enjoy if they can forgive the aforementioned problems. | video-games_xbox |
Crackdown 1.2. Put simply, this is a game that should have been released as a downloadable add-on to the original Crackdown, as the gameplay is nearly identical to the original.
What is new/different:
The factions and bosses that controlled the city in the first game are gone. They have been replaced by two sets of antagonists: a terrorist group known as The Cell (active during the day), and mutants (active during the night). Instead of killing bosses, as in Crackdown 1, you must kill several waves of mutants, protecting a beacon for a certain period of time.
There are a few orbs around that, rather than staying still, try to evade your touch. They are like the stationary orbs that give you powerups, but are more difficult to catch, and give you (slightly) larger power up bonuses.
Your character now has the ability to do a controlled glide around through the air during a fall, once you reach the highest agility level.
What is the same as the first game:
Overall gameplay: moves and controls are essentially identical.
The graphics: they're no worse, but they're not really any better either.
The city: it's damaged now, but essentially the same.
The orbs/races/jumps: you win a race, grab an orb, jump a hoop, etc, your abilities go up slightly.
The weapons: slightly changed, but nothing that you would notice.
The vehicles: essentially identical. Fun to use, but not significantly different.
I could go on at length, but it would essentially be more of the same: the new elements of the game are minor tweaks rather than innovations.
The game is not without redeeming aspects, of course...the things that made the first game fun (rampant violence, weapons, explosions, improving abilities) are still here, and slightly better balanced than the original. Still, if you have the choice, you would be far better off buying the original at bargain basement prices than picking up this game, since they are so similar there is no compelling reason to recommend one over the other. | video-games_xbox |
More Bang For the Buck. The graphics are better, not that I was complaining about Reach. Re-spawning is now defaulted to 3 seconds, which is fine by me. 5 seconds was too long. The weapons loadouts took me a while to figure out. You have to load all your favorites separately and you "win" weapons as you go in a loadout bank. (I thought they got rid of the jet pack at first, and was not happy. It's still available, but you have to load it manually into your weapons loadouts.) They've added a few new villians, most of which I'm not liking very much. The three that you will see are related. One looks like a small bicycle in the air, one is a Knight which is a fancy elite, and the third is a crawler, which is a mechanical dog of varying power. Most are easy kills, but the bicyles are not only annoying time wasters, they can also respawn the Knights and dogs and the dogs can turn into Knights. Makes the game tedious in my opion.
They should also really re-title Halo 4 and make it Halo 4 - The worst support team you'd ever want to have during battle. The radio effect (static and distortion) from your support team is really annoying. In an effort to make it more real, they just made it hard to understand. The support team will constantly tell you you are done, but "wait...what's that? I don't know" and other useless information. If I had a support team like the one in Halo, I would make my next mission back at headquarters.
Pros: Faster gameplay, better graphics, faster respawn, a lot of new action, better layout of features for the most part, new weapons/defenses, but nothing to get excited over, and the AR is finally a very effective weapon in Halo 4, unlike the wimpy automatic it was in Reach. I want to use the AR much more often than many of the other weapons choices.
Cons: Repetitive layouts for chapters. Horrible support team that radio's useless information to you, or worse, the wrong information. Ineffective soldier companions, except in jeeps. After respawning, for some unknown reason, you are forced to start at waypoints that make you have to walk or sprint all the way back to the action. I'm not talking about short walks either. I don't like being punished for getting killed any more than you already are in the game. I feel like I spend more time walking back to the action than being in the action. I'm using the game to play, not to be taught a lesson. New villains are annoying, not fun. Chapters could be more fun, instead of feeling like going to work. Fun like in the chapters that contain jeeps, tanks and other goodies that I won't spoil for you. A lot of the time, you just feel like you are doing the same thing over and over for no reason. The jet pack feels like it loses juice faster than in Reach? I like the jet pack. Make it last longer or give me a booster pack or something? Weapons offered in the battlefield and often underpowered for the job. (More work, if that's what you like)
Get the game. It's the best there is for first person, hands down, no argument there. Nothing even close to what this game has. It's not perfect and they need to tighten up the game a bit, make it less tedious, but this should be what you use to compare all other software. The others are not even close, and feel quite wooden by comparison. | video-games_xbox |
Burnout Paradise = A lesson on frustration. Do you like frustrating achievements that are tough to get, even after 40 hours of play?
Do you like missing features from Burnout predecessors? (like Crash mode, crash after effects, etc)
Do you like poorly designed navigation systems on open world racing games which forces you to be lost and out of the race?
Do you like driving slowly in traffic and running into parked cars because you were busy looking at the map?
Do you like typos in your games? (check the achievement list and look for the word "licence")
Well, get ready to get frustrated because you will experience all of the above when you play Burnout Paradise.
First off, I have lost all confidence in professional game reviewers. Either they didn't play Burnout Paradise and reviewed it based on the press release notes, OR, their company gets advertising dollars from EA and don't dare to write an honest review about EA games. Well, I paid $40 on a gold box deal shortly after the game came out and just recently got around to play with my backlog. This game is worth $5. The professional reviewers gets their games for free. There is a lack of professional responsibility on their part when consumer purchase decisions are based on their reviews, hence most of them no longer have any credibility with me. 8/10 for this game is a mistake.
