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Great price, mods work. So i purchased this controller on friday, and it was at my door by monday! They said it would be coming by the next friday so what a suprise it was to find it here so fast! These guys ship all of their controllers super fast, which is a reason i but from them.
Appearance: 5 Stars *****
This controller is very nice and good looking. It has these great custom thumbsticks and black, grey, and white X Y A and B buttons, which add to its great color combination choice. I am also in love with its blue LEDs. I know they aren't the easiest to put on, and when i saw they came built in i was relieved. They look very nice and have a bright glow to them. I also like the custom D-Pad. If you push it in and turn it becomes a normal D-Pad, but if u leave it as is, just the cross stands out, which i finds makes it easier to use, like clicking the M203 Grenade Launcher in COD.
Mods: 4.5 Stars ****'
So first off, the rapid fire is great. It comes in different speeds for each game, but i prefer to use mode 10, where i can set my own firing speed. Mode 10 comes at speed 11 for me, and i changed it to speed 26. At 26 i can empty the RSASS's and M21 EBR's clip in under a second. It looks like a complete glitch, because the gun starts making the screen tilt at its firing speed. I like it alot, but be careful, because it makes the guns very inaccurate when sniping. I found that for MW3 the MK14 shoots pretty slow compared to the FAL, and i think that Infinity Ward patched the firing rate so the mod helps a ton, but u cant empty the clip like its a glitch. But still, EXTREMELY fast. Now i tried the jitter mod on MW3, and it does not work on any 3 roud burst gun or shotgun. The reason why is jitter switches the gun super fast for you so it can make the striker and others shoot rapid, but in MW3 the gun ur shooting has to fest in ur hands, and you cant fire it while your switching weapons like in MW2, another patched thing. The mimic and akimbo work great though, both coming in handy at closerange times or killing campers. I do very much love the auto aim zombies mod. All i do is go near an enemy in campaign, zombies, survival, or spec-ops, click the aim, and boom it starts following that person/zombie. Its like making aim-assist to the max, and it was able to follow the neck and head alot in MW2, getting many quick kills and much money in zombies.
Durabilty: 5 Stars *****
This controller has the durability of any other Microsoft Xbox 360 Controller. Throw it at a wall as often as need when playing with try-hards ;). The modz also haven't stopped working or messing up. Still holding up great for me!
Pros: Auto-aim is helpful, follows enemies, all mods work for MW2 WaW and Black Ops. Many many speeds for rapid fire. Easy mode transition. Just click the sync button. Flashing lights to tell what mode its on go at a good pace so you can actually count what the mode is. The mode also stays on even when the controller is off, so when you turn it back on your still in that mode.
Cons: the player four light stays on if ur mod is on, even after its turned off, so make sure to take out the battery pack when you turn it off. MW3 jitter does not work but works for all other CODs its just MW3 has a patch, not the controller itself. And lastly sometimes the controller starts searching for xbox if you click sync too fast.
Overall this is a super great controller and the price... this controller is worth so much more. I customized this exact controller on EvilControllers and it cost $116.92, and that was without mods. So do the math, you save a lot, and get free mods conpared to any other controller site there is. No joke.
5 Stars all the way 100% amazing controller all mods work, looks sleek and awesome, and it keeps on working! Thanks lightning modz!!!!!!! | video-games_xbox |
A Solid Entry for the XBox One. Update: I am changing my review to 5 stars instead of 4. After having played using these for over 10 hours, I feel they are great. Most of the problems that people are bringing up with these are no fault of the headphones. The static is an issue caused by the adapter. Blame Microsoft. Also, the wire going from the headphones to the controller; I barely notice it, it I do at all. Hardly a reason to be upset.
First off, these are not true surround. No headphones are. Think about it. 7.1 means seven speakers and one sub. Surround can be simulated, but that's it. Also, some have complained about the crackling or static sound. I don't think this is a headphone issue. I think it has to do with the XB1's output, and streaming the audio through the puck they created. Not TB's fault at all. MS kind of dropped the ball on this in my opinion.
I ordered the 4 shots, but after hearing about the poor mic, I went with these. I have no regrets.
Fit: They feel great. The memory foam feels great on my ears and keeps the sound in. The pleather head band is comfy too. I wore them for four hours with no discomfort. My head is average size and I wear them with glasses. At 32 my vision just isn't what it used to be, even sitting 5 feet from a 55 inch TV. The foam earcuffs do a decent job of molding around the glasses and only minimal sound escapes. Not the headphones fault though.
Finish; this is where I doc a star. It's too plastic for the price. It's sturdy, but I still feel the need to be careful. They look very good, very sleek. I just wish I could see some kind of metal somewhere. I imagine based on the build they could probably take some abuse, and they don't feel cheap. I just feel that for $159, there should be more metal.
Sound: They sound great. I have no complaints here at all. They are loud, the mic works good. Make sure you set your XB1 to bitstream out and DTS surround. Playing BF4, I was completely immersed. Machine guns sounded deep and had plenty of Bass. Choppers sounded amazing. Well, everything did. Actually, to the point my play suffered in the beggining because I was not used to the sounds. I did get used to it, and love it. I can hear footsteps now and ambient sounds I did not know existed. The sound on these are amazing and only an audiophile with the highest discerning taste will probably know any difference. And then maybe not even.
Overall: I love 'em. Maybe not worth $159, but choices are slim. Also, they do have a wire going to the controller, but that's it. Again, blame Microsoft. So technically they are wireless. Another good thing is that they are powered by the controller. I like this a lot.
Purchase with confidence. They feel and sound great. At least for this average gamer and even more advanced hardcore multiplayer. They did enhance my BF4 experience far past what the TV sound did for me.
Take the negative comments with a grain of salt, especially if there is no body to the argument. I have nothing against Polk and I imagine they are every bit comparable.
Also, one last thing. I owned and entry level of TBs for the 360. $30. I had always planned on going all out for the XB1. If you already own a headset you love, like Astros or even high grade TBs and have no qualms about cables leading to your TV and XB1, save your money and just buy the Xbox headset adapter puck.
Hope this helps your choice a little bit. | video-games_xbox |
Good but Flawed. I am writing this review in hopes that the makers of Oblivion will see it. I am leaving out the pros of the game (of which there are many), and will focus specifically on a few main flaws that, if corrected, would make this the best game of all time. Here they are:
1. Creature/item leveling system- having your opponents and items you find level up with you has to be the worst idea ever in an RPG. It makes all the monsters and treasure totally generic and makes you feel like your character never gets any better, not to mention taking away the fun of trying to fight creatures that are far beyond your level.
2. Where's the dragons?- there are basically no large monsters in this game, including dragons (what a travesty!) and most of what you fight are humanoid or the occasional evil bear. I explored the land looking for wyverns or other such magical creatures to no avail. This seriously detracts from the fantasy element of the game.
3. Landscape and dungeons way too generic- what's the point of having a huge map (which actually isn't that big) when all the dungeons and ruins look essentially the same? I quickly lost interest in searching the land for these sights, especially when all the treasure and enemies you find are all relative to your level and not set.
4. No realistic Body Damage- I understand that this is an RPG, but it would be nice to have a head shot with my bow do more damage than normal. I'll never forget the look of an orc I was fighting with at least 10 arrows sticking out of his head and most of his HP still intact. If they are going to make an action based first person RPG, they should include differential body damage.
5. Where are the children?- There is not one child in this whole game. I've looked. This makes all the towns and cities you visit seem that much more lifeless and dull. Not to mention that the NPC's in town and cities are not very interesting and the dialogue system you use to gain information is really lame. I would rather it was like Morrowind where you have to read alot.
Overall, this is a great game, but with these flaws and others it is not 5 star. Once you realize how generic everything is in this game, it doesn't seem as big or exciting as it does at first, and for me there is basically no replay value. Can't wait for Elder Scrolls 5. | video-games_xbox |
Not really a 'game' but a fantastic tool for learning and improving your guitar skills. Rocksmith isn't really a 'game'. It's not going to give you the same feeling of being a guitar god that you'll get from Rockband or Guitar Hero. Rocksmith is work but it's very rewarding work. I've been playing guitar on and off for a couple of decades now and I only wish that tools like this could have been available when I started. What the makers of Rocksmith have accomplishment is absolutely stunning: take any electric guitar and plug it in and it recognizes the notices and combinations of notes that you're playing. This is absolutely amazing and especially given that Rocksmith is only $70 or so. If you've tried Miso Music: Plectrum on your Apple iPad then you'll be pleasantly surprised that Rocksmith is light years ahead.
Let's start off with the bad...
- load times are slow and annoying. You get to use the game as an amp while things load but it's still really annoying
- Another annoyance is that the way the guitar strings are displayed is reversed from what anyone who reads guitar tab will be used to. But you can easily change that and there's a setting to display the low strings at the bottom and the high strings at the top
- There's limited downloadable content. Three additional songs as I write this.
- The adaptive difficulty is a bit weird. There doesn't seem to be much of a middle ground (at least for me). Either it's way too easy or blindingly difficult.
- I'm also not thrilled with how they chose to display the notes (frets) you need to play. It's like an avalanche coming at you. When you read music you read left to right. That seems natural. Rocksmith does it Rockband/Guitar Hero style where it all comes right at you in real time. It takes a lot of practice to actually be able to manage that. For example there are songs that I already know how to play like Muse's Plug in Baby. If I follow along and try to read and play the notes I'm lost. If I shut my eyes and just play what I know I do fine.
- Not much gameplay. No chance to design your character. The locations for the gigs and the crowds are not very realistic.
The good... where to start?
- For $70 you get an adaptive tool that works with whatever electric guitar you already have
- A great selection of songs spanning a couple of decades with multiple variations for most of them (e.g. chords, single note, combo)
- Amazing note recognition
- Fantastic exercises to improve your skills
- I have absolutely no problems with audio delays since I use digital audio out to my amp
- As game-oriented as possible for a learning tool. I have tons of books, CDs, DVDs that I've (tried to) used to learn and improve my guitar skills over the years. Rocksmith could replace them all if there were more exercises and music theory
In good conscience I can't give Rocksmith less than 5 stars overall. It's a breakthrough. | video-games_xbox |
An another great Assassin's Creed game. Since it's release in 2007 the Assassin's Creed series has seen numerous updates such as new locations, historical figures, and characters. Desmond Miles, a bartender from New York, has gained the knowledge and skills of his ancestors Altair Ign-La'Ahad and Ezio Auditore da Firenze but now a new assassin must rise to help Desmond on his journey, this hero is Ratohnhaké:ton. He's better known as Connor, the son of a British immigrant and raised by his Mohawk mother, now caught between the struggle of the colonist who are spreading throughout the Northeast, the American Revolutionary Way, and his own people. Assassin's Creed III takes a lot of chances in both narrative and gameplay but overall creates a thrilling adventure for fans and newcomers.
Assassin's Creed III sets you before, during, and after the American Revolution from 1753 to 1783. This brand new location and time period is absolutely teeming with things to do in the open-world provided. History comes alive as you climb ancient buildings, hide within the forest of colonial America, and sail throughout the Atlantic ocean engaged in sea combat. You're set to enjoy this world as you see fit and set up elaborate assassinations that end each chapter.
Expect a long tutorial, Assassin's Creed III attempts to fully establish Connor's background from innocent child, lost teenager, and finally vengeful adult. Unlike past assassins Connor tends to be more stoic and cruel, but he won't be the only character you play as. Each character is wonderfully written and voiced, but unlike past Assassin's Creed games these characters feel distance. But once the back stories are fully fleshed out and limitations are removed is when you appreciate that the game provided you with this information. Throughout his journey Connor will need to interact and participate in significant portions of the American Revolution, like The Battle of Bunker Hill and The Boston Tea Party, in order to complete your real objective. But Connor has little interest in the fight for independence, his motives require him to take sides in order to track and eliminate targets on both sides, this is a fight between the Templar and Assassins.
Since you will be playing as Connor with a large portion of this journey it's easy to forget that this is venture belongs to present day Desmond Miles. Desmond is now at the end of his adventure and must stop a global disaster. Unlike Assassin's Creed: Revelations these segments are mandatory but absent of the horrible first-person puzzles of Revelations and actually get to be a modern day assassin with the skills that he has acquired. By creating connections between both of these stories to reveal a expected truth about mankind.
Assassin's Creed III is definitely the biggest and most ambitious Assassin's Creed game to this date. The story spans a series of years and seasonal changes dramatically alter the environment: forest covered in snow; fields rich with blooming flora. The streets of is equally stunning with people, noise, and activity injecting life into the artificial setting. These incredible marvels have a array of problems such as clipping textures in character models, environmental pop-ins, and graphical issues that make you wonder if the depth of field is actually a mask to cover these problems. But these are only minor inconveniences to a utterly stunning game.
The developers at Ubisoft Montreal have turned this notorious branch of history into a open-world playground for you to explore. It's all about giving you assortment of acrobatic abilities and equipment to traverse a range of rooftops, hunt in the forests, and sail the seas during the Revolutionary War. These elements truly shine when preparing to assassinate major targets in the story missions by collecting information, locating a specific location, scouting the area, and finally killing them. Outside the main story you are free to explore to find pages of Benjamin Franklin's almanac, complete side missions, and to follow up to myths told by strangers. Outside that you can build and maintain a homestead by populating it with people that will provide you with equipment and products that you can use or sell using a caravan.
The locations throughout Assassin's Creed III maintain the same high quality that the series is known for. You'll travel to a large amount of areas but will spend most of your time on the streets of Boston and New York. Within the frontier you will find a large amount of animals that you can kill and skin for usable material. Unless you are invested in the homestead economy hunting is mostly practice for sneaking and killing.
The controls of Assassin's Creed III has been simplified. The parkour has been improved to allow for quicker movement through obstacles that look impressive. New climbing techniques such as tree hopping and automatic climbing abilities make traversing the environment on any plain easier but not without its faults. Like past Assassin's Creed games you can still find yourself unexpectedly jumping off ledges and foolishly running up walls without anything to hang on to. Combat has been refined to include the classic parry and counter system but now has some brutal killing animations with each weapon you wield against man and animal. You don't have to use a manuel lock-on mechanic and parry attacks when an indicator appears overhead an enemy. Each attack has a significant amount of weight to it, making each strike feel less like transparently fast and unnatural.
Connor may be a skilled warrior but the best assassins take to the shadows and strike without notice. Connor automatically crouches in tall grass and peak around corners. These are put to the test during high-profile assassinations which require you to kill targets without being found. There are stealth, parkour, and combat issues that were previous left as a minimal in games but show up frequently. Minor glitches such as character animations running in place or animals running in place. Assassin's Creed III mask these muddy issues with its large amount of content and incredible presentation. This is especially present in the naval battles when waves bash against the ship and crew members hard at work. In some missions you can board enemy ships and battle with the crews.
Multiplayer returns was first introduced in Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and makes a return in Assassin's Creed III with new modes, characters, and customization options. Traditional modes such as death-match, team death-match, and capture the flag. New modes include domination and wolfpack which you and allies kill computer targets in a synchronized manner to gain the highest amount of points possible. While objective games offer variety to the mix the idea of hunting your target while avoiding being killed is still highlighted throughout multiplayer games.
As you complete matches and complete challenges you gain experience points to level up and Abstergo points to purchase new abilities and cosmetic items. Each agent has a collection of specific clothing and weapons that can be obtained by leveling and earning Abstergo points or you can purchase these upgrades using micro transactions. The multiplayer is a decent treat for those seeking to test these assassin skill against other opponents but won't have you straying far from other multiplayer titles.
Assassin's Creed III is an incredible game that attempts to push the boundaries of previous titles in the series. It achieves so much but unfortunately this leads a moderate degree of inconsistently due to lackluster missions, training assassins, and graphical hiccups. The voice-acting and soundtrack maintain the same high quality as other Assassin's Creed games, so whether you tracking a target or just exploring the area your eyes will be treated. Assassin's Creed III takes a lot of chances and brilliantly constructs a story that will have you playing until you reach the end. | video-games_xbox |
An unbalanced mess. To begin with, I mainly bought this game for co-op. I do like the fact that they've included the "survival" and missions in a co-op mode but the Survival mode only allows two player in the server at once and gets difficult/impossible before too long. Once you reach a certain level (depending on the map and difficulty), the enemies take just about an entire clip of AR rounds to bring down, and there are far too many to handle. In addition, you can't select the difficulty for each map. The difficulty is predetermined by what map you choose (no way to play an "easy" on a more difficult setting or a more difficult map on an easier one).
Eventually I started playing Free for All and Team Deathmatch and this is where the game really suffers. The matchmaking is absolutely terrible. You will have guys ranked really low in the same servers as guys with multiple prestige. In Team Deathmatch, the team balancing is just as bad as the overall matchmaking. Numerous times I've seen one team stacked with multiple prestige players against an entire team of lower ranked guys. It's a joke, the lower ranked guys don't stand a chance. I think that maybe 1 out of every 20 games I've played has been close. Most of the time it's a blowout. This goes for Free for All as well. Generally, the prestige guys are sitting in the top slots with k/d ratios of 30-10 or more while the rest of the server barely, if even a positive k/d ratio.
In Team Deathmatch, there's absolutely no incentive to actually play as a team. Most people just play the game like it's Free for All. The only time you get in a server with good teamwork it's a "clan" who all play together all the time and are all on the same team, so your team just gets slaughtered.
The maps are terrible and the spawn points are even worse. If you get shot, you'll most likely respawn right next to them and vice versa. In addition, the maps are a total bloodbath. Just a complete cluster of chaos.
I do like the fact that they offer the Support killstreak rewards. This way, those of us who can't get ridiculous killstreaks at least have a chance to enjoy a few rewards. But I do hate the fact that some of the rewards have to be delivered. I put the Escort Airdrop as my final support reward. In times where I've been lucky enough to actually get it, I'll either be killed before I can pick up the packages, or I have to fight my own teammates for them.
This game could be a lot of fun if things like the unbalanced matchmaking and team balancing were better. In the meantime, it's just a frustrating mess.
I can't comment on the campaign. I gave up on the COD campaigns a long time ago. They're way too short and most of the time not really worth playing through. | video-games_xbox |
Far Cry 3.5. If you liked Far Cry 3 then you'll have no problem with this game...beyond the fact that it feels more like a Far Cry 3 DLC and not a different game. The developers kept a lot of the same mechanics and actions and what not from the previous game, which isn't bad, but the amount of new stuff is so small it's not "wow" worthy. The rope climbing is cool, and the vehicle takedown is pretty awesome when you first get it too work. Without the gyro-copter travel would be tedious, so it's a life safer, and helping the rebels fight 200 feet in the air with a grenade launcher? Ah, no one can so no to that. Sadly, that's all you'll really get for "new" stuff that isn't in FC3. It's still a fun game and i'd recommend it.
Negatives: I did experience a few glitches. 1) An outpost door wouldn't work, it wouldn't open and there was no other way out. Thankfully i could fast travel so i was able to leave and had no further problems 2) The scenes with Willis Huntley gave me the most issues. At one point you have to sneak up to a tower to provide covering fire for Willis. You can't be seen or an alarm will trigger. There is a short animation, Willis gives s phrase and shooting commences. One time the animation ended and instead of shooting time the screen said "you set off and alarm" and i died and had to restart...i was crouched behind a wall and doing nothing. Another time i was on the tower and supposed to protect willis and an enemy threw a grenade at him and he died. While not really a "glitch" how am i supposed to stop a grenade a) from the tower and b) in general, why is it my fault if the character doesn't know to run away? There is a scene once the shooting is done where you have to chase an airplane and skydive into it. When you get close there is an animation. One time the animation went and when it ended i just died for no reason. Other times the animation never triggered, i flew right up to the plane and nothing happened. 3) Gyro-copter disappearing. The Gyro-copter is amazing and taking radio towers is so much easier with it. I think i've only climbed 5 towers total the multiple times i've played the game because the Gyro-copter is so much easier. If you fly to the top and land, sometimes if you aren't set just right it will fall off the tower and land below. It's not big deal, just get down, flip it over, and fly away. However, there have been times where i've landed fine, taken the tower, an animation has popped up, and then when it ends my Gyro-copter is just gone, like the game erased it. It is not nice. Aside from these minor glitches, the game is still worthy of being played. | video-games_xbox |
Yawn. The Darkness is one of those hyped up games that fails to deliver. It's (yet another) first person shooter (FPS) set in New York and the alternate reality of the Darkness - a demon which posses your character at the start of the story.
There's a lot that this game does have going for it - the facial graphics are really outstanding. The levels designed in the hellish alternate reality of the demon are really nightmarish. They're a tad cliche, but well executed and I never was bored looking around in those levels. Some of the kills (using your "demon arm") are strangly satisfying; although the standard "executions" are very poorly animated and just look plain silly.
The gameplay is very standard for a FPS. As many reviewers have noted, there are a variety of weapons; but there's rarely any reason to use any weapon other than your dual pistols. The AI is nothing special and will generally let you hide and recoup your health and simply stand its position and let you pick them off one at a time. Since your powers depend on darkness; much of the game is spent shooting out lights. Annoyingly, there are very few light switches to simply turn off the lights.
The multiplayer on Xbox live lags something awful. If you manage to spend more than a few minutes online, your patience is greater than mine. This feature was probably tacked on last minute and adds nothing to the game's value.
The worst part of this game is the way you have to travel from level to level. You travel between parts of town (most often) via subway. In the subway, you cannot kill or be killed; and it's mostly there to get you from one point to another and occasionaly move the plot. The problem is that, often, you'll complete a mission, then go back to the subway, then have to travel to another subway station, and then go to a new level - and god help you if you take the wrong subway or get off on the wrong platform. Each time you move from level to level there's about a minute or two loading. The point is, after you complete a mission, it can be five or ten minutes before you're back shooting stuff up. The pacing is maddening.
This game wasn't bad for renting. The story is mildly interesting and some of the gameplay was OK. But this game will soon be eclipsed by other games and I seriously doubt anyone will be playing this game in six months. | video-games_xbox |
Fallout 3 falls flat on its face. Wow, I wasn't really expecting this to happen... picked up the tin box special edition from my local gamestop, ran home to install, and get things going.
First few mintues were an immediate disbelief that I may have wasted $70 on the special edition (though the goodies that came with the special edition are kinda neat).
The graphics immediately looked sub-par, the voice acting was shabby, and the gameplay was just god awful.
I said "no biggie, cant wait to get into the wastelands"
After what seemed like a 25 minute waste of time, and a really poor intro, i finally made it out of vault 101.
I looked, expecting a breath taking surreal post-nuclear war enviornment in brillant detail.
I was so horribly wrong.
While the character models are strong, the rest of the environment looked a tad bit less graphical than STALKER. And STALKER graphics weren't even that impressive.
And on top of it all, after attempting to adjust to the control scheme, it just felt "lost" and kinda spread out all over in all sorts of annoying and inconvienent menus.
Even VAT was pretty pathetic, and doesn't add much interest into a game that as if it was a familiuar feeling of something I've allready played in Chernobyl, with less than average animations, graphics, story, etc.
I don't understand how things could have gone so horribly wrong with this game. More importantly, I have no idea how this game is getting the reviews it's gained, other than maybe the magazines were just desperate for some under-the-table payoff.
Your money would be far better spent on Farcry 2, Dead Space, or STALKER Clear Sky at this point.
And this was playing it on a ultra-high end gaming rig.
I'm sorry folks, and I'm more sorry to the folks who bought this just like me. If you've picked it up, do your self a good justice and just return it if the seal has not been broken.
not even a full 2 hours into this game, and it will become a $70 coaster. :( | video-games_xbox |
Fun for the first 15 hours. About 10 years ago, CoD4 started my affinity for console FPS gaming. It was the reason I bought a 360 and spent countless hours playing with my friends. MW2 then came out and ended up being my series favorite. Its also the game that made me start caring about W/L and K/D stats competitively. I stayed loyal with the series through WaW and Black Ops. I put many hours into Blops, but I did it more as a chore than enjoyment as I felt the series was veering into a same-y direction. I skipped MW3, Blops 2 and Ghosts as they felt unoriginal to me and lacked that special fun feeling present in MW 1 & 2.
After watching many gameplay videos and reading different reviews, I decided to rent Advanced Warfare from Redbox. I played the first few campaign missions and about 6-7 hours worth of multiplayer. I was very impressed and ended up buying it here on Amazon. The campaign seemed interesting enough to get me to complete it soon (which is more than I can say for other CoDs personally), but where I mostly spend my FPS time is in multiplayer like many.
Im very happy with the direction Sledgehammer has taken AW. The Exo Suit adds a lot of combat versatility to the point where 1v1 engagements can have an epic feel with the maneuvering possibilities. Kill streaks don't have the ridiculously discouraging snow ball effect they started having after MW2, and with the Exo Suit verticality, camping seems to be drastically lower in AW. This last one makes me very happy as the increasing camping was a large reason for me leaving CoD originally.
I do have some concerns. Servers can be laggy probably 1 out of every 3 or 4 games on average. However, the game just came out. Remember BF4's launch? I am a major BF fan, and I can tell you AW's launch is smooth as butter compared to BF. There is talk about the lack of dedicated servers being the main issue, but overall the lag was not enough to make me stop playing.
Another concern is how quickly each gun runs out of ammo. It's common for a magazine of 30 to run out in a matter of seconds during full-auto. What this means is that poor aim in an engagement or when an opponent is Exo-maneuvering will likely get you punished hard. Similarly, melee is horrible right now. It only works if you are literally right up on another players face/body. I wouldn't even use melee at all until they patch it. Just stick with hip fire for now.
But my issues are not greater than what I like about AW. The map designs go very well with the Exo Suit and actually remind me of some of MW2's. The game is definitely fast and it is not as easy to score a high K/D consistently, but kills feel very rewarding overall.
Haven't had this much fun with CoD since MW2. Im glad Sledgehammer managed to bring back that arcade fun-ness back with Advanced Warfare. If it's been a few years since you played CoD, I'd recommend giving this a shot or at least renting it from Redbox. If you liked Titanfall, then I would highly encourage you to try out Advanced Warfare.
EDIT:
Advanced Warfare started off great. Once I hit the 15-hour mark, lag & latency issues made themselves present. After hitting 20 hours, I realized they would not be going away. Even after checking in every few weeks, rubber banding, getting killed in one-shot and getting killed after entering corners all were regular occurrences. I docked my review down by 2-stars due to these permanent issues. | video-games_xbox |
Xbox One. I wanted to create a guide to help those interested in purchasing an Xbox One, since there are so many bundles, and offers change constantly. I'll attempt to keep this up to date as the bundles change. This is NOT a comparison to Playstation 4 or Wii U.
A short list of features that may interest you, shared by all Xbox Ones (more details can be found in product descriptions and Microsoft sites) -
HDMI pass through. You can hook up an HDMI device to the back of an Xbox One to view the content from that device without changing inputs or leaving the X1 interface. This allows for split screen viewing and if a cable box or the official TV tuner, you can view the channel guide, watch TV, and set recordings.
It is backwards compatible with some Xbox 360 games. This is great for those with backlogs (like me...) or those who want to revisit finished games without having another console plugged into the wall/TV. In the fall, owners of publisher approved disc or digital 360 games will be able to play them emulated on the X1. Some X1 games also include their 360 precursors with purchase for play on the X1 in case you missed them. Rainbow Six Siege includes both R6 Vegas Xbox 360 games, for example. List of games and other info here -[...]
It will stream content to Windows 10 devices.
Xbox Live Gold now applies to households instead of individuals; meaning that multiple accounts on the same console can have access to the same features but have differing account restrictions (I.E. parental controls). So you can let your kids play Garden Warfare online, but not Gears of War.
External USB 3.0 storage. This is great because, 1) you don't need to open the console and replace a hard disc to add storage, just plug in and the X1 will format the drive, 2) even disc-based games have compulsory installs and can be upwards of 50GB each, eating storage space quickly, 3) external drives can be spacious and cheap, and last but not least, 4) USB 3.0 is actually faster than the internal hard disc interface. This means that a game on an external drive will load faster than one on the internal drive, usually by a significant amount.
The bundles-
The current bundles include a newer controller that has a standard 3.5mm audio jack built in and output both game and chat audio through it. Legacy consoles shouldnt be expected to be widely available at the suggested price (and some I haven't included, due to their rarity at this point). You may have better luck at other outlets finding the legacy consoles (Microsoft Store, Dell, various brick-and-mortar stores). There are no functional differences. All bundles include a controller, HDMI cable, chat headset (with exceptions), and a 14 day Xbox Live Gold trial membership (paid $60/year service to play online and download the Games with Gold, a monthly rotation of full games you're free to download and keep (forever for 360 games and as long as you have Live Gold in active subscription for X1 games).
Current bundles (with rating based on what you get for the money. Star and letter ratings are intended for the suggested price listed next to the bundle, not whatever current prices are.) -
Amazon is presently offering a $30 gift card with all bundles, so be sure to select that product version (Microsoft Store is offering additional games and $75 gift card, FYI).
Rainbow Six Siege 1TB bundle. $399. Includes console, new controller, disc version of the title game and downloads of the Rainbow Six Vegas Xbox 360 games, with a chat headset. A new class-based multiplayer shooter with the excellent tactical precursor campaigns. A good bundle. A- rating.
Name your Game 500GB bundle. $349. Includes the console, new controller, a download of one of Forza 6, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Gears of War Ultimate, or Rare Replay, and no chat headset. The choice of games is nice and the selections are high-quality, but 500GB will fill very quickly at this point, and without a headset or bonus games, this is one of the lesser value bundles. B- rating.
Xbox One Elite 1TB bundle. $499. Includes a console with a 1TB hybrid SSD and hard disc for quicker load times for the items you access the most and the Elite controller, which has replaceable/customizable sticks, buttons, and triggers for the professionals or tinkerers, and DOES include a chat headset with a matching black and silver color scheme. While the internal storage on this will be better than the standard HDDs in other X1s, the performance increase PROBABLY won't match external USB3.0 drives, due to the continued use of the SATA interface. There's little information about the size of the SSD partition and many hybrid drives don't allow you to choose what content is on which partition. The elite controller has been released to wide acclaim (modifiable professional controllers can easily go for twice as much), but is scarce on its own at present. If you want the best/most storage and best controller out of the box, this is the bundle for you, but you won't get any games with it. B+ rating. Please note that the bundle with two controllers does not include a second Elite controller, but a regular wireless one.
Kinect 500GB Bundle - $399. Includes 500GB console, the Kinect camera, a chat headset, controller, and three Kinect-focused game downloads: Dance Central Spotlight, Kinect Sports Rivals and Zoo Tycoon. Finally another Kinect bundle! The X1 UI is made better and more easily navigable with the Kinect, and there are fun, energetic games to be played with it. A rating. Great for those who want to move and enjoy motion and voice controls, but it has little storage. Bundle with FIFA on separate page is even better for the same price.
Holiday 1TB Bundle - $399. Includes 1TB console, Gears of War Ultimate Edition disc (as well as all 360 Gears games as downloads if you play online before the end of the year), Rare Replay disc, and Ori and the Blind Forest game download, the new controller, and doesn't appear to include a headset. A rating. Something(s) for everyone in this bundle, with 36 games included.
Halo 5 Limited Edition 1TB bundle. $499. Includes custom console with Halo sounds, and custom controller, with the Halo 5 Limited Edition (steelcase, guardian figure, game download and add-on content). Why a limited edition would come without a physical game is beyond me... It may not bother some, but it will upset many. This is a higher premium than the Forza 6 bundle (charging an extra $100 for an extra $40 package). For Halo aficionados/console collectors only. C rating. Bundle with Forza Horizon 2 on separate page is a B rating.
Gears of War 500GB bundle (also in white). $349. Includes Gears of War Ultimate Edition download. This 500GB model includes the new controller, but does not include a headset. B- rating. This is the most discounted bundle in sales and has many other offers with it, if you can catch them.
Legacy bundles-
Fallout 4 1TB bundle - $399. Includes 1TB console, Fallout 4 game confirmed to be a disc (!), a download of the Xbox 360 version of Fallout 3, and a chat headset. B+ rating. Two open-world RPGs for grownups.
Rise of the Tomb Raider 1TB bundle - $399. Includes 1TB console, downloads of Rise of the Tomb Raider, DLC, and its predecessor, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, and doesn't appear to include a headset. Releases November 3rd. B+ rating. The Tomb Raider reboot from 2013 was pretty good and I expect the sequel is even better, but I haven't tried it yet. Great for adults who love action adventure.
Lego Movie 500GB bundle - $349. Includes 500GB console and the Lego Movie Videogame and no headset, apparently. C+ rating. Game is a cheap one and good for kids, but little value in this bundle compared to others.
