Split (3)

train · 322k rows

text stringlengths 503 33.4k	labels stringclasses 23 values
Max Payne is one of the best for the X-Box. Max Payne is an excellent game that isn't as perfect as the PC version, but is a lot better than the Playstation 2 version. This game is very addicting and the storyline drags you into the game. Bullet Time and the other in game action make Max Payne one of the best games for X-Box. Below is my review of the game... SINGLE PLAYER At first, like in Halo, the controls will confuse you and you will hate them. What people don't understand is that they are set up for people who are used to a keyboard and mouse. But after about 15 minutes to a half an hour, you will love the controls. The controls make the game so much more fun making it easier to kill bad guys. The story in Max Payne at first seems like an awesome interesting mob story, but soon becomes a predictable straight to cable tv movie type of feel. But the story is not what makes the game so good, its the actual gameplay. Single Player is great but is the only way you can play the game (there is no cooperation play, multiplayer, or online play) And don't worry, there is a special option that teaches you how to play the game. While the game might feel a little bit repetitive it still is as fun as hell. BIG PROBLEMS WITH MAX PAYNE I would give the gameplay for Max Payne 5 stars, it is addicting, fun, and just down right awesome. Fans of movies like The Matrix, (John Woo's) The Killer, and The Round, will feel like they just got put as the lead role in one of those types of movies. But, Max Payne still has some big problems. There is no cooperation play which made Halo that much more fun (but that really wouldn't have worked anyway, you can't be another Max Payne, you can't be Max Payne's partner because his death is what the stories sub plot revolves around, and there no other characters that are on your side like Max's partner was. Well, maybe you could be Mona Sax or somethin) Another problem is there is no muliplayer! How great would it have been running around the Hotel shooting at Jack Lupino, Mona Sax, and members of the different Mafias and other characters. And the last problem is that there is no online play, hopefully with the sequal there will be. GRAPHICS The graphics in Max Payne are good, not AMAZING but they are good. I feel the game could have taken more advantage of the X-Box becuase some of the people in the game look kind of weird. Overall the graphics are very good and is only second best to the PC version. The graphics are so good though that you feel like you are watching a movie. SOUND The sound in the game is good and the characters voices really add to the game. It is like a movie with all of the acting and the gameplay sound is good with all of the bullets flying around and so much going on at one time. It is fun to just stop and listen to what the mobsters are actually talking about sometimes. They talk about anything from the ending to SEVEN (one of the best endings ever and one of the best movies ever, along with MEMENTO, L.A CONFIDENTIAL, FIGHT CLUB, EVIL DEAD II, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, THE SCORE AND SCARFACE) They also talk about The Usual Suspects (another one of the best movies ever). Mobsters also talk about vampire movies or which wire to pull for a bomb or how they "think" they are going to kill Max Payne. It is very funny and really adds to the greatness of the game. CONTROL The control in Max Payne like I said gets some time getting used to but is supposed to be for gamers who are used to PC games where they used a Keyboard and Mouse. GAMEPLAY This game could not have been as good if Bullet Time was left out. For those who don't know Bullet Time is when the action in the gameplay slows down and you take control of the situation by shooting in slow motion. It is great and is like the movies THE MATRIX and THE ROUND. The Gameplay in Max Payne seems like non stop action that will make you want to beat the game over and over again. OVERALL Overall, Max Payne is a great game with awesome gameplay and I am looking forward to MAX PAYNE 2. (title most likley to change)The game is good but not perfect, the non stop action of single player is enough to shell out 50 bucks for the game but other gamers might feel left out because there is no online play, multiplayer, or cooperation play. Maybe in Max Payne 2 everything I just said will be added.	video-games_xbox
Great backup/upgrade for your current 360. The Xbox 360 Arcade bundle is not for everyone. Without a component cable, a headset, or even a hard drive, it's not a good purchase compared to the Premium/Pro set and not recommended for your first 360 purchase. However, because it's $70 cheaper than the Premium/Pro it's well recommended as a backup or an upgrade to your current 360. The two main reasons why it doubles well for an upgrade: 1. The Arcade Unit has an HDMI port HDMI was only recently added to 360s as of August 2007, so if you owned a 360 prior to that your console most likely does not have the HDMI port. Picking up this new Arcade bundle and moving your current hard drive to it allows you to easily upgrade your 360 to one with HDMI. 2. The Arcade Unit has the Falcon motherboard 360s manufactured in 2006 and the first half of 2007 were not optimally designed, resulting in the graphics chip on the motherboard overheating and causing the 3 Red Lights error that many 360 owners have encountered (I'm on my 4th console myself). Microsoft tried to remedy this with their second motherboard, the Zephyr, which was used when the Elite was released. This motherboard contained an additional heatsink, keeping the 360 a bit cooler. The number of consoles that red ringed due to overheating was reduced, but they still occurred. Microsoft released a third revision to their motherboard in Fall of 2007, called the Falcon. This current motherboard contains a smaller CPU chip, resulting in an even cooler motherboard, further reducing the possibility of your 360 giving you the 3 red lights. It is by no means perfect, but it is far more reliable than the previous motherboards. I was initially worried that the Arcade bundle I ordered would not contain the Falcon chipset, but I am relieved to see that it does. I'm not sure if all Arcade bundles have Falcon chipsets in them, but the one I bought on 12/10/07 from Amazon was manufactured on 10/3/07 with a lot # of 740. It looks like Amazon is moving the systems fast enough that they have systems that have been recently manufactured. If you buy an Arcade unit from Amazon now, there's a good chance it will be a Falcon motherboard. Also, it's a good backup should your current 360 red ring and you have to send it into Microsoft. Waiting for three or four weeks before you get it back with all these great games out can be rough. Now you can still play when your 360 is being fixed!	video-games_xbox
Another year, another shaft. I have been a NCAA football gamer since Bill Walsh College Football. Every year the release of NCAA football has been marked on my calendar. Skipping class was a given, in elementary I would just fake being sick, in high school I didn't have to fake anymore. My parents knew that when the foose ball game came out I wasn't going to school. College was a NCAA tourney every night. Now I'm a old man compared to most gamers out there and what I have seen over the past few years is sickening. EA is deliberately ripping people off. The NCAA are a bunch of money hogging greedy white collar criminals and review sites are in EA's pocket. There are many websites dedicated to the sports gaming genre, there are successful companies based just off gaming previews and reviews. There are "professionals" who cover these games and over the past few years this game has not received one bad review. There have been no one who has told the truth about this game and the sad state it is in. There are glitches that have been present since 2006. There are random game freezes that happen in every mode and features that have not worked properly since the beginning of the next gen era. EA actually implemented a "game changer" group of individuals who get to visit the studio during different phases of development and get exclusive hands on time with the game. They even get the game early but no one has ever pointed out the flaws in the game. NCAA 12 was never fixed, it took 6 months for the final patch and it still was full of flaws. It's not like they are re-inventing the wheel here, every year it's the same platform they have been working on for 3-4 years now and it still doesn't work. Do not buy this game. IT DOESN'T WORK. Its a broken piece of junk and it will never change. Recently EA settled a law suit that requires EA to pay money to customers who purchased their games over the last few years. It also requires no exclusive licenses with the NCAA and arena football I think for 5 years. Funny how the NFL wasn't included. Do you think some money changed hands here? All we can hope for is some company takes a risk and makes a game to compete with this garbage but I think it is a long shot. Funny thing is most of the younger crowd still flocks to the stores when ea puts out the trash (releases another game). Hopefully one day it changes but it doesn't look good.	video-games_xbox
The Most Frustrating Experience of My Gaming Life. I love the FPS genre. I really do. I have bought and enjoyed every FPS since Doom, and have praised games like Goldeneye and Halo 1. I have enjoyed Halo 2 and 3 with my friends, since you can play split-screen online multiplayer. It's great fun to sit in the same room with one another and play on a projector screen, and we were all hoping for the latest installment of COD to have this feature. We purchased COD:WAW the day it came out, and brought it home to find that the only playing we'd be doing on the same screen would be cooperative. A HUUUUGE letdown. This makes the game into a bunch of people running around by themselves totally oblivious to one another. This is compounded by the fact that there is NO peripheral vision--a problem Halo 2 had--fixed in Halo 3. Basically, my friends and I laugh out loud when we here the game announcer state at the beginning of team deathmatch games, "No one fights alone!" I am a level 49 on COD:WAW, so I can say from experience that the spawns in this game are truly the worst I've seen in 15 years of game playing. In no other game on earth to date can you die so rapidly and so many times in so short a period of time. I have counted 9 spawns and deaths in a period of less than 30 seconds. Unbelievable. And at the beginning, when you don't have the weapons to defeat tanks--you'll love dying over and over again. Just tonight I played a game in which the other team managed to have 3 tanks. My team had a total of 5 kills at the end of the match. The only reason I didn't quit was because I couldn't believe it was happening. I would spawn in the midst of an exploding tank shell--best of all, the tank would be behind me watching me spawn. I can promise you that if you play more than 2 games in a sitting, you will have a session where you spawn and die a minimum of 3 times within 20 seconds, most likely without firing a shot. I cannot grasp how Treyarch or anyone else for that matter could consider that to be either "fair" or "fun." Huge, epic maps, yet you spawn in the middle of 5 shocked enemies who's surprised trigger fingers quickly dispatch you. The spawning and uneven multiplayer ranks force inexperienced players to endure hours and hours of losses with consistent negative ratios, no matter their actual skill. It all comes down to the luck of the spawn--which is ridiculous for a fifth generation game. Furthermore, the much vaunted vehicles in the game are numbered at (drum roll).......1. No, that isn't a typo. Tanks are the only option. And part about vehicles they didn't include is that the tanks in WWII apparently had difficulty clearing objects that my Honda civic could clear with ease. The clipping system will get you stuck again and again, whether in or out of vehicles. Beyond annoying, and glitches that testers should have caught. What is the point of beta testing, Treyarch? The graphics don't redeem this game, nor does the sound, as they are no more than copies of COD4. The single play is the only thing worth buying this game for--and this is not what the franchise is intended for. Speaking of sound, is it really so difficult to record multiple phrases for the people to say in the game? I mean, I hear the phrases, "Our artillery will shake them up," "Our recon plane will find them," and, "Give your lives for Germany!" about a hundred times per gaming session. I'm sure that in WWII, people still had a slightly more expansive vocabulary. Additionally, the character models have the same clipping problems as does the rest of the game. It's great watching them move around--most awkward thing I've ever seen. Halo 3's movement looks more natural, and he's wearing a metal suit! The characters move so fast, you'll be astounded. Every character in the game would best an olympic sprinter. Yes, very poorly designed multiplayer, among other things. I want my money back. My friends and I will be playing Halo 3 and dealing with the cheating and the terrible lag until some game designer can figure out why people play fps multiplayer games, and decide to put the effort in to get it right. I've never played a more frustrating game. And my four friends who each own COD4 and have experimented with my copy agree. They have not and will not be purchasing WAW. I know my rating of the game is inaccurate, but amazon forces me to give the game one more star than I would have.	video-games_xbox
Xbox 360 was a waste of my money on so many different levels. I've never owned a game system before and decided to purchase the Xbox 360 (with hard drive) as my first and ONLY gaming system. I purchased the console in December 2006 as a Christmas gift to myself and within six (6) months (by May 2007) my console started giving me trouble. These red lights started flashing - in three of the four quadrants, and after consultation with customer support and following the steps outlined by them, I was told I had to return the system to them for repair. Luckily for me it was still under warranty. It is all fine and dandy that the product was under warranty and I did not have to pay to repair it, but I'm from the Caribbean, Barbados to be exact, and shipping from Barbados to the US to have my console fixed was US$60. In the end they could not repair the console and sent me a replacement unit - "free" of cost. I received the replacement unit in July of 2007, had to pay US$100 to have the item shipped back to Barbados. The unit worked well for another few months and I was very contented with my gaming experience. NFL Madden '07 and Top Spin2 are favorites of mine. In February of 2008 I experienced a different problem - the screen started to freeze. I e-mailed customer support and they sent me a string of e-mails as to how to maintain the harddrive, deleting user profiles and creating new ones and then an all too familiar problem arose - this replacement unit showed me three red lights! And like before I was told I would have to send my system to them for repair. "Luckily for me", as I received the replacement unit in July, the warranty for the console is July 2008 and as such I won't have to pay for the unit to be repaired, but I will again have to pay shipping to have my item sent to the States and pay again to have it returned to me. When I contacted customer support and expressed my concern over the expense relating to me having to have my unit repaired (not due to any fault of mine) it was brushed aside and communicated to me that if the prescribed steps to fix my console did not work I would have to send it for them to repair. To me this is totally unacceptable! I purchased a game console in good faith and after collectively spending thousands of dollars in both gaming system, games (which can only be played on the Xbox 360) and repairs,I feel as if I have been cheated and robbed. What would the point be in having the unit sent for repair for them to send me a replacement unit or if possible, fix and return the currently destroyed unit. It would make more sense to cut my losses now and never purchase a Microsoft gaming product EVER again! If I continue at this rate there will come a time the product is no longer under warranty and I'll have to pay for repairs to the system. I'm an extremely disappointed customer. Money does not grow on trees and I work hard for my money. If Microsoft is unable to produce an experience for customers to enjoy without hassle of repairs and maintenance, which is due to no fault of mine, they should pull out of the market. I will now detail the moneys I have LOST, as a result of Microsoft and their Xbox 360 (prices quoted in US$) Xbox 360 Console $600.00 One (1) wireless control 37.99 NFL Madden '07 game 48.99 Top Spin 2 33.88 2006 FIFA World Cup 23.04 Splinter Cell 59.99 Ghost Recon - Advanced Warrior 59.99 Smackdown vs Raw 2007 59.99 Shipping to send unit to States for repair 120.11 Shipping to have unit returned 211.00 Local shipping, handling, duties on games & wireless control purchased 57.00 ---------- Total monies spent relating to Xbox 360 US$ 1,311.98 ---------- Now you can see why the Xbox 360 has been a waste of my money. Based on the experiences stated above I am unable to give this product more that one (1) star out of five (5). Dissapointed, frustrated customer who can't believe he was duped into investing over US$1,300 in a gaming system which doesn't work! R. Sparrock Bridgetown, Barbados <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Xbox-360-Console-Includes-20GB-Hard-Drive/dp/B000B43OY4/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Xbox 360 Console Includes 20GB Hard Drive</a>	video-games_xbox
Twisted Story / Annoying Gameplay. I was a fan of the first game, a dark, twisted take on Alice in Wonderland. The sequel deals with Alice's Madness as she attempts to solve a mystery. Story: 9/10 A mysterious fire started, burning her house to the ground and incinerating her family. Alice was framed for the crime and it doesn't help that she can't remember what happened either. As Alice slips into madness, Wonderland slips into corruption. Alice must battle her way through Wonderland as she finds memories which will uncover the truth! The story is really well done and this would have made a great book, movie, anime, graphic novel, etc... Unfortunately, this story drives a lackluster game. Graphics: 6/10 Alice looks great and the concepts behind each of the levels: Steam Punk, Japan, Storybook, Queen of Hearts, etc... are very interesting. But the execution is pretty weak. The game looks like it's 5 years old. The levels are low polygon-low res textures. The lighting and camera are also pretty bad, too. As I was playing through the game, a mystery began to form in my own mind. Why does this game look so bad? Gameplay: 6/10 12 hours of Platform Jumping, 3 hours of basic combat, 1 hour of really bad puzzles. This is mostly a platformer where Alice can triple jump and glide. It's fairly easy and if you do miss a platform, they start you where you last touched solid ground. Unfortunately, the camera is not always your friend and you have to struggle to get it pointed in the right direction. The Combat is easy and straightforward. Hit or shoot enemies. Some enemies must be hit first, some must be shot first. When you kill them, they drop teeth and health. The teeth are used to upgrade the weapons. But there are no jumping attacks and aside from YYY or XXX, there aren't any combos. The mini-games are just plain bad. Slider Puzzles with the same solution and sometimes the same image across puzzles. A pinball game with awful physics. etc... The gameplay is so bad, I'm surprised 3DO didn't publish it... I started asking myself, why is this game so bad? Sound: 7/10 The Voice Acting is OK. The music is well done and highlights the combat and creepy atmosphere. Overall, it's pretty good. Maturity: M This is NOT FOR KIDS! This is a very dark story in a game which features gore and horror elements! It's more like Silent Hill than Crash Bandicoot. Overall: 6.5/10 When I finished the game and saw the ending credits, my mystery was solved. Nearly everyone was Chinese. So, EA took this Alice Madness Concept and farmed it out to a cheap rookie development house in China. This is why everything looks blah, and the gameplay is clunky. I really wish EA spent more resources on this game because it could have been really cool. I'd like to see the story continued, by a real developer. Alice deserves better!	video-games_xbox
A great game that is 100% worth buying. This game to me was just a meh when the xbox one came out. I am not a big fan of racing games and this just seemed to be a "pretty" car game where you spend more time salivating over the cars than enjoying them. This game gets you the closest feeling of actually owning the car. I am proud of my car garage and enjoy taking the cars out after I improve them, though this is not the focus of the game. When logging on to review this game I noticed the 3/5 rating and thought what a disservice to this game. People hate the microtransactions and preach of a hellish future where every game will have a monetary function to slowly drain your soul and wallet. This game is not one of them, i do not preach from a crystal ball either. The microtransactions of this game are acceptable and I have not opted to use it ever. In the game you can play REALLY fun cars just by racing others. My second car bought was a super car and the previous one was a regular s2000. This for me is for that person who just HAS to drive that car they have dreamed about and do not want to waste the time experiencing the game. For us to piss and moan about that and dock the game is unfair, remember this game was made to get as many costumers out there as they possibly can. Consumerist beliefs aside here is more on the game. Graphics: Astounding. Forza has made the cars just like they were, I am talking about even the orange peel (rough looking texture) on the paint. The cars are accurate as in real life and are true works of art. There are cut scenes you feel like they loaded up a 4k image, then you drive it... The background graphics of the game are okay, and on a side note you really should not be noticing how the trees look mediocre as you will plow straight on into a wall. The sun will reflect off your car and damage over time can happen, with no adverse affects, to your vehicle as you express some love to that annoying car that tries and pass you. Sound: The noise from the engines of the cars are thrilling and appropriate. Example, a turbo vehicle that has the blow off valve noise (if it did in real life) will make it in game even if you are not driving a car with one, and there is this jaws like fear as you hear that hellacious whistle approach you from behind unseen. The music is good, but you won't be going out and buying the cd or itunes version anytime soon though. Gameplay: A little has been covered but you have an astonishing number of categories to search through and group cars up accordingly. Miss the good ole days when the 426 hemi cuda roamed these parts? Live it now! Want to have your face ripped off buy a v8 ariel atom? Check!, Want to play in the beautiful and alluring grand national? here is your shot. This game has a ton of cars to choose from, even some really random and obscure ones, trust me there is one for everyone here. The race is in a random format with your average race consisting of 16 cars, and then some fun events thrown in. These include a funny top gear London experience, bowling, time attack with cones, and passing some not so hot hatches'. Customization: This game will let you put different pressure in your tires for goodness sake. There is loads of things you can do, and it all adjust your rivals accordingly so your riced out civic does not blow away an equally underpowered sports car. Power is not the only focus, as cosmetics also are useable and pick your paint scheme and graphics for any car. Narration: This has been loved, or hated, by many. Top gear announcers James May, Jeremy Clarkson, and Richard Hammond all narrate part of the games intro and categories. This is wonderful as it gives you a very brief overview of the cars as well as humor. I like it a lot, and even if you don't most racing games don't ever speak a word to you about the cars. They use some strange car speak that no one uses (Thanks Fast and Furious). Having a "professional" narration that is entertaining is all well in my book. Problems: The game needs to be more user friendly. I have played this game a bit and navigating different menus is a real challenge. From the beginning I had to turn the Xbox off just to get to home page. The load times are not long, but not as snappy and ready to race as you are. To me, they do not justify a minus star rating because everything else makes you SO happy. Closing: Get this game if you like to race REAL and FUN cars. Ignore microtransactions as they do not play a part in this game at all unless you want to. I never have done one before, but some others feel like their life is ruined that the option exist. I see it differently. Do not let this small and irrelevant item scare you away, you need not ever run into it. That would be the biggest disservice.	video-games_xbox
If you liked MW3 (one of my all time favorites), it is like that only on steroids. I absolutely love this game no matter what all the haters are saying. This game finally feels and plays different than any other CoD ever made but still has the essence of all the old ones. Pros: 1) You have a coin system to purchase perks, gun attachments and kill streaks meaning you don't have to wait to unlock things by rank, if you have enough tokens you can have it right away 2) Creating your own character, for the first time in all of the CoD's you can customize your players, face, race, gender, combat suits, helmets.... 3) Squads, this is perfect for people that get sick of playing online. You can play with friends or 1 vs 1 against bots in the game to see who can do better while you gain experience 4) Horde mode, cant really remember the actual in game type name but this is where you and 3 other members fight off wave after wave of enemies. The best part, YOU GET XP AND COINS FOR YOUR ONLINE PROFILE, HUGE BONUS! 5) Cranked, now this game mode is AWESOME if you like to run and gun. You become "cranked" after killing your first opponent then a 30 second timer starts if you don't kill someone in that time you blow up. There is a kicker, when you become cranked you become super fast and can reload your gun faster. This is a great way to build XP because the games only last 3 mins (avg TDM game is 7 mins) usually and you can rack up just as many points as 1 TDM game but in half the time. Cons 1) If you think you can play with your friends that own a 360 on the XBox One....nope. Not sure why they did this, I know they want more people to buy the new gaming system but this just blows. 2) The spawning system is HORRIBLE, I have literally been spawned onto someones death screen (so I spawned literally in front of them for an easy kill) but then again I have had my fair share of killing other people spawning in front of me but this absolutely has to be fixed Conclusion: In the end I think this game is 10000000% better than Black Ops and Black Ops 2 (I will probably never buy a Trearch game again). The game is just like every other CoD game, parts of it make you bonkers and you complain about it and then you have that game where you go 35-4 and you love the heck out of it, if you buy this game you won't be disappointed.	video-games_xbox
Great Classic, Good Fun for Price. I have not beaten Morrowind (nor do I know if I even will, ever--it's MASSIVE), but I believe I know enough about the game to help influence a purchase, so bear with me on this review. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is a wonderful classic (I call it a classic because of when it came out compared to the time it is now) that, in my honest opinion, is a great addition to any RPG fan's game collection. Heck, if you're a big fan of Bethesda Game Studio's games in general, this is a great pick-me-upper for you as well. Morrowind features about everything that we've all come to know and love with all of Bethesda's games--unparalleled freedom. Morrowind, like any other game by Bethesda, gives you complete freedom to do "what you want, when you want," placing you in a 100% non-linear world within the first 5-10 minutes of gameplay. Morrowind offers a massive variety of side-quests or faction-related quests that you can complete either before, alongside, or after the main quest of the game is complete. It offers a wonderful variety of scary to unusual creatures, and a wonderful variety of armor, weapons, and more to upgrade your character. Some frown upon doing reviews in this fashion, but for me, this would have benefited me when I made my purchase of this game, so I'm going to do it anyways--let's compare Morrowind to it's new, modern, bigger-brother The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. When I purchased Morrowind, I did it out of a lack of patience for The Elder Scrolls V (still officially unannounced), and I wanted some more Elder Scrolls action and to be enveloped in a world as great as all those Bethesda creates. Let's get a quick run-down of the differences and similarities of the two. Combat is a good place to start. Morrowind and Oblivion's combat are generally the same, but with a different approach. Yes, as in Oblivon, Morrowind's combat is still in real-time, meaning it's not turn-based. However, every swing in Morrowind is not considered a "hit." In Oblivion, if you're close to a target, and you swing your sword (or mace, etc.), it takes health away from the target, even if it be a mere -1 to their health. In Morrowind, there's what you could call some "dice-rolling" that goes own behind the scenes. Every time you swing a weapon in Morrowind, you have a "chance" (governed by skills and attributes) to actually deal the damage that you initially attempted to deal. This might sound annoying, or a minus, to some, but I can assure you that it's not as bad as it sounds. You get used to it fairly quickly. And, anyways, look at it this way--you're not the only one that doesn't hit every time. Your enemies don't hit you every time, either. The magic in the game is more or less the same, accept it can not be dual-wielded, per se, with your melee weapon as Oblivion allows. Meaning, you must press (on the Xbox version) the Y button to "ready" your magic, and your magic only, compared to having a sword out in Oblivion and just tapping a seperate button (default RB on the 360) to cast a spell. Same goes for weapons--if you'd like to use a weapon, you have to press the X button, and you can use weapons and only weapons during this time. The world... There's not too much to say about this part, seeing that it's very similar to Oblivion's. It's huge. It's beautiful. It's spooky. It's filled with dungeons, structures, hidden treasure, cities, etc. Two main differences that I can state here is of course: 1) the obvious, which is that the game is set in a different province than Oblivion, so therefore the environment is not the same. Morrowind is a lot more mysterious, and sometimes very odd, compared to Oblivion's world, which is more or less your perfect little fantasy setting. Morrowind consists of many dead, blank areas, swamps, a scary, windy, rocky mountainous/volcanic area (in the center of the province is a big, big volcano, named Red Mountain I believe), big mushrooms in places, and odd creatures (things that look like flying jellyfish, monsters that look like ant/dog hybrids, etc.), and 2) that the cities in Morrowind are OPEN. They're in the same "cell" as the world around you. I.e.-No more going through a load screen just to enter a city. The last thing I'd like to discuss, briefly, is the way levelling/scaling in the game works compared to Oblivion. In Morrowind, monsters, armor, and the like, are NOT leveled to you. They're all "set." If you're level one and run up on, say, a level 10 (not very likely if you don't stray too far), then you're in big trouble. If you somehow find and kill something with full Glass armor on at level 1 (unlikely), then congratulations! You now have a nice set of Glass Armor at level 1. This is of course not the case in Oblivion, where you're not going to run up on a high level or really nice armor at a low level. I am apologetic that most of my review was composed of me comparing the game to the more modern Oblivion, but when I bought this game, I bought it AFTER playing Oblivion, and reviews like this one helped me. So if you've read my review, and are looking to buying it after playing your heart out on Oblivion, then I hope this helped!	video-games_xbox
The best RE installment in years. OVERVIEW: I've been playing the Resident Evil games since the very first installment was released, and thoroughly enjoyed most of the original entries. When 5 came out, I still enjoyed it, but found the original formula that made Resident Evil great in the first place to be somewhat absent. This was further the case with Resident Evil 6. I'm pleased to say that Revelations abandons many of the elements present in the other newer entries (co-op play, brightly lit environments, action oriented gameplay) in the name of delivering a more intense, suspenseful, and sometimes scary gaming experience, very much in the vein of the original series entries. Be warned, though - if you've grown up with nothing but the more recent entries (4 - 6), be prepared for a very challenging experience! THE GOOD: - Jill Valentine returns as a primary playable character in this entry, along with Chris and a variety of new characters. - Great environments, primarily set on an abandoned cruise ship, with an excellent creepy soundtrack - Single player story mode, although there is a multiplayer "raid mode" available as well - Cool new enemies, no more mobs of "guys with weapons" chasing you down - Controls easy to grasp, similar to control scheme in other recent installments - Very limited ammo and health, similar to the original Resident Evil THE BAD: - No laser sight option, aiming is accomplished via a crosshair (may not bother other players) - Some rather annoying supporting characters, possibly the worst in the series - Boss battles (even the first one) can be extremely difficult, far worse than RE4 thru RE6 - Occasional lag, although this mainly occurs in elevators when a new map is loading - Story may not make any sense to players new to the series THE UGLY: - Oozes! Globsters! And the Scagdead... Overall, the good of this installment far outweighs any bad elements, and it's a definite "must play" for anyone who is a fan of the series. Again, the last few games in the series may not prepare newer players for the challenge of Revelations, but it's a great game, one of the best I've played in the series or on the 360 overall.	video-games_xbox
Battle Hymn of the Mother Land. For many real time strategy (RTS) games, the Command and Conquer franchise is something akin to Final Fantasy of the RPG genre or how Madden is to sports; they ARE the standard in their respective genre. Since the mid 1990s Command and Conquer set the bar high on how RTS games should be with building menus, console interface (ever tried to command whole units with just a cumbersome controller?), cut scenes, and story. Command and Conquer traditionally also have a stellar cast of characters played by big Hollywood actors including James Earl Jones, Michael Beihn, Michael Ironside, Billy Dee Williams, etc. That said, after finishing up the last of the Empire of the Rising Sun (Japanese) campaigns, I am happy to say that Red Alert 3 lives up to the tradition set forth by its predacessors. For those of you, who are not familiar with Command and Conquer or are a casual gamer, here is what you need to know. Red Alert 3 is a real time strategy game where you, utilizing a bird's-eye-view, build a base for your faction, raise an army and quell your enemies into proverbial dust. Simple enough? Well, RTS games are typically for more advanced players (unless you're playing Starcraft j/k) but Red Alert 3 has an easy enough interface and, better yet, a multi-part interactive turtorial where the tanks from each faction teach you how to play. Despite being an avid RTS gamer, I thought I'd utilize the tutorial to see the new changes made to the interface (that and you get a gamer score for completing all tutorials) and it was worth it. Between the witty banter between the tanks (I swear, the Allied tank sounds just like Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear) and the gamer score, listening to what they had to say was worth it. Once you have memorized how to play, you'll realize that Electronic Arts really improved the console interface. One of the largest problems with RTS games on a console as opposed to a PC is a loss of control. Ever tried to simultaneously command numerous units with a cumbersome controller? It can turn a great game into a nightmare and by that I'm refering to Supreme Commander. You feel like a lobster with oven mits on as you would traditionally try to carefully select the units you want, which would necessitate you move individual units first into a staging area to be selected in one group. Meanwhile, some 14-year-old in Germany is kicking your backside and cursing at you like some demon child in a foreign language. EA considerably simplified the interface by allowing the player to hold down the "A" button and a small green circle appears that the user can move around the battlefield and select any units he or she wishes. Now, if you want to control a specific kind of unit, while having the units selected you hold the right trigger and a menu pops up allowing you to only select that kind of unit. As opposed to other interfaces, this makes things a LOT less cumbersome. On a side note, I have not yet played Kane's Wrath so I am unfamiliar with their interface so anyone feel free to correct me if they did it first To makes matters more simplified, EA fixed several issues that have riddled RTS games for well over a decade. One of them was that in many RTS games if the unit is moving to a location they will blatantly ignore everyone firing at them or plow clean through them. With Red Alert 3, a player can select a fire-move order that allows the unit to engage any unit they encounter along the way but continue once they have eliminated said unit. This makes a bounding overwatch movement (one covers while the other moves than roles are reversed) and other movements MUCH easier. So, the controller interface is very much improved for console systems and makes commanding individual units and smaller squads MUCH easier. The next interface issue is the balance of power between the three factions. In Red Alert 3 you have the option of playing as the traditional Soviet Union or the Allies but EA has introduced the Empire of the Rising Sun or the Japanese. This makes the game much more interesting as you now have to rotate your tactics MUCH more now although I anticipate more gamers will play as the Japanese given their unique nature (that and, for some reason, gamers are obsessed with that bloody island of copy/cats). Normally, RTS games with more than two factions fail due to a lack of balance. Even Starcraft possessed balance problems with the three factions they had. For once, the balance seems almost perfect whether it be the advantages and disadvantages of how buildings can be placed or how some weapons have secondary weapons. For instance, the most basic display of balance is how the construction yards work. For the Allies the construction yard takes a traditional method as buildings are built out of site, then you can place them on the field but they take a while. Meanwhile, the Soviet buildings are built out in the open but take less time. Lastly, the Japanese buildings are transported using core vehicles that unfold and deploy the structures. As such, they are highly mobile but also highly vulnerable. Without going into insane detail, here is the basic run-down on all three factions. The Soviets have brute force power with cheap mass production, the Japanese are an expensive lot with highly technological equipment that requires a mastery to utilize effectively, and the Allies are a decent in between mixture of firepower and technology. Now, there are some hilarious cultural, but not racial, stereotypes played out in all three factions. No where is this more noticable than the Japanese side. The Japanese have mecha and giant robots. The Mecha Tengu ships have a striking resemblence to Veritech fighters from Robotech and even transform into two of the same modes (Guardian and normal mode). Their giant robots are... well, giant samurais and their doomsday weapons are even larger giant samurais that feed on tesla coils. While this may seem silly, EA does do a good job of balancing the unit's abilities. Not to mention Red Alert 3 is known for its over-the-top nature. Even the units say witty things such as, "beats being in a gulag," or, "I heard the emperor's geisha girls will be there." On to the more aesthetic elements. Graphics wise, Red Alert 3 is nothing truly remarkable but nothing to sniff at either. Good graphics on RTS are fairly few and far in between and for good reason as you don't want to slow down the console to a crawl since there can be up to hundreds of individual units doing their own thing on the battlefield. Unit animation is very smooth though with one exception. When the commando or spy goes from the water to the ground they can get glitchy and require the player to move them twice. Nothing truly annoying but a glitch all the same. Next is the music. Marvelous! It inspired the title of this review! Between the heavy guitar music during battle sequences, that isn't overbearing, and the heavy Soviet chanting music I was very much impressed. The only song I did not like was the building music in the Soviet's New York mission. Saxaphone?! Give me a break! Lastly are the cut scenes with the big Hollywood actors. There are a lot of them and the casting is hilarious. Between Tim Curry as the Soviet Premier, J.K. Simmons as the American president, Peter Stormare (the Russian astronaut in Armageddon) as the time scientist.. and Star Trek's George Takei as the Japanese Emperor, it's just priceless. Aside from the hot girls, who obviously were NOT chosen for their acting abilities (and by that I mean Jenny McCarthy), all the cast members really got into their roles. Heh, the game even includes a poster of all the pretty ladies. Gotta love fanboy service!! My only beefs are that the endings are too ambiguous. Nothing truly amazing. Red Alert 3 was a very impressive game in terms of evolutionary innovation but still is nothing remarkable. Nonetheless, the beefs are very few and ranks this suck among some of the greater games this year. A must buy for any RTS fan.	video-games_xbox