If the developers wanted to copy games with open world maps, that's right, I said COPY. At least have the common sense to copy the navigation system to something like Crazy Taxi. The big yellow arrow helped a lot in Crazy Taxi. Instead, Criterion decided to put street names, really?!, driving at say 75mph. Of course the AI drivers are not going to get off course, the only racer getting lost all the time here is me. Get ready to restart a lot of races. Just check online, no one plays race mode because of this. The traffic and parked cars in Paradise City is tough because half the time you are looking at the map to make sure you are going the right way. The crash scenes are repetitive and will add to your frustration as you watch it for the one thousandth time.
What's up with the missing features from previous burnout games? It's like buying a car without a spare tire, not what you expect until you look in the trunk. What's up with the achievement for parking a car?! That's not fun. What's up with having to drive all the way across the map to start a race I want to race in? There should be an option to pick from a list, let me decide if I want to drive there or use a list feature. Burnout Paradise left a bad taste in my mouth, especially on how hard the achievement were. Find all 200 billboard signs; Park your car, in a special way; Win these races and get to license A, etc; My goal was to get 500 achievement points and I got about 200 from 40 hours of play. Vote with your money, I doubt I will buy another buggy EA game. | video-games_xbox |
SWON = Underrated. I don't know WHY this game only rates three stars. No, it's not a straight-on flight sim. No, the graphics aren't the best on XBox. Graphics should take a backseat to gameplay at any rate, and SWON has fantastic gameplay. Easily the best arcade flyer LucasArts has come up with, outstripping the Rogue Squadron series. The vast collection of planes you earn should send any WWII historian and aviation buff into ecstasy (no Corsair, though, sigh).
The plane models are extremely detailed, no problems there. The landscape is a bit bland at times, but specific locations (i.e., the Cliffs of Dover) are instantly recognizable. Other details (explosions, ground vehicles) are simple, but you'll be too busy (and moving too fast) to notice.
The gameplay, as before, is great. Again, it's not a flight sim, so don't judge it as such. Although it is a bit embarrassing to plow into the ground when you're trying to whip around to take out an enemy fighter (whoops). The game's most interesting feature is the time control. You can slow or speed up the flow of time to gain the advantage in a dogfight or to cut down on travel time between target areas. The targeting system helps you lead shots properly, though that can be turned off to see if you're as good as the guys that did this for a living.
The sound and dialogue are all way above par. Every plane has a distinct engine sound, which was actually recorded at an air museum in California. The voice acting is lively but not melodramatic, and helps immerse you in the game. Where the sound really shines, though, is the phenomenal music. I rarely buy game soundtracks, but when I saw SWON's was available, I snatched it up.
The game feels a bit short, though 36 stages is still impressive, and there are several two-player scenarios. (Live subscribers can get even more planes and missions.) The difficulty is above average, also a plus for us older gamers. The replay value is a bit low, but there are always hidden objectives in any given mission. Still, you'll pick it up again after a while because it's just that good. LucasArts and Totally Games, keep up the good work, and hopefully give us another Secret Weapons game sometime soon! | video-games_xbox |
So much wasted potential. Call of Duty: Black Ops II is like the kid that gets straight A's during his first three years of high school, then starts slipping senior year. He would have landed a Harvard scholarship had he just fixed his mistakes, and now it's all gone. So much wasted potential.
MULTIPLAYER
Remember the worst part about Modern Warfare 3, the lag compensation? You know, that feature that rewards players with poor connections and punishes players that pay good money for a decent connection? Yeah, it's back in Black Ops II. The worst part is you can search for best connection and it'll put you in a game in which you allegedly have a 4/4 bar connection, yet you will STILL lag and people will STILL shoot you around corners.
The maps are smaller than ever, which means the spawns are the worst that they ever have been in Call of Duty history. And the maps aren't just small; they're terrible. They not only promote people that "head glitch," but they reward it. Each map has designated camping areas where people will head glitch. You might not know what this term means, but I guarantee if you've ever played Call of Duty you know what it is. Head glitching is when a player stands behind a garbage can, for example, and all you can see is the top of their head. Yet on their screen, their entire gun is over the garbage can and they can shoot you perfectly fine while you are struggling to get a single shot on target.
SMG's are stronger/faster/more accurate than assault rifles. PISTOLS, for crying out loud, out-gun assault rifles. There needs to be some SERIOUS re-balancing in this game. A pistol (Tac-45) shoots the same caliber round as an SMG (Vector), but is somehow stronger. Huh??
Activision/Treyarch/Infinity Ward have all made BILLIONS of dollars from the Call of Duty franchise, yet still refuse to accommodate players with dedicated servers. This leaves players in the dust with spotty connections and other players that turn off their Xbox and end the game for everyone in the lobby. This has been a problem for the last six years and I don't see it ending any time soon - anything that would marginally affect their bottom line profits simply will not do!
The multiplayer voice acting has to be a joke. Several of the game's announcers sound like they are trying to be grizzled war veterans, but it just makes me laugh every time. I can't believe that a triple-A sound team heard it and thought that it was a good take.
The music is laughable and forgettable. One might remember Hans Zimmer's incredible work on Modern Warfare 2 - how could you not? The themes were brilliant and cohesive. Black Ops II's music is repetitive, short, and fails to follow any direct theme.