FIFA and Madden 16 1TB bundles. $399. (I think these are being phased/sold out) I'm grouping these together because other than the type of football you prefer, they are the same. Both include either the latest Madden NFL or FIFA soccer game download and a year of EA access, a paid ($30/yr) service which allows Xbox One users early access to EA releases, extended demos with progress that can be saved if a full game is purchased, discounts on EA games, and free access to the Vault, currently 14 full games. Great if you like EA's games. A- for each.
Forza 6 1TB Bundle. $399. Custom Forza-inspired console with racing sounds and custom (new, with 3.5mm audio jack) controller, and download code for Forza 6 and extra content, and a chat headset. A- rating, though some may not like the custom design and sounds.
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5.0 out of 5 starsCan't get any more AWESOME
ByTiffany Crookeron September 11, 2015
Platform: Console + One Controller|Edition: Gears of War 500GB Bundle
The price for the system and the add ons its totally worth it for sure, and love how you don't need to hold anything when using the Kinnect.xbox-one-in-boxXbox One we picked out, came with a game, controllers, remote, Kinnect and some freebies inside the box. It took about an hour to hook up all the cords to the TV, sign up and sign in to the system to find all our 360 information into the new one. Once it was all hooked up an hour later, we were watching TV and Movies before we knew it. Since the Xbox one is part of our daily life for everything its on a lot during the day. We have Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, our TV all hooked up to our system, and only a touch of a remote and gets us to where we need to go. Of course we have found some bugs in the system, where it glitches, the Kinnect voice would random turn on, or would go to the main menu during a movie or TV show. But other than those little bugs the system is great, turns on fast, only sign in when you restart it, holds tons of movies, game achievements and memory. Love the turn off system after an hour of no use, so it saves power. The talk to the Xbox is still a bit buggy too, as it will send you on a chase before you get where you wanna go. Luckily we just turn off the kinnect and we are golden. We bought a lot of movies and games on the system, and love how we don't need discs anymore so thats a bonus, cause I hate a million discs lying around. Love how the box is all touch, and handles any types of fingers easy. I love the Xbox One, we used to do PlayStation but after they got hacked while back, and was offline for endless amount of months, we chucked that system to a friend. The system offers a wide collection of games for adults and kids. Right now Lego games and Skylanders are huge in our house, and we just bought the new skylander game that is coming out in Oct. | video-games_xbox |
This game is sooo typical of Bungie. Let me first of all say that I am a mac user, which means I've probably played every single game that Bungie ever made, starting with Pathways into Darkness and Marathon, which were mac only, to Marathon 2, Marathon Infinity, and then the whole Myth series.
This game represents all of the great things Bungie was known for back then, which makes me immensely happy because when Microsoft bought them I was afraid they would screw it all up.
All of Bungie's games are known for demanding strategy. You can't always just run in, guns blazing to get the missions done. You need to work around the perimeter and pick off a few guys at a time, gain the advantage of the higher terrain, and be effective with explosives when the crowd of enemies gets too thick. Halo continues this fine tradition.
Bungie also has always pushed the envelope with the game engines, and Halo, likewise, is totally beautiful. Also the physics model is very realistic. Driving the various vehicles in this game is mad fun.
Finally, Bungie has always been known for AWESOME multiplayer, and thats where this game really shines. If you can get a bunch of Xboxes and link them together, you absolutely must play this game with a ton of other people. It is just simply amazing. Halo could be multiplayer only and still have won the game of the year award.
My only complaint? Well, another characteristic of Bungie is that they love mythical games, ie. dwarves and wizards or aliens and spaceships. The game is really good looking, but there needs to be another level where you play in a human city or something, because the spaceship motif kind of gets old. (Keep in mind that all 3 marathon games take place in space ships or other planets, so maybe thats why I think Bungie needs a change of pace.) Also, the game drags real bad in a couple of places...it just gets monotonous.
Still, definitely five stars and definitely a must own, esp. since its now only $30. | video-games_xbox |
Great game. 'Nuff said. Well, I can see that alot of people here like this game. I for one also liked it... I'm 15 and i'm trying to sound smart, so bare with me here. Anyhow, i'm not a Star Wars fan, but I know the concept of the whole thing. Jedis, war, chaos (Heh heh heh..). Now, when I bought this game, the clerk told me "the controls are a bit awkward, but you'll get use to it in about half an hour or so". I come home saying "Aw jeez, i'm going to have trouble with this." I mean, the store clerk looked like he knew his games. Ah ha! But I guess I was wrong. I picked up the controller and bashed my way through all of the levels. I found that the enemies were hard, and I was glad of that. I mean, almost all the first person games that I play, I walk in a room and like.. Well, it looks like I could just beat the dude down with the butt of my gun. Which I usually do, and it's very very fun. The weapon system is good, but very limited. The graphics are amazing. The way that I would kick a carcass across the floor, just by walking towards it amused me.. (It was quite fun.. Just walking back and forth on a carcass.) I liked the fact that each of your squadmates had his own personality. The convorsations that go back and forth between them would keep.. Well, not many people entertained, but I sure kept me up. When me and my squadmates die, it's not them to blame. It's you. You're the squad leader, and you're to blame if an operation goes wrong. You make the wrong choices, and lead them into wrong areas. While I usually breached the doors to get through the missions, there were times when I just sliced the panel. You were supplied with options that were right and wrong. Some areas where you would plant your squadmates for sniping positions were useless. They were just put there so that you'd think you need to use it. I'm glad that jedi's weren't stuck into this game. I for one, didn't really ever like controlling them. I would reccomend anybody to play this game, if you can put up with just playing the campaign. If you like a Counter Strike style of game play.. Well, the way they move is very similar to Counter Strike. Only online, during campaign, the actions are very realistic. (LIke when your squad mates beat down a droid or a Geonoshion). So this is what I give this game.
Fun Factor: 4/5
The game was fun, but it wasn't 'that' fun. The multiplayer stunk, but the campaign ruled.
Controls: 5/5
No problems controlling them.
Graphics: 4/5
They were good, but they weren't great. Some crates or Wookie Carcass' were just repeated.
Originality: 3/5
It was very much like Halo, it was twisted a bit. And the squad control has also been done, just not in the way Republic Commando had made it.
Overall: BOO YAH!
Sincerely,
The 2nd smart guy to post a review. ;)
(It.. It's a joke..) | video-games_xbox |
Good, but a few Problems. I had this game pre-ordered for a while, I got the special edition because I wanted to play the old school versions of "Ultimate Doom" and "Doom 2." Back in August, when the PC version came out, I played it over at some friends houses. I wanted to get it for myself, but they said that even relatively up-to-date computers had problems running it. I owned an XBOX, and I decided to wait the extra nine months. Right now, I can say that the game was and wasn't worth the wait. First the good:
1. Excellent graphics, possibly one of the best drawn games on the XBOX.
2. The sound seems to have improved from the previous version on PC. The sound made when you fire the machine gun has a much better pitter-patter noise shall we say. Also, when you hold the PDA, it goes quiet, so that way you can hear the audio logs better.
3. Keeps you on edge and interested.
4. Simple and praiseworthy gameplay. Just 'run and gun.'
5. Online play
Before I go into the problems that I had with the XBOX version, I'd like to remind everyone about what id software said about the XBOX version. They said that at some parts of the game, the enemies would be different than in the PC version. For example, in the Hell level. When you enter the room where the gate seals behind you after you walk across that floating bridge, in the PC version a Mancubus comes out and fights you. In the XBOX version it's a Hellknight. But I've got no problem with different enemies. Todd Hollenhead said that because of the memory configuration on the XBOX, that "Doom 3" for XBOX would be a bit shorter. I'd say that's an understatement!
The BAD:
1. Much shorter game because of all the deleted parts from the PC version.
2. Lots of missing cutscenes, such as the one in the PC version when Bravo Team get ambushed by the Imp. There's a radio transmission of it, but it would have been much better to see it.
3. Nine months is a LONG time.
I wonder if they thought to put Doom 3 on two disks because then XBOX gamers would have been able to see all of the PC version. Oh well!
Overall, id software deserves praise for this game. I just hope that they keep the Expansion more intact. | video-games_xbox |
Great product with just a flaw: The grips. I received my controller just a few days ago and while I can't vouch yet for its durability, it feels sturdy. Plastic does NOT feel cheap and while the controller is on the light side, again, it does not feel cheap. All the plastic pieces feel of good quality and that makes me happy.
The neck of the sticks is of polished aluminum (I think) and it seems it will not grind the plastic of the controller on contact. On the contrary, feels like it glides and, to my perception, this makes turning a bit easier. I feel like I am able to turn better in Gears of war 4 and aim better where I'm dashing in Furi (the two games I've tested it with... Oh, I forgot Titanfall 2 but more on that later)
The cross is, in my opinion, awesome. Is not for fighting games since each direction is a separate button but for any other game it gives a more solid feeling. They feel sturdier than the cross on the stock Xbox One controller. Bumpers and triggers are just as good as the ones in the stock controller but where the Razer Wildcat really shines is in the ABXY, the 4 Extra buttons and the green stick caps.
ABXY are highly responsive, they are like mouse clicks with a really short traveling distance but do not be fooled, they feel like a nice quality mouse clicks. Same with the new buttons which are also made of aluminum. The position of the new buttons feels right on spot. In Titanfall 2 I have the LS click mapped to the lower right (new) button so I can start running without having to press the stick. And the RS click is mapped to the opposite button so I can melee while running without risking to move my aim because I had to press RS. The other two buttons are mapped to Reload (X) and Change Weapon (Y) and now I don't have to take my thumb away from the stick to perform this tasks. This other two buttons however are a bit tricky to reach, you need to change your grip a little bit but the key word here s *a little*, you will feel comfortable once you find that grip. In fact, I feel it's a better way to hold the controller.
Green caps are funny because they are a really bright green, but I feel they look good. Some people hate the color, I like it :) They have a tight fit and do not feel or look like they will pop out during playtime. They improve the grip and are easy to put on once you get the technique which is this: Turn them inside out and place them on top of the stick, then just return them to the original form (scales up, obviously). It's like putting a sock haha.
Now... the reason I took away one star: the grips.
They feel good on my hands but they are lacking. Second day of use, they started to peel. Only a millimeter but yes, to peel and even worse, is not the whole sticker, the glue part is stuck to my controller while the green part is starting to peel. Still too early to say how long they will last but yeah... starting to peel. Not only that, while the right sticker has the draws on it to help you with the position, the left one does not and you have to guess which one is the best position to place it. Is not that hard... but it is unnecessary. It's SO SO SO easy to make mistakes (I recommend you to search in youtube Paul Acevedo's review to see how bad things can go if you're not extra careful). I wish they were easier to remove and reapply... or that you had one or two replacements but nooooooooooooo, you only have ONE chance to apply them so be extra careful when applying them... or just skip this. My ghess is that the best way to apply them is to ignore the logo and stick them following the controller lines.
In conclussion: Is it worth 75$ Yes, I do wish the grips were made differently, maybe like a green rubber skin or something because, honestly, the stickers are a bad solution... but 75$... the stock controller is something between 50 and 65 so for 10-25 extra bucks you get better buttons and extra buttoons. I think it's a good deal. (minus the sticker grips) | video-games_xbox |
It's fun, though it still needs work. We love watching Wipeout and were really excited about getting this game. We do like playing it, but a few flaws really take away from the fun.
Character tracking with kinect is sometimes hit or miss, especially when playing with a family of different sized people. Ranging from adult to 4-years, sometimes we need to adjust the kinect between players.
Several times, and in different areas of the course, our players got stuck in a wall or obstacle that they're not supposed to. For instance we jumped to a platform, and we got stuck halfway IN it with our legs being sunk into it (an impossible situation). It's an example of the game not knowing the correct boundaries. Nothing you can do can get you unstuck - you can go backward, jump, run, climb, or anything, nor can you skip the obstacle. This means you have to quit the game and start over! This happens too often and in more than one course, so it's not just an obscure one-time glitch.
Related to getting stuck, sometimes obstacles will hit you when you're not even close to them. and example we saw was a rotating arm hitting you well before you've even come close to it. Another flaw is sometimes the body control motions just can't respond fast enough for you to get through the course without trying something 10 times. I realize part of the game is impossibly hard courses where you're definitely going to be thrown off course, but when the controls malfunction or the gameplay simply doesn't allow a fighting chance and you just have to move randomly until it spits you out of the obstacle, it gets more frustrating than fun.
Ok, so those are the biggest negatives, and beyond that, it's a fun game. It's almost as funny as the show, though it would have been nice if Kinect took some snapshots or audio as your player gets wiped out. I'd also have liked a quicker option to skip the 5-angle replays for each wipeout.
We don't mind taking turns - that's how the show basically is for the most part, so simultaneous multiplayer isn't really missed compared to being able to set the game up for 4 total players.
I like the various difficulty levels, and it was a hit when we unlocked the announcers as playable characters. This is currently our go-to Kinect game between Adventures, Raving Rabbids and Wipeout. If the controls worked as well as the game is fun, it could've easily been a 5-star title for me, but with the multiple troubles we've had, I feel like the fun factor is 4-stars, but with 2-star controls it earns an "OK" rating of 3 stars. | video-games_xbox |
Turtle Beach: Great At Headsets, Bad At Anatomy. The good: The sound and voice quality is great on these, I never had any interference from other wireless devices, the dual-pairing blue tooth is pretty handy, the pre-installed audio presets work great but the ability to make your own is also nice for those like myself that are pretty picky about sound, and the battery life actually isn't all that bad (if you're not using the blue tooth).
The bad: It takes a PHD to get the chat dongle and the headset to pair. When you do get it to pair, or pair it with your phone (which was surprisingly easy), it drains the batteries pretty quick. If you mute the microphone for more than ten seconds it makes this annoying "BING!" every few seconds to remind you people can't hear you breathing awkwardly into the mic while you concentrate on the game. Despite their being a sound or voice announcement for every single little other thing you do the "audible warning" they mention for when the batteries are low does not exist, so one second you're laughing at your friends trash talk in privacy, and the next the tv is teaching the seven year old in the next room curse words. The worst part about this headset, however, is actually wearing it. I don't have an abnormally small head or abnormally high ears, but with the head strap adjusted to the shortest it can go and sitting directly atop my head, the top edge of the foam ear cups was at the middle of my ear. The headset is FAR too heavy to sit the cans in proper position and just leave the head band floating above your head, so you'll have to do like me and rig up some sort of secondary padding under the strap. Even then it was painful to wear for long, as the positioning of the cans makes it so that you have to wear the head band at the front of your hairline for them to sit over your ears properly, and at any other angle the pads bend the cartilage of your ear and rub it against the hard, unpadded surface around the actual speaker.
After owning two other Turtle Beach headsets that were great, having this much trouble and finding this much lack of thought in the design of their most expensive and feature-packed Xbox headset has soured me on the company and I will be finding another brand to rely on after this. It's been a fun ride, TB, enjoy my wasted money. | video-games_xbox |
Stylistically impressive, but that's about it. Wreckless, stylistically, is one of the best-looking game I've played. When it came out in 2002, a few of the major game reviewing outlets were giving the game high praise, as though so mesmerized by the visuals they were unable to see that the game itself stunk. I admit, as I played through it I was stunned by the technical aspects of the game. It had nice lighting, beautiful filters, great-looking cars, and spectacular effects when you smashed into things. The whole city of Hong Kong was alive with people, traffic (light or heavy) and buildings with flashing signs. Not many games, even today, can boast such visuals. The game had a unique visual style that lifted it above and beyond those simply concerned with realism. If I were to sit down and put this in my Xbox today, it would be to admire the nice visuals, not to enjoy the gameplay.
Any enjoyment you get out of the gameplay revolves around the game's graphics. You crash into other cars and smile at the destruction. You fire the tank's cannon and watch as the cannon shell lights up its surroundings while hurtling towards its target, and then comes the visual bang when the explosion scatters cars and objects everywhere. Missions essentially boil down to destroying objects and/or cards, traveling at high speeds, and even some wacky ideas. The game is more action-adventure than racing game. After the first few missions, which are quite fun, you begin to realize it doesn't really matter that the game looks so great. Frustration begins to set in as you set out on missions to collect TNT or when you come across platforming section (yes, on a car) in order to take pictures of specific locations. Also, sadly, the missions are timed. What could easily make the game more enjoyable is a mode that allows you to drive around Hong Kong just to admire the game's massive city. Instead, the missions confine you to very small areas within the game.
After eleven or twelve hours of gameplay time, you probably won't put this back in your Xbox. There are different difficulties to play through, but after you've beaten a mission on normal it's not all that difficult on hard. The game was later released for the PS2 and Gamecube, with double the missions, more cars to unlock, missile attachments, pedestrians to run over, and a huge degradation in graphics. Without the great visuals, no matter what else is added, the game is just not worth it. | video-games_xbox |
Great headphones. I bought this headset about a month or so ago, and I'm very pleased with it. Sound is great in NHL 12 and Battlefield 3. In NHL 12, the bass is great, especially when you're throwing body checks. In Battlefield, the positional audio really comes in handy for determining where your enemies are firing from, but it's still difficult to pinpoint their exact location, i.e. I couldn't immediately tell whether someone was firing at me from my left (East) or from my left and slightly forward (Northeast). That's a relatively minor complaint, as it didn't really affect my gameplay experience that much, but it's worth noting for hardcore shooter fans. I'm pretty sure that issue can be fixed by adjusting delay times anyway, but I haven't had a chance to play around with those settings.
I have two other complaints with this headset. One, there are too many wires. Two, the LEDs on the inline remote and the cups of the headset always stay on unless you unplug the power cord that connects the headset to the decoder box. To me, when you power down the decoder box -- or whatever you want to call it -- all power to the headset should be cut off. For some reason, though, those LEDs stay on, and the inline remote actually gets a bit warm as a result. I don't know if there's any danger to this, but it just seems weird, almost like a design flaw.
I also got a chance to test the voice chat on Xbox Live, and it worked perfectly. I didn't get any complaints about my voice being garbled or anything, and I could hear all of my teammates just fine over the ambient game noise.
Overall, I love this headset, and it has completely replaced my Yamaha 5.1 HTIB. To me, the sound quality is much superior on this headset, which is pretty impressive considering the price. If you're a gamer on a budget who wants solid 5.1 sound but doesn't want to pay exuberant Turtle Beach prices, buy this headset. | video-games_xbox |
Modern Day Assassin's Creed. Its not the best looking game out there on the 360, in fact I was a bit disappointed because I can name several games that look better but lets put things into perspective! Watch Dogs was designed to push Next Gen Hardware to its limits, we basically got a watered down version.
First things first, the game comes with 2 discs and you need space in your hard drive to download the first disc (it may take you a few hours before you can play) So in some ways this game pushes the 360 to its limits! I have not noticed any load screens when traveling through the huge world. (except when you first start, and when you die)
Pros.
1. I lived in Chicago for 10 years and the game gave me moments of deja vu. I am not certain they got everything but they certainly got enough!
2. You actually get used to the graphics and after a while you start appreciating all the effort that went into the game.
3. The controls are tight, and the fighting is pretty good too. (Its mostly shooting, I like guns. But unfortunately you don't shoot anything until after you have played several hours)
4. The story is a bit weak to me, but I have only played 7 hrs. I put it as a pro because I have noticed a few conspiracies brewing.
5. gameplay wise I think they got everything in this game from what I can tell.
6. Hacking experience is not as fun as they have you believe, but its a cool experience when you start hacking a person, then a camera, then hacking stuff from your car without thinking about it.
7. Sneaking around is fun
8. From what I hear the story takes almost 40 hrs to finish but you could spend a 100 if you did all the side quests! ( I have put in 7 hrs and I am at 9 %)
Cons.
1. The driving! Its a bit arcadie but I honestly didn't mind. I drive all the time so I am not looking for some more in video games. You get used to the controls and everything is fine. It would have been great if you could play music from your hard drive in the radio though!
2. there really aren't any big cons. It would have been nice had they used real cars, etc. But most of the cons are nit picking.
I would give the game a 9 out of 10 so far. But that may change in the near future as I play some more. | video-games_xbox |
Isaac... Follow the Steps. When the original Dead Space came out, it was the new kid on the really, REALLY crowded block of mediocre survival "horror" games that were not even all that "horror-y". After impressing critics and fans alike for its amazing third person gameplay and being incredibly replayable, Dead Space 2 comes back to reclaim its throne of survival horror. But is it as good as the first one?
Dead Space 2 takes everything that was so good from the first game, fixes its few flaws (wonky stomp mechanic, no more!), adds more content, improves the already great graphics, and gets rid of the cheap jump scares and replaces them with truly disturbing scenarios involving Isaac's developing dementia.
Speaking of which, the story of Dead Space 2 now takes place several years after the original game on the floating city dubbed "The Sprawl." Throughout the game, Isaac is haunted by the events of the first while trying to figure out why the government won't leave him alone. His story of survival is a mature, detailed one; something many games that share the title "survival horror" lack.
The gameplay of Dead Space 2 is also very, very fun. The controls have been modified to be much friendlier to the player. You can now reload while not aiming your gun, melee enemies quicker, and use your telekinesis module as a weapon in itself for when ammo gets scarce (and on higher difficulties, IT WILL). This makes the overall game much more enjoyable, and it still has the New-Game+ feature, allowing you to play through the game again to find more advanced gear while also improving the gear you already had. This makes the 8-11 hour (varies depending on the difficulty) campaign much, much longer, and much more rewarding when you get the last suit in the game.
Dead Space 2 is a massive improvement over the already near perfect first game. Buy this game right away if you have any interest in horror. | video-games_xbox |
New look same result... Disapointment. I don't know why I allow myself each year to fall for the same garbage from EA. Each year they tell us the game is improved but usually it is nothing more than a glorified roster update. But it seems that the more time goes by without any competition for EA Madden continues to go down hill and this arcade game is the proof. They made a game that couldn't be further from the actual game itself. It's more of an arcade game than a simulation football game with real flow or connection to actual football. I've been playing madden since the early 90's and I played actual football at a semi pro level so I actually know the ins and outs of the game and let me tell you this game couldn't be further away from the real thing. And it is possible to make games look and feel life like and you don't have to look further than EA's fifa 12 and you'll see a much better finished product. You can clearly tell that they put a lot more time and effort into that game because they have a lot of competition so they cant sleep on the game like they do Madden.
Pros
Lighting and weather looks good and they finally improved online match making so you can actually play people online now...
Cons
Gameplay - Only word I can use to describe is childish... No longer about skill but who can find the best cheat blitz and unstoppable plays... Skill has been totally removed from the game itself.
Game speed - Michael Vick was caught from behind by a 350 pound lineman and Vick was running flat out but could not beat the guy to the corner... It feels like they're always running in the mud and speed is totally irrelevant and there is absolutely zero flow to the game you can basically only move straight ahead or diagonally so side stepping or "juking" is a total thing of the past.
Graphics are ok for a cartoon-ish looking arcade game but nothing about the game looks life like including players faces and bodies or movements or playing styles or reactions you name it, couldn't be further from the actual NFL.
Overall I gave the game 2 starts only because its football and nothing else. Stay away from this one and hopefully if enough people do stay away EA will either lose their exclusive rights to the NFL or start to make the game more realistic and less child's play.
PS, if you want the best sports simulation game with the best graphics and game play get anything 2K sports. NBA 2k12 will be one of the best selling sports games of all time and one of if not the best basketball game ever. | video-games_xbox |
Very playable, but needs improvement. I have owned and played every iteration of this game since 2004 but the one I kept playing was 2006 until my old original Xbox croaked. This version is by far the best since 2006. I have owned it for less than 2 weeks and I've already played three full seasons. There is a lot to like and an equal lot to dislike. I play on Heisman difficulty, so all commentary is based on that level.
The passing game is much improved. This is the first version I've played in a long time where the short passing game works and works well and as a result it does open up the long pass when the AI defensive backs stay shallow after successful short passing. The best improvement is that on sideline passes, the receivers actually make an effort to drag a foot instead of running straight out of bounds.
On the down side, the screen pass is useless. After hours of losing yards and getting the screens swatted and intercepted, I totally gave up on it. The interception "problem" persists on plays other than screen passes as well. I had to set the interception slider to 0 for it to keep it below 3 a game. Some have said the completion percentage is on the low side, but with heavy short passing, I was able to get about 65% for my QB by the second season with a lot of short passing. For some reason, no matter how good your offensive line is, you get pounded for sacks far more often than any previous version.
The run game is exceedingly difficult especially between the tackles. As with the passing game, even the best offensive line struggles to make holes for the RB. The only success I have is with toss plays and the occasional draw. The AI seems to cheat. Every time I call a run play, the FS & SS are right on the line. I audible out to a pass, and they drop back. I cancel the audible, and they are right back in the box. There also seems to be a lot more fumbling than versions past. I think some of my running problems are a result of my own skills and I will just have to learn to do better.
On the defensive side, the AI offense is immaculate. Even with the default AI sliders, a mediocre QB completes 70+% of their passes and I have had the 120th passing defense for three straight seasons, but a top 5 rushing defense simply because the AI offense passes 90% of the time. I can't seem to do much about it either. The AI offensive line gives the QB virtually all day to throw while my D-linemen keep falling down & getting up & falling down. There is an awful lot of no huddle offense. Just about any team you play against runs more no huddle in one game than Oklahoma and Texas do in a full season in real life - very unrealistic.
What I absolutely hate about this game is the play calling. You get about 12 seconds to choose a play and even if you know exactly what play you want to call, there just isn't enough time to scroll through as many as 40 for a formation. If you choose the playbook by play type instead of formation, it's even worse. If you select standard pass, you may have to scroll through as many as 65 plays. I don't know how this made it through beta testing unless they have robots for testers. I do like how you can pick a game strategy and for example make the D-line aggressive to jump more snaps or conservative to avoid off-sides.
Recruiting has changed quite a bit as well. Instead of picking a pitch, one is picked for you at random. That's frustrating because logically, once you've found the recruit's highest interests, you would want to pitch them repeatedly. Additionally, if you don't get your recruiting done in-season, the pickings are very slim in the post season. The caliber of recruits is horrible. I got the #29 FS in one season, and his overall skill was 43. *43*!!! My #16 punter rated a 44 when I checked him at FS. The skill progression is frustratingly low. EA will gladly improve that for you if you pay for it with one of their add-on packs. Also, there doesn't seem to be any in-season skill improvement at all.
During the game, you get points for strategy, sportsmanship, strategy, skill, etc. I am not quite sure what this is for, but the sportsmanship one gets on my last nerve. You get +10 every time you kick on 4th down, but if you throw a single pass in a blowout, you get a warning, and then even if you throw a pass for a first down on a 3rd & 15 from your own 10, you get -100 sportsmanship for "running it up". This feature simply will not tolerate any second half passing in a blowout. However, you can score a rushing touchdown under the same conditions on the last play of the game and not a peep on sportsmanship. In fact, I believe I once got a +10 sportsmanship for kicking a field goal on 4th & goal as time ran out when I was up by 30 points. Go figure...
The broadcast content has not changed since 2006 except for the removal of Lee Corso who was by far the most entertaining aspect of that, especially the jabs back & forth between him & Herbsreit. Many of the comments are totally off the ball. If you're up by 40 points in the 4th quarter and throw an interception, Kirk kindly tells you that you can't be doing that if you expect to win the game?!?!? We have Erin Andrews now, but if they paid her $50, they paid her $49.95 too much for what she brings to the broadcasting. All she does in Dynasty mode is give injury reports. When the game ends, you *cannot* skip past all the post game commentary, replays and still shots which seems to go on for minutes. I have tried pressing every button in on the controller - no dice.
Despite my criticisms, I still think this is the most improved and playable version in 5 years. It's well worth a try. They have already sent out at least one "game tuning" (an overlay patch) to fix some things and it is rumored that they will add some patches to fix some issues later on. I'm giving it 4 stars simply because it's very playable despite all the flaws. | video-games_xbox |
Functional, albeit with Problems. After using this product for over 100 hours of gameplay, I figured I would write a review. (I have owned this product since November of 2010.)
1. The transforming D-Pad, as stated in other reviews, does not exactly fix the problem of being too 'floaty'. However, I have found that in certain games (i.e., <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Borderlands/dp/B000WMEEB2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Borderlands</a>), I am better able to switch weapons while using the alternate D-Pad. I tended to not be able to depress the directions as efficiently as I can now with my old controller, but this may only be me. Just an observation.
2. The finish used on this controller reminds me of a nail file if scratched in the wrong way. It may not be a problem for some people, but it is different than the typical <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Xbox-360-Wireless-Controller-White/dp/B000B6MLUA/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Xbox 360 Wireless Controller - White</a>finish. (I personally would have preferred the traditional finish on this controller because nail files give me the willies.)
3. The paint has also chipped on my controller. Given the amount of time I have used it, it seems like this would be obvious, but the paint is coming off of the bottom of the controller where it rests on my entertainment center when not in use. They are rather small, but it is still bothersome. My other Xbox 360 controller (<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Xbox-360-Wireless-Controller-White/dp/B000B6MLUA/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Xbox 360 Wireless Controller - White</a>) did not have this issue.
4. The play and charge kit works as advertised, and there are no problems from what I can tell. It still holds an effective charge to this date. The battery pack fits quite snugly into the controller.
5. The color scheme is unique, and I enjoy it. Although if you are new to games, the monochromatic scheme may not be the best as many games have "quick-time events" which correspond with the traditional button colors on the controller. Though not a problem for a veteran gamer, children or individuals new to games may prefer the color coding on the buttons that traditional Xbox 360 controllers offer.
Conclusion
So, does it work? Yes. Does it resolve the problem of a 'floaty' D-Pad? No. This controller is an acceptable alternative with a sleek color scheme and unique transforming D-Pad. The paint has had chipping problems as well, and this is not from any type of abuse. Good, but not as good as it could have been. | video-games_xbox |
A must-have KOTOR-like game, but not without a few cut corners. A couple years ago I posted a late review of one of Bioware's previous classics, Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic (also a.k.a. KOTOR). I specifically emphasized in that review that KOTOR set the standard for this kind of genre. (I played Jade Empire, too, but honestly I didn't think Jade Empire is worth comparing to Mass Effect because of the setting differences.)
I've been playing Mass Effect for a few nights now. I must say that I haven't been this engrossed in an Xbox game since KOTOR. As a genre and as an implementation, Mass Effect game is incredibly immersive and deep. It has just plenty of action to keep you motivated, while at the same time it makes you feel like you're realy playing a role in this virtual universe.
The graphics and sound are beyond incredible. Here's a game that really takes advantage of the full power of Xbox 360's hardware. Unlike some other games like Unreal Tournament 2007's rediculous bump mapping techniques, the usage of high-end graphics APIs are not over-blown to the point of being painful eyesores. Bioware's artists really did things right here. The screenshots don't lie. The game really looks that good, and with solid framerates, too, I've found.
I do find myself pulling my hair out, from time to time, with Mass Effect's "-isms". I just killed off a boss (Benezia) and it took me two nights, but that was because it consisted of 50% waiting on "loading", 30% waiting on the dialog and cutscene sequence to re-play (even with hitting [x] over and over again to skip dialog, but there's no way to skip cutscenes), and only about 20% of the time was actual gametime getting my butt kicked. Indeed, the game is, for the most part, fun and immersive. It's just that there are occasional roadblocks like these that make me want to hurl my controller at my TV. I get scared during these times that I'm going to find myself giving up on the game altogether, which I have been known to do from time to time when a boring roadblock cannot be passed for the same stupid reasons. Fortunately, every roadblock is passable, it just might take some exploration.
There are also a few bugs in the game, namely my player keeps getting stuck. This especially happens when I hold the 'A' key, which lets me see past the right side of the player and can speed up the run speed when in a fight. I've gotten stuck in room corners in this way, and on bridges.
The "choose your own adventure" bits don't *really* show up until a few hours into the game, when you get commanding access to a ship and can navigate the galaxy (or galaxies?) freely. Until I reached that point, I was skeptical; it seemed to be more like Guild Wars (on a rail) than like World of Warcraft (go anywhere, at any time).
The science fiction ideas in the game feel original yet seem to find inspiration from all kinds of sources, modern and old, that have been inspirations in other games and media -- EVE Online and Stargate (with the jump gates), Star Wars, KOTOR and Jedi knights (rogue == dark side), StarCraft (Zerg, Terran), Firefly/Serenity (Reapers, mind control), and countless sci-fi books. Somehow it all meshes together to make a very clean story so as to give the player of Mass Effect a pretty original and fulfilling experience -- not the best story in the world but definitely a B+ (good). What matters is the immersion, which is A-grade. | video-games_xbox |
Great game but flawed in places it advertises for. Having played Dead Rising: Case 0, I fell in love with the updated game mechanics over the original "Dead Rising".
Case 0 is a prequal to this game and bridges the gap, in a sense, between DR1 and DR2.
Playing DR2 is a lot of fun but can be frustrating at times. Like to play Co-Op? Better hope you have friends who do too because otherwise you will be stuck in near limbo waiting to find someone to play with.
