Split (3)

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Nothing to fear but. Short review: Go out and buy this game right now, you will not be disappointed. You need this like you need blood in your body. Okay, maybe not that badly but still worth every cent. Review: The single player for this first person shooter is a tad repetitive but still tense and creepy as all hell. I wouldn't put this at the top of scariest games of all time but it's at least top ten. It's unsettling and unnerving at times but the emphasis is more on action in this game. The single player campaign is a lot of fun, with pretty nice graphics and effects. The rag doll physics are hilarious and it's always a blast to shoot someone and watch them fly back and over a railing to a six story drop. One of the things that makes the single player really stand out is the enemy soldier A.I., which you won't really appreciate until you experience it for yourself. They are very strategic in their methods and execute what seems like professional, real-world offensive maneuvers in washing you. Just don't be surprised when they keep you pinned down long enough to throw a grenade right where you're squatting and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it. There is also a nice little Max Payne style slow motion button that works wonders when you're going up against a squad of commandos with high powered machine guns and rocket launchers. Also, the 5.1 surround mix on this game is immaculate. This is a game to be played loud and in the dark for maximum effect. The multiplayer portion of the game is just downright gritty. Literally, it's the perfect game for those that just want to go online and shoot someone in the face with a shotgun or empty an entire clip from a machine gun into their jiggling bodies without having to think about it too much. The modes are your standard deathmatch, CTF, team based modes so there's really nothing innovative about the multiplayer game, save for the modes that allow one to use the slow-mo function. I'm actually surprised at how well it plays online and if there's one thing that I have to complain about, it's the lack of a lobby function. So basically, you'll get kicked out of the room once the session is over and everybody will have to start the process of starting up a new room over. It's a minor beef and I'm praying that they'll fix this with a patch, which I'm sure they will. Bottom line is, this game is damn good and a great port over from the PC version. Great graphics, fantastic surround sound, exciting multiplayer action and some spooky chills will make this worth your while.	video-games_xbox
Good, Could've Been Better. When I first found out that the current generation of consoles and PC were getting a new Prince for the Prince of Persia I was a little hesitant, considering that even though the previous generation's Prince was a little emo kid with angst to match, but these games were great with fully alive worlds and lots of enemies. This Prince of Persia is a little bit more platform than action when compared to the previous generation, and while it holds tight to the very old school link to the original platformer the challenge just isn't there. The new Prince is a buffon and a thief, and those scarfs, well I thought he was in a desert, but I guess a cape would be too much. So the Prince by chance runs into the Princess, Elika, as she's trying to escape her father, and during the whole scuffle an ancient evil is released, of course, that's what always happens, and it is up to Elika and the Prince to save the world from corruption. While the game looks very pretty with a nice water color display as well as interesting environments that are really enhanced with the use of the Assassin's Creed engine, there is something missing. Life and personality, the hussle and bussle of other people, the thing that really impressed with Assassin's Creed was that and the NPCs that lived in the world which added that personality and depth into the game. Prince of Persia went minimal with the NPCs and dialog are nothing more than cheesey one-liners from the Prince which really hinders that character in the originality department along with character development and evolution, he just spouts out his slanted views on things or situations, I lost interest early in what he had to say. And the princess more or less lacks any real personality and the interaction they share is just pointless and bland. The levels or dungeons or realms, what ever the places they visit are called are large and interesting, but unlike the older Assassin's Creed there is no other life in any of the areas asides Elika and the Prince and the baddies. Coupled with a great deal of repetition the game gets a little predictable. The combat while easy and visually appealing is way too simple, and the fights end up being a blending and combination of the same moves over and over again, there is no death just re-attempts with the time bending abilities of the Princess being very great from the outset. This game is derivative of both Prince of Persia and Assassin's Creed both it's detriment and success. The mechanics are there and so is the gameplay, I actually enjoy the platforming and the combat, however, without other life in the game it becomes this whole you and against the apocalypse which is an old theme. And a very annoying aspect to this game which is pretty obvious to any gamers who touches this game is that it is very, very easy. It seems that Ubisoft Montreal has decided to forget the hardcore gamers out there that would love to play a challenging Prince of Persia in the vain of the previous titles and made it more casual gamer friendly. And while I don't consider myself a hardcore or a casual gamer, I think making any game franchise too easy in an attempt to make it accessible to everyone belittles the audience. I'm sure this game would've been much better with more enemies and harder learning curve. Overall the Prince of Persia is a solid game, but with some glaring omissions like a real difficulty level as well as lack of combat, which is strange considering that the baddies numbers are supposed to be in the thousands, when I've only fought maybe 20 times, 5 times each with the alchemist and hunter, and few times with the same bad guy. But I guess Ubisoft wanted to have a closer link to the interesting platforming rather then the thin combat. And let's not forget the wall running, the most over-used gameplay mechanic for the past few years, there's lots of that. The game is fun, but it's missing way too much to be considered a real Prince of Persia with a lack in challenge or the life in the world of the Prince. But there's something about this game that I just enjoy, and I'm sure it would garner a higher rating if this game was released before Fallout 3, but the Prince of Persia is still a solid game, but it's just a little disappointing.	video-games_xbox
Pretty decent game but could've been more. It doesnt bode well for a game when you hear so much hype over a game. Your expecting it to be the "all time best" RPG that's ever been released. Case in point with Fable, there was seriously too much hype over this game and yes. I got sucked into the dreaded hype machine along with countless others. Well i finally got around to playing this game a little while ago. I did kind of enjoy what it had to offer, but it seemed to me that as far having choices. between being good or evil they were rather limited to be honest. I mean if your gonna be evil and some quest comes up that says "you must protect this person" and you dont. Shouldnt you have the choice to say forget that i'm not saving anybody or instead of protecting. You rob the person for whatever you desire. It does this in the game sometimes, but nowhere near often enough to feel like. I had a choice in the matter. Another thing as well what is the deal with the timed missions. I know its probably to put pressure on the player or what have you. But i don't see that being necessary at all. Again it all should boil to you having the choice to be able to do what you want when you want. Sure you can punt chickens, marry and sleep with as many people as you want (as long as you don't get caught), wear some pretty cool armor, tattoos, beards/mustaches and all that. There are also optional quests that you can do as well. But even after doing all that, i still was able to beat the game in under 20 hours. I wasn't rushing through the game or anything like that. I had like 3 houses and at least that many "spouses". I liked being able to choose how i wanted to dispatch of any enemy via sword/bow&arrow or magic. Even though i didn't use that much because it tends to wear down the player. But even with all that including other things to do like opening secret doors, finding this lost treasure and some others. I was still left wondering. Where is the game that PM promised? I cant help but feel a little bit cheated by it. I'm sure i'm not the only person that feels that way. Add to the fact that "The Lost Chapters" are now showing up on the PC in the very near future. It sort of feels like a slap in the face to all the people that went out and purchased this game expecting great things. They happened but were few and far between for me. I have no desire to go back and play through Fable again. I can only hope that the next Fable game coming to the Xbox 360 delivers "all" the goods promised in this one.	video-games_xbox
At least there were stickers. So I have had this game for at least 8 hours and I feel like I can write a pretty insightful review now #sarcasm I have been reading a lot of reviews that bash on this title for not really having anything new or innovative. Well what did you really expect? When I hear sequel i think minor tweaks, new or continued story, and some new content. But everything is built on the foundation of the previous games. If they were to deliver a whole new experience, or anything too different from 1 & 2 I would have hated this game. In fact that has happened several times (especially with remakes) and the majority that I played were just bad and had me wishing to play to first games. I have gotten to play half of the single player, horde mode up to 20, and a bunch of MP matches in TD and Warzone. Single player is what you expect. Pretty good story, 4 player co-op, damn fun, but don't buy the game for that. What I really play Gears for is the multiplayer. With more polish that the first 2 and a few new moves, MP really shines and solidifies this series as my all time favorite. If you have never played a Gears game and you're tired of FPS games and you need something new I would highly recommend this. Even if you are terrible at the MP you can jump into Horde and Beast mode for hours of fun. There were only a few things that I have been disappointed with thus far. The first thing is the pitiful manual that comes with the game. It is literally not even 1 page long, its basically a dust cover for a manual. Made me question if Gears was giving away free On-Live passes on every page so Amazon had to pull it out. I remember when there used to be a wealth of info in the user manuals that came with games. Even some bonus swag! What do I read on the toilet now between matches! But they game me stickers, woot! The second thing that I found disappointing (and this is actually a gameplay issue) is the overuse of shotguns. This is still "Shotgun the Game 3" or "Shotguns of War 3" with 90% of my kills and deaths coming from one of the 2 shotguns (why, oh why did they decide to add another one). I was hoping that they would tone down this for Gears 3, but they kind of just put it into overdrive. Most people will gripe about this (so I will too) and it is a legitimate complaint for any gamer to say that 1 weapon is so powerful that there is no real use for the other weapons. This is normally only true of single player games though and is usually corrected for multiplayer centric games.	video-games_xbox
Crackdown Could Have Been Made Better. First, here is the positive part to Crackdown. I think Crackdown is a fun game to play. It is very entertaining and the game will keep you occupied for hours. In the game, you not only fight street gangs and gang leaders, but you also participate in different street races and try to find different colored orbs to build up your strength and skills. You become faster at running, you can jump higher, and you can shoot weapons better. Okay, here is the negative part to Crackdown. First off, it feels like the game developers rush through to try to finish this game. The game feels like it is half finished. For example, the city you play in is divided up on different islands. The city is called Pacific City. So you are surrounded by water. Well here is the weird part. There are no boats anywhere out on the water. You are surrounded by water but there are no boats. You have beaches on the islands but there are no people sitting on the beaches or swimming out in the water. There are factories in the game but there are no railroad tracks so there are no trains. I have never seen a factory area without railroad tracks and trains. There are no airports so there are no planes or helicopters up in the sky. Where are the motorcycles in the game? You have a Amusement Park in the game called "Fun Land" that located on a beach. I noticed when I went to Fun Land that are no people at the Amusement Park. Well how come there are no people at Fun Land? Every time I go there to Fun Land, I can't find one person there. It doesn't matter if it is day or night. And how come there is only one ride there? You have a big Ferris Wheel and that's it. The Ferris Wheel doesn't even work. And how come none of the Snack Bars at Fun Land are ever opened for business? Most buildings in the game you can never go inside. They are just there for looks and that's it. I don't know why people even bother comparing this game to the "Grand Theft Auto" series because it's not. The Grand Theft Auto series games all had planes, boats, trains, motocycles, etc. You could go inside most buildings in the Grand Theft Auto Series. I listen to all the songs in the game. There are 105 songs you can listen to while you are driving around in a vehicle. I notice right away none of the songs are popular songs. All the songs are sort of rap songs I've never even heard of. Why didn't they put in some country music, new age, rock and roll, contemporary, etc. that people recognized? In Grand Theft Auto Vice City one of the reasons the game was so popular was because of the music in the game. They played all 1980's hit songs which really added to the game. This music is pretty much forgettable in Crackdown. I like Crackdown, but it really frustrating when I could see Crackdown being a much better made game to play.	video-games_xbox
Flimsy disc makes game unplayable. A few days ago I purchased a copy of this game, having high expectations. I had gotten about 2 minutes into the beginning cut scene before the game froze. I tried pushing buttons, waiting to see if it would unfreeze, etc. Finally I restarted the game. About a minute after I had gotten through the cut scene and was in control of Alice it froze again. I restarted once again, and began to creep my way through the beginning, often having to restart the game because of the irritating freezing. Finally, when I reach Wonderland, and Alice was descending to the ground, it froze while she was in mid-air. Becoming used to this, I restarted the console and and loaded up the game again. It froze in exactly the same spot. After a couple of tries, the game kept freezing with Alice in mid-air. Frustrated I returned it to amazon and got a replacement. The replacement, which I received today, was initially fine. I got about 2 hours of game play in before my dog accidentally knocked over the console, making it fall onto its side. About 30 seconds after this, the new game froze just as the previous one had. I restarted the game a couple times, but it would freeze even before I reached the main menu, rendering it unplayable. When I examined the disc I saw that it had somehow gotten wide scratches on it, presumably from when it fell. The console has fallen while several other games were running, and the discs of those games had never been scratched at all. The only reason I can think of these discs being damaged so badly is that they were flimsy, weak, and not constructed well to begin with. Unfortunately, it is likely I will be able to play the game ever again -- for I am certainly not going to buy another disc after how the previous two turned out. I found the game enjoyable while it lasted. The graphics, while not incredible, and certainly very pretty and artistic. They have that Wonderland-like quality. It was fun watching Alice jump around and slice with the Vorpal blade. Combat was very smooth. I did encounter a few invisible walls, which was just annoying. Alice's steampunk dress, which was the only other dress I saw besides the Classic, was gorgeous. I really wish I had the opportunity to play the whole game through.	video-games_xbox
A lot better than most of the web reviews. I know there have been a lot of WWII games, but don't let the setting for The Saboteur turn you off, because occupied Paris is a venue that has not been well explored in any other title. As others have noted, this is basically a GTA style "sandbox" game, however its setting and story set it apart from most of the competition. I won't argue that the characters are deep -- if you've seen the great Val Kilmer comedy "Top Secret", some of The Saboteur's personalities may seem to border on such parodies. I would not be surprised if some new Resistance members appeared, named Deja Vu and Chocolate Mousse. If you launch into this game with the right expectations, you'll have a lot of fun, just don't take it too seriously. The French Resistance is certainly a nice change from generic street gang plots. The Saboteur has excellent, though slightly hammy, voice acting, and although the side missions can become a bit repetitive, none of them are as ridiculous as GTA's number one competitor clone which has you spraying citizens with sewage. While I appreciate the adult content option (as opposed to leaving the content out completely), someone should tell the developers that cabaret dancers never have large breasts. Haven't they ever been to Vegas? Dancing and a huge chest just don't mix. The driving physics are about par for a GTA clone (nowhere near as good as the king itself), but The Saboteur compensates for this with a forgiving damage model. No rocketing out through the windshield here, with a head-on crash. Collecting a car by storing it in a Resistance garage gives you the ability to spawn that car at any time. Even if the car is destroyed, there is only a small repair charge. The stealth elements can be largely ignored because in most cases, a frontal assault is the best plan. The earned in-game "Perks" come in very handy and their effects are very noticeable, not just window dressing. I recommend The Saboteur to anyone who enjoys GTA-style titles and can sit down and enjoy a good game without being too nitpicking. My only warning is for rabid completists. I finished the game, got all of the gold level perks, collected every vehicle, etc. but there is no way I'm going to finish destroying every Nazi strong point, there are just hundreds and hundreds of them. Imagine if GTA had, instead of 50 pigeons to hunt down, 1000+ pigeons? If you want to complete every sabotage item in this game, you'd better have a lot of time on your hands.	video-games_xbox
Too many glitches. As someone already said, this game is LOADED with awful bugs and glitches... The graphics are nice and blah blah blah but there are so many glitches that it is impossible to enjoy this game... First off my "Franchise" has locked up after just 5 games... And what I mean by that is the console freezes every time I try to load my franchise... Yeah, sure it could be an issue with the console and not the game but considering the game has only been on the market 3 days now and 2 of the 6 total reviews have noticed this makes it odd.... Next the 1st baseman is never on the base.... The computer is safe on routine ground balls because when you throw to 1st base your guy isn't on the base.... This has probably happend about 10 times total in the 5 games Ive played so far.... Other issues Ive noticed are you cant pull up the computers roster in the middle of a game. This might not be a big deal to most people but if you are a true basebal fan and enjoy the strategy of using left handed relief pitchers against a tough lefty hitter and things of that nature it is IMPOSSIBLE because you have no idea whats going on with the computers roster. You have NO access to viewing that at any point in mid game.... Honestly the game play seems like it could be fun. But the glitches are too much to overlook... If it was a minor issue here or there that would be one thing but the constant freezing in "franchise mode" combined with the 1st baseman never being on the base on routine groundballs makes this game unbearable and virtually impossible to play. Especially if you plan on playing a 162 game season without these glitches becomming too over bearing.... The absolute best I can say is rent this before buying and play it OFTEN when you rent it to make sure you get the full experience of all the glitches. If you just play 1 game on rental you may not get the full jist of the problems... Im not trying to ppick on 2K sports because I think NBA 2K9 is a fantastic game, but this game is awful with too many bugs and glitches.... and based on there currently only being 6 reviews of this game on Amazon and a few of them are complaining of the same issue I don't think I bought a "bad" copy.... I think this game needs to be recalled.	video-games_xbox
Mass Effect 2 - A step forward (and back. I need to start this review by saying one simple thing - I love the Mass Effect series. The first game was an interesting experience for me: the first times I tried to play it, it felt like a massive world that I couldn't get a hold off. The game was too much for me, and I put it down within a week of getting it. Months later, I was looking for something fresh to play after many hours of mindless first person shooters. This was then I gave Mass Effect 1 another try. I started a new save file, and made sure I read every tip/instruction that the beginning of the game fed to me. I found an incredible world full of main quests and side quests, with a perfect blend of shooter controls that had me addicted (though the framerate was a bit choppy at times, it was nothing that hampered my enjoyment). I loved the amount of looted weapons and armor you could pickup, and found it extremely fun to see the items in my inventory to add/drop whenever I so chose. At the time of this writing, I beat the original ME game 3 times. There's my background with series, heading into Mass Effect 2. It's important to know what I liked about the first game to discuss what I did and didn't like in the 2nd. In Mass Effect 2, you are dropped into an amazing cutscene, which reveals a key plot point that I won't reveal here. What happens there is what sets the scene for the rest of the game. Unfortunately, I found the plot in Mass Effect 2 much less enjoyable than that of ME1. ME2 feels very segmented, whereas ME1 felt like one epic storyline leading to a somewhat satisfying end. I never really got that feeling from ME2. Also, the complete overhaul of the inventory system was frustrating to me. It felt like the game was dumbed down to cater to people who wanted a purely shooter game, which is not the Mass Effect series. Basically, you get to pick from like 5 weapons in each category (heavy pistol, assault rifle, etc) and that's it. I found this frustrating, as it made almost every mission the same. ME1 had a wide variety of weapons that made the game interesting, and ME2 lost that. While it may seem like I'm a total downer on ME2, that's not the case. I think the devs did a fantastic job of making the framerate extremely smooth, taking what was a very negative aspect of the 1st game and turning it into a positive. ME2 is probably one of the smoothest games I've played in recent memory. Also, while the story isn't as good as ME1, it certainly holds up in it's own right. I just may have set the bar too high coming into this game. All in all, ME2 is a worthy entry in the Mass Effect series. Overall I think they did a good job with the game, but I wish they would have left the inventory alone and brought a story that had a more set structure. All in all, a 4 out of 5.	video-games_xbox
My quick FFXIII-2 review, sourced from my AIM rants. Disclaimer: This review is a condensed and slightly edited amalgam of my morning AIM rant about FFXIII-2 to several of my friends. I make no apologies for shorthand, crass language, grammatical inconsistencies, and etc. I've been an FF fan since childhood, loved XIII to death, and am one of those Skyrim-mod-installing "Lightning is my waifu" fanboys. I played FFXIII-2 about 6 hours in before tapping. --- I want to trade in FF. You only control the 2 peeps and the 3rd party member is basically monster hunter / pokemon, aka monsters in the wild, that you train and upgrade. Not cool. GIVE ME fracking LIGHTNING BACK. YOU PUT HER ON THE COVER, AND SEXED HER UP EVEN MORE - SO GIVE HER BACK! During the intro, which they somehow force you to view twice - Square used every trick in the book. Lightning was this Valkyrie / Warhammer 40K warrior goddess, there was a bad guy that looked suspiciously like native american purple sephiroth DROPPING HIS DEAD GIRLFRIEND INTO WATER...slowly. Then it gets all kingdom heartsy, then purple dude summons black materia / forces of chaos from the warp. It was literally everything, from every other thing, shameless and direct. I don't know what happened, it has towns, open ended gameplay (sorta), chrono trigger-style time hopping (sorta), Chocobos, the whole FF "experience"...other than the party BS that is. And oh - hey, Square sold this game on the premise of lightning being 40k warhammer goddess and the intro and boxart is based on that and then they go YOINK!!!! AH AH AH YOU DIDN'T SAY THE MAGIC WORD! Serah (older and not annoying, great char) and Noel (also good char, also not annoying, actually a dude), plus random monster...forever? No thanks. It was only funny the first 5 min because your first pokemon is mf Cait Sith, and as we all know Cait Sith is pretty gangster I'm trading it in today, seriously, at a retail store, for Reckoning. I'll still come out with a 30$ copy of reckoning so i'll take that hit to vote with my wallet. I'm American, and a capitalist, and this is how i express displeasure in consumer goods. ---	video-games_xbox
Fine addition to an awesome game. First is first, I have never written a review for any thing. I got bored and started reading reviews on this game. Now I have had it for just under a week, and I for one see that this installment has its pros and cons like the others before it. We will start with the very few cons that come with the game. 1. Accents: yes as I and most others probably would have guessed there is the presence of the australian accent, although it is often hard to understand the humor in what they say there is still the hilarity of the accent in its self. So initially not a down fall for someone like me but others find it to be a flaw in the games making. 2. The gravity: This little factor is some what of a pain in the arse, but it can also be turned into a helpful tool. It can help you get out of some sticky situations. Now the falt is it is often hard to control where you Will land. Also explosions can often blow you out of the fight and if not paying attention off a cliff. 3: Oxygen: The oxygen can be often hard to keep track of and may be hard to find a bigger O2 tank, but oxygen sources are so abundant. All enemies slain drop it, there are geysers all about, oxygen bubbles, most building offer oxygen. Okay so I contradicted my own cons. But the way they made this game you can us all of it to you own advantage. The accents just make the game that much more fun. I noticed in other reviews people have stated that the enemies aren't cchallenging enough, that as well depends on the weapon as in the first two. Nowbas for the gameplay length and it being more a dlc for two. Yeah makes a convincing statement, but just as well if you think about it this game is a pre-sequal. It most likely was not meant to throw players into another elongated gameplay. It was probably mainly meant to show players the main thing that happened in between. I think it was not meant to be long for that reason. I think it has made a good addition to the franchise rather or not it is as long as its predecessors or better made, makes no difference I think gearbox did a fine job of accomplishing what they wanted to. Fine game addition to a great franchise. I hope this helps most of you. Fight the haters!	video-games_xbox
What dreams are made of. Assassins Creed 2 is the kind of experience that one likens to the kind of game that people say would be a great game, and then laughs about because no developer will ever actually make it. Ezio is the debutante son of a "banker," and after a few brief scuffles with a rival italian family, Ezio's watches his father and two brothers hang. Fast forward, uncle, Assassins, family vendetta, yakkity yak, you know the rest. But, as anyone knows, there's the other layer of Abstergo, the megacorp that's kidnapped you and is forcing you to live through your genetic memory. You are subsequently broken out and then slapped in another genetic memory machine, except sedated so you can't leave as often, and this one controlled by the Assassins. I could easily see myself reaching for the "no, thank you" button on that basis alone, but the story quickly picks up in a major way. In that theres actually a story involved apart from "targets over there, kill they ass." Ubisoft continues to take the third degree to the third degree in terms of graphics. Photorealistic barely does it justice in the was distant vistas seem as crisp and pristine as the tower from which you are leaping to your characters 32nd death. Rooftops and other top layer accouterments are rather repetitive, but given just how gorgeous the scenery looks, its not worth complaining. Also, environments flow better, and you don't have to waste half the time crossing vast empty wilderness to reach the game parts of the game. Audio is also topnotch. Frequent use of Italian without large bold subtitles marks the 56th time I've screamed at the heavens in vain that 360 games need subtitles that a person without cybernetic implants can actually read, as I really don't want to learn Italian, even if most of what they use are curses. Characters feel real and life-like, and there's several moments where the voice actors are so good, you can feel the on-screen character entering brown trousers mode. Gameplay has improved 10000% from Assassins creed 1. Remember all those insanely annoying search quests that served no purpose other than to give undervalued achievements? Well, that guy was fired, and hopefully his house was burned down. In its place are a plethora of new search quests, some annoying and some not, but all of which serve as useful game aids, finding cash for a variety of stores, finding other subquests, or trying to rescue your mother from a grief induced fugue. And in the 15th century, they've discovered the map, a wonderful piece of technology that gives you a general idea of where things are, and then mark important locations on these maps to make them valuable commodities. Combat has gone up and down. New techniques and new gear, not to mention gear that you can buy from stores, including new varieties of old standbys makes combat more entertaining, but they didn't add much to the core combat, which boils down to counter and dodge and slash, though several new attacks, namely the double hidden blade takedown, had me giggling for hours. Notoriety is the same way, in that you can lower your visibility to guards by blending into small crowds, bribing heralds to say the charges against you were acquitted, or tearing down wanted posters, but that feels a bit like time travel, when you kill a guard, gain notoriety, round a corner, see your wanted poster, tear it down, lose all your notoriety, and go back to being incognito. There are a handful of nits. Some of the jumps are a pain, given your propensity to jump to the one location where there is no ledge. While more surfaces are climable, sometimes to sole one that will work its the one that looks and acts like background till you hit just the right spot. Some of the game requires DLC or preorder only content, which is about as fair as saying those who bought the regular version got an "expanded demo." While maps are a good improvement, they're too nailed down, and having GPS coordiantes for treasure hunts defeats some of the purpose, and there are no maps for some of the side quests. I know I sound like I'm trying to have my cake and eat it to, but I didn't think a mechanic for "Go to this general area" would be impossible to pull off over two games. Improving the hideout is nice, but you can turn it into Trump Tower in less than forty minutes. Overall, this game is fantastic. Entertaining side missions, a main storyline that's an actual story that you can get into, gorgeous scenery, wonderful dialogue. If not for a few points mentioned early that make me pray Ubisofts VP of marketing is torn apart by wild animals, this would've shot all the way up to #3-4 on my all time list.	video-games_xbox
100% lukewarm. Bad stuff out of the way first. The dialogue is pretty useless at times and the dialogue that's not useless is very adolescent in nature. I get the feeling that they added a lot of filler text for some reason. They make a point of telling you how to do something simple like climb a ladder, then they tell you again, then they tell you that they just told you before reminding you how to do it just to make sure you didn't forget from the first 3 lessons. If I had the attention span of 2 year old that might be helpful. Given that I'm 28 it's a bit insulting and at best slows down gameplay. The voice acting is pretty silly too. Some of the speech is still in Japanese, which is pretty lame they didn't bother to translate it. For instance, every time a character fights or a fight ends there's a random voice blurb they say. That's a nice touch and all the human characters have English voices. However, all of the golem characters have voice blurbs too but they're all in Japanese. It's small, but annoying. I've also got one of the cooler characters that is evidently poisoned or has some negative status effect on her because she's constantly at 1 hitpoint and 1 magic point. I can't seem to find out what's wrong with her through her status sheet in the interface. I even looked through the manual for some info, no dice. Don't even get me started on the overly-gay guy in your party at first. I'm not saying that to bash someone's sexuality in any way, but this guy is WAY over the top. The interface is also a bit clunky at times and they don't go through some of the stuff that they really should spend time on. For instance they don't really explain what Skill Points are and that you can spend them to improve your character stats and to learn new skills. I was through the first boss before I found the interface to spend skill points to boost stats. At that point I had a huge cache built up so I buffed all my stats but then when I went to learn skills I didn't have any left because I didn't realize you used the same pool of points to boost stats and learn skills. I could have used less instruction on how to use ladder and more on elements like this. There are some limitations on where you can go and what you can do that surprise me too. You would think you'd get a lot more freedom on a 360 game. I get the feeling that this game was made simply for the sake of having an RPG on this console, not because it was a cool game to make. The good. The graphics are pretty good and the combat system is decent. Don't get me wrong, I really expect better graphics from the 360, but the stuff in this title is passable. Some of the magic and particle effects are cool, but again, not as spectacular as what I'd expect from 360. Overall it seems inspired by the Final Fantasy Series with heavy favoring to FF VII, but with elements from pokemon (gotta collect them all) and some elements from the Full Metal Alchemist anime series. Challenge rating is pretty simple too. I'm not a genius but I've won every single encounter I've run into. Only one or two has been challenging in the least. There's not a way to adjust difficulty that I've been able to find. I find myself playing the game through, but I don't think it's because it's such a cool game. I think it's because I dig RPGs and I've already paid for this one. The game as a whole seems like it was geared more toward the 12-13 year old crowd. If you are a DIEHARD RPG fan then you might consider picking up a used copy, but don't expect to be blown away.	video-games_xbox
Different type of shooter in a campy horror setting. As FPS games go, this one is definitely different from the norm. It takes place from the first person perspective, and the main function is shooting, but the similarities to other shooters like Gears of War and COD pretty much end there. I discovered you definitely have to approach this game with a certain mindset to enjoy it, but once you do its a highly recommended game and a complete blast. First of all, co-op play is not a feature....its the whole point of the game. Successfully completing a campaign will depend almost entirely on cooperation and the level of teamwork with other online players. Being on a good team will make the game easy, join a lousy team and you're doomed. There is a versus mode that allows you to be on the zombie side and will appeal to more competitive gamers, but co-op is the name of the game here. The game is not large in scope. There are 4 maps, or "campaigns". Each map is broken down into 5 mini-levels separated by safehouses, which provide a temporary save point, along with replenishing health and ammo. The goal is the same for each campaign: reach the end alive and make an escape. Each campaign takes about an hour for the average players to complete. So yes, the entire game can be finished in about 4 hours, but those who take that for poor value are missing the point of the game. The maps are fun to play though over and over again because the experience is unique every time, due to the random placement of the zombies and the different players you team up with, assuming you're playing public matches on xbox live. In order to get credit for finishing a campaign and get the achievement, you have to finish it from start to finish in one session. I think the (approx) 1 hour length of the campaigns is perfect, because there are no save points. The time investment makes it feel pretty rewarding when you've completed a campaign, but its not the end of the world if you don't make it. Entertainingly, its possible for some players to survive the campaign but for others not to make it. If other players survive the end and you don't, you're out of luck and the game is over. The game is paced well and the atmosphere is very cool. The layouts include cities, woods, graveyards, abandoned hospitals and churches, and more. The game's vibe is intentionally a tribute to campy horror movies (especially zombie flicks, obviously). For a horror game its probably more funny than scary, however the action can be quite intense, and you almost always have a feeling of vulnerability, due to the pure randomness of the enemies. The graphics are good, the lighting effects are excellent, and the music and sound effects are also well done. The dynamic of co-op on-line play is the main lure for me. The game will present you with certain dilemmas as you play through a campaign, which usually involve decisions about sacrificing your own safety to save another player in trouble. (Do I expose myself and leave my hiding place to save a teammate who is getting ravaged by zombies? Should I heal an injured player or keep my spare health pack for later?). Newer players will generally look out for themselves at first as they feel their way around the game, and then become more team oriented as they become more comfortable. The game actually can get pretty frustrating when paired with bad players....but no problem....there is a feature to vote other players off ! This is actually a great and useful feature which at first I thought was meant to be a humorous add on. But there's nothing worse than having an idiot screwing up your campaign halfway through, or worse, a "griefer" who just starts shooting at you and the other survivors just to be malevolent. No need to start all over, just vote them off. An AI bot will take their place until another random player joins. Speaking of the AI bot, there is a another great on-line feature I like, called "take a break" which allows you to let the bot take over your character for a while if you need to get up for a beverage or hit the head. Despite some squawks about the AI in other reviews, the bot will perform pretty capably in your place. While it may not exactly lead the charge in terms of kills, the bot seems to avoid taking serious damage and will carry out the expected duties of reviving teammates pretty well. For a game that takes an hour to complete a campaign on-line, I like this feature. Also, players will typically come and go as you make your way through a campaign, and the bots will seamlessly fill in until another player joins in. If you're playing with random players on Xbox live, you generally won't finish a campaign with the same players you started with. The seamless integration of the bots while live players come and go should be noted. It really doesn't matter if someone quits on you in the middle of a campaign - you probably won't even notice unless you're watching the little scroll that tracks on-line activity. Overall this is a fun game that took me a while to appreciate, but its a light-hearted shooter that serves as a nice break from the cold blooded killing of more serious games like COD.	video-games_xbox