There are so many features shamelessly stolen from other games, but that's nothing new to the franchise. (A.G.R., Lodestar, EMP grenade - all things seen two years ago in Homefront, albeit with different names. The laser sight and crawling animation are obviously "inspired" by Battlefield 3. So on and so forth.)
CAMPAIGN (possible minor spoilers ahead!)
The single player campaign is laughable and forgettable. The main bad guy, with allegedly the most depth of any Call of Duty villain ever, essentially tries to start another world war, single-handed, because his sister was accidentally killed by people attempting to get revenge on him for horrible atrocities he committed. What a joke. "An American killed my sister by accident as a direct result of my actions, so I'm going to start a war between the two biggest and most powerful countries in the world." Awesome logic.
One scene allows you to play as the villain. However health, ammunition and magazine size do not apply to you. That's right, you can take an infinite amount of damage and you never once have to reload during the sequence.
I hate talking about Strike Force Missions because they are an abomination, but that's exactly why I must. It's a foolish attempt to include an RTS element to an FPS game. The AI is an absolute joke and the missions claim to be "optional," yet if you don't do them it will severely affect the outcome of the campaign.
Which brings me to the "different endings." I've played through the game to get the achievements and I've seen three endings, none of which are satisfying in the slightest degree. Not to mention the game is filled with predictable "plot twists" that you can see coming from the first thirty minutes of the game.
ZOMBIES
The worst Zombie mode that has ever been put into Treyarch's games. I had high hopes for it but it just turned out to be a boring snoozefest. Nobody on my friends list even wants to play it, so I guess it doesn't really matter in the end.
OVERALL
Sound Design: 2/10. The weapons sound like they're made of plastic and the reloads sound like a pen clicking.
Music: 1/10. Forgettable and poorly composed, especially compared to Hans Zimmer's Modern Warfare 2.
Multiplayer: 3/10. Potential in the "Pick 10" and pointstreak systems, but all is lost with atrocious lag compensation and miniscule maps. Hardpoint is a welcomed game mode.
Single Player: 1/10. I wouldn't even recommend playing it. Predictable, boring, forgettable.
Zombies: 2/10. I'd rather play this than the awful campaign, but that's not really saying a lot.
Frustration: 11/10. Prepare to be angrier than you ever have while playing a video game. | video-games_xbox |
A shooter with a great sense of humor. This game is just plain fun. Not a lot of logic, and the plot and story are so-so, but when it comes to action and humor, this is one of the best titles to grace the market in some time. You play Roman, the leader of a group of ragtag heroes known as the Lionhearts. You're accompanied by Jonesy, a moleman who speaks with a thick Scottish brogue and is (more or less) an expert with explosives; Q, formerly one of the King's robotic guards who became self-aware and now spends as much time making tea as fighting; and Rexus, a squat, smelly, and blind seer who's not so sharp after suffering head trauma. The plot is pretty straightforward: Find the Book of Rule and use it to break the evil King's rule over the land. The format is very simple: Go from Point A to Point B, find this or that, destroy this or that, and kill everything that gets in your way. It's a very simplistic shooter, and under other circumstances, this game would barely dent the market. But what makes "Armed and Dangerous" stand out is its sense of humor and non-stop action.
The game's humor may be its strongest aspect. The characters are just plain funny, with Rexus and Jonesy stealing most of the best lines. The game takes shots at the French and references "Aliens," "Lord of the Rings," and especially "Star Wars," (this is from LucasArts, after all). The cutscenes are especially funny, with jokes and gags about cannibalism, leprosy, and even a doomspeaking evangelist type who looks a lot like Elvis. There's also an exploding sheep (Seriously). Especially funny are a trio of gardening robots that are reprogrammed to be soldiers; unfortunately, the programming backfires: they only want to defend plants and flowers, go into battle screaming "Death to the salad-eaters!" and nearly execute a poor villager for being a "cereal killer" (he was caught reaping wheat!)
Equally funny are the weapons you're provided with. Some are given at the beginning of a level; other are rewarded when you reach various pubs scattered throughout the game (these also serve as save points and will recharge your health). You get some pretty standard weapons: rifle, machine gun, sniper rifle, rocket launcher, etc. But it's the special weapons that are most fun: There's the Land Shark Gun, which fires a projectile that turns into--you guessed it--a shark that gobbles up your enemies from under the ground! There's the Guy Fawkes Traitor Bomb (a clever reference to a notorious English traitor) which makes your enemies turn against each other for a time. There's the Topsy Turvy Bomb, which briefly reverses gravity and causes your enemies to fly off the earth; and my personal favorite, The World's Smallest Black Hole. Toss it and stand back, because it sucks in everything around it.
Most of the missions are straightforward and usually involve defending something or someone or knocking out enemy positions. The game switches from third-person (with a thankfully fixed camera position) to first-person when you take the helm of a mounted gun and defend a village or the like from advancing troops (who come in swarms). Too many get over the wall and the mission fails. Other missions involve flying (with a cool jetpack-type device) across levels and finding and destroying enemy positions. Located throughout the game are tokens that will unlock special features and cheats (though most gamesites have them posted). The graphics are above-average, controls are uncomplicated and easy to use, and the voicework is top notch, with animation standouts Jeff Bennett, Kath Soucie, and Rob Paulson providing many of the voices.
