Split (3)

train · 322k rows

text stringlengths 503 33.4k	labels stringclasses 23 values
Medal of Honor: Campaign review. The Story I liked it, a lot. You play as multiple individuals from a few different teams. If you've played any of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare titles, you know what I mean. I tracked the Taliban, blew tons of things up (including an entire village, with an Apache), and sniped enemy combatants from one mountain to another. I got a wide breadth of the different scenarios faced by soldiers in the area. There's a lot of killing, advancing, and retreating to be done. The good Let me begin with the audio. Right out of the gate I noticed what might be the best sounding game I've heard in a very long time. What I mean to say is that the world sounds amazing. The music was good, fitting for the setting. If I was close to a team member while they were chatting on the radio, I could hear the echo. The guns felt real, I mean real real, not videogame real. Every one of them packed a punch. I could hear rounds ripping through the enemy, bouncing off of rocks, and shell casings hitting the ground. All sorts of things to hear, seriously, top notch. The gameplay is what you would expect. There isn't anything ground breaking, it get's the job done. I played through the game with the lights off and my headphones on. I was fully immersed. The world looks fantastic. If I may make a suggestion, play the game with a really good pair of headphones if possible. If you do, don't forget to change the audio options to headphones, it makes a difference. The bad I encountered a few hiccups with the A.I. On two separate occasions when I needed them in order to progress, they sat behind crates, not moving. I was forced to reload the last checkpoint, which fixed the problem both times. Final thoughts Yes it is on the short side, but the single player was a lot of fun. I played on medium difficulty (easy, medium, hard) and completed in a little over five hours. It wasn't the longest campaign, but it had a lot of substance. A great game doesn't need length, so long as you enjoy it. There were more than a few moments that put me on the edge of my seat. I won't lie, there were a few instances where the game evoked some emotions, of the sad sort. Not because I was disappointed, but because the events happening were sobering. I spent zero time in multiplayer, so I can't say anything good or bad about it. I didn't buy the game for the online aspect. I wanted a really solid story, and I got what I wanted. I can only assume the multiplayer is similar to that found in Battlefield: Bad Company 2, excluding the destructible environments and buildings. If you enjoy military shooters with a great story, especially of the modern variety, this should be a purchase.	video-games_xbox
Fun game, but really incomplete without buying other characters and power discs. The Disney Infinity Starter Pack comes with Mr. Incredible, Jack Sparrow, Sulley and a power disc, a play set piece, the base and the game. You can play with this base set in certain areas (Monsters University, The Incredibles and Pirates of the Carribean). You can also play around in the toy box and create your own worlds. My Husband found the game to be fun, but lacking with the few pieces included in the starter kit. He played around with the toy box and thought that it was a really neat feature to the game. However, he said it was a little difficult to use and he was sure kids would not be able to figure it out. He also found the toy box to be very time consuming. We have purchased a few of the power discs just to see what they would do. When you buy the power discs you get a blind package of two random discs. It really was a waste of money for us because the first pack we bought (which was $5 for 2 discs in our local store) contained the one disc that we had already owned from the starter pack along with an additional discs. All our discs do is change the background of the game (the "paint" discs). It is kind of neat to see everything underwater for the Nemo "paint" disc we have, but it really isn't worth the money. The characters are also quite pricey. We have not bought any additional characters at this time since they are so expensive. Overall, this can be a great game and a fun series to collect if you are willing to spend the additional money on buying more characters. Beware that this game could easily end up costing you hundreds of dollars. **Edit: I am increasing my review to 4 stars. We have not purchased any additional characters at this time, but my Husband has played the game more. In fact he has been playing JUST the Pirates of the Carribean part of this game for the last several hours and has enjoyed it tremendously. When he first played he did not play with the play set piece on and I think he was missing the individual areas (at the time, we thought we were playing to the full capability). This game is actually pretty extensive for a starter pack. Kids will have a lot of fun with just the included pieces. There are some treasure chests/ vaults that you need multiple additional characters to open. However, most kids will probably be happy with what they can play. Just keep them away from the video game section at stores if you don't want to have to buy new characters. :)	video-games_xbox
A creepy sequel with a story that still doesn't make any sense. The Good: Amazing atmosphere, stripped away the bad stuff from FEAR 1, awesome mechs, well balanced The Bad: Mostly same weapons, a tad short, lame multiplayer, stupid cliffhanger ending (FEAR 3?), more or less the same as FEAR 1 FEAR was a hyped up FPS back in 2006 that started the whole "creepy girl with the black hair over her face" thing. FEAR was so great, not because of it's FPS action, but because of it's well executed disturbing atmosphere. FEAR 2 is no exception with everything bad stripped from the first and lots of new things thrown in. FEAR 2 is your basic FPS at heart, but if you look beyond the veil you'll see something truly wonderful and that's, once again, the incredible atmosphere FEAR 2 portrays. If you didn't already know, Alma is the creepy girl we are after that is somehow connected to soldiers called Replicas, whilst she can control them telepathically. While the story in the first game was almost impossible to follow the same problem infects FEAR 2 until toward the last few chapters where the developers stop playing mind games and finally spill the beans on what and who Alma really is. The main thing here I need to talk about though is atmosphere, you walk through school hallways hearing lockers slam and things swirling around with darkness all around you. Disturbing ghostly apparitions appear that you must shoot, creepy super humans infect certain areas, and just overall the flashbacks you get of Alma are pretty damn creepy. The most scary parts in the game were when your flashlight somehow stopped working and all you can do is find your way around with flickering lights. While the atmosphere is great (especially with headphones on and the lights off!) FEAR 2 has some new gameplay mechanics that make the game even better. While new guns are added a lot of the older ones are improved (along with the difficulty toned WAY down). Most of your guns are average such as machine guns, shotguns, rocket launchers, sniper rifles etc. The only unique guns are the Hammerhead (shoots green needles that impale enemies to walls), the Laser rifle (a giant laser that shreds through everything), and the Pulse rifle (which shoots giant blue orbs that disintegrate everything in it's path). Of course these guns are harder to find and are rarer, but they have their uses. My favorite addition are the mech sections...yes who would have thought FEAR would have mechs. Remember those annoying mechs in the first FEAR? Well now you can ride them! Hop into these heaping piles of metal and you get your standard machine gun and rockets, but the mech controls so well and the machine gun feels so powerful. It's great to see your enemies explode in a gory mess after a few machine guns rounds and you really feel you're more powerful for them for once. If your health starts running low hop out for a few minutes and your health will be restored. Included with old mechanics are the slow-mo, health injectors (that are really hard to find), easier to unlock achievements, and still lame multiplayer. I also have to mention how firefights are nicely balanced with just wondering around enjoying the atmosphere. Everything is just superb cosmetically with great voice acting, beautiful visuals (although they could still be better), and great lighting effects. Of course the campaign is a tad short running in at about 6-8 hours and the cliffhanger ending is really retarded (aren't they all? HALO 2) Overall the game just builds up into a nice climax and that's what we usually love with shooters. While I recommend FEAR 2 for a great weekend rental it's nothing really more than that. The game is still (to it's core) FEAR 1 which was monotonous shooting and FEAR 2 kind of feels that way towards the end.	video-games_xbox
Lots of pros, but quite a few cons. I bought the LE of Forza 5 (Amazon verified purchase), but most of my comments apply to the standard version as well, so I copied it here since people probably won't be looking for the LE much longer... After two weeks with Forza 5, unlike so many people who rated it one and two stars after less than two days at launch (and after what appears to be some initial bugs with the in-game finances sorted out), I felt I was adequately prepared to write a concise and fair review. I'd have rated it 4.5 if I could, but since I can't truthfully give it a 5, I have to dial back to a 4. The pros are easily obvious. Beautiful graphics, the car modeling is spectacular, and the handling is better and more realistic than any previous Forza title. Small changes in the setup yield big results, so it rewards someone who knows how to adjust a setup. Upgrade parts seem to be cheaper and even a couple point improvement to the performance index makes a noticeable change. For example, upgrading the brakes from stock to a race package is only a couple points toward the PI, but the difference in control and power is immediately noticeable. Cons, you can't argue with the previous assessments that the track list is limited. But what is there is gorgeous, detailed, and varied. Car choice, yes, it's smaller than in the past as well. But I'd honestly rather have quality over quantity just for the sake of car count, unlike other racing games that might have say, 20 different Mitsubishi Evos just to make their claim of 2000 cars. Other minor things... as you increase make affinity, it doesn't give any discount to parts as in previous editions, and no cars are awarded for leveling up or completing championships. All you get when leveling up is 70k credits, and it doesn't seem to go up as you reach higher levels. I'm currently at level 50, and it's been 70k every time. That's 3.5 million so far just from leveling up, but it would be nice to see a few cars come my way for the effort, at least every few levels as in previous versions. The biggest con in my opinion is this "Drivatar" business. While the idea is excellent, the execution is highly flawed. Previous editions of Forza rewarded you slightly when you maxed out your performance and putting you to the front of the grid... not now. I show up for a class C race in a 500 PI, yet I'm behind 12-14 other cars that are in the 490s. Then when the race starts, you get to work your way around those 12-14 rolling chicanes to have a chance of getting up to earn a gold medal. If I wanted to get knocked around by a bunch of clowns who think turning on the straight, using you as a tool to slow down going into a turn, or just outright t-boning you mid-turn is a racing strategy, I'd go into multiplayer. It's even worse if you have friends who have only played a dozen or so races and have horrible Drivatar images. You're stuck with your friends, so if you have a couple who just aren't that good, it's frustrating to race against them every single race (that isn't an autocross or passing challenge). Braking in the middle of straights with nobody in front of them, turning right into you on a left turn, and piling into the first turn like it's the last and completely clogging the track (especially at Spa... and who jams on the brakes at the bottom of Eau Rouge?) regardless of the skill level you choose, welcome to Drivatar. You would think bumping up the difficulty, they would be better drivers, but that is not the case. Whether beginner or expert, it feels like bumper cars until you can get clear of the pack. Unfortunately, it seems like we're stuck with this... perhaps (if someone at Turn 10 is listening) the ability could be added to kick out Drivatars, to get rid of the ones who drive like fools could be added and create a field of opponents who won't seemingly go out of their way to wreck me when going in a straight line. That would be a very welcome addition. That said, I thoroughly enjoy the game... it's rewarding when you do make it through the minefield of Drivatars without any serious damage (or a half dozen rewinds), and the new feedback triggers make it even more immersive as you can feel the what the tires are doing under acceleration and braking. The achievements available are varied (yet still weigh too heavily on multiplayer and community for my taste) and not particularly difficult to attain. Some will take a bit of a grind, but that's the way it's always been in the numbered versions of Forza. Multiplayer can be fun as well, as long as you either race with friends who are on the same page as you as far as etiquette, or luck into finding a group who know how to race fairly, instead of a group who play like it's a demolition derby, or cheat by cutting corners. One final note, everyone who was complaining about "microtransactions" and how this game "reaches into your pocket" in previous reviews... the only time it requires you to spend money is if you want to download the OPTIONAL car packs or buy OPTIONAL tokens to get cars without having to earn in-game credits, something that has existed for years in the Forza universe. I'm at level 50, yet haven't spent a single token of the 1250 that came with the LE. And as for screaming about how you have to buy the bonus cars with credits, I can't remember offhand from F3, but I know the LE of F4, it gave you the exclusive cars that you had to buy, but they weren't gifts. Same as in the LE for F5. I just don't get the outrage, since it's the exact same as it has been in previous editions. Does the season pass cost extra? Yes, but it always has, but it's also always been a discount over paying for six car packs individually... yet people are acting like this is all something new. But it's not like they require you to spend real money to advance in the game like so many other reviewers are making it out to be here. You can accomplish every goal in the game with the cars that are included on-disc, no additional purchase required. The only people complaining are the ones who want to level up faster than usual (which in my opinion, is paced just fine- you gain two or three levels every championship), or get cars without putting in the work. Maybe if people did their homework and signed up for Forza Rewards, they'd find out how to get millions of in-game credits for FREE, along with gift cars including a Ferrari F12 and McLaren P1. It's not like Skylanders or Infinity where you MUST to buy a $10 figure every time you want to do something new in the game.	video-games_xbox
Fun Fast Furious. The successor to the Ninja Gaiden game for the Xbox, Ninja Gaiden 2 is one of those rare sequels that seems to improve on everything done by the first game while adding worthwhile new features, enemies, and levels. The basic gameplay is the same as the first Ninja Gaiden game, featuring fast-and-frantic swordplay and various ninja abilities to supplement it. You play as Ryu Hayabusa, last ninja of the Dragon Clan lineage, and your mission is to seal the ancient Arch-Fiends away before they destroy the world. The action is almost non-stop in NG2; Ryu has a wide array of acrobatic actions at his disposal to aid in his swordplay. There are fast and slow attacks that can be linked as a combo for different effects, and there's a lot of leaping and diving to throw into the mix as well. In addition to melee weapons like a sword, a staff, claws, and a scythe, Ryu also has a few ranged weapons as well - shurikens (regular and exploding) and a bow. Finally, Ryu has certain magical abilities like fireballs and cutting winds to attack his enemies with, though their use is limited. His enemies range from ninjas - armed with equipment similar to Ryu's - to demons, large and small. The gameplay is smooth, but fast and unforgiving. Your enemies attack ferociously and without mercy - no fair-play "one on one" duels here, your enemies will be doing their absolute utmost to make Ryu die. Human enemies (the ninja) have a wide variety of "abilities", for lack of a better word, that differentiate them from other random grunts in other games. The ninjas in Ninja Gaiden can lose limbs (arms or legs) and keep fighting - and this will happen a lot, be assured. Heavily injured enemies will try to grab on to Ryu and detonate their bomb as a last-ditch suicide attempt. Ninja types range from melee combatants with swords and claws to ranged types with bows and magic spells. Even without these skills, it's hard to keep up with their attacks, which require dodging, guarding, evading, and counterattacking to deal with - you can't just wade in and mash the attack buttons and expect to survive. The demons are even harder, being less predictable, depending on their type. Some are small, bat-like creatures that swarm Ryu faster than he can swing his sword, while others are hulking colossi that can grab Ryu and squeeze the life out of his body. There are bosses on every level as well - these enemies are generally much larger than any regular enemy, and their strength makes guarding useless, forcing Ryu to jump and dive for his life. Furthermore, they're not fazed by your attacks, requiring you to time your attacks so that you'll have time to escape before they counterattack. Overall, Ninja Gaiden is a relatively simple game in that it keeps the same basic premise for combat; there aren't really any segments that deviate from the established gameplay. As a whole, the controls are good and also notably responsive. In some other games, you have to adjust your timing to the game and pause between pressing buttons so that the moves you've inputted can be executed. In NG2, the game moves roughly about as fast as you push buttons - if you're smashing the buttons really quickly, then the moves will get executed really quickly. To give an example, Ryu has the ability to walljump between two adjacent parallel walls. At first I thought I had to adjust my timing to wait for when he landed; I quickly realized that I could just mash the A button and ascend as quickly as I tapped. The game really rewards you for having good reflexes, and tries not to hinder you as best it can. The only really annoying parts about the controls are the camera (which is kind of unresponsive at times) and sensitivity with regards to hanging on pipes and running on walls, both of which have to do with the camera (since running on a wall is "running forward", if the camera changes it can mess you up mid-run). The graphics in the game are really good looking, though "realistic" isn't quite the word that I'd use to describe them. They're clearly fake, but it's on purpose, so even though the characters have flawless, one-tone skin with no wrinkles or anything, it looks good and like it was done on purpose. The in-game graphics are really good, too. Combat is quick and highly cinematic without distracting or detracting from the gameplay experience. The most notable detail is the bodies, which are persistent - kill a bunch of ninjas, and their bodies don't fade (not while onscreen, at least). Furthermore, I never thought I'd think of blood and severed limbs as being "artistic", but this game really has the prettiest blood sprays and dead bodies that I can think of. Blood splatters on walls depending on the angle that you cut, and you really get the feeling with this game that you're an absolute ninja murder-machine. One of the more impressive details is the blood that accumulates on your blade - when a fight is over and Ryu stands idle for a few seconds, he whips the blood off the blade (throwing an extra splatter onto the floor) and re-sheathes it. The sound in the game isn't particularly notable, except that the sounds of combat are really well shown - the clangs and screams, in addition with the music, create a mood-setting level of background noises that keep you in the action. The music in general doesn't have any tracks that are particularly good, though. As a whole, Ninja Gaiden 2 is a really fun game to play - one of the first games in a while that really feels like a game and not just an interactive story. Flimsy demon-based story aside, Ninja Gaiden 2 is really just an excuse to kill a bunch of ninjas and demons with fancy moves and look really awesome while doing it. The only real problem is that the game is so hard that it might be intimidating to casual players, but for players with good reflexes and a strong will Ninja Gaiden 2 offers nothing but good, fun gameplay. 9/10	video-games_xbox
A Combination of Jade Empire, Dragon Age: Origins, and Fable2. Dragon Age 2 appears to be the black sheep of Bioware games. Some people are loving it, others hating it, and some just feel lukewarm about the changes. Am I disappointed? Definitely. If Bioware had an extra year, this game would have been incredible. As it stands, it's above mediocrity but not "must-own" for everyone. Even with its flaws, I'm having fun. Many of the changes are for the better. The main problems were clearly from time constraint to rush the game out, most likely so it didn't compete with Mass Effect 3 in the fall and to get some quick cash from Dragon Age Origins' popularity. I like the fast paced battle system and cleaner visuals. I'm most disappointed about the repetitiveness of the some of the environments (I've seen the same cave/mansion/warehouse multiple times), as well as the boring boss battles. DA2 is very different than DAO, but since I knew that ahead of time, it is easier for me to accept the changes. There's something about DA2 that reminds me of Jade Empire, which is definitely a good thing. It might be the more enclosed/fewer environments and fast-paced battle system. DA2 also consists of many sidequests like JE. I didn't enjoy JE as much as some of Bioware's other titles, but it was definitely worth playing and fun. There are also aspects that remind me of Fable, specifically Fable 2. Part of that is the numerous sidequests and speedy combat. However, DA2 has much more complex combat/attribute systems than Fable 2 and JE. More about that in a minute. The story is more on par with Jade Empire (though MUCH slower to develop), and not as shallow as Fable 2's plot. Here are the main changes: -Lots of people seem to be hating on the lack of customization of your companions. You can't really change their armor anymore. There are a few instances where you can upgrade their armor, but compared to DAO it is very limited. You can give them different weapons and equip rings, belts, and amulets. You can also give them runes. It's basically the same as DAO, except for the armor part. It's a downside that it is missing, but I'm not sure why this is such a HUGE deal. It makes inventory a bit more manageable and I like how the characters look unique. Besides, the majority of the armor in DAO was pretty ugly anyway :-). -They've removed the skills (lock picking, poisons, etc). I don't really miss them. After a while they were pretty pointless since there was a lot of overlap with party members. Your lock picking skill, as well as other skills, are based on attribute score now (e.g. cunning). Trap making is gone, but poisons/grenades remain. -There are quite a few reused environments in DA2. I've seen multiple environments multiple times, just flipped around. It's annoying and lazy on the developers part, but not enough to keep me from enjoying the game. This is one of the biggest disappointments in the game for me. -The boss battles from DAO were much more fun than the ones here. Too many of the bosses in DA2 just have a ton a hitpoints and hardly any strategy except for just hitting it over and over and not dying. It's a big test of patience since some of them take a while to kill; I honesty got bored a few times and switched it to easy just so the battle would go faster! One of the bosses, which you have to fight by yourself, takes forever and I felt like I was playing tag with him. I would run up to him and score a few hits, then run away....repeat and repeat until he's dead. Sadly there's not much strategy in that! The boss fights were the most frustrating aspect in DA2 for me. Not sure why Bioware took a huge step backwards here. -The environments in general are on a much smaller scale (though the main city is pretty large). If you are looking for a huge adventure like DAO with a different place to travel every hour or so, DA2 is not that game. That doesn't make it a bad game though. Since most of the sidequests are relatively short, I like the fact that I'm not stuck in one dungeon for hours and hours. -There are quite a few bugs. If you don't feel a need to play the game right now, wait until a couple of patches come out. -Many people have stated that the combat has been simplified. I don't really understand this comment. I think they were either playing on a difficulty level that was too easy for them (normal does seem easier than it was last time), or they barely played the game. The biggest change is that the combat is way faster and feels like it is real-time (and directly based on your button presses). In the beginning, you don't have access to many abilities. On the console versions you basically just keep pressing "A" to attack, so it appears simplified. Once you gain some levels though, you'll find that the ability trees are just as complex as DAO, in some cases more so. They've added some talents/spells and also have cross-class attacks now. This means that if a rogue disorients an enemy with a talent, a mage could use a spell that is 400% damage against disoriented targets. It's a cool system and is rewarding when you pull it off. You can also add specific cases for status affected enemies in the tactics menu, though I'm not sure how reliable this is. There were a couple of instances like this in DAO (e.g. enemies that are asleep were more susceptible to the horror spell, and frozen enemies could be shattered), but it wasn't quite as obvious or developed. In general, the combat is very fun. My rogue looks badass as she tears through enemies and whips around the battlefield. Each class feels very different from each other, and they are all fun to play. Mages and rogues are the best though. -Your dog is now a summon, which is awesome! I always wanted to take him with me in DAO, but I always chose more powerful characters. -Potions and Lyrium (and a new draught that replenishes stamina) now have a cooldown. I'm not sure how I feel about this. You can't always rely on having tons of poultrices on hand to stay alive (though towards the end of the game I found that I could and didn't have a problem with the regeneration). Sometimes it takes more strategy to figure out when you should heal during a battle. -Instead of clogging up your inventory with crafting items, now you discover resources during your adventure, and you can order potions/grenades, etc. from craftmakers. The inventory can still get filled up with weapons and other things, but many of the items you discover are now "loot" which automatically gets placed in your junk section to sell. Makes getting rid of things easier since you don't have as much armor, weapons, and salves to sort through. -The beginning of the game is pretty slow. There are only hints of a grander plot in Act 1. You'll mostly be going around doing tons of sidequests. If you love sidequests, you'll have a field day with DA2. If you don't, you may want to rent it or wait until it drops in price. The sidequests are pretty fun for the most part and almost all of them involve killing things, so it's not a bunch of useless fetch quests (though those do exist). Things start to get rolling in Act 2. There is a lot of talk about the rights of mages some interesting things are going on with the Qunari. I liked the plot better than in DAO, since it is more personal. However, I actually found DAO more exciting for some reason. Perhaps because the plot took a while to develop, and I didn't feel quite as invested in it as I did in DAO. -Bioware has really done a good job building up the Dragon Age World in DA2. Where it felt more like a Lord of the Rings copy in DAO, in DA2 it feels more unique. I really hope that we get to see more of the places that are mentioned in DA3. -The various races now look different. Elves are more slender and sort of look like mini Na'vi people, minus the blue skin. The Qunari look like bulky demons with large horns. Personally I like the changes. People's eyes are also more sparkly. (Zevran from DAO looks a bit strange though...) -Instead of having a main party camp, each person has a house or location that is their home. This makes things a bit more realistic and personal, but it does take longer to talk to each of your party members since you have to keep traveling from place to place. -Now you can either build a friendship or rivalry with your companions. You get bonuses for reaching either end of the scale, and they won't hate you if they disagree with you. In fact, it is more dangerous if you stay in the middle of the scale. It's pretty obvious that Bioware was forced to push DA2 out before it was really what they wanted (boo EA). I think the fact that certain development choices come off as lazy or rushed is what is really disappointing people. It's frustrating to think about what might have been if they had released it a year later. However, I'm still having lots of fun with the title. It feels like Bioware is experimenting to find out what does/doesn't work in the Dragon Age world. This may be Bioware's "worst" game, but it's still really addicting. That makes Bioware's track record pretty impressive; they still have yet to create a mediocre game in my opinion. If they merge the best aspects of DAO and DA2, DA3 is going to be awesome. So, in summary, if you accept the fact that DA2 is different from DAO, you enjoy sidequests, and you liked Jade Empire or Fable2, it's pretty likely you'll have a blast with DA2. I suggest looking at Gametrailer's review too. I disagree with the high score they gave it, but the content of their review is spot-on. IGN's review is also good.	video-games_xbox
A Fun-Filled Racer . ........ That about sums up Burnout Paradise. I had heard about this game from a friend who played it pretty often that this was a racing game that was packed with a lot of fun and plenty of open world to explore and raise mayhem. He was correct as I found myself drawin right in from the moment I put it in my game console. The controls are pretty easy to pick up on (without even reading the manual) and your free to discover events, find landmarks, crash ... you name it, as you wander around "freely". I have never really been big on racing games in the past, but I have recently started to give them a try. I had bought Midnight Club:LA a few months ago and found it to be very difficult (especially the AI !!) but the graphics and customization of MC:LA and detail were (and are) great, but I didn't find it to be a "user friendly" game. Burnout Paradise has some gameplay similarites and the graphics may be a just a notvh below MC:LA but it is alot more fun in my opinion. I am fairly new to the racing genre of games and I now own 2. So far Burnout Paradise is my top choice. Fortunately I was able to purchase a "used like new" copy from Amazon warehouse for just $12.99 (free shipping too when I combined it with another order). The transaction was smooth, fast and it arrived in excellent condition. As far as game modes go, Burnout packs a good variety of races sucha as marked man, road rage, burnout routes, stunt man events, regular races, etc ........ plenty to do here besides racing as well, like findind 400 shortcuts & 100 plus billboards to try and smash through. I have just started playing and earned my Class "C" license and hope to level up quickly. I even gave the multiplayer mode a shot and found a decent amount of people to play against online. If you're looking for a racing game that puts an emphasis on fun over hardcore competitiveness, then this is your game. Not to say there are not some difficulties here too, but the fun outweighs those frustrations by a good margin. I would encourage anyone looking for a racing game to try it, Burnout Paradise is an excellent way to get your feet wet when it comes to racing on the streets !!	video-games_xbox
Finally a quality build headset for Xbox One. I've tried a few headsets for Xbox One over the past few days and I was trying to find a headset that had it all AND was really comfortable. The headsets I tested were: Astro A40 with mix amp 80 Xbox Stereo headset Turtle Beach Earforce Pro Seven PS4 Silver Headset (on sale I gave it a shot) Rig Flex LG Polk Striker ZX This Polk Striker headset is the real deal. It blows away the rest and it's not close. The mic monitoring is a perfect level and you CAN turn it off if you aren't into that (hold the volume up and game volume up button for a few seconds and it beeps at you). Also it had the best sound and comfort. The other headsets are made of plastic around where the ear cups move. This headset frame where the ear cups move is made of METAL, no squeaky wear and tear after a month. A friend let me try his turtle beaches and all I could hear was the plastic squeaking when the cups moved. They are a little heavy but it looks and feels like amazing quality. The head band has great padding so the top of your head won't hurt. The ear cups are OVER the ear but just barely so if you have giant ears you might have to stuff them in there, But I find it really comfortable. This headset comes with 3 sets of teal, rubber connection wires. One for consoles, one for mobile devices and one for PC. They feel like really good quality, I would like them better if they were flat maybe, they are round. It comes with it's own chat adapter that's a little better than the Xbox one adapter because it beeps at you when you mute and it has a light one the mute button. There is also a mute button on the bottom of the detachable mic. Just press up on it. Cons: The only con is when I first got the product the side echo ( mic monitoring) didn't work so well and there was a lot of static when I plugged it in to the adapter. After the first day I cannot recreate the static sound and the mic monitoring has worked perfect. Maybe it was user error. Great product 10/10 would recommend. I've already had 2 friends try them out and bought them the same day.	video-games_xbox
It's Got The Potential But. Though I love me some 3rd-person shooter action, the original Godfather game bored me to tears. I just couldn't get into it! I know I know, some of you out there really enjoyed this game quite a bit--and I respect that--but it never struck a chord with me despite my several attempts at playing it. I'm happy to say that The Godfather II is a little bit of a different story...for the most part. To be frank, it's not much to look at, but I found the overall game engaging enough that I was compelled to play it all the way through to the end in roughly 10 hours. Initially the experience didn't feel much different from the first as the game (slowly!) introduced all the gameplay mechanics, but in about an hour or so the game began to hit its stride and everything sank in. It turned out this game was deeper--gameplay-wise--than some most other open world games and I found that refreshing as it was unexpected. The Don View (initiated by hitting the Start button) essentially pulls the game out to a 3D map of the mob world you're trying to take over. Here you will be able to control your game in much greater detail. You'll find yourself inviting people into your family for their beneficial abilities (like lock picking or demolitions), promoting them up the chain (which in-turn grants them additional skills), upgrading their abilities (there are roughly 15 abilities per character ranging from increased health to better aiming), purchase them new weapons and more. The Don View also offers the ability to delegate tasks for your family by send some of your men to assist in defending a business of yours that's under attack, or bomb an enemies business to cripple a crime ring, or even to attempt to take over another business making it your own. It's a cool system that wasn't as buggy as I was expecting it to be. In one instance I was attacking a much needed trucking depot to complete a crime ring that would have added bullet proof vests to my crew. While I was waging war the game notified me that one of my other businesses--a bar--was under attack (the notification helpfully offers to take you to the action via the Don View at a press of a button). No problem--I simply instructed 4 of my thugs to help fortify the defenses at the bar. Once I was done taking over the trucking depo I quickly drove over to the bar to assist and as I arrived I could see my guys laying waste to the other family as they finished up the last few guys. It's a rewarding system that works really well and is easily one of the highlights of the game. Initially I was worried that I was going to spend more time in the Don View than actually playing the game because I was under the impression that this game might have been part 3rd-person shooter and part RTS--but that was not the case at all. Though you do spend a decent amount of time in the Don View, you really spend the majority of your time running around and attacking other families. Also, it's worth mentioning that the Don View might offer enough options to make some peoples head spin at first as it has a plethora of options. I do feel like it could have been organized a little better or at least consolidated in some ways to make it a little more approachable. There are three cities throughout the game: New York, Cuba and Florida. You can (and will) visit back and forth by visiting the airport in each city. It sounds like a pain, but the maps are small enough that I found it painless. Without a doubt the most fun I had with the game was when I was attacking other families businesses cannibalizing them into my own crime rings. These rackets--which normally consist of several businesses--have additional benefits that are exclusive to that string of businesses. For instance one racket will grant you larger ammo clips for your crew. One of the bigger ones spans several cities and offers incendiary bullets doubling the damage of your bullets. It's a nice carrot-on-a-stick until the end of the game. There are some annoyances in the game worth mentioning (some minor but I'll let you be the judge). You will use the thumbsticks to navigate the world, but as soon as you enter any menu system--including the Don View--you must switch over to the D-pad--its inconsistence is an annoyance, and what's further frustrating is that it doesn't even offer the option to do so. Also, the game expects you to interact with the world by talking with people on the streets who need favors (and boy there are a lot of them), but there isn't enough variation on the NPCs, their voices and the environment to keep in very interesting. The graphics never go beyond mediocre and are never impressive. But I think the biggest gripe I have with the game is the severe lack of side missions or alternate activities to participate in. The whole idea of an open world game is to offer the player choice. In Saint's Row 2 or GTAIV you have so many different activities or side missions at your disposal one could get lost for hours! You can (and in some cases are encouraged) to stray from the main story and get completely lost. That's the joy of an open world game--you make it your own! Yes I understand that there is a specific story to tell here with The Godfather 2, but the other games I mentioned do as well. I just feel like there was a huge opportunity here to move this game into a more interesting experience than it is and in the end we get a game whose world is nothing more than an empty shell. Perhaps EA is hoping people will get lost in the multiplayer experience? Personally I have no interest in that portion of the game. For more info visit my blog: [...]	video-games_xbox
The World Is Yours, Join The Revolution. So, you say want a revolution? Well here it is! Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution is a console version of the popular Civilization series on the PC. Understandably, most people would be skeptical is such a thing could be done to ergonomically suit a PS3 or an Xbox 360 controller, as RTS games which make the leap from PC to console don't fare so well in the transition. After having played Civilization Revolution, however, I am happy to report that this game is a keeper for anyone that likes strategy games, or would like a change of pace from all those first person shooters that have been dominating the online scene. The game developers really took their time to make a game that is easy to pick up and play, yet deep enough for veterans of the genre to enjoy many different strategic options. Basically, you select a Civilization from among a group of unique races with their own strengths and weaknesses. It's a lot of fun to try and figure out new ways to take advantage of your racial strengths or to exploit your enemies' weaknesses. For example, the Zulu are strong early in the game because their warrior units can move an extra square, or the Aztecs have military units that heal after every conflict. Other Civ's are stronger late in the game, like the Romans that can make Wonders (expensive buildings with game-breaking special effects) at half the cost. After you have selected your Civ, you place your first city. Positioning is key here, since you must place it near areas where you can harvest resources to make your city grow or to make units for going to war. Afterwards, the game is like a huge chess board where you fight four other enemy Civilizations. There are also non-violent ways of winning, such as the Cultural Victory (where you build Wonders or generate Great Persons by making building that produce more Culture) the Economic Victory (by making a lot of money and building the World Bank) or Technological Victory (where you beat the other Civ's in a race for outer space.) The graphics for the game are cartoonish and colorful, and they are adequate for the sheer lunacy of the game's main objective, which is nothing short of world domination. The music is enjoyable, with different aural cues to let you know which Civilization is on screen at the time. Some voices though, which speak in a Sim-like language called Firaxlish, are a little annoying, especially from the side of the advisers. But this is minor nit-picking, as the presentation is top notch, and it's a real thrill to see sprawling cities grow and develop across the map, or to see your mighty Artillery topple an enemy city. I must say though, that the single player is a little lacking in options. There is no campaign mode to speak of, but there are five different difficulty levels to test your might against. The online multiplayer, however, more than makes up for this shortcoming, as it's a real blast to go at it one-on-one or two-versus-two online. There's also a cool map of the week function, where players compete to see who can best complete a new downloadable map every week. Civilization Revolution is truly nothing short of revolutionary, as it is the most addictive turn-based strategy game ever to come out for consoles. This is a gem of a game, a future classic which will be the standard for all future games of this genre.	video-games_xbox