"What? No one plays online?". No, they do. It's just most of your attempts to join a game will be rejected by the other player. So you end up spending 1-2 minutes waiting for the game engine to search for a game. Then you can spend anything from 30 seconds to 3 minutes waiting for the 'host' to accept or deny you. 8 times out of 10 you will be denied. This is the major flaw for "Co-Op" in this game. And really, who wants to spend 15+ minutes just trying to find a game that someone will or will not allow you into? On the flip side, yes you can host your own game but as of this writing (and since the game was released) I have yet to encounter another soul joining.
However, do not be discouraged by this as the single player can be just as fun. Thankfully the AI is more intelligent than in part 1. They'll actually follow and fight alongside you, etc.
This is essentially a newer version of part 1 in the exception that instead of taking place in a mall, you now take place in a small "city". In this you will find streets, walkways, and lots of buildings.
In addition, the world is almost completely open to you at the start. You can just run around and killing zombies until the main storyline expires (or you are killed).
And did we forget the weapons? Never before have you been given so many creative ways to thrash the living daylights out of zombies! Slap, poke, prod, electrocute, shoot, slice, run over, flatten, and numerous other methods to take down zombies.
Storyline is interesting and keeps the game fresh for multiple play-throughs because you are almost certainly not going to get the full storyline the first time through (mostly due to not making deadlines, skipping side quests, etc). Another nice part that adds to the re-playability is that even if you fail the main storyline and/or it expires, you can still continue playing until the time finally runs out or you die. This is another great way to continue leveling your character before you make another go at the main storyline again (ie starting over on the timeline).
If you love zombies, like being set in a world where almost anything can be used as a weapon, and like creative mayhem then you'll do yourself a favor and buy this game. | video-games_xbox |
Huge dissapointment for long awaited product. I was so excited to finally get the "product shipped" notice from amazon. I eagerly awaited my controller with nothing but high hopes based on all video and written reviews ive seen. But, as my the title says, what a dissapointment!
Mechanical Problems:
1. The face buttons (A, B, X, Y) are smaller, and the microswitches that operate them don't feel responsive enough.
2. Both Trigger buttons are angled and extend "up and out". (So if you play shooters it takes longer to press and fire your weapon and almost eliminates that quick trigger finger for single shot guns in addition to controlled fire for automatics) Now you have to adujust your index fingers to stretch out a bit more. Not a big deal at first, but after a while youll feel the strain.
3. The addition of 2 extra bumpers takes up what little room we normally have between R & L trigger buttons / R & L bumper buttons. Accidental bumper presses are inevitable, escpecially if you don't have tiny, adolescent fingers!
4. Unless you have all other accesories like headset or extra controller charging cables wireless, then get ready for an extra 15 feet of cable mess!
5. THE MOST ATROCIOUS THING about this controller is the D-Pad. What a horrible way to make this section of the controller! Sony may be the only ones who got this one right so far. Individual directional buttons are a good idea...but NOT when the buttons are bigger and extend so far up from the base of the controller. NOT good for the fighting game fans....AT ALL! When you roll your finger from, lets say, down to right you get this clunky, impeded feel that feels almost sticky. They should of made the D-pad microswitch operated like the face buttons.
My major gripe?
Razer toook far too long to develop this controller. WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE TESTING PHASE? Did they not see these obvious problems? Hopefully the next version will address these issues. Until then if your looking into another controller, just invest in a the brand new Microsoft versions that are out now. They a bit more expensive but work great. | video-games_xbox |
Bad Graphics? That is ridiculous! Incredible game for RPG fans. I have to start with a rant against those that have been bashing this game for the graphics:
As mentioned in other posts, we veteran gamers seem to know what goes in to making a game and what makes a great game. I began playing games on an Atari and graduated to the original Nintendo and have upgraded every Nintendo console over the years, before adding the xbox 360 to my collection when my game library left me hungry for more than Nintendo offered. I have enjoyed Pong damnit,Kid Icarus, Super Mario Bros, and appreciated great games as they grew in their graphic ability over the years. But graphics are not much more than a technological bonus to a game and certainly does not determine if a game sucks.
Aside from the fact that graphics do not make a game, for god's sakes, the graphics are above average in Dragon Age; what the hell are some people thinking when they say the graphics suck?! If all you know is Resident Evil 5, Mass Effect, Modern Warfare 2, and such, maybe I can try to understand that you are spoiled by excellent and almost flawless graphics. But even those games known for their graphic luster do not surpass the graphics of this game to the extent that people should bash it. These gaming newbs poor reviews are frustrating to read because it is obvious they have not been playing games for very long, and their opinions are biased and unbelievably inaccurate.
This game is a one-of-a-kind and mature medieval RPG that will grip you and whisk you into to the world of Dragon Age. Hours will pass like minutes and you will enjoy yourself immensely, however, that is assuming a few things:
-You have to appreciate role playing games that emphasize a deep storyline and at times put the action on hold. If you know what it is to have played a game that left you feeling like a different person (Final Fantasy series, other Bioware titles, etc) you will immediately appreciate the storyline in this game. At times it feels as though there is too much dialogue and you might find yourself getting impatient, but you will realize that you are the game, you make moral decisions and form the character that you become. If you like run-and-gun action flicks for games, this is not your choice. If you like deep, thought-provoking games that invoke feeling and emotion, this is your huckleberry.
-You have to be open-minded to adapt to Bioware-style games from final fantasy style and other traditional RPG's, if you haven't already experienced what Bioware games feel like.
There are some occasional audio gliches in this game, like when the character you are talking to speaks a previous statement, even though his lips and the optional subtitles are saying different things. But it has corrected itself in a couple of statements whenever it happened.
The battle can seem repetitive if you don't learn the party commands and get a feel for the controls and menu options for presetting your computer controlled party members.
Other than that, I cannot find any negatives with this game although I am not picky when I begin to enjoy a work of art. Bioware has made a masterpiece with this one. | video-games_xbox |
X-Box Support. I've just been on the phone with X-Box support for more than an hour, in an attempt to resolve a pair of outstanding issues with my X-Box 360. The first was that after a successful licence, my DLC was still not functional without a connection to live. I was told this issue would take up to a week to correct and to be completely honest, I don't care about that.
What I DO care about, is my console's hardware issues. This console is a refurbished console, as one would expect my first had a lovely red ring of death at the beginning of the year and took two weeks to be replaced. I was unhappy, but not adamantly so. The console they sent me as a replacement, however, has a much greater outstanding issue. The disc drive has taken to scratching my discs and locking up the console with startling regularity. My first email to X-Box Support, on March 19. I received a reply on March 20, asking me to answer a series of questions about the issues. I did, and sent a reply on March 22. I was then sent a reply on March 23, suggesting that I restart the console, make sure that it is well ventilated, and that I clear the cache. I'm not an expert, but when discs are being scratched and the disc drive is making unhealthy noises, I am normally led to believe that is a hardware difficulty that cannot be resolved through the means suggested in the reply of March 23.
As the date neared my refurbished warranty's expiration date of 4/19/2010, I called X-Box support directly on April 14 and requested an immediate repair order. Due to the destructive nature of the fault and the fact that my console's warranty was quite near expiration, I asked that the label be shipped to me post-haste. I have not received any shipping label, and my console's repair request has subsequently been cancelled. If I'd like the issue that I reported more than a month into my warranty fixed, I must now pay them one hundred dollars.
I'm not sure about anyone else, though from what I've read and personally experienced, this is about the level of customer service one can expect to receive from X-Box Support. I post this as a warning to any who might be considering the purchase of an X-Box 360 in the near future, or for anyone who has yet to experience the joy of X-Box Support. You're in for a special kind of treat, when the time inevitably comes. | video-games_xbox |
2 Epic 2 Say. My Experience:
I recently got this game as a gift from my parents, and because at the time I had never seen the movies, I waited until I saw them to play it. When I turned on my old xbox, and pressed the start button, I couldn't have been more pleased. This is the game the super-exceeds Enter the Matrix. I still have not finished the game, but from what I have seen....Mind Blown.
Story line:
So far, the video game has followed the plot of the movie exactly. Everything from the escape in the office at the start, to the training and focus in the middle. The clips from the actual movies themselves help with this feature. Tie-ins are great and, I almost believe that after playing the game, if you picked choices right, you wouldn't have to watch the movies. There are some points where the game wavers from the story line, but it's because the player made a decision that did not line up with the movie, nothing more. Overall, excellent remake.
Gameplay:
The actual controls for the game are absolutely amazing! All the controls line up, without too many awkward reaches with your fingers. The button combos are simple to remember, but they have enough variety that no two fights will be the same. Battles alone are awesome, but when you enter the signature "focus" mode, they go beyond compare. With the exceeding variety of attacks, everything from a simple stun, to an arial killing blow, to a Hyper- frenzied stun attack, you will never be disappointed in the moves you use. You can run on walls, flip in the air as you slice and then land while shoving your sword into the guy behind you. You will pull stunts that even seemed impossible for a video game! Moving is relatively easy, although sometimes the camera gets stuck in awkward places. Also, the gun aiming, as others have mentioned, is a little off. It will get stuck on the floor sometimes, as well as not locking on to the next enemy after killing the first one. It's easy to understand what the game is telling you, due to a well positioned HUD, and clear speech. Other than that one minor glitch however, gameplay will make your jaw drop, I know mine did, literally!
Graphics:
Despite being many years old, this game has fairly good graphics. Although not matching up to the 360's, PS3's, and the soon to come 720's, for its era it has wonderful graphics. Players mouths move when they talk, and the environment is interactive. Instead of walking into a table and just standing there like an idiot, you can actually break through it using your hands, sword, whatever. Although I don't have much more to say on this, it is definitely a win on graphics.
Recommendation:
If you have a system that will support it, Get It! As I said, excellent gameplay, well designed graphics for the era, and on top of it all, a good price! I would definitely buy this game if given the chance. | video-games_xbox |
4.8 out of 5 stars for WWE's latest release. I reserved WWE 2K14 months ago. Got it yesterday, and I've only been able to play about 3 hours into it so far. But from what I've played, I really like it a lot! It has a expansive roster even without getting the DLC. You start off with 42 playable wrestlers. And 5 (if I remember right) divas available right away. Up to 75 in all once you unlock the others. And then on top of that number, you can get DLC wrestlers too! the controls are basically like that of WWE 12 & 13. The graphics are similar to WWE 13....Maybe slightly better. I love that they cover 30 years of Wrestlemania. And I really like that they incorporated a lot into how it looked back then. I remember watching these matches back in the day! They make matches from the 80's have a gritty look. Like your watching it through older T.V.'s. They make the ring, crowd,ect..look as it did back in the day too! One of the things I don't hate, but think they should have tried to do. Is have Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse "The Body" Ventura, and even Bobby " The Brain" Hennan do commentary on the 80's matches they did. Instead of Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler doing commentary for matches such as Hulk Hogan vs King Kong Bundy, ect...I understand Gorilla Monsoon has long ago passed. But with the technology these days I would think they could ninja that in. Many of the classic/legend wrestlers are present on this roster. I wish they did have Papa Shango,Bam Bam Bigelow,Hacksaw Jim Duggan,Demoltion,Road Warriors,Steiner Brothers,Hercules Hernandez,Bad News Brown, Bushwackers,Dino Bravo,the Mounty,Doink,Lex Luger,Great Muta,ect..Maybe they will in DLC eventually!?! Two other aspects of the game I don't like. Are the reversals, and climbing out of the cage. Climbing out the cage is more challenging. But annoying at times. Once on the cage, you stop for a brief sec. Then a A button appears. And a bar that has "max" at the opposite end. A red bar slides towards the "max" and you hit A when it is close. Doing so will help you get out sooner. However, you still have to repeat it multiple times! You can unlock a lot of cool stuff! Haven't tried create a character/wrestler,arena,ect..yet. But I am sure it is awesome! This is the best "realistic" wrestling game in many years1 I say "realistic' cause WWE Allstars is amazing, but obviously like NBA Jam mixed with wrestling. I highly recommend getting this game to anybody that enjoys WWE,WWE games,ect..Oh...the cover has The Rock on it. But it is reversable. Not sure if different wrestlers are on each inside/reverse side? But mine has Daneil Bryan on it. And I switched it up. But am actually making a great, authentic looking custom one with Macho Man Randy Savage instea! | video-games_xbox |
Refining The Elements That Made Gears of War a Modern Classic. Gears of War was received with a strong warm positive reception. Enough to make the game sell like hot cakes in 2006. With Gears of War 2 players will be finding a nice comfort zone between the original and enough new elements to make it a fully pledged sequel, and not just a simple rehash.
Gears of War two is a science fiction based third person shooter.
To begin with the game is more story driven, but still not enough to win any awards. Taking place ten months after we first took lead as Delta Squad leader SGT. Marcus Fenix, one can establish the locust have become relentless. You'll soon me familiarized with the rather bleak apocalyptic wastelands of Sera, the first title brought as the setting. The locust are an underground dwelling menacing foe, who have brought destruction to cataclysmic proportions, in a war where death knows no boundaries. As Marcus you'll encounter a variety of new enemies along with new allies, in an attempt to bring an end to over a decade of war.
New weapons, better AI, and a stronger lengthier campaign make replay value certain for offline goers. With the addition of bots for multiplayer, maybe even online vets will fine a reason to stray from online (or to confirm their seasoned 'skills'...). Online seems to be a bit rough right now, with players adjusting to some changes (shotgun has reduced range, chainsaw counters, and voting for what to play), but nothing a patch can't fix. The online though is still fierce, and still a blast to hack away at. Multiplayer also now gives way to 5vs5 matches, an additional player on each team, new tactics anyone?
Speaking of tactics, the all new horde mode is one that will require the uttermost attention. Five players can embark on a fight for survival, against wave after wave after wave after wave of locust. To do so, plot communicate and lastly have fun! Waves do have cycles after a while, but definitely a worthwhile addition. Seeking to lead in commands or not, their is a spot readily open to anyone willing to bring down a gore fest. Maybe you'll enjoy the new variety of heavy boomer like enemy ready to tear your face off!
Additional downloadable content (DLC), is already at the battle front. Five additional multiplayer maps are available free of charge with a redeemable code given inside (xbox live silver or gold is required). These maps are classic but altered restorations players have been having fire fights on for nearly two years. Famed 'Gridlock' makes an appearance, but in an aged 'nature has taken root' again look. 'Canals' has got a case of frostbite, and is available in every new copy of the game. While you may not of been an early bird, the limited edition featured gold plated weaponry. This will not change performance nor hinder it, this is merely for aesthetic value.
Some of the new weapons are a fire spewing flame thrower, some new grenades ( in addition to smoke grenades having become more critical), and heavy weaponry. Heavy weapons can be carried in excess to already having your four weapon slot full. They slow you down, but are powerful. These include, mortars, and turrets. Turrets were originally a mounted only weapon (still available in some instances), but now can be carried...,but need constant cooling with the right button (rb, shoulder button). Mortars add a nice touch to long range battles, when one runs out of sniper ammo. That will really stir them up. The lancer still provides us with the perfect blend of range, ammo capacity, and awesome gruesome chainsaw action. Chainsaw 'duals' are now added to spice up fights.
Boss battles aren't the most engaging, but get climactic. A variety of them will come your way, that a handful of acts to seclude them in. Five acts comprised of six or so chapters each give the option to insert yourself into favorable battles. The boss battles work in repetition, one you figure the plan of attack it's a cake walk. Having beat the game on two difficulties, it doesn't hold as too hard or too easy. Finding the sweet spot is crucial to avoid frustration. Achievements can be unlocked for lower difficulty completion upon beating the game on higher modes.
Overall the physics, graphics, and sound are stellar. The game features a more colorful environment, but still rather gray and blue. Certain objects can now be destroyed, but nothing to really change the gameplay. Controls are excellent, some may find vehicular based movement to be a little redundant. Players can still grapple behind cover and sprint, along with a new ability to take locust as a means of shielding.
What can I say, Gears two delivers. If you were looking into this title with high hopes, it has not let you down. When looking at the large catalog of games for this holiday season, rush to grab this title. One of the few worth the full price purchase. A title that has squeezed out every last drop of greatness, and turned it into a near flawless atmospheric shooter. | video-games_xbox |
Looking for a difficult to modify stick which rewards you with a nice sturdy case and multi-console support? Look no further. This is the second arcade stick I've owned, the first one was so bad that I gave it to a person I wouldn't even call a friend for free. I had slightly more success with this one, but not prior to modifying it. Speaking of modifying it, the original stick inside fitted within the joystick had very loose and very inaccurate sensors on the bottom left corner, I figured there was a possibility that it was simply my inexperience with the arcade sticks, but after using it for a few months, using the stock stick got frustrating, I did absolutely everything better on a pad, and its stick felt unresponsive to me. So... I decided to take a gamble and ended up modifying it with a JLF sanwa stick with an octagonal restrictor plate, and needless to say the stick has been putting up significantly better results.
AFTER using the MODIFIED stick for a few months, I'm finally content with my purchase. I admire the weight, the build quality, and the multi-system chips. I had initially bought the stick for use with arcade games and fighters to get that 'retro arcade feel' and haven't been disappointed. The stick after the modification listens to every command. As a quick note for people who are looking to buy this stick, I'm not sure if I was unlucky or not, but the stock stick I received was completely unsuitable for fighting games, I had to fight the joystick to do simple things like a hadoken, and half the time it wouldn't even register that input when facing left, as stated earlier, after modifying the stick with a Sanwa JLF, that issue disappeared altogether.
For those who don't mind buying a snazzy black case with a multi-console chip set, overall well made buttons and intend to do a soldier based stick modification, this stick is truly amazing for its price. I bought it primarily for its price point and the systems it supported, I primarily use it for my computer and Xbox 360, but a friend of mine has a PS3 that I can use it in when we decide to get together, so that third platform ability is quite nice for me. The reason I'm not giving the Mayflash stick a 5 star review is that modifying the stick wasn't as easy as modifying a Qanba Q1 arcade stick and I'm fairly certain the stock parts in the Qanba Q1 are superior from what I've heard. But most importantly, I really wanted to replace the art on the stick, but due to the acrylic being stained with the graphic, that isn't possible. I happen to adore the build quality and size of the stick however, so if given the choice between the two, after modification, I'm sure I'd still prefer this stick at the end of the day, but since this review should be taking into account that some people just want a stick to purchase and play, if you are in that boat, buy the Qanba Q1 instead, its better stock and comes with the three types of gates, newer players on a stick should be using an octagonal plate as it makes breaking into it far easier.
If you want a reliable stick for Street Fighter IV, post modification, its great! Prior to that? You are better off sticking to pad. | video-games_xbox |
Gripping. A New Era for Console Gaming Has Arrived. Wow.
I have been playing console games since the 80s. With each new generation of systems, there is a game that will truly define the generation. Super Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario 64, Halo, Metal Gear Solid, and Splinter Cell all stand out as generation-defining games. Up until this point, the new generation of games has not differed too much from the previous one. Aside from extra sparkle and polish, no game released this generation has changed the way we look at and play games.
Until now.
For fans of shooters, both first-person and third-person, Gears of War is a must own game! Fans of tactical shooters like Ghost Recon or Socom will fall in love with the cover system in Gears of War. Though not as complex as those games (you only have to press A), the cover system in Gears of War feels incredibly intuitive and you'll find yourself a pro at the mechanics in just a matter of minutes. This is great, because Gears wastes no time throwing you into the action of the game. It starts of strong and never slows down, and never feels dull. Never. Additionally, the level design in Gears of War is designed to take full advantage of the cover system, while maintaining the realistic feel of the landscape and architechture.
For fans of "more run-and gun" Halo-esque shooters, Gears of War does not disappoint here either. As I already stated, the action in Gears is non-stop, so you won't find any moments where you're begging for more action. In fact, I've found that some points in Gears of War are so intense that it's literally tough to handle. One scene in particular where your character is forced to defeat a huge, blind enemy had my heart pounding like no other game has ever done before! I cannot recall a time where I have actually screamed in a game, but this definitely did it for me. Overall, the game is a rather pleasant mixture of both the run-and-gun and more tactical shooters. It plays out flawlessly.
If you're looking for a killer multiplayer experience on Xbox Live, Gears of War is possibly the strongest game available on the service as of right now. Players have the option of playing a ranked game, or an unranked game and there are 3 main types of gameplay. There is no respawning in matches, so when you are dead, you are dead. But the round system and 8-player limit gets you right back into the action in no time.
My only complaint with multiplayer is that if you're new to the game, you will find it increasingly difficult to jump into a game with people of the same skill level. Unlike the matchmaking system in Halo 2, if you are brand new to the game, you may very well be put up against people who are the best players in the world, without warning or acknowledgement. In other words, you won't stand a chance. There is a huge learning curve for multiplayer, so don't be surprised if you wind up getting booted out of several matches by the host due to your skill level. More consideration by the developers would have greatly benefitted the less skilled gamers out there. Hopefully, this will be addressed in further Gears of War titles.
Graphically speaking, Gears of War is the most visually impressive game ever seen on a home console, bar none. It's easy to get caught up in the action in Gears, but if you ever get a chance, take the time to look around the environment and see the amazing job that Epic did in creating this game. The level of detail in every square inch of the playing field and beyond is simply breathtaking. Spot on character models and fairly decent voice acting rounds out what is simply one of the best shooters ever created and by far the best game to be released on a next-gen console thus far.
Gears of War is definitely not for everyone. The gore and violence in this game are through the roof, and the gameplay can be intense beyond belief. However, if you're a fan of shooters, you simply cannot pass up this marvel of a game. Gears of War is definitely one of the best games of 2006 and the first game to set itself apart from the rest of the pack in this console generation. Check it out! | video-games_xbox |
The Sonic series reborn. In the past several years Sonic Team has made some bad decisions such as Sonic 06 and parts of Unleashed. but with this game almost everything is spot on. I will start out with Modern Sonic. The game play, like sonic unleashed's day time stages, is really fast and entertaining. It always keeps you wanting more for. Also The soundtrack features the best tracks in the entire series, such as City Escape, Seaside hill's theme and many more which you can unlock and play during different stages. They sound great! And the stages were well thought out and feature some of the best in the series and they fixed the stages that were lacking in the other games such as crisis city in 06. Almost all the levels were very thought out and interesting and made me want more. Now onto Classic Sonic. Though I was not as impressed they were still very good for all of the nostalgic fans. The only difference between classic and modern are 3 things. 1. Classic sonic does not have a targeting system and can only perform a single jump where as modern sonic can do to with the targeting. 2. Classic Sonic has an unlimited boost but takes a second to charge up and makes him fly through the stage. and 3. Classic Sonic has power ups and the camera is only in 2D side scrolling perspective. With that being said it is not that Classic is not as fun but it did not captivate me the way Modern Sonic did. Though he does bring a lot of nostalgia to playing the game. I really think that Sonic is making comeback with his new games (except free riders but were going to pretend that Sega never made that ;)) Seriously though I hope Sonic Team realizes that wit this game they were taking it in the right direction and has a lot of room to expand from here. (Sonic Adventure 3 would be nice)
Pros:
-Great Game play
-Awesome Music
-Great graphics and frame rate (If you have a strong enough PC GET IT you will not be disappointed ;)
-Fun/interesting Boss battles
-Gotta Go Fast (Sonic is about as fast as he was in unleashed)
-Nostalgia Factors
Cons
-Classic sonic not being as interesting
-The occasional glitch (sometimes the targeting system can get a little shaky)
-Relatively short story
-not a great over world (Its not like your paying attention when your going at 750 mph through a city. Not a big deal)
Bottom Line: 9.25/10
A great game that will keep your attention and keep you calling back for more with great game play, music, and graphics worth every last cent | video-games_xbox |
Great Game TERRIBLE Software. OK, let me start by saying this is a GREAT RPG game. You start from birth and get to customize your character to your hearts content. You also get to roam the large world freely and play in a truly non linear fashion all of which makes for a great game. There is 1 MAJOR problem with this game and it's the glitches it contains. Professional reviewers are unable to mention them as they receive pre-release copies which frequently have bugs but generally they are fixed prior to retail released. Bethesda did NOT fix some glitches prior to release that aren't simple annoyances but actually cause you to be unable to progress any further in the game. In discussing the issue with Bethesda, they are aware of these game stopping issues but basically aren't in any hurry to fix those and instead opt to wait until they can fix every minor annoyance in 1 huge patch. While every game has some level of glitches, fixing glitches that stop the game completely should be a HUGE priority in my opinion. I am sure that once a patch is released the game will function correctly and there are certainly many people who don't have any issues with the game but you are rolling the dice. This isn't a short game so you could literally have 40 hours of play in and get stopped only to be told to "start over". The gameplay is great though, if you like RPGs you'll love this game. It's somewhat of a bleak/depressing environment (post nuclear world) but that's the idea. The combat system is a lot of fun too, allowing you to target specific areas of an enemy. You can only level up to level 20 at that point you can progress no further in terms of character development, which is somewhat of a bummer but assuming you don't run into the game ending freezes that prevent you from playing the main story line, you'd probably only go through 20 levels anyway. Great game but everyone should be aware PRIOR to purchase that there are potential glitches that keep you from playing the main story line and there's no timeline from Bethesda in terms of when a patch will be released. May want to purchase another game and get this diamond in the rough after they polish it a bit! | video-games_xbox |
Buyer Beware. This was my second RROD of death even with a Jasper (sent it in to have replaced). The majority of the reviews you read, the reviewer will mention what # Xbox they are on already since all previous ones have already broken (don't believe me, go ahead and read these things). Not to mention how much Microsoft nickel and dimes you for everything.
I am not a PS3 "fanboy" by any means. Actually I WAS an Xbox freak but the reliability of these machines are a joke! Sure you get a 3 year warranty but how many times will you have to send it back? As I mentioned, Microsoft will milk your pocket dry with everything that you have to buy. This version you will need a larger hard drive ($50-$100). Now you need a wireless adapter (another $75). Now you need the plug and play so you aren't shelling out money for batteries (another $25). Did I mention it is $50 a year for Xbox Live Gold? There you go...just to have the bare essentials you just shelled out almost $250 without buying any games yet! Sure you can go with the elite for another $100 but you still don't have the wireless adapter, Xbox Live Gold or the plug and play.
I have the Wii now and have had zero problems with it (not to mention comes with a wireless adapter already inside and you can store game saves on a $10 SD memory card). I am seriously considering getting a PS3 now since their price went down. I will miss Halo and Gears of War but I will not miss getting every thing charged extra to me. PS3 already comes with a wireless adapter, USB charge controllers with USB cord and the internet/Playstation network is FREE. Thats $150 of stuff Xbox would have charged me already inside the PS3 Slim as soon as I open it. The Slim comes with a Blu Ray player already built in as well as Free Netfilx movies for those that have a Netflix subscription (Xbox does have Netflix also).
Honestly, if you want to buy an XBox please see how many break and how many of these reviewers actually admit that this a replacement console for one (or two) that have already broken. This is my second RROD and I refuse to buy another one. Goodbye Microsoft...it has been fun. | video-games_xbox |
Another Conflict Hit. I like this game. It's my favorite of the Conflict series. The missions are hard ,with bullets flying by everywhere,and enemies coming from all sides at times. I'm playing it on normal setting and its hard. There's four settings easy,normal,hard,and extreme. I can only imagine how hard the extreme level is. I found that the best way to play this game is to use each one of your soldiers wisely. I always found ample supply of ammo,but you gotta be smart about this game,search everywhere to find all the extra med-pacs,ammo,weapons,grenades,etc. There's some serious firefights in this game. It beats all other versions of this series. ITS HARD!This game might be too hard for some players. Its the hardest conflict of the three games. The graphics are average,simular to SOCOM2 for PS2. They do seem to get better in the later levels. But I'm using an "S" cable,so thats why my graphics look better than the standard RCA plugs. There is a stealth aspect in some of the missions, but most of it is balls to wall bullets flying everywhere. This game very much depicts the frantic pace of the real vietnam war. With lush jungle environments,and enemies hiding in almost every corner. You can switch between each squad member and control there every movement,and you can switch between third & first person perspective by clicking right thumbstick. But First person perspective is kinda bad because the weapons aiming scope blocks almost the whole screen ,only the pistol,sniper & crossbow use just the crosshairs,all the other weapons literally take up the whole screen in first person mode. Almost all the weapons have a zoom option in first person,click the left analog stick. But I found that third person was best, except for sniper weapon,so you can see what the heck is going on. The levels are mostly linear ,but there's usually two routes you can take,like a fork in the road. This game definatley requires you to use your head .Watchout for booby traps ,Running and gunning will get you killed almost always,but sometimes you gotta run .The first mission is just walking around talking to people,but that soon ends as the bullets start flying by. If your having trouble beating this game here's the code for ALL CHEATS: At "Main Menu" Press,RT-RT-LT-LT-B-B-Y-Y-X-X-White Button. Then a Cheats option will open in menu. It gives you INF AMMO ,INF SAVES,ALL LEVELS,ALL MOVIES. Then after starting or loading a saved game while playing pause to menu go to OPTIONS the you'll see CHEATS to turn on INF AMMO,INF SAVES.It took me a few tries to get the cheat to work ,but it does work ,just keep trying. I'd turn off my xbox to reset ,it seemed to do the trick. RT= Right trigger,LT= Left Trigger. I Played this game again on the EXTREME level ,just because I like a challenge. Plus with the "infinate" saves cheat ,that made it more fun. | video-games_xbox |
The more I use them, the more I like them. I'll admit, at first I thought these were mediocre in the sound quality department. I thought they were...maybe 30 dollar range? In terms of clarity. Everything felt average. Now, though after a few days of use...I am starting to truly appreciate the quality. The microphone, right off the bat is high quality. Very very sharp mic. I would appreciate some software for it but, not a big deal. The real selling point is the mobility. Go anywhere. No problem. Well, okay there's a problem. Don't go outside...It's like putting a big red target on your back at a shooting range. They're a lot larger and heavier than I thought they were in the pictures and video reviews. I wouldn't be proud to walk around with these...lol just being honest. They're cool, but maybe a little "too cool" or too flashy for me. I think you will most likely get hate for wearing them rather than appreciation. They match my blue themed rig, and I really enjoy them. After all that being said, the true quality in these headphones...in terms of sound...is in their strength. They can handle anything you throw at them, although I don't recommend stress testing. I know I'm not going to, but full volume + bass won't be a problem. Not going to intentionally try to blow them out anytime soon, but they seem like they can handle quite a bit of volume. Immersive, means immersive. You won't hear a damn thing using these. So, if you want to game without interruption...these are absolutely perfect. Sometimes, I just need to drown out the sounds of my aunt going to the bathroom. They work for that. Another thing they're great for is...working around the house. Vacuum, do what you need to do. Clean, etc. Listen to music in peace. This is a glorious headset, and I highly recommend paying a few extra dollars for them. I normally shop around the 20-40 range. Though, I must say I had a pair of shure headphones I got for 60...that had better quality than these, they weren't wireless, they didn't come with 6 or so cables...and well all in all (especially in this economy..) they are worth the price you pay.
Update: The ear cups can rotate. For the people complaining about it being uncomfortable...they probably have the ear cups backwards. Once you adjust the ear cups...they become much better. You get the full experience. Very comfortable...and enjoyable...on the phone (wired)works great for chatting. Or listening to music. Truly great quality. | video-games_xbox |
KEEP IT CLEAN. Halo 3: ODST - Circa 2009
GOOD:
- Tried and true (Halo) FPS experience that many other games have copied over the years.
- Great Co-op Gameplay allows up to four players to go through the entire game from start to end.
- Multiplayer Fire Fight mode (plays like Gears of War 2's Hoard Mode) allows up to four players to fight infinite waves of enemies on unique maps (based on those in the campaign) using team work and skill.
- Great graphics which look slighter better then that of Halo 3 (in lighting); also there are some new animations and more unique enemy voice work to boot.
- Vehicle and turret shooting are the same as ever (for a Halo game); which is good.
- The Night Vision Visor adds cool effects to the game and helps you in gameplay.
- You now have a map so you don't get lost.
BAD:
- The `Hub-World' playing as the Rookie in the city streets at night can be very repetitive in terms of structure (many of the city streets looks very much the same).
IF IT FITS YOUR TASTE:
- A Sci-Fi First Person Shooter (your playing from the heroes point of view) with quick pacing and some exploration.
- Gameplay wise this plays exactly like Halo 3; except you have a health bar that needs to be refilled once in a while. The missions themselves are some of the most fun since the original Halo (on XBOX) for some reason (maybe because of the "fresh look through ODST eyes") and seem to combine all the things that make Halo a great franchise till this day.
- The campaign can be played with either one of four players at any time.
- Fire Fight mode and playing the campaign missions in co-op will keep you playing this game long after you beaten it.
- Intense multiplayer versus action with plenty of different modes to choose from; BUT it is the same multiplayer from Halo 3 released two years ago, although all the downloadable maps are added (including as yet to be released on Xbox Live Mythic Map Pack).