Wait - How is He a Prince. Prince of Persia is an okay game. It's okay. It's fun for the most part, but repetitive and sometimes frustrating--even more frustrating, really, because the frustrating parts are supposed to be "rewards," at least, in the context of the game. This is, of course, a running and jumping game, although I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as Mirror's Edge, or the far superior and much more open Assassin's Creed. Mostly, this is just a matter of pushing the right button at the right time. No real exploration is even necessary, unless you're a completionist. But there were a few design and production notes that actually detracted from the overall experience for me. First, the main character, the "Prince" (of Persia? he certainly doesn't have any indication of royalty in the game), looks ridiculously. His bulging muscles and huge square pecs are laugh-out funny, so over the top, and his face looks kinda like Rocky after losing a big fight. Also, he has this stupid looking purple scarf that makes one eye all squinty. I usually don't give a second thought to character design but this one looks so ridiculously that it distracted me. But not as much as the horrendous, cliched dialogue. Instead of inventing a character here, they made him the sarcastic, caustic smart alec type that you've seen a million times before. Every single word out of his mouth is a cliche or ripped off from a million different sources. He's an absolute jerk (excuse me, I mean "cool" and "free-spirited") and the banter between him and the pretty side kick is nauseating. Seriously, this is some of the worst writing I've ever come across. It's tired and obnoxious from the moment he first speaks. Add to that a plot that strikes absolutely zero for originality--and I just wish that the designers and writers had tried a bit harder, instead of copying what has been done to death. If you can get past this stuff, it's worth a rental. Unresponsive controls and some poor programming get in the way, but it can be fun for a bit, anyway.	video-games_xbox
Porcupines and Butterflies. Originally slated by Sega for release on the Dreamcast (and to have used a controller in conjunction with a light gun!), GunValkyrie is the type of game that is becoming rare these days: a skill-based, challenging, unique experience. But it adds superb graphics and sound, and some of the best videogame art found in the current generation. It wasn't Halo that sold me on the Xbox (although it's a fantastic game in its own right), but Sega's steampunk bug-shooter with the bizarre and perfect control setup. It's intentionally ironic, I think, that the "A" button - often the primary button for most games - has no game-based function in GunValkyrie. Smilebit (the Sega team that developed GV) has introduced an ingenious control scheme that's one of the best things to happen in the 128-bit era. Simple, yet demanding, especially when combined with the devious level designs of the planet Tir na Nog. Contrary to what others may say, GV's controls are NOT terrible. They do exactly what they're supposed to do, with no lag between input and execution. What the doomsayers mean is that the controls are UNFAMILIAR. Smilebit throws you into the middle of hordes of enemies, with tiny platforms to navigate, daring you to complete the obstacles. Much like MDK2, GV starts tough and quickly gets tougher, but in doing so, it causes you to adapt and grow, to the point where you are regularly maxing the boost combo meter without even thinking about it, rarely touching the ground. That is the sign of inspired game design. With dedication and patience, anyone can learn the controls, and the payoff is an "in-the-zone" feeling, along with a dazzling midair ballet as you deal matchlock cannon and drive-gun death to the insectoid minions. And what visuals there are. The animation for all characters is astounding, and the boss creatures are awe-inspiring, horrific, and memorable. Small details, like how your character absorbs the recoil of gunfire, are everywhere. The best part of the graphics, however, are the levels themselves. The Valley levels teem with organic, pulsating life, uplifting air currents, and remarkable skylines. The Civilian Base halls sport alien, yet familiar architecture, with huge gears and semi-transparent doors. The real winner is Naglfar's Pit, a mile-high acid-filled gorge with drifting lights, multiple platforms, and an odd, almost underwater ripple effect to everything, along with a haunting music-box soundtrack and insane ramblings from...well, I'll leave that to you to discover. GunValkyrie combines the best aspects of the shooting, platforming, and adventure genres into one incredible experience, adds a heavy dose of much-needed innovation, and tops it off with a perfectly realized, surreal atmosphere, polishing everything to a hypnotic shine. Some may argue that once you learn the controls, the game becomes simple, and while that's true in part, the joy is in the journey, not necessarily the destination. Getting "S" rankings on all missions will take some time as well! Sega is one of the gaming industry's last real pioneers, and it's good to know that they're still around. Microsoft also gets a nod for taking a chance on this kind of title on a relatively new console. Anyone looking for something a little different, or a serious challenge, owes it to themselves to try GunValkyrie. Gems like this are becoming precious few.	video-games_xbox
Now I feel comfortable to review this game. I purchased the Limited Edition version of Halo 3 that comes with a bonus disc of video, metal case with slip cover and small hard cover book with additional information on the game and its elements. I would like to clarify that I did not have the original Xbox or get into Halo: Combat Evolved or Halo 2. I purchased an Xbox 360 as I believe to be the best choice for me for a gaming console, and I jumped right into the excitement over Halo 3. I rented Halos 1 and 2 to see if I would like them. I enjoyed both games, despite not finishing them completely prior to Halo 3's release. I even purchased both of those games. I completed about 75% of the first game and about 20% of the second. I just couldn't wait to solve both of them before playing the "next-gen" version. That being said, I am not as familiar with the Halo story or universe. I don't think this made too much of a difference in getting into Halo 3. I think one could get Halo 3 having never played the other games...granted you would wonder a little about the back story, but the game play would suck you in and forget about that until you finished the game. Now I am going back to play the first two games to completion. I know it's a little late, but now I am into the Halo thing... I have played the game completely through on Normal. I did not think it was too short. I thought that I had solved the game twice, when in fact there were more levels and more story. I felt satisfied with the campaign aspect of the game (even compared to BioShock, Lost Planet, Prey and Gears of War). Now, I am going back through the game to collect the skulls for extra features and achievement points. The campaign was a little challenge for me on the normal difficulty...it wasn't too easy and not too hard. I was stuck in about 3 places that took a day to move on through by myself versus co-op play. Now if I try to play on Heroic or Legendary difficulty, I will have to call in a friend for support via co-op such as I did with Gears of War on Insane. Graphically, this game is impressive. While the screen layout and the weapons are similar to the previous versions and seem very familiar, they are better graphically. The designers didn't completely overhaul the Halo gaming experience...just gave it a renovation similar to what one might see on a TV show about flipping a house...excuse the analogy, but I think it is a good way to describe the difference. The Halo universe is prettier and even more colorful with sharper lines and details. This game has wonderful scenery like the jungles in the beginning to the futuristic interior of bases and spaceships, or later in the game from the desert with sand dunes to snow covered mountains. The online play is where this game really shines. The online matchmaking system is wonderful. You aren't thrown into a game with a group of die hard Halo fans where you get completely slaughtered...you are matched by your abilities in the game with players of similar attributes for a fun and even handed match. There are a number of game modes where you can play death match type free for alls or team based games such as capturing the enemy's territory. With the Forge aspect of the game the online play is editable and customizable to give this game a great deal of replay value for the online players out there. I gave this Limited Edition 5 stars for fun, and I do believe it lives up to the hype. This is a solid game that one can play over and over and enjoy it as much if not more as time goes on. However, I gave it 4 stars for the game overall as the extra stuff that comes with this version is not high quality or quantity. The bonus disc really only features one making of documentary if you play all of the segments as one movie. It is fun to see all the time and effort that went into making this game, but after watching it I thought that's it? There should be some added features like maybe including some features from making the older two games, or some more footage as to where they are thinking they will go in the future with other games or characters. I was also hoping for some exclusive content like gamer pics, themes, etc. The metal case is very nice, but as with many others who have reported...my second bonus disc was scratched! The disc comes loose inside the case very easily. The plastic center holder does not fit snug enough on the disc to anchor it in a way that eliminates damage during shipment. Be careful when buying it...gently shake the box before checking out to see if there are loose discs. Make sure you grab one that does not sound like a box of Legos! I didn't have an option as I preordered mine. The disc was loose and it was scratched, but it played just fine. Buy with confidence...this is a good solid first person shooter game that lives up to the hype of the "next-gen" console war. I would add that if you don't always watch the extra making of features or documentaries, you may want to just buy the regular version with the game disc only. If you are a huge Halo fan, then you probably already have the Legendary Edition with the helmet...or if you are still debating on which one to buy get the one with the helmet and all the goodies...they are in a better box that anchors the discs better...plus Master Chief's helmet sitting in your game room just looks impressive!	video-games_xbox
Difficult to setup; but great once you get it done. I bought this router since we have the 847 model and use that for a computer, but I only needed to hookup an ancient laserjet printer that has a built in jetdirect ethernet port out on it; and didn't want to spend the money for the more expensive model. Setup on this was horrible. I tried using the included CD on two different windows 7 machines; and it never listed the router when it got into the "find device" screen. I also tried to connect to the router via my web browser on those machines and on my mac. I gave up and submitted a ticket to Trendnet. To their credit - they got back to me very quickly; and their instructions were spot on. Here's detailed instructions on how to configure it: * Plug in the router * Use a paper clip to push in the reset button on the bottom for at least 15 seconds. (The lights didn't change at all during any of that). Release the reset button. * Unplug the router for at least 15 seconds so it finishes the 'reset' cycle, then plug it back in. * Plug the router into your computer (mac is fine - that's what I used, and it's 10 times easier to change your settings in the next step) * Setup your computer to use a fixed IP address of 192.168.10.10 and subnet of 255.255.255.0 * Use your browser (Firefox for me on my Lion OS macbook pro - it didn't seem to work in Safari) to go to 192.168.10.110 * The username is "admin" (no quotes) * There is no password * Administrator button, Management link: Set the password to something useful that isn't blank * Wireless button, Profile link: Create a Wireless profile to use your home network entering the SSID, etc. Select the checkbox next to it. * Go to the network tab and make sure it's using a fixed IP instead of DHCP. I changed it to something I could hand out on my home network - and have my apple base station match the MAC address to give it that same IP address every time. (If you tell it to connect using DHCP then you won't know what address it gets and can't get back to the admin web page) * Once you save this setting, it will get to 99% saved and seem like it never finishes. Doesn't matter. Use the new IP address you assigned in the previous screen in the browser instead of the default and you should be back in business. * To test it I turned off my wireless on my mac, powered down the router, changed my mac back to DHCP and connected the router to the ethernet port. I was successfully connected to the internet using the trendnet device. I also found this manual more useful than the one that comes in the box: [...] Although it doesn't cover setting your own IP address to be able to see the device or how to reset the device. So far so good - I'll update review again after using it for a while.	video-games_xbox
Rock solid, highly polished shooter. I found a copy of FEAR for sale on the bargain rack at my local games store. I admit I thought it wouldn't be very good, since it was on the same shelf as dreck like Two Worlds. The game store I use is trying so hard to get rid of their last copies of that horrible excuse for an RPG that they've reduced the price three times. Last I checked it was ten bucks. I got my copy of FEAR for twenty. And let me tell you--it was worth the full sixty most games fetch these days. I popped it in and started playing. At first I couldn't quite get the hang of the controls. Enemies mowed me down a few times and I had a bad experience with a game glitch at the end of the first level. It didn't load the cutscene, and I didn't know any better, so I thought I still needed to do something. I spent almost two hours going through that level, searching every nook and cranny, before it occurred to me to try and play the level through again. This time the cutscene played and I could move on. And good lord I'm glad I stuck with it. The story gets a little better with each chapter, though it's not the main focus (this is a pure shooter, after all). It's not bad. There are several paranormal influences in the game, and your character is subject to intense visions that are genuinely creepy at times. The action, which is the core of FEAR, is GREAT. This game features "bullet time," in which you can slow down time enough to get the drop on your foes. The animation and graphics are so tightly executed that you really get your blood pumping in a firefight as bullets ricochet around you and kick up clouds of brick dust from walls and concrete. The physics is excellent. I found the most satisfying thing in the game was to go into bullet time, move up on a foe, and blast him point-blank with a shotgun, then release bullet time and watch him get blown backwards over a railing by the slug. It's all very slick and entertaining. While it's billed as being a horror experience, don't be fooled. It's definitely a shooter first with horror undertones. But those undertones are well-done, too, and you'll have a few anxious moments between the firefights. You'll have a lot of fun with this game if you enjoy first-person shooters. I highly recommend it. If there's any reason why I didn't give it five stars, it's only because there is no one area in which it stands out. It's a shooter, plain and simple. In short, you've played this game before--but you'll still have as much fun this time around as you did last time, and the time before that.	video-games_xbox
Digimon fans only. Back in the day, I received Digimon World 1 for my birthday. Now, that game had a few flaws, but it was ultimately fun to play, and still is to this day. The later Digimon World games took a more standard JRPG approach, which, while I did enjoy it, was a bit disappointing. So when I heard of a new Digimon World game coming out that's a lot closer in style to the original, I grew excited. However, the game was never brought to the US, and a petition was started that eventually got the attention of Bandai Namco. Why am I telling you all of this? In order to gauge interest in any new Digimon games coming out in the US, they developed and released this game, Digimon All-Star Rumble, a fighting game in the vein of the older Digimon Rumble Arena games. While it's not exactly what everybody wanted, we were happy to get a new Digimon game, and eager to show our support. The game consists of two main modes: story mode and battle mode. Story mode lets you take control of a Digimon and battle your way through a tournament, unlocking new Digimon along the way. It's not very long, but you're meant to play it through multiple times (with each character), so the length is fine. Battle mode is exactly what it sounds like, you select a Digimon and fight against either your friends or computer-controlled opponents. You can only use characters you've already unlocked, but all of the arenas are available from the start. There's also a third mode, training, which I have yet to try, but I can't imagine it's more than just a tutorial of sorts. If it's anything noteworthy, i'll make sure to edit in a section about it. Sounds fun, right? Well, it is. The problem, however, is that the game is ridiculously unbalanced. I first played through story mode with Shoutmon, and encountered little difficulty. However, playing the story mode with other characters led me to wildly different difficulty levels. Shoutmon could finish the last stage with ease, however, I couldn't even get halfway through it with another character. (Played on a friend's console, so it wasn't just difficulty increasing after finishing the game once). I know it's not just me, because that same friend noticed how inconsistent all of the characters were as well. Now, normally the characters in fighting games control differently and have different play styles, but it feels more like an imbalance here. Another thing worth mentioning is how much the difficulty spikes at the final stage. The entire game is rather easy throughout, while the last stage will take many, many repeated attempts. It doesn't help that due to the characters being rather poorly balanced, the final stage of each character's story is of a completely different difficulty. Shoutmon's final boss took me one try and I barely took any damage, however Gabumon's I had to try at least 20 times (while losing in a matter of seconds most times. The only way I could beat the boss was to memorize every move the boss would make and when.) Aside from this power imbalance and difficulty spikes, the game is a lot of fun. It's great being able to play as Digimon from throughout its history, the graphics are nice, the music is awesome, and the combat itself is enjoyable. The battle mode, which will probably end up as the highlight of the game over time, is great. Between the enjoyment and the frustration due to balance issues, I'd rate the game maybe 3/5 or 3.5/5 stars. However, seeing how important this game is to the future of Digimon, i'll round up to a 4. If you're a Digimon fan, it's a no-brainer. Buy the game and support the franchise. If you're not a Digimon fan...well, i'm surprised you even know this game exists. I'll also note that there is no online mode, which seems odd for a fighting game (I prefer to play these types of games with a friend present, but the online mode lacking definitely is lame). The trophy set is also really easy. Most of them are rewarded to you by simply playing the game a lot, and they end up being more time consuming than hard. Edit: Well, it has been announced that Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth is coming to PS4 and PSVita in February. Unless you specifically want a Digimon-themed 3D fighter, buy Cyber Sleuth instead. That will be the new measure of what we get in America. I'm dropping the rating back down to 3 stars because of this.	video-games_xbox
Great Cinematic Horror Game. I've never been a huge fan of survival horror games, but I really enjoyed Alan Wake. Just so it's clear, the gameplay is substandard, but it's just the vehicle for the amazing story. The main gameplay gimmick is that you have to shine your flashlight on your enemies before you can shoot and kill them. This is performed with an auto-aim that is pretty generous, you basically just have to point your flashlight near the enemies and click the right trigger. This gameplay is done well, but it can get a little boring after doing it over and over. Your weapons are relatively limited with your armament consisting of a revolver, a shotgun/hunting rifle, a flare gun (which always has very limited ammo), flares, and flash bangs. I would have liked to see more creative weapons, or weapon upgrades, but that's just something to look forward to in the game's sequel. The weakest part of the game is definitely the small sections of platforming. The movement is just much too floaty, making it very easy to over/under-jump and fall to your death (insta-deaths are always something I've hated in video games). Thankfully the checkpoint system is usually pretty efficient, though at times the developers chose points further away from the difficult areas than would be appreciated. The only other slightly annoying aspect of the game is the driving camera angles. Instead of having the common gaming ability to look around and help direct the car with the right stick. Instead this game has every small movement of the stick shoot the viewing angle around to the extremes, making it much harder than it needs to be to look at the environment while driving. Other than that, Alan Wake has very few flaws. It is an interesting and relatively original horror story that I would loving watching in the theater. I won't risk any spoilers, but except for the end (which is deliberately annoying and nebulous to set up Alan Wake 2) the story keeps you on your toes with very interesting, scary, and sometimes funny characters, twists, and dialogue. I thoroughly enjoyed playing this game. My Rating: 9/10	video-games_xbox
An excellent controller, ALMOST perfect. I wanted to wait on reviewing the controller until I had ample time to test it. It's a good thing I did. Microsoft's controller is a well-thought-out accessory that obviously went through many test subjects. Games like Halo, NHL 2002, Cel Damage and Project Gotham Racing play great. The buttons feel very accessible, and the was no hand cramping whatsoever, even after many hours of playing. This is coming from a person with small hands. Then I started playing Amped and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x. I noticed that, especially in multiplayer w/ Tony Hawks, and just all around in Amped, that my right index finger, which I usually keep tucked under the controller and against the trigger button, was beginning to hurt. I don't really know how or why it only happened with these games, but I wasn't playing these games any harder, I guess it was just the button and joystick manuevers necessary to play these games. Regardless, this still only happened after an hour or two of playing, so it's a good way to pace yourself with breaks anyway. As for the button layout, it's well done. Games underutilize certain buttons, so you'll end up hitting the wrong one sometimes, but that's not the controllers fault. All buttons are pressure sensitive, and I found that sometimes I wasn't pushing down all the way on the buttons when I was comfortably pushing on them. I'm also noticing slight wear on the plastic around the buttons corresponding to the angles that I hit them. The cord is great, with ~10 ft. in length, you'll never have a problem with which seat to sit in. And the breakaway feature is a must-have. It's already come in handy a dozen time, and games will automatically pause when it happens. I use the breakaway as an easy way to hook up and disconnect my controllers as well. All-in-all, it's as my subject says: An excellent controller that is close to perfection, but not quite.	video-games_xbox
Great Multiplayer Experience. I liked COD Modern warfare games and since I knew the same developers were making this game and I liked the trailer, I bought this. Here is what I think. **************************************************************PROS***************************************************************************** -Great FPS/Titan gameplay: Gameplay is the number one reason you should buy this game. It is a mixture of FPS like COD but in addition to that you can wall run, double jump, use stealth but most importantly play as Titan. Playing as a pilot (simple FPS) and as a Titan, both have their advantages and disadvantages. So plenty of tactics to explore between two types of play. If you become an advanced player, then you can both control your Titan while playing as a pilot(human). A must experience. -Incredible graphics/sounds: This one goes without saying. Anyone who has seen the trailer can tell this game has great graphics and sounds. Little things like Titans falling from the sky are very well done. Makes the play very enthralling. -Variety of multiplayer modes: Like other FPS, there are variety of modes. I have had this one for almost a month and still haven't gotten around to exploring all of these modes. -Upgrades: As you play more, you earn more points and you can customize and upgrade both your pilot and the Titan. Makes the gameplay very addictive. ************************************************************CONS***************************************************************************** -Lack of a good single player campaign/story: It has a very generic horde single player mode. A great concept like this could really have used a good single player story mode. But unfortunately it is simply not there. I really hope developers include it the next time. ************************************************************CONCLUSION******************************************************************************* I wouldn't buy this game at full price as it doesn't have a single player mode. But now that the price has lowered, I recommend buying it and experiencing the amazing multiplayer experience.	video-games_xbox
This is the game that finally got me into rhythm games, or should I say playing musical instruments. I first tried this game at a performance stand at an anime convention. Being an air guitar enthusiast of sorts but never quite into Guitar Hero, I was quickly drawn into the appeal of using a controller that at least somewhat resembled a playable instrument. This was cemented further by my ability to play it with friends - and in the case of the convention, similarly-themed cosplayers that I could re-create to a degree with the deep customization engine. Although this product is very late into its life cycle that licensing for many of the older DLC tracks have expired or is likely to expire soon, there is still a blindingly large library of tracks to pick from at $1 or $2 depending on if they were released prior to or after. And unlike the Miracle Piano System that I barely touched as a child, this library includes hits for both young players and their parents. This collection can also be expanded on the cheap by exporting the tracks from the first two Rock Band games as well as the track packs from their respective system with the sole (and sad) exception of the Beatles game. I might also want to stress that buyers will want to make sure that games you want to export from ship with a valid code, otherwise you're stuck with glorified demos. It works with virtually every GH or RB controller released for their respective system as well as any USB microphone, which you can also find at your local thrift store for much cheaper than you can get online. If I had one major gripe about Rock Band 3, it's that I only got into this series only a week or two before Harmonix stopped releasing official DLC, which means the appeal of the library will eventually fade apart from the occasional party with friends. Rock Band Network - their indie songs equivalent - is still supported only on the 360. With Harmonix clearly moving on from the franchise altogether, I also plan on moving onto trying real instruments with Rocksmith and Band Fuse. Perhaps I can finally stick with those longer than the Miracle Piano System.	video-games_xbox
Don't hesitate, just buy it. Here's the skinny: if you're looking for a controller that you can just pick up and intuitively know without ever wanting to spend more than the 5 seconds it takes for a USB dongle to connect, then move on. Just go buy an Xbox One controller. HOWEVER, if you're interested in something that can revolutionize your game play by the sheer amount of customization, then please, by all means, spend the money on THIS. The sheer amount of customization for almost any application is well worth the money and time. Some people do a pros and cons list, but I'm going to have to do a cons and pros list ;-) CONS: 1) You will have to "train" your muscle-memory away from any "standard" controller if you've played console games before. Think about it; if I've put in a thousand hours over the course of the last 15 years using an Xbox controller, it'll take 10 hours of playtime just to get 1% of that muscle memory trained in... 2) Due to the glossy plastic they decided to use, it has a cheap feeling... Yes, feeling. It certainly isn't cheap, but there's an inherent sense that we've been accustomed to that this controller just doesn't give us that satisfactory tactile response we're used to. Solution: spend $12 on the rubber skin made by Foamy Lizard. Seriously. It's worth the $12 PROS: 1) Customization! WOW. I'm not going to post here the amount of depth this thing can do. Just pop over to YouTube and check out any video in spring of 2016 or newer -- there was a huge software update, so the older posts will lead you astray. 2) The haptic feedback is extremely satisfying. It took me 30min just to convince my thumb that there wasn't a ball underneath the pad. 3) Dual stage triggers. These are so nice. The pull is just right, and that final "click" is satisfying. 4) It makes a little tinkling sound when you turn it on. Yep, I said it. I don't care what you think; I like it ;-) Be warned, though: once you overcome its "differentness", you'll never go back. I tried to use my Xbox controller afterward -- thinking that I'd give my "training" a break -- and I couldn't stand using it after 1 minute. You won't realize how spoiled your game play got until you've spent quality time with the Steam controller.	video-games_xbox
Good, but not Revolutionary in any Way. DISCLAIMER: This review reflects MY judgments of this product, not a political group. I am merely sharing my experiences. I am not asking you to pledge allegiance to my review. You are free to disagree by writing your own review with your own judgments. Please do not attack me as though I have attempted to ruin your family's reputation. ;) I'm not amazed by the new Xbox at all. It has some improvements, but none worth rushing out to buy a new one ASAP. I bought both a PS4 and Xbox One soon after their release. I returned the Xbox One, seeing not enough major attractions when compared to the PS4. Now, I did eventually re-purchase the Xbox One (used) merely to have the ability to play some multi-player games with friends who had an Xbox One. Xbox One vs. PS4: GAME CONTROLLER: PS4: sleeker design, making it easier to grasp / power renewal by plugging in (which is a perk, if you don't want to buy batteries) / main attractions are the touch pad and front multi-color glowing light (both are used interactively in several games) / ability to plug in any headphones you use; also Bluetooth compatible Xbox One: plumper design / buttons closer together / battery-powered (which is a perk if you want to be able to re-power it quickly) / restrictive headphone interaction (only accepts specific brands, unless you buy the compatibility accessory for $25) / not Bluetooth compatible / I have experienced difficulty synchronizing it to the console several times OPERATING SYSTEM: PS4: easy-to-use / more options / can enter a "rest mode" to bring up a game the next day without having to load it again / eStore has more affordable sales than the Xbox eStore / they have started simulating the Netflix mission to make its own unique shows to stream to their subscribers / there are easily-accessible USB drives Xbox One: comparative to modern Windows OS / not easy-to-use / several steps to do simple things (you push buttons several times for simple tasks) / the eStore does have many sales / it is compatible with many Microsoft devices / it is finally Blu-ray compatible To be continued as my experiences continue.	video-games_xbox
Some problems but an overall excellent game. ----I'm updating my review because I feel that some reviewers are being way to harsh just because they've played the first Buffy game and aren't giving this one a chance. When I first started playing it I found it difficult to get used to because I was expecting it to be like the last game. Well it's not the first game so get over it. Give this game a chance and you might be surprised at how much you enjoy it! Also, as a comparison, go and check out the reviews of the Playstation 2 and Gamecube versions and you will see that a lot of people really, really like this game and aren't ripping it apart like some of the XBox fans. These people aren't comparing it to the first game because the first game was only released on Xbox. Also keep in mind that the Xbox version is considered far superior than the other two versions. Once you've played a level or two and have gotten used to the controls being different from the first game you can really start to get into it. In my family there are four of us and we all played the first game and loved it. We all had a hard time in the beginning getting used to the differences in this game but all agree that it is a great game. This is coming from a 41, 39, 17 and 14 year old group of people. Some of the complaints I've read is that the characters move to slow. You can compare this game to Indiana Jones who moves at a much slower rate yet people loved that game. Other complaints are the inventory button, again you can compare this to the Indiana Jones game. Another complaint I read was that the lifeline indicator for a bad guy popped up ahead of time in the first game to give you warning. Well, it doesn't do that in this one but you can hear the enemy growling or talking before he shows up and also the controller vibrates to give you warning. I agree that the voices of Willow and Anya are off but all the other voices are great. Yes, this is not the first game and it's camera isn't as great but there are some very redeeming qualities to this game as well. I just don't think it is fair to rip it apart because it isn't the exact same thing as the first game. Another interesting thing I discovered after playing this game. I went back to play the first one and found a whole bunch of stuff to pick at that I didn't notice at first!! The characters now seemed to move at too fast a speed as did the enemies and it was difficult fighting them!! I also missed the easy "stake" access button that the new game incorporates. My point is, you get used to what your playing and what you know and every game should be given a chance and not be played partly through. I finished the whole game and it was a lot of fun! For those of you who do need some help there's many game websites out there that have walkthroughs and hints from other players. Here's a link to one of them: [website] So rent it if you must first but just give it a chance and play enough of it to get used to the different camera and moves and you might be pleasantly surprised at how much you'll like this game!!!--- My original review: I absolutely loved the first game so I was extremely excited to get this. First thing I noticed was the camera angle and movement are not as good as the first game. That said, I went into options and I changed all the vertical options and turned them all on. This made a big difference but it was still not as good as the first. But after getting into the game, I really didn't notice as much because I just learned to be more creative. Like running further into a room and then turning around so I could see what was coming. The voice actress who plays Willow is very grating at first. She sounds like Willow on valium and seems to speak way to slow and sounds like an airhead. Also, the voice actress doing Anya sounds nothing like Anya and didn't even seem to try. James Marsters, Nicholas Brendan, Amber Benson and Tony Head do a great job and so does the guy who played Ethan (he is also the actual actor from the show but I just can't think of his name right now). The game has 12 levels. You start off as Buffy and then it will finish her part and then switch to Willow, and then so on as you go through the characters. The story is fantastic and keeps you interested all through it. There's a lot to offer with this version that the first version did not have. There are bonus games that you can unlock and there are also cast interviews, outtakes and Voice Over recording sessions that are a blast to watch. You have to unlock these as you go through the game. The better you do the more you unlock. Each level has a certain amount of secrets (and some are extremely hard to find - which I still haven't found all of them!). After you finish each level it ranks you and tells you how you did, how many kills you had, how many secrets you found and your ranking such as Slayer, Professional, expert, etc. You also have the option of going back and doing a level again if you weren't able to find all the secrets. This game needs more save points though. There are continutation points as you go through so if you get killed you can continue from that point. But if you want to just quit it doesn't matter where you were in that level you have to start the whole level all over again. This is extremely frustrating because some of these levels are extremely long especially when playing them for the first time so to then have to lose all that time spent is very frustrating. Also there are many times where you will be confused and not know what to do next (this is just not with me - I've read many a complaint on posting boards regarding this problem) and you will spend an incredible amount of time running all over the place. I would've loved to have given this game 5 stars but just couldn't do it. The problems with the camera difficulties, the motion of the characters, and the lack of save points made the difference. The story line is fantastic, the different levels are great, the ability to play as different characters and all the unlockable extras are a major addition that the first game didn't have (although the first games story was also very good). This game is more detailed and has a lot more to look at and it will take you a lot longer to finish it. Another minus is the fact that there is only one difficulty level. The first game had Easy, Normal and Hard to chose from. Having mastered Hard on the first one I think I had an easier time adjusting to the difficulties of this one but other people have complained about not being able to. In closing I do recommend this especially to any Buffy fan.	video-games_xbox
It's all about the wireless fight stick. First things first, Tekken 6 is a solid fighting game. It has a steep learning curve and punishing difficulty, even on the easy setting, that gives you a rewarding feeling for every victory you achieve. As I have discovered, if you can't master at least one 10-hit combo on your character, you will have a lot of trouble with this game. The unlock system in this game is both interesting and stressful. All of the game's playable characters are available from the beginning, and the only things you must earn are outfits, hairstyles, and various accessories for each character. The plus side is that after your efforts to buy each item, you will have a unique look for your fighter. The downside is the price of each item. For simple sunglasses, as an example, you must earn the equivalent of 30 perfect fights worth of money. This slow grind for cash makes the game lose it's value really fast. You will find yourself playing the same modes over and over until you can afford to look the way you intended from the start. If you have the patience and skill, this game is definitely for you. Now, the fight stick is the greatest part of this bundle. To answer some aching questions, yes it is indeed compatible with any other fighter on the console. The only things it lack are the two joysticks [as the arcade stick's joystick is mapped as the controller's D-Pad], so you can't use it for games that require this like first person shooters. There is no input lag, so the moment you press the button is the moment your character reacts. Fans of the arcades in your neighborhood rejoice, as the button layout is designed to emulate tournament-grade setups. Being an arcade freak, I was glad that it looked, felt, and operated like it truly should, even after some button mashing abuse. Being the first wireless unit on the next gen consoles also sets it apart from other similar arcade sticks. During a game session with 6 of my friends, passing it around after each round was an effortless endeavor. It is really light, in spite of it's appearance, and has a decent battery life. If you own any other fighting game, or plan on getting another in the near future, you should make this purchase right now.	video-games_xbox
Highly addictive little game; characters are a blast. This was a Christmas present for my 9 year old (girl) and 7 year old (boy). In addition to the basic game pack, I bought them separate figures. The basic game pack includes 3 characters, but there are over dozens of other characters that can be purchased separately or in packs of 3. My order on amazon.com was processed quickly, and the game arrived in 4 days using standard shipping to Florida. The game is very fun, and allows 2 players to select their character of choice and place on the portal (which is connected to the Wii using a wireless USB antenna that is included with the portal), at which time they are transported into the game. However, if the character dies during the game, you have to swap them off the portal with another character. Each character has an element that they represent, so some areas of the game are inaccessible unless my kids are using the correct character. In addition, each character has different strenght, defense, speed, and powers...making each character unique in their own way. So far, my kids have had a great time playing the game. I would highly recommend buying a few more characters, as my kids have really enjoyed the ability to swap out the characters for those with different powers or attributes. *UPDATE* Based on continued gameplay, my 9 years old had the following comments: I think Skylanders is a realy fun game. You can collect differnt skylanders and trade them with your friends. In this game you can colloct mony and upgrade your skylanders. Skylanders can move up levels by defetting foes. You also can use a skylander on any game system. If you have a Wii but your friends have a Playstation or XBox, the characters will work on any of them. But the thing is when a skylander dies on a level you can't play that skylander again until you either start the level again or you quit the level. Other then that I think skylanders is a great game.	video-games_xbox