Just give me the parts. I'm going to try and cut the reveiw as short as possible but i have a lot that i want to cover. so here we go. I bought the product, Next day Aired it. It came in a small Plastic Bag with a Blue handled Screw Driver, all my parts, and a small piece of paper that asked me to call if i wasn't going to give the reveiwer a 5 star, and a link to a YOUTUBE channel on how to assemble and dissasemble your controller. I did neither of these. First of all, im familiar with how my controller works, operates, and its assembly. but im sure it is helpful for those who don't if they have a way to see it being done. I did not call the number for a few reason. I am not biast, i Dont care about brands, i don't make any money from any of these companies, i simply care about good, inexpensive products for the average gamer and the gaming community in general. The product itself is not bad, i spent a little bit of time putting it together, and now i have an all blacked out controller with black KONTROL FREEKS on my right analog stick and it looks nice and sleek. The parts are not bad. However, my main concern is not as much the product but the actual company. They advertise a red handled screw driver, i got a blue one. Now you may think "so what, its no big deal" and you are right, for me it is not a problem, but when you think about consistency, the company should be able to advertise and deliver exactly what you see, read, etc. If consistency is an issue with this company than that leads me to think,today it might be a different color screwdriver, tomorrow it may be a different color set of buttons, maybe you will get pink instead of black, or if consistency is a problem, maybe they won't even be consistent on having well made products. maybe half of the buttons will work and the other half will have broken tabs. That is something you as the consumer will have to think about and risk by using this company. I was lucky and got all working, good quality parts. consitency however, is a big thing to a customer. I would have to reconsider buying from this distributor a second time due to consistency issues. I give the product a 5 out of 5 but i give the company a 2 out of 5. For this, i scored a 3 out of 5 for these reasons. Thanks guys, I hope this reveiw was helpful.	video-games_xbox
Bad Hardware Design Leads to Many Frustrations. Let's start with the problems with Microsoft's latest entry into the video game market. Every single person I personally know that owns a 360 has had to send theirs back to Microsoft for repairs. And these aren't minor, various repairs. These repairs are for one issue only: the Red Ring of Death. It's a complete hardware failure that prevents you from turning on or using the console for more than 5 minutes before it just stops working. I'm on my third unit and I can already see that I'm going to have to send it in soon. Various visual artifacts are appearing all over the screen and after 10 minutes of trying to make out what's going on it locks up. The next problem is noise. This is one loud gadget. From the fans that spin up to full speed when you turn it on to the jet engine sound when the DVD drive is in use, you will have to crank up your sound to drown out the 360's moving parts. The PS3 and Wii, by comparison, are just about silent. It's unfortunate because the noise really removes you from the experience the games are trying to create. Last problem lies with the controller. Out of the box, my controller's left analog stick drifts north. So to get my on-screen characters to stop from slowly creeping forward I have to lightly pull back on the stick. This has led to far too many unintentional steps off of ledges to impending doom. The directional pad also suffers from poor build quality. It's incredibly inaccurate and unusable. I've cursed at the controller more times than I want to remember. As a result, I've started to migrate to the PS3 for my high-definition gaming; it's just a much more reliable and quality piece of hardware than the 360. It's silent, runs cool, never locks up, and just feels more solid than the hardware the shoddy engineers at Microsoft have come up with. As for the good things about the 360, the software lineup is great (Left 4 Dead is awesomely addictive) and the Xbox Live service is a fantastic experience. The exclusives in Live Arcade are also stellar (Rez HD!). Live Achievements make gaming addictive again much like video gaming's early years, and the friend system is far superior to anything else. It's a shame Microsoft's hardware skills are just as bad as their software skills. I'll probably end up selling my 360 and games if the console dies again. Three strikes and you're out!	video-games_xbox
A Must Have for the Mature Gamer. Gears of War is a high energy, well detailed sci fi shooter set in a dismal future. You are a muscular, well trained soldier wearing pounds of gear, armor and weapons - and it'll barely be enough to keep you alive. This game is compared frequently to Halo, but if Halo is the lighthearted ease of Star Wars, Gears of War is the non-stop assault and clinging to life of Alien. You're not jumping around like a kangaroo here, blasting at foes. You are heavily laden, crouching behind anything you can find to shield you, trying your best to stay alive for five more minutes. You have to work strategically with your fellow soldiers to climb forward every inch. The graphics in Gears of War are very impressive. The game is done in a palatte of browns, greys and reds. The dismal skies above, the swarms of black birds, the dented and dingy equipment - this is a world on the verge of despair. Enemies don't stand out with brightly colored costumes. You have to really pay attention to know where they are and to take them out. The sounds really help drive home the urgency of your mission. Voices cry out on all sides for help. The hammering of the machine guns and rapid fire weapons ring in your ears. The soundtrack is pounding and epic. If anything this is all TOO pounding - after playing this for weeks, I really can get a headache :) I'd turn it down, but then I wouldn't be able to tell where the enemies were sniping me from sometimes. The storyline really helps involve you in what is going on. It's like being at the center of a high power action movie. There are decisions you can make along the way to help guide the story. I really enjoy the "fight for every inch of soil" way it has you feel like you are involved in a real challenge. It might seem TOO challenging for some new gamers. Stick with it - it's well worth it. I do wish, with all of their emphasis on taking cover and being cautious - that you could CROUCH. I understand not being able to jump - you're wearing hundreds of pounds of gear! However, you can crouch behind cover. Why can't you crouch when you're not near cover, to lower your profile a bit? I think that would help out in some situations. Still, that's a minor complaint for a fantastic game. If you're a mature gamer (there's a fair amount of blood here) that enjoys shooters, definitely pick this one up!	video-games_xbox
A little less than 'almost perfect. Ok, This is not going to be a total review, but simply what I really had problems with during the 100+ hours I spent playing, and finishing Oblivion. There were three things (one of which is nit-picky). First: With what I imagine to be a very good budget for developing this title, and what I've heard was 5 years of time getting it to us, I wonder why there are so few voice actors. I mean it felt like there were two, maybe three male and female voices. Lame. Second: This may only be my feeling, and others may love this, but I don't think it is too logical that you should be allowed in conflicting factions. I joined all, and to be in a murdering, assassin guilt, and at the same time be a part of a policing guild like the fighters guild, seems outright dumb. It can be argued that your rep changes based on your actions, and therefore you are treated differently, but come on. Beside the moral conflict a character would face, there only seems to be one reason you are allowed to be a part of so many guilds: They made them, and boast over 400+ of playable hours. BTW, There is no way I agree with that time table, I can only assume the 400 hours would only apply if a player was not using quick travel, and walking to each destination. I ended the game with 1000 achievement points, and only a little over 100 hours of play. Anyway... Most other RPG's that I've enjoyed won't allow you to flip flop over your alignment i.e. you can't be both good and evil. It just doesn't work. I'd rather play the game twice through than act as though my character was living a moral lie. There are several titles I could list where there is a point in the story, where you have to choose between two paths, and cannot waffle back and forth. It makes the replay value go up. Finally, in order to complete the game the way I did, I exploited a money glitch early on, then another, which bumped me to more money than I'd ever need. (Easily found online). I only did this because building wealth is not easy, especially if you can't repair your own gear for most of the game even when focusing on that skill, and it costs a fortune to repair magically effected items like armor. I didn't like 'cheating," but I felt as though my hand was somewhat forced. Perhaps that's where the 400 hours is coming from--hours hunting, and only profiting a little. You see, these are somewhat small problems, and clearly didn't stop me from playing it all the way through. It is truly a beautiful game, and can really take you in visually. The storyline is so-so, and not as deep as I would have liked, but still a new benchmark, and a great glimpse into the way RPGs will and should look.	video-games_xbox
Call Of Juarez, Guns and Fists. Call of Juarez is an old west shooter with depth of storyline, action, and scenery. The experience combines moments of intense gunfights and opportunities to sneak through them. What the characters lack in 21st Century technology, they make up for with simple and fundamental throttling of bad guys across the nose. As Call of Juarez opens, Billy, one of the main characters, finds himself running for his life from the other main character, an obsessive Reverend. Billy is falsely accused of his parents death, a fugitive, and the dangerous Reverend seeks justice, on his terms. Billy is a skilled climber, and sneaky, but the Reverend is a seasoned gun with a killer haymaker. As Billy tries to avenge his parents death, and stay ahead of the Reverend, he finds himself on a treasure hunt, for the Gold of Juarez. The landscape of the great frontier is an amazing backdrop. There are wonderful moments of exploring western range on horseback and enjoying the way it all looks around you as the sun sets. It's man vs. wild when you creep upon your prey, arrow pulled back in your bow, the rabbit never knew what hit him. The Reverend is fast with the gun in high stake duels, and good with boxes, easily stack objects and climb on things to create your own defensive spot to mow bad guys down from. At times the atmosphere is like Billy the Kid, surrounded and trapped in a lone house, and the only option is to plan..., then shoot your way out. Feeling the revolver kick out lead, jumping on a horse, and tearing off across open fields never gets old. It would have been nice to spend more time in the saddle, and less on the old boots. The fist to fist combat is a brilliant change of pace. It's great to whack the guy with your left hook, then see an opening on the right and let him have it. I would have loved the chance to bloody some more noses, or play cards. This game was everything I wanted in a western. Like "Gun", it's the sights, sounds, and cold steel that make it the wild west.	video-games_xbox
Hands Down best mouse&keyboard adapter available. I have been using XIM as my mouse and keybord adapter for consoles since the XIM1, back when it was a basement Do-It-Yourself project. I have also used and tried various other mouse and keyboard adapters, such as the Smart Joy Frag, XFPS, and SplitFish. Technically I am currently using the XIM3, not the XIM Edge, but the only major difference between the two is the interface, not the backbone translation, so I feel the review still applies. First, there are some key things to be aware of before you make a purchase (and this applies to ANY m&kb adapter): They emulate the joystick, so its not like a PC. The resulting output from the adapter is in essence, a joystick position. So with that in mind, there are a lot of joystick related aspects built into every game to assist the joystick, and these aspects ultimately hinder the mouse, and thus the adapter must overcome these hindrances to be of any quality. Such as: - Dead Zone (the area of the joystick which results in no in-game movement) - Dead Zone shape (the shape of the deadzone, usually a square, rectangle or circle) - Acceleration Curve (the relationship between the joystick angle and in-game reticle velocity, which is not linear) - X&Y axis differences (not all games treat the X&Y axis the same) For the adapter to have any quality at all, it must provide a reasonable 1:to:1 relationship between mouse input and the in-game reticle output. And with that in mind, XIM is HANDS DOWN the best available mouse and keyboard adapter on the market. XIM will give you without any doubt, the best possible mouse and keybaord experience that can be obtained on a console. XIM3 & Edge both use something called Smart Translators, which gives you as-good-as-it-gets 1:to:1 translation between the mouse and the in-game reticle movement. The creator of XIM built some kind of magic automated vision learning tool which will actually map all the characteristics between the joystick and the in-game reticle movement. The Smart Translators take care of everything. No other adapter on the market has anything even remotely similar to the quality of the XIM Smart Translators. And you still get additional settings to tailor it to your needs, like sensitivity. Having said all that... XIM is still not perfect. And if you expect XIM to be equivalent to a PC quality mouse control, its just not going to happen. That is not exactly XIM's fault though, some games simply have built-in features for the joystick & game which XIM cant overcome. Like auto-aim, which at face value would seem like an advantage, but when auto-aim kicks in, the mouse feels sluggish. The 1:to:1 translation drops off. Also there is the maximum turn rate i.e joystick pegged. Some games simply have a slow maximum turn speed, and unfortunately, XIM cant make it go faster. The quality of the translation will very game to game (but COD is perhaps the best). Some last notes: Always set your in-game sensitivity setting to the Maximum value. Smart Translators are game specific. If you are using the COD translator for Halo, the quality will suffer. Twitch aiming does not work so well, so no instant snap 180 degree turnarounds - you need to learn to move the mouse at a speed which would peg-and-hold the joystick. The XIM Edge interface is not that great, deal with it, the in-game results are worth it (XIM3 interface is great though... but they stopped making them). XIM has a pretty active community too, which is helpful if you are getting stuck on setup, have questions, or looking for other XIMmers. [...]	video-games_xbox
A good arcade racer, a poor piece of software. As an Xbox Live enthusiast, I've played countless games online. Midtown Madness 3 is my all-time favorite, but I've also finished Project Gotham 2 and played it online. Naturally when I saw this game selling brand new for under 1/2 the cost of other new Xbox games, I snatched it right up. But this game is plagued by many of the problems that Sega GT 2002 had; poor/confusing menus, mediocre graphics and now a half-hearted attempt at online play. Pros: - All the things you love about Sega GT 2002: arcade-style racing, career mode, and lots of cars (about 40 additional cars added for GT Online) - The online race modes include two truly unique styles: team battle (a relay race where each player races for 1 lap) and navigate (a blind man's race, where the co-pilot must indicate to the driver upcoming turns and competitor's moves). - You can trade cars, parts and even cash with other players online! - Three new offline challenge games (gathering, time attack and chronicle). Cons (just focused on the improvements from 2002): - Three words: Lag, lag, lag. - Although the game is supposed to transfer SegaGT 2002 saved data to access customized cars from last year's game, I couldn't get it to work. - Online matches are tough to join, if you try to enter a room that has a race already in progress, it pushes you back out to the main menu. - In online play, when the 1st place car runs across the finish line, the game ends for everyone. For the price, a die-hard racing fan can't really resist this game. Plus, with 2 months free Xbox Live subscription, (for new users only) this game almost pays for itself! So when it comes right down to it, this game is well worth what you paid for, but you should expect some inconveniences. Finally if you don't already own Sega GT 2002, you should certainly add this game to your collection since it is included in GT Online!	video-games_xbox
More addictive than heroine. When Bungie announced that they were making Halo 2, a lot of people thought that they were just fixing up the original one and adding things. Bungie then informed the public that it was building it all over again and this was much more than just a re-make. The game design and controls are identical to the original, while the graphics are bumped up a few notches. The textures take a few seconds to load sometimes mid cut-scene, but it is an improvement. You can definately tell the same people designed the levels in this game that did the last, as there are one or two that are pretty redundant and stretch probably longer than they need to. But overall, this game has many new things to offer. First off, duel weilding weapons. You can still only store one weapon that you're not using, but the current one, if it is held by one hand, can leave room for you to pick up another one handed weapon. In this case, you can fire both simultaniously or in whatever combination you want (alternating and such) because your right trigger controls your right weapon, and left trigger now controls the left one (as opposed to the grenades, like normal). This adds much to the game on its own. Second, you have a plethora of new weapons to play with. The covenant arsenal has been expanded exponentially, and you can now wield the energy sword (a new favorite, as you could imagine). You also get the fuel rod projector, which is the big gun that is grafted onto the arm of the Hunters - the covenant equivalent to the rocket launcher. It has a covenant equivalent to a sniper rifle, and a carbine also. Third, you can hi-jack vehicles. This is a major plus, but definately a skill to be learned and mastered. This will make multiplayer much more interesting. Also, you can climb on enemy tanks, pop the cover open, and drop a grenade in there to cook the pilot without wasting a rockets like you had to before. Fourth, the story is much more complex. There are more cutscenes, and another goodie that was left out of the previous reviews (or at least the ones I've read). While the story doesn't flow nearly as easily as the last game, there are essentially two stories happening simultaneously. I'm guessing the stories will combine later (I'm only halfway through now), but beside the one with the Master Chief, you play the Arbitor in the other. You are the disgraced Elite that was in charge of the fleet in the first game. Your failure to bring the Master Chief down and preserve the Halo has brought you much pain, and the suicidal position of the Arbitor. You play alongside the Covenant military as him, and run missions against Covenant rebels and other things. This gives much exposure into how the Covenant work and develops them much more so than the last game. Two variations to the original classic weapons must be noted. The pistol does not have a scope on it anymore, which will definately balance multiplayer games by limiting those head-shot gurus who never fight up close. Also, the previous Assault Rifle, with its automatic fire and 60 round magazines is long gone. In its place is the Battle Rifle, with a 2x scope, but only a three round burst fire mode, and a 32 shot magazine. Sadly enough, taking Elites out with that is much harder because you can't bum-rush them while emptying your magazine. The three round burst definetly slows down the effectiveness of the rifle in short range combat, which is probably why they introduced the Sub Machine Gun, which is a high rate of fire, caseless, one handed weapon. Of course, now you have to have both of them for the same advantages you had with the single Assault Rifle before, but it's a minor setback. I don't have access to XBOX Live where I'm at currently, but I'm sure this will be one of the greatest Live experiences to date. I know how much fun the orinigal game was in multiplayer, so this one, with its improvements, will be much better. All in all, the developers have made a game with the same addictive attributes of Halo, but with much more replayability, mass multiplayer options, and enough improvements to fill a football stadium. All of the other FPSs I have will have to take a backseat to this. There's just nothing that can compete.	video-games_xbox
The Devil Gets His Due. There's nothing more challenging than dealing with die-hard fans of a long-standing franchise when you make a new adaptation of a property - DmC: Devil May Cry is one such example. Developer Ninja Theory took their opportunity to refashion a new Devil May Cry universe with a greater emphasis on character arcs and thematic content, as the company had been known for with "Enslaved: Odyssey to the West" and "Heavenly Sword". Though most professional reviewers gave the game a glowing recommendation, some vocal die-hard supporters felt that the reboot was a disservice to the original series (some criticism was worth having a discussion on, and some was downright belligerent fanboyism). With the "Definitive Edition," Ninja Theory has created a reworked version of their game, incorporating new mechanics and updates for the new generation of video game consoles. In DmC: Devil May Cry, we follow the story of Dante, spawn of a demon father and an angel mother - a nephilim - whose constant attacks by demons (that no other human being sees) leads him to a life living on the outskirts of society. Given his innate abilities, Mundus, king of the demons, fears Dante overthrowing his reign on Earth through propaganda and deceit and relentlessly hunts for him. Dante soon meets with Kat, a Wiccan able to tap into the occult, and Vergil, Dante's long-lost twin brother. The two are at the head of "The Order," an institution set on the complete removal of the demon's rule on Earth. Dante sets out on a winding road that challenges him both physically and morally as his parent's past and his potential future all come to light in this epic struggle over the fate of humanity. Right off the bat, I need to praise Ninja Theory for such a dedication to character crafting and story. In previous iterations, Dante was always a laid-back, one-liner spouting, physics-defying warrior, but felt fairly flat in terms of actual characterization. Here, Dante starts the tale as a self-centered, crass, and reactionary hedonist, but the game goes to lengths to explain the "why" of all those traits, while at the same time making him an engaging character in his own right as he develops and matures over the narrative. The characters of Kat and Vergil are incredibly well-rounded with their own motivations and beliefs that not only help flesh out Dante in contrast, but provide their own individual voice in the story. Special attention should also be given to the game's actors who provide motion capture and voice acting for their roles - Tim Phillipps, Sage Mears, David de Lautour, and the entire cast not only pour their talent into the voice acting but make their physical pantomimes as important of a method of characterization as the dialog. The story is surprisingly complex as it slowly transitions from multi-layered hero's tale to a deconstructing analysis on the nature of revenge and morality. The best in the hack-n-slash genre of games are known for tight controls and a wide assortment of moves, special abilities, and weapons, which DmC produces in spades. You'll be using five "main weapons" in total along with three types of ranged guns, all the while being able to switch between "demon" and "angel" abilities. It may sound daunting at first, but DmC pulls off something that I've never experienced before in a hack-n-slash game - the desire to experiment with every weapon in fun and complex combos. Even with some of my favorite games in the genre (like Bayonetta or Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance), I usually find a dominant strategy that works for most fights and never deviate as there's never any reason to change up what works. In this game, not only do you have to change up weapons for the sake of the number of enemies, the distance of the enemies, and repelling incoming attacks, but some enemies are best dispatched with either angel or demon weapons, influencing the player to more frequently change up weapons/abilities/strategies until chaining complex combinations and weaponry becomes second-nature and seamless. DmC also focuses heavily on elements of platforming and environment traversing, which is also incorporated into the brilliant boss fights. Every fight, large or small, encourages you to pay attention to your surroundings and master timing to not only find the best way to beat your opponents, but to use the environments to your advantage. The game is drop-dead gorgeous. The difference between the desaturated, sterile, and mundane "real world" to the realm of Limbo that's bursting with color, energy, and danger is night-and-day in the game. When Dante is dragged into fighting in Limbo, the world itself seems to shatter, shake, break, and reform all in an effort to impede his progress. The color palette is rich with beautiful hues accentuating the creative creature and environmental designs. Enemy designs range from Gothic, to mechanical, to downright surrealist making the "other-worldliness" of Limbo and the demon forces feel even more alien. The game also boasts some outstanding animation for the enemies as well as Dante's own repertoire of skills that actually help further personify who Dante is as a fighter. The only knock I have against the visuals are the very infrequent texture pop-ins. They're nowhere close to deal-breaking, but you'll notice them on occasion. For those who have already played the game, there are several changes and additions to the "Definitive Edition" that separate it from the last generation release that address some criticisms. First, all of the DLC that was available for the last generation's game has been included including the "Bloody Palace" mode for Vergil and Dante (think of it as a game mode that allows the player to go through all waves of enemies in the game until they die), the visuals have been bumped up to 1080p at 60 frames per second for a smoother looking game increasing the pixel-count to make the game look even better than before, a new "Turbo mode" that increases the speed of the gameplay by 20% for a faster and more frenetic experience, the character epilogue "Vergil's Downfall" that details Vergil's story after the events of the main game allowing the player to play as the significantly different-playing character, rebalanced gameplay for the main game, new difficulties and modes for players wanting an even tougher challenge, new costumes, and other various additions. As a fan of the first release of the game, this edition has enough new content for me to warrant a double-dip, especially at this price. DmC: Devil May Cry is one of the most polished (and one of the most underrated) games I've ever had the pleasure experiencing. It's imaginative, wild, complex, well-crafted, gorgeous, engrossing, and just downright fun. If this is your first foray into the game, or a curious returning player, the Definitive Edition will certainly make a good case for playing the devil's advocate. ...	video-games_xbox
A great own unless you had Bad Fur Day on the N64. Word of Warning for Parents - Don't let Conker's cute little noggin fool you, this game is for mature audiences only. Kids need not apply with Conker. There is violence, crazy amounts of profanity, sexual references and violence. If you're under the age of 17, might want to stick with something else! A drunk fowl mouthed squirrel with problems urinating in public. What's not to like right for XBOX gamers? Well. The stardom this crazy squirrel had with his introduction on the N64 turned some heads for sure. Nintendo lost out to Rare by them going to Microsoft, or did they? The money Microsoft spent to acquire Rareware seemed like a smart move 3 years ago. Or is it? RememberGrabbed by the Ghoulies? Most heard of it, but it was certainly not one of Rare's memorable games and considering it was their first game on the XBOX, people were ready for Conker. Conker has been delayed countless times and it was certainly a hotly anticipated title. I was expecting the delay to do some marvelous things for the franchise and I wanted Rare to redeem themselves. I personally expected this to be the best XBOX game ever as I am a big Conker junkie as I still played Bad Fur Day on the N64. Suffice to say, I was a bit disappointed when I found out the single player is a remake of "Bad Fur Day" from the N64 with XBOX graphics. While newbies to Conker will love this game, you might want to consider passing it buy if you've played Bad Fur Day. As stated above, the adventure aspect of the game is a virutal remake of Bad Fur Day with better graphics. Certainly points up for gamers who have not experienced it on the dead N64, but what about the people who have? I played this game already and many others have too. Sure the luscious sweeet graphics are amazing and it's certainly one of the better looking XBOX titles I've seen, but I was wanting more, so I guess that's where the multiplayer comes into play. But back to Bad Fur Day. How about some new levels? Or a new adventure all together? Mind you, I like remakes too, but I didn't wait 3 years to play Conker's Bad Fur day all over again. If you never played the game before, expect naughty language, sexual innuendos, and some of the funniest moments in video game history. This is still one of the funniest games ever produced. Just don't let the cuddly looking characters fool you, this is for mature audiences only. The multiplayer offers the game a little more replay value, but I personally have not played it enough to give it my honest opinion. If you don't have XBOX Live, you can still play the multiplayer solo or with a friend. The game takes control of the other characters and refers to them as dumbots. I've played a few levels, it's basically every man (well squirrel or Teddy) for himself. The objectives are not very clear, and it's clearly more fun playing on live than with the computer controlled teammates and opponents. I can say with confidence the multiplayer is not a Halo killer, but I know some people are diggin the action when they go online. The game supports 16 simultaneous players at once if you go online. Rare disappoints me. I didn't want to play Bad Fur Day again. Sure, it's a great title, but it's nearly 5 + years old now and I wanted to play something new. But like I said, if you haven't played it, you're going to love it. But those of you that have played it before might want to look at something else to buy. Conker is a great game, but it's remade. Good for some, bad for many.	video-games_xbox
Very much took me by surprise. I only got this game because I found it on sale for ten dollars. I had played the first in the series, and somewhat enjoyed it, but not enough to be interested in a sequel at full price. After the game arrived, I played it for 20 minutes and then shelved it for another 3 months. Well this month I finally went back to it, and it grew on me quite a lot to the point that I'd honestly recommend it if you even liked FFXIII a tiny little bit. If you thought there was anything redeeming in that game, you really have to get this at the prices it's going for now. It's an absolute steal. Here's why: 1. The music - I am one of those people who grew up on Super Nintendo games, and usually don't think anything stands up to the classic music. I honestly haven't enjoyed game music this much for a couple decades. The music is really like something you'd find on a commercial album, a good commercial album. It sounds like stuff that great artists put on great albums, not like something a game composer churned out in 10 hours. There is a huge variety of styles, and almost all of them are well done and memorable. I can't get the music out of my head. Who would have thought that Final Fantasy 13 part 2 would be some of my favorite game music? 2. Open ended - This game reverses course from the first installment and allows you to explore the game's universe in a much less linear fashion. There are something like 8 endings, too. It plays out more like Chrono Trigger than anything, in that regard. 3. Refined battle system - The battle system from the first installment is back, and it has a lot of customization again, making fights very strategic. It's not the greatest battle system of all time, but it was a highlight of FFXIII, and it's even slightly better here. Your party's stat and skill development is your call 100%. 4. Visuals - For a Xbox 360 game, it looks really nice. 5. Length - The game has tons of stuff to do. You can easily spend as much time on this game as any normal FF installment. It's not just a thrown together sequel. Now for the negative, and the thing I take one star off for: the story. It's not that it's a horrible story. It's not horrible. A RPG with a horrible story can't be worth recommending to anyone, and I do recommend FFXIII-2, but the story is weird and a little convoluted in this series as a whole. You don't get quite enough interaction with the characters of the past game, and a lot of the story that unfolds isn't incredibly interesting in the grand scheme of things. It takes a long time before you actually know what's even going on. Basically, it's a time travel plot where you try to figure out why it's a time travel plot. Weird. Still, it's not annoying or awful or cheesy. It does let you make dialogue choices, too, and even rewards you for picking the worst possible answers if you want to make it funny.	video-games_xbox
Great feeling joystick, works on PC as well. I bought the Xbox 360 version of the Fightstick Pro to play SFXT and SSF4 which I have on PC. Like other Xbox 360 controllers, this joystick worked perfectly on my Windows 7 machine. I simply plugged in the USB cable into my PC and it started downloading the drivers instantly. No disc required. I also own a two-year-old Mad Catz TE Stick, and compared to that the Fightstick Pro feels almost identical when playing. The small difference between the two is that my older joystick feels looser when moving the actual joystick around - but not by much. I suppose that's because my older stick is simply showing some wear and tear - but it's a small difference. The buttons and the layout are pretty much the same as the TE Stick - sturdy and snappy. This stick uses a square gate which means that when moving the stick around, you will notice that its range of motion forms a square at its limits. (This can be changed to an octagonal gate for those who decide to modify the stick.) The chassis of the SFXT joystick is well designed. It isn't as boxy as the TE Stick and it seems to sit better on my lap. The weight of the entire unit is hefty, but not overly so. I actually prefer the design of this stick in terms of chassis ergonomics. Instead of a simple box-like design that the TE Sticks have, the Fightstick Pro has some nice alternating angled edges along its sides and it has a nice lip along the front of the unit. My one complaint is that the turbo and other switches are located on the upper right of the chassis - somewhat close to the gameplay buttons themselves. Still, I doubt I would ever accidentally hit those buttons during gameplay. The Fightstick Pro is a great choice for a fighting stick. The joystick movement feels great, the buttons are snappy and the build quality is good. Update: I've had my Fightstick Pro for a while now (about a year), and it finally needed some adjusting. Holding down on the joystick sometimes didn't register. So I opened up the joystick to see what was going on. I found that some of the wires had gotten caught between the joystick's moving parts. I simply moved them to one side and used some tape to keep the wires in place. In doing all of this I found that the internal components of the joystick to be pretty good quality - Sanwa parts for sure. Furthermore, taking the joystick apart and putting it back together is easy - you just need basic tools like a few screw drivers and some pliers. (You need pliers to hold one end of the joystick, while you unscrew the other end.)	video-games_xbox
close, but no cigar. so first of all, im gonna say that i play a real bass and a real guitar, but enjoy RB as something to do with friends. as for this controller, it looks great, has a good feel and some good features, but it has its flaws as well. THE GOOD: - longer neck: although its not quite as long as a real bass, it is as big as a real guitar (about 5-6 inches longer than the RB strat) although the neck is longer, the fret buttons are the same size as the RB1 strat buttons - more authentic look: no whammy bar (real basses don't have em, neither should this controller), also has the dots on the frets (and they're accurate to where they should be). the tuning pegs are cool, and they actually turn. the knobs look cool too! - heavier more sturdy design: alot of the the reviews on here say that this bass is shoddy and feels flimsy, to me it seems like it is built better than the RB1 strat. maybe if you're the kind of person who jumps around and does scissor kicks it may feel like a piece of junk, but to me it feels fine - nicer strap: softer material, wider strap. its actually more comfortable than the strap i have on my real bass - tilt sensor: it actually works when i want it to! this is the first of 3 RB guitars ive used that actually works as advertised. my only gripe with it is that i play slightly more vertical than most, and therefore inadvertently set off my overdrive occasionally. THE BAD - the dual strum bar: this is the main reason i bought this bass. i assumed that it would give a more authentic feel to the strumming. it doesnt (at least for me). while it is faster during the quick little bass fills, its harder to keep rhythm during the long strands of the same note since you don't actually "catch" the bar as it coming back as you would with a real string. also the strum bars are LOUD... REALLY LOUD! personally, i like the quiet strum bar of the RB1 strat. also the strum bars have almost no resistance to them, kind of like a GH guitar. im not a fan of that at all. -the thumb rest: i don't use it. i tried, but it just doesnt feel right. the angle is fine but i find that my strum fingers tend to wander either up or down, causing me to miss one of the bars or strum both with one finger. on a real bass i rest my thumb on the top of my pickup (in a similar fashion) but if my fingers wander it is a non-issue. i still end up just wrapping my thumb over the top of the body as i did with the RB1 strat. - the fret buttons: they don't have the low pressure RB "click" feeling to them, they are spongy and have a GH guitar feeling to them i don't like it, but this is just my personal opinion. - the color scheme: not a big deal, but im not a fan of white guitars/ basses, i just wish they made a few different colors - not wireless: its wired but theres reasons for that. as one of the other reviews said, microsoft doesnt allow third parties to make wireless accessories for the 360. go figure, microsoft is afraid of another company cutting into their profits. rolls eyes OVERALL: im happy with the purchase. it looks cool, has a good feel, and will just take some getting used to. as for the people who have had issues with it not working out of the box, ive had no issues with mine (and mine was shipped half way around the world!) if you're on the fence with this item, i say go for it! i gave it a 3 because of the personal preference issues i have with it. if i had never touched a real bass in my life, i probably would give it a five.	video-games_xbox
Good solid First Person Shooter. This was one game I was waiting for but then i read all the bad to ok reviews and though, hmm, maybe i should pass this one by. But I bought it anyway. Yes you can go through missions without switching characters, issuing orders or looking for all the secrets. This is similar to many games, you can get all that you can out of the game or just play it through as fast as possible. Personally for my 50 bucks, i'm playing the heck out of teh game. Each character is unique, can handle only certain guns (like Hawk can only use small guns where as Tex laughs if you try and make him pick up a small weapon). There is a great deal of strategy involved with setting up your squad to take out an enemy threat. Tex will just go in guns-a-blazing if you don't keep him controlled (i typically have him in cover me mode until i want to unleash him). Each character has their own personality. Flint and Hawk are more cautious, Brutis and Tex are aggressive. I frequently use Hawk to survey the battlefield, then setup a battle plan. I'll setup Flint to provide sniper cover, tell hawk to use her stealth power to assassinate enemies unleash tex and play brutis for his ability to do heat vision. There is quite a bit of strategy involved in the game if you want to use it. Or you can go balls to the wind and run into the firefight. Graphically the game is OK. The mouth to voice sync is bad and you can see jaggies on diagonals. But overall the graphics are acceptable, not leading edge but they work. You can interact with lots of the environment which is nice. The enemy AI is great, they scatter when you toss a grenade, use cover and will try and flank you. The AI in my opinion is better than Halo. The sounds work. I had Tex shooting on my right and the sound was so loud in my ear from my back right speaker it was as if he was actually standing there shooting. The controls are well thought out and very workable as well. YOu can play the game without fighting the controls. The camera is good too. If your character is in front of the camera, he/she goes transparent. Multiplayer actions is good too, i like squad deathmatch where you control your whole squad version someone else controlling a while squad. If you find DNA packs in the game, you can unlock deathmatch characters and build your own squad not of 'Brute Force' squad characters if you want. Things missing are 'live' internet play, vehicle use and a 'peek' around corners option. However i hear rumours you can play it online over gamespy similar to how you can play Halo and other system link capable games. All in all this is a great first person shooter.	video-games_xbox