Dragon Age: Origins. The Game for the Oldschool RPG player. Let's start with the basics: When I first saw this trailer I was, like many of you, in awe. The bloody fighting, the excellent voice-overs, the rock and roll music coupled with swords and sorcery. It seemed to be pure ambrosia. I lost track of how many times I watched the various trailers with anticipation. Initially, however, I was also skeptical. I remembered many great trailers that were followed by purely mediocre or downright poor games. Lineage 2, anyone? However, I put my faith in Bioware, as I have so many times. Obviously you are all unfamiliar with me, so let me tell you that I have played/beaten Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights, Planescape Torment, Icewind Dale, The Witcher, Knights of the Old Republic both I & II, and Mass Effect. Suffice to say that while not all of Bioware's games have been amazing, their engine (R.I.P. Bioware Infinity) and their games have on average consistently been a cut above the rest. I went to Gamestop and pre-ordered a copy, and picked it up the day after it was released. Now, let's talk about the game: At first glance, from the character customization feature to the very basic layout and even a little bit of the intro, I had this feeling of "I've Played This Before." Customization reminded me of Oblivion, the intro reminded me of Fable I & II, and movement and combat reminded me of both Mass Effect and KotOR. Party interaction felt like the chatter that goes on in Baldur's Gate 2. Heck, I even have a dog just like Fallout (and Fallout 2, and Fallout 3). After playing it even further, I can tell you: I HAVE played this before! However, not quite this good. What do I mean? I mean that Dragon Age: Origins incorporates various things that you have seen before. Combat feels like KotOR (select target, press A to auto attack), but with the abilities wheel of Mass Effect (select Shield Bash from your wheel or map it to the B button). Character interaction is in-depth, and I often find myself pausing to listen to what NPCs (both within the party and outside of it) are saying to one-another, much like Baldur's Gate 2, Mass Effect, and Oblivion. Many magical items have long stories behind them that will appear in your codex to be read, again very much like both Baldur's Gate and Mass Effect. The soundtrack is good, and smacks of everything that you remember from many of the aforementioned games. Background noise is appropriate to the environment, music swells and speeds up in response to enemies and combat, and important events are heralded by an increased insistence of sound. Voice acting is absolutely superb, and not ONE character has made me want to bust out laughing from the ridiculousness of their acting (unlike some other RPGs out there today....). The graphics are slightly above average. They do not have the smooth, polished looks of many current RPGs (Lost Odyssey, and even Mass Effect for example). I have seen some state that the graphics look as if they were made for the original Xbox -- I disagree. While they are perhaps not as rendered and beautiful as they COULD have been, they are too advanced for what the original Xbox could have managed. Animations of characters can be a bit stiff or quirky, and occasionally you will see some jutter. However, most of the time the "fun factor," the excellent voice acting, and the in-depth story and world around you are enough to make you forget the mediocre graphics. I call this game the game for the "Oldschool RPG Player" because those of us that have been playing RPGs for a few years remember a time of unpolished graphics, that still created some of the finest RPGs today. Even in most recent memory, go back and look at Baldur's Gate for PC. The graphics were, to say the least, unimpressive. However, that never detracted (for some of us) from the FUN of the game. When in-world immersion, love of the characters you are presented with, and interest in every single facet of the world you "exist" in matters, this game has it in droves. In Summary: If you are looking for flashy graphics, supernova-like fireballs, and Oblivion-esque beauty environments, look elsewhere. If you are looking for a great RPG that will bring you back to a time where you spent hours upon hours on your favorite RPGs with no concern for "uber grafix," this game is for you. This will remind you of all the good times you had playing those games, and still present you with graphics that are approximately the equal of The Witcher. Approach this game for what it is, you and I promise you that you will not be disappointed. I give this game 4 stars out of 5, because I could not entirely look past the sometimes shaky animation or average-quality graphics. However, if I took graphics totally out of consideration, this game has in my mind earned 5 stars, and you will find it RIDICULOUSLY easy to get lost in.	video-games_xbox
Too Human Review. Too Human is a good game, and at times can be very addicting to play. You play as Baldur, the son of Odin. The game uses Norse (Viking) Mythology for it's characters, but applies them to a futuristic cybernetic type world. Overall, I think they did a good job with the story and the characters. Personally, I was reading up on Norse Mythology before the game ever came out, so I was at least halfway familiar with the characters. The game is a hack and slash fest, with a TON of loot for you to collect. If you're the type of gamer who loves to constantly upgrade their character with newer and better weapons and gear, then this game is for you. You can't go five feet in this game without an enemy dropping something or coming across one of probably hundreds of "chests" filled with loot. What makes the combat so unique and satisfying, is that you use the right thumbstick to attack your enemies instead of just mashing a button. You just push the stick in the direction of the enemy, and Baldur goes power sliding up them and hacks away. You can double tap the thumbstick in the direction of an enemy to pop them up into the air, where you can then jump and hit them while they hang in the air. You can also tap both thumbsticks in the direction of an enemy to perform a finishing move or to throw your weapon or send out a power blast. At the beginning of the game you choose your class, from a melee heavy Beserker, an armor heavy Defender, a jack of all trades Champion, a ranged weapon specialist Commando, or a healer Bio Engineer. The first time I played the game, I chose the Beserker class, but I died ALOT. So then I started a new game as a Defender, and although I still die alot, it's nowhere near as bad as the Beserker. I've yet to try the other classes. Graphic wise the game is pretty decent, but not great. I guess the best part of the graphics is the armor and weapon designs. Most of the enironments are pretty bland, and the fact that there are really only four "dungeons" in the game, kind of hinders the game a bit. Then you can visit Cyberspace, which looks like a forest you get to travel through, but even that is not the greatest looking. Sound wise, the voice actors do a good job, and all the bangs and clashes sound like their supposed to. Most of the time I was playing my own music in the background, so I really can't comment too well on the game's background music. And probably the main thing that I liked about this game is that you really don't die. Well you do, but after you watch a 20 second scene (that you can't skip, but that's a small price to pay), you're plopped right back on the battlefied. All the enemies you've killed are still dead, and all the damage you've done to current enemies are still in effect. The only real punishment to death is that your armor and weapon takes damage, and can eventually become broken. However, even this was not that big of a deal for me because the game just drops so much loot at your feet, that you'll never really be using the same armor or weapon for an extended amount of time. In between missions, you can have your weapons and armor repaird for a price. I've played through the game twice with my Defender character, and I'm only at level 40. I think the level cap is 50, so I might end up playing through the game a third time to try and max him out. Which is what I think the developers intended you to do. The game will only take you about 10 or so hours to beat. So overall, I very much loved this game. It's not perfect and it's not the greatest game ever, but I don't think it was intended to be. If you enjoy a good dungeon crawling hack and slash and love to collect a lot of loot, then you'll probably get some good enjoyment out of this game.	video-games_xbox
500GB Xbox One Console Only Hold 10 games. Makes a External Hard Drive a Must. The basic Halo: The Master Chief Collection download will take up Size: 59.11 GB per the xbox.com store: store.xbox.com/.../f33009f4-14ff-4821-94e3-c3573c868c2e But Your 500 GB Xbox One hard drive might fill up faster than you think. This is because your Xbox One's 500 GB hard drive can only technically store only 362GB of content. This is because the Xbox One reserves the remaining space for its OS and other unknown functions. So after downloading Halo: Master Chief Collection and Duty: Advanced Warfare, Blue Ray Player, Youtube, I have only 195GB left. (30%) Also I prefer the original hard-copy game disc rather than one-time-use-only download code. so I can resell the hard-copy disc later on. plus it took like 2 days downloading. Now if you add Halo 2 plus add in every single map from all the DLC maps from all the Halo games plus download the new digital series, Halo: Nightfall, and access to the Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta and bump up the resolution and graphics the memory storage might be at least take up another 20-30GB. Also the Halo Collection disc Has A 20 GB Day-One Update. The initial Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare takes up Size: 48.97 GB and Call of Duty: Ghosts Size: 42.21 GB (not inc DLC maps) so the regular 500GB Xbox One Console will only hold 10 games. Makes the 1TB hard drive a Must or get The 2TB My Passport X portable hard drive ($85 Amazon) offers enough storage space to store roughly 50 games without having to delete old games, eliminating the need to delete previously purchased games from their Xbox One or PC hard drives and removing those "storage full" warning messages. Game/App Size GB Size MB Amazon Instant Video 27.5 Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag 22.3 Battlefield 4 34.3 Blu-ray Player 28.2 Call of Duty: Ghosts 39.9 Crackle 30.9 Crimson Dragon 6.9 Dead Rising 3 19.9 ESPN 83 FIFA 14 8.7 Fighter Within 11 Forza Motorsport 5 31.8 FOX Now 22.9 FX Now 26.9 Hulu Plus 30.9 Just Dance 2014 22.8 Killer Instinct 3.3 Kinect Sports Rivals Hub 70.3 Kinect Sports Rivals Preseason 3.1 Lego Marvel Super Heroes 6.4 Loco Cycle 13.2 Machinima 25.5 Madden NFL 25 12.5 NBA 2K14 43.6 NBA Live 14 9.1 Need for Speed: Rivals 15.3 Netflix 34.9 Netmeter 25.5 NFL 106.3 Peggle 2 1.7 Powerstar Golf 3.9 Redbox Instant 26.9 Ryse: Son of Rome 34.9 Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor 29.2 SkyDrive 10.2 Skylanders Swap Force 15.72 Skype 47.6 Speech Tutorial 16.2 The CW Now 24.2 Twitch 21.5 Uplay 25.5 Upload Studio 99 VUDU 26.9 Xbox Fitness 252.8 Xbox Video 36.9 YouTube 58.3 Zoo Tycoon 2.6 Zumba Fitness World Party 24.1 Total Space Needed 387.32 GB 1158.8 MB (~1.13GB) Next Media and Format Compatability Previous Digital Downloads and Installs	video-games_xbox
Better, but Not Good. I am giving the headset one star because mine stopped working after about three months of moderate use. At around two months I started having problems using the headset. As far as the Xbox was concerned there was no headset plugged in, I would have to unplug and then plug it back in repeatedly. This happened about twice the first week, then more often as time went on, until finally it didn't work at all. Assuming that most people buying this are getting it to replace the one that came with their Xbox One (or just to have an extra) if you have the money look into a nicer gaming headset. If you are buying this for the first time feel free to read my review below. The sound quality is definitely better then it was on the Xbox 360 (whether that's because of this headset or because of something on the software side of things I don't know). The chat audio is clear and it's easy to understand your friends (note: does not provide game audio) I did find the long cord to be useful but cumbersome at times, and I liked the ability to adjust the height of the earpiece along the headband, which helps keep the headset from falling off most any size head. The connector into the controller was very good in my opinion with the light up mute button and volume controls right there for easy access. No longer do you have to remove your hand from the controller to mute or change the chat volume. The one issue I had with the connector to the controller was the difficulty in unplugging it. While this was not a big deal I did feel like I was going to break something every time I unplugged it. I also found the headset itself to be uncomfortable after an hour or so of use, when removing the headset it would pull my hair out on the side with the earpiece (although this should only affect those with longer hair), and if I moved my head much with it on i could hear a rattling noise coming from the earpiece. Overall I like the looks of this headset, and it has its pros, but I have had to many problems with it to give it a better review, if it had not broken completely I would have given it two, maybe (a BIG maybe) three stars no more. I will not be buying a new one, instead I am looking to get a nicer gaming headset.	video-games_xbox
Sadden 15. I cannot stress enough how I am not an EA hater seeing as that I have literally purchased this title every year since 97. I start my review off this way because there seem to be 2 kinds of people that have written reviews for this game: 2K sympathizers or blind Madden fans. I would like to believe that I am coming from an objective place as all I am is a fan of football wanting to play a good game. So, sorry for the long intro but I wanted to get that out there. Here's the short of it: I have not seen anything different regarding actually on the field gameplay. The only reason I am giving it 2 stars is because the game looks very good. Other than that, I cannot for the life of me see how this game is so different from Madden 25, which I actually liked. I waited outside at Midnight for this game and I am just so disappointed that I had to write this review to express myself because I am about to burst. The biggest difference between this game and Madden 25 is actually a negative for this version of the game. Madden 25 had online team play which me and my cousin loved to play. This version does not and I cannot stress enough how un- next gen it is to drop game modes that were available last gen, as if this new generation of hardware is bound by limitations. Not only is this game mode missing but the much talked about defensive improvement is a bad joke. I just finished a game where Jake Locker was 8/8 ( he was only 8/8 because he got hurt) and Shone Greene average 6 yards per carry against my team. Let's just say I am horrible at this game (which I am not) for argument's sake; as bad as I am shouldn't the new and improved defensive AI have been able to force 1 incompletion!!!! How about one of my computer controlled teammates stopping Earl Campbell, um Shone Greene. Nope, my front 7 was consistently blocked ( blown off the ball really) and no matter what play I picked, there was no penetration generated. I mean I can stop right there because the selling point of this game was the new and improved defensive AI and how it was fun to play defense. It was not fun seeing the apparent power house Titans rip up the Jet defense. I could go on forever on how this game is no where near worth $65 ( too much focus on the very overrated and over priced MUT, clunky menus, still get funky animations, abysmal commentary) but why make this review longer than it already is. The bottom line is that I am sad and lost as a football fan who just wants a solid football video game. This game is not it, and I will probably be selling it back very soon. The only reason I have not sold it back yet is because I love football and I want to play something, but I guess that makes me part of the problem doesn't it. I wish somebody would make a game that truly gives you the thrill of being involved in the most explosive, physical game on the planet. Madden 15 falls laughably short and EA continues to kill this historic, landmark franchise as they have brought nothing fresh to the table in a very long time.	video-games_xbox
Can the Call of Duty games get any worse....? A honest review. I have been playing call of duty since COD4, and became a competitive player for every COD game since then. My review is long, but I am trying to put in context of what is happening with COD's downward spiral . World at War with zombies and the nice world war two touch with way more perks and drivable tanks and a whole lot of guns in your arsenal, Modern Warfare where I became a trickshotter and sniping became a huge hit, although online gameplay would get interrupted by the occasional noob tube and one man army combination, gameplay remained fun and new for many years after the games release. Black ops (1) Is probably my favorite game to date with the amazing zombies gameplay with stuff like easter eggs and expansion packs, and another hit in multiplayer with newer modern guns that gave it a more modern feel than what MW2 did. Although they tried to "put out" the sniping craze by not allowing you to scope in faster with a perk, (slight of hand) the games sniping was a lot of fun and over online was fun enough to keep playing over and over. Modern Warfare 3 is one of their worst games to date, with sloppy gameplay and the bringing back of "Quick scoping" which brought a lot of snipers into the game that would sometimes be unbearable to play against a 6 man team. Stuff like spawn trapping and the overpowered guns and highly underpowered guns with the overpowered perks made this games online gameplay either way to easy or way to hard. I found it easy getting over 50+ moabs in my carrier in that game, with the same 3 guns. Black ops 2 is my favorite game of all time, all the way from the revamped zombies and huge playable maps, to being able to trickshot again like in MW2 but with a lot more technical gameplay. They still had some OP guns, but everything stayed mostly balanced through patches and bearable enough for me to have a combined total of playing of 18 days. COD Ghosts was such a big letdown to call of duty fans everywhere, with the incredibly obnoxious online playing and terrible guns, that were so overpowered you couldn't use anything else, and the terrible gun selection already. The multiplayer maps felt dead with a lack of color that was so prominent in BO2 and then little to now color in ghosts with everything left looking bland. Advanced Warfare. What a joke. I really tried to love that game, but everything about it was just wrong. As a competitive player I want things to be fluid, with variety in guns and perks. But yet again they wanted to go farther into the future and use exo suits, which made it impossible to actually kill someone if you had a low sensitivity. In my opinion exo suits ruined the game, but that's other than the overpowered guns like the BAL or the ASM1 and if you look at the COD championships, almost every layer used those guns every game, which should not be the case in a good balanced game. sniping was obnoxious, with the constant having to double jump to get quickscoping kills, and the only 2 usable weapons variants for snipers if you wanted to actually do well. variants were also what killed it for me, with guns like the Inferno that sped up the rate of fire it was impossible to win CQB battles against it. Now onto the game at hand; Black ops 3. They did a much better job compared to the last 2 beyond crappy games. A improved move system, that doesn't feel like you have a jetpack on and more like moon shoes, and sliding feels pretty good. I do like the maps, but a lot of times you can get inadvertently spawn trapped just by spanning and walking a few steps around a corner just to get killed. the guns are good, but a call of duty classic is that there are some OP guns but not by a large margin, which allows for variety. I like how you can add however many attachments you want, although I usually stick to just 3. the matchmaking is alright but what happens a lot is you will get thrown under the bus because the other team will be kicking your teams butt, and then people leave because they are tired from getting wrecked. I personally really enjoy the game. I liked the zombies a lot but I still don't like exo suits especially in zombies. I consider myself a great player but the game would get frustrating because of the team matchups and the spotty connections, to getting put on the bad team because you did really well last round and they think you will be able to carry the team with you on it. Plus there is a huge gap between good and bad players, one game you will do extremely well against bad people, and then the next game they make the other team have better people and then you get wrecked. I eventually got tired of this game after playing competitive got boring, and eventually sold my Xbox because of that. Infinite warfare is going to be another bad game in the series, with not much changing other than the zombies (which might be worth it) and modern warfare comes with the $80 dollar version though so that also r=might be worth getting in case you do get it because modern warfare will be better than infinite warfare by far. In conclusion I would get this game but don't take it too seriously. that's what killed the game for me and will for you. Infinite warfare will probably be yet another bad COD, so I would check out Battlefield 1, which is pretty realistic and is based in the past not like the COD games that keep on getting farther and farther into the future and farther and farther away from what the fans want, and instead they chose to pump out the same game every year with the same stuff instead of trying drastic things to make the game better for everyone. As for me I now play competitive super smash bros melee and I would encourage you to check it out if you like fighting games but with very fluid gameplay and combos as well. Thank you for reading!!	video-games_xbox
Possibly the best sonic game ever next to Sonic 3 and Knuckles. Since Sonic Colors on the Wii sonic has finally become good again and it seems that sonic has brought the best of sonic from his Genesis glory to the modern games into this one package. Whether or not you are a fan of this series, this speedy action platformer is among the best the 360 has to offer. In this game, you play as the classic sonic who has 2d side-scrolling physics-based platforming gameplay. As classic sonic you'll be running, jumping, spin-dashing, and rolling. While coming close to the classic gameplay, there are some problems with rolling, you don't get a heightened re-bound when hitting an enemy from high up, springs sometimes stop your control, and the spin-dash is too fast and very overpowered. But I digress, The classic gameplay is extremely fun and addictive complete with brilliant re-imagined levels with marvelous level design. The other half of this game consists of the boosting, homing-attacking, wall-jumping, stomping, sliding Modern Sonic. While at first glance of Green Hill Zone Act 2 his gameplay seems to be a linear "hold x to win", it drastically improves. By the time you enter the 3rd zone, Modern Sonic perfectly blends together platforming, exploration and speed. His levels are extremely addictive as there are many different ways to beat the levels. Although I expected to enjoy classic sonic more, I prefer Modern Sonic as I can speed ahead and see the obstacles in front of me. I love how it never feels like you have to go fast or use the boost (even though there are a few areas that require it). In addition there are a few boss and rival bosses (the final boss stinks compared to the rest of the game) which are very fun and unique, but It would be better if there were more of them like 1 boss per zone, or Act 1 mini-bosses like in Sonic 3 and Knuckles. When you finish the short main game there are many challenge levels to play which are all pretty fun along with red rings to collect. Completing these extras you can unlock new music to play in levels and missions and artwork. The music in this game is also awesome which is to be expected in any sonic game. This game also has a story, which is lame, some of the voices are good while a few are pretty bad. Mike Pollock does an outstanding job at voicing Dr. Robotnik/Eggman and a few scenes are fun to watch, but most are pretty lame. Classic Sonic is mute in this game but it works very well with his over-expressive character which I love. I won't dive any further into the story, but this is definitely one of the best sonic games to date and is a must have for any person who has played a sonic game, anyone who hasn't played sonic should give this game a try since it brings out the best this series has to offer and proves that sonic is an icon.	video-games_xbox
A Must For MGS Fans. Opening the case: This is a two disc collection with Snake Eater and Sons of Liberty on one disc and Peace Walker on the other. It would have been nice to know what games were on what disc but it didn't bug me enough to actually hurt my rating of the game. What did bother me was how little to no effort was put into the instruction booklet. I've owned pretty much every MGS game and I've always liked the detail placed in the instruction booklets. This book is pretty much barebones which I found to be disappointing. Storyline: No surprise here. People play MGS because the storyline is brilliant. Considering these games have been released before, there is no need for me to go into detail here. However, if you are new to Metal Gear, I HIGHLY recommended playing the games in order to get the full experience. Sadly Metal Gear Solid wasn't included in this set but if you are new to Metal Gear, you HAVE to pick it up. Gameplay: The game is beautiful. I expected it to look better than the PS2 versions but the HD quality was simply spectacular. HD quality in a widescreen format makes it seem as if you are at the movies (which you kind of are when playing Metal Gear). Quick load times and no problem getting used to the Xbox controller. Bonus: This collection includes MG and MG2 on the Snake Eater disc which is a nice bonus that's not even mentioned on the case or in the booklet at all. I only noticed it when I popped the game in and was exploring the menus. This is great considering MG2 wasn't even released in the US until Subsistence came out a few years back. This is perfect for players who want to get the full MG experience. Overall, this is a great set for old and new Metal Gear players alike. I am truly saddened that they could not/did not include Metal Gear Solid in this collection as it is a must have for a true Metal Gear collection. (I actually brought out the old PS version for nostalgia. If it included MGS this would have gotten a 5.) Rating: 4.5/5	video-games_xbox
Why did I play this. Okay. First off, lemme just say that I haven't gotten into the Single Player mode. If you want to know about that, read other reviews. Plus, this is the first COD game I ever actually played, so I'm not sure how accurate this review may be for you if you are one to be a COD fan. Anyway, I had always known that COD: Modern Warfare 3 was one of the most overrated things ever, but I never actually known that to the fullest extent, because, of course, I hadn't played it. So I decided to do just that. The game was a freaking mess. While the graphics were pretty good, they just aren't really full of life, and they are talked about too much as being "the best/most realistic graphics ever". You can't even tell where an enemy is unless you either (a) die, (b) see him right in front of you, or (c) see them on the radar while they are firing their guns (Which may as well go back to "a"). As for the sound department....All you'll hear are gun sounds. No enemy footsteps. I desperately tried to find enemies around. There was a radar at the top-left corner of the screen, so I thought I'd use that for my advantage. BOY was I wrong. My opponents somehow pop up out of nowhere without appearing on the radar! I was killed before I realized it. Every. Single. Time. You die way too easily in this, unless you're an obsessed professional. And on top of that, chances are you will encounter players that love to talk trash for some reason. The first time I played, there was some random guy insulting me repeatedly. Fortunately, not all servers are like that, but since you can't pick the servers you go into, you'll never know if you'll end up playing with trolls or not. I know this isn't the game's fault, but it's no less moronic and distracting, especially when the insults are aimed directly at you. Overall, you are so much better off not buying this crap. I didn't even buy the game, and I should probably demand for a refund. And to just think - People paid SIXTY bucks for this golden turd. I haven't played another COD game, but I'm pretty sure I won't come back to THIS series anytime soon. Stick with Team Fortress 2. That game, as a whole, is free (on Steam). And it's so much better in every way.	video-games_xbox
Good, with a few little nitpicky things that add up over time. I was introduced to Rainbow Six when Raven Shield came out for the PC. That was a completely EPIC game!!! This... not so much. Don't get me wrong, it is a good solid game. The graphics are great! The button mapping makes team combat fairly intuitive and the option to play co-op was a great step forward! The story mode played out fairly well, and while it wasn't as diverse as Raven Shield there were a lot of diverse locations to play through. I have not yet tried the online multi-player so I can't comment on that, but split screen co-op played really well. It was a lot more fun playing co-op story mode since we could coordinate a lot better than with just the AI squad. But... there were a lot of little things that bugged me about the game that really added up over time. First, the weapons. Sniper rifles are pretty much obsolete. One of my favorite parts of Raven Shield as the ability to find a good sniper nest and clear the way for the rest of the team. Here, the levels are so linear and flat that snipers are barely needed. Plus assault rifles can be equipped with a 6x scope and a silencer and are automatic, whereas most of the sniper rifles cannot use a silencer and are bolt action, so that takes away the need for a sniper rifle at all. Submachine guns and light machine guns were available, but for the most part unnecessary and didn't really change the game play. You can use shot guns but I haven't yet. Second, the AI. Squadmate AI is horrible, period. They are the dumbest collection of pixels in existence. Apart from team orders, they are useless and are more likely to shoot you than the enemy. The enemy AI is another story. I remember stealth being a big part of Raven Shield, and being able to sneak through levels and follow guards was a challenging yet realistic part of the game. Here, the enemy acts like they have a proximity alarm attached to each body. They don't have to see you, you just have to get close to them and they start firing. It's especially frustrating when they seem to detect you from around a corner or behind cover. Also for some reason in story mode enemy characters will randomly spawn at different points in the level. I really noticed this when playing a co-op mission. My friend and I were clearing a room and everyone had been killed when suddenly an enemy spawned right in front of my friend and shot him. That's just lazy game mechanics. It's one thing for a game to be realistically difficult; it's something else for it to slap you with a handicap like that. The terrorist hunt levels are rehashed from Raven Shield, without being as cool. You can't pick your entry point, and the maps are too small to be able to maneuver. Instead you shoot the first person you see and then wait as the rest of the enemy in the level storm your position. Most of the levels are so biased to the enemy troops positions that they aren't even fun to play, just frustrating. Finally, there wasn't enough diversity in story mode. All of the missions were the same assault style "clear the terrorists" missions. A few had bombs or hostages, but while in Raven Shield you actually had to disarm the bomb, pick locks, plant wire taps, get the hostages to safety, etc., here you just go through the level, shoot the bad guys, and have your team do any techy work. Even though the combat was good, it didn't live up to the diversity of Raven Shield. And the final level sucked. *Spoilers* You go lone wolf at the worst possible time for the worst possible reason, and have to dodge a freaking helicopter by hiding behind concrete planters. Then shoot a guy in the head point blank. Yeah, great finale. *Spoiler End* While it was a decent game, there were enough things about it that bugged me to take a few stars off. Still, if you enjoyed other Rainbow Six games you'll probably like this one.	video-games_xbox
Review from a casual Halo player. Let me start by saying that I am NOT a Halo fanboy in the least. I owned a second-hand Xbox and the first Halo briefly until it died so the majority of my Halo time has been at friends houses playing multiplayer - basically just playing the first three Halo's every now and then so my review is not intended for the hardcore Halo player but for the casual Halo-er that is still trying to decide whether or not to shell out $60 for the game (as I assume most people reading the reviews for info are). That being said, this game is incredible! My buddy owns it, got it on the day it came out and I have been over to his house every day to play it since then! We've been playing co-op firefight which is a blast and also dabbled in the story mode for an hour or two which seems solid as well. I really like that they take you out of the FPS and put you in a spaceship for a level, helps keep it from getting monotonous and reminded me of the good times I had with Star Wars Rogue Squadron (i need to dig that one out of the closet!). I never played ODST so i cant compare it to that (and I have no idea what new features were in that) but Reach just seems to have so much more than any other Halo. The character customization system is something I could spend all day on, just playing through levels to earn points and make the ultimate Spartan. Only negative thing I have to report is that you cants do 4 player split screen in campaign or firefight, I was hoping for that. Either way this game is amazing and almost worth buying a 360 just for it... In summary: PROS -Story mode is fun, esp in co-op, though I cant comment on the length as I haven't played it much. -Firefight is awesome. I tend to enjoy rocketfight the most but all the different modes are a blast. -Points and medals are a great motivator to keep playing after the campaign if you're not too enthusiastic about getting killed constantly in online multiplayer like I do. Trying to be the top points-earner adds a fun little competitive edge to the co-op as well. -Character customization is really cool, being able to customize the armor, color, and emblem of my spartan makes the whole experience in firefight or campaign feel more personal than just being the green, blue, or red guy. CONS -Lack of 4 player split screen co-op is all i have found that i would change. Overall a fantastic game that is even better with a few buddies and DEFINITELY worth the $60 price tag!	video-games_xbox
Great story, less than average gameplay. Pros: - A very compelling sci-fi futuristic story about being a company that can create, destroy, and "remix" memories of everyone. Other people can also "remix" memories, most of them considered enemies of the state. - If you enjoyed the combat style in Batman Arkham Asylum, it is very similar. - The actual "remix" feature and "remix" events are pretty innovative and add a hint of puzzle to this game. - The visuals are extremely nice(but who buys a game for the visuals, just buy a movie instead. After all, it is called a video game) Cons: - Rather short, it's only nine chapters and there aren't more chapters you can get from DLC(Finally a game that doesn't need DLC to play more story mode). - The "remix" part of the game is only used a few(I want to say three times, but I am probably wrong) times, which I would have enjoyed the game far more had this been used more in the game. - Major glitches during boss battles that break the game and force you to re-do the boss battle should you did not finish his minions before finishing him. - The Pressen and "Create your own Combos" system is rather gimicky, as you can't actually create your own combo, but unlock extra steps to add onto already predetermined combo lists. - Too linear for a video game in this age of technology. You literally have to restart the chapter and get back to that spot, should you miss a collectible. There is not much room for finding things either, it is very straightforward progression. - Crazy amount of collectibles that I'll never collect. - Too much backstory that isn't a part of the actual game. Buy this game if: - It's under $10 - You want to experience a compelling story, and don't mind reading bits about the backstory as you find it(collectibles) - Don't mind Quick Time Events because they pop up out of no where in the middle of cutscenes of every boss battle. Don't buy this game if: - You want a game with lots of exploring - Achievement points(Not worth it, you can get about 350G from playthrough on Hard, rest is collectibles and such) I personally give this game a 3, only because of the story and the combat after I had unlocked all the combos.	video-games_xbox
Not a Final Fantasy (Thankfully. The key to enjoying this game is to completely forget who made it, don't read any reviews (I know, contradictory considering I'm writing a review), and keep an open mind. If you go into this thinking "Square-Enix made this game so it's going to be just as great as Final Fantasy" you're going to be disappointed. If you read all of the bad reviews, chances are you're going to believe them or take all of their bad points and deliberately hunt them down in the game. The key is to keep an open mind about what you're going into. While I'm only about half-way through the game, so I'm in no way an expert, I'm giving my outlook on it so far. Battle System: The battle system is something I've never encountered before and is pretty enjoyable if you take it for what it's worth. It's turn-based, and war similar. You have a one character that's in a "union" of up to five characters and you can have several different unions. Each union acts as a single entity, and shares the same HP/AP. This is great considering you can completely customize the strengths and weaknesses of each union. The downside is that if one person falls, everyone does. Also, you don't get much in the way of choosing what your characters do. You get a general command, and the union does with it as it will. I personally didn't mind because I knew what I wanted my unions to generally do. If I wanted one to stick with combat, one to stick with magic, one to attack, or one to decide for itself, I could do that. That, and the unions are so complex, and you can have dozens of characters in your party, if I had to choose an action for EACH individual character, I wouldn't have gotten anywhere. It does take up quite a bit of time as it is, though and I haven't seen a way to escape from battle or to outrun a monster that is dead on finding you. Some battles are harder than the others, but that's just the way it is. Characters: I enjoyed the characters. Though they were based on some stereotypes, as noted on other reviews, they seemed pretty "real" to me. The main character is an 18 year old Rush, a hopeful kid that doesn't seem to realize he has no respect for authority even when it's literally beaten into him within the first twenty minutes. His sister, the typical damsel in distress, actually does her part to save her brother and proves her worth every now and then. Then there's the Marquis David (Dah-veed) and his chain of command, Torgal, Pagus, Blocter, and Emma. I won't go into them individually, but they each have their redeeming qualities. I will say though, that I enjoyed how tough and reliable Emma was. Finally, a female character that's wearing clothes and weilding a sword! A heroine (even a side character) is a big deciding factor on whether or not I'll enjoy the game. As a female, I scrutinize every female lead in a game. Where I see the need for a healer in every game, I can't stand that it constantly has to be the weak female main character. I think the stereotype of weak (Inside and out) scantily clad fan-service female who's only good for healing has been chewed, swallowed, and spit back out to rinse and repeat. I don't like the two-dimensional damsel-in-distresses that don't even try to rescue themselves or help out in any way. This game was a nice change. Game-play/Story: The story can be slow moving at first, then it seems like things are just being thrown at you at random, and sometimes it seems like all you're doing is watching a movie. It's all necessary though to get you into their world as quickly as possible to get you acclimated with the characters and their history. If you wait through the somewhat tedious (if you're impatient, which if you are you really shouldn't be playing an RPG) beginning, it gets a lot better. You can see where the plot is going, and because you know your characters, you can understand their reactions better. It so far has a pretty decent -even if it takes awhile to get to it-- story and it has me wondering what's going to happen next. I enjoyed the game play once I actually got to control Rush and got past the entire (necessary) tutorial. You can't free-travel the worth and to get somewhere it just takes a click of a button, but the places you can travel, you can absolutely travel them. Sometimes the area isn't that complex, but it does take awhile to get through them and the scenery (especially in the outside areas) is gorgeous. Leveling is something altogether different, it seems like it's a needs basis leveling. The more monsters you defeat in a level, the greater your characters attributes grow, and you can customize which area's the characters are going Graphics: It really all depends on what kind of TV you're using for the graphics. If you have a high def TV, the graphics are fantastic and look pretty smooth. On a regular TV I suppose they could look grainy and/or washed out. The characters aren't anime looking. Voices/Sound: The soundtrack for this game is a fifty-fifty for me. I like the voices, they fit their characters. The sound though, while I'm playing it is great, but isn't memorable outside of the game, it just doesn't stick with you and you can't really find yourself humming it at random parts of the day. Cons: SAVE OFTEN! There aren't icons telling you to save every twenty minutes, and you can save pretty much anywhere you want, so people are likely to forget, and when/if you get a game over it takes a long time to get back to where you're going. The load-screens are annoying if you're deliberately trying to get annoyed at them, take a breather, read the information it gives you, and carry on with the game. Games lately have been spoiling us with zero load screens, but if you go back a few years, people wouldn't be complaining about that. The battle system does take "too long" to get through it. But that's fine by me because I didn't pay $40+ for a game so I can beat it in 8 hours. Bottom line: I read the bad reviews, a friend of mine actually complained to me about the game, but I decided to try it out anyway and enjoyed it. It's refreshing to see that SE is making games besides Final Fantasy, and that they can do it well If you're thinking, "I need something while I wait for the next FF" Don't play this game. While I enjoyed all of the final fantasy games, especially 3/6, I think it's time for the fan-worship on how there can never be a greater game than FF7/whatever to realize that each final fantasy game is a different game, different characters, different plot with the similar attributes and a title. If someone were to time jump from the first final fantasy to FFXII they'd be completely lost "This isn't even the same story!" Exactly. And neither is TLR, but that doesn't mean it isn't a good one.	video-games_xbox