Please do not buy this. I've been looking around a good quality first headset, and actually researched around for a whole fay before choosing this one. Where do I even start. Packaging : It was okay. The edges were are jacked up, and the plastic cover that held the headset were those cheapo sharp ones that I hate. At first, what tempted me was the lights, and the wireless. Both were total frauds. The lights ARE NOT what they look like on the box, or in the image. In the image, the lights look like they glow and stand out. But in actuality, it's just a barely noticeable blue line that only illuminates the circumference of the button in the middle, it doesn't shine up the whole thing. What I didn't know was that the band was clear plastic. From the image, I had thought that the band was black, otherwise I would've never gotten this. It was clear plastic, so the lights that run through the band was a disappointment. Next, the wireless. What wireless? You have to connect it to the USB if you want to use it with your PC, you have to connect it with a wire to use it on your phone. The term wireless was so vague and they failed to mention that the wireless was only for consoles. The fit: Worst ever. The band looks as though it's really elastic, but it's not. Hard as rock. As the soft band that rests against your head is connected to the headset by EXTREMELY poor material, cheap strings. Strings, for a $90 product. Moreover, the 'strings' can be pulled to make your head fit, but it won't stay. That means that you can't adjust the size fit at all. It is extremely uncomfortable to have something pressing hard on your head. Plus, the gap between the two bands are too big, you'd look really silly wearing this. The plastic band, when worn, will form a blunt square shape instead of nicely forming a crescent shape over your head. It sticks out a lot, this headset, especially the ears. It really looks ridiculous. Now the most important part, sound: One statement sums it up all: A free Apple iPhone 5 earpiece sounds better. This is no exaggeration, I compared between the two. The volume capacity is not what I would expect for a headset, it's soft. And there's this fuzz that accompanies the sound, as thought it was from a radio, not directly from my phone. Also, the sound is mad loud to the outside. You can hear EVERYTHING even if you're not using them. Being someone that plays music loudly, this is not ideal at all. Because of the image, I was fooled into buying this. This is not worth $90 at all, and not worth the $60 that the wired version costs. If I were to give it a price it would be at max, $40. Please don't be tempted by the lights and all that, because this product is horrid. I wish I hadn't believed all the great reviews, I really, really regret buying this. To be absolutely honest, the first look I had at the headset itself, I said "Oh no...", because it was that bad. Hate, hate, hate this product. Please follow my advice and invest in a better headset.	video-games_xbox
The collector edition was horrible but the game itself is just awesome. I wish to divide this review into two sections mostly because I feel that I have a few things to say about the Collector Edition specifically and I would not like that to be a factor into my score of this game. ~ Collector Edition ~ If I had to rate the collector edition of this game I would rate it a 0 out of 5. The main reason for this is because when I got Demons Souls in 2009, I was very impressed with their collector edition and the fact that the game came with a physical sound track, a physical mini game guide, artbook, and the video game itself. Dark Souls Collector Edition could barely be called that because the sound track and mini guides are offered online via a one time use coupon. On day one of the game release, I, as well as numerous folks, had trouble downloading the guide and sound track since so many people were trying to do it at once. With that said, the coupon was a one time use and to top it off, you couldn't log back in since you could only enter the coupon code. So I had to send an email to the support staff and they gave me a new code and allowed me to download the guide and sound track. Needless to say I was not impressed at all with it mainly because everything that is in the guide itself can be found online or in the game people can put messages that can hint you on what to do next. To be fair, I was expecting a physical guide and soundtrack. The artbook looked wonderful but it hardly did anything for me game wise as it's usually looked at once before being tossed on the bookshelf. The sound track and guide can be used forever but with the fact that it must be downloaded with a code, it's difficult to say that it has lasting qualities and not to mention, unless you printed out the guide, you're probably better off reading the many wikis provided for this game since it'll have up to date information that the guide could have omitted. Overall I was displeased and next Souls game I'll be sure to do my research on the Collector Edition and will probably pass it if it's a coupon based content. ~ Dark Souls the Game ~ With the Collector Edition out of the way, the game Dark Souls is just wondering. I had so much fun with Demons Souls that I was sad when I sold my ps3. When Dark Souls was announced I was even more sad but then I became happy when they said it would be released for the 360 as well. What wondering thing for the 360 to have! The game is simply about you being an adventurer. You can think of the game as being a sort of dungeon crawler that is focused on extreme difficulty. The game is hard due to the fact that the mechanics of the game is centered around being hardcore, and it rarely (if ever) helps you or aids you like other games that focuses on flashy moves and helping you through difficult areas. This game doesn't have any help and it can be brutal unless you take precautions. You travel from one bonfire to the next. You can think of a bonfire as a check point so to speak. When you die, you'll return to the last bonfire you were at. You improve in the game by ways of something called Souls. You can think of Souls as a all purpose currency in the Dark Souls universe. It's money, points to level up, and it can be used to upgrade your armor, shields, and weapons. The game also features something called humanity which allows you to become human. You start the game in an undead form where your flesh is rotten and using a humanity you can revert to human form. You can also add a number of humanity to your bank which also increases your chances of getting rare drops from enemies. The danger is that you can get invaded and I would recommend that on your first playthrough, don't turn into human often. The other advantage of being human is that you can strengthen the bonfire you're at. When you start the game, you get 5 heals in your inventory, however, as you progress you can making the healing power stronger, but also you can increase the number of times you heal by being human and offering a humanity to increase the number of heals. Each time you rest at the bonfire, your healing number resets to whatever you reinforced at that bonfire. You start at 5, you can increase to 10 anytime, but you can increase to 20 later when you get a special item. The only disadvantage to being human is that you can get invaded. This might be difficult for new players as they come to new areas but also have to fight human controlled invaders. In some areas computer controlled invasions occur but that is only in perhaps 5 areas of the game. Another minor problem is that when you die in human form, you revert back to the undead form. When you re-collect your souls, you get back the humanity you banked, and whatever souls you collected, but you must revert again at the nearest bonfire using another humanity. The one thing I liked about this game is that you can finally get useful armors and upgrades. The fact is there are many combinations of armors you can wear and mixing up the set is fun to do this time around. Also upgrading plays a BIG role in this game. You can be very low level, but if you can properly upgrade your armor, and get great weapons, you can find that you can become extremely powerful in just a very short time in this game. That doesn't mean the game will be easy but it will mean that the game will be much better to navigate through. Also, this game isn't for everyone. The idea is that you're going to die over and over again. This is true and you'll become very frustrated in some areas of the game and the game itself is very unforgiving in the sense that if you die, you lose all your souls collected, humanity, and everything. You must navigate your way back to the place you died and get your souls again. In some cases you'll die in transits and you can lose a heck of a lot just by one mistake. The game also features a limited set of weapons and armor. I'm not talking about very little, there are decent amount, but to gamers used to getting prizes and other things from bosses and other things will be very disappointed as this game rarely provides you with weapons or upgrades that right off is powerful. The only exception is perhaps this Drake Sword you get early on from shooting off this dragon tail, and the pyromancer flame that is one of the starting classes. It provides an ultra powerful flame spell that can really help you get past the early stages of the game. I think the only problem I have with this game is that there are numerous choke points that causes massive slow downs in this game. I feel that the worse of it is in Blight Town where at the lower swamp areas, you're bogged down by the swamp water but not only that the game itself is stuttering badly enough to where you have to face the camera in a certain direction as to not looking at certain items that can cause the game to slow to a near halt. Other than the slow downs, the game is perfect. This is one of few games that I played 3 times. When you complete the game once, you can start over again with all your weapons, armors, and upgrades (minus a few key story items) but the catch is that it's a lot harder than when you first started. Very fun. I invested close to 140 hours in this game since the release. This is probably the second game besides Fallout New Vegas/Fallout 3 that caused me to play a game more than once and more than 100+ hours. I don't plan to stop and I'm still playing even though many A games been released. I can see myself playing this for years to come and I find it very satisfying to play it. Can't wait for the next Souls game and I would recommend this game to anyone with a 360 or ps3. Just stay away from the Collector Edition since the online wikis much better.	video-games_xbox
Exactly what I expected; Observations. Plus - how to revive a dead battery. About this NYKO white battery pack: this is the exact form factor as the original MS recharge packs so they fit without any problems in the controller and in the recharge station. They charge relatively fast, 4-5 hours in the charger and each battery lasts for at least 15 hours of intense use (playing Borderlands 2 right now so, there's a lot of button pushing here). I usually just leave them charging overnight when the ring on the controller starts blinking. I go through a lot of battery packs (or recharge packs, how they are called sometimes) for my Xbox 360 controllers. I like to play co-op with my friends and siblings so, the demand on the batteries is high. This battery did die on me after 2 years but I was able to revive it and use it for another 6 month or so. A few of my observations on Xbox 360 battery packs that you might find helpful: 1. No matter what batteries you buy, they will work for you pretty much the same - the technology inside is almost identical. They will last you about 2-3 years of casual use and about a year + if you are a serious gamer. So, aim for spending under $10 per single rechargeable battery brick - this way it's cheaper than using AA batteries. 2. The battery's quality you receive might vary, I found (this is not a comment on this brand - both batteries I got work beautifully; this is just a general observation). Don't worry if you received a dud. If you are buying them from Amazon, you are covered - simply fill in the online form and send it back for a replacement. Zero cost to you if you do it fast. 3. Sometimes a battery might appear dead but it isn't. You can try and revive it. This is not my method, I found it somewhere long time ago, but I did find it helpful on a few occasions: Tools: Paper clips and pliers. Bend several paper clips into a horseshoe shape. Please make sure the pins on the battery pack are not oxidized - clean them with rubbing alcohol or scratch them gently with a sharp knife. There are 6 pins on the brick, you'll need to use pins 2 and 5 from left to right to completely discharge the battery. Hold the bent paper clip in pliers and touch these pins. Important: The clip will get hot so try not to touch it with your hands! As soon as the clip heats up, change it for a different clip you prepared and repeat the process until the clips stop heating up. This would mean that the power is discharged. You now need to reset the battery indicator circuit. First, touch together with the paper clip pins 1 and 5; then touch together pins 2 and 6. BTW, since you discharged the battery, you don't need to use pliers anymore. It's done - plug it into a charger and see if it works. While it's not a guaranteed method to revive 100% of the batteries, it does work at least on some of the batteries that otherwise show no sign of life. Give it a try - if it works, you just got yourself an extension on buying a new battery.	video-games_xbox
For $60 I would expect a little more. Mortal Kombat vs. DC is a pretty good game, for about eight hours. I thoroughly enjoyed the story line mode, it was the right blend between comic book and video game story telling. However, once I completed both story modes and unlocked the two secret characters I then felt like there was nothing else to do in the game. There are of course endings per character in the game and achievements to get, but overall I was sort of bored with the game after that. The controls are all right and the graphics very nice. I get sort of frustrated with the fatalities being too difficult to pull off. My biggest complaint so far is that there isn't much to the game outside of the basic head-to-head combat. I mean, I feel as though there should be different modes, maybe a tag mode. There are not enough secret characters to make me want to play more. In truth there are no challenges I'm even remotely interesting in trying to accomplish and no treats for accomplishing them. The character endings are sort of bland and sort of like bad/boring Twisted Metal endings (though Twisted Metal endings are better and funnier). So basically, in this day that I'm paying $60 for a game, I'm not too happy with what this game delivered in the sense of content. No special game play modes, no interesting endings, not enough secret content and so on. Here are a few things I think could have improved the game: 1. More fatalities (2 per character isn't enough for me) 2. More secret characters 3. More special play modes 4. Maybe some sort of Battle Chess mode, where you get to play chess using each side and there is a little quick animated fights as a piece is taken. (maybe you can even add a challenge piece to this where the player who would normally lose a piece can play a MK combat and the winner is the one who loses) Anyhow, buy it used for $20, you'll be happier.	video-games_xbox
Wow a racing sim that's actually fun to play. Upon receiving this game in the early evening, I decided to install disc 2 and 1 (My xbox is elderly), and download all the included DLC. While doing so I got my kid in bed and got myself a shower. I begin playing the game around 9pm... ...Next thing I know the sun is peaking in through my window. That's right I played this game for somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 hours on my first go, and didn't even realize it! I was just simply focused on racing, and winning, and having the time of my video gaming life! The game really is that awesome! Now I haven't played GT5 because I don't have a PS3 yet this gen, but I had played every GT game before PS3 and I just have to say, this game is leaps and bounds more fun than any of those games! The sense of speed is spot on! I even noticed myself clenching my butt, and death gripping my controller, as I reached some of the greater speeds in some of the super-cars. That being said this game begs for a driving wheel, my legs would not sit still as I played because the game play has such a degree of realism that it just felt natural for them to be controlling the gas and break. Unfortunately xbox has a very poor selection of race wheels within my budget. This means that I will have to save my money for one of the expensive premium wheels from Fanatec. I have no doubt I will be the most happy with one of their quality wheels in the long run anyway, instead of a cheap MadCatz wheel or used 360 wheel. The game is huge. Did I mention I played for 10 hours the first night? Well I'm only 1.1% through the World Tour, which is the main career option. I have no doubt that I will still be working on 100% by the time the next generation of consoles hits the shelves. I am also surprised to say that this game WILL be competing for game time with Skyrim (RPGs are my genre of choice and Skyrim is THE RPG), and I have no doubt it will win a lot of the time, the game is that fun! I also went through and unlocked all of the current Autovista cars which unlocks the Halo Warthog in Autovista, but unfortunately you can't drive it... Yet. Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear gives you his usually humorous overview of each car in the Autovista, and some other British guy gives more detail on areas of the car you explore. Autovista is nice but not really something you will be using all the time, but it is awesome for showing off the amazing visuals to friends. So to sum this up, if you are thinking of getting this gem of a racer, stop thinking and 'race' to the store and scoop it up! It will NOT disappoint! Plus the first wave of Forza 4 comes with a code to get more DLC cars, and if you can find a Limited Collector's Edition, it comes with even more bonus DLC cars.	video-games_xbox
Much better than user reviews would indicate. I was a huge fan of Burnout 3 on PS2. Two of the best things about it were the Aftertouch takedowns and Crash mode. Burnout Paradise has scrapped these features but is still a great game on its own merits. The demo doesn't really do the game justice, since it only features a handful of events and a limited section of the city to drive around in. Burnout Paradise's open-world format lets you cruise around the city seamlessly with no loading screens. Starting events is as simple as pulling up to an intersection and pulling both trigger buttons simultaneously. Gas Stations, Body Shops and Paint Shops are located throughout the city allowing you to refill your boost, repair or paint your car on the fly by simply driving through them. There are a number of Junkyards as well where you can switch cars. Familiar events like races and Road Rage (score as many takedowns as possible in a set time) are still in the game, as well as a Marked Man mode, where you need to get from point A to point B while several cars attempt to take you down. Burning Routes test your driving skills and award you with an upgraded version of your car if you can complete the trip in the allotted time. Stunt run challenges you to string together as many jumps and tricks as possible. There's also a ton Super Jumps, gated shortcuts (Crashes) and Billboards to discover throughout Paradise City. Crash mode has essentially been replaced by Showtime mode, which you can trigger at any point in the game by pressing both shoulder buttons. Your car starts flipping end over end through traffic and your goal is to smash into as much traffic as possible for as long and as far as possible. Each car you hit adds to your boost which allows you to keep your momentum, while hitting busses adds to your multiplier. While Showtime isn't as fun as Crash mode, it fits better with the open-world format. Your ultimate goal is to beat a certain score on every road in the city. There's a similar mode where you try to get the fastest time from one end of each road to the other. As you progress through the game, you're alerted to new cars driving around the city which you must take down to add to your garage. This feels far more rewarding than simply earning cars automatically when certain benchmarks are reached as in past Burnout games. There are over 75 cars in all, classified as either Speed, Stunt and Aggression types. The online mode is where Burnout Paradise really shines. At any point you can use the D-pad to jump online and begin "Freeburning", where you can drive around the city with up to seven other drivers. In Freeburn mode, players compete for the lead in categories like drift distance, barrel rolls, oncoming distance and more. The host can also set up races from one point to another or with a number of checkpoints. There are also 350 co-op challenges (50 for each number of players 2-8) where all players must meet the challenge. Some are as simple as using boost, while others require more cooperation. For instance, seven players need to line up in a certain location while an eighth person jumps over all of them. These are a lot of fun and encourage a lot of talking between players. The social aspect in Burnout Paradise is much greater than other games I've played online where you may play a quick match and then face another player. Besides the lack of Crash mode and Aftertouch, one of the biggest complaints is the inability to restart a race. Because there are events at every intersection, the only time this gets somewhat frustrating is when you've completed most of the events and you only have a few left to earn the elusive Elite license. This especially applies to Burning Routes, of which there is only one for each car on the entire map. However, if you start an event, crash, and don't think you'll be able to complete the event, you can simply stop the car and the event will end. Another complaint is the lack of two-player split-screen. While this would be a great feature to have, it probably would be difficult to pull off considering the amount of processing power required to render the city at a high framerate without any load time. The map is another point of frustration. When you start out, you're heavily dependent on the map and will often crash when checking the map to find the next turn. The game helps you out a little with turn signals, but often times they come too late to make the turn. However, the more you play it, the more familiar you become with the map and the less of an issue this becomes. All in all, Burnout Paradise is a huge departure from its predecessors, but it retains the feel of the series while adding a lot of fun new elements. I was disappointed with the demo but now that I've played the full version for about 60 hours (82% complete), I'm so glad I picked up this game.	video-games_xbox
Was really hoping to give this a higher rating. I've been following this game's development for close to a year and literally freaked out when plot details and screenshots were released. They looked awesome and the first image of Connor got me giddy. I pre-ordered the game, barely able to contain myself, thinking early on that it could possibly be my favorite game of the year. Well, I was very wrong in that respect. I've had it since the day after it launched and I just didn't enjoy it as much as ACII, Brotherhood, Revelations or even ACI, despite that having some minor annoyances of its own. First of all, they rushed the release. This is one of the buggiest games I've played in a long time. I know with due time and patches, they'll be fixed, but seriously...If it was that buggy before release, they should've ironed everything out before launching it. I gladly would've waited an extra month (or however long it took them to fix the issues) to play a crisper game. Secondly, there was way too much Haytham gameplay. After all the hype that Connor got as the new assassin, I thought it was ridiculous that I had to play as his father through the first three sequences of the game. Why not give him a sort of Ezio-style introduction and let the player control him from the start? Also, I don't know if it's just me really missing Ezio and Altair, but Connor (and the storyline for that matter) just didn't interest me like Altair and Ezio's stories and personalities/character did. They were both too flat and uninteresting in my opinion. As far as the controls are concerned, they're certainly not as fluid as they were said to be and some of that is likely related to the glitchiness of the game itself, but they aren't completely terrible either. As far as Connor's weaponry is concerned, I appreciated the ability to dual wield and I love the inclusion of both muskets and the rope dart, but it seems they went overboard in showcasing his abilities, forgoing practicality in favor of epic-ness, something that seems cool at first, but as you play it becomes more like "No way that's realistic." (Yes, I know it's a video game, and I realize they wanted more of a "Whoa!" factor, but still.) The other thing that really bothered me was the ending. I mean, really. All the hype and suspense over five years to build up to that? Really?? I won't spoil it for anyone, but I was majorly disappointed. It felt like a slap in the face honestly. Rushed and completely dissatisfying. One aspect that is very fun is the naval warfare/battles. Ooooh, definitely my favorite part of the game! I had a lot of fun with them. So overall, it's a disappointment. Glitchiness and an uninteresting story/main character took the enjoyment down a notch for me, but it's not a terrible, terrible game, just not all that it could've been if you ask me.	video-games_xbox
Great game, low price but better on the computer. This is a great game to buy. It allows an almost unlimited amount of freedom in a fantasy world. When you begin the game you get to pick from 10 different races and are offered 21 different classes. Add to that the ability to become either a Vampire of a Werewolf later in the game. There are hundreds of quests and you can do them whenever you want. You don't even have to do the main quest if you don't want to and can wait as long as you want to do it if you decide to. If you like nonrestrictive RPGs then this is the game for you. Now onto the bad aspects: If you have a computer that can run the computer version buy the computer version. I have seen both, and while I cannot play the computer version due to a lack of a capable computer I have played it on a computer 1 1/2 years old (my friend's). And it runs so much better. Prepare yourself for a lot of loading time on the Xbox and the loading time only increases as the game goes on (probably the game having to keep track of all the NPCs and quests and items). The biggest loading time is when you first load your character or if you load a save after you die, sometimes I read while I wait for it to load. Also the computer Morrowind allows you to download Mods, something that can make the game even more enjoyable, or create your own. On the Xbox you are stuck with whatever errors shipped (one time all the houses vanished in the game, no kidding. I shut it off and went to bed and they were back the next day, but still, a little weird). Also the characters just look better on the computer. Actually people are pretty ugly on the xbox and without mods you're stuck with a limited amount of faces ect. to select in the beginning. Also if you lose an important quest item or kill the wrong character you can fix it on the computer with the construction set, on the xbox you're just screwed (happened to me once). That all being said this is still an awsome game, and if you don't have a good computer then buy the xbox one. For all its faults it is still worth the loading time and other problems. If you do buy it for computer be careful, check your system, Morrowind is very picky about what video card it needs to run.	video-games_xbox
So much more than the hype. While in the middle of a tournament to support yourself and your beloved daughter, a mob of zombies breaks in and crashes the party. End result - a lot of dead people that are up and walking around. How did this happen? Well, it looks like everyone is blaming you and some of the survivors and, amongst your critics, the military. Solution - hang around and figure this out while staying alive and handing out some much need lovin'. I'm not going to pick a system or try to turn this into one being better than the other. I love my 360 and that is that. I'm sure PS3 owners feel the same way about their stuff. I'm glad we can all experience the game. This is a lot like the last one in some ways, too, only there are some beautiful little things that have come a long, long way since the inception. First, you have that same safety area. You get calls and you run missions and you field a lot fo traffic. The GREAT thing is that the AI isn't stupid this time. In the first DRing, they stood and let themselve be gobbled up without you. Now, they run and you run, and that makes things good. I'm not saying that this is a perfect world - far from it - but it is a great thing that has gone well beyond what I expected. You level up just like before, and you get some of the same stuff. Streength, speed, health blocks, item bnlocks; you name all that stuff and it appears. The difference now is that it is a lot more interesting in the way you level. You get your player points all sorts of ways: you can kill, complete missions, play little games, and dabble in mall materials. There's a lot to do in a Casino with malls literally glued everywhere. The place is HUGE. One difference is the combo weapons, where you make somethingf rom two or more items. The first thing I got was a spiked bat, which is a nail and bat creation. Then I got a drill bucket - and I don't want to ruin it or the others that came after. Basically the game just added a new element and that is pretty. Player likes. Another thing I like is the ability to aim. When I find something and want to hit someone with it, I can. Arrows, lawn darts, bullets; it isn't like the last go. you can actually put the projectile in the face of that lovely shambling mess and think "i AM good at this." You can also utilize your moves and getyyourself out of jams, making even button mashers have a chance to get out alive. It takes and makes something that all expereince levels can exjoy while rewarding you for getting better or trying harder. Tjhose bosses - some of them are jsut plain evil. There is a lot in this game and it is easy to keep on keeping on. you are a different person, you know that right aweay, and have different needs. I dso have to say that not having the camera was weird at first, but the mall and the amazing size of this establishment just boggled our minds. We got an early release so this has been a week of playing, too, and thwere are only minor glitches as well. I've had tweo that had zombies take me out after they were gone and one stick me in a wall. Still, with all the hours I've logged, its a fair shake. Gore - yes. Fun - yes. What I expected - a lot more. i know some people might find a fault here or there, but judging it fairly will show just how beautiful this game is. The snozberries taste like snozberries! It is a great, great thing and I hope you pikc it up regardless of what you thought of the first. It will keep giving and has more story than before. for the multiplayer reviewing, I am not the person to say if this is great and admit it. So, that is one thing I have to say that I cannot provide much detail on. Still, I'm sure an ocean of reviews will come out and you can find out as much as you want. Turn to the editorial piece if you need more on what is what there and take a look at those zombies and note how good they are depicted. In my wildest dreams, I didn't think I would see thousands of beautifully rendered teeth chomping that chomp and yet I did. It is well in the 5/5.	video-games_xbox
From Someone Who Didn't Like Online Play. Before CoD4, I really wasn't someone who enjoyed playing games online. Being schooled in the art of the Deathmatch by 13 year olds wasn't exactly my idea of a good time. Still, when the multiplayer demo for this game hit Xbox Live, I went ahead and put my trial Gold membership to use and gave it a go-around. I'm incredibly glad I did. Yes, the single player campaign is short. On the other hand, it's by far one of the best single player FPS experiences I've had in a long time. The varied gameplay will keep you hooked through the entire campaign. Of course, there's less campaign to keep you hooked, but it's a matter of quality vs quantity for me. Please Note: as has been stated previously, you're paying $60 for a multiplayer game. Playing the demo really did convince me that it would be money well spent. I enjoy the fact that, in non-ranked matches, you can level up even if you aren't exactly a top tier FPS veteran. While bonuses are given when you do well, nothing is taken away when you do poorly - you simply receive less xp. This was a big deal for me, as part of the draw for the multiplayer component is the slew of unlockable content that is level dependent. While damage regeneration is a factor, it isn't overpowering. The ease at which even a moderate player can take down an opponent more than makes up for this. FOR LEFT-HANDED GAMERS: I have a modded controller, which has both the thumbsticks and underlying buttons flipped. Because of this, I don't know whether or not the thumbstick buttons can be flipped along with the movement and aim controls. What I can say, is that the use of A,B,X, and Y haven't been an issue for me. I've logged enough hours to say that I've never felt the button mappings were a hindrance to gameplay (cough Gears of War cough cough) This game made me want to get an Xbox Live Gold subscription (I've also started to play Team Fortress 2 to make myself feel like I'm spending the money more wisely.) It's definitely one of the top games to hit the 360, and a must for anyone who doesn't mind ponying up a little extra cash per month for a sweet sweet multiplayer experience. Oh, and one more thing, if you're not in a clan, and you get put on a non-clan team against a clan based team, you should take a few deep breaths right before the match starts; you're about to get your butt handed to you.	video-games_xbox
Madden is dead to me. Okay this game sucks. No way around it, I don't care what any of you fan boys out there are saying... I (thankfully) rented this game first so at least I didn't drop 60 bucks on this pile. I'll start with the two good things about this title... well sort of. You see even what this game does good it at the same time sucks at. Superstar mode is a nice idea but is not executed very well. I started off as a halfback which I thought was going to be a blast. Unfortunity I was wrong. The shotty camera makes it almost impossible to see anyone coming at you. You basically are just running in the direction of the play and hoping to gain some yards. After one game of that I started over as a quarterback. Playing as a quarterback is much much better than halfback. You actually feel like you have some control over the game, calling audibles and moving players around feels great. But you never have control over which plays are picked, which wouldn't be a huge problem but it seems like the computer is picking plays at random from a list of five or six plays. I found myself changing the play with audibles a lot. Also if you put the computer in charge of the rest of the team (defense) side of the ball your going to loss some games. One game I scored 35 points and lost to the chargers 35-52. LaDainian Tomlinson had 265 rushing yards and four touchdowns. My defense couldn't stop him! Philip Rivers threw three touchdowns on top of that. In other words the computer AI stinks. Okay, now for the graphics. During gameplay they are great, but after a play has ended the camera switches to closeups of a group of players (seems to be only a couple of shots). When it does this you notice the game chugging real hard. Its horrible slow down that is unforgivable. This slow down is even more apparent in superstar mode. Before each possession you are given a chance to pick your role for that drive. This enables you to boost stats for your players or lower the opposing team stats. This screen pops up as your coming to the line for the first play. However, due to the slowdown many times I was able to start the play before it came up. When it eventually caught back up it paused the game mid play. That is laughable. The annoucer in the game does a good job giving the play by play but sounds like he is broadcasting from a tin can. Other than that the sound is fine. So as you can tell I hate this game... don't buy it, don't rent it. As for me I guess I will have to play ESPN Football 2005 for the rest of my life because EA doesn't know how to make a decent football game anymore... or anyother sports game for that matter. EA should have got MLB rights and visual concepts and sega should have gotten rights to the NFL... only in a perfect world I guess. Trust me if you are disappointed with the new madden go find a copy of ESPN Football 2005 it is still the best football game to date. Madden is dead to me.	video-games_xbox
They're good in some ways but bad in others. This headset is pretty good. They sound GREAT!. The problem is that they are very heavy and get uncomfortable after extended use. Here is some KEY information: These come with the controller adapter, so you there's $25 of the value right there. A really cool thing about the adapter is that you can set the game volume to voice chat sound ratio, and then change the master volume. This makes it convenient when you have to lower your volume because unlike before, you don't have to set the correct ratio when going back up, it's already set. The headset sounds pretty good, and if you don't already have a good pair of headphones with a mic, then I suggest getting them. With that said, if you purchase the $25 adapter separately, then you can use any pair of headphones to listen to game sound. And if they have a mic, then you can speak with them too. I wanted to have turtle beaches dedicated to my Xbox One, so that is why I got them, but I have a pair of Sony MDR-1RBTs that I can plug into the adapter and use just as easily. I returned these XO Sevens, however, and got XO Fours. For most people, I would suggest using a pair of headphones with a mic that they already have, with the adapter. For anyone without a headset, absolutely get these. For a comparison with the XO Fours, read on. The XO Sevens are nice. They sound great as well. There's one issue with them, however, that got me to return them to Gamestop. The XO Sevens are just too heavy and the material is not breathable. They get irritating after long use and the weight does not help. They do sound superb though, so if you don't mind slight discomfort after extended use, and you don't mind the price, then go with these. Otherwise, the XO Fours are your best bet. They are light, and they are comfortable. After hours of playing Forza, they are still easy to wear. They sound almost as good, and they don't make the area around my ears sweat. I would say the XO Fours are the better headset, and they're cheaper! I hope this helped, and if you have any questions, please feel free to email me or leave a comment.	video-games_xbox
A very Underrated Sports game that's great, but not without some flaws. A very fun game. The first NHL game I decided to play. I'll break it down with PROS and CONS. CONS: (ALL OF THESE HAVE TO DEAL WITH HOCKEY ULTIMATE TEAM. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO PLAY THAT THEN I HAVE ZERO COMPLAINTS) The only thing that really pisses me off about this game is the Ultimate Hockey Team Mode. For starters, the team that you get is ALWAYS outmatched because you're playing as some no name team you create, yet you still use the jerseys of an actual team and their home town is your home town, and you get boosts for having their players. So essentially you're playing as YOUR FAVOURITE team, but everyone on it has like 60-70 rank which makes your team rank like 70 and you have to go against teams who's minimum stats are high 80's. EA SCREWS YOU ALL THE TIME. THEY MAKE YOU LOSE ALL THE TIME JUST BECAUSE. The server will randomly just so happen to go out while you're playing MID GAME and you get an AUTOMATIC LOSS. When you lose regularly, you still get points for it and stats but THEY MAKE YOU LOSE AND YOU GET NOTHING.No Stats on the game, no points, no details, just a loss and the game telling you to sign out and sign back in. It's not you internet connection, it's not XBOX Live going down, They just want you to log out and log back in for no reason and screw up your record. They give you HANDS DOWN the WORSE GOALIE they can. Your goalie has some of the lowest stats in the game, averaging at around 55-63 out of 100. He doesn't catch anything at all. All the easy saves he can make just fly right into the net because he doesn't stand inside it, he stands like 5 feet out of it basically leaving it open. If you choose to go ONLINE in Hockey Ultimate Team mode, YOU WILL LOSE. This game has been out for nearly a year and the majority of players have had it since it came out. They farmed the crap out of this game by getting the best of best and you will NEVER EVER be able to take them on ONLINE unless your whole team is in the 90's. And FINALLY The game doesn't teach you how to take someone down in fight by pulling them on the ground. Often times the battle can be over instantly because they just threw you on the ground and you look like a Chump for it. PROS: Playing with friends is definitely a highlight. It gets so competitive and fun that you'll waste hours just slapshotting each other. The graphics are really nice. When you score a goal sometimes it may show you what it looks like from inside the net and it almost looks like how you see it on TV when watching a real game. It looks very cool. The sounds are great and the controls feel good enough to where you get the hang of things pretty quickly, and if you can't then there are tons of different adjustments you can make to make it feel right. Be a Pro is pretty cool where you have specific things to do in each game. When you get tired you can sit and watch the game from the bleachers while your energy comes back. But sitting in the penalty box sucks because it's almost real time and takes forever. OVERALL: UNLESS ALL YOU WANT TO PLAY IS ULTIMATE TEAM, THIS GAME WILL TEST YOUR PATIENCE. Until you can get great players, it's slow and tedious work. The game works perfectly fine in regular online or when you just play by yourself but I've noticed all the bugs in the Ultimate Hockey Team game mode. It's fun and addicting and it's a nice change from everyone playing Madden or FIFA. It's a game that doesn't get so much credit and a lot of people dog on it but it's damn fun when you get to it. Like any other sports game you get pumped when you score and pissed when they do.	video-games_xbox