Disappointing after a great first game. I've seen it mentioned that this game has better story telling and I couldn't agree less. The story in this game comes just shy of being George Lucas bad. Without getting into spoilers, these characters just aren't as interesting as the characters from the first game. One characters decent into madness is note worthy, but you have to romance him to see it. Other than that, it's mostly political shenanigans that involve just one city. That's right. There is no world to save or grand adventure this time. It's almost like this should have been the first game or even added content. Pros: 1 - Combat has been improved (some don't agree with that, but I like it) 2 - The liberties taken by the story teller are a nice touch. Cons: 1 - The inventory system has been neutered. (You can't even put armor on your party members.) 2 - The story is weak. I just don't care about the politics of Kirkwall. It should have only been part of the game, not the whole story. 3 - Mission structure is terrible. It's like they copied GTA to the letter. You just run from icon to icon doing missions to get street cred and advance the story. Meh. 4 - Enemies come from nowhere. You'll be attacked by a few enemies and reinforcements just fall from the sky. You could, at least, make them run from behind a rock or something? 5 - Still glitchy. Though, not as bad as the first game, I put up with glitches in the original DA because it was so good. 6 - None of the decisions you make matter. The differences are minor and only one decision even has a major effect. 7 - No replay value. I played through all of the original DA prologues. Every story was unique and interesting. Since none of your decisions in DA2 have much of an impact, there isn't enough to see to merit a second play-through. I barely made it through the first one. 8 - I just didn't care what happened to any of the characters. Even the "mind blowing" occurrence near the end was lame after drudging through this rather boring game. If you loved Origins, you will in all likelihood, not enjoy this sequel.	video-games_xbox
Hard to believe this is the same team that made Halo. I'm tempted to give it 3 stars since there are some fun elements to the game, but the negatives out weigh the positives. I'll try to leave out any spoilers. Great scifi games are rare it seems. The Halo series was (mostly) amazing. Halo 1 and 3 in particular. Scifi RPGs are even rarer. Fallout 3 being the obvious standard against which to measure. With Fallout: NewVegas being fun but too buggy. Why begin with other games? So that if you are simply looking for good games in the genre you can find better options without reading through yet another review. I played Destiny quite a lot, and didn't rush to judgement. I love the genre. I like many aspects of the the game. I played to level 31 (game is capped to level 30 without DLC, 32 with DLC). Positives: This game does not really the Teen rating. I am very careful with what games I let y 10 year old watch let alone play, and I let him play this one. The violence is very cartoon like. Unless you play in the Player vs Player portion, the monsters are not very human like nor are they very scary. The graphics are not at all impressive (closer to Halo 1 then Call of Duty:Advanced Warfare), but they are servicable. The sound is 'ok'. The first time on mars in particular was well done on the audio end. Most of the fairly short story missions are fun. Negatives: The graphics while 'ok' are not immersive or in any way impressive. The monster figure models are poorly done being both low poly and low res textures. The audio rarely adds anything to the game. The game is not stable. I have not seen a game with so many problems since Fallout:NV. The servers are not stable. Losing connection with the servers while still having internet access is very common. Some days happening ever 20-30 minutes. The server instability is significant since the game can not be played in any form unless connected to the servers. Lose connection to the servers and you lose your current mission and get tossed back to space (where you have to slowly travel back to the planet). The game launch time is the slowest current game for any platform. 5+ minutes from the time you decide to play to the time you can play. Movement from zone to zone is also slow. The game is divided in to planets. To travel from home-base (The Tower) to earth means you start in space, go slowly to the tower, leave the tower to go to space and then go slowly to the planet. The weapons are varied, but they are varied in such a way that with few exceptions they are all designed to be annoying. Clip size, ammo you can carry, high power scope on a weapon which has no range and so on. There are ways to balance game play without this. As you can see if you try any other game by Bungee or Bethesda. The merchant system is designed to only reward non-stop grinding. There is no material exchange except for the materials you can very easily get. There is not even a common currency in the game. To start with it is glimmer (which is gapped at 25,000) later it comes one of two types of marks (one from a few select types of events the other from PvP) and later still it is either motes of light or strange coins. There is no common exchange. There is no barter there is only endless unvaried grinding and repeating the same few missions over and over. There is almost no human player interaction. There is no gifting or trading. There is no message board. There is no team making (for Raids for example). In most MMOs and RPGs there are multiple paths to top level. In this game there are only two. Kill other humans in player vs player or have 6 friends and complete raids (more grinding). There is no messaging, and no match making for raids so you'd best hope you have 6 friends with the same taste in games or live with never being top level....not that anything really changes as you level up. The level caps all feel 'off'. The game itself is capped at level 20. After that you find armor with light in it. You then go and level up the armor. But if you find one that suits you better, you go back down in level until the new set is leveled up. Just another way to force more repetitive grinding. The DLC was a total let down. I had hoped it would add to the game, but it added no new content. It just reused old areas (with 1-2 new doors), no new monsters, even the end bosses were just slightly larger versions of old foes. Ultimately this is going to be an easy game to walk away from.	video-games_xbox
Katherine. I am always hearing men asking what game they can play with their significant other. (Flower is the correct answer by the way.) Catherine is not the correct answer. It may seem as a simple game that deals with relationships and commitment. It isnt. The game tells you that you will be judged. If you play with your girlfriend or wife I guarantee you it won't just be the game judging you. First the good bits. This is surprisingly well written. Yes Katherine with a K is a bit of a trope as a harridan making her man grow up. Yet she isn't wrong and plenty of women in their early thirties struggle with the same issues with their partners. (Particularly partners that play video games and watch anime such as the audience for this game.) There is also a lot more depth to the story and characters than may first appear during the playthrough, The main gameplay is two-fold. One is sitting around a bar talking to patrons and friends and answering text messages. The game has multiple endings based on your actions but often I felt I didn't really have the ability to actually steer the story. I get the impression despite my diligence in talking to everyone I missed significant bits. It has a Mass effect on the ship feel but without as much apparent dialogue choice. The other main gameplay element is a climbing blocks puzzle reminiscent of Qbert. I, at times, hated it. It has a nasty difficulty spike halfway through and there is no way around it if you want to see the story (Playing on easy does not seem to make the puzzles themselves easier. It just gives you more money and lives) Speaking of lives the puzzle segments gives Dark Souls a run for its money. I cant remember seeing the you died screen this often in a game. To the game's credit however, the checkpoints are somewhat generous. This may be a game one has to play more than once to fully appreciate as I sense I had more freedom of choice than I realized. The block puzzles are tough and frustrating but the narrative is such that instead of giving up I struggled through and actually got better. If you like good more adult themed Anime and don't mind earning your pudding Catherine is an excellent game.	video-games_xbox
Spec Ops: The Line: This is one of those games that makes you think. You play as Captain Walker, the commander of a elite Delta force squad sent into the ruins of Dubai to find out the ultimate fate of the 33rd and determine if anything is left that is worth saving. Your mission starts out simply enough as Walker and his squad slowly make their way into Dubai and observe the wreckage that the massive sand storm caused. Eventually the squad encounters survivors and they are not the friendly type. Walker and his squad fight past the group that attacked them and find that some of the 33rd has survived the sand storm and have set up camp inside the the ruined city. It soon becomes apparent though that they are not the same 33rd that went into Dubai to help save it's citizens. Soon Walker and his squad will find themselves drawn into a city that was torn apart from without and what is left is slowly destroying itself from within. There are many questions in the ruined city. There are also not many answers. Walker and his squad will slowly make their way through the city seeing and committing horrors that seem unavoidable. All in the effort to reach the man that was responsible for evacuating Dubai. Konrad. Did he fail? Was there ever any chance that he could have succeeded? Why does he seem to have the group taunted as they make their way through the city? What caused the 33rd to go rouge? Konrad has all the answers except one: Where is the line between what we want to believe and what is real? ------------ This is definitely one of those games that made me think. Though not necessarily while I was playing. Up to a certain point it felt like I was playing a standard we are here to save the world over the shoulder action / adventure game. Then I had to make a choice. Basically go right or go left. I chose to go right. What happened afterward still has me wondering what would have happened if I went left. I have read various reviews of this game and there is one thing I can agree with them on. This game is not meant to be "fun" in a traditional sense. The controls can be clunky, there are several places where the player runs into "get past here and the game will stop shooting at you"moments, sometimes it turns into a grind. It seems like if the player had any sense they would quit. After I finished the game and started reading up on what in the world I had just played, I understood why. The player is meant to feel like they are Walker. If the player quits then that means in a way that Walker had the good sense to quit. In another way, if the player keeps going, even as things deteriorate then the player starts to have the same mindset as Walker. Push through at any cost, Konrad must be found. My best advice if you play this game is to keep going even if it gets annoying. The twist at the end is definitely worth it and it may even make you question why you chose what you did. I chose what I though was the good guy path. Unfortunately every time I did something it made the situation that much worse. I definitely recommend this to anyone that likes their games to have stories. If you like games like Bio shock, Mass Effect, Red Dead Redemption and Brothers In Arms give this one a shot. m.a.c ---------- Game Play: Standard 3rd person with a cover system. Also it's also important to remember that this game is sort of a parody of all the ever popular military shooters out there. If something seems like someone else did it better, there's a chance it was made that way on purpose. This game was -meant- to mess with your normal gamer reflexes. Story: Different. If you like stories that take something familiar and turn it on it's side. The story also does a good job of showing the mental deterioration of Walker and his squad as the game goes on. One of the only games I can remember that it's important to pay attention to the loading screens when you die. This game eventually starts to berate the player because they keep going forward! Graphics: They worked for me. They don't put Skyrim or COD to shame but they are pretty enough. Controls: They work well except when they don't. Strangely I didn't really mind this as sometimes when you die, the game will throw up a neat little "out of head" cut scene or when you reload you'll be playing a totally different scene. Just another way the game makes the player question what is going on. Also if you can't get past a point the game eventually lets you skip past the part your stuck at.	video-games_xbox
More Like Broken Assassin. In 2009 I had high hopes for 2 female lead gaming titles in Velvet Assassin and WET. This being the first of the two I have to say, I didn't start on a high note. Velvet Assassin takes place during World War II as you play British secret agent Voilette Szabo. Now this was supposed to be 3rd-Person stealth action title, but at the end of the game it should be classified as just a 3rd-Person game. Let me just say I wish I read some reviews about it first but at least I didn't throw away $60. Now before I give my review ratings, which will seem like an assault, I will point out on Metacritic and Gamerankings Velvet Assassin has an average game score of 56/100. I'll give my ratings based on Presentation, Graphics, Sound, Gameplay, and Replayability. Presentation 1/10: Velvet Assassin's story is flat out abysmal. The whole flashback method isn't necessary and everything isn't really explained by the end of the game. We aren't introduced to Violette's character or anything about her. No other important or memorable characters. Graphics 3/10: The gritty look of WWII is just about the only praise this game gets from me and I mean the ENTIRE game. Every Nazi member just seem identical, the cutscenes are choppy and there are numerous technical issues. Definitely below-average but I have seen worse. Sound 2/10: The suspense of the music rising during conflict is meh, and every other sound is either whistles or a German song. Gameplay 1/10: The stealth mechanics are horrid. The shadows don't always keep you hidden, there have been a handful of times I've completely darkened a room to only be rewarded by a swarm of enemy fire. Violette is also very slow in movement, yes you can boost her stats but it still fails in comparison with the enemy A.I. Next problem is the stealth action is very linear. There are no multiple paths to take to progress through levels, or areas to infiltrate just one direct way to go. The enemy A.I is very robotic. They whistle, sing, walk the same path back and forth, and kill you in a fraction of a second if you are caught. The Morphine is a decent touch were you slow down time to kill enemies but she doesn't carry any weapons in the beginning of levels. So now when we finally receive a weapon, ammunition is so limited you just got to think why even bother. To wrap it up there's also another bad addition of a disguise stealth element and it falters for two reasons. One, the boots she puts on are extremely noisy and two, when you get close to enemies they still detect you. So yes the gameplay is quite awful. Replayability 1/10: There is none. The campaign will run you about 6-8 hours and there isn't anything after the campaign. I beat it once and it was right back in its Gamefly envelope. My Overall Experience: Horrible. Is it worth $60? Absolutely not. Would I recommend this to anyone? Not at all.	video-games_xbox
One of the Most Enjoyable Purchases Ever. I don't normally review products but I am so in love with this "game" that I have to write a review. First, if you ever wanted to learn how to play the electric guitar this is the way to go. I never played a guitar of any type before buying this. A friend gave me an electric guitar that was sitting in his closet. This game has so much packed into it I spent the first week just exploring all the different features. I play this one to two hours every evening. I started out with the lessons and in just over one week I went from knowing nothing about playing guitar to getting through the "101" lessons with at least 90% accuracy and completion on each one. From slides, bends, and hammer-ons (I didn't even know what that was until I started this game) to tremolos, chords, and harmonics I got through all the basic lessons. After a few in game lessons I tackled my first song. This is where Rocksmith 2014 really shines. It dynamically adjusts the songs to your skill level. So at my level it might only throw every 8th note at me as the song is playing. It breaks the songs in riffs or segments so if you do good at certain sections it will increase the difficulty of those sections to keep challenging you. You can also use the "riff repeater" to focus on one or two sections at a time and play them over and over until you get them perfect. As it levels you up you eventually get the to "master" level where you are playing the song exactly how it was written. By using this dynamic level up system it keeps you from getting overwhelmed or frustrated and gives you manageable goals to attain as you improve your skill. Just a few days ago (about 8 days into my experience with Rocksmith) I checked out the "guitarcade" section of the game, which is basically simple video games that use the guitar to control the action on the screen. These games are great, and now I play them for at least the first fifteen minutes of my playing every night. They help you learn chords, accurately finger the right frets, pick the right strings, all using the pretense of a video game. They are so good that my 4yr old has been playing them with me and last night he played Rocksmith on his own using this guitar: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005M4X1HI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 He is loving it and already learning to play. The guitarcade grabbed his attention and now I say, "Do one lesson or play one song and then you can play anything you want in the guitarcade." He doesn't even realize that he is learning to play the guitar. To him its all just fun. I have enjoyed this game so much that I bought a second copy of it for my PC. Now after hyping it up I will say there are a few things that I would like to see (and maybe I just haven't found them yet). For example, I have turned to youtube for lessons on speeding up my picking and fret fingering. You find out quickly that songs playing at full speed require you to move you fret fingers fast. That just takes practice but a series of exercises in the game would help that along. I have tested my skills using an amp and I don't sound as good as I do in the game so I think the game is cleaning up your sound for you. I think maybe because I am at a very low level the game is more forgiving, which again is good so us beginners don't get discouraged, but I would recommend that once you get some practice done in the game you plug into an amp and play outside of the game as well. As a beginner with exactly 13 days of experience so far I can't recommend this game enough. Buy it, enjoy it, and learn to play the electric guitar. If you buy this you should also buy the colored strings that work great with this game: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ECAOT3I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I bought several sets of strings and they match up great with the strings on the game to help you see the right colors before you have memorized them.	video-games_xbox
Medal of Honor has a heart. Medal of Honor is a game that has a lot of heart and one that honors the men and women of our armed forces down to its very core. Every sacrifice that is made by those in uniform in this game is treated with dignity and respect from start to finish, so I personally do not see why this game was banned from being sold on military bases. With that said, I will move on to the game. I experienced no technical errors on the Xbox 360 version. However, I did encounter a few glitches on the PS3 version (i.e. AI character Dusty refusing to perform his scripted actions; ATV gets stuck in place whenever it touches a solitary object such as a rock, or the sides of the mountain terrain). Graphics are outstanding. However, the other issue I had with MOH, and which prevented me from giving it a perfect 5 star rating was the fact that the character faces seem to be a bit too similar. This made it hard to differentiate between the members of my team and the other guys on the battlefield. However, this issue is minor, and does not take away from the overall gameplay. Sounds and special effects are what you would expect from a FPS, and are equal with what can be found in Call of Duty: Black Ops. I had my speakers turned up high on 5.1 surround, and every shot, and explosion was a satisfying experience. Medal of Honor's single player storyline is better than that of Call of Duty: Black Ops. Where the latter game takes you on a drug induced, and psychedelic journey, Medal of Honor remains grounded in reality. And it's this realism that grabbed me at the beginning, dragged me through the trenches with these special ops guys, and did not let go until long after the end credits rolled. Now, multiplayer is where MOH shines since this part of the game was designed by DICE, the same team that's behind EA's outstanding Battlefield Bad Company series. Thus, the action in multiplayer is furious, but since the new rewards system provides upgrades that successfully balances out player skill levels, death will not come as easily for the inexperienced as it does in other FPS multiplayer games. All-in-all, Medal of Honor is an excellent game, and one of EA's best titles of 2010! Great job EA, Danger Close, and DICE...now bring on MOH 2!	video-games_xbox
When one gun just isn't enough. Borderlands was a rather curious entry for me in that like a lot of games where it looks so awesome in previews but turns out to be crap in playing, I kind of saw one thing that made me know that it'd be awesome: it's similar to Fallout 3. I'm not saying that it's a ripoff but if you've played that and then this, you'd notice the similarities but I loved Fallout 3 so much that it was my Game of the Year for 2008 and still one of my favorites with over 120 hours invested so far so Borderlands is basically that plus the loot system of Diablo with the raucous fun times brought on by co-op. With plenty of sidequests to partake on, various ways to set up just one character let alone the 4 available to you and of course the plentiful amount of games, Borderlands might not have the 100+ hours of Fallout 3 but it's got all the fun you'd expect from it. But I'd recommend playing co-op if you can because once you've experienced it, single player feels kinda....lonely. Story: You play as one of 4 characters: Lilith, the Siren who specializes in stealth and sneak attacks, Brick the Berserker who is basically the tank of the group, Mordecai the Hunter who has a deadly bird and a talent in sniperage and Roland the Soldier who sets up an automated turret to dish out the damage. You 4 are on a quest for a mysterious Vault on the planet of Pandora which apparently contains treasures, secrets and technology left there by alien races. You get your information by an enigmatic (and strangely attractive) female with blue eyes about the world and characters you meet. And from there you roam the land looking for this mysterious vault. Graphics: Previously, Borderlands had a bit more serious art design until a radical re-design shift brought with it more outlandish visuals and cel-shaded quality to match Borderlands completely bugnuts approach to its presentation. The result? A really beautiful and stylish looking game where enemies can explode in cartoonish ways (complete with masks that fall to the ground eventually Looney Tunes style), and some great character models, especially Lilith with an ass to die for, and it's not quite a game that's gonna make you think "my god this game is stunning" but you'll definately think it looks awesome. Couple of graphical hitches occasionally but framerate tended to be quite solid regardless. Sound/Music: The open world of Fallout 3 brought with it a more ambient soundtrack with moody and not really "music"-driven tracks but it was certainly a nice accompaniment throughout the voyage. Borderlands is similar for the lonelier parts with some acoustic guitar but then adds some cool action-y scores for when things get heavy. Voice acting is quite solid too and characters that you control will actually say things unlike the breathing and grunts of most FPS protaganists. Guns on a whole sound awesome though some lack that satisfying kick that other game guns have, especially Mirror's Edge which didn't have great gameplay involving guns but great sound. Gameplay: If Fallout 3 was "Oblivion with guns", then Borderlands is "4 player co-op Fallout 3....with lot more guns." In fact that scene in the Matrix where Neo asks for lots of them would be a perfect descriptor in that this game has a lot and they're randomly generated too and they take various stats and features into account such as reload rate, fire rate, whether it's got a zoom, bonus to melee and other bonuses that are listed in red text. Aside from no descriptor what these do (one of mine says "the lead wind blows"...what's that mean? Beats me, game doesn't say), it's fun just searching for a gun and when you see a gun that can corrode enemies or make them possibly explode well the days of shotguns and assault rifles with puny bullets seems tame. Some are slightly useless though and more than once I ran into the same Terrible Shotgun variant but when that cool repeater pistol pops up with a huge increase in Critical damage, well that's just awesome. Characters as they upgrade can put their points into a skill tree WoW-style where they can unlock lower parts of the tree for better skills or better ones you got. For example my first character, Lilith's ability is what's called Phasewalk which sort of acts like Fear's Slo-Mo use where you become more speedy but also undetectable for a certain amount of time. Well when she goes in and out of Phasewalk she deals damage so why not add a skill that makes her invulnerable for a few seconds when she comes out? Or sniper dude Mordecai with his bird that can be upgraded to attack more than one enemy and even make them drop better loot. Like a lot of RPG's like this it's not so much that there's a "correct" way but just what you deem a personal preference and some skills you might not even bother levelling up. And like a game like Too Human, don't like how your character is? Spend money to reset your points and start over. With the right skill and right gun, you can be practically unstoppable if you can manage it, which makes it a bit more funner than Too Human's skill tree. The big fun factor in Borderlands is co-op and it's what makes this game from fun single player to awesome. Basically you pick Xbox Live on the menu and they'll be a lobby, choose your character and go, with or without others in with you. At certain parts of the game, a new character can enter the fray, enemies will be tougher and more plentiful and having a team can make a dungeon excursion completely crazy. Only thing is that the level cap is slightly high meaning how high a level someone can be to join your game and more than once, somebody 6 levels above me can own anything in the game while I had to sit in the back and fire from a distance otherwise I'd get chewed up. But this makes it funner to level since it can come quite quickly. And a player "dying" means they're just downed and act like Call of Duty: World at War where you can pick shots off at enemies however unlike that game where you had to be revived by another player and that was it, killing an enemy while downed gives you a Second Wind where you basically get revived and live to shoot another day. Framerate was quite solid during these parts and can enter and leave without messing up your game or needing a visit to the lobby. Oh and see that gun filled with awesome? Yeah the other guy wants it too so why not fight for it? If you melee someone, you set up a challenge, they melee you back and you duel where you 2 and only you 2 battle it out (though makes it unfair if they're the 6-levels-up guys I mentioned above). Is their flaws in the game? Slightly, in that the story takes awhile to get going and even then you might not like it, auto-equip is on for all ammo and money and nearby guns which forces an equipment visit to retool if the gun sucks and one thing I miss is that the map doesn't actually tell you where the "transitions" which function as entries to new areas are so if you wanted to find a specific map, it's hard to look at the map and know which one and you can't set waypoints either, prompting a Brutal Legend-like return to the map for things that are not quest driven. But other than that, Borderlands was one of those "hope-it-doesn't-suck" games where the concept and execution can be varying but Gearbox manages to pull it off and hope it makes for a successful franchise. Not entirely perfect but when you have this much fun setting people on fire with your bullets, then you'd just be nitpicking.	video-games_xbox
Avoid if you're using Windows 10. :::If you haven't updated to Win 10, you can skip this::: Initially this product was great. Feels extremely comfortable, the lighting accents really make it look good, and the sound quality is great. Recently, Microsoft released Windows 10 for free on most PCs. This was very risky, as we all know new Windows can be quite broken, but it's actually been pretty great. A few hiccups here and there, but nothing soul crushing. Almost all of my programs and devices have update to be compatible with W10, but Sentey is still lacking. I felt a huge relief when I saw that they released updated drivers for W10, but I soon learned that it wasn't good. The sound will randomly cut from the headphones. The levels are inconsistant. I will be hearing things at 50%but when I try to turn it up it says it's at 100%. Everything I loved about the headphones has been taken away from me. The adjustable front, center, and sub speaker doesn't really work anymore since the sound is so low. As far as the looks go, it looks gorgeous. When I stream on twitch, I'm constantly getting complimented on the headphones. I was recommending Sentey for a while until this happened. The gold tipped USB input is another accent that really drives home the luxury feel. The casing has a matte paint that makes it look really good. It doesn't have a cheap plastic look to it like a lot of budget gaming accesories. The cord has a threaded casing which makes it a bit easier to deal with. All in all, the headphones look great. It can compete with most of the big name brand headphones. The sound quality is really impressive. When I upgraded to these headphones I was immediately able to tell the difference. The sound adjustment settings on the cord are very convenient. It let me set up my sound to what I felt fit best for me. The mic is pretty great as well. The sound is pretty crisp and clean. I have noticed that it can be a bit low at times, but overall it's passible. The multimedia interface is where these headphones really dropped off. It's just bad and way too busy. It uses Xear audio center and has the clunkiest setup. The look is cheap and they just throw up the sentey logo in the corner for branding. I rarely try to use it because it's just so barebones.	video-games_xbox
Leon is back in my second favourite RE game to date. The problem with these so called RE fans who are living in the past and hate the new direction RE has taken, is Capcom made Revelations this year which is more like the old RE games with keys and puzzles, and hardly anyone bought it. And probably most of the complainers didn't buy it either. They just like to moan about everything instead of sitting down and playing the games. I've been playing games for 30 years, I have played every RE game, I know what a good game is, RE6 is a good game. These people still expect Resident Evil to play the same as it did 16 years ago, they need to get real. After completing this game over the last week I rank it just behind RE4 as one of the best RE games of all time and the best game I have played this year. This is more like the old RE games in terms of ammo, it's scarce and you will need to use melee a lot as you will find yourself facing maybe 4 zombies with only 4 bullets in your gun or maybe no bullets, yes this is what RE is all about. You cannot go around like rambo in this game firing off bullets you will soon come unstuck. I think RE6 has very good graphics, and music that sets the mood a lot better than RE5 did. There is more darkness, more moody lighting, better levels fitting to the series, and more tension than in RE5, Capcom have learned from RE5, this is a step up from that game. I think the enemy design is good, and there is a lot of different enemies to face off against in this game and good bosses. The story is typical RE cheese, but I like that, games are meant to be fun. It's not a political drama. This game is very long, with a lot of replay value. Instead of buying upgrades for guns, you now have skills you purchase with points you pick up from defeated enemies, these skills, over 40 of them I've counted, do such things as increase fire power, or drop more bullets when playing, or other ones like taking away your aiming sights for increased damage, and more damage for your partner when they are close to you. You can equip 3 skills at a time, and also hunt for hidden emblems in the game which unlock extras. There is a lot to this game. And your zombies are more fun to fight in this game than previous RE games, they now are more unpredictable, they may crawl out of holes, or run and jump at you, or spit acid in your face, if they come at you with a axe in their chest, you can rip it out and stick it through their head, the gore in this game is increased from other games, for me that's a plus as I thought RE5 was pretty tame. My advice to people is to ignore the reviews that are 1 star, or 3/10, this game is far better than that, if you are a fan of the series you will come away happy with this game if you go in with a open mind and positive about it.	video-games_xbox
Good but not great. I was very excited about this game when I first heard about it and rushed out to get it after it was released. I played it through once within a couple of weeks as a warrior hack-n-slasher. I tried playing through a second time as a pure will user but lost interest before I got through. After thinking about it I came up with the following pros and cons. Pros: + Character development is pretty good, but I wish that the will spells were more than just support for warriors. + Easy playing experience. You don't have to work very hard to get good at this game. + Really beautiful graphics. The character models, voices, scenery are great. There are a couple of glitches, but in general each area is beautiful. Cons: - Story and game are WAY too short and simplistic (ah he's bad because he has a "bad guy's voice"). - Missions are way too simple and boil down to follow the marker on your map to where the object that has been hidden for eternity is and watch cut sceen or kill bad guys. But my biggest negative for this game is: - REALLY LONG FREQUENT LOAD TIMES. Come on, if GTA:SA can create good graphics for an entire state without a single load screen then why is it that Fable requires a 5 to 10 second loading screen between each small zone? I thought the XBOX was supposed to put an end to load screens since it had a hard drive and far superior processing power over the PS2! My opinion is that this is a good game that's worth a rental, but it has a short play time and very little replay value. Now having said that this is what I hope a sequel for Fable will have: + The ability to be a stand alone wizard or archer if that is what you choose to be (ie not just a great sword for a warrior, but a great bow, and maybe a great magical staff or something). + More variety in weapons and armor so that your wizard character and warrior can dress differently. + Longer more in depth story. + Either a free roaming world like the GTA's or much larger areas with much shorter load times between them. + More sub quests, jobs, or other things a la GTA:SA. + More monsters. Killing bandits is ok, but the real fun was fighting the awesome monsters in Fable (Faries, Earth Trolls, etc).	video-games_xbox
Pretty disappointing. I'm a hunter myself and most of the time love hunting games. I usually stay on top of these with the release dates but this one passed by me. Im almost a month late getting this after its out. I bought it a couple days ago and have been playing it and I have to say I wish I would have left it at the store. This one will be a play and trade ASAP. I was not a fan of the Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2011 from last year. It was not realistic at all, and pretty annoying actually. You couldn't walk 5 feet without something jumping out on top of you, attacking you, forcing you to do a quick heart shot to kill the animal. They have pulled that element over into Big Game Hunter 2012. I guess they had a lot of success with that game so they are trying to put it in with this one and hope for the best. I've been a firm believer that if you can't make a game challenging without making the gamer do stuff under a time limit, then you shouldn't make the game to begin with. I have had to do that quite a bit in this game. On the first or second hunt, you have 30 seconds or so to shoot 3 running Pronghorn. That is a lot like the Cabela's Trophy Bucks game. That is not hunting. There are enough shooter games out there to where Cabela's shouldn't have to put elements like that in a "hunting" game. There is a new element to this game called the "perfect shot opportunity" Where an animal runs out of the woods in slow motion and you have to shoot it running. I'm not finished with the game, and I'm sure I'm not even halfway through with it yet, but so far I have hunted more birds, rabbits and foxes than big game. The one good thing I can say (hopefully.....I'm looking forward to it) is getting the compound bow to hunt with. If Cabela's wants to make a GOOD hunting game. They should take something simple and great like Big Game Hunter 10 and build on it. For example when using a compound bow, Make the user move the joystick to the left like the hunter is actually drawing the bow back. Make a HUNTING game REALISTIC and stay away from this nonsense spray and pray. Just my opinion, I would say leave this game alone and get Big Game Hunter 2010, Its 10 times better.	video-games_xbox
Beware of False Promises. I should preface this negative review with the fact that I had just completed the new Tomb Raider (possibly the best action, acting, environments since Batman Arkham City). I should also note that I really enjoyed the first installment of Sniper, even though it had a few bugs and is definitely a second-tier game. I stopped playing this game mid-way through Act 2. Here's some of the problems with Sniper 2: While the makers may have used the CryENGINE3 (play Crysis3 to fully appreciate this engine) they certainly didn't use it to full advantage and in many instances the action and graphics feels like something from a decade ago. The acting is third rate. We've been to all these locations before. The AI is OK--sometimes, and truly ridiculous at other times. And then there are the weapons--or lack of access, I should say. For instance, your primary sniper rifle is always available but completely useless in close combat. That leaves you with a peashooter sidearm. Did I mention there are machine guns laying all around your victims, yet you are unable to pick one up when you really need one. And then there is your big 50cal sniper rifle--which you also can't use until the game AI takes over when it needs you to use said weapon. Once this happens you are locked into the scope view. If any of this sounds like authentic combat, then I must have been fighting in my dreams. I could go on but it only gets worse--like your machine gun toting spotter ordering his shooter (you) to take out triple-A guns and plant C4. Like I said, it gets worse. This is a stealth game (a genre I love) in which the enemy can see you when the AI sees fit, even when you are in full prone camouflage in the underbrush in total darkness--from a hundred yards away. And then, while running, they are able to hit you with their AK47s. If you want to play a pretty decent sniper game then try Sniper Elite. A well done WWII adventure. Or the first Sniper Ghost Warrior game. It has some of the same problems but they are not near as annoying. Then again, after playing Tomb Raider, I'm probably spoiled beyond hope. Should I mention that Tomb Raider is also better than Crysis3, FarCry3, Medal of Honor, and Black Ops, combined!	video-games_xbox
HOW IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN . . . CHARACTERS: I initially liked how this game was more character driven. If you think back, some of the grand RPG's of old, like FINAL FANTASY 6 (FF6) and CHRONO TRIGGER, had numerous characters, each with their own background, theme songs and ways of interacting with them. Unfortunately, MASS EFFECT 2 (ME2) has a cast of characters where every single one of them has a personal mid-life crisis just before "gametime" with the enemy, the Collectors. To me this was extremely laughable and unrealistic. I can understand one or two characters having personal issues, but the whole group?! Even worse, just about every character's "loyalty" mission plays out the same. Go to location X, fight through X amount of bad guys (cued by rooms filled with conveniently-placed boxes to hide behind) and meet person X who is predictably in the very last part of the level. If you remember the game FF6, then you will recall how many times your populous party had split up to get through certain dungeons. This same concept should have been all the way through ME2. Yes, in ME2 you do get to make some party-decisions towards the end, but you don't get to physically control those separate parties. Having split-parties would have encouraged teamwork and made sure that all the characters get some screen-time, not to mention hasten the arrival of the real mission at hand--the Collectors. MINI-GAMES: There are some good mini-games in ME2. There is also one sucky one. Planet Scanning. Whoever thought of this mini-game needs to be fired. Holding down the left trigger for 15 minutes and staring at a bunch of squiggly lines is NOT FUN! I'm confused how they thought to include a faster scanner, but didn't think to offer a BIGGER scanner so you can cover more area. Surely such an upgrade wouldn't be too arduous a task for such god-like programmers. If they had really given some thought to this mini-game they should have also made it so that certain minerals are found on certain types of terrain. For example, if Iridium was only found near water, then you would know to look for water-bearing planets. There seems to be no rhyme or reason behind what planet contains what minerals. How is it that your scanner is THE SAME SIZE, regardless if you are scanning a small moon or a gas giant that is twenty-times larger?! I thought the character fetching and loyalty missions were tedious, but they are nowhere as tedious as spending hours scanning planets for minerals. The worst part is that you NEED to do this mini-game since you can only find minerals in trace-amounts on some missions. It is because of this mandatory mini-game that I have little or no desire to play this game through a second time. Once is enough for me. RELATIONSHIPS: In the last game, I had Jack Shepard and Ashley Williams "interact". In this game, you would think that the relationships would have the same depth that the dialogue-trees do. Not so. Instead, I had Jack dump Ashley for the much cuter Miranda Lawson. Now, if they really wanted to make this game more like a space opera, Ashley would have either 1) gone completely nutty and try to kill Jack or 2) ended up pregnant or something similarly shocking. But no, Ashley and Jack just part ways like it's no big thing. COMBAT: It's been mentioned before, but the combat is ridiculous when you can enter a room and know a fight is coming up merely by looking at the layout of the room. "Let's see, cover to hide behind is all over, the enemy will appear from the far side of the screen and there are also a few spawn points on the sides." Yep, looks like I better get my Sniper Rifle ready! OVERALL: On the positive side, I do want to mention that what little story there is, is done well. There are even some successful attempts at humor--like when EDI talks to Joker. The characters, from the cute Miranda Lawson, to the EARTHWORM JIM-like Mordin, to Jack, the FIREFLY-like crazy chick, all are much more interesting then some of the previous characters. The music is still good and often reminded me of the BLADERUNNER soundtrack. The combat is fairly solid and one-shot kills with the Sniper Rifle are always a blast. Is ME2 the EMPIRE STRIKES BACK of video games? I'd have to say no, but with a little TLC and common sense, maybe we can honestly say that about MASS EFFECT 3.	video-games_xbox