A couple of hints: When you hear a siren alerting the enemy to your presence, find it as quickly as possible and destroy it. Otherwise, enemies keep coming as long as it is sounding. The same is true for the rounded troop houses you encounter here and there. Much like the generators in "Gauntlet," they'll keep spawning enemies until you destroy them. Two Sticky Bombs will usually do the trick. If you can't hit a sniper attacking you from a window, throw a Sticky Bomb onto the structure and just blow up the building and him with it. When attacking rocket towers, run underneath them. They can't hit you if you're right below them. Also, when defending Lily's house in Zitwalla, stay near her house. There's no need to wander away to find enemy paratroopers and leave Lily's house undefended; they'll come to you. As long as her home and at least one other residence survives, you'll complete the level. (That was the only one that gave me any trouble). Oh, and once you beat the game (a reasonable challenge) stay tuned through the final cutscene for a funny sing-along.
If you like a good shoot-em-up with a sense of humor (think Serious Sam, for example), then this is the game for you. | video-games_xbox |
Darksiders is simple, derivative fun. Vigil Games' premier effort, Darksiders has arrived, although one shouldn't expect it to have an apocalyptic effect on gaming as we know it. Darksiders is, instead, a rather derivative experience, but, oddly enough, there's a lot of fun to be had within its unremarkable nature.
Darksiders follows War, one of the four Horsemen of the apocalypse. War has been duped, it seems, as he mistakenly triggers the apocalypse, removing humans from the equation, and leaving heaven and hell to contend with each other. War is given a second chance however, to right his wrongs, and get revenge on whoever it was that set him up. Darksiders' story is interesting, if uneventful. The politics of heaven and hell are very interesting, and the characters are colorful, and imaginative. It's a shame however, that the intensity of the plot isn't ramped up until the last few hours of the game.
Darksiders, as mentioned before, is very derivative, and it can't be helped but to compare it to two franchises in particular: Zelda, and God of War. The game is equal parts exploration, puzzle solving, and combat, and all are done pretty well, although there isn't an original idea tossed in throughout all of Darksiders' campaign.
Combat plays out a lot like God of War. War will usually find himself in situations in which he's vastly outnumbered, and must hack his way through boatloads of baddies. The combat is simple enough at first, with only one button used, but slowly builds up some real depth. Soon enough War will have a pretty big arsenal of equipment, weapons, magic, and even a demon form to help him against the odds. One issue I had with the combat is in the finishers which don't use quick-time button presses, allowing you to dispatch weakened enemies with the simple press of a button. It's not a huge problem, but it makes the game's executions a lot less satisfying.
Once you get into the true meat of the game, its exploration and puzzles, you'll likely start seeing War as a hulking, steroid-abusing Link, as the game's formula of working your way through dungeons, and finding new items will easily remind you of the adventures of the aforementioned tunic-wearing man. The game's five dungeons are littered with often devious, and satisfying puzzles that require some serious thought to get through. Each dungeon also introduces a new item, be it a grappling hook, or a portal gun, which must be utilized to complete the dungeons' tougher puzzles, and boss fights.
Darksiders also changes things up a bit from time to time, be it an on-rails segment on the back of a hippogryph, or the few moments in which War picks up an angelic machine gun (you read that right) to blast away his foes.
The game also heavily rewards exploration. Environments are chock-full of hidden rooms which can contain anything from currency, glyphs that increase War's health and magic capacity, or even pieces of a set of awesome armor littered throughout the world.
As far as gameplay goes, Darksiders may not have a single original piece to its formula, but it certainly borrows from the right games.
The graphics in Darksiders are a bit of a mixed-bag. The game's cartoony art style, done by renowned comic book artist Joe Madureira, is great, and characters are impressively expressive during cut-scenes, although once you get tossed back into gameplay, the animations are pretty terrible. The game's engine is fairly mediocre, only occasionally showing off sites that are truly impressive.
The sound department suffers the same fate. Voice acting is mostly good, the standout being the always-awesome Mark Hamill, but the game's various sound effects can get quite repetitive. Thankfully, the music is quite good.
Darksiders is a fairly lengthy adventure, clocking in at about 16-18 hours on a standard playthrough, although true explorers can extend their time easily upwards of 25 hours. Beyond the campaign there's nothing else to do, which is mildly disappointing, but the main story is respectably long as is.
Darksiders is a game which aspires to be much more than it is. I'd love to see Joe Mad's post-apocalyptic universe expand, but the derivative nature of Darksiders makes it difficult to look passed the amazing games it takes after. Still, Darksiders is derived from two of the best franchises out there, making it a perfectly entertaining game despite its flaws.
PROS:
+Good story
+Great art-style
+Borrows from the right games
+Lengthy campaign
CONS:
-Mediocre graphics engine, and awful in-game animations
-Lots of screen-tearing on the Xbox 360
-Extremely derivative
-Mediocre sound department | video-games_xbox |
Fortnite: $200 A40 vs $40 Turtle Beaches. Worth it if you have the money. Skip to the bottom for a shorter review (Upsides and downsides). Only reason I gave it a 4 star instead of 5 is because of the price and some other minor downsides. However, if you have the money, definitely worth it!