Standing Up For Resident Evil 6! One of The Best Resident Evil Games Out There. First of all, I'm A Huge Resident Evil (BIOHAZARD in Japan, which I love more as a title) fan & it's my favorite game/film series! Part of the reason that I write this review is cause I'm sick of the haters bashing this game. Sure it's not complete survival horror (Leon's Campaign & part of Ada's is the closest to that) & it's not perfect but it's still a great game in my opinion! I seen some good reviews on here & like to add to them! First of all, I noticed some do not like how easy the melee is, I Like It! It comes in handy cause when the toughest bosses come (& they will), you'll want as much ammo as you can spare. Besides, I always fund the melee fun! Leon's & Jake's Campaigns are my favorites, Ada's Campaign is great & Chris' Campaign is good too! I liked how the stories tied together, it was very well done! Ada, Jake, Sherry, Piers & Leon are my favorite characters in this (although Jill Valentine is my No. 1 favorite RE character, she's not in this sadly). The Only complaint I have is that Jill, Claire & Sheva does not appear in RE6 but Jill & Claire does appear in RE: Revelations (Jill) & RE: Revelations 2 (Claire) & they are good as well! I also like to point out that I beat the first 5 Resident Evil games as well as the others like the Revelations series, Operation Raccoon City & More & I Love Them All! What draws me to Resident Evil is the stories & characters! And whether it's survival horror or a shooter, I'll love it as long as it's fun or/and got a great story (& all of them delivered in my book)! So, I Thank You CAPCOM & Staff For Bringing Us The Resident Evil / Biohazard Series & I Will Support It Forever! And Thanks For The Live Action & CG Anime Films As Well! And one last thing, please do not comment if you're gonna argue with me over my defense of Resident Evil 6! I do not have time to argue & do not like to argue, if you got something to say against it (& enough had...), please write your own review, Thanks. And for those that love it, Enjoy The Ride And Feel Free To Comment!	video-games_xbox
Good game but could use improvements. I have played RE 0-6. I didn't bother with operation racoon because I had a feeling it would suck, and it did. With RE6, I was hopeful that it would be a lot better. This game is definitely good in terms of slightly improving RE 5 as far as the action goes and adding four different campaigns into one game. However, the resident evil series weren't meant to be strictly action, and unfortunately, a lot of this game was all about the action. Leon's campaign was the only one that came close to having a little "survivor horror". All the others campaigns were too much action oriented. After playing the game, I just gave up on trying to find the "scary parts" and enjoyed the game for being an action game. So, Chris' campaign ended up being the best(if you like the action, in my opinion). Unfortunately, besides having a good grasp of the action and adding 4 campaigns into one game, I can only say more negative things about the game than I can about it being good. They are not major negatives, so it didn't destroy the game for me. Main Cons: less survivor horror...way too much action too many quick time events...way too many dialogue was cheesy at times(I could literally know what the character was going to say, especially Leon and Jake...super cheesy dialogue coming from them) storyline fell short...it was like they just wanted to add this whole idea of zombie DOOMSDAY but they didn't really focus on making a great storyline. It just wasn't interesting. zombies carried guns( a lot)...j'avo might as well just be mutated looking people with guns that don't really do anything cool to set them apart; main characters didn't even have many bullets to begin with agent hunt wasn't as fun as I thought it would be...mercenary got boring after a while(but that's my own opinion, I'm sure others loved it) some of the characters were just made to look weak or out of context ( despite ada being a double agent, leon still hangs onto her even though she's been dealing with the whole virus ordeal...sherry was made to be this weak little girl who relied on jake a lot) camera was awful at times and game wasn't very good at showing players how to use certain things Despite this cons, I still liked the game. I wouldn't say it was awful, but it certainly needs a lot of improvement. I'm not asking for strict survival horror, but a mix would have been good. RE4 did a good job with that. The story in RE5 was a lot more interesting than 6.	video-games_xbox
No spoiler here, just my take. Played as a pure Soldier. Ok, so after nearly 40 hours of play this game has been completed. First off, is it for everyone? No. That's how I got my copy. A friend played it for a half hour or so and gave it to me, he hated it. The game basically breaks down into three pieces. 1. The first half of this game is rather slow and repetitive. Lots of dialog and not too much action. After a while it starts to get grindy (searching planets in grid patterns for minerals comes to mind...repetitive level lay out...yawn) If you are like me you want to get all the assignments done before you jump into the missions. First off the missions will beat you down if you try them too soon. Which is a good thing because there are not many missions...but tons of assignments. You will sort of figure things out after a good many hours of play and hopefully have enough curiosity to push you through. The assignments though do get very repetitive and lame after a while. 2. The latter half of the game is divided in two. The first portion is when you finally get on your feet and have a good understanding of what's going on. Don't expect this until at least 20+ hours into the game. At this point you can hold your own and start gravitating towards the main missions. Unless you rush through the game in which case it may happen sooner...But if you're blowing through dialog in hurry-up mode, then obviously the game is already lagging for you (case in point). 3. The second portion of the last half is when it gets real good. Gone is the repetitiveness of assignments. Now you are into the meat of the story, but this portion of the game is far too short and long in coming. By this time you are so stoked that things actually picked up that you whiz through it. Still very cool. So in the end I was glad to have finished it but it was a long road. I have zero interest to play it again. I wish there were real boss battles, I found this part to be very lacking. Yeah you have culminations but only one "boss battle" comes to mind, aside from the end, that was sort of cool but over all it lacked inspiration. There were no "OH MY GOSH!" bosses that you had to fight. Bummer. Another thing is I wish it gave you things to strive for as a quest/reward system. Basically you get exp and cash. After a while they both don't really matter. A carrot on a stick is needed at times to keep things rolling...And when you catch that carrot, you get a good feeling of accomplishment...Plus you get to eat the carrot (use item). Not in this game. Plus my found stuff blew away anything that could be bought in the game, so there goes that avenue of motivation. Over all, not too bad. But if you are looking for a true RPG and are a seasoned RPGer, you may be let down. This is more a shooter with a long winded story (cool one, don't get me wrong) with a teeny-tiny bit of puzzle and no real quest/reward system. 80% Story 19% Action .5% Puzzle .5% Reward This is MY review and I'm sticking to it=)	video-games_xbox
AWESOME SHOOTING GAME BASED ON MARVEL CHARACTERS. I've been waiting a long time for a Punisher game. I played the demo in Game Stop and it is awesome. A lot like Max Payne, but populated with various Marvel Comics characters, including Black Widow, Nick Fury, the Russian, Bullseye, Kingpin, Jigsaw, Iron Man, and even Matt Murdock. All kinds of exotic Punisher weapons, Punisher attitude and Punisher humor. You can make the Punisher interrogate crooks to gain health. One example is by stuffing them into a pool of piranhas to make them talk. But don't keep them under too long or the piranha will eat their face off before they talk. You can use the crooks you catch as human shields until they are shot to death by their own guys. Great graphics and a good-looking Punisher character. Lots of shooting and situations. Just awesome. It get progressively more difficult as you make your way through the game. After buying the game I'm even more impressed. The Punisher in the game has Tom Jane's voice from the movie. Great writing and quotes. The opening movie is CG but so photographically stunning you're not sure if it's live action. You unlock other CG movies along the way and they are something else. The Punisher gets additional health from interrogating bad guys and breaking them for info. He also has a Slaughter Mode that gives him superhuman strength and restores health. The music is top notch too. This game is rated M for a good reason. There is a lot of obscene language and the Punisher tortures crooks for info. Sometimes they die if you push to hard. So, maybe not for young kids. I hope there is a Punisher 2 and that it involves him going after Middle Eastern terrorists. I could really get into a game like that. Here they limit it to safe Russians. In a CG movie by Kingpin it is implied that there may be a Punisher 2. I will be looking forward to that. This one had some great chapters. My favorite was at the funeral home where he hides in a coffin and pops up during a funeral to mow down "the family". You'll love this game if you like single player shooter games or Marvel Comics. And once you've worked your way through once, you'll want to go through again, increase your score, and more fully explore Slaughter Mode and the Quick Kills.	video-games_xbox
Important Info. I am a veteran to the Xbox Live gaming world and know much about it. Many people are doing a lot of complaining on the many different factors of X Box Live which is highly ridiculous. X Box Live succeeds past Sony's network adaptor because it is a better service, just because you have to pay 50$ a year for X Box Live doesn't mean you don't get your moneys worth. X Box Live offers very little lag because it is Ethernet(Broad band) only you usually get a lot of lag using Sony's network adaptor because it allows you to use dial-up, even if you are using broad band you get a lot of lag if you are facing a person who is using dial up. Also X Box live offers a gamer tag which is an ID Sony offers temporary gamer tags which you must make up a new nickname every time you use the network adaptor after you stop playing the online game, X Box also lets you keep track of your friends with your friends list you can see what game they are playing and invite them to play. Sony only has a headset that works with only with Socom so far, X Box has a wide array of online games that have voice chat. X Box has a built in Ethernet port you don't need to go out and buy one and X Box has a HDD to store downloadable content. Many people complain about the price 50$ a year if you can't afford that price that is to me ridiculous you wouldn't offer a service that is costly for free to a total stranger it takes man power to run these Xbox live servers not hopes and dreams many people work hard to control the internet traffic that Xbox live costumers generate. Many people say that in the future online games will come out in which you have to pay that is unlikely to happen for the following reason MICROSOFT MAKES CONTRACTS WITH GAME COMPANIES SO THAT THEY DO NOT CHARGE MONTHLY FEES MICROSOFT PAYS WITH NOT ONLY THERE MONEY BUT WITH THE MONEY WE PAY AS x BOX LIVE SUBSCRIBERS. In my opinion Xbox Live succeeds over the PS2's network adaptor as well as Nintendo's online plan in which you have to pay per month per game. X Box Live is great, get it if you're a serious gamer.	video-games_xbox
Did WW2 Enemies Really Taunt You Incessantly. In Blazing Angels Squadrons of WWII you're a Yank pilot flying a variety of planes all around the globe in World War II battles. Do you feel the wind flying through your hair? Not really. First, the basic layout. There are 42 different airplanes that you can eventually fly. The detailing on each one is quite nice. You have to start the propeller, get up to speed, learn how to zoom around in the sky. Do a barrel roll! No, just kidding, this isn't StarFox. Still, you get sun glinting off your landing gear, movement off the flaps, you name it. The world around you is rather well detailed too. It's important to remember that unlike most other games where they world you can see is limited, in this game, because you're high in the sky, your visible landscape is huge. The game has fully rendered towns, villages, forests, moving tank formations, sailing ships, you name it. There is drifting smoke, raging fires and pounding surf. The skies are gorgeous at times. Yes, we did see occasional "shift lines" as the game coped with high speed turns, but considering the number of objects being tracked simultaneously I didn't think it unreasonable. It's funny, we played this first right after I watched Last of the Mohegans. The soundtrack is almost exactly the same in some parts. I didn't consider that bad. What I did consider really bad is the inane radio chatter. Your enemies taunt you - in English - with the same phrases over and over again? It is questionably cute the first time, but it drives you completely insane after a few minutes. I realize they want you to feel "in the fight". They can certainly do that with comments from your own side, without having to resort to German snide taunts. On to gameplay. The game checkpoints automatically rather frequently, which is good. The game isn't flight-sim difficult - I love flight sims but realize that many people don't want to put that kind of effort into learning to fly a plane. The plane flying is very arcadey. I don't say that in a bad way. This is a "fun" combat game, not a learn-to-fly-warplanes-after-3-months-of-practice simulator. What this means is that there's a lot of circling around, shooting down fighters, strafing tanks, and perfecting your aim. This isn't a game of detailed flight mechanics. It's a game of understanding the basics of flight, aiming your plane and shooting. Because of this, they give you time limits so there is some challenge. If you're too slow or not accurate enough, you'll have to replay the mission. I actually found this to be a nicer / fairer balance than giving you a paper tissue plane that exploded all the time. If you're going to be frustrated that you were too slow, that's something you can work on. If on the other hand they made you so flammable that you blew up all the time, that would be a sure recipe for frustration. If you're good, then you can zip through the missions in the game in about a day or two. But that's only starting the fun. Now you get to go online and face the real challenges, for which the game was merely a preview. It's always far more challenging to face real live enemies than simple AI. Also, there is a ton of replayability because many of the planes won't unlock until you hit special goals in the missions. It gives you incentive to go back through the worlds, pushing yourself to go more quickly, to shoot with more precision. I'm sure some people will complain about the lack of "modern technology" in World War II. You don't have radar on your screen, for example. That's the way things were! Heck, your enemies light up with red symbols making them super easy to spot even from a long way off. I'm sure WWII fighters didn't have that either :) That being said, surely WWII planes had air speed and level indicators! I'd like at least the option of turning on and off those basic visuals. Still, I found it really immersive to fly over London, the widescreen graphics shoing me all the streets below, with the dark clouds above, and tons of planes circling around in the air attacking each other. You just sort of tune out the inane chatter part, listen to the air raid sirens and do your best to keep the civilians safe. There was plenty here to keep me having fun. If / when they come out with the next version, I'd just ask that they tone down the overly talkative characters. Rating: 4/5	video-games_xbox
Could have been great. After playing Shaun White and punching myself repeatadly in the face after an hour or so, I was really hoping this game would come through for the snowboarding game genre. I was wrong...sorta. The good: I really enjoy the graphics and the dynamic weather of the game. It really helps with the immersion. I also like the VASTNESS of the mountains. It really looks and feels like it could be a real mountain (which I think they are), but that sort of hurts it in a way also. I will explain later. I also like the multiplayer in the aspect of the jump-in jump-out system. Lag wasn't a big issue. But that is really the only good part of it. You may be online with other players, but it still feels lonely on the big mountain. If they had better challenges it may be more entertaining. The other thing I liked, which really gave me high hopes from the tutorial, is the controls. I enjoy Skate and Skate 2 and the awesome control scheme set out in both. The Stoked controls are similar in the way you ollie, grab and manual, which is outstanding! It made it enjoyable to play the beginning of the game. The way they inplemented the Hucker and Stylish system is cool too, but to me there really was no incentive to go the Stylish route. In Hucker style you pre-load your spins and perform multiple grabs in one jump. In Stylish you do slow spins with a grab. To get any points it is best to go with Hucker. I was really having a hard time with Style and trying to do a large point combo. Just my opinion, but love how the pre-loading of the spins is implemented. The Bad: Hmm..Where to start? About an hour into the game I had completed 30 or so challenges on the first mountain, and was sooooo bored. There are only 3 types of challenges from what I have experienced so far. A high-score challenge doing only the types of tricks marked in the top left part of your screen off the particular ramp (i.e. Get 1500 points by doing a spin grap, or a flip, or just a grab, etc...). Another challenge type is doing a particular trick off the given ramp or grind (i.e. Stalefish Tucknee, Frontside 540, etc..)This is pretty frustrating as the trick guide in the start menu is really annoying and hard to use at first. The only other challenge I have encountered is the Pro Challenge which is unlocked by doing certain actions during your session down the mountain. I stumbled onto this by accident, as it wasn't clear in the tutorial and who reads the instruction booklets nowadays anyways? lol. This challenge pits you against the pro in a downhill session where you repeat tricks and get a higher score than the said pro. I HATE these types of challenges. Especially when every trick isn't known. This is just my opinion. The challenges get old real quick considering you repeat the same challenge types over and over and over again on the mountain with only a changing ramp or grind. Grinding is frustrating also. The physics behind it bother me. As with the physics overall. It feels alright, but when you think you are hauling arse and see a potential big jump ahead, prepare for it, ollie and only get about 2 feet of air and that double backflip turns into a half flip to bail (which the bails are also really lame)you start shaking your head and wondering "WHY ME?!". I really wanted to like it and did for the first hour or so. I just couldn't overcome the boredome I felt. It is just a game with really big mountains with pretty snow and solid controls. I suppose it is worth the 37.99, but if I had a demo I wouldn't have bothered purchasing. Just my opinions, but it mirrors some of the more prominent reviewers.	video-games_xbox
Best Mech game in a long time. Like most people will say if you were a fan of Chromehounds you will more then likely enjoy this game. It is by far the best Mech game in a long time. There is definetly some ties in this game to other Armored core games and to Chromehounds but this game strikes a nice balance of the good stuff in those games. There is a steap learning curve but it is not to bad for Mech game fans. It just comes with the territory. The customization options are huge and the gameplay is suprisingly smooth and natural feeling. It didn't take me long at all to catch on to the controls. The only time I have noticed that can be a pain is when climbing buildings. Generally this works well but sometimes your mech will want to fly off in the other direction or you won't be high enough up on a structure to be able to launch off of it. Not game changing by any means but something you will notice and it will make you have to be more precise in your movement. This is definitely a multiplayer game. All the story missions and side missions can be played together and for the competitive Conquest mode you will want as many people as you can get on your team. This will help in many aspects of the game. You can create your own team or join another team. I would not advise making your own if you are going to play solo. You can also loan out your services to other teams if you are just playing alone. There is an actual story to this game but I cant say that it really matters or that I have been able to follow along with it effectively but the missions involved in the story are pretty challenging and will put your team to the test. They are a lot of fun and rewarding. It is definitely a good build up to the competitive aspect of the game. Which will be the largest aspect of the game. In closing if you are like me and wishing another Chromehounds would come along then this is your best bet and you should pick it up now. I am not a huge Armored Core fan but this game is top notch. If you are looking for a change from the normal shooter and want a more in depth multiplayer game then you should definitely at least rent it.	video-games_xbox
Halo 2 has taken over the gaming industry. This game is unbelievable, no game can match this one. To me it is the best shooter out their and only for xbox can you buy this. I really don't know where to start so ill start with the story line: The destruction of halo slowed the Covenant, but it did not stop them. Fueled by fath, fury and vengeance, they have swept aside all of our defenses and gained a foothold on the most precious prize of all -- Earth. With the human military scattered and crushed, the fate of the planet lies in the hands of one man. Spartan 117 -- the Master Chief. But resourceful and tenacious as he is, the Master Chief will have to rely on new weapons, unexpected allies and a secret so incredible, it will change the galaxy forever....... The story line is great and well invovled and keeps you going on with the game. Next is the graphics. This is the most beautiful game yet to see on xbox. It is at full potential and it looks great, the color and lighting are excellent. The acting is also great and the sounds are also good. There are some new and old guns, here they are: M6C Pistol, BR55 Rifle, Sub Machine Gun, Sniper Rifle, Rocket Launcher, Shotgun, Plasma Pistol, Plasma Rifle, Needler, Covenant Carbine, Particle Beam Rifle, Brute Shot, Covenant Energy Sword, Fuel Rod Gun, Plasma Grenade and fragmentation grenade. They also have some new and old vehicles too: Warthog, Warthog LAAV, Scorpion tank, Ghost, Banshee, Wraith, Spectre, Shadow. You can board and enemies vehicle and steal it from them. Some enemies you will be fighting are Grunts, Jackals, Hunters, Elites, Brutes, Drones, Prophets. There is a bunch more. What i really liked in the game was duel wielding, being able to hold two guns at the same time. But you cannot hold two giant guns only like two machine guns and pistols and so forth. I would have loved to see Rocket Launcher duel weilding, its possible since you hold them on your sholders. You can also trade guns with your allies. say they got a sniper and you got a crapy pistol, then "walla" walk up to them and hit them and trade, they might make a stupid remark like "That hurts chief, that really hurts" but who cares if they die. What I also figured out in the game was that if oyu choose to kill your allies in campaign then they will attack you and make you their enemy. Pretty cool. The levels are long and fun and they feel like freedom, not like here do this and do this, its like your choice or sumthin and there are many ways to go to your destination. There is always action and it never gets borring. I also liked how your allies actually helped you and that you weren't always by yourself. Your men help you out on the gun turrets of your vehicles or even drive for you! What can i say this is a great game, oh wait what am i doing, LIVE! Xbox live is unbelievable on this, the best game for it. You can create profiles and have an emblem and pick which picture appeals to you. There are plenty of maps to fight in so you will never get bored of the same ones. There is also game types like slayer, capture the flag, assault, king of the hill, oddball, juggernaut, and territories. You can also create a game and fight with live members. You can create friend list, party's and clans. No game can get much better as of now. It is definitly the best game for xbox right now. So i sudgest you go out and pick it up especially since it isn't 50$ any more. Trust me, and if you don't get it, you are missing out on a great game, probably the best, and I'm sure many can agree with me.	video-games_xbox
Level grinding never felt so good. Borderlands is a synthesis of first-person shooter (FPS) and the popular massively multi-player online RPGs (MMORPG) games such as World of Warcraft or more aptly non-massively multi-player games such as Phantasy Star Online. The game is overly ambitious and makes a lot of boasts, such as a claim that there are hundreds of thousands of weapons. For the most part, the game succeeds and creates a satisfying and addictive experience best shared with friends. PROS: +++ Emphasis on co-op play +++ Gorgeous cell-shaded graphics +++ Tons of different weapons +++ Missions and quests look to be modeled after World of Warcraft. It is easy to tell what missions you have and what you have to do. +++ Character customization options are abundant CONS: --- A lot of the weapons, about 95%, are generic forgettable junk. --- Vehicle controls are hypersensitive at best or a sloppy mess at worse. --- The story line is fairly weak --- The enemy designs get really repetitive after a while GAMEPLAY: At its core Borderlands is a standard FPS with lots of guns. The emphasis on multi-player encourages up to 4 players to join forces and basically loot the place much in the way that Phantasy Star Online worked. You can choose a brute, a hunter/sniper, siren/assassin, or soldier. Each class has a specialty, but anyone can use any weapon. Characters gain ability points as they pass levels and also improve their skill with individual weapon types by using that type of weapon. Missions are nicely handled in a very World of Warcrafty sort of way. While I'm not a fan of WoW personally, the system works. Enemies in the game are randomly generated and sprouted from set spawn points. After you have played the game for a while, you'll know WHERE you'll find enemies, but you may not know exactly what variation of enemy you'll find. Ultimately, what drives the gameplay is the urge to build your character up and their quest for bigger and better loot. Yes, it is level grinding, but the level of action. PRESENTATION: Amazing, but it could use a few improvements. On the good side, the game is stylish and slick with a Fallout/Mad Max feel neatly put together with some of the nicest cell-shaded graphics I've seen in a long time. Menus work nicely and setting up a multi-player match with friends is a snap. The game's HUD works nicely and gives you almost all of the information you need, but an onscreen mini-map feature is noticeably missing. Instead you must open a menu system to access a map. The other issue is the lack of variety of enemies, which fall into a few small groups. There is fair amount of variation in the strength and abilities of individual enemies within those groups, but you'll mostly find yourself battling Skaggs (dog-like critters) and bandits. GRAPHICS: Gorgeous. The cell-shaded graphical design works nicely and the representation of the blasted wasteland is almost as good as Fallout 3. CONTROLS: The controls are tight and responsive. The auto-assist feature that helps keep enemies in your sights is subtle and doesn't hold your hand too much. My only complaint about the game controls is focused on the vehicle controls, which are acceptable when you're in open spaces, but navigating any tight environment with obstacles is a profanity inducing chore. My friends and I have accidentally Austin-Powered so many vehicles it stopped being funny and just angers us now. The problem is that the camera position determines your driving direction and the left stick only handles your acceleration. At higher speeds the controls work better and the vehicle responds more predictably, but navigating slowly and carefully degrades into an awkward experience at best. Luckily, vehicular combat is only a small portion of the game. AUDIO: The music in the game is good, although not particularly noteworthy. The gun sounds are standard fair and the voice acting isn't bad. The little quips and insults tossed out by the enemies get old after a while, but this is the case with most games where common enemies are allowed to speak. VALUE: This game is big with tons of missions. Many players will probably feel compelled to max out at least one character of each of the four classes. I understand the level cap is 50, and I wouldn't be surprised if future downloadable packages raise that level cap by another 10 or 20 levels along with new zones, levels and missions. I fully expect to get at least 30-50 hours of gameplay out of this title, quite possibly more. Overall, this is a very strong game with only a few flaws. I recommend Borderlands on any platform, but especially to any FPS fan that wants something slightly different from the standard Halo and Call of Duty fare that is so popular. Fans of online RPG titles such as WoW and Phantasy Star Online may also enjoy this game. The emphasis on multi-player co-op puts this game in good company with Halo: ODST and Left 4 Dead, so fans of those games should definitely consider this title.	video-games_xbox
DEAD SPACE 3 TOTALLY DIFFERENT FROM DEAD SPACE 1 & 2 BUT NOT ALL GOOD BUT NOT ALL BAD! A PAINFULLY OK GAME. UPDATED POSITIVE REVIEW... I had to update my review on Dead Space 3. The game is far more fun than I had originally believed but you have to stick with it till level 14 to really appreciate just the true fun of Dead Space 3. My only issue I have with Dead Space 3 is the lack of the fixed save locations throughout the game since they let you stop at predefined places. The Bench is still tedious but; once you understand its complexity building your own weapons starts to be fun. The awesome thing about the Bench where you craft your own weapon is that, you get to merge the weapons you most love onto one platform. In Dead Space 1 and 2 you had to choose a good weapon and too often endure a lesser quality variation of that same weapon as an option. In Dead Space 3 you get to create your own perfect primary and secondary weapons. Problem is that Dead Space 3 gives you painfully little quality bits to build weapons with at first. The only way to get started with quality weapons is to download better prepackaged weapons from PS3 Network. For casual gamers with good jobs like me the spending of $20 or so is no big problems since it just means I won't be playing so many lottery tickets. With the Lottery I never win so playing $20 on Video games at least I get to have fun with money spent on additional Dead Space 3 guns and down-loadable content. If you wait till chapter 14 you will have three scavenger bots working for you at one time. Scavenger bots find ration seals by the score so just keep them hunting and you will be flush with ration seals. You can buy gun upgrades using the BENCH so no need to spend tons of real money on gun upgrades. My only problem with Dead Space 3 is that it relies too much on trapping you in locked rooms or other no win situations with monsters that can't be killed and you waste time running around and using stasis power for nothing. Getting trapped in situations with monsters that can't be killed is the sure sign of a bad game and developers who have run out of imagination. Dead Space 3 is still fun but Dead Space 3 has run out of gas and depends on cheap tricks to create tedium that is hoped to pass for fun.. I had to update my review on Dead Space 3. The game is far more fun than I had originally believed but you have to stick with it till level 14 to really appreciate just the true fun of Dead Space 3. The Bench is still tedious but; once you understand its complexity building your own weapons starts to be fun. The awesome thing about the Bench where you craft your own weapon is that, you get to merge the weapons you most love onto one platform. In Dead Space 1 and 2 you had to choose a good weapon and too often endure a lesser quality variation of that same weapon as an option. In Dead Space 3 you get to create your own perfect primary and secondary weapons. Problem is that Dead Space 3 gives you painfully little quality bits to build weapons with at first. The only way to get started with quality weapons is to download better prepackaged weapons from PS3 Network. For casual gamers with good jobs like me the spending of $20 or so is no big problems since it just means I won't be playing so many lottery tickets. With the Lottery I never win so playing $20 on Video games at least I get to have fun with money spent on additional Dead Space 3 guns and down-loadable content. Key to making Dead Space 3 fun is the automated BOTS you send off to get you additional resources. If you collect all the BOTS in the game you will have three of them. BOTS collect the resources you need to build awesome weapons. So effective use of the resource collector bots will allow you to build the most powerful and fun weapon combinations. I have played through Dead Space 3 a number of times now. Dead Space 3 when it leaves the "Space" environment does change the flavor of the game immensely. The creepy decayed rather claustrophobic nature of the spaceships added a fright factor that being on a planet can not match. The group play option in Dead Space 3 hurt the experience and helped it as well. I played Dead Space 3 with my brother who is a 6 ft 8 in 320 pound lovable brute that acts a fool all the time. We are each others best friend since we both have autism. Playing Dead Space 3 with my brother was hilarious because; even in the game his wild strange sense of humor comes through in his character based on what what he does. I totally enjoyed playing Dead Space 3 with my brother in two person play. We ganged up on aliens kicking and stomping lots of things to death. Till Dead Space 3 I never spent so much time laughing and having fun playing a video game. I love my brother with all my heart but this game brought us even closer. We watch out for each other in real life but in the video game we took that to the next level and it was awesome. Unfortunately the fact I laughed so much enjoying Dead Space 3 in two player mode that I completely forgot how frightening it is supposed to be. Now while my brother and I were playing Dead Space 3 other people were so totally creeped out by the blood and gore but, we were both so totally loving it laughing like wild men. I think the biggest part of the creep factor in Dead Space franchise was the fact you are alone, ALL ALONE with icky things all around you just waiting to leap out and kill you dead! Don't get me wrong, the game developers likely felt they milked the Space world dry unfortunately being on even the most brutal of planets just feels more safe because; most on Earth are used to life planet side. Our Earth bound imaginations are far more completely engaged when we are in that unknown alien filled world that is the vacuum and disorienting weightlessness of space. No other game did weightlessness better than Dead Space and 3 is no exception. After playing Dead Space 3 many times I must give it five stars in fun and overall. Dead Space 3 has its shortcomings BUT, it has so many great elements that I can't take a star off. ORIGINAL POST... I'll take my lumps but Dead Space 3 is not scary. The sheer creepy factor in Dead Space 1 and 2 came from the very close confining nature of the game space aboard ships and stations. It also helped that ships and other facilities in Dead Space 1 & 2 seemed only barely space worthy. Dead Space 3 like its previous versions a has your character do all the fetching \ hard tasks while others take their sweet time doing less dangerous jobs or making dumb mistakes that place you in peril. Dead Space 3 has at least one airhead woman who makes a big mistake that you will pay for in blood and tears big time. Much of the action in Dead Space 3 seems so forced. Waiting for elevators and trams while infinite creatures swarm in endless waves. While other monsters that regenerate and can not be killed can very quickly kill you. Meanwhile an elevator or tram takes its own sweet time getting to you what a crock. The game basically engineers situations where you are forced into no win situations. Dead Space 3 has huge sections where nothing is happening as you wander from one place to another. In Dead Space 1 & 2 there was more atmospherics sounds, flashes and other evironmental creepy events just far enough in the background to keep you guessing. The whole craft a gun using collected bits at the Bench was not fun just tedious and boring after too short a time. The Dead Space 3 plot seems a bit more thin compared to previous plots. Of all the Dead Space franchise Dead Space 2 was the absolute best, the creep factor was there in spades. The plot was rich and awesome. The save locations were perfect. There were no dumb MASS DRIVER CANNONS! The graphics in Dead Space 3 were far better but the planet side exploration was too wide open. It was the tight quarters of a spaceship where no one could hear you scream that made Dead Space 3 so much fun to play with lights low. Some places in Dead Space 1 and 2 were so dark the monitor barely lit the room. There were no save boxes on the walls that gave players opportunities to decide when they wanted to save. The new save system was regulated by the game as such it decided where the previous check point start point would be. What's worse the games auto save does not really let you know where important checkpoints are forcing you to replay long missions if you happen to stop or die in the wrong place. The new Dead Space 3 auto save system is a kinda dumb backward design step. You must pay $4.99 or more to get good quality pre-crafted guns placed in your safe what a crock! It's funny Dead Space 3 is actually easy to play but the changes ruin the game so much I can't for the life of me figure why I'd bother. Dead Space 3 is not scary. Dead Space 3 it is not a really exciting shooter. Dead Space 3 took an awesome easy to use and understand Bench and ruined it by making it a tedious confusing mess. The pacing of monster encounters Dead Space 3 sputters along in an episodic pattern that is not fast paced. When Dead Space 3 is fast paced its usually just waves of un-killable beasts swarming you which is a cheap unimaginative way to generate empty thrills. Dead Space 3 has none of the plot based foundations that used to guide the thrills in Dead Space 1 and 2. All monsters now run to you taking away any advantage of distance I enjoyed which makes the Dead Space 3 too predictable and boring. It is as if the Dead Space 3 developers took all the low road ways to make the game harder which in turn made the game much less fun. This Dead Space is a lot like eating empty calories its filling but in the end nothing sticks to your ribs enough to make you glad for the experience! The Dead Space 3 developers did not IMPROVE Dead Space 3 by making logical evolutions of the great elements in Dead Space 2 they CHANGED the very look feel and nature of the game. The creepy things that go bump in the dark aura that set Dead Space 1 & 2 apart from almost any other gaming experience is the very thing that got watered down in Dead Space 3. Dead Space 3 got lost in "IMPROVING" the mechanics of the game to a point where the very things that made Dead Space 3 a thrill a minute creep fest got seriously diluted. In Dead Space 3 you spend your time looking for scrap metal, gell and other crap so you can spend endless hours crafting weapons. Problem is by the time you finish finding all the materials and crafting the weapons and materials you are bored stiff and the game has gotten old. Dead Space 1& 2 were the near perfect and perfect creep filled shooters. Dead Space 3 wanted to be something more than both Dead Space 1 & 2 and ended up being much less than either. The best thing about Dead Space 1 & 2 is they both felt highly personal in ways Dead Space 3 does not even come close to matching. Dead Space 3 plays like a game, Dead Space 1 & 2 were like a totally awesome yet painfully creepy suspense filled adventure. If they had not changed the "WORK BENCH" I would have given Dead Space 3 four stars in FUN but the Work Bench is too much work and not enough fun. I rate Dead Space 3 THREE STARS for overall fun because; after getting bored stiff finding materials and "Crafting Weapons" there is just enough old Dead Space 1 & 2 spark left in Dead Space 3 to make the game an interesting concept. However Dead Space 3 overdid the whole engineer centric character focus to the point where it sucks much of the fun from the game. Dead Space 1 & 2 worked because they gripped your imagination and never let it go. Dead Space 3 grips your wallet and little else. I must admit some people will love running all over finding materials to "Craft Weapons!" Also I must admit some of the weapons combinations you can Craft are awesome if you can make sense of then use the clumsy badly executed Bench mechanisms to make great weapons. I am a Dead Space purest, I liked Dead Space 1 & 2 for the basic reason that I enjoy shooting monsters and watching them die in awesome ways, and I never got tired of it. I liked being creeped out by the weird locales and signs of recent human habitation. The creepiest thing about Dead Space was they got the little human nuances and creature comforts so right that you felt people really lived in these spaces till disaster hit. You would walk in a room and you could put yourself in the scene and say hey this could have been my place. Part of the awesome Dead Space creep out factor is the hey this could be me sense you got as you went through the different environments. Dead Space 3 plays more like a video game, the environments do not evoke that strong visceral identification with the people and cramped spooky places. I would not go so far as to say DON'T BUY Dead Space 3. I would say buy Dead Space 3 because; it is still an OK video game but don't expect much. You might want to wait and rent Dead Space 3 before buying it. If you buy Dead Space 3 you might want to wait for the price drops that are sure to come. Dead Space 3 has some really awesome high points worthy of Dead Space 1 and 2. Unfortunately Dead Space 3 has more dead areas. Dead Space 3 uses many more cheap tricks which insure its action, fun and creep out factors never live up to that found in Dead Space 1 & 2! What is wrong with Dead Space 3 is the developers changed the whole feel and character of a once great game and unfortunately not for the better! Last of all Co-Op is fun but it helps ruin the Dead Space experience. A BIG part of the DEAD SPACE TOTAL FUN \ CREEP OUT factor was the fact that you experienced this environment ALONE! Walking around dark dingy old beat down spaceships BY YOURSELF with only your wits, skills, status and guns between you and survival was the core essence of Dead Space FUN! In Co-Op mode you have someone with you. Humans are social animals who adapt better to stress when with another human. If that other human is also a trusted friend who can be depended on to, "Have your Back in a Crisis" well the fear factor goes way down not because; Dead Space 3 worse than Dead Space 1 & 2. I have cerebral palsy. I am short, small and frail. Hoever I have a younger brother who is 6 ft 8 inches tall, he is very strong and weighs 320 pounds. When my younger but much bigger brother is with me no matter where we are together I feel safe. Walking around a beat down old spaceship with my strong crazy brother I don't worry, I am not frightened because; I will protect my baby brother and he will always protect me. My brother kills all the high stuff I kill all the low crawling stuff. Playing Dead Space alone was fun because its all about you, your skills your ability to survive. Finally there are some Co-Op missions that single players are LOCKED OUT OF, WHAT IS THAT ABOUT! That's what I hate most of all when Games are so focused on Co-Op missions they forget about enriching the single player Dead Space 3 experience. Oh that's right if you want an enriched Dead Space 3 experience you must PAY $20 TO $30 MORE for downloadable content that locks you out of more awesome co-op only content. So yeah Dead Space 3 is a good game and it IS FUN but, Dead Space 3 is more about an game experience weakened by bad design, bad decision making by people who did not understand the real creepy shoot first ask questions later ease of use allure of Dead Space 3.	video-games_xbox