- The plot is less over the top then the previous Halo games and is more of a soldiers story (just a series of missions).
- NO Master Chief, in this game you play an assortment of different troops from the 'Orbital Drop Shock Troop' division within the Halo universe; these guys are just skilled soldiers and are not the superman that the Master Chief is - this gives the gameplay a slightly new and more difficult feeling.
- NO FLOOD, it should be noted this is the first Halo to also not have any FLOOD aliens within it.
- The Story is good (with its flashback missions); or as good as you can make it, setting the game between two major titles (Halo 2 & Halo 3) and not breaking any continuity. It's a pretty realistic look at a non-Spartan II's journey in the world of Halo.
- Collect audio-logs in the "Hub-World" that will unlock supply depots throughout the city giving you items like ATV's, Snipers Rifles, and Rocket Launchers (which helps). Also the audio-logs tells of a back story to the city and game similar the audio-logs in games like Bioshock and Fallout 3.
GAME IT'S MOST ASSOCATED TOO:
- Halo 3 (Xbox 360/PC)
- Gears of War 2(Xbox 360)
- Halo 2 (Xbox)
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
- The game is two discs; One disc is the campaign and Fire Fight while the other is the Halo 3 multiplayer will all maps.
- People who pre-ordered this game got a code to play as Sgt. Avery Johnson (a well known character in the Halo universe) in Fire Fight mode, also beating the game will unlock more characters for Fire Fight mode. | video-games_xbox |
Looks great, but repetitive and meh. This is the first Clancy game I've bought because it could be played completely solo. Its a third-person cover-shooter. Taking and moving between cover are set functions that MUST be used in the gameplay otherwise you take too much damage too quickly. The campaign has the basic plot of moving through the city and re-taking districts from different groups of bad guys.
What I liked: Visually, its a great game. The city looks very authentic right down to the weather, sunlight, shadows, etc. My only complaint there is that sometimes the lighting of the game made my eyes tired (never happened with any other game). I liked the role-playing element. As you build up your base of operations you gain more and different skills. I liked being able to mod the weapons to suit your strengths/weaknesses.
What I didn't like: Extremely repetitive. Each district of the city that you go to has a set of missions and encounters - they are all the same, just in different locations. There's always a hostage rescue, bounty, supply drop, etc. I didn't notice it at first because I was so intent on gathering more and more supplies to upgrade my base of operations. Once I maxed that out, I was kinda like "what's the point now?"
The story/plot/campaign was boring and has very little development along the way. It starts off with a pretty good premise, but just doesn't develop much from there. There are plenty of recordings and holograms that try to add some depth and hint at there being more to the story, but they never really develop into anything - trust me I collected all of them - to pop the achievements. The few characters are very one-dimensional and don't have any significant backgrounds to make them interesting. If you're reading this and you've played the game and think that its a good story with good characters then you have never really played a good story - try Borderlands 2 or Witcher 3.
The controls seem odd to me. In all other 3rd person shooters I've played, the left stick completely controls movement and the right stick simply controls point of view. This was set up more like a first person shooter - left controlled movement and right controlled the direction you were facing. For example: in other 3rd person games if you push the left stick forward and then push the right stick to the right, you keep running in the same direction, but see to your right. In this game you would actually turn and start moving to the right. This took me a lot of getting used to, especially in hectic situations.
There was no stealth to speak of. I realize that its not a "stealth game" like MGS5, but the missions and gameplay lend themselves so well to using stealth. You sneak up on the bad guys and most always fire the first shot, but there is no way to take out any of the enemy without it immediately tuning into a huge firefight. Suppressors don't work and there are no "stealth takedowns". I know its a cover-shooter, but how the game plays, it really felt lacking never having any stealth attacks.
They seemed to try to make many of the aspects of the game very realistic - which is good - but then some aspects were annoyingly unrealistic. For example: emptying an entire magazine into an enemy's head and him not flinching, or shooting out a light that is blinding you, only to have the bulb grow back in 2 seconds.
There were some things that reminded me of Destiny - NOT IN A GOOD WAY. There are 3 groups of bad guys. You encounter the 1st group early on and fight them until you face off with their leader. Then the second group and their leader. Then the third group and their leader - campaign over.
There are calculations for how much damage a weapon does. I personally hate that. There's Damage and then there's Damage Per Second (DPS), which is calculated based off of not just the weapons, but the armor as well. You could actually equip a weapon with higher Damage, but have your DPS go down??? I would have to spend 10-15 minutes at the beginning or end of each sessions just re-evaluating all of my gear. Once you reach level 30 (max) there are daily missions, but these are just replays of the same missions with more and higher level enemy AIs.
The multiplayer, AKA Darkzone: They tried to do something unique here. Its a mix of PvP, PvE, and Co-Op. Its a cluster****. There are no matches, no scoring, no winners/losers. Every so often fighting breaks out and some players are killed and some run away. The whole point is to acquire gear - and use that gear to acquire more gear. I give them points for trying something new and innovative, and they really couldn't know how it would play out until it was released and everyone was in there. I just don't think the Darkzone plays very well.
I think they had a great premise for a game/story and they put a ton of effort into the look of the game so that you can really feel like you're there. However, they didn't develop the story and gameplay enough to make it interesting and give it much replay value. I completed the campaign because my OCD tendency made me, and tried the Darkzone a few times, but couldn't get interested in it. I plan on selling my copy. | video-games_xbox |
Tamriel Unlimited, literally. Ill try to make this review as brief as possible because these kind of games have material to write blogs.
Elder Scrolls Online is a MMO that takes place in Tamriel and has a different approach from previous entries like Oblivion and Skyrim but maintaining the essence the franchise is known and famous for.
At first, the game could be a little overwhelming because of all the things you can do but don't let this intimidate you, eventually youll grasp all concepts and believe me, the sense of achievement and understanding will be worth it.
Graphically the game looks gorgeous: landscapes are vast and full of color; attention to detail is amazing; each region has its own flora and fauna and you can really feel a sense of change every time you reach a new area. Personally I have a blast just by walking and enjoying the beautiful views.
Gameplay is quite solid and it has the quality expected from a game of this caliber. You can choose any type of fighting style: from sword and shield, greatswords, axes to pure magic with staffs or hybrid styles combining both physical and magical damage. You can craft armor, potions, food, enchantments, weapons, etc. For doing this you must gather resources scattered throughout the map; for some people it might sound complicated but the process is so much fun, trust me.
Classes are the standard for MMOs but they have a twist depending on the race of your choice, each of which have its own racial abilities that can make a difference depending on the play style you chose. Don't feel bad if at mid-game you want to change roles, for the game is flexible enough to let you play as you wish regardless of your choices. Of course, if excelling at the metagame is what you want those extra racial points could shift the outcome of the battle.
Even if its an MMO you can decide to solo the entire game; the only "con" this might have is that some areas might be tougher to clear but leveling up a little will be enough to keep you going. In the PVP department well this game excels. In the beginning I wasn't sure about fighting other players but once you try it is addicting: going to war with a bunch of players from your alliance is really fun. However, to get the most of PVP I recommend having a high level character in order to get the most of it for obvious reasons: you will have no chance with your lv. 15 character against a lv. 50. Both PVE and PVP are quite fun but in my case I spent more time soloing the game (I don't have enough friends to play with), exploring at my own pace and developing my character.
To conclude: If you are a fan of the Elder Scrolls series you cant go wrong with this one. Even if its a MMO it has everything you can ask for in an Elder Scrolls game. In the other hand, if you are new to the franchise youll find a unique game that will blow your mind if you're willing to dig deep. Dont expect it to be a cakewalk though, for it requires you to think and work towards the development of your character. | video-games_xbox |
A Solid Shooter. Short But Sweet. The Punisher is a Third Person Shooter kinda like the maxx payne2 game. The Quick kills are excellent in this game ,there's one where you throw the guy your rifle ,he then looks at it like ,huh what?,then Punisher puts two knifes in his forehead. This game is what being a bad@#% is all about. The Punisher is got seriously big kahuna's if ya know what I mean ,wink,wink. You have a mode in this game called "Slaughter mode" simular to the Matrix or Maxx payne bullet time or even BloodRayne. In this game when Slaughter mode is activated it speeds you up and slows everyone down ,then you have the ability to throw knifes at your enemies from a distance and also do quick kills up close,it lasts for a short period of time but as you advance in the game you get whats called style points after each level and you can buy upgrades such as longer slaughter mode,increase accuracy,body armor,increase ammo capacity,increase clipsize,etc. There's a strong emphasis on Interrogation in this game .You can interrogate any enemy of your choosing and gain info which will help you on your mission such as location of more weapons or a hidden key etc.etc. You also have special interrogation areas hilighted by a white skull which gives you more style points and usually its the enemy with a white skull over his head. The only negative about this is that you lose points if you accidently kill the target while interrogating him,but when you do kill him on the special interrogating area its a very kool kill,usually followed up by a kool line from the Punisher,kinda like Clint Eastwood's do you feel lucky punk line. There's also special kill areas marked with a Gold skull ,which after you bring an enemy to this area a cutscene special kill is shown and large amount of style points are awarded. Some of the levels are nicely done like "Grey's Funeral Home" and the "Central Zoo" Level,but others are a little bland and plain. There's (16) levels total with about 14 bosses including BullsEye,The Russian,BushWacker,and JigSaw. I had alot of fun playing this game but its a short game I rented it and beat it in 3 Days playing it on Normal mode with no cheats activated. I suggest you play it on HARD mode cause its the only way to earn a gold medal ,because after each level your given style points and either a gold,silver, or bronze medal. Only HARD mode can you earn a gold medal. The bosses aren't to hard once you figure out there secret. The punisher can also double weild just about any weapon,I love to have a shot gun in each hand my favourite. I love the way The Punisher reloads the shotguns,very kool. You can also grab any enemy and use him as a bullet sheild. Also after interrogating any enemy you get health from them. There's extras also in the menu section like original comic covers after completing a challenge mode. Challenge modes are opened up after getting enough style points on a level. This game was Short But Sweet. The voice was done by the guy in the punisher movie. Here's a CHEAT to open ALL LEVELS CHEATS & EXTRAS.While entering profile name enter " V PIRATE " as a name ,notice there is a space between V and Pirate,also it has to be in capital letters. Then all cheats will be opened up. NOTE: you cannot get style points with cheats activated. But since all levels are opened you don't really miss anything you're still able to play all missions and see all the movies. Good Luck and go deal some PUNISHMENT. | video-games_xbox |
A reflection sometimes exposes more reality than the object it echoes." - Cheshire Cat. Alice: Madness Returns is the sequel to one of the most inventive platformers from a decade ago. Taking place in a twisted version of Lewis Carol's classic tale, Alice must save her sanity by saving Wonderland (a metaphor for her mental well-being). Madness Returns takes its story to places most video games wouldn't DARE go, and truly keeps you interested with its heavy subject matter. The artistic design of this game is simply masterful; every nook and cranny is creative and gorgeous (I'll definitely be buying the art book). While the graphics seem clunky or messy on occasion, the overall look is very nice. The animation is fantastic too, especially Alice's hair (definitely the most realistic hair animation I've ever seen in a video game). Another neat touch is that Alice changes into level-specific dresses, which really add to the experience. American Mcgee's first game had an incredible soundtrack; this one is rather forgettable, but still decent.
The gameplay in Madness Returns--albeit similar to your standard action/platformer--is at its worst: tedious, repetitious and dull. Attempts to add depth to the game include a series of mini-games. Although these attempts are interesting, they're not challenging or fun and it felt like an inconvenience when they occurred. If that wasn't enough, you'll be playing the same two or three mini-games on every chapter at some point (some chapters have their own additional game). While the level designs are gorgeous to look at, you'll soon start to feel that you're doing the same thing on every chapter. Well, you will be. Camera angles sometimes do their own thing and will change the directional system, resulting in you falling off edges a lot. Madness Returns does provide a return system that will start you back up on the ledge before you jumped, and while it does add relief, it almost removes any sense of real danger. Shrink Sense is an interesting addition to the game that reveals secret walkways and hints. Unfortunately these walkways become less "secret" and more obvious and necessary; you're rarely rewarded for being perspective, as this game is very linear.
Another bothersome aspect I found in Madness Returns is that there are NO BOSS BATTLES. These black tar creatures that keep popping up are Alice's "Ruin," and they plague every level. They vary in size, power and weaknesses, but they're the same ugly enemies and you'll be fighting them constantly. The lack of level-specific enemies was really draining. Not until the end of the game do you fight an actual unique boss.
That's not to say Madness Returns isn't a fun game at times. While the story and visuals were my primary motivation, a couple levels were very captivating (especially the Red Queen's castle). Again, the visuals and art of this game are breathtaking and the story is complex and dark. Unfortunately there isn't a lot of replay value here, as the story will reveal itself regardless of how many memories and bottles you collect. There's DLC with dresses that add perks and upgraded weapons; it's neat and really affordable, but not too beneficial if you've already beat the game. Buying the game gets you a redeem code for the original, which is awesome. However, I can't honestly say Madness Returns has enough going for it to justify a $60 purchase. There's little replay value, so I'd recommend renting it first. Definitely buy the original on arcade though even if you don't buy Madness Returns; it's one of the best platformers out there!
Presentation: 9/10 -- Gorgeous art styles are truly memorable, and 2D cut-scenes are inventive and creative.
Graphics: 6.5 -- Often pretty, but often clunky and unattractive too. While some levels are captivating, some areas can be really ugly (not even in an artistic sense) and repetitious (The Dollhouse and Mad Hatter's Domain being the worst, in my opinion). Not to mention some of the effects are really tacky looking.
Sound: 7 -- Soundtrack is mediocre, but voice acting is great.
Gameplay: 6 -- The combat is fairy solid, but the overall experience loses its charm after a while. Mini-games make the game feel cheaper than it really is, and become annoying.
Overall: 7 -- There's a decent amount of playtime here (especially if you want all the collectables), but the replay value isn't good in my opinion. The addition of the original is a great touch though. This game is best in small doses rather than long playtime. A '7' or a very solid 3/5 stars. | video-games_xbox |
Compare about the same to others we own. This review is for EasySMX GS600 XBOX 360 PS3 PS4 PC Multifunctional Wired Gaming Headset with Adjustable Microphone for Mobile Phone Laptop and Tablet In-line Controller One-key Mute (Black and blue)
by EasySMX
We have a few gaming headsets in the house due to 5 adult gamers. All the pairs we have fall within this same price range.
Pros - Preferences - Item Info
Comes nicely boxed
Instructions are a little daunting but they aren't that hard to figure out.
Comes with extra wires and adapters our other headsets did not come with - here is their list
Package Contents
1 x GS600 Headphone
1 x Adapter with In-line Controller
1 x RCA Audio Convert Cable
1 x 3.5mm Audio Cable
1 x 2.5mm Audio Cable
1 x User Manual
We found them to be about the same quality in design and comfort as others we own.
Fit was good for adult heads, not child heads. These are rather large and cover the whole ear.
Does a B job in blocking out external noises
Made of all plastic and vinyl type components
Sound quality varied depending on the type of game or situation. But it was all decent.
All in all they are decent headphones with mic capability
Pricing -
Price: $89.99 Completely unrealistic
Sale: $40.99 Within the high range of similar and decent headphones on the Amazon Market
If you have any questions pertaining to this product, feel free to post them.
I will do my best to answer them in a timely manner.
I was chosen to receive this item at a reduced price/free for consumer testing and Amazon consumer product reviewing. I gave this review to assist in making informed buying decisions.
I received no other compensation and have no personal relationship with the seller. Reviewing is for the consumer based on price asked and product as advertised, not to advertise / protect sub par products or sellers and my reviews as a whole clearly show this is my goal.
Requiring high marks in reviews for any product is against Amazon Terms of Service. Disclosure in accordance with FTC 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
Have a nice day and happy shopping -
AZSophie | video-games_xbox |
It's overwhelmingly okay. Been playing it for two hours and it's overwhelmingly... okay?
I loved and was mesmerized by the first two games. This game is certainly fine enough but, as was mentioned in other reviews, feels more like above-average DLC than a full-fledged game in its own rite.
The good... It's a Batman Arkham game, and it has all of the features of the old games, and the same engine, so there's no way to screw it up completely. It's always fun roaming the city and stopping crimes in progress, or finding stealthy ways to take on foes one by one. And one place in which this game really excels is giving you the assassins to fight. It's a nice change of pace from the usual Batman villains.
Now for the not so good...
First, the game purports to be a prequel in which Batman is young and inexperienced. That's great, but the game doesn't really sell that in any way that affects gameplay. The gadgets are the same and no less effective. The moves are the same and also no less effective. I would have liked the challenge of a Batman who had to rely on more physicality, or more intellectual detective work, and less gadgetry. Aside from the fact that many of the thugs don't seem to know who he is, and the fact that the returning characters look and sound younger, you wouldn't know that this was a prequel. Frankly, the decision to make it a prequel at all is curious; it's obvious that the only reasons why they did it was to bring the Joker back, and justify not bringing back the same voice actors.
Second, as I said above, the game itself really feels more like an expansion than a separate game. This is most obvious in the setting, which is basically the setting of Arkham City before it became a prison, plus an additional portion of Gotham across the bridge which is about half the size. So the sense of deja vu is enormous. That could have easily been fixed by having people walking the streets or having cars on the road. If Spider-Man games can do it, why not Arkham Origins? Sure, I get that WB had deadlines: they needed this game to hit the market before next gen consoles erased it from memory, so they had to cut corners, but it's a rather glaring omission here. The lack of innocents on the street was integral to the plot of Arkham City, as well as the feeling of isolation (though it's interesting and somewhat bizarre to note that there were in fact some innocents on the streets of Arkham City that Batman had to rescue). Here, it's just laziness. I would have settled for the addition of a bat-cycle, which would allow Batman to navigate the streets of the expanded city, and give the gamer a different experience in this go-around.
So, with the exceptions of the expanded size of the city, the introduction of a fast travel system, and a new more advanced case-solving system (which, again, works against the theme of a younger Batman), this game does not really bring anything new to the table. And I would argue that those three factors are really not game-changers, not in the way that Arkham City was over Arkham Asylum. Which itself is fine, since, let's face it - Arkham City was a damn near-perfect game. But it also had a near-perfect plot, which Arkham Origins is sadly lacking. Sure, it sounds daunting enough - a bunch of assassins gunning for Batman on Christmas Eve - but it just doesn't play out as interesting as it sounds. The game is structured linearly, so there's no spontaneity. It's not like Deadshot can take a shot at you at any moment, or Deathstroke is there to surprise you when you venture to the wrong rooftop. For a guy with a $5 million price on his head, Batman is remarkably safe most of the time. The sense of danger the plot seems to want you to feel is absent from the game world.
Overall, this is a fun game that suffers from, if nothing else, a lack of ambition and attention. It's capitalizing on the fact that you loved Arkham City so much that you'll want to play what is essentially the same game all over again. And, well, I do. But I probably won't be re-playing it anytime soon after that. | video-games_xbox |
So much there but so much left out, too. I don't even want to tally the hours I've spent playing this game because it's almost shameful. Suffice it to say I have enough play time under my belt to write a very thorough review.
I've played this game for hundreds of hours basically out of a compulsion to try literally everything there is to do. I've explored the entire map and completed countless side quests. I've played several different character builds, and played through each different ending the game offers. I've built settlements and made countless mods on weapons and armor. It's hard to believe all this content was crammed into a single game.
The combat is quite enjoyable. I'm not good at FPS, so I appreciate the VATS system, which doesn't totally feel like cheating because it drains action points and you can still take damage while using it. The role playing aspect of the game is hardly there. Dialogue options rarely lead to different outcomes, and nearly every situation boils down to just killing everybody. The crafting system for weapons and armor is great - in fact it's one of my favorite parts of the game. Roaming around gathering pre-war telephones and typewriters so I can build a scope for my sniper rifle is just plain fun to me. Settlement building, in my experience, is clunky. Lack of appropriate camera angles makes it very difficult to build large structures and even some smaller ones. For me, the awkwardness of it wasn't worth the results, because in the end no matter what you build it doesn't make much of a difference in the game. It seems Bethesda stuck settlement building on as an afterthought. I wish it were integrated into the game more thoroughly. The main story line is semi-interesting, but I found that the side quests are a lot more so, and some are downright hilarious. When you see that frigate stuck on the top of a building, go investigate. That was probably my favorite quest in the whole game.
Now the reason I'm giving this game four stars instead of five, despite the hundreds of hours I've spent playing it, is because despite the hugeness of the game there is relatively little variety. You can play different character builds, but in the end you pick a weapon type and specialize, and either sneak around and pick people off or charge in with power armor and guns blazing (or sledgehammer swinging). As I mentioned before, 90% of the quests boil down to go somewhere, kill everybody, and report back to someone. While there are several endings available in the main story line, they all pretty much have the same flavor and basic structure - it's just a matter of who you side with and who gets blown up. And the biggest weakness of the game, I think, is what happens after the main story is over. Bethesda missed so many opportunities there for really meaningful content, but with each ending I just thought - OK, more wandering around and killing things now? Find a building, kill the gunners/raiders/supermutants/ghouls, loot the chest with stuff you don't need, rinse and repeat. The DLCs have added some interest, especially Automatron, but it's still the same formula.
So after hundreds of hours, I'm still left wishing there were ... more. Not more quantity, but more depth. In fairness to Bethesda, I did start this game right after finishing Witcher 3, and those are some pretty big shoes to fill. | video-games_xbox |
Great graphics and sound but frustrating and restriicting. This is only a buy if all you care about in a game is it's graphics and sound. Project Gotham Racing is a decent game that is very strong is some categories, but could of been much more in others. It's delivers a great experience for fans of racing/driving games, but isn't that fun for the average gamer.
Gameplay:
I don't think I've ever felt less freedom in an X-Box game. Your routes are blocked off for you. No shortcuts, no pedestrians, no side routes. Even if you do unlock free-roam mode. All it is the "freedom" to knock down cones on about 5 streets that supposedly make up a stage (Times Square, Fisherman's Wharf). The difficulty level is very much a problem too. Opponents are outstanding. I like games that give you a challenge, but still a decent chance of winning. Project Gotham doesn't. Once you get to hard difficulty, expect it to take you over 15 tries just to finish in the top three in a race. Gotham doesn't have very many problems in the glitch department. Loading times are short and aren't required very often. The game runs very smoothly giving the user a realistic driving experience.
Graphics:
Wow! That word describes the visuals in Project Gotham very well. Gotham takes advantage of the shadowing and lighting effects that the X-Box can produce to the highest extent. The sun reflects off of certain types of metals and colors differently than others. When the image of your car reflects off of the wet street you are driving over, it produces an image so realistic it's creepy. The cars and cities are modeled almost perfectly. When you are cruising through New York in the game, you really feel like you are cruising through New York. Same with the other cities included in Gotham. The developers did a great job of capturing the unique aspects of each city. Worried about the views? Don't be. You can choose from over five pre-made views, or create your own. If you want with graphics that will impress your friends, pick Gotham up.
Sound:
What's not to like about a game with the soundtrack feature. Gotham comes with over 30 songs. If that's not enough, you can rip your own music and create your own radio stations. Real DJ's will introduce your music as you are driving. That was a feature that I found to really enhance the game. I wish more X-Box games would be compatible with this great soundtrack feature. Sound effects are nothing short of perfect. The screeching of the tires and collision sounds are uncanny. When playing Project Gotham, it really sound like you are in a car driving.
Control:
Couldn't be better. The triggers will control acceleration and braking if you feel comfortable with that. Triggers are used for this control in most racing games, so this is the control that is best for the majority of people. They even included the option to dive with the analog sticks using one to slow down and speed up and the other to steer. It's a nice alternative for people who have difficulty reaching the triggers or just twitchy thumbs.
Overall:
Project Gotham Racing is full of "bells and whistles", but gets old real fast. There's only so much fun in racing around and around on a linear track. The people who should buy it are people who enjoy playing games like Nascar Thunder. For most people, this is a rent. It just doesn't have enough lasting appeal to be a worthy purchase.
Recap:
Gameplay: 5.5
Graphics: 9.5
Sound: 10.0
Control: 9.0
Fun: 3.5
Overall: 7.0 | video-games_xbox |
GOD OF WAR Light With Norse Mythology. In VIKING: THE BATTLE FOR ASGARD you play a legendary warrior named Skarin. A war between the Norse gods Freya and Hel has spilt over into Midgard (Earth). Hel is upset about being kicked out of Asgard and raises an army of resurrected warriors. She is determined to conquer Midgard and use it as her launching platform against Asgard. In opposition to Hel is Freya who has selected Skarin as her chosen warrior. She gifts him with a few special abilities and sets him out on a path to free Midgard from Hel's threat.
The overall gameplay is fairly easy as VIKING: THE BATTLE FOR ASGARD is basically a hack-n-slash game with some elements similar to GOD OF WAR and FABLE. You just keep fighting your way through one Legion warrior after each other. There is some strategy involved as you can gain new abilities and upgrade old ones and certain moves work better on different types of Legions. Also, you are able to upgrade the magical ability of your sword, though you're stuck with that sword and an axe for the entire game.
The things I liked most about the game were the visuals and the ease of achievements. The visuals are gorgeous and there are some really scenic shots in different places in the game. Also, when killing Legion, the action turns to slow-motion which shows the hacking of limbs and beheading of Legion soldiers in graphic, gory detail. Visuals aside, what I liked most about VIKING: THE BATTLE FOR ASGARD was the ease of attaining achievements. Most people will be able to unlock about 700-800 Achievement points while playing the game.
At the end of each level, there is a massive battle that involves tens-of-thousands of soldiers as well as dragons. The battles themselves aren't all that impressive because Skarin doesn't really get to fight and instead has to go around killing Legion shamans and giants. What makes these large scale conflicts impressive are the cutscenes.
There's been some criticism that the game doesn't have a lot of sound. Games with a constant soundtrack and a plethora of sound effects can be enjoyable, but it gets tiring after a while. It's nice to play a game that doesn't have a full-fledged musical score during the entire game every once in awhile.
The biggest issue I had with VIKING was the repetition. There are basically five major battles and you go about reaching each battle in pretty much exactly the same way: you kill a bunch of Legion, you free the correct locations, you rescue the correct amount of Viking captives, you collect the proper items, and you call for a dragon. There are only three dragons, but there are some levels where you don't have to call forth another dragon. The consistent repetition makes VIKING easier to play for inexperienced gamers, but also makes it less enjoyable for those who have played more than a handful of video games.
I enjoyed VIKING: THE BATTLE FOR ASGARD. I like hack-n-slash games and it was kind of nice playing one that connects with Norse mythology. I found the repetition a little annoying, but it wasn't enough to infringe upon my overall enjoyment. | video-games_xbox |
Big in the wrong places. I'm kind of meh about it.
First, this is a LEGO game, and if you've played any in the past then you definitely know what to expect here. If not, well....
You can't die...you respawn. The game is heavy on puzzles and silliness, but the puzzles in the core game are not all that difficult. So it's suitable for ages 5 and up, in my opinion.
That said, I'm still meh. I mean I like it, but out of a fit of nostalgia I went back to play LEGO Star Wars (the set with episodes 1-6) and I have to say...I think the change in gameplay is rather striking. In Star Wars, the games all centered around the missions, the plot, the narrative. Yes there were side missions and lots of things to do after the core missions were finished, but the core missions did take up the bulk of the game.
Not so with LEGO Batman 3. Here the core game isn't really treated like the whole reason for having the game in the first place. I'll explain. When you finish the story, the game is only about 30% complete. There are a LOT of different things to do, gold bricks to find, characters to find, and all of that. In sum, this ends up being mostly a scavenger hunt game. I'd really rather see a much more focused gameplay/story experience than a game which is mostly wandering around and looking for side quests.
This said, the game mechanics are much improved over LEGO Batman 2, especially the way it handles specialty suits. On the other hand, I kind of miss having the big open world that Batman 2 had...it was kind of fun to just fly around Gotham as Superman. You don't get that same kind of experience here.
I'm also not a big fan of the giant hubs. For something as simple as wanting to buy characters or red bricks, you really do kind of have to wander around all over the place to look for a way to do that. I think the hubs are way too big and not very intuitive. And while I appreciate the nostalgia, the callouts of the 60's TV series is something that I think will be lost on younger (or not so younger) players.
It's a pleasant-enough diversion though. Voice acting is really quite well done (I also have the DLC, and to hear the guy from Arrow actually voicing Green Arrow is fantastic, as with Harley Quinn's voice from the Arkham series). I enjoyed playing it, but I do wish it were easier to navigate. I kept feeling as though I was fighting the format of the game in order to play. | video-games_xbox |
Great fun. For me, this was a great game and lots of fun. I know people have complained about it, but I thought this was a great game. First off, I only played the first level of Ninja Gaiden 2 prior to playing this game (I do intend on getting back to it). So, having only limited experience with Ninja Gaiden in general, I can say that yes, this is very different from Ninja Gaiden 2. That being said, I enjoyed this game a lot more than I did the first level of NJ2.
I think your enjoyment of this game all depends on what type of game you are looking for. I am the type of person who wants to play a game for fun, and not for a challenge. I would normally list pros and cons, but most of what I have to say could go either way.
-Short campaign. It took me 7 hours (give or take) to beat this game, which I did over two days. I LOVED that. I had just finished Castlevania: Lords of Shadows prior to playing this, and LOS was a LONG game. It took me 10-15 days of 2-3hrs a day. I was ready for a nice quick game.
-No hidden objects. I really enjoyed just being able to go through a level and fight people without looking for gems or rewards. It was fun to just play to play and not have to look around every corner for extras to pick up. Just move forward and kill everyone. Then, move forward again, and kill more people. No hidden items etc.
-Sense Sight. By pressing the right stick (xbox 360) you're able to find out which direction to go. It was nice to have this, so that you don't get turned around or spend 15 minutes going in the wrong direction or trying to decide what to do.
-Violence. Was this as violent as NJ2? Probably not. It was still very violent though. There was lots of blood and plenty of violence. The main difference was that you can't cut off people's arms/legs/head off.
-Quicktime events. Yes, there are LOTS of quick time events. The ones form Castlevania were somewhat hard (at least to me) and kind of bugged me. These were super easy and were fun to me. I liked that.
-Difficulty. I played on Hero, the easiest difficulty. I must say, it was VERY easy. I did not die once from losing health. (I died from quicktime events, and just plain falling off of things) It was much easier than NJ2. I'm worried that moving on in NJ2 I will die many many times in fights. In this game, it wasn't a real concern.
In closing, if you are looking for a quick , fun game, that's not very challenging (at least on Hero), then this game is for you. If you didn't like NJ2, give this a try. If you are super attached to Ninja Gaiden, this MAY not be for you. | video-games_xbox |
Turn Based Strategy in Modern Combat Attire. Here is a quick review of this game to let you know what to expect. It's a Turn Based Strategy game (TBS) meaning that each participant in the battle will take turns moving their army around the battle field. Think Chess with MANY more units and MUCH larger maps. Unlike Advance Wars (for the GBA) Dai Senryaku VII is played on a grid of hexagons. This obviously allows you to move your units with more freedom than Advance Wars.
There are over 400 units divided between over 32 classes and 8 countries. The unit types found in the game range from Aircraft like Interceptors, Fighters, and Supply planes (and more) to Main Battle Tanks, Recon Vehicles, SAM units, all kinds of boats including Destroyers, Cruisers, Carriers, and Submarines. The countries included are United States, Japan, Germany, Russia, France, Israel, China, and Russia.
There are 25 Mission Mode (Story) battles to fight and over 100 Free Play Mode maps to choose from. In addition there is a Map Editor that lets you build your own maps up to 64x64 hexes. Each country can have up to 50 units on the map at once (for a total of 200 units in a 4 player game).
The multiplayer options are plentiful in this game. Each country can the allied with other countries. Up to 4 players/computer opponents can play on a map. Any combination of players and computer controlled players using any controllers (1 controller can be shared or multiple controllers can be used). The computer AI can be one of 3 levels: Easy, Medium, and Hard. Everything from Alliances, Fuel, and starting Funds can be changed for a Free Play map.
The game can be very challenging for strategy game beginners. Mission Mode will be pretty easy for those who are very familiar with Strategy Games but Free Mode will keep them happy. The graphics won't impress those who are looking for eye candy but they get the job done in a simple and fast-thinking way.
Hopefully this review was helpful to you. Thanks for reading. | video-games_xbox |
Poor man's Valkyria Chronicles. If you are looking at this game then you should already know that it is a turn-based strategy RPG. Are there better ones out there, sure. Would I recommend putting them off to play this? No. Is this game unique and competent with it's mechanics? Yes. All in all, it is worth your time if, and only if, you are an SRPG enthusiast looking for something new.