Great arcade stick for your 360 and your PC. This is another high quality fighting stick from Hori that upholds the reputation of their fighting sticks for other platforms. If you love arcade style games (especially fighting games), you will enjoy the feeling of using this control. One of the best things about this product is that it will increase your enjoyment of all your arcade style Xbox Live Arcade games as well as current fighting games. It can also be used with your PC. The quality of the arcade stick is more of the same for Hori. The stick itself is very responsive and well suited for fighting game moves that require finesse. The control face features the B,X,Y and A,RT,LT in typical fighting game configuration, great for practically all fighting games. However, RB and LB are located at the top edge along with Start, Back, and the Dashboard button which effectively places LB and RB out of reach during heated play. A feature that I always felt was overlooked in Hori fighting sticks is the heavy plate on the bottom of the control. This prevents you from lifting or moving the stick around on your desk or tabletop surface during play. Of course, the joystick functions as a D-Pad, not an analog stick. This (like other Hori fighting sticks) is an EXTREMELY accurate and responsive control which makes it wonderful for most players. However, I have encountered some guest players who were not accustomed to using an accurate control and needed a little time adjusting to it. The controller is NOT wireless and uses a USB cable to connect to the Xbox 360 console or PC. The Xbox Live headset can be connected to the controller on the edge facing you. When connecting to your XP (and probably Vista) PC, it is recognized and given a default driver that works great with practically any application. Some software might require the use of a different driver. There are custom drivers out there if you don't mind doing some tinkering. Overall, this is a great product that will provide you with more accurate control than the D-Pad and more fun playing arcade style games.	video-games_xbox
A good game to bring it back to it roots... Still not quite the same as the beginning though. Let's get this review started by saying that Need For Speed is one of my favorite guilty pleasures-- the Arcadey speedy goodness. Lately I have been feeling unenergized by the past few games of Rivals, Hot Pursuit, and The Run. They felt rehashed and too Burnout like. I missed the days of Underground 2 and the original Most Wanted. This game was a good change. The game brings the game back to its roots- underground racing and customization. You can start off with a selection of a few okay cars and then you're on your way to becoming the Ultimate Icon. The game mostly consists of cell phones calls vibrating through the game screen and your goal is to become an icon in the five different racing styles, Style; Speed; Outlaw; Build; and Crew. And that consists of over 70 total events from the beginning to the end. You can also race around and challenge other plays in multiplayer scenarios (even though most of them just slam into them and then drive off). The police are almost non existent except for strategically placed hard events where they are there to mess you up. Overall this game was a good game. But I wasn't blown away. I was more interested in getting my achievements and meeting Nakai-San. But by no means was I blown away- the graphics were decent but not as good as Rivals. You have to determine what your play style is when driving- grip or drift. The handling will feel off until you make it your own. The races are okay except for the drift trains. The drift train races were my biggest pet peeve of this game. If you enjoy getting your 25000 point drift get ruined by some other AI because you can't fall too far behind or go too far ahead- be my guest. Also to those that didn't care for the darkness/rain, it didn't bother me at all. It reminded me of the old Underground games. I felt it was pleasant. Bottom line- the game is about a 3.8 stars. It was a good return back to what made the series great. But could still work on the overall experience. Pros: Good Customization Enjoyed the handling customization Decent graphics Good length- it took me 5 full hearty days of playing to get to the end! Cons: Poor acting/story The constant ringing/talking Drift trains Online required (however I did not experience much glitchy ness except for one server reset) Lack of manual mode	video-games_xbox
Depth and Quality Collide for the Ultimate RPG Experience. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a role-playing game with no other peer (save Fallout 3, which is also made by Bethesda). The game offers you a huge world to wander around. The forests are lush and beautiful and if you take your time, you will discover many amazing things. Nothing beats discovering some beautiful waterfall in the middle of the woods and then jumping off of it into the water below. If you see a mountain across the map, feel free to go climb it. If you see a large lake, feel free to swim to the bottom of it and search for sunken treasure. The ability to become a character in a beautiful medieval-style world is Oblivion's greatest strength. There are towns full of NPCs who go about daily business. Feel free to spend some time following a couple of characters around to see what they do on a daily basis. There are a few different storylines to follow, depending on what guilds you wish to join. The main quest is an epic tale that begins with the murder of the Emperor and the invasion of evil daedra (think demons) into the realm. But the standout quests belong to the "Dark Brotherhood" guild and the "Shivering Isles" expansion. Each offer creative unique gameplay opportunities. The Shivering Isles even introduces some nice Douglas Adams-style humor. Oblivion is the perfect game for someone who wishes to spend a lot of time getting lost in a vibrant world. I spent about 200 hours in the game, which is something I've never come close to matching in a single-player game (or multiplayer, for that matter). The game can be equal-parts relaxing (wandering through the forest exploring at a leisurely, sight-seeing pace) and exciting (sneaking through the shadows of a cave filled with goblins). The point is, you can make whatever type of character you want and enjoy the game in whatever manner you want. All play-styles are welcome. The more imagination you can bring to the tale, the better. Take my advice and don't hesitate to buy. This is the absolute best of the best. I was afraid to buy initially because of the different style of this game compared to most other short, action-based ones, but I have now fallen in love with a genre and developer.	video-games_xbox
Excellent Product that does a great job. Excellent product overall. While the product seemed a little stiff when sizing it up to your TV. It felt like the bottom piece was going to snap off. I thought it was a cheaply made product I was going to be disappointed with. However, I was careful and took my time making it the adjustment size it to my TV. It has worked perfectly ever since. I have been using it for at least 1 month+ and have to make zero adjustments to my Kinect 2.0. I would highly recommend this product to any Xbox One Kinect 2.0 owner. (+) It also comes included with a privacy blocker. This is a piece of well made plastic that fits over the Kinect camera. This is for individuals who would like the added since of privacy. You can still make Kinect 2.0 voice commands with the privacy shield in place. The camera portion will simply be blocked. When not using your Kinect 2.0 camera slip on the privacy shield and you don't have to worry about people or certain government agencies hacking into your Kinect and spying on you. When you are ready to play a Kinect 2.0 enabled game simply remove the privacy shield. Works really well and has a nice fit. (-) The Privacy shield doesn't have built in softener. It would have been nice if their was a nice soft cloth or soft foam fit to form. However, the Kinect Privacy shield still performs really well and will not damage your device. It just would have been nice had the developer provided the extra depth of protection. (-) The only suggestion I would make to the company is make it a little more easier to size up to your TV. I fear some owners who purchase this may not be as careful as I was and damage the product. Overall score... Due to the fact the bottom piece is a little difficult to calibrate (without thinking you will break it), No soft foam/cloth protector in the Kinect Privacy Shielding device that is why this dropped one star to a 4-star rating. Bottom line... Due to the overall quality, performance and price of the Kinect Mount it easily reaches the Highly recommend status. As stated before EVERY Xbox One user should look into purchasing this peripheral device. I know I did and I am extremely happy with the overall quality of this device!	video-games_xbox
Far Cry 2 Could Have Been Great. I'm a huge fan of Far Cry and sandbox/freeroaming games . I've played Far Cry more times then i care to remember and enjoy every which way i could get through each section. Granted it wasn't a true sandbox like Oblivian but still the approach to each situation was sandbox enough for me. With that being said: Pros: Far Cry 2 does a great job with the sandbox style of play, and the graphical environment, there awesome, everything i expected. Even the day and night timeline works for me. The weapons are great and when using them they do what you would expect, like an RPG will blow up a truck, car, ammunition dumps, etc. Gun just affect things that would be affected by small arms fire. The AI is smart, smart enough to get the heck out of your rain of bullets if he can, they will even work together to some degree, enough to make you concerned about their intentions. The missions are built in a way that make you think of how your going to approach them. You really need to scout them out to be able to supprise the AI and have the upper hand in the battle. All said and done i would rate the pros as being about a "4". Cons: The fast one i'm going to mention is the biggest one in my book, check point respawns. Lets look at it from the perspective of reality, your in Africa, where the environment (roads, railways, transportation) isn't exactly the best. Reality would say that if a merc takes out a check point of 3-5 men that check point would be secure except for the passing patrol maybe. They should be able to leave the check point to continue they're mission and return 15 minutes later and find the checkpoint to still be secure. If not that would mean there is a reserve of men close by that you may want to consider taking out first next time. Far Cry 2 seems to have an element in it called "we don't pay attention to time". The men are back at the check point even though only 15 minutes have gone by in game. Why have day and night effects if your not going to pay attention to time? Baffled....That type of game programming is so "90's". I'm sick of the checkpoint fights, you destroy one and it comes back if you leave its sight. Now, i just drive trucks through the woods to avoid them. The other con i have is the environment when it comes to the sandbox and how it works with missions. You can have 5 missions in the same spot. How? Did one bad guy die and another decided two days later that, that would be a good place to setup shop? And the next guy? and the next guy too!?!? If your not going to take the time to build the areas that those enemies would have actually set themselves up then don't build them. Have only the orginal mission, i don't need 5 unrelated missions to the same exact spot!! With sandbox style of play comes game play responsibility, you have to be accountable for poor game play management. You shouldn't have a sandbox thats linear in game play, sandbox games leave it to the gamer to decide how to game is played and finished, not the programmer. Oblivian is a great example of game play responsibility. If you come across an area you shouldn't be at yet be ready to die or run for your life, because all the missions have designated spots in the sandbox so you will run into them out of order if you roam!! That makes the environment of the game much more realistic and fun!! At this point i should have run into the Jackel 100 times because i've roamed every where!! When you create a sandbox game you need to stop thinking linear and starting thinking about a complete environment. Not "Level 1" and then "Level 2", but about how these missions work in conjunction with one another and how they help you finish the game. This is enough to make me very disappointed in the game. It has a replay rate of about 1. Why? Because every mission is a replay!! And its boring. I rate the cons at a 1 also, the technics used are way to "90's" game play. With advancements in technology(hardware/software) game play should also follow. I rate the game a 3 only because credit needs to be given where it is due. Ubisoft builds graphically the best games out there, that would be an 11 on my amplifier....	video-games_xbox
The Ultimate Sci-Fi Cinematic Virtual Experience. I have immersed myself in various classic rpgs like the nes legend of zelda, dragon warrior, metroid; snes final fantasy III, secret of mana, and chrono trigger; playstation's final fantasy and castlevania sotn; and gamecube's metroid prime and resident evil 4. But this game probably tops them off. Not only is it revolutionary, with its realistic dialogue-driven cgi cut scenes, it's also very fun. The combat takes some getting used to, especially the sniper rifle (unsteady hand, with massive recoil), but as you progress, your accuracy with sniping will improve if you choose to allocate your level-up talent points to this attribute. Plus you gain access to special skills (like assassination, carnage, improved shields, decryption ability, etc). Some people say the combat scheme is a cheap imitation of gears of war. Gears of war was impressive but personally I think the combat gameplay in mass effect is better; not only can you level up the handgun, sniper, or shotgun skills, there are various other combat options such as biotic and tech functions. Probably the best feature is your ability to choose to be a good samaritan or evildoer, based on your dialogue responses. In one case, you can choose to provide politically correct responses to a brash reporter, or you can smack her down to the floor. In other cases, you can select to either kill your friend or foe, or resolve peacefully. I've had to save and replay various scenese just to see what the different outcomes would be. If there's one problem with this game, it's that you don't have enough save slots. Also, although I admit some of the side missions may be boring, they are an excellent chance to acquire experience points and more powerful weapons and armor. The storyline is rock solid. Bio ware seems to have combined elements from different sci-fi shows, like star wars, star trek (minus transporter room), battlestar galactica, starship troopers, and firefly and merged them into this excellent dialogue-driven / first person shooter interactive movie.	video-games_xbox
Pretty good title from SE. I've played almost every Square Enix game there is, and when I saw the across the board bad reviews for Last Remnant, I was a bit worried. But I bought it anyway, and I don't regret it. Just for some background, here's my preference for Final Fantasy games, so you can compare with your own tastes and see if TLR might be for you. I thought FF3 (6 US) was the best hands down, FF2 (4 US) and 7 were tied for second, 10 and 1 (for the sake of nostalgia if nothing else) were tied for 3rd. 12 is next, 9 was not terrible, but it was definitely forgettable. And 8 was a steaming pile of garbage. With that out of the way, there's one thing you have to accept before you get into this game. If you don't just accept it going in you won't appreciate the game, and if you do you will. And that is the fact that the hallmark of this game is the battle system. That was their #1 priority. Story came second, even graphics came second. Don't get me wrong, I think the graphics are fantastic personally and the story is fine. But the battle system is very impressive and there are a lot of intricacies to it, and it really shows that they were willing to sacrifice other areas of the game for a stellar battle system. The levelling system has been redesigned as well, although it's up to your taste whether you'll like it. You don't actually "level" your character, instead your skills go up as you use them. For example use a lot of combat skills and they'll become more powerful, use a lot of magic and you'll get new spells. Do a lot of physical attacks and your strength / attack power will go up, get hit a lot and your HP will go up. Etc. Again, some people will like this and some won't, I personally get a sense of satisfaction about hearing that ding every time I raise a level, and keeping track of how much more exp I need to get there, but I can live with this system, it's not that bad once you get used to it. One interesting aspect of it is that it really requires your characters to specialize, since you want to get access to the more powerful techniques you have to keep using that same type of technique over and over, and using some other type of technique will delay you getting the stronger ones from the original category. The slowdown and stuttering that everyone talks about is indeed an issue, but one that I hardly notice. It's completely forgivable as far as I'm concerned and it doesn't interfere with my enjoyment of the game at all, period. And that's with the disc in the drive, if you install it to the hard drive it may be even less of an issue. The main complaints I have about this game are as follows: - Exploration has been eliminated. I like the fact that I can go anywhere I want, whenever I want in an RPG. This game doesn't have that. The second you accept a quest, you are teleported to the dungeon / place where the quest takes place instantly. This is just weird, is it really that hard for me to walk there? A side effect of this is that you usually only have one quest active at once. - Travel is instantaneous. Again I like walking, or taking a boat or something. Opening a map and just clicking something and bam I'm there takes away from the nostalgia feel, makes me lose sense of how big and expansive the world is. You can still travel to any previously visited place at any time, even if for example a bunch of people join your party and yell "We must get to Elysion with haste, Rush let's go now!" You can still take your entire party and travel around to lots of previously visted places. In fact doing this you might find a few secrets :P But nevertheless, it also makes the game feel more linear that no matter how far away something is, you can get there instantly. That's pretty much it. If you're an RPG fan, if you can accept this game for what it is, I think you'll find it to be of good quality.	video-games_xbox
Great, fast paced, and difficult. This was the first Ninja Gaiden game I had and since then I have played Ninja Gaiden Black and Ninja Gaiden 3. Now while a lot of people are fans of the original Nintendo game and Black, I'd have to say, starting on this was the best. I thought it had the most fluid controls and most satisfying move-sets. NG 3 was really missing some of the fluidity and good parts of 2, and the controls really detracted from the fun of the game. Black is really good, but doesn't have the same polish this game does, so this one wins out by a hair. The easiest difficulty for this game is challenging enough and took me a long while to beat, but man is it satisfying when you do. I have played through this game multiple times and the kind of power you feel once you've fully mastered the move-set and how Ryu plays, it's really gratifying. The audio and visuals are really satisfying when you pull of kills. I would recommend this game to a lot of people, but would steer more towards those who like action adventure, because the steep learning curve and the amount of patience it takes to get through this game is not for the faint of heart. I think the variety of enemies is good, there is a lot of different challenging segments that break up combat and even though you fight a lot of the bosses again, they are very different, especially when you have all new weapons. The weapons are one of the shining parts of this game. Every weapon is just really cool and his moves for them look even cooler. Many of the enemies are much easier to kill with certain weapons which makes it fun to cycle through them. Also it is fun when leveling them up and seeing how they change. I had multiple favorites throughout the playthrough. Overall, I loved this game. It is not for the casual gamer, you have to put some time into this to master the controls, but when you do, you can be unstoppable. The flair and weapons alone make this game, given the story is pretty secondary. It was cheesy in some parts, but if you are fighting the kinds of foes you do, it's easy to look past.	video-games_xbox
Dated gameplay, crackpot story, not Obsidian's finest but still fun. Like many others writing reviews, I had been salivating over this game for a couple years now, just itching to get my hands on Obsidian's first all new IP. I loved their work on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, preferring it to Bioware's original, I enjoyed Neverwinter Knights II much more than the bland original (also done by Bioware) and I enjoyed their expansion packs to the original NWN as well. I also was a huge fan of Black Isle up until they closed their doors several years ago. So it is no surprise that Obsidian, where many former Black Isle employees sought refuge, was pumping out some quality RPGs. The strongest element to any Black Isle/Obsidian RPG was always writing, character development and consequence of your actions. The weakest elements of their games normally involved stability, glitches and combat mechanics. Alpha Protocol is a mixed bag of strenghts and weaknesses which, unlike past Obsidian games, never quite coems together in the end to allow you to forgive the mistakes. This is easily their weakest effort out of all their work. I went into this game fully expecting a stat based RPG with action elements. Yes, I enjoyed the first two Mass Effect games and couldn't help but think of this game as Obsidian's answer to Bioware's spectacular space operas, but I have been around long enough to know that AP would be much less of a shooter than either ME game. AP actually reminds me more of Deus Ex in many respects in how stats dictate the outcome of everything in the game, from combat to hacking to stealth maneuvers. There are a number of ways to approach a level and conquer it, though nowhere near as diverse as what the original Deus Ex offered a decade ago. The biggest complaint I have read about AP seems to be the shooting mechanics. People complain that they miss headshots when perfectly lined up. This is why understanding that this is an RPG is fundamental to the experience, if you don't put skill points into your weapon, be it a pistol, assault rifle, shotgun, or sub machine gun, then you won't be very effective at hitting targets. It won't matter if your shot is lined up, your chances of success rely on a roll of the dice dictated by your stats. The game does give you an idea of whether you will hit your mark or not by allowing you to wait a couple seconds for a red reticle to close in on your target. When this red reticle zeros in within your aiming cursor, it means you are lined up for a critical shot and your chances of hitting have improved dramtically. The more you level up your weapon, the less wait time you have for this critical hit to zero in. Some weapons, such as the assault rifle, even have a temporary lock on ability which you gain after leveling up that weapon to a particular point and which you activate from your abilities list by pressing left on the d-pad. This is pretty basic RPG customization of your character where you put the experience points you gain while playing the game into different abilities and unlock new ones. You start off the game weak and end it strong, yet it seems so many reviewers fail to grasp this simple concept that has been around for such a long time. In short, the gun play in this game is just fine, just remember this is an RPG and not a twitch shooter. The combat is on par with the first Mass Effect, minus the Mass Effect powers. Guns, Stealth, special skills and gadgets are pretty fun to use, as are the various mini games to pick a lock, hack a computer and bypass a keypad. The other main complaint that I hear from many reviewers is that the game is glitchy and even broken. First off, this game is not "broken" by any means. Not only is it stable, mine didn't crash once, but there aren't any more exploits in this game than any other. As for glitches, aside from some graphical issues such as flickering and clipping, I didn't notice that many to distract from my gameplay experience. The boss battles in the game do have occasional blind spots in some areas and there are other parts of the game that feel incomplete or rushed, but I didn't really have a problem with glitches in this game. The problem I did have was a complete lack of polish in not just the graphics, but the presentation, the A.I. and the overall storytelling. The graphics are bland looking, something I would have expected to see in a 2006 360 game, not 2010. Even back then, it would have been blown away by Lost Planet, Oblivion and Gears of War. There is no interaction with the environment, no destructable terrain, no hiding in shadows or any lighting effects worth mentioning that could have been used for stealth, boring character designs, stiff animations and just an overall washed out look to the game. The visuals aren't terrible, just dated. The presentation is where the game really suffers, especially compared to a game like Mass Effect or even Fallout 3. There aren't any real cool cut scenes in the game, the voice acting sounds tired and unconvincing, no cinematic moments which really get your adrenaline going and a complete lack of personality for a game which claims to be modeled after Jack Bauer, Jason Bourne and James Bond. Those movies are highly stylized, Alpha Protocol is just plain. Coincidentally, the game uses the old throwback Sega logo from the 90s (which is pretty cool) and the title screen looks like it is from the 90s with the title music sounding like something I would have heard on my Genesis. I kind of liked the old retro look and sound for the introductions, but it's distracting during the actual gameplay. I'm supposed to be a spy, travelling around an exotic world to foil an elaborate conspiracy yet everything is presented with such a lack of inspiration. The A.I. is where the game really falters. I can deal with dated visuals, old school RPG gameplay and a bland presentation, but at least give me some smart A.I. to shoot it out with, sneak up on or trick with my gadgets. The enemies in this game are so stupid at times that it can make the game feel broken in certain areas. Reading your dossier on different enemies makes it sound like you have to change up your strategy for different missions depending on the type of foe you face, but unofrtunately this is not the case. There really isn't much difference in enemy tactics, especially when it comes down to them running down a hallway where you can just pick them off one by one. I mean seriously, can't they see all of their dead friends piling up in front of them? Maybe it's not a good idea to just follow them? My favorite moment (sarcasm, ofcourse) is when they decide to lower their gun and just rush at you from 30 feet away, so they can punch you, and then back up and start shooting. I played on hard and started off as a recruit, I chose the most difficult path for my first playthrough and really didn't have much of a challenge thanks to the lackluster A.I. One other issue I had with the game is the layout. It just didn't feel as free or open as other Black Isle/Obsidian games. It all felt very linear to be honest. You have a few different "safehouses" you can go to and set up base in places like Taiwan, Rome and Moscow. Ok, it sounds like you get to do some serious world travel which should be exciting, but once you are at each destination, you can't leave your safehouse unless it is to complete a mission, which you are automatically transported to. I really would have liked to have been able to explore Rome or Moscow a bit by walking outside of my safe house, but all you can do is access your emails and a black market ebay known as the clearinghouse through your computer and then choose which mission you wish to do. You do have the choice of which safe hosue you wish to go to first and which order you want to do the missions but that is about it. You go to a safe house and you complete a mission, then another, then another, until you finish everything you need to do in that area and move to another safe house where you do more missions. Pretty much every mission involves infiltrating a base or headquarters, where is my unconventional spy stuff? I would have loved to have had to follow a person of interest through a crowd, having to duck into alleys or sit down on a park bench everytime they looked over their shoulder. I would have much preferred exploring the town on my own and finding my own contacts instead of just getting tipped off by my handler or receiveing emails or running into them through a contrived cutscene. At one point, the term "yellowbrick roading" is explained in a piece of intellegence you find (look for these throughout the game) explaining that agents of the highly secretive Alpha Protocol are expected to create their own funds so money couldn't be traced back to the agency. OK, how about letting me do some of this yellow brick roading myself by performing sideqeusts and extracurricular work to bring in the money? Obsidian makes a big deal about the high level of reactivity to it's conversation system, but I can't comment on this too much considering I only played through it once and don't really have the urge to do so again. There are plenty of options you can choose in a conversation, and I know of one character in particular I never got to meet because of the options I chose but the main story is just so absurd that I don't feel like going back and trying to find alternate endings or paths (many of the alternate endings I can achieve just by replaying the last mission different ways, some are pretty neat to watch). Now it sounds like I have been pretty hard on this game, and I have, but I did enjoy msyelf in many areas. The one thing that could have made a real difference in this game would have been the writing, which Obsidian normally excels at. The bland presentation, stupid A.I., and flat voice acting could have been overlooked had the storytelling been something special, but it just fell flat on its face imo. For one, the characters are just so shallow and uninteresting. There is little depth to them, little personality and they are just plain boring. Now there are some great secondary characters in here, I particularly enjoyed a certain Russian mob boss who had a fascination with '80s American pop culture, I also enjoyed an unhinged American agent in Taiwan I met up with as well as a mysterious older gentleman who lead his own secret society of sorts, but otherwise the characters had little to keep me interested or form a connection with of any kind. The main plot throughout most of the game relied on the tired old cliche of an evil multinational corporation as the main antagonist, obviously modeled after Haliburton and then the conspiracy at the end is so far out there it is either insulting to my intelligence or offensive, perhaps both. I was expecting something much more clever from Obsidian at the end but instead I just got a rehash of the same old crackpot conspiracy theory crap that you hear shouted on college campuses or late night talk radio. It's like a mixture of X-Files-esque Black Helicopter paranoia mixed in with Bush derangement syndrome and topped off with 9/11 truther hysteria. Remember the first X-files movie where the conspiracy revolved around a plot to use FEMA during a crisis to take over the country? Yeah, well, that is much more plausible than what the writers of AP have cooked up. Is Chris Avellone a 9/11 truther? I love his past work but maybe he should stick to the realm of Fantasy because apparently that is where his politics come from. I swear, I was half expecting one final twist at the end where I had to expose a birth certificiate cover up by the President, or that we never landed on the moon, that's how nutty the story got. Had the game been much more grounded in terms of plot and storytelling, it would have been much more enjoyable. Or maybe if the game didn't take itself so seriously, I could have stomached the story the same way I was able to get through the tongue in cheek Roger Moore Bond films. If you're a fan of Obsidian and RPGs, particularly those with old school RPG gameplay like Deus Ex (though Deus Ex is leagues better), then check this out. I had a lot of criticism for this game but that's mostly because I did have fun, I was just frustrated by the many missed opportunities and wasted potential. I paid [...] bucks and felt I got my moneys worth, but I would recommend others pick it up for 40 or less. As a letter grade I give Alpha Protocol a C. Obsidian can, has and will do better than this. I look forward to Fallout: New Vegas.	video-games_xbox
Fun Game, Lots of Action, Not a deep story. It's a shooter. This is like many other shooters, except the twist is that there are only 2 of you (you and either a live or AI partner), joined by an occasionally psychotic mercenary from your company (Philip Clyde). It's a great game to play after work/school with a friend/son where you can run around and kill things. If you are looking for deep stories (the story is a throwaway here) look elsewhere. The graphics are pretty good (although not up to gears of war). I would recommend the game as the video game equivalent of a summer movie blockbuster (fun, engaging, not deep). The currency of the game is really "Aggro" which is the ability of one player to be very aggressive (weapons, length of time shooting, etc) which causes you to be the focus of action, allowing the partner to sneak around virtually untouched. In AI partner mode, you can tell your partner to be passive/aggressive and advance/tag-along/hold ground. This is actually a nice twist, making another resource to manage in realtime. Each level has a boss, which can only be killed from the back. The technique is to have one partner run wide and shoot generating "aggro" while the other sneaks around to shoot from the back. This is the same technique one has to use on emplaced weapons such as machine guns (the gunner is behind a shield, so can only be shot from side/back). Occasionally you become enraged (shooting a certain # of guys or shooting for a certain span of time) and you enter "overkill" which is slow-motion, enhanced killing ability. At certain points in the game, you enter back-to-back, where a boatload of guys come at you from all directions. The game slows down like overkill, and you are back to back with your partner, each able to swivel around and kill innumerable guys. At some random point the back-to-back ends, and you are free to run around again. There are a couple of levels where you are parachuting in tandem, and one guy is steering and one guy is sniping. You get ammo by killing enemies, who randomly die to give you ammo (sometimes not in time, other times everybody seems to have ammo). Ammo can be for one of your weapons. In the final level ammo can get tight as there are a staggering # of guys. If you get hurt a bit, you need to hide behind something and heal. If you are seriously hurt, your partner has to run over, drag you and heal you. During the healing if he takes damage the healing restarts. The injured person can shoot, to provide cover for the healer. If you are not healed in time you die and the level restarts from the checkpoint. For navigation you have a "GPS" (thing that draws blinking pathways on the ground and obscures your vision). In most cases it is obvious where to go with this. Annoyingly there are 2 places in the game where the level doesn't proceed until you've spent a long time searching for a way out, and finally the radio goes "I guess there's no way out/in, let's try something else, then some new task pops up, and you can continue". Weapons: You can carry 3 guns and grenades. The guns are your primary, secondary and specialty. Primary is an assault rifle generally, but with enough money can be a minigun, or other weapons. The minigun is relatively useless as it has a long spool time to get started. As you earn money during missions you can upgrade each or buy new ones. The specialty weapon is most usefully a sniper rifle. There are absurd weapons like a stinger, but to be honest for the 2 helicopter attacks (just guys, no weapons on the helicopter) it is easier to simply ride out the assaults. Secondary weapon starts out as a pistol, and should be quickly upgrade to a real weapon (like a P90, or something) so that when you run out of primary ammo, you have a real 2nd gun. Upgrades to weapons can add accuracy, damage, capacity and aggro. The final upgrade is a "pimping" of the gun (gold plating) which adds much aggro. You want to have some weapon be high-aggro and some low, depending on the role. I only played single player (AI partner) and split-screen with my 8-year-old. He loved the game, and was able to master the skills (spare the morality speech) and gameplay quickly. The only problem is that the language is really bad in the game, but he understands that this is in-game language, and not to be repeated (although he did ask me after the game said "open the F'ing gate and allow the cars on the to the F'ing bridge" if we should blow up the F'ing bridge... Don't tell mom that one!). He found the violence cartoonish, although much younger than this would find some of this disturbing. The message of the game is private military contractors are bad, no good, nope seem bad, no I think good, oooh evil, oh but wait...	video-games_xbox
4.5; That's a lot of fight to finish. Halo has a strange place in videogame industry now since it's become a record breaker as much as its become the target of much malign with cries of "generic FPS" and "overrated" often heard more frequently than car horns in the city. Now I'm one of those kind of weird guys that will admit sometimes even the best things can have a few imperfections so I'll say that the Halo series does as much things right whereas in other areas it is disappointing to see Bungie not learn from past mistakes. With ODST, the game presents a departure from the main series and it's hard to say whether it's an expansion or a full blown game but it's certainly different enough to set it apart, only slightly since that is the problem with ODST and in a way with the Halo series, they do things exceptionally well; they just rely on that way too often. Story: The story takes place in between the events of Halo 2 and Halo 3 when a Covenant ship does a slipspace jump right in the middle of the Earth city of New Mombasa. You play as the Rookie, an ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) who's separated from the rest of his squad members and wanders the streets of New Mombasa searching for his fellow ODST's but also the reason why the Covenant are so interested in New Mombasa and what lies under it. The game goes back and forth between Rookie's nighttime search and his teammates encounters with the Covenant during the day. Graphics: Halo 3 was one of those kind of games where from an art design standpoint it does look cool and even has a lot of unique qualities to it but it wasn't one of those games that really showed off what the Xbox 360 was capable of. ODST is simliar in that everything looks nice and things are animated well but there's also things that aren't that stellar. For example, the ship that slipspace jumped caused damage to the city but aside from some cars and UNSC/Covenant vehicles, it doesn't actually look all that devastated. One slight change is the new visor which makes it more easier to see in the dark as well as having allies and foes color-coordinated to easily tell them apart. Not a completely gorgeous game that I'm sure Uncharted 2 and Modern Warfare 2 will bring but works well enough. Sound/Music: Here's the big surprise, the soundtrack in this game is fan-**ing-tastic. The typical energetic themes that happen when things start to get more shoot-y are still there but there's also a tinge of solemn themes and melancholy with some...light jazz? Yeah, there's some piano here and it's kind of haunting and although to some it might not fit the tone of the nighttime scenes, that sense of loneliness is captured quite well. As far as voice acting, only ones that really do their jobs well is the main voice actors, especially Nathan Fillon (Mal from "Firefly") but your squad members are still the same boneheaded kinds, you know the "hey, save some for me!" kind. One thing I also loved was the sound design on the weaponry, playing on headphones they had such a nice kick to them. Gameplay: What sets ODST apart from the main series is the progression where it's slightly more open ended where the encounters with the Covenant are not as frequent during the nighttime but then the daytime shifts to the more epic encounters including vehicle sections. It's kind of a strange pace because the nighttime scenes are slow and light on action than poof, shootout galore but also it might feel slightly dull since there's not much to the Rookie segments other than the occasional shootout. Oh and the Rookie isn't the Master Chief not only in character but in skills. He can't jump as high, survive a high fall, his melee is somewhat pathetic on Heroic (my first difficulty setting, nicely balanced for once) and his health is similar to the first Halo where you have shields while you have a health meter you need to replenish with health packs. There's a bit more strategy into this now since you can't go in guns blazing now and even Hunters, which were a bit more "sigh, these guys..." to "ohhhhh **". And like Halo 3, you can play the campaign co-op for all those who want extra help to tackle Legendary or at least just for kicks so the more irritating encounters are a bit more manageable. Added to ODST is "Firefight" which to put it in simpler, and I'm sure familiar terms, is the ODST version of Horde mode from Gears of War 2. Basic rundown is this: you and up to 3 others take on wave after wave of Covenant in hopes of surviving to the next round. After a certain time, the skulls get turned on which change around the tactics of the battlefield. One round you might have a skull where they love to throw grenades with reckless abandon while another has you having to melee in order to get your shields back up. The nice thing about this mode is that it's a bit more frantic since the maps are a bit bigger, the vehicles are added and all the goodies from the campaign are included such as turrets you can rip off and riding around on ghosts and even wraiths. There's 2 complaints I have, the first being the bigger one: there's no matchmaking. What this means is that say you feel in the mood for some Firefight and you want buddies well unlike Gears, you have to invite people in and set matches up which can feel frustrating when everyone's in their own game or not answering. The other complaint is that if one player leaves the game, it screws everybody up and matches entirely ended simply because one player got disconnected or left and while on occasion, gameplay resumed after a few slight hiccups, a lot of times we get good games going than poof, the game decides to end the match even though nobody actually quit or left. The other thing included with ODST is actually disc 2, which Bungie dubbed the "Complete Multiplayer Experience". What this means is that the entire multiplayer from Halo 3 is on disc 2 with every single map pack added along with 3 new maps: Orbital, Longshore and Citadel. Of course this is quite the benefit for players to now have 24 maps to play on but then...if you're a Halo fan you most likely already have Halo 3 in addition to all the map packs, paid for or free and having to spend additional money for a multiplayer you already have just for 3 maps is where all the ire is coming from in reviews and fans. Bungie probably could've released disc 1 separately and either have disc 2 a pre-order/limited edition bonus or release the map pack on Xbox Live. As far as the multiplayer is concerned it's the same as ever: fun with lots of maps and gameplay options and plenty of achievements yet just as much racists, homophobes and young, annoying kids as before. Guess that's the price you pay for a fun MP: have to put up with a whole legion of players who love to throw around swear words and racial slurs. Is ODST worth 60? (Price at the store was 64.99 but whatever). Probably not but is it at least worth a buy. I'd say so since Firefight once you actually start a match is quite addicting and for those who never played Halo 3's multiplayer will have a blast but for super hardcore fans, having a short campaign, a co-op multiplayer with no matchmaking and an MP you most likely already own might grind your gears a little bit.	video-games_xbox