I really like these, and here's why. I really like this gaming headset, and here's why: Pros: 1) Right away when you have them in your hands they feel really sturdy and well made. 2) They are very comfortable to wear. I have multiple Gaming headsets from various manufacturers including Turtle Beach and except for these they all seem to cause the top of my head and my ears to heat up to the point of discomfort. My son refuses to wear gaming headsets for this reason. Consequently he loves XO Seven Pro and has been using them exclusively ever since. 3) Adjustment range for various head sizes is more than adequate. My husband has a big head and my son a small head and it fits both of them perfectly. The over-the-ear cups fit me so nicely and reduce outside noise intrusion so well that I no longer need to wear my Bose noise-canceling headset when I just want to listen to music without noise intrusion. 4) The sound quality on these rivals my Bose and Sennheiser over-the-ear headphones. The highs are very crisp, clear and rich and the lows are deep and sound as though they are emanating from outside of the headphones. Which adds to the feeling your in a area filled with sound and not wearing headphones. 5) The sending of the microphone pickup back through to the earphones is a critical piece to solving the puzzle of the screaming gamer. All of you who own gaming headsets that don't pipe the microphone input back through the earphones like a monitor will know exactly what I'm talking about when I say my teenager, after using this headset has stopped yelling when in-game chatting with his friends. It seems like such and obvious thing you'd think it would have been included in every over-the-ear gaming headset. 6) The microphone is easily attached and detached so that you can just sit and enjoy audio or watching a movie/TV privately with out it interfering. 7) I really like the feature of the "New Superhuman Hearing Mode" It's critical in both casual and competitive gaming when you need to quickly isolate subtle audio queues. I also like that it's easily switched on and off. 8) Including the Ear Force Headset Audio Controller was a great idea. And moving the Audio Presets and Volume controls off of the headphones and to this controller add-on module was smart. I grew very tired of previous Turtle Beach gaming headsets that you had to feel around the ear cup to find the right buttons to press to adjust the audio. Cons: 1) The cord from the headphones to the headphone jack gets easily twisted and has to be regularly spun out to straighten it. 2) The Ear Force Headset Audio Controller Module is very difficult to remove from the controller. This is my greatest concern. Since my son can't remove it and when I try to it feels like I might break it or the controller every attempt at removal. Hopefully this get's redesigned in future iterations of this product line. I would definitely recommend this gaming headset and would give them 5 stars, keeping in mind the concerns expressed under "cons".	video-games_xbox
Easy? Yes. Groundbreaking? Hardly. Sure, this game is still fun to play; but on the other hand, we've all played this game last year when it was called "NCAA Football 2005." The only REAL difference between 2005 and 2006 is that the latest title is 100x's easier than 2005. On someone's recommendation, I started out playing on All-American level. The Game Difficulties are Junior Varsity, Varsity, All-American and Heisman in case you were wondering. All-American is STILL TOO EASY by the way. In my first game as the Seminoles, I beat Miami 72-3. In my next game of the season, I beat the Citadel 114-6. Then for my 3rd game, I beat Boston College 70-13. So, I'm basing my review after 3 games under Dynasty Mode. I just want to say that "Race for the Heisman" is very over-rated. I don't want to build & create my own player (like an RPG). All I want to do is take the Seminoles to the BCS. If I wanted to play an RPG, I'd go play Final Fantasy. And it's pretty darn annoying that the game AUTOMATICALLY puts you in "Race for the Heisman" Mode when you first load the game into your XBox. 'Dynasty' and 'Play Now' are the only modes I need, thank you. Graphically, the game is mostly superior to 2005. As far as actual gameplay goes, the movement does indeed look more natural. I do have to ask this question though: did the game designers COMPLETELY NEGLECT the Coin Toss scene? Did no one realize that the players' heads were almost bigger than their torsos? What else? - The commentary in the game is still exactly the same as 2005. - The passing game is way too easy (at least against computer). - You now have a GREAT chance of running the ball back for a touchdown during kick-offs and punts. - Despite having the 'Exclusive NCAA License' on this game, EA is still too lazy to give us the names of the players. All of your favorite players are known only by the numbers on their jerseys. - This game is $50. Why is EA's Madden Football only $40? - This game is $50, and ultimately, it's still the same game as 2005 (but with a dumbed down AI opponent). - The Seminole Tomahawk chant is still off tune. And the Gators still have more unique chants than the Noles. Why can the Gators say "It's Great to be a Florida Gator?" The only thing the Noles get are the Victory song and the Tomahawk chant. Doesn't EA realize that fans of the SEC and the ACC actually HATE Gator fans? If EA's gonna charge us $50 for the same game, they can at least market it for the mainstream of college fans. If you're a poor college student, don't waste your money on this if you already have "NCAA Football 2005." That's money you can be spending on food/dating. EA, you should be ashamed of yourselves for monopolizing the NCAAF license and jacking the price up. I'm glad your family is eating well tonight while the rest of the college folks have to eat bread & ramen for a week because they squandered their small allowance on your recycled game. Good job. And since you probably still have some extra money to spare, you should definitely invest in some morals.	video-games_xbox
Take the Cannolis. Though most of the game concept was lifted from GTA, it still manages to come up with some original flavor into it, thanks to the unforgettable characters that made The Godfather a classic. Amazingly, the game isn't just a drive around and do missions. It actually leaves you free to walk around and do things that will affect your business as a "made-man" with the Corleone family. Yes, you have to do the missions to keep the story moving but at the same time, you can ignore the missions and just go about doing other things to increase your "business" and contribute to the Corleone family. Take for example what I did in the game. I did about 50% of the missions and I decided to just clean-up Little Italy (where the Corleone family is based) from the Tattaglias; taking over these businesses, their warehouses. One interesting mode in the game is the "Mob War" mode. This happens when you hit a crime family too much, they eventually declare a mob war with the Corleone family. Only to win a mob war is to either bomb one of their properties or pay an FBI agent to come down hard on the rival family. It's good fun really, and quite different. I usually bomb a place and then head to my apartment and let things calm down a bit. These fresh concepts make this game quite unique in its way. Speaking of families, you need to wrestle control of NY from all the other rival families. The biggest rival that you'll be pitted against is the Barzini family who owns Manhattan. By the way, the game recreates an almost perfect replica of New York, even the streets are accurate. I know because I'm from NYC. One trick I did to test the accuracy was fifth avenue and madison ave. Fifth avenue is just across Madision ave, which is correct in the game. Canal St. and Mott St. are real streets in NY, with Canal St. being Chinatown today. Going back to what I am doing now with the game, I've basically knocked out Tattaglia from NY. Only thing left is go to and overrun his family compound. One important tip if you're planning to buy this game. The moment you get about $16,000 in the game, buy yourself the most expensive shoes, suits, hat, and glasses. These accessories give Bonus Respect points on your character. Very important if you want to get that extra boost of respect points to get to the top. So is this game worth it? Yes definitely. If you are into mobster-themed games, look no further. This is almost almost real-life. By the way, prepare to die a lot in this game. This game is not easy. Be patient and keep buying those safehouses all over NY. This is where you can save your progress and start off in case you get "ICED".	video-games_xbox
Solid 1st Attempt. I have to say 1st off, this game grows on you and takes a little adjustment to enjoy it. Since we all been playing exclusively Tiger Woods PGA for many years now, anything else just feels unfamiliar. When I 1st turned on the game, I had a negative experience, but once I changed the controller settings to the left analog stick and actually realized how to play it really is a very good golf game. The biggest problem with this game is they really don't have a start up tutorial to explain anything on how to play the game. Instead it just kind of throws you into a menu and you need to figure everything out. Once things actually become familiar to you as a player, things get way more enjoyable. The Gameplay is very more on the simulation aspect which is cool, because you really need to think, when you're taking a shot and can't just bomb the ball, every time. That also leads to a problem, because the controls get a little hard to control an 80% shot when you need to. This really is apparent in the short game aspect of it. To hit a putt, chip or pitch shot, are very hard to pull off. It seems there is no way to really get a good consistent feel of how hard you need to swing the club using the analog stick. The graphic are okay, the trees and water are very nice. The announcer I think is kind of funny, I just wish he had more dialog. The create a course also suffers from having no tutorial and introduction to use it, so I find it very hard to use. Lack of multi-player is also sad not to have. They do have a online tournament ghost feature, the problem I find with that is I am not sure how someone is shooting 40 on a par 73 course. Pros: Good start for new golf game Feels like golf Announcer Many Courses(including user built courses) Fast Loading Cons: Player Sprite, no customization Clunky Controls No introduction tutorial I would rate it 7.5. I think there is so much potential to make this an excellent golf game in a future franchise that surpasses the EA PGA quality games.	video-games_xbox
Stylish Super Sexy Action Game of the Year Nominee. Imagine Devil May Cry 4 or Ninja Gaiden 2 if the main character was a gun-toting, sword wielding, black magic using, stripper-witch. If that sounds like a good time, then you should love this game. Story: 6/10 The weakest part of Bayonetta is the convoluted story. It tells an epic 500 year long tale about the Umbra Witches, the Lumen Sages, Heaven, Hell, Earth, and magic jewels called the Eyes of the World. There's enough story here for a Bioware RPG, downloadable content, and a costly expansion. Unfortunately, there are only six main characters and it feels like there are three too many. Basically, the gods are control freaks and Bayonetta tries to save the world by battling angelic warriors. What saves the story is that Bayonetta doesn't really take anything seriously, she just cracks jokes, struts around like a fashion model, pole dances, and kills things by the hundreds. Although the entire universe is in danger, Bayonetta still manages to have fun the entire time. In one scene, the main characters are in a plane that is about to crash. A dramatic sound effect plays, "Dun Dun" and they zoom in on Luka, who looks terrified. "Dun Dun" and they zoom in on a little girl, clinging desperately to her stuffed animal. "Dun Dun" they zoom in on Bayonetta's cleavage! But, if the lack of story bothers you, you'd be the kind of person who'd bring a book to a strip club and complain that it's too dark to read. Characters: 9/10 Bayonetta, Jeanne, and Cereza are great, others are forgettable. Bayonetta is an instant videogame icon. She's beautiful, powerful, sexy, intelligent, fun, and extremely entertaining. Clad in an outfit made of gold chains and magical hair, she looks and moves like a stripper. Her hair is the source of her power; as she performs long combination attacks or powerful magic spells, her hair disappears from her outfit and attacks the enemies, leaving her wearing next to nothing. After she completes these attacks, her outfit rematerializes. Her accessories are great, from her black cat earrings, her butterfly glasses, and her high heels made of magical automatic weapons that never run out of bullets. Bayonetta's primary attacks involve acrobatics, guns, martial arts, magic, and bladed weapons. She can acrobatically jump 30 feet into the air, perform a 20 hit sword combo, and shoot 10 enemies with the guns on her feet before she lands. If that's not enough, Bayonetta also shapeshifts into a flock of ravens or a black panther complete with blood red nail polish. Her dialogue and voice acting are outstanding. Everything about her screams the perfect hostess for a good time. Jeanne is a rival witch who appears in the game as an ally and a boss character. She shares many of the same attributes as Bayonetta. Cereza is THE CUTEST little girl to every appear in a game... EVER! The rest of the characters provide some comic relief and are a mixed bag. Gameplay: 10/10 Bayonetta's gameplay is amazing! Because she attacks with her hands, feet, magic hair, swords, blades, gun heels, spells, etc... She has the most potential to be the deadliest video game character of all time. She's up there with Kratos from God of War. The game relies on a combo system based on pressing the hand, foot, jump, and shoot buttons. Anyone can easily pull off impressive looking 20 hit combos. Many of the combos can be linked together to perform 40 or 60 hit combos if you have some skill. There is no block, just an evade button. If you evade just before an attack hits you, the game slows down for a few seconds, allowing you to counterattack enemies. Bayonetta's enemies are ruthless and complement her attack styles. Most action games have cookie-cutter throwaway enemies that perform simple attacks. You can tell, that a lot of effort was made to suit the enemies to Bayonetta's fighting style from the minions to the gigantic bosses. This results in GREAT FUN! You can upgrade Bayonetta with more weapons, spells, items, attacks, etc... There are enough upgrades in the game to warrant three playthroughs if you want to collect `em all. When some enemies are killed, Bayonetta can wield their weapons as well. Polearms, massive swords, bows, axes, demonic claws, etc... As you play through the levels, you collect potion components, and halos that you can use to create or buy items. There are temporary power ups, like health, limited invincibility, magic, improved damage, that come in the form of suckers... because Bayonetta likes to suck on things. It sure beats the typical "stepping on a first aid kit" that old shooters used to have. You can also buy items that boost Bayonetta's Max Health, or Max Magic. So, if part of the game is too difficult, you are free to replay an easier level and "farm it" for halos. Bayonetta can also buy more outfits, weapons, spells, attack moves, etc... Level Designs: 9/10 The levels are amazing set pieces to showcase the action. There are destructible areas, hidden spell components, halos, power-ups... The art style is similar to Devil May Cry. The levels are linear and it's almost impossible to get lost. Aside from the action levels, there are also, driving, shooting, and flying levels as well. At the end of each level, you get a grade and a bonus based on your time, combo points, and damage that you took. You're free to replay levels if you want to get a better award. Bayonetta can also "Witch Walk." This allows her to run on walls and ceilings, which makes some of the levels even more dynamic and over the top. In one level, a city floods with lava and you run on the sides of buildings while performing acrobatics and fighting angels. Reward Systems: 8/10 Bayonetta's rewards are great, but this system would have worked much better in an open ended game like GTA, Red Faction, Fallout 3... At times, you may want to farm levels to collect money for an upgrade. This really encourages you to break the game's story continuity and replay levels while skipping cutscenes. It's a minor gripe because the upgrades and reward systems are very well done. Replay Value: 7/10 If you like action games, the combat system, weapons, and reward system are good enough to play over and over and over. Playing through on Normal Mode is just short of 10 hours. Bayonetta's combat system is so deep, it warrants 18 levels and 5 difficulty settings. You can keep playing to unlock new weapons, techniques, outfits, and compete on the Xbox Live Leaderboards. Sound: 8/10 Some of the music tracks are epic and fun, while a few others don't quite fit. Most of the voice acting is great! The explosions, demonic sounds, gunfire, collapsing buildings... all punctuate the action. Maturity: M The game is sexy and suggestive, but there aren't any sex scenes. Instead the game is playful and fun. There are loads of gore and some harsh language. This is for late teens and adults. Overall: 9.5/10 Bayonetta's character design, combat system, and determination to make the player have a great time, make it a strong contender for Action Game of the Year. It's one of the most entertaining games beat-em up games that I've ever played. Buy this game if you like great action games like Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, or God of War. Rent it if you have 10-12 hours, love AAA Action Titles, and have commitment issues. Avoid it if you hate fun.	video-games_xbox
Solid, Well-Designed Charger. This charger is everything you want and nothing else. Buy it. Buy it now. Size: The charger is simple and small, big and heavy enough to solidly stay in place (with a nice rubber bottom) but not unnecessarily-oversized or weirdly-shaped. It managed to fit in a spot I did not think it would, as the space would not fit the controllers by themselves. The controllers slide reassuringly into their slots and the very bright LEDs let you know they're charging. Battery life: I cannot attest to the claimed 25-hour battery life, as I am not ever planning to spend a full day playing Halo. What I can tell you is that the batteries have lasted for my longest session yet (possibly 6 hours) and charge back up insanely fast. My normal 1-2 hour sessions are charged back up to full within minutes, thanks to the AC power (rather than USB like some chargers). Design: The batteries are a little funny-shaped and stand out from the otherwise-rounded shape of the controller, but if you hold your controller upside-down enough to notice then you have bigger problems. Weight and shape-wise, they are completely unnoticeable during normal handling. On what this controller will NOT do: 1) It will not charge via USB. Pay the $3 for a cheap power strip, it's worth it. 2) It will not work with controller accessories, like the headset or keyboard, attached and will require you to remove them to charge. It will not charge the wireless headset. I only use the wired headset and already remove it when I'm done anyway, so it's not an issue for me. 3) It will not make a style statement. Who cares? 4) It will not cook, clean, or do your laundry. It's a charger. On what others have said: 1) The LEDs, while bright, are not the annoyance that someone posted. I have the Xbox in my bedroom and found the red charging light (for the brief period it takes to charge) to make a pleasant display on the ceiling. 2) The battery packs are quite snug in the controllers, but still very removeable. Since you'll only be removing them once (if they die), I'd rather they be a bit too snug than loose. 3) One complaint is that the white batteries look bad in black or custom controllers, but there is a black version of this base (<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Xbox-360-Charge-Base-Black/dp/B00273Z9WM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Xbox 360 Charge Base - Black</a>) and you can't really hold it against Nyko that their batteries don't match every odd custom paint job. Conclusion: I have no actual complaints about this item. The minor limitations (AC power, accessory incompatibility) are far outweighed by their benefits (fast charging, simple design). It does exactly what it needs to, and it does it well.	video-games_xbox
Junk Food. DR1 was a brave, new frustratingly challenging game. Brave in the sense it attempted a lot of new and cool things never before seen in gaming. DR2 upped the ante and I felt was hard as hell and was hobbled by the stupid timer. I never got to meet nor defeat most of the colorful psycho characters because you were constantly needing to finish up missions that would count down some counting down all at once while feverishly trying to complete the main mission to prevent your daughter from being zombified. The world was quite expansive and quite a bit to see and do but you were too busy trying to beat the clock to enjoy crafting weapons, trying on ridiculous clothing combinations, bashing hordes of the undead or going buzzsaw to psycho without feeling rushed along. DR4...well..It is a gorgeous game for sure. Rich colors, a TON to explore and...well, no timer, no creative psychos, no awesomely ridiculously wild psycho cut scenes, no throwing your weapons at your enemies by accident or out of spite. The game is offensively short and almost to compensate for that they have stocked the pond with stupid "challenges" to find things like journal entries and voicemails etc. The game designers also upped the awesome factor on the types of weapons you can create. Christmas Light wrapped baseball bat? check. Tee shirt launcher that shoots explosive holiday items? check. DR3 was a terrific compromise, the threat was still real there were zombies everywhere and you started the previous DR games fairly weak and had to work your way up both with weapons and in strength and it really mattered for your gameplay which really upped the stakes and playability. DR3 slowed down that clock, introduced some cool new features including when you defeated the psychos you could collect their special weapons. The safe houses in DR3 actually felt rather unsafe until you completely cleared them out. In DR3 the safe houses are merely hubs to purchase items. blah! And the zombie threat? not so much. There are a lot of them and a lot of variations of them in this game but they don't seem to pursue you much and there is no way to change that in the game because there is not even a difficulty setting. DR4 is amateur hour as you level up ridiculously quickly, the blueprints are incredibly easy to find and, in the end, although there are a ton of different weapons you can make they are all mostly made with the same base items that can be found pretty much anywhere in the game. Did I mention the game is incredibly easy? Finally, I take issue with all the bugs. You will get a button prompt such as Y+B just as in the last game or just B (for xbox one) to finish off a zombie with a cool move but it is glitchy most of the time and does not work. there are also other glitches I noticed in this game but am not tech savvy enough to explain them in an educated manner. I just know that for the price paid they should not be there upon release. If you are just looking to blow off steam by wandering around creating awesome weapons and gorily mauling the undead this game is for you but I would still wait until it is offered for dirt cheap. A sad, severe mark on the DR name this game is pure junk food, with emphasis on the word junk.	video-games_xbox
Halo 2, Where Art Thou. [Multiplayer] - Load outs Just like Call of Duty (COD), you select what you want your primary/secondary weapons to be, what type of grenades you want, etc. This will depend largely on the size of the map and if you can expect long, mid or short range battles. This is relatively disappointing, as it hurts gameplay. For example, if a newbie goes with an Assault Rifle load out on a larger map where a more skilled player would go with a DMR, and they meet up in close quarters - the newbie would win. Not because he's a better or smarter player, but because he doesn't understand why his loadout is the wrong choice. Essentially, the better player is punished for making the right decision. Competitiveness and skill should revolve around an equal playing field - not load out weaponry advantage. My opinion: Save load outs for COD. If load outs were a good thing, we would have seen them in h2/h3. - Drop Pods (aka Care Packages) Just like in COD, you have kill streaks. Once you reach a streak, you get to call down a "Drop Pod". These contain a choice of weapons or abilities. There are several weapon spawns in game - but must of the weapons will come via your kill streak drop pods. My opinion: 343 decided to fix something that was never broken. Again, if "care packages" were a good thing, we would have seen them long ago. - Special abilities Jet packs, holograms, thrust, hardened shield, invisibility cloak and the new "Promothean Vision". If I could remove anything from the game, special abilities would be it. They should have died with Reach. They're yet another circus-like feature that removes elements of skill. For example, if you're shooting someone below you from a higher point - backing away to save yourself is impossible when they have a fricken jet pack. Or, what about crouching to avoid detection? A hallmark of Halo. Gone! With Promothean vision, you can see anyone, anywhere. Cool feature for campaign, lame for multiplayer. I wouldn't call jet packs, holograms or Promothean vision an element of "skill". Just the opposite. My opinion: More circus-like features - lame attempts to satisfy newbies that need special abilities to increase their kill count and balance themselves against better players. - Ranking Gone! What ever happened to the H2/H3 ranking system? I thought we were done with the obviously failed attempt at "league" type ranking with Reach that no one ever played. Yet, here we are, and Halo copies COD once again. Now, you just play to you're blue in the fact earning "points" to buy armor and unlock more abilities and weapons. My opinion: No longer is Halo a fun game of skill and competition. Now, it's like COD. All about garnering as many points as you can by killing people so you can keep unlocking things. That's why everyone in Reach/H4 just charges into battle. Their performance doesn't matter - there's no consequences for being a bad player, other than not ranking up as fast. At least with H2/H3, players were matched via their rank/skill - not how many kills and points they have. My opinion: Bungie/343 saw that catering to skill wasn't very lucrative. So, they became tools of the newbies. No rank, no real competition, everyone ranks up with points and kills, everyone gets drop pod weapons, everyone gets a special ability. If there's a way to deter serious gamers - they've done it! Multiplayer requirement: Before you can even play multiplayer, you're required to have 8GB of free space. 343's reason for this is "Halo 4 will push the limits of the Xbox 360 in terms of visual and audio fidelity, and will be delivering significant post-launch content." This would be fine (and make sense) if 8GB was actually being used. No, only 3GB is being used. To my mind, this is a ploy to get everyone who owns H4 and a 360, to buy an HDD if they haven't already done so. I find this extremely shady and I pretty much lost all respect for 343. There's really no excuse for forcing people to spend another $60+ on storage space that isn't even being used, under the premise that the person is even going to purchase the "post launch" content that isn't even out yet. How lame is that? If you have to buy an HDD - buy used. [CAMPAIGN] Compared to COD and other titles, their campaign is much better. Especially in terms of graphic and effort they put into the story line. However, the campaign in H4 was nothing to brag about. Not as good as H3 and nowhere near as enjoyable as H2 and CE. 80% of the campaign is going down identical space ship corridors fighting mainly Prometheans. It gets boring and repetitive. The most exciting time in the campaign comes at the end when you're about to battle the big bad boss (Halo's version of "Bowser" from Mario Bros). Nope - he just falls of the edge and the game is over! Games like Mario Bros and Legend of Zelda have become legendary classics because their gameplay consisted of a clever hierarchy of "bosses" that increased in difficulty as the game goes on. With H4, you have none of that. You fight the same exact units the entire game. There's no increase in difficulty - more or less just an increase of enemies. That doesn't make things more difficult - it just takes longer and involves more hiding behind things to not get shot. All in all, the campaign felt short, repetitive and not very enjoyable. The story line showed a bit of effort by 343, but there was a huge disconnect between it and the gameplay - which had no effect on how enjoyable it actually was. My verdict: I'd recommend H4 to those who like Multiplayer and already have an HDD that they require. Those who like COD will probably like H4, as it's pretty much the same thing - just 1,000 years in the future. I really wish they'd go back to their roots and make Halo unique like it once was, but that's not going to happen and there's really no alternative games that can fill the void.	video-games_xbox
Too Many Bugs. Bethesda, Zenimax and retail sellers do not tell you that there are so many bugs in Skyrim that Bethesda finally gave up fixing them. The basic game is deeply flawed and its creators have abandoned their customers despite the fact that players may loose hours, days, weeks or even months of game time when they must fall back on an earlier save to work around a bug -- and there are hundreds of them. Moreover, every time a player returns to that earlier save he or she will loose all of the parallel, alternate questing time engaged after initiating the original flawed questing option. Buyers, prepare to find yourself reinitiating entire quests when for example an NPC will not provide you with the line required to complete a quest or to play out the desired quest-version. The "Hearthfire" add-on is a mess. Entire homes may have to be rebuilt, destroying weeks or months of parallel questing time when for example you can not put books into your shelves or for another example an NPC will not sleep in its bed. Your "Housecarl" may suddenly materialize in a hold or home he was not designed to protect, thereafter taking days to return to the area he was programmed to patrol. "Dawnguard" is equally botched in spite of its parochial over-simplified plots. (Spoiler) The NPC "Serana" has programming errors that glitch her human transformation. And in the "Dragonborn" add-on, depending on your player's level and the lethality of his or her weapons, the NPC antagonist "Miraak" will not finish fighting you when your character is clearly more powerful than the game designers had believed was capable -- d'oh! But don't take my word for it. Go to the unofficial UESPWiki, or the official elder scrolls wikia, click on any quest, scroll to the bottom of the page and behold -- lines and lines of bug complaints. Even Xbox has devoted an entire Skyrim Glitch Thread in Xbox Achievements. If you're contemplating the Playstation version, don't bother. It's even worse. On-line discussions among Skyrim PSE players include lawsuits. Really? For those dead set on playing Skyrim nevertheless your only manageable bug fee option is PC, but only AFTER having downloaded the Test 5 Mod unofficial updates. These updates are not available to PSE, and they are only available to Xbox with a JTAG or RGH modified game console. I am not advocating this last option. I only mention it to describe the obstacles preventing all but the most devoted and resourceful game players from truly enjoying Skyrim as it was meant to be. So potential buyers be forewarned! This game has real problems, and its creators have adopted the inexcusable position of taking your money, washing their hands of this deeply flawed product and leaving their customers to the bugs.	video-games_xbox
Good but not great. Quantum Redshift is a passable racing game that really needs more tracks to work. In QR, you begin with access to seven different racers, each with a unique vehicle (although each is only subtly different from the others) and the home track of each racer. You also begin with access to only the first of five tiers of speed. Speed is what QR does well. The graphics engine is incredible, and the lanscape will blur in amazing and truly convincing ways as you blast around at speeds that approach 1000 mph on the highest difficulty levels. While you are racing, you can pick up power ups that let you attack other racers and shield yourself from their attacks. Just to keep things violent, one of the opponents you race against when racing the computer will always be your nemesis...a racer who would rather see you lose than win himself. Supposedly you interact with your nemesis during cutscenes between races, but the relationships are pretty ignorable. The weapons are all pretty cool and while sometimes you wish your nemesis weren't there mucking things up, it isn't so hard to just accept him as part of the challenge of the game. QR has great music and sound effects and if you happen to not like techno music yourself, you can play custom tracks off the hard drive (although the game will play the tracks you picked in a random order, which is kind of annoying and should have been made optional). Winning tournaments unlocks new characters and speed levels and you can win cash to upgrade your vehicle (more turbo, better shields and weapons). So far so good and all of the above is enough to keep you interested in the game, but two major flaws bring it down from greatness. First, the racing itself is not very deep. You have a turbo meter you need to monitor and use wisely and you do of course need to worry about the people shooting at you (the attacks can be quite devastating and are capable of destroying ships once the weapons have been powered up, and will always cost you a lot of your momentum), but there are no gears to shift and there is not a lot of technique in the turns. The second, and by far larger, flaw,is the limited number of tracks, and the length of the tracks. Put simply, there just isn't a lot of game here. There are sixteen tracks, but none of them are very long, and while there are some pretty cool ones, they aren't that much different from each other. The tracks come in pairs, a racer and his nemsis forming a pair, and the two tracks are really quite similar. The tracks that are there are all fantastically detailed, but I for one would be happy to trade away a lot of the background detail for a wider variety of tracks. In the end, QR is not a bad game by any means, but it could have really benefitted from a standard transmission and about twice as many unique tracks. I think a racing game junkie who just devours games and moves on could definitely have fun with this one for a couple of weeks, but if you aren't a giant fan of the genre and are really just looking for that one really good racing game to have in your library, I'd definitely reccomend renting this one first.	video-games_xbox
Best Value Was well thought of in every aspect for movie watchers and Gamers. Let me start off by saying I Spent about 3 months of research before I decided was reading reviews there was very little to go on with YouTube as well as other sites on this sound bar but I am very glad I just decided to get it. My decision for getting this was because it got a lot of good reviews on the mid range for sound and the high range is pritti good on it. The real reason I chose it is because I'm a bass head and I like my surround sound booming but I also want to hear what is going on as well so for music I am also going to get the polik subwoofer that you can connect to it for a higher base. Don't get me wrong the base now is loud enough to be heard both upstairs on the 3rd floor in my house but when it's high it is almost where I want it to be but not yet still it does get a good bump from it and I can say I havnt played around with the settings yett I pritti much just took it out paired w Bluetooth and ran a few tests but even that I was very amazed because I have a similar sound bar from RCA and I am selling that one because it put it to shame lol... The pros is the sound is there I can have a fan on blast an ac on I can have something on in the background that makes enough noise to be annoyed but you will hear everything through it. And another thing to add is if you need more base pick up there polik psw10 or the psw108 but I'm going for the 10 subwoofer because that is enough feels like I have enough sound to upset the neighbors and I will not blast it of coarse but the point is for mid range sound if I am either playing a game or watching a movie it will be very rich to hear I am very fed up w buying junk where mid range I'm having a drink jammin and I don't feel the beat as much because the clarity isn't that clear. And during the day if I really want to blast music I can because the high range is good too. I was very sketchy about getting this because they say it's made for the xbox 1 yes I have an xbox 1 but I didn't get it for the xbox I got it because I was very sick of having to put my RCA sound bar on full blast just to hear the characters in a movie talk and I was very sick of the base was like dead. If I purchase a 200 dollar mini boom box that runs on a lithium battery and can fit in my pocket from Bose there is no way that thing should be higher and better then your home theatre. Granted this is my room setup but the point is with most of these company's you spend that much money on anything your expecting something great and last time I went on a whim of reviews that said this RCA is the greatest I was the sucker. So my motto buy it test it out and also put in to effect if you want more base it actually has the option for upgrades then go for it because you have a choise weather u want sonething higher then my choice or not some soundbars don't have the option and if they do they come with one that is not as great sounding as most on the market. I'm not talking about the sound for the mid and high range for treble n stuff because I had no problem w it it's there. If you feel it's not you need a bigger system. Some people complaint about the remote and stuff I work for a cable conpany I have a universal remote if you don't calibrate it to your settings and you will be fine I didn't have to mess with the settings to see it works as advertised out of the box. You just have to read and understand how everything works because there is a diffrent setting for what your trying to do and I have the base on a low setting because on low it's high as hell so I can imagine the subwoofer when I get it next week and I will have another update review in 3 weeks w how I feel about it but honestly I was going to go w the vizio 5.1 surround sound wireless speakers for a bit more the reason I didn't was because A the design is from the Stone Age my RCA looks exactly the same they took no time on designing it like slab a mesh on the front make it very thin and were all set. B the subwoofer it comes with reading some reviews it is good but it's not great dosnt live up to its value the mid to high range on the soundbar was not there. And that's wothout the sub it comes with which says a lot because this thing was designed to be not only modern but it's heavy bout 13 pounds and the sub on it does make my fish worry about the room lol.. So I can imagine the sub I get for it. And every review I read about a 300 plus range system is the same it's almost perfect but either the base is too loud to where u can't hear the people talk or the base is ehh it's there but not really alive. I won't say this is perfect but this is the best value and there sub for this was rated the best value so weather you have a ps4 or even if you don't have those and u have a bluray player or Apple TV it's still worth it.	video-games_xbox