The presentation is the major flaw as graphics are pathetically bad, the 3D character models look extremely outdated, Atlus/Success would've been better off using 2D sprites, a la the Disgaea.games. Or maybe they should've just used the hardware that was available to them?
Music is forgettable, the music tracks are just there for background noise since the environments are not really alive, and like the characters, are lacking in detail. The voice work however is exceptional. This game employs some very good voice actors, that includes the dude that voiced Sasuke from the Naruto series as your main character. Most communication is done through character portraits, which is a good thing considering the 3D models don't do the characters any justice.
The gameplay is the meat and potatoes. It is really fun especially once your characters can finally start using their special abilities and are able to transform into werewolves. The game also features unique cover tactics that allow you to either move farther than normal once an ally or enemy moves, attack an enemy simultaneously with an ally, or stand your ground and shoot at all nearby enemies during their turn. Without going to deep into it, this game really puts an effort towards being it's own thing as the story throws you through an array of battles that starts off feeling pretty tame with just Nazi soldiers and tanks, but soon you will taking out Zombies, Vampires, Skeletons, Demons, and even Dragons.
Not a bad choice for JRPG fans, but with how much time these games take to finish and the plethora of better offerings on the 360(Tales of Vesperia, Lost Odyssey, etc.), I highly recommend skipping this one, unless you are an absolutely HARDCORE strategy RPG fan. | video-games_xbox |
It's the Perfect Afro... with some Head Lice. Afro Samurai is an action game based on the anime that aired on Spike TV in 2006. Both the game and anime chronicle Afro Samurai's ultra violent quest to avenge his father's death. Lots of effort was focused on the style of the game and it really paid off. The writing, art, acting, combat, music, all flow together to create a fun experience... but the game has some serious flaws.
Story / Dialogue 8/10
The story is well told and voice acted by Samuel L. Jackson, Kelly Hu, Ron Pearlman... The dialogue is entertaining, humorous, and deeply poetic at times. However, unless you've watched the anime, the story will be hard to follow and may seem like a hip hop ronin acid trip with a large dose of Samuel L. Jackson. The relationships between the characters and the events in the story aren't fully explained in the game, but it still manages to entertain. If you've seen the anime, you'll be fine.
Graphics 9/10
The game does the best job ever at creating a game that looks like playable art. The stylized look is amazing. The screen shots and movies don't do the game justice. If you're an anime fan, you'll really appreciate the look of the game. If you strive for a more realistic/traditional game look, like Gears of War, the look may not appeal to you. But if you like anime, you'll love the art!
Combat 9/10
The combat system of Afro is great. Afro and his enemies are well animated and very responsive with a large arsenal of attacks. What truly sets the game apart is the SLICING system. The player can slow time, and dynamically slice enemies. Chop off arms, legs, torsos, heads, parts of heads, feet, hands, cut them in half... etc. Wherever the sword passes through the enemies, they get cut. It's incredibly satisfying and never gets old. There's never been an action game that's captured the feeling of wielding a katana and hacking through hordes of enemies quite like this one.
Sound 9/10
The sound effects and music set the mood really well. The music blends hip-hop, feudal eastern, and classic western tracks. I'm not a hip hop fan, but I really enjoyed the epic feel of the soundtrack. The music is great!
Style 9/10
The art, combat, acting, music are all top notch. Very few games have as much style as Afro Samurai. I really wish I could stop writing here... but here comes the part where the lice ruin the fro.
Camera 4/10
The Camera is awkward to say the least. The camera is not inverted. (95% of games use an inverted camera system - pushing right, moves view to the left.) You can go into the Options Screen and set the horizontal axis to inverted, but you can't adjust the vertical axis. The camera feels like it is drifting at times. I finished the game and never got used to this. It felt like I was watching a samurai movie shot by a perverted camera man when there were cheerleader tryouts happening just offscreen.
Levels 5/10
The Levels look great, but some of the designs are very confusing. It's pretty easy to get lost, but you can press Down on the D-Pad and Samuel L. Jackson appears as Ninja Ninja, telling you where to go. If you use him too much, he starts insulting you... Unfortunately, this is when you need him the most. The combat parts of levels are great, but there are platforming sections of the game. The platforming areas do a great job at showcasing how bad this game is at jumping and acrobatics. They're horrible. Afro is much too floaty, and the camera is too unreliable, for a player to consistently jump from platform to platform. Most checkpoints are generous, but for some reason, some checkpoints send you back 6 checkpoints if you fall. This game needs platform jumping like the Superbowl needs a halftime show.
Bosses 5/10
The bosses in this game are hit or miss. Some boss fights are really fun, while others are very frustrating. There's an amazing fight with Afro-Droid, but for the most part, the bosses take really cheap shots at you and do a disproportionate amount of damage. Some bosses can insta-kill Afro with a single hit while others feel like they're attacking with a fly swatter. Most of the time, you won't be sure if you are winning or not and the fight will be interrupted by a victory cut scene. If this happens, it means that you've won.
Leveling Up 3/10
Sometimes, an icon appears that says Level Up while you are playing. However, the game never tells you how you just improved! Did you get more Hit Points, Do More Damage, Get More Moves, Get Sexy Pictures of Kelly Hu? This is never clear. You can pause the game and look at a moves list for Afro, but the new moves are not highlighted. The only thing I can say for certain is that you don't get Sexy Pictures of Kelly Hu, so you're never really excited about leveling up.
Replay Value 4/10
There really isn't much. You can play on a Hard difficulty level and completionists can search levels for collectibles to unlock character models and concept art. That's it. Playing the game over again to experience the combat is the best reason to replay the game. The game ranges from 6-7 hours long, depending on how much you search for collectibles.
The game is rated M for Mature for every reason a game could be rated M. Gallons of blood, dismemberment, gore, language, breasts, etc... Spike TV would be proud.
Overall, this could have been a great game, but the flaws start to add up. Buy it if you are a hard core fan of Afro Samurai and can overlook flaws... like if you don't mind if your girlfriend has herpes.
Rent it if you liked Afro Samurai, want slice through hordes of enemies like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, love Sam Jackson, know what an Otaku is, know the difference between a katana and a wakizashi, or love action games.
Avoid it if you hate hip-hop, Sam Jackson, anachronistic samurai stories, flawed games, violence, or gore.
Personally, I feel that Afro Samurai could have been great... The team at Namco managed to do all of the hard stuff right, but messed up on the easy stuff like Leveling Up, Camera, and Straight-forward Level Design. It's a cool game with fun moments, but it's not a great game. | video-games_xbox |
A good platform if you have the right games to play. I purchased this for just one game at the time. Fallout 4. Which is what this was bundled with.
I have put more than 700 hours into that game on this thing. I have bought every expansion pack for it. I love this game.
So... that made this a very expensive game. :-)
I bought into the GOLD membership on LIVE. The only value I get out of it is some of the free games you get to download monthly. A couple were games I would have never bought on my own, but were somewhat fun discoveries and enjoyable.
My son has bought a couple of games for it as well, and those were fun too.
None of that is a review of the unit, except it kind of is. What that means is that we are spending money on content for it. We already have a Xbox 360, Playstation 2, 3 and 4, as well as Nintendo Wii. So plenty of justification to not buy it and equally not play it. But we are. Not exclusively mind you. But it gets play time and we are buying games.
It is solidly built. You can't really review the software as that is a point in time view. In two weeks Microsoft might update the whole dashboard and whatever I said could be wrong later. If you are used to an older Xbox 360 dashboard / UI, then this will be a bit of a change up. But not terribly much. At this moment in time it is a fairly workable dashboard. But just like the Xbox 360, it is also Microsoft's own little advertising spam window. If you are not on a network you don't see the ads. But once you are, they fill in the edges of the screen trying to entice you to do something else than what you are actually trying to do.
The one thing I would complain about about this unit: The power button. The white glowing logo on the front of the Xbox One is the power switch. LIke a smart phone screen, you just touch the flat surface and it turns on. Touch it again and it can turn off. There is no movement or flexing of it as you press. What drives me nuts with it is that I tend to brush up against it to reach for something else and it turns on. I wish there was better sensitivity to it.
If you a buying one of these as:
- a former owner owner of an Xbox360
- finding it cheaper than the latest version of it (Xbox One S)
- getting a really great deal on it (where ever you are getting it)
Then I would say 'go for it'. Like any other game system, it is fun if you have the right games. But the same can be said about a Playstation 4.
However, if you are looking for a new gaming system and not specifically a deal, you should likely buy the S model, or wait for the next generation that is supposed to be 'coming soon'. the same can be said for the Playstation. They also have a new model with better display output (but not much more, sort of like the Xbox One S version), which you can pay a little more for than the older version.
I am pondering over which system I should buy Mass Effect: Andromeda on. I am comfortable with both controllers, and operationally they work fine with few, if any, pain points. So it is a toss up. However I think the Xbox may be the direction I go. It just feels comfortable while playing games. | video-games_xbox |
Codemaster decides to make it USA friendly. I'm a huge fan of Colin McRae Rally games from Codemasters. It's the realism. the car handling, the feel of actually driving a rally car. Rally games really haven't penetrated the US market. Only a handful of American enthusiasts cling to this very European sport. I'm one of those Americans. With the release of DiRT, it's pretty obvious that Codemasters toned down the realism of car handling and made it into a very arcadey type of racing. Codemasters went as far as changing the driver and co-driver's voice to an American. No more hard Scottish accents in this game. Now, all you hear is some guy saying American expressions like "I'm stoked! "Awesome all the way!" This is so cool!". I got this feeling this guy was more into surfing and skateboarding than rally driving.
Handling: No realistic powerslides in this game. This is arcade driving all the way. Very easy to do drifting and pendulum turns along tight corners. Cars feel like they're floating on air, almost the car is skating on ice. Braking has been changed to arcade style braking. When you hit the brakes, the car stops like somebody threw a brick wall in front of you. Slight touches on the brakes will put the car to a complete halt. Very unrealistic. Very arcadey. You've been warned.
Graphics: Excellent graphics. No slow downs. Have several driving views. I'm glad they have the dashboard view and bonnet view. I use these views to make everything realistic. Nobody drives behind the car in real life right?
Gameplay: Tons of rally modes. This is a mish mash of different rallies. One minute you're driving a Lancer Evolution and then the next you're driving a MAN trailer truck (without the trailer). Brings some unique driving experiene. They even have the buggy rally. All in all, game can be beaten in a few days. AI not too smart. You can easily dominate them around the turns.
Conclusion: If you're out for a quick rally fix without the real bells and whistles then this game is for you. If you're after realism, wait for the next release. This will disappoint rally loyalists. | video-games_xbox |
Resident Evil goes action with mixed results. I remember playing the first Resident Evil game so many years ago. It was a perfect combination of action, scares, and puzzles, leaving you wondering what would be behind the next turn, and if you would survive. Many sequels and spin-offs later, RE5 makes an attempt to reinvent the series, with both satisfying and disappointing results.
You play as Christ Redfield of RE fame. Joining your BSAA team is Sheva, who can be controlled by the game AI or another person. The plot is standard RE stuff. Chris gets to an area in Africa, and zombie/mutants appear. Without proper backup, Christ and Sheva begin to attack the hordes ahead of them. Fans of the RE series will pick up on some of the previous lore, but having played or beaten any other RE game is not necessary.
Fans of the early game series will notice almost immediately that RE5 is not an "action-horror" game. It is a full blown action game. If RE4 and Gears of War had a child, it would be this game. What does that mean? You get top notch visuals similar to RE4, a plot that ties into the RE world, and action that is not longer scary. Part of the entire RE series was making the next room frightening, as you never knew what was ahead. There were puzzles everywhere, and the lack of ammo made any opponent a threat. This is not the case anymore, but it doesn't make this a bad game...
What I like:
+ The graphics are great. Not the best ever, as Gears of War 2 and Resistance 2 have upped the bar, but the visuals are great. Enemies have an awesome look to them, and environments are realistic and varied.
+ The game AI is decent, and will help you out more than some other games. This is true most of the time (see later).
+ Co-op is awesome, and makes teams work together. Lack of ammo and health items help create tension for two people.
+ Boss fights are as over the top as you remember. Fighting something 10 times your size still feels terrifying. These fights happen at appropriate times, and give great closure to levels.
+ There are extras to find in the game, leading to photo galleries and more. It gives the game extra playability for fans of RE.
What I don't like:
- This is an action game. Gone are the puzzles and scares of previous RE5 games. I remember old RE games where the "chess key" unlocked a door leading to the "lighter" used to burn paintings to get the "bronze owl", etc.. While cheesy, that was part of the appeal. You won't find any puzzle aspects here, just a 3rd person action game.
- Your characters cannot move and shoot at the same time. They must plant down and fire. It makes the game a bit clunky as you run to the next area, hold it down like a shooting gallery, then move on. Not as exciting as it could have been.
- The AI tends to overuse ammo and health items. It would be nice to have settings on item usage, but Sheva will blow through rounds quickly, and will heal you when you don't need to be.
Overall, I enjoyed RE5, but it wasn't at all what I wanted from the franchise. I wanted terror and suspense, and I got an action game. Depending on what kind of games you like, this might be for you. I beat it and sold it, so I would recommend this game as a weekend rental, and not a must buy. | video-games_xbox |
An Unworthy Replacement. Short Story:
Like many previous reviewers, I bought these as a replacement for my Turtle Beach X3s, which were fantastic. These were not acceptable; I sent them back. I haven't yet decided whether to try another pair or get Sennheisers.
Long Story:
These were recommended by a friend, so I had high hopes.
The packaging was great, and they made a great first impression with the build quality. The foam that wrapped around the sides was a little unevenly glued/stitched, but that's not a big deal. The green/black styling is awesome. They feel great compared to the X3s; the ear cups are firmer and angled to better fit a human ear. All positives here.
When I first turned them on, there was a hum. After about 30 minutes and a trip to a concrete room, it was clear that the hum was internal to the left ear (batteries are in the right) and no combination of batteries would fix it. A second, louder buzz started when I plugged in the chat cable.
Pairing instructions are wrong, as another reviewer mentioned. No additional feedback from the dual-band wireless transmitter, so that is something positive.
After an hour of game play, I was done with these. I tested them on multiple games with chat, and I had the following issues:
- Mic is poor: others complained that I was "tinny" and "sounded like I was playing in my bathroom"
- Mic stopped working periodically: other players could not hear me at times, regardless of mic position
- Chat volume inconsistent: game and voice chat ramped up and down, seemingly at random. This appears to be a problem with the Dynamic Chat Boost circuitry. At times, chat was deafening; other times, everyone was inaudible.
Overall, these were not usable for anything but stereo sound, and even then had a persistent hum. I have a friend who loves them, so I may have gotten a faulty unit. If Turtle Beach works out the quality issues, these headphones would be a steal. | video-games_xbox |
An Awesome RPG. When I first bought this, it was about 2 years after the initial release. I had my doubts, I'm not a big RPG fan but I thought I'd check this out. I'm also a big star wars fan so that also helped, but now I can say that I'm hooked. As sad as it sounds, I've played this game about 12 times since May of 2005, and each time it was a unique experience. One of the best things about this game, is the worlds, if I want to stand around looking at the beauty of Dantooine, or the tranquil ocean of Manaan, I can! The graphics aren't the best ever but very pretty nonetheless.
The sound department is excellent! Birds will chirp, creatures will roar, and all the normal things. On Tatooine, a desert world, you will hear the wind blow as you walk across the sand as two suns glare on you. The music is mostly original and in this case that isn't a bad thing. Some of the music is quite beautiful and sometimes you will want to just go to a place to listen to it.
The RPG elements are very good too, customization of all your characters is very idepth. Will you use one lightsaber, or one in each hand? Or will you use double-bladed like Darth Maul? What color lightsaber crystal? Blue,red,yellow? You have armor you can wear and extra things like implants and belts that give you special abilities. Your party is quite interesting as well, each party member has a backstory and you should talk to them after levelng up (and even when you don't) to get a new part of the story. Each party member also has a unique sidequest involving them as well, so be sure to bring them outside the ship every so often. Speaking of sidequests, there's lots of them including swoop racing which can be very difficult although you never HAVE to do it (except in one part).
The NPC's are also quite indepth, some will not be able to actually converse with you but most will engage you in conversation, some very important others just want to play a card game with you.
One last thing, in this game you choose to do Dark Side things or Light Side things. For example, if a guys getting mugged you can kill the two thugs and then tell the guy to hand over all his money before you kill him or you can give the guy some credits and send him on his way. Your decisions affect not only what force powers you can easily use later on. Also, affecting a major part of the game (which I will NOT spoil). Which is why this game has lots of replay value, you can play one game fully light then one fully dark and you can be male and female so you can get the full perspective.
The overall rating of this game is: Buy it, NOW. (...)is pretty good and this is worth it for the amount of times you'll probably play at it. Happy gaming! | video-games_xbox |
Plays like Oldskool, thinks in Nuskool. It was a while back when I heard this very informal statement, but it went something along the lines of, "If Gran Turismo and GRiD got into a knife fight, GRiD would have already made a coat out of GT." And I honestly believe that, and really, I believe that in ALOT of racing 'games' that are developed these days. Somewhere down the line back in the late 90's Gran Turismo changed all that we loved about racing games, taking the joy out of sitting down, racing down the exaggerated lanes of some fictional race track we may never see but the racing game delivers that to us. It did create something new for us, but it also lost track of a certain 'x-factor' that racers had. Nowadays it seems like if you want a decent racer, there'd better be customization features and choice to use which car (where I in turn can argue how that is in any way sensible... it's like saying "Well I like NASCAR racing but I want to use my newly acquired AUDI R10 against them, because I unlocked it!"
Before the Carbon series for Need For Speed happened, NFS had it. At a time, Ridge Racer would have been your almighty racer of racers, come to think of it, who here enjoyed a good one hour 60 lap game of Daytona USA? Ever since the customization spiel happened with racing games, there's been a bridge that developed that's created racing SIMULATORS and racing GAMES... and that, is a sad, sad outcome. There was something beautiful about a game being a game while still being able to deliver what simulators had to offer, or for what it tried and some more than others, hence the desire for drive sims to occur.
GRID takes you to a place perhaps 10 years back to that magic you might have felt from an arcade racer but immerses into a whole new realm of its own. This game is a new kind of animal, that, in my opinion, sets a very VERY high standard for racing games to compete with. Being an avid racing gamer I took this game light hearted but was overwhelmed by even the very first instance I throttled the transmission to take its first plunge into gear and the roar of something godly erupted from my speakers as if I was really there! The sound design in this game is phenomenally accute to your senses and it only delivers so much more by how the game handles as you zip through the tracks in white-knuckling action and the relentless rush of adrenaline you'll feel just to stay alive on the tracks, as when you crash... YOU CRASH! It's as if a ballet of destruction happens when you smash into something, spin out and collide into the environment and it's all even more hauntingly beautiful when you take it to the instant replays and watch it in slow mo, this flowering, blossoming effect of your car just ripping open as it is pitted by the very powers of gravity and physics-induced probability. In short, every time I crashed, though I potentially lost (the Instant Replay feature being a very huge plus to the game and your survival) I never once felt truly frustrated. The controls to the game are very tight and specific to the car you use, so if you crash... it's your own fault, believe it.
Though there are no customization features, GRID's selection specific to the tracks you pick all play on distinct levels of play you desire; choose your poison, play the game as easy as you want, or as hardcore, the game doesn't care as long as you're having a great time and believe me, you will. Out of all the different types of racing you can handle in GRiD, GriD alone has the most unique selection of racing sets I've seen, and one I've actually never heard of. In this one game alone you can take part in demolition derby, 24 Hour Le Mans Endurance, Open-Wheel F1 racing, Pro Tuned, Drifting competitions, Muscle Car exhibition, Touring, and the most frustratingly pleasing of them all, also the one I'd never heard of till now, Touge. Each one is as potent as the last, some more than others, yet all of them a much higher standard of racing game (even simulator I'll put it at that) I've ever played.
There's been some trouble about accepting GRiD and I believe it's because GRiD falls back on that deepest pleasure of racing games while still delivering realism to the gamer, where as it stands now, if it's a racing game or a racing sim, you can't have one or the other without certain features to completely rule it out. Untrue I say, GRiD has managed to prove to anyone, yet untold to everyone, just how good of a game GRiD is and it's not trying too hard to do so! I guess GRiD's biggest flaw would be how people would get frustrated that you actually have to USE the brake button almost as much as you use the ignition (and that may seem to bother alot of people, Mario Kart enthusiasts, take note).
One last thing to mention before bringing this to close is that the game, though almost minimal in its vast outcome, has some deep, almost untold story about the game... what drives the game to a degree is the driver ranking leaderboards that will come up everytime you play through an event, and always, at the very top is team Ravenwest. You'll come to hate these guys with a passion and they'll be brought up from time to time, even making random encounters against you among the ranks of the racing placements and the game will let you know that Ravenwest are particpating. So in a way, there is a story but it's an untold one... which to me was fine because it allows an open-ended mention about it and I created my own story in my mind about it, and how every attempt when Ravenwest were involved became a kind of Speed Racer moment hahaha! After you clear a complete selection of events, Ravenwest will challenge you in a head-to-head race (if you aren't much for perfection, these races will chew you and spit you out like a stick of quick flavor losing gum). It helps to know the tracks, and as you play it, you'll get accustomed to them. You'll need the knowledge of that at your side too, when to take the tight turns, when to brake strategically, how close do you need to cut the corners to save you time and such.
The game's been out for a while, and if you aren't digging into what might seem soon to become a cult-classic of racers, GRiD is something on an entirely new level of gameplay, and just GAME at that, period. The game looks great, it sounds great... but most of all, as you play it (at least how I feel almost everytime I turn the game on) you feel great. I guess to put it this way, Racing Sims like GT, even Forza, add that Matchbox car collectory that alot of people are into these days. But if you're into something oldskool, with a diehard selection of pick your poison for the match, brutal, torque-abusing, tire-peeling, asphalt-hugging, white-knuckle action that won't disappoint, GRiD has you covered on all fronts. | video-games_xbox |
Excellent sound and quality. These headphones are evidence of the quality of this brand. They are expensive, but the sound is great! They are comfortable to wear and adjust of different head sizes. The docking station makes charging easy - just set them on and they charge with nothing to plug in on the headphones.
Opening the package was a fun experience. They come packaged well with a presentation that gives a statement of quality. The instructions are thorough and it was refreshing to open a box and find exactly the details I needed to pair this with my phone and tablet for listening. Instructions include photos, and are included for several scenarios. Although intended for a gaming system, I like them for listening to my music as well. They also include a place to plug in via a cable for any device that doesn't have bluetooth.
Pairing was pretty easy. I do find that it is difficult to go back and forth from one device to another once they have been paired. I have to "forget" the device on my phone before I could get them to pair with another device. However, that's normal for bluetooth devices, and these are intended to pair with a gaming system and not to be moved around to different devices.
Since the controls are all one the headphones, it's easy to accidentally bump a button, even when simply trying to adjust for fit. I couldn't remember which side and which buttons were the volume, so I often touched the wrong thing and the robotic woman voice talked to me. This could probably get a little annoying until you learn the buttons and stop touching the wrong ones. The buttons are very sensitive to touch.
I also find that in order to have them charged and ready to use, they need to stay on the charging base between uses. For some reason, they are dead whenever I go to use them if they are not on the base.
These come with every type of cable you will need, which is handy. It includes even the plain audio cable for a wired setup. It also includes a usb charging cord for when you don't want to charge on the base. This could be handy if you play so much that you run them out of juice and you need to plug them in while you continue to use them. However, 10 hours of use seems like plenty!
Notable features: Surround sound, noise cancellation, ability to change volume for chat separate from music and gaming volume, preset scenarios for sound balance (music, movie, game, etc), built in microphone for conversation. Excellent bass and sound quality!
For those who like more than a plain headset, the side plates can be customized to make them distinct from those belonging to others in your group. And there is a card included with info about Turtle Beach Elite club membership.
Overall, I think the quality is fantastic, and I like that there are no headphone cables to go bad. I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 5 only because of the placement of buttons on the sides and the challenge they pose for learning which button is which. I had to take them off often to adjust settings, since buttons are flat and not easy to identify. | video-games_xbox |
Is There Anything Bioware Can't Do. Bioware has a pretty impressive track record for RPGs. Their most famous work to date, <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Star-Wars-Knights-of-the-Old-Republic/dp/B000067DPM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic</a>, garnered almost every "Game of the Year" award in the video game industry back when it was released.
Now a few years later, we get 'Mass Effect'. A Sci-Fi adventure that at times can seem as if it has endless choices for you to make. A few examples are things such as your character customization options (including gender and specializations), weapon and armor customization, and your "good or evil" path choices.
Actually, boiling it down to Good or Evil is a mistatement. It isn't that simple with Mass Effect. You are set out to be a 'hero', but how you get there is your choice. You can choose to work with the citizens you encounter to get complete your mission and be a Paragon. You can also choose to be a take-no-prisoners type of character and be a Renegade. If neither of those suit you, play it right down the middle a be a balance of both or neither. Your choice.
The story is Bioware's best plot ever. If you played the original Knights of the Old Republic, that's saying something. I won't give anything away, because the story is one of the main selling points of the game.
The combat is simple. In fact, some might find it overly so. However, I think people are missing the point. This isn't trying to be the greatest Third Person Shooter ever created. It's trying to revolutionize what RPGs can be.
The graphics are beyond stunning. Sometimes you will find yourself staring at your surrondings in awe and completely forget what you were doing. There is a minor buffering issue where all of the textures are loaded a second or two after you regain control of your characters, but it's nothing that really detracts from the games overall beauty.
In my opinion, I think Bioware succeeded in once again showing us the true potential of what the RPG genre can put forth. In fact, if there is one RPG out this year that is a must have, Mass Effect is it. Do not hesitate to order because you won't regret the purchase. | video-games_xbox |
Surprisingly GREAT. I'm a Tomb Raider fan from the very start. The original game on my old PS1 was jaw-dropping for it's time. We loved it. The gameplay, the music, everything - awesome. One or two of the sequels were good, then it turned awful. I haven't played a Tomb Raider game in years, but for $10, how could I say no to giving it another shot?
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Well, I'm glad I did. This game is GREAT. The playability, action, controls - it's great fun. It all comes together really well. It's not as stodgy as it used to be. You don't have to stand exactly in one spot in order to make a particular jump, for instance. It's much more forgiving - and more FUN because of it. Also, if you die, it's really fast to re-load and you find yourself about 20 seconds behind the point you died, which is great. No longer do you have to go through a whole level just to die again at that same darned spot!
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My main gripe is that sometimes it's difficult to see where to go next or what to do. A lot of colors used in the levels have a very muted feel to it. You can adjust the brightness, but what they really need is an adjustment for the contrast. It's really hard to see openings in walls when you're in caves or underwater. Also - where's the main theme? The original music to Tomb Raider was the BEST. Lara had her own theme! I really wish it were here as well. I also had an issue with saving games: It auto-saves games, which I thought was fine - but I played most of a level and just turned it off, only to boot up later and find I had to do the entire level all over again! Frustrating. I never know just where it's going to bring me when I boot up!
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It IS kind of short. Sure there are plenty of different levels, but there's no real challenge here. Maybe a little frustrating figuring out where to go next, but I zipped through this game in under a week. I also like how there's a picture of Lara fighting two tigers - I think that happens ONCE during the entire game! Kind of misleading. Mostly you run around wondering where to go next.
But overall, it's a great game. And you can't beat the price! Waiting pays off!!!
- | video-games_xbox |
MotoGP from the new guys. *now with %100 more 125cc and 250cc*
First off, let me just say that this game is in no way related to THQ/Climax's version from the previous year. So, if you're expecting to powerslide around every corner and hate using brakes, turn around right now. Now it's Capcom/Milestone's turn. (for the next 4-5 years, apparently) The latter of whom actually aren't new to 2 wheels just to next-gen consoles and MotoGP games, but date all the way back to EA's SBK 2000.
The first thing you'll do when you first pop in the game is the tutorial, (that can be skipped) which simply puts you in a quick race while giving you advice for every thing you're doing wrong and, ultimately, recommends one of three handling models - arcade, advanced, sim. 'Arcade' is designed for people who have never touched a bike game or don't know the difference between MotoGP and Motocross. The only time you'll fall is when you slam into another rider or wall at a reasonably high speed and you can brake very late into corners. In 'sim' expect to fall a lot. Braking and turning at the same time will reduce your cornering ability or cause you to loose your front end. Heavy throttle on corner exit will cause your front end to lift maybe adding in a wobble or the rear will slip out and, eventually, you could drop your bike. 'Advanced' is a nice compromise between the two. Overall the handling feels much more realistic than the previous versions, Braking skills and careful throttle control are required to be competitive. It should be noted also that most modes allow you to change opponent difficulty separately if you still have trouble with the handling model.
Game modes include, quick race, custom championship, time trial, challenge, online, and career which is where the meat of the game occurs. You start off as a rookie in 125cc and can only join the lower tier of teams. Through the course of five seasons, you'll earn bike upgrades and points as you race which allow you to change to a better team or move up through the ranks all the way to the GP class. Online allows up to 12 others to compete and has only minor lag issues, though has little in the way of features. You can't change bike setups, only features single races - no points tallying championship, lap times can only be set here - nowhere in single player, and apparently PS3 has no voice chat.
Graphics, for the most part, are good, nothing mind-blowing, but get the job done. The tracks themselves are lacking in atmosphere and animation (no wavy flags, cardboard people, etc.) and objects in the distance are simply a wall of textured trees or hills rather than being an actual model. However, the rider/bikes look great and animate nicely, (feet shift gears, fingers reach for clutch or front brake) which is what you'll mainly notice anyway. Thanks to this, replays look fantastic. Frame rate is solid even with 35 other riders around in 125's. Bike sounds are decent though a bit muted. They sound like what you might hear in the on-board shots in televised races but lower, so if you like to use 3rd-person cameras or watch replays you may be disappointed in this regard.
Overall, despite it's shortcomings and lack of polish, I still highly recommend this game especially if you're a fan of the sport or bikes in general. (It's not like you have a lot to choose from anyway) Once you get over the initial shock of transition from last years version and less than stellar online portion what you'll find is an enjoyable single player game that's a little bit closer to the real thing.
*points of note I forgot to mention that may break the game for some*
-Throttle/front brake not mappable to right stick on Xbox360, but is possible on PC and possibly PS3.
-Only rumbles when you drive off track, not under accelerating/braking, which makes the awesome on-board view much harder to manage if you're trying to push the limits of the bike.
-Regarding leaderboards, fastest times are only uploaded in ranked matches which only allow a single race before returning to the lobby, thus is played by nobody.
-AI is pretty good against itself, but tends to ignore you and your racing line.
-(really nitpicking here but the point has been raised by others) it's impossible to lock rear wheels even in sim, has semi-auto rider movement where the rider automatically sits up or tucks but can be overridden by the player, overly sensitive throttle modulation where the rear end may sometimes slide abruptly even if you think you're applying a constant, and even acceleration.
-PS3 has now received a patch for voice chat but only in lobbies, not in-race. | video-games_xbox |
You are now EA's piggy bank and marketing tool. This is a hugely disappointing game. The lack of flexibility and shear money machine they want this game to be is appalling. Want to map out buttons on the controller to you liking? Too bad your stuck with default. The marketing team is steering you away from the madden franchise mode where you had total control to instead play more ultimate team (And hopefully spend real money on packs), and connected careers which is a very limited franchise mode/superstar combo mode. No more editing the roster and playing how you want which makes zero sense if you are playing against the CPU offline. Want to add a rookie QB to your favorite franchise well good luck spending 30 minutes plus trying to trade for him. Draft class import? nope. Fantasy draft? gone. Even Madden 06 gave you more options. Post-game the first options are to post to facebook/twitter (Another marketing ploy). I almost laughed how ridiculously forward this was. The voice commentary is atrocious, you with hear the same lines over and over again after 4-5 games(A fraction of dialog as in Madden 12). Hopefully, they expect you will get so sick of Phil Simms you will have to buy their next installment for your own sanity and never touch Madden 13 ever again. Even the game manual as of the last few versions is just 2 pages of xbox seizure warnings and everything is instead to be read on the TV. What this saved the company 10 cents in printing costs? This comes off as cheap cheap cheap. I would not be surprised if they include full length commercials soon. EA knows about the problems (See the hundred of other reviews) because the first thing you get when you start up is "where is franchise mode?" onscreen.
Basically, this Madden is all about EA's survival to sell you a version each year and maximize ever penny or marketing opportunity from you while you play it how they want you to play it. | video-games_xbox |
Very Fun Game with Minor Glitches. Most of this is already mentioned in other reviews, so I'll make this as brief as I can.