Transformers:Fall of Cybertron: The war rages on. The Setup (Overview): Cybertron is dead. The planet's core has shut down from the damage done to it by the Dark Energon that Megatron foolishly thought he could control. Yet the war rages on. Optimus Prime struggles to salvage enough material and energy to complete the Ark that will take the Autobots to a new home, hopefully free of the conflict that killed their world. Megatron on the other hand sees himself as ruler of the dead world and has declared that no one leaves and that only he can restore the Cybertoian race to its former glory. Anyone who defies him is declared a traitor and faces death. Once again a way has been discovered to break the centuries long dead lock between the two factions. An ancient city has been found in a region of Cybertron known as the Rust. Long ago an advanced civilization of Cybertronians flourished there until some unknown disaster erased them from existence, leaving behind only their ruined city and legends of their deeds. Beneath the city though lies the tombs of those ancient explorers and the treasures they brought back with them. Within those ancient halls lies the location of the greatest store of Energon that the Ancients ever found. Both sides need the Energon to survive. Neither side is backing down from their convictions. The war rages on. The question still stands: Who will rise and who will fall? The Story(Some Story Details): The story follows the same arc as the previous game except this time the Auto bot and Decpticons are intertwined to make the story flow a lot better. The game also now includes collectibles such as audio logs and secret areas that help expand on the story. The main story focuses on the efforts of Optimus Prime to build the ark to escape the dead Cybertron, while Megatron desperately tries to stop him. There are also a few side stories that contribute to the main story and for the most part those are resolved by the end of the game. The other difference in this game is that you are unable to pick which character you wish to play for each level. You are given control of one Autobot or Decepticon and that's what you have to use to complete the level. In my opinion that made the levels much better than the last game as they were able to make the individual levels much more unique and suited to whichever robot that the player was using. Over all this game is much more cinematic than the last one and it almost felt like I was playing a episode or two of one of the newer cartoon series, which was a good thing. Conclusion(My Overall Opinion on the Story): I really liked this game more than I did the first. The developer really hit their stride with this one and made it feel like the player was in the middle of one of the better cartoon series. The story make sense and the voice acting is well done. It's too bad that after this game the developer had to switch over to Transformer games based on the recent Transformer movies. It would have been nice to see what they would have done if they had been allowed to continue with their own take on the Transformer universe. At any rate this is a game to check out if you are a Transfomer fan or someone that is looking for a well made action / adventure game. m.a.c Game Play: Numerous improvements over the last game. Everything pretty much flows much better. The levels are not repetitive, the story is more fleshed out, the weapons are improved, their or numerous collectibles / secret s to find, etc... This is what a sequel should be. Graphics: Great for their time and as far as I am concerned great now. Everything is shiny, detailed and blows up pretty. Music: It sounded good to me. Nothing that made me turn it down or off. I loved the ending cinematic / music. Control: Worked well for me. The camera was a little wonky, but that didn't happen often.	video-games_xbox
POTC = Prone Often To Crash. If this game was stable, it would easily be 5 stars. The fun of boarding ships and swordfighting is great. The graphics, especially sailing at night, are stunning. But... the game has major bugs. First, you should spend your first 45 minutes or so simply walking around so the game can cache all of its textures. Otherwise, you will have frequent pauses/stutters. Second, it's unfinished. There are many typos, and errors in character and place names. Some areas of the game appear to be permanently closed, though it seems obvious that something was supposed to go there. (There are several places where large piles of rocks block your way to what appears to be more areas.) Third, it crashes. A lot. Especially as you get higher up in the game. Every time you board a ship, there is a chance of it freezing your Xbox. Every time you land at a port (especially if you have captured other ships) there is a chance of a lock-up. It seems like the larger your ship is, the more likely the game is to crash. Fourth, it crashes even more... if you try to save your game, it might crash, especially if it has gotten "confused" about whether or not you have completed your current quest. Something also causes "Bad Save" to appear somewhat frequently above your existing games. We even got a "Cannot load U:\0000000" error at one point. To try to fix it, we erased the entire game from our Xbox dashboard, loaded several other games (to clear the Xbox cache), then started Pirates of the Caribbean again. As recommended on their website, we completed the whole tutorial... every single step. We know it was re-caching because disk activity and stuttering were pretty constant. It didn't crash again until we were able to upgrade to a Galleon... at about character level twelve. Since then it has been pretty crashy still, but the thing is so addictive that you just deal with it and re-play what you just played. Over and over. No doubt the programmers are disturbed, even hurt by all this. The thing is 95% complete, but that last 5% is so bad that it makes the game half of what it could be.	video-games_xbox
A great title to complement Overwatch. When I'm not playing Overwatch right now, then I'm playing Battleborn. I haven't gotten too far into the game but the inclusion of couch co-op and the single player campaign make it stand out. I love the ultra colorful characters and the fact that they have to be unlocked keeps me motivated to play, much like Tekken 2, etc did back in the day. I've never been a big online multiplayer guy and I wish the private matches vs bots would count towards character unlocks though. If Overwatch is an A+ title (and I definitely believe it is) then Battleborn is a strong B+. I bought my copy (of Battleborn) after the price drop and I'm glad I waited. I also bought it after already purchasing Overwatch. I'm counting on both devs to keep the DLC coming and I hope both titles will be supported for a looong time to come. It's definitely a lot quicker to get into a match for Overwatch (30 sec at the most from my experience) and hopefully Battleborn's devs have taken notice of that. UPDATE: After spending more time with this game, I strongly believe that this will be one of those hidden gem games that will have a decent following. It's definitely got a punk and personality and I'm greatly enjoying running through the single player campaign online with randoms. I do have an issue with the language but thankfully you can turn the character dialog down to help negate this. Good thing the kids can't read yet (if you look at the back of the game's case you know what I'm talking about). Right now I'm probably playing this 70% of the time and playing Overwatch the rest. Ranking up to unlock characters and even color swaps has me hooked. I've played the vs modes online a few times (Meltdown) and play with randoms and don't use a headset and I still have fun. The other modes might not be as forgiving though. I've given the game another star and now would rank it equally with Overwatch. If I want a quick 10 min session with absolute madness, then Overwatch it is. If I have 30 min-1 hr, and want more rewards or gear for my effort, then I'm playing Battleborn.	video-games_xbox
To put it short: I love this game. Nice title, isn't it? But don't expect a blatant fanboy review. Quite the contrary. If I had to summarize what you should need to know about this game, it's this: THIS GAME IS NOT FOR EVERYONE; DO NOT BUY IT UNLESS YOU ARE EITHER BLATANTLY OPEN-MINDED OR HAVE RENTED IT FIRST, OR HAVE A GREAT RETURN POLICY, OR SOMETHING. Why do I emphasize that so? Because the nature of the game calls for that emphasis. You see, Infinite Undiscovery is not a traditional RPG. It's an action RPG with some elements that emulate online gaming. That's issue #1. It's linear, but open at the same time. That's issue #2. It also doesn't pan out until you're a few hours into the game; you'll be lost on the story momentarily as it begins to develop itself; that's issue #3. There are others, but those are the first and foremost in my mind. Your character starts out in jail. You get rescued eventually by Aya, who actually mistakes you for someone else who apparently looks identical to you. As you make your escape from the prison, you'll end up in a forest, and finally, meet some more of the key characters. Seems overly simple, but that's what I can give you without spoiling things. In this game, you really have to think, I mean really think about what you're doing. Things like walking instead of running so you can attack someone from behind. Sound plays another big part of the game; if you don't have at least a 5.1 surround system you'll be impaired in this area. Even smell plays a small part - if you stink, enemies can detect you. In the darkness you can get assaulted by enemies you can't see (but they can see you because they're nocturnal). Getting attacked from behind cripples you and makes you susceptible to critical attacks. There are tons of different elements you need to take into consideration as you fight, which increases the immersion and the challenge. Additionally, the world is alive; there is no "pause to bring up the menu". You need to make sure there are no enemies in the close vicinity, or that they are out of visual range, or you're in a town before bringing up the menu, because you can still get assaulted during this time. A strategic element to be sure, and one I wouldn't mind seeing in a future RPG, just slightly better implemented (more on that later). With the "Connect" system, you effectively are giving commands to your colleagues to either do special attacks, heal, or talk to NPCs on your behalf, revealing different information than you get. The game relies heavily on this system, as you will frequently have need to use a character's special technique to get through a certain area. This lends itself to problems, however (more on that later). If you're a fan of pure aesthetics, this game will not disappoint. The graphics, music and sound effects are all excellently done, and quite frankly some of the best looking on any game released to date. Some people have mentioned framerate issues; to me, they're so infrequent I wouldn't even call it a dealbreaker. With graphics this good, and minimal load times (considering it's basically an open world), a half second framerate drop every now and then is forgivable. Just make sure you turn down the voice volume; it tends to come through rather loudly on your left rear speaker during battle for some reason. That doesn't mean there aren't issues, because there are. - In the beginning of the game, you're evading a rather large foe. It seems almost impossible not to get hit by this guy. An option to turn and risk fighting him would have been nice. - In a forested area, you're told to "stick to shadows". Considering the whole forest is dark, this instruction is confusing to a newbie user. - Some areas are just ridiculous. Like when you have to cross an open field with some small ruins, and a creature is blowing fireballs at you which are possible, but extremely difficult, to dodge because of the camera angle. No instructions as to what to really do, except run. Might have been something there that I missed for all I know. - You have to press Right Trigger to draw your sword. I like that and all, but what I don't like is that your colleagues won't draw their weapons if you don't, even if the tactic says to go all out. - Quite a few things are not explained to you. In the beginning, Aya explains one of her Connect commands, which you use to take out a guard. That's great. Later, you're given Flute songs, yet never told what each song does or how/when to use them. I didn't even know I could use the flute until I was 2 hours into the game, even though I had it all along. I was also stuck on one area (and the web is lit up with boards about the same area) where I had to use another character's Connect command to charm enemies to a door; nowhere is this explained. That same character can talk to animals; not explained either. - Outside of the primary characters, the additional characters don't have very much development. As I said before, you should test this game before actually buying it. It might not be for you. It's not a bad game; just different. I wouldn't say it's similar to an MMORPG, even though it has some of the qualities. I would say...if you took Final Fantasy 12, with a better story and more plot development...and a better battle engine with pseudo-full control...you'd get this game. IMO, it's what FF12 should have been. Take that for what it's worth.	video-games_xbox
Vehicular combat returns from the dead...... Is it to late to the party? 7.5/10. Carmageddon returns to home consoles Max Damage is a over the top love letter to the original I see this game being this generations BMX XXX It's a over the top game not to be taken seriously With patches and DLC i hope the developers don't censor some of the content Fun Factor: The game is fun it's a strange mix of South Park blended with Saints Row It's also not politically correct You can run down disabled people, old people, fat people The violence is cranked up to 11 If you miss the days of Twisted Metal this is the closest thing you'll get Controls: D- The biggest problem with this game is the controls The controls mirror a racing sim not a arcade racer The vehicles handle very jerky this should not be the case in a game like this At times you'll think you'll driving on ice there's a lot of sliding and it's easy to lose control This is not Gran Turismo or Forza it's a over the top Saints Row type game The control layout is also really outdated if you want to use a weapon you have to jump through all sorts of hops to do it The more i think about it i think the game was never built around a gaming console It might have been built around a keyboard and mouse? Graphics are average this is more a less a Double A/Budget title It has a more cartoony/Saints Row look to it which actually works There is a oddball charm to it's overall presentation Music/Score the licenses music is God awful But, all the sound f/x and the score do fit into this world perfectly Not for children: This is a Mature game the content is very adult I'm a little shocked they got away with so much But, I'm glad they went all in You can't water a game like this down Not sure who this game is really aimed at sim racing fans are not gonna dig the tone and overall appearance and arcade racing fans will love the sense of humor and fun factor but, hate the controls It's really hard to recommend this game mostly due to the gimped controls Even if you have Amazon Prime and can get the discount you might want to wait if you are on the fence until it hits the proper SRP of $25.00 or less Hopefully the developers put out a arcade patch or something I put a good 3hrs into it over the weekend was it a disappointment no but, it could've been so much better if the developers made this for casual fans and made the game easy to pick up and play at the moment it's not a easy game to pick up and play 7.5/10	video-games_xbox
Not to pleased with autosave and never knowing if you don't see the stupid little save icon if you can power down. Not sure if anyone will get to read this, I usually just read one and five star reviews. I'm brand new to this Res Evil game, played most of the others beat them and loved them. This one first off you can't just start kind of can I guess, it's wants you to wait for players to join or to join someone elses game. No players joined and I waited about six to seven minutes and started it, all I had was a shot gun which wound up being useless at the beginning of the game so I more or less had to wait for my team to get me through to the next part, I did help all I could with my shot gun again stating, second game I made because the shot gun was lame I picked a character with a rifle automatic or something like a gun of some sort that doesn't scatter shot and shoots fast over and over. Much Much better, actually was kicking some but and said this is more like it. Till the first monster guy came into play, he chases you (spoiler by the way) all the way back from where you came and kills you a few times if you don't flee fast enough. Till you finally have to fight him is the part I'm at right now and can't hit his weak spot for the life of me, yeah I know bet I wish I had a shot gun now. LOL No I wish my teamates would blast the hell out of him keeping him busy while I nuked his ass with hand granades and hit the weak spot with a stream of bullets. Not hitting the weakspot just stuns him for two sec or so sometimes. Now the part that is lame as hell is I can't beat him dinners ready, I want to watch my movie now but can't just shut it down because either it hasn't auto saved yet or I didn't see the icon showing it did, and I can't manually go to save game because there is no save game icon on half these high end games anymore. Which means playing stuff you already played over again just to get to where you where when you quit and that could be ten or fifteen minutes of gameplay, such ka ka. So tomorrow, maybe I will start it up and see where I am and watch the Rad Brad video again on how to beat this guy or boss or monster. Should be two stars but it's not a bad game and I love res evil, oh yeah died like six times at beginning in like the third battle area, when the reinforcments come and of course had to start all over from beginning of game, which means a half an hour wasted and still right at start point. Why have auto save and no manual save games, what about when mom says turn it off now, sorry mom I have to play till I see the little icon that means game saveing and that could be ten minutes to a half hour generally. Technology is such bull s*** sometimes, they just don't care just another way to keep you hooked, spending and going in the directions they force us to go in. Peace and Live Long and Prosper. Please no jerk comments back, thank you. ps games worth six to eight bucks I guess, surely not fifty or anything close to that.	video-games_xbox
Why is it so un-crisp feeling. For reference, I only play Multi-player and MWIII was my first FPS since CS-Source (KD 0.9). So I will compare to MW3 (TDM KD 1.6) Things I love in a FPS multiplayer: 1. crisp, decisive interactions 2. dynamic multiplayer scenarios/maps that allow for complex team tactics 3. Steep learning curve on good weapons Things I care little about: 1. cool graphics 2. smooth feeling gameplay 3. futuristic looking weapons Crispness - Game feels crisp and smooth until you realize your bullets are not doing any damage, then you die, watch from the other players POV and see that you really didn't get a single bullet off. Only really tried TDM but so far BOII fails in all three of my top reqs. Interactions are laggy, feels inconsistent every time i'm shooting at someone. Can't ever get a headshot, even when aiming at unmoving target in the face. Problem I find is I walk into a room with 2 enemies. I have to shoot the first enemy and wait to make sure he is really dead before targeting the 2nd. By then you are dead. You should be able to know that you've made a kill based on your instincts before the game tells you, and you just can't do this in BOII. Until this is fixed, you will never be able to take this game to the next level like you can in MWIII (or CS-Source for that matter). Because of this, even when I'm doing well (avg about 1.2 KD so far) it still doesn't feel satisfying. Scenarios - In maps I've played it feels more like old Unreal Tournament, where there are no secure positions, enemies are spawning from all directions, and there are so much open space you basically are always vulnerable from multiple blind spots. I think this was done to discourage camping, but what it has done is make it impossible to be a hunter (aka moving cautiously but consistently from position to position) because inevitably someone will spawn in 1 of your 3 blindspots and waste you. Learning curve on weapons - Seems like this game has gone to lowest common denominator and is all about the SMG's. Tried using the semi-auto rifles, but got tired of getting pwned by SMG's from across the map and up close. How does it take 3-4 shots from either semi-auto assault rifle to kill and enemy from range? Makes these assault rifles pointless. SMGs will dominate this game because they are easy for anyone to use, no recoil, powerful, and so far I haven't seen a gun that has potential to be better. Would like to see some versatile guns that take more skill to master, but just not seeing it. On the plus side, Graphics are truly amazing. Went back to MWIII and BOII blows it away in this aspect. System for picking guns is cool, I never wanted a secondary gun anyways. Gameplay feels smooth, but overall these things are not why I play FPS. Futuristic looking guns made me wonder if I accidentally bought halo and didn't realize it. In conclusion, I would have been much happier with a new map pack for MW3. I would gladly sacrifice graphics and cool guns for an experience that felt crisper and decisive. Looking forward to MW4 or whatever its going to be called.	video-games_xbox
minor issues for early adopters, but still good. I did have these ordered on amazon, but they're backordered at the moment and my local gamestop had them in stock, so I just cancelled and went there.. So far I think it's a pretty good headset. On day one there was an issue with their software servers and it was impossible to update the firmware, but they cleared it up the next day and everything is good now. The presets are a little confusing at first, but after a few days I got them down. I came to these from a Turtle Beach XP300 (stereo headset) with the digital surround sound adapter. They actually look, and feel very much the same, but the sound quality with these is substantially better, especially when playing online shooters. I can now judge where all of the gunshots and footsteps are coming from. The surround sound makes a bigger difference than people think. I've also used them with TV and movies, and I think they sound great with those as well... I did run into a few minor issues with these. When charging the headset will not shut off. So if you don't turn the volume all the way down on the headset you will hear sound while charging. I imagine that will be addressed in a future firmware update. Another thing I noticed was if I don't turn the headset off before I turn off my Xbox the transmitter will stay on sometimes. Again, probably just a minor bug that could be addressed in a firmware update. My first night with them I had an issue with game chat where it wasn't picking up my voice, but since then it has been fine. My friend said my voice was very low at one point, but it changed and got very clear. I think this is just a bug with the firmware because these are 100% wireless. I did start playing with the chat settings when he said it got low, but I don't think any of those effect how loud your voice is for other people. My only other issue is the charge cable. It's only a few feet long and not long enough to have plugged in while playing a game. Not sure why turtle beach picked such a short cable. My XP300s came with a 10 or 15 foot charge cable and I played with them plugged in all the time with no issues. So I will be purchasing a 10 foot mini USB cable for about $3 so I can play while they charge. Not a huge problem, but I don't feel like this is something I should have to do when I just paid close to $250 for a headset. My final verdict? Good headset... It's brand new so there are some bugs, but I still feel like it's worth buying. I'm pretty sure a lot of the issues will be fixed in a firmware update. I will update if anything gets worse or better.	video-games_xbox
Microsoft is using the force. Overall, this is a very well-designed Xbox 360 console. If you're in need of an upgrade or will be a first-time Xbox purchaser and you're a Star Wars fan, then you should definitely pick this up. Otherwise, for any Star Wars fan currently satisfied with their present Xbox console or for those who pledge their allegiance to another brand, it will be a coin toss. Pros: -Console functions very well, just like any other Xbox 360 currently on the market. -Superb paint job that looks just like R2-D2. The paint design on the Xbox is actually a matte finish, for those that are wondering (I actually thought it was a glossy finish at the time I pre-ordered). The blue lights on the power ring are neat, as well, as opposed to the usual green lights. The C-3P0 controller also has a unique design with a chrome/glossy finish and wire designs etched on the bottom of the controller. -The sounds that the console makes when you open the disc tray and turn it on/off resemble R2-D2 to a tee. -The $50 credit from Amazon was definitely a surprise. When I originally pre-ordered, we were supposed to get a downloadable character for the Star Wars Kinect game, but when I got the promotional code via e-mail, it had been changed to a $50 credit promo. I would take the $50 credit over a downloadable character any day! Cons: -The price of the entire package is pretty expensive for anyone that wants to upgrade or purchase an Xbox for the first time. But keep in mind that it is a special edition console, and it also comes with a 320gb hard drive (the most spacious so far), a Kinect, and two games (Kinect Adventures [that comes with every Kinect] and Star Wars Kinect). -With the matte finish, I did notice an extremely slight chip in the paint on the white portion of the console's body. I noticed it right when I took it out of the box. So just make sure you handle the console carefully and don't accidentally scratch it, for the paint may come off. -Also keep in mind that with the chrome-style controller, it does attract fingerprints. So if you hate fingerprints, you will find yourself wiping it down at your discretion. I've put in quite a few hours of play time, but I haven't really felt the need to wipe it down or noticed the fingerprints that much. If your hands perspire a lot while playing, it may affect the way the controller feels in your hand, but I doubt it would actually slip or fly off of your hands. And just to throw my opinions out there, I wish the console would make two separate sounds when you turn it on and turn it off. The sound is the same either way, but unique, nonetheless (if they are different, then it is hardly noticeable). I also would have given the Kinect a different paint job other than just an all-white look; I would've went for a gray/blue look, just like R2-D2's head. In regards to the console's paint job, I would have rather went for a glossy finish, as opposed to the matte finish. And lastly, for those that like to match, I'd recommend purchasing the special edition white controller or the old white controller, if you don't already have one; it compliments the console pretty well. All in all, every feature about the console (the paint job, lights, sounds, and unique controller design) make you feel like it's a special edition console. If that's what you want, then that is definitely what you will receive. The next-generation Xbox should not be coming out any earlier than a year and a half from now, so i think new/upgrading buyers will still get their money's worth with this system. I upgraded from the black Xbox 360 Slim (with 250gb hard drive), and I am completely satisfied with this purchase. And I don't even consider myself a huge Star Wars fan, just an admirer of the brand, in general.	video-games_xbox
Twisted Metal With Boats. Blood Wake is basically Twisted Metal with boats, like the title of this review says. There is a single player campaign, and you'll need to play through it (maybe even multiple times) to unlock the goodies the game has in store. The story is that your crew was ambushed and killed by a gang of mercenaries led by your evil brother. You were left to die in the sea but are saved by a group of pirates called the Shadow Clan. The Shadow Clan has only one goal: Kill your brother and stop the evil he is causing. You are quick to jump on board. The game offers a varity of missions, from killing all enemies in the area, collecting things, and one of the most annoying things in all of gaming: Escort Missions! Let me just pause the review for a moment to complain. The escort missions can be a real pain in the keister. While saying there are far too many of these would be pushing it, I think it's fair to say there are more than necessary. But as annoying as these freaking missions can get, they are not deal breakers. Anyway, the gameplay is fun, and given you're on water, one of the things you need to fight with is the water itself. If the weather is stormy, be prepared to fight with the seas AND the bad guys. This can lead to you getting bounced around, especially if you hit a mine. And while this is happening, and your boat is fighting to get a grip, your enemies are free to ram into you, or riddle you with bullets, rockets, torpedoes, etc. This is even more annoying during the aforementioned escort missions. Your buddies are getting shot to pieces, and you can't help them because you're also getting shot to pieces, while trying to get control of your boat that is being bounced around because you hit a mine or got flanked by a ram happy enemy on rough water. Okay, sorry about that last bit there, these Escort missions took their toll on me. There are twenty seven levels in the game (it starts to wear out its welcome near the end), and as part of the story you have to collect five talismans to destroy the Dragon, your evil brother's ultimate weapon. This could have been a fun fight, but all the medallion really does is shield you for one level. Such wasted potential. In my opinion, the game would have benefited if this part of the plot had been left on the cutting room floor, as well as a handful of the levels cough cough ESCORT MISSIONS cough cough. Also, in the main campaign, the boat is pretty much picked for you, occasionally you'll get to pick between two, but usually you're stuck with one. It would have been nice to have more choice in boats, as certain boats would have been much more helpful than the one you got for a certain mission, but it's not game breaking. And like any good twisted metal clone, there's multi player with a variety of game modes. Most of which have to be unlocked in the single player campaign though. Personally I feel this game leans a bit too much on the campaign. Over all, Blood Wake is a good game, with a few snags in the work that hold it back from being great. Those dang escort missions are a royal pain, and having to deal with the sea and the enemies can lead to many cheap deaths, (trust me, I know) And the story, while not bad, could have used a few more reviews and some parts could have been left out. So in the end, is this game worth your time? I say yes, if you can find it cheap and enjoy twisted metal type games.	video-games_xbox
VERY* unhappy with the video game industry, right now. Okay, so this "review" is actually going to serve as both a review of the Xbox 360 and a rant. Way back in the day, I was a total gamer. I had NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Gameboy, and Nintendo 64. I loved playing video games when I wasn't doing homework! However, as I became busier with balancing a part-time job, doing homework, and doing extracurriculars in high school, I became less interested in games and kinda put everything away. Then toward the end of college, I found out that a good friend of mine had also been a big gamer when he was younger and then stopped. We both started playing again, and loved it. I am a big fan of the Zelda/Metroid/Mario series, so I decided that the console I would buy around Christmas 2006 would be the GameCube. I was amazed at how far graphics and sound had come, and even though there wasn't a huge selection of games for the system, I was totally blown-away. When I heard about the new Wii system coming out, I was thrilled and began waiting eagerly in anticipation. However, I was unwilling and unable to spend forever waiting in the cold during the initial Wii release period just to get a console, and I figured that at LEAST by the new year, it would be possible to get one. WRONG. I asked the people at EB Games and GameStop when they thought it would be possible to get one just by walking into a store and picking it up off the shelf, and they said probably not until March. So I continued to regularly check places up until then, but I was never fortunate enough to be at a place during the 10 minutes they had systems in-stock. By spring, I was thoroughly annoyed with Nintendo for being so terrible at making Supply meet Demand. Of course, it eventually became more possible to get a Wii by ordering a "bundle" online that contained 4 or 5 games, an extra controller set, and a memory card, but I did not have the money to spend that much all at once. Also, I thought it was very shady of them to make people buy so much merchandise at once (especially when there's almost always a bad game in the bundle) if they wanted to know they'd get a system. Since Sony had supposedly created one of the biggest failures of 2006 by presenting the PS3 at such a high price, I decided that I'd set my sights on getting an Xbox 360. Most of the games available for PS3, Wii, and 360 get the best ratings on the 360, as they don't translate well onto the Wii, and the PS3 games always have something minor that makes them worse than the 360 equivalents. Plus, the 360 library has some GREAT games for it. Since I was so tired of finding that Wiis are still so hard to come by, I bought a 360 Pro last week. Although the price tag was still outrageously high to me, I trusted that the 360 would just be that awesome of a system. I thought, "Hey, it's cheaper than the PS3, it has great games, and the systems they have out for demos at stores show AWESOME quality". I researched quite a bit and read about how the 360 sometimes overheats and people get annoyed, but I figured that if I kept it in a well-ventilated area and followed all of Microsofts set-up advice, it'd be fine. Plus, it's been over a year since it came out, so obviously all the problems must be fixed by now. Once again, WRONG. The fans being loud was slightly annoying, but it really didn't drive me nuts. Neither did the heaviness of the system and parts. I was even okay with the obscenely huge power supply and A/V cable. I started the 360 and was so excited to finally be joining the ranks of the Xbox users who get to play amazing games like the Halo series. The first time I turned the unit on, a red ring started flashing around the power button. I turned my TV to the Video 2 display, and it looked like the 360 logo screen was frozen. In my excitement, I wrote it off to just bad luck. I turned the console off, waited for about 30 seconds, then turned it back on. Everything was fine! I played Marvel a good amount for the first 48 hours I owned the unit. While I was annoyed that every time I had a lot going on on the screen, I got a slight skip in the gameplay, it didn't bother me much, and I LOVED the graphics and sound quality. Then after about 2 days, I turned the system on and it froze at the start screen again. I would sometimes have to turn it on and back off a few times before it woud successfully start up and then successfully load the Marvel game, but at least it was working. The day after that, I could no longer even get past the process of turning on the system. I'd either get the red flashing rings around the power button, or I'd get no response from the system....like it was frozen and didn't know it. Of course, Microsoft says that if this happens, there is an "internal problem" and you need to send it in to get fixed. Now come on, Microsoft. This is totally unacceptable. You guys are a major company, and you must have legions of geniuses and/or technology wizards working for you. For a long time, I had always been a fan of Nintendo and Microsoft, and I really didn't care for Sony's PS consoles. However, after having played my friend's PS3 and played a few people's Wii systems, I must sadly say that the 360 is losing the race at this time (and what a sad race it is, too!). While Nintendo is lagging in Wii output and the PS3 is extremely expensive and currently has a dire outlook in terms of games available, at least those systems have FAR better operation track records! Perhaps some people have had no problems with their 360's, and they should count themselves extremely lucky. And maybe this new "Elite" system doesn't have the overheating and/or crashing problem. Regardless, that is no excuse for the other two versions of the system to NOT FUNCTION. Just assuming the Elite is finally the system that Microsoft intended on producing (which would still be a sad situation, in my opinion), there is no reason why people should have to shell out so much money for it if they don't need the extra memory! Regardless, I am so disappointed that I am probably going to just return this system to Best Buy and get a refund, despite the fact that I bought the 2-year replacement plan. For all I know, I could have to get a 360 replaced on an average of once a month! That's too much hassle and NOT worth it. Although I am also angry with Sony and Nintendo (although not nearly as much, considering my situation with the 360), I think I will just save up and wait and eventually buy a Wii and maybe a PS3 and just wait until the NEXT Xbox system comes out to invest in Microsoft's gaming library. For those of you who are having no problems with your 360's, have fun with the amazing game library. Due to my experience, however, I am heavily dissatisfied and would strongly recommend that anyone who is considering a 360 make sure to find out if the Elite systems are far more consistent, and then decide if they think it's worth it to spend the extra money for the system. Otherwise, I'd say the PS3 system is actually fantastic, and if the game library improves (especially with Resident Evil 5!), then they should totally invest in that. It plays Blu-Ray DVD's (and costs less than most Blu-Ray DVD players) and operates very well with probably the same quality of graphics and sound as the 360.	video-games_xbox
If you haven't gotten it, buy it. Skip the review and buy it. This game was the first game I got with my new Xbox, along with Halo 2. I played Halo, and (sorry, Halo fans skip over this part) I was unimpressed. I popped in Burnout 3 and about died of shock. By the first crash, I knew it - the game is pure GOLD! Not having owned any other consoles - SNES, PS, etc. - only a computer, maybe I haven't played enough other great racing games to compare this to. However, I have played NFS: High Stakes and the earlier games like it. This game makes those look like pong on wheels. It's so over the top with all the things you'd never want to do in real life - racing top-notch cars at 205 mph down a freeway filled with traffic - and energizes it to thwart even the high speed crashes in movies. It satisfies that little peice of all of us that makes us want to put the pedal to the mat and feel that rush of untamed adrenaline. However, none (or not many) of us really go out and race our cars into oncoming traffic, and this game gives us the next best thing. We can watch the consequences of smashing head-on into a line of cars all while sitting safely in our living rooms. It's just one of thos great games you can't research up on, you have to just go out and buy it for yourself. This review can't possibly give justice to explaining how cool the crashes are in this game (if you didn't pick up on it, the crashing part is what really makes this game shine). Cars don't just dent and bounce off each other like the bumper-car styles of lesser games. Wheels fly off. Doors fly open and windows shatter. Your car launches like a bullet into the sky, stopping only when gravity or a building gets in the way (whichever comes first). It crumples, it explodes. Heck, in Road Rage mode (where your car maintains the scars of crashing throughout the race) the hood will even loosen enough to where it flies up and (semi-)blinds you. It isn't just a minor inconvenience when you crash in this game. It's an adventure! All in all, the game is great and is actually a challenge in some parts (I'm still stuck on my latest Grand Prix! I always crash!) There are so many modes of play (Crash, Race, etc.) that are so easy to just jump into and play, that you'll keep coming back for more. It's not an overly-complex game that you have to be in a certain mood to play, but a satisfing way to quench your thirst for speed (and vehicular carnage). So if you haven't, stop reading and go out and BUY IT! Don't settle for the bargain-bin rip off racers. This is a racer's dream come true. Note to young gamers or concerned parents: Rated Teen for violence. The violence in the game is not running over people or anything, there is no blood or vehicular homicide scenarios (obviously). However, some may view it as violent when the game rewards you for causing as many pile-ups (dollar amounts are everything, people!) as you can. And very mild language (D@*n van!) messages will flash onscreen at times during the race (like when you crash into a van). Also, rest assured you can turn the idiotic DJ off that some reviews complained of (I have mixed feeling on the feature). Just some facts for the curious. Now, if you still haven't quit yet, stop all this reading and get it!	video-games_xbox