And I thought they'd got it right. Are they serious? After Madden 2007's animation, animation, animation, fall over experience, I couldn't bring myself to buy 2008. I bought 2009 because a friend told me how much better it was. After all 2008's complaints about how easy offense was, they turned the DB's and LB's speed and jumping ability to ridiculous levels, causing there to be about 6 INT's per game. This knee-jerk reaction and thus, overcompensation each year to whatever the largest complaint was has always seemed par for the course when dealing with a Madden game. Whatever. I just want to play an NFL game. So the Madden 10 demo came out and I was impressed by the game play. "Wow, it actually kind of looks like football," I said. So I did it. I dropped $60 more into the EA bucket just to have the privilege to play an NFL game. The game play this year IS, I uphold, the best, most realistic that the Madden franchise has ever made. Yes, they made the players slower, and it made a lot of fans mad, but it's realistic. Nobody runs 10 yards in 0.5 seconds. At any rate, kudos on the in-game experience. However, I play sports games to play franchise mode. I like trades, free agency, and the draft. Unfortunately, due to EA's desire to become the most evil corporation ever, franchise mode is not, at ALL, an enjoyable experience. You see, the "Madden Shop" has been created, where you can buy "cheats," which are really just parts of the game that existed last year which were disabled so that EA can make more money. -You want the ability to fully scout players? You can pay 99 cents for a scout at EACH POSITION. Awesome. I'd LOVE to throw down 10 more bucks just to have access to the rest of your game. -You want players to progress faster? 99 cents per position. -Superstar mode is the same. You can't train anymore. You can pay to improve. -Pretty much anything you can think of... healing injuries faster, extra scouting reports, etc, you can pay 99 cents to improve. Really, EA? Buying out the competition wasn't enough for you? This whole system seems like such a joke to me. Do they honestly think it's going to work? I guess the question is, are Madden fans really stupid enough to use the Madden Shop? This will, I can say with confidence, be the last Madden game I purchase.	video-games_xbox
Wish more games like this existed. Read the previous two reviews, and agree on many points, but disagree on some as well. The game could have been better thought out I suppose, and yes it has some problems. The problems though are an afterthought after you understand what they are and how to basically accept them and work around them. Gameplay is played exactly like you would any board game (instead of a board, you play on a football field). It is a dice rolling, turn based strategy game, set in middle earth on the gridiron. What makes this game GREAT, is the strategic aspect. Their is a bit of a learning curve...lets face it, nobody is going to pop this game in and win their first match. It will take about 10 matches to really digest what is going on, and another 100 to refine and perfect your skills. The game is Very deep (it does not have to be, but it can be). Basically you will love this game if you like Civilization, Culdcept Saga, Magic the Gathering or even Monopoly. The problems with the game that I have had (like I said, you can overcome all of them) 1. It is sometimes difficult to differentiate your players just by looking at them (simply move your curser over them, you get full stats readout right there...but I do wish you could tell if they were a lineman or a runner with greater ease) 2. Tutorial Sucks (play games and learn by trial and error) 3. Weak Graphics (it is a strategy game so really who cares) 4. Online Community not very active (I have gotten 3 friends to pick this game up, and we are playing all the time) 5. Serious learning curve (put in the time to get good at it) 6. Understanding the 'odds' of simple successes, like picking up a ball, dodging an opponent etc (again, the scroll bar tells you what you need to roll....after you have rolled!! So basically it is trial and error and trying to remember what activities need certain rolls, and the odds of success etc. ) All in all, I wish there was more games like this available. This game is addictive, funny, fun, and a great time with friends, or even agains the enemy AI. It is not without a few flaws, but do not let that cause you to not go out and get this game!	video-games_xbox
Not bad...Not great either. The first KOTOR, as many have said before me, was a masterpiece of film and video game coercion. The story, characters, plot development and ending were all revolutionary. Not a big surprise when you see Biowares' past achievements. (Balders Gate, Neverwinter Nights etc.) But this game falls short in ALL of those categories. The story does succeed in giving you that 'I need to find out what's next' feeling early. Knowing little about your characters past and path ahead it drives you to play more. However, they kill this mood by making the first planet SO tedious and unfun. By the fifth hour on the first planet you are ready to let your characters past be a mystery. If you do manage to stay interested long enough to get off the planet, it only improves marginally. The characters are much less interesting and seem to have less to do with the story than in the prequel. (excluding one character) A lot less engaging side quests as well, becomming little more than 'mini chores.' The plot development was tolerable but was done an injustice by force feeding the storyline to the player. In the first game the plot was usually revealed by the interaction with other characters' (remember those long talks with Carth and Bastila?) In this one, there is a LOT less character interaction. Sometimes you can play nearly an entire planet without having to talk to anybody. Which makes it feel more like an RPG in the Jedi Academy universe. With so little interaction the continuous fighting becomes very tedious. At times, you are going room to room fighting 10-15 guys for HOURS without a single person to talk to. C'MON!! It gets so repetitive by the end of the game I almost stopped caring and quit, not because of difficulty (although it wasn't very easy either) but becuase it wasn't any fun. I wanted more chances to help or hinder others through conversation and persuasion/intimidation. Not just-You stupid Jedi, I hate you, I have to kill you. B-O-R-I-N-G! And what do you get if you wade through all of this monotony? Anticlimactic, convoluted, twistless plot turns. The biggest being the ending. The ending becomes obvious about 6-7hrs into the game, so it's no surprise who looms ahead at the end of the game. Once there a bunch of nonsensical garbage is fed to you about your past and all your characters futures. If the EVERYONES' future is already decided why did you spend 30hrs to create relationships and bonds with any of them?? STUPID. And once it's all over, the most unrewarding ending EVER occurs. I was left saying.....what? That's it? Are you serious? There is no alternate endings to my knowledge because I beat it good and evil and received the same B/S ending. The BIGGEST AND MOST INEXCUSABLE error made in this game was not being able to load your previous Player (Revan) and continue the story. Of course, if you didn't play the original you could still create a Revan and continue the story anyways. Not only that, but not even REALLY finding out what happened to him/her in the second game is insult to injury. Overall, this game falls short on so many levels it is hard to reccommend it to anyone unless they were HUGE fans of the original. Otherwise it would probably just cause them to lose interest. Hopefully in KOTOR 3 Revan will be a playable character. Yeah right. -GuyintheTV 'All judgements are final'	video-games_xbox
mega man. It's Mega Man! The Mega Man I remember from my childhood! I find it absolutely extraordinary that Capcom would actually make the sequel to the major disappointment that is Mega Man 8 and totally take us back to the NES days with the retro design. I mean this game looks exactly like it was designed in the early 90's during the height of the NES's success! Amazing job! I can't even put into words how much this remarkable change means to me as an old school gamer. Now imagine if Nintendo did the same thing with Metroid! I want all future Metroid's to be like the very first one! Alright that one probably ain't happening, haha. Specifically Mega Man 9 is a lot like Mega Man 2 which is perfectly understandable considering how beloved MM2 is nowadays. However there's a couple things that MM9 should NOT have done. They should NOT have removed the slide and the mega buster charge! These are crucial features that added to the gameplay. They made it so whenever you'd face a tricky predicament, instead of taking a hit you'd be able to slide or charge a mega buster shot and escape or come out victorious. Now... those features have been removed! Nooooo! Just picture a game series that has grown and progressed over the years with new features implemented. Grown to the point it becomes a natural part of the gameplay and you wouldn't want to go back to the way it used to be, and imagine taking those features away suddenly. You wouldn't like it! I think Capcom went a little too far bringing Mega Man back to his roots, haha. However given Mega Man has always been relatively simplistic concerning his move set (other than charging up mega busters and sliding, all he does is jump, shoot regular shots, shoot weapons, ride platforms and other basic features) I'm willing to forgive this particular flaw. Otherwise the game is pretty fun to play! While I'm disappointed there's only 5 reviews here on amazon so far, I guess it only goes to prove that the average gamer nowadays considers old school retro gaming dated and not worthy of their time or money. Too bad since this game is pretty fun to play. While I wouldn't place it in the same category as MM2 through 5 (the best games in the series in my opinion) I'd say this is worthy of consideration and I'd easily place it as the 5th best Mega Man game in the series. Now the one thing that sort of concerns me is that the stages often times don't provide a lot of variety. They can sometimes feel stale even. Capcom not only proves Mega Man 2 is what the majority of people want, they take it a step further by drastically cutting down on the amount of enemies in any given area. This is partly due to games like MM7 and 8 and the X series providing us with WAY too many things happening on screen at once, so we sort of grown an expectation that the Mega Man series has advanced beyond the period where enemies were few and far between. I'm referring to Gravity Man and Splash Woman's stages (and by the way, how weird is it to have a woman replacing a man now? I like the change though. We need more monster females in these type of roles to mix up the gameplay. I accept it). Anyway yeah, the little spaceships that soar around in Gravity Man's stage aren't very interesting, nor is Hornet Man's stage which feels totally lifeless with the unexceptional scissor pieces that fly across screen and form a pair of scissors. Anyway it's too bad the stages themselves normally aren't as creative or as enemy populated as they could have been. Also one stage has insects like bees which is too similar to Hard Man's stage from MM3. Tornado Man's stage is interesting for the twisting and turning of these particular type of platforms that Mega Man has to jump across carefully (this part's really hard by the way) and the floating umbrellas are a strange out of place addition too. The elephants shooting pink balls makes me think of some kind of silly circus act. I dunno guys, questionable enemy choices in too many areas of the game. Also worth noting is that Wood Man's weapon the Leaf Shield returns again here under a different name. The option to buy items such as E tanks at a store seems like an unnecessary and tacky addition just to make the game easier. For those of us who grew up during the NES days, we don't want to buy E tanks- we want to find them and persevere the rough conditions like a trooper when we run out of them or run out of lives and hit continue. Simply buying items to make the situation easier is really takes away from the fun. The bosses are once again weak against a particular weapon. Picking the right order of levels/boss fights is still a major focus so you're always prepared with the right weapon. Going into a stage without the right weapon can be costly. That hasn't changed one bit. The music very closely resembles the sound of the NES games but the notes themselves aren't as memorable. Nowhere near as memorable in my opinion. The storyline is a tad deeper than the NES games while retaining the same graphics and art style we saw so many times in the glory NES days. The weapons are hit or miss. Concrete Man's weapon doesn't appeal to me much, as does the uh... can't remember it... spinning purple attack. Not as exciting or creative as Mega Man 2's weapons. Wily's stages are REALLY fun and the best parts about the game. The bosses at the end of each Wily stage probably aren't very memorable though. There does seem to be a heavy emphasis on ladders and spikes in this game which becomes excessive during the Wily stages as another reviewer below mentions. I wish the Wily fight didn't resemble the ones from previous games so much. I expected something drastically different. Maybe Capcom can't think of any more creative ideas for Wily, who knows. Overall great game! Despite the occasional dry level here and there and the less than interesting music, I think this game does a tremendous job capturing the atmosphere and especially gameplay and graphics of the NES Mega Man titles. Picking up this game is an obvious choice for me.	video-games_xbox
did not live up 2 the hype. This game was so over hyped it even got a behind the scenes show on g4tv. Now I wanted 2 play this game cuz well, I being an xbox owner, wanted a good romp like god of war since I already finished ninja gaiden. This game leaves me feeling; like something is missing... it could have been so much more. Let me give u my reviews. Graphics 7/10:They focused on cramming a huge amount of enemies on screen at the same time which is cool sometimes but when u look at the cut scenes and bland areas. YUCK is this really xbox?. But it's not totally horrid. Sound 7.5/10: When I listen to the excellence god of war soundtrack and ninja gaiden's soundtrack I can't help but think the corny rock tracks playing here was jus tacked on. The weapon sounds are nice clangs and clashes. Then we get to the voice acting um no no this simply will not do. These have got 2 be the worse directed voice acting ever. Game play: Well as much as they hyped it 2 be it's just a basic hack and slasher, which is fine if u like that genre. The weapons in the game although are pretty cool... they jus don't seem 2 carry any real weight with them. I mean when I play the other top 2 action adventure games, ninja gaiden and god of war I really do feel like I'm causing bodily harm 2 folks. The action in Spartan jus feels real muted. The tons of enemies are cool...but when they all surround u alone and u can't find a power up it becomes frustrating. Control 5/10: The controls are adequate u got ur light slash and heavy. But The bow control is totally wack!! The camera is controlled by the right thumb stick which I personally don't like 2 much cuz it can become disorienting. The overall control feels like it's stuck between pc mouse control and console controller style... I don't like it that much. All in all if it seems like I keep bringing up Ninja Gaiden and God of War.... I must use them 2 compare, because those are now the measuring stick by which these games will all be compared, ESPECIALLY Ninja Gaiden. I understand they were trying the huge battles and what not...which I think is real cool. But it could have been better in other departments.	video-games_xbox
Xenomorph Easy, Zero Checkpoints + Marine/Predator Campaigns = Frustrating. Fun : 5/5 Stars Graphics : 5/5 stars Story : 5/5 Gameplay 2/5 Mapping 3/5 Difficulty 6/5 Multilayer(Xbox live) 4/5 Let me say a synopsis; Xenomorph : Easy as hell, no challenge at all. FUN FUN FUN. Marine : Frustrating. In the marine campaign you die at point blank range of killing a xenomorph. The game has lost one star because of the lack of armor from the previous game that could have substituted as protection against the Xenomorphs molecular acid at point blank. Also why use flares instead of the conventional flashlight? Also the game's Zero Checkpoints on Nightmare Difficulty is stupid and unnecessary. Stupid being that it builds way too much tension. Also for those of you who don't know Zero Checkpoints means it means that if you die you start over from point A of the level, saves are also disabled in the Nightmare. The game-play requires way to much "Hit-and-run" tactics and accuracy. Which makes the Marine Campaign unfun. But predator. Predator : Easy/Frustrating. The marines are easy as hell, Pop stealth get behind them. Fire your laser, Distract. Easy. The XenoMorph's however are Easy/frustrating depending on the difficulty. At the beginning of the level you have two claws as melee. With Practice you can knock them on the ground, grab and lay a finishing move on them which equals Fun. The xenomorphs's are a pain however when on Hard or Nightmare difficulty. Being that you can never knock them down for a finishing move EVER. There is really a lot of strategy to beat them on at the first 3/6 Levels. The game however gets Easier once you get the Disc blade thing, and the spear. Which you can one shot them. Also you don't need to worry about dieing at point blank range from the Xeno's Molecular acid because of the Predator's armor, which makes the predator more fun then the marine campaign. Consensus: The gameplay is Fun/Easy/Challenging for the most part. But for the Marine Campaign Sega could have tried harder with the mapping and gameplay.	video-games_xbox
Feel like I wasted a whole year waiting for this game. I was so excited for the next dead space game to come out. But I should of know that money greedy politics couldn't keep their fingers out the creation of Dead Space3. I only played a demo of the game and was completely disgusted by it. It's more like gears of war or Call of duty. They got rid of the store concepts and redesigned the bench so you can custom create your weapons. Seriously..... Just give me back my regular old weapons from Dead Space 1 and 2. Loved the simplicity of the power nodes and rig upgrades. Now they've thrown in a bunch of bull hockey that's over complicated and confusing. You have to collect parts and scraps to create these new weapons. Let's just go back to just picking up ammo so I can just point, shoot and be done with it. I'm also a run through guns blazing kind of person but the enemies now shoot back UH What.... There not supposed to shoot back in dead space. I hate having to duck behind things for cover. If I wanted to do that I'd go join the army. Also I think that if they're going to call a game coop then you should be able to play it in split screen on the same T.V. using the same game consol. There's no one that I want to play a game with online. I'd prefer them to be in the same room as me. That's where the fun comes from. So if your partner in crime messes up and kills the both of you can bad mouth them or throw a pillow at their head. I loved that the first two were mostly in space. It was dark gloomy and made you want to sleep with the lights on after getting done playing them. They couldn't even get that right. The third is on a snowy planet with big bright open spaces. They ruined this game just like they did to the new resident evil 6, operation raccoon and darksiders 2. I just hope they didn't ruin Bioshock 3. All in all this game was made for a wider audience and if you like Gears of War or CoD you'll probably like this one but I think they've lost the true Dead Space Fans that made this game popular to begin with. Of course this is just my opinion. I wouldn't and won't be wasting what little play money I have on this game.	video-games_xbox
Server Issues & They Dumbed it Down...Still Fun. I opted for the Full Experience, based off of my enjoyment of previous games, and understood this game would be different [than it's predecessor(s)]. New format: I can support this new format of contracts being released over time; I don't mind waiting for new cities. But also included in this new format is an odd requirement of being connected to their servers while playing (i.e. online). This is, for lack of words, painful. Mid way through contracts you'll be disconnected from their servers and forced back to the main screen. For me, I thought I had an issue and went through a network reset [router and modem]. 20 minutes later back to the game, same server issue. Reloaded check point and few minutes later same thing. In fact for the rest of that day I couldn't connect to their servers. Yes an offline gameplay is available but what you do offline will not unlock in game items/ progression, which means you're confined to the current basic contract terms. It wasn't until today that I was able to play a compete contract while connected to their servers. Gameplay: Best way to describe it, it's been Dumbed Down. The game spoon feeds you everything you need to progress. Simple solution, utlize the settings. I would enjoy a briefing before the start in the planning option that would hint at different paths to take, instead the game gives you guidance as you play. This is is not a complaint, just an observation. The gameplay is fun if you ignore the hand holding. Graphics: I'm playing on an Xbox One. I'm a casual enjoyer of games and will never be a PC guy. I'm happy with the graphics and frame rate. I have only noticed one distance drawing issue, a computer generated figure was frozen in place and only activated once I came in it's proximity. This again is just an observation, and I only seen it once. Overall: I'm happy with the purchase. Mildly upset with their end due to their servers, and fact everything needs to be done online. I do look forward to contract updates and new cities. Also, a related side note: for other Amazon Prime purchases if you choose their no rush option and opt for a $1 credit of digital downloads, these credits can be used for console downloads such as Hitman.	video-games_xbox
A clone? Yes, but a good clone. Let's state the obvious here and move on. It has been well documented and beaten to death that this is a God of War clone. I'll take it a step further and say that yes this is essentially God of War with different graphics, and replace Greek Mythology with Christian Mythology. I say "So What?" This isn't the first GoW clone but it is the first good one. I just finished this game last night, and I was surprised at how good it really is. Is it an amazing, earth shattering, monumental game achievement? Not at all. What it is is a really well polished, smooth, fun, button masher. If you are the type who will dismiss a game because it is similar to another game then I honestly pity you because you'll miss out on this. Honestly, the story was a gimme, but really bears very little resemblance to the original work. And yes it is God of War with new graphics and new mythology. I give them credit however, for obviously putting in the time and effort to make a game that is graphically amazing, glitch free and very little if any load times at all. What really sets this apart from God of War though is the ability to either absolve, or punish your enemies and in doing so you level up your holy or unholy powers. This allows you to upgrade either your cross (holy) attacks or your scythe (unholy) attacks. Also some of the imagery is truly disturbing. The souls of unbaptized babies are pretty gruesome. At the first encounter you wonder what to do. I honestly waited until they actually attacked me because I thought maybe I was there to save them or something. I couldn't bring myself to punish them any baby I encountered was absolved. All in all Dante's Inferno is a well polished fun hack -n- slasher. If you are a 360 only owner like me, it really is a must have. If you own a PS3 or both, it's really your call with GoW 3 coming out soon. I'd say it is at least worth a rental to play through the story (takes approx 9-11 hours). There's no real replay value to it at all until April when they release the multi-player which looks killer. The only question I have at this point is if the sequel will be called Inferno 2 or hopefully Purgatorio as would follow the Divine Comedy.	video-games_xbox
Great Graphics with Not-Great Rampup. Dead or Alive is one of my favorite series, and I was waiting eagerly for DOA4 to come out for the XBox 360. The graphics were great! Gameplay, though, was not well ramped. Let's start with the graphics. I've loved each new version of DOA with how it has pushed the envelope. This release was no exception. On our HD TV, the lushness of some scenes was just mind boggling. There were active characters in the background. There were tiny details in every scene. Foot movements would stir up the water or snow. The audio was reasonably good - not nearly as awesome as the graphics, but certainly good enough that I didn't mind playing with it in the background, as well as it was turned down a bit. The gameplay in this series is NOT a button masher. You might get lucky occasionally with button mashing, but it really works best if you learn the specific combos that match up to your character's style and for use in certain conditions. Having a near opponent vs a far-away opponent, having an opponent that stays low vs one that launches high attacks, all of them need the proper response. I don't mind that at all. I respect the game a lot for that reason. On the other hand though, the game is KILLER tough without memorizing those combinations. I had several players in my home who were very, very good on the previous DOAs and they were slaughtered in the new game until they sat down and re-practiced the combos in sparring mode. Yes, sparring mode is there and a good training tool. But it is INCREDIBLY BORING. I would really rather "learn" in some sort of actual gameplay setting. Maybe they could have a "beginning set of rounds" that was easy, that advanced players could skip over. Instead, the way the game is set up, there is no difficulty options at all. There is only one "main game" that you take each character through, to unlock his or her outfits and endings. That one path is rather hard. So either you sit there in boring sparring mode for a while to prepare - or you just dive into it and get smashed around a lot. There are other issues. One of our household members went fully through 3 characters. I then took over and went fully through 3 more characters. When he woke up in the morning, the save games were all completely gone. He went through and re-unlocked 3 characters. Everything seemed fine when he was in the game - but come back later, and it had reset. There's just something very wrong with the save situation here. On one hand I really appreciate that there are female characters in here, and that men as well as women enjoy playing them. It wasn't that long ago that all fighting games were all fighting characters, and that male players would refuse to play as "just a girl". In modern times we realize that girls can be just as good at karate as guys are. That being said, some of these outfits are crossing the line into sleaziness. It denigrates a highly trained female martial artist to say she's got to have a big chest that is almost naked. If you're a fan of fighting games, definitely get this one. Just be sure to prepare for a serious round of training before you start taking on the actual combat.	video-games_xbox
Just go buy Overwatch. This game delivers more than you'd expect. I went from never having heard of it to playing the "beta" (it was really more of a demo) and being full invested. I've played the game more in the few weeks since it's released than I've played most of the AAA releases in the past year. More than Halo 5, more than Battlefront, more than just about everything except Rocket League, and Overwatch is catching up to that very fast. I know you're reading this saying "those are all very different games with completely different mechanics" and you'd be right. Overwatch captures that middle ground of being deceptively simple to learn and forever hard to master. If you have friends who know how to FPS, the variety is endless compared to something like Halo where the only variance in character is armor ability and grenade type. Battlefront equates to Star Wars skin on Battlefield, and while the large action of a DICE game is exciting for sure, the staying power just wasn't there. As for Rocket League, that game is perfect, but comes from a small studio and you're limited to 3 friends to play with on your team (but really you should only play with 1 or 2 other people) and it is exciting and also provides that same atmosphere of progression and collectible items (skins, paint jobs, rims, toppers etc) but car soccer isn't for everyone. That brings me to the game at hand. The variety of characters is huge. There are 4 types, and each type has multiple "heroes" and they are WILDLY different in their core abilities, appearance, utility and high-level play. The team dynamic and balancing and planning and coordination are all a macro-game to be good at while still perfecting the micro game of learning how to play more than one character. I have no background with MOBA's but from what I've gathered this game took the simplest to understand elements of that genre and elegantly threaded them into a handsomely presented FPS. There is a character for EVERYONE. Don't do well when you're in a firefight? Run a support hero who can hang back and heal or shield or damage boost or debuff opponents while other people deal damage and capture objectives. Not a huge fan of standing around? Be a flanking character that deals massive damage but don't stray too far from your team. Want to be the center of attention? We've got 5 tanks to choose from and they're all unique, whether you want to turn the oppositions damage against them, leap into their face, or just push the line forward one ironclad step at a time there's a hero for you. Prefer to lock down one area and make sure no one is getting in? We've got a pegglegged demolition expert, a Chinese Eskimo with a Mr. Freeze complex, a cybernetic dwarf who builds turrets and armor and a whole bunch of others for you to choose from. The game is never the same twice. It is well worth the investment and the long-term support Blizzard has promised (free new characters on top of the 21 hero roster they already have along with new maps) makes this game worth the time.	video-games_xbox
Midnight Club Denver: Loading Screen Edition. The Demo didn't really do this game justice. I frankly hated it. But as a loyal Forza fan one thing ran through my mind that forced me to make a purchase: " I have never been burned by a Forza game...ever. Literally...never." And that was the deciding factor. I took the risk, made the jump, etc. It was a leap of faith and it paid off. I bought this game for the same reason I DIDN'T buy Medal of Honor Warfighter: There are studios you can trust to deliver everytime (Turn 10, Rockstar) and there are studios you can trust to chisel you and let you down everytime (Activision, EA). The studio on the box pretty much makes the decision for you. Horizon is one of the outright funnest video games you will ever play. Its fantastic. The visuals are amazing, the driving mechanics are fun and enjoyable. I opened the box not expecting a whole lot. The idea of the greatest racing sim ever doing an Arcade game turned me off as it did 95% of all forza fans. But the results came out right. I wouldn't really even call Horizon an arcade game per se. I think that would be exceptionally unfair. I would say that it simply "isn't a simulation." There are a lot of rungs on the latter between a racing simulation, and an all out arcade game, and Forza Horizon occupoies the territory that exists somewhere between the two. The open world was a great decision. As was the inclusion of some kind of "narrative" i.e., that you are racing in a giant festival as an amatuer, trying to take on the heavy weights for the title. There are a few cutscenes here and there, as well as a few characters, something that has been tried in other racing games unsucessfully. The story works, and the characters work. They don't get in the way of the action, which is the important part. Forza Horizon is the ultimate example of why open world games are the only true antidote right now for the stale trend of increasingly linear titles that play themselves. Cars became popular in America in the 1920's because of the freedom they gave to the youth. They gave young people the ability to go anywhere, and to do anything. Funny how this wonderfully joyous impulse has never really been captured in a video game. Vehicles are supposed to take you places, but the only place they ever take you in racing sims is in a circle. Horizon is a great game to get untrapped. Their are a few stumbles though. The music is great, but as with all in game radio stations, by the second gaming session, you have already heard every song, and want to simply turn the radio off. Being able to download new songs and radio station chatter each week would be great, but it has never been tried by any video game, ever, a missed opportunity for sure. There are also WAAAY too many loading screens. There is a loading screen when you start a race, a loading screen when you finish a race, when you mod your car, when you navigate the menus while modding your car (loading screens within loading screens!) it can become a bit of a nightmare. If this game has one major flaw it is undoubtedly this. Its hard to be immersed when your constantly being taken out of the game to look at a picture of a car you can't drive. Its the definition of buzzkill gameing and really is kind of inexcusable. Other than that, Horizon is a must buy.	video-games_xbox
Thought it was awesome until I bought a ps3. I will try my best not to compare this system to its Sony competitor but I didn't realize how awful this system really was until I obtained a PS3. THE SYSTEM: It's not awful, but there's much room for improvement. I really didn't care for the Windows 8 style home screen, and there's limited customization unless you buy themes from their store. You NEED, I mean NEED, an internal or external hardline because almost 2gb of data is used up by the system and preloaded games. Without it you will not be able to take advantage of Golds free games, unless you want to format ten of thousands of flash drives. If you're questioning whether this will be enough room for you than I suggest getting the 250GB model. I thought this 4GB would be enough for me and it was most certainly not. Online gaming and connection: To have any connection to the internet, ANY, you will either need to pay $9.99 a month for xbox live gold, or their 6month or 1year program. This is NOT just to play online with other players. This is literally the only way to CONNECT to the internet with you 360. Netflix, youtube, web browsing, demos you name it. Without gold you cannot do it. This to me was very frustrating. If your considering buying this for internet access to social media or Netflix I would reccomend just buying a ps3 where you DO NOT have to pay monthly for the internet connection. You get 2 free games a month with live gold but I found very few that were popular or good games. Most were games that were 2 years old or games you could play on your computer for $4.99. GAMES: Most are point and shoot and rated M. If you like rpgs this system will not be for you as they are very hard to find for the 360. The ones that are available aren't very good. The only great part is for some reason the preowned prices tend to be lower than the ps3 which is nice so long as it was a game you were looking for. GRAPHICS: they're all right. The system does not come with an HDMI cable and I highly recommend buying it if you're playing on an HD TV. The graphics with the standard hookup look absolutely horrid Without it. OVERALL: I loved it until I realized there was better, now I can't stand the system because I realized Microsoft is really just ripping people off. No reason I should pay 10 just to have internet access when I can buy a ps3 and get free access to my internet and get the same and much better exclusive games. The 4GB is far to expensive for the lack of space you get and frankly I don't think the system is worth the money. I really only recommend this system if you're a halo fan and love xbox's other exclusive games or all you friends play over xbox live. Otherwise buy the one with the better overall value.	video-games_xbox
Maybe It was Just a Dream... A Long Beautiful Dream. Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is the sequel to a game entitled "The Longest Journey" for the PC. I'm ashamed to say I've yet to play this remarkable game, but when the sequel came around, I couldn't say no to it. In fact, because of its sequel I want the first one even more. This game has deep, interesting and convincing characters, along with a fantastic storyline. The game is, overall, a fantastic experience. Zoe is a beautiful attractive woman who can't decide what she wants to do with her life anymore. She's dropped out of high school, she's broken up with her longtime boyfriend, and now she seems completely and utterly lost. Her ex boyfriend, however, is interested in doing a story, and he needs Zoe's help. This begins what is undeniably a fantastic game, full of fantastic story elements. It seems simple, but the story grows into something remarkably complex. It becomes somewhat of a fantastic journey the player never wants to end. There are moments, however, where the story throws a lot at you, and the game isn't long enough to bring every subplot to a satisfactory conclusion. This shouldn't suggest the storyline is bad. You'll just expect the game to be longer. The story is played out through cinematic cutscenes. Most of the story is told in this fashion. However, unlike most games, the voice acting is top notch. It never losses hold. The dialogue is also fantastic, and flows smoothly. Put simple, these characters actually seem human as opposed to one-dimensional cardboard cut-outs. Not only does this help the characters seem human, but also helps them become instantly likeable. You'll also be given choices to make in some dialogue sequences. Your choice makes the outcome of some dialogue a little different, but you'll still end up in the same place regardless of your choice. Dreamfall plays like an Action/Adventure game. Battling foes is pretty simple. It's not hard at all. The game is not much of a challenge, and even some puzzles are pretty simplistic. Despite how little of a challenge the game is, that shouldn't suggest the gameplay doesn't have its merits. There are some puzzles that really will boggle your mind. It's even better because there is no one basic solution to a puzzle. Several of the games puzzles are, in fact, open ended. Put simple, there's more than one way to solve various puzzles in the game. This works for replay value as well. If a puzzle is easy the first time, try to solve it in a more challenging and intellectual way the next time. It makes doing many of the games puzzles rather fun and interesting as opposed to being stale and repetative like some games out there. The only real problem with the gameplay is that there's not a whole lot of it. Most of the game consists of dialogue and exploring. So you won't fight that many enemies, or solve nearly as many puzzles as you might think. Rather, you'll be watching more of the game than actually playing it, and this is something that has plagued video games for a while now. It's fun to explore many of the games areas. Especially considering it looks visually stunning. You won't just play as Zoe either, and each character has different reactions to certain things. So you might also want to go and explore the same area as another character. The game also isn't so huge that you'll get lost while exploring, which helps the game in more ways than one. And because the game is so beautiful, you can easily get lost in it. It really does look like a fantastic world. Especially because the characters also seem so real. They've got facial expressions and everything, making them seem a lot less like stone statues. Even better is the audio. Video Games rarely sound as good as Dreamfall. The music is, in and of itself, dreamlike because it's so good. If the graphics don't absorb you into the world, the soundtrack sure as hell will. It's expertly composed, almost movielike in when the music starts as well. And, as I've noted, the voice acting is astonishing. Also close to being movie like. Perhaps some of the best voice talent in the entire video game industry, and I'm not overexaggerating. The game is a little short, though, despite its long cutscenes. The game can easily be completed in less than ten hours if you try. However, with such an absorbing storyline (that does, I'm sorry to say, end too soon), it'll fly by. You'll have the game completed befre you know it. I really wish the game could've been longer. You'll love Dreamfall. So many elements and themes woven into one game can't be bad. It's a fantastic gaming experience, one that so rarely comes about in the gaming world. Nearly everything about this game shines. On the Positive Side +Fantastic Graphics +Some of the best music in gaming history +A very involving and interesting storyline +Lots of exploration to be done +Great voice acting and dialogue +Loveable characters But on the bad side... -There are a lot of subplots, not all of which, conclude in a satisfactory way -The game is short -Many moments of watching rather than playing -The game isn't that challenging Despite some of the cons, the game is fantastic and engaging experience.	video-games_xbox