This is a very fun game, giving you four different characters to switch between, and following a fairly decent story to tie them all together. The voice acting is excellent, and they do a great job of capturing the irreverent humor of Spider-Man. The art is breathtaking, too, as it shifts from the heavy lines for the Amazing Spider-Man to the nearly entirely CGI look of Spider-Man 2099 to the sepia tones of Spider-Man Noir.
The game play has been bashed for being what some call a "button masher" and you can just mash some buttons and move through the game. However, the combos they give you can combine into a lot more if you plan them out, and the game rewards you for using more varied moves through each act.
As my review's title indicates, however, there are some minor glitches in the game that do not break it, but do make for some frustration. For example, as Spider-Man Noir, as I'm waiting for the guy to pass underneath my perch, as I'm about to web grab him, the auto targeting instead switches me to another guy across the street! And then each time I swing the camera back to the target I want, it automatically switches me back!
I have heard some complain that it is difficult to see if Spider-Man Noir is in stealth or not; I disagree. When you are in stealth, the screen switches to black and white. Also, for those color-blind folks in the audience, Spider-Man's actual stance changes depending on whether he's in stealth or not.
Replayability is fairly good, too. Each map has the same guys laid out in the same fashion every time you play it, so that makes it a bit less replayable, but there are so many challenges in the game that you can keep increasing the difficulty each time you replay the game, and/or try for the challenges you missed the first times through. The game's "Web of Destiny" enables you to see and track challenges, too.
Overall, this is a very fun game, and definitely worth owning! Excelsior! | video-games_xbox |
Average first person shooter. Let me explain my title. I'm am a huge fps fan. I own Red faction 2, XIII, Tribes, Unreal tournament and alot more. Those are all great games and anyone should try them out. But back to Halo. Let's start with the story. Pretty basic, you fight aliens with your team of humans (which by the way you can't command in any way). The aliens are attacking you and you attack the aliens (the aliens are some of the best I've seen since Half Life, the grunts are so funny and the elites are so cool).
Now to the gameplay. Its the normal first person shooter stuff. You run and gun, nothing much more than any other game.
I have to say the voicing is good. There are really no corny lines. It is some of the best I've ever seen too.
Now to Master Chief's abilities. He's a super cyborg guy, that can only hold 2 guns at a time. He can't jump very high, and can't land large falls without hurting himself. But he can take alot of hits and keep on killing.
Now how about I go onto the so called best aspect of the game, the multiplayer. The multiplayer is very defined. It is some of the best I have seen in a while. The levels are rich in design and character. The only real complaints I have on it are that there are no bots, only 2 vehicle levels, and not many levels. By the way Hand em' High is the best. Finally to the thing that makes up every good fps, the weapons. I have to admit, this is one aspect I hope they fix in Halo 2. Yeah we've seen it all before, pistol, shotgun, assault rifle, rocket launcher, I'm tired of the ordinary. Bungie, give us something new. Or at least add 5 types of assault rifles and like 3 kinds of rocket launchers ect. But all in all Halo is a great shoot em' up and it has a fun mulitplayer and an average single player. Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention the co-op mode. It is fun and I like it, but why only two player? Hello, Microsoft, the Xbox has 4 control ports, how about we use them all? But, if you have an Xbox you should by all means pick this title up. | video-games_xbox |
HONESTLY NOT a GAME worth 60 bucks. ***Notation***: Any of the following information mentioned below can very easily be found anywhere on the web via youtube or common searches. When considering buying this product it is IMPORTANT to take into account the products "FUNCTIONALITY". This particular version of the game for this platform DOES NOT ALLOW YOU TO INSTALL THIS GAME ON YOUR CONSOLE, meaning that you are forced to play this game from the disc. End Notation 4/9/2014
This game was developed on a supposedly "Heavily modified version of the Source Engine". The Source Engine has been around a very long time. So has the Xbox360. So everything about the games playability, functionality, load times, latency, lag, unfortunately EVERYTHING about this game has "forced the buyer" to suffer from a level of functionality that developers have surpassed years ago. Bluepoint Games (The game developer responsible for the Xbox360 version) has specifically and intentionally DENIED -->you<-- the ability to install this game upon your Hard Drive. Upon placing the game in the console you are prompted for an update and the option to "Install" the game has been removed completely.
GRAPHICS: You can actually enjoy the games graphics for what they are, but they are nothing stellar. Its the same engine that "Call of Duty" has been developed on. So if you were in a hospital bed and a doctor needed to determine a "Baseline" for graphics youll see throughout the internet that the graphics are just base graphics. There is absolutely nothing stellar about any of the graphics.
CUSTOMIZATION: This game offers the most basic customization. As a matter of fact "who" you look like as a foot soldier is determined by which primary weapon you are carrying. Even then, the loadout screen depicts a JPG image of a soldier. The weapons when customizing them are one dimensional JPG images. Basically, there is absolutely nothing customizable about anything other than picking what you want to use, shown to you by a one dimensional JPG image, followed by a one dimensional JPG image of a soldier or Titan, followed by JPG images of weapons in your loadout. All "flat" one dimensional images.... similar to when youd pick a character in Street Fighter on the Sega Genesis. So theres no immense development put into weapons nor soldiers nor titans. Very bland,
PLAYABILITY: Ever since this most recent generation of consoles ability to install games it has benefitted not only YOU as a consumer but also those you play with by installing your game onto your consoles HD. I am well BEYOND the standard for any Internet Connection down/up speeds. So its important not to misunderstand when I say that they game forces everything to play WITH LAG, it forces you to HAVE drain on your console, it forces your games "Frames per second" to suffer. Why? Because your are now spinning and pulling data off of a game disc. This game suffers from lag, framerate drops, and connection speed issues because the DEVELOPER has forced you to play the game from a disc. In this day and age (last time I was subjected to this poor development of a game) theres no excuse for selling a product with absolutely NO DISCLOSURE of the inability to actually INSTALL the game. Hit registration, jumpy soldier movements, lag, framerate drops, connection issues all slowed down to an abysmal crawl because BLUEPOINT GAMES didn't want you to be able to install the game. Don't buy into this game. Youll have buyers remorse.
Unless you have no standards. If you have no standards by all means waste your money. This game is NOT worth buying a new console for. "Destiny" is a game worth a new console. but this no talent azz clown watered down game that forces you to play from a disc isn't worth more than 28 bucks tops.
Buying this game gets you:
-1 day 1 update
-ABSOLUTE Zero customization of soldiers and Titans
-SOLDIER Loadout customization of 3 weapons, a grenade, a boost, and a special ability
-Titan Loadouts of 1 primary, secondary, and an ability
-15 maps... That's it.
-A story mode that is so forgetful its not mentioned above
OVERALL:
This game is the most basic watered down FPS Ive seen within the last decade. More importantly, this game isn't on a Dreamcast, This game isn't on a Sega Genesis, but the developer has insisted on developing this game with functionality so basic that anyone with low standards will be satisfied with this mindless dribble of a game. It literally takes less skill than Call of Duty takes, that's how bad this game is. And being restricted from installing it to your HD just forces the consumer to play this game behind a firewall of LAG AND LATENCY issues. Disgusting development. Poor execution. Morose implementation of consumer choices for better performance.
-NO ABILITY TO INSTALL THE GAME is TERRIBLE | video-games_xbox |
This is the best headset you can get for $20. I ordered this headset on March 23rd, 2017 and i received them on March 25th, 2017. I am the most abuseful person to any of my hardware, and since only $20 and i was expecting to get a more expensive, better headset later i took 0% care of these, throwing, kicking, water you name it, this thing has been through it. The cord is even plugged in the worst way, and yet. This thing still hasn't broken. I've even dropped it down 2 flights of stairs and it didn't break. Today it happened, Jan 02, 2018. I broke the headset, by springing up too fast to react to a falling glass mug, and they fell and snapped above the earcuff, but yet. They still work. The top bit is smashed to pieces, they're cracked at the top, the cord is stained with ketchup, mustard, coffee, mayo and this headset STILL works like new. I would reccomend this headset to anyone that is buying a headset for no less then $80. This isn't the best sounding, most comfortable, most decked out headset. The headset does have it drawbacks (see below) But this thing is a serious tank.
PROS AND CONS
Pros:
This headset is SUPER durable
This headset is $20. So even if you do break it, its $20 for another.
The Audio quality is good.
LED Lights.
The thick braided cable is SUPER durable. I have it plugged into a bad spot, with the weight of the whole cord bending the area of cord above the headphone jack at about an 85 degree angle. and it still works. (Like i said, durable)
The headphones are comfortable, Not the best but are very very good.
Even when the things do break, the headphones are easily mended.
Fashionable.
Mute switch on top of the left headset.
Volume Dial behind the ear on the left headset.
Simple, Black with red accent headset. It matches any red-color PC Build/gaming setup nice.
CONS:
The Microphone quality. It isn't the best. Its good for gaming, and a chat with friends, however if you are trying to steam or make videos, i would recommend you get a higher quality microphone.
The Physical Microphone Not that movable. The base of the bendy microphone is stuck just about to the left of your mouth when wearing it. (See picture of product) It doesn't stay up, and doesn't have a wide range of mobility. It can get in the way if you are eating or drinking with it on however. Not the worst though.
The LEDs are bright, and have many colours, but they can't be customized. They are stuck breathing through Purple, Light Blue, Red, Green, Yelow, Dark Blue and Cyan. It looks fantastic, though, again NOT customizable. A solid red-color option on the headset would be great, | video-games_xbox |
Definately the MOST POWERFUL CONSOLE EVER. I have had my One X ever since it debuted on the 7th of November... It is by far the most powerful console on the market! I am a super "Tech Nerd". I'm the guy who has to have the latest and greatest. Aside from console gaming I am also an avid pc gamer. I love building gaming rigs and right now I currently have a rig that will run any game at its best and most demanding graphical setting. It is also capable of handling any VR system you throw at it... I decided to go with Oculus. All of that being said you would think that I would despise consoles as most hardcore pc gamers do, however these days I am just the opposite. It used to be that super high-end gaming rigs was the only way you could experience the most beautiful graphics that video games could dish out... Now with the invention of the Xbox One X I can enjoy beautiful 4K graphics at a steady 60fps in wonderful HDR without having to deal with all of the pains that come with gaming rigs. As I said above... I love tech. Because I love tech I have the ability to actually compare my One X, One S and my gaming rig side by side using the same high end gaming monitor. When doing so you can definitely tell that the One X does everything that it says it does. Even when using the One X on a standard HDMI HD TV at the more common 1080i you can tell a difference. All games load faster and have a better response time than the One S. As for the gaming rig, if I didn't know which monitor was sporting the gaming rig or which one was sporting the One X I honestly wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the two. I used Destiny 2 and Assassins Creed: Origins as my testing game. Both games look equally as beautiful on the One X and the gaming rig! What does all of thins mean... It means that I am a little upset that my One X that cost only $600 looks and performs just as good as my $5,000 custom built gaming rig! So the big question is the One X worth it? YES... Even if you don't have a 4K yet, games load, download and respond way faster on the One X and if you do have a 4K tv... Oh my, my, my... The One X absolutely rocks! I am curious as to what Sony is going to do in response of the One X (I also have a PS4, what can I say... I love tech and Sony has some very cool PS4 exclusive games). You know that Sony isn't going to just rollover and let Microsoft own the 4K playing field. Just watch... As of right now the One X IS THE MOST POWERFUL CONSOLE, but believe you me... Sony is going to top it. Maybe not tomorrow or next month, but they will. For now though if you want the best gaming has to offer... go get yourself an Xbox One X! | video-games_xbox |
Scream of Rage. I hate this game. I cannot express in words the degree to which I hate this game. If this game were a person, I could run it down with my car and not feel the slightest twinge of ethical concern. I hate it so much it leads me to forget things that I've been trained to know are right and good and simply shout expletives in its general direction for the next few hundred words. Fortunately for this game, I'm not quite that much of a jerk.
Imagine that you took Test Drive: Unlimited and the last decent Burnout title, smashed them together, and then carefully excised everything even remotely fun from the mangled monstrosity that resulted. There, my friend, you have found Burnout Paradise. Everything about Revenge that entertained me enough to keep from snapping the disc in half and tossing it into traffic has been removed from this game, and I can't in good conscience recommend it to anybody.
One thing that I can't fault the game for is its appearance, which is certainly a step up. The game is definitely beautiful. Driving through Paradise City, you get to see a lot of different environments, and every single one springs off the screen and directly into your face like some kind of carnivorous monster. When it comes to useful visuals for the gameplay, however, there's some problems with the level of detail included in the game's environments - specifically, I have a hard time figuring out where the bloody road turns in some locations. This is worst in the downtown areas and best on the outskirts of town, but ANY time I miss my turn because it doesn't look like there's a road there at all, somebody needs to yell at the graphical designer.
The game sound is mostly unremarkable, so let's not. It won't make you physically angry, and I guess that you might like the soundtrack (I personally loathed roughly 80% of the included music, but that's not atypical for me with an EA title), but it's not going to pleasure you sexually or make you reevaluate your life.
My problems with the game all have to do with the gameplay, or, rather, the lack thereof. If you've played Revenge, you might remember fun modes like Traffic Attack or Crash Mode. Those were pretty terrific, right? Well, they're gone. Not only are they gone, but some of the fundamental rules that you would have learned from prior games in the series have been utterly invalidated. The big one is the rules on What Kind of Traffic Causes Crashes. In Revenge, they had a simple rule - if you could see headlights or it was a truck, you would wreck into it. Otherwise, you knock it to the side. I don't know what they replaced that with, but I DO know that in the first hour I played, I wrecked against no fewer than ten cars stopped at intersections, smaller than me, facing away from me.
Of greater concern is the bald stupidity that comes from building an open world street racing game in a world that nobody has ever been to. If this game were set in San Marcos, TX, I'd be all over it because I KNOW WHERE THOSE STREETS ARE. I don't know where anything is in this game and the game doesn't do anything at all to help you learn. I'm faced, as a newcomer, with the choice between spending ten hours losing hard just to learn where everything is (not fun) and just plain losing because I don't know where anything is (also not fun). Closed tracks are fun because it's hard to get lost. I got lost in three of my first ten events in this game and ended up on practically the wrong side of town. That's bad.
I could go on for a thousand more words, but I won't belabor my point too heavily. The game has been well received, and maybe it's just me. Maybe people who like "open world" style games will find something to enjoy here. I didn't. I found Test Drive to be a better implementation of the idea. With limited modes that mostly feel identical, no Crash mode (seriously - Crash mode was a puzzle game and that was FUN; Showtime is entirely random), undirected gameplay, poor layout, and any number of other problems, this game would have to come with chocolate cake and my own personal supermodel before I would even consider recommending it. There's a lot of potential for an open world Burnout game, but this isn't the game to realize that dream. | video-games_xbox |
Decent Open World Game But Has Bugs And Lack Of Content. I would give the game a higher score but the map stopped working and I can barely play the game now. The map bug is known on all platforms and is a serious problem because without it navigating is almost impossible. Fast travel requires the map and since the game is just a big empty sandbox(literally) navigating the world without a map is really hard. Gameplay is very repetitive and has very little story to help keep players invested. Avalanche is a very good developer so the game plays well and is beautiful. I feel that the game lacks the Mad Max feel though. The game needs more content and more protagonists. Max is a man who lost everything but always ends up helping those in need albeit grudgingly but he comes through. This is what the game needs. It needs a group of people for Max to protect and escort to safety. A game with really good defense gameplay would be great. Max jumping from car to car and crawling around on a heavily armed and armored 18 wheeler while fending off attackers would be great. Instead players go from region to region doing the exact same beat 'em up missions. Every region has a leader that needs help and you do the same thing to help them in every region. It's all so repetitive. The car combat is fun the first few times but it loses is charm real fast. Once the weakness of each car is figured out it becomes simple to take them down quickly. Plus there is no real reason to even want to fight the cars, the pay off is not worth the trouble. The convoys are a bit of a challenge at first but once the Max mobile is leveled up some it is not much of a challenge. Each region has boss enemies but they are the same guy every time and they fight the same way every time so it isn't even exiting to see the next boss, it's the same guy with a different name and a new spray paint on his face. I know Avalanche can make a great game, Just Cause is the proof, but I don't understand what happened here. Did Just Cause 3 take away the focus from this game? It just feels like there is so much promise that ends up being unfinished with Mad Max. I grew up with Mad Max so this was a game I have been waiting for a long time and as much as I want to love this game it just isn't what it could be or should be. | video-games_xbox |
BAD FOR CHILDREN. Help Protect our Children and our Officers: Ban Eidos' "25 to Life"
Our goal is 50,000 signatures.
We now have 72,909. We met our original goal of 17,500 in less than two weeks... and now we've surpassed 50,000! We're not done yet!
In response to a notice from game manufacturer Eidos, that the "25 to Life" video game was being shipped to U.S. markets beginning January 17, the NLEOMF is mounting a vigorous campaign to discourage parents and caregivers from purchasing or allowing children access to the violent video game. We are gravely alarmed by the violent nature of this game and believe that any type of media that glorifies violence against law enforcement or civilians should be carefully scrutinized.
The "25 to Life" video game allows players the option to role-play by shooting gang members and police officers and using innocent bystanders as human shields. The Web site advertising the game boasts that players have "more than 40 weapons to choose from, including shotguns, machine guns, stun guns and tear gas."
Due to the disturbing nature of the game, last fall high-profile law makers and citizens protested its release, which the NLEOMF believes helped to delay its entry into the U.S. market. Although the manufacturers have chosen to release the game this year, YOU can help limit its access to the young minds that this game will be promoted to.
The NLEOMF aims to collect 17,500 signatures, in support of a petition to take the game out of U.S. stores. This figure represents approximately the number of officers whose names are permanently inscribed on the Walls of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, and symbolizes the grave consequences of violent behavior toward officers.
Our culture is saturated with violent images in all types of media, but games like "25 to Life" are especially dangerous because they're driven by the thrill of the kill. The images are wrong. The messages are wrong. And stocking it in U.S. stores is wrong. Do your part in keeping our children and our officers safe; sign the petition today.
Petition:
I support the ban of Eidos' "25 to Life," believing that its violent nature represents a threat to our children and our law enforcement officers. I petition to have the game removed from the U.S. market. | video-games_xbox |
A review from an impartial gamer. I play a lot of different RPG's and was not a fan of Elder Scrolls Oblivion. I will list the pros and cons as impartially as possible so you can be the judge on what matters to you.
PROS:
- You are left to explore and find things to do and quests on your own. This game is a true RPG. You have one main quest. Everything else are side quests.
- Over 100+ hours of places to explore. and more than 100+ unique map locations.
- Tons of perks and ways to develop your character. Become a science genius or concentrate on stealth and your lockpicking ability. Invest in large guns and go into places with guns ablaze. Play the game how you want. Be good and people will love you, be bad and people will fear you.
- Replay value. This is rare in RPGs but Because of the many different ways you can play the game I see myself playing this game again to play a different type of character.
- Some people complain about the targeting system known as VATS. This game is not an FPS. VATS gives you a wonderful 1st person shooter feel with an RPG style or turned based combat. Score a critical by shooting your enemies head and it might explode. Shoot the enemy on his weapon hand and he will not be able to attack you very quickly.
- The graphics are amazing. Its a beautiful post apocalyptic mess. The detail from the stains on a found mattress or a found comic called "Grognak the Barbarian and the Lair of the Virgin Killer" are all amazing. You can tell a lot of thought went into detail.
- The voice work is nice. Almost every character talks out loud. This allows you to listen and respond instead of just watching a mouth move and reading dialog all the time.
- Enemies do not automatically level with your character. This was my biggest problem with Oblivion. Some people liked the fact that enemies would always be your level. I found it totally unrealistic. Go ahead, run your level 1 character through the Wastelands. You might come across an easy roach or a mutant with a minigun. In my book this makes the game more fun and much more realistic.
- I have read on the forums and some bad reviews here that they can not find tons of ammo. This is not Halo, Call of Duty or any other FPS. People need to take the right mindset. This is a world 200 years after major Nuclear war. Things will break, ammo is sometimes scarce, radiation is a fact of life, bottle caps are money, people trade everything and you live in a harsh world. I think some people need to watch the Madmax series just as a primer to understand the world created here.
- Instant travel. Once you have visited an area you no longer need to walk to the location. You can locate the area on your map (through the PIPBoy 3000) and select it to instantly travel.
- The PipBoy 3000 Interface works great. This allows you to keep track of stats, items, equipment, quests, notes, maps, and karma very easily. The UI is easy and it keeps all the data you need at your finger tips.
CONS:
- AI is nothing special. It's not bad, just nothing special. When I am shooting a shotgun at you, running at me with a pool cue might not be the smartest thing to do. They will sometimes run away if severely over matched (which is the smart thing to do). The AI is no worse then any other games, just no big improvements here.
- Lack of good music. You can find radio stations on your PIPBoy but I was not a fan of the music. The background can be ok but not great. Sometimes when alone in the Wasteland you want some good background music.
- I had the game crash once but not a lot of times like some people are reporting. Still unacceptable but manageable. Loading and saving times can take anywhere between 10-30 seconds which is kind of slow.
- No item descriptions. The important data like weight, condition value, and perks of the item are still displayed but full description of the items are no longer available. This is different then Fallout 1 and 2 where each item had a paragraph describing it.
Additional thoughts:
This game is rated "M". This means you shouldn't play this game with kids in the room. This isn't a Con for me but this might be a problem for all you gamer mom and dads out there. Seriously, no kids allowed. Women offer there "Services", cussing, blood splatter on the screen when you get injured, mutants hanging people on meat hooks, tons of drug use, and of course blowing peoples limbs off. Good times but not for the kiddies.
No, its not perfect but it is a lot of fun and the best RPG currently on the market. My 5 star review was based on that fact. This is the best RPG I have played since FFX (Final Fantasy X). I hope you enjoy it. | video-games_xbox |
Good, but definitely not for audiophiles. Let me give you the bottom line before getting to the details. If you hate messing with a lot of wires, have a need to play games without disturbing others in your house, and are not an audiophile, then this is a good product for you. If you are an audiophile, you will likely not be happy.
Here are the details:
Setup is really easy and it really works quite well. It is no longer stressful for me to get setup to play games when I need to do so while being quiet. My wireless controller with this headset work really does the trick.
The reason you wouldn't want this product if you are an audiophile is that there is a constant white noise sound in the background. It is actually somewhat similar to the white noise you get with noise canceling headphones, just a lot stronger. Once you get used to it, you don't really notice it too much, though.
The headphones are quite lightweight and work well with my energizer rechargeable batteries. The battery life seems pretty good, even with rechargeables.
I really like being able to independently control the mic volume and game volume. The headset does a good job with keeping a constant level between them even when the game gets loud. It took me a few games to get used to hearing my own voice, but now I actually like it. I do however wish there was a way to turn off the microphone when you don't want it to be on. I think that the lack of microphone kill switch contributes to the white noise (yes you can mute broadcasting to the xbox from the mic so other players don't hear you - however it still continues to pick up room noises and play them in your ears).
There is still the wire that connects the headset to the controller. I don't find this to be an issue though.
Overall, I would buy this product again, because it really met my needs. I had the X1 earforce, but the wires on it were just annoying. I chose to give up a little sound quality in favor of not having to mess with the wires. If this profile fits you and you are okay with pretty good sound, then you will probably be happy too. Otherwise, you probably will be unhappy.
TIPS:
* Set this up with your receiver so that the broadcaster attaches to your receiver via the headphone jack on your receiver. I simply use the adapter for the headphone output so that the mini-plug on this unit works with it. I then have just the jack sitting next to the receiver with the rest of the wire winding around the back out of site and simply connect the headphone jack to the receiver when I want to use the wireless headset. This makes for almost hassle free switching between wireless broadcasting and normal speaker usage.
* If you have a receiver, check to see if it supports simulated surround sound over the headphone jack on it. My Yamaha does (called silent cinema), which means that using the setup I described above allows me to still get simulated surround sound over the stereo speakers on this headset. | video-games_xbox |
A beautiful game that is an absolute blast to play for hardcore competitors and casuals alike. I don't normally do game reviews on here, but this one was a must! I played the open beta for Overwatch and had a really fun time playing it, I was on the fence on whether or not I should buy the full game as there didn't see like there was much there as far as content and a progression system. I picked up the game yesterday and I'm so glad I did. I put about 4 hours into it last night and had a blast playing every second of it. Everything about this game is fun. The gameplay and the look/sound/feel is very well polished, it is a beautiful experience. The game is addictive and crazy fun. What I really like is that, with the exception of cosmetic changes, everything is instantly available to all players. Playing on day 1 at level 1 and playing at day 100 at level 50 is virtually the same experience so there's no advantage (other than player skill and practice) of someone who plays occasionally and those who play constantly. It is a very accessible game that can be approached from a casual stand point or a hardcore competitive one. Get your buddies together and form a strategy based around different heroes and play styles, or just jump in solo and work with your team to complete the objective. I love that you can change characters on the fly. I've found 1 or 2 in each class that I absolutely love playing as. Each hero is a weapon, and it is a fun, rewarding, challenging experience playing as and mastering each hero. The game is very much like Team Fortress 2 and that's okay. It's a great concept and it is executed BEAUTIFULLY! I love that Blizzard is going to release all future content for free so no need for a season pass or anything. There are so many competitive shooters on the market and this one clearly stands out as something different and special. By far my favorite game released this year. This should hold me over until Battlefield 1 is released and beyond. Now the real challenge is going to be trying to convince my wife to put down Dark Souls 3 for a bit so she can join me and be my tank/healer/attacker. | video-games_xbox |
Sabertooth is Primo, but the braided cord isn't. I ordered the Sabertooth 2 weeks ago after debating buying it for a few months. I had seen a video done by YouTube user shaun0728, or Hutch, and he had talked about how much it stepped up his game. I said aw hell with it and bought the controller. It said it was going to take a month to ship, but I was surprised when I got an email saying that it could ship a week and a half earlier. Out of the box, the controller is very nice. Compared to the Onza, which was not very durable, this controller is a breath of fresh air. It feels very sturdy in my hand, and it has a silicone like grip to it that is very nice. Many people say that it doesn't feel well made, but I beg to differ. It may be because they aren't used to the weight of a wired controller, but from someone who only uses wired controllers, it feels very nice. The re-mappable buttons on the back of the Sabertooth fit right where my middle fingers are, and are easy to reprogram. The re-mappable buttons on the top of the Onza have been moved in towards the middle of the controller, which is a great improvement. Overall, the Sabertooth is a great controller. The only complaints I have are barely even worth noting. The bumpers and M1 and M2 buttons all click a little loud, and the front of the controller isn't very curved, so in order to hit the Xbox home button, you have to reach over the analog sticks to get to it. Those are so minor though, and are probably me just being anal #firstworldprobs.
If you are on the fence about buying this controller and really want to step up your game, buy the Sabertooth. I play a lot of CoD and Halo, and I remapped the bottom right trigger on the back of the controller to jump and the bottom left to crouch/prone. I am able to jump around corners and immediately lay down without moving my fingers off the analog sticks, allowing me to keep my aim steady while moving. This gives me a huge advantage over the people I am playing against. It definitely is worth investing in and something that will help your gaming abilities. Also, SUBSCRIBE TO HUTCH! He's a great guy who likes to have fun playing video games.
In Addition: If anything comes up that is wrong with the controller, I will update this review and the rating of the controller.
**UPDATE 3-5-14** I've had the controller since May of 2013 and have only really had one problem with it. That problem would be the cord. You would think that the braided cable would make the cord easy to manage but that is not the case. I had to replace the cord by contacting Razer Support because it would stop working intermittently and it would bend and the wire would get stuck like that which would eventually cause the braid to break. I sent the controller back to Razer and they replaced the cord and the customer support made it very easy. However, since then I have been having similar problems with the cord. The controller works perfectly fine, but the cord is very annoying because I don't want it to break just because of normal everyday use. | video-games_xbox |
Alpha Protocol is a solid 'good' game that is worth checking out. Many industry reviews of this game came down to it being a fairly fun game with more ambition than achievement. One can easily see the goals they were reaching for, but for some reason they fell short in the final product. Perhaps the victim of another title rushed out before it was ready.
Alpha Protocol has an interesting concept. Mixing Mass Effect style RPG elements with the spy and espionage genre is compelling. The problem is that for a game seated heavily in both of those categories, it is awfully light in each. For a spy and espionage game, you spend far too much time running around shooting things and blowing them up in what seems like repeated variations on the same activity level after level. Worse, the end of the game is a frustrating ratcheting up of difficulty not built at all around the spy and espionage aspect, but flat out hard-core first-person-shooter rampaging. When your each the final level, you'll wonder why you wasted your action-points pumping them into things like "stealth" and other spy traits, when you can't even hide. Half of the final level is the painfully over-used videogame cliche of shooting down a chopper with missiles. It's ridiculous.
If you go into the game scoping out a more action oriented character, you will find yourself disappointed. For the first 90% of the game, you'll want as much stealth ability as possible. Not because a spy doesn't use guns that often, but because the gun-play is fairly awful. There are far worse examples in games, but focusing on a more military character will short-change you without your stealth skills. It's easier to just use the fairly ludicrous mechanic of walking up to people with your uber-stealth skills that somehow make you invisible even when you're face to face with them and break their necks, instead of having a gun-fight across the room.
The dialogue isn't horrendous, but the faux Mass Effect dialogue interaction seems poorly thought out. You can almost see the depth they were shooting for to begin with, but at some point they decided "every character likes one type of interaction and hates the other". So, you always want to press "B" for certain characters to make them like you. Always press "Y" for others. Alwyas press "X" for some others. Don't mix it up or you'll regret it.
Worse, the dialogue options are timed and vague. Take too long to choose and it'll choose for you. But what should you choose? You don't see examples of what you'll say. you just get "Suave" or "Blunt" or "Aggressive". Often, it almost seems like what you choose won't even matter and will result in the same dialogue, anyway.
The quality of the story has come under attack, too. Admittedly, it's a little weak. However, it's nothing worse than you might find in your typical spy thriller movie or even a Bond film. There are no shocking twists or epic tales, here. Just an average spy story. It doesn't add anything to the game, but I don't see that it detracts from it, either.
In the end, it's a decent looking, decent playing, decent storied, decent experience. That's about all I can say for it -- decent. It isn't bad. Play it wrong and it can be damn frustrating. It just isn't superb, either. Unfortunately, they've already indicated that there will be no Alpha Protocol sequel. That is unfortunate, because this game has something going for it and a refined iteration could be a hit.
If this had a sequel, I'd buy it on launch day. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it at the release price right now, but if you can get it when the price has come down, it shouldn't be missed. At half price, you'll definitely get your money's worth. And if you like the story, you might find it worth replaying (there are multiple possible endings as well as different possible relationship outcomes within the game).
I think this will be a game on a number of people's "remember fondly" lists in a decade. As well as their "games which deserve a sequel" list. I wouldn't be surprised if this one is dragged out again after a few years and we hear rumors of "re-entering the Alpha Protocol franchise". | video-games_xbox |
I like this game a lot despite its flaws. First, the flaws:
No story. No cut-scenes, just an intro video.
On-line network implementation can sometimes be glitchy if you are playing with lots of people.
It is *fundamentally a multi-player game*. The "campaigns" are each just three battles against bots, carrying over some earned goodies from one battle to the next.
The main problem with the game is that it is made for network play, but internet play isn't always glitch free.
What's good:
It supports system-link. I think it would be a GREAT LAN-party game, and at its low price, you can buy lots of copies.
Lots of different weapons and vehicles (land, sea, and air) to learn how to use. Lots of different character classes which have proficiencies at the different weapons, and at completing various tasks.
The bots you fight against are almost as much fun to fight as real people. Considering it's a multi-player game, playing by yourself was done quite well.
Level design is good. Lots of choices about how you wish to fight. The landscapes are pretty, if a bit monochromatic, i.e. greenish or brownish. Gigatexture technology means you won't find any repeating patterns on the ground. Nice.
As a *game*, it's nicely designed. This isn't about realism. It's about achieving specific goals in a specific order in order to get the win. There's no death-match, and no gore, just one team attacks and the other defends. Once the attackers complete each goal, they go on to the next. Each time you die, you can re-spawn as a new character class who has the skills to complete the next goal. Your team must work together, and every character class is valuable for different things. You must think as a team to play this game.
It's a good game which was clearly created by some very talented people. It's just a little rough in the internet play department. Your mileage may vary, though. I think the game is excellent for $15 or less. | video-games_xbox |
The Best Zombie Sim Ever. I fell in love with the original version of this game on the Xbox 360 during the Winter of 2014, I had several Snow Days and off from work in PA, and man was it great timing to be able to enjoy an ongoing open world experience like State Of Decay! I could have actually saved 10 dollars by downloading it instead of buying the Year One Survival edition' copy, but I love Physical game copies so much more. And this team puts out a AAA product at a budget cost, imo. That in today's gaming world is quite a rare feat to accomplish as a developer, to be able to pass on a great open world game (or any game really) for a price point of 20-30 bucks!