New Shinny D-pad = Not Quite There Yet. Like others I was intrigued by the new D-pad for the otherwise excellent 360 controller. I would have liked it to have seen something similar to a dual-shock's D-pad (that controller's only redeeming quality, IMO). This D-pad is twist-able: twist right=plus sign, twist left=same crappy disc it's always been. That said, I don't know why anyone already looking for a better, more accurate D-pad would choose the disc, but hey, whatever ;) The shinny plus shaped D-pad is better, but it still is a bit problematic -- for me it is up/left, it still goes either up or left, but I have noticed an improvement in the other "off" positions. For fighting games it does "roll" through combos more accurately. How much more? That's hard to quantify depending on player style. Ultimately is this new controller worth the $60 price tag? NO, not when I bought a plain white one from Amazon a few months ago for $28/$29 on sale -- right now (2010.11.17) the black glossy is on sale for around $35 (although no battery or cable for either). Unless you play games that use the D-pad a lot, really like that grayish-silver color or need the play and charge set-up it is probably not worth the price-tag. A couple of caveats besides the D-pad, the buttons are very "flat" in appearance -- 2 clearish (A and Y), 1 smokey (B), and one dark gray (X). I will eventually swap these out for lit-up versions of the standard color format (whenever I get time to take the controller apart and solder a few wires for the new buttons...not anytime soon, but someday) Also the trim is duo-tone: black for the chat pad connector, as well as bumpers, triggers and battery packs (the play and charge cable is now all black as well) -- then gray for the thumb-sticks and the "off" positions of the D-pad (up/left & right, down/left & right)and the A,B,X,Y buttons. If I have time this week I'll post a video, but that's a big if right now, but either way I hope my review was helpful and thanks for reading...GAME_ON!	video-games_xbox
What went wrong. I am a huge fan of the Rainbow series, and the first Rainbow 6 for the xbox is one of my favourite games, so i was excited to hear about a new one coming out that allowed you to do such things as customize your teammates and other cool things. How wrong i was! So much has changed from the previous games, that the only similarities are the characters from the Rainbow series, everything else is different. The POV has changed so that everything is through goggles, this is not a big deal like all the reviews make it out to be, the outline of the goggles do not get in the way of any of the view, but when you get shot bullet holes appear in the googles glass obscuring all the view. I do not know what kind of goggles these are, but if the person was shot 3-4 times in the eye making these holes they would probably be dead. The gun selection has been severly limited, and although the names are different from the other Rainbow games they are just different varients and that is why the names are different. It did seem that they took away all the popular guns, like the G3A3, M16,M60 and others, and added many smaller machine pistols. I can not speak for other people but i would rather be killing people with a huge assault rifle than with a gun the size of my hand. You can only use a sniper rifle when the game lets you and the are next to no guns with scopes or silencers(the ones that do have them would definitly not in real life). All the gun sight systems are left to the stock option of needle and hole sighting, which is not typical of any special forces when they have red dots, scopes and lasers. This does get annoying when lining up a target because most of the gun gets in the way when looking at an enemy. The controls have been drastically switched around, which seems to be for no reason since no new button options were added making the relayout a pointless joke. The way they have changed the button configuration has made it awkward for old Rainbow player, the left trigger used to be for changing weapons, now it throws grenades(real nice when im surrounded by my teammates and i frag them on accident)It seems that the games controls have been made very similar to Halo and other FPS games, just so that those people can get into it quicker. The graphics are in my opinion the biggest let down, they aren't as good as the others, which is a shame because the others were quite good. The guns do not look realistic and instead look almost cartoon like, the scopes on the very few guns that have them do not reflect light or interact with the environment in any way. Every enemy is one of about 3-4 designs, and the environment is nothing special. The AI of both the team mates and the enemies is disgusting, i don't understand how other reviewers can say that they are intelligent or that they set up traps because the most i have seen them do is miss constantly with their guns only a few feet away from me. The enemy are almost as stupid as your own team mates who in every gun fight hide and switch to the hold option, causing you to go off without knowing that they are at the beginning of the map and you are at the end. The game would be semi decent if it were not the sequel to the other excellent Rainbow games, and its expectation of being better or at least the same smashed. The game is far too easy, but i have found many glitches that have stopped me from progressing. On the fifth level a door jamned and the only way i managed to get through was by constantly running at it until i fell through it. Other things like terrorists managing to shoot me whilst they are in the reload sequence(impossible) and the heart beat moniter only sometimes working properly have all dampened the game. The reviews that have given it a low score are from people who have played the other Rainbows, like good games, or expect better from xbox. The reviews that give it a good score are from people that are into quick fast paced games, that sacrafice quality and realism for a game that can be beaten quickly and easily. I would recommend renting it because there are a few fun aspects to it, but not enough to actually wish you had bought it.	video-games_xbox
A disaster on almost every level. I bought this game on a whim, knowing next to nothing about it. That was clearly the wrong choice. This is a rare game. A game where nearly everything was flat out wrong. I'll do my best to explain why. Slowness: This game plays like a standard beat-em-up. You run around, kill a few hordes of enemies, and progress to the next area of the game. The problem is that the level design is FAR too big. This wouldn't be a problem if your character didn't move infuriatingly slow. Getting from point A to point B is a chore in itself, because your character moves like he's in molasses. There's no sprint option, and no equipment gives you greater foot speed. Even in combat your character seemed sluggish. Basic attacks take too long to execute, in contrast to the enemy's short, quick attacks. This is made worse by the fact that you're constantly being staggered by missile blows and heavy enemies. What should be a quick battle is often a lengthy ordeal. The level design also becomes a huge problem, because there's almost always a long range enemy you need to eliminate. So, you have to trudge all the way across a huge room so you can take them out. And when you die, you get a lovely 30 second cutscene that gets annoying the first time it's played. You can't skip it. This game seemed much more tedious than fun. Clutter: This game had WAY too many things crammed into it. The HUD is a barely legible mess of stats and meters, and the menues are scattered and confusing. In fact, each character has 3 types of special attacks. A battle cry, a spider skill, and a ruiner. Why? Was one not enough? The armor and weapons menue are relatively easy to navigate, but the weapon stats are a mess. It seems like every weapon has it's own perk, but it's next to impossible to decipher what the perks are. Some are in percents, some are in points, and the values mean nothing, because you don't have anything to the compare them with. What does a +1.7% combat bonus do in comparison to a +2.5% combat bonus? The skill tree is guilty of the same thing. Most of the values are in percents or fractions of a percent. Now, a game can have a lot in it, and still be an amazing game. Take Borderlands and Mass Effect as examples. Weapon options, skill options, and character options. But everything's neatly organized, and the special skills are curbed and balanced. However, Too Human uses an individual controller button for the spider skill, ruiner, and battle cry. This makes the controller a mess. Which brings me to the next problem. The controls: Oh god. Who would do this? WHY would they do this? This game has the absolute WORST control scheme I've ever seen. The most obvious flaw is the way in which you attack. The right stick. This gives you virtually no feedback on whether or not you're hitting the right enemy or not. The game says that repeatedly tapping the stick is less effective than holding it, so you're just pushing the stick in a direction that your character is attacking. Because you're not actually directly initiating the blows, you're detached from the combat. You may notice another problem with the right stick being used for melee attacks. The camera is HORRIBLE. The right stick should be used for the camera, so you can easily scan your surroundings. But the camera just follows you, often at annoyingly low angles. This means you're constantly tapping RB to snap the camera back into position. The D-pad can change the camera, but all it does is control how far away it is from the character. Because so many of the buttons are used for special attacks, a mistap of the controller often triggers one of your specials, emptying one of the game's various meters. Plus, the fact that the most effective combos use the left stick in conjunction with the right makes moving in combat a constant stop-and-go. Graphics: Why is everyone raving about them? Even some of the negative reviews say the game looks beautiful. Sure, the graphics are decent, but they're nothing to write home about. They pale in comparison to games like Mass Effect, Okami, SS Bros Brawl, Silent Hill origins, Dead Space, Bioshock, and MGS 4; all of which were also released in 2008. While the in-game graphics aren't bad, the cutscenes are laughable. The story: I really don't like to be "that guy" when it comes to mythology and games/movies. Games can't be entirely true to the mythology, and I know that. But I have to ask: Why all the Norse mythology? If it weren't for the dialogue (which is terrible) I would have never guessed this was even remotely affiliated with the Norse gods. Most of the lore was just shoehorned in without reason or purpose. For example, you're playing as Baldur, the god of light. This is weird, because the game portrays him as a battle-hungry war machine. In the actual lore, he was a kind, gentle, martyr. The romantic subplot with Freya was extremely weird, because Balder is Freya's SON in the real mythology. I understand the need for a character that isn't as "advanced" as the rest of the gods, but Balder was one of the most revered and powerful gods in the original mythology. The Norse aspect of it all just seemed like a cheap way to cash in on an existing storyline, rather than making up one that is unique and interesting. The aspect of Norse gods and a cybernetic future together is an insanely cool one, but it didn't really work for this game. I tried really hard to like this game. I tried on 5 sperate occasions. But every time it was unwieldy, cheesy, and slow as all get out. I'm completely miffed as to how this game got the reception it did. I guess I just don't get it.	video-games_xbox
It Was Fun For a Few Hours. I'll admit from the start that I'm more a fan of real-time strategy games. But since RTS games on consoles still haven't measured up to PC performance, I decided to give this game a rent. I'm glad I only spent $8 instead of $60! It's a GOOD game - I had fun playing it... ...the first few times. After that it became very repetitive and I felt it growing old very quickly. In just one week of renting the game, I beat a game with every civilization (there are 16 if I recall) and won a game via every available method - Conquest, Technological, Financial, and Cultural. I finally reverted to the "lightning round" scenario games which only lasted about 15 minutes each. I found that the maps - essentially a globe - were often very tight spaces and made expansion difficult to control. It was often challenging enough to find ROOM to place a city, nevermind finding good placement for producing various resources. This wasn't always an issue, but seemed to be the case more often than not. The gibberish from the "assistants" quickly became annoying. I don't understand how, with gaming as advanced as it is today, characters can't TALK to us. My car talks to me, for crying out loud. The end of each game is where things became the most frustrating. Often times I would simply be riding from turn to turn, trying to let every possible "great person" appear before time ran out. I would have 10-15 cities, each with every possible building upgrade. Yet every turn, I would be asked "What do you want to build in [city name.]" I didn't want to build anything! And to make matters worse, if you would start building a unit, there was no way to end production of that unit. The only option was to build a wonder, which would then complete the game. Furthermore, if the city builds a building and then you give it no additional item to build, it will store your production credits. Later, when you decide you want ONE military unit, it'll use all of it's stored production credits and build as many units as those credits will allow. One time, I tried to build ONE spy in a city that had been dormant for many turns - it built 57 of them!! This forced me to sit for a few minutes selling 56 of them back for gold credits. The biggest downfall to Civ-Rev is a limited range of reuse. Yes there are 4 methods to victory and 16 different civilizations. There are also different scenarious that may place bigger emphasis on fighting Barbarians, or using naval strategy - even one that places you on a different planet and replaces Barbarians with Aliens. These give you a different look to things, but the game still plays the same. The only challenges left at that point are earning Xbox achievements, and some of them - such as winning each victory type in Deity difficulty (the hardest of 5 difficulties) can be downright impossible to some. Some other quick notes - you can scroll quicker using the right stick - select a unit, right-stick scroll to where you want it to move, then just use the left stick to select the specific "tile" you want it to travel to. The lack of a better zoom in OR out was annoying. Yes you can zoom out, but not by much, and it is tediously slow. The ability to rush construction of units or buildings was helpful, as was the ability to cease production of a building and convert those credits to a unit. That came in especially helpful when an army would show up at my door and I had no defending units. Give it a rent and have fun with it. But only those desperate to conquer the world with a console controller in their hands should consider this a needed purchase.	video-games_xbox
Really good game that is gorgeous. Are you looking for a beautiful game with truly next-gen graphics with decent game play and a better than average story? Then you must get this game. Pros: Absolutely stunning graphics Good storyline with a narrative that is helped by the great graphic to sell the emotion Decent gameplay that is very fluid Did I mention the beautiful scenery? Cons: It is repetitive Single player is a little short Multiplayer doesn't have that comeback appeal to me If you take this game for what it is, a great looking hack and slash game with wonderful production values, then you should thoroughly enjoy this game. Does it reinvent anything? No. Does it take graphics (on consoles at least) and production values to a whole new level? Yes. The low scores given by may of the "professional" reviewers is not fair to this game. The game play is a bit simplistic (as are all hack and slash games), but really no more so than and FPS. I mean really COD (just an example) is continually worthy of great scores for it's game play when you can what, shoot and throw grenades? Maybe is this game had swords to choose from it wouldn't be graded so poorly on game play? I don't get it. The game play is very fluid and controls well. The biggest drawback is that I often found myself dyeing because I was caught up looking at the scenery and graphics, even toward the end of the game. Because the cinematic are rendered the same as the gameplay the cutaways don't feel disjointed and pull you out of the game. They are just a seamless part of the spectacle. Once again the production values on this game are wonderful and make a purchase of it worthwhile. I highly recommend this game as it is very enjoyable. The gameplay isn't perfect, but is good enough to support the rest of the production and not bring the whole beautiful faade crashing down. Really hope they bring out another game in this vein.	video-games_xbox
Didn't expect much. Alright, as a kid I grew up fascinated with the Resident Evil series. I have beaten 4 and 5 and have played Code Veronica, 0, 1, 2, and 3 as well. I loved the zombie based Resident Evil's but not that awkward Japanese-to-blame camera angle (no offense but we all know Japanese developers are the only ones dumb enough to try abnormal camera angles; 2D, 3rd person, and 1st person is all you should ever touch). I loved 4 except for the fact that it dragged on and i always felt as if I had to rush because I knew I would die if I stuck around too long. 5 was just aggravating in some situations even though in both it was awesome to carry a Rocket Launcher (solves all problems). Now, to the matter at hand after I have made my background and point, this game is by far the best. I don't care what anyone says, bargain bin is bullshit. I have given up on Resident Evil games fast and numerous times. This is a completely different story. What they have done is actually listen to the fans. Before knifing seemed as a last resort type of thing. Now you don't have to be scared to melee if you are surrounded. It's a stupid with response but still a good try. Three precise hits usually kill a zombie and they are the only ways I have found to kill the armor plated zombies. Leon's campaign is definitely for the Resident Evil 4 fan who misses zombies (which would be me). Chris is a lot like RE5's closing chapters where all freaking enemies had guns but more fast paced. Jake's is basically all out bad ass and over powered enemies. Can't comment much on the 4th character but she is definitely story and puzzle based for those old old fans but of course it's in 3rd person. When I first saw they were coming out with a SIXTH RE game i practically laughed. But me, I like to give everything a try and another installment in a horror classic is a must for me. After playing it I would recommend it to anyone that was a fan of the old RE games. New fans, stick to COD (I know I will), but definitely rent it and give it a try. It's a little broken in some places but not anymore than the previous RE games and definitely not game breaking type of broken. Just maneuvers built in that could use some tweaks. Also I would like to point out that this is the only RE game that I have liked from start to at least for Leon's campaign at where I am. So far. I'm just sick and tired of seeing 1 star reviews. I wanted to make sure I could post a valid review and help it's standing. Definitely need a more open mind than them..	video-games_xbox
MADDEN "FREEZE PATCH" 09 - DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY. A class action law suit should be filed against EA Sports for releasing this seriously flawed product for sale. Instead of calling the game Madden 09, they should have called it Madden "Freeze Patch" 09. It is bad enough that all of your game data is lost when Madden 09 invariably freezes, but in order to "fix" these problems, you have to download a patch, and once the patch is loaded, you have to start a brand new franchise in order for the patch to work. By the way, if you do not have a way to run these patchs... Sorry... You are out of luck! EA has taken away some old bells like the General Manager feature, which was a personal favorite, and added a new whistle like the Trainer Mode, which is apparently supposed to help you learn how to play the game, but it seems to me that once you get proficient at the game, this feature would be useless. However, I wouldn't know this for sure because the game froze when I tried to use this feature, and EA Sports answer for this was "Say no when you the game asks you if you want to go to the training mode." Really? I just put down $60.00 for a game, and I am instructed by the company not to use the features they programmed into the game, because they know it causes the game to crash. Unbelievable!!! Do yourself a big favor, if you are considering purchasing Madden 09, go to [...] and read the blogs before you buy. It is truly astonishing the number of problems that people are having with this game, and EA Sports take on all this seems to be... We realize there are problems, and we are working on the issues, but if we implement all the fixes, we will not have anything new for Madden 10. What? This year is the twentieth anniversary for the Madden football series (and I have owned most of them), you would have thought that EA Sports would have gotten right by now, but this is far and away the worse Madden game they have ever released, and what is EA Sports concern... If they fix all the problems this year, what is going to motivate us into wasting our hard earned money next year? But hey... I guess EA Sports doesn't call it MADDEN for nothing... The more the game freezes the MADDER you get!	video-games_xbox
CD Projekt Red Has Done It Again. I don't usually do in depth reviews for products on Amazon, but I feel this game deserves all the praise it can get. So here is my opinion of one of the greatest RPG's to have been created. Graphics: This is easily one of the most beautiful games I have seen or played on the Xbox One to date. The character models are the real draw for me; they all look extremely lifelike without crossing over into uncanny valley territory. The women especially have an extra level of realism, I guess CD Projekt Red really appreciates the ladies. Even though the Xbox One version is upscaled to 1080p (from 980p) there isn't much difference between this version and the PS4 version. However, to see The Witcher 3 at it's best, I guess a PC would be the way to go. I was a little saddened to see something as simple as fog missing from the Xbox One version, but present (and very atmospheric) in the PC version of the game. Even Geralt's facial hair looks more realistic in the PC version of the game (Get it together Microsoft!) Gameplay: This is another area where The Witcher 3 shines. It's definitely a love-it-or-hate-it combat system, and I love it. One thing I couldn't stand about action RPG's is the hack-and-slash style combat, with little to no strategy involved. Try to play The Witcher 3 like that, and you will be punished, constantly and severely. The Witcher 3 (like it's predecessors) requires patience and skill for the lower level enemies and some serious planning for the blink-and-Geralt-is-dead boss fights. I'm currently playing on the "Blood and Broken Bones!" setting, which is one lower that the highest (Death March). I find this one adds a bit more challenge, and makes you really feel like Witcher. It also makes you sit up and pay attention to what your doing, as even enemies that are a few levels lower than you (like drowners for example), can take you out it a couple of hits. There is apparently another hidden "Dark" difficulty, in which when your character dies, that's it, your save files will be deleted and you will have to start over. So if you are a masochist, by all means, give that one a go. Sound: Not much to say here. The effects are great and are very moody. The only gripe I have is that the music can be very overpowering at times, especially when you are just exploring. Because of this, I turned the music down and bumped up the voices and effects. Story/Replay Value: I think it goes without saying that the story and replay value of this game are extremely high. CD Projekt boasted that the game would be around 200 hours long, and I think they were short changing themselves. If you're anything like me, and like to take your time and explore everything, this game may take a bit longer to complete (which is a good thing). There is a new in mini game called Gwent (which will take up plenty of your time) that I absolutely love. Especially when you ride from town-to-town looking for new opponents to play against. Never have I cared about in-game games, until Gwent came along. I am patiently awaiting the day when CD Projekt Red makes real life Gwent decks that I can buy and play against other people with. There are tons of side quests, and I have yet to encounter any fetch or go-there-kill-this side quests. They all have a sense of urgency or importance to them, and they definitely add to the sense of being in a living, breathing world. The developers really did an amazing job, and they have definitely raised the bar more than a few notches. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that they took down the old bar, destroyed it, made a new bar out of gold and jewels, and set it atop an unreachable precipice to which no one will be able to reach for quite a some time. So far I've been playing for almost 40 hours, but I can tell I have barely scratched the surface and I look forward to spending another 160+ hours with this game. I would HIGHLY recommend to any RPG, no, video game fan. Definitely not one to miss.	video-games_xbox
What if this is the first AC game you played. Assassin's Creed 3 is the first game of the AC series I have played and I have to say that I absolutely LOVE it. It made me become a fan of the series. I have bought the game despite many average reviews from the hardcore AC fans. I have found that many reviews, while bringing up valid points, are written from the standpoint of long standing AC fan, comparing it to the earlier games. Since beating AC3 I have went back to the older games and I guess I can do that now, but I couldn't have initially. Still, then and now, I can say that AC3 is AMAZING! The most common complaint of the reviewers is that the main character is, well, blend... Yes, he is on occasions quite annoying, you want to slap the stupid out of him or scorn him as a petulant child. But that is that; it's a game, and the character in it is not my best friend, which is to say that that aspect is not very important to me. If it is, well, those reviews are correct. Often argued point as well is that the storyline is boring. Here is adamantly disagree - the story is precisely what I like about the game. While not historically accurate (well, that's obvious) it does follow the progressions of one of the major parts of US history and that is cool. If nothing else, it introduces a player to main players in US history and major events, so it has some educational value. More importantly, as a history nerd, I find this aspect to be riveting, even without the storyline twists. Perhaps I played the game in 2013, well after it came out, so perhaps all the technical kinks that people refer to have been ironed out (DLC add-on still have them) but I experienced no technical issues or glitches. In comparison to Revelations, AC3 gameplay is somewhat simplified. The character now jumps and climbs on his own and heals without medicine, but I'm not sure if that in any way took away from my enjoyment. However, I see how hardcore fan may find this to be blasphemy, but I also like not having that annoying wobbling over the edge if you push jump late in the older games. I maintain that fighting is greatly improved and now is fun, compared to the older games. Yes, you can go Chuck Norris on a battalion of your opponents and put some major hurting on them without taking too much damage, which is unrealistic to say the least, but then again - this is a video game. I personally find that to be much more fun than the alternative. The Eagle Vision/Sense is less important in AC3. Lastly and perhaps more importantly, the graphics are beautiful. To me that is very important in the game, particularly the one that tells a story almost like a movie. It makes it more enjoyable that the older cruder graphics of the previous games (I can't blame the older game for that). All this is to say, that I understand the longstanding fans, but I believe that this game is very fun, engaging and at times a little educational. In my opinion it is well worth the original $60 it retailed for and most definitely $20 you can get it for these days.	video-games_xbox
Defective Copy. I opened the game last night, put it in the console, and was surprised when the thumbnail wasn't present in the game under the "game" heading as it had been with every other game that I've played it on. It wasn't working. Neither the first nor the second CD were functioning properly. When I popped the CD into the console, there were two instances in which it automatically took me to the "DVD Video" portion as if it thought I wanted to watch a movie. The game was not a used game, it was a new one, in fact I purchased it here on Amazon on one of those holiday sales where only the limited number of people who take advantage of the deal are able to benefit from the sale. Just the day before, I completed the second story in Infamous 2 and thus the game (which I recommend you to play and also gave 5 stars to). So I thought it was my console that was the problem, that maybe after I completed Infamous 2, that for some reason my console was malfunctioning. So I popped in Infamous 2 again, after a couple tries of Red Dead and thankfully Infamous 2 still worked. I called Sony's customer service, he concluded the same thing, that it was most likely the CD. When I first told him I had a defective game, he asked if it was "Call of Duty" and I told him, "no, it was GOTY Red Dead Redemption." So apparently, they're having this same problem with another popular game (which I'm not into and have no plans of playing). Anyway, now I have to return the game. I get it, there are many people who will argue, that this forum should solely be used to describe how well or poorly the game itself is, but it's also important to inform the consumer if the product received was in complete working order or not. And mines wasn't. If you have enough people coming forward (not necessarily with this game, maybe with another) saying that the game that they purchased wasn't properly working, then that would be critical information that the gaming consumer should be equipped with and aware of. I initially gave it one star, out of frustration, but thought 3 stars would be a more balanced assessment having not played the game.	video-games_xbox
Beautiful graphics and music. Fable for the XBOX is a tough game to review. I am not going to touch upon what the game should've been. The graphics in this games are beautiful. Very neat character models and tons of customization options, from haircuts to tattoos to boots. Character development and aging is noteworthy as well, being that through the course of the game, his physical features change due to the way he's acted over his lifespan. Hell, if you're evil, bugs follow where you go, swarming constantly around your body. Horns rip out of your skull and your eyes turn red. You can also interact with many of the environments from breaking windows to breaking down doors to handing some broad a beer and getting her drunk. The sound is very nice in that the NPCs talk as you pass them by in the forest or on cobblestown village street. They say different things to you depending on your algnment. The music is a dramatic orchestration that really sets the game's mood. So why only 3 stars out of 5? The first few hours of the game were kind of fun (once you get past your training). It was fun to explore and develop your characters alignment, see his physical features change from doing good or bad deeds. When you start doing the missions, you realize that the game's complex menu system doesn't work in your favor. The "quick" menu, the D-pad on the left of the controller, allows you to assign different items for use in combat. The left stick is for character movement and the right stick is for camera control. To lock onto and enemy, you press the L button and attack with "B". To block and attack you hit the "A" button. To use magic, hold down the R button and use A,B,C,D button which executes a spell (user assign spells to these buttons). Fable is a game of many things. With all these commands, perhaps too much. Here's the problem. I said earlier that the first few hours of non-mission play are fun. But rarely in those first few hours are you thwarted by hoards of enemies. One, two, or three enemies attacking you at once? No problem. Six or seven hacking away at you? You will find your fingers in a knot from trying to use that control scheme I described above. Trying to remember all those commands, enemies swarming you at all sides, health restoration, locking on, switching from sword to magic, BLOCK THAT ATTACK!, use the D-pad to heal! After all is said and done, the battle system feels like a bad hack and slasher. Your forearms will be sore. That shouldn't happen. To wrap it up, while the graphics and sound are great, I must say that I'm not addicted to the game. Some games I can't put down, especially ones that give high level of customization. Based on my reasons against, I've concluded that once you get the feel of the Fable world, you find that it's faults strip away much of the fun.	video-games_xbox
Totally different experience. I have had a 360 since 2007. I was not going to get a current gent console till about a year after release but when this bundle deal went up on Amazon I could not hold off any more. Let's get into the pros and cons. -------- Kinect: Kinect is vastly better. I mean VASTLY better. Voice commands are heard/correct 95% of the time. Most times when the voice command was misheard it was cause I had said the command wrong. How is that you ask? Here is an example. Say "Xbox Go Home" and the xbox goes to the home screen. However I said "Xbox Home" and the xbox picked up on the "H" sound and thought I wanted the command "Xbox Help". Once you learn some of the commands the Kinect functions nearly flawlessly. I have my cable box passing through my Xbox One also. Saying "Xbox watch Comedy Central" and a second or two later my box is switching was a nice perk. You can use Kinect for game chat as well, but depending on your room the sound bouncing off the walls when you speak can make your game chat sound distorted like you have a slight voice modulator. I highly recommend calibrating the Kinect as well. It will function without calibration but I found it worked better after I calibrated it. The hand gestures are improved as well. I had the original kinect and I can not tell you how many times I would try to close my hand to scroll or select things and nothing happened. The new kinect can see fingers so palm around your screen smoothly close your hand and pan/scroll on the screen. You no longer need to page through menus by holding your hand at the edge of the screen and waiting for kinect to pick up on it and turn the next page. Just grab and scroll. You can even scroll if you on screen hand reaches the edge of the screen. Want to go home without talking or using controller? Spread your arms, close your hands, pull your hands together. That simple. Reverse that to go back into the main app running. The Kinect is faster at recognizing hands and faces and responds quicker now. I will say though my couch is about 16-18 feet from my Kinect and if I lean back I can not get Kinect to see my hand gestures. If I lean forward it will see them. I would guess that any further then 15 feet away and Kinect filters out movements to avoid incorrect gestures. Voice controls were not affected by distance to Kinect. For all the gestures and voice commands here is a cheat sheet. [...] ------------- Controller: The new controller feels like a cross between a PlayStation controller and a 360 controller. The shape feels nice in the hands. The battery compartment is flush with the back of the controller and the controller is much lighter then the 360 controller. The thumb sticks have knurling on the outer edge which adds a nice level of grip. The triggers are bigger and nicer. The D-Pad is nothing like the D-Pad on the 360. The D-Pad buttons look like that on the PlayStation controller and the D-Pad buttons click when depressed. I do not like the letter buttons being all black with a colored letter inside. I liked the colored buttons on the 360 controller but that is just me. Button layout is nearly identical to 360 but the lettered buttons are slightly larger. The Home button responds quicker but feels almost "cheaper" if that makes sense. The 360 button just felt more robust. The controller also seems to support game sound over a stereo headset if you have an adapter. My headset from the 360 was designed for a 360 controller and will not fit on the adapter so I have not tried this yet. Also as it turns out to get stereo sound through the controller you will need to do a controller software update. I have not done this either but will likely have to try it in the future. The headset provided with the console is better build construction then the 360, but still has room for improvement. It has a mute button that glows when on mute, with volume up and down for game chat volume. It does not play game sound only chat. The headset also connects to the controller even more securely then on the 360. There is no Sync button on the Xbox One. The Kinect has an inferred receiver in it and the Xbox One controller has an inferred blaster along the top. To sync a controller press the sync button on the controller and point it at the Kinect. I have gotten about 5-6 hours out of the provided Duracell batteries (yeah I know I was shocked too that the provided batteries were not some cheap off brand name) and the console is saying the batteries are more then half full. ---------- Console: The console is big. Lets get that out of the way first. It is bigger then the 360 slim. It is bigger then the original 360. It is however quiet. I find that is a plus. Since this bundle DOES NOT come with a DISC, I don't know how loud it can be if a disc was spinning. Personally I am going to try to buy digital only copies of my Xbox One games purely because hot swapping between games on the HDD is easy, fast, and convenient. The OS is flatter and simpler then the 360, very similar to Windows 8, and there are no third party ads, yet. The only ads seen are for games or apps to use on the Xbox One. To navigate I found telling the Kinect where you want to go easier then trying to find where the app is located. Example: I wanted to open my settings but could not find it quickly and did not know what buttons to push to find the menu that would lead me to the settings app. So I got frustrated and just took a stab at it saying "Xbox Go To Settings" Then screen went blank and the setting app opened up. Use Pins to set up shortcuts to apps and games you use often. I expect more apps to become available in the future as MS wants to use this console as a HTPC/gaming device. I have used the Snap feature to set up party/game chat quick and easy. The Xbox also will keep a game running while you do other things. The other day while waiting in a Titanfall menu, not the lobby queue, I snapped to TV while I waited for a friend to log-on. After about a minute an icon popped up and said that Xbox had found a Titanfall lobby ready to play and to hold the home button. So I did and it took me to a notification that said a lobby was found and was ready to go, and asked if I wanted to join. Meaning while I was doing something else, Xbox was queuing up lobbies in case I wanted to play. No waiting in lobbies for other players to join. I would like to try this feature with two games running at once when I get a second full game for Xbox One. All in all I have enjoyed my purchase and will likely enjoy it for years to come. If I missed anything or you have questions feel free to comment/ask.	video-games_xbox
Rock on, Rocksmith. I'm going to go ahead and give this five stars, simply because of the effort that was obviously made to create this game. What you get with Rocksmith 2014 is bonafide guitar lessons in an affordable, yet slick title that has its heart in the right place and provides a whole new way to learn the instrument. The mechanics are somewhat similar to Rock Band in that you're playing notes that come down a track but here, you're using an actual guitar in an environment that changes dynamically according to your skill level. The song selection is better than average with some stand out tracks provided by The Police, Alice in Chains and Radiohead just to name a few. There's also an entire plethora of lessons that have a very well produced video component accompanying them and they cover just about every facet of guitar playing and I think this is where you get your money's worth. The best thing I think is that the game's narrator is always patient, no matter how badly you're doing, so there's none of that anxiety over under performing in front of an instructor. The only thing that I wasn't particularly crazy about in regards to this game is in its need for an analog connection. Playing this game using either an optical or HDMI connection gives you a bit of audio lag, which is understandable seeing as how an electric guitar or bass is essentially an analog instrument. Thankfully, I didn't have to rewire my surround setup as I had initially feared but if you're currently running audio via optical or HDMI, you may want to see what your options are before you dive into Rocksmith. I currently have it setup so that I have both the HDMI and analog signal running in tandem to my receiver so I just need to make sure to switch between analog and digital. Rocksmith 2014 is a very impressive title that can actually help you learn how to play a real guitar and comes highly recommended. There's a bit of a learning curve but stick with it and you'll be surprised how much better you'll get, even after only a couple of days.	video-games_xbox