Great headphones with fantastic sound quality. I was lucky to get these on sale for $130. I would say $200 is too much for these headphones, $100-$130 would be about right (you're really paying for the Astro brand). But $200 is too much for any gaming headphones honestly, but if you have extra cash then go for it! I used to own a pair of $40 Turtle Beach Recons before these A40s and they were very satisfactery. They worked fine for Fortnite, which is the main game I play. I could hear the basics like footsteps and which direction gunfire was in (they had surround sound speakers too). If you don't have $200, the Turtle Beach Recons will get the job done fine. But if you do have the money, the A40s are on another level. There's a Pro mode setting on the mixamp (there's 3 preset modes) that lowers the base (and the base on the Pro setting is way better than the Turtle Beaches) and raises the highs so you can hear footsteps and gunfire better. It's super nice. It's especially nice for indoors fights because you can hear which level the enemy is on, whereas before you had to guess before. Higher levels/lower levels are quieter and the level above you/below you are louder. The sound is also placed in the appropriate level of the ear. Lower levels are in the bottom part of the earcup and higher levels are in the top part of the earcup. It's also easier to hear other fights going on around you while you're in a fight/if somebody else is coming up on you while you're shooting. The mic is great too and the mixamp is very easy to use.
Downsides: 1. Price. 2- The headphone is slightly heavier than my old ones but it's not too uncomfortable. 3- The earcups are a foam type material (as opposed to a leathery material like in the Turtle Beaches) so the A40s get a little hot when wearing them for more than an hour (but it's not that bad). 4-The mixamp takes up some space on your controller so it's a little awkward to hold at first--especially if you have a XB1 elite controller, it feels a little weird to use the paddles on the back with the mixamp on but I've gotten used to it. 5-You don't get to use the special Astro app like you can with the mixamp Pro (but those are like $250+). All these downsides are very minor and are not really a big deal.
Upsides: Great sound quality, better than any headphones I've tried. Great mic quality. Comfortable fit. Easy to use mixamp that has a solid level of customization (there's 3 different preset modes). Don't have to charge it. You can customize them too with your own logo but I didn't do that (you have to order it from the Astro website and I think it costs extra too).
Overall: Buy it if you have the money, it's worth it. If you have a lot of extra money, buy the mixamp pro version for extra customization. Great for games like Fortnite. | video-games_xbox |
Prettier than Dragon Age: Origins, but is it as good. I am not sure this game is better than DA:O. Don't get me wrong, I love this game! But, I also loved DA Origins before it. Thats said, I would recommend this game for anyone that has enjoyed any Bioware RPG in the past. Obviously, like with most Bioware games, if you can buy the game for PC do that instead. I couldn't, so i got the console version, and I am pretty happy with it.
THE GOOD:
The graphics for the game are much, much improved over the first one. This time around, there is (not accounting for mods by Bioware or the community) very little difference between the graphic quality of the console version and the PC one. On the Xbox, the game no longer look like someone covered the whole world in a thin layer of mud and everyone around you was in some sort of terrible disfiguring accident.
The gameplay is flexible. You can play this game as an action game (mostly) or more as a strategy game (my personal recommendation). Obviously I am biased because I loved the first installment, which was almost impossible to play as a real-time action game. The combat feels great in both cases and the game really benefits from it.
The combat looks fluid and interesting. The first game's combat animation was boxy and awkward, this one is sleek and sexy.
The dialogue is AMAZING. Being the kings of voice-acting and dialogue, Bioware rarely gets any point for this anymore, but with this game it has to be mentioned. The writing (as far as what the characters say) is witty and near flawless. This game will make you laugh and laugh.
The game has tons of re-playability. Not only can you play as different classes that approach combat differently, you can also redo some decisions you made throughout the game that change the dialogue and how people interact with you. Also, keeping with Bioware's recent emphasis on continuity, your decisions from Origins slightly affect the world of DA2. Its neat to see how your choices affect people. If you didn't play Origins, you can choose from a variety of backstory options.
THE BAD:
The level designers were lazier than anything I have seen in years. Yes, level design is hard work. Yes, the game levels that are well made are interesting and pretty. But no, you are not allowed to reuse level templates as much as they do in this game! I didn't think I would mind myself, but wow was I wrong. Near the end of the game you feel more like you are some escaped mental patient running around the same hospital room over and over again living out a delusion of medieval fancy. There are times when the level rehash breaks the suspension of disbelief so much that the game even comments on it.
The story isn't nearly as good as the first one. It doesn't feel as grand and all encompassing as the first. No fate of the world hanging in the balance kind of thing. can't get into too much more without spoilers, so I'll leave it at that.
The bugs can be pretty bad. As of the writing of this review, two of your possible companion characters are bugged so that if you are super good friends with them, there is a chance that they will cripple your character to the point of ruining your game. Due to some funky code, your friends can accidentally lower your stats and basically make is impossible to win in combat. worst part is, this happens really late in the game, potentially killing hours of time (do I sound bitter? I may be a tad bitter). Bioware has always been good about patching these sort of crippling bugs, but right now they are still at large.
The romance is shallow. One of the things I loved about the first game, was the ability to connect with some of your party members in a seemingly human way. it wasn't just about the steamy bits, it was about the dialogue afterwards. It was about how other party members reacted to it. This time around, there is the sexy time, and then pretty much nothing until the end of the game. Is it really that insane to want to talk afterwards? Is cuddling really that vile? | video-games_xbox |
A definite upgrade. I've owned all 3 versions of the RB guitar, first the wired, then the RB1 wireless, and now this one. I have to say that each one has been a significant upgrade.