One of the best story experiences I've ever had. Moments ago I finished the last episode of this series and sat in front of my display stunned by what I had just been through. I originally wrote a critical review due to issues with release dates, but after finishing this experience I actually feel guilty for being critical of such a trivial thing in light of this work. This isn't a game, at least not by any standards I would hold it to. It's an interactive narrative with varying levels of control. Now and again there are game-like moments where a mis-aimed gun or ill-timed kick will leave you dead, restarting at a recent checkpoint, but those moments are few and the setbacks are minor enough that it's never aggravating. Where it all shines is as a narrative where you have some agency to affect plot development. None of the decisions seemed forced or unnatural, and I actually felt as if the main character was as wise, caring, and brave as I would like to think I would be in his place. Part of the brilliance is that I never felt as if there were decisions I wish were available; there were nearly always character choices that matched precisely how I wanted to act/respond. Right now I'm still reeling from the finale, so words aren't coming so easily. To wrap it up, let me say that whoever you are, whether you enjoy video games, comics, or neither, give this a try. It's not demanding in a video-gamey way; if you have the patience to read a novel, you can enjoy this. I'll even go so far as to say that this is the first time I've ever experienced a story-telling medium that achieved something literature can not do: it achieves a sense of agency without compromising tight narrative style. I'm shocked at the relatively low star-rating. If you look at the negative reviews, I'm betting nearly all of them are regarding technical issues or what not. For shame. I had no technical issues, but even if I had they would have to be really serious to alter my opinion, like complaining about a creased page of a great novel. Do yourself a favor. Really. No matter your age, no matter your usual preference of entertainment. If Telltale keeps putting out experiences like this, I'll be buying every last one of them without hesitation. Oh, and I've read the comic and seen the television show, and neither of them hold a candle to this experience. Frankly I think the TV show is terrible, so if you feel the same, don't let that put you off from this. OK, that's all for now.	video-games_xbox
Better, but more of the same. Dead Rising 2 gives you more of what the first game was all about. There has been a zombie outbreak and you have to wait three days until help arrives, rescuing survivors, staying alive, and defeating those who have gone mad in the chaos, while getting uncovering the truth of what really happened to cause this. While Dead Rising 2 does improve on a lot of things, ultimately, this is the same exact game as the first one. STORY/PREMISE As explained above, there has been a Zombie Outbreak, only this time, instead of being in the small town mall of Willamette, Colorado, it's in the Las Vegas area locale of Fortune City, an entertainment resort. Here is where Chuck Greene, our protagonist, competes in a Pay Per View, zombie-killing motorbike show titled Terror is Reality. The Willamette zombies have all been gathered here to be killed, and a zombie rights group called CURE have been protesting the show. Someone, however, has set off a bomb, causing the thousands of housed zombies to break free. Many die, but many more escape, including Chuck and his young daughter, Katey. Chuck, famous for his Pay Per View prowess, but respected by few, is framed for the terrorist act, and now has the time until the military arrives to clear his name, with the help of CURE activist and leader Stacey Forscythe and super-sexy hotshot reporter Rebecca Chang. For those who have played the first game, the plot and events play out exactly the same way, even though this is a new story in a new town. GAMEPLAY Luckily, the gameplay has been made a lot easier over the first game, which to be honest, I was not a big fan of. The first game was way too difficult and was impossible to complete the first time around, because in the Dead Rising series, you have to level up, to make yourself stronger throughout the game. However, you only have to do this once, as subsequent playthroughs will permanently keep your enhanced skills, and abilities. In One, it was almost impossible to get to the truth without nearing maxing out your skills, first. However, refreshingly, in DR2, you do not have to keep playing until you're strong enough to take on the real story. In the three days you have until help arrives, you can rescue survivors and take them back to your safe house, and take out dangerous people who have gone insane in the zombie madness. However, the A-Story is finding out the truth behind the outbreak, and in this game, who set you up. Everything has a time limit and more than one thing are often going on all at once, meaning time management is crucial in this game. It takes real dilligence and commitment to try to save everyone AND get to the bottom of things in the time you're given. They say in life "you can't save everyone and do everything," but in this game, that is the ultimate goal. In DR2, things are a lot easier (in the first game, you actually had to be extremely profient and schedule things PERFECTLY in order to save every single person and complete the story). I think part of the reason things are easier is because the in-game time moves slower in this one. It's still the same timeframe, but because it doesn't go in real time, you have to go by the game's simulated time. (I believe the time ratio is 1 to 12, meaning 5 minutes in real life is an hour in the game, and two hours in real life is an entire day.) In the first one, the clock moved a lot faster than it does in this one, so a slower clock means things are slightly easier and you have more real time to rescue survivors, take out psychopaths, and do the real missions. However, the area you're now in is also a lot larger than before. It is a whole entertainment resort. And as it was before, it is impossible to actually run in the game. Your character merely walks fast. So overall, the slower game clock means things are a bit easier then the were before, which means less frustration and more time to actually get things done. One added new featured mission to the game is keeping your daughter alive, as Katey Greene has been infected before the Fortune City incident and needs a medication called Zombrex everyday between 7 and 8am to keep from turning. (Without giving away spoilers, this is also why good guy Chuck competes in zombie killing derbys; Zombrex is expensive and katey needs it daily.) Of course, during the chaos of the zombie outbreak, Zombrex is hard to find and there are looters all around Fortune City. You'll have to somehow find Katey her medicine and make sure you give it to her, between 7 and 8. The game makes this a challenge, but it's never too frustrating. You can do specific missions and gain the drug off of hard-to-kill psychopaths. Luckily, the game also gives you options to buy it off of looters. (For the crazy price of $25,000 for just one dosage!) If you have to, you may need to sacrifice some survivors and just spend half the day breaking slot machines and ATMs to raise the funds needed. Also fortunate that money in this game is infinite, albeit hard to collect. DR2 also gives you the bonus game, the Pay Per View show Chuck Greene competes in, Terror is Reality, where you have to use your motorcycle to kill as many zombies as possible and get the highest score. WEAPONS & ITEMS In the Dead Rising series, everything move-able can be used as an improvised weapon, whether it be true melee weapons, like knives and bats, or furnishure, toys, food boxes, drink bottles, playing cards, jewelry, potted plants, or firearms. Each thing in the world has it's own damage rating, as well as method your character attacks with. Heavier items like sludge hammers obviously do more damage and last longer before breaking, but are slower and harder to attack with. In DR2, you now actually get the ability to combine objects to create newer, stronger, deadlier improvised weapons. For example, taking a wooden baseball bat and a box of nails gives you a spiked bat, taking a broom handle and a knife blade gives you an improvised scythe, and taking a whiskey bottle and a rolled-up newspaper gives you a molotov cocktail. And although they were made out to be really cool in some trailers of the game, they're really not that big a deal. Most of the items you'll need to combine aren't that easy to find and although they work much better and do more damage, don't last that much longer than regular objects. Besides the new improvised super-weapons, you'll still have food, beverages, alcohol, and mixed drinks to keep in your inventory. Mixed drinks are like the beverage and alcohol version of improvised super-weapons in that combining two of them will give your character temporary heightened abilities. Such as combining two caffeniated drinks will make you really hyper and boost your walking speed. Mixed drinks also existed in the first game. Some mixed drinks, however, can make your character sick, causing him to often throw up controllably. So can some uncooked foods, rotten food, and alcohol. Regardless, all of these can still fill up your health, so while not preferable, they still have their uses. The inventory use system STILL remains a very annoying issue. In the Dead Rising series, all itmes you keep, including weapons and health items, are all kept within the same inventory. And when one item is used up or discarded, it automatically switches over to the next item. And there is no way to organize things in your inventory. So AS before, you'll often find yourself accidentally using things you didn't intend to, because of this, such as the game switching you over to a food item and you accidentally eating it, because your weapon just broke. It really remains an annoying problem. Another annoying thing is the food/drink animations. They still take way too long to play through before the actual health restore kicks in, they're STILL completely, 100% un-interruptable, and they STILl will get you killed in a dangerous boss battle because of this. If you can't picture this, try to imagine being down to your last two bars of health, against a really fast, really dangerous enemy, and having to wait for Chuck to drink the entire bottle of beer (about three to four seconds) and for that animation of him doing it to completely play through, before it actually heals him. THEN imagine the enemy attacking you, interrupting it, while you still have low health and trying to do it again, only for the really fast enemy to attack you again. Yeah, it's REAL annoying! Oh, and you also get more vehicles to drive in this game, as Chuck Greene is an aging motorcross star, after all. PSYCHOPATHS & SURVIVORS Okay, one of the big things you'll be doing (or not) is rescuing people in the zombie madness. In the original, this was extra annoying as the survivors were complete dummies who'd rather stand around and get swarmed by 20 zombies than simply follow you and you had to practally beg them to follow you and not get killed. On top of which, their health was really low. The survivors in this have better AI and are improved as when you run for safety, they always follow you and don't stand around like idiots as zombie bait. Many of them also come equipped with weapons (survivor weapons never break, even if you hand them a nearly used-up one) and much less of them ask you to do stupid favors for them just so you'll save their life, like feed them lunch. The ones who do, do it for sensible reasons, like an over-tanned who's dehyrdated and needs something to drink in order to keep moving. Some are annoying in which, they won't give up their weapon, no matter what, so that you can feed them and restore their health. And many of them also are more opposite than the first game's in where, instead of being too cowardly, they are too brave and may often rush out into a zombie mob to start killing instead of laying low and letting you handle the dirty work so that they won't die. Although I can't say for sure, I think the survivors actually have difference AI's in this game and act diffrently than others. In DR1, they all acted the same, no matter their personalities, and were all cowardly, weak, and stupid, making rescuing them needlessly frustrating. So it's refeshing that you now won't have to worry about them so much and that they are much more self relant. As for the psychopaths, they are also different. In the original, you would often stumble across them by mistake and would have no choice but to fight them, despite being unprepared, or in low health. You couldn't leave the battle. Plus, they were a LOT of them! Here, there are far fewer psychopaths and the ones you do face are much more dangerous and a lot faster, but now, you can actually retreat the battle without worrying about getting the hostage killed or losing the misison. If the battle is too tough, you can just retreat and come back later, when you're better prepared. Plus, all damage you do to them remains throughout. This is also a sigh of relief. Of course, as stated, they are still quite a challenge, and even the fat ones move with unusually high speed and grace. Most boss fights are near-impossible to win until Chuck gets the Dodge ability. Without it, he is slow and easily hurt to the fast-moving bosses. This is easily and above all else the most important and useful fight skill you'll learn in this game. Also, either Chuck is a short man, no taller than 5'8", or ALL of the psychopaths are just really really big. You can almost always tell who is a psychopath based on their relative size to everyone else, before you fight them. Some are normal sized or short, like the dilligent psychopath postman, but most are big and easy to recognize. Even the sexy Bailey twins are at least 6'1" and really powerful, compared to the relatively tiny Chuck. (It kind of reminds me of Super Punch-Out for the NES.) And like I said, what's weird is, they're not only huge, but REALLY speedy and agile, as well. Most, like before, carry really lethal super weapons. What's good is, like before, you get to keep these weapons after the fight is over and they tend to last a long time and not break very easily. Plus, they regenerate after you use them up, meaning you can keep using them, although you can only hold one at a time in most cases. OVERALL Dead Rising 2 is a good game, and much better and less frustrating than the first. However, the one thing that really hurts this game is how similar it is to the first. Even the plot plays out exactly the same way. Had this been released two years or less from the first game, this would have been forgivable. However, this is a game that is almost FIVE years down the line from the first one. Overall, the improvements made in the game don't change the fact that this still plays very very similarly to the original. If you have played the first game and enjoyed it, then this will be more of what you liked and then some, and the feelings of the over four year wait will vary between individuals. However, if you played the first game and didn't love it, then you might not want to play this, as it's pretty much, the same stuff, with new bells and whistles on it. And those new things don't make the overall game new and fresh, but rather, improves on what's already there. So I guess it all depends on how much change you like in a game. Those who prefer very little change and enjoyed the original will like this, too. Those who have never played Dead Rising before may want to rent this one and not buy it. Just know you'll be dealing with time limits, challenges, and struggles throughout. The killing zombies in this game (the main focus) is actually secondary as the zombies are literally infinite. But if you're up to the challenge and like time trials and killin' zombies in as many creative ways as possible, it's worth a playthrough. Just can't recommend buying it without being a big fan of the first one.	video-games_xbox
Product is not well built. To start off, the casing/housing looks nice, it has a nice shine to it. It looks like it is made of great quality and that was my assumption. However, I started looking at it a little closer and noticed a few chips on it, the orange color is just coated on to it. I went ahead and started to assemble it though, I had to take apart one of my old white controllers to do that. This does not come with the actual controller, it is just the casing, like a case for your phone. Anyway, the hardest part to assemble were the triggers, pain in the ol' caboose but I did it after many struggles, I'm glad I didn't break anything. So I started to replace the controller sticks, the buttons, the home button, the start and back buttons, and the D-Pad, everything seemed to be going smooth until I had to put the top piece of the controller. The top piece consists of the little button that syncs the controller to the XBOX, and the right and left bumpers. Once I put that piece onto the controller it didn't fit as snug or as smooth as expected, there were big gaps, however I assumed that once I got the screws into place, the gaps would disappear. So I finished everything up and a put that back cover to get ready to screw it on. To my deception and frustration, I soon learned that the screw holes were not properly built, it required a great amount of force to even start screwing them on. It was ridiculously hard and frustrating. After having gone through disassembly, reassembly, and time consuming work I was really let down with this product. I had to take everything back apart and rebuild my old controller just to repackage and return this product. I was not happy. If you want to purchase this product, my recommendation would be no. Unless you are willing to try and drill bigger holes in the parts where the screws go then try it. However I was not going to risk breaking or cracking the case, or worse breaking the actual controller. 1-Star assumes I hate it - (Which I don't, it looks like a beautiful case it's just defective in that not everything comes together as well in the end) 2-Star assumes I don't like it - I think this is more accurate 3-Stars says it's okay - This product is NOT okay, at least not the ones I got, I probably should have mentioned I bought 2 at a time, both were not okay.	video-games_xbox
Left me lonely in a hotel room. I've ordered two of these 320gb hard drives from Finejo. There was a time where I played my 360 very sparingly. I'd load up some Red Dead Redemption when I had time, or Castle Crashers if my Fiance had her rare gaming itch. Maybe I was feeling like navigating the post-apocalyptic world in Fallout New Vegas. So even if I didn't play all the time, it was nice to be able to jump back into where I left off when I had the time to play. Then, after an Xbox Live update, my 320gb HDD turned into its evil unformatted twin. That's now being used as a backup drive for my PC. So I figured I'd give these guys another chance since I had no issues with the HDD the first time around and ordered another one. This was about three months ago. About 2 months ago I started having issues with my 360. A high pitched squealing every time I turned the box on. I figured it was the fan going out, so I gave the box a smack and the squealing would stop and everything would be hunky dory. Over the passed two months however, the quick tap on top of the xbox would work less and less. At this point in time, my Fiance and I have started playing more and more games together and I decided to research the issue I was having. After reading numerous message board posts it really did seem like it was the fan. So I ordered a replacement fan, and the proper set of tools needed to take apart the 360. I had these items shipped to a hotel as I'm out of town quite often. I'm set to receive these items tomorrow (8/13/2014.) Unfortunately for me, I just now realized it was the 320gb HDD that was making that high pitched noise. It was the 320gb HDD that was causing my Xbox 360 to freeze up almost every time I turned it on. I figured this out after going into "My Games" and seeing that none of my games were listed. I tried the take out the HDD, turn on the Xbox, turn off the Xbox, put the HDD back in method. It was during this time my fear was realized. My game saves were gone... again. It seems as if I received a faulty unit as my previous one lasted way longer. My 360 is working great without the HDD plugged in. I didn't watch any Netflix last night. My Fiance went to sleep early and all I had was crappy hotel tv programming. I could of used some Netflix to cure these lonely times I'm out of town. Thanks.	video-games_xbox
My All-Time Favorite Game. In my opinion, both Halos are the MUST HAVES of any collection for all-time to come. Why? Because they represent, the best first person shooter I've played. PLUS, on the advanced levels, which most people have yet to play, the game is very difficult. The AI Engine controlling the enemies is equivalent in most respects to playing your best friend right beside you guessing your every move. I never tire of conjuring up ways to beat it, to strategize attacks with tanks, banshees, warthogs, and other players. And when you tire of the single player or cooperative missions, you can hop online and jam with friends. Perhaps what's made it so fun for me is finding other professional fanatics like myself. By day, I work hard, workout, and catch sports, and by night with what remains I'll catch an hour or 2 of gameplay. Using the headset and playing co-op with a local friend is a great experience to strategize clan play. My buddy and I set up (2) tvs in the same room off a cable connection and are able to go toe to toe with guys online and not always rely on the headset. I can't over emphasize how great it is. Awesome music soundtracks engage you in every mission. Beautiful, deep, rich scenery. Voice-overs from David Cross (comedian) and Michele Rodriguez (fast and the furious). Multiple weapon combinations. *An enemy that changes its tactics and is as near competitive as you. Yes the ending was trite, but doesn't that leave more room for growth in the following game or games? People got hooked to LOTR 2, and even LOTR 1, Star Wars: Episode 5 wasn't to great either at leaving you feeling well. What's any different in this new age of video games becoming near full length movies and selling twice as good? Personally, I'm glad it finished the way it did, because only 2 Halo games would be disappointing, AND, it would be unthinkable to destroy ALL the Halo Rings, so we must have some compromise. I suggest both Halo games, getting the guides, and honing your skills on both. And do yourself a favor, if you have a surround sound system, enjoy the sounds they put in. One point about the game is that all sounds are subtle, but they give you warnings to danger, especially in the multiplayer mode. AND, get the component cables for XBOX if you have the connections on your TV. Most new TVs have it, especially above 25". I bought them for my 27" and it made a HUGE difference, not to mention it has the most stellar graphics I've ever seen. VERY VERY happy, and I look forward to playing it tonight!	video-games_xbox
Another xbox 360 disappointment. I really wanted to give this game an opportunity to please me, and for the first two minutes it was mildly amusing. Like all other xbox 360 exclusive games, it eventually proved to be another unfinished piece of highly detailed garbage. The game is obviously not finished because of how pathetic the plot line is. According to the back of the case and not any of the characters within the game, you choose a good side or an evil side to go on a quest to obtain the stone of union. Initially you can only choose one character, every playable character in the game only has the ability to play in their own very brief story mode. There are seven playable characters, who each lack the ability to earn any kind of empathy from the player. The story line apparently wants you to empathise with them however. While playing, you'll notice that your character has a variety of moves that improve in combo length and strength as you gain experience and level up. You'll also notice that these complex combonation attacks don't do very much to your enemies since they magically become invincible while they're reeling back in pain from your initial attacks. While your more powerful enemies leave themselves open to attack by preparing a strong charge attack, you cannot hurt them in any way since it's more important to microsoft game studios that you regret investing sixty dollars into their company. Many people will notice how this game functions like a very popular game legacy known as "Dynasty Warriors". Indeed it is somewhat like Dynasty Warriors in how you hack and slash through hordes of enemies, charging an eventual high power attack while doing so, moving closer and closer to a high profile enemy who you'll have to chop away at in order to defeat. A big difference is that this is 2006, and if you're going to rip off Dynasty Warriors then you may as well rip off the most current version of it and learn from the mistakes of previous versions. This game is as slow and dull as Dynasty Warriors 3 is to someone who's played Dynasty Warriors 5. The characters become more and more idiotic as you play, one in particular is beyond the definition of idiot. Eventually you'll play as a female magician who shoots small jets of water at her enemies, and those jets of water kill your enemies. She won't shoot them directly at the enemy if the enemy is slightly left or right of her line of sight, she'll instead shoot directly at the ground. Someone at microsoft game studios made that decision, that you should be playing a sixty dollar game where a character in that game responds to the attack button by shooting at the damn ground while enemies are directly in front of her preparing their attacks. In this game if a boulder comes rolling down a hill, misses you and comes to rest at the bottom of the hill, it's still considered a fast rolling boulder to the game. Walk into it, and you fly back in pain as though you've just been struck. In this game if you're in the middle of a horde of enemies slashing away and a cutscene occurs, you stop but your enemies don't. You will watch yourself standing there like a dumbass for a few seconds before the 360 crunches numbers trying to load up the five second cutscene, and then see your character getting smacked back and forth by the enemies that were surrounding your character. In this game you can find and equip all the defense boosting acccessories you want, and still get killed in at the most five hits by one of the signature enemies. Combine that reality with the fact that they can declare themselves invincible simply by preparing a laggy charge attack and then add in the fact that you'll play some levels for an hour only to get slaughtered so easily, and you'll realize why this game can be very irratating indeed. Another obvious way to tell that this game is unfinished is the fact that throughout the game you encounter characters with unique abilities, and pathetic input into the sorry excuse for a story line. Most of these characters are not playable, though you know that they were originally intended to be. Obviously microsoft decided to wrap this one up early, while assuming that the quality of the cutscenes will over shadow the lack of quality in the actual game play. This, like all other xbox 360 exclusive games I've ever purchased, is going right back to the gamestop I bought it from. I don't ask for refunds or trade-ins, I just give it back to them. I'm begging microsoft to finish their games from now on, I really honestly want the xbox 360 to do well in the video game market.	video-games_xbox
Fun game, marred by disappointingly easy last battle. I am going to reveal the ending, so do not read ahead if you still want to play this game. Many others have already posted their opinions here, so I will not go through the whole game in detail. But as many others have said, the voice-acting for the Obi-Wan character is ridiculously, unintentionally humorous -- the actor sounds like a guy with a head cold trying to imitate Ewan McGregor doing Obi-Wan, exaggerating the distinctive traits McGregor's Scottish accent -- so even lilts in his voice are thrown into hyperdrive. (as exaggerated as the honker the graphics dept. gave to Qui-Gon Jinn -- yes, the bridge on Liam Neeson's nose may be somewhat big, but since when did he have Karl Malden's nose?) The game is unfortunately lacking in the graphics department -- sometimes you can't see features on faces. But onto the ending. The game is fun, with a handful of challenging levels -- mostly due to the swarms of droids that come your way and droids taking stance behind high-powered laser cannons. But it's marred by a disappointingly quick and all-too-easy ending. The moment arrives -- you finally meet Darth Maul. Just like in the movie, you stand behind the laser wall and watch as Qui-Gon is struck down by Maul. And finally the wall opens, you hold your breath, ready for a tough battle -- one that you may have to play repeatedly until you put together the right string of moves and blocks to take him out before your health runs out. But it's not to be. Darth Maul is ridiculously easy to defeat. I beat him on my first try and in less than a minute. And you have to fight him twice -- as once you take him down the first time, he gets a new, full meter of health. So in less than a minute, I drew down two full health meters. I felt cheated, to say the least. I remember fighting against Mace Windu to have to reach the next level, and I had to go toe to toe against him some 20 to 30 times before I finally beat him. I was expecting at least a battle on that level of difficulty, but it ended up being the easiest level of the whole game. All I had to do was slash at him and use some force saber twirls and Maul was done. How in the world could the game's makers create such a lackluster, lifeless, no-threat ending battle? I was left extremely wanting, and if it were a movie, I would have angrily asked for my money back. I cannot say enough how disappointing the ending was. Even more now, the Darth Maul character cries out for a game of his own. One can only wish -- for this Maul must have been a clone or imposter to go down with nary a fight.	video-games_xbox
Good game, full of frustrations. This is a reasonably solid game. It's got a semi-interesting story for Star Wars fans and for the most part the game play is a lot of fun. It's got a fair amount of character customization that you can almost adapt to your play style, but not quite. This game is not without its fair share of glitches and/or technical shortcomings. I found the targeting system to be the most frustrating element of the game; you can be facing down a large AT ST, swing your light saber, and your character will turn around to attack a storm trooper that's behind you (and out of melee reach). Likewise you can pull RT to force grab an object right in front of you, and grab some random crap that's not at all what you were facing and/or expecting. The same goes for throwing objects; they seem to lock on sometimes but often fly in a random direction. Some of the platforming can be frustrating, like hitting invisible walls or slipping off of surfaces without much gradation. Sometimes landing on an object will immediately start an irrecoverable slip to your doom, which can set you back 10-15 minutes depending on the last auto save. Another incredibly frustrating technical (design choice?) problem is that when your character gets knocked down, he does a silly stand up animation every time that takes roughly a second or two, during which you can take damage, and even more frustratingly, be knocked down again. I encountered one part of the game where I got knocked down by a missile, then hit with another missile while standing up and therefor knocking me down again, followed by the same situation until I died. It was infuriating. Also, enemies shooting you off screen can be a serious drag, especially when you're low on life. I died quite a few times to off screen cheap shots. There is also sub-loading in all of the menu options (like 5 seconds each), which baffles me. It's even reading from my hard drive since I installed the game, yet it takes 5 seconds to navigate to my skills page, and then another 5 seconds to go back to the main pause screen. Once you can accept these technical challenges, the game play can be very satisfying as you butcher and electrocute your way through waves of seemingly helpless enemies. EDIT: I wrote this review when I was about 75% complete with the game. I finished it last night, and let me tell you, few times in my life have I been so frustrated with a video game. Without spoiling anything for you, the last level is some serious crap. It opens up with the most challenging (non-boss) battle of the game, which lasted about 15-20 minutes for me, and if you die, you start from the beginning. After that the level progresses along in a simple and straight forward fashion, until the final boss sequence. The camera in this portion of the game wouldn't be any worse if it was behind the walls. At times you have maybe an inch of screen space for your character because it must keep the boss as the focal point of the cinematic camera. There are also unavoidable moves that hit you without any warning that do ~50% of your health bar. Also, the targeting system here is a real treat. Good luck attacking anything you plan on attacking, and have fun force lightning-ing the piss out of the walls. After about an hour of getting killed, I finally made it through the last boss fight alive. I must say, the last fighting sequence is the poorest boss fight I have ever completed; that's after Alma from the Ninja Gaiden on Xbox, and she was a downright cheater. Good luck not throwing this game in the trash during the last level.	video-games_xbox
Xbox One Appraisal. By Joshua R Miller The Xbox One is an excellent product for gamers who have a positive standing with Xbox and Microsoft alike. The Xbox One is also a good choice for those interested in experimenting with a new console; whether the individual be a veteran to the video gaming community or a novice just getting started. However, you may also appreciate a variety of other functions which pertain to more than just video games. --Hardware Design-- The overall design of the Xbox One is simplistic but functional. The console itself is very simple as it is merely a moderately sized, short cube or box with vents on the top and along all the sides, save the front. The black color scheme with a touch of chrome here and there allows the console to blend in or stand out depending on where you decide to place it for best convenience. This specific edition comes with a Kinect which is a device with a camera and microphone allowing the system to both recognize you physically and vocally. With the Kinect, the Xbox can sign in your profile with it utilizing a facial recognition system. The camera can also be used to play specific games which require such device. The Kinect can also recognize your voice commands to talk to Cortana, an integrated personal assistant in most every Microsoft device, who will try her very best to accommodate your wishes. All you have to say is Hey Cortana, followed by a command she can recognize, and it will be done. She can even turn the Xbox One on and off so you can multitask without having to wonder whether or not you did hit the power button. But talking of Cortana is causing a deviation from hardware to software. --Software Functionality-- You may appreciate the organized design the Xbox One screen provides. Upon activation, you are taken directly to the first of four different screens, the Home page. The home page contains practically a little of everything. Access to all of the programs installed on the device. Recommendations for programs. It also has a sidebar for activity pertaining directly to your profile including, but not excluded to, achievements, communication with friends, as well as access to your Xbox Live profile and those of your friends. There is also an option allowing you to watch weekly directed series where Larry Hyrb, Director of Programming for Xbox Live, gives a news update for the Xbox community. Unless you find yourself fancying something new or otherwise inaccessible from the Home page, you are likely to not to deviate to much from said page. If you do however, the Community page will help you see what is new in the Xbox community, with recent recordings and screenshots from friends and other community recommendations like game trailers or quizzes. The next page is the called OneGuide which functions as a pseudo-cable provider as it has access to TV shows, movies, videos, and app channels for HBO, Hulu, and ESPN. The final page is the Store where all the products being offered are organized into games, movies, music, TV, and other apps and programs. Of course, you are looking into a review on a gaming console and there is plenty good to be had in the gaming element. --Gaming-- Your gaming experience can continue or begin with the Xbox One and its assortment of titles to choose from. As the days, weeks, and months go by, more and more games are introduced into the gaming market to play them on the Xbox One. With the popular Destiny, Halo, and Call of Duty currently being available, with Destiny getting a large expansion update in a couple days, and upcoming titles including Titanfall 2 and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Remastered coming in late October. However, you can also enjoy a couple of new and growing programs with the Xbox One and Xbox Live, the online segment of Microsofts device. In the recent year, Xbox introduced a preview program where you could be one of the many lucky individuals to test drive a game still in the middle of completion, but ready enough for people to see how it plays. This service also provides you with a voice in the development of the game, so the developer can gather feedback from you and all the others involved, helping the game grow. As an added bonus, the games on preview are at a reduced price than the cost of a new game and will not need to repurchase said title when it fully releases. Another noteworthy program Xbox is continually expanding is the Backwards Compatibility program. The backwards compatibility program allows older Xbox 360 games to be played on the newer Xbox One system. The two systems, though one being the successor of the other, read disks differently and the disks themselves are written differently from generation to generation. So the ability to play older games on a newer system is quite the accomplishment and shows a sense of loyalty to you and the rest of the gaming community. Of course, despite all the great things there are some cons. --Cons-- There are a few problems with the system, but they are more minor, and can be overlooked or solved easily. Above, I mentioned the design of the system itself is simple, and this can be somewhat annoying for some people. Not that it is an actual problem, but you may like character or a sleek design to your devices. Unfortunately, the Xbox One doesnt have this. It is just a black box with vents and cable ports. Really this should not be too much of a problem considering your attention should be focused on the activities the system provides more than the console itself. Another element you may find distasteful is the consoles total functionality being dependent on an internet connection. Unfortunately, without an internet connection, you will not have access to have the functionality. You will still have a dvd/blu-ray player, play single-player games and games with single-player capabilities. However, you will be crippled in all other respects. Just maintain a stable connection and you will be fine. The final disadvantage the console has is memory space. Despite, the description saying there is 500 GB and sounding large, you may not experience the same. With the amount of content games and other apps and programs can have, they could easily consume a large amount of space. But this can easily be rectified by either buying an external hard-drive or replacing your devices internal hard-drive to one with more space. --Conclusion-- All in all, you would be better off having an Xbox One in your gaming arsenal. The simple and black design can cause the Xbox One to blend in or stand out depending on where you set it up at. The software is highly organized so that you are not totally lost when looking for content. And the gaming possibilities is great and growing with new game titles coming into market as well as Xbox Lives growing newer programs to diversify the possibilities for games and gamer interaction. The Xbox One is a wonderful device whose possibilities for entertainment is vast, yet still growing. I hope you enjoy your experience with it.	video-games_xbox
Enjoying the game, trouble connecting to GHTV. [Edit: I was able to fix the issue by not activating video cache when prompted by the home screen. Not sure why this worked, didn't see it as a solution anywhere, and received no help from Activision, thus four stars rather than five.] Will change to 5 stars if the issue is resolved. I was really looking forward to this game, but unfortunately I was dissapointed. I began by playing the campaign to unlock all of the songs in the Guitar Hero Live section of the game, and finished that within a stretch of just a few hours. I enjoyed this quite a bit- thus two stars rather than one. However this was not what I came for. I considered the real meat of the game to be the Guitar Hero TV section of the game; a constantly updating selection of music to play sounded awesome! However, in reality you can't expect to even navigate beyond the GHTV menu before being kicked off (if you're able to connect in the first place at all). Spending hours rebooting my machine and router and running all over the forums trying to find a fix led to nothing but the knowledge that this had been an ongoing issue since the game's release in late October 2015, over two months ago. What's the point of having this part of the game if I can't even access it? Can there at least be an alternative to download and play a few songs at a time? I'm extremely dissapointed that I have only been able to play five songs on GHTV in the nine days I have owned this game. If you buy this game, get used to seeing either error message Flint or Dolomite because they're gonna be there a lot for no particular reason. You may be one of the lucky ones who can get it to work but I would not take a $70 gamble on the off chance that it does. In regards to the game play and new controller design, I did enjoy them and the song selection is enjoyable, besides the fact that I can't access 75% of it at any given time. Altogether I would rate 5 stars... however I'm only giving 2 due to these connection issues. Live support and forums have been useless- just suggesting things that I've already tried and had no effect such as restarting the XBOX360 or the modem. In short, don't waste your time until these connection issues are fixed.	video-games_xbox
A New Level of Fighting. Whether you're new to fighting games or an experienced veteran, this game will challenge you. I almost gave up when I first played a few rounds on the demo because I got my butt handed to me repeatedly. I began to question whether I had gotten too old or just wasn't getting it. I had played the original KI when it first came out and was pretty good at it. But KI hasn't been around in a long time and it's been Tekken, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Soul Calibur and MVC since then. I haven't had a problem with any of those so why was this so tough? The combo system is everything in KI and it's different than all those other games. It's a mix of tapping light to heavy attacks with Street-Fighter-like quarter circles, half circles and charges. Jumping in beginners, mid and end combinations. This took time to adjust to but it's been as rewarding as any fighting experience as I started to get it. The more I learn though, the more I see there is to learn. The fighters are diverse. You're sure to find at least one or two here that will click sooner. There's smaller, quick fighters, bigger heavy hitters and those in between. Most are returning from previous games and they've all benefitted from updated appearances. I like how the older models and costumes are available though. The backgrounds look great. There's so much going on, you may get distracted by the scenery. The music may the best in any fighting game right now. There's pulse pounding techno beats, hardcore metal tracks, and TJ Combos rap style beats for his stage. They definitely pump up the excitement. Best of all are how the Ultra Combo finishers coincide with the music playing at the time. Going strike for strike and beat for beat. Ultra Combos are as satisfying an end to a match as Mortal Kombats fatalities ever were. This isn't one of those easy to learn, tough to master games. It's tough to learn, tougher to master. But challenge is good and will keep you coming back to get even better and build on what you've learned. That's a great quality in a game. There's lots of unlockables here to keep you coming back and improving. The one downside is that it's very expensive the way it's set up right now (at least in downloadable form). It's been split up into 2 seasons with characters and storylines being slowly made available, one by one. I was fortunate enough to take advantage of a sale a month ago that gave me both seasons, all DLC and both original KI games for $50. Without that deal, I'd probably still have the demo. If this was a basic to average fighter, all of that would be unforgivable but this is a truly excellent game that really reinvigorates the genre. For fighting fans, you owe it to yourself to try this game. It's not only an excellent fighter but a AAA exclusive for the XBOX One.	video-games_xbox