Affordable, Versatile and Typically Excellent Turtle Beach Quality and Performance. Turtle Beach's CoD: Ghosts Ear Force Shadow is the most affordable of a trio of new headsets released in conjunction with the latest Call of Duty offering. The primary trade-off for the lower cost of the Shadow is that they are wired vs. wireless. This restricts movement and adds some complexity to the setup, but it also means that you never need to worry about supplying or recharging batteries. So it's not automatically a bad thing - just a reminder that you need to carefully consider how you'll be using them when making the choice. One of the first things that I wanted to check out was the size of the headset itself. I've been using an older Turtle Beach (The Ear Force Delta that was co-branded with Modern Warfare 3) and while I always liked its sound and performance, the headset itself was just small enough that I never could get the earcups 100% over my ears. The Shadow has that extra bit of room so that I can do so, and the resulting comfort and blocking of outside noise is very good. The headset's frame is molded plastic that has a bit of a click-clack feel, but the hinges and connections seem to be solidly built. The earcups are soft breathable material and the top of the headband is padded. The color that appears to be white in the product shots is actually closer to light grey in person. I'm actually not a fan of the Ghosts logo, particularly on the Shadow, where it looks small, like an obligatory afterthought shoehorned into the design. In terms of setup, the Shadow consists of the headset, a separate amplifier box (about the size of a box of Tic-Tacs) and a the cords to connect the two to whatever device you choose. The Shadow includes a number of different audio cables to support however you might have your console and A/V system configured. The main USB cable is about 6 feet long, which may be too short to support the distance between most people's console and their couch. You can also connect a second device to add to the sound mix (e.g. a phone or audio player). I tried combinations of my iPhone, a PC and an Xbox360 Slim and they were pretty easy to set up. Sound-wise, the Shadow does very well. Of course it's not audiophile standard, but few-to-no gaming headsets are, and given the Shadow's entry-level price, the sound is better than expected. Mid and treble were clear and pretty crisp, although I found that the bass was on the light side despite the size of the Shadow's drivers. The amplifier box has separate dials for adjusting the treble and bass mix. I was able to turn up the headset's volume to about 70% before I heard any distortion and they were already well beyond the loudest I would ever consider using for a sustained amount of time. Gaming with the Shadow also worked very well. I particularly liked the separate volume dials for game and chat sound, and having them on the amplifier box (as opposed to the headset itself) made it easy to find on the fly. Chat sound was great on my end and other reported that my voice sounded good with minimal background noise. The game sound from the headset was clear and plenty loud, although I did quickly miss the surround sound of my Ear Force Deltas (which, to be fair, were over twice as expensive as the Shadow). For $99, you're getting a comfortable headset with good sound quality, great mic pickup, and the versatility to use with a variety of devices, including the next-generation consoles. Given my experience with Turtle Beach quality, this makes them a good investment. If you're a CoD fan, then the branding touches make it a no-brainer.	video-games_xbox
Secondly the story is a waste of time. First of all, it's short. You can play through it in a couple of sessions of normal game play. Secondly the story is a waste of time. It's mostly officers, who've just come out of hiding now that the shooting is over, making long-winded speeches - and you can't skip them. The game takes control during speeches and you just stand there, or jump up and down, or spin in circles, because it won't let you shoot the big mouth. In a boat or truck, your neck stops working so you can only turn 15 degrees each way. There are lots of weird artifacts too, like telephone poles that don't reach the ground and guys suddenly appearing or disappearing. In one scene a door is supposed to be blocked with sheets of plywood. The sheets are on the ground and leap up against the door as you approach. Some of the battle parts are fun, hence the two stars, but in others it's so dark that you can't even find the door or the stairs. There are bad guys who don't die, at least not all the time. You can shoot them in the head twenty times and they just keep blasting away. Your squad mates are bozos. They shove you out of the way all the time and will even push you out in front of enemy fire. They follow you around mindlessly, crowding you so that you can't shoot or leaning out to block your shot. Again, you can't just kill them. The small boat action is boring and like something out of the mid 90s. There is no flying and the one car chase is generic and the outcome is set no matter what you do. The big boats are all out of proportion. In one scene your ship passes and aircraft carrier and you're looking down at it! As usual, as soon as you stick your head out, every single bad guy in the world sees you and starts shooting at you with guns that never need reloading. The guns are okay, but there are way too many of them. You go to select your favorite and it's like, which one was it now, the BLTspecial, or the UPSboxerator? One good thing is that you never, ever run out of ammo because there are caches all over the place - I mean more frequently than Starbucks. There is more than one way to get through a mission. You can shoot everyone or sometimes just run past all the bad guys like a crazed bunny. Once you pass a certain checkpoint they don't follow, 'cause they're like computer generated idiots - or maybe it's their union rules. If you just like practicing your aim, this has some fun. If you want good characters and a plot, forget it. I tried multiplayer for the review, but it said I didn't have the right account or some such. Maybe you need Live Gold. Anyway, I don't do online with fake buddies pretending to be real soldiers. Real soldiers go around the shooting, not right down the middle of the street - just saying.	video-games_xbox
A very nice update to a very good gaming console. First of all, I really like the Xbox. I think it delivers a lot of value across the entertainment spectrum. I purchased the 360 S to replace an Elite that was in my game room (moving the Elite downstairs to replace an Arcade). Unboxing the unit was uneventful: The Xbox itself was packaged very neatly with button-taped wrapping instead of just a plastic bag. A black wireless controller (chromed Xbox orb in the middle), a somewhat smaller power brick, and a standard video cable were also included. I was a little surprised that there was no HDMI cable: It was a nice addition to the old Elite package. For those who enjoy picking up their Xbox and moving it around there is a nice warning label on the front instructing you to remove any discs from the unit before doing so. Honestly, I have never for the life of me understood why people felt the need to move the console around, and then complain about scratched discs. For me, playing Xbox does not include tossing the console around. But, to each his own. Setting up the console was simple, just like every other Xbox. I used the transfer cable to move all the junks from the Elite and it performed fine. Not very exciting. I haven't yet attempted the license transfer: It's not a pressing issue since I'm always signed into Live anyway. The size of the 360 S is a bit smaller than the Elite physically, but it "feels" a lot smaller. I don't know why but it just looks a lot smaller sitting in the same spot as the old Elite than it actually is. Probably a nice visual effect from the new shiny finish and the venting slots and angles. I have it laying down with the new side vent up. You really do feel the heat from this vent that is being dissipated from inside the console. Obviously it would be a bad idea to block it. While I have read that the unit is only a few decibels more quiet than the orginal, I have to say those few are very noticeable in the real world. I popped in Alan Wake and gave that a go and never heard the console at all. Even while not playing it's very quiet. If I get right up to it I can hear some whirring noise but from a distance I hear nothing. I had little issue with the console noise before, so it's all good with the S. The most noticeable thing that is gone is the DVD drive noise. I hated the sound as the laser head searched over and over on the old console. As for lack of Blu-Ray: Why would Microsoft add it now? Any game that would be published on Blu-Ray would not be playable on the existing huge Xbox installed base. That, to me, would be an incredibly stupid move and would anger a lot of existing owners. I have my Netflix going and have recently been renting the HD movies off of the Zune service: I have to say the instant on HD streaming is pretty incredible. The console does have built-in wireless N now. I don't have need for that, so no review on it. The console also adds the optical audio port directly on the console for those who utilize that. The S also has dedicated port for the Kinect, as well as additional USB ports on the back of the unit. My only gripes are the lack of HDMI cable and the wireless controller did not have a rechargeable battery with it. It was a great gaming console before the refresh, even better after. UPDATE: So after playing much more, varied games I can say that I do hear the fan cycle sometimes. I don't find it much louder than the original Xbox. I certainly don't notice any performance changes or any other issues when this happens. After reading some other posts about adding older wireless controllers I thought I would try adding all of mine: No issues. They synced right up after pressing the button. Still pleased with the purchase :)	video-games_xbox
Lowered Expectations. I got excited after hearing all of the hype and promises that were going to be delivered by this game. As a huge fans of Aliens, this promised to be the game that would finally fulfill all my expectations for what a Colonial Marines based game should be. Unfortunately as the release approached, dark rumblings were coming from game review sites like IGN. There were reports of release day patches that would fix these problems, but I was to quickly learn that if the game was still this broken, I shudder to think of what it was like before. The Collectors Edition came with a few cool perks. The best was the statuette of the marine in the powerloader. The uniform patches were similar to what is commercially available now. The "official documents" were really just filler and the downloadable content delivered with two codes on two different cards, but the items promised on one card were delivered by the code on the other card. The game itself was painful. The FMV was choppy, as if the Xbox couldn't process it fast enough and the frame rate was suffering. It also contain enough image noise to make you think it was designed to play on the original Playstation or Sega Saturn. There were plenty of weapons to chose from and tons of ways to customize them, but you'll only use the Pulse Rifle and the Smart Gun. Everything else seems underpowered or too slow firing. There were problems with items falling through tables and Aliens coming through closed doors, but it occured infrequently. The story itself was the same one you've heard in EVERY Aliens game. The Company wants specimens and is willing to sacrifice you and everyone else to get them. You have to kill your way through mercs and bugs alike and try to escape intact. snore There are a few twists to make it slightly different, but do little to save this game. Also, the last boss fight was probably the easiest fight in the game. All in all, I think this game suffered from too many cooks in the kitchen and will probably suffer from such a bad loss that Sega will almost assuredly never venture into Alien territory again. It's unfortunate because there is so much potential in this universe and if they could just get it properly designed, it could easily become a power franchise.	video-games_xbox
So addicting, it's almost a crime. I've had an Xbox 360 for about 6 months now. The longer I have it, the more I love it. And the games that are out and coming out for it are really promising. It's been out the longest out of the current generation models (PS3 and Wii), so it's game title selection is much more vast than the other models. It's geared to be a system that you can replace your home DVD player with, and it does work good for movies, but I still like my JVC DVD Player better for movies. Heat is a huge concern with the XBox 360. If you buy one, also buy the Nyko Intercooler and don't use the xbox without the intercooler hooked up. It really helps pull heat out of the unit. Also be careful where you put it. If you stuff it inside an entertaiment center with no heat, you are bound to have issues. Mine recently died. I went to turn it on and there was no video. Sound worked and I could hear it boot up, but no video. I called Microsoft Xbox Support and they were very helpful helping me to get it fixed. I haven't gotten it back yet, but other hardware that microsoft has repaired for me was a fast turnaround. I hear a lot of people complain about Microsoft, but honestly, I can't say a bad thing about their support. There's only 2 things I can complain about with the 360. 1. You can only watch videos that are on DVD or downloaded from the Xbox Live marketplace. I have numerous .AVI backups that I was hoping would play on it while I was deployed in Iraq, and to my knowledge, there is no way to get them to work. Frustrating when you have 300GB of compressed movies and no way to play them, except on my laptop. 2. Mine died after only 6 months, and looking on the internet, a lot of other people have had problems with theirs. The quality just doesn't seem that great for a system that costs no less than $300 dollars. I took very good care of my system, and didn't expect it to die after only 6 months, but I guess that beats it dying right after my warranty expired! On the other hand, Microsoft has a pretty warranty (One year, out of the box), and their support is quite good. I like the Xbox so well that I bought another one to replace mine that is being serviced. It's being shipped to me in Iraq, and I will have 'Xbox withdrawals' until it comes in. Hey, there's nothing else to do here to keep your sanity!!! LOL	video-games_xbox
Sentinel Crisis says one thing to me: low budget. I really don't know where to start on this game. It's so terrible, so chalked full of faults, I could begin anywhere. Let's go with the story first. As I popped Crisis into my X-Box, I was pretty optimistic. It was made in 05-06, and was a first person shooter, one of my favorite game catagories. I started the story mode and watched the load screen. Suddenly, I realized that I wasn't being greeted by a beginning cutscene worthy of a 05-06 engine. I wasn't even being greeted by a cutscene. I'm in a helicopter, looking at the HUD, with some guy talking in my ear. The game wasn't at very high volume. I looked for subtitles, but there were none. So, I drop out of the shot down helicopter with no idea what was going on. I played for a while with the volume turned up, then wished I had left it down. There's a 'political war' some-place-or-other, and I'm in a prototype suit called the Sentinel. I must help the 'Rebels' while finding some Dr. Landry. The end. That's the plot. One minor twist and you've got it. Now for gameplay. It gets only a bit better here. You progress through the game in FP, using one upgradable gun. Sounds pretty basic. Maybe even cool if handled correctly. It wasn't. In the first place, the enemies can take an abnormal amount of punishment, about fifteen shots. That's sad, but what's even worse, is that instead of using the cool machinegun function on your gun, you'll find yourself using the sniper rifle, even at close range. Why? Because the guns are weak, hard to aim, and the sniper is the only thing that can do decent damage, if you can actually hit anything. It don't usually doctor my settings much, but I had to immediately change the aiming speed, but that still didn't help much. Also, though you might not care, the guns give me very little feeling of power. You fire a machine gun, expecting loud chains of fire, smoke, and blood. You'll be greeted by what seems like a suppressed submachine gun, small, small mists of blood, and enemies absorbing your fire and blowing you away instead. Not what I look for in a game. Disturbingly, the silence pistol is the most powerful weapon in the game. Your given a useless shotgun, but also a grenade and RPG launcher very early, making it to easy to take out supposedly difficult areas. But the developers couldn't even get ammo right. You're given so much, it takes all the survival sense away. Sounds and voiceovers. Oooooh boy. You'll get sad, sad voice overs, unlikable characters, and there isn't a single girl in the game! That should turn off a bunch of you. Cutscenes are scarce and not properly pulled off. The voices are annoying and the phrases are repeated. As I said earlier, you can hardly hear your guns, and explosions are lameified. Graphics are the only decent thing about this game, and even they're pretty terrible. The AI waddle around like idiots and mouths hardly move when you can actually see them. Cutscenes involve about four characters, you included, along with an 'army' of Rebels (about five are seen at once). The AI enemies are stupid and the AI allies are useless. There are four or five 'chapters' that are incredibly short (mercifully, I say). All in all, if this hasn't turned you away, you will have to endure the tortures of Sentinel yourself. This is one classified occurance that should have remained classified. Verdict: GOOD GOLLY GOSH! 1/1000 :)	video-games_xbox
Cliffs Notes - Bullet Point Review. Is this the worst game I ever played? No Is this worth 60 bucks? No. Probably more like 20 or 30 dollars. Will FPS non Alien fans like this game? Doubt it. Will die hard Alien fans eat this up? Yes, thanks to the solid story that fills in some gaps in the Alien canon. Lets do the bad, the ugly and the (few) goods The bad: Somewhat lousy controls Mediocre weapons upgrade system Very meh voice acting Stupid AI enemies Seemingly invincible AI teammates that do not die and shoot in random directions Short campaign that is boring during single player Clunky movement, derivative gameplay Pointless addition of Weyland Yutani soldiers, killing Aliens is the fun part, not generic mercs Lacks polish consistent with today's top notch FPS games The ugly Ridiculously ugly textures Constant framerate issues Tearing and other ugly bugs (walking through doors, invisible enemies, freezing) Godzilla movie like lip sync problems (voices don't match lips) Crazy lag at times in mutiplayer (even with a full connection) - very annoying as AI enemies freeze frequently Laughable CGI quality (almost reminds me of Halo 1 quality) No element of danger or surprise for the most part, which detracts from the spirit of the Aliens franchise Environments are cool for a brief moment until the repetiton gets you Constant reminders/feeling that this game is unfinished Looked nothing like the prerelease demo Gigantic plot holes that actually make things even more confusing in the Alien canon Terribly unimaginative and boring final boss battle (you have been warned) Lame ending that suggests a sequel (or more DLC) The (few) good Actually fun if you play co-op campaign, maybe bc you know others are slogging through the game w/you Frantic, chaotic fun in co-op that is reminscient of the firefights in the Aliens film Nice cameos by Alien franchise actors Intersting storyline with lots of easter eggs for die hard Aliens fans Bottom Line - Not a total fail as others have said but most definitely not for anyone other than die hard Aliens fans. This game totally feels like it languished in development hell for 6 years and was done by multiple developers. A missed opportunity. Only check this out if you are nuts about Aliens, otherwise stay away. I would have given this game a solid 1 star if not for the surprisingly fun co-op mode and the cool but confusing storyline for those of us who yearned for more after the Aliens film.	video-games_xbox
My kids hate it because. Here's the short of it: Just Dance 2016 (and its <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Just-Dance-Disney-Party-2/dp/B0131M66TW/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Just Dance Disney Party 2</a> spinoff) is great if you're willing to subscribe to Ubisoft's <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Just-Dance-Unlimited/dp/B016VFRS34/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Just Dance Unlimited</a>, a monthly subscription to all 150-songs for the game, for $6.99 a month or $60 a year. If you don't, the game is not nearly as much fun as previous iterations. The biggest problem is that Just Dance 2016 shows you all the songs without an easy way to identify what you can and can't play without making additional purchases. That means on the home screen it looks like you can play dozens of songs, but when you click on one to actually play, the game asks you to subscribe for access. This was tremendously frustrating to my tween, who is a huge Just Dance fan, because most things she wanted to do the game wouldn't let her without more money. Personally I think its ridiculous to charge $60 for a game and then gimp access by trying to nickel-and-dime (and twenty) the people who bought it. But if Ubi is going to do it that way, at least give the option to only show the game we can actually play. We've picked up the newest version of Just Dance every year, and this year's should've been a knock-out. I've been obsessed with AaronChupa's "<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/I-m-an-Albotraoz-34/dp/B00NAPU48U/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">I'm an Albotraoz"</a> for a year and couldn't be more excited for its inclusion. Some Selena Gomez for the kids and Grease for my wife, and there truly is something for the whole family. Too bad Ubi decided to take such an aggressive stance selling add-ons that they've made the game un-fun and my girls have gone back to <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Just-Dance-2015/dp/B00KTNU40E/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Just Dance 2015</a>.	video-games_xbox
Simply a blast. Greetings Amazonites! Just Cause 2 is a blast to play! If you're looking for some downright fun action, then this is the game for you. Step right up to my patented 3-tier review system. ENVIRONMENTS (5 stars): Wow... just wow. This game looks amazing. Everything in the world is eye candy--the buildings, trees, grass, rocks, buildings, characters, vehicles, etc, etc... You name it and the developers made sure it was pleasing to look at. I really don't know how they managed to cram so much detail into a game and still make loading times transparent. I'm not even sure there is any loading time! I've journeyed across the world numerous times and never had the game stop to load anything. Everything seems to just be there, ready to see. The game world, in my opinion, is vast. There's something like 35 square miles of land in the game. You can really feel the scale of the world by flying around in a helicopter. It actually takes some time to get somewhere far away (there is a fast travel option, however). I'm blown away at the combination of scale and detail. There's variety in landscape, as well: beaches, ocean, mountains, snow, jungle, cliffs--it's all here. The sound and music is superb. Every bullet shot, explosion, and rain drop sounds great. The music is simple and creates a great atmosphere without beint distracting: some good, rhythmic tunes to keep the action upbeat. GAMEPLAY (3 stars): the controls are good and responsive; if you played any other 3rd-person action games, this won't be too much of a problem. The camera is excellent as well; it frames the action well and doesn't get in the way. There were a few moments where I would've liked to play in 1st-person, but it wasn't bad enough to ruin the game. The 3rd person is all about preference. Sometimes I find it disorienting when you're trying to change directions or look around--the camera and the character don't always look in the same direction. Managing items, vehicles, and inventory is easy. Everything is mapped to the direction pad for quick access. You can tap a direction or hold it down to change weapon configurations. Using a parachute or grappling hook is a quick tap of a shoulder or face button. There's no unwieldy inventory screen to scroll through--everything can be switched and configured in the game HUD. This is a brilliant system that keeps you in the game. One of the strongest things in the game is the parachute and grappling hook combination. You can jump off cliffs, pull the chute, and glide for miles at a time. You can grapple hook the ground or a tree and keep your momentum, cruising the land in your chute. It's quite a sight. The hook also allows you to scale buildings, attach to helicopters (and take it over), grab vehicles (and hijack them), and attach people to objects (like a moving vehicle). There are a slew of combinations these gadgets can be used for; you'll feel like a combination of Rambo and Batman! The weakest part of the game--and it can be frustrating sometimes--is the shooting. The aiming system feels a little awkward at time. You'll burn through a lot of bullets just spraying enemies. You can zoom in and aim, but it's not practical when you're getting shot by multiple opponents. It's simpler just to hold the trigger and let the lead fly. Aiming seems very "from the hip" regardless of the weapon used. The difference between the weapons doesn't feel as strong as it should be; head shots work for all weapons, but it seems like there's little difference between an assault rifle and a pistol when just shooting normally. Fortunately, the frantic action often distracts from the unwieldly aiming. Vehicle operation is another sore spot. It's fun to take control of cars, trucks, bikes, copters, boats, and everything in between--but it can be a chore to drive. Aside from acceleration and top speed, most vehicles drive the same. The steering is odd; it feels to easy to oversteer and too hard to turn sharp corners--even with a slower vehicle. Helicopters and boats are the easiest to manage, but they can get cumbersome when you're being chased or moving at top speed. Just like the aiming, the vehicles don't ruin the game--they're just not good. DESIGN (5 stars): The game is all about bringing down the corrupt government of Panau. Something sinister is afoot--a conspiracy of international proportions. The main character, Rico, is a specialist in causing chaos. That becomes the focus of the game: blowing stuff up, assassinating key figures, and just making life difficult for the government. It's a lot of fun, too. New weapons, upgrades, vehicles, and so on are accessed through an unusual method: you call a black market dealer, who flies to your position and drops the items to you. It sounds a little corny, but it works quite well. It makes a lot more sense than trying to find shops in a country where you're destroying stuff! The map is very well done and full of information. Each location has an icon (like many other games) and highlighting an icon allows you to mark it as a compass direction and also calls up an information panel; the info panel tells you the basics of the site, what kind of rewards you can expect from it, and so on. Each site has a combination of objects to destroy, people to kill, or treasures to find. When you complete all the objectives for each site, you earn a bonus reward (normally points and/or cash). The story is actually pretty good. You don't have to do any of the story-related missions at all! This is one of the best things about Just Cause--you can, literally, do whatever you want. There are all types of missions to choose from, and completing objectives opens up more choices. Missions branch off of missions, depending on who you decide to work for. Rico is a mercenary, and you can pick from any number of factions to aid; or you can just cruise around causing chaos, collecting rewards, and enjoying the scenery. The game has great appeal to guys, like me, who don't have a lot of game time. It's fun to just fire up this game for an hour or two and revel in the chaos. Take a quick half-hour dip into the world to raid a military base! There's nothing like stealing a military assault helicopter and using it to demolish a secure military facility.	video-games_xbox
Initially I ranked 2 star, grown make it 5 star. If you can't stand mindless destruction, move along this game isn't for you. I initially I hated this game, but for what it is, they do a good job. Up to 4 players insane fast action madness, zero learning involved in this game. The puzzling can be tricky, may need older people help. Other Must get kids games: <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Cloudy-with-a-Chance-of-Meatballs-Xbox-360/dp/B00242KDA4/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - Xbox 360</a> (3-6 year old, 2 player, easy and fun) <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Toy-Story-3-The-Video-Game-Playstation-3/dp/B0038MUCPK/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Toy Story 3 The Video Game - Playstation 3</a> (3-9 year old+, 2 player, FPS for kids) <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Rio-Xbox-360/dp/B004NB1C54/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Rio - Xbox 360</a> (3-9 year old+, 4 player, 30+ Party games for kids) <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Lego-Batman/dp/B000ZKBJY6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Lego Batman</a> (3-7 year old+, 2 player, puzzler, 3rd person shooter) <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Disney-Universe-Xbox-360/dp/B0051875OU/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Disney Universe - Xbox 360</a> (4-10 year olds, 4 player, fast action w/mini games, pure arcade play) <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Rayman-Origins-Xbox-360/dp/B0050SYAQ2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Rayman Origins - Xbox 360</a> (4-9 year old, 4 player, arcade side scroll er) <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/LEGO-Batman-2-DC-Super-Heroes-Xbox-360/dp/B006ZPAYGE/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes - Xbox 360</a> (4-9 year old+, 2 player, huge world, action-adventure, younger kids need older player) <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/LEGO-Pirates-of-the-Caribbean-Xbox-360/dp/B003O6E7O2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean - Xbox 360</a> (4-12 year olds, 2 player, nice variety of puzzle-gameplay, younger kids need older player) <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/LEGO-Star-Wars-III-The-Clone-Wars-Xbox-360/dp/B0037UCTCW/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">LEGO Star Wars III The Clone Wars - Xbox 360</a> (5-9 year old+, 2 player, RTS game for kids) <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Lego-Marvel-Super-Heroes/dp/B00B98HF1O/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Lego: Marvel Super Heroes</a> (5-14 year olds, 2 player, younger players need to play with older player to navigate world, gameplay fan-tastic, low puzzles) LEGO Lord of the Rings - Xbox 360 (6-14 year olds, 2 player, my son at 5 struggles but can play with heavy guidance from me, fun game, dad approved, low puzzles) Minecraft - Xbox 360 (6-17 year olds, 2 player (can be large multiplayer) creative gameplay) Rest of Lego games are all worth playing, if it wasn't for lego games XBOX would be a vast wasteland for kids under age 8. :)	video-games_xbox
Light, Comfortable, Simple, Decent Sound. This is by far the most comfortable headsets i have had. I have tried brands like Audio Technica and Panasonic, but the comfort of this pair just goes beyond them. i have been wearing them for about 2~3 weeks so my judgement is based on the consistency within the testing period. Sound Quality: 8/10 Design and Form Factor: 9/10 Comfort: 10/10 Noise Isolation: 7/10 Durability: 8/10 First, i just want to say that these headsets rock! But i'm not really a big fan of the multi-tasking hub. I tried it, it worked well, but i just really didn't need it. It's nice to have but, who knows, maybe real gamers will find it useful! The sound quality is clear and solid. However, RIG is not one of the music power houses. It does not provide strong bass and intensive surround effect like the Beats and Skullcandy. It also doesn't really isolate the noise. The Plantronics RIG is built as both a gaming headset and a music outlet. Its capability lies between those two categories and, as a casual gamer and everyday-music-listener, it works really well for me. The built quality of this headset is simply amazing. It definitely doesn't feel low-rated like those cheap plastics. The design is plain and simple, which is what i prefer rather than having bunch of icons and colors. The RIGS comes with black and white (i got the black one and i love it). The headband of the headset is covered/padded with thin-layered fabric and the earcups are padded with large memory foam which enhances the comfort. There are no buttons on the headset just a single port to support the cables (one cable has the bendable mic and the other only has voice control). One thing that buyers should be aware of is that the earcups can not be bent 360 degree. They are only made to be twisted frontward for 90 degree. Overall, RIG is for casual to mid-ranged gamer like me. It has great and simple built quality and it is very durable and light which makes it very easy to travel with. The RIG works as both a gaming headset and music headset. In fact, I use it more on the music side than the gaming side due to its lightness and aesthetic. Nevertheless, if you are a true gamer, you might want to increase your budget and get a better surround sounding gadget. If you are a music recorder, you might want to consider getting a headset that provides better noise canceling product. In short, Plantronics RIG provides a good mid-range performance and it is a great choice for those casual gamers and music lovers like me!	video-games_xbox
They are on the right track. With so many bashing reviews for this game, I was a bit hesitant to buy this one, but I played the demo and watch many videos and to me it seemed ok. So I gave it a shot and here is what I think after finishing the game once on the normal mode. ***************PROS:************ AMAZING VISUALS AND GREAT ARTSTYLE: Artstyle and graphics in this games are simply phenomenal. Depiction of seven circles of hell, design of various enemies and bosses as well as character are just amazing. This is the strongest aspect of the game and will truly promote you to go deeper into hell to see its sadistic beauty. DECENT COMBAT MECHANICS: Combat mechanics in this game is somewhere between Devil May Cry 3 and God of War. As you will see, they have borrowed heavily from both of this game (mainly God of War). For most part, it works great and you will be able to punish you enemies in decent number of ways. Fans of heck&slash genre will certainly like it. DECENT PLATFORMING GAMEPLAY: Other than combat, what makes gameplay fun is its platforming aspect. Just like God of War, you will be jumping, hanging, swinging and performing various actions from structure to another. While it does have its downside (see cons.), for majority of game, the developers have done wonderful job. I particularly like the design how you are literally going down different circles of hell through platforming aspect. UPGRADABLE MOVES: In this game, you can upgrade your combat moves as well as your character's parameter by defeating enemies and collecting experience points. I particularly dig this, as I love the games that add RPG elements to it. Having upgradable character truly pushes you to go an extra mile to explore more and thus unlock more. Like it when developers add something like that. ABSOLVE OR PUNISH: I usually like choices in the game. While this game is no Bioshock or Mass Effect in terms of choices, you can at least whether you want to absolve or punish enemies. Doing either will eliminate your foe in unique manner, but more importantly allow you to upgrade unique set of moves depending on what choices you have made. Again another interesting addition. PLENTY OF INTERESTING DOCUMENTS: Other than new moves, there are plenty of other material that you can unlock in this game. For example, talking to a character you encounter very often will unlock different artifacts that gives you power. In addition, different souls you encounter in hell have their own story. Once you find them you can also read through all of it in form of document. So for those who are interested, this is definitely a plus. FREE DLC IF YOU OWN PS3 COPY: If you buy this game for PS3, you get "Dark Forest" free single player DLC. It is a prequel to Dante's Inferno story. Compare to game, it is not that great, but hey, it's free :) **********CONS.************* DUMBED DOWN BOSS BATTLES: While certain boss battles are great, others just seem plain stupid. Imagine you are just fighting a bigger version of enemy and you are simply defeating it by plain button mashing. And honestly compare to its competition (God of War, Devil May Cry, Bayonetta), the boss battles simply suck in this game (with exception of final battle). FAULTY MECHANICS FOR PLATFORMING: There are certain areas where you will die even if you think you are jumping/grabbing correctly because of inherent imperfections of platforming designs or mechanics. The worst part is when you die, you lose everything you collected as these faulty designs/mechanics come not so long after few check points. Because this, you will find yourself going out of your way to absolve/punish same souls/finding treasure chests over and over again until you get everything right. **********CONCLUSION*************** So no, the game is not perfect, but it is not broken beyond hope either. It is definitely worth at least one playthrough simply because of it s gorgeous art and wonderful depiction of seven circles of hell. If you like action/adventure and heck&slash, certainly do give this one a try. I will give 8.5/10.	video-games_xbox
Review from a non-gamer. I'm married to a gamer, but I rarely play. What I do enjoy is games where I can be a spectator and enjoy the game with my husband. Before this, only one game kept my interest enough that I wanted to "play" with him for more than a short while (Bioshock). This game, however, was fun for both of us. What I Enjoyed I'm from Los Angeles so I resonated with the 'old time' LA in this open world game. The architecture, the flora, and even the characters strike me as a realistic portrayal of Los Angeles (and Hollywood). It's set in 1947, and it's like the old photos you see all over LA have come to life. I enjoyed talking through the clues in each case and working out the "tell" each person has if they are lying. There's murder, rape, and more that you investigate in this seedy town, yet you don't feel tainted because your character is above all that. You play a no-nonsense war hero who starts out as a police officer and moves up as he cracks cases and becomes a detective. I love the music. It feels very 1940s. I love the realistic facial expressions and an over all feel that is more like watching a movie. I like the "notes" book. It has all the information you've collected, and it really feels like you're checking your notes when you consult it. You can go to a clue during a conversation, for example, click on it, and it's worked into your interrogation of a person of interest. We liked it that it was a combination of solving mysteries, doing car chases, and having shootouts. What I Wish Was Better There's an awful lot of junk you can pick up to see if they are "clues". We must have viewed at least 10 beer bottles either on purpose or accidentally. It seemed silly that in once case we found a bunch of shrunken heads exactly like a "clue" we'd found, yet only one of the 8 or so we picked up was the one that verified that we'd found the location they were made. It's a bit slow and I wish there were more chances to rely on your memory and/or solve a puzzle. Our ability to tell when a person of interest is lying isn't always great. We did away with most of the driving as it got old pretty fast. You can just let your partner "drive". It definitely isn't for everyone, but it's one of the very few games out there that brought us together to play.	video-games_xbox