I'll just briefly note the pluses from the RB2 wireless over the RB1 wireless in case you're on the fence about upgrading:
1) Silent frets - No longer do I hear my fingers releasing off the frets over the music, like I frequently did in RB1. Sometimes the loud frets would throw me off my rhythm if I was concentrating on upcoming notes, but I don't have to worry about that anymore.
2) Sturdier strummer - The strum bar is the same style as the RB1 model, except I don't feel like I'm going to break the darn thing off every time I strum it. While I never broke the old model, it just felt flimsier. It's still infinitely better than the noisy clicker strum bar that every GH guitar has.
3) More responsive Overdrive - Sometimes it seemed like my RB1 wireless wouldn't immediately respond when I lifted the neck to go into overdrive, which in turn often distracted me from hitting my notes and caused me to slip up. Whenever I tilt the RB2 wireless, however, it immediately goes into overdrive and allows me to focus on the song with nary a distraction.
4) Non-screw battery compartment lid - Thankfully they re-designed the battery lid to where you remove it and replace it by just squeezing the plastic hinge and popping it out/in. My RB1 wireless had a little screw in there that I had to bust out the Phillips screwdriver for every time if I needed to change out the batteries. So basically they trimmed a 10-minute process down to 2 minutes, which is nice if you're eager to get back to rockin'.
5) Overall better look - From the wood grain design on the neck to the sunburst design on the face, it's just a cooler-looking fake guitar to play when you're jamming out.
To summarize, the casual player can stick with his/her RB1 wireless but if you're an avid player and you've got $70 burning a hole in your pocket, you'll find this new model to be a welcome relief to previous small annoyances. | video-games_xbox |
I hate it, but I love it. When Ninja Gaiden came on the xbox, I was stoked.
It was one of the most satisfying gaming experiences i have ever had. I would rank it right up their with resident evil 4, and doom 3 (Infact, I still play all three of these games). When Ninja Gaiden 2 was announced I was sold.
I have played through and beat Ninja Gaiden 2 three times now, it is just so fun. The game is beautiful, I will agree, there are some levels (near the end) that look somewhat bland (a cylinder with a green texture) but that's the exception, not the rule.
As far as difficulty goes, its not as balanced as Ninja Gaiden, or Sigma for the ps3. It seems easier, until you get to level 6 or so, when it becomes practically retarded, the first time I played it I was like, wow, I might not beat it, I mean, they have mines, ninjas with missile launchers (launching several blasts of missiles in succession, and sadly, these guys do not play alone), bad guys that explode when you kill them, it gets to a point there, where you have to slow down, and rethink your approach, but is doable.
The boss battles are still pretty tough. Thankfully there are no really weird puzzles, except for one, where you in the clock tower, and you have to climb your way to the top, when you get there, you will be hating your camera, but once you figure it out, and go slow, its easy.
The new weapons are fun, and I love the amount of enemies they throw at you at once. Some people are mentioning slowdown, I only noticed slowdown one time, that was when your in the underworld and taking on like several hundred ninjas, bats, dragons while your trying to climb steps (and you thought holiday shopping was rough!), but all in all, the game is very technically sound.
I hope they will be coming out with Ninja Gaiden 3 for the 360, and I do hope for an xbox port of sigma, just so I can have them all on one system.
This game is great, once you get past level 6-8, the game stops "cheating" and your back to facing ninjas (without guns) and beasts where all you need is your blade or your favorite weapon.
The game is very rewarding, and very challenging. You owe it to yourself to play this game, especially if you like games that require massive amounts of skill to win. The AI is rough, but the game is amazing, I loved every second of it. When I died, I still loved it, but I also hated it....... =D
This is a must buy, and with amazons low price right now, it would be a big mistake to pass this one up. | video-games_xbox |
Classic Xbox 360 game; Entertaining, but somewhat brief. Halo 3, which is the final installment of the first Halo trilogy, is a mainstay in the world of Xbox 360 gaming. Being the first Halo game on the 360, it was a huge leap forward in performance graphics, visual effects, and in-game options.
Synopses-
Like the previous Halo games, Halo 3 takes place within a 3-4 month period and follows the story of one of the last of biologically augmented super soldiers, code named the Spartan IIs.
Throughout the game, this Spartan, John-117, has to battle a conglomerate of alien species, the Covenant, who have proclaimed humanity an affront to their religion. The Covenant has discovered the location of Earth and are now invading when the game begins. Later on, the enemy to both factions, the sentient parasite called the Flood, also partially invades Earth.
John-117, along with new found allies, then head across the galaxy on a mission to destroy the Flood and stop the Covenant from firing the Halo rings, which will destroy all life in the galaxy.
Overall, Halo 3 is golden. Continuing the story of Halo CE and Halo 2, Halo 3 gets a little deeper and darker than the previous games. There is an actual story to the game, one filled with honor, loss, betrayal, and adrenaline inducing fear. That is something that can be difficult to find in many modern games.
Along with the story, the environment in the game is great. With the Xbox 360's capabilities, the environment becomes player interactive. You can actually destroy aspects of your surroundings.