Regarding the upgrade I may be reviewing it a bit early but I am passionate about this game, and I wanted to be quick to review this in the early stages post-release, so that I could help the cause. YES - this game looks better and plays better on XBox One. There's value there. Also you get all the DLC's this time without having to pay more, also great value especially since LIFELINE DLC Mode is in a completely different setting and different characters you can choose from, and it's also like playing State of Decay as Military personnel instead of civilians. Along with that comes more weaponry, ammo, and vehicles at your disposal.
GAMEPLAY & WEAPONS: Some of the gameplay I enjoy the most is the scavenging in SOD. It's so cool to walk into a house or building and not know if a zombie(s) will be lurking around a corner waiting to jump at you, and also just as satisfying to scrounge the area for supplies. Your base will need food, ammo, meds, Building Materials, Fuel and generally ongoing TLC to maintain order and survivial.
Sprinting is always an option to avoid trouble in SOD, but this game uses a fatigue system, so you will have to keep rations of either coffee or snacks on hand for each character you use, or they cannot recover from tiring out. It's funny how unrealistic that is, but hey it's a Sim. You can also choose between several characters you currently want to take out on missions, ones that are hurt or too tired automatically cannot go. Fortunately at times you can grab a teammate to help...but unfortunately it's not Co Op.
There are at least 20 different kinds of melee weapons you can find and use, keep in mind they will wear and eventually break, there is finally the option in this version for you to Repair these weapons, I'd recommend it especially with Hatchets and bladed weapons since they're better than the wooden ones, or heavy weapons.
Firearms are more scarce in SOD, however I feel like there are more in the regular campaign than on the 360 game version. You will have to scavenge for ammo, however it seems almost every building has at least something to take with, even if it's only a dozen rounds of said Caliber. There's real life Guns available with their Caliber rounds to scavenge and find, .22, .556, .762, 12 gauge, .357 etc etc.
VEHICLES: are definitely out there but not necessarily in abundance. I'd say about 1 vehicle for every location in the beginning, once you move into exploration of more urban areas, you will find multiple ones just abandoned in parking lots like grocery stores etc, you can grab any one and take it just like a GTA game, the driving feels similar to GTA as well. larger vehicles like pickup trucks are great because you can load multiple 'Loot Sacks' into the storage part in the rear of the truck. This saves you from multiple visits, essentially a time saver
MISSIONS: Side missions are actually the focus in this game. You set the tone for what you want to concentrate on scavenging for your Base, what is needed the most? Food, meds, ammo, materials or even more Survivors? up to you and your game. I like this more than anything in SOD.
Lilly, the Base radio operator will call in missions constantly for you to take part in, some important, some stupid. It's actually a bit annoying to hear her almost constantly while out and about, but you will get used to it.
SOUNDTRACK: Mad props to this dude Jesper Kyd, this is a gorgeous soundtrack with some undertones of Southern Goth including a lot of synth, with a combo of acoustics that are almost chilling at times. Jesper also did the Assassins Creed 2 and Battlefield 4 Soundtracks so he is quite talented. A lot of people who talk about SOD forget to mention this part of the game and I made sure to include how awesome the score is!
there are some added tunes in the Year One edit. very cool
I love this game and I'd recommend it for any fan of Zombie culture whether it be other games or movies and TV Shows. You can tell there is a lot of influence from modern and past forms of Zombie culture and media. Sometimes it can seem a bit generic but this game is just so much fun to let something like that bother me. My ONLY glaring or ongoing ISSUE is that this game does have flaws, call it blemishes or Bugs but they are there. To me it's disappointing to buy this game and see some of the same flaws that the original had. Maybe that's one reason they have not considered calling this a REMASTERED Edition. Zombies may still get stuck inside walls or go through them, framerate issues will be noticed while driving or running, and your character may even get stuck doing something strange. However, please DO NOT LET THIS TURN YOU AWAY FROM PURCHASE. To me it's all minor stuff!! My point is this company Undead labs & Microsoft Studios re-released a game that has the same flaws. That comes off as lazy, no doubt.
GAME LENGTH: Anyone who loves open world games should check this out as well. The Campaign will probably take someone 30 + hours if they take their time and enjoy it, and take part in exploring most of the areas on the map. with the added DLC you could easily turn this 30 dollar purchase into 60 or more hours!! Once again the word is VALUE!
Enjoy your experience with this game. It is known as one of the best, if not THEE BEST Zombie Simulation games ever created. I would recommend it to any open world gamer that loves anything with Zombies - - Buy it.
Cheers | video-games_xbox |
Looks great, but isn't too fun to play; too much going on. I'm somewhat indifferent about this game - there are many things to like, but also many things to dislike.
The game has three components - an RPG-style component, a daytime 2D/3D platforming component, and a 3D nighttime combat and platforming component. There's a "world map" that enables you to decide where you want to go next, and within each location there are RPG "villages", which contain "entry stages" from which you can actually access the "acts" and play the daytime/nighttime acts. Each component actually works well alone, but together, it's really a mess. It's difficult to figure out what you should do next. The goal is to traverse these villages, entry stages, and acts in order to put the planet's pieces back together - of which there are seven.
The daytime levels are brilliantly designed. The graphics are superb, and the speed at which the levels move is absolutely amazing. In these levels, Sonic is basically "on rails" - sometimes Sonic has more freedom and can move in three dimensions, but usually you get pulled into a 2D platform in a 3D environment. These levels involve classic Sonic platforming - moving from left to right. Unfortunately, this doesn't work as well as you would think. Sonic moves really fast, and anytime you start a new daytime act, you don't know what is going to appear to the right of the screen. You'll hit things a lot, you'll miss jumps and dive off things a lot, and you'll fall into water a lot. If you miss a key jump, quite often the platform loops back and you end up replaying areas. There are also "quicktime" events - button sequences that you must press in order to reach certain areas. The camera in these acts is static, and you can't move the camera to get a better perspective on where you need to go next. For the most part, you need to memorize the board, and execute moves based on your memory. It's trial and error - you may die a couple of times trying to get past a certain spot, but once you do, you'll be faced with a new set of sequences to memorize.
The nighttime acts involve combat - you encounter enemies, you throw punches, kick, jump, and execute combos. This component actually works well and is probably the part of the game I enjoy most. The problem is that these levels also involve platforming (like Tomb Raider: jumping from ledges, poles, etc.) that unfortunately isn't well implemented. The controls are somewhat sluggish - especially when double-jumping. You also can't place the camera where you need it most. The most challenging task is walking across balance beams - this requires pinpoint accuracy that just doesn't work well because the camera is often at Sonic's side rather than at his back. The nighttime acts also suffer from an insane number of enemies - way too many at times. Checkpoints are annoyingly spaced, and when you're killed, you end up replaying multiple battles multiple times to the point that you're ready to twist your controller in rage.
It's important to note that the game still utilizes a "lives" system. You have a certain number of lives, and as you die while trying to complete a certain act, eventually you'll exhaust your lives and will be sent back to the entry stage containing that act. You'll have to start that act again, regardless of your checkpoint position. This component is extremely annoying considering that the game sends you back to the entry stage with the same number of lives you had before you started the act. It is also an outdated idea - instead of stopping the game, let the player play.
In addition to rings, Sonic has to collect "sun" and "moon" medals. Collecting enough of these unlocks other acts within stages, but sometimes you can't proceed in the main story unless you collect a certain number of medals. This ultimately means replaying daytime and nighttime acts over and over until you find more medals. And some of them are creatively hidden - making them really hard to find. Considering the speed at which the daytime levels move, this can become quite a chore.
Another odd feature - the player controls day and night. This means that you need to decide which acts appear in which stages. The are multiple ways to change day to night and vice-versa, but this too becomes a chore and is tedious, since the game stops to reload the level. The RPG gameplay changes as well depending upon the time of day, adding another layer of confusion. You can't possibly master this until you've completed at least 50% of the game.
The story is OK, but the characters get really annoying. "Chip" flutters around Sonic constantly and yells out single words that will annoy you within hours. The RPG elements require reading text - most other games use voice-acting, so reading text seems old. The music for this game seems uninspired, dull, and repetitive. The cinematic CGI sequences are really well-done, however, and the CGI graphics are some of the best I've ever seen.
This isn't entirely a bad game. Great graphics, great sound, interesting story. From a technical perspective, it's good, but from a "fun" perspective, it's below average. The number of things that you need to control, collect, and do is overwhelming. The developers tried to put entirely too much into this game. If they had removed the RPG element, leaving the daytime and nighttime acts as a linear story (like old Sonic 1 and Sonic 2), it would have been much more fun. And that's the issue with this game - it isn't particularly fun; it's just frustrating at times.
I never once found myself wanting to play this game, and it's the first game I'd ever considered not finishing. | video-games_xbox |
One of the Best Indie Games Out There...Now on Xbox One/PS4. I wound up buying Terraria based on a recommendation of a friend. I had initially written it off as some sort of Minecraft clone and to be perfectly honest, I think I am one of the only people in the world that do not really care for Minecraft. I just have a really hard time getting past the low resolution textures and graphics. Anyways, one of my good gaming freinds told me that while it did have similar aspects to it, that of building and resource gathering, it had many aspects that made it very different from Minecraft. I am a big fan of 2D sidescrolling games in general so I decided to take a chance and bought it on Xbox Live Arcade. I basically spent the next week completely immersed in this game.
For those unaware, Terraria is basically a 2D sandbox style exploration game. One of the best aspects to Terraria is the world is randomly generated at the start of the game. This type of randomly generated world/dungeon is becoming more and more popular in the gaming world and for good reason. It significantly adds to the replayability of a particular game. Terraria does have many things in common with Minecraft. Like Minecraft, the heart of the game is exploring, collecting materials, and crafting an ever increasing number of items available to you. You start off in the forest, but Terraria has many different biomes with which to explore, each offering unique items with which to craft with. By the time you get 8-10 hours into Terraria, you will already have a large number of items that you can create, including various types of armor and weapons. One of the best items in the game is the rocket boots that one can craft. They allow one to traverse long distances in quick measure. Not to mention, its just fun flying around in rocket boots!
One of the biggest differences between Minecraft and Terraria lies in the fact that combat plays a much larger role in Terraria and that is ultimately one of my favorite asepcts about the game. On top of there being enemies galore, all over Terraria's map, you also have the added bonus of multiple boss monsters that one can summon at certain points in the game. The big eye you see on the XBox 360 Terraria box art is one of these bosses, The Eye of Cthulu. The bosses are definitely challenging, especially if your playing the game solo. Playing Terraria with friends is definitely fun, but I actually prefer to play solo a lot of the time as its a much more challenging game when your going it alone.
There is a small tutorial at the beginning of the game that gives you a basic idea of the games mechanics and how you go about collecting resources and building items, but its short and not very in depth. That actually wound up being one of my favorite aspects to Terraria, the fact that it just basically throws you into the world and you have to really figure everything out on your own. I can see where this might annoy some people, but I absolutely loved this aspect of the game. Slowly buy surely you learn more and more about the world of Terraria. Its just makes the whole exploration aspect to Terraria that much more exciting. Another interesting aspect to Terraria is the NPC's that populate the world. There are NPC's that will come and live in your shelter, but only if they have thier own furnished rooms. There are various NPC's, each offering various services including healing, selling items, etc. It definitey adds incentive for creating a really nice home base.
If there is one aspect of Terraria that I found disappointing, its that its completely void of any sort of story or quests. As amazing as Terraria is, it would have just been that much better if the game actually had a story and various quests to undertake. Personally, I think that is the next step for this genre. A Terraria styled RPG, one that had a story and various quests....well, that would be an absolutely amazing game. Given how popular these style games have become, I have no doubt that we will see such a game at some point in time and I anxiously look forward to playing it.
I am such a big Terraria fan now that I wound up updating to the Xbox One version right away and unfortunately, the developers did not include a slider to adjust the overall zoom level for the game. Basically, the Xbox One game is running at a much higher resolution, which means your able to see a much larger portion of the game world at one time. Of course, this also means that everything is much smaller, which becomes problematic on an HDTV as everything is just too small when your sitting at a distance, which most people do with HDTV's. In order to play it, you really have to sit much closer than you normally would. The good news is that a fix is currently underway. They are working on a slider that can be accessed from the pause menu that will allow for players to adjust the overall zoom level. Hopefully they will get this update out asap as this is really a vital aspect to being able to enjoy Terraria on Xbox One, at least the way it should be enjoyed.
Its important to note that the Xbox One version is running the 1.2 update so it is basically the same game as the Xbox 360/PS3 game updated to 1.2. There are a few extras however. On top of that, its 3 times larger than the previous release on Xbox 360/PS3. So basically you can create one massive sized world now, although I am not sure if that is really a positive, lol. I just hope 505 has plans to update this version with the 1.3 update asap!! That update looks like its going to be the best one yet!! It would be a real shame if console versions had to wait a long time to get that content. Hopefully they get it out in a timely manner! If there is one negative in regards to the Xbox One release, besides of course the lack of a zoom slider which again is being addressed, its the overall price. At $29.99, its $10.00 more than the previous console versions. I just don't agree with that level of pricing at all. If anything, it should be the same price level as the original release. There is really nothing here that would dictate a 50% rise in price. That said, I am still giving this game a 5 star rating as there is still plenty enough here to make it well worth the purchase, even at the $29.99 price point. I regularly spend $40-60 on games that normally give me anywhere from 10 to 25 hours of play time so a $30 dollar title that gives me 200+ hours of play time is......well, again its easily worth it even at the new price level.
Bottom line - Besides the zoom slider and the $10 rise in price, this game is a home run in every way imaginable. Again, the zoom slider is being worked on right now so hopefully that will be out soon. Until then, you can always pop a squat a little closer to your HTDV or simply wait until the zoom slider patch is released before buying the game. Terraria is easily one of my favorite games of the Xbox 360/PS3 generation and the fact that its now available on the Xbox One....well, thats a very good thing in my book. Wether your new to the series or a fan wanting to update to the next gen version, this is one purchase you won't regret.
5 Stars!!
Just wanted to update this review and let people know that they did in fact fix the zoom problem with the Xbox One version. From the pause menu, you can use the left and right number to change the overall level of zoom for the game. So Terraria is now wholly playable on an HDTV. You no longer have to sit up close to be able to see anything. It should have been included from the get go, but better late than never. | video-games_xbox |
Five stars is not enough. My favourite video game of all time. I apologise in advance for the essay you are about to read but this game deserves it. Since I finished playing it over a week ago it has been on my mind every waking moment. It left an impression on me that no other game has done.
So heres a quick overview of the game for those not familiar with it. Life is Strange is a five part episodic, point and click adventure game that centres around Maxine Caulfield. She discovers she has the power to rewind time after having some horrifying visions of a disaster falling upon her home town of Arcadia Bay. After reuniting with her childhood friend, Chloe Price, the two of them team up to try and understand Maxs powers. They also investigate the disappearance of a missing girl from Maxs school while at the same time a series of freak natural occurrences are occurring around Arcadia Bay.
Id like to get through some minor gripes as not to spoil the relentless gushing that will commence soon. The biggest problem is in the presentation. While the art style of the game is great, its a little rough around the edges. The lip syching isn't the best and (depending on how much you tolerate it) can be a little distracting. Oh theres also a rather annoying section where you have to find bottles in a junkyard. It might sound simple but boy is it tedious.
In Life is Strange the player is able to make decisions within the conversations and interact with the environment to alter their experience with the story. Whilst the overall plot will remain largely unchanged, your choices can directly influence how other characters interact with you. This is all typical stuff in recent games of this genre. What makes Life is Strange stand out however is the central plot device: time travel. The player is able to go back in time up to a few minutes, resetting everything to how it was. This can be used in multiple ways such as using a newly learned piece of information against someone; navigating your way through a space and to change your actions after seeing the immediate consequences.
For me, the decision process was made even more difficult due to the time travel mechanic. Unlike other adventure games where you often have to make each decision within a number of seconds (which is effective in its own way), Life is Strange lets you see the immediate consequences of each decision before you make a choice and move on. In other games you rely partially on gut instinct, here you don't have that excuse. You have to think not just about the immediate consequences, but how that may affect your relationship with characters down the line.
Speaking of characters there are a brilliant array of them throughout the story. A quick note on the supporting characters first. After the first episode youd be forgiven for thinking all of them are two dimensional stereotypes. The bitchy popular girl, the school psycho, the paranoid step father...they all seem like lazy side characters. But as you go through the game (and especially if you explore your environments) youll find these characters are much more complex than they appear at first. Almost all of them are grey, rather than black and white.
The character that has arguably the biggest arc is Chloe. At first shes a bit hard to get on with. Shes a brash, rebellious teenager who could do with a bit of a kick up the arse. But as the game and story progress she is shown to be someone struggling with loss in her life. By the time you get to episodes four and five she is a changed person and in the most natural way given the experiences of the week or so the game takes place in. You grow to love her as someone who went down the wrong path but ultimately becomes a better person upon rekindling her friendship with Max.
Which brings me to (what I think is) the crowing achievement of this game: Max Caulfield. She is far and away the most well realised character Ive ever played as in a video game. When the game begins she is not looking to save the world, she just wants to get through high school life unscathed. She is not a courageous, kick ass heroine. She is a shy, introverted teenage girl. Unlike other characters of her ilk she is not romanticised or idealised. You understand why she would be shunned in a high school environment by her peers. Not because she deserves it, but because kids are cruel. While she is filled with doubt and insecurity she has a remarkable and refreshing sense of self. That is, whilst she may long to be more popular she has no intention of compromising who she is to get there. She has compassion for people around her, even those that are mean to her. But shes also not a living saint either. If the player so chooses she can partake in more selfish actions. Not only that but her wanting to help does not always end up making things better.
So Max and Chloe are brilliant characters in their own right. Together, they are one of the best duos in gaming. Whilst the game is filled with dark and supernatural plot points, the game is really about these two. This relationship between two teenage girls is represented flawlessly. They are both the best versions of themselves around each other. It is beautiful to see them reconnect and their relationship grow throughout all the madness and tragedy that unfolds.
Which brings me to the key reason why this game has rocketed to my number one spot. I have never felt such guilt when I failed to help someone. I have never been so moved by watching two characters go through hell. I have never shed so many tears over what is simply a collection of pixels with some music and voice over. Quite simply, I have never played a game that had such an emotional impact on me as Life is Strange. The story deals very maturely with sensitive issues and never feels like its exploiting them for shock value. Seeing the relationship of Max and Chloe grow stronger and stronger and to see what they are willing to do to help one another is incredibly moving. The game actually peaks at the mundane, everyday moments. When the supernatural elements are put to the side and the focus falls on things that can happen to anyone the game really connects with you. Graphics an gameplay can age but the emotional ride this game took me on can never be spoilt.
The music and direction in this game is also fantastic. There are some beautiful shots during some of the cut scenes which only heighten the emotional impact of some of the more powerful moments.
There are so many highlights from this games story and just for fun I narrowed them down to my ten most memorable moments from my first play through. Here they are (spoiler free) in reverse order:
10. Episode One - The opening credits.
Max puts in her headphones and listens to some music as she walks down the corridor of Blackwell Academy. Thats kind of it. It may not sound exciting, but as you look around at the high school happenings going on around you and listen to Maxs thoughts it gives a perfect sense of the experience that is about to follow. Its a wonderful introduction and sets the game up perfectly.
9. Episode Three - Discovering a new power.
Towards the end of episode three, Max discovers a new aspect of her power that completely opens up the possibilities of what she could do. It comes into play later in a big way. For now though, she gets a real chance to shape things the way she wants them to be.
8. Episode Three - The pool scene.
Light hearted, mundane scenes become almost non-existant past episode three. So its nice to see Max and Chloe take a little time out of their investigation to just relax and hang out in the school swimming pool. They talk about life and Chloe in particular opens up a bit more, giving you much better understanding of her character. Scenes like this are exactly why Max and Chloe are so brilliant together, their relationship captured perfectly in the writing and performances.
7. Episode Five - Reminiscing.
In the midst of an unrelenting mental ordeal for Max, she and the player are given the opportunity to remember everything she and Chloe have been through over the past week. Its a beautiful and moving walk through their relationship. You see how much it has grown through the episodes and it cements Max and Chloe as the base on which the rest of the game stands on.
6. Episode Four - Discovering the dark room.
A word of warning during episode four. Once you reach the barn make sure to cherish all the positive memories you have received up until this point in the game. Once you discover the aply named dark room the story is one big spiral down into despair and emotional agony.
5. Episode Three - The ending.
Specifically the final image. It will forever be burned into my retina as the most upsetting sight in the entire game. It hits you like a train and leaves you absolutely devastated.
4. Episode Five.
Yes, the whole of episode five. Its a rather different beast to the other episodes. A lot of emphasis is placed on the pre-determined narrative with not as many player choices available. Though this lacking a sense of control does actually fit with the theme of episode five. As Max continuously tries to fix everything it all descends into one giant, terrifying and unending nightmare.
3. Episode Two - the climax.
In one moment, several of your decisions throughout episode one and two come into play in a very dramatic way. Its probably the best example in the game of how the players own decisions can influence the narrative. I won't say the specifics except that unlike the rest of the game you have got one single chance to get things right. If you get it wrong there is no going back. I got it wrong. I felt utterly sick for doing so.
2. Episode Five - The ending.
I don't want to pre-empt expectations by discussing a common problem other people have had with the ending(s). All Ill say is there was no problem for me. The ending I saw tied in so well thematically to everything that had come before. It also left me a crying, sobbing mess. Whilst I would have liked to have seen a little more of an epilogue to see the supporting characters stories conclude I will still never forget the utter sadness I felt as the screen faded to black and the credits began to roll. A beautiful end to a beautiful game.
1. Episode Four - The opening section.
The top two moments changed places constantly while I was writing this. Whilst I cried harder at the ending, the opening section of episode four is the epitome of what Life is Strange does so well. It create characters you truly care about and then lets you feel the hell they go through. If you grow as attached to the characters as I did then this section is beyond heart breaking. It deals with something that can happen to any family at any time and portrays it in an accurate and moving way. If you explore the environment fully it paints a devastating reality for those involved. To top it off it ends with you having to make a very upsetting decision that is difficult to shake off and will leave you utterly drained as you get back on track solving the mysteries around Arcadia Bay. A phenomenal moment in a phenomenal game that delivers on raw emotion.
So there you have it, why Life is Strange is my favourite video game of all time. Ill be replaying it soon to pick up the achievements I missed and I honestly cant wait. I will have no urge to rush though to see what the story holds next. Instead I will take my time to soak in all the details this brilliant game offers.
So whether you're a gamer or not I implore you to experience it. This has nothing to do with skill level, reaction times or knowing the buttons. It is about experiencing the story and the wonderful characters it follows. It might not have the same effect on you as it did for me but its something you have to try.
Life is Strange...its hella dope. | video-games_xbox |
Don't buy this game if you want to learn to play guitar. Having run a music school with several hundred students I know a little about learning music. The idea of a game that teaches real guitar intrigued me a lot more than a fake guitar with a little flipper on it like Rock Band. I figured anything that employed a real instrument would be accompanied by a more intelligent approach. I was completely disappointed.
Rocksmith programmers know virtually nothing about how to teach or learn guitar. First any beginner and most intermediate students who are learning a song do not normally try to learn it at full speed the first time they approach it. Rocksmith only teaches songs at full speed. No control over speed is given to the user. The only technique they use to try and compensate for that is to give you fewer (therefore less frequent) notes at first. But you have no control over the speed at which new notes are thrown at you. The algorithm they use has way too little smarts in it to begin to approximate your learning speed. It's like they turn a fire hose on you and say "drink or drown" and then they proceed to drown you -- even on the setting that is supposed to match your weakest performance.
There is very little tutorial information and very few tools to teach you how to use the software. If you're already a pretty good intermediate player you can get a few things out of this program but if you're an intermediate it's because you're already playing well enough not to have to learn from Rocksmith.
The shooting duck exercise allows you to build up some speed and note placement familiarity with the fret locations. That's about the best part of the software and it's not very good.
More should be said about the issues with latency. It appears that instead of coming up with a viable solution they just fudged the software so that you never really can tell how your note timing is. You have to strike a note sooner than you should in order to get the notes to fit in the song properly. But there is not even a means to know when you're "in the pocket" (musician speak for playing notes in time) or outside of it because the combination of processing latency and lack of accurate note feedback leaves you in the dark about whether you've improved a little or a lot. The stats it prints out are virtually useless because they lack any precision settings to know if you missed the note. All in all you are arbitrarily punished for doing good things, rewarded for doing bad things, and you have no way to evaluate or quantify how much of either.
This game actually makes learning songs harder and more difficult than any other viable means I've seen for learning guitar. In fact I'm wondering if this game is actually a viable way to learn guitar -- other than how to use it as a game input device.
Are there even basic theory such as note names and scale patterns? NO! Nothing that I could see. Problem is the menu system and serious functional deficiencies with the interface combine to become one of the most non-intuitive and frustrating pieces of software you can find anywhere. Want to replay a song you just played? Then you have to go through a mandatory tuning exercise every time you use it -- even if you just tuned 2 minutes ago -- you're forced to do so every time. Stupid and pointless waste of time.
To learn any musical instrument you need to push yourself or be pushed to a degree and it's good to have challenges on a regular basis but with Rocksmith that's all you get. You get pushed constantly without a chance to practice properly and allow your mastery at slower paces increase as you become more proficient. Perhaps if you snort a lot of coke or meth every time you'll enjoy the frenetic way this program escalates. It's definitely not about learning tone, accuracy, and timing. Latency is an insurmountable problem with this interface unless you buy additional sound gear and cabling and avoid HDMI.
Music teachers have a saying "practice makes permanent". When you are constantly pushed beyond your skill level you make a lot of mistakes. When you are constantly pushed you never have a chance to work through difficult passages and eliminate your mistakes and then speed up as your accuracy increases. There is no facility in Rocksmith to accomplish anything like that. My guess is that this is a cheaply written "slam it out there on the market" piece of crap software that was probably either JV'd with Guitar Center or funded entirely by them without much thought to producing real value or genuine learning -- with the idea that they could sell more songs. Whatever happened I think someone cut off the money supply before they could make it work properly. Then it went to market, was not well received, and because it didn't do well nobody would risk more money to fix it properly.
Conceptually using a gaming approach to learning music is a wonderful idea. So far I'm not aware of anyone who's used the gaming approach well and I've tried a few. Rocksmith was hopeful as an idea but I would never want to hire any musician who'd learned on Rocksmith.
With the Duck Shooting game in Rocksmith you'd think that they'd at least use it to teach scales or familiar melodies or at least harmonic intervals that would develop your ear. But did they? No. Wasted a perfectly good opportunity to leverage the awesome power of multimedia. It's like someone had an idea to teach music with a game but the project was managed by a committee and they ended up with a dysfunctional platypus instead of a thoroughbred race horse.
I know I'm far from the first to trash this piece of crap. I'm also certain that I'm not alone in my complaints because they are obvious ones. But has the software producer learned anything and implemented features to combat the obvious deficiencies and actually produce something that teaches guitar well. No they haven't bothered to do that either.
I sincerely hope that someone figures out there's a real market for a great piece of software for teaching music. So far nobody's done it very well given the amazing technology available. It's not that easy to produce great software but if you get something on the market and people let you know what's wrong with it then you fix it and you can make some great software. Intuit totally bombed with early versions of QB Pro. They didn't fix it that quickly either but when they finally got it right they took huge market share and are now hard to beat.
Don't waste your time and energy on Rocksmith. Wait for something better. It will eventually come. In the mean time get live lessons or google "learn guitar" on youtube. You'll learn more faster. | video-games_xbox |
One Of The Best Games In Years. As long as this game has been out most of you already likely know the concept. So I'll avoid that here.
When I bought this game I was expecting it to be alright as I heard good things, but thought due to the story idea I didn't think it would be amazing. Thankfully I was very, very wrong. First off the story is very deep and well thought out, no where near simple as I had thought it would be. The graphics are down right incredible . They take the current unreal engine and put it to its limits with no real slow down to note. The load times are some of the best around, but the first load of the game takes abit, but you don't really have any during the game play, which as well all know is rare.
The art style is very dark, just as it should be, reminds me of a mixture of "Batman- The Animated Series" and "The Dark Knight Returns" movie. Sounds like a weird mix, but it truly works.
The sound effects and music fit well with the graphics to give that feel we've all wanted in a batman game, but were never really given until now. To make it even better they got several voice actors from the animated series, which means the actors have plenty of experience with the roles, and are truly top notch at conveying the emotion and realism that is needed.
Also while the game's story revolves around Arkham , we get to see alot of verity in in the locals , which is also something I didn't expect. How this is done is really different then one might think, but I'm sure most would agree that to was pulled off greatly.
Then we get to the most important part of any game which is of course the gameplay . The controls are simple enough for the casual gamer to pick up, but has the ability to allow advance players the chance to do some interesting things and combos so its never lacking on that. The game is truly fun and makes you really feel what it would be like to be batman.
The only small flaw I've found is once in a while when you try and scan or climb certain things, it sometimes won't pick up on it unless you are right on spot. But this is rare. I only even note this because there were two times I was lost on what to do, because it didn't pick up on things that it should have. But in the end after a short time I tried it again and it worked. Not worth deducting a start to me. Maybe half of one, but amazon doesn't allow that.
In closing not only all batman fans, but pretty much almost all gamers must own this game. We are truly given something great when so many times batman games fail poorly. This is truly one of the best video games I have played in years. I rank it right up there with some of the greatest of all time. So do your self a favor and stop reading reviews and buy this game! | video-games_xbox |
One hour review - a lifetime of pain. After one hour of tinkering with this game, I am about ready to shelf it. This game seems similiar to some of the old KOEI turn based strategy games, but I think they have added too many features without properly documenting them in the manual. For instance, at start up I can pick one of fifteen different classes. Nowhere does it tell me what each one does. While I can assume a cleric would heal, what is the combat advantage between a wizard and a magician? There are also three spots where it says weather plays a role on combat, but it doesn't say exactly how.
The manual, to pick on it again, tells what the various doo-dads on each screen are, but doesn't go into detail about what they do. While some gamers may actually find this trial and error challenge fun, I was extremely put off by it. Especially since this was a handheld that I didn't want to devote a large amount of time trying to master simple gameplay mechanics.
I developed three main characters at the start of the game (which I could not name), but as soon as I started to play, I was introduced to a whole new set of people... none of whom I created. Cut scenes are done on a static single panel background and were slow and irritating. If there was supposed to be character development (the book says you can level and gain items), it will be mearly stat based from a cursory glance.
There was a long load time just to simply buy items for your characters. I never quite solved how to distribute the purchased items, but I sure didn't want to go back to that layer and lag for 30 seconds.
The graphics were subpar for the power the PSP has to offer. Some of the text was exceptionally blurry in spots. I am baffled at how this game could pass QA with these text issues.
Maybe I will come back and re-review if I can force myself to pick it up again. There may be a rich strategy game buried under the layers of complication. Or maybe it will just go to my nearest Gamestop to be resold to some other poor unsuspecting soul... | video-games_xbox |
Awful single player, poorly thought out multiplayer. Section 8 is best described as a combination of Halo and a bad rendition of Battlefield 2142 (I used to say Bioshock, due to the immortal main character, but not many people could easily spot that). You and your squadmates are members of a galactic military recon unit, sent to pacify and reclaim a far flung colony from the tyrannical ARM. In the single player campaign, you play as Sergeant Corde, who watches his squad butchered by an enemy defector.
The graphics in Section 8 are surprisingly bad given its predecessors and contemporaries. Wide open spaces don't flow well, and urban structures make it difficult to pick out fine details, like enemy soldiers, until they begin firing on you, and you're forced to follow their energy lines back to where they are. All the text is rendered in incredibly small, blurry bright white, and the HUD emblems are barely distinguishable from one another, and there's no zoom function on the map you get a better look.
Audio is horrific. The general can't speak in anything other than a patriotic baritone, and you can almost hear a fanfare playing in the background whenever he speaks. Enemies are stereotypical nazi-esque villians, and in the few scenes they're featured in, they're speaking in tones and inflections more reserved for discussing the finer points of live puppy roasting. You're almost expecting them to charge into combat to the battle cry of "Evil rocks!"
Gameplay is where the game falls completely flat. You are immortal, so the single player campaign is an exercise in how long it takes you to die, respawn, and run across the stage back to the engagement zone, and its really a trial against how long you're willing to put up with that. The multiplayer is genuinely well balanced, outside of certain stages making certain classes worthless. Being able to customize armor is a neat feature, though options are not explored enough. Ordering in support is bizarrely delivered, and while you can deploy turrets and supply points, you can't call in artillery. What makes it difficult is the setup of the run and jump features, which will have to crashing into walls in a vain attempt to stop, and the jetpack is barely strong enough to get over 6' walls, and with all the technology of the future, we've apparently forgotten how to throw a punch, as theirs no viable melee attack.