Great innovative gameplay. Psychonauts is pretty unique in the world of gaming - a game that provides innovative gameplay with a great sense of humor. A bunch of kids with psychic powers are sent to summer camp, to learn how to become "psychonauts". You've got the scared small kid, the loner girl, the self conscious pushy kid, and the 'new kid', Raz. Suddenly, of course, there's a real problem and Raz - the most promising of the group - has to save the day. There aren't "real" fights - these are all psychic combats inside peoples' minds. A person's mind reflects their own personal fears and thoughts. So for example when you go into the drill sergeant's mind you get a lot of bombs, dead soldiers, deep holes and so on. Whiel you're there you collect "figments" of his imagination for points, and you also sort out his "emotional baggage" for him to make him more happy and healthy. You leap over obstacles and find ways to get around barriers. This makes the game great for all ages because you're never really slaying enemies. You're simply helping people get through their fears, killing off their imaginary demons in a fun platformy, puzzle solving manner. It also means that each "world" - or mind - is quite unique to that person's character. You have choices along the way - you can choose to help your fellow schoolmates or let them struggle on their own. Helping your teammates brings you bonusses of course :) The graphics are quite impressive for the XBox. The textures, shadows, footsteps and general "look" of each area are quite well done. The game is of course designed to be cartoony rather than realistic, and the effects are pretty spectacular in some areas. The dialogues are really funny, and the voice acting - while generally handling very stereotypical characters - is quite good. The soundtrack has a number of styles, again depending on the world - and they fit in well with the mood of the world you're in. Highly recommended!	video-games_xbox
Uh-oh. What's that smell. Upon opening the box and plugging in my controller, I decided to test everything. Joystick responsiveness-- check. Button responsiveness-- check. Wickedly-cool built-in lights-- check. Fans-- Fans? sniff sniff What's the burning smell? Why don't I feel air, but instead I feel A LOT of heat coming from the controller? Uh-oh. Bad motor and fans! My controller was very hot due to this defect. Even when the fans were turned off, heat would rapidly build. This, of course, is very bad. I'm currently in the process of returning the controller to Amazon for a replacement. Though I'm sure this is a one-in-one thousand defect, I still cannot give this a high rating. Minus the potential fire-hazard(ness) of the controller, everything else was great. The buttons and joysticks responded well, and the lights looked bada$$. The controller felt very good in my hands (minus the heat :) ). Overall, I'd say that this controller is worth the money, but I hope that you do not run into the issue that I had. Because of this issue, I have to give it a 2-star rating. I hope this review helps, and also that it sheds some light on a rare, but potential issue. ~Brian Edward Knighting EDIT It's been about a month since I received my exchanged controller (fans work with this one), but now I have encountered another issue. About a week ago, the LEDs began to stay on, even after my Xbox 360 was turned off (not supposed to do that). Pressing the LED button did not turn them off or on or anything for that matter. They just remained on. I notice that my controller's LEDs now flicker at completely random times. I know that I did nothing to the controller to cause this, especially considering I only used the LEDs a few times (very short periods of time) and have taken excellent care of the controller. I opened the controller with a screw driver and was able to partially fix the issue (no more flickering, LED button now works, BUT the lights remain VERY dim even when my console is off). I am not changing my 2-star rating due to this. Again, just letting others know of a potential defect. EDIT My controller's left analog stick now drifts to the left, even when it is in its standard center position. I've been very lenient with my 2-star rating with my issues I've had before, but now I am dropping it to a 1-star. I thought this product was really cool. But after the multiple issues that I have had with it, I simply can not give it any other rating. Good faith for a product can only last but so long. I've only had the controller for just under two months now, and I have treated it with the utmost care. This is just sad. I'm hoping that there will be something to Power-A's warranties now... FINAL EDIT Well, I've taken quite a long time before posting another edit. This will be my last. In regards to the edit above, Power-A did replace that controller as well. It lasted about 8 months, until the controller would randomly disconnect from my 360 for no reason. I then sent that controller back to Power-A and received yet another replacement. After a few months the X button became stuck for some reason. Instead of sending that one back too, I just whipped out a screwdriver and fixed it myself. Turns out, the plastic on the bottom of the X button was slightly warped. After a little sanding, I put it back together and it works fine now. All in all, I am disappointed with these controllers. They are absolutely great WHILE THEY LAST. Unfortunately, they don't seem to last for very long. I hope that if you decide to purchase one, that yours will last longer than what mine seem to. XD I hope my review has been helpful to anyone who has read it. ~Brian K.	video-games_xbox
Really the next best thing to Halo. When I saw some of the reviews from Gamespot and IGN, I thought the game was a let down. I still rented it the first chance I got, and the reviews were wrong. The only place where the game suffers is multi player cooperative mode. This is really what made Halo so great, but in Brute Force the split screen seems to take away a lot of detail from the graphics and feeling. You won't enjoy this game in cooperative nearly as much as Halo. Brute Force really excels in single player mode, this is more of a single player game, where you control a team of 4 and get to use their different guns and abilities. You will also need to take care of your team members or you will suffer later in the mission. One time a pesky bomb made me lose Brutus early in the level, and later I really could have used him to spot guys among all the fog, and this costed me as I spend a lot of medical kits. Basically it feels like Halo only it's in 3rd person and it's all up to you with 4 different guys and different abilities to use. The team members that your not currently controlling still fight with you, and let you know when they are taking hits and need medical kits. Many critics of the game argue that the different abilities don't really play much of a role, and that you don't necessarily need them to pass a level. This is true to some point, I mean if you 100% needed a certain ability from a certain team member then you would fail a mission as soon as you lost that certain member. What it really does is increases the success rate of the mission by having these different characters and using their abilities wisely. And it's very natural, it never feels like your trying to solve a puzzle thinking what character would be good for what area, that's not what the game is about. The main characters are Brutus and Tex. Tex can get the best guns, using Brutus really helps your vision and you can spot enemies very clearly, not to mention recover HP while doing so. The girls play smaller roles, they aren't as good but that's not a bad thing. Girls probably wouldn't be as good in real life either. Overall it's just an awesome single player experience. It's the next best thing to Halo in action shooters.	video-games_xbox
Outstanding, immersive, and very, very fun. (...) Well, not only is Halo by far the best FPS for a console I've ever played, it's the best FPS I've EVER played, and one of the best GAMES, period. If this is what we can expect from the Xbox, well, thank God I have one, that's all I can say. Typically, no shooter can compare with the holiest of holys, Half-Life. Half-Life has been the pinnacle of what the genere was capable of, and nothing could ever quite match it. 'Till now, anyway. Halo rolls everything you could want in a shooter all into one package, save online play. You want immense outdoor environments? Here you go. Tons of weapons? Okay, we'll let you use the human weapons AND the alien weapons, how's that? Good AI? Try this. On the hardest difficulty level, the enemies will position sqauds on either side of any given hidey-hole you're cowering in, toss a good number of grenades to flush you out, and mow you down from two different directions when you make a run for it. Should you somehow live through that, they'll regroup, laying down cover fire, and try to split up and circle around you, leaving the tougher troops to face you head-to-head while the smaller guys gang up and shoot you in the back while the others have you engaged. What else, you say? Well, okay. Every game like this has a gimmick. Half-Life had the fact that you could take guards and scientists with you. Red Faction had the fact that you could blow holes in walls. Halo? Ohhh. Let's count 'em. For one thing, you have your Marines. They will fight WITH you, and they're no slouches. They react to the fight, think quickly, and will follow your lead but take the initiative if it presents itself. Flush an enemy out, and most often they're waiting to take it down. Need to snipe some enemies? They'll hold off until you're finished, and back you up if the enemies get too close. Next, there's the enemies. Each enemy has a very different way of attacking, be it head-on, defensive, swarming, bait-and-attack tactics, whatever. The alien weapons are actually no better than the human ones, but sometimes are preferrable given certain situations. Then we have the plot. While it's a little simple and contrived early on, there are major plot twists down the pipe. When you finally find out what Halo actually is, not to mention who really lives there, you'll be impressed by the scope of the story to say the least. It's Sci-Fi, but it's good Sci-Fi. Lastly, and easily the best, we have vehicles. LOTS of vehicles. Get in the Marine Warthog jeep and a Marine will jump in back, manning the cannon. If he gets taken out, you can jump in the back yourself and use the gun. If a friend is playing with you, have HIM drive while you shoot, or vice versa. In one instance, I was driving a tank while my friend rode on it with a Sniper Rifle. I'd shell an area, and he'd pick off stragglers with the rifle. You can steal enemy air fighters and use them in skirmishes, or use them to back up a buddy on the ground. If you distract the enemies by flying overhead, he can get closer unnoticed until it's too late for the enemies. Knock enemies out of stationary gun turrets and climb in yourself. Enemy placement is randomized a bit, so no two battles are ever alike. Voice acting is quite good, graphics are beautiful and have NO slowdown at all, and the sounds have a great deal of OOMPH to them. This game raises the standard for all shooters to come. This is American game making at it's pinnacle, and if you've ever wanted the ideal action game, here it is. NO Xbox owner should be without this game!	video-games_xbox
Pay to Win. I bought this as part of the Xbox One bundle. It was a digital download included in my purchase. I have played the Forza series before. I played Forza 2 about 5 years ago and it was fairly entertaining. I remember wasting hours upon hours on that game racing and buying cars. It's pretty much the same formula as it was back then -- except it's not. Let's not start with the bad though. The graphics are beautiful! The cars look great and the light and shading on everything is just really exceptional. The loading. Oh, you will load. You will then load some more. You will race a boring race for about 6 minutes or so. You will load some more and stare at your banged-up car. Then you load some more to go back to loading to load the next race. Repeat this cycle for everything. The repetition - same car, same map (oh let's reverse it!) You will likely race one car for about 18 races in a row if you're anything like me. If you're anything like me you will also do them in order. They take you through a series but then there are "bonus" races. Guess what? Those are the same maps. You're going to do them again! The restrictions You get to choose from about 6-10 cars for each series. In the beginning they definitely suck. You can quickly level your first car to an A class or better, but you can't really race it in anything. You can't go beat the pants off some c-class suckers. No, you have to stay in the limitations of whatever you are racing. The pay-to-win disease It took me a bit to come to this realization. I mean there are plenty of silly tricks online to earn easy money and they work I am sure. I just haven't felt the need to do it. However, you can also see that it costs 20 dollars to get "VIP" so that you get double money on everything. Really? How lame. Or you need to buy cars with real money. You have to buy these if you want to be the "best." I quote that simply because you are not the best if you are one of a few that have spent money on this game and it allows you get the best times. You are probably still very good, but you are not actually competing against everyone. I only discovered this after I checked the leaderboards on a few races and I found that in the top 100 car A and car B are the only ones there and, hold your breath, they are both available for purchase as DLC! The art I like that you can do all kinds of modifications to the style of the vehicles like in Forza 2. I just feel like there is a big part missing. This game needs a companion app that lets you draw in game and really simplifies some of the designs. Maybe give a randomizing feature that grabs art from other areas or combines them. I would like to be able to draw and airbrush and just drag things on my ipad like in my drawing programs. I would like to import things from my photos or whatever. It would be cool. Why am I still playing it? I have to admit I am a bit neurotic. I am still doing each race one-by-one and completing them to get the gold trophies and attempting to beat my friends' times. However, after about 80 races you have the review above. I am frustrated with the game and the leaderboards don't mean a thing to me. I mostly focus on beating my friends for each race. I have about 1.3 million credits, but don't spend them on anything because I can't really use the cars on anything yet. You can't modify the crappy cars beyond a certain point or it will change your class. Another Xbox One disappointment for me I suppose.	video-games_xbox
Unexpectedly dull..wait for it to go down in price - might be outdated then though. If you're expecting a rpg game - well I hope you didn't buy it yet. If you're expecting call of duty meets halo - I think we're getting closer. Yeah there's a "skill-tree" but I wouldn't even call it that. I'd call it a reward system for killing stuff. Prepare to search caves for treasure chests containing little to nothing valuable. Prepare to be rewarded with weapons that are useless at high levels constantly. Prepare to shoot your gun a lot. Prepare to be killed a lot in multiplayer while your guns have half the effect of your opponent (they try to eliminate level differences but those that started first will have the advantage). Prepare to watch the same cut scenes infinitely - they have to show you something while the game loads I guess. Don't have xbox live gold? That sucks because 40% of the content, maybe more, depends on that (cuz the game wasn't expensive enough). I wouldn't bother with the expansions unless you want to be known as the Destiny God like all them other hard-core players - the story isn't worth adding to. Still though if you have friends with the game and you know you'll almost always be in a fire team - then yeah maybe this is for you. Better have a decent internet connection though. Definitely kid-friendly though - there isn't any blood that I saw. Graphics - for the xbox 360 are what you expect really. Halo 4 might be better though in that department. Very marginal differences I'd say. 7/10 Sound - I liked this element a lot as you always seemed to have decent music to pop skulls with at the right time. 8/10 Gameplay - Repetitive (bounties which you have to do to get certain weapons and drops are usually the same although recently they had some queen bounties that were different - but that ended yesterday) and boring after a while. 5/10 Controls - Fine for the most part. Swapping weapons though is aggravating. If you swap your special weapon - you lose ammo and you can swap to the point of having no ammo so choose wisely. Swapping weapons requires that you get yourself into cover and hope that nothing comes to investigate (in multiplayer that's rather optimistic thinking) your area, go into the menu and then into a 3x3 window for whatever type of equipment (that sometimes disappears when the cursor is moved slightly out of the 3x3 area - happens a lot if you're not careful) and then you can swap your weapon - but if your internet connection is lagging prepare to wait a moment or two while these menus show everything available. It needs a weapons wheel like bioshock or something along those lines. 6/10 RPG Elements - You can upgrade your weapons after killing with them for a while. Same with armor. You can color your armor (yay) but for a cost or wait for a drop (boo..). You can customize your class slightly (three types of grenades per class/three different upgrades to stats -> agility orientated, armor orientated, or all-around good). You can't trade items with other players, you can't drop items for other players, you can't sell items to shops - you can only dismantle, store, or oh wait that's it. You can point at other players, dance - a repetitive pre-programmed set of moves, you can wave at other players, and get this- you can sit down. 3/10 Borderlands 2 seems better than this in terms of fun and you don't need the internet or xbox live gold to play it.	video-games_xbox
Halo 2. As most of you are aware from the previous Halo game, you were Master Chief who is a Spartan. A genetically altered human built for war who landed on a ring known as Halo an intergalactic death machine capable of destroying galaxies. When Halo 2 first starts off the first movie that you see is the covenant leader preparing to be decommissioned for his failure to protect the Halo ring. He is striped of his rankings and burned on the chest with the "mark of shame". Throughout the game you encounter the same foes as the last time with a few extra species. The brutes and the droids are relentless and intelligent warriors. The game has a sleek new look to it showing off the Xbox's capabilities while simultaneously showing off the musical score that fits seamlessly with the game. With it's new look. Better controls, new guns and it's duel-wielding brings a new aspect to the game. The only downside is the end was not up to par with the rest of the game and they somewhat dropped the ball making it anti-climatic but leaving it open for a suggested Halo 3. One of the best changes to the game would have to be the 2 roles that you play during the game. You fight as Master Chief to try to destroy the other Halos, while fighting as the Shamed Elite who soon finds out the real meaning of the Halos. Co-op is allotted in this Halo as well. With the Multiplayer you are able to play either 4 players on 1 Xbox , linking up 2 Xboxes for a total of 8 players or Xbox live for up to as many players as your modem can handle. A lot of the old multiplayer games such as Slayer, CTF and Oddball are still available along with some new versions. Customization of the game is unlimited. I would say that Halo 2 is a must have for any fan of the first person shooter genre. I would also insist that you must buy or at least play Halo to understand Halo 2. But even with it's flaws it is still one of the best games not only for the year but for the system.	video-games_xbox
Simply, A Must Own Game. Im a day late and a few dollars short getting to the Red Dead Redemption party. I bought the Game Of The Year edition some time ago. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 action-adventure game debuted on May 18, 2010. The game proved to become one of Rockstar Studios masterpieces. Ive been a fan of Rockstars storytelling since Grand Theft Auto III released back in 2003. Their particular brand of storytelling shines through in Red Dead Redemption. Red Dead Redemption is based inside Rockstars version of our universe (which is not the same as the Grand Theft Auto universes) in 1911. The Wild West is dead and dying as American civilization reigns in outlaws and charlatans. John Marston, a reformed outlaw, is caught in the middle of progress warpath. As Marston, you step off a train at the station in fictitious Armadillo (based on Amarillo). There you head to Fort Mercer with a local guide where you are shot in the gut and left for dead. Marston awakens in a ranch hands hut. Its revealed through the ranch owner, Bonnie MacFarlane, scooped you up, put you in a wagon, and took you to a doctor in Armadillo. Bonnie politely interrogates Marston, revealing that he was hunting wanted outlaw and gang leader, Bill Williamson. She then asks Marston to work off the fifteen-dollar medical bill and he obliges. After the bill is paid, Bonnie recommends heading to the U.S. Marshalls office in Armadillo concerning any aid in assaulting Fort Mercer in search of Bill Williamson. Im going to stop with the plot here because I hate spoilers as much as the next person. Where gameplay is concerned, Red Dead Redemption functions like any other open-world game that you would expect from Rockstar. The major difference here is that many towns, settlements, and cities are in-game days apart. It gives a more realistic experience, but after two hours real world time it becomes a pain in the ass. Over time, Rockstar has learned a few things about what fans want. In Grand Theft Auto IV, developers introduced a functioning taxi system that allowed gamers to travel to any selected area within reason. That idea transferred over to Red Dead Redemption in the form of stagecoaches. They do not allow you to travel to any point on the game map, but they cut ten-minute journeys into 3-second hops between towns. Red Dead Redemption employs a slow-motion gunslinging ability called the Dead-Eye. This allows the player to successfully fend off an insane slew of enemies ranging from the garden-variety coyote, the coyotes cousin the wolf, to Mexican rebels and fugitive American outlaws. Within a few hours of playing, you will pick up on the importance of the shotgun to stagecoach drivers and their passengers riding shotgun. The game being set in early 1900s America; there is a wide array of weaponry available. There are at least three or four variants in each type of gun (pistol/revolver, shotgun, repeater rifle, sniper rifle, thrown, explosive, and lasso/whip). Carriages can become difficult to maneuver because they have a different default button scheme than what the average gamer has been accustomed to with other vehicles in videogames. The setting in Red Dead Redemption is mostly based on the Four Corners area of the American Southwest. The graphics are gorgeous. Leaves in the trees and wild fields move in the breeze. In two years, Rockstar considerably updated their graphics. Thats a comparison between Red Dead Redemption (2010) and Grand Theft Auto IV (2008). Its easy to forget your goal and simply ride off into the sunset on a wild mustang you just broke in (entirely possible, by the way). Erik Brudvig at IGN (2010) said, The setting of Red Dead Redemption, leaving out the interactive elements, is an achievement in itself. When I purchase videogames, I ask myself why should I purchase them. In regards to Red Dead Redemption in particular, this game has a huge factor to figure. If you love Western genre entertainment then you will love this game. If you hate Western flicks then this game is going to lose about sixty percent appeal. Western movie fans will appreciate the subtle nods to popular movies like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, Tombstone, and True Grit. If you happen to enjoy the open-endedness of open-world games then you will most likely enjoy Red Dead Redemption. Maybe you prefer the freedom to embrace good or evil. If you have ever wanted to act out your favorite Western this is your chance! So why should you purchase Red Dead Redemption? Well for one, this award-winning game currently holds a 95 and a 9/10 on Metacritic. IGN gives it a 9.7. It currently holds 4.6 out of 5 stars on Amazon. The Official Xbox Magazine (2010) said, Red Dead Redemption is a truly epic resuscitation of the Western theme in games. It's also easily the best gunslinging game we've ever played. Critics and fellow gamers aren't wrong about the game. Its a masterpiece complete with a compelling story that is deserving of your time and money.	video-games_xbox
Worthwile for the music alone. TB:RB is a joy to play for the music alone. Harmonix have crafted gorgeous soundscapes and truly do the legacy and music of the original Beatles history justice. If you're a fan you'll reminisce right along, if you're new to their world it'll be a crash course of some of their most important career moments; a highlight in music history. It's a little challenging at times, but it's not too tough if you've made it through all of <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Rock-Band-2/dp/B001BX6JUA/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Rock Band 2</a> on a Hard or Expert level. I'd recommend it if you happen to have a Beatles interest and have ever enjoyed their music at least somewhat. With a good high-def television plugged in through HDMI, a reciever, some surround speakers and a digital toslink cable, it will stand as (one of) the most beautiful and best sounding Beatles experiences possible. And yes, I literally mean the best sound quality the Beatles has ever had to this point in history, due to Harmonix' meticulous 5.1-remixing and separation of the original master tapes - which just shows how much they care in doing the music justice. There are some downsides to it though. Completing the game alone doesn't take much time, a true fan is very likely to get through the career in one or two days, with another day for a repeat performance in challenge mode. You could always play encores with friends and family, collect achievements or rank up the leaderboards though, and there are also three full length albums and one more song available for DLC (sadly it seems doubtful if we'll ever see more than that - but adding them to the game is a meticulous, expensive and time-consuming process, which is tough when <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Rock-Band-3/dp/B003RS8HG6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Rock Band 3</a> is just around the corner, and more people haven't already done their outmost to buy ALL the DLC). Hopefully Harmonix will see a boost of sales with <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Rock-Band-3/dp/B003RS8HG6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Rock Band 3</a>, and surprise us by adding more DLC albums, or even a patch or completely new disc in the form of The Beatles: Rock Band - Pro Mode, by which time the circle would be complete. The Beatles: Rock Band is all about having an almost hypnotic Fab Four-experience; taking in the music, the dreamscapes, the mustaches and the witty studio chatter. If the idea of The Beatles is alluring, check it out, and get the most out of it by supporting and buying ALL the albums. Should you be a metalhead or technogeek with a hundred trillion points on Through The Fire and Flames, chances are you'll just be "bored".	video-games_xbox
A Tough Game to Learn, But Rewarding with Practice. This game takes practice, you won't just hop on and start stringing combos together like you could with your thumbs. I was sweating like a penguin in hell the first couple days playing this! I was thinking "This doesn't work very well, at least I got it cheap." Turns out I just wasn't used to it and I sucked at it. I couldn't pull off "Flick Flip Tricks" for the life of me, now I can on demand. (easier if you rotate and ollie at the same time and then flick it back to center, and do it much faster than in the demo video. This is a new controller, one of a kind! and it takes time to get good at...You will need balance and stamina and patience. It's Day Four now and I'm ripping it up and loving it! I'm really Bummed at all the Bad Reviews it got and feel they are unfair. I mean come on, The Skate series came along and said we're gonna create a new flick it skate system, makes you feel like your thumbs are skating, and I totally loved it. A much more realistic feeling than the previous TH games, but then Tony Hawk answers with a Skateboard Controller!! BAM! I was stoked and really wanted it at launch but $120 was just too much! Well I got it for waaaay less and am so glad I did despite all the "Professional" bad reviews. (Keep in mind these reviewers don't have a lot of time to properly learn this game, they have to review everything, and this game takes time to learn, once again.) The graphics get the job done nicely, yes they could be better but they aren't bad like people say. The Soundtrack is awesome like usual but that's obviously a personal preference. Darker my love, yeah yeah yeahs, Beck, Duke Spirit stand out for me. All the decks and clothes for your character keep things fresh, and aren't necessary to this game but help round it out and keep it alive. The Levels are smaller so far, but well designed and fun. The Game modes aren't Deep but have variety, Speed, Trick, and Challenge, of course free skate too. You won't be collecting the letters S-K-A-T-E. (which i always hated anyway) The bonus icons are more intuitive and help create a line for you. The Trick list seems to be smaller and I wish there was a list somewhere for all the moves and how to pull them off specifically. I know if you keep your feet over the front or back sensor you pull of different flip tricks, as opposed to open. You can Manuel, Grind, Board Slide, Revert, Finger Flip, Flip tricks, Varials, Pull off all kinds of Air Grabs. 180 360 and many more, link tricks with manuels too. There are a few graphical glitches, but these only tended to show up when i was playing like an idiot and crashing into everything. Now that I've gotten better they don't show up really. Guess they didn't have time to fully play test it for beginners, by skating like a one legged fish monkey in the test room. This is getting lengthy, but I just feel this game deserves more praise for being the first of it's kind! Now that the price has come down, if you like skating/games give it a shot, just make sure your in shape a little and willing to give it time and patience. A good start to a new way of skating in video games.	video-games_xbox
Very Hard, Extremely Difficult, World At War. World at War is an epic retelling of two fronts near the end of the second World War. You take the role as an American soldier fighting in the horrid conditions of the Pacific Islands as well as a Russian right in the middle of the war in Europe. It's a stylized version based loosely in real battles; this is not for history buffs, but only those looking to do some combat to conquer the Third Reich. When you get through the campaign, the absolutely brilliant and addicting bonus mode Nazi Zombies is unlocked as well, a multiplayer challenge that's unwinnable but ingenious enough to be enjoyable every time. You can also fight your buddies or take the battle online, where the main draw might be some old-school sniper duelling or driving around in tanks while blowing people to bits. The game is all well and good, it's certainly the "coolest" and most epic take on WW2 you're likely to find, but it's also viciously brutal and bloody. However, there ought to be a warning label for something else on the cover box; it ought to read "Warning: this game can prove to be absolutely absurdly difficult on higher difficulty levels. People prone to violent outbursts or with lacking patience need to stay clear!". At the time of writing this, I'm at the second to last-mission in Veteran (the highest difficulty setting), where (spoilers ahead) storming the Reichstag-building in Berlin is just about the most challenging thing ever conceived of in video game history. Two hits will be the end of you, and the Germans send swarms of bullets that are nearly magnetic; stick your hat up in sight and you're sure to lose part of your head. That isn't the worst part though; your teammates have been gifted with an absolutely terrible A.I-system, and will rarely do any kind of damage on their own, even if enemies run right past them. But that's not even the worst part of it. The absolute worst part of it is that all the enemies have been gifted with about a thousand grenades each, and they throw them in constant neverending heaps; they're hurdled, lobbed, tossed, flicked, cast and sent right at your head with fatal accuracy. You'll have nowhere to run (literally) as you're standing in a circle of grenades about to explode. It's downright absurd how often you think you've hit a precious saving checkpoint, and you're just left with an "objective reached"-text, whereby you die and have to start the area all over again. Treyarch and Activision, you've successfully poured out a torrent of cursewords from my mouth, and more than once I've been close to hurtling my controller at my plasma TV. But I'm not giving up. Patience and luck will be my allies, and we'll soon see the end of Hitler's tyranny once and for all. Until then, this is (overall) the toughest game I have ever played. Hardcore gamers, you have been warned.	video-games_xbox
Wow, really thought it would be better. I had been watching this game for a while, viewing the videos and reading all the information i could. I was really interested and hoped it would be good. I pre-ordered here at Amazon because of release day delivery and a gift card. When I received the game and started playing I noticed a few things right away that were bad: 1. Challenges are to easy. Unlocked the achievements fairly quickly. 2. The graphics are nowhere near as good as I thought they would be. Was really looking forward to the art style and even the cut scenes are average. And textures do not load right sometimes. 3. The lag online is pretty bad at times. 4. The campaign and multiplayer are the same (this is a good and bad thing) The issue is I finished the campaign on hard without much challenge. The choke points make it pretty easy. For example I was playing a resistance campaign with a 15 minute time and all I had to do was stay on the turret to win. Same place for 15 minutes and it was over. The bot AI is pretty stupid. I was hacking a point and they would not come over to the room. I took all the enemies out twice and they still did not come in to help. I died and by the time I had spawned and returned I had to reset and re-hack the whole thing. This took a while so I spent a good 8-9 minutes doing this. I have also noticed that the bots can have their back to you and do an instant 180 and kill with 1 shot. To be fair this is an online team game in most respects. Sure they have a campaign if you can call it that. That is were this game is at least somewhat fun. But completing the same objectives over and over gets old fast. And some maps are very unbalanced. The defending team will have a major advantage in some of these places, sometimes to a fault. The customization is pretty good in terms of classes. I do not care about the avatar dress-up part so I will not say anything about that. As for the classes they seem pretty good. With a few more good maps and a way to easily get a whole team into the same match this game could be a very fun game. I really like how they let you change classes but not characters. If you build your character as an engineer focused character then changing to a medic, operative, or soldier may cause you to lose some of those purchases abilities. This means that a well balanced team would need to come in prepared with everyone playing their roll and sticking to a class for best effect. Overall this game would be better had it been polished more. I may come back and edit my review after a patch and some of that free dlc they talked about. That could make this a much better game. As it is I would say wait on this game unless you just have to have it.	video-games_xbox
360 vs. PS3 variant; A comparison. For Ghost recon advanced warfighter 2, or GRAW 2 as i'll call it here, the 360 variant was better. Now maybe you might not have the choice of the two but just in case, here it is. I gave a 5 star review for it on the PS3 version. That was somewhat unfair to the 360 version as I have just recently bought a 360 and GRAW 2. The PS3 variant has one more multiplayer map I can think of then the 360 version does, but the 360 version has so much more. If i were a newcomer to Blu-ray vs dual DVD-rom on the 360, I'd have said the 360 version was Blu-ray simply because; 1, better resolution, the PS3's can only go to 720p, whereas the 360's is 1080i, or even 1080p. 2. Some People say that this doesn't have co-op campaign? Well they are half right. While you can't play the co-op campaign you CAN play at home, offline co-op campaing missions, about 6 of 'em. You have objectives to accomplish, allies to fight with, etc.. It's not as in-depth as the single player one, with only a mild pep talk from the brass and a list of objectives, but it still has value. I did not notice this on the PS3 one. 3. You can ALSO, customize your missions, at least to an extent. You can decide if you want to respawn 3, or even half a dozen times for those of you who are new at this. And When you do Co-op elimination, i.e, shoot a mass of A.I. controlled bad guys on a map, you can control if you want a low number, medium number, or high number (I prefer high for massive battles). Then there is the helicopter hunt where the helicopter's fly around you and you shoot them down with whatever until they get ticked at you enough to rocket you into the ground and then you have to really pay attention to what you are doing. There is the Ability to control areas of the battlefield against waves of opponets. Essentially, think modern day, scaled down carbine of Halo when it comes to multiplayer. Again, maybe it's on there but I didn't notice all this on the PS3 version. 4. Online play, and Achivements. Now why exactly am i going to work my thumbs and fingers exhausted for a pat on the back with the ps3? You get achivement points for accomplishing many different feats on this game, and for completing it on harder difficulties. Now I don't have online where I live, not even DSL, but It still owns most other games for offline multiplayer. Only STW battlefront series, and Maybe MOH and Halo can compete with what I've seen here. Again, just preference, but It's still great. 5. Price. You can get a 39.99 game for the 360, or 59.99 for the PS3. (and for me who got up at 3 on the 23rd of nov. friday and went to best buy and got it for $19 new!). So you get more for your dollar with the 360 if you have the choice. So if you're hoping for a FPS with great multiplayer and are a tad dissapointed with the call of duty offline multiplayer like me, then GRAW is the way to go!	video-games_xbox
A dated and plagued game and end to a franchise. I love open world RPGs. I've played the gothic series, elder scrolls, dragons dogma, reckoning etc....and liked them all in some kind of way. gothic had a dark and cruel world that made you start with a stick and a hut. you really had to prove your worth to certain factions and it gave you a real sense of accomplishment if you could pull it off. Skyrim has a lush and beautiful world with amazing visuals and tight controls for combat that had you saying "more more". Dragons dogma had ground breaking deep combat never seen it an open world rpg that we've never seen before. What does two worlds two have? Not....much. It does have: bad controls, bad camera angles, crumby graphics, awful voice acting, weak story line, unbalanced questing, cumbersome inventory with a poor excuse for an interface and worst of all a combat system that will have you saying "what in the...." Over and over. The controls are the biggest problem with me because bad controls make for bad combat( at least on the console versions). The controls are just cumbersome and unresponsive. I can never do what I want to do. They had the right idea with mapping your abilities with x y b a but that's not the problem. The problem is, they thought it smart to make the sneak button the same as the run button. jump is also the action button such as mounting a horse or opening a chest or character interaction etc... That makes for sloppy and awkward gameplay. ie I meant to sneak up on this guy but I ran right at him or I'm trying to talk to this dude but I keep jumping around him instead. WHY!?? This will cause you to shout obscenities you never thought possible and have your wife laughing at you(ok that was just me but you get the picture). And don't get me started on mounting a horse OH MY GOD! I mountin a horse in this game is like trying to give a girl a Cheerio as an engagement ring....it just doesn't work. In fact I can't think of one time I mounted my horse without incidents of jumping around it first. Riding the horse is just as messed up. The trigger buttons make the horse go and stop. Any one who played skyrim red dead redemption or assassins will want to kill every horse they ride. It's so awkward. The developers also thought it would be a really radical idea to put obstacles like fences and barrels in the middle of the roads you have to jump over. Surrreee, that sounds cool but the game is so random with the timing of the jumps that your lucky if you make it. I think it has something to do how bad the collision detection is in this game. This problem migrates into combat, which at first I liked until the horrible hit detection and unresponsive controls lurked its way into the combat. Switching weapons is as easy trying to round house chuck Norris. Just mash up on the d-pad a few times eventually it'll happen. Need to drink a potion mid-combat? No problem, just mash your right bumper a few hundred times till your dingus character feels like drinking it. And the worse part of combat is starting it. The game feels the need for you to draw your weapon. I know sounds easy enough (skyrim did it, gothic did) however............ You have to press down on the d-pad again sounds easy right? Well remember how I said its like trying to round house chuck Norris?? It's worse. You have to be standing perfectly still to draw your weapon problem is, if you get ambushed you natural instinct is to run and reposition yourself so drawing your weapon In combat is like try to round house the entire cast of the expendables........2. It's just bad. I'm constantly fighting the controls in this game. Every step along the journey. Which had forced me to suspend gameplay. That's right. No, I haven't beaten it yet. I will get back into it though,I always beat the games I get. As far as your character and story goes. It's sucks. I really can't think of anything else to say except that your character is extremely unlikable and a cheeseball voice acter,he just sucks. There aren't many pros to this game but it does have a really cool magic system. The spells are 100% costumized and you can create some really cool spells. This system is something I hope more games in the genre start to copy cat. Look some up on YouTube it's really cool. I gave it 2 stars because it has a lot of content which is good and the magic system is really original and ground breaking. Other than that. This game is a puke magnet.	video-games_xbox