Halo 3 is a Platinum level game. This means it is one of the most popular in Xbox games. With all new features, such as Forge (a map development setting), Halo 3 is Platinum for a reason.
Along with all these new in-game features, Halo 3 also builds upon the existing Halo multiplayer maps. Over Xbox Live, players can compete against one another in large parties, gaining stats as they fight.
This can of course be played offline as well, through Forge and competitions. Up to 4 local players can participate in these offline competitions.
But Halo 3 also has certain aspects that tarnish the gaming experience.
For instance, at times throughout the game there are glitches in which the player can become stuck, forcing them to restart the level.
Also, the game can at times seem confusing. Certain levels are a maze of never ending sameness. And multiple times there seems to be no further continuation of the game. Once discovered, however, these snags in the game play can usually be avoided, and may even seem overly obvious.
All in all, Halo 3 is essential to any hardcore Xbox gamer. It is a very adept first person shooter with a deep back story, and will provide hours of non stop entertainment. Though there are glitches and snags, the overall experience from Halo 3 is very satisfactory. | video-games_xbox |
This game rules. I haven't found a combat flight sim (thats right, SIM) that so immersed me since Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe when I was a kid. Simply put, this game rules. The fact that so many people give this mediocre ratings makes me wonder what they actually know and understand about modern aerial warfare, and whether or not they are a casual gamer just looking for a quick "shoot em up" flight sim or something else.
The aircraft all handle realistically, with player-controllable air brakes and realistically-simulated flight characteristics. You even black out if you pull too many sustained positive g's and you red out if you pull too many negative g's. Nice, thoughtful touch. One thing I love about this game is the obvious research that the developers put into getting the load-outs correct. Down to the pylon station that the weapons can be loaded on. You can even set how much fuel you are carrying on board and as your fuel levels drop, your wing-mounted fuel tanks will drop off during gameplay.
My absolute favorite thing about this game is the combat. I have beaten the game on campaign mode to unlock different aircraft to fly for each mission, and I actually have more fun playing it in the customizable mode. You can customize every aspect of your engagement from your wingman, his (or her) aircraft and load-out... right on down to your opponent and their distance, altitude, and position at the outset of the engagement. The engagements themselves are outstanding. There are different tactics and maneuvers that you would have to employ against various threats in real life, and many of these are reflected in this game. You have to know the proper maneuvering to defeat SAM's (surface to air missiles), different missiles employed by the enemy aircraft you are fighting. I mentioned earlier the realistic flight characteristics and this comes into play in the combat. If you are a bigger and (usually) more powerful aircraft, you have to employ appropriate tactics against smaller, more maneuverable opponents, and vice-versa. For instance, if you are in a big US F-14, you are going to want to get in a horizontal turning fight with much more maneuverable aircraft (and if you do you better sure as hell know how to manage your power settings to maximize your maneuverability without getting too slow). And if you are in a smaller aircraft with less power, it doesn't bode well to get into the vertical engagement environment with a more powerful foe.
I am a pilot myself (not a fighter pilot) and I have been a long time student of history and especially aerial warfare. This game replicates many aspects of modern day air-to-air, and air-to-surface engagements and I highly recommend it for anyone who has a love or interest in the subject and has an xbox360. | video-games_xbox |
The Sonic franchise at its best. First off, let me start out my review by saying that most sonic fans say that this game is one of the worst sonic games and one of the worst games ever. They say this because of the load times being too lengthy but this is not enough to ruin the game for me. They also say this because of some of the glitches that exist in the game and also it is definitely a high level of difficulty compared to a game like Sonic Colors. But once you learn how to play it, it is really easy and fun. Many people say they like the music in the game--I do not enjoy the music. Here is what I like about the game: The story is great, there is a lot going on, true there are some holes in the plot but it is nothing that isn't present in other Sonic games. The graphics are good especially in the computer generated cut scenes--I don't think I've ever seen better in any sonic game. It has nine different playable characters which gives you a lot of variety. This game is very long and it takes place in the real world (another complaint by Sonic fans). This allows for beautiful environments but completely unlike Sonic Colors where you run through Mt. Junkfood-- it also has humans in it not just cartoon figures. The game is safe for kids but without being so hokey as Sonic Heroes and other older Sonic titles. I have actually watched a youtube video where a guy was screaming because he could see Dr. Eggmans eyes----get a grip man!!!! Also Eggman's Mechs look intimidating as opposed to the old Genesis titles which look like a wheel with little stubs. You have lots of levels and lots of bosses to defeat. There is also lots of side missions I enjoy this especially one in Shadows storymode.
In closing, I love the game play, I love that you get to play as a lot of characters, I love the length of the game, I love the graphics, I love the story except that Sonic and Elise were love interests (I'm pretty sure there are laws against that). Even though a lot of people think this is the worst game ever, I think its the best game ever and to those people on youtube that guzzled whiskey and took pills that were upset over this game as they reviewed it--Stop trying to recapture your lost youth and remember----You know what they say about opinions!!!!! | video-games_xbox |
Read carefully and be warned. It's not THAT bad, but man, does this game have major issues!
I finished the game and to be honest I'm glad it's over. Not only is it a little more difficult than the last game, it has lots of glitches and problems.