This game is a lot of bang for your buck. If your looking for a great RPG experiance look no further. Having played the previous games in the series I will say that this is the best one yet. The main story feels a little lacking compared to the lengthy drama of the main stories in the first two. This Dragon Age is more about side quests and exploring, and it's a blast. I did everything in the game that I could do. I still can't find just a few collectibles, but that's about it, and I sunk in about 180 hours into the single player story. The I played on nightmare and it offered an appropriate challenge. There is so much lore thrown about the game that it offers about the same amount if reading you'd find in a modern fantasy story. The graphics are really beautiful in the many diverse areas, although I found the character models perfectly fine, they seemed less polished then some of the other next gen titles you'd find today. The game does get clunky here and there. The menu system isn't as organized as you'd like it to be, with a few blatant flaws. Like the game puts items you can turn into research, for experiance points and perminent bonus damage to creatures that materials came from, into you valueables tab in your inventory. Which is your junk folder that houses the items you want to speed sell to a merchant. So you have to turn in research before you sell or risk selling research by accident. You can always buy it back, if you saw you sold it by accident, but it's a needless pain. Also the game has some moments of platform jumping, which looks extremely clunky and should have been cut from the game. It's the worst feature when your trying to jump and grab something because the animations just don't seem to agree with the action and the result just kind of takes you out of the game and what's enjoyable about it. It's a great thing that there is so much to enjoy. The combat is fun, strategic, and rewarding. It's not much of a game focused on smashing buttons, but of using the right moves, and placing your party members in the most useful spots. There are so many characters to be enjoyed, all with rich dialog which by the end of the game you may have spoken with them for hours. The only character I didn't find interesting was the main villain. But that I was okay with because he is more of a terrible force that acted as a catalyst for all the interesting moments that rippled from his actions. There is a lot lf collecting in the game if you wish to take advantage of a very useful crafting system, but it's not imperative. And rather then spend all your time picking up herbs and metal you can have your army amass what is needed by sending troops through your advisors later in the game. But this game is a must for RPG fans. It's got an expansive amount of fully entertaining content, beautiful graphics, fun and strategic combat, character and party customization, tons of lore, exploring, crafting, and so so many quests. Graphic- 90 Beautiful scenery, but the occasional glitch and awkward movement bog the game here and there. Sound- 90 Very immersive and well crafted, however the sound glitches and drops from time to time. Gameplay- 90 The great combat and characters, and a huge amount of content are truly well crafted, but there are bugs during comversation at times, where you might have to skip a line of dialog to continue. The fights can be buggy as well, like that time I fought a dragon and the dragon somehow sent me miles and miles into the air, and as I continued to fall up I changed my character to someone on the ground to discover the dragon had gone from 1/2 health back to full. Fun Factor- 100 This game is fun, no way around it. If you enjoy The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Baulders Gate, Never Winter Nights, Final Fantasy 12, Knights of the Old Republic, and other RPGS like these you will want to pick this game up. Replayability- not really, you can for different interactions with the characters, changing your sex, class, and race offer many new choices and moments of unique dialog. This game is definatly not for kids, it's got plenty of adult themes and some nudity... So you know... Don't buy it for your 6 year old.	video-games_xbox
Your childhood fears brought to life. Remember those nightmares you had as a kid? The ones where you hid from the monster and watched panicked as he passed by? Or the ones where you ran from him but you seemed to run in slow motion where he ran at full speed? Welcome to Alien: Isolation. There are many threats in Alien: Isolation from fearful humans who shoot on sight to malfunctioning androids but by far the worst is the alien itself. The alien is invincible. Don't bother trying to shoot it, hit it, stun it or even run from it. Your only option is to hide or avoid it. Hiding is something you'll do a lot of. There is nothing worse than hiding in a locker and peering out through the slits only to see the alien peering in while trying to figure out of someone is occupying the space. The music switches over to something that seems like an ode to certain death as the alien hisses and growls until it decides there's nothing in there and moves on for a few brief moments. Other times you'll crouch under a hospital bed to see the things feet and tail. Then it stops and starts to sniff. It looks at the top of the bed and turns to the left and right. If you aren't lucky it then looks under the bed. You can track it with a motion tracker in an effort to avoid it but sometimes it boils down to luck. Sometimes it seems to be behind you only to soon be in front of you. Sometimes it sees you right away while other times you are certain you will die because there is nowhere left to hide and it will decide not to enter the next room and instead go up one of the air vents. Sometimes you will have to use the air vents too... Even for the aging 360 the graphics are well done and the game makes nice use of atmosphere. The idea of crafting items is well implemented and gives you a sense of needing to ration every last piece of scrap you find. My only complaint is that those with a 360 slim IE four gig will not be able to play the game without either a hard drive or a 16gig flash drive. It takes up about ten gigs of space after you download all the "install packs." Yes the game must be totally installed on the drive in order to work. If you use a flash drive you will have to install each "Install pack" manually telling it each time to install to the flash drive or it will default over to the internal four gig flash drive and run out of space. The game gives no warning about this either on the case or on Xbox Live. Other than that it's a great game and well worth a play through. Just don't be surprised if you find yourself on Savastapool Station in your dreams.	video-games_xbox
Very recommended headphones altogether with the Mix AMP, which gives you the best sound coverage for pro gaming experience. Highly customization with mod kits (skins), can easily switch between closed system and open system, by changing a mod kit. By default it comes with an open system. Very comfortable, highly adjustable and built with a good quality compared to price. Microphone can be easily swapped between both sides of the ear. Covers and pads are easily removed using strong magnets. I have also bought it with a Mix AMP (Xbox version) and connect it to the PC and it very handy, especially the ability to correlate between the voice (chat) and game sound balance very easily, I use it all the time. The quick ability to switch between equalizer modes on the Mix AMP, makes it very useful, especially when you play several type of games. I don't use the optical cable, but connect it to using the USB, because the optical cable gives me a poor sound and supports only stereo sound (but maybe it is my sound card, no idea). When connected to USB, it works really great and sounds really good. Once you turn it on, it gives sends 3 new devices to the PC: Gaming Sound Device, Chat Sound Device and Microphone Device. This is very useful especially when you are using an external chat software (which I do with TeamSpeak 3). It works and reacts very quickly when I press the buttons on the Mix AMP. This is very important to me, because I need from time to time switch the sound to my speakers instead of the headphones. All I have to do is just press the power button to turn it off and the speakers are now the main device and when I press the power button again to turn if on, the switch between the speakers is very quick and smooth. The microphone is not that good as AudioTechnica one or any other good microphone, but it is good enough for gaming. If you plan to do other stuff with the microphone except of gaming, like singing or recording a YouTube video, use other microphones, because this one will not be good enough. And most important, the sound is extremely clear and precise! In short, a very recommended headphones altogether with the Mix AMP, which gives you the best sound coverage for pro gaming experience. Hope this review helps someone to make a decision.	video-games_xbox
Grand Theft Auto IV. On Sunday, I purchased Mario Kart Wii. It wasn't too difficult to put that game down in order to play this one. I'm not going to be like most people and jump on the bandwagon. I like the game a lot, but probably for a different reason than most... I agree with most post that driving is a little more difficult. It's like the cars have no brakes at times. You can learn to get used to it, but it still is a pain. I'm not much of an online gamer, however, it was great how quick and easy it was to hook up online, even if it was just to go and shoot things up. Cons: 1. Driving controls. Easy to go forward and reverse, but a pain to stop or to negotiate even a light corner. 2. The music somehow needs to be a little louder with 5.1 surround. It's better than previous editions of gta. 3. I meant to add that if you are setting a waypoint using the gps for yourself, it's difficult to see the dark green line. I prefer the bright yellow or the red that the game gives you during a mission. (the only time i had a red was when I had to climb up to the train station to shoot the guy after chasing him on the motorcycle.) Pros: 1. I will say graphics, but, i'm not going to freak out like a lot of people have. I grew up on the atari 2600 with a yellow and purple basketball "players" shooting a square ball. 2. The best thing of this game is the languages and the situations are extremely spot on. To the person who complained about being unable to understand the accented english, then turn on the subtitles. I do that regardless. I served over in Bosnia (US Army) working as a translator, and the actor does an astounding job of representing his pain of killing people or even seeing children lined up against the wall of a church with their throats cut. Someone had to have been soldier during the breakup of Yugoslavia and is now on the rockstar staff. If you think there is a racism epidemic in the US, then go witness firsthand in Bosnia of what it truly is like. To get your throat cut simply for saying Hvala lepo instead of hvala lijepo or hvala ljepo. THe people of the former Yugoslavia are among the most intelligent and dedicated people I have ever met, with the exception of all the warfare and the atrocities of not just ethnic cleansing, but other barbaric means of torture that makes waterboarding look like a whipping with a wet noodle. i definitely applaud Rockstar for the attention to detail in this aspect.	video-games_xbox
Good graphics, but not enough weapons or multiplayer options. This game is pretty good, but I don't find myself really playing it too often. The graphics are the best I've seen yet. But that doesn't mean they're totally superior to other games. The graphics are just a bit better than other games, there's not a large gap but a small gap between this game and other games, such as Halo: Reach. I don't base graphics on cut-scenes because games could just play clips from a blu-ray movie or something. But the actual game looks good. I only played a little bit of the single-player mode, just to test out the controls. It was fun enough, like every other game I played, but I wanted to review the multiplayer mode that I'm more interested in. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are 3 main things I look for in multiplayer games. 1. One is if there is a variety of maps to play on. Yes, this game has lots of maps that look different. There is a dark city, a tropical beach, even a stadium, and much more. And they all look fairly beautiful too. 2. The second is if there are interesting weapons and equipment that handle well. This game to me doesn't have enough weapons. You start out with a main gun, pistol, shotgun, and bomb. You get a slower but still fast riffle type gun and 2 machine gun type guns to choose as your main weapon in the beginning. In this game it takes longer to kill someone, so it's best to work as a team, like Halo. These guns get boring after awhile. There are also guns around the map to pick up, they are interesting but harder to use, and still there are only like 5 guns around the map. The bombs are creative but sort of lame too. You only start out with one smoke bomb, and it doesn't really kill anyone, it's like a decoy thing. There is an ink bomb that doesn't really kill anyone either. There's also a fire bomb and maybe a regular bomb, but these are harder to find for me, or aren't in every map. So grenades aren't as important in this game, apparently. The shotguns are stupid and almost ruin the whole game, and is reason for me to almost give this game 2 stars. Since it takes a long time to kill someone with a machine gun, people just slowly walk up to you and shoot you with a shotgun. And with the shotgun (sawed-off choice), its one shot and your dead. Currently there is a mode that's called "me and my rifle" or something like that, where you don't get a shotgun, this is what I play sometimes. So to sum up this section, the weapons are sort of lame. I like that this game is similar to Halo than COD, where you have to shoot people for while, but there's not enough weapons. 3. The third is game types for the multiplayer mode. This game doesn't have enough game types to keep me playing it for long. It has a survival mode that is more like Halo's than COD. It's sort of too easy and not challenging for me, so it's sort of boring. I never played it too much, because I'm afraid that I'll be stuck in it for hours, because I don't know how long it last or when it ends, and I don't like quieting in the middle of it and ruining other's plans. In it you can even buy back your life if you die, making it even easier. There is no regular 'capture the flag' because it has 'capture the leader' instead. This changes the whole game-play. Instead of just causally guarding your base, you have to run around protecting another player. Because your flag is actually another player that can shot and everything. So it feels more like a regular old death-match to me. There is a regular territory mode too, that people should be used to by now. There is a mode where you can only die once, a "no respawning mode" or whatever too. There is no free-for-all death-match. There is team death-match, but it has limited respawning too. I like team modes anyways. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Another dislike is that you have to pay real money for skins for your gun, unlike COD where it costs fake game money. This seems sort of sleazy but is sort of interesting too. I can't totally blame this game because Microsoft's Xbox points are a ripoff mainly because of Microsoft. So this game is fun, but because of the limited weapons and game modes it gets boring too quickly. The sawed-off shotgun sort of ruins the game, but if you hang around some teammates they might get revenge with their shotguns, maybe. I get tired of modern weapons like the AK-47, so I like these weapons, but these weapons are still assault riffle types that shoot bullets, instead of lasers or whatever. But anyways, there aren't enough game modes either. I'm probably spoiled because I play fantastic games like 007 and Halo that have many very interesting options for multiplayer. But nowadays that is the main feature I look for. I mostly play multiplayer, and having different modes within it makes it more interesting. *********************************************** Update --------- I decided to give this game 2 stars after all. I wasted my money buying it and it's not fun. This game has a 3rd person view, so it's good to take cover and use your machine gun or rifle, but in this game it takes too many bullets to kill someone, but they can shoot you with 1 shot with the sawed off shotgun (that you can start out with) and you're dead, which is better played in a 1st person view. So this game sucks. You shoot at some guy running up to you with his shotgun, but he doesn't die, but you die in one shot. I see this all the time, its not just me, I don't die either when someone is shooting right in my face with a machine gun for a long time. So this game is useless to me. And of course, as I said before, there isn't enough weapons or game-modes.	video-games_xbox
The first game in the Mushihimesama series. Mushihimesama is the first game in this series. If you're familiar with Mushihimesama Futari, that is a sequel and a different game. Also note that unlike Futari, this game is not region free; I use a Japanese 360 to play it. The first printing of this game comes with a DLC code that unlocks a special game arrangement, often referred to as the "Matsuri" version in arcades. This arrangement is absolutely awesome, so if you're interested in buying this game try to get one with an unused DLC code (look for the red DLC sticker on the shrink wrap). This DLC is not sold separately on Live. Luckily there is now a work around to get it (the DLC disc from the Cave collection) but if you don't know someone with that, you're going to miss out on the coolest part. In Mushihimesama, you play as a princess riding a flying beetle. Enemies are entirely organic in this game, such as plants, bugs, spiders, etc, and they're all out to kill you with bright pink bullets. Pink may sound like an odd color choice, however it actually works really well since it makes them stand out from the background and easy to track. From the main menu, you can choose to play the original game with or without HD graphics, a novice mode with lighter bullet patterns for beginners, and (assuming you got the DLC code) the arrange mode. within each of these game modes, there are three additional settings to choose. "Original" has less bullets but faster gameplay, "manic" has more bullets that generally move slower, and "ultra" lives up to its name with massive bullet counts to challenge even the best players. Gameplay and scoring mechanics are different depending on which game mode you choose. There are too many variations to list here, so if you're interested in playing for score I suggest seeking out an online faq. The arrange mode has remixed game mechanics and other subtle changes and is worth a look for a change of pace. The Matsuri (see DLC notes above) offers even more choices with an optional "maximum" mode. This starts you out with extra firepower, and changes up the game a bit more. Maximum mode is an absolute blast to play, with lightning-fast attacks in Original and absurd bullet counts in ultra. You may want to try the other versions first, because one you go Matsuri you may never go back.	video-games_xbox
Slices and dices and never leaves a dull blade. Ninja Gaiden is simply one of the deepest, most rewarding video games I have ever played. I should explain that it took me a while to realize this depth and appreciate its greatness. I'm also writing this review minus one XBOX controller--smashed into oblivion in a less than Zen-like moment of game play. But in a way, the level of emotion that the game elicited was one of the signs of its greatness. For any other game that had frustrated me in this way, I would have simply quit playing, written a scathing review, then gathered the morning leavings of my dog, put them in a bag, and set them in front of Team Ninja's offices. Ninja Gaiden is good enough to make you want to get past your own frustrations. In terms of game play, it seems to be an amalgam of a few different classics: Onimusha, Devil May Cry and Prince of Persia all come to mind. Third-person combat, minor platforming, boss fights and CG cut scenes drive the game. Each element is incorporated expertly and handled with style. At its core, however, this game is about combat. The fluidity, depth, and excitement in the combat persist as you play. The elevated difficulty of your enemies is partly responsible for this, as is the mood appropriate music, but I think my own satisfaction was also based on recognizing how I was improving as the game progressed. Although I try to incorporate a firm no-learning policy in my life, Ninja Gaiden managed to surreptitiously make me learn certain rhythmic button combinations. Don't let this scare you. It's not English class. You learn how to separate limbs and heads from bodies--not how to separate phrases and clauses. There are probably fifteen to two dozen moves to learn for each melee weapon. In addition, there are numerous projectile weapons and elemental spells that can be used to lay waste to opponents. Enemy grunts that are easily dispatched in other games are skilled opponents in Ninja Gaiden. And the boss fights you engage in are, to put it mildly, punishing. Ninja Gaiden is also, hands-down, the best-looking console game I've ever played. The environments are spectacular and the character models look great. Not once did I detect a graphical glitch or imperfection of any kind. The collision detection was spot-on and there was no hint of graphical slowdown in this rapidly paced and highly detailed game. The only real complaint I had was with camera angles; in any other action adventure game, minor camera issues would be a simple nuisance. In Ninja Gaiden, with game speed and difficulty so elevated, less than perfect camera angles detract from the game and cause unneeded frustration. It doesn't happen often, but it happens enough to be noticeable. The audio was another outstanding element. There was tremendous variation to the music and it seemed to fit the mood perfectly. Sound effects were also well done, with both combat and environment audio adding to the player's immersion level. The voice acting in the cut scenes was definitely over the top, but didn't take away from the game. It should be pointed out that this game definitely deserves its M rating; it is bloody and chock full of decapitations, and Rachel, the most prominent and very memorable female character, looks like she's a porn queen and outfitted by some S&M fetishist. So it goes without saying that the cut scenes held my interest intently. Just keep young children away--unless you let them watch Brittney Spears. Then it's nothing they haven't seen beofre. If you are able to stomach the punishing difficulty, this is one of the most polished and rewarding games for any system.	video-games_xbox
Worth getting if you prefer a D-pad. I've been a big fighting game fan since the SNES/Genesis days and I've always played them on home consoles. Because of this I've always felt more comfortable using a D-pad than using an arcade stick. Before I got a few of these controllers I used to have a hard time playing my fighting games due to the 360 controller's atrocious D-pad. To help make this review a little bit easier to skim through I'll just explain the pros and cons I found with each aspect of the pad. The D-pad: PROS -The Floating D-pad is similar in look to the standard 360 d-pad, but is significantly bigger. Also it doesn't push down in the middle, which along with its size helps with doing quarter and semi circles. Also aiding in this is the fact that the D-pad rests a little higher up; it's somewhat of a d-pad placed on top of a small stick, which may sound weird but it makes everything you do a lot smoother; You'll be pulling off special moves with ease. Overall the d-pad makes most combos easy to pull off. -The D-pad itself is made of a material that's easy to grip with enough pressure but also easy to slide your thumb along. CONS -Some moves, such as Chun Li's "spinning bird kick" are harder to pull off because the larger pad makes it a little difficult to go straight from down to up or back to forward, so players who like characters such as Chun Li, Bison, Vega, etc. may want to keep that in mind. -The stiffness of the pad can also be a problem sometimes. When I first got one of these controllers the diagonals were sometimes hard to press down which made it so that some of my attempts to jump diagonally were ignored. After using it for a while, my first controller's d-pad has become somewhat worn and the diagonals are now as easily pressed as the other directions, and the d-pad still stays firmly in the neutral position while untouched; you have to break it in pretty much. Now on to the buttons: PROS -The button placement is great for fighters (predictably) as it puts the RB and RT on the face of the pad with the rest of the buttons (RB and RT because they are the default Highpunch and Highkick for Super Street Fighter 4). -The face buttons are very responsive themselves and have a satisfying click when pressed. They are also big and easy to press more than one at the same time with your thumb, which is required for some moves in various games. CONS -The shoulder buttons (LB and LT) can be mushy at times, which is caused by a piece of spongy fabric placed between the plastic button, and the button that's connected to the actual circuitry. I know this because I opened the controller up and ended up taking the material out, which made it so that the plastic button and actual button touch directly, and made the shoulder buttons alot more responsive and gave it a satisfying click. (NOTE: This isn't exactly necessary; my other controller still has the fabric and has a good click to it. The fabric is supposed to go around the inside button so that the plastic button can still touch it, but in the case of my first controller it had been pushed between the two, causing a mushy effect. I'm not a modder, but I would recommend that if you want to take out the fabric that you have some sort of pre-experience opening a controller) -It has a turbo button, but it is practically right next to the "back" button and can easily be pressed on accident. The "home" button is also very close to the "back" and "start" buttons, but that's not really much of a problem. NOTE: The buttons are set up to be a comfortable default input layout for SSFIV, you'll likely have to do some customization to get a comfortable set up in other fighting games. Overall controller design: PROS -Very comfortable design with grips on the sides and back. You'll likely have no problem keeping a firm grip on it even if you get sweaty hands in the midst of an epic battle (like me). -The d-pad and buttons are all in easily accessed places and should feel natural to most. -Has a port for a mic so that you can chat online. -Can be used with a PC as well since it connects via USB. CONS -Shaped so that you can't use a chat-pad, so if that's your only means of online chat then you'll have some problems. -The 360 version only comes in wired form. The length of the wire is the same as a wired 360 controller or a charge wire, so if you're entertainment area is close enough for those then you shouldn't have a problem. (For me having it wired just means I have one less controller to have to worry about recharging XD) OVERALL I found this controller to be great for 2D fighting games and I use it all the time for games such as Super Street Fighter 4 and Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Starting out it may seem a little stiff, but after a little wear it generally becomes more and more easy to use. I was actually surprised that this controller ended up being so good because it was made by Madcats, who have made downright horrible 3rd party controllers in the past, but I guess they got their act together when it comes to fighting game peripherals. I give this controller a 4/5 because once you've broken it in a little (and possibly done some light modding as mentioned above) it ends up being a reliable and easy to use pad that's worth the 30-40 dollars invested in it.	video-games_xbox
Rock Band is Back. The first thing to know about Rock Band 4 is that, at its core, it is the Rock Band experience of old. It is easy to jump in and play, or progress through a career on one of four instruments. The art style and sense of humor of the earlier Rock Band's is present. And like others have pointed out, some of the other features of the past are not. Unlike earlier iterations of Rock Band, when the music game genre was at its peak, Harmonix does not have the backing of Electronic Arts or MTV/Viacom. This is very much an indie game built with much fewer resources than in the past. What results is the experience you've come to expect from the series. There is nothing like hitting a groove on a song and hearing the audience join in on vocals. When you go on tour (this is a similar version of the tour in RB2), you have to choose between gaining fans or money. The heart of Rock Band is still as strong as ever. This version of Rock Band is a mixture of new and old. The new elements are things like freestyle solos, freestyle vocals, and dynamic drum fills. The solos in particular are a lot of fun, and breathe an incredible amount of life into older songs in the library. They are a new way to interact, and will certainly add a new layer of fun to those Rock Band get-togethers. The tour mode is a funny, short little choose-your-own-adventure story. And one of the best additions are Shows, which allow you to vote on which song is played next. This a fun way to reintroduce you to your past DLC songs. And about those old songs: Harmonix is allowing users to port over the vast majority of music that was compatible with older Rock Band games. That means that if you prviously exported RB1, RB2, Lego Rock Band, Green Day Rock Band, and any of the track packs, they will soon be available in Rock Band 4. And if you purchased DLC songs in the past, the vast majority, some 1700 songs, are already available to use in Rock Band 4 complete with the new features. A quick aside: There have been many complaints about the process of bringing that old content into the new title. No doubt the process is annoying. You have to re-download each DLC song one by one through your console or the games music store. If you have had experience with Rocksmith 2014 or any other title that allows cross-generation DLC, you're familiar with the experience. It is not a failure on Harmonixs part as you may have read here. Microsoft and Sony simply do not allow an easier process at this time. I downloaded some 900+ songs in a few hours over the course of an evening, and guess what? I will never have to do it again. It is a small price to pay for the ability to carry this content over. As youve read elsewhere, there are other sacrifices. The character creator is very limited. There is no synchronous online play, so touring with a virtual band is no longer an option. Small fun details, like building a setlist in Quickplay or having a female member of the band sing female-fronted tunes, are missing as well. The leaderboards and song stats are a shell of earlier games. The good news on those fronts is Harmonix has stated that this core game will be built upon for years to come, so many features that would have been available with a larger studio may see the light of day further down the line (with the first title update hitting in December). Rock Band 4 is another Rock Band game. That is high praise if you have enjoyed the franchise as much as I have. It is not perfect, but what it does it does very well. If you love the experience that Rock Band has always captured so well, youll probably love this version, too.	video-games_xbox
A Legit Learning Tool! UPDATE AFTER ONE WEEK WITH IT. A little background you get a perspective for where this review is coming from: I am 28 and have been trying to teach myself guitar for around 7 years with little success. I have found it difficult to afford lessons. I have found dedication to the learning of guitar lacking as I enjoy gaming quite a bit. I will pick up my guitar, learn some new basic skill, and then step away from it for months on end. I then repeat this cycle. When I first played Guitar Hero on the PS2 way back when I hoped that a game would come out to teach the real guitar without the use of some plastic toy. This is that very game. For the price of 2 guitar lessons you get a huge amount of content and an UNLIMITED amount of lessons. I have been very impressed with this so far. I plugged in my Epiphone Les Paul Special GT 2 and the game walked me through a tuning process asking me specific details about my particular guitar to tailer the expierience to the guitar I was using. It detected my volumte and tone settings as well. The game will also check to see of you are in tune prior to each song or riff attempted. The progressive difficulty is great! You can attempt any song and it will throw the most basic structure of the song at you to start with. As you hit more notes the game will add more notes - much like any decent guitar teacher would. The visual response for hitting the note on the guitar helps commit your hand position to muscle memory which is exactly what you need to get familiar with the fretboard. As far as the visual interface goes and the note delivery - you really need to expierience it for yourself. I find it hard to describe other than "natural". It really feels natural. If you have every held a guitar and understand the very basics of tabs you will get it right from the start. In case you don't there is a tutorial on how to read it. This is the perfect game for anyone who wants to learn the guitar and I cannot praise this game enough for what it has done to my skillset in the few hours I've spent playing. Practicing has always been an issue for me and I don't see that being an issue any further. I want to play this game. I want to play the guitar. It is no longer practice. You get to see your improvement as it happens. If you want to learn the guitar buy this game. It is $80 well spent. For gameplay videos, details from the developers etc please visit Rocksmith's YouTube page. Now that I'm done telling you how great this game is I'm going to go fire it back up and learn a little something :) UPDATE 10/25/2011: After a week with the game my intial impressions remain accurate. I have spent more time in the last week playing guitar than I thought the game would encourage me to. In the span of 7 seven days I have learned 2 songs. Actually LEARNED two songs and the techniques required to play them. I am able to play more than just a power chrod arrangement along the lines of anything by Green Day. There have been some people on Rocksmith's Facebook and YouTube channels complaining about lag. There is an onscreen prompt letting you know there can be lag and how to avoid it. Set your TV to game mode to start with if you are connecting using an HDMI cable to your xbox. I highly recomend getting the seperate audio hookup for the xbox as well. Many who use headphones know of the adapter I'm speaking of. Since Amazon does not allow links in reviews use this search phrase: "RCA Audio Cable Adapter for XBOX 360 + Slim" That is the adapter you need. In order to utilize headphones with this adapter you will need another cable: "Cables To Go - 03182 - 3.5mm Stereo Female to RCA Male Y-Cable" Once you have both those cables you will have a lag free expierience over headphones. Alternarely you can use that RCA jack to run the audio though a home theater, amplifier, or (with the purchase of seperate RCA cables) a guitar amplifier. I recently purchased a great pair of headphones called Sennheiser HD448's and they perform amazingly well with the game. Anyone who has started the process of learning the guitar knows the investment into the equipment is expensive. Having a high quality pair of studio style headphones is an imporatnt part of that investment and you should have a pair. Sennheiser will give you the best quality for your money at a mid-range price level and will rival over priced models such as Beats by Dr. Dre. Thanks to Rocksmith and the Sennheiser headphones I was able to power through Go With The Flow by Queens of the Stone Age at 99% only missing notes when I was double checking my finger position and trying to find the rhythm. Finger position became natrual the second time through the track at it's highest difficulty level and I didn't have to second guess my hand position once. Thanks to the instant visual response you know where your hand is and whether or not you're playing the song correctly. Becoming familiar and comfortable with the fretboard has been one of my biggest challenges in teaching myself how to play. It is becoming less of an issue with each hour sunk into Rocksmith. The sense of accomplishment after that 99% score was fantastic. I was also able to watch the replay and identify where I needed to focus. I really liked the idea of playing the guitar 7 years ago when I bought my Strat Squire on a whim. It's crazy that having the visual response this game provides that I am now actually playing and learning. My Gibson is no longer sitting in it's case in a closet. It is out and used for a minimum of 3 hours a day. You couldn't force me to do that even a month ago. Speaking of guitars; spend a little money on your guitar. Starter packs are fine but can be discouraging when the quality of the product impedes your learning. As stated above I have had the standard Strat Squire many start with and after a short time with it I just didn't like how it felt. There are budget guitars and there are value guitars. Epiphone from Gibson is the way to go in my opinion. If you are just buying one online and don't want to go to a music shop for a test drive I would recomend this one: "Epiphone LP Special II Les Paul Collection Electric Guitar, Ebony" Again, Amazon search phrase. It keeps it's tune very well, has easy action, a smooth neck, and feels right when it's in your hands. For a guitar under $200 this is a great value guitar. If you're willing to spend a bit more then get a hard case for your guitar as well. Epiphone has a case for nearly every guitar they manufacture. All of this info is meant for the beginner using this game as a learning tool like myself. These are lessons I've learned in teaching myself. I hope you find the review and general info helpful. Good luck on your journey :)	video-games_xbox
Once you figure it out....it still sucks. I've been in martial arts all my life, and if you want an acurate representation, this is NOT the game for you. If you want to move around a little bit and have fun with it, then you will like this game. Will it get your heart rate up...yes. (Sometimes due to frustration though). I think this game is geared more twoards non professional fighters who just want to have fun. Full motion of moves is not required and sometimes makes playing the game worse. Less movement is almost more in this game. If you've trained in martial arts you may get frustrated when throwing a front kick and it throws a punch. Paying attention to on screen tips is CAN be helpful. Beating opponents is dependent on dogding punches/kicks and then countering, perhaps the best part of this game. Special moves are hard to tame if you actually try to do them. Practicing the way the game wants you to do them is probably the most helpfull advice I can give. It's not for younger kids, but anyone over 10 could have fun with this game (including adults). The graphics of the game are good if not great. The places you fight have great backgrounds. Overall, I recommend this to anyone just for fun. You may get a workout if your used to working just your thumbs and finger. Will you loose weight....probably more dependent on your diet. ;-) Down side: this game is more frustrating than anything else. It's slow to recognize your moves. After trying to dodge punches and kicks (especially after you level up) is impossible since the sensor is to slow. Trying to land particular punches is almost impossible. You throw a round house cause you see an opening, it may throw a punch OR DO NOTHING. You dodge a punch it tries to headbutt. After playing this for a while, I regret buying it. If you've ever fought DO NOT GET THIS, you'll just get really !@#$$% "upset". The reason for the low rating is the lag (or lack of recognition) in what you do and what your "fighter" does. Not being able to capitalize on openings you see because of that lag or the wrong strike thrown by your "fighter" is very frustrating to say the least. Not sure if this is due to the kinect sensors or just the game.....whatever, I'll be selling this game soon.	video-games_xbox