Bad Gameplay, Animations and Movements wrapped with a Great Large Roster with old school guys, lots of Arena's & Options etc. This game has a large roster which is great filled with a lot of old school legends that I love to use myself like Hogan, Flair, Nash or Diesel, Hall or Razor Ramon, Macho Man, Goldberg, Jake Roberts, Bret Hart, Stone Cold, Andre Giant, some of the nWo with their outfits, the Big Show when he was the Giant in nWo/WCW, that's cool to have him in there etc. Scott Steiner, Curt Hennig, the biker Undertaker, Ultimate Warrior also and I'm really glad he's in the game especially since he just passed away, I use him a lot when I actually do play, I wished it had Sting but he has never been in the WWE sadly but I wished he was like a surprise entrant or something, I wished it had Lex Luger, DDP etc. maybe the Road Warriors but overall the roster is great, options, arena's etc. I can't fault it for that really even though you have to pay a lot more money to download them all which is pretty pathetic by the developers to suck more money out of all the fans and gamers out there but there is a lot here BUT the negative part is that this game simply don't play very good, NOT GOOD AT ALL, I'm being generous giving it 3 stars out of 5 honestly, the animations are not smooth at all, the striking is way too fast and looks like the wrestlers are drunk hitting each other on fast forward, the striking looks ridiculous and always has since Smackdown 1, you think they would have fixed this or improved on this by now but NO THEY HAVEN'T, the reversal system is way over stated, it's just too hard to reverse very often yet the computer reverses you way too easy and too often, they should have used the 2 shoulder buttons for grapple reversals and strike blocking like WWE All Stars but they don't, they just use the right trigger only and it don't work well at all, the computer reverses too much and it's to hard to reverse them, very irritating, the difficulty is too hard for beginners, the game just isn't smooth at all, if you don't care about the choppy movements, goofy looking striking and bad gameplay overall you might love this game but if you want a smoother experience that is a lot more fun I recommend picking up WWE All Stars, that game is over the top and not very realistic, more like an Arcade type game and style but it's way more fun and the gameplay is honestly in a difference universe, the gameplay is great in comparison, I just can't believe the WWE still uses this old tired Smackdown engine that was never good in the first place and they just regurgitate it year after year and year after year with a few changes to the roster and a few other things, they need to completely re haul this engine, the TNA game even though it was incomplete had a much better engine than this, much smoother with better pacing, they could have Midway make this game and it would be much better than what it is honestly, THQ went out of business but they just continued on with the same crappy Smackdown engine with 2K games which is insane to me, I used to buy every Smackdown game until 2008 then I quit cause they sucked and were a waste of money until this one cause I wanted to try out the Road to Wrestlemania 30 years thing plus having more legends but the same crappy engine that is hardly playable exists here, it's extremely odd they have so many people working on this game year and after year yet they choose to use the same piece of s*** engine at it core and they don't even have 1 intelligent person in there office that does something about it?? very odd, the WWE Legends of Wrestlemania had better gamepley and it was made by THQ also, WWE All Stars has way, way, way better gameplay but if they want more realism cause All Stars is pretty crazy then I suggest adopting the TNA engine but update it and expand on it for the WWE with a lot more moves, bigger roster with the WWE, more arenas and options etc. include as many legends as possible of course cause I'm severely disappointed in this game, this is the first WWE yearly game release that I have bought since 2008, Legends and All Stars are more specialty games and I honestly thought after all this time the gameplay, movements and animations would be a lot better but they aren't and this game and everyone working on it literally suck compared to where they should be and the WWE should be putting out a great game every year for everyone instead of this hardly playable choppy piece of crap, I actually think they have taken a step back cause the Playstation 2 Smackdwown games even played better than this one, don't believe me play this then those and you will see, the Gamecube Wrestemania and Day of Reckoning games play much better also and are more fun, if I worked on this game I simply wouldn't release it until it was good, not like this honestly and they do it year after year after year, very strange but I guess all they care about is making money and not putting out a good product, it's sad but reality, I bought this game for all the legends and if it didn't have them I would have never bought it but it simply don't play very good at all, I do like how you can download created wrestlers and arenas from what other people have made which is cool but lately I can't even access that for some reason but that is a good option for guys that are not in the game like Sting, Luger, DDP etc. too bad the game just isn't that fun to play and the gameplay is severely lacking, a couple more things I don't like about the game are the submission game in this entry, basically when you apply a submission or are put in one a breaking point meter pops up and you have to try either make your meter go all the way to the right to submit your opponent or all the way to the left to get out but it's basically a stupid button mashing game, I hate it cause I literally feel like I'm going to break my controllers buttons and wear them out having to jam on them literally a couple hundred times just not to lose, it's stupid and should have been replaced by something better more intelligent, also guys like Hogan and the Warrior have stick legs, Hogan when he was Hollywood didn't have huge legs but the Hogan from the 80's was big with big legs and a big waist, he wasn't fat really but he was heavy, in this game his waist and legs look tiny and not realistic at all, his arms and chest are huge but he has toothpicks as legs, the Warrior also just looks too small with tiny legs, some characters look a lot more realistic than others obviously, it's just crazy how they create some of them and don't try to make them look more realistic but the graphics are far from my biggest complaint really, the game is ok with a lot of match options, arenas, a big roster etc. but it don't play very well at all, it's extremely choppy, just not very smooth at all, it doesn't have a nice flow to it compared to WWE All Stars, play that game then this one and you will see what I'm talking about, there are also way too many reversals by the computer and it's just not that much fun like it should be at this point in time in my view but if you're a huge pro wrestling fan and you like video games this is sadly the only new game out there, I bought this game for the inclusion of the legends basically like I mentioned above which I give it credit for including a lot of them cause if I bought it for the gameplay, movements and animations I would be insane, also I paid to download all the extra guys and it showed that I downloaded them but those guys weren't showing up in my game until I actually downloaded them again a couple more times so anyone else having this problem if all the wrestlers aren't showing up try downloading them again and hopefully they will all be there like the Outsiders, Bruno Sammartino, Dustin Rhodes etc. I hope they take on a new engine soon and overhaul it cause it's desperately needed to have a new engine, the options, arenas and roster are great but this series sorely needs a totally new fight/grappling engine for sure then finally all us gamers and wrestling fans MIGHT just get to have and use something great but they must take the chance and totally overhaul this game and it's engine first, I'm hoping they do!	video-games_xbox
Resident Evil 5: Live up to the name. I picked up Resident Evil 5 the day it came out and played it late into the night. I finished the game a few days later playing a couple hours a day. I hate to compare games to others in the series but always find myself doing this. Resident Evil 5 is a great game. The graphics are beautiful, the gameplay has some new elements but just enough of the same from Resident Evil 4 to be comfortable and easy to learn. But there seems to be something missing from RE5. That certain something that Resident Evil games have that makes us hungry to play them. Oh yes... HORROR!!!!! Resident Evil 5 has almost no horror elements in it. The Resident Evil series is known for its cheap shot scares that get a quick jump and it's eerie music and scenery. Resident Evil 4 was a great leap from what other games in the series were, but retained that element of fear that Resident Evil has through the course of it's gameplay. Resident Evil 5 is more of an action based game than it is horror. It almost seems from playing RE5 that they re-did a lot of things before finishing the project. We all know RE5 had pushed its release date back and that a lot of the art and in game photos look nothing like the finish product. Leaving me to believe RE5 went through many changes before it's release. Asside from it's differences from the classic Resident Evil feel, RE5 is definately a great action packed thriller worth your time and money. Here are the pros and cons Pro: 1. Great graphics. Similar in gameplay to the graphics of RE4, only with better lighting affects and clipping with the animations. It looked good on my 52 inch HD. 2. Wide variety of weapons. Not huge, but definately a larger variety than the previous installment. I always had beef that RE4 only had a TMP rather than an assault rifle like RE5 now has. I also enjoyed the proximity mines and the increase in the knifes usefulness. 3. Two player. I am very happy that RE5 broke the single player barrier in now allowing two people on one system to play the game coopertively. The single player version with the computer controled parter is swell as well. A lot better AI than others say I never had many troubles with Sheva save for a couple non serious ones. 4. This game is much brighter than previous Resident Evil games. While this is good it can also be bad in taking away the creepyness of the game. But in this instance the brightness of the game while being outside really highlights the backgrounds and earthtones of the environment. 5. I liked the health boost. When your health runs out you either cannot fight, or just lay on the ground. Your partner helps you to your feet and what looks like injecting you with morphine or something. ( my thought) I enjoyed this imensly as a lot of the bosses hit hard if you couldn't push a button fast enough to duck. Con: 1. Although I said the grpahics were great they are a few steps away from being superb. When RE4 was released the graphics were a milstone. RE5 with it beautiful scenary just sorta seemed like a bruhsed up version of RE4's grpahics engine. I was also not impressed with the cut scene movies overall the grpahics do work and do not take away from the gaming expeience. We all know graphics do not make a game great. 2. While there was a wide variety of weapons it seemed they were just an extension of what was already available in RE4. Your handhun, shotgun, and sniper rifle are upgraded in power and replaced three times. The introduction of two more machine guns is great but the formula of weapons remain the same save for the introduction of mines and grenade launcher with the cool freeze rounds. I was slightly disappointed there wasn't an even larger arsenal. 3. I liked the two player aspect but I noticed Sheva seemed to favor using her handgun unless she used up it's ammo. She also uses her ammo very quickly. I found myself giving all the handgun ammo I picked up to her while I used the machine gun and shotgun the most. 4. The game is very bright. I played it on a 52 inch HDTV and some areas were pretty bright, it made seeing your laser targeting difficult. This also took out a lot the dark scary aspects that RE4 had. While not a huge disappointed a let down all the same. 5. I was disappointed the yellow herb did not return. (ups your hp capacity) I always enjoyed finding the yellow/gold herb that increased the health bar. Although this was replaced by a partner help/dying action that gave you a boost after loosing all health to fight a bit longer before hurt again. Overall I gave this game four stars because of it's amount of cons. Please don't think this game is bad this gamer in itself is excellent and is definately worth it's weight in gold and effort to play. However this game did not make it to five stars because in my opinion only took the series into a new level of storyline, not grpahics or gameplay. Allthough graphics and gameplay are improved they do not make up for the fact there increased efectiveness belittles the concept of Resident Evil being a survival horror game. Take my review with a grain of salt and judge this game on your own. -Mike	video-games_xbox
Excellent, but not enough of it. To me, the story comes very close to being as good as Assassin's Creed 2. Except for a few things. First of all, it's pretty short. If you're expecting a long main story, don't. First time through will probably take you about 1 hour per sequence. I did every side mission, all collectibles, all challenges, and every main story mission, and all 5 Desmond missions with 100% sync and got 100% completion in approximately 28-29 hours. No, it's not that much shorter than Brotherhood which took about 35 hours to 100% complete, but the side missions are really lacking. That's my biggest complaint. It would have been nice to see more of them, but every side mission that was available was a blast to play. I just wish the tombs were longer. I finished both in under 10 minutes combined(one with the signature edition). The main story was stronger than Brotherhood's, which is more important to me than the side missions so I'm satisfied there. The sequences are of the same length, but what makes it short is the lack of Desmond gameplay. In Brotherhood, there was probably 1-2 hours of Desmond gameplay. In this, there is maybe 15 minutes of it, and it is all cutscenes and a little bit of walking. Overall, my only complaint in the entire package is the lack of content. Besides that, it is an excellent game. If this is your first AC game, stop now and go start with AC 1. If you don't want to play it, which I understand, at least start with 2 and go from there. It won't make sense and won't be as fun if you start here. The gameplay is pretty much the same. If you liked Brotherhood's, you will like this. I don't like the den defense though. Uh.. yeah I've ranted on for a while now so on to the multiplayer. Not much to say here. Pretty much the same as Brotherhood but with some nice improvements that polish things up. A lot of fun but won't keep you hooked forever. For AC III I hope they scrap the multiplayer and focus on making a nice and long singleplayer with a lot of side content. Overall, a worthy package for any AC fan, and a fun game for those just getting into the series: just make sure not to start with this game. 9.5/10	video-games_xbox
Near Perfect. I really can't say enough about this title. It is a wonderful mix of detailed combo attacks, deep exploration, awesome ability unlocks, and multitudes of various loot items. It has been ages since I played a game that was anywhere near as good as Darksiders 2! Having never played the first title in the series, I was a bit hesatent about jumping on this one, but after watching various game videos and listening to my friends go on and on, I decided to give it a shot. Best choice ever! From the start in the frozen wastes to the land of the makers, the environments are a sight to behold. The level of detail put into this game is nothing short of amazing. And all these vistas just serve as a backdrop to some of the tightest combat seen on the 360 side of a god of war title. There are so many combos to unlock that combat never gets boring. Sure, you could go through this game hitting nothing but 'x', but it is so much more rewarding to utilize all the various combo moves that can be executed by your main and secondary weapons. And speaking of weapons... I love the way you can choose the secondary. Do you need a huge blade to take out that pesky boss or whould you prefer an agile bladed glove to deal with the hordes of creatures coming at you? Darksiders 2 leaves the choice up to the player. Then there are the abilities to unlock, further customizing your play experience. Do you go with the harbringer side and tighten up your melee abilities, or dump points into the necromancy tree which unlocks conjuring and spellcraft? I decided on a mix of both. The controls are tight and responsive. It is a blast exploring the levels and finding some alternate way to tackle a given situation. There is so much freedom of movement that the game can be almost overwhelming. It also teases you with glimpses of areas you can't get to just yet, but can always come back to later once you have acquired a needed ability. Darksiders 2 is, in my opinion, one of the best games to have come out in the last ten years. There is so much to do, from the main quest, side missions, and general exploration that this game feels like an RPG, a hack and slash actioner, and a platformer all at once. It was worth every penny I paid for it and I would definatly recommend this title to anyone who likes any of the genres I mentioned above. This is a truly great game!	video-games_xbox
Recaptured the Final Fantasy Experience. I am late to the party playing this game, just as I was late playing the original FFXIII. I have been a fan of the Final Fantasy series since playing Final Fantasy II on Super NES many years ago (which was actually FF4 in Japan). I have always enjoyed the story lines of this series and the exploration, finding secrets, discovering ways to defeat extremely difficult foes, and the immersive mini-games. From playing this series for so long, I expect certain things from a "Final Fantasy" experience. While I enjoyed the story of FFXIII, I did not feel it gave me that experience that I have enjoyed for 20 plus years when playing a FF game. For that reason, I hesitated to try XIII-2. However, I finally decided to give the game a try since it was only $9.99 preowned, and I am very glad I did. I can truly say that playing this game has once again given me what I am looking for in a Final Fantasy experience. While there is some linearity to the story, there is much more freedom of exploration. I enjoy the monster combat, which gives a "collect them all" aspect to trying to find the best monsters for battle. The battle system is pretty much the same as XIII-1 but with a monster in the third slot and Noel and Serah always being your first two slots. There is a lot more freedom to character development as well. There are a lot of secrets to be found throughout and some difficult foes that may require higher levels or a different approach to defeating. I have not completed the game yet, but I feel that I can see this game through to the end without becoming bored like I did with XIII-1. There always seems to be some new side quest to do, something new to collect, and another challenging monster to defeat. There are other mini-games like the casino and chocobo racing that I have not explored much yet, but that is another thing to look forward to. TLDR: If you are looking for that "Final Fantsy Experience" that you did not get with FFXIII, then this game more than makes up for it.	video-games_xbox
Great actual stealth game. No spoilers. As a teen, I grew up playing the original thief games like thief gold and so forth on my clunky old pc back in the day. I was so glad someone thought to bring the stealth legend back. If you like modern games and the way they are played (combat oriented), this game may not be for you. You need patience in this game, learn the patterns of the guards, finding notes and reading about the characters in the game having little secret stashes, overhearing conversations that could lead you to more loot is part of the game. The maps are a little confusing but it was also in the pc. Its supposed to be that way. The beauty of the thief franchise is that you need to be aware of your surroundings and pay attention to detail. Yeah I think that excludes a vast majority of gamers nowadays. What I wish was better in this thief game is garret voice. In his voice was perfect. There are some funny guard conversations but I wish there was more of that and also maybe some drunk guards and weird instances too. Pc players will know what I am talking about. Once I started the game I immediately picked the hardest setting. I recommend playing on that difficulty. The reason is it sort of forces you to explore and get more loot so you can purchase equipment. Another reason is that the stealth will be better and you will really have to avoid those guards like in pc. The point is to avoid combat. That is why you die fairly easily and combat is not as great but definitely improved from the old pc versions but still keeping so parts from the pc such as dodging. I think they did this to bring back the nostalgic aspect of the game. Another thing is the moss arrow. I miss that arrow although I barely used it, it was fun to shoot one at a guards face and hear them cough. Anyways, they did a good job with this one. They can improve by making it more difficult. A problem on mine is that the subtitles are not in sync with the game and I have the latest update. Other than that I love this game. Happy thieving.	video-games_xbox
The best Sega collection to ever see the light of day. There's been Sega collections before across various platforms, but none as vast as Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection. Featured here are 40 great Genesis games, as well as nine bonus unlockable games from arcades and Sega's Master system. Sure we get those tried and true classic games seen before on other Sega compilations, such as the Sonic series, the Golden Axe trilogy, the Shinobi, Ecco, and Vectorman games, Altered Beast, Columns, Kid Chameleon, and other old favorites besides; but there are a few new additions here that will definitely hold your interest. Playing the Streets of Rage trilogy, E-Swat, Fatal Labyrinth, the Shining Force games, Alien Storm, Dynamite Headdy, and the always underrated action/RPG Beyond Oasis are all here, and are all still incredibly fun to play. And yes, even though Comix Zone and Phantasy Star II, III, and IV are here again, they're still some of the absolute best examples of what the Genesis had to offer. Even though there are still some omissions that I would love to see on a Genesis compilation like Eternal Champions, Outrun, the Toe Jam & Earl games, or the amazing Gunstar Heroes (though I'm not sure if Sega or Treasure own the rights there), this collection is still spectacular regardless. Bonus unlockable games include the arcade versions of Altered Beast and Shinobi, the arcade smashes Zaxxon and Space Harrier (still no After Burner) as well as the original Phantasy Star from the Master system among others; and there's a wonderful amount of extra material and a lovely presentation as well. All of the games are brilliantly emulated, and play and look as good as they did way back when. All in all, you can't go wrong with Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection if you grew up owning a Genesis or owned one back in the day, and at this bargain price, this collection is even more of a steal.	video-games_xbox
Great for casual, not so great for FPS. This Xbox 360 controller is a fantastic deal, but let me clarify the main reason you should be purchasing this: price. If you just need some extra controllers for friends/family to play with, or you are very casual with your gaming, this is a good buy. But if you are a hardcore gamer or play shooters or anything requiring precise aim, keep reading. I tested this on my Xbox 360 as well as on my Windows 7/8 PCs. Windows drivers installed automatically and easily for this controller, no special installs were required, which is a huge plus as I hate bloatware. I played a couple PC games and even mapped all the controls on my N64 emulator. Everything worked great; all buttons and analog sticks were easy to map and functioned well. Then I plugged it into my 360 and loaded Halo 4. Again, everything worked perfectly, but as FPS games require very precise aiming with the right stick, I could not play more than five minutes with this controller. General use of the sticks present no problem, such as character movement or menu selection. But every millimeter of movement counts when aiming a weapon in-game, and the sticks are unpredictable and frustrating to use in this situation. You could turn this into a positive by handing the controller to your skilled friend when they come over to play Halo with you, and watch/laugh as they struggle to keep the reticle on your head. But other than that, don't plan on this being usable for FPS games. The triggers have a little bit different feel compared to OEM 360 controllers, but still work well and have a full analog range. The general quality of the controller is also pretty good, but noticeably below the Microsoft branded controller quality. This is why I believe this is a great buy, but only for the sake of its very low price. If price isn't a factor, the official controller will fare much better. Sample provided by DuaFire.	video-games_xbox
Review for the Collectible Light Cycle Only. This review is only for the collectible item, specifically the light cycle. The game I will not review because I primarily bought this for the collectible light cycle, so game be damn, although some have given it low reviews with Gamespot given it a seven. Anyway back to the toy cycle, Sideshow(SS), what happened? Really, what happened? When you get a collectible from SS you get beauty and a collectible to be proud of. I mean that is what their known for. Unfortunately here they totally dropped the ball and I can't believe that they would associate themselves with this collectible. Details on the bike are okay, paint on it is questionable and the material is for sure not up to their standard in collectible. If you don't touch it and leave in the case it looks respectable, but don't take it out or turn on the lights (because it does light up). When you use the light up feature the front wheel and engine and light disk on the rider light up, but this is when you notice the weak paint job they did with it and the lights are not distributed evenly(meaning, on mine at least, one side is brighter than the other) Too bad. And this is a second one too because my original one that I ordered one side had one of the LEDs that did not turn work. Too be fair this is one of those items that does give an illusion that it is nice but in further review and up close to touch the cheapness is very apparent. For the price, I would wait until it is cheaper or discounted by a lot. To give it a price I would say the bike is worth about as much as the toys in the store by Spinmaster. I also bought does and those one I say look great but they dropped the ball on the lighting part of the bike. In the end I feel greatly let down because of the price I paid for it and the fact that it was an SS collectible not worth the name. I have many SS Terminator collectibles that I can say are superior, what a shame that they didn't take their time to make this one worth their name. For Tron collectors and fan of the franchise "buy it!" BUT BE AWARE THAT IT IS WHAT IT IS AND A SUPERIOR COLLECTIBLE IT IS NOT!	video-games_xbox
Amazing Gameplay. You can get a pretty good idea of what Halo Reach generally has to offer from reviews by both customers and professional critics available, but I'd like to focus this review on certain aspect of Reach that I found particularly worthy of praise, namely the combat. For me, Bungies Halo series (not counting Ensemble's still excellent Halo Wars) have always had distinctive, varied and free flowing combat I love, but Reach is really the pinnacle of that Bungie unique brand of FPS combat. It's hard to find faults in a system that Bungie invented and perfected through almost two decades of developing FPS. In a lot of other FPSs, there's usually couple of selected weapons I tend to gravitate toward after familiarizing myself with what's available in the game. However, players would be hard pressed to find such "Swiss Army knife" of guns in Reach. The weapons library and availability are well balanced; the perfect weapon is very much dependent on the various elements of any given situation and environment. While the basic combination of energy arms to wear the shield down and kinetic ones to kill still provide the basis of your weapon selection consideration, increase in variety of open and close environments and types of enemy encountered add complicity and weightier consequences to decisions made on what firearms to bring into the next battle. This by no means strictly limits each weapon into specific categories of engagements. On the contrary I found most weapons to be flexible enough to serve in all situation but choosing the right ones to match your skill sets and circumstances is absolutely critical in surviving higher difficulties in the game. The levels themselves are excellently designed and provide the perfect backdrops to both small and large scale battles. Placement of enemy troops seems to be pre-scripted limiting battles to specific locale on the map, but the movement of those enemies are not as restricted and helps to retain dynamic flow of the battle. While the maps are fairly linear, the areas of each encounter are open (horizontally and vertically, I might add) and offer great amount of flexibility in tactical approaches and executions, especially with other live players. During a coop campaign mission, I found myself going back to a perch from an earlier point in the game that overlook the area we were suppose to defend and provided effective stand off support from a distance for my teammates. Speaking of teammates, AI of your computer controlled allies have not changed all that much from the previous games, which isn't necessary a bad thing. I like the fact that Halo friendly AI can act independent of players' action. In combat, they are not hiding behind the player character expecting he/her to push the front line forward like other FPS (CoD). But some sense of self preservation in friendly teammates like Covenant grunts often display would go a long way to immerse the player. On the other hand, enemy AI have improved drastically. Players no longer have their sole attention like I've seen in many other FPS. Covenant troops seem to react to other Spartans or human soldiers as well, depending on the level of threat they present at that instant. Since player is never alone in any mission, this effectively makes flanking a viable and necessary tactic in SP campaign. When I drop back to recharge shield, it's an opportunity to approach the enemy from the side while they are focused on my teammates. It isn't an sure fire technique as enemy AI sometimes will utilize their advantage and pursue when when you're recharging especially if you are overly aggressive and advance too far behind the line. Enemy AI will now recognize and use force multiplier in field like turrets (even gun turrets on abandoned warhogs which was something I didn't see them doing in previous games) and unoccupied vehicles. Overall, they seem "smarter" than before at gauging the situation and player intent then reacting accordingly; for example they throw grenades to flush out players in defensible positions, move to a safe distance before firing explosive weapon when players are close, deploy armor lock-down when players try to run them over, disable player vehicle with plasma overcharge to counter zoom and boom tactic etc. The only real complaint I have is the fact that drop ship deployment are almost instantaneous and in static locations often invulnerable to fire from ground. The instant enemy reinforcement really work against my usual tactics of wearing the enemy strength down from medium and long range then seizing the momentum and charging at the weaken remaining troops. In Reach such combination of tactics would get me sandwiched between the remaining enemies and fresh reinforcement dropping behind me. But that's more of a personal preference than a legitimate gripe toward the game.	video-games_xbox
No pulse. Right. Held my comments until I finished it. (was ready to pan it from barely an hour in though!) Sound- Who cares? Good voice acting, but nothing that you absolutely had to listen to, so why bother? Music is fine, but not really inspiring or epic. That said, probably the best part of the game! Graphics- "Pretty", but very static. Everything is what it is, and, other than pushing a few locked outhouses around, it all stays that way. Not much to see with only three small worlds to explore, but the variety that is present is alright. The lead character looks like a woman, and despite clothing designs on the actual female characters that leave nothing to the imagination, that familiar Xbox bounciness just isn't there. Coolest thing is an intro bit with backlit cutouts/puppets/marionettes. Gameplay- Tackles many genres and succeeds to really master none, the last people who will really love this game are hardcore RPG enthusiasts. Plays more like a shooter, except the paths you travel are devoid of anything more than the occasional merchant or breakable box. Another one of those games where barrels and boxes reappear in the same place over and over again, and you break them each time wondering, "Am I really irritating some poor sanitation worker who has to keep replacing these?" Interaction with NPCs is lifeless, and a bit pointless, and worst of all it continually falls out of context. For instance, some fisherman or whoever will give a reply fitting to the barbarian stranger in town, but switch to the princess and the guy still talks to you the same way (what, no "Your Highness"?! Off with his head!). Seems odd like when you are running around as a character FROM the place you are exploring, yet she/he is asking questions like, "So, what's it like around here?" Puzzles- None to speak of. There are a few rooms that require you to do the old push/pull the box ordeal, but they are so simplistic as to be pointless. If you call being told to collect a bunch of gems, having to run in and out of the same area fighting the same enemy over and over to get them, and then returning them to the NPC for some cheapo potion, then yes, there are puzzles. Battle- Combat takes place in mini-arenas that seal their exits shut until fighting ends, and you pretty much have three choices: One, play like a shooter game and use one of the gun/magic using PCs to strafe in circles around the baddies. Two, play like a slasher game and hack-hack-chop your way to victory. Or three, recycle all your income into potions for spell points, and use special attacks over and over. I used the third method to beat the end of the game, did not even have to use a single health potion. If you broke those three parts up into individual games, each would make a mediocre shooting/fighting/magic game not much worthy of attention. It is nice to have another RPG on the Xbox, but with games like KoTOR behind us and Fable coming quickly, people are starting to expect a bit more life in their adventures. Some meaningful choices. In Sudeki, you the player just don't really matter.	video-games_xbox
Updated...Season Pass? What Season Pass. Update.... The new maps were finally downloaded to my console. so I'm changing my rateing from one star up 3 more stars. The season pass is giving you the new maps now. I guess it just takes time for the people to get them after developers play list is done. :-) First lets get the good stuff out of the way. The game looks and plays Incredible, although i only payed a few campaign levels and a few VRS mode with bots, mainly because no one on my friends list has the game! It plays very smooth and the graphics are superb! The statue is one of the reasons I bought this collection. I bought the Amazon exclusive one. It is huge!! And has nice detail. It's a MUST for every GOW fan! As a GOW fan specially of GOW3, I also own the Marcus Fenix statue which was ALSO just as NICE they will look great next to each other! :-) Now the NOT so good stuff, which literally kills it!. Season Pass?? I do NOT understand what GOOD is this season pass! So far with the two new maps released last week. I have NOT be able to play them in a SOLO game of VRS with bots, nor with Horde! You are ONLY allowed to play then in what they call a "Developers Play List" which is ONLINE ONLY.... WTH? But that is NOT all of it. It seems that everyone will have access to the new maps anyways! So really what good is this Season Pass? To be able to play the maps when they are first released and ONLY when THEY tell us we can? That IS NOT how it should work! That was the second reason i bought the Collection because of the Season Pass!. Granted it says in the description that Developers Playlist access, but it ALSO says we can play them in a PRIVATE set up game of either Horde or Versus but I have NOT been able to access them in my own VRS game with bots! It says in the in the IN-GAME Store that I own the season pass, but where are the maps that we PAID FOR?!?! This is NOT like how GOW3 Season Pass worked at all! At least with GOW3 you were able to literally download the maps packs and play in an "Off-Line" mode using bots. And that was great as you can literally play the levels off line on your own time and get to know them inside and out. But now in GOW4 you can NOT! What is the purpose and reasoning behind this? And then letting everyone HAVE access to them anyways? Which brings me to the same question, what good is this Season Pass? The games NEW developers should literally take lessons from the previous developers of the game!	video-games_xbox
The Most Frustratingly-Incomplete Best-Made Game of 2014. Destiny gets all the gameplay parts of being a game nearly perfect, sadly it's all packaged in a way that is frustrating. On the plus side, Destiny has great Halo-style gun+grenade+bash gameplay. It's fluid, fun, and challenging, and the loot system generally works well (made better by the game's use-it-to-improve-it weapon/armor upgrade system). I'm not into online multiplayer, but the shared world actually works really well (like Dark Souls, with all the PKing and suicide-inducement removed), particularly when random public events pop up and you end up working together with 2 or 3 anonymous strangers to beat a timed mission. The maps are big and fun with lovely visuals (though frankly, I wouldn't have minded if Bungie had made smaller maps, but with more variety), and once you're actually in the missions, the game loads smoothly. Then there's the negative side. The biggest problem is not the story, as many have said, it's actually the lack of local co-op which is just plain unforgivable. For a game that is obviously designed to be primarily a co-op shooter, it makes no sense and basically means you have to buy multiple copies (and have multiple consoles) if you want to play it with friends or family. Likewise, the game is constantly pushing you towards playing multiplayer (in this respect, Destiny reminded me a lot of Dead Space 3, which also seemed to hide half of its game behind "co-op only" doors). The strike missions, for instance, are only playable in a 3-man fireteam (even though the game seems to indicate you can play them solo), even if you don't want to play with others and have reached a level where the mission would be doable solo, the game forces you into joining a fireteam, whether you want to or not. Sure, if I was less antisocial that wouldn't be a big deal, but it represents a wasted opportunity to give players an additional challenge (apart from the weekly random nightmare strike, which, bizarrely, IS playable solo (why???)). Ok, now that I've got those out of the way, it has to be said (again); Destiny's story is a pain. It isn't necessarily stupid or uninteresting, but it's told in such an uninvolving/mundane/confusing way (Oh, how I missed Cortana whenever Peter Dinklage's Bit (Urr, I mean Ghost...) phoned in another bit of exposition) that by a few missions in you'll be wishing for a cut-scene skipping button (another mistake) and unless you take the time to literally leave the game and read the grimoire on Bungie's website, it's doubtful that you'll understand what you're doing or why it matters. The game doesn't seem to care about developing characters or its universe (despite the massive amount of effort Bungie obvious put into it), and its RPG elements are strictly limited to character/equipment leveling, don't expect to actually have any choice in how the story progresses as this is a surprisingly linear experience. Finally, because the game must be played "online only" whenever Bungie has a slight server problem, expect to lose your mission progress (I did 4-5 times in the one week I played). So when you get down to it, Destiny is a lot of fun to play (in the week that I had it from the library, I certainly played a ton of it, enough to get to level 22), but Bungie made a number of bizarre design decisions, limiting its appeal to a solo player like myself, and the story missions are painfully uninvolving (characters literally tell you that they aren't going to explain things to you on multiple occasions, and then act as if we should care (???)), so much so that I ended up spending more time just wandering around picking up random patrol missions, doing bounty missions, and public events (my only emotional reaction upon finishing the story missions was my annoyance at the lack of a story-completion achievement), and if that sounds fun to you, or you like playing with strangers, then Destiny is at least worth a rental.	video-games_xbox