The GOOD:
Music is okay, some of the graphics are better, the fighting is better with more moves, lots of new one liners, action figures, more comic books, new villains, dialogue options, new costumes, some good voice acting, new side missions, an okay story, some great cut scenes, and best of all MORE STAN LEE!
The BAD:
The character designs are hit and miss -some are good, some are awful (like why does Cletus Kassidy look like Ron from Harry Potter, and why is Harry Osborn a blonde?), the one liners get really old because HE NEVER STOPS TALKING, constant verbal reminders of the main objective even during long side missions, the game is pretty short, some bad voice acting, a more complicated and annoying web slinging system, long annoying cut scenes before and after every single side mission, the web rush mode barely functions at all this time, completely revamped stealth that also completely sucks, side missions that disappear if you can't get to this in a matter of seconds, serious camera issues, a radar sense that sometimes just makes things more confusing, several long boring cut scenes, stupidly long loading times, the dodge system doesn't always work, random glitches where you'll inexplicably lose your ability to 'web pull', punch, swing, or dodge, an inability to aim the webs you're shooting, offensive fat jokes, lots of weird jerky movements from Spider-Man during cut scenes, and did I mention HE NEVER STOPS TALKING!
You have to have a LOT of patience if you're going to play this game because the many glitches will get very frustrating very fast. I'm a Spider-man fanatic so I had to check this game out. It's in the contract. I was immediately disappointed (and downright terrified at times) of the character designs. Some are good, some are bad, but for for frak sake Aunt May doesn't even look human! Still I don't play games for the graphics. The stealth system is what bothered me the most though. I loathe stealth, but I love it in the first Amazing Spider-man game. There you can take guys down with great stealth moves and if you get caught then so be it. You can web escape or fight your way out. Here if you get seen by anyone at anytime it's over. Start from the very beginning of the stage. Crap. Also you have to be in very close, very specific positions to do a stealth takedown. And if your seen it's over. The stealth in this game is awful and there's really no point in using it unless you happen to be in the right position at the right time.
Next the side mission. There are tons of them. Many also have an inexcusable time limit. If one shows up on your map and start flashing red (especially if it's on the other side of the city) you will not make it in time! You get penalized for this a lot. If there are three of four side missions that start flashing red simultaneously and you can't get to them in time you get penalized a lot. You'll also be under constant attack from the new police enforcers because of your 'manace meter'. It's complicated and stupid. If you're a completionist you should know there is no possible way to complete all of the objectives and side missions. This entire system sucks!!!
And the web rush system. Just wow. Perfect in the first game and here it only works about half the time. I can't even begin to tell you how frustratingly glitched and awful the web rush mode is. Oh, and the new, complicated web slinging is almost as bad.
Over all I liked the some of the new villains, there were some nice cut scenes and funny lines, and a really good free comic book. The fighting was fun too for the most part. I'm glad I played it just to see, but I wondered after it was done if it was really worth it. This was just a rental and maybe that's all it should be.
If you're a Spider-Man fan like me it's worth a shot, but know what you're getting into. Don't expect it to work well, and don't be surprised when things don't work at all. It really deserves only two and a half stars, but three will have to do.
'Nuff said, true believers! | video-games_xbox |
If my friends didn't buy it I wouldn't have bought it. I've had this unit for a month and play it almost everyday. I bought it mostly because I do multiplayer online with friends and since they got rid of their xbox 360s, I needed to get a One if I wanted to play with them. There are many other reviews out there, but here are my thoughts:
Pros:
it looks good, the controller feels good
the DVR feature is kind of cool
voice commands are nice
has separate optical out which I use with my astro gaming box/headphones
the kinect is fun and seems to work (haven't played with it too much aside from just dance)
blu-ray player - haven't tried it out but I'm sure it will work
Cons - this is at time of writing:
the menu system is confusing as heck to put it nicely. it is not intuitive and there are some spots where it doesn't matter what buttons you press, you can't go to the previous screen you were on. one time i went to upload and it took me to where i was at previously and I wanted to go to my clips. i tried every button with no success. but then i figured it out. i clicked on a random video and gave it a rating then it took me to the "home" screen in Upload. it shouldn't be that cryptic
voice controls are nice, but they don't always work. if you're listening to music you pretty much won't be able to tell xbox next song, because music is playing.
in game dvr is slow, very slow and the quality seems very poor. cool feature, but would be cooler if it was HD like the xbox One
no battery meter on controller - i've had this thing die on me in the middle of games. it's very annoying because there is no feature that tells you what battery life is
i've had issues with voice chat where i have to turn off the system then back on for my party to hear me. oh, and it doesn't default to party chat
it takes more clicks to see what friends are online, too many clicks (this is more UI issue)
it doesn't work well with my wifi (keeps losing signal <20 ft away). it could be my wifi , or this unit. i have no problems with my TVs, printer, computers and phones that connect to wifi, just the xbox
I think most of these issues will be fixed with an OS update, but it was poorly layed out. Because of where it's at today (i hear there should be a UI update soon), I can't recommend this system. I've had the amazon return window open the last day, debating on whether i should return it or not. If you have a 360 and you're looking for something better and only that, then keep your 360. if all your friends have it, well, make the plunge. xbox would be wise to make the UI better. i really really hope they do it soon | video-games_xbox |
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