Now if only it were backwards compatible. Here is one of those games that people either love for the sake of loving, love for the sake of being Deus Ex or hate with a fiery passion for the same reasons. One of the biggest draws(and flaws) is the world and time this game is set in. As a direct sequel(flash 20 odd years) to the original Deus Ex we follow Alex D. in a world that(much like fall-out) follows EVERY ending of the previous game, something rarely ever seamlessly integrated but done exceptionally well in this game. Story-Wise this one isn't as Machina or Freudian heavy, you're not really asked to understand big philosophy and while there is a touch of differing factions in the game they pretty much explain themselves, you don't need to go crawling through emails and books(E-Books, go figure.) to figure out what one faction will REALLY do or why someone wants to do something specific. There is also the draw that you can either play the original and appreciate some of the subtle touches or not and not really miss anything, in fact, there tends to be more AHA moments for those who play this first, though, obviously this will spoil much of the original if you intend to play. Pros: Graphics: For it's time the moving lips and body movements were actually well done, even stacked up to now this game looks pretty good. It's a pretty dark setting(even if the story isn't as dark as it could be) and that's not an easy sell for a graphics intense game. Story: Despite being quite a bit simpler there is still that feel of really being in the Deus Ex world, up until you meet a certain spoiler it all plays out fairly well. Now, on story, having said the factions were simple I will say that fulfilling your "destiny" actually prove to be a lot more...intellectual in understanding, it isn't easy to understand a certain factions true motives until you really open your eyes and ears for it, however, even having said that there are still not heavy philosophical debates. It's an absolute joy(if only I could debate "him" in real life) to hear a certain spoiler speak but it doesn't take away from the story if you don't fully understand something. Gameplay: Here is where it shines, multi-pathed and multi-tasked you have the option of taking multiple routes through any and all of the game. You can play it straight run and gun, focus on "powers" focus on stealth, kill everyone or not kill a single person(and I mean not one). There is no real difficulty curve and even on hard it is fairly easy to adjust to the game itself, even if enemies are easy. Given that this game was put out before radical AI changes were made that helped a player to enjoy a hardcore difficulty setting, do not expect a truly enjoyable difficulty setting, like all games of old the hardcore settings only serve to buff the enemies and damage. Though playing on the "hardest" difficulty setting can be quite rewarding. Voice Acting: Some may disagree but for an Eidos game I felt the VA's did exceptionally well with the material they were given. Of note were Jay Anthony Franke, Terri Brosius, Alexander Brandon and of course Christopher Sabat and Laura Bailey. I can see how awkward the lines were that they were given and for the material they WERE given they added that extra feel. Cons: Story: As much a con as a pro, despite one or two interesting philosophical view points there isn't really as much meat as a true Deus Ex fan would appreciate as compared to the original. Deus Ex is one of those worlds that is supposed to ask you what "grey" really means and help you to forge and understand different path's we take in the world. It is meant to ask and inform you that what we may consider "ideal" may not be the same to others', everything is just grey, something IW touches but never really explores. Music: Not bad per se but nothing really jumped out to me. It all seemed a bit bland and, outside of the nightclubs I could swear I was almost playing the game on mute. Sound: It goes with sound as well, while it can be forgiven for being dated, even back then there wasn't really any sense of "aura of dystopia" to the feel of the game, it was all just copy paste bland sound effects.	video-games_xbox
Whatever. *Possible spoiler(s)* I thought that the first two games were just about perfect (I'm a casual gamer and probably easier to please?) Overall, the game is good. SFX, graphics, voice acting (superb), soundtrack (beautiful), creativeness (I love the creativity of the DS developers): all of these were excellent. However, on execution: 1. While the music is great, it seemed to me that some of the music was played over and over again, which got a bit old (and predictable?). You'd walk into a section where there was (obviously) going to be a fight, and then the same "dramatic" music would play. This may have been done in the first two games, but I don't remember it. I remember much, much silence and music occasionally (sometimes you'd fight enemies with _no_ music, which was crazy cool). The music in the first two I thought were used much more strategically (though, I'm not sure if I can compare those soundtracks to this one). 2. The storyline made my head spin (analogy). I understood that (basically) a "necromorph outbreak" was trying to be prevented. But, it was in the details, I think. I'm not real sure about how to comment on the storyline, to be honest, but it seemed real rushed and illogical. 3. Hit detection? Probably the only (negative) part I didn't laugh at. Check this out: a. Get that force-gun style weapon. b. Shoot at a necro from a distance and force it back. c. Uh, oh. Have to reload... d. Necro is now in ya' face. e. Shoot it with the force gun, point-blank. f. See that nothing happens and it just hits you again. WTF? This sort of thing happened throughout the entire game. You'd hit the enemy with a weapon, but nothing would happen. In one case, I _knew_ that a necro should have been dead after hitting it many times, but it just kept on comin'. 4. What's up with the onslaught of enemies? It's not that there are a _ton_ of enemies, but that it's easy for them to dodge you (or just not get hit; see above) and get _close_ to you. That's where the issue begins (I think). You then have two or three enemies just have at it with you. In the first two games, it's possible to not get hit by a single necro, depending on how good you were. I don't see that here, unless it a new_game+, and you just come out the gates "balls to the wall" with upgraded weapons. 5. The last boss: LMAO. Really? I imagined how that discussion might have went at EA: "OK guys, let's finish this game. Let's just throw in a humongous 'thing' at the end. They'll all love it. Any big-ol' thing will do. Just make it huge!" In DS2, when the subway crashes and you're fighting upside down, I was just blown away that anyone had the guts to even attempt something like that. I was so looking forward to a moment like that in this game, but it never came. The closest I ever came to that feeling was in the very beginning when that big-as plane passes right over you as you slide _backwards_ (that was tight) down the snowy hill. *The "training room" sections for the Unitologists were awesome, as well as the portrayal of the level of fanaticism (Unitologists). My thoughts go out to the DS developers (particularly for 1 & 2, which I never reviewed). You guys are awesome. DS3, though, kind of made me laugh compared to what was done in the first two. I won't be in any rush to get #4, unfortunately.	video-games_xbox
Okay Game. Some good and some bad. I am going to try my best summarize to game. The running is new and better than the latest madden games but the problem is that if you play online, it is going to be hard to tackle the player, TRUST ME! Game got harder with players who knows how to run the ball and get away from their opponents. Tackling looks realistic in this game and I will give huge credit to the developers. Blocking is pretty bad still because sometimes linebackers will sneaky go through the linesmen when you do the Toss play and after the getting the ball, the opponent is already there to tackle you. The commentators are the same thing from Madden 13 but they have some new lines but we all the knew that they will say repeatedly the same thing. I was concern about the fans in the stadium are still like Madden 09 fans. I mean why can not improve them. They are apart of the environment in the football game and same goes with the players at the sidelines and they all look ratchet. It is the details that these creators have to fix or improve on to make this game more interesting for us to play even more. The field was okay but I expect better and the graphics were not good on the players. The throwing is really good and no comments about that. Intercepting the ball got really easy in this game. Just hold Y and 80 percent you will catch the ball so if you play online, think twice before you throw that ball because if you are going against opponents who know how to play, you are going to turnovers after turnovers. There are many mistakes in this game that it is hard to explain but if you really like football and madden, then get the game but just be prepare for the mistakes that you have to deal with and I think after these years of making this game, it is not going nowhere. This is almost like Madden 13 with updated players and some new stuff but same problems. Problems like blocking, speed quality, graphics, game play, and bad calls. Not bad game but for me, it is not worth it to buy the game :(	video-games_xbox
Buyer Beware!! (UPDATED as of January 11th, 2016. UPDATE 3: Sorry, I know this an extremely late update. So I ended up not returning them and have been using them. After i had posted the 2nd update to this review, another firmware update had been released, and firmware updates have continued to be released improving the mic. My friends say i sound great now in parties. If you were on the edge of picking these up based on what you had heard, I would say they're safe to pick up now! Just make sure to update the firmware, or you will sound like crap! I will be changing my review to 4 stars. Will do my best to respond to comments. UPDATE 2: Hate to come to this, but will be returning them. The latest firmware update did increase the volume of the mic, but it still sounds like crap. Turtle beach support has been terrible. They were emailing me back every other day and now its been almost 4 days and nothing. UPDATE 1: Okay so I have a huge update, will try to explain this as best as possible. Let me first say this is a widespread issue going on with the mic in the elite 800x Richard Kulavik, the head of engineering at turtle beach, contacted me on YouTube through my unboxing review, which is linked below, looking to understand my experience and asked me to contact him by email. He said for the past couple days they've been testing units at the headquarters and at microsoft looking to understand if there is an issue with some units. In case you don't know, the widespread issues being reported involve the built in mic and that you sound like you're talking with a bucket on your head, and that you sound like you're far away and muffled. So I emailed him, and explained my situation and concerns. He then asked if we could start a conversation over Skype where we would both be using the elite 800x and try to diagnose the problems. So we both got into a Skype chat and his elite 800x sounded crystal clear and he said mine sounded clear as well. So I suggested that we test it through an xbox live party as that's where I've been told by my friends that it was having issues. So we started up a party and did some different tests. Then I suggested we jump in a party with my friends so they could give him some feedback. He asked them some questions and they gave him some great feedback. After that we came to the conclusion that the mic issues only occur in Xbox Live Parties! His elite 800x's chat quality and volume definitely was worse in the xbox live party compared to Skype and he said the same about mine as well. He got a lot of useful information from all of this and said that my help has them working through thoughts for a potential change, and that my Amazon review and feedback has reached the ceo of the company! He also said that they have an idea but need a day or so to determine if it would help the confusion. He said he will continue to keep me updated. I am extremely pleased with the customer service I've received. I will continue to update this review as soon as new information comes in. ORIGINAL REVIEW: I purchased mine from Best Buy but wanted to post my early impressions here. Here is my Unboxing video: [...]Don't listen to these bias Amazon vine reviews. They all got the headset for free while we have to pay $300, so why wouldn't they give it good reviews. I waited months for this headset and feel like I was scammed $300. So first of all the mic is absolutely atrocious. I joined a party with my friends and everyone said I sounded like I was talking from across the room and that my voice would cut out and sound muffled. They actually thought I was using my kinect at first to talk, that's how bad it sounds. It's a built in mic instead of a mic boom which is what turtle beach has used in previous headsets. I have tried everything. On my xbox one i set my optical audio to bitstream out and my bitstream format to dolby audio. I upgraded my transmitter and headset to the latest firmware through the Turtle Beach Ear Force Audio Hub. I also set the microphone preset to quiet room, no difference. I set it to normal room, and my friends said it was a little bit better but they said i still sounded like i was talking from across the room Other than that the build quality, design, and sound are all excellent. It's very comfortable to wear! Fits on my head real nice. The mic problem is a widespread issue so I'm waiting to see what turtle beach does about it. I will update this review when I figure it out. If you don't plan on ever talking with this headset then by all means pick it up, otherwise definitely avoid it for now.	video-games_xbox
So what if the graphics aren't perfect? Highly recommended. So I purchased the Xbox 360 version of Dragon Age: Origins yesterday and have spent WAY too many hours in Ferelden when I should be doing far more constructive things. Is it too much of a stretch to think that someone who names their blog after semi-mystical airships might enjoy a roleplaying game or two? The game is not perfect. The graphics are decidedly sub-par, audio glitches occur far too frequently, and on a regular basis I notice tiny white specs, which are the "seams" showing between some images that display environmental graphics. Screen tearing, I think it's called. The latter wouldn't be so bad, if I didn't also have to look for a similarly white-ish graphic that indicates a chest or box or crate or body requires ransacking for the requisite reward. I'm always rotating the camera back for a quick second to be sure I'm not missing out on some loot. But so what? The game is deep, the voice-acting well done over all, and this may be the best WRITTEN roleplaying game of the current generation, even if the story itself seems safely (perhaps too safely) rooted in standard RPG conventions. Not even Mass Effect has dialogue options that are as "realistic" and rewarding to hear as what can be found in Dragon Age. But, just to meet my "geek" and "nerd" quota for the day, I read some reviews. I've never seen so many one-star "reviews" based on just one or two aspects of what is otherwise a fantastic game -- one-star bashing based on (you guessed it) the graphics or the heavy (oh so time-consuming) dialogue. My take is that this phenomenon exposes a fundamental shortcoming of this particular generation of games -- there simply aren't enough good RPGs that elevate story and dialogue as THE fundamental pillar of the game's success. In just one short decade, gamers have forgotten how story-heavy games like Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, KOTOR, and other RPGS really were. In just one short decade, everything is about graphics. What a tragedy. Gaming has gone from a hobby filled with gaming enthusiasts with imagination and open-mindedness (in terms of what can be considered a successful kind of game), to a hobby filled with mindless addicts seeking the nearest, the quickest possible thumb-twitch to get their needed dose of adrenaline. And the internet is such a "perfect" forum for them to express their distaste. Twitchers with short attention spans "write" quick, twitch-like reviews that say GRAPHICS SUCK and FAIL and give one star reviews, as if that's all that matters in a game. Hardly. Rather than pay attention to either the mostly positive or mostly negative reviews, rather than pay attention to the polarization that can occur in the review sections of buy-sites, be sure to check out Metacritic or GameStats or other sites that organize and collate reviews from ACTUAL CRITICS. There's a concept. Dragon Age is a fantastic game. Deep characterization and playing fundamentals/strategy (on higher difficulty levels), lots of looting and blood and gore, romance with a pretty guy or girl, long-term support from Bioware (hopefully) as evidenced by the downloadable content available on the day of release, and huge "bang for your buck." Even at 60 dollars retail, that averages to at the very least a dollar an hour in terms of value, for anyone who completes the game. And this isn't 60 dollars of sandbox. Dragon Age doesn't appear to be as much of a "sandbox" game as Morrowind or Oblivion. While great games themselves, they left some players feeling a little left out in the cold, wandering around without enough of story-driven momentum to sustain interest. One can only loot so many caves, kill so many monsters, close so many gates, that don't have significant impact on finishing the game. And did I say dragons, arch demons, and dark fantasy elements? Anyone who enjoys RPGs should buy this game. Now.	video-games_xbox
TOO many bugs. Low volume,constant unplug and plug to get it to work right. This review comes from a gamer who plays about 8 hours a day------After 3 months research. Finally chose these. Been using them for 2 months now. I was on the fence with having to download software patch. Because after $300.00 bucks. The consumer shouldn't have to do ANYTHING. But the patch was easier than i though. And did fix the mic problems. Here it is - -Sound- 5.5 * I tend to need it louder. Clarity is good. Just wish it was loud -Comfort- 6.5 * After about 2 hours the ear pads tends to get uncomfortable. -Ease of use- 6 The settings buttons can be overwhelming, but after a month you get them down. They have a tendency to change if the device is pulled off your head and onto your shoulders, say if you need to take them off a second and place them on your shoulders. -Issues/Problems- 7.5- about 25% of the time the bluetooth ,or microphone stops working. In game. And i have to unplug then plug the dock station back up. It always fixes it. But still happens too often. Bluetooth as well. I listen to music from iphone while on this. And usually have to unplug dock and turn off and back on my iphone. Battery- 8.5 Can run about 8 hrs straight, seem to charge full within 30 mins? give or take. Construnction- 9 Very well built. - Really my only complaint is the on and off microphone voice prompt. All other buttons ie. volume, bluetooth on/off, setting. Use a female english voice to tell you what button you pressed and what setting your at. The microphone on/off uses only a musical tone. Both tones sound similar. So you really have to get used to which tone to tell if you turned your mic on or off. --Overall 7... I expected more in sound and less connectivity issues. For a $300.00 price tag. But the total wireless and bluetooth make this a good/ not GREAT purchase. Probably worth about $200.00 max. But with what else is out there . I would have to purchase again. -What sold me was complete wireless and bluetooth. UPDATE: July 14 2016. I broke the initial one. Got a new one from Best buy (warranty) Did the patch. And i still get people saying they can hardly hear me, or i sound muffled. And recently, When i start the game up and turn headphones on i can not hear the game. I have to unplug the deck from my xbox and plug back and it works. My initial review was more favorable. Now i think this headset is NOT WORTH THE PRICE at all. There are WAY TOO MANY ISSUES still. Volume is too low for me, people cant hear me clearly, and i have to unplug and plug the base up . These problem occur about 1 out of 4 times i play. (If it was not for the complete wireless and bluetooth) i would not buy this again. If you can blow 285.00 easily. Then this may be ok for you if not. I would really consider something else. Whatever you do (GET THIS AT BEST BUY AND GET THE WARRANTY and KEEP YOUR RECEIPT.	video-games_xbox
Great background and gameplay. In Dead or Alive Ultimate, you get to play both Dead or Alive 1 and an improved version of Dead or Alive 2 - plus online gameplay as well! XBox fans who enjoy fighting are thrilled about this - because while Dead or Alive 3 was on the XBox, until now there was no way to play the older games on this console. The Dead or Alive 1 gameplay is just like the original, bringing the classic feel and fun. On the other hand, Dead or Alive 2 is definitely updated. You get the same characters and locations, but the graphics have been revamped to take advantage of the XBox's engine. I have to say this is GREAT because I'm a huge fan of Dead or Alive 3 and its amazing graphics. To be able to have that same level of graphic achievement - with blowing leaves, footprints in the snow, and so on - is just great. The costumes and characters are all quite distinctive and really let you get a feel for the personality of each individual. The main theme is done by Aerosmith, but each level has its own music that fits well with the scenario. You get to fight in Japanese gardens, on the Great Wall of China, in a peaceful forest, and in other quite detailed spots. Not only are the three dimensional areas visually spectacular, but you can knock a character off a given section of the map and continue the fight on lower levels. It really adds to the strategy and gameplay. There are great new scenes to help you learn more about the Dead or Alive universe. It's like reading a prequel to your favorite story - suddenly the characters and their actions take on new meanings. The online gameplay lets you take your skills and techniques online, to test against players around the world. Instead of being 'stuck' with the gameplay in the game (which can easily last for weeks), you could play 24 hours a day and never run out of new opponents to face. If I have any complaint about this game, it's that while the guys are in really cool costumes, the women all seem to be wearing costumes that clearly show off their underwear and big breasts. Some people DO play these games who aren't obsessed with women's underwear and inflatable chests. That being said, it is at least great that female fighters are treated with respect, and it's considered normal to have just as many female characters in a fighting game as males. It wasn't that long ago that a fighting game would be males only, with women stuck on the sidelines waving little flags. A great fighting game in general, and a must-have for DOA fans to fill in the storyline. 4.5/5	video-games_xbox
Broken. Ah, Xbox 360, a good system in many ways. The online portion is great. By far it is the best online play of any console. The controller feels good in your hands and works well. The system has a lot of stuff other than just games you buy from the store. It has great games you can buy and download. You can either hook up an either net cable or buy a wireless adapter for 99.99 dollars. You can use Xbox live gold which will cost about 49.99 for a year, or you can use silver which is free. Of course you need wireless internet for this to work. You can also buy and download movies and shows. Now I think (having my apple TV) that it is stupid to download movies and shows on my 360. But for those of you who do not want to spend all that money for an apple TV. That is a great feature. Then your not just paying for a game system, your paying for a media system. I am not sure how much space the movies and shows take on your hard drive, but you can always buy a new hard drive. The few games I have downloaded are really fun. You can use a credit card to download games or you can buy an xbox live card. The only one I ever saw was for 1600 points and cost like 20 dollars. A lot of the games on this system can be bought for the PS3 or the Wii. I have a Wii, but not a ps3. The graphics are great, though not as good as the TV makes them look. I have only played one game that came close to looking like TV made them look. I mean the only way you will get the full expierence is if you own a high def, flat screen TV with surround sound. I don't have either of these. I'm not going to pay so much more for a TV in my bed room. The games still look pretty good without the high def though. Now I know I have said a lot of good things about the system, and I'm sure you thinking "why the 2 out of 5?" Well I'll tell you why. I got my first xbox 360 from a whole sale place in 05. It had red rings and stopped working. I sent it to Microsoft and sold it on amazon when it was fixed. So that's 1. Then I got a new xbox 360 elite. In 06 it broke, and I exchanged it at the store I bought it from. That's 2. That one broke a little while latter and I exchanged it for a new one. That's 3. Just to make things short, I just exchanged the one I had for another one. That is SEVEN OR EIGHT! I exchanged one 3 weeks ago and it already broke. I only play the system for like 6 hours in a 2 week period. If I had not just bought Lego Indiana jones and my mother brought me Ninja Gaiden 2, I would have sold the new system and everything with it for 800 dollars. It's not worth having to drive to the store and exchange it. The store is only 10 minutes away but I can not drive and gas is WAY to much to have to do such a stupid thing. Microsoft obviously can't and didn't make a good quality system that would last. I still have my ps and ps2. They both still work. Hell I have an NES my uncle gave me and that still works. I will never buy another xbox 360 game. Unless, after I rent it it's really supper fun and I really want to play. I was thinking about buying a ps3 today but I said "forget it." I will keep my xbox 360. I have to pay like 30 dollars for a new warranty next month. That is the only reason I will do so. If you get the system, I warn you. Get the warranty, because it WILL break, and you Will have to return it time and time again. I am going to write to the news and some game magazines about how bad and unreliable it is. Shame on you Microsoft.	video-games_xbox
I don't hate it but I don't love it. Okay I honestly don't hate this game and idea but they did it wrong. First off the storyline, every character has a different story unless the character is form the same franchise/story. Ex Woody and Buzz share the same story. The story is repetitive but with different features such as if you start with Mr. Incredible's story and complete it and move on to Monsters Uni you'll have the same aspect which is to be better than than the enemy and upgrade your place to make it better. The stories are boring after a while and dumb. The figures are another peeve of mine. They cost a little too much for figures. About $15 to play the same story with the same unlock ables. No real reason to buy them. The gamepad to put the figures on works fine same with the play cards. At least that's now thing Disney did right. The toy box is great I love that's why this rating is two stars but if there wasn't a toy box I'd give it a 0 stars but that's just me being generous. Anyway the toy box is wonderful with great mechanics and wonderful features they just did the toy box really "wrong". The building and deleting and everything wonderful, but the extra features you can get to upgrade and build on to the toy box is the absolute WORST. You have to do random things and tutorials that aren't even good (Ill get to the tutorials later) or challenges only to gamble with a 1/12 chance of getting what you want. That feature is the worst. The narrator in the toy box mode is pesky,ignorant, and repetitive always telling you to do this and that to unlock things that you don't want and you can't even turn him off in the options. The multiplayer is pretty good it awfully laggy. I've had people glitching out and end up crashing my game then having to restart my whole console because of one bug. This may have been patched or not but I played when this when this was released then 1 month after I quit after having too many problems then put the game away under my bed to never play with the game again. The tutorial mode is really REALLY annoying and pushy when trying to do stuff blocking you form doing other things like explore and wonder. I haven't touched this game ever since release because the game did not interest me enough for me to like it. The nostalgic factor is not high so the game hasn't made me interested. I love this idea and how much work was put into the game not worth $60 or $80. I would recommend not buying the game. This review was written by a teenager who played this game and did not come out happy with it.	video-games_xbox
Great for New RB Players. First let me heartily recommend the entire RockBand line for any family that wants to game together, but who has members not into first person shooters, or ridiculous video game background music. The drums are pretty close to the real deal, with a drum trainer that allows you to learn different beats at your own pace. This and the vocals, which encourage you to correctly match pitch, actually translate into real music applications. So even parents who might find regular video games a complete waste of time, can't complain too loudly about this one, as it does teach a skill. Plus it is really, really fun. Although the review title states it is great for beginner players to Rock Band, I myself am not a RB novice. If I weren't already an expert player, this would have been more fun, but it is perfect for someone brand new to the game. If you are a veteran RB or GH player, expert guitarist/drummer and are lukewarm on Beatles music, skip the expense of this set and just rent the game from your local video store. The graphics and between scene/post song "stories" are incredible. Even if you aren't a huge fan, it is worth at least a look through renting. We borrowed it from a friend and played straight though on expert, in under 4 hours. Then we went back and played it again, not paying as much attention, just so we could watch the amazing graphics. I recommend this most to fans of the Beatles, or to families who want to try out RockBand. The Beatles are so popular, that few people aren't already familiar with their music, making the vocals not too daunting for a beginner. Expert vocalists will enjoy the three-part harmony, which allows players to blend their voices together. The songs, even the ones that are labeled as "difficult" aren't really, and so pretty easy to master quickly. Beatles' lyrics are family-friendly, and this is a great start for folks wanting to see if this type of game is for them. Singing requires the smallest piece of equipment (easily put away with the remotes), but drums are large, bulky, loud, and an investment. Fortunately, the drum parts on the Beatles are fairly easy for beginners, but for the very youngest kids I'd recommend starting with Lego RB instead(there is a "super easy" mode that even little kids can excel at). The guitar included in the Beatles special edition is beautiful and stylish compared to the other RB guitars. If you like this game, be sure to progress on to RB2, which is more challenging and allows you to customize your band and players. The reason I gave it a 4 not a 5 is because there is not downloadable content, and if you already have downloaded songs, you can't play them with this game. I can see why this is so, but it would still be a nice touch to allow some compatibility, say with the solo songs of Paul McCartney, or George Harrison, just to have some extra music once the songs are mastered.	video-games_xbox
Can we go home now. I don't like this game. Based on the film of the same name released earlier this month, Zathura is a game that was obviously intended for a very young audience. The question is: where do you draw the line between when simplistic gameplay intended for a child becomes a bad game. Zathura definitely tests this boundary, and in the end winds up rocketing from the realm of charming children's title to deep in the realm of unsatisfying play experience. Anyone remember Jumanji? Dated looking special effects? Some silly looking hunter with an accent? Robin Willaims in a dress as he babysits his kids in his ex-wife's house? Same movie, right? Regardless, Zathura follows along in largely the same vein. The game starts off with two kids, Danny and Walter, arguing in their house. Eventually Danny gets tossed into the basement where he finds a board game called Zathura. The brothers start to play the game and the results of their moves turn into real life consequences. As soon after they start playing their house gets tossed into space, they get a huge battle robot, travel to weird planets, and fight huge bosses. Sounds pretty good, right? It's Not Good. Zathura is a third person adventure title. In each of the game's levels you'll control one of three characters: Danny, Walter, or the robot. The game assigns you which character you'll be playing as, so don't expect to be switching around at will. Each character has a different skill set. Walter melees with a wrench and throws a variety of projectiles like snowballs and toxic wads. Danny uses a slingshot to do the same projectile attacks, though he has an unlimited amount of his base ammo, called moon rocks. The robot can blast lasers, a charged shot, do a running charge, and jump a lot higher than the two kids. As you guide each character through the game's levels, you'll find each character is presented with specific challenges. For instance, Walter does a few hand over hand sequences, both boys do turret sequences, and the robot just constantly shoots. The problem is there really isn't anything significant that differentiates them beyond this. All the sequences feel almost exactly the same. The other problem is, you don't really need to watch out for enemies or environmental hazards because of the way the game restarts you in a stage after you die. Enemies in Zathura will pop into existence in front of you. Instead of fighting them, it's way more effective to just run right by them. The A.I. is so bad you'll hardly ever get hit in the process. In a few cases we had run past a large group of enemies and eventually gotten killed since a few of them were spitting projectiles at the backs of our heads as they chased us. However, instead of having to restart the sequence, the game respawned us at the end and had wiped away all the enemies leaving us free to continue unharmed as if nothing had happened. A few other instances had us drop into arena-like areas where we assumed we'd have to defeat all the enemies in order to proceed, but this wasn't the case. As the enemies spawned and charged us, we just hopped on a lava turtle and went on to the next area. In The Dead Planet level, all we had to do was run over a hill along the way and groups of five or so enemies would give up chase. Of course, as we were sprinting through groups of enemies we were taking damage, but the ridiculous amount of health powerups made it impractical to be cautious. Enemies killed and the hundreds and hundreds of breakable level objects drop health as well as ammo power ups, so there's never any need to try and be careful. Even the few boss sequences, of which some were admittedly entertaining, particularly the stone goddess fight, gave you enough health to easily last through the battle. "I Don't Want to Play Anymore, Walter." Enemies are not just really dumb, they're spectacularly dumb. In many cases, if you're on a platform and an enemy is on one close to you, they'll walk right at you regardless of whether the platform continues under their feet. In many cases, the outcome is a large number of enemies taking nose dives into pits of lava or other huge crevasses as they topple over the sides of platforms. This was most notable with the fire dogs of Tsouris-3 and the Zorgon warriors. So in some areas, the best strategy isn't to run straight through, but to wait on the edge of a platform while all nearby foes voluntarily plummet into the pit in front of you. The camera is also an issue. Though you're able to control rotate it around, there are times it will lock up. This happened to me on the Robot Planet and was especially notable in the final boss fight, making it very difficult to see what was going on around us. In other cases the camera will switch to a fixed position for some platforming sequences. This is problematic as well since it's extremely difficult to tell exactly where your character is standing and will jump to. It becomes even more of a problem if you're trying to use the game's lock-on system. By itself the system works fairly well, but runs into problems with the inexact camera. The result: lots of unnecessary death. But hey, that's not so bad since sometimes you repawn after the sequence you were trying to pass. Simplistic character models, environments, and level architecture prove that this game's graphics were clearly designed to appeal to children. Character models are big, round, and cartoonish, environments are simple and none of the enemies are particularly scary or frightening (though the Zorgons might be scary to a little kid). Textures are bland and nothing jumps out as particularly detailed or impressive. The framerate is able to remain smooth for most of the game, though occasionally it stutters. Of equal simplicity is the stage design. Each place you go through has you travel from point A to point B along a straightforward path. Often the path through a stage is highlighted by a trail of power ups. Again, more evidence that this is a children's title. What children might not understand is how Zathura advances story. While there are some sequences with an impressive amount of spoken dialogue, there are also a few glaring holes in the game's plot. Your characters will often start a stage and you'll have only vague notions of how they got there. Other times the game will stop in mid battle and go into a cut scene. The music is the best aspect of the game, it's at least somewhat interesting to listen to. Like the cut scenes, however, it too will randomly stop or skip a track when you advance into a new area. Just because Zathura is a kids game doesn't excuse it from needing to be fun to play. The laughable A.I., boring level design, pedestrian graphics, and tattered story make this a game that should be avoided by young and old alike. On top of all that, it's a four hour game at the most and has no multiplayer.	video-games_xbox
Honest Review From New BF/COD Player. So this is my first time playing any Battlefield or Call of Duty game, ever, but not to FPS. Played Halo, Counter Strike, etc. I do enjoy FPS. So I went ahead and bought Battlefield 4 thinking I was going to have a good time. Here is what I have to say about my whole experience this week. Oh, and I am playing on current gen, XBOX 360. Graphics: So the graphics look....alright I guess. I like the destructiveness of the environment and all that I've heard BF is known for, but my issue is that it's near impossible to locate and see enemies on the screen. Everything and everyone seem to blend in with everything that is currently on screen. Not to mention that there is a HUGE lag time for the textures of the environment to load in. Sometimes I've waited 3-5 minutes for the map to finish loading it's textures. Come on, it's 2013, yeah it's current gen but still, it should not have this problem. Online Gameplay: I have not and will not be touching the single player campaign, as I have heard that BF is not known for good quality story telling and it's all about multiplayer. Fine. Well, I can honestly say I am not having the best time playing online. Match making is slow. Game freezes more than 50% of the time and have to reset the console. Some weapons feel far to overpowered compared to ones that should be more powerful yet are not, i.e. a shotgun hit directly to the face within 2-3 feet of an enemy, yet takes their health down to 60 and they get a one hit kill with a side arm pistol? Might be some seriously lag there, but still, it does not seem well balanced at all. My progress in the game is also being hampered by some unknown issue that EA has yet to address. All of my battlepacks that I have unlocked up to rank 14 have been re-locked, all previous items from them have been taken away, and am now getting new items. So I lost all those EXP boosts and attachments that I liked only to be replaced with weapon color skins. Also the game is not saving any new progress, whether that be rank, kit or weapon progression and unlocks, after a match it all gets reset to what it was at when I logged in for the day. Bottom Line: Being new to the BF/COD world, I can see the potential appeal to BF4, but I am sorry, for EA to release a game that had a beta in this poor of a condition, there is no excuse. I am also going to be getting COD Ghost tomorrow, first COD game I've played, so don't think I am a fan boy of it and say that it's better than BF. I don't know. I hope I have a better experience, but we shall see. In the meantime, I would recommend holding off on Battlefield 4 for the time being. Keep checking their website for bug fixes and updates to be addressed, and maybe pick it up for next gen consoles. Maybe it will be better, but at this moment, this game feels broken to me.	video-games_xbox