the call of duty franchise has been super hit and miss with me. the call of duty franchise has been super hit and miss with me. i see a lot of people constantly griping with the games in the series, much like assassin's creed, or even battlefield, claiming that they bring nothing new to the table, and are overusing the same mechanics as in past games. but some things stuck out to me in advanced warfare. i was glad they brought back the emblem and calltag customization, a favorite gimmick of mine from black ops games and the previous iterations of 'warfare' installments. sure, call of duty might use the same recycled player movement, running, and gun handling, but i feel like thats what keeps the players coming back, because its familiar to us. one major thing activision and sledgehammer games brought in was the use of exo suits. exo suits were made for one thing and one thing only: to give the wearer a BIG and DISTINCT leg up(pun intended ) on the battlefield. exo suits allow you to dash dodge by use of clicking the left stick and moving you left or right, which i never really used cause i forgot it was there most times, but it was nice to know it was. another thing we can use to our advantage with the exo suits are the abilities. abilities come in a variety of mods, such as cloaking yourself, spawning a big ol' riot shield for a few seconds, or giving yourself a much needed double speed sprint. the suits also are the new means of throwing, or "launching" your grenades, which also have a few new gimmicks as well. you are also able to customize and receive new appearances to your exo suits, through "care drops' which give you different attire to wear, as well as different variations of weapons, suits, and clothes. the weapons in CODAW are pretty well balanced, they did a decent job at keeping older weapons in the game, like my favorite the M16, and ushering in new futuristic weapons, like the BAL, or the new crossbow,, which was a pre order bonus. All in all, i think activision and sledgehammer games made something great here, and im excited to see where the warfare series is able to go from here. -nick	video-games_xbox
Very watered down shell of a RB game. Hopefully, many add ons will be forthcoming. I only play these music games on my consoles and have been since the original GH so if there is nostalgia to be had by this release, I had it all the way and counted the minutes to receive my copy. There are many fans of this game that blindly accept the serious flaws and omissions simply because they are grateful to have a new game at all. I can't think that way. If you are going to follow up a spectacular game like Rock Band and increase the price significantly, you need to at the very least have the features of the last version and more. This one does not. There is no online play. There is no practice mode. The game feels like a beta copy of a work in progress. The top half of the fretboard is so transparent that when the camera pans around, your view gets obscured by light colors and it becomes extremely difficult to see the notes coming. The fretboard flashes and shakes when you deploy overdrive and can throw you off. That none of these things were addressed during the testing phase of the game is astonishing. There is no displayed note streak, no quickplay setlists, few sorting options, very limited information all around. Menu navigation is slow and sluggish and the game sometime stutters and feels very glitchy. The drum kit has serious issues with fast rolls and kicks notes not registering properly. They released firmware today that is supposed to address that issue and hopefully it does. Despite many attempts, I cannot get my guitar calibrated properly. My guitar also disconnects at random intervals or becomes non-responsive at times. There is no firmware update available for the Xbox One guitar. The drums have a quarter of a second delay between the time that I hit the pad and the time it sounds and registers on the screen. This is despite many, many calibration attempts and the firmware update being applied. It just feels like I paid a lot of money for half a game. I was looking more forward to RB than the GH: Live game that comes out in a couple of weeks, but I think I may be spending a lot more time with that game when it is released than this one. The bugginess of this game is just too frustrating to deal with. On top of all of this, Harmonix announced on Twitter today that online play is not something they plan on doing. That makes me regret getting the game. I don't care about "competitive and social features" that they are adding in later. If it's not online play, it's a kick in the face. I have no interest in 'sharing' scores on social media or whatever. I want to play with a band online like I did with the last games. Edited to add: I got the Band in a Box for Xbox One and my game-only for PS4 on Tuesday and as of today (Friday) I have gotten nothing from Amazon about codes for the preorder bonus stuff. Edited again on 10/10 to add: I finally had more time to spend with the drums and let me tell you: they are absolute garbage. So much for all the hype from Harmonix and MadCatz about how much better in quality these are. I just played many songs on Pro Drums with the RB3 cymbals attached and the number of dropped hits on the pads and cymbals is astonishing. And this is after the firmware update. I have been playing this game for years and believe me when I say, I will take full responsibility if I mess up a song because I cannot play it. That is not the case. Half the notes you play do not register. Or the screen freezes and gets glitchy and the timing goes out of whack. Some songs (that I have gotten 5 stars on RB3, when I play them here, I am getting 3 or 4 stars. I will be playing along fine and then all of a sudden, I miss a huge swatch of easy, very spaced out notes. Then it corrects itself and I fall back in line. The game is buggy and glitchy and broken. I have no interest in slamming on these drum pads to get them to register and possibly breaking them. That's not how the game should have to be played. If you are looking for an exercise in extreme frustration, buy this game. Otherwise, wait a while. It seems they put more time in to ridiculous things like the solo gimmick than actually working out the bugs to make it a playable game.	video-games_xbox
The Platformer for Everyone. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (PoP) is a fantastic game. It isn't perfect of course, but so much is right with this one that it is hard to imagine not at least renting it, if not buying it outright, if you like platformers at all. You know you're playing too many videogame when you start shopping by publisher, but its getting to that point with Ubisoft now. Remember how good Splinter Cell was? Well, this game is definitely in the same league. PoP is more than just a platformer though, it also has a combat component that plays out more like a 3D fighting game than a classical 3rd person action game. The combat is not terribly deep or difficult (although it gets quite tough towards the end of the game) but it is incredibly stylish and exceptionally cool. Stylish and cool are good overall descriptors for the entire game. The story is good and the graphics and animations are lush and beautiful. The soundtrack is good enough to buy, although, unfortunately, it is underplayed in the game itself. At its heart though, PoP is really a platformer. It has two special twists though. First, the designers wanted this to be a fun game, first and foremost. As such, the game does a good job of protecting you from walking off of random cliffs, or comitting the sort of silly mistakes that can cost you hours of frustration in a typical platformer. The second great innovation is the Dagger of Time, and the ability to slow time, rewind, etc. The Dagger is of course very useful in combat, but it is amazing as a platforming tool since it effectively gives you several chances at the toughest jumps. Again, this is an incredibly powerful tool for reducing the sort of frustrations that come with a tyical platformer, since you won't have to do the same long stretch of game over and over again just to get a difficult jump and die, only to start all over. PoP takes the promise for effective time manipulation offered in a videogame like Blinx, but this time, they really deliver.	video-games_xbox
My personal review of the Witcher 2. I'm going to start by saying that basically the only reason I didn't give The Witcher 2 five stars is because in a score system where five is the highest you can give, five out of five implies perfection, and I haven't played a perfect game yet. That said, this game is one of the closest to perfect I have played. The gameplay is smooth and the controls are some of the best I've experienced for such a complex game. There's a lot to learn, especially where combat is concerned, so it can take a little while to get used to all the controls, but once you do it comes easy because it simply makes sense. Only the menu system seemed a little impractical to me after Skyrim's streamline interface. Combat itself is mostly fun, but the game can be quite challenging even on the 'normal' difficulty setting. I don't mind a challenge, but as it happens it can be quite frustrating as you'll die often unless you prepare for fights the right way, which you can do in a number of ways. Unfortunately I found this to be somewhat tedious after a while, as most of these preparations are made by going to some menu or other, be it your inventory or a menu for brewing or drinking potions. Luckily you can change the difficulty setting at any time throughout the game, including during combat, and I personally had a lot more fun switching between normal and easy throughout the game depending on the situation. Visually the game is stunning. Not only are the graphics great, but the whole visual style is saturated with atmosphere and enriched by the details of the world's history and mythology. Environments are varied and feel different, as do the NPC's inhabiting them. Some animations can be a bit clunky by modern standards, though I found the break from the increasingly common motion capture animations to be refreshing. The game's soundtrack is great too, and for the most part voice acting is brilliant. What really makes this game stand out though, is the story and the characters that act it out. I'm not going to summarize it, but as far as both fantasy and video games go the story is unique, original, exceptionally well told, and relentlessly mature in terms of material and dialogue. The dialogue is very well written, and mostly free of the cute/ridiculous lines straight out of bad movies that unfortunately still plague most games and prevent them from rising beyond entertainment. The Witcher 2 is refreshingly different in that regard as one of the first truly successful pieces of art within the medium of video games. Here at last is a good story and strong narrative told as a game, rather than a story and narrative written within the parameters of a video game. What makes this even more impressive then, is that depending on the player's choices, the story can take several different turns, feature different key characters, and conclude differently without compromising integrity in the least. For gamers who like a good story and compelling characters told through immersive gameplay set in a detailed world rich with history, mythology, and culture, I highly recommend The Witcher 2 Assassins of Kings.	video-games_xbox
The graphics in this game are mostly great. Occasionally in certain lighting its difficult to see . Call of Duty Black ops 2 Call of Duty Black Ops 2 is the second in the Black Ops series. It was made by treyarch, published by activision. This videogame is a first person shooter, it has multiplayer as well as campaign. This videogame was released in november of 2012. The graphics in this game are mostly great. Occasionally in certain lighting its difficult to see objects in the dimly lit room, but then again it would be in real life. The characters move smoothly, but again, in some maps they get stuck, and lag out. The storyline in this game is amazing, it continues from the storyline that had begun in the original black ops, which takes place in the beginning of the cold war. It starts with the main character from black ops, Alex Mason. The beginning of the game is during the cold war, in its final years. Then the main character switches to his son David Mason, who is in the beginnings of the 2025 war against raul menendez, who is the leader of cordis die and a drug lord. One of the majorly great things about this game is you choose how you react to certain things, this also means there are a few different ways for it to end. Multiplayer in this game is actually pretty decent there are hardly any hackers, the maps are all spots you have played in, during the campaign. The classes and guns in this game are a little different than black ops but that is to be expected as it is the next and the series. The character designs are exactly how you would expect them to be; the same military looking guys, which fits. The faces are smooth but still a little blocky, and there is some new face paint. Other than that, there is nothing new. There is hardly any glitches, there is one glitch in the tranzit map for zombies where zombies don't come from behind you next to the bus station. On multiplayer the game lags quite often, which is rather upsetting. Finally the logo is super catchy, its colors fit the theme of an on going war and the world beginning to fall into chaos, it also leads off of the original blacks ops logo, while creating a base for the newest black ops 3. Overall this game is pretty awesome and if you do decide to play it you should start with the beginning of the series.	video-games_xbox
Excellent action game that improves greatly upon the original. Unlike a lot of people, I was not wowed by the first "Assassins Creed" when I bought it for my Xbox 360. I appreciated it's unique free-running mechanic and the graphics were stunning, but the missions were repetitive and I didn't feel particularly engaged with the story. Despite fearing that the second installment would be more of the same, I was apprehensive about picking this up, but I gave it a chance and, man, I am glad I did. The sequel is superior to the first game in almost every way, and it became an addiction for me until I beat it. Going back through the Animus, we are thrown into Renaissance -era Italy where you play as Enzio, the son of an Italian banker who is driven on a mission of revenge when he is betrayed and his family is killed. You don the robes of an assassin and go through Florence, Venice and Rome performing a variety of missions and assassinating key people who are a threat to yourself and your assassin brethren. The leading man story of the first game, to me, felt tacked on, but Enzio is a much more compelling protagonist. His personality, back-story, and his progression from young misfit to skilled assassin is very gripping. The supporting characters, including family and friends your meet along the way, provide some interesting plot points that will have you wanting to keep playing to see what happens. The gameplay is similar to the first game, in that you are free-running through urban areas and leaping over buildings to get to your objectives. The map system is much better this time around, so the backtracking and getting lost that sometimes happened in the first game is not a problem here. Your notoriety level is also more clearly defined here; guards will chase you within a yellow area on the map, but if you get out of sight and leave the radius, you will be free and clear. It works very much like the wanted level in GTAIV. The missions are also more varied this time around. Some of the "Find a person and kill him" missions get tedious, but there are other missions to break it up nicely. My favorite areas are the six tombs that you need to explore to retrieve essential artifacts. These levels provide some strategic platforming that will remind you of "Uncharted" and "Prince of Persia". The graphics in this game are also stunning. Italy is a much better setting, with the architecture and scenery being highly detailed, and the character animation is also quite good. The people in the street also have more personality this time around, with funny dialogue and even minstrels that will follow you around until you throw money at them. Overall, the world presented here is more immersive and interesting than the first game, and you could easily spend hours simply free-running through the scenery. Clocking in at roughly 18 hours, "Assassin's Creed II" offers a meaty campaign that left me wanting more once I beat the game. The replay value comes in with building up the town that surrounds your villa and finding items on rooftops and collecting the remaining achievements/trophies. If you didn't like the first game, this second installment improves upon both the story and mission variety, so you will likely enjoy this game more and should give it a chance. If you loved the first one, there is no reason not to get it.	video-games_xbox
Excellent Racing Game. "NASCAR Thunder 2003" is really an excellent game. There is a variety of modes to play and a lot of different things you can do to keep your interest piqued. "Thunder" lets you race at every track NASCAR races on as any one of the drivers on the Winston Cup circuit. There is also a Create-A-Car mode that lets you design and build your own car to race, as well as a career mode, where you start a team from scratch and race to the top over 20 years. You have to research new technology, sign sponsors and crew members, and meet certain goals in order to make money. It's a very deep mode, and you have to go through a few frustrating years before you really start to get good. Part of what can help you is the Thunder License mode, which allows you to race by yourself at every track with the help of the driver of your choice. Richard Petty instructs you on how to race the track and then you try and complete laps in a certain amount of time. It sounds easy, but it's really not. Probably the best mode is the Lightning Challenge, where you take control of race cars in certain situations and try to meet certain goals. Most of these are "win the race" goals, but there's a few other interesting ones, like avoiding crashes and trying to make it through a race on a less than full tank. Each challenge has a call from the race and is introduced by a driver. If you complete these and other things throughout the game, you're awarded with Thunder license plates, which unlock extras, like the cards in other EA Sports games. Graphically, Thunder's not the best looking game, but it's still sharp. There's sort of a grainy look to it, but the tracks and cars are very well detailed. Soundwise, there's not much. The cars sound like, well, cars and the voices over the radio say the same thing over and over again. There's no crowd noise and minimal announcing, but, in reality, you couldn't hear any of that in an actual race anyway. The gameplay is where Thunder really shines. The controls are very simple to learn, but tough to master. If you push the brake or the steering too hard, you might spin out, although there are assists that help you when you start out. There's also other little touches that race fans will appreciate, like drafting and deciding what you need in a pit stop. You also have to qualify for the races so you get the best positions. Overall, this is a definite buy for every race fan or just a fan of driving games. And for only [$$$], it's well worth the price, especially since it's current with the early part of the season.	video-games_xbox
false ads, lousy mechanics, bad story. RECOMMENDATION: wait for it on the discount rack! Remember the ads with the native american guy... Yeah, you won't play him for quite a while! You're stuck as a traveler from UK for at least 1/3 of the game (I'm still not past it, hope to be getting close!). Like the trend started in AC:Brotherhood and AC:Revelations, the non-consequential 'into' gets longer and longer, all the while you have a minimal functionality. The controls are clumsy, all fluidity in the game is lost, and half the time in combat you are reduced to button mashing (Tekken or Mortal Combat style). The rest of the time you are fumbling and crashing through the environment. The map function is the absolute worst ever in an AC game. I've played so far for ~5 hours and yet to find a redeeming quality in this game. Maybe if I could get to the "main" part of the game it'll begin to approach the promise that was advertised and would be expected of previous AC games. Unfortunately, it would seem you have to pay penitence before you get to anything worthwhile (or not, remains to be seen). Meanwhile, the game consists of mind-numbingly boring bits that really didn't need to be there between cut-scenes and drawn-out missions that have a razor thing margin for error. The story so far consists of well, nothing. Versus previous AC games: Gone are the days of flying through an environment, thoroughly enjoying figuring out how to get from point A to point B without touching the ground. Instead, once again is all about the guards. Guards here, guards there, everywhere guards. But this isn't a stealth game like Dishonored or Deus Ex. Here they once again have guards on the roofs that keep you from being up there for long. Now you are on the ground 95+% of the time because it's much faster to get around and it avoids pointless/repetitive combat. But if you enjoy picking fights with guards for hours on end just for a few seconds on a rooftop, this is your game! Oh, but wow, they have board games... gosh, how did the AC franchise ever do without such a useless and stupid addition???? :P I would give it one-star, but I haven't made it all the way through.	video-games_xbox
Most Fun I have ever had. Let me begin this review by saying that I am no stranger to the RPG. I have been playing since Morrowind and have since played every Fallout, Elder Scrolls, and several others. I got to the point where I was playing Master on Skyrim and Very Hard in Fallout and still destroying the game. I was so proud of myself. Then, on cyber monday, I decided to buy the game that I had heard was fun, and had a cool trailer. I have never felt like less of a significant individual in my life. I made it through the opening tutorial stages, thinking that it wasn't going to be too hard. I was wrong. I got to the opening area, and immediately went searching for enemies. The first two I saw killed me in about three seconds. Now I knew what I was in for. For the first ten hours, this game seems like the hardest, most insurmountable game in the world. Then you start to get the hang of the controls, the enemies, and the game itself. Don't get me wrong, you will most certainly die upwards of 100 times at a bear minimum n your first play through, but its strangely fun and enjoyable. After the 15 hour mark, you have killed a few more bosses, gotten some cool weapons, lots of souls, and killing almost everything you see. Don't get too cocky kid, it gets a helluva lot less worse. To learn how to play this game, you will have to die, respawn at the last checkpoint, get a little further, die again, and so on. You get a little preface at the beginning in the form of a cutscene, but you have to figure out the majority of the lore and storyline by talking to the scarcely few people you meet, exploring some of the map, or just playing the game. The mysterious aspect gives you a much closer bond with your character, as you learn everything together. This game has a great level up system, and a cool weapon/armor enhancement system as well that truly let you choose your own play style, regardless of the original set that you chose in the beginning of the game, which, you will find, just provides you with starting equipment and has very little effect on the rest of the game. If you are not prepared to die, pick another game, because there will be a lot of it, and much patience will be required to successfully learn and gain talent in this game. don't get too discouraged, and keep on pushing. Sometimes you can get stuck on some exceptionally hard parts that may outclass you if you are not far int he game. For that, you must either retreat, or resort to very clever tactics, which makes the game that much more fun. The scarcity of health makes it much more fun, as refilling on health is always a maybe when you know there is only so much left before the next checkpoint. After this jumbled and undoubtedly confusing review of the game, here is a simple pro-=con list. PROS- -INSANELY FUN, Extremely Engaging - Stunning visuals, great graphics -Really cool, creative monsters and bosses -Cool storyline that you must figure out yourself -makes you really think before rushing into a fight, unlike other games. [cough cough Skyrim] and requires tactics and planning to succeed -good level up and weapon system -Great combat engine -Not overlooted with random irrelevant, useless garbage -Great health/stamina system -Very challenging CONS- - Takes a while before you start enjoying it, as it is rather hard at first. - Sometimes frame rate gets a little slow, particularly in Blighttown - The occasional cheap death, but not as prominent as Ninja Gaiden	video-games_xbox
Loads of unlockables. I was worried after checking reviews here on Amazon that my 8-year-old son was going to regret this purchase. As of right now, there are only reviews for the Wii and Wii U versions and all are terrible. My son desperately wanted this with his money he had saved up, so I fought the urge to talk him out of it and made the purchase. The Wii versions HAVE to be different because I don't understand how this game is getting such a bad rap. They mention a "tournament mode" which the Xbox version does not have. They mention touchy controls, races ending when hitting a wall, etc. This doesn't even make sense to me because there is no "racing" in the Xbox version of this game (Update: After checking the Wii description of the game, it does differ in that only the Wii version lists a 4 player race mode, all other versions do not mention this). Also the claims that the graphics are horrible just simply aren't true for the Xbox version. We play on a 55" plasma and the graphics are great for this type of game. The environments are pretty realistic and true to the movie. That said, it's important to note that this is NOT a racing game. As the name suggests (Super Stunt Squad) this game is about performing stunts and tricks. This game is not meant for the very young as it has a lot of complex control combos, but it was very easy for my son and I to get into. Playing the tutorial is a must or you'll have no idea how to perform all the different tricks you need to succeed. You can do jumps, flips, slides, wheelies, nosies, grabs, and more. All require different button combos that are likely too challenging for the very young, but the learning curve is pretty decent if you play the tutorial. Both he and I were testing out our new skills within 10 minutes of turning the game on. Things we like about this game is it is NOT made for young children, and therefore has much more replay value that you typically get with games made after movies. There are hundreds of objectives to complete, and by achieving them, you unlock goodies from new shells (including special ones for each snail that you can fully customize), power ups that improve various "stats" on each snail, such speed and handling, new levels, and new characters. At this point we haven't unlocked any characters but it appears that you can get Skidmark at some point. You start out with Turbo, Whiplash, Smoove Move and Burn, each with their standard shells. There are 6 possible levels to unlock, which isn't a lot, but each one is full of objectives to seek for unlockables or achievements. Each snail has a possible 15 permanent power ups that make them perform better and they each have 5 or 6 shells to unlock as well as numerous customization options for each. Each snail appears to have a "custom" shell that you can fully customize with a full color wheel and unlockable stickers with logos from the shops at Starlight Plaza. In addition to the shells and stats, there are tons of objectives to complete just for the fun of it. At first my kiddo was disappointed that this was not a racing game, but after playing for a short while, we were both anxiously passing the controller back and forth, trying to complete the different objectives. We played for a couple hours together and only reluctantly quit to go to bed, so I'm not sure what's with all these reviewers saying they got sick of it after 10 minutes. Again, this game is challenging. The tasks range from "collect 5 of X item" to racing against time to collect the flags. Some are fairly easy, some are extremely difficult and aren't possible without first unlocking several upgrades. There's no way my kiddo could complete this game by himself, but he can do enough by himself that it doesn't frustrate him, and the free play mode takes all the pressure of the objectives off and just lets you cruise around and explore. The areas are fairly small and limited in number, but I think we'll continue to play until we've at least upgraded all our snails. Overall the game has good pacing, rewarding you regularly for your successes, and each upgrade makes obtaining those objectives a little bit easier. I don't know that we'd ever complete the 600 some objectives, but it's fun to try! My son and I would much prefer a challenging game that will last than an easy game that can be completed in a few hours and never looked at again. The only reason I subtracted a star is because this game would be so much better if there were more than 6 areas to play in. You will unlock them all within a few hours and then it's all about getting the upgrades and no new areas. This will be a must buy for Turbo fans when the price comes down a bit after the newness passes.	video-games_xbox
Mafia 3 is Worth It but Be Advised. Mafia 3 is a game that I've been anticipating for a while. Having played both of the previous iterations, I was very curious how they would do on their first game for this generation of consoles. Mafia 3 is set in New Bordeaux (fictional New Orleans) which is a huge world. The story comes at you quick and makes you aligned with Lincoln Clay from the beginning. He, as a main character, is great and throughout the long story, there are many characters that make the game even better. The gameplay is raw and makes you feel powerful even to the point of cringe-worthy scenes but that is what Mafia is about. Where the games suffers is in two main areas that often ruin open world games. First, is repetition in side missions. I love when a game takes 10-15 hours because I feel the value but when I'm sent on the same side missions, just in different parts of the map, no thank you. Throughout the game, you will have to do just that while there is NO fast travel system. At first, it's kind of nice but soon feels like a waste of time. Second issue is the lack of customization for your character and vehicles. Now this has been changed more recently with an update and with DLC but for the longest time there was not any ability to do so. Though it isn't vital, it often made me feel like I didn't have a chance to make this character my own or the ride that I was driving so often. *I try to recommend games in my reviews and for this one, I want to recommend <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Just-Cause-3-Xbox-One/dp/B00PE1KNRU/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Just Cause 3 - Xbox One</a>. It could be a slight stretch for some but I love how big this world is and the ability to fly planes, helicopters and even some other air vehicles makes for quite an adventure. After playing a deep story like Mafia 3, the Just Cause story may feel like something from a grade schooler, but enjoy the gameplay, world and all the different things to blow up. Now I want to make it clear that I gave this game 4 Stars because of the story. It's dark, gritty and tackles topics like racism which most games barely want to touch on. It takes risks but be advised by the monotony that can and will come. I hope you give the game a shot! Let me know what you think below!	video-games_xbox
Great addition to next gen gaming. I really wished I could have givien this game 4.5 stars but since I can't I have to give it what I can...but this is not to say that the game isn't deserving...I just think some of the things that got hyped up in all the previews fell kinda short and that is what kept me from giving it a 5 Ok...so 12+ hrs later... Here is my first impressions of GTA IV. Let me start off by saying that ign.com gave this game a 10 and they actually they had a disclaimer at the end of the review explaining that...while not 'perfect', for what the game does...in thier eyes it earned a 10....good save. I am about a good 1/2 way thru the first island's missions and I have: beat up gangsters threatening my cousin thrown a man out of a window 3 stories to his death Went bowling and played darts Watched the cops arrest a guy for illegal credit cards said no to weed from a ganga smoking Rasta had warm coffee...hint hint... played darts Wrecked enough havoc with the LCPD to make any criminal blush....and got away... Made it with some random ho in a park and blew her away Of course, checked out the Strip Club Watched Katt Williams on TV (for some odd reason, not a funny as it could be...lol) Saw a magic show Accidentally ran my car into the river and survived!!! Now guess which ones were in a mission and not! I am going to start off some of the cons of the game and get it over with because while expectations are high, let's bring it down a few notches and make sure people don't get too overly hyped about the game. - display issues: I am not sure what happened here but some some reason Rockstar decided to run this game at 720p. When displayed on my TV, The rght portion of my screen is partially cut off...I can't really see how many stars I have and sometimes it's a tiny bit of a challenge telling what weapons are being used or how many bullets you have left. - ducking the cops: Ok....this is a mixed bag of a new innovation. While I do like the idea of any trouble you start brings up a proximinty circle of where the cops will come to the scene of a crime, sometimes it's far too easy to get away, even when you have done something that warrants the SWAT team to come in. Even still if after you lose them and come back in almost immediately after the circle disappears, there is no particular reason for the cops to continually be on the lookout for you....maybe I am nitpicking but at least in other iterations, when you have set off every possible alarm, it was nearly impossible to shake the cops and made getting away very harrowing....because once you got up to 5 and 6 stars the cops were very persistant....but then...with as apathetic as cops really are, this may be real...LOL. - Speaking of, no real reprecussions and consequences for actions in some cases: One thing I think I would like to have seen more of is, if you do something, the is a bit more of a reaction for the crowd. For instance, I was at a club and some bouncers tried to jump me, I went to town with my shotgun...maybe 2 or 3 people moved. With the way that the AI was hyped in this game, I was hoping more for a stampede for the doors and maybe a 911 call. Same with being out on the street, I robbed and shot someone in broad day light....now while a few people ran, most still carried on thier business and not one frantic call to 911...but again...this may be sad testimony to what kind of empathy to people...LOL. The only time you do have to worry is if the cops are in proximity to the crime being committed. And that pretty much are my only issues with the game...as far as everything else well: I am very impressed with the storyline and voice acting. This has always been a very top notch standard with Rockstar and GTA games. I also like the fact that if you are with characters during missions, the dialogue doesn't just happen in the cutscenes, it also flows with you and the NPCs as you travel. For instance, you find out more about what Roman has gotten himself into, Michelle asks about your stay in America, Little Jacob, if you can understand his heavily West Indian accent explains why he needs someone he can trust to do his errands and so forth, so count on interactions like that throughout the game beyond cutscenes not to mention most missions do seem to run a little differently and sometimes have added twists I was also graphically and aurally with the environment. The game really pushes the 360's power! No matter what GTA you have ever played it has always looked kinda sterile despite the grittiness. In this iteration, all you need is smells, good and bad. When you are nicer lookng neighborhoods, you can really tell...when you are in bad areas...ditto. And aurally, with all the ambient noices...second only to Assassin's Creed (despite all the shortcomings of the game, really listen to the background chatter!) in quality to make you almost feel like you are 'there'. Everything else that IGN touched on as far as getting around, getting missions and so forth is on point. The control, once you get the hang of it is fairly decent. The fight controls could have been a bit tighter, but it works. The cover system is actually pretty nice and an added improvement to the game. Now while I did talk a bit down about the AI, let me tell you how it is when it really does work. You can sometimes go along and see some really random occurances in a course of the day. There is more traffic on the street at 2pm than there is at 2am and this is still depending on what part of town you are in. I saw a random instance in which a cop chased down a thief and held him at gunpoint. I saw people use thier cell phones. I saw where early in the morning you see people out sweeping the sidewalk. I alos noticed that late at night you see more garbage trucks...but what was most priceless was a womon walking along sipping a soda...walks PAST a trashcan...and drops the cup in the street....yes...she litters!! Yes, there are so many little nuances in this game that can be picked up on and so much randomness going on that it does make it seem 'alive' but you still kind of wish for more but.....that's not what the whole game is about. As far as multiplayer, it's a lot smoother than I thought it was going to be, I really haven't had a chance to delve estensively into it as of yet but I played around in a set up with 10 people and noticed no lag whatsoever...it's smooth like butter. What I will say, and this is one of the reasons why I am not big on doing multiplayers with a whole lot of strangers, is that the kids and the knuckleheads that have gotten this game will abuse the language more than what it needs to be abused. If you got sensitive ears...just be prepared..otherwise I recommend that you find a group of friends and set up your own private match and play. All in all, GTA IV is the must play game of the year, I can't fully endorse the 10 unless you count the story and all the random mini games but, so far the game is so tight , that I do believe that Saint's Row II will have it's work cut out for it. SO pick it up, go bowling, make sure you watch TV, and listen out for Jack Thompson's being a stripper reference!!	video-games_xbox
Very impressive! (Updated for DLC. I am a HUGE fan of the Dead Rising series and when I found out this was a launch title for the Xbox One,...well I just had to have it! It only runs 30 fps at 720p, but that's okay, because with EVERYTHING going on during any given time you'll likely not notice anyways. Upon first seeing the game, you'd think it could have been released on last gens hardware. However, once you get to playing you'll notice why it wasn't! The Xbox One can provide an astounding amount of characters on screen at any given time and this really helps you to feel like you're actually in the middle of a huge zombie outbreak! Love the game! Now let's talk about the DLC. I've broken them down individually below, but it's just a shame that they swindled me into purchasing the "Season Pass" before I really knew how short each of the included stories would each be. For $30 I've played some ridiculously awesome budget titles, but these DLC's are so short and so non-replayable that, knowing what I know now, would never have convinced me to pay upfront. In all honestly, all four of these "untold stories" should have simply been combined as the first of the DLC's. I've played DLC's that added anywhere from 5-20 hours of new gameplay, but never less than 1. At least, not for the price these are. As cool as this game is on it's own, they should have had TONS of new things to add to the game. Granted, I'm not saying these aren't at all fun to play. They're ok (compared to the actual game itself) and provide a little insight to some other previously NPC characters. However, they shouldn't have been priced at $10 each. Definitely purchase the game, but for the time being, hold off on any and all DLC until there is a price decrease or simply a "Game of the Year" edition. *****Updated*** (Feb 17, 2014) Operation Broken Eagle (DLC) This is the first (1) of 4 DLC's included in the Season Pass. Honestly, if you haven't already purchased the Season Pass, I'm not sure that I'd do so again. This first DLC can be 100% completed in less than 2 hours. There really isn't a whole lot to do. It's very linear and offers no real look into the story of the playable character, Kane. Basically, this would have been ok for a $3 download, but not the $10 they're asking. FINAL SCORE 2/5 ***Updated*** (Feb 22, 2014) Fallen Angel (DLC) This is the second (2) of the 4 DLC's included in the Season Pass. Again, it is VERY short and can be fully completed in only a few hours time. It took about twice the time to achieve 100% gamerscore on this than it did the previous, but only because the amount of "collectables". The story alone can be finished in under 15 minutes. Basically an hour if you are on your first run. The extra stuff takes some time, however. There are 40 posters you can burn. I think 25 med kits to collect. 24 ZDC cameras to destroy (8 in each part of the city). And 8 groups of "survivors" to save. The playable character, Angel is a bit more developed than the previous DLC. Bottom line, if you haven't already paid for the season pass,..then pass this one up, or wait for the "game of the year" edition. As with the previous DLC, $10 is FAR too much for the little time you get out. FINAL SCORE 2/5 ***Updated***** (Feb 27, 2014) Chaos Rising (DLC) This is the third (3) of the 4 DLC's included in the Season Pass. So far this has been my least favorite. Unfortunately, this DLC falls short on many levels. The story is pretty bad for starters. You're Hunter, and you're mission is to remove your buddy, Spider from the leadership of your motorcycle gang. Honestly, this is just more collectibles and a main mission that can honestly be beaten in 10-15 minutes TOPS! I completed it 100% on my first time through in just under 2 hours. It also includes one of the most annoying side missions EVER! Collecting Special Choppers. These are scattered throughout the city and must be driven back to a specific location without being destroyed. It's not hard, just time consuming. This DLC should have been packed with others, or maybe $3 as a quick add-on. FINAL SCORE 1/5	video-games_xbox

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

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