SO many cliche RPG flaws but overall great gaming experience. I've been playing video game RPGs since like the late 80s, and this one stuck out as one of my top 10. Maybe top 5 within the past ten years. (Demons Souls and Dragons Dogma are my RPGs of the past 15 years) But unfortunately it seems catered to the modern day MMORPG gamer and not so much to old school gamers. Let me jump to the point. Cons: 1. Quantity over quality- So many of the side missions are easily the most forgettable of any RPG I have seen in a while. Even some of the main missions seem to suffer this problem. Besides tons of boring missions you get tons of boring loot. Id rather have a few epic swords than 500 different swords all with small statistical advantages. I know many gamers no longer feel this way, but I don't like the feel of winning a sword against a master demon only to have a street bandit drop a sword that is much better only because its later on in the game (therefore they don't need to explain why lower respected enemies have better loot than a God) Also all the lore included in the game, all the books you find, or notes, or scriptures....no one is going to read all that. Rather walk into an ancient monumental library and find an amazing book than read 100s of posted notes laying on the floor. 2. Vague description player choices during conversations- This is something that is bugging me since Bioware did Mass Effect 1. During a conversation some of the options of the things you can say to people is summarized is a brief wheel of options. Problem is, is that I never know what my guy is going to say. I may select "I love you guys" on the wheel, but then what my guy says is "I care about you guys, so Im going to have to kill you all!!!" WTF! I didn't mean any of that. 3. The lack of space to move- I kind of enjoy the idea of a restricted/guided map over an open one. Dragons Dogma did this quit well. Very open ranges but at times you were guided to areas, this lead to some monumental moments and views. DAI maps at times almost feel like Fable instead. A majority DAI is pretty vast but inbetween those spots you are going down corridor areas while outdoors. 4. Difficulty Curve - The difficulty of this game is all over the place. On easy you can win with your eyes closed. Medium- Maybe win playing with just one hand. Hard- Got to strategize and earn your win...followed by getting stomped in 5 seconds out of no where. Since many complaints about how easy Medium is I went for hard. Its more fun to be challenged in combat and use strategy (something missing from RPGs). I felt my victories weren't all that tough but they did suck up a decent amount of resources to win. Then you fight an enemy party with a shield and an archer and your party is dead in literally seconds. No chance in hell of winning. So basically you go from needing to take things slow to win, to you need to grind for 3 hours and hopefully find someone to win against, back to achieving an "easy" victory. I had to switch between Hard and Medium constantly just to advance in the game at all. What I did like: 1. The story- Does something new with RPGs. Within the first hour you are the hero, you save the world, everyone worships you, you get an army, you get a fortress, and continue to save the world. Much better than being nobody for 90% of the game where you have to earn respect and no one trusts you. 2. Characters- Instead of getting a bunch of sad 1 dimensional characters or overly complexed characters you get party members that are a lot more fun and intriguing. I really hate when you have party members that fall into the overly dramatic or are the anti heroes who like to pretend they don't want to save the world. I almost feel that each members personality came from someone on the development team rather than trying to create a unique past that clearly no coder or developer has ever lived. Like when a video game designer tries to bring out the horrors of being in war. They clearly have no idea, nor should they try to imitate the emotion. You got a lady who opposes the rich and believes in helping the little people and doesnt take any side of a war just the most logical approach (reminds me of a college educated liberal youth). You got a straight forward shooter general who rallies his men by drinking and fighting with them rather than speaking in riddles. You got a b!*ch mage who thinks she is smarter than everyone else therefore everyone is dumb. Theres a sarcastic mage who never takes anything serious. And then you got a mystical demon/spirit who honestly should be too powerful for your party. The way he speaks and hears things is interesting. He is like stuck in between 2 worlds at all times and at times he seems not to exist. 3. Combat- Combat is pretty intense (on hard) and amazing to watch. The ability to switch in between characters and try new classes is always refreshing. Overall I liked the game, despite my many complaints. The graphics are amazing, the acting is amazing, and the flow of the game and the combat always keeps you on your toes and interested. I did wish more RPGs try to reenact fantasy novels or epic stories as opposed to stat driven games that must last 40-100 hours. Multiplayer is in the game but isn't worth playing more than fifteen minutes.	video-games_xbox
Good / Average. I have not played the any of the Need for Speed games since underground 2. This game is very very different and has a completely different feel. Granted it has been some time since I last played one of these games however I am suprised at how different is truly is. Main Differences: 1. In Rivals, cars are no where near as customisable as they were in U2. You get basic decals and basic upgrades, upgrades can only be completed on 5 different car aspects like speed, acceleration and control etc. From a visual point of view, I am disappointed with the available options; Car bodywork (Block colours and paint effect), Brake Callipers (A set range of colours), Stripes and basic decals. 2. In Rivals, the available cars to unlock are good but not your 'young street racer' type of car. You are looking at the high end sports cars like Ferrari, Bugati and Lamborghini. 3. In Rivals, cops cars are not customisable or upgradeable but the range of cars is good. 4. In Rivals, the persuit tech options are good and add an interesting aspect to racing either as a racer or a cop. Who doesn't want to give the car next to you a shock/jolt with shockwave? 5. Map, the Rivals Map is very different from U2 and is very much open road and less inner city driving. Naturally there are a few locations in town like areas but it is very much open road with shortcuts and jumps. 6. XBOX In game voice commands, these are one of the game's highlights. They make racing and navigating very easy especially as there is no 'pause' when you are racing. I especially like the 'next track' command. 7. Cars, tech and upgrades are bought with speedpoints and speedpoints are collected through completing races and certain maneouvures. However get busted by a cop or wreck your car and you collect noting. Points are banked when you return to a hideout. 8. Online play is fun and what you expect. 9. Graphics - pretty good. 10. Story progression - poor. Game becomes very competitive, earn more speedpoints, do a longer jump, gold a hard race and so on. There are a few 'glitches' with this game. They are minor but can become frustrating: - When in 'public' mode you can be racing and then kicked out, as if kicked off a server. Game reloads and you can continue racing but you often just have to restart the race. - Racing other players, despite a good internet connection, sometimes online players suddenly jump ahead in a race as if there is lag. - Map sometimes opens after crashing your car. - Controller sometimes randomly vibrates. Overall 3.5/5. as it is strangely addictive.	video-games_xbox
Same great universe, with a few slipups. Mass Effect 2 is one of those games that defies simple explanation. A massive universe with an in depth storyline, real and entertaining characters, engaging dialogue and sidquests, and a breadth that nothing short of incredible. Basically, something not to be missed. The graphics are gorgeous, though too much is cast in a weird orange glow that swallows almost everything. But the tech nerd will delight in the hologrpahic loading screens, of which there are about 30, the near photorealism of the characters and some long distance visuals. Audio is perfect, with a combination of old and new voices, some so apropo to character they'll make your skin crawl. Major props to Martin Sheen for the Illusive Man. There is however, a lot of overlap when too many opponents occupy the screen. Also, some voices are oddly placed and distorted, so that you'll be listening to a side conversation that seems to be happening from across the room. Gameplay is what you'd expect, but also where the most bizarre developments were made. Almost every story mission, all of which contain critical in game items and upgrades, are one play only. So if you miss something, you'll never know, much less be able to go back and get it. Planets that are explorable are now fewer and farther between, and the system to move from planet to planet, despite working well, is now a odd feeling piloting sim. Health and shields are now totally regenerative, and healing is solely for your squadmates, so there's no longer an ability to heal on the fly, making this more like Gears of War cover to cover combat. Emphasis is now on skills, many of which combine well. XP is radically changed, and no longer dependent on combat. This is rather confusing, and makes leveling hard to visualize, and what gets you experience seems random at time. Skills are also shrunk to 6, removing a fair amount of character customization. Upgrades and improvements replace the majority of new equipment, which has to be researched. Searching for resources is now a annoying mini-game that feels like one of those old school adventure games where you scoured every pixel of every screen to progress. The new hacking and decryption minigames are fairly nice, and easy to get through, meaning tech personnel are no longer mandatory. A fantastic game with only a few features that have backslid from the first chapter, this is still probably the most in-depth, expansive, and beautiful RPG you'll play this year. And I can say that despite it still being January.	video-games_xbox
Dragon Age: Origins + Fable + Mass Effect 2. I wish there were half-ratings, because I don't feel this is a baseline 3 star game. More like 3.5. Just not good enough to be a 4. While I only experienced two freezes in the entire game, numerous things about the game bothered me. What stands out the most is the lack of creativity throughout the entire game. It didn't bother me so much that the whole game takes place in a single city, because if done correctly you would forget you're in just one city (and even if you remembered, you'd be amazed it was all one city). I think the city of Denerim in Origins had just as many locations as this new city setting takes place in. And while a couple of the city locations are fairly large, you will travel every inch of them so many times the city loses its charm pretty quickly. And it's unfortunate, because one of the strengths or getting the player familiarized with an area is that certain locations will inevitably come to be associated with events in the game. There was such an instance while I was playing when I reached an area and I thought "Oh wow, this is where ______ was murdered." I won't reveal who because it would be a spoiler. However, the failure of the game setting is that underground areas/caves/exterior beach levels all used the exact same design. Literally, they would just re-use the same cave for all caves (except one, I think, which was unique), and they would fill it with different enemies. Drop giant spiders, blood mages or whatever else in the cave and change the quest, problem solved. And then the design of the cave itself was ridiculous. Not only did I feel it was lazy, but it made cave exploration feel like a chore, when in Origins it was one of the most fun parts. What this means for the familiarization of locations is that the personal connection I would have otherwise felt was shattered because the same interior setting existed in multiple places. And to expound on that point, I also felt a bit cheated in the game. Where in Origins the game took place along a large landmass and quests occurred all over it, the same locations are used over a period of ten years. So I'd take my time and work through nearly all the available quests, and then the game would skip ahead 1-3 years and suddenly I have to clear the same caves, deal with more gang problems, the same old thing. I found it cheap for one main reason. My first character was a "Good" guy. I helped out everyone I could, the best way I could. But then when the game skips ahead I'm supposed to buy that for the past three years my character was just absent from all events and did nothing to prevent the further decay of the city. It ruins the immersion. And that's the main thing really killed the game for me. That even though "rushed" isn't really the word I would use to describe what was wrong with the game, it was sorely lacking in the creativity department. The game still earns a 3.5 rating though, because especially the second half of the game, the story really picks up and gets really damn good. In the interest of keeping this review as short as possible, this is where I'll end my review. Dragon Age 2 was a game that had so much potential to be great, the ingredients were all there. But as with Mass Effect 2, I felt this sequel kind of moved sideways. It did some things better and some things worse than the original, and ultimately I was left feeling unsatisfied.	video-games_xbox
Not as bad as die-hards say it is. I've been a huge Ace Combat fan since Ace Combat 4 graced my PS2 years back. I've always loved the way the series was a nice balance of flight sim (in that your plane handled like you'd expect it to) and arcade (because 200 missiles). Every iteration they've made subtle changes and improvements, which is cool and all, but I give props to Namco for taking a risk and making some big changes to the series. AC: AH is definitely kind of a black sheep of sorts in the series, and I regard it more of a standalone game than part of the rest of the games. They definitely tilted AC: AH towards Arcade Game instead of Flight Sim. You have crazy, physics-defying counter moves, minigames, and regenerating health. The biggest change is the oft-derided Dog Fight Mode. Basically, it's a minigame where the game takes over the piloting for you and you just focus on pounding the holy living crap out of your target with missiles and bullets, and sometimes it's actually a bit of a challenge. Some people despise it, I wasn't a fan of it at first but after playing through the game I can appreciate it for what it is. I find it enjoyable. I still can shoot down bad guys like I was able to in the other Ace Combat games, but DFM is a nice addition when I get too frustrated with some of the more squirrely enemies that keep juking my missiles. There's also a variant of this for taking out ground targets that I found to be an actual huge improvement to the game...it basically sets you up for strafing runs, increases your damage resistance, and makes your weapons recharge faster against ground units so you can take out tons of them in one fell swoop. The setting is also different -- it's set in the real world, which is good in that there are no more hokey countries that likely sounded cool in Japanese but end up sounding rediculous in English (Gracemeria? pffffft). It was nice to see all this happening in actual locales for once. There are little added details that are both cool and sometimes annoying. The camera is ALWAYS SHAKING. Even in the cutscenes. And yeah, I get it when you're flying and you wanna add a sense of speed and turbulence, and it works for that. But in the cutscenes? C'maaaaaan! Also, they added a cool little detail in cockpit mode where your cockpit actually moves around slightly when you turn and accellerate, which I appreciate. Because physics. The graphics are quite pretty, but sometimes these random low-res textures show up out of nowhere and you're all like "whaaaaa?" Every single mission has some kind of element of "PROTECT YOUR GUYS AND IF A SINGLE ONE OF THEM DIES YOU FAIL YOUR MISSION," which I think is kind of tedious and definitely gets repetitive after a bit, but honestly I have so much fun zooming around in my shiny fighter jet pretending like I'm a less homoerotic-beach-volleyball-playing version of Maverick that I don't really care that much. The AH-64 missions are...rough. Cockpit view is too slow for turning, but the helicopter literally dominates your whole view in third-person. Thankfully, there are way more FIGHTER JET TOP GUN HIGH SPEED DANGER ZOOOOOONE missions than attack helicopter ones, so s'all good. Oh, I almost forgot the music. THE MUSIC. Japan decided to be F***ING METAL this time around, and as someone who likes heavy, pounding music I was happy with the change. I'm...okay with the other Ace Combat music, but my problem is that it's just too...Japanese-y. It's hard to describe. But I appreciate the different direction they tried to take it in. Overall, I enjoyed the game more than I thought. It's a solid effort from Namco and I gotta give them props for taking a big risk with making significant changes with one of their Babies. I'm glad I bought it. Given that you can get it used right now for less than 10 bucks, you aren't really gambling on this game if you don't like it. Sell it on Glyde or something if you're not happy with it.	video-games_xbox
Massive potential, just plain not fun or enjoyable. Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is an ultra-tactical shooter that has you managing several elements on varying battlefields through out a developing story arc set in the South Pacific (if I recall correctly). The backdrop for the game is a war fueled, ironically, by a lack of oil resources. The mission variety is immense, as are the terrains and weaponry. You definitely feel engaged in a variety of forms of war and can easily become immersed in military tactical shooter goodness. Different troop types, vehicles, artillery, military resources, weaponry, etc all contribute to a game that feels heavily diversified within its guidelines. The story arc and mission structures contribute to a very realistic feeling. The game is just plain not fun. It is best in small doses and taken with a very large grain of salt. Your friendly AI is just plain ineffective. I've read commentary that they won't obey self-destructive orders, and I disagree. They just don't react well at times and do things that make no sense. Your success is highly dependent on your squad mates -- a factor that might be nullified if you play co-op with friends. Your method of interaction is slow, clunky, and imprecise. For a game that does require tactical positioning and execution you aren't really given an effective way to achieve this. Many times it is easier to just leave them somewhere safe, have them make noise, and then creep around and finish off the enemy. Another factor that detracts from fun: enemy sharp shooting skills. You can be picked off by enemies that you can't even possibly see -- which is another issue, you can hardly make the enemy out anywhere. They, however, can pick you up almost instantly no matter where you are. They are incredibly lethal at any distance and can be very difficult to sneak up on. This ties into another complaint: time. The game is clearly designed to be a very slow moving creeper-flanker of a tactical shooter but you are often saddled with very constricting time limits. It is difficult to enjoy the game and make use of its subtle nuances when you have to literally run, full bore, across areas or suffer dire consequences. As one frequent commenter points out, "Military missions are often under time constraints". I understand. It still doesn't change the fact that this is overdone and seriously detracts from the fun. The checkpoint system is another serious flaw. Setting aside that it has infrequent checkpoints, they are often in strange and tactically dangerous places. This also ties in with the way point system -- if you follow the way points you'll end up dead quickly. Sometimes you have to "touch" a way point in order to trigger a scripted event. Often times I've been killed only to have the check point reload and have an enemy literally right behind me -- peeled within five seconds of a reload. Next reload: no enemy there. Overall, I've found the game to be very frustrating -- it has so much potential, so many cool ideas, and yet it has so many seriously detracting factors. For all it could have been it honestly fails to execute. Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is a game as good as it is bad. One minute you are enraptured by it and the next minute you are googling the developers so you can send them hate mail. Do yourself a favor and rent it before purchasing to make sure that you are really interested in what the game has to offer.	video-games_xbox
Wish I could use the 360's media remote instead. I loved having the 360's media remote. Heck, I still use it from time to time. If you're just going to use the 360 for DVDs, menus or purchases, you can use the remote entirely, skipping the controller completely! But the X1 remote isn't quite as useful. And, I'm shaking my head at some of its design choices, which range from just sad to flat-out irritating. I'm okay with it having fewer buttons. The number buttons won't really be missed. But there are functions I miss across the board: no buttons to access the DVD/Blu-ray menus, no ABXY buttons, no power button, no Display or Info buttons. I actually used those with regularity. So what buttons DOES the remote have? Well, it's hard to tell, because there are no English labels on ANY of the buttons. All you get are icons. Some are self-explanatory, like Play/Pause, Stop, Forward and Back, because those icons are the same on almost every device. But many of the others range from "oh, I get it" to "what the heck is that?" I know that the X1 is sold in many places, but I'm not a fan of the recent trend: companies shifting from supporting one or multiple languages to supporting no languages at all. I'm sick of having to decipher confusing, meaningless icons when one or two words could have given me some actual information. The buttons illuminate, which is nice. But when they aren't lit up, the icons on each button are a dark grey on black. Unless the room is well-lit, they are barely visible. If the room is fairly dark, you won't be able to make them out at all. So before you can actually press a button on the remote, you have to tilt or shake it, which causes the buttons to light up. If you were going to pick up the remote anyway, it doesn't matter, but if you just wanted to push a button while it's lying on a table, you're out of luck. Oh, and when the buttons light up, they don't stay lit for very long...it's a mere 3 seconds before the light starts to fade. It does not appear that the amount of time can be adjusted. So you may have some trouble even if you're just trying to stare at the icons to figure out what they do. Despite all of this, I can still find some pros. It's one of the smallest remotes I own, so there's something to be said for that. It is nice to be able to manipulate the X1 without waking up the controller or having to use voice commands, which are convenient but not always as easy to use as physical buttons. The most essential functions--pause, play, skip forward--work just fine. So as a somewhat-functional remote, and an alternative to the most basic voice commands, it's a success. But if they released an updated, more useful version--or simply allowed use of the 360's media remote via a firmware update--I'd toss this thing in a heartbeat.	video-games_xbox
Decent Game Despite the Criticism. Quantum Theory is the latest addition to the ever growing third person shooter genre. What makes this game stand out is the clear cut fact that the entire game is based off of one of the most successful third person shooter games ever released, "Gears of War". Trying to take what Gears of War did so many years ago and attempting to make it "fresh", "new" and "innovative", Quantum Theory adds its own unique flavor and twist to the Gears of War style. Does it work out? To a certain extent. The game focuses around a man by the name of Syd, a direct clone of Marcus Fenix in terms of personality, looks, and even voice. Syd is a soldier whose main duty is to destroy the Living Tower that is destroying everything that humanity has loved for centuries. The power of the living tower comes from a foreign substance referred to as "erosion". Through the usage of its powers, the Living Tower is capable of manipulating the land around it, shifting the appearance of the grounds and making the game more difficult for users since cover points tend to disappear each time the land changes. Syd joins up with a local squadron who also hunts and destroys the Living Towers. However, the AI of these assistants is very low, many times making it seem better to have been playing by yourself rather than having to worry about your partners. This is really nothing new to shooter games, however, since many times in Halo games the Marine assistants tend to simply get in the way of the fights with the enemies. The enemies on Quantum Theory aren't very difficult to beat, usually their response time is rather slow, and performing melee attacks on them is relatively easy due to their slow response. The game adds a unique feature, the ability to throw an AI controlled partner at the enemies and have her enact as a "grenade" of sorts. By throwing your partner at the enemy, she instantly performs attacks upon contact, sometimes resulting in instant kills on the enemy. However, some points of combat are rather lacking when compared to Gears of War. Quantum Theory's hit detection seems a little bit off, making it difficult at times to shoot enemies and have the hits actually register as causing damage. Guns are mapped to the d-pad and can be changed by pressing the corresponding directional button. Picking up items is done with the down button, so the game only allows the user to carry three weapons at a time. Critics have already begun to pour in the negative remarks on the game, panning it for "outdated graphics", "poor controls" and "uninteresting characters". However, despite the game's problems, it still has enough "pizazz" to make it stand out amongst other titles available on the market. The sum of its parts may make the game fall short in some cases, however, since many of the smaller aspects of the game simply fail in comparison to the game in which it is so desperately trying to emulate. When comparing Quantum Theory to Gears of War, it's an easy choice as to which game plays better, looks better, and simply works better. However, with its own unique gameplay mechanics, such as shifting levels which take away the players' cover spots, as well as the unique ability to throw a teammate at enemies to inflict damage (or even kill enemies), Quantum Theory is still worth checking out if you're interested in third person shooters. The graphics may not be as polished as Gears of War 2, and the gameplay may be a little more sloppy than Gears as well, but the game is still good on its own merit.	video-games_xbox
Gets so many things right for kids. I haven't been happy with most of the games on the Xbox Kinect for kids. Only a handful truly kept them engaged: Sesame Street's Once Upon a Monster and Kinect Adventures. Other than that, the games are either too adult (Kinect Star Wars? I'll pass on Leia in a bikini, thanks) or way too difficult for the kids to control (we still can't get Kinect Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure to work right). Then we stumbled upon Just Dance Kids 2014. There's so many things right about this game. For one, there are lots of "themed" songs, which is excellent when my 3-year-old daughter puts her pirate costume on (backwards) and demands we role-play pirates -- thank you "A Pirate You Shall Be!" Or when the kids both get their lightsabers (purchased on a recent trip to Disney, natch) and record themselves dancing to "Interstellar Simon." Speaking of Disney, I never knew you could dance to "The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room!" The game is very forgiving, particularly of my daughter who at random intervals just wanders off or sits down. It also likes to give out points just for having a pulse (and sometimes not, I think the curtains scored some points once), so that everybody feels like they're participating. It can include up to four people at once, which is hilarious and confusing and likely involves someone accidentally hitting someone else in the back of the head. Not that this has happened to us, no sir! There are also shout-outs for the parents, like "Fraggle Rock," and "Footloose." And I was pleasantly surprised that there's no scantily clad women making suggestive dance moves...although there's definitely something up between the lady-dressed-as-cat and the guy-dressed-as-dog in "Do You Love Me (Now That I Can Dance)." The game features single and dual-player modes, as well as a freeze-and-shake mode for younger kids who get bored following the moves and prefer to occasionally go crazy during the song. Players can team up, create their own playlists, and take pictures or record videos of their own games for play later. My kids have played this multiple times, which is saying a lot for Kinect games that burned brightly but we finished too soon (Once Upon a Monster) or that we beat after playing it over and over and over (Kinect Adventures). My only criticism is that there doesn't seem to be any downloadable content for it yet.	video-games_xbox
Clarifying some points. Well, I agree with ninety percent of the people here who say that it's a great game... in fact, it's really the only reason to own an xbox. Let's face it, sony and nintendo have the majority of good games. Anyway, let me clarify a few points made by some of the other people- Long load times: Only when starting a new game or loading a save, either of which takes a little over 60 seconds. In-game load times are brief and rarely more than a second. Stability issues/freezing: depends on which version of the game you have. The original release of the game will quite literally start locking up about every twenty minutes once you put about 30-50 hours onto a save. This problem was fixed in the GOTY version and I've only had it freeze twice in the countless hours I've logged (and both times were caused by a glitch in one of the assassin guild missions, not from instability issues). Weak/no plot: baseless, if anything there are too many plots and sub-plots to keep track of, both in the main storyline(s) and among the guild houses. The main storyline starts out a bit slow but is well worth the trouble. Too much text/extraneous text: it's a motherf***ing rpg, what did you expect? Imbalanced Character levelling: unfortunately, or fortunately if you like to cheat, the rules that underline the character creation and levelling tends to incourage abuse and the creation of unstoppable power characters. This is not entirely a bad thing but it tends to suck some of the fun out of playing when none of the monsters or brigands in the game can possibly hurt you in any way, also, by the time you reach level 25-40 your character will have become an unstoppable god-like being even without abusing the system. Bethesda has said that they've fixed this problem in the upcoming Elder Scrolls 4:Oblivion game. Insufficient Quest Journal: it COULD use an option to sort by completed/pending quests but it does have the option to search by specific keywords, which works well enough as long as you don't take on too many quests at a time.	video-games_xbox
a classic, but probably not worth too much time or money. Unlike wines, Jedi Outcast was probably better appreciated when it first came out back in 2002. I played it for the first time this year and while it was fun I can't say I love it. If anything, I enjoyed it mostly because it gave me a nostalgia trip for the original Dark Forces game, which was one of my first computer games back in 1996. Jedi Outcast looks and feels dated even though it's been less than a decade. Yes, games age, but even games like KOTOR and Rogue Squadron, which came out around the same time, still look and feel great. By contrast, the graphics in Jedi Outcast just look blocky and flat. The locations are generic. There are even some familiar locales, like Bespin, but you're pretty much stuck in a bunch of rooms that look no different from the Imperial ship later in the game (compare that to the Bespin in the Force Unleashed Wii games, which actually does look like Bespin). However, what really frustrated me was the gameplay. The lightsaber combat is uneven and unwieldy. Jumping isn't very precise, which is a big problem because Jedi Outcast thinks it's a platforming game. You often have to make precise jumps onto narrow ledges. This led to no small amount of frustration. I'm not sure why some people rave about the story. The story is pretty rote - the princess (Jan Ors) gets captured, and the hero (Kyle Katarn) has to go find his sword (lightsaber), track down the evil king (Dark Lord Desann), and rescue her. You don't have any choice in the story or outcomes. Even worse, some of the movie characters act out of character. Luke Skywalker seemingly has no problem with Kyle going out looking for revenge against Desann. Lando Perhaps I've just been spoilt by recent games like the Force Unleashed and KOTOR and Rogue Squadron, which have great graphics, controls, and stories. I'm glad I tried Jedi Outcast just to see what ever happened to Kyle. I loved shooting Stormtroopers Dark Forces style. But with so many great Star Wars games out there, this one should probably be pretty low on your list. - Enjolras	video-games_xbox
Worst WWE Game Yet. Where do I begin? I'd give this 1 star, but there are no other serious wrestling games on the market. First of all, don't bother creating your own superstar because you can barely use it except in "instant" exhibition matches. You will play 66% of Road to Wrestlemania, and none of WWE Universe mode unless you screw with the schedule, before you are given the option of playing your character. Oh, and I hope you like John Cena, Sheamus and Triple H, because you are forced to play them LONG before you get to play with your created wrestler. As for WWE Universe .... pathetic! The story lines, just like Road to Wrestlemania, are nothing but "run ins", DQ's and other stupidities. In one match, I played for 20 minutes, trying pin after pin, in a Triple Threat match, and realized the A.I. (HAL 9000) had determined before the ring of the bell that I must lose for the sake of the story ... so I stopped trying to pin my opponent and just closed the pod bay doors. So, how about exibition matches? Well, on the PS3, half the time the computer (PS3) tells me I'm too dumb to play myself and so it controls my character for me. No big deal, I just spend the next two minutes restarting the match to have the same thing happen again. But once I get to play myself, I spend most of the time mashing the R2 button on EASY MODE because, if I don't, I'm gonna get a serious beat down. The AI, even when I change the settings to favor me, are still superior. And even when I do win, what's the point? I either have no connection to the story at all, or I lose the title during "commercial break" because Vince think's it's better for the video game ratings. I did finally win the WWE Championship in an Elimination Chamber match, where I sat in the corner and waited for a one on one. I defended my title right away in a random match (go Santino!) but I was no longer the champion. Both myself and Santino were denied. Somehow, without even using simulated matches, the title was in the hands of .... Sin Cara? Seriously? I never even wrestled him! Pathetic! WWE is LIVE entertainment, I know that, and I LOVE that ... but for video games it needs to be more like Tekken or Street Fighter .... may the best man (Diva) win. Mano-y-Mano! I WANT to be champion. I WANT to work hard and learn and become the best ... I'm tired of WWE forcing stupid story lines down my throat in these games. Story is great, and very necessary for TV, but not for the video game. Just let me play, let me kick some rear end, let me lose the title and struggle to regain it. Is that hard a concept? Let me choose MY OWN CREATED SUPERSTAR in story and Universe mode and let me win, lose, struggle, and adapt to become the champion until, on a press of "square" for a random opponent, I lose the title to someone silly ... and spend the next several months (in game time) getting a rematch to prove I really am the best. What is the point of using my own created wrestler if I cannot really use him? This game is equivalent to China making the transition from wrestler to "actress" .... makes no sense and makes me feel sad somehow for the Good-Ol-Days. The "fighting" and "competition" is lost in this game. It tries to act more like a WWE "Backstage" Simulator with current superstars and not the challenges and trials of a new rookie just out of OVW.	video-games_xbox
A Very Explosive Game! With Cheats. Mercenaries is an excellent game. Its a Third person shooting/flying/driving game with many weapons,including calling in air strikes with laser targeting and by sattelite also the ability to drive and fly just about anything incuding helicopters,tanks,military jeeps,civilian cars,etc.etc. The missions are open ended ,with the ability to hijack cars and military vehicles. You can also blow up just about anything you see ,including large buildings. The explosive effects are very nicely done and richly detalied,put C4 on a hood of a car then drive,ditch,detonate ,the car will sometimes explode into the air about 100 feet ,also when you blow up a building it implodes much like a real building does ,very realistic looking. The soundtrack is orchestra/operatic style kinda like The Godfather. The plot is not very deep,dont expect (rpg) role playing game style game at all. But this game is very fun right out of the box. There's lots to explore and see. This game is like a summer action movie ,lite on the plot,heavy on the blow stuff up shoot the bad guys. Youre up against the North Koreans and your basicaly a bounty hunter/ mercenary ,and your hired to take out enemy leaders who are represented by a deck of cards,but you don't know where they are located so you have to work for any faction of your choosing including "South Koreans,Russian Mob,CHINA,and Allied Nations or A.N.".You can work for all four Factions to do there dirty work. You'll be hired for specific contracts by each faction and they will pay you money and then usually give you a location of (CARD) enemy after you complete there contract for them. Also based on which faction you work for you might either gain or lose status with a faction depending on whether you can do your contract in stealth or finish the task by not getting the opposing faction killed or civilians killed. You can work all sides except for the "North Koreans" which of course are always your enemy in this game. The map areas are huge with open-ended playability and each (ACE) card or (boss) has there own seperate map usually an island to visit after getting all other enemies represented by the suited deck. After getting all the diamonds and clubs enemies a whole new map opens up and you then have the ability to travel between both north and south provinces. There's lots of bonus missions also. This game is simular to GTA series,but not very much don't expect the same game as GTA.Only the open map is simular and the hijacking of cars. All in all a solid entertaining game. Here's some CHEAT CODES: INF HEALTH:At the PDA "factions" screen press:UP-DOWN-UP-DOWN-L-R-L-RINF AMMO:At PDA Factions screen Press R-L-R-R-L-R-L-LALL SHOP ITEMS:At PDA Factions screen Press downx4-UP-L-R-REXTRA CASH$:At PDA Factions screen press R-DOWN-L-UP-UP-L-DOWN-R**NOTE: All codes entered on D-PAD.Also after entering each code correctly you will hear a click sound. Also codes can be disabled by entering them again or turning of xbox,with the exception of the ALLSHOPITEMS cheat which remains in effect.	video-games_xbox
Hulk - Fighting, But Not Like You Expect. All right brother, it is time to put on your spandex and pump that iron, for Hulk Hogan has entered the stadium. Returning for some iconic wrestling fun, Hulk Hogan is here to teach you his signature wrestling style. And what better way to do that, than through the Kinect for Xbox 360. The game is called, Hulk Hogan's Main Event, and Hulk is here to make you sweat. Before Hulk Hogan's Main Event came out, I wasn't sure what to think. I'll start by telling you what this game is not. This game is not exactly like Fighter's Uncaged where you battle like in a Street Fighter type setting. You'll see the screen shots of Hulk Hogan's Main Event and see the energy meters of you and your opponent. I'll tell you more about these later, but it is not a match where you get the opponent all the way down and the match is over. This game is not a Kinect version of the current wrestling games out there. Hulk Hogan's Main Event is old school wrestling. We're talking the old days of Andre the Giant being slammed in the head by a guy wearing a ripped neon shirt. This is not your John Cena version of wrestling. This game is all about the show. There are four game modes in Hulk Hogan's Main Event: Career Mode, Quick Stunt Mode, Exhibition Mode, and Head-to-Head. Before you jump into any modes, there is an area which you can create your wrestler. There are a surprisingly decent number of ways to alter your wrestler, considering everything is done through hand movements. My personal favorite part of creating the wrestler is recording my voice. You can record a catch phrase and answer three interview type questions. These phrases are then played as part of the introductions of your wrestler. As I said before, this game is all about the show. The real meat of Hulk Hogan's Main Event is the Career Mode. Essentially, the story is about your journey from being a backyard wrestler to becoming a big-time superstar. Apparently the Hulkster is throwing a backyard wrestling contest and is looking for someone to mentor. After going through a small tutorial fight, you find yourself hand-picked by the king of wrestling himself. The story is told through comic book panels, which felt natural enough to me, but I kind of missed hearing more of Hulk Hogan's voice. As you progress through the Career Mode, the flow of the wrestling matches take their full shape. Every match follows a certain pattern. You begin with your appearance and approach to the ring. This includes matching certain poses and then dodging trash thrown at you from the audience. During the course of the fight, any number of things can happen. The best way to describe the fights is like a series of random mini-games. One part of the fight can be made up of dodging punches and attacking back. Another part of the fight can be throwing your opponent against the ropes and knowing the best way to hit or trip them. Another part of the fight can be avoiding getting hit by a chair. There is enough variety here, where things are kept enjoyable. Each segment flows from one part to the next very well. As the health bar goes down, you are moved into another segment. Should you fail a portion, you can try again. This was helpful, because at one point in the tutorial areas, I ran into a small glitch that would keep refilling the health meter of my opponent. I had a lot of fun beating the opponent up, but eventually decided to fail the section and when I tried again I moved on without hitch. Once you have beaten down your opponent enough, you must pin him to the mat. Once pinned, you lean left or right, depending on which part of your opponent is wiggling to break free. I've read from and talked to several people who had issues with the pinning. Mostly from them thinking this was too corny. For me, it seemed natural enough. If you have someone on the ground and they are trying to break free, it makes sense to move around to keep them pinned. The career mode probably takes 5-6 hours to work through and progress to the top. Along the journey, you will unlock a few extra modes and outfits from the main menu. The other modes of the game are really only pieces of the career mode made available for quick play. You can either practice each mini-games or a set up an exhibition mode to play solo or head-to-head. The head-to-head mode is the only multiplayer mode, which can be played with up to two people. This is not direct versus mode, but rather players taking turns doing stunts. Thankfully there are leaderboards to compare your exhibition or career scores to friends online. While there may be some disappointment from people wanting to battle family members or Xbox Live friends, the nature of the game would make it difficult to do so. Success in the ring is determined on your reaction to your opponents signals; having an one-on-one live competitive mode would take away a good deal of the showmanship. The game looks nice and functions well. Think of this game as a showy cartoon and you get the idea. As for the moves, I had no problem navigating the menus or pulling off the combos. Most of the moves involved twisting, dodging, ducking, jumping, hitting, and kicking. Sometimes this is done in rapid sequence and rarely would I find my moves being misrepresented. In reviewing games, I look for the five f's: fitness, fun, family, functionality, and firsts. I wouldn't necessarily use Hulk Hogan's Main Event as a fitness game, but you will be quite active. There are enough pauses between the action to keep the game from being a solid cardiovascular workout. The game is fun, especially when you put aside any preconceived notions that Hulk Hogan's Main Event will be either a fighting game or a modern wrestling game. This game is all about showmanship and pulling off the classic moves. Think about wrestling of yesteryear, when the hitting looked fake and wardrobes were cheap cloth. This is what the game is all about. If you are comfortable with the violent nature of wrestling, then it would be clean enough to own. There is no blood or swearing-in the game, at least from what I can tell. Everything functions well, from the menus to the real moves. Hulk Hogan's Main Event features the first wrestling game on the Kinect and the first game to string together mini-games into a fighting match. In summary, this is a very fun game for old-school wrestling fans. If you are looking for realism, this game isn't for you. If you want something to put on a show with and bring back the glory days of rope work, then you may want to pop this in for a spin. Sure, the Career Mode is a bit short and there isn't a lot to play beyond that, but I can find myself returning to the ring over and over. As long as you can understand that this is not a fighting game, but rather a series of orchestrated mini-game type events that recreate an old-school wrestling match, then you can buy this game with confidence and knowledge. Pose, strut, and swing your way onto glory....brother.	video-games_xbox