All told, this does not hold up to expectations. Rent first, and if its your bag, its your bag. But it'll be a tough sell, even with Halo MP diehards. | video-games_xbox |
Overlord is the first game I have ever purchased for the 360 (outside Live Arcade) and that is saying something. This game is extremely entertaining. Which, above all else, is exactly what a video game is supposed to be. The other reviewers are correct, the game is flawed, as most games with a production budget, a shipping deadline, and a market department are. It was not shipped before it was READY, but it was shipped before it was POLISHED.
First, the PROS:
1.) The game is funny
2.) The minions are adorable (love the random hats!)
3.) The graphics are great
4.) The puzzles are fairly balanced (although those freaking sea serpent battles I could have done without!)
5.) You do not have to be truly evil! I was worried about this. But, a'la KOTOR, and Fable, and Jade Empire, etc. there is a path of "lesser evil" available in this game, which is basically like the character alignment of "chaotic good" in Dungeons and Dragons. In other words, you can play as a "Hero" who doesn't follow the rules. (You can also play as a right evil bastard, if you so choose)
6.) The game has a good story, and moves at a good pace, and even has a surprise twist near the end which I wasn't expecting.
7.) Production values are very nice: very good voice acting, very good music, sound effects, graphics, etc.
Now the CONS:
1.) No in-game map is INEXCUSABLE. I have a very good memory, and even I got turned around/lost occasionally. Without an in-game map, exploration, and finding things takes way more time than it should, and you can never be truly sure you have found everything. An in-game map in a game with exploration is kind of like a check list for exploring. You can pull it up and instantly see where you have been, and which directions have things yet to be uncovered. The game comes with a fold out map of the major game areas (top side, not dungeons), with most of the major stuff on it, but that isn't good enough.
2.) The minion path finding isn't that bright at all. If your minions get out of your sight, and go around too many corners, then in order to get them back, you will have to go fetch them. This is annoying, because A.) your minions are CONSTANTLY carrying random things back to portal gates, which means you either need to escort them each time they do this (time consuming) or accept their loss until you are ready to visit a gate yourself (dangerous -- they are your main weapons early on in the game) B.) this led the game designers to introduce the minion "sweeping" idea, which is basically that the default behavior of the right analog stick is to move your minion horde around, much like the left one moves you around -- the problem with THAT though, is that it takes away the camera control which is normally mapped to the right analog stick. In order to get it back, you have to hold down the left bumper, then it controls the camera per usual. The default follow camera works fine up to a point, but there are PLENTY of times in the game where you need to be swinging the camera around (such as COMBAT! and PUZZLES!) and at such times, this whole contrivance is extremely obnoxious
3.) The game is short. If you just do the main story line, and you don't dilly-dally, I think you could finish the game in around 20 hours or so. There aren't much other things to do besides the main storyline though, except for dungeon fighting in your tower to get achievements and minions and equipment upgrades, etc.
4.) The game is very linear. VERY linear. You have a narrator for the entire game, and there is basically no freedom to choose how the story will unfold. Much like KOTOR and Fable and Jade Empire before it. That isn't of itself a BAD thing, but at the very least they could have given us more options than simply "kill everyone and everything in sight" or, you know ... don't.
5.) They should have gone for an 'M' Mature rating, and made the story a bit more interesting. The mistress tower "love scene" was disappointingly vague and tongue-in-cheek, it will sail over the heads of most pre/early-teens, and frustrate everyone else. They didn't need to go full bore God of War sex mini-game, but maybe a half way point would have been nice.
6.) The game is fairly misogynistic (that means: having a hatred, dislike, or mistrust of women for no good reason, for those of you still in K-12). You don't get any say in whether your main character is a male or a female, you are a male, period. The game doesn't let you decide to take a mistress or not, you must. The game also allows you (if you are playing the truly evil way) to capture and keep female slaves as your tower servants. I fully understand what the game is trying to do and that this is all tongue-in-cheek, and supposed to be humorous, and I am sure the game creators are not actually (all) misogynists, but the facts remain and are pretty damning. Of course, an evil Overlord cares not for these things, and in a world of games like Manhunt (which I will not speak of), G.T.A. (where you abuse female prostitutes as a game mechanic for regaining health, amongst other horrors), and even God of War with its sex mini-games, this is all tame by comparison. Still, it is fairly discomforting, especially to females who might want to play the game. I imagine, that after centuries of this, that the female population is getting pretty darn tired of being depicted as helpless sexual objects in all forms of entertainment. But that's just my opinion.
7.) There are bugs in the game, game breaking ones -- which other reviewers have already mentioned. This isn't unforgivable in and of itself, but it is disappointing. However, like has already been mentioned, the truly serious ones are hardly ever encountered, unless you are deliberately trying to do the game as out of order as you can possibly get away with, to which I say kudos to you. ^_-
8.) There isn't much else to DO in the game, other than follow the linear story line. Revisit an old area, and the peasants will either sing your praises or cower in fear from you (and that is it, no shops, no dialog, not even random battle opportunities), or you will visit an empty and cleared dungeon with some token critters running around which you can kill for life force. Other than the main story, and your dungeon arena to harvest more life force by battling previously defeated creatures to get achievements, and your equipment forging/upgrading, that is about it as far as what you can do in the game. You can't even talk to your mistress or other tower inhabitants, except at pre-determined intervals. That was especially disappointing -- maybe for the sequel they'll expand on that?
Overall: good game. The minion aspect of it makes it unique enough to try, even if you are not a huge RPG fan. I am told it plays a lot like "evil Pikmin" from Nintendo (I wouldn't know, I never played that game). The game STRONGLY reminds me of Fable for the XBOX. The linear storyline, the cut scenes, and especially the constant narrator telling you what it going on, where to go, etc. are all strongly reminiscent of Fable. The Good Vs. Evil stuff is strongly linked to KOTOR in my mind (not that they were the first to do it, but they were to the first to do it WELL). The one-button combat stuff is strongly linked to Jade Empire in my mind as well (yes, I know there were more button options than that -- but who REALLY used them?). Overall, it is a good game, and the first real (non Live Arcade) game I have purchased for my 360 (which is saying something) -- but it could have been better. Hopefully for the sequel (and you know there will be a sequel with the number of units it has sold) it will be. | video-games_xbox |
Madden seems to be only worried about graphics and visual presentatin. This game is another poor chapter to the Madden Series. When i first turned the game on, i realized this was the best soundtrack i've ever heard on a game, songs by A tribe called quest, common and nas, and the amazing instrumental of T.R.O.Y. but the old school hip hop gives it a basketball soundtrack feel. The beginning of my first Madden 12 game got me hopeful, because the graphics looked a little better and the intros were so awesome. (After a while the intros get old as its the same thing everytime) Then it took a turn for the worst. The kick return game is terrible, theres now no blocking on anything having to do with returning, it used to be just punt return blocking sucked. Also, just like the past few maddens, the running game is crap. Supposedly this makes it more realistic, because its a passing game these days, but good running moves should still get good rushing yards. Now with the exception of a few defenses, you either get tackled by three guys as soon as you get the ball, or your blocking is so spectacular you have a boring 80 yard touchdown run with no moves or any other skill involved. The whole game seems that way, presentable but there's not enough skill put into it, now anyone can get to all madden level its just about what team you control. And like always you have ridiculous dropped passes, and this time an even bigger problem is you'd think all the defenders have 92 inch verticals so many passes get swatted. Lastly, this is the worst commentating on a video game of all time, so much for the push to realism, the play by play guy sounds like he should be doing educational videos for elementary schoolers, and he says things like "the ball is left hanging in the air...can someone catch it? oh its dropped!" after the play is long over.
In summary, we can only hope 2K gets the NFL License, and if they don't, as a Bears fan, let's hope Madden 13 doesnt make Aaron Rodgers run like Vick. | video-games_xbox |
Haven't had this much fun in a Halo campaign, since the first. Okay, I have to admit at first I thought this was going to be a complete ripoff from Bungie and MS. I thought they were just trying to cash in on the franchise. They were, and they weren't. I think MS was totally trying to make the quick buck, but Bungie...well, they made a game that is just plan fun and they really put their hearts into it. They brought Halo back to the gameplay of the first, which turned out to be awesome. You're not Master Chief of 2 and 3. You're closer to the way he was in 1. You can't moon jump over enemies, you need health packs, and a few "donkey punches" aren't going to cut it when you get into a real jam. I loved that. The story is very well told through the eyes of more than just one member of the your squad which really presented interesting gameplay. As the Rookie, through most of the game you are completely alone and man you feel alone. You won't be seeing full on battles with this guy for most of the his part in the game. You wander around at night looking for clues to what happened to your teammates while avoiding Covenant or taking them out in small conflicts, your choice. As your squad-mates, you experience the battle that has taken the city and pretty much turned it into a ghost town. It really was a lot of fun. Apart from the story there's Firefight. An online co-op mode, much like Horde on Gears of War 2. Let me tell you. If Horde was your bag, this has it beat. The rounds change every time by using the skulls, which were modifying elements in Halo 3 which allowed you to make the game harder, silly, or easier depending on what skulls are active. Same rules apply with the skulls in Firefight only can't pick what's active, it's random. One round you might be able to shot guys in the head and confetti pops out, and the next you might end up with skulls that limit ammo or weapons available or even make it so bullets don't effect enemies with shields. See the skulls can force you to change up your tactics with each round, so rather than like in Horde where the difficulty just keeps ramping up and more enemies show up, this one makes it harder in that way and then adds something to change the way you play. On top of all this Bungie was nice enough to include the entire Multiplayer from Halo 3. Now, some of you might think this is a wash if you are like me and already had Halo 3 and most, if not all, of the maps already. Well, I'd have to agree with you there. ODST is a great game. Is it just an expansion? Yes and no, but is it worth the $60 price tag? I would have to say no. It's a great game to be sure, but if you can get it for less than $60, say around $45 to maaaybe $49.99, do it. It's a great game. And brings Halo back to its roots, it's just not worth the full price for those who own Halo 3 already, which is why I can only give it 4 stars total. | video-games_xbox |
Devilishly Fun. I just picked this up today at the famous big box store today. I never played Diablo 3 before today because (1) I am not THAT big of a fan of the series to get the PC version with it's over zealous, online mandatory DRM. And (2) I've gave up years of PC gaming in favor of console gaming.
So far I've put in a few hours and here's what I think.
-When I bought the game today, I honestly was expecting a 'meh' experience. However after a few hours of smashing enemies and collecting new armor and weapons for my Barbarian, I'm loving it and feel hooked already.
-The controls are great. I've played point and click games on PC, but here having a controller in hand is a lot more casual and feels better. Some games like Starcraft or other strategy games are undoubtably better with a mouse and keyboard, but it seems like a game like Diablo is made for kicking back on the couch, in front of the big screen, with a friend/significant other and having fun. You also don't have to keep pressing the attack button for each attack you do, you can hold the button down and your character will keep attacking. The right analog stick is used for dodging, but honestly I haven't had to use it that much so far.
-The graphics are smooooth as butter, and seems like it's getting excellent framerates. I'm not a graphics snob (gave up that ghost a long time ago), but this game does look great and hold up to the art style.
-Multiplayer. This is another place I think the console version outshines the PC version. Not only can you play online with friends, but you can also play with friends on the same Xbox/TV.
With the local and online multiplayer, lack of online auction house, being able to carry your character on a USB drive, better controls(IMO), and the fact that you can play this offline unlike the PC version, this feels like the definitive version that everyone has been waiting for.
So far, it's exceeded my expectations in the fun department. If you have this game on the PC, obviously there isn't going to be much new here for you. If you've never played Diablo 3, I can honestly recommend it, even more if you have people to play with. | video-games_xbox |
Very cheap quality. I bought an Intec VGA cable kit on base because I was deploying on a ship for 5 weeks and figured I could hook my 360 to my PC monitor during the underway so I wouldn't miss out on some quality hi-def gaming time. It turned out I found a projector that took RCA inputs so I just used that.
Skip forward a couple months and I've got this cable sitting in my desk drawer that I cannot return because it's past the 14/30 day limit... Considering wether or not to sell it, I do some research as to wether or not VGA is better than the component cables that come with it. Pretty much everyone agrees they are. Well damn. So I take my cables home, and hook it up to my 61" Samsung 6187S and the ghosting is immediate and in your face. Where ever there is a sharp color contrast such as the verticle lines on the dashboard, there is a second 'ghosted' line just to the right. Even on the far left hand edge of the TV, there are ghost lines of that edge.
I ran a calibration program I have to see if I could manually rid myself of the ghosting, and no joy. I went back to the component input and the ghosting was gone. It was 100% definitely the cheap Intec VGA cables.
In addition, on the Calibration DVD I was using there were several parts of the picture which were 100% completely missing with the VGA cables. There is one scene with a guy in a black silk shirt with a black silk sportcoat and an moving X hidden in the background to only be seen when the brightness is too high. The point of which is to adjust the brightness until you can see properly and clearly the shade differences between the black shirt and jacket. Moving the brightness to max didn't reveal the X at all, which shows up clear and sharp with the component cables. Opposite of this there was a scene where a guy was wearing a white shirt with white buttons and you're supposed to adjust the contrast until the lower buttons start to dissapear. With the cheap Intec VGA cables, ONLY the top button was visible through-out the contrast adjustment ranges. Again, putting the component cables back on the 360, all of the buttons showed up just fine and completely free of ghosting to boot.
If you're buying these cables for a quality HD experience, even at the lowest level, then you're wasting your money. If all you want to do is save a buck and see a picture on a monitor, then maybe this is for you because it's not for me. | video-games_xbox |
1 step forward, 2 steps back. There are some great features of the xbox one, like the ability to add a tv tuner and/or run hdmi passthrough for whatever device you want, like a cable box, or even a Roku. But this is about the most unpolished experience I've ever had, and it's been out for years. If you buy an xBox One instead of a PC because you think it's gonna be more reliable, think again.
1. Downloaded games sometimes just won't work. xBox Fitness was a prime example. Downloaded, launched, and it just hung on the disclaimer screen during launch. Uninstalled, reinstalled, and it worked fine.
2. Of course, once I got xBox Fitness up and running, I realized that the Kinect still has a long way to go. The field of view is just stupid narrow. I'm 6'3, and standing 8' away cuts off my head and don't even think about getting more than one person in frame at that distance.
3. You can just leave the console and walk away, and it will go into something like a sleep mode, allowing you to resume your game right where you left off when you return. When it works, this is awesome. Problem is, it never works. The game always seems to freeze when I return.
4. The controller pairing also gets thrown out of whack when you resume from this sleep mode. While the controller will work fine in the xBox dashboard, once you're in game, you'll have to turn it off and back on to repair it so that the game recognizes it.
5. The side snap feature could be nice, but it's a nightmare to use. I've been fiddling with it for a week and I'm still not sure how it works.
6. You're forced to install the game before you can play (at least with most games). For Madden '15, for example, it took about a half hour to install, and when it was finally done, I still have to insert the disc to verify ownership. Stupid. You should be able to transfer ownership to a digital copy that is tied to your account so you don't have to get up to swap discs every time you want to switch games.
7. The controller is great, except the thumbsticks have a small basin on the top, and the edge of that basin basically collects dead skin and whatever else is on your thumbs. It's nasty, especially when it's someone elses skin that's in there.
8. The graphics are a step up from the 360, but in most games, I don't really feel like it makes a huge difference.
9. Paying $50 a year for multiplayer seems more and more ridiculous when I've literally NEVER paid for multiplayer on PC.
I've been a PC game for years, and just recently sold my dust-collecting 360 to buy a One. It's not on par w/ PC gaming. I got it because I felt like I would have access to more games, especially sports games...but in reality, the only gaming experience I couldn't get on the PC was football, and Madden is horrible, so it's not like I would have missed that. FIFA is avail on PC. NBA 2K is avail on PC. There are lots of racing games...there are FPS, strategy, RPG, etc. I should have followed my gut and got a Steam Link, but oh well. My gf will enjoy being able to pause live TV again, and I do love Forza. Other than that, I'll probably stick to the PC. It's more reliable. It's faster. Better graphics. It can take advantage of my 21:9 monitor. Game sales are more frequent and lucrative. There's better controller support. Because xBox One threw away the one thing consoles had going for them (rock solid reliability), they are really nothing more than a cheap old PC w/ a proprietary front-end/game system. | video-games_xbox |
Great for Zombie Lovers and Only Zombie Lovers. This is actually a pretty fun game if you love the zombie genre. If you're not, well, I can't really recommend this. First off, the zomies are very well done and even range from different versions of the genre. Walkers are like the original Romero zombie of Night of the Living Dead in that they are slow and easy to evade, and are only dangerous in groups. The infected are like the more modern zombies, such as the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead in that they are extremely fast, agile and attack very quickly. And there are specials zombies, like thugs, suiciders, butchers and floaters that have special abilities and much stronger.
There are human enemies in the game and its been stated that the city of Moresby was already a horrible place even before the outbreak.
Each character has special skills suited for every gamer's gameplay specialty. Xian Mei is a master of sharp weapons and is awesome with machetes and katanas. However, she is also the weakest character, with the lowest amount of health and her weapons have the weakest durability. Purna is the sharpshooter and thus is skilled with guns, though she is able to use sharp weapons, just not as well as Xian. Logan is skilled with throwing weapons and is able to retrieve weapons that he throws. Sam B is the easiest character to use and uses blunt weapons.
Each character has a three skill trees to better prepare themselves with the undead. The first tree helps with the rage bar, increasing its duration and getting it filled faster. The second tree is about using the characters skills in the weapons they use, and the third tree is about survival allowing characters to survive longer and decrease penalties in case they are killed.
The best part of the game are mods and blueprints, allowing you to create new weapons and improve existing weapons making players a greater danger to zombies. Some of the mods give weapons elemental abilities, enabling players to electrocute enemies, set them on fire, and even poison them.
Now the game does feature numerous bugs and glitches that can hinder gameplay. In one instance, I was at the bottom of some stairs and a glitch kept me from reaching the top, stopping me in my tracks when I almost reach the top. I was forced to restart the game because of this. In another instance I kept throwing weapons at a suicide. Not only did they refuse to hit him despite me having a clear shot, but the weapons I had disappeared from existence and they were good weapons.
Even though you level up in the game allowing you get better health, a skill point, and access to better weapons, the zombies and human enemies scale up with you, making leveling up almost pointless. In fact if they wanted to do the skill tree better, they could have awarded a skill point instead of leveling. | video-games_xbox |
Finally something I can stick to. Updated 11/8/07
I still love YF! I started working out in January 2007 and had lost 20 pounds by June and people could tell I had lost weight. I did not change my diet much either, just tried to eat less as I can not give up chili dogs or pizza. Due to some unforseen circumstances I was not able to continue exercising from June through October but I was still keeping quite active and I did not put weight back on. I have started up again to lose just 10 more pounds and am looking forward to it! My friends laugh at me when I tell them about Maya and the workouts she puts me through. Definately a GREAT fitness program!!
What a great concept! I received YF for Christmas and as soon as I got home, the next morning I set up my profile and have been working out since. I have missed a couple of workouts which Maya got on my case about so I do my best not to miss, I hate feeling guilty! I am a mom of 2 very active toddlers and I was having a hard time sticking to a workout and YF gave me just what I needed. We live out in the country about 30 minutes from town so going to a gym was not only too expensive but unreasonable too. YF has given me just what I need to stick to a workout - choosing the days of the week to work out and the time period and the ability to change the time period right before each workout if you are unable to complete 30 or 45 minutes that particular day, being able to change the focus of the day as well from, for instance, cardio to core body strength or something else. Now that I have been working out with Maya for about 2 months now I can really tell a difference in my energy level and just feeling altogether better about myself and I have lost about 3 pounds so far. Yeah!! Of course they are some glitches as mentioned in the other reviews but they are not big enough glitches to keep me from working out. I think the biggest one for me is when she is doing a cardio (my least favorite)exercise and you see a rest period coming up, then it skips right over it and she keeps on doing that same exercise for another minute or so. Exhausting!! Also the rest periods between cardio exercises are very short whereas the rest periods when doing exercises with weights or crunches or the like seem too long sometimes. Overall YF is a great fitness motivator! | video-games_xbox |
Great Multi-Platform Surround Sound Headset. If you're finding a surround sound headset for PS3, XBOX 360, and PC/MAC and on a budget, then look no further!
Ever since I've purchased these, my gaming experience has been completely different! I've used these in my PS3 while playing Call of Duty: Black Ops, Resident Evil 5, L.A. Noire and Uncharted 2.
I can hear the tiny details of sound each game has to offer and make me feel like I'm inside the game itself! Like when my partner is talking to me at RE5, L.A. Noire and UC2, I can really feel their presence and it really feels like that they're talking to me. The subtlest noise in the background is even more amazing - flying bullets, screaming people, footsteps, etc. makes the experience more realistic.
I know a lot of people are complaining about the number of wires you have to set up in order to make these work. Well, it didn't become a problem to me while I'm setting it up. The instruction manual included is pretty straight forward. I promise you, it will all be worth it.
You may opt to not use the 'out of the box' settings while playing COD (or any FPS game).
I've got a modified setting...
on the Audio Controller (box) - Set the Time Delay at 10, Dynamic Range Control at 5. (Note: the highest level is 15 so if you don't know what level are you on, press the plus sign (+) 15 times and work from there.)
on the AX Pro Headset Controller - Set all the speakers in the 'highest' level of BLUE, then set the sub volume at the lowest possible which is GREEN, and then set the rear to WHITE or CYAN.
**These are of course just a preference, you may mix and match the sound volumes, Time Delay, and Dynamic Range Controls to get that 'perfect' sound on your own.**
I've been playing at least 3-5 hours a day and I'm not getting any discomfort while using these even when I'm wearing my glasses. They also provide you extra ear and head pads so you may choose between the faux leather or the default pads.
The design is super neat! It has a glossy silver finish and the logos on each ear cup lights up when plugged in.
Oh, and it'd be nice if Tritton included a carrying case. | video-games_xbox |
Great quality, not comfortable. I think that in terms of quality this Microsoft Controller is definetely the best, but is it the best in terms of comfortability? The answer is defintely not. I even found that when i picked up the new "Alien infestation controller (limited)" which has bumps that were meant to be on it all over the controller, it was still more comfortable then that of Microsofts jet black smooth controller. Why might that be? The answer is because of the massive size of this controller versus the smaller more compact size of Mad Catz contoller and even the Alien Infistation controller. For adults, this contoller might be find, but for kids/little kids, they will definetely hate it and demand for a smaller one. That is basically what i did and i have to say that i was much more satisfied with the smaller one. The only good thing about this controller though is the amazing quality, i still have one of these from November 11th 2001, the day Xbox first came out and the controller is still working perfectly well. Another good thing about it is that the cable cord is very long so if you have your Xbox elevated it can still reach perfectly well, you can even sit far away from your console, even if it is elevated and the cord will reach fine.
So basically there are thirteen buttons/triggers/analog sticks (all together) on the Xbox controller. You have the L and R triggers on the back, the L trigger on the left and the R trigger on the right. You have one analog stick on the upper left hand side of the controller and another analog stick on the bottom right hand side of the controller. The fairly comfortable D Pad is on the lower left hand side of the controller and the "start" and "back" buttons are on the very bottom of the controller. The back button is usually used to view stats, pause game or is not used at all, i really didn't see the need in this button. Moving on you have the x button on the upper right, you have the y button n the upper right as well, as well as the b and a button. you then have the white button and the black button which are placed just a little above the four core buttons. There is also a rather large "Xbox" logo smacked right in the upper/middle part of the controller.
You then have two slots on the back/bottom of the controller which is used for placing a memory card/xbox communicator chip into.
The other bad thing about this controller is that seeing it is black, your hand tends to get extremely sweaty after using it as well as the Mad Catz controller. It can be kind of gross when you want to receive a controller that your friend has just used or you want to swap controllers and its dripping in sweat, this cannot be very pleasing at times, they should have made the color white or something, it DOESN'T have to match the color of the core console.
In conclusion, i do not think that this controller is worth its money when you can just get a smaller/cheaper/more practicle controller made by madcatz. | video-games_xbox |
Good game, okay Sunday Ticket. I bought this version pretty much for the sole reason of getting NFL Sunday ticket. I am a big Seahawks fan and live on the wrong side of the country to catch most of their games on broadcast TV.
THE GAME ITSELF
Madden 25 is a decent installment of the franchise. They brought back owner's mode which allows you to build/upgrade your stadium, relocate the team, hire and fire staff, and set prices for merchandise. To be fair though, half those features are really not that impressive. Change hotdogs to $4/each, sell a few more, make $10k more this week out of the $16 million in total revenue for the week, yay! (Sarcasm). The game play is smoother than previous versions with better animations for running, tackling, and blocking. The motions are much more fluid and realistic looking. They have also added some new features for the ball carrier, though they are difficult to master and use and like in the real NFL, you might only see them once or twice a game. Overall I rate Madden 25 4/5 stars for good gameplay, but would like to see a little more innovations between versions if you are going to charge $60 at launch for the base game.
NFL SUNDAY TICKET FROM DIRECT TV
This is the reason I bought this version of the game. To watch my Seahawks. Unfortunately, Direct TV has been absolutely terrible. The first two weeks of the season, the site was constantly crashing. Last week (week 9 of the NFL season) the Seahawks were driving back from down 21 to win, didn't get to see it because NFL Sunday Ticket stopped working. The quality of service has been so bad that I am surprised when I can go for an entire game without the website going down. I have tried to call support at Direct TV, but they are totally clueless and just don't seem to care.
3/5 stars. When it works, it is great to have, and it was only $40 extra. But, inconsistent stream availability and quality really hurt its score. | video-games_xbox |
BETTER THAN CRAZY TAXI. This weekend I have rented both Crazy Taxi 3 (which includes both 1&2 plus a new map) and Simpsons Road Rage. While Crazy Taxi does have better graphics, MUCH shorter load times, and more driving techniques such as the crazy hop and slide, SRR has it where it counts. It is easily more fun.
First off, you'll laugh till you cry with the excellent dialogue. You can play the map again with a different character and expect to pick up different people than with different conversations. And there is a ALOT of characters to play as. This leading to extended replay value. However, I personally reccomend unlocking the levels first, which are filled with little things that any Simpson fan will instantly recognize and laugh at. However, I will not tell you any of these things cause it may ruin the fun...
This game is also MUCH more destructive than Crazy Taxi ever was. It just seems more fun to smash things up in this game than Crazy Taxi. You can also runover pedestrians. Which is really funny to watch and there is no blood. Since I'm on the topic, parents maybe interested to know what type of content is in the game. It was rated 'T' for people 13+. While mostly harmless, there is a bit of foul language in the game. However, it isn't any worse than the show. You do drive by a strip joint in the entertainment district level however. But if you live anywhere in the USA, you know you don't have to go far to see any type of adult entertainment. I think that this game is more than appropriate for a 13 year old, but maybe not enough for an 'E' rating (ages 6+). Overall it should be okay for a 9-11 year old to play.
Even when the jokes begin to become stale, this game is great to put in with friends. Watching your friend's laugh till they drop will at least put a smile on your face. Thankfully, EA realized this and put in a 2 player mode, which is not available in Crazy Taxi. Unfortunately, since I only have one controller I am unable to test it out. Another thing I really like is the fact that there is a map at the bottom of the screen which helps you map out the area and tell you where to go. This was a feature was needed in CT, but unfortunately Sega never really delevered. However, sometimes this map becomes your only way of determining where to go since there are a few times where the arrow is a little buggy. But these moments are rare and far between however.
I could really go on forever about how good this game is and how well it is, but there is a limit of words. Dispite what other critics say, this game is definately worth getting, especially now of its recently reduced price. If you are still a little weary, rent it first. And if you have some extra $$$, rent Crazy Taxi 3 to do a comparison of how well this game is compared to it. Sure it maybe a ripoff of CT, but it manages to improve off of it. Which really can't be a bad thing. This game is easilly the best Simpsons game since the arcade game!!! | video-games_xbox |
GTA V returns with a vengeance. GTA V is back and this time on next-gen hardware. I have to say, and I've never done this in my 30+ years as a gamer, when I installed t he game and fired it up and played the opening prologue, I started to smile and grin ear to ear with excitement. Make no mistake, this is not just GTA V with better graphics, this is GTA V at it's full imagined potential. If you were pulled into the game last year on the old consoles, this one pulls you in deeper. It's the most immersive and cinematic experience I've ever had playing a video game.
This next-gen version goes far beyond just eye-candy, the entire single player campaign has so much life to it now that it's almost overwhelming. When I finished the first mission with Franklin and was allowed to do what I wanted for the first time while playing, I simply started walking around Los Santos to take everything in. Buildings and billboards that were blurry and fade off into the background on the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions are now razor sharp and highly detailed... for miles! I was looking around at things I had never noticed before because the hi-resolution graphics command you to pay attention. And speaking of looking around, I switched to the new first person perspective and immediately noticed how as I walked past people on the streets of Los Santos, they would make eye contact with me, making the world even more immersive. There are new pedestrians too, with all new things to say and funny conversations to listen in on, which was a welcome surprise.
The physics of the game have been rebalanced as well. It's difficult for me to express this in writing, but everything feels like it has a more realistic gravity to it. For example, run into a street post in your car and instead of it feeling like it's made out of paper mache, it actually has some weight now (and can severely damage your vehicle). Some people have complained that the cars are slower in GTA V, I disagree, it feels like everything has a more realistic weight to it, that's all. You can still fly down the street in your ride if that's what you choose to do, but now it actually feels like your in a car and not a toy. I'm barely a few missions in with Franklin, but I'm amazed. Add in the new songs (which are better than the original selections for the game), first person mode and not just enhanced graphics but also enhanced particles, character models and gore effects and you have what feels and looks like a whole new game. I feel like the last year I've been playing GTA V Beta and this game is actually the true finished version of the game Rockstar envisioned.
A word about GTA Online:
I was able to smoothly transfer my old character into GTA V for the Xbox One with no problems. The new character creator is amazing and offers and large amount of customization options for your character. I spent over an hour tweaking mine, it's a great feature!
While the servers have had several issues at launch (I was expecting them to, this is the most popular game series of all-time by the way) I have been able to play a lot today and wanted to say some things about it. To the people that say this game is just a port-over with better graphics, read this carefully: my favorite activity in the GTA Online are Survivals, so I joined a game and played with 3 other people. Within the first minute of playing I knew I had spent my money wisely on this game. The enemies came at us quickly and aggressively. One guy died almost immediately from behind a popular hiding spot on the map because he probably wasn't ready for it. The Survival was intense, fast paced and very realistic. Did we have to wait in hiding spots for several minutes for the enemies to come to us like on the 360 and PS3? No.... oh no we did not. The enemies were coming at us heavy and hard to kill us! Plus, when the helicopters appeared, I took out my minigun to take it down and Rockstar has added new lens flare effects to the gun, new particle effects to the helicopter as it was being shot... it was tremendous, visceral, fast paced and intense! Plus, little things like after winning a race your shown posing in your garage are nice touches that weren't possible on the old consoles. I have yet to experience a 30 player lobby, but as server issues get fixed they'll happen and when they do it will add a whole new dimension to freemode.
Some things people have been curious about with GTA Online:
I just wanted to answer a few questions here that people ask a lot regarding GTA Online in various forums and at the Rockstar site:
Q: Are there animals online?
A: No. Personally, I don't see a reason to add them because if it's a choice of having 30 player lobbies or 16 players with animals (they would eat up a ton of memory online) then Rockstar made the right call by leaving them out. Plus, isn't the whole point of online to interact with other players and not wildlife?
Q: Can we use the Railgun and the Duke o'Death online?
A: No. A lot of people are upset about this, but I think Rockstar intentionally did this at the launch of the next-gen version because they want people to experience those items in the single player first. Will they be added to GTA Online in the future? Nothing has been announced, but I think it's a strong possibility, especially since GTA Online is constantly evolving experience. Rockstar could be saving them for future DLC releases.
Q: Have the cheap wall breaches been fixed yet that cheaters use in GTA Online?
A: I have only checked two locations, and they have been fixed. I didn't check all known breaches, but it's good to know that two of the most popular ones are now gone, so hopefully they sealed them all up.
Q: Is the traffic denser online?
A: It doesn't seem to be, to me at least. In story mode? Yes, but not online. However, the good news is that when online, if you no longer see one type of the same car traveling in one area. The car spawns are now very varied. I'll take this over denser traffic any day!
If anyone has any other questions about the game, feel free to ask and I'll try to respond. Overall, I think the game is well worth the $60 price and I'm really looking forward to seeing Heists (the next announced DLC) and all the other additions and events Rockstar will release in the months to come. | video-games_xbox |
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