Decent but for my preference, not for me. UPDATE - These sounded great but in my review I did state I returned them. The stereo sounded great but I did invest for the Astro A50s and they blew the Polks. An obvious reason is for the surround sound amp but comparing to these? Not even in the same sound quality. I understand the Astro's are very expensive but if you are willing to drop the money then I completely highly recommend a higher end headset. (Beginning of original review) I was able to find these locally at a Gamestop. Packaging - The package is nice but it was annoying to detach the zip ties. I had to get a blade to snap them off, a little difficult but really annoying. The headsets are secure in the placement and it came with 3 cords: usb for the controller update, a wire for mobile/computer and the wire for the adapter. Comfort/Design - Hands down one of the most comfortable headsets I've used. My head I would say is kind of larger than the average head size but it was very comfortable. It might vary from user to user but these headsets were over-ear headsets for me. My ears fit perfectly in the seal. The padding was very soft and the band did not put any discomfort pressure especially during a long gaming session of about 4 hours (Titanfall is too fun). The padding around the band didn't have any discomfort on the top of my head but I still prefer my headsets will a full padded band. It might of been a budget design or maybe Polk wanted the slim look, but personally I prefer headsets that have padding from ear cup to ear cup. I really do like the design because it doesn't give off a "gaming" headset vibe and I could see someone using these on the go. I do like the hidden mic and its subtlety, but as for quality I'll talk about that later. Sound - Before purchasing these I was really torn between these and the XO Sevens. I pulled the trigger and went with these (not anymore, will explain in the end). The sound is crisp and clear. I tried them in Titanfall and BF4. Gunshots sounded amazing especially in Battlefield 4. You can hear foot steps and make out what direction they are coming from whether is was from the sides, behind, above and below. But you really have to listen for them. During the intermission before a game in Titanfall the briefing sounded very good. The voices really sounded like you were in a room being briefed through the intercom. It gave a sense of immersion. Explosions sounded very clear and as stated earlier I was able to pin point what direction it came from. I loved the quality but my problem is I felt like it was missing some "ump" factor. It could be Microsoft's fault due to the adapter and the fact that these and any new Xbox One headset as of now are stereo. Don't get me wrong this doesn't hinder the quality, there is bass but for my preference I wanted a little bit more bass. Maybe they'll patch it in or it could vary from game to game. The sound quality is great though don't get me wrong. Also forgot to mention these headsets are very versatile in regards to providing an "audio" experience. I used these on my macbook to listen to some music and they were very clear and amazing. I'm not surprised given Polk designs speakers for music quality. Just like I said before my preference is to have more bass but they weren't really wowing me. I use Beats by Dre Pro's, now we can all argue about "oh beats this," "beats that" but remember its all preference. I did recognize that these headsets are little bit on the lower volume side whether on the Xbox or normal use. Given what I said about the sound quality, they are still great. Mic - Now here's the issue everyone is giving. Honestly those who are rating these headsets 1 star and even 2 stars is being too harsh because its basing it off just the mic. People want to know about the headsets overall, sound quality, comfort, etc. I know the mic is very important for multiplayer but still a 1 star for that? Ridiculous. I tested the mic through my phone and macbook. People heard me nice and clear through phone calls, they had no problem. On the macbook I tested them through skype and facetime, they worked fine and the receiver heard me loud and clear. On the Xbox is were we all care about. I recorded a video through studio with my voice and to be honest I personally don't think its that bad as some people are crying about. I do agree that it sounded like I was across the room, muffled, far away from the mic which I can understand why people are complaining. Polk said they are working with a patch but lets be honest its the adapter. My complaint is did they not test this after the patch because all(?) of Polk owners are complaining about the mic. I played with a few of my friends to test the headset. I had friends used the stock headset and they said it was difficult to hear me unless they maxed their headset volume and somewhat lowered their tv. I used this with some friends who are also Polk owners and we could hear each other but of course increasing the voice chat volume. As for turtle beach users it varried opinions. Some say it was difficult and some said it was fine as long as they found a volume balance on their headset between chat and in game. I hope Polk resolves the issue soon because as myself and many we are looking at the TB's (I did return the Polk in exchange for the XO Seven). But overall the mic isn't functioning as it should be, granted this isn't Polk's fault. This is microsofts because of that adapter! Adapter - I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of the adapter. It took a while for me to understand how to use it and I don't think I got the hang of it. The only function that I really understood was the mute (lol). The left side has a voice and in game button. I believe they balance the sound quality of chat and game starting at 50/50. If you push the chat it then changes to 40/60. I could be all wrong but from what I noticed and playing around with the adapter that's why I got. Also I wish Polk used a "L" jack for the headset because I could tell over time it will get ruined and will have to be replaced. Overall verdict - I do like these headsets. They are very stylish, great comfort and sound. They have a strong frame for us gamers who may toss their headset during an angry session. The padding on the band and ear cups are very soft and comfortable. The weight is noticeable when holding them but when wearing them it is very light. Sometimes I forgot I was wearing a headset. There was no sound leakage for my ears because my ears fit perfectly within the ear cups. The sound had an overall nice range of deep highs, mids and lows. But like I said its all preference and I wish they had a little bit more bass in them. They are versatile in an "audio" sense. They sounded great listening to music and movies. The mic works outside the xbox but it needs to be resolved quick. Hopefully they will be fixed soon for those sticking it out. As of now I rate these headsets at a 3. I won't be able to update this review because I have returned them. But if they do fix the mic and possibly increase the volume I would bump this to a four at most. Don't get me wrong I'm not trying to steer you away from these headsets. They are great but for my preference, not really. But if you're looking for a headset that can be used all around where you would get the best quality in "audio" (for xbox, phone, laptop, mp3 player) I say go with these and stick it out till the patch. Sadly I did end up returning them in exchange for the XO Sevens. I bought these headsets at gamestop and boy returning them was fun. The manager hates me for sure haha but I got my refund. I picked up the XO sevens on amazon because the price is lowered and also I have a ton of left over gift card balances. I will update this review in comparison to the XO seven and will provide another review for the XO Seven page.	video-games_xbox
Not a bad game, but a crushing disappointment for Thief fans. I agree with many of the more detailed reviews of this game, but wanted to give my own personal view. I am an old-school gamer and a massive fan of the original Thief games (Thief I and II) from Looking Glass Studios. To this day, I believe that the original Thief games are among the finest games ever made. No game has even come close to replicating the mix of tension and exploration exemplified by those games. Like many others, I waited anxiously for this game for years, hopeful that Eidos Montreal's success with Deus Ex: Human Revolution would translate to the Thief game that we Thief fans have longed for since 2001. (While Thief: Deadly Shadows was a good game, it does not hold a candle to the originals). Thief is not a bad game. However, it is not a great game, either on its own or (especially) as compared to the originals. Unfortunately, it seems as though in trying to create a game that appeals both to the hardcore old-school fans and those encountering the game for the first time, Eidos/Square created a product that does neither. More troubling, the developers have failed to understand what made the originals so monumental: namely, evoking the feeling of stepping into Garrett's shoes, casing a location, carefully evaluating approaches to a situation, and entering and exiting a real location with logical and natural entry and exit points, and secrets to discover. In this new iteration, the joy of discovery is missing. Designated choke points suddenly close off behind you, eliminating your ability to explore. Your path through the levels is mostly preordained, with choices limited to a few discrete paths set by the developer. Gone are the expansive levels and true feeling of choice. Tools such as the rope arrow that allowed the player true freedom to explore a map are highly limited, serving only to solve a series of repetitive environmental puzzles. While the originals allowed the player to create their own stories and memorable moments, this game forces its own (weak) story on the player, sometimes interrupting the action to display an unnecessary scripted cut-scene. Much of the game is spent in the "City," which is a quasi-open-world. However, I found it confusing and impossible to navigate, made worse by an absolutely terrible in-game map that ignores the fact that portions of the map require passing through a loading zone. I spent 30+ hours playing the game, did every one of the side missions, and still could barely figure out my way around the City. I would have been much happier if the developers had just scrapped the City portions and focused instead on well-constructed missions, such as was done in the originals and replicated by Dishonored. That being said, Thief does some things very well. The stealth mechanics are very good. It does evoke a strong sense of place, and the City looks great (though mostly the same). There are portions of missions that are excellent, and demonstrate what this game could have been with the right focus. For example, a mission late in the game involving a mansion infiltration is excellent, but inexplicably turns into a disastrous action sequence during the second half. So, if the concept of slow-paced stealth in a Steampunk environment appeals to you, then you really should give this game a try. However, you should first play the originals and see why so many Thief fans were disappointed by this game.	video-games_xbox
Epic would be insignificant in comparison. "Mass Effect" is not a video game. Football is a game, checkers is a game, ping pong is a game, "Pac-man" is a game, and yes "Halo" is a game. But this is nothing less than pure, cinematic, interactive fiction containing all of the depth, detail, lore, discovery, and character of the greatest science fiction epics of all time. "Star Wars", "Star Trek", "Battlestar Galactica", "Blade Runner"; this is a story that nearly dwarfs them all in sheer size, scope, and enjoyment while paying homage to them along the way. "Mass Effect" is not an action-based game but a massive story that you help write as you go along based on your personal choices. Sure, there is plenty of very satisfying gunplay along the way, but it is mostly a means to an end rather than the primary focus. The story of "Mass Effect" is quite possibly the most amazing ever written for a video game, recalling many of the best elements from some of the greatest works of the sci-fi genre and putting you in an almost "Oblivion"-like level of control over the world. You could spend dozens of hours simply exploring unknown worlds and building your fortune that way while shirking the main story altogether if you choose. But if you don't have all the time in the universe to enjoy this one, the main story is not too long. In fact, I honestly wish it were much longer, but that was the sacrifice made for the open-ended freedom of exploration the player is given. One will most likely spend upwards of 50 hours just exploring the galaxies and discovering all of the tiny stories within the story that really flesh this universe out. Plus, there are many different ways to play the game which will command you to replay it over again just to see all of the what-if's and enjoy mastering all of the various class skills. "Mass Effect" also revels in making you face the tough decisions, forcing you to use you own personal morality to make choices that will effect the way characters in the game will look at you. And the many races of the intergalactic Council are watching you closely as a representative of humanity adn this will impact the game. What are the ethics behind genocide of a species that may, in time, become a real threat to civilized life? You decide. How about murder for revenge? Taking bribes? The safety of the intergalactic community against human lives? These are just a few of the issues you may face and have to think about before you press that button and possibly change the universe forever. Gameplay could not be better. The combat is real-time and apes the realistic feel "Gears of War" while retaining the skill system used in Bioware's previous classic "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic". Speaking of KOTOR, this game plays very closely to that previously untouchable work. All of the familiar gameplay and story elements are present, but almost all are improved, especially the combat. The real time shooting is a little hectic at first, but as you and your character gain experience, you will soon have the skills and savvy to utilize the system and dominate rooms full of enemies. The superhuman abilities include biotics, which are sort of like The Force, and tech skills which can include hacking an enemy's AI to attack it's teammates or overheating an opponent's weapon or shields. The implementation of these skills can be key since many of the enemies are quite resourceful and strong. Shall you use biotics to lift a foe from behind his cover so you can ventilate him at your leisure or just create a vortex to suck them all up into one whirling shooting gallery? Maybe I'll just terrorize the lot of them with my one-shot-one-kill sniping skills while my teammates provide cover. The options are only as limited as your imagination. The only complaints from me is that your squadmates can't be controlled individually (you can't send your heavy gunner forward while keeping your tech expert behind cover; both respond to the same command) and the grenades (while awesome and upgradable) are kind of clunky to use. The characters of KOTOR and Bioware's last game "Jade Empire" also had a lot more charm and humor to them and a lot more to say in between missions, it seems. I guess that's the price to pay for a less linear game. But then again, there is a lot of random dialogue between all of the combinations of characters here that help make up for it. For example, while your party waits in an elevator they will often have brief but personal conversations with one another. The dialogue for cutscenes and missions also changes based on who you brought along. This is a very nice touch. Exploring planets in your Mako ATV is also a blast, reminiscent of driving a Warthog in "Halo" but with much rougher terrain and jet boosters that can send you flying. Awesome. I could go on and on about the hundreds of things that make this "game" the greatest of it's kind. It's nearly as large but more accessible than "Oblivion", more action-packed than "Knights of the Old Republic", and has an even better story than "Halo" and stands on it's own not as a game but as a definitive sci-fi experience. In my book, that makes this the best next-gen single-player game there is and one of the greatest things I've ever played. The best part? It's the first of a trilogy. The mind boggles at the possibilities. Buy it. Now.	video-games_xbox
Excellent game. Polished, smooth, beautiful. This is not your typical movie franchise game! This game has beautiful graphics that make the time spent wandering a real pleasure. The open world design and numerous side quests leave lots of room to wander and explore if that's what you're into. Speaking of which, there are loads of challenges and side quests. They are NOT mandatory, so I don't know why people whine about the side quests. If you don't like em' , don't do em'. BUT if you don't do the side quests, don't whine about the game being short. You can't have it both ways. The enemies remember you on subsequent encounters and it's a fun aspect of the game. After you beat a guy, he will come back looking quite a bit uglier thanks to the can-o-whoopass you opened up on him. He will threaten you and talk about how this fight will be different. If you ran last time, he will mock you. If you died, he will ask "why don't you stay dead"? It's entertaining. The enemies also work at moving up their own ranks and when you kill an orc captain, he will be replaced be another. You are able to check their current ranks at any time. You are also rewarded for using the enemies weaknesses against him. Early in the game it will be the only way to beat some opponents. So it's important to learn this lesson early. Study your opponents. If you happen upon an orc captain unexpectedly, you can pause and check if you have the intelligence on him. The fighting is hack and slash with some arrows thrown in for good measure. There are some cool finishing moves that are easy to pull off so even us less nimble fingered gamers can feel cool. Any reviewer who told you he got lost must've been lost when he started. You have a map! Right at the very beginning you start with a map. as your explore, new areas become visible on the map. There is always info on your current mission and markers to guide you. If you can read a map you won't get lost. People say it plays like assassins creed and I agree, it's very similar gameplay to assassin's creed but, I did much less running up unscalable walls on this game. Shadow of Mordor has much tighter controls and polished gameplay. Ever been running on a roof or ledge in Assassins Creed and killed yourself because the guy jumped in the wrong direction? That's not going to happen here. The game also has fast travel which can save a lot of needless running. Even the collectibles are marked on the map. I do have some minor quibbles with the game that cause me to withhold the 5th star. At the very beginning you can choose to play as the male or female character. If you choose the female character, you still get the male in all the cut scenes. This is also true for the characters voice. Even if there isn't a cutscene there are lots of instances where he talks to a spirit. The voice is always male even if you choose the female character. I changed back right away because it made the game play feel awkward and disjointed. There is also bit of a learning curve when using the heads up display and checking stats and information. It took me a bit longer than it should have to get a solid grip on all the map symbols. It took me WAY longer than it should have to figure out where I could see my money total. I'll take most of the blame on that one because, I should have studied the info menus a little more. So basically the menus could be a lot more intuitive but, I should have compensated for that sooner. Which leaves us with the most annoying thing (for me anyway). You will get runes after defeating certain enemies. You can equip them to increase certain skills. Let me tell you, manipulating those damn tiles to get the 5 you want in the active slots is a royal pain in the ass. as far as I could tell there was no rhyme or reason to it. When I finally got to a point where I could sorta kinda figure out which one would move where when I moved one out, I was almost done with the game. So in closing, a beautiful, smooth and polished game. Highly recommended but, not quite 5 stars.	video-games_xbox
Massive Defect. Let me start by saying that I am a patient gamer. I have played, and enjoyed all manner of sandbox titles, such as Morrowind, Oblivion, Final Fantasy 12, and to a lesser extent, KOTOR. I am an avid gamer, and I delight in customization and detail. That being said, Mass Effect, is an incredibly flawed title. I went into it expecting KOTOR with polish. A decent shooter, wrapped in a stellar story. What I found was a game that can't decide what type of game it wants to be, and subsequently, fails at most of them in the process. As previously mentioned, the shooting aspect is tricky and unforgiving. One minute you are plowing down waves of robotic husks, the next, you are getting paralyzed and euthanized time and time again by some Biotic nightmare. I chose the support class, the Infiltrator, hoping for a spec-ops type sniper character, but I discovered that no matter how many ranks I put into sniping (I am currently maxed out) the crosshair still shakes like I've got Parkinson's, and overloads after 2 (usually missed) shots. As far as my technical skills, I found that even though the word 'stealth' is mentioned in conjunction with my character type, I could find no such skill to back such a claim, merely a few weapon/shield overload abilities, and an enhanced sniper shot. My teammates, with the exception of Wrex's wry one-liners, and Ashley's flirtatious dialogue tree, are utterly utterly useless. The tactical squad commands might as well all have the same function, as no matter what command I dole out (stay, go, rally, attack) they inevitably seem to stand there, usually confounded by the ominous presence of an impeding wall, muttering about how they can't seem to see what I'm pointing at. This, coupled with the aforementioned shooting problems, makes combat an exercise in restraining yourself from spiking your controller on the floor like a touchdown-winning football. However, the aspect most adept at removing me forcibly from my suspension of disbelief, is the constant, and unwavering texture pop-ins. It seems like every time the game loads a new area, or changes to an in-game movie sequence, I have to wait a good 5-10 seconds (not exaggerating) before Shepard and his colorful cohorts are fully garbed in their detailed armor. I realize that with a game as massive and self-reliant on in-game movies, that something like this tends to be unavoidable (see Bioshock) but this is steadfast in it's persistence, as if it were programmed intentionally into the game's mechanics. On a similar note, I have found myself the victim of many a strange glitches, including one where my character became pinned onto a crate in a kneeling position, his neck elongating gradually until I resembled some sort of spacefaring giraffeman, and then I was shot. The gameplay can range anywhere from somewhat, to EXTREMELY buggy. For all of it's myriad flaws, Mass Effect is a really good game; it might even be great, if one is willing to ignore it's formidable technical problems, in favor of it's rich story, and likable characters. In closing, here is a game that could have used a few more months in development, some love for the shooting system, and some more efficient texture mapping, and this might have been everything people are saying it is.	video-games_xbox
A Rare and Refreshingly Good Batman Game. The dearth of good Batman video games is staggering, and i'm sure movie fans can relate after the lack of good Batman films until Batman Begins came along. Finally, a game comes along that not only does the character justice, but stands on it's on among the best games of the year. However, I won't jump on the Game of the Year bandwagon entirely, as the game has enough flows that distract you from having a complete Batman experience. First, there's definitely a lot of good to be had here. For the first time, players are able to do everything that Batman is capable of from the comics or the animated series; the fighting, the batarangs, grapple hooks, and most importantly, the detective work. I think this might be the first Batman game to showcase Batman as the "World's Greatest Detective" through the use of a fancy X-Ray type Detective Mode that lets you detect foes, secrets, and clues. Unfortunately, that also quickly becomes the biggest issue of the game, as you end up spending far too much time using the mode in order to find all the secrets in the game (and there are lots!). This detracts from the visual style of the game, and also becomes an annoyance. It really needs to be scaled back. Speaking of style, that's another area where the game excels. Coupled with the voice talent of actors from the Batman Animated Series, the graphics of the game are stellar and the refreshing new designs of the heroes and villains are spectacular. One of the big benefits stemming from the game being based on Batman Lore itself and not any of the movie properties. Unfortunately, the game also spends too much time pointing you from place to place with some menial tasks, and the secret Riddler challenges throughout Arkham are a bit much. It also suffers from bad superhero game syndrome where you have to upgrade and learn a lot of powers and gadgets. Batman should know all these to start with! Despite those complaints, the game is really really good. It's not perfect, but very little is these days. It's a must have for any Batman fan, and any action-adventure game fan in general.	video-games_xbox
Prison Architect is a lot Which Hurts Itself in the Process. I have to start off by saying how much I love unique games like these. Especially when they start out on PC/Steam and make their way to Xbox One and PS4. Anytime I can give a game a try that has a cheap barrier of entry and isn't a sequel or spin-off, I'm down. With that being said, my biggest draw back for this game is the fact that they did little to remedy the experience for people playing with a controller in hand. Since this game was made for mouse and keyboard support, the over-drawn cursor movement can start to wear on you after an hour or so of gameplay. Additionally, going between menus and pop-up windows, I'm longing for the many button prompts that a keyboard allows. As a console gamer 95% of the time, I respect when a developer goes out of its way to bring the game to an audience that never expected it. Designing a prison and having to decide how I want to run the place is intriguing. You can create something that is more open and even happier for your inmates or leave them all in a 4x4 room to live out there sentence. Think SimCity but a prison, made by people who spent a lot of time developing intriqit ways that you can make your prison unique and successful at the same time. My consensus, if you can handle the controls and design being outlandishly PC-first, give it a go. If you feel that the menus and sub-menus along with the camera moving back and forth across the screen to locate particular areas, possibly look elsewhere. I consider this game perfect for those looking for a SimCity experience and willing to put the time and effort into learning the interworkings of this well thought-out game. ***I like to recommend a similar game when I do my reviews but it isn't as easy with unique games like these. However, when the Xbox One originally launched, I picked up a copy of <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Zoo-Tycoon-XBOX-ONE/dp/B00DBCAS7E/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Zoo Tycoon XBOX ONE</a> and have actually kept it on my shelf ever since. I used to play Zoo Tycoon and Rollercoaster Tycoon on the computer back in the 90's and early 2000's and something about that game keeps me coming back from time to time. If the price is right for you, think about grabbing a copy of it and check out all the different animals you can breed and send back into the wild. Go down to a third-person view and walk around your park, visiting all the different exhibits you created. It isn't actually too bad, especially if you have little ones at home, they will get a kick out of seeing a giraffe on your big tv when you interact with your exhibits. If you are ready for it, give Prison Architect a try. If not, consider Zoo Tycoon and sit back and live some childhood memories, or dreams, going to the zoo.	video-games_xbox
One of the Most Unique and Enjoyable Shooters I Have Ever Played. First and foremost, its important to note that this game has a learning curve. Sunset Overdrive is very much like Jet Set Radio & Jet Set Radio Future in this regard as the games have a very similar game mechanic, that being grinding/sliding over various surfaces. And its really not until you have mastered this method of movement and upgraded your in game abilities to a certain level that this game really begins to shine. In regards to the in game abilities, its really the point at which you pick up the mid air dash (where your able to dash forward a good distance while your already in the air), that this game really begins to shine as that skill enables you to jump a good long distance, which allows for far greater options in regards to keeping your grinding going and stringing really long combo's together and combo's play a vital role in the game as the longer the combo's you string together, the more powerful you become. There are basically 5 main types of moves in the game, short of running on foot, which isn't recommended for long periods of time. You can bounce/jump, slide/grind, hang/grind, swing from horizontal poles, and lastly there is wall running. That may not sound like a lot of options, but when you combine those moves with the sheer amount of objects in Sunset Overdrive that you can use these moves on....well, the options for traversing the games real estate really are mind boggling. And here in lies the real genius of Sunset Overdrive as they did such an amazing job with designing the game world and the moves of the games that once you have reached the point in the game when you can do the mid air dash and you have really mastered the game's movement mechanics.....well this game just transforms and becomes one of the most ingenious and enjoyable shooters I have ever played. I really can't give the developer, Insomniac Games, enough praise for this aspect of the game. Its basically like taking Jet Set Radio Future, improving upon it in every way possible movement wise, and then adding really amazing monsters and weapons and really crazy characters and storylines and making it a shooter. The single player portion of the game has really over the top characters and a really over the top story line. Think along the lines of Saints Row III and IV. If you enjoy crazy characters and crazy story lines like that, you will really enjoy the characters and story side of Sunset Overdrive. Personally, I really enjoy crazy characterizations and over the top story lines so I loved this aspect of the game. I even purchased the DLC when I was finished with the retail portion of the game. It included a crazy oil rig out on the water and a new part of the city which included the corporate area for FIzzCo, the games evil corporation, and lots of robots. I really enjoyed the DLC and MS had just put it on sale, no doubt trying to get people who just played the game for free with Games For Gold to buy the DLC. Well, it worked for me and I throughly enjoyed the extra content. You can't have a quality shooter without quality weapons and Sunset Overdrive does not disappoint in this regard. You have everything from a standard handgun like the 44 Magnum and a standard machine gun like an AK 47 to really crazy guns that shoot bowling balls or homing missiles. One gun shoots mini heli-copters that hover and automatically shoot anything in your vicinity. Trust me, there is enough variety on the weapons front to satisfy pretty much anyone. There are 5 levels of power for each weapon and the more you use them, the more powerful they become. This really rewards those who experiment and use a lot of different guns. And the game lets you carry and easily switch between 7 different weapons at any one time, which is more important than you might think as you do not have unlimited ammo in this game. There will be many occasions where you will switch weapons simply because your out of ammo. In regards to your character, this game is very much like Saints Row. You create your character at the beginning of the game and there are a lot of options so people can personalize the main character to a pretty large extent. Hair styles, tattoo's, hats, sunglasses, underwear, shirts, outerwear, pants, shoes, etc. And like Saints Row, there is plenty of clothing that you can buy and collect, some which is pretty standard fare and some that is pretty crazy. That sort of thing has become pretty standard fare in these kinds of games and Sunset Overdrive certainly doesn't disappoint in this regard. Another great aspect of this game, which has also become pretty standard fare in games like this, are various collectibles hidden throughout the game world. People who enjoy hunting down collectibles will find Sunset Overdrive is not only one of the more enjoyable games in this regard but also one of the more challenging. If your not into spending the time hunting down all of the collectibles, there are maps that you can buy that show you the locations, but I actually really enjoy the challenge of finding them myself and this was without question one of the toughest games I have ever played in this regard. Its not the size of the city as much as I think its that your constantly moving. That makes it so you will pass many of them by multiple times without ever seeing them. Many of them you will just stumble upon during the course of the game, but once the easy one's are picked up, you really have to hunt the rest down and it was definitely not easy. There are 4 kinds of collectibles, and a 5th is added if you buy the DLC. Again, if your like me and enjoy hunting down and finding all of the collectibles without getting help from in game maps or the internet, this game will challenge you like very few have thus far. On top of the regular game play and various missions that you do, there are also various challenges scattered all throughout the game world. You can get bronze, silver or gold medals on these challenges depending on your performance. Some require you to follow a particular path within a certain time, some have you killing with a certain weapon for points, some have you flying a glider, some have you bouncing inside a crazy energy ball. There is quite a bit of variety and they are challenging, especially at the beginning of the game. When I first started, I found it tough even to get a bronze metal in some of the traversal challenges, but once you have played the game a good 8-10 hours and really mastered the game's movement mechanics, you will find some of those challenges far less challenging. Some remain very challenging ever after 20+ hours. I really enjoyed this aspect of the game as it really allowed me to continue playing the game long after I had completed the story missions. And the game does allow you to repeat any story missions you enjoyed. Once you have finished a mission, it becomes available to play again from an in game menu. There are also lots of ways of upgrading your character and your weapons. Through Amps and Overdrives, which are picked up throughout the game, you can add different upgrades to your character. Some make your weapons more deadly, some make it easier to get to the higher combo levels, some add entirely new abilities. They just add even more depth and personalization to a game that already has plenty to offer on that front. If there is one weakness to Sunset Overdrive, its that the variety of monsters could have been a bit better. Don't get me wrong, there are a variety of different bad guys you will encounter, even some that are human, but in the end the amount of variety on this front falls a bit short. But this is such a minor shortcoming in such a magnificent game that its very easily overlooked. I also would have liked to see a really hard mode open up after completing the game a single time on the regular difficulty. I think a lot of people like myself would have liked to play through it a 2nd time at a much harder difficulty. As for how the game looks, this is easily one of the best looking game I have played in a long time. The graphics look great, but its the overall art design that really makes this game shine. Instead of being drab and realistic, this game world is just super colorful and crazy. Its like an acid trip crossed with video games. The bight color palette matches the comedic tone of the game perfectly and what you ultimately wind up with is one of the most unique looking gaming worlds I have seen to date. Everything was designed with this tone in mind. The characters, the monsters, the weapons, the city itself, etc. Its just a beautiful game and it just makes an already stunning game just that much more fun and interesting. And of course, this game does have multi-player for those that like that path. I have only played a few hours of multi-player, but what I played I really liked. Bottom line - Sunset Overdrive is just pure gold. It is without question one of the most unique and enjoyable shooters I have ever played. The depth to the movement mechanics definitely takes some time to get used to, but once you do get used to them and upgraded your abilities a bit, the movement in this game becomes absolutely brilliant. I honestly feel sorry for gamers that wind up giving up on this game before that point as the game just magically transforms into this brilliant frenetic mish-mash of grinding, jumping, swinging, running, and shooting and the gamers that get to that point are rewarded with one of the best games of this generation. The characters and missions are a lot of fun and the voice acting is superbly done. There isn't a single aspect of this game that isn't highly polished. Insomniac Games has created a pure masterpiece with Sunset Overdrive. My only regret is not playing it sooner when I had the chance too. 5 Stars and then some!!!	video-games_xbox
A fresh look at a tired genre. Ubisoft made a smart choice in taking "Brothers in Arms" in a slightly different direction from the "Call of Duty" and "Medal of Honor" series. Rather than trying to one-up those games, which had nearly perfected the WWII FPS and exhausted the storylines, BiA drops the player into the role of a paratrooper in charge of various platoons of allies. Rather than focusing on unlikely individual heroics, BiA places prime importance on field vision and management of people and resources. It is not however a slow paced isometric strategy game. Protagonist Matt Baker engages the enemy in first-person perspective, while issuing basic commands to his company. The control scheme is surprisingly simple, yet allows for a nifty combination of commands. So a player can go Rambo for a time if he desires, or drop into the background and play field general. Both options are surprisingly satisfying. There are occasional pathing and AI failures, where apparently logical commands lead your men into MG gunfire. But more often the game's intelligence pleasantly surprised rather than disappointed me. The major strategic concept used (ad nauseum) is the simple "flank" maneuver. Baker is usually given two platoons, one of which is ideal for supressing fire, the other for end-arounds. Although due to some constrictive level designs, this tactic sometimes fails. AT times the squad is forced through narrow corridors, resulting in inevitable heavy casualties regardless of strategy. The environments lean more towards Call of Duty than Medal of Honor in terms of openness, but I still often wished for more creative avenues to accomplish my mission. I thoroughly enjoyed the missions where I was given charge of Sherman or Grant tanks. There are some occasional pathing problems with the tanks, and a few inexplicable stuck points, but it was great fun watching my armor come in from the side and blow an MG42 nest sky high. I was impressed with the game's visuals. Capable of 480p widescreen, BiA renders an amazing amount of lush vegetation which, when combined with earth berms, offers usable cover. I was pretty amazed at the fairly steady framerates rendered on the old Xbox, considering all the greenery and intense action. Player, weapon, and tank models are rendered realistically. Even the occasional water effects, which players can tread chest high, look sharp. Building details are a bit dull, but the game rarely vetures into interiors anyway. The one area the game fails in is sound quality. Oddly for a game by a big-name publisher, BiA clearly didn't put the resources into good sound recording. Player voices are OK: the typical WWII grunt stereotypes are all well represented (grizzled CO, nervous smart guy, overconfident jerk guy, etc.). Every other bang, pop, or boom is weak and tinny though. Every firearm sounds like a capgun, explosions sound like the TNT is wrapped in pillows, and the tank engines barely gurgle. It sounds like a piddling complaint, but I couldn't get over the unrealistic combat sounds in a game that otherwise built a nearly tangible world of war. As a word of warning, BiA is more graphic, both visually and audibly, than the MoH or CoD series. So don't be surprised by the f-word and gore. To me, it was well worth the few idiosyncracies to enjoy a new, strategic perspective on WWII shooter gameplay.	video-games_xbox
Has its Flaws, but by No Means Is It A Bad Game. This game has gotten a lot of flak, but I wanted to give it a chance and I have enjoyed my time playing it. And I wanted to review some points I personally found playing so far that I think need to be mentioned. (Played 14 hours so far) The fact that everyone is complaining about handling is just utter garbage to me. At first, I despised the default handling, but I learned the options available and have fine tuned it to fit my style, and now it handles like a breeze. Easy, refreshing, and does exactly what I want it to. If you are willing to put in the effort to tweak it to your style, handling is great. And once the car handling became wonderful, I never have dealt with the "AI Slingshot Effect". Again, in the beginning before the tuning, I was getting passed all the time and struggled to maintain any lead, but I was also hitting every wall on a turn possible. So those two problems go hand in hand. Solve the handling, solve the slingshot effect. Visuals are very nice, and one of the game's top points. It looks so good at night, and I cannot get over just how fluid the world looks. I have dealt with the occasional frame rate drops, but not lately. Customization is definitely back. Plenty of options for the lower tier cars, with plenty of decals as well to "wrap" your ride in whatever style you choose. The higher tier vehicles have more limited options (like the Lamborghini models and the Ferrari models) but that doesn't really bother me. The lower tier cars have so many options, and you can spend hours in the garage painting your masterpiece. Now, there are cons as well. Always online seems like a waste. There really is not much point game-play wise. You see the occasional other person in the world, but the events themselves 95% of the time don't involve them. Plus the servers will go down for maintenance at points, so once that happens, you are just stuck waiting. The physics needs help as well. Guardrails and walls do weird things at high speeds, and air time makes things just go chaotic. Not very enjoyable there. The "story": I know they put a lot of work into, and it looks great, but man is it cheesy. They (the characters) try so hard to be hardcore, so much so it flops in my opinion. Overall, if you enjoy an arcade racing game, and understand its not a "hardcore realistic racer", then you can have a lot of fun with this game. If you are unsure, or if those cons are enough to make you second guess, wait for a price drop. By the looks of the general populace, it won't be too long before it happens.	video-games_xbox

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