Flawed rehash of Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. I remember renting Hulk: Ultimate Destruction when it came out, and returning it to the store a day early. Not because it was a horrible game, but because everything about the game was bland. Sure, it was fun for the first hour, but nothing that came after that initial rush - the repetitive missions, the generic and barren 'open world,' using the same two or three attacks over and over - was really all that enjoyable. In other words, had there been a demo, that would've sated me. I only write about the previous Hulk game because Prototype is developed by the same company, and it shows. From the similarly empty and unmemorable cityscape to the exact same canned elbow drop and throw animations, the resemblance is undeniable. The graphics are bland, unrefined, and nothing really 'pops' about your character or the game's version of Manhattan. The spectacle of the violence can't be articulated with any words other than 'ridiculous' and 'gratuitous.' The prospect of gore in a game doesn't bother me, but it seems Radical spent more time on its detail than on the variety (or lack thereof) in the story and side missions, and I still find it random and foolish that throwing a person into a tank or a helicopter will cause it to spontaneously explode. Perhaps I expected too much. Perhaps I thought the story was going to be something more interesting than an over-the-top recounting of Wolverine's origins (in the early parts of the game, anyway. As new plot elements are introduced, the story gravitates closer to other easily identified comic book and science fiction cliches, but I'll refrain from "spoiling" those points. The Wolverine thing is evident from the trailers, so that's fair game). Maybe I thought there would be more to do than run around and kill the same three or four generic enemies and blow up the same tank time after time. The ability to use weapons and drive vehicles is fun, but futile, and ultimately seems misplaced: why would I voluntarily use something that will only inhibit my ability to kill the uninteresting enemies that will attack me in wave after groan inducing wave? And the while the choice in powers is excellent, it creates too much choice, and there are several powers that will go untouched, both from lack to time to experiment with them, and from general lack of effectiveness. And the tanks all handle too loosely for my tastes anyway. I had the opportunity to purchase this game a week ago, as a Best Buy close to my house broke the street date and put it out on the shelves, but I've already let a friend borrow it, and once he's finished, I'll probably put it up for auction or trade it in, because I'm dreading the prospect of ever playing it again.	video-games_xbox
Halo 4: Almost But Not Quite. I want to start by saying that I have and love all of the previous Halo titles, with ODST being my favorite single player and Reach favorite multiplayer. [...] Campaign: I thought this was done very well. I found the story engaging and deep. I'm looking forward to Halo 5. Spartan Ops: No complaints, a fun continuation of the story Multplayer: This is where it falls short. It does not feel like Halo. There's too much of a Call of Duty influence. Mainly this comes from the choosing loadouts. What I loved about Halo was that everybody had the same weapons. If you wanted a different gun, you had to fight for it, and then fight to keep it. There was more thought and skill involved, unlike CoD where whoever has the best gun wins. Halo 4 fell into this trap, certain weapons are overpowered (lightrifle to name one) and result in irritation. Halo is supposed to be fun even if you are losing horribly. It seems to take itself too seriously. The only gametypes I like, really, are Big Team Slayer, and Pro Slayer, they feel more like Halo. Also, there is a peculiar lack of playlists including very popular ones, such as SWAT and a general Team Objective playlist. Also, the armor is not great. It mostly looks like a really bad Japanese cartoon. There are a few nice pieces, but what wrong with what was in Halo 3 and Reach? Also, joining mid-game and instant respawns do not do anyone any favors. I hope 343 removes these features via some type of patch. Forge: Seriously? No EMPTY maps and no flying UNSC vehicle? There are 3 forging maps, but all of them have things that can't be removed and are not natural. And come on! No Hornet? No Falcon? No Pelican? Who came up with that? In General: The graphics are great, but almost too detailed, if that makes any sense. Halo 3 had a great balance: they were clear and detailed, but not so much that you got hung up on a particularly nice-looking weld. Also, the sound is quite good, but I dislike a few things. First the gun noises. The assault rifle and battle rifle are kind of off-sounding and they murdered the sniper rifle, it sounds awful and weak. I like the soundtrack for the most part, but I wish they had gotten Martin O'Donnell to do it. Also, I feel a little disconnected from the game. 343 Industries does not seem to be as tied-in to the community as Bungie was(and still is) and they don't really seem to be listening to the players. All in all this is a very good game, and I am happy with it and will be playing it for a long time, but I wish Bungie was still in charge. UPDATE: Let's put it this way, I went from 4 to 3 stars. After having played more, I find myself becoming increasingly dissatisfied with multiplayer. I hate the instant respawn, I hate the killcam (THIS IS NOT CALL OF DUTY! IT'S HALO!), and I hate that there are only 5 maps per playlist, it's so boring playing the same 5 maps over and over and over again. And it just feels so serious. Halo is supposed to be lighthearted in the multiplayer. This is something you play with your friends in real life. And they show you your #of deaths in the first post-mission report screen. In past titles, the just showed kills and assists, you had to dig a bit deeper for deaths. And the end match screen is just too much. Before it was a simple "Your team won/lost" in the kill feed and a faded HUD. I liked that. And back to the maps, there is only 1 great map in the game and that is the Valhalla remake. The only reason it's good is because it was lifted straight from Halo 3, where it was awesome. I like playing Big Team on Valhalla, but that gets boring after awhile. When I first saw that there were Call of Duty developers on the Halo 4 team, I knew there were going to be issues and I was right. Halo has become WAY too much like CoD. I like CoD, but I love Halo and I want a major separation between the two. I'm sorry, I've loved Halo in the past, but I think I going to go back to Reach. It's just better in every way. I'm taking this game to a meet with a few friends tomorrow, and I don't think that they will like it. We usually play Reach and have a ton of fun, I don't think that this game is conducive to screwing around in splitscreen. I'll write more once I get back. 343 Industries, please keep the CoD developers away from Halo, and go back to a more traditional formula for Halo 5. Or better yet, become part of Bungie so that they can kill your stupider ideas.	video-games_xbox
Played the game all the way through Here are my thoughts. This game is a great arcade racing game. Realism is not part of the game and that is fine I really didn't want that. I have seen a lot of people however comparing it to NFSU2 and saying that it blows it away. I somewhat disagree. The only things this game had an advantage on NFSU2 was the licensed vehicles and mods you were able to make. The one thing I however loved about NFSU2 was driving my car around with the engine and sound effects turned up. I loved hearing that engine and the great sound effects. It really improved the game. However Midnight Club Dub Ed seemed to take their sound effects straight from the Grand Theft Auto series. This works fine in GTA but in a cusomizing racing game it is really a let down. I mean the sounds aren't even remotely close to sounding real. I really emphasized on this because it bothered me the most. The next thing is the graphics. Once again not as sharp as NFSU2 but still good enough to be enjoyable. The details throughout the cities are nice touches. They could have improved this a little but it is good enough where I wouldn't want it any better due to loading times. Control of the vehicles is fine. The only thing that bothers me is when you press the accelerator button it is full throttle or none. This bothered me because I couldn't cruise around at normal speeds with the manual transmission on. Like for instance I would drive in NFSU2 down some streets at normal speeds in sixth gear like you would really drive the car in real life. In this game you either go full speed or are coasting. It just doesn't feel real. The gameplay however I believe is where this game does shine. It is challenging and rewarding. There are some races that took me quite some time to complete. Sometimes you will just have to put the controller down and walk away before you start throwing things. I can not tell you how many times I would be a turn away from the finish line in the lead and low and behold here comes a car, bus, or something else out of nowhere and smack! You get passed race over. This game is well worth the money and despite some drawbacks I do reccomend it and hope they come out with a new one. One more thing. This game dogs on some of the American cars again. For instance the Z06 Corvette has better real life handling and speed times than many of the other cars in the game but you wouldn't know that from the game. It controls like a classic car and doesn't have the speed it should.	video-games_xbox
It's not GTA in the old west. Red Dead Redemption is not "GTA in the old west." Actually, it's a lot more like Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, set in the fictional old west of spaghetti westerns. What strikes you at first is the scope of the game. There's so much space, and so many things to do! Seriously, you could skip the single player and just hang around in the game world, and you'd have enough to keep you busy for a very long time. The animation is fluid and beautiful. The characters are well acted by their voice actors, and well illustrated by the game designers. It's simply remarkable how beautiful the world looks. Sunsets are stunning. Starry nights are gorgeous. Playing this game is like taking a vacation to the frontier. If you rush through the single player game, you won't appreciate all the game has to offer, but you'll still be heartily satisfied by what's included. If you stray from the single player path, or jump into the free-roaming multiplayer game, you'll find it's hard to get bored. Hours melt away when you're playing RDR, and that's the best compliment I can give a game. You are absolutely missing out if you don't have online access though. From new missions and DLC to the rich multiplayer modes, this game is made better with an Internet connection. If anything really stands out in this game, it's how alive the world is. There are all manner of animals running around and flying through the skies, and you can interact with all of them. The birds are really there, and you can shoot them, pluck their feathers, and sell them. From snakes and rabbits, to wolves and cougars, to hawks, owls, and crows... The world is full of creatures. My only complaint about the game is that it's easy to offend NPCs and end up on the WANTED list, with a bounty on your head. Just yesterday I ended up wanted because my horse was slow to stop and ran into a lawman, who took that as "assaulting a lawman" and opened fire on me. Why didn't the fool just get out of the way? It wasn't my fault! It was my horse! That aside, this game is one of the games I'd say is worth your $60 to buy as a new release. There's no doubt you'll be able to grab this in a year or two for $29 in the Platinum Hits collection, but you're doing yourself a disservice if you hold off playing this that long. The old west genre has been suitably represented here, finally. Earlier games like GUN, Red Dead Revolver, and Call of Juarez were OK, but failed to really provide an immersive or aesthetically-pleasing experience. Red Dead Redemption belongs in the same category as movies like "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" as MUST-OWN western media. The soundtrack is good, but does get repetitive. I almost wish they'd gotten Clint Bajakian, who scored LucasArts' "Outlaws", to contribute some music. As it is, after a while I turned down the music because I just thought the game "felt" better without a constant score. Bottom Line: If you ever enjoyed Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and are a fan of the movie westerns, then you owe it to yourself to grab Red Dead Redemption. It's one of the best sandbox games ever made.	video-games_xbox
Good game. Conflict is one of those games that you and your friends could play forever, but when it comes to single player it lacks. Mult. is a heck of alot of fun, the first night we got it we played from 8pm to 4 in the mourning. Its cool because you can cover each other, and help one another. In single player you have to move every person around, or just have them follow you, but the A.I. is about as smart as a box of rocks, if your team is following you and you get fired apon they just turn around and start ripping shots off, instead of taking cover, or i'll sneak around a corner and i'll turn around and my guys decide they will just run balls to the walls around the corner and then stand there and get shot, one time I used the heavy weapons guy to creep up on a tank and I hide him behind a transport truck, then I switch to another guy. but when I switched over the computer decided he would blow up the truck I hid him behind, then he stood there and took a tank shell to the face....(that resulting in some f words). Alot of people have complained about the controls when moving you troops, but its not hard at all, at first you get alittle angry, but you'll get the hang of it, really I don't know what people expect the developers to do, they did about the best job they could with a console controller,(the xbox doesnt have a keyboard people!) The hummers are really cool they have a rocket lancher and a machine gun, they are sweet, but the controls when you drive them [stink]. It almost seems like your driving on ice, there are just way to touchy. Other than that the controls work very well, you move your guys just like halo, which I believe is the best controls you can ever have for a FPS. All in all if you have some friends to play this game with get it you'll enjoy it, if not maybe rent it first, or go with another squad based game, where the A.I. is alittle smarter(Ghost Recon) So basically, Multiplayer=Conflict: Desert storm Singleplayer= Ghost Recon	video-games_xbox
The last review on Earth. I say that only because I think I'm one of the very few who did not play this game. As a matter of fact I was a little leery about it. Shooters on consoles aren't exactly my thing. I grew up with Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein and Heretic. So I'm not new to FPS games and playing online hasn't sent a shiver up my leg since the original Unreal Tournament. Not to mention the seemingly disturbing trend of companies that think every game needs to be a 'first-person-combat-simulator-multiplayer' type game. I really didn't think I was going to like it. With that being said, this is a GREAT game. I don't know what actual combat feels like, but I would say that if there has been a more accurate depiction of combat in a game I wouldn't know what it would be. Everything happens at once. One minute it's quiet and the next all Hell breaks loose, bullets flying over head, your teammates shouting, explosions here and there, you're running for the nearest position of cover. And all you can think about is how to survive. This game plays like an action movie, there's really no plot to get in the way, not to mention the voice acting is awesome and some of the lines of dialog made me laugh out loud. There are five acts, this at first made me think, "Oh, great a single player campaign that was tacked on." But when it was over I wasn't sad. Admittedly I only played casual and I have no great urge to play on a setting above that (yet). I was rather satisfied with the game as it went. As you have read before I'm not exactly new to this genre but some of these battles are incredibly ham-fisted even on casual. Luckily there are plenty of checkpoints in the game, so it's pretty rare to have to replay more than 5-10 minutes before you died. There were one maybe two points that I thought they could have added another checkpoint, but nothing to gripe about. Not to mention you'll be doing good thinking "Yeah I've got it down now! I'm ready to rock!" then you'll have your head handed to you. That's just the way this game works, and it does it well. If there was one thing that I hated about this game it's the Beserkers. The first one you come across was insane. Seriously, follow with me. You spend the entirety of the first act learning that in order to survive you must take cover, run to take cover and don't be a hero. Beserkers are the antithesis of this. You must put yourself into harms way while forcing you to walk and lead this freight train to where you can kill it, and did I mention it was timed? Yup timed against a beast that is all but invincible and if it touches you you're dead. My heart sank when I found out that I had to fight three of these things during the course of the game. Luckily the other two were a bit more pleasant. But I hated these things. To give an example I died about two dozen times in the first battle with these beasts. The next one I died twice and the last I got through without one death. Looking back I probably just got lucky on the second one :D One of the things I really liked about the game was the AI of your friends. When I first started I was under the impression I was going to have to do all of the 'dirty work' not so. During most non-boss battles I actually found myself racing my AI comrades, as they would actually kill locusts before I was even there. It was almost like playing with real people, and I loved this aspect, I never really felt alone. (Except for the one or two times when you really are alone, but these are so short that it didn't effect me.) They also did a remarkable job covering me while I concentrated on the main task. The enemy AI is just as good and to me at least seemed to 'learn' what I was doing and adapt. This again added to the coolness of the game. There were more than a few times I thought I knew all of the enemy tricks and was surprised. This added to the intensity of the game and deserves to be lauded. Like others have said 90% of what's on the extra disk can be gotten straight from Live without paying for it. On the other hand I did like having the extras on a physical disk which was nice. If you like action and own a 360 pick this up. I doubt that you will be disappointed.	video-games_xbox
a fun action game. An action-RPG from the makers of "Drakengard", Nier is an intriguing game for a few different reasons. Its complex plot and setting, in conjunction with exciting gameplay and absolutely breathtaking design, makes for a game that initially seems good. However, the unfolding story and various mediocre levels take the wind out of its sails enough to turn it from a great game to a middling game. Nier is a fantasy action game with a few RPG elements. It's based largely in the "beat-em-up" genre; as the titular character, you fight through huge crowds of enemies with swords, spears, and magic. Nier handles extremely well, and has some really satisfying acrobatic dodges and combo attacks. The game's spells are one of its centerpoints - rather than being distinct spells with different elements and so on, the spells use the same generalized energy but manifest it in different forms. For example, one spell creates giant lances of energy, while another shoots out homing blasts. One spell creates a large wall, while another creates a doppelganger of the main character to strike at enemies. The spells work extremely well for their own purposes, and feel like a natural extension of the swordplay in most cases rather than being entirely separate. However, action isn't Nier's only draw. A few dungeons switch things up; one dungeon is highly puzzle-centric (by putting you in rooms with certain restrictions and forcing you to work around them), while another is actually a text adventure. A few dungeons, on the other hand, are monumentally boring - essentially just hallways full of monsters to fight through, with no defining features or charm. This is made worse by the fact that you visit each dungeon at least twice over the course of the game. While normally it would be okay to just have a bunch of combat rooms, the fact that it's such an unavoidable slog pushes it over the brink to be fully annoying. Still, the few cool dungeons and memorable boss fights make up for it. The game's design, including its graphics and sounds, are probably its strongest point. The game takes place in a far-off post-apocalyptic world, where civilization has started to regrow in some capacity. The maps and dungeons are littered with the remnants of the old world, from conspicuous escape pods used as housing to giant wrecked railroad bridges. Many of the areas have a very "Shadow of the Colossus" feel to them, combining monumental structures and areas with an overwhelming sense of emptiness or abandonment. The music helps foster this feeling with the use of ominous choruses and orchestras. While in technical terms the graphics aren't great, the presence of "jaggies" makes it seem in some ways closer to games like Ico or SOTC. The spell effects, at least, are great, and the design of the locations, characters, and enemies is enough to overcome technical limitations or failings. Of course, Nier has its bad points, as well. In addition to the aforementioned slog dungeons, a lot of the quests and story advancements are just "run from here to point x". While the quests are fairly interesting, story-wise, in gameplay terms they amount to an annoying amount of running back and forth delivering stuff to people. In addition, the story starts out strong and intriguing, but generally fails to deliver in later areas. Supplemental documents answer some questions (especially about how the game relates to Cavia's previous game, "Drakengard"), but overall the plot twists seem eye-rolling and overwrought. On the whole Nier is a fun action game that it's easy to get caught up in. The incredible delivery of the game, however, is marred by repetition and padding, and so the experience as a whole is somewhat tainted. Still, it was an enjoyable game overall, and definitely worth at least one playthrough. Rating: 7/10	video-games_xbox
Compelling Ideas without a Thread to tie it all together. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords dared to more ambitious than its predecessor, yet because of an unfortunately brief development timeline of one year, it was ultimately impossible for the game to live up to the standard of the first one, let alone surpass it. What we, the gamers, were left with was a product that could have been so much more had LucasArts not rushed the deadline for a Holiday release. Instead it is now a game that will forever be remembered as "almost" being, or at least having the potential to be, one of the greatest RPG experiences ever. Still, that doesn't make TSL a bad game by any means, and it is not without its redemptive qualities ... The overall tone of The Sith Lords may be black and cynical when compared to the original, yet because the scenario is darker and the situation more desperate, it causes the game to feel more compelling. Evil is portrayed at its blackest, so good can burn at its brightest in response. The stakes are higher and so this inspires the player to "fight" all the harder ... Overall I feel the way this game was executed was different, almost opposite at times to Knights 1, but that it was for the better ... Knights 1 kicked off with a bang and plunged the player right into the action. This time around however, the situation is more complex and the game starts off on a more subtle note, and moves at a slower pace. The atmosphere is charged with mystery and uncertainty. Personally, I'm glad Obsidian didn't try to copy the same feel and the same format of the first game, but instead tried to create something edgier. The NPC's in Knights 1, as likeable and well rounded as they were, were actually fairly stereotypical. For example, Carth was the Type A personality, a "let's focus on the task at hand" kind of guy, very mission-minded, and Zalbaar was the strong, silent type... The characters this time around however are more often than not - broken, outcast, and more complex in their personalities ... The story (without giving anything away) is intriguing but doesn't have a chance to flesh out all the way because of the rushed deadline and this leaves some plot holes and unanswered questions. It can be frustrating to say the least, but at least the central questions raised throughout the game are resolved, such as: Who is this enemy that is pursuing us? Who is the exile and how does he or she relate to Revan and the events in the first game? What is Kreia really and what is she not telling me? .... On a technical level, this game is slightly better than its predecessor, not counting the many bugs and glitches (which are worse in TSL). The picture seems slightly cleaner this time around and the landscapes and different characters are larger and more varied as well. The voice acting is excellent, as is the sound, and the atmospheric musical score by Mark Griskey adds a cinematic touch to the game... Overall, KotOR 2 is a good game, maybe even a very good game, that fails to be truly great due to its being incomplete and fraught with bugs. Its definately worth playing, even buying. Just don't raise your expectations to high, especially once you begin to come towards the third act of the game ... I choose to believe Obsidian did their best with what they were given. If there's anyone to blame, its the folks at LucasArts who are notorious for choosing quantity (quantity of cash) over quality...	video-games_xbox
Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, and Included Figurines. I purchased this game at an independent used and vintage video game store in my hometown for $28.99. I am only reviewing the game and the figurines and not this seller. The Game- First off, I am a 17 year old girl, not the target demographic for this game. But I love it! I have been a Spyro fan since childhood and had been eyeing this game for some time, but decided to wait to buy it until about a week ago. This is not a typical Spyro game, and unlike many Spyro die-hards, that doesn't bother me at all. The game is great. I love that it is very linear, but there is also an exploration element for those that want to deviate from the path. Graphically, it is beautiful. I also enjoy being able to switch Skylanders at my will in order to create advantages in levels, and collect coins to power them up. Although I find the fully voiced cutscenes to be done well, I tend to find them annoying from time to time. However, for young kids that can't read, I'm sure that is very helpful. I haven't beaten it, but I do enjoy it so far. It is not too hard but not too easy. Provides great relaxation and entertainment. The collecting of hats is also extremely fun. Spyro- I love this Spyro figurine. He is beautiful. I have powered up mine to fly, and that is very useful. Both of his initial fire attacks are great, and I used him for most of the beginning of the game. He is just a very good Skylander to have. Gill Grunt- I thought I wasn't going to like him or use him. Boy was I wrong. His Harpoon attack is great, and with the power up to make them barbed and never run out, he is a force to be reckoned with. I also like that he swims, because I use him to get hats when they are blocked off. I actually use him quite a lot, and he has definitely grown on me. Trigger Happy- He is my favorite of the starter pack figurines. Not only is he crazy looking, he is also very strong for long range attacks. His pot of gold is very powerful and I love using him. I recently unlocked the cowboy hat, and make him wear it so he can be a real gunslinger. I have noticed he is a hit with adults and older players, because he is funny and easy to use. Great figurine. One thing about the game: Small kids will get addicted to the figurines. I only own one of each element, and that is all I intend to buy. The ones I have are Spyro, Gill Grunt, Trigger Happy, Stealth Elf, Sonic Boom, Bash, Chop Chop, Eruptor, and I had Wrecking Ball, but gave it to my boyfriend because he thought he was cute. I highly recommend this to people of all ages, but those with small children should be aware that the game can get expensive if you allow it, and since collecting a character's soul gem allows the person playing to preview it, your kids are going to know about the other figurines and will want them. The game is super fun!	video-games_xbox
IN MY HOME! In my living room! Where my children play with their toys...while I beat people down and extort them. Not an easy task to make a video game out of such an acclaimed film, one of the few (if not only) sequels considered superior to the original. The first Godfather game was a lot of fun, taking parts of GTA, parts of the EA James Bond engine, and adding some new elements as you worked your way up in the family by extorting, killing, and uh, getting respect. The new game improves on that engine, features essentially the same aim (build an empire, extort and kill), and adds a few new touches. For one, there's more strategy involved as you manage your empire via the 'Don's View', which is a Start menu letting you review family trees, rackets, favors, and other fun stuff. You can also build your own family, including your own crew of underboss, capos, and soldiers, by recruiting new made guys who have different specialties. Up to three crew members will follow you around at any given time, and they'll gladly assist in the drive-by shootings, maimings, and beat downs that are a requirement to building up your street cred. Depending on the mission, you can swap out crew members to make sure you have the right specialists. Once again, the action is woven into the storyline of Part 2, though this time it's a lot looser than the original game. Michael, Tom Hagen, Fredo, Pentangeli, Hyman Roth, and Senator Geary are all present, as are the rival Rosato Brothers. There's a few 'made-up' families who take you to war, too. And there's the Havana angle, as you team up with the CIA in an attempt to whack Castro post-revolution(!) There are rackets to control, which provide you with upgrades (bulletproof vests that go over your outfits and never come off once achieved), extra ammo, incendiary ammo, etc. Once again, you must intimidate some honest (and dishonest) folks by beating and choking them, and destroying their businesses. Naturally, there's some talk of honor and respect family and loyalty along the way. And since you control a new character (the loyal soldier of the first game's character, who gets killed early in this game), there's none of the intrigue and ambiguity of Part II's storyline of Michael traveling around trying to figure out who knows what, who betrayed who, and who tried to have who killed and why and when and who ordered the hits and who did put that bullet in Mo Greene's eye? There's some unintentionally funny stuff, too. Your character, who's supposed to be a tough Italian street hood, sounds very white bread, making the cut scenes humorous. If you do a favor for someone and they ask you to beat/kill/rob/smash, there's a quick and jerky cut to you going "Yes!" and then you accept the mission. Or to hear the character's corny voice say something like, "Do you want to join the life? This Thing of Ours?" Perhaps even real mob guys would get a kick out of it. I do agree with criticisms that the game is a bit unfinished and could have used additional tweaking. Given the standards set by a GTA IV (and even of the original Godfather game), they could have done a bit more with this formula. Granted, the sound and graphics are better, but there's no mind-blowing improvement here. And of course, the non-adjustable difficulty level makes this rather easy to complete, and once your done, the replay value is questionable (all you can really do is just run around and cause havoc, which has a better vehicle in GTA IV). The action can get repetitive, as you go into a cycle of meet contact / accept contract, and storm a rival family's business or compound and cause havoc. However, the havoc is quite good, and it's upgraded from the first outing---this is an extremely violent and bloody game. With the addition of a crew, you can have long, drawn out battles with the cops (and the Cuban military in Havana) and it really starts to emulate GTA with exploding cars, machine guns, and general insanity. And there are plenty of side machines for more dirty work, though these two follow a typical pattern. Random people on the street need 'favors' (someone needs to 'disappear' or 'be taught a lesson'), and for successful completion of these missions you get tips on where to whack made guys, or you get straight up cash. Speaking of cash, eventually, you become flush with the green and may well max out your expenses, which generally consist of upgrading yourself and your crew with skills, and hiring more goons to protect your rackets. You can also have fun by using 'Mobface' to change your character's look at any given time, making the cut scenes that much more amusing. There's a weird angle on the setting, too. This is supposed to be 1958-59, yes? Yet the details do not match...it sometimes seems to be a hybrid of late-50s and then late 60s detail with the cars, music, clothes, etc. There's a classic 60s-era Mustang, for instance, and some massive Cadillacs from the 60s...it's nitpicking, but why play with the timeline when they were faithful with the original (for the most part)? Overall, would definitely recommend the game to fans of the original outing, and actually to all Godfather fans. Despite its shortcomings, it's still a lot of fun, plenty of shooter action and madness, and hey, it's a game based on The Godfather Part II (taking many liberties, of course). They've digitized Hyman Roth, and whoever does the voice does an amazing job. Note that there's nothing here that deals with the other half of the film, the flashbacks to young Don Corleone's life (with DeNiro). That would have been fun, to take on Don Fannuci in early 20th Century New York. But alas, the brutality, the beatings, the goon squad (you can even change your crew's outfits from suits to bad Hawaiian shirts), the cars, the civilian casualties...all of it will get the job done.	video-games_xbox
Reviewers aren't spending the time to appreciate the originality/replay value in this top 3rd-person co-op shooter. I think Lost Planet 2 is getting a bum rap from reviewers and readers who are too quick to write off a stellar, unique, long replay 3rd-person shooter like LP2. I played both the first EC edition and Colonies, so of course I can appreciate it in a different perspective. However, I will outline my case in detail. First of all, LP2 is first a quality first-person shooter. Given the amount of FPSs out there, its amazing how they garner the support they do given how derivative they are. LP2 is a quality TPS that I believe is an engaging to almost the GOW level. 3rd-person shooters are waaaaay under-represented, and FPS's are way to saturated. And most of them seem like the same game. Secondly, LP2 is co-op shooter. Not a single person shooter. Not a co-op game that wants you to play single also. If you are not playing it with other people, then you are not appreciating it for what it is. Thirdly, LP: EC/C was as equally balanced with MP, and LP2 is no different. LP as an IP is heavily geared for MP for users worldwide. The face that the game was released in 2007 and you can still easily find MP rooms is a testament to that. Lastly, LP2 has loads of content that increases replay value substantially. Five classes of fighters, 1000 noms de guerrre, 100 emotes, tons of weapons and abitities. That, combined with the loyal community is has, means enjoyment for at least a few years to come. In conclusion, I feel reviewers around the net are not giving an accurate description of what LP2 has to offer. It's not GOW, or MW2, or BBC2, or Halo. It's not supposed to be easy or even moderately difficuly. And it's not supposed to be. It's supposed to be the next evolution of Lost Planet. It's supposed to have a standard of high difficulty. And it's accomplished its goal and then some.	video-games_xbox
Underwhelming. I want to like this game. After waiting 3 years since its introduction on the trade show circuit, the idea of it sounded marvelous. The teaser trailers looked good but they were scripted. If my memory serves the gameplay may have changed. There was a debate if there was going to be a stand-alone single player story mode or not. Now after playing it for 2 days, my day one reaction was good. Sort of learning how to play the game. I found it interesting and different. Now after 2 days I find it not that different than other simple games, it just gets there in a different way. I also find it annoying that the enemies are essentially unstoppable. My agent can be taken down by a snipers well placed shot or a guy with a bat WHILE placing shots into the said bad guys torso or head. The attacker eats up bullets like Cheerios, basically just issuing a number indicating the damage you have caused with the guy unflinching. I would like a more realistic interaction. 1 head shot or a double tap to a torso, both ways. That way the player can be more tactical and the fighting can be more even with more on the line. I would have also liked a true, dedicated single-player story mode. Although cool how you can jump in and jump out of multiplayer and finish missions solo or on a team, you get matched up with players that may be more or less advanced than you and also face enemies that may be more or less advanced than you. For instance as the game progresses your agent is issues a skill level 1 though I don't know, but you could be a level 4 on a team with guy below or above you facing enemies that are level 7 or 8. Meaning the enemies are much tougher than you. Your weapons and gear are all level 4 and not doing much to a level 7 bad guy. You can go through 600 rounds of assault rifle ammo in one skirmish. Along with that, the missions are pretty basic. Go do something and face different waves of bad guys, then meet a boss who WILL take the rest of your waning ammunition to kill. Overall it just feels like one big death match multiplayer game with a thinly veiled story over it. It can be fun teaming up with other players and just cooperatively killing bad guys but the role of the bad guys versus the players seems unbalanced. They are bullet sponges and you can barely take 2 hits from a bat. I think this game could have been great but they may have gone over budget or something and in the end came up short. You cant say this game was rushed, cause it wasnt.	video-games_xbox
Great Music, Poor Experience. As a fan of the Just Dance games on the Wii, I was really excited to get this version for the kinect. I'm a huge fan of Dance Central and was really excited to build my dance game collection. Unfortunately, as someone who has played Dance Central, Just Dance 3 for kinect just does not measure up. The Just Dance game does not make use of the entire body as you would expect for a kinect game, it still just seems to track the one hand. This was very disappointing and frustrating as I expected it to use the technology better instead of just porting the Wii programming over to the Xbox. Worse than the programming issues, the game was designed very poorly in my opinion. Even on games where I selected one player, there were multiple dance guides on the screen, one for each person the song could accommodate. This was incredibly confusing. I had to really pay a lot of attention to the dancer on the screen and make sure I kept track of which one was mine - which was confusing when they moved around, switched places, and did moves that take your face off the screen. I wish the developers just reduced the people on the screen to match how many people were playing. There are also a lot of songs where the dance requires interaction with the other dancers - even when you are playing one person. In the Wii version playing multi-player was a cleaner experience than this one. I tend to play single player on dance games about 80% of the time, so this was a really big problem for me. I understand it's supposed to be a party game, but I'm sure I'm not the only person who likes the dance games for exercise and plays alone. This game does have some good points - the main one being that the playlist is excellent, which is something they have always had and why I liked the franchise so much when I only had a Wii. And I do like that you can play up to 4 players on certain songs although unless you have some really coordinated friends I can see that being a real mess with everyone switching places and interacting sometimes. If they work to improve the one player experience and program for a whole body tracking system I think they will be as successful on the Xbox as they were on the Wii.	video-games_xbox

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.